Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc.

and welcome to Haberty's second quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Richard Hare, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. During this call, We'll make forward-looking statements which are subject to risk and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those made or implied in such statements which speak only as the date they are made and which we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include economic and competitive conditions and other uncertainties detailed in the company's reports filed with the SEC. Our Chairman and CEO Clarence Smith We'll now give you an update on our results, and our president, Steve Burdett, will provide additional commentary about our business.

Good morning. Thank you for joining our second quarter conference call. Consolidated sales decreased 18.5% to $206.3 million, reflecting the consumer's pullback in home-related spending and the impact of higher interest rates on home sales. Incoming orders or written sales were down 14.7%, with written comp store sales down 15.2%. Earnings per share came in at 70 cents versus $1.27 last year. Recognizing the significant shift of consumer spending and inflationary pressures, I believe that we delivered a solid performance. The quarter sales were negatively impacted the most in April, and began to improve along with the increased temperature. We saw a very nice increase in our average sales driven by increases in special order and customer and custom design oriented sales. We continue to gain recognition for our quality products, service, and free design. While we're investing heavily in our website as the first way customers learn about us and shop, The physical store and the personal relationship that we develop is the primary way we serve our customers. That in-person relationship has increased in importance since COVID. As our design focus and customization helps drive our average sale over $3,000, the importance of our brick and mortar stores where customers can see and touch their selections and gain knowledgeable input from a team member becomes more critical. We're strengthening our store locations in the footprint we are positioned from Maryland to Texas. There are several existing store opportunities that we believe will allow us to build on our base, as well as our brand awareness, and that can be served by our current distribution. Late this year, we plan to open three stores, Concord, North Carolina, our third store in Charlotte, Dayton, Ohio, served by our expanded Cincinnati Home Delivery Center, and an outlet store south of Richmond, Virginia. In the second quarter, we bought back our Florida distribution center in Lakeland, which will allow us to be able to expand the facility in the future. We are pleased to have acquired the leases on four stores in the Bed Bath & Beyond bankruptcy auction. Three of these stores are in important Florida locations, which allows us to reach new areas and leverage our marketing and distribution in those fast-growing markets. The Pembroke Pines location is our furthest south, near Miami, and strengthens our position in southeast Florida. St. Petersburg adds a major market near Tampa where we have been underrepresented. The Destin location is ideally located to further penetrate that dynamic Emerald Coast. With the addition of these units, we'll have 33 stores in Florida. The fourth store in South Haven, Mississippi reaches an important growth suburb south of Memphis and adds our 17th state to our footprint. We're in an exceptionally strong position with our solid balance sheet and experienced management team to grow our store count and sales in our regions. We are keenly focused on executing our strategic plan of opening five stores a year within our distribution footprint in growing our market share. While we experienced a fall off from the post COVID surge in the first half, we're encouraged by recent improvements in incoming orders, customers reactions to new product introduction, and the new growth opportunities that we're tackling. We are driven to help our customers vision of their home come to life. As we deliver on that commitment, we will gain share and build on our returns for our shareholders. This is an exciting time to extend Haverty's reach. I'll now turn the call over to Steve Burdette, our president.