Federica Marchionni
Analyst · Craig-Hallum Capital. Your line is open
Thank you, Bernie. Good morning, everyone. Our third quarter financial results did not meet our expectations, which we attribute to both external factors, including the challenging retail environment and warm weather, as well as internal dynamics. Importantly, we have made progress on a number of initiatives that we believe will position our company for the future many of which will take hold over time. Net revenues for the third quarter were $334 million, down 10%, due primarily to a decrease in the U.S. consumer business in addition to a decline in Retail segment sales. The decline of sales in the U.S. consumer business was the result of fewer promotions relative to last year. The planned reduction in catalog circulation and a lack of product acceptance in addition to pressure stemming from a difficult retail environment a $5 million negative FX impact and the impact of the warm weather on seasonal product. In an effort to drive more profitable sales and protect the brands, we made the decision to pull back on broad promotion during the quarter and to focus on product specific promotions, which drove a higher margin rate. However, even we were operating in a highly promotional retail environment, the sales impact from this decision was larger than we expected. And, therefore, we updated the structure of the promotional strategy in the second-half of the quarter to drive sales volume. That said, we were able to achieve a higher gross margin rate on a currency natural basis for that Direct segment. We will continue to evaluate and evolve promotions in order to strike the right balance between driving sales and maximize gross margin dollars. In addition, it is important to note that the sales impact from our planned catalog reductions during the quarter was partially offset, as we reinvested the savings into new brand marketing initiative, which drove additional sales during the quarter and planted the seed for our go-forward brand building strategy. The decline in retail sales during the quarter was the result of store closure, as well as an 8.9% decrease in same-store sales. The lower same-store sales were primarily attributable to a decrease in store traffic, which was partially offset by a 3.7% increase in average dollar sales, driven by an increase in unit per transaction. We believe that the challenging retail environment and the warm weather trends contributed to weaker traffic and soft sell-throughs in several key cold weather categories, such as outerwear, sweater, knits, and cold weather accessories. We stepped up promotions and took a steeper discount to drive sales, which in turn led to merchandised margin pressure in the quarter. In our international business, sales were up on a constant currency basis. However, reported sales were down due to negative impact of unfavorable foreign currency rates. We focused our catalog offering to be more relevant to local markets and invested space in key categories and top products, such as core knits, sweater, outerwear, and footwear, which we believe drove improved sales performance. In addition, we capitalized on our new brand content for our marketing and promotions. We also revised our pricing strategy in the UK and Germany, which led to an increase in margin rates in both countries. Further gross profit contracted a 11.4% to $162.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $26.5 million and net income came in at $10.7 million, or $0.33 per diluted share. This reflects a $0.04 negative impact from the change in foreign currency exchange rate and a $0.02 benefit from a recall reserve adjustment. In response to our sales performance, we were adjusting future inventory commitments and taking steps to move through current product. Our strategy will center around enhancing product and merchandising, elevating the marketing and branding, and driving sales in our Direct segment. We believe this strategy will lead to improved performance, as they gain momentum. We’re also investing to ensure we have the infrastructure and team in place to build upon our foundation to support these initiatives. Let me take a minute to discuss the progress we are making in each of these areas. First, product and merchandising. We launched a breathtaking outerwear campaign in October, where we drew inspiration from an epic journey to Alaska. Our outerwear offering feature products that range from a Squall Parka to Down Coat to Packable Jacket, as we look to cater to every need of our customers. The campaign highlighted feature and benefits with product storytelling to create a comprehensive outerwear shopping guide that sort by temperature, material, silhouette, and functionality. Our lineup of cold weather product also included timeless sweaters and knits and functional cold weather accessories, while the unseasonably warm weather throughout the quarter led to a softer than expected performance in this category, we expect to see sales pickup, as the weather become more seasonal and consumer have a need to buy quality cold weather products. Going forward, we continue to work hard to evolve into a go-to-brand for consumers seeking quality, value, style, and performance in product for all lifestyles and activities. Our focus is on increasing product relevance and reinvigorating the assortment with greater design appeal and innovation in our traditional styles. We are also developing an assortment to appeal to the younger customers that still embodies the Lands’ End DNA with products and messaging that reflect both casual and urban and sporty lifestyles. Second, we’re working to grow our brand awareness and strengthening our brand identity to engage consumers across our product portfolio. During the third quarter, we focused on capitalizing on the Lands’ End DNA by bringing stories of adventure coupled with images of our timeless yet innovative products to consumer via different number of channels. One great example is the outerwear campaign that drew inspiration from the Alaskan wilderness, showcasing our product performance and looking amazing in the beautiful and right landscape. We’re also excited about a recent engagement of Bruce Weber, a renowned fashion photographer who has helped us capture the essence of our brand for our new global multimedia holiday campaign. The extraordinary campaign we believe in you visually depicts the heartfelt moment and genuine connections of multigenerational families and friends. The campaign made its debut on landsend.com and was featured globally in print, online, and social media starting in early November in addition to being featured in key high traffic areas, such as Time Squares, on taxis in New York and Boston, as well as on United, American, and Virgin Airline flights nationwide. To bring the holiday campaign fully to life, we have created a 360 degree e-shoppable holiday gift guide