Two weeks ago, we announced the acceleration and expansion of our three year strategic restructuring program, which we now expect to result in savings in the range of $80 to $90 million. Mike will take you through the details of our restructuring program in a few minutes, but let me touch on one strategic aspect of the program related to our organizational structure that we expect will improve our efficiency and effectiveness moving forward.

Specifically, after careful consideration regarding the optimal structure for our company, we have transferred responsibility for certain functions previously led at the corporate level to the division, given the strong leadership now in place at the brands. During these difficult times and with two new brand presidents, I will be spending a significant amount time of my time with our new divisional leadership on all aspects of our business that touch on our clients; namely product, marketing and the in-store experience. We expect this change to increase speed, efficiency, and effectiveness across the company.

Turning now to the divisions starting with Ann Taylor, the third quarter was a particularly difficult one for this division with comp store sales down 25% and margins very soft. Clearly, this performance is disappointing to all of us. We believe there are three factors impacting Ann Taylor right now; first, the overall deterioration in the macroeconomic environment is clearly impacting the women’s apparel sector more than most and our traffic and DTTs were soft as a result.

Second, and related to the overall economic situation, is the significant impact the financial crisis is having on the professional working woman. This particular demographic represents the Ann Taylor client. In addition, corporate headcount reductions and rising fears of future unemployment have made our client cut down or even cut out her spending altogether. This is evident with the dramatic pullback in demand for wear to work separates and suits, which represents about a third of our assortment as our client is just not investing right now in these categories.

Finally, and very importantly, we lack the product relevancy and versatility our client is looking for right now, particularly in our tops category which represents a significant percent of our business. As a result of these three factors, we were over-inventoried during the quarter, which required us to be highly promotional to keep our inventory turning, which we did effectively.

As we enter the fourth quarter, the Ann Taylor division will continue to be promotionally aggressive as we don’t expect improvement in the macroeconomic or competitive environments in the months ahead.

Our product assortment for fourth quarter, which is focused on special occasion for November and gifts for December is likely to be under pressure as our client appears not to be investing in special occasion this year and is likely to cut back on gift purchases as well. We have, however, seen encouraging early results in our cashmere assortment. You may have seen that our cashmere was recently recognized as the best cashmere on the market in a blind test by In Style Magazine. This is an important point about our technical quality. It remains very high and there is an opportunity for us to build on that in our marketing to the client. Our cashmere assortment will help anchor our holiday gifting assortment heading into Thanksgiving and December.

As we look ahead to 2009, we are positioning the business defensively with a very conservative inventory receipt plan. We are also making progress behind the scenes to reposition and rejuvenate the brand and you will begin to see the results of this work in fall 2009. Let me spend a moment providing some insight into the progress we have made and why we believe the plan will be successful.

First, we have established a new team at the division to reposition the brand. Christine Beauchamp, the new Ann Taylor President, has assembled a team of best in class retail leaders comprised of a combination of internal and external talent with excellent track records of success. Critical positions recently filled include the Head of Design, a new GMM, and a new Director of Stores among others.

Second, we are re-architecting the assortment for profitability. That means we are building a core assortment that will provide a stable profitable base to the assortment. This will enable loyal clients to repeat purchase their favorite styles in multiple colors and fabrics. We are also further reducing our SKU count and will focus on a balance of key items and fashion units. In addition, we will continue to buy inventories conservatively. Together, all of these initiatives are expected to drive increased margins and improve profitability at the division over the longer term. And finally, we are returning to our heritage and focusing on making Ann Taylor a style destination again for what is chic, sophisticated, feminine, and relevant now; a cosmopolitan point of view anchored in modern versatile separates, tops, dresses, and accessories. In addition, Ann Taylor has always represented great quality and we will focus on doing a better job to market the value we have to offer.

One of the important differentiators in the market for Ann Taylor is that our clients continue to have a positive affinity for the brand, and we continue to be viewed as an icon within our sector. This brand strength is a tremendous asset. We recognize that we must continue to evolve in keeping with the changing needs and preferences of our clients, and that’s where our focus is. I am very optimistic about the vision for Ann Taylor and the direction the new team is headed.

Now turning to Loft, our top line at Loft was also under pressure. We believe that this pressure was the direct result of the soft economic and consumer environment. We believe Loft’s value proposition positions the brand relatively well in this environment. Soft traffic, a highly competitive promotional environment, and our focus on moving through inventory during the quarter led to our negative 15 comp and very soft gross margin.

In terms of third quarter product, I believe our assortment was much better than the previous quarter. Our best performing categories were sweaters, dresses, denim, and other casual bottoms. Categories that were weaker during the quarter included refined separates, shoes, handbags, and jewelry.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter product, I feel good about our upcoming assortments which are fresh, fun, and exciting and fully express the design and direction of the new Loft design team. However, despite good product we expect the environment to put pressure on the top line.

Finally, I am very pleased and excited that Gary Muto has joined us last week as President of our Loft division. This appointment completes my senior management team and was a critical hire for us in enabling the divisionalization of the business. Gary is a seasoned executive and brings to Loft not only his knowledge and extensive experience but a lot of dynamic, positive energy as well. The team here is very excited and we look forward to maximizing the potential of Loft in the years ahead under Gary’s leadership.

Now turning to Factory, the soft macro environment has taken its toll on this channel as well, with traffic down significantly and other in-store metrics under pressure during the quarter. However, the Factory division did a good job maximizing gross margin throughout the quarter. Loft Outlet, which was first launched in July with the opening of 10 stores is meeting our expectations. We launched four additional Loft Outlet stores since July and we see a good deal of growth potential in this business. We will continue to invest conservatively in this concept.

Finally growth in our Internet business which has been experiencing double-digit revenue growth over the last several quarters began to slow a bit as the economic crisis deepened in the third quarter. Nevertheless, sales growth remained in the high single digits and we continue to view Internet as a highly scaleable and cost effective growth channel. Moreover, it serves as a critical marketing tool that enables immediate and cost effective outreach and drives incremental traffic to the stores.

With that, I’d like to turn it over to Mike who will take you through the financial details of the quarter and our outlook for the balance of the year.

Michael J. Nicholson

Thanks Kay and good morning everyone. Before I jump into our third quarter results, I’d like to spend a few moments on what I believe matters most from a financial perspective in the current environment, starting with cash, which as you know right now is king. We have a very strong balance sheet, no debt, a solid cash position, and access to a $250 million revolver. This revolver is a committed facility available through 2013 with a strong and diversified consortium of banks headed by Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo.