Kontoor Brands, Inc. (NYSE:KTB) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Eric Tracy - VP, Corporate Finance and IR

Scott Baxter - President, CEO and Chair

Rustin Welton - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Mauricio Serna - UBS

Will Gardner - Wells Fargo

Bob Drbul - Guggenheim

Peter McGoldrick - Stifel

Brooke Roach - Goldman Sachs

Sam Poser - Williams Trading

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Kontoor Brands First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to Eric Tracy, Vice President of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Eric Tracy

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Kontoor Brands first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Participants on today's call will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ. These uncertainties are detailed in documents filed with the SEC. We urge you to read our risk factors cautionary language and other disclosures contained in those reports. On today's call, we will make comparisons to prior year results. Comparisons will be in constant currency unless otherwise stated.

Joining me on today's call are Kontoor Brands President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chair, Scott Baxter; and Chief Financial Officer, Rustin Welton. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. We anticipate this call will last about an hour.

Scott?

Scott Baxter

Thanks, Eric, and thanks for all those joining us on today's call.

I'm going to focus my comments today on three areas. First, I'll walk through a few select Q1 highlights, including our continued strength in POS, ongoing share gains, and momentum in the D2C, which we believe most accurately reflect our brand health and relative performance in the marketplace.

Second, I'd like to provide an update on how our strategic investments in key enablers, including demand creation should support more diversified and accretive growth across categories, channels, and geographies over time.

And finally, before I turn it over to Rustin, I'll share some thoughts on why I'm confident about the go-forward for Kontoor despite the uneven macro backdrop allowing us to reaffirm our 2023 guidance here today.

Turning to the first quarter. I'm pleased to share that we delivered Q1 results consistent with both our expectations and commentary we provided on our fourth quarter call. Global Kontoor revenue decreased 1% in line with our prior outlook as increases domestically were tempered by expected softness internationally, particularly in the China region.