Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Regis Corporation Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings Call. My name is Ryan and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, all participants are currently in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded for playback and will be available approximately 12:00 p.m. Central Time today. I'll now turn the conference call over to Biz McShane, AVP of Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Ryan. Good morning, everyone and thank you all for joining us. On the call with me today, we have Hugh Sawyer, our Chief Executive Officer; Kersten Zupfer, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Eric Bakken, President of our Franchise segment; and Amanda Rusin, our General Counsel. Before turning the call over to Hugh, there are a few housekeeping items I would like to address. First, today's earnings release and conference call include forward-looking statements within the private -- within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and by their nature, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's current earnings release and recent SEC filings, including in our most recent Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2020 for more information on these risks and uncertainties. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after this call. Second, this morning's conference call must be considered in conjunction with the earnings release we issued this morning and our previous SEC filings, including our most recent 10-K. On today's call, we will be discussing non-GAAP as adjusted financial results that exclude the impact of certain business events and other discrete items. These non-GAAP financial measures are provided to facilitate meaningful year-over-year comparisons, but should not be considered superior to or the substitute for our GAAP financial measures and should be read in conjunction with GAAP financial measures for the period. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in this morning's release, which is available on our website at www.regiscorp.com/investorrelations. With that, I will now turn the call over to Hugh.

Good morning, everyone. I want to begin my remarks by thanking our stylist community, franchise partners, and our field and corporate employees who have all performed in a remarkable and courageous manner during this terrible pandemic. I am grateful to each one of you for your many contributions to our business, while confronted with these extraordinary unprecedented conditions. There's little doubt that the most important event of the quarter was the company's successful amendment of its revolving credit facility in the month of May, an amendment that expires in March of 2023. Among other things, these negotiations removed all prior financial covenants, including the net leverage ratio and fixed charge coverage ratio and added a minimum liquidity covenant, while providing the lender security in the company's assets. This covenant light facility is expected to provide the long-term flexibility we need to see our transformational strategy through to completion and at the same time enable us to successfully navigate the uncertainties caused by the pandemic. We were pleased with this outcome, particularly given all of the uncertainty related to the pandemic and the state of the economy in North America. Broadly speaking, we expect the amended credit facility will enable us to move forward, move forward to embrace the full potential of our growth strategy, which includes among other elements, completing our conversion to a capital-light franchise platform, transforming our company with technology, focusing on the values salon sector and our core brands, eliminating costs while continuing to invest in capabilities needed for a better future and upgrading our marketing and ongoing digital education efforts. As to the current state of our salon operations, with the exception of our salons in California, which opened and then were closed again due to a state mandate, and several company-owned salons we elected not…

Thanks, Hugh, and good morning, everyone. As Hugh mentioned, the last few months have been unprecedented, but we are committed more than ever to our strategy. And despite the unfortunate consequences of this pandemic, we continue to be pleased with the progress of our transformation. We reported this morning on a consolidated basis fourth quarter revenues of $60 million, which represents a 76% decrease from prior year and as a result of the government mandated closures of our salon. At one point in the fourth quarter, virtually all of our salons were closed. Franchisees began opening their salons in April and more than half were opened in May and June. Company-owned salons began reopening in June. As additional insight, we estimate we lost roughly $105 million of revenue in the fourth quarter due to the COVID pandemic. We are pleased, but as of today, approximately 82% of our salons are open across the entire portfolio. Excluding California salons, nearly 90% of our salons are opened. As Hugh mentioned, with California reopening, that number should increase in the next few weeks. We also reported that our operating loss was $69 million during the quarter. The economic disruption caused by the pandemic was the key driver of this loss. Our management was quick to react to the store closures and furlough the majority of our workforce in April and into May and June to partially offset the lost revenue. Further, we implemented aggressive wage reductions for the small number of essential employees who continued to work. Additionally, the company recognized a $23 million non-cash long-lived asset impairment, primarily related to its lease assets during the quarter. The impairment was also driven by the impact of the pandemic. Fourth quarter consolidated adjusted EBITDA loss of $34 million was $73 million or 186% unfavorable…

Thank you, Hugh and Kersten. [Operator Instructions] We will take our first question today, and that is from Laura Champine with Loop Capital. Please go ahead with your question.

