Earnings Labs

Ralph Lauren Corporation (RL)

Q4 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, May 12, 2016

$366.45

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ralph Lauren Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal Year 2016 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mrs. Evren Kopelman. Please go ahead.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Good morning, and thank you for joining Ralph Lauren's fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2016 conference call. With me today are Stefan Larsson, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bob Madore, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After prepared remarks, we will open up the call for your questions, which we ask that you limit to one per caller. During today's call, we will be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which may include our financial outlook. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees and our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Our expectations contain many risks and uncertainties. The principal risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations are detailed in our SEC filings. And now, I will turn the call over to Stefan.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Thank you, Evren, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by saying we are making progress in setting and beginning to execute our strategy to return Ralph Lauren Corporation to profitable growth. In doing that, we will balance driving near-term performance with our long-term vision. I look forward to doing a deep dive on our plan and providing a Q1 and fiscal 2017 outlook, as well as discussing how our plan will translate into long-term financial performance at our Investor Day on June 7. When we last spoke, I shared with you how I spent my first three months in the role; my initial observations and a rough outline of my approach to building the growth plan for this great company. Today, I will provide an overview of our main priorities and recent performance before turning the call over to Bob to discuss the Q4 and fiscal year financial results in more detail. In recent months, while I've been working hard to drive the business here and now, I've also worked closely with our teams to complete the comprehensive review of the business and develop the strategic plan. Through that work, we have gained a very clear understanding of the underlying drivers of the current performance and we now have a detailed view of what's driving the downward trend. In short, we have not focused enough on nor evolved enough the core of what made us great in product, marketing and the shopping experience. In addition, our underlying business engines are not running at full speed. We also have an inefficient cost structure and an organization that's not nimble enough in the marketplace. What made us great was a crystal clear focus on owning classic iconic style and putting an effortless twist to it to make it current and desirable.…

Operator

Operator

The first question comes from Omar Saad with Evercore ISI.

Omar Saad - Evercore ISI

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for all the updates and information. Stefan, I know you probably don't want to steal your own thunder for the investor meeting next month, but I'd love to hear if you have any updated thoughts and views as you've had another 90 days to be immersed in the business regarding the complexity of the business structure and the brand structure across channels, price points, sub-brands, categories, globally. It's obviously a very unique aspect of the company, and I'm just wondering how you're thinking about it and what you've learned on that front. And does this excess complexity internally and externally the consumer, is it something that you can address over time or does it need to be addressed? Thanks.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Thanks, Omar. Yes, you've covered basically the agenda for the Investor Day. So I'm sorry to disappoint you to refer the detailed answer to your question will have to wait until the Investor Day on June 7. What I can say is that we have made progress in assessing and knowing exactly where we stand as a business and we feel really confident in that we have the strategy to build the company back to a high performance. And part of that will be simplicity because simplicity and focus is, as I shared last quarterly call, something that I believe in and I also believe in building on the core of what's made us great and that's what the strategy is going to be built on.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Okay. Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Lindsay Drucker Mann with Goldman Sachs. Lindsay Drucker Mann - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Thanks. Good morning, guys. I wanted to ask, Stefan, you talked a little bit about the focus on the product, iconic styles with an updated twist. As you think about the company's lead times and the work that you've already done, when should we think about the timing for new product to hit? And then separately, if you guys could just give an update on how effective the price increases you took overseas were? I know we heard that in Japan and I think Australia that consumers accepted it and it worked, but we were still waiting to hear on Europe for the early part of this year. Thanks.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Hey. Thanks, Lindsay. I'll go first. It's Stefan. Yes, so the work to evolve the products will be tightly connected with the work of strengthening our underlying business engine; one being the supply chain. So your question is very relevant. We will address it in detail on June 7, but we have a clear path to how we're going to evolve the product and how we're going to connect that with improvement in supply chain. And I can give high-level thoughts on supply chain, which is that I see big opportunities to start there and in two areas, both inventory management part and the lead time part. So in essence, I see opportunities to sell more with less inventory and I also see an opportunity to drastically increase our speed and our flexibility. So that will help us when we evolve the consumer-facing offering. Robert L. Madore - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Hi, Lindsay, it's Bob, and I'll take the question around the price increases. We're very pleased with the price increases that we've taken in the major markets where we experienced FX headwinds, mainly Japan, Australia, Canada and Europe. And as an example of that, for instance, our European business revenues grew mid-single digits in the fourth quarter, and we plan to maintain the price increases that we've implemented across all those countries. As another example of the acceptance by the consumer, within our Asian business we've seen a significant improvement in our quality of sale metrics. Our gross profit percentage has increased, our average unit retails have gone up, we've seen an improvement in our comp gross margin dollar, so overall, as I said, we're very pleased and we're going to maintain those increases going forward.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Michael Binetti with UBS Investment Research.

