Foot Locker is becoming more active in Europe, a region that has been singled out as a focus of investment by the group. The American banner will be taking over the prime 1,000-square-meter space occupied by an Adidas flagship store after it closes at the end of March on the central Schildergasse of Cologne.

The company indicates that it plans to open 90 new stores this year, most of them in Europe, while closing down about 100, mostly in the U.S. Foot Locker has also signed a contract with Gareth Bale, one of the players of the Real Madrid team, to act as its ambassador for a series of marketing initiatives all over Europe during 2017.

Foot Locker continued to surprise analysts by announcing an 8 percent increase in net income to $158 million for the fourth quarter of its financial year, ended last Jan. 30. The quarterly gross margin rose by 0.7 percentage points to 33.6 percent.

The company's global revenues went up by 5 percent, but with a gain of 7.9 percent on a comparable store basis, although it had already scored a 10.2 percent same-store increase in the last quarter of the previous year. Excluding basketball, a category that still grew by just over 10 percent in the U.S., the increase on a same-store basis approached 15 percent.

The biggest improvements took place outside the U.S. Same-store sales were up in the mid-teens in Asia-Pacific, and in the lower teens in Europe and in Canada. In Europe, however, the Runners Point and Side Step chains acquired in 2013 saw their sales decline by mid-single digits, and Foot Locker decided to close their clearance website, SP24.com, taking a writeoff.

For the full financial year, the group's sales were up by 3.6 percent to $7,412 million, including a same-store increase of 8.5 percent and sales per square foot of $508. The adjusted operating margin (Ebit) reached 12.8 percent. Net earnings rose by 4 percent to $541 million, but they were up by 16 percent on an adjusted basis.

The group operated a total of 3,383 stores around the world as of last Jan. 30, down from 3,423 at the end of the previous financial year, but with a total net selling space of 7,580,000 square feet, up from 7,483,000. The number of Foot Locker stores in Europe increased from 603 to 606 after 16 openings, 13 closures and 34 remodels or relocations. Their selling area rose from 846,000 to 863,000 sqft. Runners Point grew from 116 to 121 locations measuring 158,000 sqft, after ten openings and five shutdowns. Sidestep grew from 83 to 88 stores 82,000 sqft wide after seven openings and two closures.

Sales and earnings are expected to grow at a double-digit rate this year. The growth rate should again approach 15 percent on a same-store basis, and gross margins should continue to expand at a rate of between 0.1 and 0.3 percent.