March 3 (Reuters) - Footwear retailer Brown Shoe Co Inc (BWS.N) swung to a fourth-quarter profit that beat market expectations, boosted by strong demand at its Famous Footwear brand and specialty retail business. The seller of shoe brands such as Naturalizer, LifeStride and Via Spiga said it expects to see a return to mid-single digit sales growth during 2010, with earnings doubling in the next 12 to 15 months.

Famous Footwear from Brown Shoe Co Inc

"We are encouraged that the trends we saw in the fourth quarter have continued into the first quarter," Chief Executive Ron Fromm said in a statement.

For the quarter ended Jan. 30, Brown Shoe posted a net profit of $5.0 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $153.0 million, or $3.68 a share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, it earned 19 cents a share.

Revenue at the St. Louis-based company known for its Famous Footwear stores, rose about 9 percent to $566.0 million. Analysts were looking for earnings of 16 cents a share, on revenue of $558.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales at Famous Footwear surged 9.7 percent to $342.7 million, while at specialty retail it rose 9.5 percent to $72.2 million. Shares of the company closed at $14.33 Tuesday 2 March on the New York Stock Exchange. For the alerts, double-click [ID:nWNAB4662] (Reporting by Renju Jose in Bangalore; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)