Michael Henry
Analyst · Bank of America. Please proceed with your question
Thanks Ed. Good afternoon. As Ed noted, our fiscal 2020 second quarter operating results were significantly impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including various periods of store closures, reduced customer traffic and sales results following the phased reopening of our stores throughout the quarter, and the subsequent re-closure of California indoor malls late in the quarter. Details of our second quarter operating performance compared to last year's second quarter were as follows. Total net sales for the second quarter were $135.8 million, a decrease of $25.9 million or 16% compared to $161.7 million last year. Net sales from physical stores were $83.9 million, a decrease of $55.1 million or 39.6% compared to $138.9 million last year. Net sales from stores represented 61.7% of total net sales for the quarter compared to 85.9% of total net sales last year. E-commerce net sales were $52.0 million, an increase of $29.2 million or 127.8% compared to $22.8 million last year. E-commerce net sales represented 38.3% of total net sales for the quarter compared to 14.1% last year. We ended the quarter with 238 total stores, including one RSQ-branded pop-up store of which 33 California stores were closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This compares to 229 total stores including three RSQ-branded pop-up stores, all of which were open to the public last year. Gross profit, including buying, distribution and occupancy expenses was $41.7 million or 30.7% of net sales compared to $51.7 million or 32.0% of net sales last year. Product margins improved by approximately 360 basis points compared to last year, primarily due to strong regular price selling upon the reopening of our stores. Buying, distribution, and occupancy costs, deleveraged by approximately 490 basis points collectively against lower total sales. Occupancy costs, despite being reduced by $0.4 million on a larger store base compared to last year deleveraged by 270 basis points against lower total net sales. Distribution expenses deleveraged by 200 basis points primarily due to an increase in e-com shipping costs of $3 million associated with the significant increase in e-commerce orders. Buying costs deleveraged 20 basis points on lower total sales. Total SG&A expenses were $34.0 million or 25.0% of net sales compared to $39.6 million or 24.5% of net sales last year. Total SG&A was reduced by $5.6 million compared to last year, but deleveraged 50 basis points as a percentage of net sales on lower total sales. Total payroll and related benefits decreased by $7.5 million primarily resulting from the various periods of store closures during the quarter and careful management of staffing levels upon reopening. Most other expenses were also reduced compared to last year. The primary exception to this was increased e-com marketing and fulfillment expenses of $3.9 million due to the significant growth in e-commerce orders. Operating income was $7.7 million or 5.7% of net sales compared to $12.1 million or 7.5% of net sales last year. This decline in operating results was directly attributable to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our retail stores. Other income decreased to $0.3 million from $0.6 million last year, primarily due to having lower total cash and marketable securities, earning lower interest rates on our investments and paying interest on borrowed cash compared to last year. Income tax expense was $2.8 million or 34.3% of our pretax income compared to $3.4 million or 26.8% of pretax income last year. We cannot accurately predict what our effective income tax rate will be going forward as it is dependent upon our operating results for the back half of the fiscal year, which are also unpredictable in the current environment. Net income was $5.3 million or $0.18 per diluted share compared to $9.3 million or $0.31 per diluted share last year. Weighted average shares were 29.7 million for both periods. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the second quarter with cash and marketable securities totaling $148.9 million including $23.7 million borrowed under our revolving credit facility and approximately $13.9 million of withheld store lease payments. Excluding borrowed cash and withheld store lease payments, total cash and marketable securities were $111.3 million compared to total cash and marketable securities of $124.8 million and no debt or withheld store lease payments last year. We ended the quarter with inventories per square foot down 8.9%. Year-to-date capital expenditures were $4.6 million compared to $4.8 million last year. Turning to the third quarter, given the continuing unpredictability surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, including but not limited to its impacts on consumer behavior, our ability to continue to operate some or all of our stores at any point in time, or our e-commerce business, and the adverse impacts on the back-to-school season so far this year, we are unable to reliably predict our future sales or earnings at this time and therefore we will not be providing any specific guidance. However, we thought it was important to share certain facts to help everyone better understand our current environment. First, as we noted earlier, we ended the third quarter with 33 of our California stores closed. These stores represent 14% of our total store count of 238, and in the aggregate, accounted for $22 million or 14% of our total net sales during last year's third quarter. On Friday last week, the State of California issued new guidelines which affected the reopening of businesses, including indoor malls. As a result of these new guidelines, the company was able to reopen 15 of these closed California stores on Monday of this week, 6 more on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday, and 1 more is expected to open on Friday. We do not yet know when the remaining 10 of these California stores will be able to reopen, most notably in Los Angeles County which has 8 of the 10 remaining closed stores. Next, if history is relevant in the current environment, fiscal August has represented approximately 50% of third quarter net sales for each of the past four years. Our fiscal 2020, August net sales were $50.2 million dollars compared to $77.9 million for August last year. However, there are a few reasons to believe that results could be relatively better for the remainder of the quarter. With a delayed back-to-school date this year, we could see some business shift to later in the quarter than in prior years, although still below prior levels overall. Comparable net sales results have been improving trend wise from week to week as we go up against smaller sales weeks from last year. We have also been encouraged to see an uptick in business following the reopening of certain schools within the markets in which we operate. However, we can't be certain that this near term uptick will sustain for the remainder of the quarter. Finally collective comparable net sales from reopened stores since their respective reopening dates and through September 1, 2020 compared to the respective comparable fiscal date of last year have declined 25.5%. Taken together, we believe these factors make it appear more likely than not that our third quarter net sales will be meaningfully below last year's $154.8 million. We cannot predict with any certainty what our net sales may specifically be for the quarter, given all the factors we have discussed. We continue to carefully manage inventory levels as Ed referenced earlier, as well as all expenses in order to protect our cash position, which as of September 2, was $161.9 million, including borrowed cash and withheld store lease payments. Based on all currently available information, we believe our cash position and credit facility availability will be more than sufficient to support our operations for at least the next year. Operator we will now go to Q&A.