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| Statement |
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| So, that both benefits, those both benefit gross margin, and that was the lion's share of our beat in Q4, but driven on the back of a fairly strong direct |
| Excluding the impact of the 53rd week, we were pleased to have delivered adjusted EBITDA above prior year for both Q4 and the full-year, despite the challenging consumer environment that persisted throughout the year |
| We are pleased with our strong end to 2023, capping off another year of great progress for J.Jill as a result of disciplined execution of our operating model |
| So, we had real strengths in 2023, with growth in dresses, woven tops and novelties, a strong sweater business in the back half of the year |
| During the year, we make great progress on strengthening our financial and operational foundation while planting the seeds for future growth |
| We successfully refinanced our debt, enhanced our omnichannel capabilities with the rollout of our POS system and refinements to our website, delivered our first net new store opening year in over three years, and continued to identify and test new concepts within our assortment with capsules, including Pure Jill elements and Wearever Works |
| AUR benefits with so many fewer markdown units |
| Our customer file remained healthy, and we saw nice growth from our best customer segment for the year, which partially offset the impact we had from our more cost-conscious cohort, given the dynamic macro environment she was navigating |
| Average customer spend increased versus the prior year, supported by growth in frequency and full price penetration, and we continue to benefit from our ongoing customer insight work |
| As a result, we've been able to not only strengthen our relationships with new and existing customers, but also identify areas of opportunities for enhanced focus and growth, as seen with our inclusive sizing offering and capsule launches, including the Wearever Works collection |
| Through offering quality fabrications and an assortment that celebrates the totality of who she is, we were able to deliver the experience our customer expects from J.Jill |
| With this stronger foundation in place, we believe we are well positioned to continue to deliver on our financial objectives while supporting our growth initiatives |
| Q4 gross margin was 67.3%, up 290 basis points over Q4 2022, driven by a stronger mix of full price sales, benefit from freight, a better markdown gross margin, and first cost AUC benefit, partially offset by a higher promotional environment in the quarter |
| For the fourth quarter, we delivered adjusted EBITDA above the prior year, supported by strong gross margin performance |
| In summary, fiscal 2023 marked another year of great progress for J.Jill as we continue to strengthen our foundation and position the brand for long-term profitable growth |
| As I have said before, we have a great loyal customer with tremendous opportunity to increase our brand awareness and to welcome new customers to J.Jill through the strength of our brand equity, our assortment, and overall customer experience |
| Our expectations for fiscal 2024 are in line with the financial model that we've delivered the past two years, and we believe will enable another year of strong free cash flow generation, which continues to create optionality as we aim to drive further shareholder value |
| We are pleased to see the outlook showing some signs of a positive shift coming into Q1, and we also saw a high level of satisfaction with our early spring assortments right at the core of who we are as a brand coming into spring, loving our fabrics, our colors |
| Return levels improved in the fourth quarter, returning to more normalized levels on a year-over-year basis |
| And those did yield some nice benefits through much of 2023 focused on usage occasions like the work wear edit, and our inclusive sizing initiatives, both focused on introducing new customers to the brand and customers that are at the younger end of our target demographic and very valuable |
| We think the assortment looks great right now, great color that she's responding to |
| But all in all, I think a good balance and some nice positive energy in her mind coming in, but it's relative to where she's been |
| As we have demonstrated over the past two years, with our disciplined operating model, we are able to deliver a healthy margin profile and strong cash flow generation, while navigating a dynamic macro environment |
| As Claire discussed, we were pleased to have delivered a strong end of the year, resulting in Q4 and full-year adjusted EBITDA ahead of our expectations |
| Our disciplined approach to operating the business, highlighted by tight inventory management, supporting a strong gross margin profile and healthy free cash flow generation, continued to deliver solid results |
| But the benefits that we look at, first of all with POS as the first step, it's really about a better customer experience within the store, less friction in some of the existing omni capabilities that we have with respect to the concierge, which is the ability for a customer to order from the website, from within the store, the facilitation of a transaction that includes an online return in the store |
| This performance was driven by full price mix, improved markdown AUR in January, and the 53rd week actualizing as expected |
| Through the new POS and OMS systems, we will have greater omni capabilities ramping in 2025, which we believe will further enhance our customers’ shopping experience and enable us to benefit even further from our balanced operating model |
| Finally, we plan to continue to strengthen our customer file through new marketing strategies, including an upcoming summer campaign that we believe will help to increase brand awareness and drive new customer acquisitions |
| The first and third quarters are expected to benefit as smaller weeks at the beginning of each quarter are replaced by relatively larger weeks pulled into the end of the quarter |
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| Store sales for Q4 were down 1.5% versus Q4 2022, as traffic was challenging, especially in January |
| Total company comparable sales for the fourth quarter decreased 3.6%, driven by the retail channel |
| For the full-year, we delivered total net sales of $605 million, down 1.7% versus fiscal 2022 |
| This guidance reflects the negative impact from the loss of the 53rd week of about $8 million in sales and $2 million in adjusted EBITDA |
| And how are you feeling about your customer here? I know kind of coming into holiday, there's some incremental softness there in your client core, higher income consumer, older |
| With respect to gross margin, we are currently experiencing some impact from the disruption in the Red Sea in the form of delayed deliveries, higher ocean container costs and select use of air freight |
| In addition to this impact, the fourth quarter comparisons to prior year will also be negatively impacted by the loss of the 53rd week |
| We expect openings will be weighted to the back half of the year, and we believe it is likely that we will close up to five stores in the first half of the year, leading to a decline in mid-year store count |
| And then you guys had commented that it sounded like traffic in January was a little soft |
| While we saw positive reception to our holiday promotions, the slow start to the quarter impacted both channels, and adverse weather in January disproportionately impacted traffic in stores at the end of the quarter, contributing to the negative comp |
| You'll see our core franchises really hit hard, our linen programs, our Knit Basics programs |
| Conversely, Q2 and Q4 are expected to be negatively impacted as larger weeks at beginning of quarter are replaced with relatively smaller weeks at quarter end |
| The delays that we're seeing have calmed down to some extent |
| Still a lot of uncertainty out there in the macro environment, for sure |
| It impacted that channel |
| The weather was widespread across the US |
| While there is some improvement in economic indicators, the macro outlook for 2024 remains somewhat uncertain, and we are planning the business accordingly |
| We did see traffic impacted, particularly in the retail channel in January, and we continue to see some bumpiness coming into February, but are hopeful that things sort of calm down as we go further into the quarter and head into kind of the heart of our season in March and April |
| The initial - it's always an initial uncertainty that creates longer delays |
| For the 52-week fiscal 2024 year, we expect total revenue to be flat to up in the low single digits, and adjusted EBITDA to be down in the mid-single digits compared to the 53-week fiscal 2023 |
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