Morris Goldfarb
Analyst · Piper Jaffray
Good morning and thank you for joining us. With me today are Sammy Aaron, our Vice Chairman; Wayne Miller, our Chief Operating Officer; Neal Nackman, our Chief Financial Officer; and Jeff Goldfarb, our Director of Strategic Planning. Our results in the second quarter were outstanding, and we are pleased to have performed well in a challenging environment. I'd like to start the call today by going right to the financial highlights. Sales of $304 million in the quarter were above plan. This was up 21% compared to last year with broad-based growth. We've done a great job of positioning for the fall and holiday season and we're now booked 89% to plan. The year really looks good. Gross margin in the quarter was up 3 points versus last year, improving to 32.7% from 29.8%. We continue to achieve balance between cost control and continued investments and capabilities. And as a result, net income per share exceeded our plan and improved to $0.17 per share in the second quarter versus $0.07 last year. It's gratifying to see this kind of performance in a tough environment. I think it demonstrates clearly that we are a best-in-class company. We certainly have a great assortment of brands, a high-level of diversification, outstanding partners and loyal customers. While all of those things contribute to our strong performance, I believe our greatest single advantage and what really sets us apart and above most of our industry is the incredible corporate culture we've built here at G-III. Our people are driven to success. We have worked hard to create a corporate culture that encourages, enables, recognizes and incentivizes a powerful roll up your sleeves work ethic. It's not that difficult to find great ideas or great businesses. It's very challenging to move those ideas forward profitably, quickly. We do that exceptionally well. Now let's talk about some specifics in our business. Wilsons posted a comp sales gain in the quarter of 13.7%, a significant performance compared to the outlet channel. I'll note that this comp gain was on top of 12.7% increase in the same quarter last year. The team at Wilsons has worked very hard on nearly every aspect of their business. They have the merchandise assortments right, systems and store operations are in line and positioned for further growth. Our sales productivity is now at $350 per square foot and still climbing. When we bought this business, it was approximately $250 a square foot and was losing money. We added depth and talent to our team, created better incentive structures, gave them better tools, and the results are great. We believe there is an additional opportunity in full price retail. And as we discussed last quarter, we're expecting to have 15 full price mall stores opened in time for holiday. The full price stores will clearly be differentiated in their mix, the quality of the products, the price points and the look and feel of the concept. While we will not be able to gauge the success of these full price stores until after the holiday season, a viable full price retail model would represent a significant growth opportunity for us. We're excited about the future for our specialty retail business and believe we have established a scalable platform that can support significant growth. Led by Calvin Klein, our wholesale is our largest and best diversified business. Great execution across categories drove much of our overall strength in the quarter as did our continued investment in fixtured shops. This drives margins and improves turns and productivities both for ourselves and our retail partners. We grew Calvin Klein Sportswear at a fast pace again this quarter, with sales up more than 50% over prior year. We increased penetration in existing doors and ended the second quarter with 890 doors, up from 662 last year. We're utilizing fixtured shops to maximize penetration in key doors, and we expect to open 27 more in the second half to finish the year with 140 in total. Our Calvin Klein dress business continued to dominate in department stores this past quarter. We shipped well and performed well at retail. Doors were stable at just over 1,200 in total. The dress market had a tough season and we felt that in some of our brands, but Calvin Klein continued to be stand out. We grew our Calvin Klein Women's Suits and Separates by 70% over last year, and we're really excited about the future for this business. Our teams are doing a great job of delivering products that create newness for our customers' assortments. Our door count in suits as of the end of the second quarter was 1,100 compared to 800 last year. Calvin Klein handbags was up 40% over last year second quarter, with improved gross margins. This is in an area where fixtures can be very important, and we expect to have 8 new handbag fixtured areas installed in our strongest stores by year end. We also continue to grow our Calvin Klein Performance wholesale business with a 20% increase over last year's second quarter. Our door count in Calvin Klein Performance is up to 1,100 compared to 1,000 last year. As in Sportswear, we're using fixtured Performance shops to maximize penetration. And we should have 490 doors by year end. The partnership we've developed with PVH and the job we've done with Calvin Klein are a great showcase for what we can do. This partnership has been powerful for our overall business and our position in the market. We're confident that Vilebrequin, like Calvin and Wilsons, will ultimately be another success story for G-III. We executed well in the second quarter and continue to move in the right direction to fulfill our long-term vision for the brand. Financially, we are achieving our expectations. We're making investments across the business, in store buildouts and fixtures, as well as personnel and systems. New initiatives such as our e-commerce site for the U.S. market and our new women's product and suntan lotions, are just getting started but are promising. We continue to see this as a dual gender brand with a significant presence across many adjacent categories in the global status market. Our team sports business is another great success story within our company. It continued to perform well in the quarter, and our product mix is now about 50% sportswear and 50% coats. We're approaching $100 million in total volume in team sports, and I'll point out that sportswear was nonexistent 5 years ago. We see continued growth for several years in the future. I talk about Calvin Klein, but I'd also like to discuss other dress and sportswear businesses. In dresses, our business includes Jessica Howard, Eliza J, Jessica Simpson, Vince Camuto, Guess?, Ellen Tracy, Kensie and Andrew Marc, and we're excited to soon add Ivanka Trump. The standout among these was Eliza J, which continues to be an amazing performer at Nordstrom's and other retailers throughout the country. Our Kensie contemporary sportswear continues to be a solid performer in major retailers and can now be found in 900 department stores. We're excited about our Ivanka Trump launch in dresses, suit separates and swimwear. We think there's a big potential for Ivanka in apparel. We continue to invest in personnel and development for this important fashion brand. Ivanka Trump showrooms will be opening in the beginning of the fourth quarter. As you know, our biggest business is still outerwear, which we started shipping toward the end of second quarter. With approximately 30 licensed, owned and private label brands and a presence at every tier of retail, from luxury to mass-market, we're the dominant resource in this category. We believe we've planned the outerwear season well and it'll continue to be a strong and stable business for us. I'll reserve a few comments for closing, and now I'll turn the call over to Neal.