Earnings Labs

Shoe Carnival, Inc. (SCVL)

Q4 2012 Earnings Call· Mon, Apr 1, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Shoe Carnival's Fiscal Year 2012 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded and is also being broadcast via live webcast. Any reproduction or rebroadcast of any portion of this call is expressly prohibited. This conference may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risk factors. These risk factors could cause the company's actual results to be materially different from those projected in such statements. These forward-looking statements should be considered in conjunction with the discussion of risk factors included in the company's SEC filings and today's press release. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today's date. The company disclaims any obligation to update any of the risk factors or to publicly announce any revisions to the forward-looking statements talked about during this conference call or contained in today's press release to reflect future events or developments. In the company's earnings release and in their prepared remarks on this call, the company will refer to adjusted earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, which financial measure has not been calculated in accordance with United States' generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. This non-GAAP measure eliminates the impact of the special cash dividend paid by the company in December 2012 to earnings per diluted share in that quarter. The company believes that adjusted earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 is a useful measure of its performance and allows the company and investors to analyze the financial and business trends related to the company's results of operations separate from the impact of the special cash dividend. More information on this non-GAAP financial measure, including a reconciliation to the company's GAAP results, is included in the company's earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Cliff Sifford, President, Chief Executive Officer, for opening comments. Mr. Sifford, please begin.

Clifton Sifford

Management

Thank you, and welcome to Shoe Carnival's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2012 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on the call today are Kerry Jackson, Senior Executive Vice President, and Chief Operating and Financial Officer; and Tim Baker, Executive Vice President of Store Operations. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone, fiscal 2012 consisted of 53 weeks while fiscal 2011 consisted of 52 weeks. References to annual comparable store sales for the comparable 52-week period ended January 26, 2013. In addition, the fourth quarter of 2012 consisted of 14 weeks, while the fourth quarter of 2011 consisted of 13 weeks. References to fourth quarter comparable store sales are for the comparable 13-week period ending January 26, 2013. For today's call, I'll review the company's overall performance and provide some insight into the coming year, and Kerry will review the financial side of the business. We will then open the call to take your questions. As you're all aware, the fourth quarter was a tough one for us, but we still reported record sales and earnings after -- for the year. After posting record earnings for the first 3 quarters of 2012, we experienced unseasonably warmer weather from the first week of November through the third week of December, and this played a major role of suppressing sales of seasonal product in the fourth quarter. Once more seasonal weather arrived in the latter part of December through January, sales of seasonal product escalated. The government's delay to act on tax policy and their subsequent decision to raise payroll tax withholding rates had an immediate impact on our consumers. The decision the IRS made to delay accepting tax returns until January 30 also had an immediate and calculable impact on our sales results for the last 10 days of the quarter. And…

W. Jackson

Management

Thank you, Cliff. Our net sales for the 14-week fourth quarter increased $23.8 million or 13.1% to $205.7 million as compared to $181.9 million in the 13-week fourth quarter of fiscal 2011. Comparable store sales for the 13-week period ended January 26, 2013, increased 0.5%. Of our $23.8 million increase in net sales, $14.5 million was from the increase in sales generated by new stores opened since the beginning of the fourth quarter last year, $10.7 million was recorded in the extra week, and $890,000 was the comparable store sales increase. These increases were partially offset by a $2.3 million loss in sales from the 8 stores closed since the beginning of fourth quarter of fiscal 2011. The gross profit margin for the quarter increased 1% to 29.3%. Our merchandise margin increased 1.4%, and buying, distribution occupancy costs increased as a percentage of sales by 0.4%. The increase in buying, distribution and occupancy cost was primarily in our occupancy cost. Typically, we need 2% to 3% comp increase to leverage our occupancy costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $8.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 to $54.9 million. The increase in SG&A was due in part to a $4.6 million increase in expenses for new stores, net of expense reductions for stores that have closed since the beginning of fiscal 2011. In addition, we experienced an increase in incentive and equity compensation of $1.1 million due to company's improved financial performance. As a percentage of sales, SG&A expenses increased 1.2% as we are unable to leverage the increase in expenses due to our lower-than-expected comparable store sales increase. The effective income tax rate for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 was 38.2% as compared to 33.9% for the same period in fiscal 2011. The rate was significantly…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Jill Caruthers with Johnson Rice.

