Operator
Operator
Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Michael Kors Holdings Limited Third Quarter 2016 Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. For opening remarks and introductions, I'll turn the conference over to Krystyna Lack, Vice President, Treasurer. Krystyna, Please go ahead. Krystyna Lack - Vice President & Treasurer: Thank you. Good morning and thank you for joining us for our third quarter earnings call. Presenting on today's call are John Idol, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Joe Parsons, Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that certain statements made on this call may constitute forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those that we expect. Those risks and uncertainties are described in today's press release and in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the company's website. Investors should not assume that the statements made during the call will remain operative at a later time and the company undertakes no obligation to update any information discussed on the call. I will now turn the call over to Michael Kors' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. John Idol. John D. Idol - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Krystyna. Good morning and welcome to Michael Kors' third quarter fiscal 2016 earnings call. I'm pleased to report that our revenues, comparable store sales and earnings per share results for the third quarter exceeded our expectation, which speaks to the enduring strength of the Michael Kors luxury brand, in particular during the all-important holiday season. We know that consumers have a lot of choices when it comes to what brands they purchase, and the fact that they chose Michael Kors is a great testament to our world-class design team, strong product offering and the lasting connection that we have fostered with our customers. For the quarter, total revenue increased 6% on a reported basis. In constant currency, total revenue increased 10%, driven by growth across segments and geographies. Earnings per share increased 7% to $1.59 on a reported basis. And on a constant currency basis, earnings per share grew 11%. Our Retail business delivered solid results across all geographies, driven by strong double-digit sales growth in our digital flagship business and new store openings. On a constant currency basis, global comparable store sales increased 2%, which was ahead of our expectations and marked another quarter of sequential improvement. Importantly, while mall traffic in North America declined, we saw a significant increase in conversion rates in our own retail stores, which further illustrates the strength of the Michael Kors brand. On a constant currency basis, comp store sales rose in the low single digits in North America and Europe, and in the high double digits in Japan. While our Wholesale business was roughly flat for the quarter on a reported basis, we delivered results above our expectations, despite the challenging and highly promotional retail environment. In fact, while the North American department store channel was challenged, we believe our results continued to outpace the overall channel performance, which enabled us to further strengthen our leadership position in this channel. Internationally, European Wholesale sales grew 4% on a reported basis and almost 20% on a constant currency basis, and we saw 26% growth in our Asian Wholesale business. We also achieved solid growth in our Licensing business. While the overall watch category remained challenged during the third quarter, we were excited to see favorable response to the newness that we introduced into our watch offering, as well as our jewelry assortment. In watches, navy, sable and black platings, as well as colored leather straps, proved to be sought-after additions in our collection. Customers also responded well to our updated jewelry offering, with particular strength in the padlock, hearts and disc motifs. And our watch and bracelet gift sets were strong sellers during the season. Our fragrance collections for women as well as men's fragrance also proved to be great gifts, whether customers were shopping for family and friends or looking to treat themselves to something special. We were also pleased to see strong growth of our fragrance offering in the travel retail channel worldwide. In addition, we continue to see very positive response to our eyewear collections and are happy that our new partnership in this category has been such a strong success. Turning to our product categories, we were pleased with the performance of our Accessories business, where we injected new styles that contributed to strong growth and market share gains in the quarter. Total Accessory sales on a retail basis grew at a high single digit rate globally and a mid-single digit rate in North America, demonstrating our leadership in this category, especially against a difficult retail backdrop. The demand for smaller sized bags, crossbodies and small leather goods continued to impact AUR in the quarter; however, we again saw a high double-digit increase in units sold, proving that customers continue to seek out Michael Kors luxury accessories. Footwear sales were also strong during the quarter, driven by our fashion active category. Unfortunately, the unseasonably warm weather hurt boot sales, which