Footshop's Q1 sales up 31 pct yr/yr to Kc318m

Prague, May 9 (CTK) - The Footshop group, a streetwear shoes and clothing retailer, saw its sales rise by 31 percent year on year to Kc318m in Q1 2024, Footshop CEO Petr Hajducek told journalists at a joint press conference with representatives of shoe manufacturer Botas.

The company's gross margin was 40 percent higher and amounted to Kc116m. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased significantly year on year to Kc26m, Hajducek said. It was Kc2.4m in Q1 2023.

Both companies presented a new model of shoes that will be auctioned off and the proceeds will be used to support the establishment of shoemaking course at the Technical Lyceum in Zlin.

The trend in shoe production is still declining, according to Vaclav Stanek, the founder of shoe manufacturer Vasky, which bought the Zlin-based company Botas last April. "There are currently 3,200 shoemakers in the Czech Republic. For comparison, there were about 30,000 shoemakers in Zlin alone around 1930. Currently, approximately three million pairs of shoes are produced in the Czech Republic every year. Botas produced two million pairs in 1971, and two-thirds of the current production had been produced by one company," Stanek said.

There is currently no shoemaking field of study in the Czech Republic and there is a risk that one day shoemakers in the Czech Republic will die out, he said. Footshop and Botas have therefore created newly designed shoes that will be auctioned off on the Aukro internet portal and the proceeds will finance the creation of a shoemaking course in Zlin. It should open next year. The auction will take place from 9 to 16 May.

In January, the Hospodarske noviny daily pointed out that Footshop's shares fell by 30 percent. In May, the company's shares began to rise slightly again and as of today one share was worth Kc71.50, according to the Prague Stock Exchange.

Last June, the WOOD SPAC One company of the Wood & Company group announced that it had bought a 48.5 percent stake in the Footshop group for Kc445m. Hajducek founded Footshop in 2012. In addition to Prague and Bratislava, it has stores in Budapest and Bucharest. It distributes shoe and clothing lines from Adidas, Nike, Converse and Vans.

The Vasky shoe company bought the Botas brand last spring. Last year it had over 50 employees. The company was originally called Botana and was founded in 1949 by merging smaller nationalised companies from eastern Bohemia.

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