Jill Caruthers

Analyst

If you could talk about last year, in the first quarter, your merchandise margins were impacted, I believe, 70 basis points down given some heavy fall boot liquidation you did. Just I know sales are weak quarter-to-date this year, but could you talk about the greater pressure on the gross margin that you're forecasting?

Clifton Sifford

Management

Jill, this is Cliff. The margin from last year was -- may have been impacted somewhat from the final boot liquidations in February, but they were held up by the strong sales of very high margin sandals and boots. If you remember, I think we talked about it, you may have even asked a question but talked about it last year as that we shipped sales out of second quarter in the first quarter in sandals with the warm weather, we weren't sure whether that had happened or not, but it was evident as the year -- as the spring moved on that we had indeed shifted sales out of the second quarter into the first quarter. This year, just the opposite has happened in our opinion as that we've shifted sales out of February and March and more into April and May due to the cold weather. Unfortunately, because we weren't able to sell the high-margin sandals and, in some cases, our high-margin athletic shoes, the sale of fall product and boot product in that final clearance stage drove the margins down early in the quarter. Long-winded response to your question, but that is exactly what happened.

Jill Caruthers

Analyst

Okay. And if you could talk a bit more about the opportunities you see in the women's nonathletic. I believe you said 20% of your store base will receive some of this new product. And could you talk about maybe, is it more units or a higher price point that you think is the opportunity in that select category?

Clifton Sifford

Management

So what we're going to do, and I'm glad you asked that question, what we're going to do is -- we've gone to -- Carl has been on the road with some of the brands actually over the past several years that we kind of coveted ourselves, and he has been able to talk to these brands and sell them to us at prices in which we can do the business. And it's really in the casual and sport casual category. We don't demand a high retail price out of our dress shoe assortment, but we can get higher price points out of casual and sports casual. One of the largest brands at -- one of the best brands we carry in our sport casual category is Clarks, and if you take that product and you add additional brands around it from the department stores, that's the kind of brands that we're talking about. It will be casual in nature. It's that mom who's coming in here with -- coming into our stores with her kids and her husband and she's able to buy our athletic shoes from us and she's buying her kids shoes and she's buying her husband shoes, she's just not able to find those sport casual and casual shoes that she would normally find at a department store.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Scott Krasik with BB&T Capital Markets.

Scott Krasik

Analyst · BB&T Capital Markets.

So Kerry, should I chalk the 140 basis point merch margin improvement to just an easy comparison from 1 year ago? Or were there some other things that you did, to get that improvement?

W. Jackson

Management

The -- for the year, you're saying?

Scott Krasik

Analyst · BB&T Capital Markets.

No, in Q4. Didn't you say it was up 140 bps in Q4, the merchandise margin increased 1.4%?

W. Jackson

Management

Yes. It was primarily a seasonal product. If you remember, in Q4 last year, we ended up getting out-positioned in our boot category. And we also had weather issues, if you remember. The weather didn't cooperate. For 2 years in a row, we have had a warmer than expected November-December timeframe. We also had bought our boot inventory, thinking prices -- department stores will take the prices up and we took our prices up. What happened, as they took their prices down and got down and dirty, now we ended up having to liquidate those boots at a significant margin. If you remember us talking at our Q3 call, is that we're going to have to get aggressive and mark those boots down to get rid of them and we were going to do it while the customers are shopping in December. And we did that and we came out of the quarter reasonably clean, compared to the position we had last year. Now this year, it was a totally different position. We were not going to be out-positioned either when the department stores opened for a day after, nor were we going to be out-positioned on price points on boots. We also shifted our inventories to be -- have a larger percentage in the western and...

Clifton Sifford

Management

Riding boots.

