Hanesbrands Inc.
Q4 2014 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 30 Jan 2015

[Operator:]

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the HanesBrands Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now hand the conference over to T.C. Robillard. Please go ahead.

[T.C. Robillard:]

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the HanesBrands Quarterly Investor Conference Call and Webcast. We are pleased to be here today to provide an update on our progress after the fourth quarter of 2014. Hopefully, everyone has had a chance to review the news release we issued earlier today. The news release and the audio replay of the webcast of this call can be found in the Investors section of our hanes.com website. I want to remind everyone that we may make forward-looking statements on the call today either in our prepared remarks or in the associated question-and-answer session. These statements are based on current expectations or beliefs and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. These risks are detailed in our various filings with the SEC, such as our most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q, and may be found on our website as well as in our news releases and other communications. The company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, which speak only to the time at which they are made. Unless otherwise noted, today's references to our consolidated financial results as well as our 2015 guidance exclude all onetime charges and expenses. Additional information, including a reconciliation of these and other non-GAAP performance measures to GAAP, can be found in today's press release, which is available in the Investors section of our hanes.com website. With me on the call today are Rich Noll, our Chief Executive Officer; Gerald Evans, our Chief Operating Officer; and Rick Moss, our Chief Financial Officer. For today's call, Rich will highlight a few big picture themes, Gerald will provide a sense of what is happening in our businesses and Rick will emphasize some of the financial aspects of our results. I will now turn the call over to Rich.

[Richard A. Noll:]

Thank you, T.C. 2014 was another great year for HanesBrands. We delivered $5.66 in earnings per share, about $1 per share more than our initial guidance. In fact, it's been a great couple of years. It's the second year in a row we delivered record financial results as we grew earnings per share of 45%, which comes on top of 49% growth that we delivered in 2013. In just the last 2 years, we generated $1.1 billion in operating cash flow. We instituted the dividend, raised it by 50% and then raised it another 33%. We acquired and successfully integrated Maidenform, and we closed the acquisition of DBApparel. An incredible set of achievements, especially considering we accomplished all of this in a very challenging consumer environment. And looking back over the past 2 years, 2 things have become crystal clear

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Thanks, Rich. We accomplished a lot in 2014. We expanded our operating margins 140 basis points led by efficiency gains within our company-owned supply chain. We delivered synergies from Maidenform that were more than double our original expectations. We invested an incremental $8 million in media to further strengthen our brands, and we expanded the distribution of our new innovation platforms, which in turn drove another 30 basis points of market share gains in men's underwear, a testament to our ability to drive productivity for our retail partners as we are already twice the size of the #2 competitor and 5x larger than the #3 player, with sales primarily in Department stores. Our strong performance reinforces one simple message

[Richard D. Moss:]

Thanks, Gerald. Not only was 2014 a great year, in fact, it was the continuation of 5 great years in a row. Since 2009, which includes the recession, a period of hyper inflation in cotton and a choppy consumer environment, our compound annual growth rate is 7% on sales, 18% on operating profit and 29% on EPS. Our ability to absorb a variety of headwinds and still generate strong returns underscores one simple fact

[T.C. Robillard:]

Thanks, Rick. That concludes the recap of our performance for the fourth quarter. We will now begin taking your questions, and we'll continue as time allows. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call back over to the operator to begin the question-and-answer session. Operator?

[Operator:]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Eric Tracy from Janney Capital.

[Eric B. Tracy:]

So I guess, Rich, if I could start just with DBA. Have a little bit more time, let's do the diligence. Maybe a little bit more color on the learnings you've had. And then beyond the currency impact, how you're thinking about that market and anything here that stands out from a demand perspective?

[Richard A. Noll:]

Sure. The more we interact with the management team at DBA, the more impressed we become. At the end of the day, their -- in their DNA is a branded company with a great share position. They focus on their own version of Innovate-to-Elevate, although, I will say that they tend to have it a little bit more diffused than our very focused drive big platforms Innovate-to-Elevate, and I really think the cultures are very, very similar. All of the synergies that we've been talking about, we firmly believe are intact, being able to leverage our global supply chain as well as some of our other disciplined processes and approaches. It should allow us to ultimately get to that $100 million a year -- EUR 100 million per year operating profit with DBA, so we feel really good about it. In terms of the overall demand and some of the positions, Gerald, do you want to talk a little bit about that?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Yes, we couldn't be more delighted with the company and the strength of their brand and their categories, their leaders in their core categories. And even as there's been fluctuations in demand within countries or within categories across the board, they've continued to build their brand positions, and it gives us a wonderful platform to unleash the full powers we executed in your Innovate-to-Elevate strategy, so it's a great company. It's going to be a great addition to HBI.