Michael Binetti - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Hey. Thanks a lot. Congrats on a nice quarter, guys. No doubt it's tough out there. So one question and a follow up, I guess. It sounds like we're going to get a lot of detail in June and the look ahead of the plan, but if we could just reference to your prior comment, the revenues will be negative next year as you rebase but that operating margins could still be up. I know we talked about this during the quarter, but the math on that reality seems pretty hard to envision and the market is deteriorating as we've seen earnings reports here this week. Are those guideposts still on the table? And if so, Stefan, now that you've had a look under the hood for a while, where do you see the most opportunity to manage costs to get to that reality? Robert L. Madore - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yes. Michael, I'll take that one actually. I think that general guidance still holds, and I apologize for this, but we'll be able to give much more specific guidance at our Investor Day on June 7. We think it's really important to provide a complete view of our strategic plan and the financial targets that are tied to the plan together. So I'm going to have to ask you to be patient and wait until June 7 Investor Day.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Yes, just to complement on what Bob just said, when it comes to rightsizing the cost structure, it's something that we have spent a lot of time on over the last few months and we see big opportunities there. So we're looking at every component of the cost structure. We'd go through it and share with you on the Investor Day. Robert L. Madore - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: And I'll add one other thing, too. Just as a reminder, and we mentioned it in our opening remarks that we did take restructuring actions within fiscal 2016, and as we've noted, that's going to drive approximately $125 million of savings. That $125 million savings number is in excess of the previously communicated $110 million, really because towards the end of the fourth quarter we did take additional restructuring actions and activities that drove the increased savings number.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Matthew Boss with JPMorgan Chase.

Matthew Robert Boss - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Hey, good morning. So on the distribution front, Stefan, how do you view your wholesale positioning and off-price exposure out of the quarter? Who do you see as your primary competition today? And then as it relates to e-commerce, what's the best way to think about Amazon as a potential channel of distribution?

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Thanks, Matt. Good question. So when it comes to the U.S. market where it's clear that we have been under the most pressure, my focus is to get back to high performance in the U.S. wholesale channel. So that's to start with. It's our main focus, working very closely with our big customers and feel confident that we have a plan to get back to strength. In parallel with that, we are expanding our direct-to-consumer channels, and out of those channels, the e-commerce is by far the most important to get back to strength and high performance. And overall when it comes to the channels in the U.S., we are working to make sure that we secure the high-quality distribution, right balance in the distribution between the different channels, and we'll come back and give you more details in June.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Kate McShane with Citigroup.

Kate McShane - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I think you had highlighted that in the calendar year fourth quarter that you had made changes to retail, which I think is part of that $125 million in savings where you closed some doors. But then I think you also re-bannered some of the retail doors as well. Can you update us on how those changes have impacted the retail base and how you think about that going forward? Robert L. Madore - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yes, hi, Kate. It's Bob. I'll take that question. So for the fiscal year, we actually closed approximately 43 stores. Part of that was incorporated within the restructuring charge activities and some of it was just natural lease expirations and stores that just didn't fit our strategic portfolio or plan. From a rebalancing perspective, our RLS or Ralph Lauren portfolio between full-price stores and Polo stores, we had identified roughly 40% of the fleet that was essentially positioned more towards Polo. We started to undertake conversion of some of those stores to standalone Polo stores versus a hybrid of Ralph Lauren and Polo, and that'll be done over a period of time. These aren't going to incorporate major remodel activities. These are signage changes, an element of minor remodel activity, et cetera, and we've probably touched about 15% of that portfolio thus far with the remainder to be done over the next year, 18 months.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Great. Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Chris Svezia with Susquehanna.

Christopher Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst

Thank you for taking my question. I guess, Stefan, for you, just when you think about the major U.S. accounts, the wholesale accounts, and all the work you've been having conversations with them of late, when you sit down and have a conversation with them, what do they say about the brand opportunity to grow or return to growth beyond 2017, assuming that you've already sort of enlightened them or shared some of the strategic opportunities and brand positioning as we move forward? Just sort of what are they telling you that Ralph needs to do or needs to be? Maybe that would be helpful.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Yes. So thanks, Chris. Good question. So when I sit down and spend time with our wholesale partners, they start with how much they respect the Ralph Lauren brand and how important that brand is to them and their consumers. So that's where we start, and then given the nature of how I lead, I ask a lot of questions of how we can build on that strength and how we can evolve our offering and how we can make sure that we start to drive high performance again, which we have done for many, many years. And they are very confident in evolving our products, evolving our marketing, evolving our shopping experience and combining that, when I share how we are planning to high level strengthen our underlying business engines, they get really excited and they want to be a part of that journey. And I see them as an intricate part in evolving the business engines, and I'm excited to do this journey together with them.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Great. Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from David Glick with Buckingham Research Group.

