Operator
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the Destination XL Group’s Second Quarter Earnings Call. Today’s call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jeff Unger. Please go ahead, sir.
Destination XL Group, Inc. (DXLG)
Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Aug 28, 2014
$0.63
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+0.60%
1 Week
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1 Month
-5.03%
vs S&P
-3.47%
Operator
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the Destination XL Group’s Second Quarter Earnings Call. Today’s call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jeff Unger. Please go ahead, sir.
Jeffrey Unger
Management
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. On our call today is David Levin, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Peter Stratton, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. During today’s call, we will discuss some non-GAAP metrics to provide investors with useful information about our financial performance. Please refer to our earnings release, which was filed this morning and is available on our website at investor.destinationxl.com for an explanation and reconciliation of such measures. Today’s discussion also contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company’s operations, performance and financial condition, including sales, expenses, gross margin, capital expenditures, earnings per share, store openings and closings, and other matters. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those assumptions mentioned today, due to variety of factors that affect the Company. Information regarding risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I’d like to now turn the call over to President and CEO, David Levin.
David A. Levin
Management
Thank you, Jeff, and good morning everyone. Our results for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 are impressive, particularly given the challenging retail environment this past quarter. Destination XL’s strong results were driven by the continuing success of our DXL concept. In fact, this quarter marks our fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit comparable sales increases for DXL stores. What’s particularly noteworthy is that the strong performance at our DXL stores was driven by increased traffic and higher conversion rates of store traffic. This shift is a strong indicator of the success of our in-store marketing at our Casual Male XL stores, the transition shoppers to the DXL stores. These are very important metrics for the long term success of our strategy. DXL store sales for the second quarter almost doubled to $41.5 million, compared with $21.5 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2013. Another very positive metric this quarter was our penetration of the end-of-the-rack consumer; those with waist sizes between 40 to 46 inches. Since the launch of our marketing program in Q2 of 2013 the DXL stores have grown the end-of-rack customers from 39.2% at the end of Q2 2013 to 42.2% for the DXL stores this quarter. We expect even greater growth in this consumer category, as we more proactively communicate the sizes that we carry as we go forward. There are two new metrics we have identified that are encouraging in the DXL strategy. First, in DXL stores that have comp, the average DXL store has 65% more customers in its active database than the average Casual Male XL store. Second, again in DXL stores that have been opened greater than 13 months, DXL stores on average have maintained a 26% higher retention rate of customers than the average Casual Male XL store. While we…
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. I’ll start by highlighting the Company’s results for the second quarter of fiscal 2014, and then provide a review of our full year guidance for fiscal 2014, which we reaffirmed in our news release today. David provided the high level discussion of our sales for the quarter, so I’ll get right in to the details. Our total comparable sales increase of 7% or $5.6 million included an increase in our retail business of 8.5% or $5.5 million. The retail increase, which in turn was driven by our 61 DXL comparable stores, had an increase of $2.4 million or 11.3%. We’re seeing an exciting shift in our DXL store metrics. In fiscal 2013, our comparable sales growth was primarily the result of an increase in dollars per transaction. This quarter, our store traffic, store conversion and number of transactions are all up over last year. In fact, for Q2, dollars per transaction slightly decreased by 1.1% or the number of transactions increased by 13.1%. And our conversion rate of store traffic into transactions increased 6.2%, primarily as a result of our marketing and in store promotional initiatives. Comparable sales from our remaining Casual Male and Rochester stores increased 7.1%, or $3.1 million. This increase was driven by our Casual Male XL retail stores which have been performing very well since we returned to standardized operating hours at the end of Q1. In our U.S. Direct business as David mentioned, sales improved slightly with an increase of 0.5%. But we’re optimistic about stronger, near term growth for this business based on our results in July and that we will no longer have to compare with any catalog sales. Gross margin for the second quarter inclusive of occupancy costs was 45.7%, compared with gross margin of…
Operator
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) We’ll take our first question from Mike Richardson with Sidoti. Michael Gorman Richardson – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Yes, good morning and thank you for taking my calls. A couple of quick questions, first I wanted to clarify something on the David said in his prepared remarks. I believe he said that sales in the third quarter might be a little bit lighter year-over-year, due to a shipment timing of marketing, are you referring to total sales or sales per DXL stores or just sales in the comp base, if you could clarify that, I would appreciate it.
David A. Levin
Management
Yes, it’s really on the DXL stores, we have a quarterly shift ending in October. We are forecasting lighter sales, because we are starting the ad campaign almost three weeks later and that’s going to falling from the fourth quarter. So again our total forecast doesn’t change, it’s just a shift of a lighter third quarter and a stronger fourth quarter. Michael Gorman Richardson – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay and then, regarding the penetration rate for end-of-the-rack customers, is there a sort of a internal goal, how should we be thinking about that going forward, how high can you, how high do you think you can get that?
