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Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (WWW)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 23, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to Wolverine World Wide Fourth Quarter 2015 Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of the conference call. This call is being recorded at the request of Wolverine World Wide. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce Mr. Chris Hufnagel, Vice President of Strategy, Investor Relations and Communications for Wolverine World Wide. Mr. Hufnagel, you may proceed. Christopher E. Hufnagel - VP-Strategy, Communications & Investor Relations: Thank you, Ed. Good morning and welcome to our fourth quarter 2015 conference call. On the call today are Blake Krueger, our Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, and Mike Stornant, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we announced our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015 along with our 2015 full year results. The release is available on many news sites or it can be viewed from our corporate website at wolverineworldwide.com. If you'd prefer to have a copy of the news release sent to you directly, please call Tyler Deur at 616-233-0500. This morning's press release included non-GAAP disclosures, and these disclosures were reconciled with attached tables within the body of the release. Comments during today's earnings call will include some additional non-GAAP disclosures. There is a document posted on our corporate website entitled, WWW Q4 2015 Conference Call Supplemental Tables, that will reconcile these non-GAAP disclosures to GAAP. The document is accessible under the Investor Relations tab at our corporate website, wolverineworldwide.com, by clicking on the webcast link at the top of the page. Before we start, I want to provide some additional context and information. When speaking to revenue growth, Blake and Mike will primarily refer to underlying revenue growth, which adjusts for the…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from Erinn Murphy of Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Great. Thanks. Good morning. I was hoping you could speak a little bit more just about the inventory overhang that you reference in the fourth quarter. Just how much of that was boots and colder weather product? And then how does that affect your visibility as you think about the fall 2016 order book thus far? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Erinn, I assume you're talking about retail inventory in general? Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Yeah. Exactly, in general. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Okay. I really recently read some articles and retail inventory, at least here domestically, is at a 19-month high compared to sales. So it's one indication of where in general consumer soft goods and hard goods stand. And someone else estimated that current inventory is about 15% higher than last year's. So we've been fortunate here in the United States to have received some weather finally in January and February and that's helping to clear out some of the seasonal inventory. I've heard a few reports about a few retailers packing and holding some carryover stock, whether it's outerwear or boots. But there certainly is an overhang right now and, frankly, as we view the retail environment, it's going to take at least two quarters maybe into the third quarter to clear most of these goods and get down to a normal level. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Okay. I guess, Blake, as you guys are talking to your partners within the retail community, how are you seeing that order book shape…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Jessica Schmidt of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Jessica L. Schmidt - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks for taking my question. So, I know that you made some changes, organizational changes this quarter to kind of consolidate initiatives in apparel and accessories, but just given challenges that you've had there, would you consider licensing these businesses out on soft brands or would you ever look to make an acquisition that might build up some competencies in these categories? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I think frankly, we would consider the right strategic tuck-in acquisition in that area. You have to remember, we've licensed these areas maybe predominantly for our Hush Puppies brands since 1959 in a number of countries, different countries around the world, especially a number of programs in Asia-Pacific. So, it's something we're certainly used to. It's just a critical strategic initiative for us as we look ahead to developing global head-to-toe lifestyle brand. So, we do have no leadership. Some years ago, these efforts used to be consolidated under a single solid line reporting relationship in the company and frankly, we've moved back to that structure to be more effective and efficient.

Jessica L. Schmidt - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Great. And then I guess just quickly, how much of the $18 million in the Cushe business were you able to recapture under Merrell? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: It's hard to really estimate at the present time. We will get some of that under Merrell, but I don't know today if it's a third, if it's 50%. It would probably be something in that range.