[Eric B. Tracy:]

Perfect. If I could just follow-up on -- in terms of the acquisition pipeline or at least thoughts on potential future acquisitions, did the global sort of environment headwinds that are emerging in any way derail you potentially for looking at other deals outside the U.S.? Or is it an opportunity to maybe exploit some of the downturn to get a more attractive price on it?

[Richard A. Noll:]

Yes, I think we've got a 4 very strict criteria in terms of companies that are in our core categories. We can leverage our global supply chain and infrastructure and are complementary from a revenue growth perspective, and that includes both international companies as well as domestic opportunities, and so all of this currency change really hasn't changed our view at all, international versus U.S. As Rick talked about it in his prepared remarks, the fact that we did this deal in Europe, we did it all in euros and that provided sort of a natural hedge against currency fluctuations, so it'll be still a great return for our shareholders. So no, the currency change doesn't really impact our predisposition for geography. We're open to all opportunities in which we can create value.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of Matt McClintock from Barclays.

[Matthew McClintock:]

I just wanted to focus on Innerwear for a second. Outstanding margin performance in Innerwear, and it seems like we're back up to the peak levels in that division. Can you help us understand the underlying margin opportunities going forward between Maidenform, where you're just now starting to get into Innovate-to-Elevate, and maybe the core HanesBrand business? And specific to the core HanesBrands business, can you speak to maybe the scale gains that you're getting in terms of ramping up the unit production of your innovation platform?

[Richard A. Noll:]

Yes, so as we've now anniversary-ed Maidenform and we fully integrated it, we actually think of it as part of our overall core business, and the scale advantages of bringing that into that Innerwear segment really show up in the operating margins, so we're able to spread our SG&A over more dollars and more units, and clearly, we're getting a scale advantage in our supply chain. Now a lot of that was obviously contemplated in our synergies estimate with Maidenform, but it's going to continue to pay dividends over time, so we still -- we're just beginning, and Gerald will talk about the Innovate-to-Elevate Maidenform and some of the brand transitions we're doing in a second, but I think we're still in early stages of driving Innovate-to-Elevate through a lot of places in our entire organization. Obviously, it started in the male underwear business, but Gerald, if you want to talk about some of the platform innovations and how they're doing in Innovate?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Sure. We're delighted with how our innovation platforms are performing. We've always said that these were long-term platforms that we would build over time, and we're clearly seeing continued success with both ComfortBlend and X-TEMP in our Basics categories as we continue to push it across various segments of the category with new accounts and adding space in accounts and really driving share across our Basics business. Much the same way we're now doing in intimate apparel. We talked about our Flexible Fit innovation for some period of time and bras. We've also said within Maidenform that our first step would be to get the SG&A savings and integrate it in our supply chain, then we would get our design team finally with their hands on the line for Maidenform and introduce innovation, and that's exactly what we'll begin to do inside the Maidenform line in the fall of this year. It will be our first line, and we'll introduce Flexible Fit among other innovations into that line, and we think that'll give real growth to that business as well and really complement what's already been done within the Maidenform brand.

[Matthew McClintock:]

Great. And then one more, if I may. The challenges at -- in the mass channel for the Champion brand, if you could elaborate on that. Is that Target Canada, the exit there? Or are there other trends that you're seeing in that specific channel?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Well, I think, overall, what I'd like to say first about Champion is the momentum increased in the fourth quarter to sort of an 8% year-over-year growth, and we finished up about 6% for the full year. The momentum in the sporting goods and department stores was very strong, the 20%-plus range. We expect that to continue into next year. We have had headwinds across the board in mass, and we anticipate there'll still some of that as we go into next year, but it's not a Canada-specific issue.

[Richard A. Noll:]

Yes, just to put in perspective, when we talked about the $230 million in sales and the impact of currency, which also then included Target Canada, the lion's share of those numbers is really currency-driven. Target Canada is in there, but it's really fairly minor part of it.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of Susan Anderson from FBR Capital Markets.

