Caleres, Inc. (NYSE:CAL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Mitch Kummetz: Okay, that’s helpful. Thank you. And then for Q1, can you give us what your sales outlook is by segment? You mentioned that the quarter started a little slower than the end of Q4, but February is a small month, but it might be helpful that give us the sales outlook by segment? And then also maybe any more color on kind of the margins, kind of how you’re thinking gross margin versus SG&A for the quarter?

Jay Schmidt: Yes, Mitch. So in terms of the segment quarterly sales, obviously, we talked about that, what we’re anniversarying on the brand portfolio side. So certainly expect that the brand portfolio sales will be lower in the first quarter, again, versus that comparison to 2021 with some — probably some modest improvement at Famous. I would say, if I look at the full year guidance, both of those businesses are sort of in that range of flat to two, but you have to remember either what they’re anniversarying or what they’re benefiting from as we move forward. So obviously, Famous is a big beneficiary of the 53rd week, much less so on the brand portfolio. And then, obviously, the brand portfolio has that headwind in Q1 from anniversarying the retailer inventory build for last year.

In terms of gross margin, where we’re seeing a nice lift on gross margin in brand portfolio is on the ocean freight. So that’s — that business is going to be the big beneficiary of the lower ocean freight that we’re seeing coming through, obviously, less so on the Famous side.

Mitch Kummetz: Okay. And then last question, you mentioned solid athletic sales on the Famous side in Q4 on better inventory availability. Can you remind us how constrained some of the athletic inventory was throughout 2022? And how that maybe better inventory flow in 2023 kind of impacts the businesses you lap maybe some of those constraints from a year ago?

Jay Schmidt: Yes. I think Mitch we were chasing athletic inventory, I would say, all the way through the first half of 2022 and even into Q3. As we came out of there, we started to see that come through and then really, I would say, some of these key styles, particularly in some of these categories that are more fashion within athletic like this retro kind of style court shoes, et cetera. As well as some of the other key brands that were trending, we really got back into the key items. So I think that led us to a really those last six weeks of fourth quarter being very, very strong. So — but it was all of a chase there. And as we go into Q1, we feel like we’re in really good position.

Mitch Kummetz: Okay. Thanks guys. Good luck.

Jay Schmidt: Thank you.

Jack Calandra: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Laura Champine with Loop Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Laura Champine: Thanks for taking my question. It’s about the new format for Famous Footwear stores. What would it take for you to decide to roll that out more broadly? And I think you said you’re at 10 now. What’s the plan for 2023?

Jay Schmidt: Yes. We’ll continue — it’s currently a motion, Laura, but we did open — as we said, we now have 11 total stores opened, six of them have only been opened for a few weeks now. So it’s fairly new to us. But we’re very pleased with what we see and we will be walking through some of those items. We see us probably adding, I would say, another conservatively 24 additional stores for the back half of this year. But quite frankly, as I said, we’re really still putting our total plans together. And if we see us continue to trend on that, we’ll continue to look at that as we get through the back half. But very exciting work there.