(Reuters) – Foot Locker on Friday announced the appointment of Mary Dillon as chief executive, replacing Richard Johnson, and reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and a smaller-than-expected decline. forecast of its like-for-like sales.
The title of the distributor of shoes and American sportswear took 21% in the first exchanges on Wall Street.
Foot Locker also announced its decision to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive and Richard Johnson, who will retire, will remain chairman of the board until January 31.
Marie Dillon has spent the past eight years as managing director of Ulta Beauty growing the beauty retailer’s e-commerce and will take over as head of Foot Locker on September 1.
She also served as Global Chief Marketing Officer at McDonald’s from 2005 to 2010.
The change in management comes as Foot Locker focuses on increasing sales of Adidas-branded sneakers and other items in its stores, to compensate for the declining presence of Nike, its main supplier.
The distributor also reported in the second quarter of adjusted earnings per share at 1.10 dollars (1.09 euros), above analysts’ expectations who expected 0.79 dollars, according to an IBES consensus of Refinitiv.
Like-for-like sales fell 10.3% in the quarter to the end of June, a smaller drop than expected by analysts who expected a decline of 13.7%.
(Report Mehr Bedi in Bangalore; French version Elitsa Gadeva)
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