negatively impacted our footwear margins and AUR. Overall, our new merchandise assortment for holiday reflected the latest designs from Michael and our design team and spotlighted modern glamour, easy elegance and sport luxe essentials. The updated silhouettes, as well as our gifting assortment, resonated well with customers globally, and our #JustBecause marketing campaign proved very successful in connecting our customers with just the right gift for everyone on their shopping list. Looking ahead, we remain focused on executing our key strategic initiatives that will drive us towards our long-term growth targets. First and foremost, we remain committed to delivering luxury products that embody fashion, design innovation and the Michael Kors luxury brand DNA. As we look to the spring season, we will be introducing our largest assortment of new handbag groups created to inspire our customers with exciting new trends. Our collections will underscore Michael's fashion leadership with an offering that reflects new color palettes, innovative materials, embellishment, mixed-media in leather, luxurious textures, and elegant silhouettes across product categories. In footwear, the fashion active category remains one of our highest growing areas. And we expect to leverage this trend in the spring. We are also capturing the denim trend in our accessories and apparel assortments, which are featured in our new national advertising ad campaigns. We have begun to evolve our advertising campaigns to reflect the glamorous destinations and inspirational moments of the modern Michael Kors customer. Our integrated marketing programs, with compelling digital and social media campaigns delivered through desktop and mobile devices, as well as traditional print, billboard and target marketing, are designed to extend our reach, allowing us to engage consumers with our brand, immerse them in the Michael Kors lifestyle and encourage them to shop our sites and stores. In our Retail business, we continue to develop our digital flagship strategy globally at a rapid pace, and build upon our omni-channel capabilities. We have digital platforms in place in the U.S. and Canada. And we are on track to launch in six European countries this fall and an additional 16 countries in Europe thereafter. Importantly, we are working to seamlessly integrate the consumer shopping experience across all touch points. We are taking steps to enhance our mobile shopping experience and expect to see the benefits of these measures over the coming months. We will also begin to leverage our analytic and CRM capabilities to share Michael's message with consumers through various communication vehicles and to present and tailor our styling to the individual customer. Overall, our digital flagship strategy is enabling us to engage consumers with our luxury lifestyle brand and provide a best-in-class shopping experience. As you know, we have a strong and influential online presence as consumers turn to Michael Kors for fashion insights, and we continue to see our fan base grow across all social media platforms, further demonstrating the power of our brand. In addition, we remain focused on expanding our global retail footprint, and we will continue to open flagship locations in key cities around the world to drive revenues and brand recognition. Our latest flagship opened this past November in the Ginza district in Tokyo, and we will be opening new flagships in London, Seoul and Singapore this coming year. These locations not only enable us to present the most expansive collection of our fashion product, including both our collection and lifestyle offerings, as well as men's product in select locations, but also showcase the Michael Kors luxury DNA for consumers worldwide. Internationally, we completed the integration of our Korean business in January and are excited about the retail growth potential in this market. Lastly, we continue to extend our men's presence at retail, both with standalone stores as well as through the addition of our men's offering in our existing lifestyle stores in North America, Europe and Asia. We opened four men's locations this quarter in Scottsdale Fashion Square in Arizona, Memorial City in Houston, Garden State Plaza in New Jersey and the San Francisco Centre in California. And we are pleased with the initial consumer response. By the end of this fiscal year, we expect our full men's assortment to be available in 11 locations, and we continue to believe there's a potential for up to 500 locations worldwide. In our wholesale channel, we expect moderately lower sales growth. As we have stated previously, we will be managing our North American wholesale inventory to ensure that we maintain the integrity of our brand. We see continued sales growth internationally from the expansion of our Accessories, Women's Wear and Footwear business and the development of our Men's category. We remain particularly excited about the expansion of our Men's business in wholesale and are on track to open 75 men's shop-in-shops globally this year. Importantly, we continue to believe that this is a significant new category for the company and I am confident that we can develop this business and become a leading men's luxury brand. In Licensing, we are excited about the continued growth opportunity of our fragrance and eyewear categories and the newness in the watch