JJill Inc Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Ryan Meyers - Lake Street Capital Markets - Analyst : Hey. Good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. First one for me. So obviously, you've guided sales of flat to up low single digits but EBITDA down mid-single digits. Just wondering if you can walk us through where that difference is there. It sounds like you're going to be investing a little bit more in SG&A. So I think that makes sense. But is there anything else to call out where there's that kind of delta between the revenue and EBITDA guide?

Question: Ryan Meyers - Lake Street Capital Markets - Analyst : Got it. That's helpful. And then you guys had commented that it sounded like traffic in January was a little soft. Can you maybe talk a little bit about what you've seen as far as traffic levels go as we've progressed here through Q1?

Question: Jeff Lick - B. Riley Securities - Analyst : Good morning, guys. Congrats on a great Q4. So just elaborating on the POS, OMS as we enter 2024. I was curious if you could just maybe talk about what capabilities and how it manifests itself into the financial results. Do you have going into this year that you didn't have last year? And then one on the debt, Mark. I was just curious, could you pay off more than the $26 million as we go through the year? And you don't really typically guide interest expense, but I'm guessing that interest will be down this year from 2023.

Question: Jeff Lick - B. Riley Securities - Analyst : Okay. Just a clarification question, and this might have -- might fall into that bucket of your details you were elaborating for the calendar shifts. But given the low single-digit sales guidance for Q1, that has the implication that things actually might have picked up a little bit in the first quarter because it is a little bit of an acceleration from Q4. I was just curious if you could elaborate on the kind of the innards there.

Question: Dylan Carden - William Blair & Company, LLC - Analyst : Thanks a lot. Just curious, this might be a tough question. But broad strokes, kind of backing out the extra week, did the retail channel, excluding weather, performed more in line with the direct channel, kind of down low single? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 20, 2024 / 12:00PM, JILL.N - Q4 2023 JJill Inc Earnings Call

Question: Dylan Carden - William Blair & Company, LLC - Analyst : Okay. And that kind of dovetails into my next question, which is -- and apologies if I missed this, but for the guide this year to kind of get to the margin, would you expect to be -- it sounds like it's mostly positive in SG&A investments in the new systems and what have you. So gross margin is relatively flat, maybe some modest improvement is -- how should we think about that?

Question: Dylan Carden - William Blair & Company, LLC - Analyst : Got it. And on the new stores, I just want to be clear about that. So it's five net new stores for the year but five closures in the front half. So 10 openings in the back half. Did I catch that right?

Question: Dylan Carden - William Blair & Company, LLC - Analyst : Okay. And where are the new stores? How should we think about kind of the ramp in productivity versus the fleet? I know it's going to be a drop in the bucket just from a scale standpoint, but anything to comment on there?

Question: Dylan Carden - William Blair & Company, LLC - Analyst : Got it. And how are you feeling about your customer here? I know kind of coming into holiday, there was some incremental softness there in your client core, higher-income consumer order. How is she feeling? How are you feeling about them kind of coming into this year?

Question: Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst : Hey, guys. Congratulations. The stores look great, and I love this new set that just went in. It's beautiful. Can you talk a little bit -- I think you said you grew your customer file very nicely. Could you talk a little bit about what actions you're doing on top of funnel? And with all your technology updates, could you talk a little bit, forward thinking, about loyalty programs and things like that?

Question: Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst : No, that's fantastic. And can I just ask you a quick question. Online, I've been buying the fit assortment. It looks nice. It's highly edited. I'm curious, are you thinking about bringing that into stores a little more, expanding it? Is it a nice to have? Or do you feel like it's a need to have? And these are your first steps into it. If you could just expand on that?

Question: Dana Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group - Analyst : Hi, good morning, everyone, and congratulations on the nice results. Claire, as you think about the assortment going forward and the changes and the enhancements that we should see, what are you looking for this year? Is there any markers? Obviously, you mentioned the marketing campaign that we should be mindful as we go through the year. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 20, 2024 / 12:00PM, JILL.N - Q4 2023 JJill Inc Earnings Call And then, Mark, as you talked about the Red Sea issue impacting more of Q2, is there any bleed-through to any other quarters that you foresee? And with the lower cotton costs, how is that being projected throughout the year in the space of also the full price sales that you're generating, how you're thinking about pricing the goods this year as compared to last year? Thank you.

Question: Dana Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group - Analyst : Got it. Thank you. And one question on the store openings. Are you closing stores in malls and opening an open air, anything in terms of regions, locations in terms of what you're doing? And is the store size at all changing cost to open versus what had been done in the past, given you hadn't been a new store opener in a long time until now?