Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Levi Strauss & Company First Quarter Earnings Conference Call for the period ending February 24, 2019. All parties will be in a listen-only mode into the question-and-answer session, at which time instructions will follow. This conference is being recorded and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the company. A telephone replay will be available two hours after the completion of this call through April 15, 2019. Please use conference ID 8997045. This conference call also is being broadcast over the Internet and a replay of the webcast will be accessible for one quarter on the company's Web site, levistrauss.com. I will like to turn the call over to Aida Orphan, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Risk Management at Levi Strauss & Company.

Good afternoon, and welcome to our first quarter 2019 earnings conference call. I'm pleased to introduce members of the Levi Strauss & Company management team, Chip Bergh, President and CEO; and Harmit Singh, Executive Vice President and CFO. Before we begin, let me briefly remind you of a few items. First, our discussion today may include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our strategies and expected financial and operating performance. Although these statements reflect the best judgments of our senior management, they involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the statements. Additional information about the factors that could cause actual results to differ is included in today's earnings press release and in our filings with the SEC, including our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which was filed today. Undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements which are based on information available as of today's date. We disclaim any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law. Our discussion today will also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Descriptions of these non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are available on the Investors section of our Web site as well as in today's earnings press release. Finally, this call is in audio webcast in its entirety on the Investors section of our Web site, where a replay of this call will be available later today. Now I'll turn over the call to Chip.

Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our first quarter 2019 earnings conference call and our first earnings call after last month's IPO. I want to pause for a moment to thank everyone who helped us get to this point, particularly our employees around the world, our Board of Directors, family shareholders, and other stakeholders for their support throughout the process, and importantly, I want to welcome our new shareholders to their first call with us. We're entering this new chapter with a business that is stronger and more diversified than it's been in decades, as a result of our iconic brands, our people, great execution, and commitment to our longstanding approach to profits through principles. The strong results we delivered this quarter demonstrate that the strategic choices that we put in place seven years ago to drive the profitable core expand for more, become a world-class omni-channel retailer, and achieve operational excellence continue to pay off with broad-based growth balanced across a more diversified portfolio. We had a great first quarter of 2019 with revenues of $1.4 billion, which were up 7% on a reported basis, and 11% in constant currency. This was our sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit constant currency revenue growth beyond even our expectations. Adjusted EBIT growth was also very strong at 14% on a reported basis, and 21% in constant currency. Momentum continued across nearly every part of the business. The way we diversified our portfolio across geographies, customers, brands, genders, and products has become a major growth driver and differentiator for us. Here are a few highlights all in constant currency and versus prior year unless stated otherwise. Each of our three geographic regions grew revenues and profits double-digits, and within each region, every channel and nearly every market grew.…

Thank you, Chip, and welcome to everyone joining our call. My comments today will reference first quarter comparisons on a year-over-year basis in U.S. dollars unless I indicate otherwise. First quarter revenue of $1.4 billion grew 7% on reported basis and 11% in constant currency. Our growth was broad-based, and the sources of growth by region, channel, and category contributing to the 11 points of constant currency growth were as follows. By region, five points of growth came from the Americas, three points from Europe, and three from Asia. By channel, five points came from wholesale growth, four points from our company-operated stores, and two from e-commerce. By category, three points came from growth in men's bottoms with the remaining eight points from women's and tops. First quarter gross profit of $783 million, increased $45 million inclusive of $26 million of unfavorable currency translation. Gross profit dollars for the quarter grew 6%, slightly lagging revenue growth as first quarter gross margin of 54.6% declined 30 basis points. The margin decline was driven by 90 basis points of unfavorable transactional currency impact, which was partially offset by the margin benefit from our direct-to-consumer growth. First quarter SG&A expense of $582 million was up 3% over prior year, primarily reflecting the growth and expansion of the company's direct-to-consumer business partially offset by $16 million of favorable currency impact, but despite the dollar increase SG&A as a percentage of revenues declined 130 basis points compared to prior year, as leverage on base cost outpaced the higher direct-to-consumer investments. Additionally, advertising spend was low in the first quarter, because 2018 advertising campaign came earlier. This will reverse in the second quarter as we ramp up for our 2019 campaign. Net-net, we expect advertising as a percentage of revenue for the first half of 2019…

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. [Operator Instructions]

Operator, if we have no questions…

[Operator Instructions]

Well, it's not totally unexpected, because we know a number of the analysts are following us right now can't ask questions and can't write still. So it's not a huge surprise. If there are no questions, operator, I will check one more time, but if there are no questions we'll wrap the call.

[Operator Instructions]

Okay. Showing none, I want to thank everybody for dialing in and joining us today, and we'll look forward to talking with you again next quarter. Thank you very much.

At this time, I'd like -- thank you, this concludes today's conference call. Please disconnect your lines at this time.