Earnings Labs

Tapestry, Inc. (TPR)

Q4 2016 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 9, 2016

$144.05

-1.66%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-2.27%

1 Week

-2.64%

1 Month

-9.70%

vs S&P

-7.45%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to this Coach conference call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the Global Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Coach, Andrea Shaw Resnick.

Andrea Resnick

Management

Good morning and thank you for joining us. With me today to discuss our quarterly and annual results are Victor Luis, Coach's Chief Executive Officer; and Jane Nielsen, Coach's CFO. Before we begin, we must point out that this conference call will involve certain forward-looking statements, including projections for our business in the current or future quarters of fiscal years. These statements are based upon a number of continuing assumptions. Future results may differ materially from our current expectations, based upon a number of important factors including risks and uncertainties such as expected economic trends or our ability to anticipate consumer preferences, control costs, successfully execute our transformation and operational efficiency initiatives and growth strategies or our ability to achieve intended benefits, cost savings and synergies from the Stuart Weitzman acquisition. Please refer to our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a complete list of risks and important factors. Please note that historical trends may not be indicative of future performance. Also, certain financial information and metrics that will be discussed today will be presented on a non-GAAP basis. These non-GAAP measures exclude certain items related to our transformation plan, operational efficiency plan and Stuart Weitzman acquisition-related charges as well as the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, where noted. The company's sales and earnings per diluted share results have also been presented both including and excluding the impact of the 53rd week in fiscal 2016. You may identify non-GAAP measures by the terms non-GAAP, constant currency, excluding the impact of foreign currency or excluding the additional week. The company believes that presenting these non-GAAP measures is useful to investors and others in evaluating the company's ongoing operations and financial results against historical performance and in a manner that is consistent with the management's evaluation of the business. You may find the corresponding GAAP financial information or metric as well as the related reconciliation on our website, www.coach.com/investors, and then viewing the earnings release posted today. Now, let me outline the speakers and topics for this conference call. Victor Luis will provide an overall summary of our fourth fiscal quarter and full year 2016 results and will also discuss our progress on global initiatives across markets. Jane Nielsen will continue with details on financial and operational results and our outlook for FY 2017. Following that, we will hold a question-and-answer session, where we will be joined by Andre Cohen, President, North America and Global marketing; and Todd Kahn, President and Chief Administrative Officer. This Q&A session will end shortly before 9:30 a.m. We will then conclude with some brief summary remarks. I'd now like to introduce Victor Luis, Coach's CEO.

Victor Luis

Management

Good morning. Thank you, Andrea, and welcome, everyone. As noted in our press [Audio gap] Good morning, everyone. Sorry for the technical difficulties we had there on the line. We will start with my remarks and then proceed to Jane. And we will extend time at the end for Q&A. Again, apologies for the technical difficulties; I think we're up and running here again. Let me just first thank you, Andrea, again, and welcome, everyone, to our call. As noted in our press release, we are delighted with our strong fourth quarter performance, in which we achieved positive North America comps, for the first time in over three years, and drove increases across key financial metrics. These results capped a year where we returned the Coach brand to growth, while elevating brand perception globally, thereby reaching an important milestone in the transformation journey we laid out over two years ago. Indeed, I could not be more pleased with and proud of our team's execution of the transformation plan over the last two years, as we track to our goals in spite of the significant and unanticipated volatility in tourist spending flows as well as the range of macroeconomic, geopolitical and promotional headwinds. In the quarter, our North American direct businesses accelerated, while we continued to implement strategic actions to elevate our positioning and streamline our distribution in the very promotional department store channel. Our international businesses continued to generate growth, highlighted by double-digit increases in Mainland China and Europe, as well as sales gains in our directly operated businesses in Southeast Asia. Most importantly, we achieved the expected inflection and profitability, as we leveraged our expenses in the growth in our business. Overall, our results give us confidence that the cumulative impact of our actions will continue to drive top…

