Steven Madden, Ltd.

Steven Madden, Ltd.

44.42
USD
-0.26
(-0.59%)
2.03EPS
20.89P/E
3.08BMarket Cap
Nov 11Next Earn

Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 25, 2026

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 and full-year 2025 Steve Madden, Limited earnings conference call.

At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.

To ask a question during the session, you will need to press *11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised.

To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Danielle McCoy, VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Danielle McCoy

Thanks, Antoine, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call and webcast.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that our remarks that follow, including answers to your questions, contain statements that we believe to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks that could cause actual results to materially differ from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

These risks include, among others, matters that we have described in our press release issued earlier today and filings we make with the SEC. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which may not be updated until our next quarterly earnings conference call, if at all.

The financial results discussed on today's call are on an adjusted basis, unless otherwise noted. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other associated disclosures are contained in our earnings release.

Joining me on the call today is Ed Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Zine Mazouzi, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Operations. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ed.

Ed? All right.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you, Danielle, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review Steve Madden's fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results. We're pleased to have delivered above-guidance earnings results for the fourth quarter, driven by improved performance in our core Steve Madden footwear business, as well as a strong contribution from the newly acquired Kurt Geiger.

Overall, 2025 was a challenging year, driven largely by the disruption and negative impacts resulting from new tariffs on goods imported into the United States. I'm proud of how our team responded, acting quickly to mitigate the near-term impacts while staying focused on executing our strategy for long-term growth.

At the center of that strategy is deepening connections with consumers through the combination of compelling product and effective marketing. Despite the difficult environment, our team made meaningful progress on those initiatives across our brand portfolio.

In our flagship brand, Steve Madden, Steve and his design team created outstanding product assortments that resonated with consumers and led to a significant acceleration in demand in the back half, particularly in our core category of women's footwear, momentum that has continued into early 2026. We are encouraged by the breadth of this strength, with robust demand across various silhouettes, materials, and trends.

We've also elevated quality and materials, enabling higher average unit retails while maintaining a strong price-value proposition. Our marketing team is amplifying these assortments with richer brand and product storytelling and an integrated, always-on, full-funnel strategy designed to deepen emotional connections with our key Gen Z and millennial consumers.

Our marketing investments, combined with our trend-right product, are driving measurable brand heat. Online searches for Steve Madden increased 10% year-over-year in Q4 and have accelerated further in early 2026.

After revenue declines in Q2 and Q3, the Steve Madden brand returned to growth in Q4, and we expect to build on that momentum in 2026 with mid to high single-digit revenue growth. A highlight in 2025 was our acquisition of Kurt Geiger, which closed on May 6th.

In Kurt Geiger London, we added a brand with a unique brand image, distinctive design aesthetic, and compelling value proposition that have driven success across multiple categories, led by handbags. Its differentiated and elevated positioning and its alignment with our strategic initiatives of expanding international markets, accessories categories, and direct-to-consumer channels make it a highly attractive and complementary addition to our portfolio.

Integration is progressing as planned, and we are more confident than ever in Kurt Geiger's potential to be a significant growth driver in the years ahead. Importantly, the Kurt Geiger London brand continues to have strong momentum.

On a pro forma basis, revenue in the Kurt Geiger London brand grew 11% in 2025, and we expect similar growth in 2026. We also continue to make meaningful progress with our fastest-growing brand since the pandemic, Dolce Vita.

In 2025, we built on the outstanding success we've had over the last several years in our US footwear business by expanding in international markets and gaining traction in adjacent categories like handbags. Turning to 2026, consumers are responding favorably to our new spring products, and we expect high single-digit revenue growth in Dolce Vita for the year.

In summary, all three of our lead brands are poised for growth. As we look ahead to 2026, we are particularly encouraged by the momentum building in Steve Madden and the opportunity for growth in Kurt Geiger London.

On the other hand, we anticipate significant pressure in our private label business, which is primarily conducted in the mass channel. We believe the negative impact of tariffs on revenue has been most severe here, where price sensitivity is highest and we don't have the benefit of brand leverage for pricing actions.

Private label revenue decreased 15% in 2025, and we expect a further decline of nearly 20% in 2026. We also expect higher SG&A, driven by the normalization of incentive compensation and the restoration of senior executive salaries.

Overall, while we continue to face pressure and uncertainty related to tariffs, we are heartened that the fundamentals of our business are strong. Our product assortments and marketing campaigns are resonating with consumers, our brands are powerful and gaining relevance, and our strategy provides multiple levers for growth and long-term value creation.

