Oxford Industries, Inc.

Welcome to the Oxford Industries Inc. Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the phone presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the conference over to your host, Jevin Strasser. You may begin.

Thank you and good afternoon. Before we begin, I would like to remind participants that certain statements made on today's call and in the Q&A session may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results of operations of our financial condition to differ are discussed in our press release issued earlier today and in documents filed by us with the SEC, including the risk factors contained in our Form 10-K. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements. During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures in our press release issued earlier today, which is posted under the investor relations tab of our website at OxfordInc.com. Due to the material impact of COVID-19 on our business in 2020, we will also include comparisons to our 2019 results. And now I'd like to introduce today's call participants. With me today are Tom Chubb, Chairman and CEO, Scott Grassmeyer, CFO, and Ann Shoemaker, Treasurer. Thank you for your attention, and now I'd like to turn the call over to Tom Chubb.

Thank you, Jevin. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to be reporting on what was an extraordinary fiscal 2021 year for Oxford and our plans for an even better year in fiscal 2022. Scott will provide additional detail in a moment, but here are some of the highlights. Each of our happy, upbeat lifestyle brands, Tommy Bahama, Lilly Pulitzer, Southern Tide, the Beaufort Bonnet Company, and Duckhead had its best year ever in 2021. All five brands posted strong top and bottom line growth, not only over 2020, but also as compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Compared to 2019, excluding Lanier Apparel, which we exited in 2021, net sales increased 9% for the full fiscal year and 8% during the fourth quarter. On an adjusted basis, our consolidated fiscal 2021 gross margin of 63%, operating margin of 15%, and earnings of $7.99 per share were all records for Oxford. While a terrific year for all, The biggest contributor to our record earnings was the performance of our largest brand, Tommy Bahama, where sales grew 7% versus 2019 to a record $724 million and adjusted operating margin nearly doubled to 16% over the same time frame. Our outstanding results are a testament to strong execution of the strategic priorities we established to drive our recovery out of the pandemic, combined with our straightforward formula for success. From a branding perspective, across all five brands, we remain true to our happy, upbeat brand positioning, and then supported the brands with the classic three pillars of any great brand, A-plus product, A-plus distribution, and A-plus communication. From a product perspective, we delivered innovative and differentiated product that is true to the DNA of each of our brands, while at the same time being relevant to today's marketplace and consumer. Among the hundreds of new products we delivered during the year, prime examples include our Tommy Bahama Men's Island Zone Chipshot Short and Women's Palm Modern Swimwear. In Lily Pulitzer, our Luxe Cotton French Terry Harriet Dress, along with numerous Luxletic editions, and in Southern Tide, our Sunfair Capsule Collections. All of these products are on brand and play well with the ongoing trends towards casualization, easy to wear and easy care, and the desire for performance-inspired product. And our customers absolutely love them. From a distribution perspective, we continue to evolve our premium full-price selling platform to ensure that we are making our brands, products, and services available to our customers when and where she wants them. In our view, a customer-focused modern distribution platform for any fashion brand should include a balance of company-owned retail stores and company-owned e-commerce complemented by a strategic wholesale business. By strategic, we mean wholesale business that is brand-enhancing, profitable for us and our wholesale customer, and exposes us to a broader base of consumers who might not otherwise be aware of our brands. We also believe it is important for modern brands to provide an experiential element. We provide exceptional guest experiences in our beautiful retail stores and in our very unique Tommy Bahama bars and restaurants. We believe our sales for fiscal 2021 are reflective of a very balanced and modern distribution platform with 39% coming from company-owned retail, 32% from e-commerce, 9% from restaurant and bars, and 20% from wholesale. From a communication perspective, it's as important as ever to have creative content that is compelling and in the modern marketplace that is specifically tailored to the digital media that dominates the attention of today's consumer. In addition, it is critical that brands be able to understand and serve the needs and desires of existing customer audiences and identify potential audiences that share those same needs and desires. Finally, brands need to have the techniques, disciplines, and skills to effectively and efficiently deliver compelling, creative content to those existing and potential consumer audiences in a way that attracts new customers, retains existing customers, and encourages all to increase their engagement and spending with the brand. The measuring stick for our success with these efforts is our customer KPIs, where our customer count finished the year at over 2 million active brand customers compared to roughly 1.8 million at the end of fiscal 2019. Our talented, highly engaged teams will continue to evolve and update our products and brand messaging to ensure they stay relevant for today's consumer and remain true to each brand's unique DNA. This has been and will continue to be the key to our success as we deliver long-term value to our shareholders. As terrific as fiscal 2021 was, we believe the prospects for 2022 and beyond are even brighter. The momentum that we created during 2021 has continued into the early part of 2022, and we have outstanding plans to deliver double-digit top and bottom-line growth on a consolidated basis. Our focus during 2022 will be on four strategic pillars supported by the foundation of our business, our incredible team of people. First, we will grow our brands for the long term. To do this, we have detailed plans to continue improving our clarity on brand positioning and voice. As stewards of our lifestyle brands, We are in the dream business, and ensuring that each brand inspires optimism and aspirations for happiness is paramount. Our brands will continue to deliver A-plus product, A-plus distribution, and A-plus communications. Second, we will continue to enhance our digital and omnichannel capabilities to attract new customers retain existing customers, and drive frequency and spend. Across the enterprise, we have numerous people, processes, and technology-related initiatives in place, particularly related to unlocking consumer insights in more effective ways and providing amazing, seamless customer experiences that will support and enhance our capabilities in these areas. Third, we will drive operational excellence across the enterprise to better serve our customers and make sure that we are operating as efficiently as possible. To support this initiative, we are focused on topics such as fulfillment and distribution, retail real estate strategies, process improvement, technology across the enterprise, and effectively communicating our ESG initiatives. Fourth, we will continue to manage our portfolio and align our capital structure to drive sustained profitable growth. Detailed plans include assessment of market opportunities to better direct future growth plans, refining our brand health metrics to help us better manage our businesses, evaluating both organic and acquisition-based growth opportunities, benchmarking ourselves against competitors, and monitoring our capital allocation strategies over time, including returning capital to shareholders. Lastly, we have plans to continue to develop our people and our teams to make rewarding careers possible for our people and to ensure the company can execute our strategy now and in the future. To do this, we are focused on the acquisition and development of exceptional and diverse talent, leadership succession, minimizing the impact of the so-called great resignation, and maximizing engagement and effectiveness of remote and hybrid workers. People are our most important asset, and we will continue to invest to ensure that we continue to have the best. We look forward to updating you on the progress of all these plans, as well as our results as this year progresses. I'll now turn it over to Scott for more detail about the results of fiscal 2021 and our strong forecast for top line growth and operating margin expansion in fiscal 2022. Scott? Thank you, Tom.