Jessica L. Schmidt - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Great. I'll pass it along. Thank you. Christopher E. Hufnagel - VP-Strategy, Communications & Investor Relations: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Jim Duffy of Stifel. Please go ahead. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thanks. Good morning. Hope you guys are (47:16). Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Jim. Christopher E. Hufnagel - VP-Strategy, Communications & Investor Relations: Hi, Jim. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: So, my question is around SG&A and the restructuring specifics. Just looking through the outlook, the guidance seems to imply a reduction in SG&A that goes beyond the savings from restructuring. I know a year ago you talked about the $100 million investment behind the brands, you've mentioned some planned investment in consumer insights and innovation. I guess, I'm just wondering where you're finding savings in the ongoing business to show leverage and afford these additional investments even with down volumes. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah. I mean, Jim, we've been working really hard on that in the last quarter or so. And we've, obviously, made some great headwind in restructuring our D to C group and getting more leverage on the store operation side of the business. So, we're going to see some benefits in 2016 and beyond for that. We've made some other organizational changes, too, not quite as dramatic but in the first quarter, you'll see a little bit of additional kind of nonrecurring restructuring costs related to some other changes we made in the organization, leaning up the group and just positioning ourselves for the tough road ahead a little bit. We've also got some benefit from pension expense this year. And that's going to be a tailwind for us for a change. So, those are some of the main drivers. I think from the standpoint of just being…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Taposh Bari of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Chad H. Sutherland - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Good morning, it's Chad on for Taposh. My first question is on the new brand operating group structure. Can you just help – tell us how the change in structure better positions your core brands for accelerated growth? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: We don't do this slightly obviously. We've done it every several to five or six years historically as we've added or pruned brands from the portfolio, but this is something that we gave a lot of thought to and it developed over time. There's a number of – basically, we wanted to put the right brands with the right leaders. So, last year we had elevated Richie Woodworth to Group President and it makes sense, given the location, for example of Saucony in Boston to report to Richie. It's a brand that he ran for almost nine years, the growth there has been pretty spectacular and it just made a lot of sense. So, we grouped Saucony under Richie. And then, with respect to James Zwiers, who most recently had been running our international group, we grouped all of our brands with probably the most international penetration under Jim. So, when you look at Merrell, Hush Puppies, Cat, Sebago, those are all brands that have a substantial portion of their pairs offshore. And Jim was coming over from directly running our International Group. As you know, Jim has been 18 years at the company and hasn't quite held every job there is at the company, but it's getting close. And then under Ted Gedra for the Heritage group, we grouped our four core boot brands that are largely focused on the…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Jay Sole of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Jay Sole - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hey. Good morning. I was just wondering if you can dig into the sales guidance a little bit for next year within the different groups, the Performance Group, Lifestyle and Heritage. Can you tell us what you see in some of the growth rates for the different brands being, Sperry, Merrell, Saucony? Could you – anything you can share with us on that regard would be helpful. Thank you. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. We really don't go down that alley for a bunch of good reasons, and probably this year for even better reasons, given the probably the lack of clarity on what's going to happen here and a little bit in the first half but especially, in the back half of the year. So, across the board, we're pulling all levers to drive growth this year. Orders have been, frankly, pretty – future orders, pretty stingy to this point in time, which is completely understandable, given the retail situation with respect to inventory. So, we'll certainly give you some in a couple of weeks here, some historical revenue parameters on the new operating group structure. Jay Sole - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. Maybe a different question, maybe about sales. It sounds like there's two different themes here. On one hand, weather obviously impacted the boot business with Cat and Wolverine, but, at the same time, you are talking about macro, you mentioned China and different things that are continuing into 2016. So can you help us to segregate like what's really going on? How much is weather? How much is macro? Because it's not quite clear what the most…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Steve Marotta of C.L. King & Associates. Please go ahead. Steven L. Marotta - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Good morning, Blake and Mike. I understand your reticence on commenting at specific brand sales expectations for 2016. Historically, however, you've given them for the near term. At least, could you please speak to Merrell and Sperry sales expectations in the first quarter? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, yeah. We expect frankly Sperry to be down at a pretty good clip in the first half from what we see today. Boat shoes continued to be soft, maybe a little bit more – a little bit softer in men's interestingly than on the women's side of the business but still, trending down. Sperry is introducing some athletic casual, athleisure silhouettes. Certainly, for Sperry, we're not seeing any push-back from retailers or the consumers to category extensions. I guess the duck boot, the Saltwater Duck Boot, would be a good example of that. So, for us, it's just getting the Sperry product innovation engine ramped up quickly enough, never fast enough for me, to counter the falloff in boat shoes. With respect to Merrell, Merrell should have a bit more of a level year probably down a little bit here in the first half, but a lot of their initiatives around strategic partnerships with group retailers on Capra, All Out, Moab, and the introduction of Arctic Grip and really also the Tough Mudder affiliation, which will really get ramped up here late spring into the summer and next fall. A lot of those initiatives are really in midyear or beyond for the Merrell brand. So, maybe I would like it to be a little more balance, but it is what it is and we certainly like the initiatives going forward. Steven L. Marotta - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Thank you. That's helpful. Lastly, what is eCommerce in the aggregate as a percent to your consolidated sales? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: 5% or so. Steven L. Marotta - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Okay. And then... Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Too low. Steven L. Marotta - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Right. And if you include DTC in that, overall, what would the percentage be? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Right around 15%. 14%, 15%. Steven L. Marotta - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: That's really helpful. Thank you. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Welcome.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Corinna Van der Ghinst of Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Corinna Gayle Van der Ghinst - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Hi. Thank you for squeezing me in. I just wanted to follow-up quickly on the inventory discussion you gave some good color on caution in the marketplace. Did you guys actually take back any product from wholesale accounts? And are you going to clear that through your own retail stores or off-price throughout the year? And just then how are you strategizing your production for the year? Are you anticipating a higher level of at-once versus initial preorders this year and how are you kind of planning your ability to chase if the season ends up better than expected this fall? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: There's a lot of questions there. Let me see if I can tackle a few of them and Mike can tackle the rest. I guess with respect to inventory, I don't believe we took back any inventory. Maybe we took back 10 pairs or 20 pairs here and there, I don't know. But we really did not take back any inventory. As the fall season and holiday progressed, we work pretty closely with our retailers to make sure they weren't stuffed. And that they had the right balance of inventory, our inventory on their shelves. With respect to our mix, I know a lot of our peers have reported inventory levels substantially greater than ours. And our 12.7% probably is 3% higher than our original expectations going into the fall. But for us, it's virtually all core products, certainly core product we're not going to dump in the closeout channel. For our inventory, our closeouts compared to last year are down about a third and our aged inventory is down about 25%, just to give you some frame of that. So the first half of what we're seeing is…

