Supply Chain Costs to Normalize in 2023

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Last year, footwear brand Skechers's margins were clipped by high supply chain costs, despite its attempt to raise prices. 

This year Skechers expects supply chain costs to normalize as shipping prices come down, developments that will ease margin pressure and propel the brand to its goal of $10 billion in annual sales by 2026, the company’s CFO John Vandemore said at the UBS Consumer and Retail Conference on Wednesday.

“You saw 40-foot-high cube container rates go from an average of about $3,000 to $25,000. So for an average pair of shoes that took the landed embedded freight cost from something between 25 and 50 cents to $2 and $2.50,” he [Vandemore] said. “Last year quite frankly wasn’t my proudest year from a gross margin perspective, but I do believe you know a lot of those exogenous factors are beginning to abate which should lead to improvement later on.”

Read more here.

A Lifestyle Shoe Company Expands Its Footprint

©2019 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Today's Global Small Business Blog test for readers comprises 3 questions:

1. Which USA company began in a small condo in Manhattan Beach on 26th Street and The Strand in 1992?
2. How many square feet was their first office?
3. Where are they today in the grand scheme of things?

Answers:

1. Skechers -- cornering the world as they design design, develop and market a diverse range of lifestyle footwear for men, women and children, as well as performance footwear for men and women.
2. 1,800 square feet of space in Manhattan Beach.
3. Skechers has expanded into a global brand with annual sales of more than $4 billion.

Read more about how Sketchers is celebrating its groundbreaking of company expansion.