Genesco Inc. (GCO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Mimi Vong, Board Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Sondra Harris, Senior Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Mimi. Thanks, Jason. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our third quarter earnings call. We delivered solid performance versus last year in this important back-to-school quarter led by Journeys, which achieved 6% comp growth and more than a 50% increase in operating income. This significant improvement in profitability was partially offset by the anticipated exit of licenses in Genesco Brands Group, the impact of tariffs, and more than expected gross margin pressure at SHU as the UK market faced heightened promotional activity. Against this backdrop, we delivered our fifth consecutive quarter of positive comp sales growth overall and third quarter results within our expectations, albeit at the lower end, reflecting both the strength and resilience of our portfolio in a dynamic consumer environment. Total comparable sales increased 3%, with store comps up a noteworthy 5%. Coupled with a modest decline in e-commerce comps, which faced tougher comparisons against last year's double-digit gains. These results reflect our investment in the store channel and the strength of our in-store experience, supported by well-executed assortments and engaged teams that continue to drive conversion. The consumer environment continues to reflect customers shopping when there's a reason and pulling back when there's not. This pattern became much more pronounced for our category during back to school this year, which is factoring into our view of the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, demand was even stronger than we expected during the heart of back to school, and then traffic and pu...