Earnings Labs

Inter Parfums, Inc. (IPAR)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 12, 2015

$89.89

-2.44%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Inter Parfums, Fourth Quarter 2014 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to, Russell Greenberg, Executive Vice President and CFO. Thank you, please go ahead. Russell Greenberg - CFO, Director, CAO, EVP & Head-Investor Relations: Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to our 2014 fourth quarter and year-end conference call. Following the financial review, Jean Madar, our Chairman and CEO, will provide a business overview, and then we will move on to your questions. Before proceeding further, I want to remind listeners that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from projected results. These factors include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties discussed under the headings Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and the reports that we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not intend to and undertake no duty to update the information discussed. In addition, Regulation G codifications for the use of non-GAAP financial measures prescribes the conditions for the use of non-GAAP financial information in public disclosures. We believe that the presentation of the non-GAAP financial information included in this presentation is an important supplemental measure of operating performance to investors. The information required to be disclosed for the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures is disclosed in our 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This information is available on our website, at www.interparfumsinc.com. When we…

Operator

Operator

Certainly. And our first question comes from the line of Wendy Nicholson with Citi. Please go ahead with your questions.

Wendy C. Nicholson - Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead with your questions

Hi. Good morning. Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hello, Wendy.

Wendy C. Nicholson - Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead with your questions

I have a couple questions. The first one is with regard to your outlook for 7% constant currency revenue growth in 2015, can you give us a sense for what you think the industry will grow at next year; in other words, how much faster than the industry you think you can grow? Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Well, Russ, you can try. Russell Greenberg - CFO, Director, CAO, EVP & Head-Investor Relations: Yeah. Historically, the industry itself – they say that they grow an average of somewhere right around 3% on a worldwide basis. And that 3% is probably in volume as opposed to in dollars. So in this business, Inter Parfums has historically consistently outpaced that of the overall industry. We are approaching 2015 with a little bit of conservatism (18:35), as we've mentioned in prior conference calls. Growth rates that we had seen historically in certain territories, like Eastern Europe and China, are not where they were, at least for our business, as they were in the past. So for us, the 7% is well below our compounded annual growth rate, but it is something that we believe is clearly makeable and doable from a constant currency standpoint for 2015.

Wendy C. Nicholson - Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead with your questions

And can you talk about your growth, specifically, in the U.S., because that does seem to be a market where there maybe seems to be a little bit better consumer spending environment. So if I compare – and I know apples-to-apples is very hard right now, but your growth in 2014 to 2015 in the U.S., would that be accelerating, decelerating, similar? Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I can try to give answer on that. I think – specifically, in the U.S., I think our growth – we will be able to maintain our growth, which is higher than in other countries. We have a lot of new fragrances launching in the U.S., meaningful, of course, Oscar de la Renta, as I mentioned, with Extraordinary. We think, also, that we will be able to introduce Dunhill Icon at Neiman Marcus towards the end of the year. I would like, also, to emphasize in general that Montblanc is performing extraordinarily well in the U.S market, because Legend is now in the top ten – has entered the top ten men's fragrance in the U.S market. So our growth in U.S. will be, I will say, higher than 7%.

Wendy C. Nicholson - Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead with your questions

Wonderful, and then my last question, Russ, if I understood it right, one of the reasons the gross margin in the fourth quarter was so strong was the mix shift to prestige doing a little bit better. Do you think that's – was that unique to the fourth quarter or will that carry through into 2015, and I'm really drilling down to try to get a little bit of guidance on the gross margin line for the year? Russell Greenberg - CFO, Director, CAO, EVP & Head-Investor Relations: Absolutely. But as I mentioned in the conference call prepared remarks, there were really two main reasons, one when you look at our European business, the strength of the dollar in the fourth quarter, clearly had a much more significant impact to the gross margin raise than the switch over in the United States to more prestige products versus specialty retail. But the specialty retail product is clearly – this is an area that the – has been in a little bit of a decline and most of the United States prestige – the business is moving more, as Jean said, to those prestige lines, like the Oscar de la Renta, Dunhill, Agent Provocateur et cetera.

