Scott Grassmyer
Analyst · Needham & Company
Thank you, Tom. Our first quarter of 2020 began strongly. In February, we were very excited to open 2 new Tommy Bahama Marlin bars, both in the Fort Lauderdale area. Our retail and e-commerce businesses were posting positive comps and we were on track to add to a multiyear positive comp trend. As we approach mid-March, the spread of COVID-19 started to accelerate and began impacting the retail marketplace. From March 17th, to protect the health of our employees and customers, we temporarily closed all of our North American stores and restaurants. Our corporate offices successfully adopted work-from-home strategies and with appropriate safety measures in place, we have been able to keep all of our distribution centers open. The impact to Oxford from the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbated by the seasonality of our business. Our Tommy Bahama, Lilly Pulitzer and Southern Tide brands are oriented primarily to spring/summer, with March through June being 4 of our strongest months of the year. Our stores and restaurants, which make up 47% of our overall sales in 2019 just began to reopen in early May, and we expect to have almost all of our locations opened by the end of June. As our stores open, however, they are operating with many restrictions in place and consumer traffic that is rebuilding slowly. The stores that are open are operating at about half prior year levels on average with significant regional variations. While we don't expect revenue from stores to reach prior year levels at any time during 2020, we do anticipate steady improvement as restrictions ease and consumers' comfort level increases around travel and shopping. Turning to our wholesale channel. It appears that the pandemic is likely to accelerate the closure of a number of department and specialty stores. Over the last several years, we have very carefully managed our exposure to these accounts as it become increasingly difficult to find partners with whom we can maintain a mutually beneficial business. In 2019, wholesale sales at Tommy Bahama decreased to 20% of revenue, and at Lilly Pulitzer, 21% of revenue. Most of our wholesale partners have excess inventory, and we believe it will take them a while to work through what they have on hand. We believe the demand for new product will be softened 2020, and therefore, we expect wholesale revenue to be significantly lower than 2019. Throughout this challenging period, we were able to successfully use our digital platforms to stay connected with our customers. E-commerce, which was 23% of our revenue in 2019, grew by 12% in the first quarter, and the positive momentum has continued into the second quarter as we reap the benefits of the long-term investments we have made in digital and e-commerce, such as upgrades and redesigns of websites, enhanced search engine, optimization and new enterprise order management systems. In the first quarter, adjusted gross margins declined 220 basis points due to higher inventory markdowns and a modest increase in promotional activities. We expect to continue to experience pressure on gross margin as we expect to be modestly more promotional throughout the rest of the year. We have made significant strides in reducing expenses in the first quarter, with reductions across most spending categories. Reducing SG&A by $17 million compared to last year. Employment costs were reduced by $11 million in the first quarter as we made the difficult decisions that affected our employees. We furloughed substantially all of our retail and restaurant employees, eliminate positions throughout the organization, reduced salaries for certain employees, and we suspended our bonus and 401(k) match programs. We expect the SG&A to be lower year-over-year with the largest percentage decrease in the second quarter. Then as we expect all locations to be opened for the full third and fourth quarters, the year-over-year percentage decreases in SG&A are expected to narrow. Managing inventory is a critical component of ensuring the health of our brands, and we have taken meaningful actions to reduce and defer inventory orders with approximately a 25% reduction in forward orders. By repurposing some of Tommy Bahama spring/summer collection, we've taken about $25 million of inventory, moved it out to Tommy Bahama's resort line in December. And we have been working with our vendors to extend payment terms. We are pleased with our efforts and inventory at quarter end increased only 8% despite the significant sales decline. While it's incredibly difficult to project results in this uncertain environment, I want to add some color on how we currently view the remainder of the year. Timing of the COVID-19 pandemic created significant headwinds to our top line and similar to the first quarter, we expect a significant year-over-year decrease in second quarter sales. However, in the second quarter, we expect larger percentage year-over-year decrease in SG&A, resulting in a smaller loss than in the first quarter. The third quarter is always a difficult quarter due to seasonality, and we expect it to be even more difficult this year. Right now, we are projecting the fourth quarter to be modestly profitable with some recovery in our direct-to-consumer channel, but sales will still be below last year. As Tom mentioned, preserving a high-level liquidity is essential during these uncertain times, we have ample liquidity to meet our ongoing cash requirements, reflecting the strength of our balance sheet entering the pandemic as well as the recent actions we have taken to mitigate the COVID-19 impact. During March 2020, as a proactive measure to oyster cash, and we drew down $200 million of our $325 million asset-based revolving credit facility. At the end of the first quarter, we had $208 million of borrowings outstanding, an additional $114 million of unused availability and $182 million of cash and cash equivalents. Our cash flow from operations used $46 million in the first quarter compared to a use of $6 million in the prior year period. As we entered the second quarter, our cash burn rate has decreased and we expect it to continue at lower levels throughout the remainder of fiscal 2020. The first quarter of fiscal 2020 net sales in each of our operating groups decreased from prior periods, resulting in significantly lower operating results including operating losses in each group other than Lilly Pulitzer. As a result, this triggered first quarter goodwill and indefinite lot intangible asset impairment assessments in accordance with our accounting policies. Our assessments included at the fair values of the Southern Tide goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets as of May 2, 2020, did not exceed their respective carrying values resulting in a $60 million noncash impairment charge. Last quarter, the Board of Directors reduced our quarterly dividend from $0.37 per share to $0.25 per share. The Board has determined that it is appropriate to keep the dividend payable on July 31 at $0.25 per share. The Board has also elected to reduce its cash compensation by 50% for the remainder of the fiscal year. Thanks, everyone, for your time today. We appreciate your support. Please stay safe during these challenging times. Devin, we are now ready for questions.