Oxford Industries, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Oxford Industry's fourth quarter fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief 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. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jevin Strausser. Please go ahead.

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 or a 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. And now I'd like to introduce today's call participants. With me today are Tom Chubb, Chairman and CEO, and Scott Grassmeyer, CFO and COO. 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 to hear about Oxford's record performance in both the fourth quarter and the full fiscal 2022 year. We appreciate your time and interest in our company. As always, our enterprise purpose is to evoke happiness, our enterprise strategy is to own a portfolio of lifestyle brands that create sustained profitable growth, and our enterprise objective is to maximize long-term shareholder value. Each of these important elements were critical to our tremendous success in fiscal 2022. We stayed anchored to these fundamental precepts during the year, and we are extremely proud of the incredible results achieved for our shareholders by our amazing team of people. During fiscal 2022, we delivered growth in all brands and all channels of distribution. Total sales grew 24% year over year, driven overwhelmingly by organic growth led by our largest brand, Tommy Bahama, which was up 22% for the year, followed by Lilly Pellitzer and our emerging brands group, which increased 13% and 29% respectively. The balance of the growth came from the addition of Johnny Was, which we are proud to have added to our portfolio during the third quarter of 2022. We generated this top-line growth while simultaneously expanding both gross margin and operating margin. This combination produced record adjusted EPS of $10.88 for fiscal 2022 compared to our previous record of $7.99 in fiscal 2021, a 36% increase on a year-over-year basis. The results we achieved in 2022 are directly attributable to our focus on evoking happiness in our customers through our portfolio of lifestyle brands. When we succeed in our purpose, it creates the sustained profitable growth that ultimately drives long-term shareholder value. So as always, our financial results are linked to our efforts to evoke happiness in our customers. We did an outstanding job on that front during fiscal 2022 as reflected by our customer KPIs. Not including the newly added Johnny Woz brand, we finished the year with 2.3 million active customers compared to 2.1 million active customers at the end of 2021. We were able to grow our active customer numbers by focusing on and reinforcing the power of our lifestyle brands. A lifestyle brand is different from an ordinary brand. In an ordinary brand, you are creating a product. In a lifestyle brand, you are creating a world or even a universe. And when that world resonates with people, they want to fully engage with it and ultimately live in it. When that happens, people can be very loyal to you for a very long time. Across our portfolio, we did an excellent job of being crystal clear about what each of our brands stands for and then delivering that brand message to their target audiences through inspiring marketing campaigns, differentiated and innovative product, and uplifting hospitality and shopping experience. During 2022, we did a good job managing both the composition of our portfolio and driving performance across the businesses within our portfolio. From a composition perspective, 2022 was the first year that our portfolio consisted exclusively of lifestyle brands having divested linear apparel during 2021. As previously noted, We were also pleased to have added Johnny Was, a California-based affordable luxury modern bohemian lifestyle apparel brand. From a portfolio performance perspective, as always, our priority in 2022 was on championing excellence in each key functional area necessary for a lifestyle brand to succeed. A terrific example of this was our creation of a marketing center of excellence to serve as the in-house agency for our emerging brands and to leverage resources and knowledge across the enterprise. Other examples include the establishment of an enterprise-wide corporate responsibility department, the enhancement of our long-term information technology strategy, aimed at maximizing our return on IT investments, the initiation of a project to optimize fulfillment across the enterprise, and enhanced leveraging of human capital across the enterprise. An essential part of driving shareholder value is sound capital allocation. Starting the year with $210 million in cash and short-term investments, and generating substantial cash flow, we were able to invest $47 million in the future growth of our business, acquire the Johnny Woz brand and all its potential for $270 million, buy back $92 million of our stock to complete a $100 million repurchase program, and return an additional $35 million to shareholders in the form of dividends. We are proud to have been able to both return significant capital to our shareholders and make significant investments in the future growth of our business, all while maintaining a very strong balance sheet. We are equally excited about our plans for 2023. Once again, we plan to have good growth in all six of our brands. Gross margins should also expand modestly during the year. Our plan for 2023 includes a top line that is almost 50% larger than it was in 2019, an operating margin that is almost double what it was in 2019, and operating income that is more than 2.5 times 2019's level. These are impressive growth numbers And to put it plainly, the size of our platform has not kept pace with the size of our portfolio of businesses or with the opportunity for future growth. Accordingly, and within the operating margin target I just outlined, we are excited to invest aggressively during 2023 in people, systems, stores, marlin bars, and fulfillment infrastructure to support our growing business. Our willingness to invest is confirmation of our belief in our strategy and our future growth prospects. Our confidence in our ability to blend art and science to deliver wonderful brand experiences to our customers through A-plus product, A-plus distribution, and A-plus communication has never been higher. The source of that confidence now, and as always, is our people. We are incredibly grateful to each and every one of them for all that they do. Thank you, and I will now turn the call over to Scott for additional color on 2022 and our plans for 2023. Scott? Thank you, Tom.