In re Crocs Inc. Sec. Litig..

• Decision Date: 28 February 2011
• Docket Number: 07–cv–02454,07–cv–02465,07–cv–2469.,Civil Action Nos. 07–cv–02351–PAB,07–cv–02412
• Citation: 774 F.Supp.2d 1122
• Parties: In re CROCS, INC. SECURITIES LITIGATION.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Colorado

774 F.Supp.2d 1122

In re CROCS, INC. SECURITIES LITIGATION.

Civil Action Nos. 07–cv–02351–PAB

07–cv–02412

07–cv–02454

07–cv–02465

07–cv–2469.

United States District Court, D. Colorado.

Feb. 28, 2011.

Albert B. Wolf, Leonard Michael Goldstein, Wolf, Slatkin & Madison, P.C., Denver, CO, Charles J. Piven, Brower Piven, P.C., Stevenson, MD, Cyril V. Smith, Zuckerman Spaeder, LLP, Baltimore, MD, Joseph C. Cohen, Jr., Joseph C. Cohen, P.C., Littleton, CO, for Plaintiffs.Nicole K. Serfoss, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, Denver, CO, Paul T. Friedman, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, Matthew S. Kahn, Scott A. Fink, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Defendants.

ORDER ON MOTIONS TO DISMISS

PHILIP A. BRIMMER, District Judge.

This case is before the Court on the Motion of Defendant Deloitte & Touche LLP to Dismiss Plaintiffs' Corrected Amended Consolidated Class Action Complaint [Docket No. 104], defendant Crocs, Inc.'s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs' Corrected Consolidated Amended Complaint [Docket No. 107], and Individual Defendants' Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs' Corrected Consolidated Amended Complaint [Docket No. 108]. Plaintiffs have filed both a response [Docket No. 114] and a corrected response [Docket No. 121] to the motions. The movants filed a reply in support of each of the three motions to dismiss [Docket Nos. 124, 126, and 127].

This case involves a class action lawsuit alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act and associated federal rules and regulations against a company (Crocs, Inc.), its auditor and principal accounting firm (Deloitte & Touche), four of its executive officers, two members of senior management, and four members of its board of directors.

This Court has jurisdiction over this case pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78aa, and 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

I. BACKGROUND

Crocs, Inc. (“Crocs”) is a Colorado-based company whose core business is the manufacture and sale of plastic footwear [Docket No. 87 at ¶ 7]. Crocs was established in 2002, at which time Crocs sold only a single model of its shoes in six colors [ id. at ¶ 48]. During 2006, Crocs expanded its product line and began offering various sports equipment as well as apparel and accessories, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, beanies, and socks [ id. at ¶ 49]. By the end of 2006, Crocs had over 5,800 individual product items, as represented by the over 5,800 stock keeping units (“SKUs”) assigned in Crocs' accounting, warehousing, and point-of-sale systems [ id. at ¶ 50]. These products were available at over 11,000 domestic retail store locations and over 8,000 international retail store locations during fiscal year 2006 [ id. at ¶ 51].

Crocs has manufacturing and warehouse facilities in the United States, Europe, China, and elsewhere [ id. at ¶ 7]. During 2006, Crocs obtained its footwear products from third-party manufacturers in China, Italy, Romania, and the United States, as well as from Crocs-operated manufacturing facilities in Canada, Mexico, and Italy [ id. at ¶ 52]. The majority of Crocs footwear was manufactured by Futai in China [ id.].

Plaintiffs allege that Crocs failed to update its data management systems in an appropriate fashion considering the rapid growth of the company and its product line [ id. at ¶ 53]. Crocs' continued use of inadequate data management systems resulted in problems managing manufacturing, inventory, sales, distribution and assessment of current and future demand [ id. at ¶ 53]. As a result of these problems, Crocs allegedly manufactured too much product, could not distribute its product efficiently and, hence, experienced a massive inventory buildup [ id.]. Plaintiffs allege that this inventory buildup motivated defendants to perpetrate fraudulent schemes to mislead investors regarding Crocs' financial condition [ id.].

From late 2006 through at least the third quarter of 2007 during weekly meetings held at Crocs' Aurora, Colorado warehouse and during nearly daily phone calls, defendant Scott Crutchfield (“Crutchfield”) allegedly learned that, because the purchasing and planning department did not have accurate data regarding sales, the department was “bulk ordering” all styles, colors and sizes of shoes, including those which did not sell [ id. at ¶¶ 60, 61]. Crocs' inventory increased fourfold from August to December 2006, increased fourfold in 2007 through the end of the third quarter, and increased fourfold in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 [ id. at ¶ 63]. The products in Crocs' Colorado warehouses had a six-month turnaround, an amount alleged to be six times the industry standard [ id. at ¶ 64]. The information regarding the inventory buildup in the Colorado warehouses allegedly was reported in daily e-mail reports to defendants Crutchfield and John P. McCarvel (“McCarvel”) and, likely, to defendant Ronald R. Snyder (“Snyder”) beginning at least in April 2006 [ id. at ¶ 65].

