National Vision Holdings, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the National Vision's third quarter fiscal year 2021 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, David Mann, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to National Vision's third quarter 2021 earnings call. Joining me on the call today are Reid Fahs, Chief Executive Officer, and Patrick Moore, Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release issued this morning and the presentation, which will be referenced during the call, are both available on the investor section of our website, nationalvision.com. and a replay of the audio webcast will be archived on the investor's page after the call. Before we begin, let me remind you that our earnings materials in today's presentation include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the factors identified in the release, and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The release in today's presentation also includes certain non-GAAP measures. Reconciliation of these measures are included in our release and the supplemental presentation. We also would like to draw your attention to slide two in today's presentation for additional information about forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. As a reminder, National Vision expects to provide certain supplemental materials or presentations for investor reference on the investor section of our website. Now, let me turn the call over to Reed.

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for joining us today. Let me begin by sharing my heartfelt appreciation to the entire National Vision team for their continued hard work and commitment to serve our patients and customers with a safety-first approach during these ever-challenging times. Turning to slide four and a summary of Q3 results, As noted in today's press release, our results are, as in our Q2 release, being compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2019. Due to the significant recovery following the reopening of our stores last year, we believe that 2019 is the most helpful basis for comparison. We're pleased to deliver another quarter of consistent performance. Net revenue increased nearly 20% over the third quarter of 2019, with adjusted comparable store sales growth of 13.3% over the same period. The top-line strength continues to be led by our growth brands, America's Best and Eyeglass World. We opened 14 new stores during the quarter and ended with 1,262 locations. Adjusted operating income increased 110%. and adjusted EPS increased 134% to 38 cents. Subsequent to quarter end, we announced the following significant developments. We released our first corporate responsibility report as we continue to progress in our ESG journey. Also, we paid down $50 million in debt this week and announced a new $50 million share repurchase program. Overall, our third quarter results reflect the consistent strength and durability of our business model. Finally, in today's earnings release, we tightened our 2021 outlook. In a few minutes, Patrick will take you through our Q3 results and updated outlook in more detail. Turning to slide five, as the chart shows, our business has demonstrated a track record for consistency over the past two decades, with 72 quarters of positive Comfortable Store sales growth prior to our COVID closing, followed by strong comp performance since reopening last year. We're fortunate to be the low-cost provider of a medical necessity. Our consistency also highlights the benefits of operating in an attractive industry supported by positive trends such as an aging population, migration from mall shopping, and increased eye strain from such things as screen usage. We expect these market trends to continue and to favor larger, better capitalized value retailers like National Vision. The optical industry remains highly fragmented, and we are confident that we have a significant opportunity to continue to grow our market share. In the third quarter, we were pleased with our slightly positive comp performance versus 2020, as we lapped the difficult comparison from last year due to the pent-up demand from store closures, the benefit of government stimulus, and an elevated average ticket. We also faced the impact from the surge in cases from the COVID-19 variant and what turned out to be a tepid back to school season. We did not experience the seasonal back to school lift that had been typical in pre-pandemic years. Having said that, we're confident that we continue to outperform the industry this quarter, and we believe that this should continue. I want to say a few words about the current supply chain environment, given the challenges being noted across the broader economy. Our efforts to mitigate supply chain disruption have been effective thus far. Planning is crucial and our merchandising and supply chain teams have done a tremendous job over the last few months. We've extended our order lead times and are benefiting from strong long-term vendor relationships and financial strength. Consequently, our merchandise inventories are currently in a solid position. Shifting to slide six, we see a path to continued growth and sustainable market share gains. Let me now provide an update on our core growth initiatives and how we plan to maximize our opportunities and further strengthen our competitive advantages. New stores remain a primary focus as we continue to see a sizable white space opportunity. We have the potential to nearly double our current store footprint with two very attractive growth engines in America's Best and Eyeglass World. Year to date, we opened 59 stores and are on track to meet our target to open about 75 stores in 2021. We currently have a solid pipeline of specific locations for next year, which includes sites to support our plan for a modest acceleration in eyeglass world openings. Optometrists play a key role in our company's ongoing success, a fact even more evident since our reopening last year. Our consistent performance would not have been possible without the admirable hard work and commitment to patient care of our network of optometrists. We strive to be the place of choice where optometrists want to practice and stay for their entire career. As you have heard me say before, we are always seeking more optometrists. As such, we continue to invest in optometrist-related programs toward maintaining high retention rates and expanding exam capacity. Marketing, along with the positive word of mouth from happy patients and customers, continues to be a key factor in attracting customers and driving traffic to our stores. We compete in a marketing-intensive category given the infrequent purchase cycle for eyeglasses. Our advertising investment in both television and digital channels is consistent with our strategy to grow market share, and we're investing more aggressively to maximize opportunities during the pandemic and beyond. We believe that our value message and safety-first approach have resonated in the current environment and are pleased to have acquired many new customers in Q3. Our participation in vision insurance programs continues to be a positive revenue driver. We remain underdeveloped relative to the category and continue to see an ongoing opportunity here as managed care dollars and co-pays tend to go further in our stores than elsewhere. Our digital and omnichannel initiatives remain a key strategic focus for investment. We continue to advance efforts to expand capacity to see patients as well as opportunities to improve engagement throughout the customer journey. Our pilots in remote medicine are continuing, and we are thus far pleased with the pilots. At this point, let me turn the call over to Patrick for more detailed discussion of our financial results.