John Wittkowske - Chief Financial Officer Tom Florsheim Jr. - Chairman and CEO

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Third Quarter 2015 Weyco Group Earnings Conference Call. My name is Tony and I’ll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today Mr. John Wittkowske, Chief Financial Officer. Please proceed.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone and welcome to Weyco Group’s third quarter conference call. On this call with me today are Tom Florsheim Jr., our Chairman and CEO; and John Florsheim, our President and COO. Before we begin to discuss the results of the quarter, I’ll read a brief disclaimer. During the course of this call, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding our current expectations concerning future events and the future financial performance of the company. We wish to caution you that such statements are just predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We refer you to Weyco Group’s most recent Form 10-K that’s filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 10-K identifies important factors and risks that could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from our projections. Additionally, some comparisons may refer to non-GAAP measures. Our SEC filings may contain additional information about these non-GAAP measures and why we use them. We achieved record third quarter net sales of $91.2 million in 2015, which represents a 4% increase over last year’s net sales of $87.4 million. Operating earnings were $9.1 million, an increase of 1% as compared to $9 million in 2014. Net earnings attributable to Weyco Group and diluted earnings per share were flat at $5.5 million and $0.51 per share. Our third quarter results included a strong performance from our North American wholesale segment but those gains were mostly offset by the results of our international operations which were negatively impacted by the translation from their weaker local currencies into U.S. dollars. In the North American wholesale segment, net sales for the third quarter were $74.6 million, up 10% as compared to $68 million in 2014. Wholesale gross earnings as a percent of net sales were 31.4% compared…

Thanks, John and good morning everyone. As mentioned earlier in the call, our overall third quarter wholesale sales were up 10%. We believe this market share growth is a nice accomplishment in an uneven U.S. retail market and are also pleased that all four of our major brands had sales increases. Our strong growth offset weakness in overseas markets, mainly due to challenges associated with the strong dollar. Our third quarter BOGS business was up 20%, the increase was driven by both our classic insulated goods and our penetration into new product areas. This is our second fall with the question of waterproof casual leather footwear for women and men. We’re experiencing sound wholesale growth in this category and nice sell-throughs at retail which should set the stage for future expansion in this category. Our weather oriented products are also off to a strong start across all genders. This season, we’re carrying more core products in our inventory in order to take advantage of end-season sales associated with inclement weather. We believe we are positioned well for strong fourth quarter sales with the BOGS brand. Stacy Adams sales were up 10%, marking the fifth straight quarter of double-digit growth for the brand. Stacy Adams increases reflected strong sales in both the department store and independent retailer trade channels. In addition to our growth in the footwear segment, we also experienced gains across our licensed product businesses including an added boost due to Stacy Adams’ reentry into this sportswear market for the fall. We believe that Stacy Adams brand with its modern ecstatic, reputation for quality and assessable pricing is well-positioned for the future. Nunn Bush sales were up 1% for the quarter with solid growth in the department store and ecommerce trade channels offset by a decline in sales to…

Okay. Then, we’ll end the call. And we’d like to thank everyone for joining us on the call and we’ll talk to you in February. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for your participation in today’s presentation. You may now disconnect. And everyone have a great day.