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Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (WWW)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 20, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to Wolverine World Wide's Third Quarter 2015 Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of the call. This call is being recorded at the request of Wolverine World Wide. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce Mr. Chris Hufnagel, Vice President of Strategy, Investor Relations and Communications for Wolverine World Wide. Mr. Hufnagel, you may proceed. Christopher E. Hufnagel - VP-Strategy, Communications & Investor Relations: Thank you, Andrew. Good morning and welcome to our third quarter 2015 conference call. On the call today are Blake Krueger, our Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President; and Mike Stornant, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we announced our financial results for the third quarter of 2015. The release is available on many news sites or it can be viewed from our corporate website at wolverineworldwide.com. If you would prefer to have a copy of the news release sent directly to you, please call Tyler Deur at 616-233-0500. This morning's press release included non-GAAP disclosures, and these disclosures were reconciled with attached tables within the body of the release. Comments during today's earnings call will include some additional non-GAAP disclosures. There is a document posted on our corporate website entitled WWW Q3 2015 Conference Call Supplemental Tables that will reconcile these non-GAAP disclosures to GAAP. The document is accessible under the Investor Relations tab at our corporate website, wolverineworldwide.com, by clicking on the webcast link at the top of the page. Before I turn the call over to Blake to comment on our results, I'd like to remind you that predictions and projections made during today's conference call regarding Wolverine World Wide and its operations are forward-looking statements under…

Operator

Operator

The first question comes from Jim Duffy of Stifel. Please go ahead. Jim V. Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Thanks. Good morning. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Jim. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Hi, Jim. Jim V. Duffy - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Question for you guys on the Stride Rite brick-and-mortar business. Does that business make money? And can you help us with a better understanding of the calculus around restructuring? What type of comps are you assuming in the economic assessment for the stores looking forward? Are you assuming that the store base continues to comp negatively in your assessment of which stores need to be closed? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. We've got a complete fleet review under the way, Jim. The brick-and-mortar stores themselves at the present time are not profitable. So, we believe that going forward, the 125 stores or so stores that would be part of the go-forward fleet will be profitable. You have to remember Stride Rite, which has a dominant presence in mid-tier and better children shoes in the United States, has, frankly, a great and profitable wholesale business and also a growing e-commerce business as well. So, our assumptions going forward for the 125 stores are fairly conservative. There is no hockey-stick positive assumption assumed in our part, a realistic bottoms-up examination of the fleet. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: That's right. And just to add to that, I mean, we're looking at, obviously, the best real estate in the fleet. The stores that remain on the go-forward fleet list are those that are – where the four wall is obviously the highest…

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Ed Yruma of KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Edward J. Yruma - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Hi. Thanks very much for taking my question this morning. I know that you aren't going to spend the full allotment of demand creation dollars. So, I guess, could you contextualize if you're still going to spend the $100 million over three years? And I know results have been a little bit difficult, so maybe it's hard to tell initially but are you seeing positive results? And I know much of the spend was targeted towards Sperry this year. Thank you. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I would say on the incremental investment spend, right now, our three-year plan is intact. And we would proceed along our original line. Frankly, for this year, it's come down a few million dollars, our spend, but 80% or so of the spend this year occurred in the first half and Q3 with only about 20% planned in Q4. So, this year, you're right, it was about two-third spend on Sperry. And frankly, next year, our focus will be on the Merrell brand.

Edward J. Yruma - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Got it. And clearly, the foreign market's been challenged, but I guess are you seeing kind of increased incursions in the Merrell space and do you think that's weighing on results? Thank you very much. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: We haven't really seen that. I mean, as you know, competition is always fierce in our industry domestically and on a global basis. Merrell still remains the category champion in Performance outdoor product. We've missed the beat over the last couple of years in the Lifestyle area, but the new team is kind of focused on righting the ship there and getting back to healthy growth in that category.

