Good day and welcome to the Designer Brands Inc. Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] This event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jesse Miller, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Earlier today, the company issued a press release comparing results of operations for the 13-week and 52-week periods ended January 28, 2023, to the 13-week and 52-week periods ended January 29, 2022. Please note, that the financial results that we will reference during the remainder of today's call excludes certain adjustments recorded under GAAP unless specified otherwise. For a complete reconciliation of GAAP to adjusted earnings, please reference our press release. Additionally, please note that remarks made about the future expectations, plans and prospects of the company constitute forward-looking statements. Results may differ materially due to various factors listed in today's press release and the company's public filings with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Joining us today are Roger Rawlins, Chief Executive Officer; Jared Poff, Chief Financial Officer; and Doug Howe, incoming CEO of DBI and President of DSW. Now, let me turn over the call to Roger.

Thanks, Jesse. Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning, especially our associates who I know are listening in today. I'm proud of the results we posted this year, delivering an adjusted EPS at the top of our original annual guidance. allergen that has proven to be a very challenging environment. Before turning it over to Doug and Garrett, I wanted to share a few thoughts on the progress we have made over the past 7 years as we have evolved from DSW, a domestic retailer selling other people's brands to the multinational brand building enterprise that is now Designer Brands. In 2016, we shared our belief that the days of being a retailer of others brands were in jeopardy. We described it as a piece of ice sitting out in 35 degree weather. Some retailers were glaciers that would take years to melt away, but others were going to disappear quickly as we predicted that brands would aggressively take their products direct to consumer through the websites they operate in the stores they were opening, competing directly with the retailers that spent years and billions of dollars supporting them and growing their brands. As a result of this challenge, we felt it was necessary to diversify our business model. We first moved to expand our retail reach beyond the U.S., leading to the acquisition of the Shoe Company brand in Canada in 2018, where we bucked the trend of other U.S.-based businesses who have failed to grow in the market. This acquisition has been successful because we attracted an amazing team of experienced Canadian retailers who leverage the core retail competencies of our DSW business, including our direct-to-consumer capabilities, assortment disciplines and technology infrastructure, allowing them to deliver nearly $100 million in gross profit and meaningfully contributing to DBI's…

Thank you, Roger, and good morning, everyone. I've gotten to speak with some of you since the news of my appointment, but I want to share that I am incredibly excited to be taking on this role. I want to thank Roger for his phenomenal leadership that has elevated designer brands to its current status, and I look forward to continuing to work with him over the next year. Thank you as well to our teams for the support you've shown me thus far. I look forward to traveling even more in the coming quarters to get to know more of you individually. We delivered well this quarter and this year amidst a pressured macro environment. The dynamics we called out last quarter continued to persist. In the fourth quarter, the footwear industry was highly promotional, specifically in athletic to combat over inventory positions and a constrained consumer. In considering the variables we could control, we elected to be less promotional in athletic. We had positioned ourselves well with proactive actions earlier in the year to manage our inventory levels, and we were supported by the continued resurgence of our clearance business. We made this decision with an eye towards protecting our dress and seasonal market share during a critically important season. As such, we chose to implement select thoughtful promotions in our seasonal business, specifically on ready-to-wear product like boots in the quarter. Our customer has clearly shown us that they are looking for value at this point in time, and we saw outperformance of our clearance business. In the quarter at DSW, clearance sales were up 2%, while regular price selling was down 10%. As other companies across our space have been sharing, we are continuing to see a consumer under pressure as we enter the new year.…

Thanks, Doug, and good morning, everyone. I briefly want to echo Roger and Doug's comments on how proud I am of the progress we made on our strategy during the quarter and the year. We once again posted results that showcased our evolved business model and the power of our brand-building capabilities. Adjusted EPS for the full year was $1.85, landing at the very top of the guidance we provided at the start of the year and on top of a strong 2021. While the fourth quarter saw some pressure from a top line perspective, I am pleased with our earnings versus our expectations. The team effectively managed inventory and expenses and continued to successfully deliver on our own brand strategy. Turning to our results. For the full year, sales increased 3.7% to $3.3 billion compared to 2021. In the quarter, sales decreased 7.5% to $760.5 million compared to 2021, primarily as a result of a pressured consumer and a highly competitive and promotional environment. On top of record level performance last year, total comps were up 4.4% and U.S. retail comps were up 2% for the full year. Canada also had an excellent year posting comps of 28.8%. We are incredibly proud of our performance on benscamuto.com with comps up 34.5%. Specifically, our own brands had a great showing growing 32% for the year and DTC was up 35%. In the fourth quarter, total comps were down 5.5%, following a 36.9% comp in the fourth quarter of 2021. U.S. retail comps for the fourth quarter were down 8.1%, driven by the pressure of a constrained consumer. As Doug mentioned, our industry has struggled with being over inventory, and as a result, our external wholesale business was down 9% during the quarter on a net sales basis, where, as for…

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Roger Rawlins for any closing remarks.

Thanks, again, everybody, for joining the call and appreciate everybody's support and look forward to all the success that Doug and his team are going to have.

Thanks, everybody. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.