Jane Nielsen

Management

Thank you, Victor, for those kind words and for the privilege of working at this outstanding company. Victor has just taken you through the highlights and strategies. Let me now take you through some of the important financial details. Please note, the comments I'm about to make are based on non-GAAP results. Corresponding GAAP results, as well as the related reconciliation, can be found in the earnings release posted on our website today. We are extremely pleased with our performance in the fourth quarter, as we drove increases across the key metrics of sales, operating profit and earnings. We achieved positive comps in North America while continuing to grow our business internationally, and we leveraged this growth with significant improvement in our operating margin for the quarter. The strong fourth quarter capped a year of important financial milestones. In fiscal 2016, we generated overall top line growth for Coach, Inc., while tightly controlling our inventory. We drove a sequential improvement in our North America comps throughout the year, while achieving our revenue targets for Europe and Greater China against a volatile macro backdrop. We continued to invest in our brands, while delivering our margin target for FY 2016, ending the year with an operating margin of over 17%, in line with guidance of high-teens, including a Coach brand gross margin slightly above prior year, excluding the impact of currency. In addition, we successfully integrated the Stuart Weitzman business, which outperformed our original revenue and earnings per share projections for the year. Turning now to the details, before I begin, please note that the results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2016 included 14 and 53 weeks, respectively, while the same periods in fiscal 2015 included 13 and 52 weeks, respectively. The 53rd week contributed $84 million to 2016 fourth…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. And our first question comes from Ike Boruchow. Your line is now open.

Ike Boruchow

Analyst

Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the return to positive comps.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Thanks, Ike.

Victor Luis

Management

Thanks, Ike.

Ike Boruchow

Analyst

So I guess on North America, I think you said the North America outlet comp was essentially flat in the quarter, which I don't think a lot of people expected, given what some other brands have said about tourism and traffic the past quarters or so. I just wanted to ask, what are you assuming is the run rate of that channel for you guys in North America going forward? And then, just a quick one on top of that, given the timing of initiatives and multi-year compares and the choppy environment, should we assume much, if any, North America comp variability or volatility by quarter or by half this year? Thank you very much

Victor Luis

Management

Thanks, Ike. I'll let Andre answer that for you.

Andre Cohen

Analyst

Morning. So first, we're really pleased with the sequential improvement we've seen in the outlet channel over the last several quarters. It remains a very productive, important channel for Coach, as you know. For FY 2017, going forward, we're really looking at comps in outlet being sort of either side of flat. And over time, as conditions in the market improve, we're hoping to be able to reduce our promotional stance in that channel. Now, as to your second question, we're expecting comps to basically be positive across all quarters for FY 2017. So...

Ike Boruchow

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Victor Luis

Management

And, Ike, in terms of your comments on tourists, we have not seen a dramatic shift quarter-to-quarter. In fact, what we have seen is a slight decrease in Chinese, which has been made up by increases in our Japanese and Korean tourists here in the U.S. Overall, global flows have remained pretty consistent to the trends that we have seen in the past: France being negatively impacted, of course, by terrorist attacks; continued softness in Hong Kong and Macau; and now Japan anniversarying, of course, the massive increase last year of PRC tourists. Southeast Asia continues to see tremendous benefits from the PRC tourists.

Ike Boruchow

Analyst

Got it. Thanks. Congrats again.

Victor Luis

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Erinn Murphy. Your line is now open.

Erinn Murphy

Analyst

Great. Thanks. Good morning. I was hoping maybe you could dig in a little bit more about the decision to exit 25% of your North American wholesale doors. How should we be thinking about effectively the sales and the margin impact from the strategic pull-back as we look at your fiscal 2017 guidance?

Victor Luis

Management

Morning, Erinn. Jane?

Jane Nielsen

Management

Yeah, so, Erinn, as you think about 2017, essentially our guidance for the Coach brand is essentially unchanged, except for the impact of North America wholesale. When you think about that, we expect that impact to be about a point to sales growth, most notably in Q1. Obviously, it's a high operating margin channel and will flow through to our operating margin. But the most significant impact will be in Q1.

Erinn Murphy

Analyst

Okay. And then, Jane, I guess, for you, how should we think about gross margin for Coach, Inc. for the full year, given that change as well?

