Movado Group Inc.

Good day, everybody, and welcome to the Movado Group Incorporated fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and may not be reproduced in full or in part without investment growth strategy.

Sally will then review our financial state, France, and Spain.

These efforts help trends improve towards the end of fiscal 2024 and into fiscal 2025.

We also embarked on our Movado brand refresh and launched our new Connecting the Dots brand building campaign, and early reads are positive. As we continue to track results, we are seeing encouraging signs, particularly in our own Movado.com website, where we returned to growth during the fourth quarter, and we are seeing a strong beginning to fiscal 2025. In fiscal 2025, our top priority is reestablishing growth for Movado Group, We believe it is the right time to invest in our compelling portfolio of brands and ensure we are positioned to deliver sustained long-term growth at increasing rates of profitability in the future. Our test results from this past fall give us the confidence that we are implementing the right marketing and brand building investments throughout the coming year. While challenges remain in our distribution channels in the U.S. and Europe, we are focused on partnering with our customers, to help them expand their business, build consumer demand, and increase market share across our brands. As such, we have made the decision to leverage our strong balance sheet and financial position and to invest an incremental $25 million over the next four quarters to support new marketing initiatives aimed at driving growth. We will intensify these efforts as the year progresses to build upon our favorable momentum. While this is expected to cause moderation in profit in the short term, we believe this is the right move to support our brands and customers and, importantly, deliver accelerated and consistent growth in the future. For fiscal 2025, our plans call for sales to grow approximately 5% over last year, with trends accelerating throughout the year and delivering operating profit of approximately 5%, which includes our incremental brand-building investments. we believe we are laying a solid foundation for future growth, both on the top and bottom line. Our teams around the world are energized to return the company to growth this year. In the United States, our strategy is focused on our Movado and Coach brands, while in Europe, our priorities are focused on Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, and Lacoste. This strategy also includes continued worldwide expansion in key markets for our newest brand, Calvin Klein, and our jewelry business across our portfolio. We also expect to continue to grow our overall business in India, the Middle East, Brazil, and Mexico. For each of our brands, we will amplify our marketing messages and storytelling to drive increased productivity in key markets. Our plans include longer-lasting iconic product introductions and families and increased conversion at the point of sale through targeted marketing messages and cohesive execution at every touchpoint. I am also excited about our innovation calendar across our brand portfolio as we progress throughout the year. I'll share some of the highlights of these exciting plans for our brands. To amplify and support our biggest brand, Movado, this spring we will accelerate Movado's continued brand refresh that we embarked on last fall. We're already seeing increased brand awareness across the market in key demographic targets. We recently launched our new Bold Quest, which has an opening price point of $595. It is inspired by a 1970s progressive design featuring an integrated case bracelet combination with boldly colored dials. It will be backed by a comprehensive digital and video advertising campaign. We're also introducing a new chronograph to our best-selling Movado Bold Horizon 2.0 collection this spring. As we build upon our spring advertising campaign, we'll introduce a new television commercial featuring our museum classic chronograph for him and our museum classic bracelet for her. In addition, we're already preparing a groundbreaking evolution of our Movado brand advertising campaign in the third quarter of fiscal 2025 and into fiscal 2026, which we expect will accelerate growth. We look forward to updating you on these initiatives as the year progresses. We're planning for our licensed brands to return to growth this fiscal year, with a strong emphasis on Europe, our portfolio's biggest market. On a comparable basis, licensed brand sales were down 6.5%, and our objective is to fully reverse this decline in this current fiscal year. We have very targeted marketing programs for each of our licensed brands. with increased investment to support iconic and long-lasting product families in both watches and jewelry. In Tommy Hilfiger, we will continue to build on the initial success of the TH85 family, with product expansion and strong marketing support. Our spring campaign for Tommy will also feature Lorenzo, a key multifunction watch at a sharp opening price point. We will add Georgia May Jagger to our advertising campaign for both watches and jewelry. We are collaborating with our key retail partners in the spring with an increased marketing investment to drive sales both at the point of sale and online. Last holiday, we began to build momentum behind Hugo Boss with the introduction of the Kander family, a modern streamlined design available in automatic and quartz movements and a number of fashionable colorways. We also received a strong response from retailers for our new Sky Traveler collection. On the Hugo Boss jewelry front, we will take advantage of the growing men's jewelry category by introducing bolder, iconic looks. In Europe, we look