Corinna Gayle Van der Ghinst - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. And then if I could follow-up with one big-picture question. How are you guys think about the long-term algorithm of the portfolio now given the reorganization, some of the brands or the exits that you have made and the appetite for acquisitions? Are you still thinking about the top-line growth story as a high-single digit long-term outlook? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, I would say 2016 is going to be a year from a revenue growth perspective we're, frankly, not entirely happy with. We wish it was better, but we are realistic and we understand it's a pretty dynamic environment, especially when you have about 49% of your pairs sold outside the United States. So we're realists and we're dealing with all those kind of challenges. We're happy with our portfolio right now. A few years ago, we would have touted 15 brands. So we've pruned our portfolio and are focused on growth initiatives really for all the existing brands that we still have in the portfolio. Certainly, when you look at a Keds or a Saucony or a Merrell or a Sperry, some of our bigger brands, a lot of growth potential left there, both in the lifestyle area as well as footwear.

Corinna Gayle Van der Ghinst - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Christian Buss of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Christian Roland Buss - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Yeah, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the accelerated capital expenditures in 2016 and also how you're thinking about share repurchases for the year. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Sure. Well, the CapEx number that we shared in the prepared remarks reflects a couple big initiatives. One is, as you know, we're moving into a new office in the Boston area just down the road from our existing location, so there's some meaningful investment in that new space. I think we plan to move in sometime in June, so it's around the corner. That would be an unusual one-time impact on our normal CapEx. We typically spend between $40 million and $50 million a year on CapEx, so the numbers we're showing are elevated from that. The other initiative which we're still working through negotiating but we have it in the guidance is an expansion of our distribution facilities and looking at some strategies around that outside of the current infrastructure that we have. We have a couple of leases that are expiring in a couple of older facilities. And so in an effort to look for some future cost savings and synergies, we're reevaluating our distribution footprint. So those are the two big drivers that would take us out of the normal CapEx levels. Christian Roland Buss - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): That's helpful. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: I'm sorry (1:10:53). Yes, we're always in the market. We're looking for opportunistic buyback scenarios. And one of the things, again, as you would be aware of, our notes today carry financial covenants that put some restrictions on those share buybacks. And we made some meaningful repurchases late in 2015. We were able to do that because we built up the capacity over a period of time in ways the covenants worked to be able to do that. And then that got reset and so we'll have to work through those covenants during the course of the year. We have some other options and we're looking at other ways to get amendments to those covenants. But in the meantime, we don't have any meaningful share repurchases embedded in our guidance. Christian Roland Buss - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Thank you very much and best of luck.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Benjamin Bray of Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead. Benjamin Bray - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Thanks for taking our question. Can you provide some detail on the 25% eCommerce growth in Q4 specifically? What was driving that acceleration? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, frankly, a lot of work we've done over the prior year. We spent a lot of effort and time and resources this year putting as many brands as we could on a single platform, and that has been very efficient and very useful to help drive growth. We added talent throughout the year in the digital social area for our brands. I think that was a great contributor to the growth as well. And then we're simply just paying more attention to it. It's an important growth opportunity for the company. Probably should be at least 10% of our overall sales and that's how we're viewing the opportunity. Obviously, a highly profitable opportunity. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: I would also add that we had some real wins in the fourth quarter from a product standpoint. And we mentioned earlier that our three biggest brand had over double – very strong double-digit growth in eComm in the fourth quarter. So that very successful Sperry Saltwater Duck Boot was a big driver of success for their eComm business as well. So where we go out with exclusive product opportunities and/or early opportunities on our own sites, we're seeing success with that and we'll be continuing that strategy going forward. Benjamin Bray - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): That's helpful. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Mitch Kummetz of B. Riley. Please go ahead. Mitch Kummetz - B. Riley & Co. LLC: Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. So, two questions. One, just in terms of the guidance. So, you expect better performance in the back half than the first half, but you have said that visibility is limited and you've also said that you expect retailers to be pretty cautious with the pre-books. So does it really boil down to just an easier back-half comparison and you're expecting more of a normalized winter so better reorders than what you experienced in this past fourth quarter? Or is it something else? Does it kind of come back down to just new product launches? And I have a follow-up. