Earnings Labs

Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (WWW)

Q2 2017 Earnings Call· Wed, Aug 9, 2017

$17.22

-1.40%

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

-4.14%

1 Week

-1.33%

1 Month

-0.41%

vs S&P

-1.20%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to Wolverine World Wide's Second Quarter 2017 Conference Call. All participants will be in a 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 you anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. [Operator Instruction] I would now like to introduce Mr. Chris Hufnagel, Senior Vice President of Strategy, for Wolverine World Wide. Mr. Hufnagel, you may proceed, sir.

Christopher E. Hufnagel - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2017 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 second quarter of 2017. The release is available on many news sites or can be viewed from our corporate website at wolverineworldwide.com. If you would 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 Q2 2017 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 turning the call over to Blake to comment on our results, I want to provide some additional context and information. As communicated during the company's first quarter earnings call, beginning in 2017, the company's fiscal year will be comprised of three 13-week quarters and a 13- or 14-week fourth quarter versus a 12-week quarter for the first three quarters, and a 16- or 17-week quarter for the fiscal fourth quarter. When speaking to revenue, Blake and Mike will primarily refer to underlying revenue, which adjusts for the impact of foreign exchange an additional week of operations, and excludes revenue from store closures and the exited Cushe business. We believe underlying growth best reflects how our global businesses are performing in the marketplace. In…

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Earlier this morning, we reported second quarter revenue of almost $600 million, representing underlying growth of 1.4% and record adjusted earnings per share of $.0.43, a 70% increase over the last year on a constant currency basis. We're obviously pleased with these results as the momentum in the business accelerated into Q2. Our proactive response to the quickly evolving global marketplace and changing consumer landscape has allowed us to sprint ahead in what remains a challenging global environment, something we've been calling the new normal for a couple of years. Our strong second quarter results reflect these efforts and I am encouraged about what I see ahead for the company. During the second quarter, we made excellent headway across all four sprint lanes of the WOLVERINE WAY FORWARD, our holistic enterprise-wide transformation of the company. Innovation and growth remains our top priority and we made excellent progress in becoming more consumer centric, strengthening our product innovation pipeline and reducing concept to market timeline, all aimed at driving the global growth of our brand. At the same time, we've taken aggressive action to address the underperforming segments of our business. Notably, closing subpar retail stores, executing strategic alternatives for a few of our smaller brands, and restructuring other parts of the business. We've also prioritized speed in everything we do with a focus on creating a nimble, faster, more efficient company. As a result of all this work, we now have a high level of confidence that we will achieve a 12% adjusted operating margin by the end of 2018, a bold goal we first introduced in April of last year. Our progress so far is encouraging and on plan but we remain intensely focused on fully executing the WAY FORWARD…