to drive growth by emphasizing support behind the Kander and Sky Traveler collections with key retailers in both digital and billboard campaigns. In Coach, our key emphasis for the spring will be driving growth in the U.S. market, supporting proven families, Carrie and Elliot. We are also growing our Amazon business for Coach, which we successfully launched late last year. In China, we are launching a new Coach brand ambassador, Chinese actress Wu Jinyan, and our focus on expanding our wholesale brick-and-mortar distribution as the year progresses. We will continue to grow our Calvin Klein business this year with an increased emphasis on our iconic elemental jewelry collection and our new gleam watch collection. As part of our emphasis on expanding automatic watches for all of our brands, we will focus on driving the success of our CK iconic family with translucent skeleton dials that reveal intricate mechanical movements. In addition to investing in key markets like Spain and Germany, we are also expanding the presence of CK in India with our new brand ambassador, Indian actress Disha Patani. We have made some very strong progress in Lacoste over the last few years, and we'll continue that momentum this year with the support of our successful and long-lasting Boston and L-1212 collections with exciting new spring colorways. We have seen a very strong response to the introduction of Lacoste jewelry last year, and we'll continue to support that momentum this spring. We're very excited about a number of new introductions planned for the Lacoste brand for the second half of the year. Turning to our outlet stores, for fiscal 25, we expect sales to be in line with fiscal 24, with a weaker first half, but returning to growth in Q3, as we align some of our distribution strategies during the second half of the year. Our outlet division remains very profitable, and we believe the additional marketing support behind our Movado brand will benefit our outlet stores during the third and fourth quarter, driving increased sales and profitability. In movement, we modified our cost structure in Q3 of last year, resulting in increased profitability. We believe that movement will have a significant opportunity for profitable growth as we consolidate the assortment while continuing to delight consumers by driving innovation, and excellent quality and value. And lastly, Olivia Burton began to drive improved performance during last year's holiday season with focused products like our new cushion-shaped Grosvenor family and our new Hexa jewelry assortment. This spring, we will play into this accelerating trend by introducing a new mini Grosvenor that should resonate well with our target consumer. Overall, we're very excited about these new growth initiatives underway for fiscal 2025. As you can see, we are committed to growing our business and our focus on executing and investing behind our strategic initiatives to return Movado Group to a healthy level of top-line growth. Our financial position allows us to strategically deploy capital and invest in our brands and partners while building new awareness and demand for our brand portfolio. While we understand that we will sacrifice short-term profitability in order to invest and support key initiatives where we have already seen success, we believe it is vital that we adopt and aggressively support our growth, our biggest brands, and key markets. As we continue to invest in our business, we will continue to prioritize our dividend strategy that rewards our long-term investors. We are very enthusiastic about the vision that our team has built for the Movado brand, as we continue to evolve our Connecting the Dots campaign and build on the brand refresh that we began last fall. The initial results that we have seen are very encouraging. In our licensed brands portfolio, we continue to see the momentum in our developing markets and are committed to return our biggest markets in Europe to growth. While we know fiscal 2025 will bring continued headwinds, both in European wholesale segment and in the retail segment more broadly, We believe that there are great opportunities to drive growth and gain market share, and we will take full advantage of those opportunities. I look forward to updating you on our progress as the year goes on. I would now like to turn the call over to Sally to review our financial results in greater detail, as well as our outlook for fiscal 2025. We would then be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, Ephraim, and good morning. For today's call, I will review our financial results for the fourth quarter in fiscal 2020-24 and then discuss our outlook for fiscal 2025. My comments today will focus on adjusted results. Please refer to the description of the special items included in our results for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023 in our press release issued earlier today, which also includes a table for gap and non-gap measures. Overall, our performance for fiscal 2024 was negatively impacted by a challenging retail environment. Despite being down year over year, we continued to make good progress on our strategic initiatives and maintained an extremely strong balance sheet. Turning to the fourth quarter results, which were in line with our updated expectations, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, sales were $179.6 million as compared to to $194.3 million last year, a decrease of 7.5%. In constant dollars, net sales decreased 9%. The decrease reflects a sales decline in owned brands, licensed brands, and in our company stores. By geography, U.S. net sales decreased 12.4%. International net sales decreased 2.9% as compared to the fourth quarter of last year. On a constant currency basis, international net sales decreased by 5.8%, with continued challenges in our largest international market, Europe. Gross profit as a percent of sales was 53.9%, compared to 56.2% in the fourth quarter of last year. The decrease in gross margin was primarily driven by decreased leverage of higher fixed costs over lower sales, the unfavorable impact of foreign currency exchange rates, and unfavorable channel and product mix. Operating expenses were $82.9 million as compared to $82.4 million of the same period of last year. The increase was driven by higher marketing expenses and an increase in payroll-related expenses, nearly fully offset by a decrease in performance-based compensation. Primarily as a result of the reduction in sales and gross margin, operating income decreased by $13 million to $13.8 million as compared to $26.