Now, I'll turn it over to Zine to review our fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results in more detail and provide our initial revenue outlook for 2026.

Zine Mazouzi

Thanks, Ed, and good morning, everyone. In the fourth quarter, our consolidated revenue was $753.7 million, a 29.4% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.

Excluding the newly acquired Kurt Geiger, consolidated revenue decreased 1.4%. Our wholesale revenue was $433.3 million, up 7.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.

Excluding Kurt Geiger, our wholesale revenue decreased 2.6%. Wholesale footwear revenue was $252.4 million, an 11% increase from the comparable period in 2024, or up 5.5% excluding Kurt Geiger, driven by double-digit increases in Steve Madden and Dolce Vita, partially offset by a double-digit decline in our private label business.

Wholesale accessories and apparel revenue was $180.9 million, up 3.1% compared to the fourth quarter in the prior year, or down 13% excluding Kurt Geiger, due primarily to declines in Steve Madden handbags and private label. In our direct-to-consumer segment, revenue was $316.6 million, a 79.9% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.

Excluding Kurt Geiger, our direct-to-consumer revenue increased 1.6%, with modest increases in both our brick-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses. Steve Madden US DTC returned to comp growth in Q4, as strong performance in our full-price channels offset continued weakness in our outlets.

We ended the year with 399 company-operated brick-and-mortar retail stores, including 98 outlets, as well as seven e-commerce websites and 133 company-operated concessions in international markets. Our licensing royalty income was $3.9 million in the quarter, compared to $3.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Consolidated gross margin was 43.8% in the quarter, compared to 40.4% in the comparable period of 2024. Wholesale gross margin was 31.5%, compared to 30.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024, driven by the addition of Kurt Geiger business, partially offset by the impact of new tariffs on goods imported into the United States.

Direct-to-consumer gross margin was 59.8%, compared to 62% in the comparable period in 2024, as a result of the addition of the relatively lower-margin Kurt Geiger concession business and the impact of new tariffs on goods imported into the United States. Operating expenses were $278.9 million, or 37% of revenue in the quarter, compared to $182.9 million, or 31.4% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Operating income for the quarter totaled $50.9 million, or 6.8% of revenue, compared to $52.6 million, or 9% of revenue in the comparable period in the prior year. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 23.1%, compared to 21.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Finally, net income attributable to Steve Madden, Limited for the quarter was $34.3 million, or 48 cents per diluted share, compared to $39.3 million, or 55 cents per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2024. Now, I'd like to touch briefly on our full-year results.

Total revenue for 2025 increased 11% to $2.5 billion, compared to $2.3 billion in 2024. Excluding Kurt Geiger, revenue declined 6.6% compared to 2024.

Net income attributable to Steve Madden, Limited was $120.9 million, or $1.70 per diluted share for the full year of 2025, compared to $192.4 million, or $2.67 per diluted share for 2024. Moving to the balance sheet, our financial foundation remained strong, and as of December 31st, 2025, we had $234.2 million of outstanding debt and $112.4 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investment, for a net debt of $121.7 million.

Inventory as of December 31st, 2025, was $417 million, compared to $257.6 million at the end of 2024. Excluding Kurt Geiger, inventory was $261.9 million, a 1.6% increase compared to the same time last year.

Our capex in the fourth quarter was $10.3 million, and for the year was $42.6 million. The company did not purchase or repurchase any shares of its common stock in the open market in 2025.

During the fourth quarter and full-year 2025, the company spent $5.2 million and $13.5 million, respectively, on shares acquired through the net settlement of employee stock awards. The company's board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of 21 cents per share.

The dividend will be payable on March 20th, 2026, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 11th, 2026. Turning to our outlook, we expect revenue for the full-year 2026 to increase 9% to 11% compared to 2025.

For the first quarter of 2026, we expect revenue to increase 15% to 17%. Due to the uncertainty related to recent developments with respects to tariff policy in the United States, the company is not providing earning guidance at this time.

Now, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator for questions. Antoine?

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session.

As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press *11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again.

Please stand by while I compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Paul Lejuez from Citi.

Please go ahead.

Paul Lejuez

Hey, thanks, guys. Curious if you were prepared to give guidance as of a week ago and Supreme Court decision and the actions of the administration caused too much uncertainty that made you take this approach of not giving EPS guidance, or was there already uncertainty, was it still too high already, where you didn't plan on giving guidance?

