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 Brandt's second quarter 2019 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Amy Preston, Chief Investor Relations Officer of L Brands. You may begin.

Thank you, Heidi. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to L Brands' second quarter earnings conference call for the period ending Saturday, August 3, 2019. 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 SEC filings and in our press releases. Our second quarter earnings release, additional commentary, and earnings presentation are all available on our website, lb.com. All of the results discussed in today's call are adjusted results and exclude the significant item described in our press release. Storfer, Dorfer, EVP, and CFO and I will handle the call today. Thanks, and now I'll turn it over to Storch.

Thanks, Amy, and good morning, everyone. Our second quarter earnings per share result at 24 cents was above our initial guidance of 15 to 20 cents with upside driven by favorability and income taxes. Bath and Body Works continues to deliver strong results with an 8% comp increase and a 7% increase in operating income. The operating income increase at Bath and Body Works and improvement in the international business and in the other segment as a result of the sale of La Senza and the closure of Henry Bendel was offset by a decline at Victoria's Secret. Looking to the second half of the year, our number one priority continues to be improving performance at Victoria's Secret. As we noted in the commentary that we released last night, John Mehas and Amy Hawk, CEOs at Victoria's Secret Lingerie and Pink, respectively, have made significant changes to our fall assortments. The significant amount of change in our fall merchandise assortments and promotional plans, as well as the current trade environment and tariff uncertainty, inherently result in a greater level of uncertainty in forecasting our results for the third and fourth quarters than is typical. That said, we believe that customers will react positively to our new merchandise, and therefore, as we said consistently, we have assumed in our guidance that Victoria's Secret Trends will improve versus recent performance, and that Bath & Body Works will continue to deliver strong results. You'll hear more from John and Amy, as well as other business leaders, at our Investor Day, which is scheduled for September 10th. Thanks and over to you, Amy.