Canada Goose Holdings Inc

Good morning. My name is Chris, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Canada Goose fourth quarter 2020 earnings 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. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Patrick Burke, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. With me are Danny Reese, President and CEO, and Jonathan Sinclair, EVP and CFO. After prepared remarks from Danny and Jonathan, we will take your questions. This call, including the Q&A portion, includes forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements. Certain material factors and assumptions were considered and applied in making these forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding these forward-looking statements, factors, and assumptions is available in our earnings press release issued this morning, as well as in the risk factors section of our most recent annual report. These documents are also available on the investor relations section of our website. The forward-looking statements made on this call speak only as of today. and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Our commentary today will include certain non-IFRS financial measures which are reconciled in the table at the end of our earnings press release. With that, I will turn the call over to Danny.

Thanks Patrick and good morning everyone. I hope that your families are all safe and that you are all finding your way through these times as best you can. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge recent events of police brutality against black people across North America. The marches, protests, and demonstrations happening around the world are important. This discussion is important. We support and we stand with those who are speaking out against inequality and injustice. As you know, the world is also facing a global health pandemic. I believe that crisis can bring out the best in people. And I've seen that here at Canada News as well. We've been challenged in completely new ways, and I'm so proud of how our company has responded. At all levels, our team has gone above and beyond to help the business weather the storm while supporting each other and the communities that we serve. I want to give special mention to our team and our partners in Greater China. As the first part of Canada Gears to deal with this global pandemic, we're grateful for all of the wisdom and the encouragement that they've shared with the rest of the business throughout the crisis. To all of our employees, thank you for your resilience and your determination during these trying times. All crisis necessitates focus and decisive action. During this crisis, we've spent a lot of time asking ourselves what's important, and we're keeping it simple. Our plan is, first, to do everything we can to support people so that we can emerge from the pandemic together stronger, and second, to put the business in the best possible position for a strong recovery whenever that happens. These two things are at the core of how we are approaching the year ahead. Clearly, we are in uncharted territory. COVID-19 will have far reaching consequences for the entire apparel industry, for the global economy, and for society at large. Every company is facing extraordinary uncertainties and unknowns. So instead of pretending that we have a crystal ball, we are focusing on the knowns, the things that we know to be true. With that in mind, here are six themes They give me great confidence in our future and in our ability to come out of this stronger. Number one, the first quarter is likely to be the most heavily impacted, and it is our smallest quarter. Most of our stores and our wholesale partner stores have been closed since late March. Retail is now starting to open back up in North America and Europe, and Asia is also continuing its recovery. This means the high point for suspended revenue will soon be past us. For Canada Geers specifically, this coincides with a time of year when our revenue is already at its lowest. This reduces the impact and gives us a long runway before we hit our peak selling season in the winter. Two, we have the financial strength to weather this storm. Profitability and cash flow have always been very important to us, so we always had a strong balance sheet, or we already had a strong balance sheet when we began to feel the effect of the pandemic. Over the past few months, as the crisis intensified, we made an additional considered effort across our entire business to further reduce cash outflows and bolster our liquidity. As a high margin business with a clean balance sheet, we remain firmly in control of our destiny. I know that we have the financial resources to weather the storm, and Jonathan will share more detail in his remarks shortly. Specifically on inventory, we're happy with both the amount and the complexion of our existing inventory. Despite having production facilities closed since late March, we largely have what we need to meet demand this year. And because of our own manufacturing infrastructure, we have the ability to quickly make more as needed, even with the required physical distancing measures. Number three, we make authentic, best-in-class products. Our promise is simple and timeless. We make function-first, survival products. They are now also fashionable in urban settings, but at their core, they deliver protection. We know that in previous times of crisis, people have gravitated to Canada Goose as they look for investment products that will be functional and will last for years, not seasons. Number four, we are leading the way in sustainability. Sustainability has been an important issue in the global landscape for years and has been highlighted more acutely through this pandemic. For us too, there's a ton of momentum building around sustainability. While not a new issue for us, we accelerated our efforts in 2018 when we established our corporate citizenship department with the mandate to more deeply embed sustainable practices across our business. In the past year, we've taken a hard look at ourselves and developed a plan to tackle pressing challenges in a much bigger way than ever before. The result is our sustainable impact strategy, which is outlined in our first ever sustainability report that we released in April. This includes aggressive targets and firm deadlines around our carbon footprint and key raw materials in our supply chain. To us, this is a major milestone for the year and something I am really proud of. We're putting a stake in the ground and we're leading the charge, which we all know needs to, leading the changes which we all know need to happen within our industry. Number five, we are well positioned in an increasingly digital world. We've always been digitally native. E-commerce is where we started our direct consumer journey. We've invested in it heavily for years with a long-term view. Having that foundation already in place means that we are not scrambling to build an e-commerce business overnight. What we are doing is quickly reallocating resources and investments right now, which will significantly advance our global omni-channel capabilities by our peak season. And this increased focus on e-commerce is working. We've seen great spikes in online engagement around our PPE manufacturing, new sustainability initiatives, and new product releases like our overboard yellow spring jackets. We're also seeing positive traffic and transactional trends. This tells me that we continue to be a highly relevant brand despite these difficult times and during our smallest quarter. And it gives me confidence that Even in the event of a second wave, we will be well positioned to meet consumer demand. Number six, Canada Goose thrives on change. One thing that I have embraced again and again in my career is that our company is innately capable of dealing with change. In facing our biggest challenges, we have always found a new gear and continued forward to create new opportunities. Entrepreneurship is a core competency at Canada Goose. We have followed our own playbook and succeeded in doing things that have never been done before. Our temporary shift to manufacturing PPE is yet another example of this entrepreneurial spirit in action. I have always believed that our Canadian manufacturing infrastructure was a strategic asset, but never more so than now. When the world shut down and the need for PPE became urgent, we pivoted our manufacturing and answered the call, all while we actively managed the business through this challenging time. In under three weeks, we retooled our supply chain, facilities, and workforce to produce desperately needed PPE for frontline workers. With eight factories across the country, nobody in Canada was better positioned to help, and we knew that it could not wait. Today, our team is producing approximately 100,000 units of gowns every week at cost for provincial and federal contracts, and we have the capacity to do more as needed. We are truly embracing the uncertainty of these times and taking the time to refocus and reset to best position ourselves for continued success. In closing, I am confident that we can take whatever comes our way and come out even stronger on the other side. We are focused on the important things and we are investing heavily in the areas that will be relevant in a pandemic and a post-pandemic world. Our business, our brand, and our culture remain strong, and I continue to believe in the power of Canada Youth and a brighter future for the world. Thank you. And with that, I turn it over to Jonathan to go over the details of our financial results.