Genesco Corp.
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Genesco Corporation is a specialty retail firm based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Founded as a footwear manufacturing concern, the former General Shoe Company had factories in many Southern towns, especially in its home state of Tennessee, during the 1950s. It assumed its current name in 1959, and slowly began the process of diversifying away from strictly footwear manufacturing, especially as more of this was conducted overseas. It entered into fields such as sports marketing at one point, even manufacturing and selling soccer balls. At one point its retail holdings included prestigious New York merchant Bonwit Teller.
The company suffered from overdiversification at one point, and the ongoing manufacturing operations in the Southern U.S. continued to depress results for a long period of time. The company was probably saved by its decision to reposition itself as a retailer. The last manufacturing operations to be phased out were those of its famous Johnson & Murphy brand in Nashville.