Citi Trends, Inc.
Q3 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 1 Dec 2020

[Operator:]

Greetings, and welcome to the Citi Trends 3Q 2020 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday, December 1, 2020. Now, I would like to turn the conference over to Nitza McKee, Senior Associate. Please go ahead.

[Nitza McKee:]

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Citi Trends third quarter 2020 earnings call. On our call today is our Chief Executive Officer, David Makuen; and Vice President of Finance, Jason Moschner.

[David Makuen:]

Thank you, Nitza, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today on our third quarter 2020 earnings call. I hope that you are all safe and well. Despite the uncertain environment for Citi Trends the third quarter was one with many high points. We registered stellar operating results, we fully repaid our outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility, we reinstated our $30 million share repurchase program, and we repurchased 545,000 shares under that program through November 20, and we appointed a seasoned Retail Executive, Pam Edwards as our Chief Financial Officer, effective in January. Now onto the topics to be discussed during today’s call. I will first provide a review of our spectacular third quarter operating performance and accomplishments. I will then discuss our merchandising and marketing initiatives for the holiday season including our Fab Festive Finds Holiday Campaign. I will review notable expanded capabilities and critical business functions that provide us confidence in our model to deliver strong results in the months ahead. Next, I will turn it over to Jason Moschner, our VP of Finance, who'll review our third quarter results and financial position in more detail. Lastly, before opening the call to your questions, I will close out with a few high-level comments showcasing our confidence in our unique and scalable model. To begin, across the board from our distribution centers to Savannah to New York and in 585 stores, I could not be more thankful for everyone's tireless efforts in contributing to the ongoing transformation of Citi Trends. I will reiterate what I stated on our second quarter call. We have a unique and powerful winning culture at Citi Trends, and I continue to be impressed with our entire organization as we are not only successfully navigating this unprecedented period in our history, but through thoughtful innovation, with use of data analytics and ingenuity, we are truly transforming our operating model positioning Citi Trends for many years of profitable growth.

[Jason Moschner:]

Thank you, David. Total sales in the third quarter increased 8.8% to $199.1 million, including a comp store sales increase of 6.3%. The increase in comp sales was driven by a substantial increase in the average ticket size, partially offset by a low double-digit decrease in customer transactions. We are especially excited about our 6.3% comp sales increase relative to the U.S. census data that reported a sales decrease of 14% for clothing and accessory stores in the third quarter. We achieved a record gross margin in Q3 of 41.8%, an increase of 440 basis points over Q3 last year. And this follows our Q2 margin rate of 41.2%, which was an increase of 390 basis points over Q2 of last year. The increase in our quarterly gross margin continues to be primarily the result of strong full price selling and fewer markdowns. SG&A expenses increased by $3.7 million or 5.6% compared to the third quarter of last year. The increase in SG&A expense dollars was primarily due to higher bonus and equity compensation accruals combined with expected increases from operating more stores. As a percent of sales, SG&A decreased 100 basis points due to the leveraging effect from higher sales.

[David Makuen:]