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, Mitch, it's really all those things, really. It's some of the new product launches, a lot of which are really aimed at the fall selling season across our brand portfolio. It will be some easier compares certainly as we get into the fall next year. I've given up trying to predict weather. I think one of the reasons, frankly, the Saltwater Boot did so well for Sperry this year, it's a transition product. Is it a cold weather product, is it a hot? We sold the Saltwater Boot in August, September, October, November, December, until we were sold out to the pair. So it's a great example of a good fashion fit, but also a transition product. So all of our brands, like a lot of our competitors, are focused on transition product. And then, listen, retailers have been, as you know, Mitch, for the last 10 years, trying to push more and more of the inventory risk back on to brand…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Scott Krasik of Buckingham Research. Please go ahead.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah. Hi, everybody. Thanks. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Hi, Scott.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

So, I don't think you specifically answered it from way back ago, Mike. So, what – how much is FX a headwind, just the FX portion to 1Q sales and the full-year sales please? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: For the first quarter only?

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

For the first quarter and then the full year. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah. For the first quarter only, it's about a 2% headwind...

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: ...for the first quarter and for the full year, it's about the same.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And then I'm assuming the gross margin is going to be down significantly on 1Q, but you're guiding... Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yes.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

...it to flat. So, can you talk about sort of what you're expecting or the environment to allow you to get back to a flat gross margin for the year, given the hole you're going to dig, please? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah. Yeah. We talked a little bit about it too. So Q1 will be the biggest quarter. All of our FX earnings exposure is really in the gross margin line. So all these – it's the product cost related to new contracts that we've entered into in the last half of 2015. So $0.06 headwind in the first quarter is all product cost. We don't get the full benefit of some of the product cost reductions until later in the year. So where we're seeing commodity price benefits and input cost benefits in our FOBs, those aren't going to show up until later in the year. We know what they are. We've ordered shoes against those prices, but we have some carryover there. We're also being a little conservative on providing some provisions, some reserve, if you will, for any additional liquidation of the inventory that might pose an opportunity for us in the first quarter and second quarter. So, that puts some pressure on margin and would subside in the second half. So, it's really those factors and the timing of some of the benefits that we expect to see. FX will loosen up a little bit later in the year. And those product costs will start becoming a bigger tailwind for us as we move through the year.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Okay, perfect. And then just last, Blake, you mentioned that you have some product wins, right? Capra and Duck Boots and some of the Saucony product. So, I mean, really it just feels like you don't have enough good product to grow the business at this point. So you've been through Fannie and OR and Magic (1:20:29), what are the retailers telling you about the fall products? You obviously have some big platforms you're introducing. I mean, is that when you're going to start to see growth? Do you have the orders in hand? Can you talk about visibility? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I mean, we certainly have the orders in hand for – or largely in hand for some of our key initiatives. So, our big partner retailers that have signed up with Merrell, for example, whether it's Capra, whether it's the expanded Moab line, we've got a lot of those orders in hand for that particular program. Obviously, everybody ran out of Sperry boots this past fall, so they know they need a good business. Sperry has shown that it's got a great line of transitional products which is great so. But other than some of these points of light, I would say, retailers at this point in time still being pretty conservative. As you know it, you can never have enough product wins. We are focused on our consumer and product innovation. That's one of the reasons why we're creating a new innovation hub to help supplement the brand's creative efforts in that particular area. So, it's something we're keenly focused on. We know at the end of the day we're an industry where if the product is right, everything else matters, and if the product isn't right, sometimes, nothing else matters. So, we're focused on it. We always wish we had a few more big stories. We've done a good job in 2015 of really filling the product pipeline, especially for Sperry, for example, in non-boat, and in Merrell as well, and across a number of brands for Arctic Grip. So fundamentally, it's going to be the focus on the consumer and product innovation that's going to drive organic growth. We can't control currency, we can't control some of the geopolitical volatility and instability. We can't really control commodity prices. So, as in 2015, we're focused on the controllables, whether it's gross margin, enhancing gross margin. We haven't taken our foot off the pedal behind investing in our brands. So, we're investing in our brand as we had originally planned. And we're especially investing in product creation and innovation.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Good luck. Thanks. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks. Christopher E. Hufnagel - VP-Strategy, Communications & Investor Relations: Thanks, Scott.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Chris Svezia of Susquehanna Financial Group. Please go ahead.