W. Jackson

Management

And the riding boots -- thank you, Cliff. I probably shouldn't be talking about merchandise as much as I am. But we were better positioned in the seasonal product even though we did not get weather to support the sales of that, we did have a better -- significantly better day after because we were much better positioned from a price point on the boots and in the fashion content of it. So it was a combination of factors that drove that better gross profit margin in Q4.

Scott Krasik

Analyst · BB&T Capital Markets.

But in terms of projecting it, it was more just yet a very easy comparison in Q4 from the year before because of those seasonal issues?

W. Jackson

Management

Well, what I really say is the comparison plus we had a much better merchandise assortment. We went into the quarter much better prepared to take advantage of the sales we had during the quarter.

Clifton Sifford

Management

Scott, additionally, we were able to buy -- because we focused our boot buy and it really revolves around boots, but because we focused our boot buy on a more narrow -- narrower selection, and we were able to derive better costs on our boots. So that if we had to get as low as we did 1 year ago, we would benefit from lower margins. The fact is we did not have to go as low from a pricing standpoint. Once the weather cooled down, we were able to drive a higher average outdoor price on our boots.

Scott Krasik

Analyst · BB&T Capital Markets.

Okay. And then, it gets a little nuance-y, but obviously, back to school's been shifting later, so thank you for that detail that Q3 would be impacted by $21 million. But is there any way to look at it from -- I would assume 2 years ago, it was probably greater than that, so to the extent that, we're shifting out another year, shouldn't it be less than that $21 million that would have been impacted last year because people are just shopping closer to the schooltime?

Clifton Sifford

Management

Well, that's a great question. And the issue with that, the issue with answering that question is we don't know when schools are going to start yet. One of the reasons that shifting later is that schools are shifting later. In North Carolina, for instance, I'm going to give you -- for instance, say, you can't open up the schools before the 25th of August. In the past, one of the shifts that you just mentioned was that those schools opened up on around the 4th or 5th of August. You take that in consideration along with tax-free, which has also shifted a little later, and we don't know when those dates are yet because each year, they have to be approved by each state legislator, and we just don't know yet. So what we're telling you is what we know and hopefully by the time we do our second -- our first quarter conference call, we can give you a bit more guidance.

Scott Krasik

Analyst · BB&T Capital Markets.

And relative to the numbers you gave though, that's sort of a guide -- I mean, it shouldn't be more -- things shouldn't shift earlier. I mean there's no evidence of that.

Clifton Sifford

Management

No, we don't anticipate it shifting earlier. We do anticipate that there are shifts that will be slightly later.

W. Jackson

Management

So Scott, what we were trying to do is better projecting out what the sales differences would be for Q3 this year. We were trying to restate the prior-year, so fiscal 2012, restating those for the calendar changes we'll experience. So you at least have a baseline to understand the effect to last year's sales, and then you can project off of that.

Scott Krasik

Analyst · BB&T Capital Markets.

Yes, okay. And then just last -- thanks, Kerry. And just last, Cliff, how meaningful-- you alluded to basketball I think once or twice in your script, I mean how meaningful is this basketball shift to your customer and the brands and styles that you carry? And then, what does that imply for running -- for back to school this year?

Clifton Sifford

Management

Well, no questions -- no problem. Basketball is really important to our customer. You know about between -- right around 34% of our business is African-American or Hispanic, and we do a great court business, whether it's a basketball or whether we -- you want to look at what we term as fashion basketball, which is more retro in nature. We do a good business. Now, basketball this year was all about launches on the mall. But even with that, in the fourth quarter, we had a pretty good basketball run going. What affected us in the first quarter however, is the lack of tax refund checks, and that directly affected our basketball business negatively. Now as you move forward in the back-to-school, we still feel very strong about running, especially the performance running category and not necessarily technical running, but strictly, the performance running and all the color that's there, we've looked at all our -- in fact, we've already placed orders on all our major brands and we are very excited about that category as we move forward in the back-to-school.

Operator

Operator

We'll take next, Chris Svezia with Susquehanna Financial Group.

