Established 1999
     
8,000 companies from USA and India.  
   
Search over 25,500 news articles and 8,000 companies earnings    
 
Earnings Calls: 
Limited Brands Earnings Call, Fourth Quarter 2008
Author: 123jump.com Staff
123jump.com
Last Update: 5:29 AM ET March 06 2009

123Jump:


(Continued)

Email article | Print article

The firm reported a 28% decrease in adjusted earnings per share at 68 cents compared to 94 cents for the previous year quarter which exclude certain significant items. The company reported a comparable store sales decrease of 10 % and net sales of $2.9 billion compared to net $3.2 billion last year.


Investors Question and Answers

 
 Company Website Links:
Investor Relations Financial Info Corporate / History Profile Executives Products Services
 
Sequential Earnings Growth | Quarterly Earnings by Year | Quarterly Earnings Growth by Year
You need to upgrade your Flash Player


You need to upgrade your Flash Player

 
There will be always something that beats our expectations that we will be low on inventory but with the focus on the few to produce the many the focus in making sure we can shave inventory we will be in a good position and a conservative position as we go through these economic times.

Dian Neil: At Bath and Body Works we are focused on our three major categories which are our fastest turning categories and every single week we re-forecast.

Specifically since Signature is exceeding expectations we re-forecast every single form and fragrance on a weekly basis and we have a 12-week turnaround time so we can get back into stock.

Then secondly, our in-store system roll out has now been better. Our top best seller stores in stock are the same as our bottom best seller stores and we are carrying a lot less inventory in the back rooms because it is on the floor.

Todd Slater (Lazard Capital): Could you update us on the state of your international strategy excluding Canada in light of the global economy?

Martyn Redgrave: Our emphasis is on Canada both the La Senza business, the BBW as well as our expansion in the VS and Pink into Canada.

It is a company-owned base which can be a significant contributor to profitability in the next 2-3 years.

The rest of the world is in crisis as you know. So we have hit the pause button in light of the economic crisis over the last 3-4 months.

However, with the new year, we have renewed a number of those conversations and we are now aggressively moving against a couple of parts of the world where we will find the right answer for a partnership or a franchised arrangement with key partners.

We are not retreating from the rest of the world agenda but we are being very realistic about the rest of the world economy and the ability of potential partners to move forward with us. It is taking us longer than we had hoped but we remain very committed to the rest of the world and finding the right way to take our brands to it.

Todd Slater (Lazard Capital): Are you expecting a big deceleration in March and April or are you planning promotional activity to accelerate substantially?

Stuart Burgdoerfer: There are 3-4 things to convey there. One our February comp result to date is running a little better or somewhat better than our expectation at the beginning of the month.

The February result is pretty consistent with our view for the quarter and we just finished up our guidance numbers in the last few days.

We do have a very tough comparison at Victoria''s Secret in March overlapping the Bio Fit launch. There is a lot of pressure in merchandise margin in this environment and we see pressure in merch margin particularly in the first quarter.

There is pressure in interest expense uniquely in the first quarter with the recognition of some up-front fees related to the amendments. Our portion of earnings from our interest in Express and Limited we expect unfavorability there as well in the first quarter and for the full year.

Rick Patel for Lorraine Maikis (Bank of America, Merrill Lynch): Could you provide some more color on the performance of the Bath and Body Works re-stage product?

Dian Neil: It is beating our expectations and it is across most of the forms and the fragrances. We have re-marketed and re-merchandised it by fragrance family it has created some new interest.

We have re-merchandised the walls, we tested so many things in the fourth quarter and I think the wall navigation is much easier for the customer to understand.

We are getting a younger customer base in some of the new fragrances we have launched and we are getting more of our old customers to come back in.

Analyst for Laura Champine (Cowen and Company): Could you give us a little bit more color on your capital structure and your plans going forward?
Stuart Burgdoerfer: At the end of the day we feel pretty good about our capital structure. So we feel good about the actions we took and the amendments we have announced and recently renegotiated and feel particularly solid with respect to cash, liquidity, etc.
  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9

 


 
Sources: Data collected by 123jump.com and Ticker.com from company press releases, filings and corporate websites.
Market data: BATS Exchange. Inc.

350 Fund Managers Interviews - 10-year Annual earnings on 4,600 U.S. companies - 20-quarter Earnings on 3,800 U.S. companies - 3,200 U.S. IPO Prospectuses
- 2,100 Economic data releases from U.S., EU, UK, India, HK and Australia. 10-year Annual reports on 3,500 U.S. companies -
U.S. Earnings Calendar with 4,800 companies - 90,000 10-K reports - 26,000 Global markets news archive - 2,200 Earnings Conference Call Summaries

Other Sites:
© 1999-2012 123jump.com. All rights reserved