Thank you, Jason. Before I wrap up with a few closing comments, I wanted to talk about a few things. First off, I'm excited to update you on a new partnership with our CitiCARES platform in the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. I am pleased to announce the first event with clients of Citi Trends, a fundraising event to support Boys and Girls Clubs in select communities. School closures have created significant hardships from many households, particularly those in our communities and some of which have even affected our associates. On November 20 through December 20, select stores will accept donations that will directly benefit the clubs in these communities. CitiCARES Counsel worked directly with the staff at these centers to discuss their needs, programs and the shortfalls created as a result of the current pandemic. CitiCARES powered by Citi Trends is a proud partner of the Boys and Girls Club this holiday. Let me wrap up with a big shout out to our entire organization. I'm so very proud of our team's ability to adapt and continue to safely serve our customers and what remains a fluid operating environment. My confidence in our capabilities to profitably grow the Citi Trends brands, while creating positive change in the communities we serve has only strengthened as this year has progressed. Our third quarter performance further indicates that we operate a unique and scalable model, one that is embraced by our loyal customers. During the second and third quarters, the outpouring of customer support was humbling and something we are so thankful for. We continue to love our fashion, trends, basics and everything in between within our apparel, accessory and home categories. It's because of this customer loyalty that Citi Trends puts our store experience front and center, ensuring we create a warm inviting environment coupled with an easy-to-shop layout that features head-to-toe outfits in coordinating pickups across the entire spectrum of his, her and the kids lifestyles. It's important to recognize that our stores sit in shopping centers that are vital to the Black, Hispanic and melting-pot towns and neighborhoods across America. We consider our unique in-store experience that showcases broad product choice for the entire family within an extreme valued framework to be "essential for our moderate to lower income underserved customers." We are optimistic that our model will continue to build on our success to-date with continuous improvements in key operational metrics, including inventory turns, gross margin and expense leverage overtime. With that, we are ready to take your questions.

[Operator:]

Thank you very much. And we'll proceed with our first question on the line from John Lawrence from Baraboo Growth . Go ahead with your question.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Thank you. Good morning, guys. Congratulations on the numbers. David, could you just give a little bit of a -- maybe just a little bit of a step backwards; your comments about the buying team and one of the things that when you talk about transformation is, how -- how you go to market? Can you speak to a little bit -- I mean, even though 2020 with the pandemic and everything else, but give a little background of how the vendor community is now looking at Citi Trends and is it more of a valuable outlet for their products? And just what's changed in that process over the last six or eight months?

[David Makuen:]

Thanks, John. Good question. Sure, I'll add a little color on that. Really beginning with the onset of the pandemic in March and April, and upon my arrival, the team really rallied around how could we expand our vendor base and attract the right vendors to our stores so to speak, and serve our customers with the goods that they're asking for and desiring. And kudos to our buying team, they went out and really attacked the marketplace on all fronts across things that we sourced ourselves, to private label offerings, to nationally-known brands, and so forth. And as a result, they really developed and opened up new relationships that here before really hadn't existed at Citi Trends. And I'll give a shot out to Lisa Powell, our Chief Merchandising Officer; she and her team really put a yeoman's effort into this plan of how do we expand our vendor base, how do we bring in more interesting and exciting style and fashion vendors to fuel the exciting fresh assortment that you'll find at the Citi Trends. And I know those new relationships are relationships that we're nurturing and fostering for a really long-term approach to working with these vendors. So, we're looking forward to what holds in the future. We're seeing some of those fruits in our results year-to-date, and she and the team will continue to leverage and develop those relationships in the future.

[Unidentified Analyst:]

Great, thanks. Good luck.

[David Makuen:]

Thank you.

[Operator:]

Thank you very much. We'll get to our next question on the line from the line of Alec Legg from B.Riley Securities. Go right, ahead.

[Alec Legg:]

Hi, good morning. Hi David and Jason. First off, nice job on the quarter. My question relates just to the store fleet growth. So, this quarter you opened eight new stores and closed two; what are your thoughts on the long-term strategy in growing the store base? How many new stores do you think you can open per quarter or per year? And it looks like you have a lot of white space left.

[David Makuen:]

Hi Alec, thanks for posing that question something near and dear to our hearts. First of all, Citi Trends is firmly a growth brand, there is no question about it; you hit upon it in the right way. There's a lot of space in the U.S. to support further Citi Trends fleet growth; and so while we aren't at liberty to share an exact number or plan today, what I can tell you is in the upcoming ICR Conference in mid-January, we intend to share more specifics. At a high level, we believe there is a lot of opportunity to serve the African-American communities and Hispanic communities that adopt the U.S. and we are serving a relatively small percentage of them today through our 585 store network. So, we believe there is a lot of upside in key geographies around the U.S., and I'll share more when you join us at ICR because I can tell you we have some good color to add on that front and kind of elaborate a little bit more on our long-range plan. But no, that store growth is a big part of our agenda, and we look forward to sharing more.

