Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA) Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call March 13, 2024 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Mark Dely - Chief Administrative Officer

Jacqueline Ardrey - President and Chief Executive Officer

Michael Schwindle - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Joe Gomes - Noble Capital Markets

Eric Beder - SCC Research

Operator

Greetings. Welcome to Vera Bradley's Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2024 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] Please note this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference over to Mark Dely, Chief Administrative Officer. Thank you, you may begin.

Mark Dely

Good morning and welcome everyone. We'd like to thank you for joining us for today's call. Some of the statements made during our prepared remarks and in response to your questions may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to and within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that we expect.

Please refer to today's press release and the Company's most recent Form 10-K filed with the SEC for a discussion of known risks and uncertainties. Investors should not assume that the statements made during the call will remain operative at a later time. We undertake no obligation to update any information discussed on today's call.

I will now turn over the call over to Vera Bradley's CEO, Jackie Ardrey. Jackie?

Jacqueline Ardrey

Thank you, Mark. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on today's call. I want to start with some comments on the quarter. We're pleased with the completion of the first full year of our turnaround story. We've successfully pivoted the organization towards a bright future and effectively managed both the existing business as well as the turnaround efforts through Project Restoration, which will begin to bear fruit in the coming year.

Our teams continued to carefully manage both gross margin and expenses in the fourth quarter consistent with efforts earlier in the year. We've improved discipline around gross margin management and cost control, a part of our go-forward DNA. In addition to this discipline, our strategic efforts are focused on stabilizing and growing our sales base.

Our recent sales results demonstrate the need for change in our branding, product assortments and store environments, the exact areas that Project Restoration is addressing to position Vera Bradley Inc. for long-term profitable growth. After a year of foundational work, we're very excited about the customer facing changes through Project Restoration that we will unveil this year.