Thanks for taking my question. It's really on the mall-based salons. I think you disclosed in the release that they're still 166 of these that are company-owned. What's the likely fate and time horizon there? And if you can give us a sense of how long those leases extend from here, that would be great. Thanks.

I'll take the first part and then I'll let Eric address it. But we -- Laura too, thank you for the question. We approach the mall-based salons in the normal course as we do the rest of the company-owned salon portfolio. And our tendency is to look at salons at a granular level as we refranchise and move them to franchise partners. So, it's typically not likely that we'd make a broad-based assumption based on those salons. Sometimes we close them. Sometimes we sell them. Sometimes we bundle them with other deals that we're working on and move them into the hands of partners. But with that said, I'll let Eric add to that and clarify it.

Yes, thanks, Hugh, Laura. Our, our plan with the mall-based salons mirrors, what we're doing with the rest of our portfolio. So we plan to have all of that addressed by the time we get to the end of our fiscal year in June, and that'll be a combination of transferring stores to other owners and where it makes sense working something out with the landlord too, to exit again, where it makes sense. So, our plan is the same as the rest of our portfolio, and we have a relatively short lease term on these, as you know, we have not been extending them for some time. So, our lease term is greatly limited and that gives us optionality in terms of exiting the location or transferring it to a franchisee.

Understood. And then if I can just ask about the financial impact of the new POS system and how long you think that'll take to fully roll out across the chain.

I'll take the first part, we've always looked at the investment in our technology as a long-term undertaking, consistent with the multi-year strategy and transformation and all of our technology investments, Laura, we are trying to better enable the franchisees to run their businesses because we're clearly dependent upon their results. And on our mobile apps, we're trying to establish frictionless relationships directly with the consumer. So, I think we've described this in the past as a measured rollout where we've moved carefully, and of course our franchisees may have an existing agreement with other providers, and we certainly want them to abide by whatever service contracts they have in place and adhere to the terms of those agreements. So, it's I would look at this as your undertaking, and I think we’ve described it during the past. We still feel that way about.

Understood. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you. We'll take our next question. And that is from Steph Wissink with Jefferies. Please go ahead with your question.

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Hugh and Kristen, a question on the comp performance, it actually came in somewhat better than I would have expected. And I think Kirsten, you mentioned that's for comparable day-to-day opening. So, salons that were open on a comparable day last year, but it was down much less than I would have anticipated. Can you talk a little bit about the progression of comps during the quarter, maybe what you've seen quarter to date as your salons have reopened, are you finding that you're recovering some of that lost revenue and maybe re-engaging even a new customer?

And I'll take the first part of that and say, Steph, that not yet, we are not seeing the kind of recovery that we had hoped for. And I think that's probably their commonsensical reasons for that. As you know, schools aren't opened around the country and we always have been the beneficiary of kids going to school and families coming in and getting their hair cut. Most offices and headquarters, headquarters buildings are still closed around the nation. And I think people are zooming around in zoom tends to be a little more casual, and people are aren't quite as well-groomed as they were when they went to an office. But -- so what's happening for us as we're seeing a lot of variability in the traffic levels, literally from day to day and week to week, and we don't have the time of visibility that we need yet to know what that outcome will be. I think I would say it's still uncertain. But I don't think it's a permanent condition. As I said earlier so much of this is hung around the impact or hangs around the neck of this pandemic. If we get better treatments and if testing improves and God willing, we get this vaccine, I really do believe people are going to return to -- think people are anxious to return to a more normal life. I don't think they will. I think they're anxious to do it. And I think companies are ready to reopen their headquarters. And when that happens, I think people are going to go back to their normal grooming patterns and get the haircut and colored and all that kind of stuff. But right now, it's -- the visibility is not great and traffic has not returned to our historical levels Eric, you can build on that.

Yes, thanks, Hugh. Hi, Steph we -- our focus is extensively on growing our revenues. I mean that's what we're looking at. And, you know, I would say most of our owners are now looking at revenue growth on a week-to-week basis or from a pay period to pay period basis as opposed to looking back to the prior year. You know, so many things have changed that it's important to push the numbers forward and grow the business both in terms of traffic as well as comps. And so, we're looking at things like how do we grow ticket for customers that are coming into the salons. We're focusing more on color. That's an important aspect of what we're doing today, we're heavily focused on those that are in the shopping centers. They've made the decision to come out of their home and get out. So, we're really trying to be scrappy in how we deal with those folks, whether it's posted on the windshield or increased signage, which cities and landlords are much more open to today than they were in the past. So, we're heavily focused on growing traffic, but also growing ticket with our existing customers.