David J. Glick - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Thank you. Just a follow up on the U.S. wholesale business. I'm just curious, when you look at and you've talked about needing more innovation in the product, but when you look at the positioning of the brand from an initial price point perspective and you look at how sort of key item intensive the business has become and reliant on some of those key selling period promotions to drive key items, how do you see that evolving from a price point perspective and sort of key item versus fashion perspective going forward? Thanks.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Thanks, David. So when it comes to pricing, I believe that we're in a world where the consumer decides today. So charging (32:58) a premium pricing comes back to having the best products, and that's what our strategy is focused on, to go back to the core of who we are and where we come from and evolve that and make it current for today and have better authentic style, better quality and be more relevant, and that connects to the pricing. And when it comes to the actual product strategy, I look forward to sharing that more in detail when we see each other in June.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Laurent Vasilescu with Macquarie Capital. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on Valerie Hermann's appointment to President of the Luxury Collection. Last May, you announced six group global brand groups. Are these six groups still in place? And if so, now that these groups anniversary full year, can you parse out how big they are in terms of revenues? Can you rank them in order of performance? And then any color around which division you're most excited about would be great.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Yes. Thanks, Laurent. So starting with the brand groups and the global brand teams so I spent many, many hours over the last three months together with the global brand teams and they are more important than ever before because the teams there they create global consumer offering. They create the design of the products, and do the overall inventory management and the planning and connects to the supply chain team. So they drive the core value creating engine. And when it comes to Valerie's expanded role, I'm expanding her role because I want to leverage her experience of commercializing design and driving high performance out of creativity. So the brand teams are doing great. I look forward to again sharing the details in June and how the different brand teams relate to each other.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from John Kernan with Cowen & Co. John Kernan - Cowen & Co. LLC: Hey. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. Stefan, can you talk about how you're going to bring some of the best practices of the supply chain from H&M and Old Navy? Obviously the execution there was fantastic while you were there. And does it translate well to a wholesale dominated business? Can you take a lot of those best practices in terms of the speed of design and the speed in the supply chain and translate that into a wholesale business?

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Yes. John, again, sorry to disappoint you. The in-depth sharing of this we'll have to wait until June, but higher level I'm very excited when it comes to unlocking supply chain capabilities. And getting to know the business the way I've done over the last months and getting to know how our customers work, I see big opportunities in implementing a lot of the same best practice. And also excited by seeing that our wholesale partners are very excited and willing to dive into improving the supply chain together with us. John Kernan - Cowen & Co. LLC: Next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Rick Patel with Stephens, Inc.

Rick Patel - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Stefan, before you got here, the company invested quite heavily in SAP and e-commerce and I know a lot of that is still going on today. As we sit here today, are you satisfied with the capabilities you have from a technology perspective? Or should we expect a step-up in terms of new investments that might be needed to get the company to where it needs to be?

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Rick, thanks for the question. Having had the chance to dive deeper into the company, I'm impressed by the capability when it comes to the infrastructure. So far it's the strongest I've seen so I feel from a business strategy and execution of the strategies we have set up, the capabilities are going to enable us to do that in a way that I haven't seen before in any of the companies I've been working out. So I'm excited that we have that foundation of infrastructure in place and that will just speed up our implementation of the strategy because the core elements of the strategy are not necessarily capital-intensive. It's about a methodology. It's about how we approach the business, how we evolve the consumer offering, how we get the business engines, the underlying engines to go, how we get the cost structure to be right sized and how we strengthen the leadership team continuously. So very pleased.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

Okay. We'll take one final question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The final question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group.

Dana L. Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group LLC

Analyst

Good morning, everyone. As you think about the levers underneath the gross margin and especially if you're bringing in the new sourcing person, what are the opportunities in those gross margin levers underneath? And what do you see is the opportunity to increase speed to market with sourcing? Thank you.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

Hi, Dana and thanks for the question.

Dana L. Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group LLC

Analyst

Hi.

Stefan Larsson - President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Lauren Corp.

Management

A couple of thoughts on that high level and then again June 7 in detail, I'd love to share that with you, but high level, we see opportunities when it comes to evolving the strength of the products. One area is developing a systematic repeatable way of how we create assortment and we'll go through that in detail in June. But I see definitely value unlock there in terms of gross margin expansion. Also when it comes to the demand driven supply chain, so when it comes to being more balanced in making sure that the inventory we plan and buy, that that matches with the consumer demand. And then thirdly, I'm excited to bring Holiday (39:20) in with her sourcing expertise and her sourcing experience because I know firsthand that she brings best-in-class, best in industry sourcing capabilities and she will have to have a few months of learning the business and then she will start to unlock gross margin dollars there as well.

Evren Kopelman - Head-Investor Relations

Management

And that was the final question. Raye (39:50) any closing?

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.