Let me just start there.

Edward Rosenfeld

No, prior to Friday, we were planning on giving guidance for the year based on the policy that was in effect as of that time. Obviously over the last few days, there's been an enormous amount that's changed, and a number of important questions remain unanswered, and there's genuine uncertainty about where things go from here.

Obviously we're talking about tariffs, which are a factor that have a significant impact on our earnings. Given that level of uncertainty, we just don't think it would be responsible to put out earnings guidance right now.

Ultimately we view guidance as a commitment to the investment community, and we only want to provide it when we have the information and clarity necessary to stand behind it. At this moment, we just don't have that.

Paul Lejuez

Got it. Then, I guess, was it just the tariff uncertainty, obviously there's an impact on your cost of goods, maybe where you source, or is it also a function of already hearing something from your retail partners since Friday that that's resulted in higher uncertainty?

No,

Edward Rosenfeld

it's really the impact of tariffs and how that affects our cost structure and our earnings. That's why we did provide revenue guidance, because we still feel that we have nice visibility into demand trends.

Paul Lejuez

Got it. Then, just last one for me, can you just give us an update on your sourcing base, how you ended the year in terms of country of origin, and if at this point, you're planning any changes for '26?

Edward Rosenfeld

In the fall, typically we've talked about this with China versus other, as China back in 2024 was over 70% of our sourcing footprint, and we got that into the high 30s in fall of 2025. Now year to date, that's got a four in front of it, we're back in the 40s, given that towards the tail end of the year, China came essentially into parity with many of the other countries that we were sourcing from in terms of the tariff.

That's continues to be how we're thinking about it, at least for the near term, but obviously we're going to remain flexible.

Paul Lejuez

Any other countries you can talk about?

Edward Rosenfeld

Sure. Zine, you want to go through the big ones?

Zine Mazouzi

Sure. The first one that we diversified to is Cambodia, and Vietnam comes right after it, and obviously Mexico, as we always emphasize Mexico for the Steve Madden brand.

Given that Brazil now went from 50% to 10%, that really opens up the door for more production in Brazil as well for Steve Madden and Dolce Vita.

Paul Lejuez

Great. Thanks a lot, guys.

Good luck.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thanks, Paul.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anna Andreeva from Piper Sandler.

Please go ahead.

Anna Andreeva

Great, thanks so much for taking our question. The first one we have just on the 1Q revenue guide, you said 15% to 17%, it's lower than the growth you guys guided for the holiday, and obviously you talked about strength in the core continuing here into '26.

Is the difference there private label or anything else going on, maybe something with concessions at KG? Just wanted to follow up on that.

Just as we think about the margin recapture back to low doubles achieved previously for the core business, can you talk about that? Kurt Geiger was a 9% margin business pre-tariff, I'm not sure if you mentioned what were margins in '25, and you talked about getting to high teens there over time.

Can you maybe remind us on what revenue base that would be?

Edward Rosenfeld

Sure. In terms of the Q1 revenue, I think you were comparing it to what we just delivered in Q4.

I think one important factor to understand is that Kurt Geiger, because it's primarily a DTC business, is much more Q4-weighted. The impact of Kurt Geiger on the consolidated revenue growth rate is much more significant in Q4, so that's a big part of that.

The other thing is, we are expecting the business excluding Kurt Geiger to be down about mid-singles in Q1. We expect it to grow each quarter thereafter.

The headwinds there, you've hit the nail on the head, the biggest one is private label. About 95% of that decline is coming from private label, which we expect to be down about 30% in the quarter, or maybe even a little bit more.

Then, obviously still pressure on Steve Madden handbags, which we've called out previously, and again, that's a business that we expect to turn positive in terms of growth in Q2. In terms of KG operating margins, we came in at about let's see, 6.8% for the period that we owned them in 2025.

Obviously, we're not giving guidance for '26 on an earnings basis, we're not going to provide an estimate of what that looks like in the near term. As you pointed out, we have committed to getting that into initially the low doubles, and we certainly think that brand's business has the potential to be a mid-teens operating margin business over time.

Anna Andreeva

That's very helpful. Just follow up on the core business, do you think getting back to low doubles, which you were just two years ago, is pretty realistic over time, or can you even do better?

Edward Rosenfeld

I think getting back to where we were is realistic. Obviously, the timing on that is in flux with all the uncertainty that we're facing right now.

