Good morning, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Earnings Release Conference Call. My name is Anara, and I'll be the operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Mr. John Wittkowske, CFO. John, you may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Weyco Group's conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2018 results. On this call with me today are Tom Florsheim, Jr., our Chairman and CEO; and John Florsheim, our President and COO. Before we begin, I'd like to 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 as 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. Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2018 were $89.6 million, up 12% compared to 2017s fourth quarter sales of $80.3 million. Operating earnings were $11.9 million, up 16% compared to $10.3 million in 2017. Net earnings attributable to Weyco Group rose 19% to $9.6 million this quarter from $8.1 million last year. Diluted earnings per share were $0.93 in the fourth quarter and $0.79 in 2017. Effective January 1, 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered the U.S. federal income tax rate from 35% to 21%, which reduced our fourth quarter 2018 tax provision by $1.2 million and increased diluted earnings per share by $0.12. However in 2017, the Company remeasured its deferred tax balances to reflect the new lower tax rate, which reduced our fourth quarter 2017 tax provision by $1.5 million and increased…

Thank you, John and good morning everyone. Our North American wholesale business was up 15% for the quarter and 7% for the year. We are pleased with the momentum in our wholesale business as we're picking up market share in the categories in which we compete. Over the last few years there have been numerous changes in our industry and in retail and we believe that we have made good strategic and tactical adjustments that have enabled us to prosper in a difficult environment. Our Florsheim wholesale division was up 23% in the fourth quarter and 20% for the year. The success that Florsheim experienced this year can be attributed to two major factors first and most important great product. Over the last several seasons, we have introduced new product has performed exceptionally well at retail and allowed us to build momentum across all trade channels. The Florsheim brand has evolved further down the casual continuum with the introduction of more relaxed lifestyle product that fits the Florsheim D&A but permits the brand to move well beyond the traditional dress and dress casual categories. The market in traditional dress is not growing, but it remains an important category and retailers and consumers are increasingly gravitating towards Florsheim as the brand of choice for dress and dress casual footwear. The second factor driving Florsheim successes is that today's consumers are seeking out the authenticity associated with heritage brands. Florsheim fits this bill and we have strongly embraced our heritage positioning over the last several years, changed our logo back to the original script of the 1890s and reinforcing the history of craftsmanship that goes into our brand even as we pivot to more modern and casual product. We are especially encouraged by the find that Florsheim appears to be developing among…

Okay. We'd like to thank everybody for their participation, and have a great day. Bye now.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.