Q4 2022 LL Flooring Holdings Inc Earnings Call
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the LL4 in fourth quarter 2022 results call. My name is Glenn LOBD moderator for today's call.
Speaker 2: If you'd like to ask a question during the presentation, you may do so by pressing star one on tap on keypad. I will now hand you over to your host, Julie McMillan, VP Investor Relations to begin. Julie, please go ahead. Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us. Today, I am joined by Charles Tyson, our President and Chief Executive Officer. As we begin, let me reference the safe harbor provisions of the US securities laws for forward-looking statements. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties.
Speaker 3: including the future operating and financial performance of LL Flooring. Although LL Flooring believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements are included in LL Flooring's filings with the SEC. During today's conference call, management will be discussing results on an adjusted basis.
Speaker 4: A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and our explanation of why the non-GAAP financial measures may be useful are discussed in today's earnings release. The information contained in this call is after it only has up the date discussed. Investors should not assume that the statements will remain operative after today, and LL Loring undertakes no obligation to update any information discussed in this call. Now I am pleased to introduce President and CEO Charles Tyson.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Julie. Good morning, everyone. 2022 was a challenging year for LL Flooring. At the outset of 2022, we expected the increased investments we made and our strategic growth pillars to begin to drive higher sales starting in the second half of the year. We did not deliver on that goal as continued weakness in sales to consumers more than offset the double digit growth in sales to pro customers that we achieved. We're not satisfied with our results. We believe that the uncertain macro environment has partially contributed to weakness in our sales to consumers and continues to be a near thumb headwind.
Speaker 6: In addition, we have identified two primary opportunities to improve our sales performance. One further broadening and growing our brand awareness amongst consumers to drive traffic and two ensuring a consistent customer experience across our omni-channel network to improve conversion. We will discuss how we're planning to address both of these in a moment. Moreover, we know that our cost structure is not aligned to our current run rate of sales. While we have made progress on our strategic initiatives, we have more work to do to get LL flooring to the level of profitability that we are confident we are capable of achieving. On today's call, I will review our fourth quarter and 2022 financial results and address how we plan to improve sales productivity and profitability. In addition…
Speaker 7: I will reaffirm the green shoots and our key operational strategies that give us confidence in achieving long-term sustainable growth. Now turning to a review of our fourth quarter results. Total comparable store sales were down 9.5%, and net sales were down 7.5%, as lower spending by consumers versus last year, more than offset growth in sales to pros. Cash ticket increased 8.2%, and average retail price per merchandise unit sold increased 9.6% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. The higher average retail price was driven by pricing and promotion strategies to offset higher costs. Now turning to our next chart to an overview of the selling price model.
Speaker 8: However, we saw a 17.7% decrease in transactions compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, due primarily to weakness in sales to DIY customers. Adjusted gross margin was 35.7%, which declined 170 basis points from last year. I want to recognize the continued good work of our merchant and supply chain teams, as we are able to largely offset more than 800 basis points of headwinds from higher material and transportation costs for our pricing, promotion and sourcing strategies. Adjusted SG&A as a percent of net sales was 38.8%, up 510 basis points from last year, due primarily to expense deleverage from lower sales volume. In addition, operating expenses were higher due to the planned investments in our growth including costs associated with opening 18-year stores.
Speaker 9: higher marketing spend to build brand awareness, higher staffing to support our strength and pro-sales, and competitive wage increases for customer facing associates. During January of 2023, we implemented several cost savings measures, including reducing headcount and slowing new hires across the organization. With the related severance expenses reflected in our fourth quarter SG&A, we continue to look to improve operating efficiencies and are actively working to right size our cost structure on lower at fixed costs.
Speaker 10: During the fourth quarter, we reported a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $9.7 million, which resulted from a decline in the company's market capitalization, increases in the weighted average cost of capital as applied to our future cash flow models, and comparable company market multiples. Excluding that charge, on an adjusted basis, we reported an operating loss of $8.2 million compared to adjusted operating income of $10.8 million last year. We reported an income tax benefit of $3.2 million, or an effective rate of 17.7%, which compared to an income tax expense of $0.5 million last year, or an effective rate of 4.4%. The effective income tax rate is inclusive of both federal and state taxes.
