Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the First Quarter 2015 Lifetime Brands Conference Call. My name is Cathy, and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session toward the end of this conference. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Harriet Fried of LHA. Please proceed.

Good morning, everyone. With us today from management are Jeff Siegel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Larry Winoker, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin Lifetime’s call, I’ll read the Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements that are about to me made in this conference call that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements and involve risks and uncertainties, including the company’s ability to comply with the requirements of its credit agreements, the availability of funding under those credit agreements, the company’s ability to maintain adequate liquidity and financing sources and an appropriate level of debt, changes in general economic conditions which could affect customer payment practices or consumer spending, changes in demand for the company’s products, shortages of and price volatility for certain commodities, the effect of competition on the company’s markets and other risks detailed in Lifetime’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. The company’s earnings release contains non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of Regulation G promulgated by the SEC. Included in this morning’s release is a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. With that introduction, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Siegel. Please go ahead, Jeff.

Thanks, Harriet, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2015 results. Although we encountered headwinds from foreign exchange and the continued slow down of the dockworkers on the West Coast, we delivered results that were substantially in line with our internal plans. We also saw some retailer programs, primarily warehouse clubs shift from the first to the second quarter. But those are coming through now and will benefit the current quarter. As always, our seasonally larger quarters are in the latter half of the year, and based on strong bookings and placements for products to be delivered then, our retail partners are showing confidence in the strong holiday selling season. We share their confidence. Let me run through some of the highlights of our first quarter and some of the important things on tap in our product offerings for the rest of 2015. In our US wholesale segment, total net sales just inched up for the quarter, and that was because a – really because of solid increases in our kitchenware and home solutions product categories that were offset by a decrease in tableware. In kitchenware, we are benefiting from a fundamental shift in our brand strategy. [Indiscernible] bringing a fresh, new contemporary look to our Farberware brand, which is both our largest and fastest growing brand. We recently diversified and expanded our Farberware offerings through the creation of a new line named Farberware Colorworks. This is a full collection of high design, high function kitchen tools and gadgets, cutlery and pantryware. Our attractive and affordable products are specifically designed with vibrant colors and contemporary styling to target the buying habits of millennials, who constitute a very big and important growing group of consumers for us. As I mentioned in our…

Thanks, Jeff. As we reported earlier this morning, the net loss for the first quarter of 2015 was $2.1 million or $0.15 per diluted share, as compared to $2.9 million, or $0.22 per diluted share in the 2014 period. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $1.9 million, $0.14 per diluted share, compared to $1.7 million, or $0.13 per diluted share in 2014. The table which reconciles this non-GAAP measure to reported results was included in this morning’s release. Loss from operations was $2.2 million for the 2015 and 2014 quarters. Consolidated EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure that is reconciled to our GAAP results in the release, was $2.5 million for the current quarter and $3.7 million for the period in 2014. Consolidated EBITDA was $41.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 and $44.1 million for the same period last year. For our US wholesale segment, net sales in the 2015 quarter increased $800,000 to $86.5 million. The increase was from Kitchenware new product offerings and extended programs at certain retailers, as well as for Home Solutions Debbie Meyer line, and the Built New York product line, the latter of which was acquired last year. These increases were partially offset by a decline in tableware, primarily attributable to the timing of warehouse club programs and the impact of the West Coast dock workers slow down. US segment gross margin was 37% in the 2015 quarter compared to 35.9% in 2014. The increase reflects improved margin for certain product categories and the impact of sales increases from our more profitable product categories. US wholesale distribution expenses as a percentage of sales shipped from our US warehouses were 10.5% in the 2015 period versus 10.6% in 2014. This improvement reflects the effect of an increase in sales volume, offsetting increased labor…

[Operator Instructions] Please stand by for your first question, which comes from the line of Frank Camma of Sidoti.

Good morning guys.

Good morning.

Good morning, Frank.

Just some classification here, so you were saying in your press release that your, if you add back the dock slow down and the weakness of the FX obviously, your sales would have been about 3% higher, but I was wondering if you could tell us or if it is basically the same what it would have been on a true organic apples to apples basis, if you were to exclude the acquisitions you made in the beginning of 2014?

Well, as you know the largest acquisition was Kitchen Craft, which [Indiscernible] the whole quarter. So, it is…

I thought that was at the end of January. So that was at the beginning of…

But it is very little…

Very little, okay, all right.

January 15 and there was negligible amount.

And built [Indiscernible] small businesses [Indiscernible] quite small numbers. So, I would say it is substantially all organic, very small.

Okay, all right. So that is good. So basically you are saying essentially 3%, but I guess my point is in your guidance for the year, the 3% to 6% includes the – albeit it is a small quarter for you, includes the quarter you just reported, but you are obviously signaling at least on the high end there that you have pretty good confidence in the back half of the year, is that basically from feedback on your customers, I think you mentioned that, but is it – I mean is that something you are currently seeing like more foot traffic, I just wondered if you could maybe add a little more color to that?

Yes, it is placement. In the first quarter we really finalized placement for the rest of the year with retailers. And based on the placement that we have and the things that we are confident in, we are very optimistic for the year.

Okay, good. And so on [raising bar] and obviously there had to be a disappointment, but I was wondering if you could comment anything about what you are seeing, not specifics, but as far as deal flow for smaller housewares companies?

We usually don’t comment on other housewares companies. During the course of the year there are always some that come – get put on the market. As you could see from the Reed & Barton transaction we are very disciplined. We set a value – when something is of value to us and we won’t pay more than that amount. So sometimes we have to pass on our deals, very frequently we have to pass on things, but we are still actively looking and we will be interested if the right things come along that will be accretive to our business.

Okay, and the final question just on the inventory level that you have, I mean it basically came in with where I was expecting, but did the dock situation, I guess also kind of taking that into account I would have thought it would have been a little lower, did that ease up right at the end of the quarter, is that maybe why the inventory was essentially in line with where I was predicting, just wondering how that affects you?

It has been easy. It kind of surprised us, the dock slow down surprised us in the first quarter because as you probably know they announced that – they came to terms, the union came to terms with the facilities early in the quarter, but what happened was that the new ships that came in were unloaded and those containers were delivered and the containers that were ready on the dock that were in the back were not delivered. And that was a surprise frankly. We didn’t anticipate that nor did anyone else. It has cleared. It cleared by the end of the quarter and everything is flowing on a very normal basis right now.

Okay, that is good. And I guess just as a follow-up on that question, so if it is still on the ship, but not – I’m just trying to figure out like logistically how does it – how does it hit your books, it doesn’t until you take delivery of it, right, is that…?

It is on our books when it is shipped.

When it is shipped, okay.

When it leaves the factories and the [Indiscernible]…

Okay. All right. So that would overstate your inventory then…

[Indiscernible] inventory being lower. We own the inventory that we can’t get…

Yes, okay. All right. That is really where I was going with it. Thank you.

Okay.

You have no questions. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Siegel for closing remarks.

Well, thank you everyone for joining us and we look forward to speaking to you again when we announce our second quarter results. Thanks again. Bye.