Macy's Inc

Please stand by. We're about to begin. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Macy's Inc. first quarter 2020 earnings call. Today's hour-long conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Mike McGuire, head of investor relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Alan. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on this conference call to discuss our first quarter 2020 results. With me on the call today are Jeff Gannett, our Cameron & CEO, and Felicia Williams, our interim CFO. Jeff and Felicia have several prepared remarks to share, after which we'll host a question and answer session. Given the time constraints and the number of people who want to participate, we ask that you please limit your questions to one with a quick follow-up. In addition to this call and our press release, we've posted a slide presentation on the investor section of our website, nacythink.com. The presentation summarizes the information in our prepared remarks, as well as some additional facts and figures regarding our operating performance I do have one housekeeping item to share. We'll be releasing our second quarter results and posting the associated earnings call on Wednesday, September 2nd before market opens. This is a couple of weeks later than our typical day, and that is due mainly to the delayed timing of this current call. At that time, we'll be providing an update to our in addition to the second quarter earnings report. So please mark your calendars. Keep in mind that all forward-looking statements are subject to the state proper provisions of the Five Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions mentioned today. A detailed discussion of these factors and uncertainties is contained in the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In discussing the results of our operations, we will be providing certain non-GAAP financial measures. You can find additional information regarding these non-GAAP financial measures, as well as other views in our earnings release and our presentation, located on the investor section of our website. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast on our website. A replay will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of this call, and it will be archived on our website for one year. Now I would like to turn this over to Jeff.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. So I want to start by briefly touching on the restructuring that we announced last week, and I'll give you an update about what we're seeing in the business as our surgery opens. Felicia will walk you through our final first quarter results, and I will give you a quick update on the Polaris strategy, and then we're going to open up the line for your questions. As you know from our previous communication, COVID-19 significantly impacted Macy's as our stores were closed from March 18th through May 4th. As we reopened stores, sales started out strongly than we initially modeled. However, with the recent COVID developments, We do anticipate a gradual recovery now that most stores are open. Macy's Inc will be a smaller, more leveraged company for the foreseeable future. We have taken a series of actions over the past three months to get the company on a stable financial day. We cut our weekly cash burn rate, including significantly reducing payroll through the furlough process. Can you guys hear me?