Vince Holding Corp.

Hello everyone and welcome to Vince Holding Corp's third quarter fiscal 2024 results call. My name is Lydia and I'll be your operator today. After the prepared remarks, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. If you'd like to participate in the Q&A, you can do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I'll now hand you over to Akiko Okuma, Chief Administrative Officer and Head of Investor Relations to begin. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning everyone. Welcome to Vince Holding Corp's third quarter fiscal 2024 results conference call. Hosting the call today is Dave Stesco, Interim Chief Executive Officer, and John Sapansky, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that certain statements made on this call may constitute forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those that the company expects. Those risks and uncertainties are described in today's press release and in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the company's website. Investors should not assume that statements made during the call will remain operative at a later time, and the company undertakes no obligation to update any information discussed on the call. In addition, in today's discussion, the company is presenting its financial results in conformity with GAAP and on an adjusted basis. The adjusted results that the company presents today are non-GAAP measures. Discussions of these non-GAAP measures and information on reconciliations of them to their most comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release and related schedules, which are available in the Investors section of the company's website at investors.biz.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Dave.

Thank you, Akiko, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning. I will begin with a review of highlights from our third quarter performance before turning the call over to John to discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail. Our third quarter results reflect our ongoing focus on driving a stronger full price business while executing an increasingly more efficient operating model through our transformation efforts. Despite our top line performance falling slightly short of our expectations driven by lower than expected in season reorders in our international wholesale business, as well as lower than expected sales in our outlet channel, we delivered profitability results in line with our prior guidance range, driven entirely by gross margin expansion. Within our direct to consumer channel, we made the strategic decision to pull back promotional activity even more than originally planned in our outlet channel which led to the lower than expected sales mentioned, but yielded a much healthier margin performance for the quarter. With the ongoing work in focusing on a stronger full-price business, we were pleased to see growth in our full-price customer file accelerate to the high single-digit range, outpacing the trends we delivered in the first half of the year. This growth was spread fairly evenly between our stores and e-commerce channels. With respect to our wholesale performance, as we mentioned on our last earnings call, we expected our third quarter sales to be lower than the prior quarter given the earlier timing of shipments. In addition, we saw lower than expected in-season reorders with our international partners, particularly in Asia. We believe this was largely due to the impact the stronger U.S. dollar had on our partners' purchasing decisions in season. Despite these top-line dynamics, similar to our DTC channel, we saw strong full-price performance across wholesale during the period. We are continuing to see customer demand shift from the higher-end designer luxury assortments into contemporary brands like Vince. Our relationships with our key wholesale partners remain strong, and we are again highlighted by Nordstrom as a leading brand supporting the mid-teen sales growth they delivered in their women's apparel business in the third quarter. We were also excited to have Jill Norton, our President of North American Sales, recently participate in the NordiPod, hosted by Pete Nordstrom, where they discussed the long history we have with the iconic department store over the past 20 plus years. In women's and men's, our knits assortments outperformed as customers continued to demonstrate buy now, wear now behavior. While the first half of the quarter is typically a more transitional period from summer to fall in retail, we were pleased to successfully continue to sell through the summer assortment at full price as customers responded to the fabrications and color palette of our offering. While we did see a slower start to our sweaters and outerwear assortments given the unseasonally warm weather