Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Q2 2024 Results Conference Call August 23, 2023 4:45 PM ET

Company Participants

Fabrice Benarouche - VP, Finance and IR

Carlos Alberini - CEO

Markus Neubrand - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Corey Tarlowe - Jefferies

Dana Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group

Mauricio Serna - UBS

Eric Beder - Small Cap Consumer Research

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Guess' Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call.

I would like to turn the call over to Fabrice Benarouche, Senior Vice President of Finance, Investor Relations and Chief Accounting Officer.

Fabrice Benarouche

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On the call today with me are Carlos Alberini, Chief Executive Officer; and Markus Neubrand, Chief Financial Officer.

During today's call, the Company will be making forward-looking statements including comments regarding future plans, strategic initiatives, capital allocation and short- and long-term outlooks. The Company's actual results may differ materially from current expectations based on risk factors included in today's press release and the Company's quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC. Comments will also reference certain non-GAAP or adjusted measures. GAAP reconciliations and descriptions of these measures can be found in today's earnings release.

Now I will turn it over to Carlos.

Carlos Alberini

Thank you, Fabrice. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are extremely pleased to report our second quarter results with sales exceeding our growth expectations and the team delivering a significant beat in operating earnings and earnings per share. We achieved an almost 10% operating margin for the period ahead of both our guidance and last year's results. All of our segments performed at or beyond what we had expected with solid revenue performance, strong gross margin results and effective cost management.

During the quarter, we saw strong momentum with our global brands and managed the business well as we continue to leverage the power of our highly diversified business model. Our teams across the world continue to control the controllable and adapt well to the changing consumer environment across geographies. Paul and I are very pleased with our performance. I want to thank our teams for their commitment and hard work. We greatly value your strong contributions.

Our company's revenues for the second quarter grew by 3% and adjusted earnings from operations reached $65 million, 17% ahead of last year. In Europe, we achieved a 9% increase in revenues higher than expected. This was partially driven by earlier than anticipated shipments to wholesale accounts that welcome our product to support good sales momentum in their businesses.