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. We recorded approximately $1.8 million of other non-operating income in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, which was primarily comprised of interest earned on our global cash position, as compared to $1.4 million during the same period of last year. We recorded income tax expense of $2.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, as compared to $4.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Net income in the fourth quarter was $12.4 million, or 55 cents per diluted chair, as compared to $23.3 million, or $1.03 per diluted chair, in the year-ago period. Now turning to our fiscal year results. Sales were $672.6 million, a decrease of 10.5% from fiscal 2023, In constant dollar, the decrease in net sales was 11.7%. U.S. net sales declined by 13.1%. International net sales decreased 8.5% or 10.6% on a constant currency basis. Gross profit was $370.4 million or 55.1% of sales as compared to $433.9 million or 57.7% of sales last year. The decrease in the gross margin rate was due to unfavorable channel and product mix, decreased leverage of higher fixed costs over lower sales, and unfavorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates, partially offset by reduced shipping costs. Operating income was $56.8 million compared to operating income of $123.2 million in fiscal 2023. We reported approximately $6 million of other non-operating income in fiscal 2024 which was primarily comprised of interest earned on our global cash position as compared to $2.1 million during the same period of last year. Net income was $48.3 million or $2.13 per diluted share as compared to net income of $96.8 million or $4.22 per diluted share in the year-ago period. Now turning to our balance sheet. Cash at the end of the fiscal year was $262.1 million as compared to $251.6 million at the same period of last year. During fiscal 2024, we had positive cash flow from operations of $76.8 million. Accounts receivable were $104.5 million as compared to $94.3 million in the same period of last year due to timing and mix of business. Inventory at the end of the quarter was down $38.2 million or 20.5%, below the same period of last year, primarily due to the timing of receipts and the alignment with sales. Capital expenditures were $8.2 million, and depreciation and amortization expense was $9.6 million, which included $2.1 million related to the amortization of the remaining acquired intangible assets of Olivia Burton and Movement. As Ephraim mentioned, as we look into fiscal 2025, We will use the strength of our balance sheet to invest an incremental spend of approximately $25 million in marketing and brand building initiatives to drive long-term growth with a focus on our biggest brands and our most important commercial markets. While we expect this investment will impact profitability in the short term, we anticipate it will increase market share and drive growth over time. We currently expect fiscal 2025 annual net sales in a range of approximately $700 to $710 million, and gross margin of approximately 55%. In addition to the increased investment in marketing and brand building, our fiscal 2025 operating expenses are expected to be negatively impacted by performance-based compensation and an increase in other payroll-related costs, primarily as a result of higher operating expenses partially offset by higher gross profit dollars. we expect operating income in a range of approximately $32 to $35 million. Assuming no changes to current tax regulations, the company anticipates an effective tax rate of approximately 22% for the fiscal year and earnings in a range of approximately $1.20 to $1.30 per diluted share. As mentioned, we expect the incremental marketing spend to drive long-term top-line growth. However, sales trends are expected to improve behind the spend as the year progresses. The company therefore expects net sales for the first half of fiscal 2025 to be relatively flat on a year-over-year basis. Beginning with the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Outlook will no longer remit the amortization of acquired intangible assets related to the acquisitions of Olivia Burton and Movement. The company has provided a recast of its gap and non-gap measures for each of the quarters of fiscal 2024 in the full fiscal year 2024 in the earnings release issued earlier today. As it relates to share repurchases during fiscal 2024, we repurchased approximately 112,000 shares. As of January 31, 2024, we had $17.9 million remaining under our authorized share repurchase program. Subject to prevailing market conditions and the business environment, we plan to utilize our share repurchase plan to offset dilutions in fiscal 2025. This outlook does not contemplate significant further impact of economic deterioration and assumes no further significant fluctuations from prevailing foreign currency exchange rates. I would now like to open this call up for questions.