[Susan K. Anderson:]

I wanted to dig in a little bit deeper on DBA. So it looks like for this year, the operating margin guidance, not a whole lot of improvement over last year, so I guess maybe just kind of looking out in the 3 to 4-year time horizon. If you could talk about when you expect the synergies really to start to kick in and improvement in the operating margin ticket to the $100 million in euros.

[Richard A. Noll:]

Yes, so in terms of the operating margin, you can see it's actually -- as you said, it's similar to what we're thinking in 2014. It is way down a little bit, as Rick said in his remarks, by about EUR 14 million of currency transaction for the cost of goods is increasing a little bit. We have hedged that for the rest of year so there's no further downside, so that's weighing on those numbers a little bit, and we don't have any integration savings built into our numbers for 2015, and the reason is that it is Europe. As I've said, things take a little bit longer. We've now just started to formulate the action plans, our -- the integration plans, and they're now prepared to go to the works councils for consultation in their input over the next 30 to 60 days. And as that process unfolds, we'll then be able to share with you more details about those plans as well as the timing. We're still confident in that 3- to 4-year time frame though will realize the synergies, which we're talking about, and that's what gets us that EUR 100 million number.

[Susan K. Anderson:]

Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe if you could just talk a little bit about your input cost rate for this year, how we should be thinking about it in terms of up or down for the first and second half of the year?

[Richard D. Moss:]

This is Rick. In terms of our guidance for the first half of the year, the cotton -- lower cotton cost really won't come into play for us until the second half of the year. We continue to see inflationary impact on -- in other inputs as well like labor and the likes, so we've built all that in to our guidance. That's all incorporated in.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Binetti from UBS.

[Michael Binetti:]

So real quick on -- a couple of questions. As I look at the revenue guidance and if we back out DBA, it looks like you're thinking things will be slightly negative, and I know we want to include Maidenform in the core now or the organic number. But can you help us walk through what you think some of the headwinds are there? Maybe Canada is more of the impact than I think, but -- and I know you move some SKUs for Maidenform, maybe that's one of the dynamics. But any other dynamics that we should think that push and pull on the non-DBA number?

[Richard D. Moss:]

Yes, the -- actually on a constant-currency basis for next year, the -- we're looking at the core business doing about 2% up with the remainder of the growth coming from DBA, I think we said, around $700 million, so that's the dynamic that we're seeing for -- and that 2% is at the low end of the 2% to 4% long-term growth rates that we'd expect to see in the business.

[Michael Binetti:]

Okay, so my mistake. So I think you previously were thinking that DBA would be about EUR 650 million contributor in revenues and now you're thinking EUR 630 million, and then with the profit guidance you gave, it looks like you're looking at about 5% operating margins next year versus 6%. It's -- the reason I asked is because that sounds like a different trajectory than what we've seen in the acquisitions in the past where you've quickly taken out costs. Maybe you could just walk us through some of the dynamics as we think about how that -- what are you going to be doing operationally for that business this year?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Let me start with addressing the top line. There is a modest adjustment in the euros as you discussed. And that really is we've begun to look at elements of the business and where we see some nonprofitable elements. We are making some adjustments. In that business, for example, in Russia, we restructured that business and exited large -- not large, pieces of that small business that weighed down -- are unprofitable and can improve the profitability down the road is the biggest piece of that adjustment in top line sales.

[Richard A. Noll:]

Yes, and in terms of the bottom line, it goes back right to what I said is in -- with Maidenform, we did start to see synergies in Year 1. But where -- with Europe, because we've got to go through the integration process with the works councils, that we don't have any expectations for synergy, and then unfortunately, the number's being weighed down by the -- by that EUR 14 million due to foreign currency transaction effects.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of Christian Buss from Crédit Suisse.

[Christian Buss:]

Yes, could you provide some perspective on how the Champion business is performing? And what your expectations are for product introductions going forward in 2015?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Sure. From the standpoint of the Champion business, the pace of it did improve as we went through into the fourth quarter. Its overall increase is about 8%. 6% for the full year. The core Champion business in sports specialty and department stores increased at over 20% rate in the fourth quarter, and we expect that kind of rate to continue as we're gaining both shelf space, new shelf space in expanding our position in accounts that we're already in, and it's a combination of both innovation and expansion of our current style, so very good solid momentum. The overall numbers are weighed on a bit by the headwinds in the mass channel, but the core Champion business is enjoying extremely strong performance.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of David Glick from Buckingham Research.