Jane Nielsen

Management

Yeah, so you'll see Coach brand gross margin maintain that 69% to 70% range that we guided to two years ago.

Erinn Murphy

Analyst

Okay. And if I could just sneak in one more for Victor, just on pricing architecture, you guys have obviously seen a very nice response to 1941 collection. Could you share with us what type of consumer you're seeing in terms of the trade-up? Is it the last consumer? Is it a new consumer? And then, on a full year basis, just how should we think about the product mix in terms of those buckets that you break out, under $300, $300 to $400 and $400-plus? Thank you.

Victor Luis

Management

Sure. We're seeing both current Coach fans engaging well with 1941, lapsed consumers and especially pleased with what we're seeing online, Erinn, as we're getting a younger consumer that maybe has not engaged with Coach and is much fashion-engaged through coach.com engaging with newness as well. And that's especially true at the beginning of the fashion seasons or during special launches, such as we've just experienced with Mickey. And that is the case, of course, in most of our mature markets. Quite different, of course, in developing markets like Europe where we're starting with 1941 as the true first impression that these consumers have of Coach in an increasing way. In terms of how we see the balance, and we discussed in our prepared remarks the balancing of the assortment between, if you will, the essentials, fashion and 1941, we are increasing the presence of 1941 to the whole network, as I discussed. I think that during gifting periods, as has been the case in the past, you will see us, of course, increase that assortment with lower price points taking a larger share of the mix, which would be our plan for this holiday as well. But overall, I think you're going to see us continue to see how high is high as consumers engage incredibly well with the message that we're putting out there and understand both the quality of what 1941 represents, but also the fashion messaging.

Erinn Murphy

Analyst

Thank you, and congratulations.

Victor Luis

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Thank you. And our next question comes from Anna Andreeva. Your line is now open.

Anna Andreeva

Analyst

Great. Thanks so much. Good morning, and congrats to the team.

Victor Luis

Management

Thank you, Anna.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Good morning.

Anna Andreeva

Analyst

I guess two questions; first, with all the volatility out there, what kind of category results in North America are you guys embedding, either here in the first quarter or for the year? And secondly, a question on e-commerce, now that eOS impact has been lapped and e-commerce is contributing again, remind us about the size of this business. Is profitably higher versus corporate average? And how big do you think this business could ultimately get? Thanks.

Victor Luis

Management

Okay, I'll let Andre discuss e-commerce in a bit. In terms of the category, per our remarks, just given the uncertainty in what's happening in both the macro and geopolitical environment, the trends on tourists, we see that it is difficult to plan an acceleration in the overall category, of course, in the short term. And, in fact, there are, just as we had two years ago, very specific actions in the pull-back of our eOS, which led to some impact on total category growth. I know that many of you are aware that some of our competitors are discussing similar actions at the moment, which will also impact category growth, especially here in North America. I would just add that in terms of our own guidance, we built it bottoms up. It's based on our views on our own distribution growth, our own comp expectations by market and by region, driven by as well our own innovation across product, stores and marketing and what we expect for the Coach brand. Andre, on web?

Andre Cohen

Analyst

Yes. So web performed really well. It generated about a point of our two points of overall comp growth, both web channels, full price and eOS, performed well. We're seeing, I think as we mentioned earlier, a really much more fashion-engaged consumer engage with the web, particularly when we've got more elevated product, novelty and some of these collaborations like we saw with Mickey. We see that business continuing to grow in line with the balance of Coach going forward, at least in line, I'd say.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Yeah, and its profitability gross margin is about in line with the rest of the business, but the operating expenses are obviously advantaged to give it a higher operating income level.

Anna Andreeva

Analyst

Terrific. Thanks, and best of luck.

Victor Luis

Management

Thank you.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Thank you. And our next question comes from Oliver Chen. Your line is now open.

Oliver Chen

Analyst

Hi. Congrats on solid results, and, Jane, also best regards. We'll miss you.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Thanks, Oliver.

Victor Luis

Management

Thank you, Oliver.

