Glenn K. Murphy
Analyst · JJK Research
Thank you, Katrina, and good afternoon, everybody. Sabrina will come on the call in a few minutes and give you the details of the company's financial performance in the second quarter. Before we get to that, I've just got a couple of comments on Q2 and then I want to talk a little bit about the second half. And then, of course, you'll hear from Sabrina and we'll take all your questions. On Q2, the company had very good sales results on a number of different fronts. We felt good about the comp at a plus-5%. That's a 2-year plus-9%, which is good performance. And it's the second quarter in which we have achieved an internal goal of comp-to-comp. So I think that that's good performance for Gap Inc. in the second quarter. Now, unlike a lot of other retailers and brands, we continued to give monthly sales. We've been giving them in the 6 years that I've been here. We like it. We think it's transparent. That's not a commitment we're going to do forever and a day, but for now, what we think, that makes absolute sense. But I do want to say to everybody on the call that with the consumer environment we're dealing with and the changes in consumer behavior, there's always going to be lumpiness from one month to another. So I think I've said this before, but it's worth reiterating: we report our sales monthly, but we manage our business quarterly. So we come out of the quarter, regardless of how it may flow by month, we feel very good that the company achieved a 5% comp for the second quarter. That's very good performance. I was also really happy with our total sales. Now we had an 8% reported total sales. But if you FX adjust that number, it's a plus-10%, which means Gap Inc. had about 5 points of spread between comp and total sales in the second quarter, which is also very good performance. And lastly I want to highlight, like I did on Q1, our online business grew by 27%. Just coincidentally happens to be the same number as it was in Q1. It's also that very important channel where we're putting investments, where we believe we have a very strong share and we differentiate ourselves, had a nice growth rate in the second quarter. Now just moving to the bottom line. It's nice to be able to leverage our business and set up an economic model, which you can do that with. So to got 160-basis-point improvement on our operating margin was nice to see. That gave us a 25% increase in profit and a 31% increase in earnings per share. So all-in-all, when you look at those numbers, I would say that Gap Inc. had a strong Q2. Now I'd like to give all the analysts and investors updates on growth. I did that extensively in the first quarter call. Everything's on track when it comes to China, Athleta, our franchise business. Our growth initiatives continued to do well. What I do want to add, though, is that Old Navy is opening in Mainland China. It will be in Shanghai and it will open in the spring of 2014. Gap is opening in Taipei, which will be our first store in Taiwan, in the spring of 2014. One thing I want to highlight in the second half, where there's noticeable change and some evolution that's taking place across all of our brands, and that's in the marketing area. That's in 2 fronts: it's in messaging and it's in the use of different mediums. From a messaging perspective, Old Navy, their creative platform, which they've been on for the better part of 2 or 3 years, is going to change. So Old Navy's positioning is absolutely consistent and is unique in the marketplace, which is delivering fashion essentials for the family. But after a couple of years, it's always good for you to reassess the platform and the voice of the brand. That's what the new team has done. And I feel very good about the second half on how we're going to continue to take this brand in the value sector and differentiate ourselves. Banana Republic, if you've seen the Issa campaign that is out right now and the collaboration we have, I think that's brand-new creative. And that's the look and the feel that all of our customers are going to see in the back half. And I think it just needed -- it needed a change. It needed to be freshened up. It needed to look a little more relevant. So I think that's what you're seeing on the Issa creative execution and you'll see that kind of execution, that kind of look and feel, in the rest of the back half. And lastly, Athleta, which has been a very strong success for the business and we love the marketing behind it, which is Power to the She, and that's what the brand platform is and that's not changing. But it's going to evolve its look a little bit. We want the brand to be a little broader. And you're going to see some of that more around the holiday season. On the medium front, I have 2 things to report. One, that Gap is going back to television in the fall. Many times over the last 4 or 5 years, we've been asked if Gap would go back on television. I understand the question because of the heritage and the association with Gap brand and great TV commercials. I think the criteria for me has been pretty consistent. What's the strategy behind it? Do we feel the messaging is strong and unique? Do we believe the product is absolutely the right product in our stores in order to go out and spend the money on television, bring new people in? So Gap brand has been able to check off all those boxes. So you will see Gap brand go back to television this fall. Don't ask me about holiday, I'll just try to get ahead of the question, I don't know the answer yet. Again, we got to go through the criteria and make sure everything's right. And if everything's right, then we will consider television for holiday. But that has not been decided yet. And the other thing I want to mention is that we are really making a further shift in the back half of 2013 to try to acquire more new customers. For the last couple of years, I think a lot of our investment, the mediums we've used, have been to strengthen our strengths with existing customers, at the same time as trying to speak to our lapsed customers. Now there's always marketing. If you put money in your windows, you're always talking to some new customers, but it's been mostly broadcast, broadcast media. And I think that the business now, with so many more tools and so many more choices for a company like us, you're going to see us put more money towards person casting and really try to speak to specific group of customers that we believe should be experiencing the brand and should be in our stores and should be on our online site. And that's across all 6 of our brands. So definitely, that's going to be a focus on the second half because it's important for a business like ours, in order to continue to move the business forward, to have the right balance on loyal customers, lapsed customers and new customers. Let me close this portion of the call off by saying that all of our product for fall and holiday is bought. From my perspective, our design and merchandising teams have done a very good job. Like any business, you learn from the previous year. You have to make adjustments, you have to make sure that you're putting the focus and the energy behind where you can dominate. That's why for years, we've been talking about a comp is an outcome. That's why each one of our brands, as they build up their assortment, they know what categories they're going to dominate on, where they're going to differentiate themselves. And that's where the focus is. And look, we've been doing this for years. I just think this year, coming into fall and holiday, is just another year where the team has moved the needle forward. So I like what the design and merchandising teams have done. And now it's over to execution. So it's over to our marketers, I talked about earlier; our inventory management team; our store leaders; our online teams, to really make sure they take the product that's been designed and execute it to the highest level possible. To do what? Well, of course, to win. To win more and more customers and to gain market share. That's the business we're in. I think we've done that in the first half of this year. If you look in -- the first half was a market share gaining first half. And it's certainly our goal, sitting here today, to replicate market share gains in the second half. With that said, let me pass the call over to Sabrina and then I'll answer any of your questions after she's finished with her comments. Thank you.