Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

But I would say just overall, it’s the uncertainty and the lack of visibility we have, not that we don’t have a conviction and confidence in the strategy that we’re employing.

Operator: Your next question is from the line of Bob Drbul with Guggenheim.

Bob Drbul: I just want to sort of follow up on Mark’s questions. But I don’t know if this is Peter or Jill or both. But, can you just talk about the decision to actually withdraw the guidance versus maybe a wider range? Any framework that you can give us around Q4, but even into €˜23, as you think about how you want to position the business to €˜23? I think that would be pretty helpful. And then, I do have a follow-up.

Peter Boneparth: Yes. Bob, maybe I’ll start and toss it over to Jill. First of all good morning and nice to talk to you. So, as you know, I’ve been doing this a long time, as have many members of our Board as has Jill, and I would say that the visibility for the fourth quarter has been as difficult as any period I could remember. So what you have, as we’ve said, is on the one hand, you had last year a situation where nobody had an inventory. Everybody, as a result, all customers were inclined to buy early and so you had these big numbers early in the quarter, so people had a lot of conviction. Of course, by the end of the quarter, people had inventory problems, had issues and we had that as well. Now, you flip over, everybody has a lot of inventory, the customers, obviously, we’re anticipating a highly promotional calendar.

And then, we saw this pronounced slowdown in October going into November was that consumer behavior? Was that weather? Was that the elections? I don’t think anybody really knows. It’s probably a combination of all those 3 factors. You then combine that in our minds, with obviously an unexpected CEO transition and our judgment call, which frankly is a 51-49 call. Our judgment that it was very important to give Tom and the team the latitude in the fourth quarter to execute on our basic strategy, which is to drive value and sales during a very promotional environment. You’ve heard from other competitors, I think it’s consistent with what everybody is saying out there. I think everybody believes that Christmas will come but I don’t think anybody out there today knows for sure exactly what’s going to happen.

I don’t know, Jill, if you have anything to add to that?

Jill Timm: No, I would echo sentiment. I think it’s really about the unpredictability and the volatility and the trends that we’ve seen over the last several weeks. It’s not that we’re not confident in the strategy. As we enter into the holiday season, we know it’s going to be very focused on value. It’s a core tenet for Kohl’s. So this affords us the opportunity to make sure that we can compete, go after the market share, we’re set up really well. We have 600 Sephora shops. We have a lot of newness across the store, including smart home, pet, leaning into successful areas like outdoor and dress. So, we have confidence in the strategy. I think it’s much more about the uncertainty and the unpredictability of the macro environment that Peter had mentioned.

Bob Drbul: Got it. And Jill, I just — I have a follow-up question. So, I think one of the brands that you called out was Lauren Conrad brand, one of the products that seems to be creating a lot of chatter is the women’s LC Lauren Conrad mid-rise leggings. And I was just wondering if that’s enough to really sort of carry the brand, if any comments around how that is performing in stock, or how important it will be to you in the fourth quarter?