Wolverine Worldwide Q1 revenue down 4.8 percent

First quarter reported revenue of 591.3 million dollars decreased 4.8 percent at Wolverine Worldwide. Underlying revenue declined 2 percent. Under the Wolverine Way Forward plan, the company has closed 180 stores since the beginning of 2017 and incurred approximately 9.2 million dollars of operating losses in Q1 for stores within the Plan that will not reoccur next year.

"We had a solid start to the year, highlighted by first-quarter revenue and earnings that surpassed expectations and strong progress toward our holistic, enterprise-wide strategic transformation initiative, the Wolverine Way Forward," said Blake W. Krueger, Wolverine Worldwide's Chairman, CEO and President in a media release.

All Stride Rite and Track-N-Trail concept stores are now closed and these store closures, the company said, allowed it to liquidate inventory totalling approximately 20 million dollars during the quarter.

Reported gross margin was 39.7 percent compared to 39.6 percent in the prior year. Adjusted gross margin on a constant currency basis was 41.7 percent, up 120 basis points versus the prior year. Reported operating margin was 5.5 percent, compared to 5.9 percent in the prior year.

Adjusted operating margin on a constant currency basis was 11 percent, up 260 basis points versus the prior year and excludes 4.4 million dollars of incremental inventory markdowns related to the accelerated store closings. Reported diluted earnings per share were 0.17 dollar, compared to 0.18 dollar in the prior year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were 0.37 dollar and, on a constant currency basis, were 0.40 dollar compared to 0.31 dollar in the prior year.

The company exited 104 underperforming stores during the quarter and an additional 76 stores subsequent to quarter-end.

FY17 revenues expected to decline

For the full-year reported revenue is expected to be in the range of 2.270 billion dollars to 2.370 billion dollars- unchanged from the company's original outlook. This is a decline of approximately 9 percent to 5 percent. Underlying revenue is expected in the range of down 2.3 percent to growth of 1.9 percent, reflecting approximately 160 million dollars to 180 million dollars of impact from currency and retail store closures.

Reported operating margin in the range of 5.2 percent to 5.9 percent and adjusted operating margin in the range of 10.2 percent to 10.7 percent. Reported diluted earnings per share are expected in the range of 0.73 dollar to 0.83 dollar compared to 0.89 dollar in fiscal 2016.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share are now expected in the range of 1.50 dollars to 1.60 dollars compared to 1.36 dollars in fiscal 2016 adjusted on the same basis. On a constant currency basis, adjusted earnings per share in the range of 1.58 dollars to 1.68 dollars.

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