Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ)
Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call
September 8, 2022 5:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Rick Brooks - Chief Executive Officer
Chris Work - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Sharon Zackfia - William Blair
Jeff Van Sinderen - B. Riley
Mitch Kummetz - Seaport Research
Corey Tarlowe - Jefferies
Presentation
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zumiez Inc. Second Quarter Fiscal 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference.
Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone of the company’s safe harbor language. Today’s conference call includes comments concerning Zumiez Inc's business outlook and contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made on this call are not based on historical facts and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed is available in Zumiez’s filings with the SEC.
At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brooks, the conference is yours.
Rick Brooks
Hello, and thank you everyone for joining us on the call. With me today is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin today's call with a few remarks about the second quarter and back-to-school. Before handing the call over to Chris who will take you through our financial results and outlook in more detail. After that, we'll open the call to your questions.
Reflecting back on this time last year, the US portion of our business is benefiting from several very strong tailwinds. The US consumer was primed to spend with a wallet fortified by another round of government stimulus and further enabled by local economies more broadly reopening after many months of closure. Zumiez's fresh off a record first quarter in 2021 posted the best second quarter in the company's history as we captured our fair share of that outsized demand. Over the past 12 months, those tailwinds have dissipated, headwinds have materialized and then intensified, particularly in our U.S. business. On top of difficult sales comparison a year ago, the operating environment has become increasingly more challenging due to lingering supply chain disruptions, higher logistics costs, a tight labor market, negative foreign currency exchange impacts and most acutely high levels of inflation leading to intense competition for declining discretionary dollars. While each of these factors was incorporated into our outlook for this quarter and thoughts on the year, inflationary pressure on the consumer intensified as the quarter unfolded.