Good morning. My name is Jessa, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Vince Holding Corporation's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. Ms. Jean Fontana, of ICR, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Vince Holding Corporation's second quarter fiscal 2018 earnings conference call. Hosting the call today are Brendan Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer; and Dave Stefko, 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 Web site. Investors should not assume that the statements made during today's call will remain operative at a later time, and the company takes no obligation to update any information discussed on the call. After the prepared remarks, management will be able to take your questions. Now, I'll turn the call over to Brendan.

Thank you, Jean, and good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us today. During the second quarter, we once again saw great response to our product assortment. This was evidenced by the double-digit comp growth in the Direct-To-Consumer business, as well as the strong sell-throughs we saw in the Wholesale channel. Our summer and pre-fall deliveries resonated with consumers and provided continuity of product flow during the season. Based on our results in the second quarter, we have increased confidence that we are moving the brand in the right direction. Dave will discuss these details shortly. Highlighting our results, we saw a 17% sales increase in our Direct-To-Consumer segment with comp growth of 14%. Our best performing stores remain those in close proximity to department store doors that we exit. In the Wholesale channel, sales were down less than 4%, in line with our plan due to the transition out of Saks and Bloomingdale's full-price stores. At both Neiman's and Nordstrom's, we substantially increased our market share in our category, signaling the progress we are making in winning back the Vince customer. We believe that the strength in sell-throughs during the quarter combined with the positive response for our fall collections is a great indication that we are on track with our assortment and bodes well for the remainder of the year. The double-digit growth in our Direct-To-Consumer business combined with strong full-price sell-throughs in the Wholesale channel drove higher full-price selling and gross margin expansion of nearly 200 basis points. This contributed to a more than $6 million year-over-year improvement in EBITDA for the second quarter. These results are primarily a function of the work we've done in our product assortment as we returned our brand to our brand DNA. The Beach collection, which delivered in April, was…

Thank you, Brendan. Overall, we are pleased with our second quarter results, and the continuing progress we are making on the execution of our strategic initiatives. Second quarter net sales increased 3.8%, to $63.1 million, compared to $60.8 million in the same prior year period. As expected, our Wholesale channel sales were down 3.6% to $37.8 million due to the streamlining of our full-price department store business. Our Direct-To-Consumer segment sales increased 17.2% to $25.3 million in the second quarter while comparable sales including e-commerce increased 14.4% reflecting an increase in the average unit retail price and in the number of transactions. We saw strong growth in both our e-commerce business and our retail stores, each delivering a double-digit comp increase for the second quarter. Gross profit in the second quarter was $27.7 million or 43.9% of net sales. This compares to $25.6 million or 42% of net sales in the second quarter of last year, a 190 basis point increase. The increase in our gross profit rate for the second quarter of 2018 reflects lower supply chain costs and the favorable impact to channel mix. This increase was partially offset by an unfavorable impact from year-over-year adjustments to inventory reserves. Selling, general, and administrative expenses in the quarter were $30.1 million or 47.7% of net sales as compared to $34.4 million or 56.6% of net sales for the second quarter of last year. The lower SG&A spend for the second quarter as compared to the prior year was primarily the result of the non-recurrence of investments made last year related to the remediation and optimization of the systems implemented during fiscal 2016 as well as a decrease in severance cost and a reduction in product development cost. Operating loss was $2.4 million in the second quarter as compared to…

Thank you for joining us. We look forward to updating you on our Q3 earnings call in December.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.