Kohl's Corporation

Good morning, my name is Audra and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter 2025 Coles Corporation earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. 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 the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Trevor Novotny, Senior Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Certain statements made on this call, including projected financial results and the company's future initiatives, are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause COLE's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those that are described in Item 1A in COLE's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and as may be supplemented from time to time in COLE's other filings with the SEC, all of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. Forward-looking statements relate to the date initially made and Kohl's undertakes no obligation to update them. In addition, during this call, we may make reference to non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the cautionary statement regarding non-GAAP measures and reconciliation of these measures included in the investor presentation filed as an exhibit to our Form 8 as filed with the SEC and available on our investor relations website. Please note that this call will be recorded. However, replays of this call will not be updated. So if you are listening to a replay of this call, it is possible that the information discussed is no longer current and Kohl's undertakes no obligation to update such information. With me this morning are Michael Bender, our interim chief executive officer, and Jill Tim, our chief financial officer. I will now turn the call over to Michael.

Thank you, Trevor, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining Kohl's first quarter conference call. I'm honored to assume the role of interim chief executive officer at such an important time for our company. Kohl's has a substantial opportunity to better serve our customers every day, build long-term financial health, and deliver shareholder value. While I'm no stranger to Kohl's, having served as a board member since 2019, I'm also very familiar with the consumer retail industry. I have over 30 years of experience in the industry holding leadership positions at Walmart, L Brands, PepsiCo, and most recently I served as CEO of iMart Express. I'm excited to leverage my Kohl's board and past leadership experience to lead and support Kohl's through this CEO transition. I do want to recognize that there has been a lot of change for Kohl's this past year, especially the last few weeks. While change can be difficult, it also represents an opportunity to reassess and commit to a path forward. The good news is we already have that plan in place for 2025, and we're making good progress against this plan. Our plans, which are centered on customer priorities, have us working more collaboratively across the business, staying more accountable for incremental progress, and communicating more transparently to effectively drive the work. As we navigate through this period of change, we're committed to moving forward and showing up for our customers each day. It has been a busy few weeks, and I've enjoyed the opportunity to dive into our business. After visiting several stores and engaging in meaningful conversations with key partners, vendors, and investors, I'm more energized than ever about the road ahead. Seeing firsthand the dedication of our teams, the strength of our operational network, and the passion of our partners has only deepened my confidence in the incredible potential of this business. The insights gained from these interactions have reinforced the scale of the opportunity before us and the impact we can make by working together with focus, innovation, and a relentless commitment to excellence and execution. Last quarter, We identified key priorities focused on the Kohl's customer, which Jill will speak to shortly. These areas of focus are all designed with the customer in mind and will help us provide the products and shopping experience we know our customers want from Kohl's. Our work is underway and we have cross-functional teams that are working with urgency and care to deliver on these actions. Our first quarter performance was ahead of our expectations and the actions we're taking are making progress with early signs of positive impact. Kohl's has a strong foundation of 1,100 conveniently located stores and over 60 million customers, including a strong, loyal customer base that continues to grow. We have a tremendous opportunity to build on this foundation, and I'm truly excited to lead this next chapter and build on the momentum we've already begun to generate. Lastly, I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to our COLES team. I greatly appreciate all your hard work, dedication, and commitment to COLES, and I look forward to working closely with you to lead COLES to a successful future. I'll now hand the call over to Jill to speak to our first quarter performance and give an update on the progress we're making against our 2025 actions.