Bath & Body Works, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Heidi, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the L Brands Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Amy Preston, Chief Investor Relations Officer for L Brands. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to LBRAND's third quarter earnings conference call for the period ending Saturday, November 3rd, 2018. As a matter of formality, I need to remind you that any forward-looking statements we may make today are subject to our safe harbor statement found in our FCC filings. Our third quarter earnings release, additional commentary, and earnings presentation are all available on our website, lb.com. As you know, 2017 was a 53-week year. All of the sales dollars, margin, and operating income results discussed on this call are on a reported basis. for the quarter ending November 3rd, 2018 versus October 28th, 2017. Comparable sales are on a comparable calendar period. Quarter ending November 3rd, 2018 versus 13-week period ended November 4th, 2017. Additionally, all the results discussed on the call today are adjusted results and exclude the charges related to the closure of the Henry Bendall business and store impairments described in our press release. I'd also like to clarify that the fourth quarter and full year sales to comps spread in our commentary yesterday excludes the extra week last year. Including the extra week, the sales to comps spread in the fourth quarter is negative two points, and for the full year, it's two to three points. Stuart Bergdorfer, EVP and CFO, and I will handle the call today. As you know, we have leadership transitions in the Victoria's Secret lingerie and pink businesses, and our other leaders are focused on executing the important holiday time period. Thanks, and now I'll turn the call over to Stuart.

Thanks, Amy, and good morning, everyone. As outlined in the third quarter commentary that we released yesterday afternoon, the L Brands management team is very clear-minded about where we are. Parts of the business, Bath and Body Works, Victoria's Secret Beauty, and our international franchise business are performing very well. However, our overall results are unacceptable, driven by declines in Victoria's Secret lingerie and pink. We made some important decisions in the quarter, including the decision to close the Henry Bendel business, pursuing alternatives for LaCenza, and reducing our dividend and committing to deleverage to enable us to increase our focus on our core businesses and strengthen our company in the long term. Our number one priority is improving performance at Victoria's Secret Lingerie and Pink. We have new leadership in place or to come. Amy Hawk has joined the Pink business, and John Mehas will be joining us from Tory Burch in early 2019 to lead the Victoria's Secret lingerie business. We're committed to a full review of the business. Everything is on the table, including our brand positioning, marketing, talent, real estate, cost structure, and most importantly, our merchandise assortments. By executing against our strategy, focusing on the fundamentals, staying close to our customers, and leveraging the strength of our brands, we will deliver on our commitments for our stakeholders, customers, associates, and shareholders. Thanks, and over to you, Amy.