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Kohl's Corporation (KSS)

Q2 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 11, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Kohl's Q2 2016 Earnings Release Conference Call. Certain statements made on this call, including projected financial results, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Kohl's intends forward-looking terminology such as believes, expects, may, will, should, anticipates, plans or similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause Kohl's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statement. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those that described in Item 1A in Kohl's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and as may be supplemented from time-to-time in Kohl's other filings with the SEC, all of which are expressed and incorporated herein by reference. Also, please note that replays of this recording will not be updated, so if you are listening after August 11, 2016, it is possible that the information discussed is no longer current. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Wes McDonald, Chief Financial Officer of Kohl's Department Stores. Please go ahead. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Thank you. Good morning. With me today is Kevin Mansell, our Chairman, CEO and President. I'll start today's call by walking through our operational results, and then Kevin will provide more details on our Greatness Agenda initiative and then we'll take some of your questions. Comp sales decreased 1.8% for the quarter, below our expectations, but significantly improved over first quarter results. Transactions per store were down 4.8% for the quarter.…

Operator

Operator

Introducing Matthew Boss from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Matthew Robert Boss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Thanks and congrats on a nice quarter, guys. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks.

Matthew Robert Boss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

When we think about 2Q and the sequential comp improvement that you saw from three months ago, I guess my first is where did you see the largest performance gap in terms of improvement? And then just looking ahead, you have a lot of upcoming initiatives, some new brands, what's the best way think about the sustainable comp beyond all the noise that we're seeing this year? Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Wes? Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Sure. I mean, I think all the areas improved, obviously, over the first quarter. I think the areas that probably improved the most were: Men's, which led the company with a positive comp; and Home, although negative, was very difficult in the first quarter. We made some marketing changes, adding some tab (20:54) distribution in both June and July, which we think disproportionately helps Home and we think that's going to be pointed in the right direction for the back half, which is a very important business in the fourth quarter. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: This is Kevin, Matt. On the more sustainability aspect of the comp looking forward, I think, as we sort of alluded to in the call, we're obviously very focused on the two most important elements, merchandising and marketing. On the merchandising side, I would say we're going to continue to drive our national brand strategy, in particular continue to amplify the importance of active and wellness because we think that's a trend that's taking hold very strongly. And while we have a good leadership position, I think expanding the portfolio with Under Armour is going to make a massive difference. We're actually going to invest in the stores across the whole…

Matthew Robert Boss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Great. And then just a follow up, on the store base, could you just help talk about the evaluation of the fleet underway? How you're weighing the need for potential closings longer-term versus some of the cash flow that you're getting in some of these locations today; I guess any closings next year and then just thoughts longer-term? Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: It's Kevin again. I can give you part of the thinking, and then Wes can get more specific to the financial aspect. I mean, overall, as you know, we've closed some stores this year, and I think our expectation is we're going to be able to probably understand more about the impact of that on markets and other trade areas inside of markets that might positively benefit from those store closures. I don't expect us to be able to do a thorough analysis to get a good understanding of that until next spring, because we really need to go through the fall and the holiday season to analyze that to a great degree. As a result, we honestly don't expect any store closures next year, as of right now. The second part of that answer, long-term, is we think that our stores are really important. And, as we noted in the call, more and more, we're seeing the role and relevancy of the store come to life through being able to use our stores as shipping points for customers as they go online to buy product, but also as pick-up points as customers choose the convenience of buying online but picking up in the store and, therefore, avoiding any shipping or time delay as well. And so that number continues to grow. I think Wes was pretty excited about the fact that it reached 21% of dollars, 23% of units. I expect at the end of the third quarter, it's going to be even higher. And I would really expect at the end of the fourth quarter, it's going to be massively higher, just because of the nature of the business. As it relates to specific financials around stores, Wes could give you a good handle on that. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, I mean, I think we mentioned in the past, we look at it on an incremental cash flow basis. As we look at our lease expirations for next year's, we don't have any stores that are underperforming that are going to expire next year on a lease. So we won't be closing any leased stores next year, for sure. There are some owned stores that are underperforming. We'll keep monitoring that. But to Kevin's point, until we get through holiday and understand how good we are at forecasting retained sales, it would be difficult for us to go ahead and say we're going to close more stores until we know how accurate we are on that.