David A. Levin
Management
Well from a pure empirical point of view 65% are big and tall guys are in their size range, and now we are up to 42. And remember Casual Male was 25%, so we are clearly moving it in the right direction. But these are big numbers to move, so though we anticipate moving one, two percentage points, year-over-year and they will take time. But if we ever got to 50% that will be great. Michael Gorman Richardson – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay, then just last one then I will let someone else ask a question. The 50 additional DXL stores that you plan to open in the smaller markets. Are those going to be offset by Casual Male closings and sort of over what timeframe, should we be thinking about those openings happening?
David A. Levin
Management
Yes, it’s still – there were a lot of locations in smaller markets that we were going to really abandon, because we couldn’t make the numbers work and relying that customer to go visit us online. And now that we see this 1,000 square foot store works economically, it’s allowing us to fill in a lot of these stores that would have closed. But I think this fall is pretty much into the same timeframe over the next several years that we could be – now we could be at a close to 300 stores, as opposed to 220 to 250 stores. Michael Gorman Richardson – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Great, thank you very much and continued success.
David A. Levin
Management
Thank you.
Operator
Operator
And we will move onto our next question from Jack Balos from Focus Research. Jack Balos – Focus Research: Regarding the Destination XL stores what is the timetable for those stores to become profitable? Like does it take a year or two years, when did they go into the black?And by the black I mean incorporating – corporate overhead not the four wall thing.
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
Sure, well for many of our stores by year two we’re seeing nice profits from the Destination XL stores. Typically the stores see a very big slight in growth in the year one of conversion. And then after year one the growth starts to settle down a little bit. By the second year we are seeing profitability in the stores. Jack Balos – Focus Research: So the 99 stores that you had in fiscal 2013, did they as a group went to the black this year?
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
Yes. Jack Balos – Focus Research: I assume the 48 stores that you had the prior year are going into the black.
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
Yes, it’s – there is going to be some that are doing better than others, but for the most part yes. Jack Balos – Focus Research: I see. So, but as a total classification, a little about Destination XL stores as a group are operating a loss right now?
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
No. They’re not operating at a loss. Again, it’s a store by store evaluation, but most of our stores, they’re coming out even in year one and they’re doing well and they’re profitable, but our target and what we’re looking for is by two that we’re seeing them turning to profit by year two.
David A. Levin
Management
This is David. In consideration, most of these stores start in the hole about $100,000 before we even open the door in year one. And then when you look in year two, these stores are looking for comps in the neighborhood of close to 15%. So by year two you take that impact of initial reopening expenses and put a 15% comp on it. These stores really should be profitable in year two. Jack Balos – Focus Research: And what does that mean in terms of the entire company going into the black?
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
Well, we have – as we’re loading we’re spending a lot of time with our marketing expenses right now and once we see that start to come down over time that’s going to improve our profitability as well. Jack Balos – Focus Research: Okay. So what year do you expect for the company as a whole to be in the black?
David A. Levin
Management
Within the next two years. Yes. Jack Balos – Focus Research: Two years. Is it 2015 or 2016?
David A. Levin
Management
Well, we don’t give guidance out that far, but at this January we anticipate going into the black, certainly in 2016. Jack Balos – Focus Research: 2016. Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Operator
We’ll move along to our next question from Laura Champine with Canaccord. Laura Champine – Canaccord Genuity Inc.: Thanks guys. So our question is on the shift in advertising. Did you mention, David, that you think sales, total sales could actually be down in Q3? And what drove the decision to make that timing shift?
David A. Levin
Management
Sales will not be down. We’ve been running five quarters at double-digits. We anticipate a very strong August and September and we’ll give some back in October. It’s still going to be a very good number, but maybe not at the 12s to 15s that we’re talking about. So we’ll get something higher than that. What precipitated that was looking at last year’s performance, we had a very big comp in October and we had a very bad December. And we had spent all our marketing by November 15. So we figured balancing it out more, getting the biggest bang for our buck when the customers are coming out and shopping to put some money into the December time period, will give us a better overall performance for the fall season than just repeating what we did before. It was a lesson we learned that we should have pushed the marketing out a little further. Laura Champine – Canaccord Genuity Inc.: Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We’ll move along to our next question from Bernard Sosnick with Gilford Securities. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Good morning. You mentioned a strong August and September. Could you give us a clue as to what you have been seeing so far in the month of August?
