Kelli Molczyk Left Buckle and the Denim Bench Took Over

Kelli D. Molczyk left The Buckle as senior vice president of women’s merchandising on March 21, 2024, after nearly 25 years. The Kearney, Nebraska retailer filled the seat 11 days later with Stacey M. Manary, a women’s denim director on staff since September 1995.

Buckle did not announce an outside search. It promoted the person already buying the jeans that still make up 42.5 percent of the mix, and it did so at vice president rank rather than restoring the senior vice president title Molczyk had held. Fiscal 2025 then delivered a 14.8 percent jump in women’s sales, five straight double-digit quarters in that business, and a chain that by September 2026 ran 447 stores.

The Women’s SVP Seat Emptied in March 2024

The company’s March 21, 2024 release said Molczyk was stepping down from her position and had left to pursue other opportunities, effective immediately. She had worked at Buckle since 1999 in a series of women’s merchandising jobs. Officer histories compiled from company filings list her as vice president of women’s merchandising from December 2014 and as senior vice president from February 2022.

Dennis H. Nelson, president and chief executive officer, thanked her in that release for her contributions to Buckle’s growth and success as a member of the team for nearly 25 years, and said the company wished her well. The same notice put the store count at 442 locations in 42 states, with headquarters at 2407 West 24th Street in Kearney.

Molczyk was a named executive officer in fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023, sitting in the pay tables beside Nelson, Chief Financial Officer Thomas B. Heacock, and the heads of stores and leasing. Filings through 2026 list no later public-company officer role for her. The departure drew almost no public argument; it read as another long Kearney tenure reaching its end, not as a fight over the assortment.

Buckle Handed the Racks to a 29-Year Denim Buyer

On April 11, 2024, Buckle reported March sales and named Manary vice president of women’s merchandising, effective April 1, 2024. She had been employed since September 1995 and had most recently served as Director of Women’s Denim Merchandising and Operations. Nelson put her tenure at nearly 29 years.

Stacey has been a valuable member of our women’s merchandising team for nearly 29 years. She has made an incredible impact on our women’s product over the years and especially our women’s denim. I am excited to see how the team can continue to grow under her expanded leadership.

Dennis H. Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer, April 11, 2024 company release

The appointment landed in a weak month. Comparable store sales, for stores open at least one year, fell 9.4 percent in the five weeks ended April 6, 2024, and net sales dropped 8.0 percent to $104.3 million from $113.4 million. For the nine weeks ended April 6, comps were down 10.3 percent and net sales were $182.6 million against $195.9 million. The same release said Buckle then operated 440 stores after one closing in fiscal March and another after the month ended.

The title changed with the person. Molczyk had been senior vice president. Manary was named vice president. Buckle has not announced a further change in the women’s merchandising post since that April 1, 2024 effective date.

Women’s Sales Then Grew 14.8% in Fiscal 2025

Fiscal 2025, the year ended January 31, 2026, is the first full year of results after the handoff. In his shareholder letter, Nelson wrote that the women’s business grew 14.8 percent, including growth in every category. Company net sales rose 6.6 percent to $1.298 billion from $1.218 billion, with comparable store sales up 5.6 percent and online sales up 9.8 percent to $217.1 million. Net income was $209.7 million, or $4.14 a share diluted, against $195.5 million, or $3.89.

On the March 13, 2026 earnings call, Adam J. Akerson, vice president of finance and corporate controller, said the fourth quarter marked the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for the women’s business, with merchandise sales up about 12 percent. Women’s accounted for about 46 percent of fourth-quarter sales, compared with 43 percent a year earlier. Men’s merchandise sales were down about 0.5 percent and slipped to about 54 percent of the mix from 57 percent.

WOMEN AND MEN IN THE FOURTH QUARTER

Akerson said women’s denim remained the driver, up 10.5 percent, with average denim prices rising from $83.10 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 to $90.20 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. He tied the higher ticket to Buckle Black Label and to higher-price national brands, and said the company had planned denim inventory up so it could cover styles, fits, sizes, and inseams.

WHAT MOVED THE WOMEN’S TICKET

• Denim prices: Average women’s denim rose from $83.10 to $90.20 in the fourth quarter, a move Akerson linked to Buckle Black Label outrunning the rest of the denim category.
• The full look: Casual pants held as an alternative bottom, knits and sweaters led tops, and outerwear and accessories were strong.
• Overall AUR: Average women’s prices increased about 6.5 percent, from $51.55 to $54.95, in that same quarter.

Heacock, on the same call, put fourth-quarter net sales at $399.1 million, up 5.3 percent from $379.2 million, with comps up 3.9 percent and online sales up 6.4 percent to $74.2 million. Fourth-quarter net income was $80.8 million, or $1.59 diluted, against $77.2 million, or $1.53. Gross margin held at 52.6 percent for the quarter. Full-year operating margin was 20.2 percent, against 19.8 percent the year before, and the company ended January 31, 2026, with $306.6 million in cash and investments after $225.1 million in dividends and with no long-term debt.

The women’s run did not stop at year-end. In its June 4, 2026 monthly sales commentary, Buckle said women’s sales for the four weeks ended May 30, 2026, increased 9.0 percent and accounted for about 50 percent of the mix, versus about 48 percent a year earlier. That is a four-week print, not a sixth double-digit quarter, but it is the same direction.

Who Filled the Next Wave of Kearney Exits?

Molczyk’s departure was the first visible crack in a longer officer turnover. The company’s April 2026 proxy says Kari G. Smith, executive vice president of stores, and Michelle M. Hoffman, senior vice president of sales, retired effective February 13, 2026. Both had been named executive officers in the fiscal 2025 pay tables with Nelson, Heacock, and Brett P. Milkie, senior vice president of leasing.