category as we continue to introduce updated watch styles and launch our new connected fashion line later this year. As we look at consumer trends, we believe that connected accessories will reshape the fashion watch business globally. Michael Kors is known for being at the forefront of the fashion watch category, and we expect to quickly emerge as a leader in connected fashion as well. Turning to our regional licenses, we remain focused on expanding our presence across Asia, which represents a significant growth opportunity for our company. In Greater China, we continued to see an increase in brand acceptance, as evidenced by another quarter of double-digit comp store sales growth. As the Chinese consumers' desire for our brand builds, we are capturing this demand both in the region and as they travel globally through our airport locations worldwide and in areas such as Japan, Korea and Europe. We look forward to our continued global expansion through our strong regional partnerships and growing demand for our luxury brand. In summary, we are pleased with the success we achieved in the third quarter, with an excellent holiday season driven by a luxury fashion product assortment, strength of our digital flagships and sequential improvement in our comparable store sales, as well as continued success of our Wholesale business. Our results demonstrate the sustained demand for our luxury fashion products globally and the market leadership of the Michael Kors brand. Now, let me turn it over to Joe for a detailed review of our third quarter financial results and our outlook. Joseph B. Parsons - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer & Treasurer: Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased to report financial results above our guidance for the third quarter. Total revenue grew 6.3% to $1.4 billion. On a constant currency basis, total revenue grew 9.9%, driven by increases across the Americas, Europe and Japan of 1.4%, 29.1% and 68%, respectively. In our Retail segment, net sales increased 11.1%. In constant currency, Retail net sales increased 15.7%, driven by the opening of 114 net new stores since the third quarter of last year, and strong performance of our digital flagships. We saw a marginal decline in comps of 0.9% on a reported basis. On a constant currency basis, comp store sales increased 2.0%, reflecting a sequential improvement from the second quarter of our total comp as well as our retail store comp and outperformance versus our guidance. The increase is attributable to positive comp store sales in North America, Europe and Japan, as consumers respond favorably to our luxury product offering. Our U.S. digital flagship sales contributed 360 basis points to our overall comp performance in the quarter on a constant currency basis. In our Wholesale segment, net sales grew 0.3%. On a constant currency basis, wholesale sales increased 3.0%, driven primarily by our footwear category and strong growth in international markets. In our Licensing segment, revenue increased 8.4%, driven primarily by higher licensing revenues related to sales of jewelry and eyewear as well as higher international licensing revenue. We opened 52 new watch and jewelry shop-in-shops during the quarter and ended the quarter with 362 shop-in-shops globally. Gross margin declined 140 basis points to 59.5%, which includes a 95 basis point foreign currency translation and transaction impact. The decline in gross margin reflects: a 310 basis point decline in Retail gross margins, primarily due to additional markdowns; a 50 basis point decline in Wholesale gross margin, primarily due to additional wholesale allowances, partially offset by higher licensing gross margin dollars. Total operating expenses grew 10.7%. The increase in SG&A was due to higher retail occupancy and salary costs related to new store openings and included higher e-commerce expenses and an increase in corporate-related expenses. The increase in depreciation expense was primarily due to the opening of retail stores, new shop-in-shops, an increase in lease rates related to our new European stores and investments in our corporate facilities and IT infrastructure. As a percent of total revenue, total operating expenses increased 120 basis points to 30.2%. This was below the 200 to 240 basis points of deleverage in our guidance, primarily due to better-than-expected sales in the quarter. Income from operations was $409.3 million, or 29.3% of total revenue as compared to 31.8% of total revenue in the same period last year. Retail operating margin declined 340 basis points, due to the decline of Retail gross margins as discussed earlier and a 30 basis point increase in operating expenses attributed to higher store-related costs and depreciation expense, largely offset by lower distribution and general expenses. Wholesale operating margin declined 180 basis points, due to the decline in Wholesale gross margin as discussed earlier and a 130 basis point increase in operating expenses attributed to increased distribution costs, selling costs and depreciation expense, partially offset by lower general expenses. Licensing margin increased 60 basis points, due to lower operating expenses, including advertising costs, partially offset by higher costs associated with intellectual property protection as we take action against counterfeit activity globally. Income