Right. That’s great. Two follow up questions. The first here was just summarizing, you've got a lot of digital initiatives going on. I think I heard you talking about digital training. Certainly, marketing has pivoted more to digital and social, and then they roll out of Open Salon Pro is kind of a digital engine core engine for your franchise partners. Can you just talk about overall what you're thinking about the horizon may look like for transforming the technology of the company at the franchise site level, as well as at the corporate level.

Sure. And you're right to call that out, Steph. It is a digital revolution at Regis and in my own experience and in readers may prove to be perhaps a different or faster than my own experiences. But I -- technology is cultural and that's not just operational or, and not just the tech itself. It just takes time for human beings to embrace and convert to new technologies, let they, they do. And I can remember stuff that I greatly resisted, greatly resisted giving up my Blackberry because I've loved that Blackberry. And for several years I would not give that Blackberry up. I was used to using it. I understood it. I'd run my business with a Blackberry for many years. And then somebody put an Android in my hand and I said, what was I thinking? Why didn't I use this Android? So, when you have human beings involved at corporate in the field, and we have franchise partners who have been very successful running their businesses and in a historical way for 20 or 30 years, it takes a little time. But I still think that a year from now two years from now, the company is going to look very different. As it relates to the utilization of forward-leaning technology to interact with customers and to run their local businesses. We're building those great capabilities and we're still at the very front end of that launch process. And it's going to be fun to watch this because I think it's going to help revolutionize this company and make the company a better business than it is today. Be easier to do business with Steph both, or it's going to be easier for customers to do business with us. And I think over time, it's, the franchisees are going to embrace it and they're going to find it. It enables their local operations as well.

Okay, great. Last one is a question for you just on rent deferrals to your franchisees. I think during the early onset of the pandemic, you had afforded your franchisees a couple of months of deferrals. Any update on the standing of your franchise network and any risks around, franchisees now pass the PPP government assistance, any risks to that franchise base, where you're needing to step in and potentially remediate. Thank you.

Yes. As there, as it relates to deferrals, I just to clarify, we did not suffer any branch with the franchisees. We did do some deferral of royalty payments. So, as it relates to franchisees, we're obviously keeping a very close eye on this topic and we'll continue to do so, because I think, the next few months, while there would be telling as it relates to what this really looks like. And I would add since there are always risk. And I would add [indiscernible] there’s always risk with that, but the reality is we're pushing very hard to help our franchisees obtain concessions from landlords. And you looked at Walmart rent, that's mostly variable. And, and we're working closely with Walmart to make sure that, that we have a good path forward. And likewise, we are working with virtually all of our franchisees to assist them where they needed to obtain a favorable rent deal from the landlords.

And Eric, we retained third-party advisors to help with those process, right? Yeah, we did. We engaged JLL Jones, Lang LaSalle to help us. So, we have a terrific team there that we worked with in the past. And they've been helpful along with an outstanding group internally. That's also working with many of our franchisees. And I think Eric it’s fair to say, thank you, agree with us that this process is going to go on for some time because the -- Steph, you know as well as anybody on this call, the havoc that's occurring right now in commercial real estate. So, I think that with the passage of time the opportunity to gain concessions improves and particularly when we get the lease renewal, Eric and that a good way to think about it. So, this isn't some short-term project, it will go on for a while.

Yes. That’s well put it, we will continue on for, I would say several years.

All right. Thanks for the information, guys.

You are welcome. Thank you. This concludes the Q&A portion of the call. I will now turn the conference back over to Hugh.

Thank you everyone for your kind participation today. We extend B, to send our best wishes to you and your families and God blessing, [indiscernible] during this pandemic, we hope you all stay safe and we'll keep everybody on the call and not the watching prayers. Thank you everyone. Bye bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our conference call for today. If you wish to access the replay for this presentation, you may do so by visiting Regis Corp com in the investor relations section of the website or by dialing +1 888-203-1112 with an access code of 9393529. Thank you all for participating in today's call and have a nice day. All parties may now disconnect.