Designer Brands Inc. (NYSE:DBI) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call September 11, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Doug Howe - Chief Executive Officer
Jared Poff - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Dustin Hauenstein - Senior Vice President, Finance

Conference Call Participants

Alex Faske - William Blair
Mauricio Serna - UBS
Dana Telsey - Telsey Advisory Group

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Designer Brands second quarter 2024 results conference call.

All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two.

Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Dustin Hauenstein, Senior Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

Dustin Hauenstein

Good morning. Earlier today, the company issued a press release comparing results of operations for the 13-week period ended August 3, 2024 to the 13-week period ended July 29, 2023.

Please note that the financial results that we will be referencing during the remainder of today’s call exclude certain adjustments recorded under GAAP unless specified otherwise. For a complete reconciliation of GAAP to adjusted earnings, please reference our press release.

Additionally, please note that remarks made about the future expectations, plans and prospects of the company constitute forward-looking statements. Results may differ materially due to various factors listed in today’s press release and the company’s public filings with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Joining us today are Doug Howe, Chief Executive Officer, and Jared Poff, Chief Financial Officer.

Now let me turn the call over to Doug.

Doug Howe

Thank you for joining us this morning. I’m pleased to report that during second quarter, we made continued progress on our plan to return Designer Brands to growth. As anticipated, we did see consistent improvement in our top line performance throughout the quarter and have now experienced three consecutive quarters of sequential comp improvement. However, with consumers being increasingly mindful of their discretionary spend, that improvement has been more muted than anticipated. In spite of this, as expected, our comps have now turned positive as we’ve moved into the back half of the year and reached our anticipated inflection point.