Thank you. And at this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. And our first question comes from the line of Michael Alleg with the Best Mark Company. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks. Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Wanted to dive into the brand refresh a little bit with the $25 million spend. Can you first tell us what did that $25 million, what does that compare to for marketing spend for fiscal 24?

So it's an incremental $25 million marketing spend. So we're raising our percentage of advertising this year to

The year we just finished was a little over 19% of the percent of sales, and the year coming up, it'll be a little bit over 22% of sales, the marketing spend.

Okay, great. Thanks. And then did that start early January, or when is it being phased in? What's the timing of it?

No, it's mostly going to be second, third, and fourth quarter. We obviously started spending some in the first quarter of the year, but – but it'll accelerate as the year goes on. But we will spend significantly more this spring than we did last year, especially as we invest behind some of the initiatives that we tested last holiday season.

Okay, and then obviously it's a long-term focus on the brand refresh. Can you – I just want to kind of understand, like if we didn't put this extra $25 million spend in place – What do you think would have happened to sales? I'm just trying to understand the state of the consumer today with the higher debt, with the interest rates. If we get interest rate cuts, what that may mean. So just kind of give me an overview of where you see the consumer, and if you didn't do this spend, what you think might have happened.

Sure. Well, I think this is forward-looking, so we're doing the spend in the next four quarters. And I think that what we're trying to do is make sure that we invest behind our brands for the long term, both in the U.S. and Europe, where we see opportunities not only to build for the future, but also over the next four quarters to gain significant market share in both the fashion watch category and the accessible market. luxury watch category with a Movado brand, predominantly in the United States. And so I think the consumer has been somewhat struggling for a while. And historically, what we have found as a company is that in these times, if we take certain initiatives and invest and change how we run our business model, that will pay off. Historically, coming out of recessions, we've done very well. While we're not technically in a recession, I do believe that the consumer is challenged, and I think as we make these investments, they will certainly pay off for the future.

Okay, great. And then, obviously you're holding a gross margin, so you're not getting promotional in pricing, but what are you seeing from a competitive perspective on pricing in the industry?

I think the market is promotional, but it has been for a number of years. So coming out, I think at the beginning of COVID, it was not coming out of COVID, but then as there were shortages, but over the last two years, it's already been promotional. I don't think it'll be in increasingly more promotional. There are some competitors who are stressed, and we may see some more promotionality from them, but I think our ability to invest behind these marketing efforts, particularly in our largest markets, the United States and Europe, I think is what's really going to differentiate us as a company and differentiate us from our competitors.

Okay. I'm not looking for guidance here, but, you know, obviously this is a long-term campaign. And what do you think it means for the longer term, you know, fiscal 25, 26-type numbers? Where do you think this puts you after you get this campaign done?

So I think, look, the idea behind this campaign, I think, and we allude to that in my comments, is that it will pay some long-term dividends, and I would expect that we'll be able to leverage our marketing investments over time so that while they've gone up this year to 22%, that I think that over the next few years that will come down as a percentage of sales. And I think driving growth is really important for us as a company, and I don't think that we would – that we can drive success by shrinking our expenses to drive success. And fortunately, we've built a really strong balance sheet that allows us to take some of our cash and reinvest this year behind the brands and the company and growing the business organically.

Okay, great. Congrats. Look forward to 24. Thanks.

Okay. Thank you, Michael.

Thank you. And we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I'll now turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

Thank you. Thank you very much for listening with us today and for participating. I want to apologize again for the technical difficulties, but I can tell you that we at Movado Group are very excited about the initiatives that we're embarking on and driving our growth strategy. And so we look forward to updating you throughout the year. Again, thank you very much.

Thank you. And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.