Vince Holding Corp.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the VINCE first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute during a presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for question and answer at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press start followed by one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference call over to our host. Akiko Okuma, please go ahead.

Akiko Okuma Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Vince Holding Corp First Quarter Fiscal 2024 Results Conference Call. Hosting the call today is Dave Stefko, Interim Chief Executive Officer, and John Stefanski, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that certain statements made on this call may constitute forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those that the company expects. Those risks and uncertainties are described in today's press release and in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the company's website. Investors should not assume that statements made during the call will remain operative at a later time, and the company undertakes no obligation to update any information discussed on the call. In addition, in today's discussions, The company is presenting its financial results in conformity with GAAP and on an adjusted basis. The adjusted results that the company presents today are non-GAAP measures. Discussions of these non-GAAP measures and information on reconciliations of them to their most comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release and related schedules, which are available in the investor section of the company's website at investors.viz.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Dave.

Thank you, Kiko, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning. I will begin with a review of highlights from our first quarter performance before turning the call over to John to discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail. Our first quarter sales results were in line with the high end of our expectations when we delivered better than expected adjusted operating margin performance as we continue to drive gross margin expansion and maintain strong expense disciplines. Our results also reflect our strategic actions focused on driving improved full price performance as we continue to pull back in our off-price business in our wholesale channel, as well as to reduce promotional activity in our direct-to-consumer channel. In addition to these actions, we are continuing to see strong customer reception to our assortments focused on luxurious contemporary wardrobe staples. Customers continue to gravitate toward our timeless casual pieces that can be styled up or down depending on the occasion. During the quarter in women's, we saw strong customer reception in our mitts and casual dresses. And in men's, he responded well to our linen fabrications in both tops and bottoms. Our direct-to-consumer channel, excluding the impact from store closures, slightly outperformed our wholesale channel. As mentioned, we continue to pull back our promotional activity across e-commerce and our stores, enabling a stronger full-price business and healthier customer file. In the quarter, we delivered a mid-single-digit increase in our full-price customer segment. And while this did not offset the impact of the lower promotional activity, It is yet another data point that has given us further confidence in our plans and expectations as we look ahead. In wholesale, we have also continued to strengthen our partnerships. During the quarter, we continue to be a top brand for many of our key partners. In Nordstrom's latest earnings call, they noted that we were among their top contemporary brands in fiscal Q1. As we announced on our last earnings call, we are looking forward to expanding our men's presence across all Nordstrom stores in time for this year's anniversary sale. This development is an important milestone as we continue to expand our men's business across our channels. We remain on track with expanding men's to 30% of total revenues over the next three years while also growing our women's business. We are excited about the progress we're making on this growth initiative and look to build on the momentum we are driving, especially following the strong reception we saw in the 2025 pre-spring market this past month. In addition to expanding our men's business, we're also continuing to enhance our customer acquisition efforts. Being in a cost management position over the last few years, we did not make investments in brand awareness, or top of funnel marketing strategies. While we are continuing to maintain strong expense disciplines, we are beginning to reengage in driving brand awareness and enhancing our marketing efforts to attract new customers and build increased loyalty with existing customers. During the spring, Culture Magazine, which targets a very affluent subscriber base, well balanced between men and women, with focused distribution in key markets for us, including New York, LA, and Miami, published an article featuring our Chief Creative Officer, Caroline Baughumer. In celebration of this publication, we hosted a dinner at the end of May in LA with approximately 100 Cultured subscribers. By hosting this event, we introduced Vince to potential new customers in an organic fashion and expanded our brand awareness in an important market. In addition to these types of events, we're also looking to leverage our customer data platform to enhance customer engagement and drive further loyalty with top customers. Our store associates are continuing to leverage the database to engage with past customers and drive reactivation efforts for those customers that have not shopped with us in the past 12 months. For our top customers, who represent about 10% of our customer base and drive approximately 35% of demand across our full price direct-to-consumer business, we are evaluating strategies and identifying opportunities aimed at increasing customer lifetime value through driving higher average order value and purchase frequency. We look forward to sharing more on these plans later this year. Along with our growth initiatives, We also plan to benefit from our partnership with Authentic Brands and our ownership stake in ABG VINTS. As a reminder, ABG VINTS owns the VINTS brand IP, and as it enters into new licensing agreements for the VINTS IP, we, in turn, benefit from the growth in ABG VINTS. We are looking forward to Peerless's launch of the VINTS tailored clothing line later this year, and we are excited for the recent announcement that Centric Brands will be producing a collection of handbags, belts, and small leather goods under the Vince label beginning in 2025. We believe the earnings received from our ownership in the growing ABG Vince subsidiary, along with our transformation plan, will more than offset the royalty expenses we now incur. Our transformation plan, which is targeting over $30 million in savings over three years, remains on track. We are very pleased with the initial progress we are making, which is materializing in our results thus far and reflected in our outlook as well. As we look ahead, we remain confident that the actions we have taken to date are positioning us well to deliver on our objectives. We are carefully investing to support the growth we see while maintaining strong expense and inventory management disciplines. We are focused on continuing to drive improved customer engagement and foster our relationships with our loyal top customers, which we believe will continue to yield results, and we have a strong wholesale order book in place for the remainder of the year. In closing, we're making significant progress in executing our objectives and remain focused on driving long-term profitable growth. I want to thank all of our teams for their talent, hard work, and dedication as we continue to deliver on our goals. I'll now turn it over to John to discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail. John?