Steve Madden's net sales reached 342.6 million US dollars during the fourth quarter, roughly flat compared to the same period of 2013. Net sales for the wholesale division decreased by 0.9% to reach 270.9 million US dollars.

Retail net sales grew by 3.2% totaling 71.7 million US dollars while retail comparable store sales for the fourth quarter declined by 2.3%.

Net sales for the entire 2014 totaled 1.3 billion US dollars, up by 1.6% compared to fiscal year 2013. Wholesale net sales grew by 2.2% totaling 1.1 billion US dollars. Retail net sales decreased by 1.7% to 206.0 million US dollars. Retail comparable store sales for fiscal year 2014 declined 8.1%.

Diluted EPS for the fiscal year 2014 is now expected to be in the range of 1.75 US dollars to 1.76 US dollars.

Edward Rosenfeld, Steve Madden's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Fourth quarter was a challenging period. Our financial performance was below our expectations due primarily to several factors such as: air freight incurred due to the West Coast port slowdown; below plan performance in our newly acquired Dolce Vita division as we moved aggressively to clear excess inventory; and challenges caused by production delays on goods from Mexico".

2014 was a very active year for the US-based company, who implemented a new e-commerce platform, acquired two footwear brands (Dolce Vita and Brian Atwood) and changed to an ownership model in two important international markets with the acquisition of our Mexican licensee and the formation of a joint venture in South Africa.