Christopher Svezia

Analyst

Kerry, I'm just curious, could you just -- that the SG&A delever in the first quarter, can you say that number again? You said it was down, how much, 50 to...

W. Jackson

Management

We're expecting the 50 to 120 basis points in Q1 and that's based on a 2% to 4% comp store decline. So it's really in relationship -- we opened a lot of stores in Q1, so we've incurred a good chunk of preopening costs. And the real difference between -- it wasn't that we overspent on our SG&A, it's really the lack of sales productivity because we haven't been able to get those spring sales. Last year, when we shifted to sales into Q1, it helped to offset the increase in the preopening costs last year.

Christopher Svezia

Analyst

Okay. And then the gross margin being down that much is just because you're selling more clearance product, your spring high-margin business hasn't kicked in yet? That's part of the reason why the gross margin is down that much, correct?

Clifton Sifford

Management

That's exactly right. 100% right, as a matter fact.

Christopher Svezia

Analyst

Okay. So then I guess, Cliff, for you, I mean, do you start to -- I mean at some point in time, do you feel like you need to cancel on the on orders, do you need to -- I don't know, do you get any concerns about if and when the weather comes, and if -- or at this point, I'm sure, pretty confident about your inventory position right now?

Clifton Sifford

Management

We -- two issues. First of all, we don't believe -- we truly believe that we shifted sales out of the second quarter into the first quarter last year, we really believe that. We believe that this is, actually -- although it's the coldest March in some time up here, but we actually believe that it's more normalized early spring. And that as soon as spring arrives, when it does and as you just said, if it does, we believe we'll sell sandals and we'll sell running products again just the way we have in the past. As far as canceling product, we -- a good bit of our business is done on a first call's basis so a lot of that product is either here or on the way here. Any product that has not been bought on first cost basis, we're reviewing all of that product to see if we feel we're heavy or not. But to be honest with you, Chris, we're really not going to know the answer to that until we actually get our first warm week, which we have not experienced to date.

Christopher Svezia

Analyst

Okay. Switching gears, just any thoughts about pricing and average selling prices this year versus last year? What you anticipate, increases? Just any thoughts around that.

Clifton Sifford

Management

We think we're going to increase our average outdoor price, low single-digit. I don't believe that we have not seen the kind of cost increases we've seen in the past. So we believe prices are going to remain stable.

Christopher Svezia

Analyst

And some of the work you're doing on the women's nonathletic piece to the business, which you anticipate for the fall, is that -- I mean a price that you can sell at, how is that in relation to your existing women's nonathletic pricing at this point, basically the same, it's quite like...

Clifton Sifford

Management

No, as higher than what we're averaging out the door in women's nonathletic, because women's nonathletic includes sandals and dress shoes, which we don't -- which don't demand higher prices. These were casual and sport casual products, which we'll sell under $50, but well above our average out the door price of women's.

Operator

Operator

Next, we'll take Jeff Stein with Northcoast Research.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

So, for Cliff and Kerry, if you have this sales shift out of Q1 and to Q2 because of the weather, I presume that your margins will still be impacted because the later you sell into the season, I presume you're going to have to take greater markdowns. So even if the sales come later, would you incur a margin hit in Q2?

W. Jackson

Management

We don't want to give guidance for Q2, but I would be glad to give some directionality. We do expect to see our gross profit margin, inclusive of buying distribution occupancy, to be flat to slightly up depending on the level of sales productivity we have.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

Okay. And basically, what you're saying on the sales shift because of the calendar is that we should be looking at adding -- what normally you would see in second quarter, we should add about $17.5 million?

W. Jackson

Management

Yes. And then -- in last year's numbers, so you can build your model off of it, you'd be shifting $17 million into Q2 because of the calendar shifts, and you may shift about $21 million out of Q3.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

Right. Of last year's number, right. How much did the extra week add to earnings per share?

