Dale Williams
Analyst · Longbow Research
Thanks, Mark. I'll focus my commentary on the financials and our 2011 guidance. In total, first quarter net sales were $326 million, an increase of 28% over the same period last year. North American sales were up 37%, and international sales were up 11%. On a constant-currency basis, our international sales were up 8%. By channel, in North American retail, net sales were $208 million, an increase of 45%. Internationally, retail sales were up 11% to $76 million. On a product basis, mattresses were up 29%, driven by a 14% increase in units. North American mattress sales increased 36% on a 20% increase in units. The increased average unit selling price reflects improved mix and pricing, as well as fewer floor models in 2011 as compared to the prior year. For the second quarter, with the Contour launch that Mark discussed, we expect average U.S. price to be modestly impacted by the deeply discounted floor models. In the International segment. Mattress sales increased 12%. On a constant-currency basis, international mattress sales were up 10%. International mattress units increased 4%. In total, pillows were up 13%, driven by a 7% increase in units. North American pillow sales increased 24% on unit growth of 17% with the related ASP improvement due to favorable mix. International pillow sales were up 3% on a 5% decline in volumes. Sales of our other product line, which includes items that are normally sold along with a mattress, were up 36%. As Mark mentioned, we are seeing favorable attach rate trends for the Ergo Bed System which is the driver of this growth. Gross margin for the quarter was 52.3%, up 310 basis points year-on-year and 40 basis points sequentially. On a year-over-year basis, the gross margin improvement related to a variety of factors including the ongoing productivity program generated improved efficiencies in manufacturing and distribution. We had favorable product mix, and increased production volumes to support higher sales resulted in fixed-cost leverage. Partially offsetting these benefits was unfavorable geographic mix as the North American business continued to grow as a percent of the total. Reflecting our commitment to ensure everybody knows they would sleep better on Tempur, we ramped our advertising investment by over 200 basis points. Despite this investment, operating margin expanded by 250 basis points to 23.1%. Our G&A expense reflects our ongoing strategic investments, including key IT projects to scale the business given our long-term positive outlook. In addition, G&A incorporates higher incentive compensation related to bonus and the variable component of our equity plans. Interest expense was $2.5 million. As I mentioned on our last call, we have initiated the process to renew our credit facility, and I currently expect this to be completed in the second quarter. Our tax rate was 33.1%. Net income was $48.3 million, up from $33.1 million last year. Given our improved profitability, EPS was $0.68, up from $0.44 last year. Now I'll turn to the balance sheet for a brief review. Our accounts receivable balance was up, reflecting improved sales levels. And DSOs were down five days from the first quarter of last year, yet up slightly from year end. The increase on a sequential basis reflects improving sales trends during the quarter. Inventories were up $4 million year-on-year, consistent with new product launches and our positive outlook for sales. We generated $56 million of operating cash flow during the quarter, and capital expenditures were $5 million. At the end of the quarter, our funded debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 1.3x, far below our debt covenant of 3x. Now I'd like to make a few comments about our share repurchase program. Through open market purchases, we bought back 1.32 million shares during the quarter at an average price of $47.35, for a total cost of $62.5 million. As of March 31, 2011, we had $137.5 million still available under the existing share repurchase authorization. Now I'd like to address our updated guidance for the year. We currently expect net sales to range from $1.31 billion to $1.36 billion and we currently expect earnings per share to range from $2.80 to $2.95 per diluted share. Within this guidance, we expect our gross margin to be up slightly more than 200 basis points for the full year, driven by our ongoing productivity plan and fixed-cost leverage, partially offset by higher commodity costs and geographic mix. Regarding the second quarter, we expect a few factors will likely result in a modest sequential decline in our gross margin rate. These factors are: floor model discounts related to our new product launches in the closeout; an expectation for higher commodity costs; unfavorable segment mix as our sales at our international segment will be down from the first quarter, which is consistent with normal seasonality; and consistent with our long-term plans, we are planning to advertise at a rate of at least 10% of sales for the full year. We expect interest expense for the full year to be approximately $11 million. For the full year, we anticipate the tax rate to be generally in line with our first quarter run rate at 33.3%. We are using a share count of 71 million shares for the full year. This assumption includes the benefit of our repurchase activity in the first quarter, however, does not assume benefit from potential further reduction in shares outstanding. As noted in our press release, our guidance and these expectations are based on information available at the time of the release and are subject to changing conditions, many of which are outside the company's control. This concludes our prepared remarks. And at this point, operator, we would like to open the call to questions.