Anna Andreeva

Thanks so much. Best of luck.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jay Sole from UBS.

Please go ahead.

Jay Sole

Super. Thank you so much.

Ed, maybe if we talk about the fiscal '26 guidance, can you just help us understand the private label business, kind of can you size it for us, where it finished the end of 2025 and kind of where you see it trending for 2026?

Edward Rosenfeld

That's clearly the biggest challenge that we're facing right now. Private label, just to take you back, was about $415 million in '24.

We had a pretty significant decline in '25 down to about $355 million, round about $60 million decline. Where we sit today, we see an even bigger decline in 2026.

I think that could approach a $70 million decline. That's why, I think we articulated, approaching 20% decline in 2026.

Again, that's very different from what we're seeing in the branded business, where we are seeing a nice recovery from the hit that we took in 2025. As we mentioned in the prepared remarks, this is a business that has been affected much more severely by tariffs, because this is primarily done in those value channels, as where our customers are most price-sensitive, and where because it's private label, and we don't have the benefit of our brands and the brand leverage, we don't have that power when we're looking to employ pricing actions.

We have seen some of those customers pull back from us on a temporary basis. We're confident that we'll be able to build that back over time.

We still have good relationships with those customers. We still feel that we bring something very compelling to them in terms of our styling, our fashion, and the information that we have about what's working in other channels, but it's clearly a headwind for 2026.

Jay Sole

That's clear and super helpful. Maybe if I can just ask a couple more.

Can you also talk about the off-price business and kind of how you're viewing that for fiscal '26? Maybe, Zine, one for you just on SG&A, you called it out in the press release, some higher incentive comp, but also maybe can you just talk about maybe some other executive salaries, what the impact of lower private label sales, or some of the other costs in the business, can you give us an idea of how you expect SG&A dollar growth to be in fiscal '26 would be helpful?

Thank you.

Edward Rosenfeld

I'll start with the OP, and then I'll turn it over to Zine. The off-price businesses is recovering.

We took a significant hit there in '25 as well with all the tariff disruption, and we should see nice growth in that channel in '26. I don't expect to get in that channel all the way back to where we were in '24, which is in contrast to our first-tier retailers, our department stores, pure-play e-commerce retailers, specialty stores, etc., where we expect the growth in 2026 to recapture everything we lost in '25 and then some.

Essentially, first-tier, we're going to be above '24 and '25, off-price will be below '24 but above '25, and mass will be below '24 and '25.

Zine Mazouzi

Jay, from an opex perspective, obviously in addition to the inclusion of Kurt Geiger for a full year versus just having them for eight months the prior year, we'll also see some pressure in our SG&A. I think we talked about the headwind from resetting the incentive compensation and restoring the salaries.

That's about 14 to 15 pennies right there. As you may recall, that was reduced for a good portion of fiscal 2025, the salary base.

We're also expecting the warehouse and fulfillment cost pressures to continue into 2026. That's both from occupancy from renewing two leases in two of our major warehouses, and labor cost.

We still are seeing inefficiencies in labor and labor shortages that we have to react to on a day-to-day basis in California. We're also expect warehouse fulfillment costs to be high as our business increases and our DTC increases.

Our plan is to maintain our investment in marketing to capitalize on the good trends we're seeing on the product side and further support our international expansion. Also we'll continue to invest in our IT system and store fleet, which has an impact on depreciation.

Jay Sole

Got it. All right, super helpful.

Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Marni Shapiro from The Retail Tracker.

Please go ahead.

Marni Shapiro

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call, and I have to say congrats, because the product in your stores looks absolutely outstanding.

I'm curious if we could just run through the tariff numbers based on forgetting the Supreme Court changes, but based on where we were, were the hardest hits of tariffs that product came through during the holiday season through the first half of '26? Is that what it looked like prior to this?

Then, if you could just also talk a little bit about the sales trends, what percentage or what did it look like, how much were you able to pass through either to the consumer or mitigate with what you were doing internally?

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you for the comments on the product. That's ultimately the most important thing, the greatest driver of our financial performance is the strength of our product.

We appreciate that. I guess I could start on the tariff question, and Zine can fill in the gaps.

In terms of when we were going to see the worst impact throughout this year, prior to the ruling, look, I think we would have seen on a gross impact a significant impact from tariffs in every quarter. On a year-over-year basis, the worst would have been in Q1 because we didn't have a lot of pressure last year in Q1.