[Alec Legg:]

Perfect. And then, just a follow-up. Back in the first quarter you mentioned entering into conversation with landlords, just regarding rent reduction and negotiations; any update on that? Have you received any meaningful abatement or long-term -- I guess, restructuring of rent agreements?

[David Makuen:]

Good question. Yes, I think to summarize on that front relative to our negotiations with landlord, I would -- landlords, I would tell you that they were gracious and very open to stating what made them -- put them in Citi Trends, and what resulted was healthy abatements and deferrals. And then a third bucket which was kind of a renegotiation, either of our current deal or the deal might have come up to an expiration date in the last couple of months; they gave us an opportunity to sit down with them and renegotiate a new deal, altogether. Those things combined turned out pretty much like we planned, and again shout out to our landlords; they were very good to work with, they understood the gravity of the situation, and like I said we achieved a nice mix of abatements, deferrals, and renegotiations.

[Alec Legg:]

Perfect, thank you.

[David Makuen:]

Thank you. Have a good day.

[Alec Legg:]

You too.

[Operator:]

And we'll go to our next question on the line from the line of Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett. Go right ahead with your question.

[Chuck Grom:]

Hey guys, congrats on a great quarter. I just had a question, and maybe you talked about it and I hopped on a couple of minutes late. Just with regards to the change in trend during the quarter, it sounded like October and September were pretty strong, and then you're calling out November flat. So just wondering if you could discuss the factors that contribute to that? And then also, if you're willing to share any comments on this past weekend Black Friday; how it fared for you guys?

[David Makuen:]

Hi, Chuck. Thanks for joining. Yes. No, I look to add a little bit of color on that. On the month of November, there is a bunch of chapters that make up that book. One of them was unseasonably warm weather trends that really impacted the first 10 days of the month, there was some moderation in those weather trends which caused a nice little bounce. The second chapter would be, we're seeing what -- what we believe to be is a more delayed reaction to shopping for Christmas, which generally bodes well for us because we are a huge last minute destination; so it's in the mix of -- kind of -- creating that flattish November. And then lastly, the Black Friday weekend was typified by, as you know -- and we know a decline in traffic based on macro factors around, both from CDC reasons, as retail reasons of shop online, avoid the crowds, avoid interacting with people; things like that. We -- I think we fared pretty well in light of all those appropriate safety warnings, but it was another chapter of a little bit of a slowdown. All of that netted together equaled about flat.

[Chuck Grom:]

Okay, that's great. And then, just bigger picture; just wondering if you could comment on how you're thinking about the buying environment, the availability of product as we move into 2021?

[David Makuen:]

Sure. As you might know, it's vital to our business. Well I'd tell you this, looking back at our accomplishments in Q3 when our buyers really scoured the globe, so to speak to find the right stuff for selling in Q1 and Q2 of 2021, they did a stellar job at that. We don't see that progress abating, we think there is plenty of availability and momentum on the part of our team. So hunt down those attractive buys that we can start socking away for later in the year, next year. So pretty bullish and optimistic about that, Chuck. And we won't let our foot off the pedal on that front.

[Chuck Grom:]

That's great to hear. And then, just -- if you could just comment, just remind us of the mix of what you're Home business is today? And I guess given the strength in that category and the strength in the housing complex today, if you're thinking about leaning into that category, even more over the next couple of years? Thanks.

[David Makuen:]

Sure, yes. No, good question. We've certainly mentioned in -- on our interest in growing our Home business; that really kicked off in mid-2019 and we've been seeing some great momentum from it including the recent expansion into 100 more stores of a broader and deeper Home assortment. I'd tell you at the forefront, the Home business is relatively small still in our mix, and therefore there is a lot of upside for it to become a greater penetration of our mix in a total sense. And we see that 2021, 2022 and 2023 being some pretty big years to further develop the Home business. Jason, you want to add something there?

