Welcome to Bed Bath & Beyond's first quarter of fiscal 2015 earnings conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode for the duration of the call. This conference is being recorded. A rebroadcast of the conference call will be available beginning on Wednesday June 24, 2015 at 6:30 PM Eastern Time through 6:30 PM Eastern Time on Friday June 26, 2015. To access the rebroadcast, you may dial 888-843-7419 with a passcode ID of 39894286. At this time, it's my pleasure to turn the conference over to Janet Barth, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Baqeeba and good afternoon, everyone. With me on the call to review our first quarter of fiscal 2015 results are Steven Temares, Bed Bath and Beyond's Chief Executive Officer and Sue Lattmann, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements including statements about or references to our internal models and our long-term objectives. All such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we say during the call today. Please refer to our most recent periodic SEC filings for more detail on these risks and uncertainties. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as events or circumstances may change after this call. Our earnings press release dated June 24, 2015 can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.bedbathandbeyond.com. Here are some highlights from the press release. Please note that our first quarter financial results were within our previously stated model range. First quarter net earnings per diluted share were $0.93. Net sales for the quarter were $2.7 billion, an increase of approximately 3.1% over the same period last year and quarterly comparable sales increased by approximately 2.2% or 2.5% on a constant currency basis. The company continues to model fiscal 2015 net earnings per diluted share to be between relatively flat and a mid-single digit percentage increase. Sue will discuss our quarterly financial results and provide an update on our 2015 model later in the call. Our first quarter performance reflects the core strength of our business across all channels and concepts. We are pleased that our ongoing investments to enhance our omnichannel shopping experience are producing meaningful benefits for our customers and associates. Let me now turn the call over to Steven.

Thank you, Janet and good afternoon, everyone. I would like to take a few minutes to review some of the highlights of our quarter and then provide an update on several of our key initiatives. Overall it was a good start to the fiscal year as we continue to strive to do more for and with our customers wherever, whenever and however they express their life interests and travel through their various life stages. At the same time, we continue to make the necessary investments to thrive in an ever evolving retail environment. Financially, our fiscal first quarter performance was on track, as Janet mentioned and consistent with our model. We generated approximately $2.7 billion in net sales and $0.93 in net earnings per diluted share. First quarter comparable sales, which include sales transactions consummated across all of our retail channels, increased approximately 2.2%. As anticipated, year-over-year Canadian currency fluctuations unfavorably impacted our comparable sales by approximately 30 basis points in the first quarter. As we have explained previously, it is difficult for us to reasonably track the channel in which a sale was initiated. However, as we have been doing, we can provide directional information on how the sale was completed. During the first quarter, comparable sales consummated through customer facing websites and mobile applications grew in excess of 35% while comparable sales consummated in stores were relatively flat. Our digital channels have benefited from the investments made to-date and we continue to test and add new functionality to our websites and apps. Keep in mind, that we have anniversary-ed the 2013 relaunch of the buybuy BABY and Bed Bath and Beyond websites, as well as the $49 free shipping threshold on bedbathandbeyond.com, which anniversary-ed earlier this calendar year. As such, for the foreseeable future, we would expect the…

Thank you, Steven. I will start with some first quarter financial highlights. As a reminder, the first quarter typically accounts for the smallest portion of our annual net sales and earnings, so any fixed costs as a percentage of net sales are relatively more pronounced in the first quarter than they would be in any of the other three quarters. Overall, we are pleased with our fiscal first quarter results. Net sales for the first quarter were approximately $2.7 billion, approximately 3.1% higher than net sales in the prior year period. Of this increase, approximately 70% was attributable to the increase in comp sales and the remainder was primarily from new stores. Our comparable sales in the first quarter increased by approximately 2.2% attributable to increases in both the average transaction amount and the number of transactions. As anticipated, year-over-year Canadian currency fluctuations unfavorably impacted our comparable sales by approximately 30 basis points in the first quarter. Gross profit for the first quarter was approximately 38.1% of net sales compared to approximately 38.8% of net sales in the corresponding period a year ago. The primary factors contributing to this decrease in order of magnitude were first, an increase in coupon expense due to an increase in redemptions, partially offset by a slight decrease in the average coupon amount and second, an increase in net direct to customer shipping expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the first quarter were approximately 28.1% of net sales as compared to 27.5% of net sales in the prior year period. This increase in SG&A as a percentage of net sales was primarily attributable to higher technology costs, including related depreciation and an increase in advertising expenses due in part to the growth in digital advertising. Consistent with our previous model and reflecting the movements…

Thank you, Sue. As we repeatedly say, our ability to interact with and satisfy our customers wherever, whenever and however they express their life interests and travel through their various life stages is our strategic imperative. This has been our mission for the past 44 years and it continues to be the foundation to everything we do. In today's ever evolving retail environment, this approach has never been more important. In understanding and satisfying our customer's needs and wants, we believe the whole is greater than the sum of our parts, which gives us a powerful retail model that will enable us to further refine our relationships with our customers. Our shared services model has been one of the foundational pieces of our organizational structure since we made our acquisition of Harmon back in 2002. The knowledge and best practices afforded us by our shared services model ultimately allows us to most efficiently drive a better and more robust customer experience. By leveraging our corporate infrastructure for many functional areas where appropriate, we are able to do more for and with our customers while optimizing efficiencies and profitability across our company. We look to continue to leverage the capital investments we make in one area of our business across all our concepts, channels and countries in which we operate. We see this across our company in areas such as technology, analytics, marketing, logistics, real estate, product development and merchandise assortments. For example, as Sue mentioned, we leverage our broad merchandise assortments by creating specialty departments within our concepts in categories such as health and beauty care, baby, specialty food and beverage. We also gain economies of scale as we optimize our store operations and market coverage, resulting in favorable advertising and real estate opportunities. This is a model that we continue to improve upon through our ongoing investments in disciplines such as analytics, target marketing, logistics and information technology. As I said earlier, this is an exciting time for our company and we are excited about our future. We are confident that we are making the appropriate investments to position our company for long-term profitable growth and to further enhance shareholder value. In closing, I would like to thank our more than 60,000 dedicated associates for their efforts, which drive our company's success. It is their passion to succeed and satisfy our customers that enables us to continue to do more for and with our customers wherever, whenever and however they wish to interact with us. Thank you for listening today and for your continued interest in Bed Bath and Beyond. Sue, Janet and Ken Frankel will be here tonight to answer any questions you may have. End of Q&A: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.