What was the last part of the tariff thing? The

Marni Shapiro

sales trends.

Zine Mazouzi

The how much we're able to mitigate. Oh, and then

Edward Rosenfeld

in terms of mitigate. Look, as we have put through some price in Steve Madden in particular.

It's about, I would say, 10% on like categories. We feel we've been successful in getting that through and maintaining nice full-price selling.

That's because we have the fashion right, I think most importantly, and also because of what I mentioned earlier, which is that we have elevated quality and materials so that there's more perceived value in the product. Obviously, that was not enough to offset the full amount of the tariffs.

Marni Shapiro

Right.

Zine Mazouzi

From a flow of tariffs, Marni, Q1 was definitely the highest. Q2, we start seeing that we're comping some of the tariffs from the prior year, and Q3 and Q4 had minimal impact.

Marni Shapiro

Great. That's what I figured, just wanted to confirm.

Then, could you just, I know it's a smaller part of the business, but just curious how the apparel business has been going. It looks very good, particularly in Macy's and some of the other stores.

I'm curious, have the results there been good? Is the customer excited about the brand?

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you for asking about that, because I'm really excited about what we're seeing in apparel. We continue to do really well in that.

Our largest category has been dresses, and we continue to perform well there. I'm excited about some of the traction that we're seeing in outerwear too.

In Q4, we had a lot of success there, and anything with fur was really phenomenal for us. Even now, we're seeing some nice early reads on more lightweight outerwear pieces.

That's exciting. We're getting additional doors with some of our key department store customers like Dillard's and Macy's, and that's not only the contemporary sportswear departments, but also dress departments.

We're investing there. We brought on some high-level, very experienced talent last year into the organization, and really feel good about that and about the path that we're on there.

That should be a growth vehicle for us in the coming years.

Marni Shapiro

Great, thanks, guys. I'll leave it for someone else.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Sam Poser from Williams Trading.

Please go ahead.

Sam Poser

Thanks for taking my questions. You talked about the tariff factors.

Can you walk through sort of specifically what's concerning you? Because theoretically, especially with you're 5%, 4% better in a lot of countries and you're a lot better in Brazil than you anticipated for the time being.

Can you talk about sort of in any detail as you can about the factors that have precluded you from giving guidance, maybe what may happen with 301 tariffs and things like that? Then I have one more.

Edward Rosenfeld

Sam, we could talk about this all day, but I think the headline is there's just a tremendous amount of uncertainty. We don't have clarity on or any stability in terms of the policy environment here, and so we don't know what it's going to look like from day to day.

There have been multiple changes within the last 5 days. I think even yesterday we got some new information that we have not yet confirmed about where we are.

Obviously we have a responsibility to give investors information that's accurate and reliable, and until there's more clarity around tariffs, we don't think earnings guidance would meet that standard.

Sam Poser

I understand that. Let me ask it another way.

If we take today versus Thursday, just in that factor, it's better than you thought it would be, but there's other factors that could make it possibly coming soon that could make it the same or worse than it was on Thursday. Is that a fair way to think about the overall

Edward Rosenfeld

Yes. I think that's accurate, yeah.

Okay.

Sam Poser

Then, conceptually with the private label business that's going to be down, that structurally sends your gross margin up, but the other factors you've already talked about with SG&A up as well, as a percent of sales. Because it doesn't use very much SG&A.

Conceptually your gross margin is going up, and SG&A is going up a little bit more because of the incentive comp and the other factors that Zine just walked through. Is that a fair in dollars it goes up because of those factors, as a percent it would go up anyway because there's virtually no SG&A attached to the private label?

Edward Rosenfeld

There was a lot there, but it is true that as private label shrinks, that is a mixed benefit to our gross margin. It's also true that there's not a lot of SG&A that goes away when that business comes down.

Sam Poser

What is the time frame between the orders written, let's say, by the mass, by Walmart, Target, versus everything else? What is your visibility right now on orders from them, and you've mentioned at one of the meetings that some of these guys are going to go direct.

When do you think that product that they do themselves start hitting their shelves, they can see how well it did or does compared to what you've delivered over the years?

Edward Rosenfeld

We're seeing declines throughout this year, we assume products coming from other places that they're filling in in spring and then some more in fall. I think that's the answer.