W. Jackson

Management

It was extremely nominal, very immaterial. And to add a little color on that, in prior years, we had seen a 3% to 4% -- $0.03 to $0.04 of EPS out of that. Because of that, last week was the week that was very much affected by the athletic sales that Cliff spoke about earlier, that the 10.7 was not very productive level of sales in that week, and therefore, it became immaterial in any EPS accretion.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

Okay. You mentioned that you're seeing a sharp increase in your Shoe Perks program, I'm just kind of curious, can you disclose how many members you have at year-end and how that compared with prior year?

Clifton Sifford

Management

I can't disclose -- I'm not going to disclose how many we had at year-end. I can just tell you that we have -- we've grown it from 8% of our total sales, almost doubled it to 15% of our total sales. And we think -- I'm just going to be honest with you, Jeff, we are behind our competition here and we got a late start to this program, but it is -- it probably is our #1 focus from a marketing standpoint today is to get our Shoe Perks members up to above 50% of our total sales.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

Great. And Cliff, I'm wondering if you could possibly discuss the performance of your new markets this past year? I know you mentioned that Dallas and Puerto Rico, you were satisfied, but when you look at how those stores performed relative to, let's say, stores outside of the market and then look at your class of 2011 and 2010, how did those stores perform relative to what you would normally expect from a new store? And maybe, using it as a benchmark, say, for example, your average new store does 70% to 75% of what a mature store does, how would it have stacked up on that basis?

Clifton Sifford

Management

I think -- let me -- I think I understand your question here. It takes about 3 years for a store to ramp up to our average store size, okay? So we do start off and we're not disappointed at all on our 2012 stores, they all started pretty much exactly the same way with the exception of 1 or 2 markets that's actually launched higher than this rate, but about 70% to 75% of our total, and then it ramps up the next year and then the third year, they usually -- is when we expect it to hit the normal. Last and 2012, it was no different than that.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

Okay. So you were in that 70% to 75 range in both Puerto Rico and Dallas? Or was one better than the other?

Clifton Sifford

Management

No, no, I don't want to get down to specific markets, Jeff. All I can tell is that we had some markets that performed much better than others, and just -- no, just so not to get market specific with it.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

Sure. Can you tell us how many of your 31 new stores this year, Cliff, will be in Dallas and how many will be in Puerto Rico?

Clifton Sifford

Management

Right -- today, our plan is -- we have identified -- now remember, we're still looking for this year, but we've identified 1 additional store in Dallas and 2, and we think 3 additional stores in Puerto Rico.

Jeffrey Stein

Analyst

So your -- as of today, you would finish this year with 8 stores in Puerto Rico and maybe 6 to 7 -- excuse me, 8 stores in Dallas?

Clifton Sifford

Management

That's correct, and 6 or 7 stores in Puerto Rico.

Operator

Operator

Next, we'll move on to Sam Poser with Sterne Agee.

Sam Poser

Analyst

Guys, I have a lot of questions. I just want to understand this. I just want to talk about the 53rd week effect, so if it's $17 million off the $182 million you did last year, you're basically shifting -- you've got about a 9.5% positive help to Q1 versus last year, and about -- on a comp basis. And about a -- give or take -- and about a 9.5 hurt to -- but you did Q2 and about 9.5% hurt to Q3, if I'm thinking -- from a revenue perspective, if all other things being equal, forget about the new stores and all that other stuff.

W. Jackson

Management

Well, that should calculate -- that's why we're giving you the numbers so you can calculate what -- rather than -- we're not giving guidance at this point and at this time, so we'll let you put it in your model and let you calculate it from there. But yes, obviously, it's a significant shift, and that's why we're highlighting those numbers. We'd rather give you the exact numbers than a percentage.

Sam Poser

Analyst

But I mean -- but my question there is though if the -- so in Q2, you could have -- you could run a flat comp and have revenues up a lot just because of the calendar shift?

W. Jackson

Management

Well, keep in mind, from a comp standpoint, we are going to shift the -- when we report a comp to you we'll report it on a comparable week-to-week basis. So like you just said, the comp could be relatively flat, and we could still have a significant increase in Q2 and overall sales from the standpoint that we're shifting the weeks that was in the quarter.