Matthew Robert Boss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Great. Best of luck. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Mark Altschwager from Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead. Mark R. Altschwager - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Just first on the SG&A guidance for the back half, just as we model that out, do you expect much variability from Q3 to Q4? I think last year, it was flattish in Q3 and up quite a bit in the fourth quarter, so just any help on how we should be thinking about that. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: It really will depend on our results. I think we'll have more SG&A in the fourth quarter, if the sales are at the higher end, with incentive compensation and things like that, but I wouldn't expect any great variability. Certainly didn't expect the performance that we had there this quarter; everybody in the company, especially in store payroll, did a great job of pulling back on expenses, but nothing material. Mark R. Altschwager - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Okay. Thank you. And I wanted to dig into loyalty a little bit. First, can you just update us on your efforts on converting the Yes2You members to credit customers? And then, bigger picture, now that we're close to two years into the program, just talk about some of your learnings; how effective the program has been in driving incremental visits or increasing transaction sizes, and how the engagement among members has evolved over time and any changes planned for the program moving forward. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: I think from a loyalty perspective, we got a very nice lift last year. Our learnings from the…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Lorraine Maikis Hutchinson - Bank of America Merrill Lynch Research

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to follow up on the back half gross margin guidance of plus 20 to 40 [basis points]. Are you still planning for your inventory to be down as much as receipts were down coming into the third quarter? And, if so, are there further opportunities to reduce clearance and initial promotions? Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Our inventories plan to be down mid-single digits, so kind of like where we ended the second quarter. We always have a level of conservatism. Fourth quarter is always very competitive. I think you guys know that the e-commerce business spikes significantly in the fourth quarter. That is a bigger headwind to gross margin from a shipping cost perspective, so we're still going to see more improvement in the fourth quarter last year, given our performance. We expect to see some improvement in the third quarter, but I think it's just a level of conservatism, not knowing what's ahead of us, but from an inventory management perspective, we're going to hit those numbers. The team is really focused on bringing those inventory levels down. And I think you've seen, by our results in the second quarter, what benefits that has.

Lorraine Maikis Hutchinson - Bank of America Merrill Lynch Research

Analyst

Thanks. And I think you talked about bringing in more transitional product after holiday. Can you give us a little context on what that might look like coming into the first quarter? Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I mean, first of all, it's baked into the inventory assumptions Wes gave you, which is continue to keep inventories down mid-single-digit. I think Wes and I and Michelle would say if we could do better than that, we'd be happy, but that's currently, certainly, our focus right now, but there's a pretty big shift because due to high inventories last year, as you know, we were unable to deliver in the mid-November to mid-December periods fresh receipts that will allow us to transition out of holiday into spring, and that's going to be a pretty big change. So I think our viewpoint is when you think about how we would then be positioned both for our late holiday selling, but, more importantly, into spring, we're just going to be in a much better place because the percentage of our total units on hand that'll be transitional will be much, much higher than it was last year.

