Kurt Darrow
Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Kathy, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday afternoon, we reported our second quarter results for fiscal 2015. During the quarter, we grew the business, improved our operating performance, made strides in the execution of our 4-4-5 strategy and returned value to shareholders. Specifically, we increased sales 3.8% after a 14.9% increase in last year’s comparable quarter, increased the consolidated operating margin to 8.3%, achieved an 11% operating margin for the Upholstery segment and a 4.4% operating margin for the Retail segment. Experienced a 3.4% increase in written same-store sales for the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries network, added eight new stores across the network, generated $33 million in cash from operations, increased the dividend and purchased 640,000 shares of our stock. In summary, from a number of different perspectives, it was a solid quarter overall. I will now take a few minutes to review our three business segments. First, Upholstery, for the quarter sales in the Upholstery segment increased 3.6% and as noted a moment ago, we achieved an 11% operating margin, reflecting the overall efficiencies of our operations. As we work to deliver long-term profitable growth, we continue to make investments in the business. During the period, these included the ongoing implementation of a new ERP system and the replacement of our website and e-commerce platforms. With the digital elements of the consumer’s overall purchase process becoming even more important. It is critical we provide a more inspiring, compelling and easy desktop and mobile site experience. We expect the new website and e-commerce platform to go live in the fourth quarter and we will finish with the ERP implementation throughout our plants in May. As we seek to broaden our consumer base, we are excited with the cadence of new product introductions that are composed of sleeker and more stylist pieces. Along these lines, our new Urban Attitudes collection is tracking well with two sofa styles already in our top 10 in less than a year. And at the October High Point Market, we introduced additional pieces in the Urban Attitudes line and believe the collection has excellent prospects in terms of performance. We are also pleased that our stationary business continues to grow at a faster rate than the growth we are experiencing in our core recliner business, indicating our Live Life Comfortably campaign featuring Brooke Shields is resonating with consumers. While best know for our motion offering and with the belief that we have the largest share in that category, for us the greatest potential for growth is in the stationary sofa market given it is the largest segment of the Upholstery business and where comparatively we have the smallest share. We will continue to invest in the marketing program and plan to develop new commercial for air next spring. The objective of this campaign is to educate consumers about the on trend product we offer and the attributes for the La-Z-Boy brand, including style and comfort, by highlighting the store experience and the complementary in-home design program. Additionally, with the power option in motion furniture gaining in popularity that market we introduced a new line of power recliners and motion sofas with dual motors that we believe will set us apart in the marketplace. At the cornerstone of our growth strategy is the buildout of the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries store system which we have dub 4-4-5, our monicker for 400 stores across North America, averaging $4 million for store over a five-year time horizon. And note, we are in the second fiscal year of this strategy. For fiscal 2015, we’re trying to execute 30 to 35 projects across the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries network, including new stores, relocations, and remodels. By the end of the year, we’re planning to have 11 net new stores and we’ll also change out 15 old format stores and convert them to the new design -- new concept design. The combined activity will nearly double the number of new stores and the new concept design format over last year’s level. As I mentioned before, these stores are performing at a higher level than the other formats, averaging $4.5 million per store. At the end of the second quarter, 52 of the 325 stores were in the new concept design. And we expect to have about 65 in this format by year end. We are on a good pace of store projects and in the third quarter the network including the company as well as independent dealers planning to complete eight projects consisting of new stores, remodels and relocations. In addition to increasing volume across the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries network, we got the opportunity to deliver improved profitability as the additional volume inherent in our store growth will allow us to drive greater efficiencies throughout our manufacturing operation as we leverage the fixed cost structure of our plans. For the quarter, written same-store sales for the La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries network increased 3.4% following an average of 10.8% over the last three years second quarter. After three, four years of compounded double-digit increases, we did expect the same-store sale growth to moderate and we continue to work to drive consumers to our retail outlet and maximize the sale process. Now let me turn to a brief discussion on our case goods segment. Sales on our case goods segment were $28.9 million, essentially flat compared with the prior year. The operating margin for the segment was 10.4%, primarily reflecting a reduction to our LIFO reserve, which Mike will speak about in a few minutes. Our product refresh for Kincaid and American Drew continue to be well received by dealers and their written order rate for the transitional goods introduced over the last 18 months outpaced their availability in some cases during the quarter. Our occasional business with Hammary remain strong. And all three wood companies introduced a compelling and stylish product assortment at the High Point market. In September, we ceased the production at our Hudson, North Carolina manufacturing facility and are in the process of consolidating and transitioning our warehouse and repair functions, which we expect to be complete by the end of the third quarter as a result of the variable cost structure. Now let me turn to the discussion of our retail segment. Delivered sales on our retail segment increased 15.3% to $84.6 million in the second quarter compared with last year’s comparable period. On the core base of 88 stores included in last year's period, delivered sales for the segment increased 4.6%. The retail segment posted an operating margin of 4.4% equal to that of last year’s second quarter. During the period, we opened five stores in a company-owned retail segment as part of our 4-4-5 store growth initiative. And we entered into an agreement to purchase one store in Mishawaka, Indiana and closed on that transition -- that transaction earlier this month. As we discussed previously, start-up costs associated with new stores, which include labor, rent, advertising and technology compared to segment operating margin. We have said that these costs represented an approximate 250,000 drag in the 90-day period surrounding the actual opening. For the quarter, with five stores opening, these costs were approximately $1.2 million. We have also said that for the year based on our new store activity, we believe these costs will equate to an approximately $0.03 per share impact on earnings related to the company-owned retail segment. But even with these costs for the quarter, our operating margin was in the mid-single digit range which is our stated annual objective for the segment. Furthermore, we believe the investments we are making in the business today to grow our store base will drive future positive performance for the retail segment as well as the company overall as we benefit from the integrated or blended retail wholesale margin. During the quarter, we improved our conversion, ticket count and units per ticket on lower traffic. With more consumers using the web for research, they are shopping fewer stores and we believe this is one of the main reasons for the decline in traffic. That said, the consumer entering our stores tend to be more qualified and educated as a result of their online research and the success of our Live Life Comfortably campaign and as a result, our conversion continues to be positive. For the third quarter, the company plans to open two stores, relocate one, remodel one and close two. These projects were included in the numbers I gave you earlier when speaking about the entire network. I will now turn over the call to Mike to review our financials.