BUSINESS MEMO: BROWN EARNINGS ON PLUS SIDE

Brown earnings on plus side

The Brown Group Inc. earned $5.5 million during its second quarter.

Brown, the company that has closed so many shoe-manufacturing facilities -- many of them in Southeast Missouri -- over the past decade, lost $8.4 million during the same quarter a year ago.

Sales at Brown's Famous Footware Division, which has 787 stores, increased 11 percent, to $200.5 million. Sales at the wholesale divisions -- Brown Shoe Co. and Pagoda -- increased 21 percent, to $133.6 million.