Christopher Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just want to circle back to some of the inventory for a moment. On your books, when it's up 12.7%. Could you just maybe just talk about what brands or categories have the heavy inventory? And what do you mean by it getting more in line as you go into the back half of the year? Are you still expecting it to be up? And how does that jive with, I guess, what seems to be high-single digit reported declines in revenue? Are you just meaningfully slowing down incoming receipts? Just how does that math work? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Sure. Yes. I can walk you through it, Chris. I mean, first of all, it's – we talked a little bit in the remarks about boot inventory being a little higher than we would like. Part of that was a slowdown in the fourth quarter. Just in general, I mean, the oil industry and construction sector and some other areas have been hit pretty hard, and our work boot business softened up a little bit because of that and, obviously, the weather impacted boots across any of the brands that have cold weather product. But we have core inventory that was purchased mid-year last year that came in really across the portfolio. And that's something we have to rationally work through over the course of the year. The good news is in September when we – late August and September when we saw some of the softness, we started to act pretty quickly with our factories on the core – orders of core merchandise that are generally at a pretty regular cadence in the way we buy it. And we slowed that way…

Christopher Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. And then just I have a question on pricing. In the past you have talked about the ability to try to push through some pricing. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah.

Christopher Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst

As you sit here today, given the dynamics in the world we're in, and I think last call you referenced you had some challenges on pricing in certain categories. How do we think about it for this year? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I would say really how our brands approached this especially internationally as your – as carryover product goes from price that good but it goes to better, and your better inventory and styles go from better to best. It's incumbent upon your brands to come back with appropriate pricing of product in that – at that good category level. So, a good-better-best scenario, a lot of our efforts from some of our brands, especially those brands with the big international businesses is focused on bringing out great product at the good price point level. And obviously, over the last several years, we've usually been ahead of this game. We've been very proactive when it comes to pricing. We like to increase our gross margins and our operating margins every year in most years. That's our focus. You can't do that if you don't price appropriately. It doesn't mean that you'd take a blanket increase across the whole product line for a particular brand. You have to be smart about it. And I would say for some of our brands, our more traditional boot brands in the work area, it's a little bit tougher because they have a lot of product that is carryover product. And some of those styles have been around for two years, three years, more than five years. So, yeah, it's not an exact science but it just – it's something you have to work on every week and you've got to get on in front of it. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: And, Chris, we took that tough action last year, early in the year. And even with Sperry and their domestic business, they raised prices. And ultimately the consumer and the retailers out there frankly responded well to that. So, we don't have any meaningful or large scale increases planned for this year, there'll be some surgical increases where needed. But, overall, the benefit we're getting to margin is really a result of just getting the full year benefit from some of the work that we did last year.

