Mark Parker: We continue to work on format and experience which is coming along nicely and we have engaged with most of the major real estate players here in the United States as well as beginning that engagement externally and so a lot of the specific locations are still to be determined based on real estate strategies and opportunities.
Robert Ohmes (Banc of America Securities): Can you explain the UK acceleration, given that some of your competitors and customers there haven't been doing well.
Charlie Denson: We have been working hard in the UK around cleaning up distribution, getting the right product into the right places. We are starting to grab some significant market share there as well and the success we are having in soccer is a big piece of what is driving some of the success. It is not just in the UK, but Spain and Portugal had a fantastic quarter. We are starting to see France and Western Europe firm up.
Robert Ohmes (Banc of America Securities): Is this the beginning of the buildup to Euro Cup or is it just a firming up of the core business?
Charlie Denson: The Euro Cup hasn't really even kicked in yet. This is definitely a firming up of the core business.
Robert Ohmes (Banc of America Securities): How have your outlet stores been comping and how are business trends there?
Donald Blair: Comparable store sales are up 4% in the U.S.
John Shanley (Susquehanna): You referenced some of the difficulties that the mall-based athletic specialty stores are having in the U.S. Where do you see the Nike growth currently occurring?
Charlie Denson: We were up in every major account across all channels with the exception of the mall stores for the quarter. We have an organization that we call a geography-based group that really deals with a lot of the urban independent sporting goods and their business outperformed for the quarter as well. I think that the U.S. marketplace can continue to perform and across the board we are still having good success.
Virginia Genereux (Merrill Lynch): What is driving the acceleration in China and is China your highest margin market?
Donald Blair: The profitability of the Chinese market is really broadly consistent with profitability in other markets so it is not necessarily a margin play, but certainly from the volume growth and the revenue that we are getting, we are getting great leverage on the P&L. The drivers of growth are really door expansion and same-store sales growth.
Virginia Genereux (Merrill Lynch): Where are you managerially in terms of the Nike-owned retail efforts?
Mark Parker: The retail management piece is a big initiative for Nike, not just over this next year but up through the foreseeable future, the investment in retail and building that as a real competency for the company. We are building the team and the infrastructure around the retail team to execute that.
Donald Blair: We would also strongly differentiate where we have been in the past with inline retail like a Niketown which really is very much a brand statement and not really intended to be 100 stores plus. What we are aiming at something that really elevates the brand presentation in the market but is also an economic proposition that works for us and also helps model how the market can go in the future.
Jim Duffy (Thomas Weisel Partners): Where are you with Exeter and some of the things you will be examining in the review?
Mark Parker: We are evaluating our approach as a company to serving that value consumer and that is first and foremost in that review and obviously Exeter brands group is one of the key players there. We have other levers that exist in the portfolio as well as the potential for other movement within the portfolio in terms of acquisition. We are not far enough through the review process to really comment any more at this point, but rest assured we are looking diligently at how to make sure that we are optimizing that piece of our business.
Margaret Mager (Goldman Sachs): Is e-commerce a notable contributor at this point to any one of the regions?
Mark Parker: E-commerce today is a small percentage of our business relative to what we think it could or should be, and we want to move this to a real commitment to pursuing the full potential of one of the fastest growing channels on the planet. The focus for us is in the U.S. market first and foremost but we see great potential around the world, certainly in Europe and in the Asia Pacific region as well. We are trying to take this through phases and starting with the USA as being the primary focus. We are building a strong team to really go after the opportunity and build this into a competency for Nike.
Margaret Mager (Goldman Sachs): On your decision that Nike Bauer Hockey would be a sale candidate, what were the parameters around which you made that judgment?
Charlie Denson: The key here is focusing on the biggest opportunities. The Bauer business today is about $160 million last year hence not that material to the portfolio. Therefore, the long term growth potential just wasn't going to move the needle and we felt we could better deploy the resources elsewhere. |