Edward J. Yruma - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Management

Great. Thank you very much. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Ed.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Jay Sole of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Jay Sole - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hey. Good morning. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Jay. Jay Sole - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: So, want to follow up on the inventory. It sounds like the inventory is clean in terms of the quality and the inventory is high. But maybe there's a little bit more than you'd like and part of the plan, among many things, is to delay some future receipts. Now if that's right, at what point does the inventory that's high quality now become aged? How quickly do you have to move it to avoid having those big markdowns at the end of the season for the inventory? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah, exactly. It's a good question, Jay. I mean, this is really, obviously, very new inventory. We talked about it at the end of Q3. We mentioned Sperry, who's built up a little bit of inventory around their boot program. And that's selling through really well right now. We don't see there being any issues moving through that inventory. Some of our other boot brands also built a little bit more inventory in the quarter, had a little more – had a little bit of softness in revenue, as we mentioned. But it's core product and they've already made the adjustments. It's not something that we're doing right now, but they scaled back on their inflow of goods a few months ago. And they'll have their inventory levels down by the end of the year on the boot stuff. So, it sort of depends by brand, but in general, we don't think a two-quarter or three-quarter…

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Taposh Bari of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Chad H. Sutherland - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Good morning. It's Chad Sutherland on for Taposh. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yes. Chad H. Sutherland - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Can we go through the constant currency sales by geography, so EMEA, APAC, LATAM, et cetera? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, let me see if we can find the exact data. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: I would (44:54) Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. In constant currency, I would say our International business overall did very well in the quarter. The two regions that performed best were Latin America. So it was nice to see kind of a spring back from some trends we'd seen in Latin America over the last couple of quarters. Asia Pacific, certainly, as a percentage growth, was our number one region for growth. Really, Europe and U.S. were somewhat more challenged markets in the quarter. So, if you're looking at it from a quarter standpoint, International Group certainly met or exceeded expectations with the best performance by far in Latin America and Asia Pacific. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yeah. They were both up over 20% in the quarter kind of as expected. And we talked a lot about some of the challenges we had in the EMEA region going into the quarter. In our last call, we talked about challenges for Russia and Italy and some of the markets in the EMEA region. So, it's fairly flat in the EMEA, but the other two regions were really strong. Chad H. Sutherland - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Great. Thank you. And then, just to follow up on Keds, it looks like the performance there slowed down pretty meaningfully in the quarter. Any color, any context on what's going on with that brand and what the outlook is? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I mean, really, Keds did not anniversary. They had a pretty – a significant transaction last year in Q3 with one retailer decided for a variety of reasons not to anniversary that this year. When you take away that one – basically, that one transaction, Keds this quarter would have been up double digits again. So, our expectations for Keds' future growth is unabated at this point. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: And that was expected, too, Chad. That was not a surprise. Chad H. Sutherland - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Corinna Van der Ghinst of Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Corinna Gayle Van der Ghinst - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Hi. Good morning. Thank you. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning.

Corinna Gayle Van der Ghinst - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Good morning. Just thinking of some of the discretionary SG&A reductions that you guys were able to take in the third quarter, how much more flexibility is there in your SG&A plan for Q4 versus what's embedded in you guidance today? And could you kind of just walk us through what specific buckets could be flexed to lower if necessary? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Sure. Yeah. When we look at Q3, there was a variety of things. And I tried to highlight the bigger contributors in my prepared comments, but obviously, with volume, there's some variable costs there that would change. Blake mentioned the fact that we still have committed some of our demand creation investment. We're not planning to adjust that at this point. The typical things that we do from day to day across a 15-brand portfolio in every region of the world, we have levers that we can manage in a proactive basis. In the third quarter, we had to respond to some trends that sort of materialize in the quarter, and going into Q4, we have a little more visibility to what some of those would be. We're being pragmatic about that in Q4. And I would say, there's probably a little less flexibility in the Q4 number than in the Q3 number. But, as always, we'll monitor and continue to challenge our spending in all the discretionary areas during the course of the quarter.

Corinna Gayle Van der Ghinst - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

Okay, great. And then, just to follow up on Sperry, it looks like the setup this winter is for a pretty strong season for cold weather boots, and you mentioned shipping in some very cold weather products in the third quarter. What is your guidance kind of incorporate for that business? Do you need to see a strong cold winter season in order to meet the current guidance for Sperry? And if there is a strong season, is there additional capacity to chase that once demand is there? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I mean, we overemphasized our investment in Sperry boots for this fall. I would say that of all of our brands, probably Sperry is the least affected by weather at this point, it appears, in this fall season. Their boot programs have sold in very well early. They're selling through very well right now. We probably wished with hindsight we even had a little more inventory than we have today, but Sperry's initiative kind of to move beyond both and especially this year into vulcanized sneakers and into the boot category has been very successful. So, we don't really see any risk at all with Sperry on the boot side for this fall.