taxes were $114.4 million in the quarter and our effective tax rate was 28.0% as compared to 27.2% in the same period last year. The increase in our effective tax rate was primarily due to the absence of the prior-year favorable settlement of certain instruments in connection with our international structuring, partly offset by the increase in taxable income in certain non-U.S. subsidiaries which are subject to lower tax rates. Net income was $294.6 million for the third quarter and diluted earnings per share were $1.59. The unfavorable currency impact on EPS was $0.06 per share. Turning to the balance sheet, at the end of the quarter, cash and cash equivalents were $696.8 million. During the quarter we repurchased approximately 4.7 million shares totaling $200 million under our share repurchase program, and we have another $558.1 million of availability remaining. There are no outstanding borrowings under our credit facility at the end of the quarter in either year. Inventory increased 9.5% versus last year, slightly ahead of revenue growth and in line with our expectation. As discussed on our last call, the change in foreign exchange rates continue to impact our European inventory and we are now recording incremental inventory related to the consolidation of MK Panama. We expect our growth in inventory to continue to outpace our growth in sales as we open new retail stores and shop-in-shops, expand our digital flagships and further develop our Men's business. We also expect the exchange rate differential and the MK Panama consolidation, in addition to the transition of the Korean business in-house, to continue to impact inventory levels until we anniversary these events. Capital expenditures for the quarter totaled $96.8 million and were related to the buildout of new retail stores and shop-in-shops as well as investments in our distribution facilities, our corporate offices and other infrastructure improvements. We added 34 new stores in the third quarter: 15 in the Americas; 16 in Europe; and three in Japan. In addition, we expanded or relocated eight stores and converted 79 wholesale doors into shop-in-shops globally. Turning to our outlook for the fourth quarter, we expect total revenue to be between $1.13 billion and $1.15 billion, which includes approximately $36 million of additional sales due to our 53rd week. On a constant currency basis, total revenue is expected to increase in the high single-digit range, assuming an impact of approximately $20 million from the change in foreign currency rates. We expect comp store sales to be flat on a reported basis and to increase in the low single digits in constant currency, driven by growth of our U.S. digital sales, the introduction of new innovative product offerings for spring 2016 and diminishing FX headwinds. However, we anticipate lower revenues in our Licensing business during the quarter, due to lower watch sales and a decrease in revenue related to eyewear as we anniversary our launch with Luxottica and the final quarter of shipments from Marchon last year. We expect international gross margin to remain under pressure in the fourth quarter, as favorable hedging contracts we entered into last year expire. Operating expense as a percentage of total revenue is expected to increase 190 basis points to 220 basis points. We expect diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $0.93 to $0.97, assuming a tax rate of approximately 27.5% and 182.5 million shares outstanding. We expect foreign currency to impact net income by approximately $3 million and EPS by approximately $0.02 for the fourth quarter. For the full fiscal year, our outlook for revenue and EPS remains unchanged. We expect revenue of approximately $4.65 billion on a reported basis. On a constant currency basis, total revenue is expected to increase in the low double-digit range, assuming an impact of approximately $180 million from the change in foreign currency rates. We expect a mid-single-digit comp store decrease on a reported basis, and a low single-digit decrease in constant currency. Operating expense as a percentage of total revenue is expected to increase by approximately 230 basis points for the year. We expect diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.38 to $4.42 for the year, assuming a tax rate of approximately 28.5% and 190 million shares outstanding. We expect foreign currency to impact net income by approximately $38 million and EPS by approximately $0.20 for the year. I will now turn the call back to John for closing remarks. John D. Idol - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Joe. We are pleased to have exceeded our third quarter sales and earnings per share expectations. Our results demonstrate the sustained strength of the Michael Kors brand as our luxury product continues to resonate with consumers around the world. We are on track to deliver solid financial performance in the fourth quarter, as comp store sales continue to show sequential improvement and we capture additional market share in the luxury fashion accessories category globally. Looking beyond fiscal 2016, we will continue to leverage our market leadership position and strong management team as we move forward with multiple strategic initiatives we have in place to drive sales and earnings per share growth for the long-term. I will now open up the call for questions.