Lorraine Maikis Hutchinson - Bank of America Merrill Lynch Research

Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Neely Tamminga from Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead. Neely J. N. Tamminga - Piper Jaffray & Co. (Broker): Great. Thanks. Just a quick two-part question, on the localization efforts you guys been piloting that, at least with a group of stores, a little bit longer than the rollout for the company; just wondering if there's any data points around kind of longer tail insights you've had from that pilot store group that you can share about gaining confidence in the second half gross margin. And then, secondly, Kevin, maybe for you on the active wellness, really great to see Under Armour come into to the store; the overall category, sounds like it's up mid-singles. Nike is up low doubles. Just wondering how to reconcile those two just a little bit; are you transitioning out some brands as you prepare for space or are there underperforming brands within active wellness? Thank you. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: On the localization, we've sort of piloted versus control group, we're getting about a 70 basis point lift in comp in the areas that are localized versus the ones that aren't, with about a 40 basis point reduction in inventory. So that's a pretty good result from our perspective. I think as we learn more as we continue to get better at this, it really is a combination of art and science. So the absolute inventory levels are easier to control. Trying to figure out what the difference is in assortment is a little harder. I suspect we'll get better as we go throughout the year on that. And then Kevin can take the other question about... Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer:…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Paul Trussell from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Paul E. Trussell - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Good morning. Wanted to ask a question on the top line. I believe you mentioned that July ended well and there is momentum heading here into the third quarter. You also spoke positively about the Children's and Juniors business. And I also know, Wes, that I think Thanksgiving's a little bit earlier this year, which could be helpful to 4Q. I guess I'm just surprised you didn't guide to the possibility of positive comps; if you could just maybe rectify that for us. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I think what we've done in terms of the forward look is consistent with the way we always look at guidance, Paul. At the end of the first quarter, we really didn't update our guidance. And the reason we didn't is we just felt like we didn't have a firm data point to be able to give you a true insight into the look through the year. Second quarter is now over. We see the improvement in the business. We see some of the inventory strategies taking hold, the resulting improvement in margin. Some of the SG&A initiatives that Wes and his team have implemented are taking hold as well. So we're just in a better position to use the current trend year-to-date to apply to the fall and holiday. Yeah, it goes without saying, Wes mentioned some of them, there is opportunity. We could do better on inventory. If you use second quarter as a data point, we could do better on margin. But I think it makes sense for us to just say, hey, year-to-date, this is where we're at and we're looking for continued improvement on each of the lines, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves either.

Paul E. Trussell - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Fair enough. That's helpful. And then, just to also better understand the comp composition, could you just tell us what drove the UPTs up, I believe, three points, and just if there's any opportunity for AUR to increase in the back half or should we continue to believe that is flattish? Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: I mean, I think AUR will increase in the back half, due to increased penetration of national brands. We ended the quarter with less clearance than last year, but we were aggressive at pricing that through the second quarter to get rid of it. So I think that was part of the AUR drop, which hopefully will not be an issue in the back half, as clearance continues to be lower than last year as we – certainly in the fourth quarter, as we've moved throughout the fall season. But I think the units are up because the product is more salable. People like what we're – there's more positive parts of the business now than there were in the first quarter. So some of those Back-to-School businesses that we mentioned, like Young Men's and Juniors, were positive for the entire quarter, not just for July, so that gives us some hope going into back-to-school.

Paul E. Trussell - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Thank you, and good luck.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Dan Binder from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Daniel Thomas Binder - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Hi. It's Dan Binder. Thanks. Obviously, a tough industry backdrop; I was wondering if you could share a little bit of market share color, if you have any, and what you're seeing on industry promotion. And then, just lastly, kind of following on to the last question, the issue seems to be traffic. Obviously, if the product's more salable and UPT is up, what more do you think you can do to drive traffic? Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Well, we don't really have the NPD data for the second quarter yet, but I'm assuming that it will tell us that Amazon continues to gain market share, as do off-price. We did a lot better in the second quarter than we did in the first, so I think that will probably help us out as well. From a traffic, Kevin talked about it, we're doing a good job with the credit card customer. They continued to shop us and shop us more than they did last year. We have to continue to make inroads with the non-credit card customer. That's part of the things we talked about. I think Mark asked a question earlier on loyalty, trying to engage them more, trying to round them up to a higher level of reward to get them to come in more frequently and raise the response rate, to hammer home the differentiation of us providing Kohl's Cash and the Yes2You Rewards versus our competition. All of that takes time. It's not going to turn on a dime, so we just have to continue to do that. If you start to notice our broadcast, I think you'll see a more consistent theme on highlighting those vehicles versus just saying what the current event is. And I…