Speaker 11: and was impacted by non-deductible and return to provision adjustments in 2022, and a benefit from state net operating loss adjustments in 2021. Fourth quarter adjusted net loss was 29 cents per share versus adjusted earnings per share of 35 cents last year. Now I'll briefly recap the full year 2022 results. Net sales of 1.1 billion decreased 3.6% and comparable source sales decreased 5.8% compared to last year, with lower sales to consumers more than offsetting double digit growth in sales to pros. We reported adjusted gross margins of 36.2%, which was down 140 basis points from last year. We were able to largely offset more than a thousand basis points of headwinds from higher material and transportation costs. There are pricing, promotion and sourcing strategies. Adjusted SG&A is...
Speaker 12: percent of net sales was 36.3% up 330 basis points from last year due primarily to investments in growth strategies, including higher marketing spend and deleverage of lower net sales. Full year adjusted operating loss was 1.8 million compared to adjusted operating income of 53.7 million. For 2022, we reported a 1.5 million income tax benefit or an effective rate of 10.8% compared to income tax expenses of 11.1 million or an effective rate of 21% in 2021. The effective income tax rate is inclusive of both federal and state taxes and was impacted by non-deductible and return to provision adjustments in 2022 and a change in valuation loss carry forward in 2021. Adjusted loss for diluted share of 17 cents in 2022.
Speaker 13: compared to adjusted earnings put to the share of $1.39 in 2021. Overall, we were disappointed in our 2022 financial results and our entire organization is focused on improving net sales growth and profitability in 2023. Now I review our strategic priorities to drive traffic and increase conversion to improve our sales performance in 2023. First, we will broaden awareness of the LL Flooring brand to increase traffic. We're intensifying our efforts to build greater awareness of the LL Flooring brand in order to drive more traffic, particularly with consumers. Our brand surveys of both pros and consumers consistently show that the new LL Flooring brand scores significantly higher versus Lumber liquidators on the core attributes we measure, including product quality, assortment and store associate expertise. The LL Flooring brand also broadens our appeal as a national flooring destination, offering a one-stop shop for consumers who are seeking service and expertise from inspiration to installation. As such, we believe that we are on the right track with our rebranding strategy.
Speaker 14: However, our unaided brand awareness remains low and we are focused on broadening brand awareness by investing in top of funnel marketing strategies that will focus on evolving our creative approach to increase relevancy, refining our media campaigns to increase efficiency and expand our reach to increase exposure. In terms of creative, we will be launching a new creative campaign this spring that will clearly articulate what the LL flooring value proposition offers to consumers, leaning into selection expertise, assortment and value. Regarding efficiency, we continue to improve the effectiveness of our digital marketing spend and strategy, which aims to increase conversion while lowering customers' acquisition costs. To that end, we are excited to announce the implementation of a new Customer Relationship Management Platform, or CRM, in 2023 that will both enhance marketing effectiveness as well as improve store and omni-channel conversion. We expect to begin to realize the benefits from the CRM implementation beginning in the second half of 2023. And finally, reach. We're expanding our network presence within the discovery portfolio such as...
Speaker 15: HTV and Magnolia Network, and increasing spend on broader reaching news and weather channels. In addition to broadening brand awareness to increase traffic, we're working to drive increased conversion through improved execution across our store network. We offer a seamless omnichannel experience driven by our Foundation and Foreign Expertise. Most customers start with our digital platform lllforing.com and then complete their journey at one of our four hundred and forty two stores located across the country. An important part of our brand transformation strategy includes elevating our brand positioning in the marketplace. Our associates are a key differentiator for lllforing. We win when a customer walks into an lllforing store and is immediately greeted by a knowledgeable associate who can help make buying foreign easy. In a small environment, our store teams are critical ensuring that success of delivering a great customer experience. To further improve our sales performance, we're focused on improving conversion rates when customers request a free sample, either online or in our stores. And improving close rates on an installation quotes by increasing the speed of the customer, which we turn the project quote to the customer once we've measured their space. We continue to invest in field leadership.
Speaker 16: And in 2023, we are further strengthening product expertise by increasing the number of hours per month devoted to product and sales training and increasing investment in both our regional and store management training programs. In turn, our field leadership is held accountable to consistent execution of our operating plans and improving the customer experience that we're driving through a medallion voice of the customer measurement program. We continue to deploy technology in our stores to improve the customer experience and store associate productivity, building on existing technology investments such as our installation services portal and iPads in every store. We're excited to leverage our new CRM platform to help our associates more effectively capture customer interactions and engage with them.
