Vince Holding Corp.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Vince Holding Corp's fourth quarter and fourth year fiscal 2024 results conference call. Hosting the call today is Brendan Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer, and Yuji Okamura, 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 discussion, 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 those non-GAAP measures and information on reconciliation systems 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.fins.com. Now, I'll turn the call over to Brendan.

Thank you, Akiko, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. This marks my first earnings call since returning as CEO earlier this year, and I cannot overstate how proud I am to be back with the Vince team. Having observed the business's evolution from a distance these past few years, I recognize not only the progress that has been made in strengthening the foundation of the organization, especially over the past year, but also the strength of the leadership team in place and the consistency in the product delivered season after season. The core DNA of Vince remains intact. Our product continues to resonate with consumers seeking effortless sophistication, and we've made significant strides in operational efficiency. While we are currently operating amidst a highly dynamic and evolving landscape, the work the team has done over the past year with its transformation plan and focusing on improving product costs and overall operating efficiencies better positions us to navigate today's environment. Before I provide more color on the current environment and how it's impacting VIMS, Let me review a few highlights from the business's fourth quarter performance. The period came in better than expected, driven by our wholesale segment, which helped to offset the softness in our retail stores, despite ongoing positive momentum with our full-price customer file, which drove growth in our e-commerce channel. During the quarter, we continued to engage the full-price customer with double-digit growth in full-price customers in Q4 across our DTC channels. Additionally, retention efforts focused on our most valuable and highest spending customer tier proved effective, with a plus 9% growth in our highest customer spending tier from Q4. Across both men's and women's, we saw strength in our sweaters and bottoms assortments. Our funnel neck sweater continues to be a key product for our women's sweater assortment and drove nice growth in the quarter. We also saw strength in our women's pant business, as customers gravitated towards new fabrications and seasonal colors in our core bias pants. In men's, cashmere was also a top-performing fabrication within sweaters, and we continue to be pleased with the success of our pant program. As we did with our bias pants for women, we introduced new suede fabrication for our Dillon pant in men's and continue to see nice reception to the newness we are delivering with key silhouettes. Within wholesale, we continue to see strong momentum. Our relationships with key wholesale partners have never been stronger, and I am amazed by the growth we are now delivering in this channel. that just a few years ago appeared to a plateau. In partners like Nordstrom's and Bloomingdale's, we have prime floor space to showcase our compelling assortments and provide opportunities for growth, including the expansion of our men's business. As the team has talked about in prior quarters, men's is an opportunity for the brand. What was once a key item business has now grown into a full collection today, and we are proud to be a dual gender brand represented in all Nordstrom doors. While I hope to be sharing more in the growth opportunities we see ahead for the brand, our number one priority at the moment is navigating and managing through the evolving tariff policies and dynamic consumer landscape. In environments such as these, the strength of our relationships with our wholesale partners is critical. I am working closely with Jill Norton, our Chief Commercial Officer, and we are talking with our partners regularly on how to best handle the current situation with tariffs. and the uncertainty we are all grappling with around the potential impact they may have on consumer behavior. In our own direct-to-consumer channel, while e-commerce has remained positive, store sales performance has been inconsistent. However, we are pleased with the improved product margin performance across all our direct-to-consumer channels. We are closely monitoring potential changes in consumer behavior given the uncertainty with the current macro environment. As it relates to tariffs, as Yuji will discuss, while we have reduced our exposure to China over the past few years, as of the end of fiscal 2024, over 60% of our cost of goods sold was sourced from China. We are actively working on mitigation strategies. We are in the process of moving about one-third of our exposure for fall product outside of China. We are planning for further geographic diversification of our sourcing base. We are also evaluating strategic price increases and working closely with partners across our network to help to absorb the increased costs. In addition, we are taking a very measured approach in all expenditures across the organization in light of the current environment. Given the increased uncertainty and limited visibility to what the full impact of current policy and consumer behavior, we will not be providing full year guidance. As I mentioned at the start of my remarks, the organization is on a much stronger footing heading into this type of environment, given the actions and changes that have been put in place over the past year. The transformation plan delivered over $10 million in savings in fiscal 2024, and the efforts from this plan will now shift to help manage tariff mitigation. To be clear, our entire organization continues to be focused on execution and delivering the product and experience our partners and customers expect from us. The transformation plan is foster a culture in which everyone looks to do their part to affect change and deliver results and will be a key driver of the real-time changes we need to make to manage through the current situation. Before I wrap up, I'd like to acknowledge our team for their continued efforts in prioritizing and enhancing our relationships with our customers, vendors, and wholesale partners. I also want to take a moment to express my appreciation for the depth of talent we have within our organization. I'm particularly pleased that UG has stepped into the role of CFO. Having been with the company since 2018 and most recently serving as our controller, he brings tremendous institutional knowledge and financial acumen to this position. I have every confidence in his ability to navigate our current dynamic environment and to help drive our financial strategy forward. The seamless transition is a testament to the strong bench of leadership at Pitts. The continuity and depth of the team is manifested in the high-quality product we deliver season after season. With our team solidified and with a more efficient operating model in place, while our strategic priorities are shifting to manage through the current situation, I have the utmost confidence that we will successfully navigate these near-term headwinds. I've always believed in the strength and potential for Vince. It's why I've led the company previously, and it's what brought me back. I'm committed to leveraging my experience and passion for Vince to not only successfully navigate today's environment, but to drive sustainable long-term growth. I'll now turn it over to Yuji to discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Brendan, and good morning, everyone. Fiscal 2024 was an important year for the company as we focused on executing a healthier full-price business, enabling us to strengthen our financial foundation reflected in the 100 basis point improvement in the adjusted operating margin on relatively flat sales performance compared to the prior year. As Brendan noted, While we are currently operating in a very dynamic environment, we believe through the work we have put in place and the actions we have taken with respect to our cost structure and product margin improvements better position us to navigate today's challenges. Before I discuss our views for fiscal 2025, let me review our fourth quarter results in more detail. As a reminder, the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 included a 14th week representing the 53rd week in the prior year. which resulted in approximately $2.2 million in net sales and $0.4 million in loss from operations. The company net sales for the fourth quarter increased 6.2% to $80 million compared to $75.