Operator
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Zumiez, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in listen-only mode. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone of the company's Safe Harbor language. Today's conference call includes comments concerning Zumiez, Inc., business outlook, and contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made on this call that are not based on historical facts are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information concerning a number or factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed, is available in Zumiez' filing with the SEC. At this time, I will turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Advisor (sic) [Officer] (0:56). Please go ahead, sir. Richard Miles Brooks - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you and welcome, everyone. Joining me on the call today is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll start today's call with a few brief remarks regarding our fourth quarter and our start to the 2016 fiscal year. I'll then give an update on our broader strategy and I'll hand the call over to Chris, who will take you through the numbers. After that, we'll open the call to your questions. Fourth quarter was another challenging quarter for us. While net sales came in ahead of our guidance range at $242.4 million, it was led by a negative same store sales comp of 9.5%. In light of these top line headwinds, we continue to tightly manage expenses in the quarter, which benefited margins and resulted in diluted EPS of $0.50, also ahead of our previous guidance. Evident in our results are some of the ongoing trends affecting our industry, including weak consumer traffic, the lack of a clear and compelling fashion trend within our target customer base, as well as the impact of foreign exchange on our international and more tourism-oriented locations. These pressures have unfortunately followed us into 2016, with February sales comps down 8.6% year-over-year. While holiday results were better than we originally expected, our fourth quarter performance was certainly not how we wanted to finish the year. We recognize our ability to successfully navigate the current headwinds and return our sales trends to positive territory is predicated on our ability to have merchandise assortments that align with our customer's preferences and needs available anytime and anywhere. This is why we invested heavily in several components of our omni-channel infrastructure over the last five years that work in concert to better serve the customer, including; an enhanced assortment planning software allows us to micro-sort our stores, localizing the trends that appeal to our diverse customer base; enhancing our in-store telecommunication infrastructure, allowing us to better facilitate the omni-channel experience; the upgrade of our web platforms in both the U.S. and Europe, providing fast and stable performance as well as continued enhancement of our omni-channel functionality; the roll out of our Stash loyalty program rewarding our best customers and continuing to find a way that we interact with them; the 2016 roll out of our new leading-edge customer engagement suite that will better integrate all of our sales channels; and launching full localization, enabling our best-in-class sales teams to serve their local customers with nearly 100% in-store fulfillment of online orders. Even with all the technological enhancements that we have introduced, it's important to emphasize the critical role that our dedicated sales teams play in delivering a highly-differentiated and hyper-localized product mix and sales experience. We continue to view our people as a competitive advantage that differentiates us as an authentic lifestyle-focused brand. The roll out of our new customer engagement suite in 2016 will further capitalize upon this fundamental strength in our business, marrying up our point-of-sale engagement with our back-end systems, creating an integrated experience that both optimizes operational performance, and most importantly, provides our sales teams with the technology to further enhance the Zumiez brand and culture in an authentic way for our core customer. We've already begun phase one of the roll out and expect the phased North American implementation to continue throughout 2016 and into 2017. In addition to these investments in our omni-channel infrastructure, we also continue to address more immediate concerns arising from the shift in consumer traffic. This includes reducing our 2016 store openings domestically and continuing to be disciplined with our spending where possible to protect profitability and overall shareholder return. While addressing near-term issues is required, we remain steadfast on our long-term strategic focus, as we reinforce our success through sustainable investments in the business. Let me take a moment to update you on what we've been doing and our early thoughts on 2016. I touched earlier on some of the exciting steps we've taken to enhance our technological platform. These advancements are done in tandem with our physical store growth. During 2015, we opened 51 new stores in North America, including six that opened during the fourth quarter, bringing our total North American store count to 634. In 2016, we plan to open 27 new stores in North America, and our goal remains to strategically leverage our integrated technological platform to optimize our store footprint by maximizing the impact within each geographic trade area. We do not want one more store than necessary in any given trade area, which is why our new store openings are targeted in areas where we are underpenetrated, and have the opportunity to expose our in-store experience to a larger group of customers. In Europe, we opened six stores during 2015 and are projected to open seven stores in 2016. We continue to invest behind our positive momentum in Europe, as we remain optimistic about potential for growth in this highly fragmented market. While still a small portion of our business, performance has been strong, and we believe our diligence in maintaining our unique culture and perspective on both sides of the Atlantic is paying dividends. Wrapping up, I want to thank the entire Zumiez team for their hard work and dedication during this challenging past year. Even while headwinds persist on the industry, strong culture of our employees that our employees embody, combined with our unique brand positioning, differentiated product assortments and advanced omni-channel capabilities, gives us confidence that we're well positioned to continue gaining share and delivering long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll hand the call to Chris for his review of our financials. Chris?