Speaker 17: associates are critical to delivering on our brand promise. We're confident in our ability to improve performance and execution across the fleet, as the investments in our associates and our field leadership accountability drive greater productivity.
Speaker 18: To that end, we are significantly reducing our new unit openings in 2023 and shifting our focus to improving the productivity of our existing stores. While we plan to open only three new stores in 2023, we continue to believe that the market opportunity to grow LL Flooring's locations remains strong. It is important to note that we have a strong pipeline of potential new store locations identified and will report our new store opening plans in future quarters.
Speaker 19: With respect to profitability, our cost structure has outpaced our growth, as we have made significant investments in our strategic pillars that we expect will generate a strong ROI over the longer term. In the near term, we have a low variable cost structure, which has made it challenging to further reduce operating expenses in a difficult macro environment. That said, we continue to look to improve operating efficiencies and are actively working to right size our cost structure. We look forward to reporting on our progress on future calls.
Speaker 20: In summary, as we look ahead, 2023 is about taking ownership of what we can control and delivering strong execution on our operating priorities. Now I would like to take a few minutes to give our thoughts about the external environment and discuss our outlook for 2023. In the near term, we continue to navigate an uncertain macroeconomic environment. We see customer spending on home improvement potentially challenged by consumer confidence, inflation, volatile mortgage rates impacting housing affordability, and continued declines in existing home sales. In addition to macroeconomic uncertainty, during the first quarter, we began experiencing customs delays relating to certain shipments of vinyl flooring originating from Vietnam. In February , 2023.
Speaker 21: U.S. Customs added aluminum and polyvinyl chloride to a list of categories including cotton, tomatoes, and polysilicon, for which Customs has the ability to request additional documentation from importers. We began to receive notices requesting such additional documentation for some shipments. We require vendors to follow our strict guidelines on responsible sourcing. We obtain periodic certifications from them concerning compliance with these standards, and we perform audit procedures of their supply chain documentation. While we're working with Customs to provide requested additional documentation, we do not know how long their review of the documentation will take. Based on what we know today, the Customs delays could have a material impact on 2023, and had the occasion to conduct a review within 30 years to the womb of the Option. It is
Speaker 22: full year operating income due to lost sales and higher inventory carrying costs. We're working to partially mitigate the disruptions from the customs delays by featuring alternative products in our current assortment and leveraging our sourcing capabilities to look at alternative flooring categories and sourcing geographies. In terms of our sales outlook for 2023, while we strongly believe that our strategy to increase brand awareness and deliver a more consistent customer experience will gain traction and drive store productivity throughout the year. Our visibility is limited as to when the macro economic environment will normalize or when the customs delays will be resolved.
Speaker 23: We expect to adjust the gross margin to improve year over year, with the strongest second half driven by reduced international container costs as we turn our higher cost inventory. We will continue to monitor the competitive pricing environment to inform our pricing and promotion strategy. In addition, we expect our gross margin rate in 2023 to benefit from a greater mix of higher margin products that deliver on customer needs for scratch proof and waterproof flooring. With respect to SG&A, our cost structure is increased primarily driven by investments in our strategic pillars in the face of lower than expected sales. While we expect these investments to drive sales growth over the longer term, we realize we have significant work to do to right size our SG&A levels. We currently expect further pressure on our cost structure, with adjusted SG&A expense increasing year over year due to inflationary pressures on wages and benefits.
Speaker 24: Particularly as we continue to make important investments in our associates. As mentioned earlier, we will be investing in our CRM platform, which we will expect will support higher sales levels and make our operating structure more efficient over time. We will update you in future quarters on the work we are doing to realign our SG&A. With respect to capital allocation, we will continue to review our capital allocation priorities. We are pleased to have rebuilt inventory in 2022 and expect inventory to be a source of cash in 2023 as we sell through higher cost inventory and return to more historical purchase levels. We expect to invest CapEx in the range of $15 to $20 million to support our strategic growth initiatives, including opening three new stores and investments in productivity such as our CRM platform implementation and for maintenance CapEx. We believe we have sufficient liquidity to support our operations and investments in growth.