In these meetings and e-mail correspondence, defendants Crutchfield and McCarvel discussed the lack of accurate data due to the use of Excel spreadsheets [ id. at ¶ 67]. Although modern supply chain management software allows for manufacturing, sales, and distribution data to be updated on a “real-time” basis, plaintiffs allege that the Excel spreadsheets used by Crocs allowed for the acquisition of only outdated and, hence, inaccurate data [ id. at ¶ 70]. For example, plaintiffs allege that the spreadsheet generated by Crocs' internal system would show that the warehouses contained none of a type of shoe; however, Crocs employees could see the shoes in the warehouse [ id. at ¶ 71]. In a similar fashion, data on the amount of a particular shoe in stock would be off by a factor of ten [ id.]. In addition, single barcodes often were assigned to numerous products, although each barcode was supposed to be assigned to an individual Crocs product in a specific color, style and size [ id. at ¶ 73].

Plaintiffs allege that senior management engaged in daily discussions with the warehouse and sales staffs regarding the unreliable inventory counts and allocations and about the fact that Crocs could not match orders to available inventory [ id. at ¶ 72]. The complexity of Crocs' business allegedly required the use of a data management system that included distribution requirements planning, materials requirements planning, and advanced planning systems software [ id. at ¶ 80]. Crocs purchased an enterprise resource planning system that was intended to assist Crocs' ordering and sales divisions, but this system was not deployed in the logistics, inventory control, and planning departments [ id. at ¶ 81]. These systems were not upgraded appropriately until 2008 [ id.]. In addition, Crocs lacked a procedure to verify the entries regarding inventory into the Excel spreadsheets [ id. at ¶ 76]. This allegedly resulted in a materially incorrect assessment of inventory.

The inventory management problems allegedly led to difficulties fulfilling retailers' orders [ id. at ¶ 78]. As none of the warehouses had accurate data regarding its inventory and retailers' desired products were often at warehouses on other continents, Crocs' ability to fill orders correctly and in a timely fashion was severely hampered [ id.]. Crocs never had sufficient quantities of the high demand products, it sold out of the most popular styles and colors in late spring or early summer of 2006, and its deliveries for the rest of the summer of 2006 were late [ id. at ¶ 79(a) ]. For example, Crocs allegedly expected high demand for its Athens-style shoe, introduced in 2006, yet ran out of the shoes in March 2006 and never caught up with demand [ id. at ¶ 79(b) ]. In contrast, according to the Complaint, during 2006 and 2007, Crocs ordered large quantities of unpopular shoes, such as shoes in men's sizes but in women's colors ( e.g. size 13 “fuchsia” and “butter” shoes) [ id. at ¶ 79(c) ]. The Complaint alleges that, in order to meet retailers' deliver-by dates, Crocs had to lease jets to ship shoes on several occasions, an expensive, yet allegedly undisclosed, expenditure [ id. at ¶ 79(d) ]. According to the Complaint, none of these problems were disclosed in a timely fashion [ id.].

Plaintiffs also allege problems with Crocs' Chinese manufacturers. Crocs' Chinese manufacturers produced goods improperly or of poor quality ninety percent of the time [ id. at ¶¶ 82, 86]. The Complaint provides an example of Nordstrom's return of a shipment of 10,000 pairs of Crocs footwear [ id.]. In addition to these problems, the Chinese manufacturers were selling knockoff, unauthorized copies of Crocs shoes on the black market [ id. at ¶ 84]. Because of the problems with Crocs' Chinese manufacturers, McCarvel spent the majority of his time from 2006 until the beginning of 2008 in China [ id. at ¶ 83]. No later than early 2007 Crocs attempted to order its factories in China to operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week [ id. at ¶ 85], which was intended to eliminate the production of knockoff Crocs shoes [ id.]. Crocs bought a Futai factory in China in order to stem the production of knockoffs and to meet anticipated demand, but failed to record the purchase on its books [ id. at ¶ 87].

Crocs also allegedly had problems with distribution in Europe. From late 2006 through 2007, Crutchfield repeatedly was informed on daily phone calls and in meetings that Crocs' distribution center in Rotterdam was having serious problems moving goods to Europe [ id. at ¶ 88]. Specifically, Crocs' Rotterdam distribution center delivered shoes at a rate of 25,000 a day, while the distribution center in Aurora, Colorado could deliver at a rate of 100,000 a day [ id. at ¶ 91]. The Rotterdam distribution center allegedly also had difficulties utilizing the Excel software, contributing to its difficulty filling orders [ id. at ¶ 92]. As the distribution center in Rotterdam was Crocs' main conduit to the European market,...