Oliver Chen

Analyst

Victor, on your comments about going from eight to 12 (sic) [12 to eight] (59:05), could you brief us on how that will manifest in terms of which collections do you think will benefit from this increased flow? And how do you just ensure that the store continues to look integrated and tell the right story in terms of the customer reception to that flow? And on the decision on department stores, it would be great if you could just brief us on the strategic rationale and how you'll evaluate making sure that the ones that you're exiting are the right ones for the brand at large? Because it is a category where certain customers still have a lot of loyalty to that channel, so I just want to make sure I understand why that was the right time. Thank you.

Victor Luis

Management

Thank you, Oliver. First on the product flow, you mentioned eight to 12. We mentioned in our notes going from 12 to eight, and we think, of course, that's what you meant, the 12 to eight flow, which is for...

Oliver Chen

Analyst

Yes.

Victor Luis

Management

It's important to note for full price only. In our outlet channel we continue to drive monthly newness with monthly flows. In our full price channel, we're moving from 12 to eight, and the reasons there are two. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're really wanting to align much more closely with the fashion calendar, as we engage increasingly with top-tier specialty and tier 1 department stores across the world, and wanting to have our launches be much more impactful as we put much more marketing muscle behind them. And the perfect example of that could be a collection such as Mickey, which in the case of Japan is today, still very much being rolled out through special events with key department stores in that market. So it's really about having the newness, such as Rogue and other 1941 bits of the assortment play a more important role for a slightly longer period of time and, therefore, drive more efficiency. And then on wholesale, Andre?

Andre Cohen

Analyst

Yeah, so in terms of department stores, look, they remain a critical part of our brand-building in North America, so it's an important channel for Coach. We do want that channel to treat the brand in a way that's consistent with the way we're doing it now in retail distribution, direct distribution. And so we're basically exiting: one, lower volume doors, so doors that are below a certain threshold of volume and where we're no longer seeing a Coach consumer shopping; and second, it's a channel that's become very promotional over the last few quarters, as you know, and we have decided that we'd no longer support knock-down allowances to the level we did in the past. So that's going to naturally exclude us from a number of events in that channel, and it will help to return the brand to health along all of its touch points, not just our direct operated distribution, so.

Victor Luis

Management

Yeah, Oliver, I would hate for anyone to believe that we don't have belief, if you will, in the wholesale channel. We have terrific relationships with all of our partners. This is very much a surgical move that is meant to drive the long-term sustainable health of our brand. And we also want to avoid, as I said in my prepared remarks and as Andre has reiterated, that confusion between channels, so a very important move for us.

Oliver Chen

Analyst

Thanks. The elevation looks great. Best regards.

Victor Luis

Management

Thank you.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Thank you, Oliver.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Randy Konik. Your line is now open.

Randal Konik

Analyst

Great. Thanks. Just want to follow up on the comments around 1941 expansion into all stores, can you kind of give us more specific, I guess, color on what you mean by presence? What kind of SKU count should we expect in the stores? And how do you think about the presentation aspects of it and the marketing aspects around the product? Just kind of get some color on how we should expect things to kind of progress there. And then, just back on the greater than $400 penetration question, I think, was asked earlier, is there any kind of specific kind of threshold where you would see, you know, we should get towards a goal of maybe 50% of the mix is greater than $400 and that would be it, or how should we be thinking about what is the optimal mix from a price point perspective in the assortment? Thanks.

Andre Cohen

Analyst

In terms of 1941, what we're taking to full store distribution in North America is handbags, so we'll have about 20 SKUs of handbags. Actually, it's already happened in the last week that have hit all the doors. Basically, these are bags that go from Dinky at $300 to Rogue at $800 and above, so we're not taking our ready-to-wear to full distribution at this point. It's a key piece of our brand building. 1941's resonated very strongly with all levels of distributions being put in. And we felt it needed to have a consistent expression of the more elevated brand across the entire fleet in the U.S. and Canada.

