ERIC TRACY, ANALYST, FBR CAPITAL MARKETS: Good N Charm and I will add my congrats as well. So, Ken, maybe if I could focus on the unit growth now, sort of expectation for next year. Obviously it changed over recent years.Maybe just sort of O Charm to that, the level of I guess lease renegotiations are playing in that decision making as well as just the overall productivity of the base. And then maybe talk about the different US versus international.
KEN HICKS: Well, in terms of -- when you first said unit growth I thought you were talking about the shoe units. In terms of the storefronts, we do P Charm growth. The majority of that growth will be in Europe as we continue to expand and fill out the opportunity that we have there in strengthening the countries that we have got a good presence in, building our share in some of the countries that we have a foothold or smaller presence.
We will open some stores in the United States but our real growth is in -- is really going to be in Europe. But there are some malls Q Charm we have opportunities to enter and we are taking advantage of those. We continue to work hard on our lease terms and making sure that we have the best lease terms. I will let Bob talk a little about what we are doing there and any specifics on the stores.
The second thing that we are seeing is our F Charm running shoes from ASICS, Nike, New Balance, people like Under Armour, they are performing well. So there is a resurgence with physical fitness and more people are running and working out. And we G Charm seeing very good success there. And if you haven't worn a pair of these lightweight running I suggest that you go out and buy a pair, because they are just great shoes.
So the running category is one that we are excited about and it's one of the reasons why we feel -- to your comment about accelerating comps -- that we feel good about this spring. Last year we were not positioned as well in running. We are much H Charm positioned with running than we were a year ago, both in terms of shoes and apparel, and that gives us an opportunity that we didn't have.
At the same time, to Bob's question, we see a strong basketball business. So you put strong basketball with running and improvement in apparel; we I Charm got a lot of legs to the stool that are working very well for us. And so we are selling those lightweight running both for runners but also for people who don't intend to run, and that has helped that category.
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we didn't put out a very good product in Classic Smiley Charm California for the first 18 months or so, 24 months because it was the Chick's physical plant with our content and you walked in and it was nothing that we -- nothing we were very proud Classic Frown Charm but we didn't want to spend the capital because we didn't know what was going to happen in the world and we didn't want to spend the capital to renovate those stores.
We've now gone back last year and we renovated five stores. We're going to do some more of those this year and we're pretty pleased with what's Classic Smiley Minx Charm on in California now. So California will end up like Texas, which we ended up like the Carolinas when we first went there, which ended up like Florida. You kind of go in and sometimes you kind of knock it out of the park on the first pitch and other times you don't.
In Texas and California we didn't but as we had in other markets, we have either figured it out or we're in the process of figuring it out but the end Two Hearts Charm Red will be the same. It's just a matter of how long it took us to get there.So we're very pleased in Texas and we continue to open stores in California and are pretty enthusiastic about California.ROBBIE OHMES: Great. Well, we're out of time so I want to thank Dick's Sporting Goods management for a great presentation.
And, we have to improve the efficiency and Horseshoe Charm of our operation, using technology to help us be better at what it is that we do, such as in-stocks, labor management, faster POS, and merchandise planning and allocation. To do that, we -- while we feel we have a strong team, we need to make it stronger by attracting, developing and Frog Charm the leading team in retail.
And we will do that by making sure we have a sales oriented and customer-focused culture, really understanding what Key Charm that we need, what's selling, what's not selling, understanding what the customer wants, and strengthening the selling and service skills in the stores, so that our associates know what and how to sell to the different customers that might come in.
So, those are the six strategies. We put them in place a year ago. So, how'd we do? Well, the financial results and long-term objectives are up Pig Charm the board, and as you can see from the chart, we've made significant progress in 2010 towards achieving the long-term financial objectives we set for ourselves last year, but we have plenty of room for improvement. We still have a long way to go.
This is one that's probably near and dear to Dress Charm all's heart is, we have to increase the productivity. Starting first and foremost, rigorously managing our expenses, making sure that we don't overspend, but we have the appropriate level of expense. That means in some cases, shifting that where we will invest in things like marketing, Four Leaf Clover Charm development, but pulling back where it's not as appropriate.
[CCS], where we have the opportunity to bring in a new skate customer, Run by Foot Locker -- we've got a store down in Union Square, and another in Butterfly Charm Park in New Jersey, new concept, new prototype that we're -- we're working on where we think there are opportunities for us to continue to grow and develop.We have to improve our inventory turnover and merchandise flow. Our inventory turnover was too low.
We need to get that up. And we're going to do that by flowing the merchandise more appropriately, to get the right goods in the right store at the right Dice Charm at the right time, and the right quantity in the right size.We have to improve the conversion rate. I talked about having people in the store. We've got strong traffic. We have to turn those shoppers, though, into buyers, and training our sales associates in better selling schools will help us do that.