this fall, we entered the fourth quarter with a strong full price assortment that we believe will now resonate with the colder temperatures. In addition, we also continue to see opportunity in expanding our men's business, which currently exceeds 20% of our total sales. During the quarter, we successfully launched our new men's pants program, which highlighted a broader range of fits with superior Italian fabrics at a competitive retail price. In conjunction with this launch, we introduced a pant guide to communicate fit names and measurements more clearly to the customer in order to increase customer satisfaction and decrease returns. We have been very pleased with the initial response to this offering and helps to further support our goal in expanding our men's business to 30% of total revenues. As we look to further progress our strategic growth initiatives with the strengths we are seeing in our customer file, we're even more confident in the opportunity we have with the Vince brand and our ability to acquire a higher value customer. To support these efforts, we have continued to look for opportunity to further enhance our customer acquisition efforts through more personalized and targeted initiatives focused on increasing lifetime value across our customer base, especially amongst our top 10% of customers, our VICs, who represent nearly 40% of demand across the full price direct-to-consumer channel. James Rattling Leafs, During the quarter and heading into the holidays, we have introduced early access events encourage traffic to stores through exclusive offerings and are exploring other engagement opportunities that we believe will resonate with this cohort. James Rattling Leafs, Our most recent direct mail campaign which ran through November and ended on December 2 saw outsized performance from our VIPs with a redemption rate four times that of our non VIP audience and a 50% higher. average order value than our non-BIC audience. As we have discussed before, another vehicle for customer acquisition is through new stores, and we are actively working to identify white space opportunities for the brand. Our recent market analysis, completed with Cushman and Wakefield, evaluated our e-commerce and wholesale sales data by zip code along with demographic information to identify the most promising markets for store expansion in the U.S. Through this analysis, we identified Nashville as one of our top five untapped markets. We recently executed a lease for our first Nashville store, which will open in late fiscal 2025. We're hopeful to also open a store for an additional top five market in 2025. In addition, we are also expanding our presence in London with the opening of our second location in the region. This new London store, located on Marylebone High Street a famed destination known for its unique blend of history, culture, and shopping, will officially open in the spring of fiscal 2025. We have temporarily opened it as a pop-up location for the holiday shopping season and look forward to expanding our reach in this important natural market. As we look ahead, we'll continue to explore other opportunities to expand our presence and enhance our omni-channel experience welcoming both new and existing customers to the brand. As we continue to position Vince for long-term sustainable growth, we also remain committed to delivering on our transformation plan. At the end of the third quarter, we are ahead of our plans to achieve our target for fiscal 2024. In addition to the improvements we are making within our cost of goods as part of the transformation plan, We have also been working on strategies to diversify our geographical exposure in light of the ongoing discussions regarding tariffs. As we begin to take actions for 2025 product seasons, we believe we will see a reduction of nearly 40% in our production of product in China. Further reduction strategies are being discussed. Looking ahead, we expect to continue to execute a healthy full price business across all channels and are very encouraged by the results we have driven thus far this quarter, including across the Black Friday, Cyber Monday period. While we are enthused by our results to date, we remain cautious with our outlook given the shortened holiday season and the ongoing uncertainty around the consumer. We do believe we're well positioned to deliver on our objectives for this year. Before I turn the call over to John, I would like to acknowledge our teams for their continued efforts towards achieving our goals while prioritizing and enhancing our relationships with our customers, vendors, and wholesale partners. We are highly confident in Vince's future and together remain dedicated to ensuring its long-term success. I'll now turn it over to John to discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail. John?

Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone. As Dave discussed, our disciplined approach to full-price selling and execution of our transformation plan continue to strengthen our financial foundation this quarter. While total revenue declined compared to the prior year period, we achieved meaningful bottom line improvements highlighted by substantial gross margin expansion. Let me walk you through the key financial metrics and provide additional color on our performance for the quarter. Total company net sales for the third quarter decreased 4.7% to $80.2 million, compared to $84.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2023. The year-over-year decrease in total company net sales was driven by an 8.3% decrease in our direct-to-consumer segment and a 2.2% decrease in our wholesale segment. As Dave reviewed, these results were slightly below our expectations, driven by lower-than-expected in-season reorders in our international wholesale business, as well as lower-than-expected revenues in our outlet channels. Combined, these factors negatively impacted sales growth in the quarter by 300 basis points. Excluding these factors, revenue trends would have been more in line to our expectations, which incorporated ongoing headwinds in our direct-to-consumer segment from store closures, which was a 163 basis point impact on the quarter, as well as the pullback in promotional activity compared to the prior year. With respect to our wholesale business, We had expected a deceleration in the top line from the prior quarter given the earlier timing of shipments that we previously discussed on a last call. Gross profit in the third quarter was $40.1 million or 50% of net sales. This compares to $37.2 million or 44.2% of net sales in the third quarter of last year. The increase in gross margin rate was driven by approximately 480 basis points related to lower product costing and freight costs and 80 basis points related to lower promotional activity in the direct-to-consumer segment and lower discounting. These factors were partially offset by approximately 50 basis points attributable to ChannelMix. Selling general and administrative expenses in the quarter were $34.3 million, or 42.8% of net sales, as compared to $34.4 million, or 40.9% of net sales for the third quarter of last year. SG&A dollars were relatively flat compared to the prior year as a $0.5 million decrease in marketing and advertising expenses, a $0.3 million decrease in rent and occupancy costs, and $0.2 million of expense favorability compared to last year given the transaction related expenses with the authentic transaction was offset by $0.8 million in increased compensation and benefits due primarily to higher severance and incentive compensation. Operating income for the third quarter was $5.8 million compared to an operating income of $2.8 million in the same period last year. Excluding the transaction related expenses incurred in the prior year period, adjusted operating income for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 was $3.1 million. Adjusted operating margin increased approximately 350 basis points compared to the prior year, driven by the gross margin expansion, which was partially offset by SG&AD leverage in the quarter, given the decline in revenue. Net interest expense for the third quarter decreased $1.7 million compared to $2 million in the prior year. The decrease was primarily driven by expenses related to the refinancing transactions in the prior year. as well as the year-over-year reduction in debt. There was no provision for income taxes this quarter as given our year-to-date ordinary pre-tax losses for the interim period and our expectation for annual ordinary pre-tax income for the fiscal year. We determined that it is more likely than not that the tax benefit of the year-to-date loss will not be realized in the current or future years. And as such, tax provisions for the interim period should not be recognized. until we have year-to-date ordinary pre-tax income. This compares to an income tax benefit of the $0.5 million in the same period last year. Net income for the third quarter was $4.3 million for earnings per share of 34 cents compared to net income of $1 million for earnings per share of 8 cents in the third quarter last year. The prior year period includes one-time items related to direct transaction expenses. Excluding these items, adjusted net income in the third quarter of fiscal 2023 was $1.8 million, or income per share of 15 cents. Moving to the balance sheet, net inventory was $63.8 million at the end of the third quarter as compared to $69.6 million at the end of the third quarter last year. As we are continuing to take a disciplined approach to investing back into inventory to support the growth in both DTC and wholesale channels, We now expect inventory for fiscal 2024 to be up high single digits to fiscal 2023. Turning now to our outlook for the balance of the year. For Q4 fiscal 2024, we expect total net sales to be down mid single digits to up low single digits compared to $75.3 million in the prior year quarter. With respect to operating margin, we expect Q4 fiscal 2024 operating margin to increase approximately 200 to 300 basis points compared to last year's adjusted operating margin of negative 2.2%. We expect improved full price penetration, discipline promotions, and the impact of our transformation initiatives to be the primary drivers of the operating margin increase, somewhat offset by SG&AD leverage from incentive compensation. With respect to our full year fiscal 2024 outlook, which as a reminder is a 52-week fiscal year, we continue to expect total net sales to decline in a low single-digit range compared to $292.9 million in fiscal 2023, which included a 53rd week, which represented approximately 2.2 million in net sales. We also continue to expect adjusted operating margins to increase 25 to 50 basis points compared to fiscal 2023 adjusted operating margins of 1.4%. This outlook includes a negative impact of approximately 140 basis points from non-comparable royalty expenses through May 2024 that we expect to offset through ongoing gross margin expansion and disciplined expense management driven in part by our transformation efforts. As Dave reviewed, we are pleased with the progress we are making with our transformation plan and are ahead of our plan to achieve our annual target as we enter the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. As a reminder, about half of our total benefits from the transformation plan are expected to come from product cost efficiencies with no compromises to quality with the balance driven by targeted initiatives to improve pricing and promotions and reduce operating expenses. This concludes our remarks, and I will now turn it over to the operator to open the call for questions.