Corinna Gayle Van der Ghinst - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Broker

All right. Thank you so much. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Jonathan Komp of Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead. Jonathan R. Komp - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Hi. Thanks, guys. Maybe if I can start with just a clarification on Sperry. Blake, I know you've talked about the Odysseys Await campaign, leading to some improvements in the customer metrics that you track. And I'm wondering if you can just provide a little more context to that and then maybe some color on when you think that brand can get back to sustainable growth going forward. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I think there's no doubt we saw with the pretty significant investment in the first half, continued behind Sperry which continued into Q3. We saw the metrics really move in the right direction for that brand, whether it's consumer affinity or especially brand awareness. We saw very strong triple, quadruple-digit increase in awareness for both men and women for Sperry in especially that critical 16-year-old to 24-year-old demographic. So, that was very good news. Sperry is obviously focused on product creation and innovation. It's focused especially in moving beyond boat. Sperry is a wonderful brand, no impediment. Our retail customers want and need a big Sperry business. The consumer is certainly accepting of Sperry's expansion into other footwear categories. So, we're obviously going to focus on that and continue. Certainly, as far as overall growth, we're just looking to see what happens with the boat shoe trend from a fashion standpoint, pretty much more on the women's side than the men's. There's been a little leveling off in the men's, but that's been more of a steady-on category for Sperry. It's really the fashion trend on the women's side that's been – that we're replacing, frankly,…

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Erinn Murphy of Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead. Erinn E. Murphy - Piper Jaffray & Co (Broker): Great. Thank you. Good morning. Blake, I guess for you and then maybe, Mike, if you could weigh in as well. I mean, given how you guys have framed up the environment, could you just speak a little bit more about the underlying sales assumptions for Q4? So, maybe particularly delving in on the wholesale side, what are you assuming for reorders? And then has the initial order pattern shifted back later in the quarter? And then maybe if you can finally just parse it out by what you're seeing with some of your better department stores versus the mid-tier versus the family channel. That would be helpful. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I would – I think, Erinn, you have to remember about half our pairs are sold in international markets. But we can certainly focus on the U.S. market. I think retailers right now and consumers, to a certain extent, are buying closer to need. They're taking a conservative approach coming off the back-to-school season. We've all seen the numbers from the retail federation as to what they expect the holiday season, which is a bit softer than what we experienced last year. So, I think retailers and consumers are buying closer to need. We're certainly going to have the inventory and core styles to satisfy that. As far as channels are concerned, it's still a little bit early to get a read on that. Certainly, we know that the more price sensitive, lower distribution has done well over the last couple of years. With respect to the promotional environment, I believe it's going to be very promotional this fall.…

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Christian Buss of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Christian Roland Buss - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Yeah. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about where you're finding SG&A savings to bring that SG&A dollar amount down in the fourth quarter. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Where we're finding savings, Christian? Christian Roland Buss - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Yes. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Again, similar to Q3, we're going to see some of those variable costs flow through. We've got benefits in several different areas. And some of the benefit that we got in Q3 related to some incentive comp adjustments, those will flow through to a much smaller extent in Q4 as well. There's not really one focused area. Our marketing spend in the fourth quarter is going to be flat with the prior year at this point based on our projection. So – and as Blake said, we still have a little more to spend on our demand creation investment. So, it comes from a variety of different areas that, frankly, we look at on a quarter-by-quarter, period-by-period basis. Christian Roland Buss - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): That's helpful. Thanks. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the level of visibility that you have right now? You mentioned some challenges with the open-to-buy. In the past, you've talked about the fourth quarter being a heavy reorder business. Could you talk a little bit about what's embedded in the expectations and in your visibility? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I mean, overall, I think we've taken a fairly conservative view of our Q4 based on what happened in period nine or happened in mid – the last month of our third quarter. So, we did see cancellations tick up a little bit. We saw retailers getting a little bit more conservative. I'm talking here about the U.S. and not international of course. And we've reflected that all in our Q4 guidance. Christian Roland Buss - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): That's helpful. Thank you and best of luck. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Christian.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Steve Marotta of C.L. King & Associates. Please go ahead. Steven L. Marotta - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: Good morning, everyone. Most of my questions have been asked and answered. But, Blake, I have one question for you. And I understand the reticence about speaking about 2016. But can you comment at all on the spring 2016 – spring/summer 2016 order book trend you're seeing there, whether you're – where you want to be or not, just anything directionally there. And again, I understand the reticence of giving a specific number or even a directional number, but anything at all would be helpful. Thanks. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I mean, I will say that, we don't comment on our order book anymore, as you know, for a variety of good reasons. It's still early to comment on 2016. We'll have plenty of details regarding our operating plan for 2016 when we report our Q4 results. I would say right now though that some of the overall trends we're seeing, attitude by retailers primarily here in the U.S., we're seeing that also reflected into 2016. They are just playing at a – are pretty conservative at the right time. Maybe we'll get some weather. Maybe a couple of other things will break for their business another way, but right now, they're taking a pretty conservative approach on any number of levels. Steven L. Marotta - C.L. King & Associates, Inc.: That's helpful. Thank you. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Mitch Kummetz of B. Riley. Please go ahead. Mitch Kummetz - B. Riley & Co. LLC: Yeah. Thanks. I just want to follow up on Steve's question because, Blake, in your prepared remarks, you talked about these factors persisting into early 2016 and you answered it there. So, what are the factors that you expect to persist? Is it just weak traffic trends? Is it high promotional levels? Is it conservative on the part of retailers? And again, does that manifest itself in just – especially as you're thinking about the early part of 2016, does that manifest itself by retailers maybe revisiting their spring order books and maybe haircutting those or is there just underlying assumption that in Q1, you would still expect to pick up normally some re-orders on fall holiday and now, you probably think less of that will come through? Just based on those factors, could you just maybe elaborate a little bit more on that? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, Mitch. I mean, frankly, it's a little hard at this point since we're just getting into the holiday, or just approaching holiday selling season. I would say all of the factors you listed at the present time we believe are going to continue with respect to our domestic business. Our International business, which is about half of our pair, we are also anticipating that the dollar is going to remain very strong. So, in response, our brands are working on their product engines to bring in product – a lot of product to price points that have been vacated for international partners. So, we all read about the geopolitical risks and challenges that are going on everyday around the world. We really don't see…