[David J. Glick:]

Rick, just looking at the -- your projected cash from operating activities and free cash flow, I mean, obviously, we have some of the key variables like net income, and we know what capital expenditures are. But can you give us a sense for some of the other moving parts like working capital? And what the drivers are of your free cash flow projections this year versus '14?

[Richard D. Moss:]

Sure. We expect for 2015 for working capital to continue to be a source of cash for us. We still feel like we have good opportunities on our balance sheet to drive working capital through that, and that's really probably the biggest net income increases and continuing to working capital as a use of -- source of cash.

[David J. Glick:]

Okay. And in terms of the cash that you generate, are you at a point where you can start to contemplate doing share repurchases or you would rather just obviously increase the dividend and leave cash aside for potential future acquisitions?

[Richard A. Noll:]

I think we've talked about our cash priorities before. Clearly, debt pay down is no longer one of them since we're where we should be. We have increased the dividend as you say, and acquisitions are working for us. We're going to continue to drive acquisitions. I'm not trying to talk about what the timing of any of those acquisitions could be, but that would be the next priority for cash usage as well.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of Jay Sole from Morgan Stanley.

[Jay Sole:]

So there's great color on some of the innovations that's happening right now in the product line, but could you talk about any visibility you have looking out into 2016 or 2017? Are your consumer teams available to identify new problems that you think can be solved and become new big platforms to drive growth once you get into those out years?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Yes, we're always focused on the next consumer big idea and looking at it, but we follow a very disciplined process, and so we do think there's a lot of legs still in the ones that we're expanding as we push them across our accounts and across our categories. In the case of X-TEMP, we even now pushed in to some of our hosiery products so we continue to find ways to continue to extend what we have. And as we spoke about earlier, we're just now applying our Flexible Fit into Maidenform, so there's certainly a lot of extendability within what we have, but always have a pipeline of other ideas that are working as well, so we feel good about our forward view.

[Richard A. Noll:]

Yes, and I'd like to remind people -- I mean, we've been driving TAGLESS through our product line for a decade, and so we're not driving some platform for at least 5 years, and probably, it really wasn't a platform innovation, so we're still in the early stages of something like X-TEMP or ComfortBlend. They've just gotten into the double digit percentages of sales, for example, in men's underwear and Basics, so we've got a lot of room to go to continue to drive those products for many years.

[Jay Sole:]

Got it. Let me switch gears. Can you just talk about -- it seems some of the financing for certain deals become a little bit harder to come by. Is that translating to maybe some lower prices perhaps when you look at new opportunities that you -- maybe you're seeing prices come down for some of the deals that have come across your desk that you might be -- would be interested in?

[Richard A. Noll:]

The multiples and things like that are going to be very situational. We're always going to take a look at -- does an acquisition -- does an acquisition candidate meet our 4 strict criteria? How much value can we create? We look at the landscape and make sure we're paying a reasonable or fair price to be able to get the deal done. I don’t necessarily see any major trends in terms of overall pricing in the marketplace other than that.

[Operator:]

And our next question comes from the line of Bob Drbul from Nomura Securities.

[Kevin Heenan:]

This is Kevin Heenan on for Bob. I was just wondering if you could discuss what the inventory levels that retail by channel kind of look like? And how you see retailers' appetite for inventory going forward into 2015?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Now we saw -- generally saw that the sell-through trends in the fourth quarter were a bit choppy, but overall, the trend was positive in November and December over October and continued to grew positive into the first few weeks of January. Our retailers were appropriately careful in bringing in inventory behind those sales, and I think the combination of those 2 left us very well positioned with inventories in line where they need to be as we entered the new year. They're well positioned.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of Jim Duffy from Stifel.

[Jim Duffy:]

A couple of questions for you. First, for Maidenform, the press release mentioned in '15 is the first year of the product line is influenced by your leadership. Can you comment some on the Maidenform product initiatives slated for '15 and maybe speak to some of the expected benefits?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

Yes, and you're dead on. The third sort of tranche in our integration strategy was to get our designers, and their hands, on those Maidenform products. And we're really delighted that as we introduce the fall line, as it comes to market, it's got the full breadth of our design capabilities and our Innovate-to-Elevate thinking behind it, and we'll bring concepts such as the Flexible Fit technology to the brand as well, and the combination of our Innovate-to-Elevate with the contemporary positioning of brands is going to do great things for. We really believe it's going to be great.