Daniel Thomas Binder - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

That's a good segue to my next question. Wes, at one point, you'd given us sort of a rough idea of what the gross margin headwind was for each point of penetration in e-commerce. With the learnings on ship from store, take into consideration split shipments, the things you're doing around that, has that impact to gross margin changed versus what it was looking like a year ago, as we get an increase in e-commerce penetration? Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: No, I still think it's going to be about 30 basis points in total for the year. Shipping cost is about 20 [basis points] and then mix is about 10 [basis points]. The BOPUS portion of that is obviously the biggest advantage in terms of profitability. That's moving up nicely, but not to the point where it can help us out significantly yet. I think the fourth quarter will be a big indicator of how good that can be. You alluded to split shipments. That's something we're working on very diligently. The ship from store option for us makes us competitive with Amazon Prime in terms of we can get the shipment to the person's house in less than two days about 90%-some of the time. So speed is a big initiative from that perspective, but if we have to ship it in two packages, that's a problem. So we're continuing to fine-tune our algorithms to allow more packages to go together and not split the shipments. And I suspect we'll have more improvement as we move into the back half of that. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I mean, is it fair to say, Wes, that the opportunity on the online margin is more about improving the net merchandise margin the next few years? Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, the shipping cost, given where we think online is going to go, is going to probably be around that 30 basis points, but if we can increase the apparel penetration through the combination of having both better product and smartly extending assortments in things like special sizes and big and tall, even in footwear with some of the wide shoe options, that'll allow us to do a lot better from a merchandise margin perspective. We made a lot of progress online from a clearance perspective and cleaning that up. And I think there's also opportunity with reducing SKUs, which will help as well.

Daniel Thomas Binder - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

And just a last item, anything more on brands for this year in terms of brand announcements or opportunities, any particular categories or anything you're ready to talk about? Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: No. Nothing to share with you right now, but, as we said, that continues to be a key focus for Michelle, both adding new brands to our portfolio but also strengthening the ones in key areas. Active wellness is a great example with Nike. And then, secondly, the speed initiative in private brands has an equally important role as she sees the mix of national and private brands evolving.

Daniel Thomas Binder - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Great. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Paul Lejuez from Citi. Please go ahead.

Paul Lejuez - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Hey. Thanks, guys. Macy's announced a store closing program today. I'm just curious if you've noticed any pick-up in your stores that are close to the last class of Macy's stores to close? And I think this was asked earlier, but just in the context of Macy's, does it make you think any differently about what the right number of stores is longer-term? I know you say you don't have anything lined up to close next year, but what's the right ultimate size of the fleet? Thanks, guys. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Wes might be able to answer the first part. I can definitely reiterate... Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Yeah, we haven't really seen it. Because they're in malls, very similar to when Penney's was pursuing their different strategy, we didn't see a big pick up. We haven't seen a big pick up from the Macy's closures. I would think the mall-based retailers would see more of that. And then, from a store closure perspective, it's hard to predict the future. If we can start to drive top-line sales more consistently, that should make the stores better. We mentioned earlier, I don't see any stores that we're going to close next year. When we get a better idea of what the retained sales are going to be from the 18 that we just closed in June, that will tell us what our projections are going forward and make us feel better about either we'd be more aggressive on closing stores or more conservative, once we get that information. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: And just generally, though, Paul, again, I think we all feel that the role of brick-and-mortar stores in our future,…

Paul Lejuez - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Got you. And then, just one separate one, how can we think about the launch of Under Armour? How big can it be in year one and maybe long-term as well, how big can that business be for you guys? Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I mean, obviously, we don't scale things like that in terms of volume or that externally. Internally, we have a plan. I think the way Michelle spoke about it when she announced the launch of it is it will be the biggest launch that we've done. And it's going to be funded accordingly. And, more importantly, from my standpoint, Michelle is looking at the overall active area, because, as you just heard in the script, we have brands in that area that are performing at an extremely high level. So we're not looking for Under Armour to diminish the rate of growth in other brands. We're looking to expand our opportunity in active and wellness, and also expand for Under Armour, points of distribution to reach customers that they have not been as successful reaching. So we feel great about that.