Sam Poser

Analyst

So on a flat comp, you would -- I mean, you would see big leverage in occupancy and big leverage -- in occupancy both on the -- and on SG&A, while in Q3, if you ran a flat comp, it would go completely other direction. You would delever both of those, quite a lot, on a flat comp, just because of the shift of the...

W. Jackson

Management

Well, I could characterize it as being a little, but yes, directionally, you're exactly right, is that because you're shifting a lot of sales into Q2 but the expenses aren't -- especially the fixed costs, now we'll shift some advertising into Q2 along with those sales for back-to-school, but the fixed costs like rent, you'll be able to leverage nicely in Q2. But then you'll have a harder time, depending what your comp is in the third quarter because of that shift in sales productivity.

Sam Poser

Analyst

Right, okay. And then, how much -- all right, thank you. How much of the inventory did you -- like, versus last year, did you receive early, I mean of that -- that's a -- your inventory is quite high right now, how much of that inventory came in early because of the shift versus last -- shift of Chinese New Year? And could you tell us sort of has your inventory -- is your inventory more normalized at this point in the quarter?

Clifton Sifford

Management

Well, Sam, here is what I can tell you on the inventory is that, we ended the year down in boots on a per door basis, just like I said in my prepared remarks. We ended the year actually flat to slightly down on a per door basis on fall product, sports shoes and such. And we ended the year up with athletic product, mainly because of the sales that we lost the last 2 weeks of the year. And we had more dress product, and more, what you would term Easter concept shoes going into the first part of the year. Now you asked about where we are today, we, ourselves, as we've been saying in the first quarter are down, so our inventories are not back where we want them to be. We need to -- we brought in -- we have sandals in the store now to sell. We have our athletic product as some of our running shoes still in stores. So we're not quite where we want it to be. We're continuing to work on it. But we anticipate that our inventories will be somewhat where they are today at the end of the quarter from a percentage up.

Sam Poser

Analyst

But I guess my question is, is like, your sales were up slightly in Q4, but your inventory was up a lot more than your sales. Would you...

Clifton Sifford

Management

What you're asking me is was the product pressured not fresh, and I can tell you that the product was fresh. That's the question I believe you were asking is, how much of the product from a -- the increase in inventory was aged and/or fall product, and I can't give you specifics on that, but I can just tell you that based against the previous year, it was down.

Operator

Operator

We'll take the next question from Mark Montagna with Avondale Partners.

Mark Montagna

Analyst · Avondale Partners.

A few questions. I was just trying to understand in terms of your promotions. You had a good first -- your first quarter is obviously off to a weaker start. I'm trying to understand year-over-year because last year, you did so well, if you were to look at your promotions right now versus last year, would you say that you're promoting just as steep as last year or are you even steeper than last year at this point?

Clifton Sifford

Management

We are promoting pretty much the same exact way we did last year, no steeper, no more aggressive at this point with -- and the reason for that, Mark, is that we truly believe that the issue is weather related, and as soon as we get some warm weather and we can start selling some sandals, then that will determine -- and open up footwear, that will determine whether or not we need to get more promotional. But at this point, it does us no good to get more promotional when the customer is not -- our customer, you followed us for some time, our customer buys today what she's going to wear tonight, it's a buy now and wear now kind of consumer. And she has not needed sandals and/or opened up footwear of any kind. So there is no reason to get more promotional on that product.

Mark Montagna

Analyst · Avondale Partners.

Okay. And then with the tax refund checks that should be rolling in by now, have you seen any sort of positive impact from that? Is it even possible for you to determine that?

Clifton Sifford

Management

That's a great question. And here's what happened, early in February, when the tax refunds weren't out, we saw a decrease in business, by the 3rd week of February, when tax refunds started to arrive, we saw a nice bump in business, and then the weather did turn very nasty from a snow and ice standpoint, and that business slowed down on us, so we have not seen the full effects of more money in the marketplace at this point.