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Blake, and thanks to all of you for joining us on the call today. Our second quarter financial results were better than expected as the benefits from our operational speed and product marketing initiatives in 2016 have actually accelerated. We have delivered a strong first half, despite persistent global challenges that have been especially acute in the U.S. retail market. I'm proud of our performance, a result of the incredible work our team has executed to build a more profitable business and a stronger growth foundation for the company. I'd like to discuss the details of the WOLVERINE WAY FORWARD and the new tactics and enhanced operating model that will allow the company to execute with more focus, speed, and urgency. I'm excited to share some of the future opportunities and benefits we can expect from this transformation. But first, I will provide a brief review of our Q2 financial results. Second quarter revenue was $598.8 million, which exceeded our expectations entering the quarter. Underlying revenue grew 1.4% and revenue declined 3.3% compared to the prior-year taking into consideration an additional week of operations in 2017. Adjusted gross margin on a constant currency basis of 39.1% was 60 basis points better than 2016 despite a negative 210 basis point impact from store closures. Great performance by our brands. Significant supply chain benefits were recognized earlier than expected due to a very clean inventory pipeline. Our inventory was down 24% compared to the prior year, allowing lower product cost to flow through the P&L at an accelerated pace. In addition, cleaner retail distribution and lower inventory at retail have allowed us to reduce markdown and promotional exposure for many of our brands. We expect inventory levels to normalize in the back-half of the year and anticipate a double digit improvement…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question comes from Jim Duffy of Stifel. Please go ahead. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thanks. Good morning, guys.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Good morning.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Hi, Jim. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: A lot going on on these numbers here, all part of adjustments, changes to the run rate of the business. Clearly you guys have been busy. Maybe just to start, can we take a step back, Mike, and itemize the lost revenue run rate from discontinued businesses? Anything you've done since 2015 including Cushe stores, Stride Rite license, Sebago, if we could itemize those out, I think that would be helpful.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Since 2015 Cushe is a small number. This year that's probably a $4 million or $5 million impact in the 2017 numbers. And we kind of itemized out the store closure impact. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Hey Mike?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Can I interrupt you for a second?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Sure, sure. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Let's not talk 2017 because a lot of this cost is over years. I think it will be helpful for people in the investment communities just understanding how big each of these chunks of businesses are in total.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Okay. As it relates to sort of the discontinued businesses that we've had over time? Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Correct.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah, Cushe is about a $20 million business that is no longer obviously operating. When we think about the stores that we've closed, it will be about 425 stores over a four-year horizon for the company. I don't have the exact four-year or the impact of all those stores. I can tell you this year it will have about a $120 million impact on the 2017 revenue numbers, Jim, but over that three-year horizon, I don't have the cumulative number here in front of me Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: I think I remember from last quarter you mentioned a wrap around hit next year of $65 million from additional stores to close.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Right. Yeah. So when we talk about that 2018 impact from all the kind of the changes that we're going to be implementing this year, now we've got about $65 million to $70 million for the stores that we did operate this year that will no longer operate next year. So when you think about 2018, we gave some estimates in the prepared remarks for about $140 million impact next year from that in total. And $65 million to $70 million will come from store closures. The other impact obviously for us that we won't anniversary next year is about $40 million from the Stride Rite business and then $30 million from the Sebago business that we're going to recognize revenue this year that we won't recognize that next year. So just trying to set a new - Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: So those are partial year figures then, right, the Stride Rite license and the Sebago numbers?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Right. Yeah. So if you're trying to - Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Trying to annualize them.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah, if you're trying to reset the 2018 baseline, the $140 million is the amount you'd have to adjust out of the 2017 numbers to kind of reset for 2018 growth. So I know we're jumping around a little bit, but fundamentally for us the Stride Rite wholesale business is about a $85 million to $90 million revenue full year. We've recognized about half of that this year. Sebago is about $30 million, we're going to recognize most – all of that this year because of just the nature of how we entered into that arrangement and the sale that we'll be able to recognize in the back half and the full year impact from store closures even though we called out a $120 million this year and another $65 million for next year, so it's about $180 million to $190 million from the store closures. So that's the full year impact from 2017 to 2018. And then the incremental impact from all those things that we called out is about $140 million against the 2017 results. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Very helpful. Thanks for indulging me in that.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Sure. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: And then, it looks as though fewer stores closing this year than you had originally anticipated, is that just how negotiations with landlords are progressing, timing of things...

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah, we're still closing the same number of stores, it's really just the timing of that and really it is a result of some of the negotiations we entered into after our last call during the quarter. So we phased the timing of some of those stores a little bit differently and that's reflected in the new guidance.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. By year end, Jim, we'll be – we'll have about 80 go-forward stores. Jim Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Okay. I'll leave it at that, guys. Thank you.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Jim.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Ed Yruma of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Edward J. Yruma - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys and thanks for taking my questions. I guess, first, I know you've been actively trying to introduce new newness into the Sperry business. I guess how would you score your performance there and maybe some color on the performance of 7 Seas. And then just as a modeling follow-up, I know that you excluded the markdowns at the closed retail stores, was the revenue removed as well or? Thank you.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

I can answer that second question first. So the revenue and the normal operating losses for the stores that we were in the process of closing this year, those are all reflected in our results, so we did not adjust for the revenue or the normal operating losses. We did adjust out about for the first and second quarter I think it amounted to about $7.5 million of accelerated markdowns that we took to move inventory and just the – when we made the decision to close the stores at a kind of short notice basis, we really had to accelerate those markdowns to move the inventory through. So that $7.5 million is adjusted out, Ed, but the normal operating losses are still in the results, as are the revenues.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

And Ed, with respect to Sperry, we continue to see a large appetite from retailers and consumers for the Sperry brand. Probably we haven't – over the last couple of years we haven't frankly been as good as we had hoped with hindsight in feeding that beast. We made some leadership changes as you know earlier this year and the brand now is on an accelerated track to offer casuals, Gold Cup, other categories and replicate the success of the Saltwater Boot program in several other categories. 7 SEAS had mixed performance at retail. It was very good in more performance, marine account, less good in traditional casual shoe retailers, but interestingly strong in several international markets. So overall I would say didn't quite meet our overall expectation for that introduction and it was mixed by channel.

