Crocs said it doesn’t plan to sell its products through Costco Wholesale Corp., refuting speculation made on the retailer’s conference call Wednesday.
“We have not sold Crocs-branded products to Costco nor have we authorized any of our customers to sell our products to Costco,” the Niwot-based shoe maker said in a statement Thursday.
Crocs fell 8.2 percent in Nasdaq trading Wednesday after Costco chief financial officer Richard Galanti said on the call that there was “huge availability” of branded apparel such as Crocs, jeans and women’s clothing. Crocs reiterated that it deals with specialty retailers, department and sporting-goods stores.
“Their product’s position is to be sold at a full price,” said Reed Anderson, an analyst with D.A. Davidson & Co. in Minneapolis. “They don’t have a product they’re selling through discount channels. That’s not their strategy.”
Crocs fell 61 cents, or 3 percent, to $19.85 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, the lowest price since November 2006. Shares have plunged 46 percent this year.
Speculation that the brand is dealing with Costco is “untrue,” Crocs said.
“However, we have discovered instances where we believe our products were being sold indirectly to Costco, and we promptly terminated those relationships,” Crocs said in the statement. “We are continuing to take aggressive measures to prevent this from happening.”
