New York & Company Inc. (NWY)
Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
March 18, 2010 9:00 a.m. ET

Executives

Suzanne Rosenberg - Director, Investor Relations
Richard P. Crystal - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sheamus G. Toal - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Leslie Goldmann - Executive Vice President, Merchandising

Analysts

Neely Tamminga - Piper Jaffray
Samantha Panella - Raymond James
Robin Murchison - Suntrust Robinson Humphrey
Eric Beder - Brean Murray, Carret & Co.
Barbara Wyckoff - Jesup & Lamont

Presentation

Operator

Good morning. My name is Kristy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the New York & Company Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2009 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers'' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key.

Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Suzanne Rosenberg, Director of Investor Relations for New York & Company. Please go ahead.

Suzanne Rosenberg

Thank you. Good morning. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the comments made on today''s call, either as part of our prepared remarks, or in response to your questions, may contain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provision in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Actual results may differ from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties as described in the company''s documents filed with the SEC, including the company''s fiscal year 2008 Form 10-K. Unless otherwise noted, the results of operations discussed on this call are for the company''s continuing operations only of the New York & Company brand.

With that, I''d now like to turn the call over to New York & Company''s Chairman and CEO, Richard Crystal.

Richard P. Crystal

Thank you, Suzanne. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss the company''s fourth quarter and fiscal 2009 results. On the call with me today are Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Sheamus Toal; and our Chief Merchant, Leslie Goldmann.

For today''s call, I will provide an overview of our fourth quarter and full year results, along with our priorities as we enter 2010. Sheamus will then review our financial performance in more detail and following my closing comments, we''ll turn the call over to the operator to take your questions.

Our fourth quarter results were in line with our expectations and were driven by a significant improvement in merchandise margin and the ongoing benefit of our cost reduction strategies.

In a challenging environment and despite the impact of our conservative inventory position, which held back sales, we were able to accomplish many of our objectives in fiscal 2009.

We ended the year with a strengthened balance sheet that included cash balances up over 60% from the prior year, a 15% reduction in average inventory per store at year-end, reduced debt and no borrowings under our credit facility.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, we significantly improved our profitability and reversed last year''s loss of $0.20 per diluted share to a profit of $0.06 per diluted share this year.