Edward J. Yruma - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Great. Thanks so much, guys.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Ed.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Chris Svezia of Wedbush. Please go ahead.

Christopher Svezia - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I guess first, I'm just curious what was the $0.04 thereabout shift coming out of Q3 to Q4. Can you clarify what that was, what's the driver?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

It's actually out of Q3 into Q2.

Christopher Svezia - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Right.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

So it's really just timing of some of the expenses that we had phased differently, some impact from some shipments that moved around for certain brands. We opened our distribution center on the West Coast in late June or late July, so there were some distant movement there on some things like that. Not one in particular is meaningful or significant, not one item, but just a number of timing items that just sort of phased out differently in our plan.

Christopher Svezia - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And then when I think about the third quarter of the earnings guidance that you gave and the revenues, can you just maybe parcel out how much of Q3 revenues is being impacted by no longer having Stride Rite and how much is being impacted by shifting probably later into the fourth quarter, just on the revenue side? And then from an earnings perspective, I would assume operating margins are down year-over-year. So I'm just curious is that just due to the fact gross margins are down, because you have less retail stores, offsetting supply chain and then operating expenses are higher because you're reinvesting. Just maybe walk through some of those exits though.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Sure. Sure. It's about $20 million impact on revenue from the Stride Rite change that we – the new license arrangement, so that's $20 million impact to revenue. Operating margins will be about flat in the third quarter on that revenue. And then there certainly is a shift in the revenue between the quarters and the calendar change. And more importantly, and we talked a little bit about in the remarks, I mean we're just seeing a different shift in terms of our order book in the way that customers are ordering – continuing to order close to need. When we look at our order book today and the way it phases in the back half of the year, we're seeing some strength supporting our Q4. And the timing of some of the orders in Q3 are little bit softer. So we're just kind of reflecting that here. Some of that has to do certainly with calendar change and some of it has to do with just sort of the nature of the flow of our business right now.

Christopher Svezia - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And then...

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

As far as the gross margin goes, again, the gross margin will actually improve a bit. It still has that same headwind related to store closure mix. We had about 210 basis points of headwind in the second quarter. We didn't have all those stores closed yet. Obviously, we operated some of them for the first period of the quarter. So in the third quarter we're going to have a similar headwind of about 200 basis points, and the same in Q4 against gross margin. But even with that, we expect gross margins to expand a little bit. And then just the phasing of Q3 and Q4 SG&A would kind of get us to flat to slightly better operating margins in the third quarter.

Christopher Svezia - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Two final things for just e-commerce, how much did it grow and roughly what percentage of the business is it running at? And lastly, Blake, for you, just when you think about the organic growth rate for 2018, I know you've kind of threw out $140 million headwind related to these factors, but what are you – how are you still thinking about that, do you have better visibility around that? I think you've said before mid single digits. Just curious about that.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Yeah. Let me address your first question. On e-comm, today I would say on an annual basis it's about 7%, 7.5% of our overall revenue. We would really – we're looking – we're putting a lot of resources behind digital, social and e-comm and new capabilities, we would look to double that over a period of time. Probably by 2020, it will certainly be north of double digits given our overall revenue for the company. So, like a lot of brand owners, we're obviously focused on DTC and in particular digital, social, and e-comm. And in the quarter, that grew high teens. As far as our organic growth goals, they really haven't changed for 2018. They probably have solidified a little bit. So we're still looking at mid single digit organic growth next year across our entire brand portfolio and obviously driven primarily by innovation, increased speed and just about everything we do, but product innovation. And we've got greater line of sight to that today than we had three months ago.