Thank you. Please press star followed by the number one if you'd like to ask a question and ensure your device is unmuted locally when it's your turn to speak. If you change your mind or your question's already been answered, you can withdraw your question by pressing star followed by the number two. We have a question from Eric Bader with SCC Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Good morning. Congratulations on the progress. I want to talk a little bit about ABG VINs. I want to talk about ABG VINs. I know that some of the products have started to come in, some of the licensed products have started to come into the stores. We had a Q3, Q4. Curious what the response has been to that. And what should we be thinking about next year in terms of potential new product categories for the retail channel going forward?

Thanks, Eric. so uh at this time through fall season and now you know pre-spring is uh will be starting to ship um it's really the the licensed products have been coming in they've really been around you know shoes and and um cold weather goods which which are licenses that we've had for a few years you know so um you know as we as we indicated uh in our remarks We're happy with our Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the licensed products continue to perform. When you'll see new licenses that ABG Vince entered into since the transaction, there will be belts and leather goods that will launch with the spring season. And then handbags license has been signed, but that's not expected to ship until fall, fall of 2025.

Okay. In terms of store potential, I'm excited that you're opening stores in both the U.K. and in the U.S. You know, how should we be thinking about longer term the potential for, you know, expanding out the store base even a little bit more aggressively? And the potential in terms of returns, I saw there was in Q3 a significant increase in profitability on the operating line for the DTC. Thank you.

Um, I'll, I'll address the stores and then John could talk about, about the results from Q3, but from a store perspective, you know, when you look at, uh, at the U S you know, as we, as we implied, you know, we completed a study, uh, mid year with Cushman and Wakefield where we, you know, looked at the entire us market. And with only, with only 60 stores and a heavy concentration in New York and Los Angeles, you know, we, we have a lot of, of, of white space in the U S where we can fill in stores. And, you know, as we said in our remarks, you know, we've kind of allowed our e-commerce sales and our wholesale sales, you know, we kind of combined where those happen across the states along with markets. And, you know, in today's age of technology, you can define, you know, down to, you know, malls and shopping centers, you know, where the demographics cross with who our consumer is. You know, so we felt a really good understanding, you know, what markets are good for us. And, you know, you can imagine, you know, looking at a map, you know, we have opportunities in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, you know, to name a few. So, you know, Nashville became, you know, one of the top markets. And so we're focused on looking at, you know, not just the top five markets, you know, but the top markets and looking at opportunities. We'll still let, you know, economics, you know, drive us as to decision-making. When you look outside the U.S. and you look at the U.K., you know, we're much more opportunistic. You know, we just thought Mar-a-Lago is a fabulous, you know, shopping location, you know, similar to being on Madison Avenue here in New York City. It was an opportunity that we felt, you know, was important for the brand, especially looking at the results in our existing Draycott store that's been open for about five years now. So we thought it was the right time to make that investment. As we talked last quarter, you know, Eric, you know, we also looked at a market like China and where we were testing stores, you know, we pulled back in China because of the economic conditions and economic situations going on in China. So that's how we view the world and the U.S. from a new store opportunity.

And, Eric, just to add on that when we're talking about store performance, Sorry, you wanted to ask a follow-up? No, go ahead. No, I was just going to mention in terms of the financial side of store performance, you know, what we're seeing today, you know, even though our top line we see was impacted by the store closures that we had in the fleet, as well as the pullback in promotional activity, what we're really seeing is a really positive bottom line impact from that full price selling strategy and all the efforts around transformation that is driving our overall margin results. And the other thing that we're seeing is being able to invest back in the right inventory in season is really helping us give a balanced offer to the customer. So all of those factors are really driving the the performance in stores.

Okay. And one last question. Men's. Congrats on getting over 20%. How did the expansion into all the Nordstrom stores go? And how should we be thinking about the opportunity for men's in your own stores going forward in terms of expanding that out? Thank you.

Thanks, Eric. So, from a Nordstrom perspective, it's early. I mean, the results, we're very, very pleased with our Nordstrom results across the board. That includes men's. So, we certainly are seeing growth, but from our view, it still is a little bit early. In our own stores, again, You know men's is performing well the pant program, you know, was a critical. Investment and launch that we've made this year. You know we're we're reacting to. Results that we're seeing and and making adjustments where we're needed, but we we certainly expect to see continued expansion, not just a men's in our stores, but as you as you know, Eric, we are. We have one standalone men's store. You know that we're evaluating also its performance and. and how that fits into the strategy going forward.

Great. Thanks.

Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session, so I'll now turn the call back over to Dave Stefko for any closing comments.

Okay. Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to updating you on our 2024 fiscal year end results. in our April year end call. Happy holidays, everyone.

Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.