Buckle then appointed Scott A. Werth senior vice president of stores, effective March 31, 2026. Werth had been employed since June 1989 and had most recently been vice president of sales and strategy, a span Nelson called a nearly 37-year career. The stores job, like women’s merch two years earlier, went to the next person who had already spent decades inside the company.

THE KEARNEY SUCCESSION CLOCK

1. March 21, 2024: Buckle announces that Molczyk has left as senior vice president of women’s merchandising after nearly 25 years.
2. April 1, 2024: Manary becomes vice president of women’s merchandising after nearly 29 years, most recently running women’s denim.
3. February 13, 2026: Smith retires as executive vice president of stores and Hoffman retires as senior vice president of sales.
4. March 31, 2026: Werth, at Buckle since June 1989, becomes senior vice president of stores.
5. September 3, 2026: The company reports August sales and puts the chain at 447 stores in 42 states.

Nelson, 76 in the fiscal 2025 Form 10-K, has been president since April 19, 1991, and chief executive officer since March 17, 1997. He started in 1970 as a part-time salesperson while at Kearney State College, now the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Daniel J. Hirschfeld, 84 in that filing, remains chairman. The merchant and store jobs still sit under that pair.

Denim Still Makes Up 42.5% of the Mix

The reason a women’s denim director can inherit the whole women’s rack is sitting in the 10-K. Denim was 42.5 percent of net sales in fiscal 2025, matching fiscal 2024 and up from 40.9 percent in fiscal 2023. Nelson wrote that denim sales grew 6.7 percent for the year on a wide run of fits, silhouettes, and styles across private and national brands. Private label was 49.5 percent of fourth-quarter sales, against 51 percent a year earlier, and 47.5 percent for the full year, matching the prior year.

SHARE OF NET SALES BY MERCHANDISE GROUP

Akerson put denim at about 44 percent of fourth-quarter sales and tops at about 29.5 percent. Accessories were about 11 percent of that quarter and footwear about 5 percent, with accessory sales up about 3.5 percent and footwear down about 3 percent. Kids, which Nelson has treated as a way to win guests young, grew about 16 percent in the fourth quarter. The exclusive BKE line still sits at the center of the denim wall, joined by Buckle Black and a list of other house names the 10-K recites as private label.

Women’s Merch Now Carries a Vice President Title

The quiet change in the Molczyk file is the rank. She was senior vice president and a named executive officer. Manary was appointed vice president and does not appear among the named executive officers in the fiscal 2025 summary compensation table, which lists Nelson, Heacock, Smith, Milkie, and Hoffman. Women’s merchandising still decides what hangs on roughly half the ticket in recent months, but it no longer sits in the small group whose pay the proxy spells out.

That is consistent with how Buckle staffs the rest of the floor. Men’s merchandising had already been through its own long-timer cycle; Robert M. Carlberg, once senior vice president of men’s merchandising, was a named executive officer in fiscal 2021 and does not appear among current officers in the 2026 proxy. The pattern is not a sudden purge. It is a company that lets 25-year titles sunset, promotes the next director, and keeps the CEO job where it has been since 1997.

Nelson’s letter for fiscal 2025 still puts “great product” at the core of the Buckle experience and still names denim as the foundation. The buying teams, he wrote, worked with store leaders and vendors to stay aligned with guest demand, limit tariff hits, and manage inventory. Manary’s brief, on the evidence of that letter and Akerson’s category detail, is the women’s half of that denim foundation.

Nelson Is Still Signing the Letters From Kearney

The store base is no longer the 442-unit chain in the Molczyk release. Buckle ended fiscal 2025 with 440 stores in 42 states, against 441 at the end of fiscal 2024 and 444 at the end of fiscal 2023, after opening 6 stores, completing 20 full remodels, and closing 7. Nelson’s letter said 11 of those 20 remodels moved mall units into outdoor centers, and it set fiscal 2026 plans at 14 new stores and 13 full-store remodels. Heacock said the company had already closed one store early in fiscal 2026, with no further closures then planned.

By the September 3, 2026 sales release, Buckle operated 447 retail stores in 42 states, compared with 441 stores a year earlier. Comparable store sales for the four weeks ended August 29, 2026, rose 1.6 percent, and net sales rose 3.6 percent to $123.5 million from $119.2 million. For the 30 weeks ended August 29, comps were up 3.2 percent and net sales were $732.1 million against $697.1 million, a 5.0 percent increase. That is five more stores than the 442 in the March 2024 departure notice, and a women’s mix that, in the May 2026 four-week print, was about even with men.

WHERE THE CHAIN STOOD AFTER THE HANDOFF

• Store count: 447 locations in 42 states as of the September 3, 2026 release, up from 442 when Molczyk left.
• Fiscal 2025 sales: $1.298 billion, up 6.6 percent, with comps up 5.6 percent and online sales of $217.1 million.
• Balance sheet: $306.6 million in cash and investments at January 31, 2026, $225.1 million of dividends in the year, and no long-term debt.
• Headcount: About 8,000 teammates, in Nelson’s letter, at a company founded in 1948.

Molczyk’s file now reads as a completed 25-year women’s merchandising career that ended on March 21, 2024, with no successor search beyond the denim office down the hall. Manary took the racks on April 1, 2024. Women’s sales grew 14.8 percent in fiscal 2025, denim held at 42.5 percent of the company, and Nelson was still the one signing the shareholder letter from Kearney.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of The Buckle’s public statements, earnings call, and SEC filings, and it is for information only. It is not investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell BKE shares, or a forecast of future sales, earnings, or store counts. Readers who are considering an investment decision should consult a licensed financial adviser who can review their own holdings, time horizon, and risk. Figures and officer titles here reflect the cited company releases and filings as of those documents’ dates and can change with later results, 8-Ks, and proxy statements.