Wendy C. Nicholson - Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Analyst · Citi. Please go ahead with your questions

Wonderful. Thank you, that's very helpful. Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. Thank you, Wendy.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Stephanie Wissink with Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead with your questions. Maria C. Vizuete - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Hi. Thanks for taking our question. This is actually Maria Vizuete on for Steph. We just had a couple of quick questions. Just going back to Wendy's prior question, can you discuss the underlying growth rates this year relative to last year? I think that underlying growth rate was about 16% last year, can you just maybe talk about the drivers between the two years? Thank you. Russell Greenberg - CFO, Director, CAO, EVP & Head-Investor Relations: Well, the growth if we are talking about North America or United States, North America was actually up around 14% in 2014. The drivers themselves are the brands. We have consistently seen acceptance of our products into the major department stores here throughout the United States. Brands like Montblanc, which is growing at a 40% rate; brands like Jimmy Choo, which is growing at a little bit lesser 9% or 10% and some of the newer brands that are in our portfolio in 2014 such as Oscar de la Renta is clearly what's spurring that particular growth rate. Maria C. Vizuete - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Got it. Thank you. Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: I would like to – if I may... Maria C. Vizuete - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Yeah, please. Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: ... to give (23:35) Montblanc in 2014 has seen a great increase. I'm sure you remember the increase was over 30%. So, Montblanc became in 2014 the number one brand in Inter Parfums, the number two being Lanvin, number three being Jimmy Choo. But what is interesting for 2015…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Joe Altobello with Raymond James. Please go ahead with your questions. Joe N. Altobello - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Thank you. Good morning, guys. Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hello, Joe. Joe N. Altobello - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Just want to start off – hi, yeah. Just want to start off with the Abercrombie and Hollister licenses, can you remind us – is there a sales impact in 2015, because I think you guys are taking over some existing distribution, first off? And then secondly, what is the opportunity to sell those fragrances in their own retail doors, because you sort of alluded to the opportunity but didn't sort of spell out what could happen there? Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Russ, do you want to answer? Russell Greenberg - CFO, Director, CAO, EVP & Head-Investor Relations: Yes. For 2015, we will have a small amount of sales as we are doing a test in certain international markets with respect to Abercrombie's existing fragrance. But most of what we're really gearing for and in development for is new fragrances that will be launched worldwide in many, many territories around the world, to build an international distribution based upon the name recognition and – the brand name recognition of both Abercrombie & Fitch, as well as Hollister. Getting to the second part of your question, in our agreement with Abercrombie, in essence what we're hoping it's going to evolve into is we become the development arm of new product development for product that will not only be sold internationally, but also will be sold in their stores. They have the right to buy the product for their stores, if they want it. As times…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (34:20). Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Anymore questions?

Operator

Operator

Yes, we have one more. Our next question comes from the line of Linda Bolton Weiser with B. Riley. Please go ahead with your questions. Linda Bolton Weiser - B. Riley & Co. LLC: Hi, guys. Russell Greenberg - CFO, Director, CAO, EVP & Head-Investor Relations: Hey, Linda. Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: Hi, Linda. Linda Bolton Weiser - B. Riley & Co. LLC: Hi. So can I ask you about – I mean, you alluded to the major launches in your brands that will be occurring in 2015. Just in case I missed what you said, can you just give us the rundown of which of the major launches are in the first half versus second half of the year, and then maybe comment on the cadence of the sales growth through the year, because you had – I mean, you had easier kind of comparisons in the first half – in the first half you have easier comparisons and it gets a little harder. So should we put higher growth in the first half or just even, or higher in the second half? You know, I'm just trying to get a little insight on that? Thank you. Jean Madar - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer: We hate to give breakdown by quarter, especially because more and more we give some exclusivity to certain retailers in certain market for a month or two or three, and then we rollout. But as I said, the Montblanc Emblem for women will happen in the second half and it's an important launch. On Lanvin, there is in spring, we launch Eclat d'Arpège for men. That's an important launch also. In summer, we're going to have another fragrance for Lanvin. For Jimmy Choo, we'll continue to rollout Jimmy Choo for…

Operator

Operator

And this concludes today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back to management for closing remarks. Russell Greenberg - CFO, Director, CAO, EVP & Head-Investor Relations: Thank you. Before signing off, I just want to mention real quickly that I will be presenting next week at the Sidoti Small Cap Equity Conference on March 16 in New York. I hope to see some of you there. I'll also be presenting in mid May at the B. Riley Consumer Conference in Los Angeles. And in late May at the Citibank Consumer Conference here in New York. In June, I'll be participating in the Raymond James Boston Spring Investors Conference, and the Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference, which is here in New York. I hope to see some of you at those events. Thank you for your participation on this conference call, whether you are live or listening via webcast. And if you have additional questions, I am available by phone. Thank you and have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.