Christopher Svezia - Wedbush Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. And all the best. Appreciate it.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Chris.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Jonathan Komp of Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead. Jonathan R. Komp - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Yeah. Hi. Good morning. First, just I want to follow-up on the last answer you gave on the e-commerce business and then another topic. But first on the e-commerce, could you just comment, I know you gave the 7% to 7.5% penetration for your own e-commerce. What do you think the total e-commerce ecosystem is when you include third-party e-tailers, if you will, and what type of growth rate are you seeing there?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

It's a very good question. A little hard to determine. We don't get that kind of breakout from every retailer. But I would say right now, overall for the company, we're probably in the 25% range. We would probably range higher than that for certain of our brands in their biggest markets, especially when their biggest market is the United States. But overall for the company, I would guess about 25% and growing obviously. Jonathan R. Komp - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Okay. Thank you for that. And then I wanted to ask a couple of questions on the margin outlook. But first, Mike, just wanted to ask, I know you mentioned some incremental investments planned for the second half, are you willing to quantify the level of investment you are making?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. I mean it's – we're still in development a little bit on a few of the items, Jon. I mean I think as we have been able to harvest some of the early wins, we've been looking at the opportunity to accelerate some of those. But I would say sort of in that $0.04 to $0.05 range of incremental investment that we wouldn't have had originally in our plan that we were probably going to see kind of spread between Q3 and Q4. Jonathan R. Komp - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Okay, great. And then, if you look at the increase to the margin outlook on a net basis, you raised the operating margin goal. I'm just wondering you also talked about accelerated timing of some of the benefits from your initiatives. And I'm just wondering when you look at that, even the net increase to the guidance, how much of that is kind of accelerated timing of recognizing the benefits versus maybe unlocking new layers of savings? Curious for any perspective.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

I think it's about 50-50, frankly. I think part of the over-delivery, certainly a good chunk of the over-delivery in the first half of the year is driven by the fact that we had healthier business, we've got a cleaner inventory, we've been able to recognize those improved product costs in our margins earlier than we sort of had initially expected. Our pipeline at retail is cleaner so our markdowns and our promotions have been lower. So that's really a function of groundwork we laid last year and before last year to kind of improve the business. And then when I think about the improvements coming from WAY FORWARD work and being able to accelerate some of that activity is probably contributing about half of the remainder of the upside, but obviously netted with the investments that we're talking about. Jonathan R. Komp - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Okay, great. And last one for me then still on the margin topic, but the 12% goal by the end of 2018, I just want to ask on that. I know you mentioned I think another incremental $70 million revenue headwind next year from Stride Rite and Sebago and the moves there. And you said that would be slightly accretive to profit, so obviously there is a margin percent benefit to that. I'm just wondering is that margin percent benefit incremental to your 12% goal or how do we think about that effect?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

No, no. I think as we work through the sort of the business and the different models and the strategic alternatives, that's always been part of our target – establishing our targeted 12%. Jonathan R. Komp - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Okay. And are you baking in some other kind of unforeseen, at least to us, strategic actions into that 12% or is that based on what we see today?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. The view we have, it's based on what we see today. I mean the work we are pursuing in WAY FORWARD is I would say halfway through the identification phase. I think there are plenty more opportunities that we haven't crystallized and are certainly not ready to plan for in 2018. We're going to deliver our strong 2017 back half year. That's our primary focus. Our ability to turn into 2018 with some momentum and some really key wins behind us is also important and we're just really confident at this point that 12% is something we can achieve. Jonathan R. Komp - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Operator

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

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

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Good morning.

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

Analyst

I just wanted to start with the some of the commentary that you had in the remarks about your brand performance in the quarter. Sounds like Merrell is still trending up nicely up mid single digits and Sperry was down mid single digits. I just wanted to clarify within your updated guidance, are you assuming any adjustments to your outlook for these brands as we enter the back half of the year?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Well actually, our guidance for the second half of the year takes into account our current view across the whole portfolio. So certainly, we're looking at the outlooks of not just Sperry and Merrell, but the other brands in our portfolio.

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

Analyst

Okay. But any specific changes to those two brands and how you are guiding those two brands for the year?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Not really. Maybe with respect to Sperry, they had a boost last year in the fall season, were a little weak for the industry, but Sperry had a very strong second half in boots. So that puts a little bit of a question on the Sperry performance and it's going to depend a little bit on at-once performance in the boot category for Sperry. We expect Merrell on our revenue basis to probably be stronger than Sperry in the second half as we continue to see the rollout of new product innovation and new collections. Sperry will probably lag Merrell a little bit.

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

Analyst

And does Todd Spaletto's coming on board, has that impacted the Merrell performance in your view this year? When should we kind of start to see some of the fruits of his hiring?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. I think we've added Todd Spaletto and Sue Rechner over the last four, five months, great leaders, great talent. We couldn't be more pleased with their attitude and take charge mantra. I would say a lot of the benefit we're frankly seeing in Merrell the first half of the year and into this fall it's from initiatives that were started a year ago, given the nature of the timing of our product pipeline. So we really haven't seen, we haven't yet really experienced some of the dollars and cents benefits that are going to roll forward from Todd and Sue.

