Hooker Furnishings Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Hooker Furniture Quarterly Investor Conference Call, reporting its operating results for the second quarter of fiscal 2022. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Paul Huckfeld, Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer for Hooker Furniture Corporation.

Thank you, Gigi. Good morning, and welcome to our quarterly conference call to review our financial results for the fiscal 2022 second quarter, which began May 3, 2021, and ended on August 1, 2021. Joining me this morning is Jeremy Hoff, our Chief Executive Officer. We certainly appreciate your participation this morning. During our call, we may make forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. A discussion of factors that could cause our action results to differ materially from management's expectations is contained in our press release and SEC filing announcing our fiscal 2022 second quarter results. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of today and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after today's call. This morning, we reported consolidated net sales of $162.5 million and net income of $7.5 million or $0.62 per diluted share for our fiscal 2022 second quarter, which ended on August 1st. Compared to last year's second quarter, net sales increased by $32 million or 25%, while net income increased $1.7 million or 29%. Earnings per diluted share also increased 29% from $0.48 a year ago. All three reportable segments reported year-over-year sales increases of more than 20%. For the fiscal 2022 first half, consolidated debt sales were $325.4 million, up 90 million, or 38%, compared to last year's first half. We reported net income of $16.9 million, or $1.40 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $29 million or $2.46 per diluted share a year ago, principally due to $44.3 million or $33.7 million net of tax in non-cash impairment charges last year. Now I'll turn the call over to Jeremy to comment on our fiscal 2022 second quarter results.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased that Hooker Furnishings achieved double-digit sales and profitability increases for the second consecutive quarter. Each of our reportable segments, hooker-branded, home-ready, and domestic upholstery also achieved double-digit sales gains of 29%, 23%, and 29% respectively. While we expected improvements compared to the early months of the pandemic a year ago, we continue to surpass our goal to return to our pre-pandemic growth track. Consolidated sales were up over $10 million compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2020, and profits were up about 79% compared to the same quarter. Consumer and retail demand remain historically strong, with consolidated backlogs doubled compared to last year and incoming orders up 27% over last year in the six-month period. Industry-wide demand continues to be high. However, we are facing significant headwinds on the supply side that will impact us in the short term. The surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has caused factories in our source countries of Vietnam and Malaysia to close temporarily with recent talk of reopening in Vietnam around September 15th. In addition, global logistics challenges with higher freight and transit costs and lower transportation capacity, along with raw materials inflation and some labor shortages, remain ongoing. We are utilizing all available levers to help mitigate these headwinds, and we remain optimistic about our long-term position as we work our way through these transitory disruptions. Now I want to turn the discussion over to Paul Huckfeld, who will discuss highlights of each of our reportable segments.