In terms of the timing, in terms of the visibility, it's not that different from what we see in the balance of the business. They do work a little farther out, but because of the first-cost nature of the business, that means that we're delivering the product earlier to them because they're picking it up overseas and then they're responsible to bring it to the United States and get it through the warehouse and to their floors, the time between when we take the order and when we ship it is very similar to the branded business.

All right.

Sam Poser

Thanks very much. Good luck.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Tom Nikic from Needham.

Please go ahead.

Tom Nikic

Hey, thanks for taking my question. Ed, I think you made a comment before about the decline in private label, and you characterized it as temporary.

Is that based on kind of conversations you've had with partners who've kind of told you that in a more normal environment, you'd get that business back, or is there any risk there that that chunk of the revenue base has kind of been structurally reduced?

Edward Rosenfeld

No, hopefully what I said is that I hope it's temporary. We believe it will be temporary because we believe that we offer these customers something that they can't get from other folks, and that's why we've been able to build a very successful business with them over decades.

Frankly, we have seen this movie before. There are periods where, I think they get new management or whatever, and somebody comes in and says, "Hey, there's maybe a lower-cost provider or we could go direct or whatever," and we've seen our business contract.

Typically, after a season or two, when maybe perhaps they don't get the fashion as right as we've gotten it for them in the past, we've seen them come back to us, and that business has come back. Certainly that's what we will be working very hard to make happen here.

Tom Nikic

Understood. Very helpful.

A quick follow-up on SG&A. I know there's a bunch of headwinds this year, I think, Zine, you mentioned something like 15 cents from incentive comp, and I know that there's a wrap around of the Geiger acquisition.

When you layer it all together, I guess what order of magnitude should we think about for SG&A growth for the year? I think you've got high single-digit revenue growth for the year.

Should we think something in the teens for SG&A growth this year?

Edward Rosenfeld

I'll step in there. I think given that we're not providing earnings guidance, we're not going to also guide all the line items down the P&L.

We have to postpone that one until we put out the earnings guidance.

Tom Nikic

Fair enough. All right.

Thanks very much, and best of luck this year.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Dana Telsey from Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead.

Hi,

Dana Telsey

good morning, everyone. As you think about the DTC business, any unpacking of how e-commerce did relative to stores, what you're seeing full price and outlets, and plans for opening stores this year and remodels and refreshes?

Then also just touching on international, how did that do for the Kurt Geiger brand, and how did it do for the Steve Madden brand? Thank you.

Edward Rosenfeld

Sure. Yeah.

In terms of stores, we saw a nice acceleration in or DTC overall, nice acceleration in Q4 in Steve Madden. Now that was driven by full-price channels.

We still had a double-digit decline in outlets, but we had a nice a nice increase in our full-price stores and an even stronger increase in our e-commerce business. All of those businesses have actually improved further going into Q1, feel good about the momentum there.

Outlet is still running negative, although we've gotten that into the single digits quarter to date, and we we actually even are positive for the month, which we haven't seen for a little while. That's a that's a positive story.

Kurt Geiger, they had a very strong comp performance, up high teens in Q4 in the Kurt Geiger brand, driven primarily by digital, but also a healthy healthy performance in stores. As we as we look ahead, yeah, we will have some store growth in Geiger.

As we've talked about, one of the initiatives is to open more stores in the United States. We view that as a revenue and profit opportunity, but also as a as a vehicle for us to build brand awareness and really tell the Kurt Geiger story, because as we've said, we think the stores are the best expression of the brand.

Right now, I think we're looking at about five stores opening this year in the United States, and we're excited about those. One of those will be an outlet, the balance will be full price.

In terms of Steve Madden, I think, we'll be we'll probably open, maybe 18 stores around the world, but we'll close a similar amount, maybe even a little bit more. I think the store base there is not going to grow.

Then we've got a handful of remodels as well. I don't know the number.

I don't know, Steve, if you have that off the top of your head, but

Steve Kroll

No, I don't have the exact number, but for major remodels, probably over 10.

Dana Telsey

Got it. Then marketing spend this year, how are you thinking about it?

Edward Rosenfeld

I think you'll see we're going to continue to invest in marketing. Obviously, we're growing the top line.

Over the past several years, we've seen a really significant increase in the percentage of revenue. This year, I think we're planning that more flat as a percentage of revenue.

Up in dollars on the growing sales, but really pretty similar in terms of percentage of revenue.

Dana Telsey

Thanks. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thanks.

Operator

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press *11 and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question comes from Aubrey Tianello from BNP.