Speaker 25: Turning to our longer-term outlook, we believe the long-term outlook for repair and remodel spending remains strong, supported by tailwinds such as the aging housing stock in the US, new household formation by millennials. We remain committed to deliver long-term growth driven by executing on our six strategic pillars, going sales to pro, building brand awareness, improving the customer experience, innovation in new products, developing our people and culture, and opening new stores. Longer term, we believe the new LL Flooring brand will offer a unique value proposition in the market for customers who want selection expertise, assortment and value.
Speaker 26: We believe we are successfully gaining traction on several of our operating strategies, which gives us confidence in achieving long-term sustainable growth. In particular, we are very excited about our pro strategy and continued product innovation. First, we will continue to lean into our strategy of growing sales to pro customers. To that end, we have generated consistent growth in sales to pro customers. The fourth quarter marked our eighth consecutive quarter of growth in pro sales. I would like to recognize our pro sales team for delivering double-digit sales to pros in 2022 in spite of a difficult macro environment. We view our pro sales strategy as a core long-term growth pillar for LL. In 2023, we expect continued growth in our sales to pro customers. We believe we have a strong competitive advantage with pros for our dedicated relationships, our trend-right in-stock products, and highly competitive everyday pro pricing. Our pro relationship program starts with each of our...
Speaker 27: innovate beautiful flooring such as Durovana, which is PVC-free and is sourced in Europe , that supports consumers everyday living needs at a great value. We continue to build on the success of Durovana by expanding the assortment under the Durovana brand. During 2022, we rebuilt inventories in order to support our concerted strategy to place inventory closer to our customers.
Speaker 28: And we further reduced our dependency on imports from China, which are still tariffs at 25%. In short, we made good progress against our strategic pillars of growing sales to pros and innovating product in 2022. This combined with our focus on execution against all six of our key strategic pillars gives us continued confidence in our ability to achieve long-term sustainable growth. As I conclude my formal remarks, I'd like to give a brief update on our CFO search to note that it is well underway. To close, we know we need to do more and we're working to change the trajectory of our business by leaning into key elements of our strategies that are performing well, diligently working to increase brand awareness and provide a more consistent customer experience and improving profitability through right sizing our cost structure. Importantly, the long-term fundamentals of our business are strong.
Speaker 29: We have a unique positioning in the marketplace. We will deliver the high touch service of an independent flooring retailer, combined with the value, assortment and convenience of a national brand. With that, I will open up for questions. Operator? Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask any further questions, please press star 1 on the telephone keypad. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. We have our first question, comes from Laura Champagne from Luke Capital. Laura, your line is now open. Thanks for taking my question. The first question is a little clarification on the gross margin outlook. I note that you mentioned that gross margin should improve year over year, but will that improvement likely begin in the first half, or is that something we should wait for the second half to see?
Speaker 30: Yeah, good morning, Laura. Thanks for the question. You know, as I said on actually the last earnings call, as we see an improvement in our cost flow through on our inventory primarily driven by the reduction in international transportation, that margin benefit will start to flow through in the back half of the year as well as benefits we're seeing through sourcing strategies and reduction in some product costs. So most of that benefit will flow through in the Q3, Q4 period. Got it. And then secondly, on the sort of interim office of the CFO that you're working with, my understanding is that you're looking to outsource IR. Will that office change from a three person office to a two person office? And what are your plans for that on an interim basis? Yeah, we have partnered with a third party while we go through a transition and we will continue to look for the replacement obviously of our CFO . And we've got a great team here back in Richmond who is supporting our whole finance initiative to make sure that we don't drop the ball. And I feel really good about the team that are working at every day, both on the IR side and on our accounting side, treasury and tax.
Speaker 31: Yeah, good morning, Laura. Thanks for the question. You know, as I said on actually the last earnings call, as we see an improvement in our cost flow through on our inventory, primarily driven by the reduction in international transportation, that margin benefit will start to flow through in the back half of the year, as well as benefits we're seeing through our sourcing strategies and reduction in some product costs. So most of that benefit will flow through in the Q3, Q4 period. Got it. And then secondly, on the interim office of the CFO that you're working with, my understanding is that you're looking to outsource IR. Will that office change from a three person office to a two person office? And what are your plans for that on an interim basis? Yeah, we have partnered with a third party while we go through a transition and we will continue to look for the replacement, obviously, of our CFO . And we've got a great team here back in Richmond who is supporting our whole finance initiative to make sure that we don't drop the ball. And I feel really good about the team that are working at every day, both on the IR side and on our accounting side, Treasury and tax. Got it. Thank you.