Vera Bradley, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vera Bradley first quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mark DeLye. Vera Bradley's Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome, everyone. I'd like to thank you for joining us for Vera Bradley's earnings call. Some of the statements made during our prepared remarks in response to your questions may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to and within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that we expect. Please refer to today's press release and the company's most recently filed Form 10-K, filed with the SEC for a discussion of known risks and uncertainties. Investors should not assume that the statements made during the call will remain operative at a later time. We undertake no obligation to update any information discussed on today's call. I will now turn the call over to Vera Bradley's CEO, Rob Wallstrom.

Rob? Thank you, Mark. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. John Enright, our CFO, also joins me today. We are pleased with our first quarter performance. We outperformed our revenue and earnings expectations. Consumer confidence, traffic, and spending grew as vaccines became more widely available, government stimulus funds were distributed, and customers began returning to work, social events, and travel. E-commerce showed continued strength even with our stores fully reopened. We experienced solid revenue performance on both a one-year and two-year comparison. Our first quarter consolidated net revenues increased 57 percent over prior year. On a two-year comparison, Pura Vida's revenues grew over 40 percent versus the first quarter of fiscal 2020, and Vera Bradley comp sales were flat with fiscal 2020 first quarter results. As a reminder, Pura Vida's first quarter revenue from fiscal 2020 was not in our consolidated revenue for that time period. We reduced our promotional levels, expanded our consolidated gross margin rate, and prudently managed our expenses. Our balance sheet remains strong with ample cash and no debt. Fiscal 2022 is off to a solid start as we enter the next stage of our company's growth journey. Both of our lifestyle brands, Vera Bradley and Pura Vida, have growth opportunities ahead, well beyond their core product categories, driven by a focus on digital first, innovation, and customer engagement. Before I turn the call over to John to discuss the financial results, I would like to highlight the appointment of Nancy Twine, founder and CEO of Briogeo Hair Care, to the Vera Bradley, Inc. Board of Directors. In 2014, Nancy departed her position as VP at Goldman Sachs to officially launch Briogeo, a diverse line of carefully crafted clean hair care products. Today, Briogeo retails in over 3,000 prestige beauty stores globally, is one of the fastest-growing hair care brands at Sephora, and is one of the largest independent black-owned prestige beauty brands in the U.S. Nancy's appointment, along with last year's appointments of Christina Cashman and Keri Tharp, bring our female board representation to 60%. We are one of the elite 6% of public companies listed on the Russell 3000 Index with a gender-balanced board, as well as one of just a few public companies with a female majority board. Nancy's entrepreneurial and retail experience and insight, along with her strong financial expertise, millennial perspective, and diverse background, will be invaluable to as we continue to execute our enterprise's vision of expanding our purpose-driven, multi-lifestyle brand high-growth company. We look forward to Nancy's contributions and counsel. John?