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Chris Svezia of Susquehanna. Please go ahead.

Chris Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Management

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Hi, Chris.

Chris Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Management

So, I want to talk about pricing for a second, ASPs, and just kind of walk through. It seemed like in some brands, you are aggressive in pricing and had been. Maybe there's some pushback on the pricing thought process in some markets. But at the same time, we're also looking to, as you said earlier, backfill price points where other brands might have vacated. Just maybe talk about the pricing dynamic and your ability to take price and sacrifice a little bit of unit volume versus where you might have been six months ago on your thoughts on pricing and just how that plays out as we think about it going forward. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: I'll answer it first and then I'm sure Blake will want to offer some of his thoughts. But this is not a new tactic for us as a company. It was a pretty dramatic strengthening of the dollar as we entered into 2015 and probably had a bigger impact on our business this year than it would in a typical year. But the approach that we took is very consistent, and I don't think it's one that we regret at all. Our brands obviously continue to evaluate. What the impact really is out there is the fact that we raised prices, is it other consumer sentiment issues in those markets that are having a bigger impact on some of the demand issues. We obviously believe not only that we did the right thing. We have other competitors that didn't follow suit and are experiencing the same challenges in the market that we are. So, the good news is we got there early. We've been able to price that and we'll be able to anniversary that into…

Chris Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Management

Okay. All right. Thank you. And then the second question I had was just on the Merrell brand. Just maybe walk through what you're thinking about for spring of 2016. I think in March, there's going to be a pretty significant investment and marketing campaign. Is anything based on what you've seen in the business so far changed that thought process? Is that still a go-forward strategy? And any color about what you might anticipate or what you anticipate seeing from that investment? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I would think – just to take a step back from Merrell. I mean, obviously the continued focus on product creation and innovation, not just in the Performance category, but especially adding some talent on the Lifestyle side, for our International businesses in particular, backfilling with good product, maybe good product internationally that is now priced like better product. And then, again to re-focus on athletic, casuals and ath-leisure. So, there is a number of levers that the team is pulling on the product creation side. We do intend to invest behind the brand platform, but a revised, more athletic company like go-to-market strategy for key offerings in the Merrell line. It can be an expanded Moab collection with one key strategic retail partner. I'm talking domestically now. It can be an expanded Capra program for another key strategic. It can be an expanded All Out program for another one and then some more moderately priced search and enjoy product for another key retailer. That's going to be a change for the brand and one that Jim gave and the team are implementing this year. In my view, still a big opportunity for Merrell. A lot of people don't know about Merrell. We think everybody does because it has such a dominant position in the outdoor category, but a lot of people don't know about Merrell, and yet the brand consistently sits there with the number two intent to repurchase of all brands in this market. So, there's a lot of different levers to pull, a lot of them are on the product side and some new introductions, and we're going to invest behind.