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

Analyst

Okay. Great. And then my second question was just, how do you feel that your brand portfolio is now positioned given some of the recent changes you made with Stride Rite going to a license model, the sale of Sebago, and I also noted that you guys are soliciting M&A as a priority for cash. So, just given some of recent deals that we've seen in footwear and what you are seeing in the environment, maybe you could comment on kind of how you're looking at the M&A environment right now, if you're seeing any opportunities.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Sure. I would say we're going to continue to look at our portfolio and sometimes that work is never done when you're operating a dozen different brands across 200 countries and territories. But on the acquisition M&A front, I think we're aggressively reviewing opportunities right now and we have been for some time. Our impression is maybe the multiples have, despite the recent announcement on the one large transaction, but the multiples have maybe come down a little bit, but we're aggressively looking at opportunities. We have plenty of dry powder and we're looking for the next right strategic fit. We have a pretty long history and successful track record when it comes to integrating brands into the business and plugging and playing them into our international network.

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

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Erinn Murphy of Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Great. Thanks. Good morning.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Good morning. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co.: I had a question on – good morning. I had a question on Europe. I think lot of the market or some of the markets there you're moving back to distributor models versus owned markets. Can you just talk about which markets those are? How much of the European portfolio that is and kind of what you anticipate the end result will be as you think about driving that 12% EBIT goal over the next year? Thanks.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. We have moved some of our smaller, measured in terms of revenue markets to third-party distributors that just frankly made economic sense and freed up our talent and team to focus on bigger markets and bigger opportunities. As you know, we do about half our payers in Europe, in the UK market, so that market is key for us at this point. We've moved some of our smaller brands in the EMEA, the EMEA region to third parties, recently a few smaller countries for Keds and Sperry and Hush Puppies, but we view EMEA in general as a real growth opportunity for the company. And when we look around the world, certainly Asia Pacific, Latin America and EMEA all increased kind of at a double digit pace for us this quarter. And as we've said for some time that the toughest market geographically continues to be the U.S. market. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Got it, Blake. Can you share some of the countries that you are doing it to? It sounds like UK you are still doing directly, but is it Spain or Eastern Europe?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah, UK, we still do, yeah, in the UK, we still do it directly all of our brands, all of our significant brands that are meaningful. And really it's just some of the smaller countries and smaller brands throughout Europe. I don't have a matrix right here in front of me, but we've been actively managing that side of the portfolio as well. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Got it. Okay. And then you guys have talked about some of the progress you've made on reducing product cycle times. I think the Chameleon 7 is a good example of that. How much product maybe within the Merrell brand you have on this kind of shorter cycle time, I guess pipeline, and then how much more do you think you can derive off some of these initiatives over time?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

I think we're kind of early on the continuum here. With respect to Merrell itself, not enough. I would say that across our whole brand portfolio. Retailers and consumers are clearly buying closer to need. You need to be faster and act with some speed here and condense the development time period. So, we have established pretty aggressive goals. We have a process in place for both new concepts and existing collections in our pipeline across the portfolio. And now it's just a matter for us to roll it out over time. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Got it. And then just last question. With Sue there as the president of Merrell, have there been new opportunities that she's been able to identify? I know she's only been there a few months, but maybe you guys weren't looking at previously for that brand?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah, I think both Sue and Todd bring an interesting and fresh perspective for the business, and I don't want to put too much of a burden on Sue's shoulders couple months into the job, but certainly we love her leadership and we love her fresh ideas. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co.: Okay. Thanks.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks,

Operator

Operator

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

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

Analyst

Hi, thanks. So just a couple of follow-ups on Merrell. You mentioned that Merrell actually benefited from moving from a distributor to a top-line model. Can you explain what that was? And then, I think Work is a all-new category this year, so just wondering how big of a contributor that was.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. I think, addressing your first question, Scott, I think as you know we have a – we do business in 200 countries and territories around the world, every year we have migration from joint ventures to owned to royalty based and top-line model changes. They tend to certainly not be material for the whole year as a back-and-forth changes for the company. We only called out Merrell in the quarter because they did switch a couple of the distributors to – much earlier to top-line model changes, and for Q2 it seemed to have an impact on the overall Merrell reported revenue. Merrell was up kind of at the high end of mid single digits. And when I factor out the model change for this particular quarter, it would have probably been up low single digits.

