DALLAS — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
Global retailer Foot Locker Inc. revealed Aug. 28 plans to open a global technology hub in Dallas next month.
In an earnings call on Wednesday, the retailer announced Chief Technology Officer Adrian Butler will lead the new tech and innovation center. The goal of the hub will be to accelerate technology delivery and cross-functional collaboration across the company, according to a company press release.
A source told Dallas Business Journal the hub could be located at 3001 Hackberry Road in Irving, near the 1,000-acre Cypress Waters development. DBJ reached out to Foot Locker to confirm the address but did not receive a response.
In addition to the new tech hub in Dallas, Foot Locker announced it will move its headquarters to St. Petersburg in 2025.
Tampa Bay Business Journal reported the HQ move comes three years after city officials rolled out an incentive package to lure the New York-based retail giant to St. Petersburg under the code name Project Athena. By fall 2022, the deal appeared to be dead. Champs Sports, a subsidiary of Foot Locker, is already headquartered in West Bradenton – a neighborhood south of downtown Tampa.
Foot Locker has struggled in recent years as its footwear companies increasingly bypass wholesale retailers and sell directly to the consumer. In the three-month period that ended Aug. 3, Foot Locker posted a loss of $12 million, or 13 cents per share.
The company also announced on Wednesday that it would close stores and e-commerce operations in South Korea, Denmark, Norway and Sweden while transferring its operations in Greece and Romania to a third-party company called Fourlis Group. The changes will affect 30 of Foot Locker’s 140 stores in the Asia-Pacific region and 629 in Europe.
CEO Mary Dillon leads an initiative to reimagine Foot Locker's store concepts. By 2026, it aims to have 50% of its square footage located off-mall and to have 25% of its sales occur digitally.
"I remain confident that we are taking the right actions to position the company for its next 50 years of profitable growth and create long-term shareholder value," Dillon said in the earnings report.
Tampa Bay Business Journal's Pam Huff and Henry Queen contributed reporting.