Chris Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Management

One quick follow-up is – I might have missed this, is Taylor Swift and Keds, is that still together after this year or is that – just any update on that relationship. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I haven't had a recent update but we think, certainly, Keds is coming out with a new brand platform and campaign. The Keds brand is frankly – I can't believe I'm saying this – but it's bigger than Taylor Swift, and she is about as big as you can get. But we're going to put more emphasis on the Keds brand this year, but we will still – it appears right now we will still have Taylor Swift on the Keds team into 2016.

Chris Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP

Management

Okay. Thank you. All the best. Appreciate it. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Thank you, Chris.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Scott Krasik of Buckingham Research Group. Please go ahead. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: We lose you, Scott?

Operator

Operator

Mr. Krasik, your line is open.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Management

Hey, sorry about that. Sorry about that. Sorry about that, I know it's late. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Okay.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Management

So, just a few clarifications. Thanks for taking my question. So, the 100-basis-point FX headwinds in 4Q impacting gross margin, maybe talk about what the benefits or the offsets to get to an up gross margin in 4Q would be. I think there's something with the treatment of your LIFO expense. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: No, not really. Not this year. Sometimes that happens in the fourth quarter, but we had some easier comps in Q based on some adjustments that were made to last year's fourth quarter, some allowance and promotional stuff that we had to deal with related to some of our brands, getting out of some distribution that we're not happy with. And so, we took some of that pain in the fourth quarter last year, which kind of increased our markdown exposure and some of those things that we're not going to anniversary. That's part of it. And we talked about that last quarter. But really, it's the price increases and it's the better quality of our business. And we were – we talked about cleanliness, I guess, or the high quality of our inventory. But it's really been true all year long. I mean, we're selling less closeouts. Our first quality sales are better. We've spent the last year really focused on cleaning up and focusing the inventory and it's had a real positive impact on gross margin. We talked about price increases for Sperry, as well as for our international markets and that's helped us to really combat or mitigate the currency costs. And we've had some other things go in our favor including the beginnings of some of the product cost benefits that Blake alluded to that'll be more meaningful next year, but still has a small benefit in the third quarter.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Mike. And then, what percentage of your Sperry sales at this point are international? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: From a unit standpoint, it's about 10%.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Management

But that's all traditional distributor-based business now, right? You're not licensing that at all? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Pretty much, yeah. We don't have a licensed business for Sperry, yeah. I would say, over the last three years, the Sperry international – 2013 was kind of a get-started year for many of our brands, our Boston-based brands, Keds, Saucony and Sperry. And we've had real growth in 2014 and real growth in 2015 that's accelerating. But the Sperry international business has increased at over a 20% clip over that period of time, as has Saucony, and frankly, the Keds international business is even higher than that. So, we always knew it was going to take a little time. But once we get some traction, it continues to grow.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Management

And any visibility there? Is that going to continue at that rate? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I mean, we expect all three of those brands to continue at that rate. I mean, I would say, Sperry doesn't have as large as international business as Hush Puppies or Merrell or even Saucony, but we expect it to certainly continue at that rate into the future.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Management

Great. Thanks a lot. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Very early on the growth curve there.

Scott D. Krasik - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Management

Thanks. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thanks, Scott.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Sam Poser of Sterne Agee. Please go ahead.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to know, could you give us the EBIT dollars by segment, number one? And to follow up on Mitch's question, what's the interest expense and the other expenses are expected for the fourth quarter in actual dollars? Could you just give us an idea of where that is or the range, please? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Give me the last part, Sam. I missed that.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

The interest expense and the other expenses in dollars expected in Q4. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: All right. I can give you that. So, in Q4, on a net basis, it's about $8 million this year versus about $15 million, almost $16 million last year, I guess. So, $8 million improvement.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

Combined or is that the interest expense? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: No, that's combined. So, the interest expense...

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

So, what's the... Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Yep, the interest expense is $11 million versus $14 million last year. The other items are about $4 million benefit versus about $1 million expense last year.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

Okay. Thanks. And then – and the EBIT by segment for the quarter? Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: We don't generally give that out in the call, Sam. So – and I don't have it by segment right here in front of me anyway. But we typically don't share that.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

No, I know. I just thought given the way the numbers have been changing over time and really that gives us a good look at the whole profitability picture by segment. Could you put out something before the Q and whenever that comes out to tell us because it will help everybody make a better gauge as to where things are, I believe. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Well, I think the Q is just about to go out. But we'll consider that in the future for sure.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