[Jason Moschner:]

Yes. Hey Chuck, good morning. I could add, this is something that we break out in our Q2 and our revenue footnote that will break out the distribution and what the makeup is of our categories. But I can tell you just quickly, just looking at the last few quarters; it's growing from 4% of the business back in 2015 to most recently in Q3, it was 8% of the business. And it really just consistently posts high double-digit comps, 22% up in Q3; so like David said, not significant portion of the business yet but consistently growing and consistently comping.

[Chuck Grom:]

Very helpful. Good luck. Thank you.

[David Makuen:]

Thanks, Chuck.

[Operator:]

Thank you very much. And we'll get our next question on the line from Alex Silverman from AWM Investments. Go right, ahead.

[Alex Silverman:]

Hey, good morning.

[David Makuen:]

Good morning.

[Alex Silverman:]

Can you hear me?

[David Makuen:]

Yes.

[Alex Silverman:]

Great. So, most of my questions have been asked and answered. Though couple of last questions. What happened to the size of the basket given your improved assortment?

[David Makuen:]

Good question. The short answer is, it's increased pretty considerably since May. Now, it's important that there is some dynamics that we need to understand here. We do believe there is some loading up per trip that's happening based on the macro impact of the pandemic, and folks' desire to maybe make less trips; and when they do make a trip, they spend a bit more to make that trip even a little worthwhile. So as Jason commented, we are seeing a softness in traffic to our centers but when they do visit by, we're seeing some very healthy gains in our basket amount, which of course, is driven by higher units per transaction, which is great to see, and in a slightly improved average unit retail. So those trends we love seeing, Alex, but it's important you recognize that some of that is driven by that macro impact of less trips and desires to spend more per trip. Does that makes sense?

[Alex Silverman:]

It does, absolutely. Second question, this is the second quarter of greater than 41% gross margin; is this a good new level to be using on a go-forward basis or are there some unusual dynamics we should consider over the last couple of quarters?

[David Makuen:]

Good question. And I'll answer it in the way we think about it internally which is; last six months have been like nothing we've ever experienced. And in many ways the transformation of those metrics, so to speak, within our business model and context was accelerated. And so while on one hand we're thrilled to see those numbers, we're not yet ready to say we can sustain them forever, but I think what I would give you to take away is, it's a maniacal kind of focus of our teams to see numbers like you've seen in Q2 and Q3. I think once things normalize more and we reach perhaps more of a normal way of shopping and so forth in 2021, I think we'll see some dynamics and some of those calls or reason to change to determine our -- what -- that's resulting in gross margin rate. But at the end of the day we're making it our number one focus, and we're optimistic that we can continue to deliver some really healthy high levels of gross margin.

[Alex Silverman:]

Very helpful. Last question from me. You guys bought a lot of inventory to put away for next season; is this a unusual dynamic that there were a lot of opportunities to buy inventory or is this a strategy that we should think about on a go-forward basis or both?

[David Makuen:]

Good question. I'd probably say the latter point you make is the most important point. From a strategic lens, we need to always focus on finding the right next season buys and getting them at our hands and making sure we have them to deliver future great seasons. So I would say that's the big takeaway, Alex, and that's how we speak about internally as part of our ongoing strategy. And more seriously than in the past is to determine and have the relationships with the right folks to deliver a constant stream of next season buys. Will it be always plus, plus, plus versus ROI , hard to tell and predict, but I can tell you it's a key pillar of our strategy.

[Alex Silverman:]

Great, thank you guys. Congratulations, great quarter.

[David Makuen:]

Thanks, Alex. Have a great day.

[Operator:]

Thank you very much. We'll go to our next question on the line from Dana Telsey from Telsey Advisory Group. Go right, ahead.