Paul Lejuez - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Great. Thanks. Good luck, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Michael Binetti from UBS. Please go ahead.

Michael Binetti - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Hey, guys. Good morning. Congrats on a nice quarter, tough environment. Could I just ask you really plainly for our models, what are you baking in as your assumption on traffic for the second half, inside the same-store sales guide? I know you gave us a couple pieces. I just want to make sure I'm clear. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Traffic is going to be down. You give us credit for being smarter than we really are. So I'm just thinking we're going to be down somewhere between down 2%, which was the run rate we had just recently, and flat. We think there are a lot of things moving in our direction to get to flat. If we get to flat, it's going to be because traffic is less negative. I don't think traffic has to be positive for us to be flat, because between a combination of either more units or slightly higher AUR, or hopefully both, we're going to have a higher transaction value.

Michael Binetti - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. And then, I guess the one thing that we talked about in the quarter, and you mentioned it a few times today, is the speed initiative on private label. Can you just help us think about what the overall opportunity is there? And I apologize if you mentioned this directly, but maybe the margin contribution you're seeing there? I know you've given us X% of private and exclusive label will get there over time, but maybe just how to think about how that impacts the margins? And then, I guess secondly to that, is that obviously, you're focusing on private and exclusive, but some of the other chatter around the industry has been some of the national brands trying to integrate more deeply with their retailers to see if they can speed up in that wholesale retailer relationship. Is there any opportunity to do that as you look beyond what you'll be able to do on the private label side? Thanks. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, it's Kevin. I think there definitely is opportunity in the national brand portfolio to improve speed. And it's definitely a focus for many of our key suppliers. We are probably talking more about it with you on the private brand side because we completely control that. And we know the elements of the cycle, from design all the way through delivery, that we can take time out of on, and we've piloted and experimented and seen the results. I mean, I think, frankly, Michelle would tell you that she believes the metric that will improve if we effectively scale-up speed, beyond where it's been tested and piloted so far, will be sales. Yeah, there's a corresponding positive that comes with more effective inventory. And, therefore, if sales improve – as you know, margins on private brands are quite a bit higher. And so there's a possible margin implication that would be to the positive as well, but I think that the number she's looking to change the trend line on is implement speed in order to have relevant product, which will sell better, turn a little faster and, indirectly, I think, raise our merchandise margin because we'll just be doing better in private brands.

Michael Binetti - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Richard Jaffe from Stifel. Please go ahead. Richard Jaffe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thanks very much, guys, in a very comprehensive call. Just a question on the private brands and their evolution, clearly, there are some winners and losers in that portfolio. And wondering if there's an editing process that'll occur over the next year or so, where some of the private brands go away and are replaced by national brands or by expansion of the private label. So wondering how you're thinking about the private label brand portfolio and the opportunity now to edit it down a bit, to focus it. Thank you. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: It's Kevin. There's definitely editing opportunities in our private brand. And when I say private brand, I'm including our exclusive brand portfolio, so the entire portfolio represents almost 50% of our business. And I think the factors that will impact that will be how quickly we can scale up the speed initiative, will probably tell us pretty quickly which of the brands benefit the most from that, and, therefore, will point us in the right direction in terms of downsizing and then eliminating others. We definitely know that that's an opportunity for us. We have broadened the base of private and exclusive brands that we have to offer over the last five years quite substantially. And I think Michelle feels like there's a chance to tighten it up. Our big private brands, though, the $1 billion-plus brands of SONOMA and Croft & Barrow and Apt. 9, they're not going away. And those are the ones that probably will benefit the most. There's always good things and bad things in the private exclusive brand results, but, generally, the really good things have been the brands like SO that have had the speed initiative applied, and also things like SONOMA, where we've kind of relaunched it. And the things that have struggled more are those brands where we haven't had any adoption of the speed initiative. So that's kind of how we're thinking about it. Richard Jaffe - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Tunick from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Brian Jay Tunick - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, guys, and nice progress. We were just wondering, I guess two questions, one about the guidance cut. So it seemed like Q1, you may have missed your internal plan by $0.10. It seems like you've more than made up here in Q2. So with the business improving, we were wondering why you're taking down the full year guidance. What metrics are you seeing or you're being more cautious on? And then the second question is, with the lower SG&A levels, are you finding that you have a new lowered leverage point going forward? Is your D&A now maybe going to grow a little slower or come down? Can you maybe talk about go-forward what are some things that can continue? Thanks very much. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: All right. You're pretty new, Brian, so I'm going to help you with this. Well, first of all, we didn't take the guidance down from where the consensus was. You guys took it down for us, so we thank you for that. But the reason it's at $3.80 to $4, is if things don't improve from today, the quarter that we just reported, we'll make $3.80. Our internal expectations from a sales perspective are to improve. If we can hit those, we'll make $4. From a leverage perspective, we've lowered our internal goal from a 2% to a 1.5%. We did much better than that this spring. I mean, if you do the math on the numbers I gave you, we should leverage at a little bit above a flat comp for the year. I can't sign up for that forever, but we do have a lot of initiatives going forward where I hope to do better than the 1.5%, but that's what we're committing to at this point.