David A. Levin
Management
All I would say is we see continued trends from the last four or five months where we have been very – we’ve been consistently getting those double-digits. We haven’t seen any indicators out there that’s changing that. Again, we are not a back-to-school company. In fact, where most – a lot of specialty retailers, August is a strong month. It is actually our weakest month in the fall season. Our business really starts to pickup in September. But we feel very good about, because last September we had a fairly weak performance and we’re trending much better this year. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Good. You are saying 13% to 15% same-store sales growth for the 99 DXL stores for the year. That would sort of imply a 20% gain in the fourth quarter.
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
No, it’s not that high. I mean, the 13% to 15%, yes, but it’s a little lower than 20%.
David A. Levin
Management
Bernie, one of the things to recognize is last year 25 stores of the 50 we opened, opened in Q4. We’re going to get and we know that we get the biggest comp when they first anniversary. So in Q4, we got 25 DXLs that are going to come strongly, which is going to give us that extra boost in the fourth quarter, that’s not including the marketing factor, that’s just the timing factor. So it’s not 20%, but it’s certainly fourth quarter we anticipate being our best quarter of the year.
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
Yes. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Okay. Could you repeat what the inventory increase was?
David A. Levin
Management
Certainly.
Peter H. Stratton
Analyst
So our inventory was $116 million at the end of the quarter. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Yes I have it up $9.8 million I think. I thought you said $7.5 million.
Peter H. Stratton
Analyst
No, let’s see here. It’s up I would call at that 7% to 8%. It’s primarily in the increase penetration in branded product, our units are actually down a little bit. But we are also – we are trying to be in a strong better position prior to the start of the fall season.
David A. Levin
Management
Bernie, we took in a considerable amount more inventory in July than we did a year ago. And it’s mostly a timing issue. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Yes, I understand that. I just either my calculation is wrong, or well, let's drop that. Could you reconcile the GAAP and non-GAAP full-year estimates providing the difference of roughly $0.11 to get to the non-GAAP number? I am sure it includes $0.02 from Canada and then tax benefits.
Peter H. Stratton
Analyst
Yes, it’s primarily it’s the tax benefits of 40%. So the $0.02 in Canada is the other piece of that as well. But you can calculate that by just taking 40% of the GAAP number for the tax component and then the $0.02 on Canada. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Okay. As far as the Casual Male stores, you have increased the hours, you have got the sales increase. Are they running at a smaller – are they running at a loss, is it smaller loss? What was the comparison for Casual Male and Rochester stores for the quarter in terms of profitability.
David A. Levin
Management
We don’t break it out by division. But I think the best way to answer it is our – the sales for Casual Male without the extended hours, probably would have been consistent with its trend, which has been relatively flat to plus one or two. And then, we’re forecasting that same trend once we get past the incremental lift we’re getting from the store hours right now. But the lift that we’re getting is almost purely coming from those extended store hours. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Okay. And you expect the lift to continue through the second half and into early 2015?
David A. Levin
Management
Yes. We should anticipate high single-digit comps in Casual Male stores through March of 2015. Bernard Sosnick – Gilford Securities Inc.: Okay. Very good. Thank you.
David A. Levin
Management
Thank you.
Operator
Operator
(Operator Instructions) And at this time we have no further questions. I’d like to turn the conference back over to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks. However, we have just received another question, if you like to take it.
David A. Levin
Management
That’s fine.
Operator
Operator
Our follow-up question is from Mike Richardson with Sidoti. Michael Gorman Richardson – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Yes, thanks. Just squeeze one more in if I can. Am I correct in directionally thinking about your gross margin guidance that you are assuming that gross margin is going to be up in the back half of the year? And I guess my question is with trying to reactivate customers and convert the Casual Male customers to DXL stores and what not, how is that going to happen? Or what makes that happen?
Peter H. Stratton, Jr.
Management
Let me just – I’ll speak of the guidance piece first. So, the range of guidance that we’ve given on gross margin is that we would be between 45.5% to 46.1%. The majority of that range is below last year. So our promotional cadence that we’ve been seeing in the first half of the year where we’re trying to drive more customers to the DXL stores and reactivate some of our direct customers that haven’t shopped with us in a while, that’s going to continue for the rest of this year. So, as I said, the range is flat to slightly down and we’ll see how the second half comes out.
David A. Levin
Management
And what was the second part of the question? Michael Gorman Richardson – Sidoti & Company, LLC: No, that was – Peter answered the question. So that’s perfect.
David A. Levin
Management
Okay, great. Michael Gorman Richardson – Sidoti & Company, LLC: Thank you.
David A. Levin
Management
Okay. If there’s no other calls coming in we’d like to thank you for joining us today, and, again we look forward to a good third quarter and reporting to you later in the year. Thank you very much.
Operator
Operator
And that concludes today’s conference call. We thank you for your participation.