Mark Montagna

Analyst · Avondale Partners.

Okay. And then Kerry, what are your -- what are the comp leverage points this year in terms of occupancy and also SG&A?

W. Jackson

Management

Well, it's going to be different than it would normally be -- and just like -- the conversation I was having with Sam about the shift in the sales productivity by quarter is going to change the normal ability to leverage activity. For example, while we could have a small comp in Q2 because we're shifting that big week of back-to-school into Q2 and there aren't as much into what significant expenses to follow it that we could see 150 -- approximately 150 basis points of leverage in SG&A in Q2, if you take into account the shift of those sales of $17.5 million moving them in to Q2. So that's what I'm saying that from a comp standpoint, we're going to give you the guidance 1 quarter at a time, but obviously, it's going to be a little different than it has been in prior years, what those leverage points are.

Mark Montagna

Analyst · Avondale Partners.

Okay. And then just lastly, last year, Kerry, you gave really good detailed guidance on preopening costs and how that it would impact gross margin and SG&A. Do you -- can you walk us through maybe some similar details for this year? Because you're opening a lot of stores, but it seems like you should have in essence some opportunity on the cost line just because they're not new markets. I'm wondering if you can help us understand the positive benefits for this year.

W. Jackson

Management

Well, one reason we went into it last year in such detail, it was going to be a significant hit to earnings because of the acceleration and the growth. We are going to probably spend approximately the same amount of preopening costs in 2013 than we did in 2012. However, there's not going to be that acceleration. So you can build in your model what was built into 2013 expense structure or preopening -- or '12 -- and was built into '12, is going to be about what we're going to spend in 2013. So I don't see -- so I didn't go into details on the numbers because I don't see it as a big penalty because it's already built into the expense structure. The difference -- even though we opened several large markets and they took a lot of preopening costs, what we're seeing now is that we're going to open -- we're going to invest in existing marketplaces with additional advertising. Like in Puerto Rico, where we opened those 2 to 3 stores, we're going to spend a significant amount of dollars to open those stores because we don't have market penetration to leverage that advertising yet, same in when we opened the 1 store in Dallas, we're going to see a significant amount of preopening costs in that market. In addition there, we're opening a lot of smaller markets or filling in smaller markets, where we'll still have a lot of advertising and other pre-opening costs, they won't be as high as on a per-store basis in those smaller markets that we saw in the prior years, but because there is more of them, more of those markets that we're going to be reinvesting in or smaller markets that we're going to open up, that's why the preopening costs are about the same.

Mark Montagna

Analyst · Avondale Partners.

Okay, all right. And then just lastly, if you look out all the way to 2014, are you still looking at that year as the year of possibly opening up to 2 new markets?

W. Jackson

Management

Yes, we are. We're exploring that right now and we feel, we feel comfortable we can get at least 1 large market and possibly 2. And if we don't get a large market opened, we'd be looking to open maybe some medium-sized market, 1 large and a couple of medium-sized markets. So we're still putting together our '14 plan. But that would be the expectation of it.

Operator

Operator

That does conclude our question-and-answer session. At this time, I'll turn it back over to Mr. Sifford for our final closing remarks.

Clifton Sifford

Management

All right, thank you. Throughout my prepared remarks, I touched on several initiatives that we are working towards for 2013. I'd like to take just a second and highlight them once again. We'll enhance our branded offering in women's nonathletic to capture the moms who are shopping our store for their athletic shoes and for the shoes for their kids and husbands. Number 2, we'll plan to add 30 to 35 stores in the existing medium to large markets or new small markets, backfilling existing markets will allow us to leverage advertising in markets that are underpenetrated. We are reinvesting in our existing store base with 30 remodels and 6 relocations. And finally, we will introduce a reenergized marketing campaign that focuses on the family and showcases our exciting in-store experience. We really do appreciate you joining us today and we look forward to speaking to you about first quarter results in May. Thank you, again.

Operator

Operator

And everyone, that does conclude our conference call for today. Thank you, all, for your participation.