Please go ahead.

Aubrey Tianello

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions.

I wanted to go back to the annual revenue guidance of 9% to 11%. Could you maybe break that down in terms of what you're expecting from the core business in wholesale footwear, accessories, apparel, DTC, and then also what you expect Kurt Geiger to contribute in terms of revenues?

Edward Rosenfeld

Sure. Yeah.

I guess I'll start off by saying that the business excluding Kurt Geiger, we're looking to be up low singles. Kurt Geiger, and again, just to point out, that includes that private label pullback.

If you exclude private label, we're looking to be up around 6% to 7% towards the middle of the guidance. Kurt Geiger, on a reported basis, will be up 50%.

Then if you're looking at that on a pro forma basis, just so you can understand the underlying growth there, that's up really high singles, with the brands growing in the low double digits and then concessions pulling down the overall consolidated number there. In terms of the segments, branded wholesale footwear and wholesale accessories excluding Kurt Geiger should show nice growth, kind of mid to high singles, positives there, with again private label down significantly in each of wholesale footwear and wholesale accessories.

Then DTC, I think we've got that excluding Kurt Geiger growing around 7.5% at the midpoint.

Aubrey Tianello

Perfect. Thank you.

Then, Ed, I think you mentioned on the last call that for 4Q there would be something like mid-teens AUR increases, with about 10% of that coming from like-for-like and the rest from product mix. How should we be thinking about AURs going into 2026, and in particular on the product mix side of things?

Edward Rosenfeld

We continue to see nice benefit there. I think in the Steve Madden DTC business, have the numbers in the US in front of me, we were up about 18% actually is where we ended for Q4, and we're trending pretty similar to that in Q1.

Again, it's really three factors: it's roughly 10% price increases, and then you've got the mix, and then a little bit of reduced promo activity as well. As we move throughout the year, I do expect that to moderate somewhat.

I don't think we're going to provide specific guidance around AUR, but I still think it should be a tailwind in the coming quarters.

Aubrey Tianello

Very helpful. Thank you.

Edward Rosenfeld

Thank you.

Operator

Our last question comes from Janine Stichter from BTIG. Please go ahead.

Janine Stichter

Hey, good morning. Can you talk a little bit more about your wholesale footwear business outside of the private label?

It came in a bit better than expectations. Maybe just speak to what you're seeing in terms of initial orders and reorders.

Given where your supply chain's position right now, are you in a position to chase the additional demand coming through?

Edward Rosenfeld

We're really excited about the momentum that we have there, and again, specifically in that Steve Madden, core Steve Madden women's business. It feels better than it has in quite some time, frankly.

We saw really significant acceleration in our sell-throughs in the back half of the year. They were actually negative in the first part of '25, turned positive in Q3, were up and then have been up sort of mid-teens, this is our sell-throughs to the end consumer, in Q4 and so far in 2026.

Our wholesale customers are really reacting, and so we're seeing better initial orders, we're seeing chase activity. As we look at sort of plans going forward, obviously those are getting better based on the momentum.

I will say most of our big customers, they seem to want to really position themselves to chase, though. I think they're trying to leave a little bit of room in the way that they plan to chase hot items.

Obviously, we continue to have a speed advantage over our competitors, we have the right product right now, and so we feel like we should be well positioned to win in that environment.

Janine Stichter

Great. Then just quickly, mentioned Dolce Vita in the beginning of the call and planning it up high single digits for the year.

Maybe just remind us how big that business is and anything else you can speak to around the growth opportunity there.

Edward Rosenfeld

Dolce Vita has been a really great story for us over the last 5 years or so, and as we said, it's I think been the strongest-growing business for us in the company as a brand since the pandemic, and most consistent. It's now finished the year over $240 million in revenue.

We feel like we'd just continue to build that brand. As we said, it was primarily all footwear in the US.

It was historically primarily a wholesale business, then we built this very successful dolcevita.com business. Now we've opened a handful of stores, which are performing well, and we've started to now extend the brand into other categories.

We're getting some nice traction in handbags, and we're also seeing some growth in international markets. It's a good story and one we want to keep fueling.

Janine Stichter

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator

I am showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn it over to Mr.

Rosenfeld for closing remarks.

Edward Rosenfeld

Great. Thank you so much for joining us on the call today.

We hope you have a great day. We look forward to speaking with you on the Q1 call.

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program.

You may now disconnect.