Winter Isn’t Coming and That’s Bad for Boot Sales, Shoe Giant Says

(Bloomberg) -- Climate change is making an impact on businesses in the country responsible for some Europe’s heaviest emissions via a surprising route: the sales of boots.

Shoemaker CCC SA’s comparable sales have fallen for another winter quarter as Poles buy less and less footwear for the season. The company’s usual line-up of furry boots just doesn’t sell -- a lesson it learned the hard way, lamented billionaire owner Dariusz Milek at a news conference on Wednesday.

“We had been lulled,” Milek said. “We thought that the warm winter two years ago was an accident, then we thought the same last year. Now, with our scale of operations, we can’t take any chances.”

Beyond the weather effect, falling sales, rising costs and stronger online competition put the company out of favor with investors as it shed two-thirds of its market value since a peak two years ago. Now, CCC plans to move more sales to the web and limit store expansion. CCC, which sells about 50 million pairs of shoes a year, also pledged to cut carbon-dioxide emissions and electricity usage.

That focus on CO2 footprint is getting more common among corporations in the country, which still relies on coal for about 75% of its electricity production. After appointing its first-ever climate minister, Poland’s government is finally moving ahead with a plan to cut usage of the dirty fuel.

“We just need to get used to the fact there will be no more winters,” Milek said. “Winter shoes aren’t selling for another season and we just need to accept it.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Maciej Martewicz in Warsaw at mmartewicz@bloomberg.net;Konrad Krasuski in Warsaw at kkrasuski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wojciech Moskwa at wmoskwa@bloomberg.net, Andras Gergely, Balazs Penz

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