Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRN) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Yes, second portion of impact on gross margin. As I think you know, we’re pretty evenly balanced, meaning our gross margin doesn’t swing in tremendous directions from apparel to non-apparel, for example. With that said, we are keeping a keen eye on our price points and our gross margin by item or I should say, our markup by item. And I think the team is doing a great job managing it. Really, we put it all in the blender and say, “You got to buy it right, we got to sell through it right”, meaning timing and price point and in the right stores. And then we’ve got to ship it right, freights in our gross margin line. When that all works, we see the high 30s. So it’s — there’s no one reason I could tell you. It’s just more that when the whole pie gets cranking, it shows up in high 30s.

Jeremy Hamblin: Got it. And then Heather, I wanted to see if you might be able to quantify for us the freight impact you noted should sequentially get even a little bit better here in the back half of the year. Would you be able to characterize that in terms of kind of basis points of magnitude kind of Q1, Q2 and then what you would expect here in the back half of the year?

Heather Plutino: So here’s what I’ll say, Jeremy, is that our outlook for the year assumes that freight improves in the second half to the point that freight is approximately in line with last year for the full year.

Jeremy Hamblin: That freight is in line with last year?

Heather Plutino: Yes, yes, approximately in line on a full year basis.

Jeremy Hamblin: Okay. And then just last one real quick here. Your ERP system update, which sounds like that’s on track here and about to turn on. In terms of when we might expect to see that begin flowing through in terms of financial benefit, is that more of a kind of 2024 impact? Do you expect to see some benefit potentially in — by Q4?

David Makuen: Jeremy, you pretty much nailed it. It’s really a ’24 and forward impact. The rest of ’23 will be getting traction with the new system and learning our way around all the new functionality, that will eventually deliver some great benefit. But we’re baking it more into our forward looking. And if we do see some benefit in ’23, it’s crazy, and we’ll take it, obviously. But you kind of summed it up well with these size upgrades, you got to kind of have an on-ramp if you go live and have it sort of gain traction throughout the organization, and that’s what we kind of planned. So we’re looking forward to it. It’s as I stated, it’s a real game changer. And the upgrade is going to be greeted with lots of smiling faces and users.

Jeremy Hamblin: Cool. Well, congrats on the progress and best wishes. Thanks for taking the questions.

David Makuen: Thanks, Jeremy. Have a good one.

Heather Plutino: Thanks, Jeremy.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett. Please go ahead.

Greg Sommer: Hi, this is Greg Sommer on for Chuck. I just wanted to kind of dig into what gives you confidence that the second half can improve. Obviously, student debt is hitting in a couple of months, and we’ve seen rising gas prices. I just kind of wanted to confirm I guess your consumer is probably under-indexed to student debt. And then, are potentially higher gas prices or even rent kind of factored into your outlook?