[Jim Duffy:]

Great. And then also within Innerwear, top line progress has been a challenge. I know Intimates has seen some challenges. Can you speak to some of the trends within product categories? What products or channels are making forward progress? And what products or channels are holding the category back?

[Richard A. Noll:]

I think we've seen a little bit of a trend for the last couple of years that the Basics categories and male underwear continue to do fairly well. But to be honest, the intimate apparel category's been flat to mainly down. Actually, since the recession, and Gerald, wasn't it down a little bit last year in 2014?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

It was. The intimates category continue to be down over the year modestly, and so that's been a headwind for us in that category. And in addition, the retailers, particularly in the mid-tier channel, have been adjusting inventories for a period of time, and that continued in the fourth quarter as well. And then finally, some of this headwind, we've created ourselves. As we brought in Maidenform, we said about clarifying brand positions in the market and simplifying the offerings. It's a very crowded offering. The consumers will tell us it's a very difficult category to shop, and we're now focusing our intimates businesses around our 4 core businesses

[Richard A. Noll:]

Yes, and the way I look at it is as we apply Innovate-to-Elevate now with the critical mass we have with these 4 brands in intimates, I think we can start to move the category over time just as actually we've done in the Basics category.

[Operator:]

Our next question comes from the line of Taposh Bari from Goldman Sachs.

[Chad Sutherland:]

This is Chad Sutherland on for Taposh. Question for you on DBApparel. Can you just remind us the seasonality of that business? As we look at our models for 2015, how to think about the first half versus the second half? From what I recall, it's 60% of the profit comes like September through December. So if you could just walk us through how we should think about that?

[Richard D. Moss:]

Yes. You're close. The half of the profit comes from the last 4 months of the year, so their business model does tend to be weighted from that to the -- through last 4 months of the year.

[Chad Sutherland:]

Okay. Great. And then what about the sales? Is the sales cadence similar?

[Richard D. Moss:]

Similar, yes.

[Operator:]

And our final question for today comes from the line of Carla Casella from JPMorgan.

[Carla Casella:]

I just wanted to -- so can you talk about any impact from port slowdown or chassis shortages?

[Richard A. Noll:]

You cut out. If you can repeat your question please.

[Carla Casella:]

Just any -- have you guys seen any impact from port slowdown at all?

[Richard A. Noll:]

Oh, from the port slowdown impacts. Gerald?

[Gerald W. Evans:]

All right. From the standpoint of our business and servicing our business, we haven't felt any significant impact on service. There's been certainly -- the port is a little slower, but we have a constant flow of goods that has allowed us to continue to service our customers as we always have.

[Operator:]

And we do have time for one more question. Our real final question for today comes from the line of Steve Marotta from CL King & Associates.

[Steven Louis Marotta:]

You mentioned that there is some inflationary pressure on the first half of the year regarding labor. Are you planning on matching that directly with price? Also, can you talk a little bit more specifically about the roll-off in cotton in the back half of the year as well as oil? I'm assuming that's helping some of your synthetic inputs as well as transportation. And if you intend to maintain pricing and capture all of that margin or if you're going to increase units per pack or can you talk a bit about the pricing cost dynamic in the first and second half?

[Richard A. Noll:]

Sure. The way I think about this is there's an upward trend in labor around the world. Lately, there's been a little bit of a tailwind with cotton. These are all relatively small impacts. When you're talking about managing this with price, you're talking about a couple of percent here and there. It's not of the magnitude of when we saw the cotton inflation, so we price for the long term. These aren't huge impacts that are going to have -- that are going to substantially weigh on any one quarter. We price for the long term. Our pricing set, we've got a lot of visibility into the year, and we feel good about our overall strategy, which is to make sure that we're pricing to maintain margin in a period of modern inflation.

[Operator:]

And that concludes our question-and-answer session for today. I would like to turn the conference back to Hanes management for any closing comments.

[T.C. Robillard:]

I would like to thank everyone for attending our call today, and we look forward to speaking with you soon. Have a great night.

[Operator:]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a good day.