Earnings Labs

Vince Holding Corp. (VNCE)

Q4 2022 Earnings Call· Sat, Apr 29, 2023

$4.75

+2.93%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Thank you all for joining today. I would like to welcome you all to the Vince's Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Brika, and I'll be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Caitlin Churchill to begin. So Caitlin, please proceed.

Caitlin Churchill

Analyst

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Vince Holding Corp.'s fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2022 results conference call. Hosting the call today are Jack Schwefel, Chief Executive Officer; and Amy Levy, 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 website. Investors should not assume that statements made during the call will remain operative at a later time, and the company undertakes no obligation to update any information discussed on the call. Following today's remarks, there will be no question-and-answer session. Now I will turn the call over to Jack.

Jack Schwefel

Analyst

Thank you, Caitlin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on today's call. As you saw in our press release this morning, we are excited to announce a transformative strategic partnership with Authentic Brands Group, or Authentic, which we believe will position Vince for its next chapter. Before I review details of the partnership, let me touch on our fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2022 results we released in conjunction with this morning's announcement. For the full year, we delivered double-digit sales growth across our wholesale and direct-to-consumer segments for Vince culminating in a net sales growth of over 12% compared to the prior year. That said, given the macro-related headwinds faced, we delivered loss from operations for the Vince brand, including unallocated corporate expenses of $4.2 million for the year. Included in these results was a challenging fourth quarter performance, driven primarily by our wholesale segment, while we saw growth in our direct-to-consumer segment sales. Our direct-to-consumer performance was driven by our store channel, which more than offset a decline in our e-commerce business, which continued to be impacted by softer traffic trends, increased promotional activity. Despite these headwinds, I am pleased with the continued resiliency and dedication of our teams as we continue to focus on our strategic objectives, substantially completed the wind down of the Rebecca Taylor business and ended the year in a healthier inventory position. As I will discuss today, through our actions we took in fiscal 2022 and with the transaction we announced today, we believe we are well positioned to focus on our growth initiatives and deliver long-term success. Turning now on more -- on our new partnership with Authentic -- as detailed in today's press release and SEC filings, as part of this arrangement, Vince will contribute its intellectual property to Authentic's newly formed subsidy, ABG Vince. And in return, we'll receive $76.5 million in cash from Authentic and a 25% membership interest in ABG Vince. In addition, in connection with this transaction, we will enter into an exclusive 10-year license agreement with eight 10-year renewal options to continue to operate the business substantially in the same manner as we do today through our wholesale, retail and e-commerce channels. We expect the transition to close within the second quarter of the calendar 2023, and we will use the proceeds to strengthen our balance sheet. Looking ahead, we believe this partnership is not only transformative for our business, but an important step in capitalizing on the potential for the Vince brand with a highly experienced and equally committed partner. Let me now turn the discussion over to Amy, who will review our fourth quarter financial results as well as more details of the transaction and its impact on our financial model going forward.

Amy Levy

Analyst

Thank you, Jack. As expected, our fourth quarter financial results were impacted by the continued wind down of the Rebecca Taylor business as well as aggressive actions we have taken to reduce our Vince inventory levels, especially in light of the continued challenging macro environment. With respect to Rebecca Taylor, the business contributed $11 million in net sales for the quarter, and we incurred net charges of $3.7 million related to the wind-down activity, including the write down of inventory as well as accelerated operating lease amortization, accelerated depreciation and amortization as well as other costs, partially offset by the benefit from the release of operating lease liabilities. In addition, we recorded a $1.6 million gain on the sale of the Rebecca Taylor intangible assets during the period. Turning now to our results in more detail. Total company net sales for the fourth quarter decreased 7.8% to $91.3 million compared to $99 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. The year-over-year decrease was driven by an 8% decline in Vince brand sales and a 6.4% decrease in Rebecca Taylor and Parker combined net sales. The Vince brand net sales decrease was entirely driven by our Wholesale segment, which declined 20.9% compared to last year, primarily due to a higher rate of sales allowances, lower full price shipments and the timing of off-price shipments. This performance was partially offset by the 4.7% increase in our Vince direct-to-consumer segment sales, which was entirely driven by our store channel. Gross profit in the fourth quarter was $36.2 million or 39.6% of net sales. This compares to $43.6 million or 44% of net sales in the fourth quarter of last year. The decrease in the gross margin rate was primarily driven by the increase in promotional activity in the direct-to-consumer channel, a higher…

Jack Schwefel

Analyst

Thank you, Amy. As Amy mentioned, we believe fiscal 2023 will continue to be impacted by macro headwinds, but we plan to stay focused on strengthening the foundations of our operations in fintech. We believe this partnership will allow our teams to focus on our core ready-to-wear assortment for both women's and men's and build on our profitable domestic wholesale business while focusing on the execution of our key near-term strategic growth initiatives, including leveraging our enhanced e-commerce capabilities and CDP platform to drive greater loyalty and conversions and capture a broader customer base, expanding our international presence in Asia, Canada and select European countries, growing our men's business, both in the direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels and selectively opening new retail doors in the U.S. market. We made significant enhancements to our omnichannel capabilities in 2022, including the relaunch of our Vince website and the rollout of our new customer data platform or CDP. With the initial launch of CDP, we were able to increase our personalization efforts for select events and we're pleased with the conversion we serve during these times. These enhancements allow us to be a far more data-driven than we've ever been. We look forward to further leveraging these capabilities going forward. Next, we see opportunities to continue to build our international presence through our wholesale and retail channels and expand our men's business as we continue to operate in major regions, including Europe, Canada and Asia. In Asia, where the pandemic has taken far longer to dissipate, we see long-term growth potential in Korea, Japan and especially China. Our men's business represented less than 20% of our 2022 revenue performance, and we believe we can grow this business to approximately 30% of our top line performance in the next 4 years. As part of this strategy, we plan to test men's only retail stores and are very excited for our first men's store opening, which occurred earlier this month in the Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island, New York. We expect -- we continue to expect to selectively open new stores and new markets in the United States and plan to leverage our retail footprint along with our e-commerce business to drive omnichannel growth. As we look ahead, we are excited for this new chapter for the company. With an improved balance sheet in place, we will be in a better position to focus on our near-term growth initiatives and to capitalize on opportunities that may arise to drive long-term success and stakeholder value. With that, we conclude our fiscal year 2022 year-end and Q4 results conference call. Thank you again to everyone at Vince Holding Corp. and have a great week. Thank you.

Operator

Operator