Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 24, 2023 4:45 PM ET

Company Participants

Sara Penner - Manager, IR

Erik Nordstrom - CEO

Pete Nordstrom - President and Chief Brand Officer

Cathy Smith - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Ashley Owens - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Brooke Roach - Goldman Sachs

Dana Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group

Edward Yruma - Piper Sandler

Blake Anderson - Jefferies

Oliver Chen - TD Cowen

Matthew Boss - JPMorgan

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Nordstrom Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] And as a reminder this conference is being recorded.

At this time, I'll turn the call over to Sara Penner, Manager of Investor Relations for Nordstrom. Thank you. You may begin.

Sara Penner

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Before we begin, I want to mention that we'll be referring to slides, which can be viewed in the Investor Relations section on nordstrom.com. Our discussion may include forward-looking statements, so please refer to the slide with our safe harbor language.

Participating in today's call are Erik Nordstrom, Chief Executive Officer; Pete Nordstrom, President and Chief Brand Officer; and Cathy Smith, Chief Financial Officer, who will provide a business update and discuss the company's second quarter performance.

And now I'll turn the call over to Erik.

Erik Nordstrom

Thank you, Sara, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today.

Before we begin, I'd like to welcome our new CFO, Cathy Smith to our earnings call. Cathy is a proven finance leader with many years of experience delivering business results. She has deep expertise navigating the dynamic retail environment in her prior roles with some of the largest retailers in the country. We are thrilled to have her on the team. You will hear more from her today.

I'll start with our Q2 performance. We delivered solid results in the second quarter, with earnings per share higher than last year despite lower sales. As we've said since the beginning of this year, we saw clear opportunities to drive higher profitability even in a challenging sales environment. We continue to make progress on our three key priorities to improve performance at Nordstrom Rack, increase inventory productivity and optimize our supply chain capabilities. Our teams performed well, working to improve the customer experience while staying focused on these priorities.

Our top line results improved sequentially from the first quarter at both banners. At the Nordstrom banner, our teams did a good job curating the assortment for our Anniversary Sale, balancing relevance the things customers expect to find with inspiration, the new items they discover shopping online and in-store. Customers responded positively to newness and our Fall assortment during our successful Anniversary event particularly in stores.