on our website to elevate the online experience and opened two pop-up stores in New York and Boston in November, prominently situated on Fifth Avenue in New York and at Copley Place in Boston. The two pop-ups are modeled after the concept of a wintery ski chalet and are designed to be a fun-filled holiday shopping destination for the extended Lands’ End family. Customers are excited to be able to experience the brand and products firsthand. And as the New York Times stated the service is surprisingly adroit for a pop-up shop and the clothes are pure comfort food. These locations are being leveraged for testing new products and visual merchandising and are serving as a global window into the Lands’ End brand in this high traffic areas helping to raise brand awareness. We work to employ strong messaging around the features and benefits of our product to highlight our great quality of value, style, and performance. You should expect to see Lands’ End continued to be active in both traditional and social media channels, as we lean on our reach heritage and core values that speaks to consumer across a wide range of age and demographics. Third, we’re focused on the Direct segment. In our catalog business, we see a significant opportunity to improve productivity. We would use our catalog circulation and shift investment away from lapsed and less profitable customers to marketing initiative designed to capture new customers. While this resulted in a reduction in sales, we achieved meaningful cost savings that are being reinvested in marketing initiatives designed to drive new customer acquisition and increase brand awareness over time. In the third quarter, we revamped our catalog dedicated to our loyal customer with improved product showcased by enhanced photography featuring authentic, multigenerational family teams images, as well as updated messaging and better consumer engagements. We also launched a more modern team catalog during the quarter targeting on younger demographic with fresh and editorial through even photography. We were pleased to receive a plethora of compliments from our consumer on the elevated aesthetic of both campaigns and we saw a positive response to our full preview catalog in September. That said, subsequent catalogs did not perform to our expectation, as the weather trends continued to hinder sales on seasonal products and we did not have the desire level of newness in our offering. Our Spring 2016 catalog featuring our new go-forward product vision are designed to drive improved sales performance. We launched our enhanced shoppable digital catalog experience during the third quarter. Although, this is still in the early stages, we are encouraged by the early response to our enhanced digital experience, as we continue to improve the way that consumer interact with Lands’ End brand online. We think that this digital catalog is a great compliment to our new distinct physical catalog distribution strategy, allowing us to target mailing based on how its consumers prefer to shop with us. We will continue to reinforce our print and digital catalog strategy to heighten brand awareness and aspiration, make our product offering more vivid and compelling, and ensure our brand messaging is more clear and aspirational. We continue to make our e-commerce business a primary focus. If you recall from our Q2 earnings announcement, we reiterate our commitment to providing our loyal and new customers and more compelling and simplified online shopping experience. Given the customer acceptance of our new online feature in May, as well as our efforts to drive new customer acquisition, we enhanced entire website in August to feature an improved merchandising assortment, a reconfigured side index, and a streamlined check out. Overall, we are encouraged by the positive customer feedback we’re receiving to the upgrades we have made to our e-commerce business. We continue to rollout enhancement of this channel to ensure the best customer experience possible on landsend.com. We also saw a 42% increase in mobile traffic in the third quarter relative to the same period last year, largely due to a shift in consumer behavior and preference of mobile to desktop devices, as well as improvements that we have made to the mobile shopping design and functionality. In our international business, we plan to build upon our momentum by launching brand advertising campaign in key publication across Europe and Japan in Q4, in order to raise brand awareness and acceptance on our international scale. We also continue to move forward with an upgrade of our international web platform, which is due to launch in 2016. Finally, hopefully you saw our announcements yesterday that we have launched the new Lighthouse by Lands’ End label at Sears. This is a great new concept that we believe will enhance the customer experience within the current Lands’ End Shop at Sears. We just converted the first store in Willow Grove Park Mall in Pennsylvania and we’ll convert the concept in additional eight Sears locations starting in February. The Lighthouse names drove upon our heritage and symbolize a beacon that guides our way for the future, while delivering the same classic casual merchandise with excellent quality and unparalleled value that loyal Lands’ End customer knows and love. Indeed, the company used to collaborate with the U.S. Lighthouse society to upgrade awareness and preserve Americans historic lighthouses. Our latest collaboration was announced in October when we started to take step in partnership with a National Park Service and the U.S. Coast Guard to save the Alcatraz Island Lighthouse, the oldest in the West Coast of the USA. We strongly encourage you to visit both our pop-up stores in New York and Boston and our Lighthouse by Lands’ End store in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania for an upgraded firsthand brand experience. In summary, as we look toward the holiday season, we have a number of exciting initiatives in place, including marketing campaigns, redesigned catalogs, and enhanced website, as well as our lighthouse by Lands’ End project. That said, as we have heard many retailers fade over recent weeks that retail environment particularly the apparel business remains quite challenging. While we are succeeding in pushing forward in a number of key strategic initiative amidst the softer than expected results, we believe that many of these investments will take time to bear fruit. We remain committed to our brand strategy, which is grounded in bringing the quality, value, and service that Lands’ End is known for to a broader customer base that has a passion for living a life, doing what matters most to them. We will continue to make progress and be adaptable and nimble throughout each phase of development to implement our learning, push our innovation, and build the brand for the long-term. I will now turn the call to Mike.