Okay. And then you talked about the good sourcing, Blake, with the improvement in the sourcing. I know you've taken price increases, but I mean, what kind of efficiencies are you seeing? Are you changing the materials? Are you changing the materials that you're using, linings and so on to save money? Are you doing anything to upset the quality of the product or when you're doing – when you're making these changes? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: No. Not at all, Sam. These are just what I talked about before including the improving prices are really tied to weather, commodities and how all of that impacts the sourcing sheet by pair. None of what I talked to earlier really goes to any kind of de-specking the shoes or taking any actions in that regard. And frankly, that's not something we would do as a company. All of our bigger brands certainly have a better – a good, better, best brand offering. But we don't anticipate any significant changes there whatsoever.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

Just one last question. When you're looking at Merrell and Sperry across the different categories and looking within the quarter and into next year, of whatever growth you're planning, I mean, how much of this growth is going to be within existing distribution? Let's talk about the U.S. because international we'll have an opportunity for Sperry, but with an existing distribution or adding new distribution to the brands? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Most of the growth for next year, we anticipate from taking more shelf space at existing distribution. So, we do not, right now, anticipate any – for example, any significant family channel increase over what we had in 2015, Sam. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: As an example, for Merrell, Sam, I mean all of the partnership alliances that Merrell has right now are all with premium retailers, pretty much. So, the growth there and the new go-to-market strategy is really to play up the premium product as much as possible, and gain share in that same distribution with the same retailers, not just the channel.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

Well, that just brings another question and then I'll let it go. You talk a lot about the macro, about the way the retailers are. At the same time, I think, Blake, you mentioned that you have to be right on the money with the product and so on. So, I guess when you're looking at the world around you, how much of the issues out there are basically you guys need to improve the products, improve the way you go to market with stuff versus the macro, because the macro, it seems like an equal opportunity annoyance for absolutely everybody. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I absolutely agree with you, Sam. I mean, the macro environment impacts everybody. We all know it begins with products, products, products. We know that in our industry, there is quite a bit a need as well as want, and if you're out there with great product, you've got a chance to win in any environment. And, when you look at Merrell and Sperry, for Sperry, it's fundamentally how fast can they move beyond boat. They're going to remain dominant in the boat shoe category, an extremely important category here domestically and in some international markets. But obviously, a total acceptance by the Sperry consumer and retailers to move beyond boat for Sperry and they're focused on that. And on Merrell, it's really a fundamental question of regaining some traction in the Lifestyle area for the brand. And again, the product creation innovation team there is busy on that. The new team, probably, is going to need a little more time to get where we want it to be, but that's the fundamental issue. The macro environment is going to test some smaller brands and smaller businesses. We've been through this before. We've seen this movie. And it's going to be a bit of a challenging environment for some good but maybe smaller brands and smaller businesses.

Samuel Marc Poser - CRT Capital Group LLC

Management

Thank you for taking my questions. Thanks. Michael D. Stornant - Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer & Senior VP: Okay. Thanks, Sam.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Laurent Vasilescu of Macquarie. Please go ahead. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Can you update us on the number of international distributor signups? I think the last updated number was around 70. And can you tell us specifically how they are performing? Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. Are you talking about kind of our Boston-based brands? Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Correct. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I think we've got new agreements or re-upped agreements for over 100 countries today for those brands. Since the beginning of 2013, we've added well over 400 points of dedicated distribution for those brands. Saucony, Keds and Sperry are all growing at over a 20% rate each year and that includes the kind of – that includes the start year, which is really 2013. So, we continue to see strong double-digit growth there. We – those brands are still all underpenetrated internationally when you compare them to, for instance, a Caterpillar or Merrell or Hush Puppies. So, again, still early there. We still continue to make progress. Laurent Vasilescu - Macquarie Capital (USA), Inc.: Okay, great. And then last month it was outlined during a conference that you were thinking about an acquisition in the range of $200 million to $600 million. Curious to know your updated line of thinking on this as we start seeing a more challenging macroeconomic environment. Blake W. Krueger - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah. I would say – that's a good question. I would say that as you know, we have a very disciplined approach when it comes to acquisitions. We have a bit of an…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The question-and-answer session has now ended. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Chris Hufnagel. Mr. Hufnagel, you may proceed. Christopher E. Hufnagel - VP-Strategy, Communications & Investor Relations: On behalf of Wolverine World Wide, I would like to thank you for joining us today. As a reminder, our conference call replay is available on our website at wolverineworldwide.com. The replay will be available until November 20, 2015. Thank you and good day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The conference has now ended. You may disconnect your line.