Brian Jay Tunick - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Super. And just a final question on the beauty side, any updates there on what you're seeing from the expanded assortments? Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Well, this was the last batch of roll-out. The new beauty environment in the stores we just rolled out in the spring averaged about a 34% comp in beauty, which was similar to the first two stages. So it is now complete and it should continue to comp in those 267 stores in the 30% range through the balance of the year and slightly into next. So that's been a big success, and we're very happy with it. Michelle is working on trying to get additional brands to strengthen that environment now that the physical environment's rolled out.

Brian Jay Tunick - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst

Super. Thanks very much, and good luck.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our final question will come from the line of Oliver Chen from Cowen and Company. Please go ahead.

Oliver Chen - Cowen and Company, LLC

Analyst

Hi. Thanks. Good morning, guys. We had a question about weatherproofing and your ability to really navigate the environment when weather is more risky and when weather is an opportunity. How would you dissect what factors may lead to that happening over time, whether it be categories, and it looks like speed is a great opportunity as well? And then, if you could help us, just for our knowledge, dissect what's happening to your consumer as we kind of reconcile low unemployment and some wage growth against what's been tougher on traffic. And just our last question is on Amazon. With the competition evolving on Amazon, what are you focused on just to ensure you're un-Amazon-able? Like where do you think your customer overlap is and product overlap? Thanks, guys. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: A lot of questions, Oliver. On the how we think about navigating the weather changes that happen in regions and parts of the country over time, I think generally, there's two answers to that, Oliver. One is, and I think Wes may have mentioned it; if not, I'll make sure you know. As we look into the fall and holiday, we've planned down seasonal categories substantially more than the overall business. So we feel like we want to make sure that we're in front of that and not chasing it. And we'd much rather be in a position where we run low or do have to chase product in highly-seasonal categories, so the plan has an aspect to it. The longer-term answer is definitely the speed initiative, because many of our national brand businesses are less weather-sensitive, and most of our private and exclusive brand product is actually relatively highly weather-sensitive. So I think longer-term, we feel like the speed initiative…

Oliver Chen - Cowen and Company, LLC

Analyst

Thanks a lot. Solid results, and best regards. Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Thank you. Wesley S. McDonald - Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer: Thanks, everybody.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this conference will be available for replay after 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time today through September 11 at midnight Eastern Daylight Time. You may access the AT&T Teleconference Replay System at any time by dialing 1-800-475-6701 and entering the access code 386529. International participants dial 320-365-3844. Those numbers again are 1-800-475-6701 and 320-365-3844, access code 386529. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Executive Teleconference. You may now disconnect.