Victor Luis

Management

And in terms of a specific target, I would say that we really don't have one. The consumer is going to help us decide that. And it's going to have a very different face seasonally, as I mentioned earlier. During holiday, we'll have, obviously, gifting play a more important role in the assortment. And, therefore, we would expect AURs to be lower. And during seasonal launches, especially at the beginning of each fashion season as we enter increasingly with 1941 into a fashion cycle, you'll see that during periods like March/April, September/October/November, you will have higher AURs play a more important role as the fashion launches play a more important part of our mix.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Michael Binetti. Your line is now open.

Victor Luis

Management

Morning, Michael.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Michael? Operator, would you move onto the next, please?

Operator

Operator

Yes. Our next question comes from Christian Buss. Your line is now open.

Victor Luis

Management

Morning, Christian.

Christian Buss

Analyst

Yes. Hello. Good morning. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the cost disciplines that you're implementing. Where's the progress there, and have you found any incremental areas as you look towards fiscal 2017 and 2018?

Jane Nielsen

Management

We continue to execute against the operational efficiency plan that we outlined in the last quarter, where we focus on becoming a more nimble, agile, less-layered organization. We've made progress against that goal. You saw it show up in our fourth quarter operating margin, as we leveraged top line sales to expand our operating margin. And that is incorporated into our FY 2017 guidance.

Operator

Operator

And our last question comes from Dana Telsey. Your line is now open.

Dana Telsey

Analyst

Good morning, everyone, and nice to see the return to positive comps. Congratulations.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Thank you, Dana.

Victor Luis

Management

Thanks, Dana.

Dana Telsey

Analyst

As you think about Stuart Weitzman and its contribution this past year, how do you look at Stuart Weitzman in fiscal 2017 and it contribution? And just lastly, the 1941 collection gaining more prominence, what percent of the SKUs should it account for? And is it a higher margin than the core? Thank you.

Victor Luis

Management

In terms of Stuart Weitzman - and I'll let Andre touch on here in North America, specifically 1941. We answered part of that question earlier, Dana. But in terms of Stuart Weitzman, we expect it to grow double digits, which is in line with previous guidance. Of course, it'll be aided by the take-back of the Canada distribution, those 14 direct stores that we touched upon in our prepared remarks. I'm especially excited about everything we're learning about that brand: how it's resonating; the strength of its supply chain; the strength of its international and growing consumer profile; and most importantly, by the wonderful new talent that we're also bringing in that will help this brand over the medium to long term evolve into a broader luxury brand, with a strength, for sure, to come in handbags and accessories as well. In terms of the question on 1941, I'll let Andre just touch on that for you.

Andre Cohen

Analyst

So it varies by tier of distribution. Obviously, in our top-tier, it's probably about a third of the assortment and down to about a quarter in our more entry-level stores. And that's an evolution. We'll get there over the next couple of quarters.

Jane Nielsen

Management

Yeah, Dana, as you think about Stuart Weitzman, especially in the coming year, we do expect a low double-digit growth rate. There is a fair amount of volatility in both sales and profit as you move through the year, given the high mix of its penetration into wholesale.

Dana Telsey

Analyst

Thank you.

Andrea Resnick

Management

Thank you. That will conclude the Q&A portion of our call. I'll now turn it back over to Victor Luis for some concluding remarks. Victor?

Victor Luis

Management

Let me first thank you, Andrea, and thank you, Jane, for all of your contributions. I want to close by just congratulating all of our global teams, both in the Coach and Stuart Weitzman brands, for their hard work and dedication in driving not only the development of our brands, but, of course, our business during what has been a very volatile year in the broader environment. I also want to thank all of you on the phone who've been following us, especially over the last 24 months, and have seen the continued unfolding and realization of our creative and business vision. While there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the global environment and the category in the short term, I remain incredibly optimistic about the long-term opportunities in our categories, not only handbags but increasingly footwear and outerwear in both developed and developing markets, and the prospects that exists for the world's middle classes. Most of all, I have tremendous faith in our teams and our brands, as we define a new vision for luxury that is based on quality, craftsmanship and a modern fashion sensibility that is both approachable, optimistic and inclusive and represents the best of our New York and American values that resonate so well across the world. Thank you, all.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude the Coach earnings conference. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.