Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRN) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript August 27, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Nitza McKee - Senior Associate, ICR
Ken Seipel - Interim CEO
Heather Plutino - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Michael Baker - D.A. Davidson
John Lawrence - The Benchmark Company
Jeremy Hamblin - Craig-Hallum

Operator

Greetings. Welcome to Citi Trends' Second Quarter 2024 Earnings 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 Nitza McKee, Senior Associate at ICR. Thank you. You may begin.

Nitza McKee

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Citi Trends' second quarter 2024 earnings call. On our call today is Interim Chief Executive Officer, Ken Seipel, and Chief Financial Officer, Heather Plutino. Our earnings release was sent out this morning at 6.45 a.m. Eastern Time. If you have not received a copy of the release, it's available on the company's website under the Investor Relations section at www.cititrends.com.

You should be aware that prepared remarks today made during this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee future performance. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on these statements. We refer you to the company's most recent report on Form 10-K and other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more detailed discussion of the factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

I will now turn the call over to our Interim Chief Executive Officer, Ken Seipel. Ken?

Ken Seipel

Thank you, Nitza. Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q2 earnings call today. Since our first quarterly call, I've had the opportunity to evaluate our business and chart corrective measures to enhance the long-term sales and profitability of Citi Trends. Today, we'll discuss the strategic actions taken in Q2 to prepare Citi Trends for future growth and outline important work underway to improve our near-term and long-term results. And I must say, while there's a lot of work ahead still, I'm more energized and optimistic than ever about our company's future.

So turning to Q2, in Q2 we achieved growth in customer traffic versus last year, which indicates our core customer remains highly engaged with the Citi Trends brand and our unique store experience. Our home and impulse categories deliver double-digit comps, and our back-to-school children's categories got off to a good start. I'm pleased to report that we've experienced continued momentum in the important back-to-school period with positive single-digit comparable store sales growth in Q3 to date. Importantly, Citi Trends remains in a healthy financial position with strong liquidity and no debt, allowing us to execute the foundational work necessary for future growth and profit acceleration.