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

Analyst

Okay.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

But that we would expect that even for the Merrell brand to kind of even out over the course of the year.

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

Analyst

Okay. And then...

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

With your second part...

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

Analyst

Yeah, Work.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Oh, Work, yeah, been a great opportunity. Work and Tactical for Merrell, it's just beginning to ramp up, kind of a new business model focused on our e-commerce site for this initiative and certain key retailers. So it's certainly meeting our expectation. Overall for the $500 million or thereabouts Merrell brand, we wouldn't expect it to be very material in its first year, but we do expect it to grow. The feedback has been very positive on into 2018 and beyond.

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

Analyst

Great. And then just if I can follow up. You mentioned stabilization in the boat shoes or maybe somewhat stabilization, I forget your wording exactly, so what does that imply and then when you think about mid single digit growth next year, does that suggest boat shoes inflect positively?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

No. Right now we all get the same market data and the boat shoe silhouette continues to have some trend headwinds and decline. We wouldn't assume any – or our expectations for 2018 do not assume any rebound in the boat shoe silhouette. Frankly, we're starting to see a lot more preppy and boat shoe silhouettes on runways around the world, but we'll just see how that rolls out with the consumer. We're not expecting any big uptick there.

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

Analyst

Okay. And then, Mike, just lastly on the inventory comments, you said normalize in 2H.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah.

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

Analyst

But maybe down double digits at year end. So just trying to clarify that, please.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah, well, we have been just – for the last few quarters here, we've been running at that mid-20% improvement.

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

Analyst

Right.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

And we had a really good results at the end of year, down over 25% at the end of 2016. So even though we've made some additional portfolio changes and additional store closures, I didn't want you to think we were going to continue at that forward pace. So we'll still have really healthy improvement at year end, but will be anniversarying a really good Q4 in 2016, so.

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

Analyst

Okay, great. Good luck, guys.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Scott.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Scott.

Operator

Operator

And we have time for one final question. And the final question comes from Laurent Vasilescu of Macquarie. Please go ahead. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Good morning, thanks for taking my question. I wanted to follow-up on the store closures and the impact to revenues. I think it was called out that store closures will impact the FY 2017 revenues by $120 million.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Right. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: So far this store closures have impacted 1H 2017 revenues by $39 million, leaving us another $80 million to account for. How should we split that in dollar terms for 3Q and 4Q?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. We have about $65 million to $70 million left in Q3 and Q4 for the stores that will be closed this year. There will be some additional closures at the end of the year that will impact next year, but about $65 million to $70 million and that splits pretty evenly between the two quarters. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. And then, I want to follow-up on the re-calendarization. The first quarter had a $43 million gain for the extra week. I was curious to know why the extra weeks are guided so much smaller for 2Q and 3Q in this mornings' press release, considering the overall top line is roughly equal across the first three quarters?

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Yeah. It's really the calendar. I mean the way we estimated the impact for both revenue and EPS in that table which is reflected in the earnings release was very specifically related to the activity in those particular weeks last year. So, we're not trying to smooth anything, we're just taking the actual result and redistributing them into the right periods. So that – we thought that would be additional information that would be helpful. We have obviously some questions on the calendar change from the past two quarters. And so the table in the earnings release should be helpful to reset everyone's expectations. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Very helpful. Thank you. And then last question, I wanted to ask about the underlying growth for the Wolverine Outdoor Group, up 11%. I think this compares to the flat year-over-year result in 1Q. Just curious to know what drove that, is there any shift in timing between quarters?

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Not really. There really wasn't any significant shift. Some of the warehouse shift in revenue, several million dollars that Mike mentioned earlier, really was more focused on the Wolverine Heritage Group, but the Outdoor & Lifestyle Group, it was pretty much normal course of business. Just stronger performance by Merrell, Chaco, by Cat, that was the main drivers. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay. Thank you very much. And best of luck.

Michael D. Stornant - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks.

Blake W. Krueger - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Laurent.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The question-and-answer session has now ended. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Chris Hufnagel.

Christopher E. Hufnagel - Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Management

On behalf of Wolverine World Wide, I'd 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 December 6, 2017. Thank you and good day.

Operator

Operator

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