Christopher Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Analyst

Okay. Understood. Thank you very much and all the best. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Laurent Vasilescu of Macquarie. Please go ahead. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to follow up on the CapEx guide. How much of the 2016 CapEx should we anticipate for the new innovation and design center called out in the prepared remarks? Or is that something we should consider for 2017? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: There'll be some investment there, more in 2017. But luckily, we've got some facilities and capacity in our current footprint to take advantage of this year and as we build that hub up. And so, it'll become a more prominent investment beyond 2016. But there's a meaningful investment in 2016 as well. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. Great. And then in the prepared remarks, there was a lot of discussion about potential acquisitions. On the flip side, would you consider divesting a brand or a segment in order to improve profitability or to reallocate capital in order to fund future growth? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I think, as you know, we've got a great history when it comes to capital generate – or cash generation and increasing EBITDA. So, we've never lack, fortunately, for funds or resources to organically grow our brand or do acquisitions. So, that wouldn't really come into our thinking. Our thinking about our brands over the year and we routinely take a look at our portfolio. And as you know, years ago when I was COO we got out of three businesses and we've exited a business or a brand from time to time when it didn't make sense or meet our future growth or earnings parameters. We're pretty happy with the portfolio we have today. We have no plans to divest of any of our brands currently in our portfolio today. We also have today, because of our fantastic performance over the last three years and our current leverage ratio, we have the ability to do more acquisitions. We're primarily focused on organic growth today, but Mike and I and the team here do spend an appropriate amount of time looking at potential opportunities. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. Great. Thank you very much and best of luck. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Sam Poser of Sterne Agee. Please go ahead.

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. The difference between the adjusted number and the reported number is the store closing costs. Can you break that out by quarter for us? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: For which year, Sam?

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

In your guidance. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: It's almost all in the first quarter.

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

So, your net... Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Does that...

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

So your net earnings in the first quarter when you exclude that is $0.19, is that the correct number, or when you include that? Just trying to get that guidance that you gave for Q1. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: The guidance we gave of $0.21 to $0.24 excludes that number.

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And then there's a $4.6 million benefit you have in the quarter interest income or other income. Can you tell us what that is? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: In Q4?

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

Yeah. In Q4. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah. We had a settlement on an outstanding legal issue that came through in Q4. Obviously, that's something that won't recur next year, so it's sort of a one-time benefit for us.

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

Okay. So, it should – so, on a net-net, that should be taken out of the books? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah. It's already reflected. Yeah. When I provided the guidance on our net interest expense and other expenses, that's reflected in that number.

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

Okay. And then, I mean, so it looks like in the guidance, since you've done the PLG acquisition, your sales based on the sort of midpoint of your guidance are going to be up about 80% since 2011. And the earnings number is going to be almost flat. So, I'm just trying to – I'm trying to – I just want to understand sort of like when is this – when are we going to get cranking here? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, I don't have those historical numbers in front of me, Sam. But, obviously, the PLG acquisitions added, even today with the Stride Rite stores underperforming, has added well over $100 million on an annual basis of EBITDA. Those brands were not performing at the level of historical Wolverine brands when we bought them. They were largely focused on the U.S.A. market. They didn't have really any higher – a great deal of higher margin international business. So, for us, I think it's – we're seeing some growth in some of the brands. The overall success of those brands has been hurt by the Stride Rite stores. We've addressed that over the last 12 months and into this month. When you take a look at the international penetration, just as an example, the Sperry brand in pairs grew 15% internationally last year. The Saucony brand grew 25%. The Keds brand, which has been a bit of pleasant surprise to me, grew about over 170% last year. So, we're finally getting some traction. It takes a while, as I've said before, with some of these brands. But we're finally getting some meaningful traction on the international front despite some of the macro challenges that we talked about earlier. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Sam, it's important to remember just between 2015 and 2016, now with the new guidance that we've given you, $0.31 of currency impact to results. So, just to put that in perspective.

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

Okay. So, that entire – I just want to clear. I just want to make sure I get this. The adjusted $1.30 to $1.40, that number takes out the currency but doesn't include that one-time - Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: That's reported results excluding the $16 million of restructuring that we talked about. That's going to be mostly in Q1 and partially into Q2. So that's our normal adjusted earnings per share. It's not currency neutral or anything else.

Sam Poser - Sterne Agee CRT

Analyst

Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much for taking the questions. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: You're welcome, Sam. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Thank you, Sam.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The question-and-answer session has ended. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Chris Hufnagel. Mr. Hufnagel, you may proceed. Christopher E. Hufnagel - VP-Strategy, Communications & Investor Relations: On behalf of Wolverine World Wide, I would like to thank you for joining us today. As a reminder, our conference call replay is available on our website at wolverineworldwide.com. The replay will be available until March 23, 2016. Thank you and good day.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.