[Dana Telsey:]

Good morning, everyone. And David, congratulations on the nice progress in the results. As you think about the gross margin which was so impressive in continuing the sequential improvement; when you think about full price selling and fewer markdowns, where did you see the biggest delta? How were the merchandise margins? And is there any particular categories where this strength is coming from? And then on the SG&A side, how you're thinking about that going forward? How much -- are there COVID expenses wrapped in there? And how do you see those playing out? Thank you.

[David Makuen:]

Thanks, Dana. Thanks for joining. Thanks for the kind words. On the gross margin front, similar to our general top line performance across our key categories of business we saw improvements in gross margin, basically in every one of our important categories; meaning apparel, accessories, home footwear and so forth. So that's a really good thing, so it was definitely broad-based; there wasn't any one particular Hero, so to speak. But what I would comment on is, where we saw even more outsized improvement in margin, it was in the apparel area. And in particular, we had some really nice traction in the men's business, which is a business that we think we can garner even more market share down the road, and it's a business that we saw just explode during the last six months. But overall, our margin improvements really across the board are reflective of better and fresher merchandise, less reliance on markdowns, and in the faster turns that you heard me talk about, all contributed to that. On the SG&A front, it's -- what's nice about this model is, I'll call below the gross margin line; we're trying to keep it pretty simple and I preface my comment with that because we focus on a couple of key metrics. And really, the number one metric is our store labor line. Since as you know, we operate nothing but stores; so that's a very, very important one. And then we look at our DCs expenses; the cost it takes us to bring it in, process it and get it out to the stores. And those two areas remain a primary focus within those two operational functions. Our Head of Stores in our stores teams is maniacally focused on rationalizing store labor, having the right people, right amount of people and the right people, in the right stores at the right time, which serves the customers demand. And then for DCs perspective, we're focused more and more using data and technology to understand how do we continue to improve our productivity and speed from which it takes from the vendor to the floor to the customer's hands. And that's how we think about SG&A really at a broad level. COVID expenses; you know, knock-on-wood, they are -- they won't be a huge contributor or trying out in this state where we're able to get them reliably at good rates, prices have come way down on a cost per unit basis for our PPE . So, it's probably regular -- it's probably a part of our regular life now for the foreseeable future but won't cause any huge swings in our SG&A; it's really more about managing the labor and managing the productivity in our DCs. That makes sense?

[Dana Telsey:]

Yes. And just as you think about this holiday season NDCs, getting goods to stores; is the flow at all different than what it's been in past holiday seasons as you think about it?

[David Makuen:]

Yes, somewhat it is. We're getting better, although we're not there yet but we're getting better at doing some shipments into stores that are a little bit more just-in-time. So our big shift this year as we -- we didn't load up stores as much as we did in prior years, in early October, because it didn't make sense to fill the stores to the gills that early with holiday goods. So this year we've definitely pivoted to be a bit smarter and a bit more agile in terms of how we deliver goods in a bit more of a just-in-time manner, which means, for example, we're taking some typically late in the season gifts that folks just don't buy, it's all December 15 stocking/stuffers and as such, and we're shipping that in now; in the old days, we would have shifted it on October. So we definitely have made some logical wise improvements to how we flow our merchandise and it's paying off, it allows our distribution centers to plan better, to smooth some of the spikes out. And then lastly, we're getting better by the day that our distribution centers with -- as I mentioned earlier, some data and technology, just to get stuff to the stores faster, which means we can ship it a little later because it will get there a little faster, and all is good in the stores when the customer sees it fresh and new at that time. So, making headway on that front.

[Dana Telsey:]

Great. Best of luck for the holiday season. Thank you.

[David Makuen:]

Thanks, Dana. You too. Bye-bye.

[Operator:]

Thank you very much. And Mr. Makuen, we have no further questions on the line. I'll turn it back to you for any closing remarks.

[David Makuen:]

Very good, Tommy. Thanks to everybody who joined the call. Stay safe and healthy. Happy holidays. See you next quarter. Bye-bye.

[Operator:]

Thank you very much. And that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participations. Please disconnect your lines. Have a good day, everyone.