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Excluding the impact from the extra week, total company net sales for the fourth quarter increased approximately 9% compared to the prior year. With respect to channel performance, we delivered a 26.7% increase in our wholesale segment, which more than offset an 8.1% decrease in our direct-to-consumer segment. Our wholesale performance overall exceeded our expectations for the period, driven in part by earlier shipments of our spring product to our wholesale partners. Our direct-to-consumer business performed relatively in line to our expectations as our store channel continued to be impacted by planned store activity, including closures, remodels, and relocations along with softer trends and traffic. Gross profit in the fourth quarter was $40.1 million, or 50.1% of net sales. This compared to $34.2 million, or 45.4% of net sales in the fourth quarter of last year. The increase in gross margin rate was driven by approximately 320 basis points related to lower promotional activity in our direct-to-consumer segment and our lower discounting as well as approximately 210 basis points related to lower product costing and freight costs. These factors were partially offset by approximately 120 basis points attributable to ChannelMix. Selling and general administrative expenses in the quarter or 37.8 million or 47.2% of net sales as compared to 35.8 million or 47.6% of net sales for the fourth quarter of last year. The slight increase in SG&A dollars compared to the prior year period was largely driven by increased salaries and benefits and increased rent expense attributable to these modifications made in prior comparative quarter. These factors were partially offset by decreases in consulting and information technology costs. During the quarter, we recorded a $32 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge. The impairment charge was driven by the change in control of ownership through P180's acquisition of the majority of our common equity shares from some capital in January. Including the impact of this chart, Operating loss for the fourth quarter was $29.7 million compared to the operating loss of $1.7 million in the same period last year. Excluding the non-cash goodwill impairment charge and the transaction expenses associated with the P180 transaction, the adjusted operating income was $2.5 million. The improvement in adjusted operating income compared to the prior year was primarily driven by the gross margin expansion. Net interest expense for the quarter decreased to $1.6 million compared to $1.7 million in the prior year. The decrease was primarily driven by the paydown of the third lien facility, which occurred in conjunction with the P180 transaction. Benefit for the income taxes this quarter was $2 million, which was driven by $3 million reversal of deferred tax liability previously created by the amortization of indefinite liabilities recognized for tax but not for book purposes. As the goodwill was fully impaired, the deferred tax liability created by the asset was also reversed. This was offset by the current federal and state tax expenses. The tax benefit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 compares to an income tax expense of $1.9 million in the same period last year. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $28.3 million or loss per share of $2.24 compared to the net loss of $4.7 million or loss per share of $0.37 in the fourth quarter last year. The current period includes the previously mentioned goodwill impairment. Excluding the impairment charge and its associated tax impact and the P180 transaction expenses, we had net income for the quarter of $0.8 million or earnings per share of $0.06. Moving to the balance sheet, Net inventory was $59.1 million at the end of fourth quarter as compared to $58.8 million at the end of fourth quarter last year. Before I review our outlook for the fourth quarter, I wanted to follow up on Brendan's discussion regarding tariffs. As of the end of fiscal 2024, China represented 66% of our cost of goods sold and therefore our current policies with respect to tariffs have significant impact on our business. We are actively reviewing all mitigation strategies, including diversifying our geographic exposure, working with our vendors for concessions, reviewing our pricing strategies, and capturing other efficiencies. As Brendan noted, we have already begun to dramatically reduce our exposure to China, beginning with our fall product. Given the timing of the increased tariffs, we do not expect a material impact to our first quarter performance. However, as noted in our press release, Given the uncertainty related to the potential impact and duration of the current tariff policies, we will not be providing full year guidance at this time. However, let me provide some color on our expectations for Q1. As a reminder, the first quarter is typically our smallest quarter of the year from a sales and profitability perspective and historically delivers an operating loss for the period. For the first quarter of fiscal 2025, We expect sales to decline approximately 5% compared to prior year, driven by the impact of timing of shifts of our wholesale shipment, as well as impact from planned store activity in our retail channel, including multiple closures, remodels, and relocations, as well as pullback in promotional activity. With respect to profitability, we continue to be pleased with the traction we have seen in product launch and performance. and have continued to reduce our promotional activity through the first few months of the fiscal year. That said, we expect adjusted operating margin to decline approximately 500 basis points compared to the prior year period, largely driven by lower sales, increased marketing spent earlier in the quarter, and other expenses primarily related to the timing of the store relocations and remodels. As discussed, Given the increased uncertainty in our current landscape, we are being very disciplined with expenses going forward and believe the strategic initiatives and discipline we implemented throughout 2024 have positioned us well to execute effectively to respond to the current macro challenges. We're collaborating closely with our wholesale partners, assessing all available mitigation levers, and leveraging our exceptional team to navigate this landscape. Our primary focus remains on delivering the quality products and experiences that have drawn customers to Vince. We will continue to operate with strategic agility, maintaining the flexibility to adapt quickly as market conditions evolve. This concludes our remarks, and I will now turn it over to the operator to open the call for questions.