Polo http://www.aragi.it/ralph-lauren-donne.html ralph lauren corporation f1q10 qtr end 06 http://www.aragi.it/ Good morning and thank you for calling the polo ralph lauren's first quarter fiscal 2010 earnings conference call. (Instructions)Now for opening remarks and introductions, i will turn the call over to mr.James hurley.Please go ahead sir.Good morning and thank you for joining us on polo ralph lauren's first quarter fiscal 2010 conference call.The agenda for the call today includes roger farah, our president and chief operating officer, who will give you an overview of the quarter and comment on broader strategic initiatives, and then tracey travis, our chief financial officer, will provide operational and financial highlights from the first quarter in addition to reviewing our expectations for the remainder of fiscal 2010.After that we will open the call up for your questions which we ask that you limit to one per caller.As you know we'll be making some forward looking statements today, including our financial outlook.The principal risks that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations are detailed in our sec filings.And now i'd like to turn the call over to roger.Thank you james and good morning everyone.Today we reported first quarter results that i believe demonstrate the focus and responsiveness of our organization to very challenging global consumer spending trends.Our first quarter revenues declined 8% and our earnings per diluted share were 18% below prior year period when we reported record first quarter results.I believe however the quality of our results tell a different story.As many of you know we have prepared for weaker consumer demand trends for some time.Nearly two years ago we took proactive measures to reduce shipments across our various channels of distribution.So even though our shipment volumes are down, our sell throughs and margin trends are stronger and we continue to gain market share at our leading wholesale accounts around the world.Our commitment to product development and the clarity of our merchandising initiatives which focus on targeted assortments that offer outstanding enduring value in unique channels of distribution have also been important contributors to our market share gains.The improvements in our first quarter gross profit margins speak not only to our improved sell throughs but also to the progress we've made to diversify our product distribution mix and to develop our international presence.These efforts have been supported further by our sophisticated supply chain and sourcing organizations where we are leveraging our global scale and becoming more nimble in responding to near term consumer demand trends.Our operating expenses for the quarter were better than expected even as we maintained our investment spending.We executed against decisions to align our expenses with more challenging sales trends and we are using those savings to fund other high growth, high margin opportunities.This delicate balance between near term market realities and our commitment to our long term growth objectives is a defining characteristic of our http://www.aragi.it/ralph-lauren-hackett/hackett-mens-long-sleeve-polo.html organization and is even more critical in such unsettling market conditions.And once again we improved our already impressive financial condition ending the first quarter with an excellent balance sheet characterized by more than $1 billion in cash while we continued to invest for the future.The pace and sequencing of our strategic growth initiatives, one, those being international development, two, our direct to consumer expansion, and three, the development of new products has been a key component to the consistency of our historic sales and earnings performance resulting in a more than doubling of our net income and a nearly quadrupling of our operating cash flows over the last five years.It has also helped offset some of the impact of lower domestic demand trends we have experienced over the last year.And we continue to have a compelling long term growth trajectory ahead of us.This is not meant to minimize the progress we've made on our past efforts such as assuming control of and growing our childrenswear and lauren products or the developing of europe into a $1 billion plus market.We still see considerable opportunities for childrenswear and lauren particularly internationally and europe still has enormous development opportunities in front of it.For our current and future efforts we are concentrating on accessories in the asia pacific regions representing categories and geographies where we believe we are significantly under penetrated.We are fortunate to have strong leadership in place to capitalize on these opportunities.In japan we're making progress immersing our retail partners in the world of ralph lauren.In the context of weak market trends, japanese retailers are responding favorably to the authenticity http://www.aragi.it/ralph-lauren-donne/giacche-ralph-lauren.html of our brand and our products and our unique ability to engage customers by [tiering] merchandise from the aspirational to the heights of luxury.Our efforts are greatly facilitated by the fact that we now have all core power categories managed by our japanese leadership team.We continue to invest in new technology and global processes to aid the development of this critical market which we will complete the integration of three standalone businesses into one by the end of the year.And we are actively preparing for the transition of our wholesale and retail distribution in southeast asia.We have drawn from our global talent pool and company wide best practices to build teams, systems and processes that not only prepare us to assume direct management of this region on january 1, 2010, but will also support our future expansion efforts.By the end of fiscal 2010 we expect to have more than 200 locally based employees building our corporate and operational infrastructure and more than 500 store line employees.This is in addition to our 500 person manufacturing group based in southeast asia.So we will have a significant presence and talent pool that is critical for this region.As we highlighted last quarter we've developed a compelling long term growth strategy for southeast asia and china in particular.I am sure you have seen the recent news flow from many luxury retailers regarding the exceptional growth that they are experiencing in china.Many of these brands are far more developed in this region than we are at this time, so we are clearly very excited about the significant opportunity that is available to us.Speaking about our international development we recently welcomed hubert joly, president and ceo of the carlton companies to our board of directors.We believe mr.Joly's vast experience in hospitality and customer service on a global scale will provide us with youthful perspective as we continue to strengthen and expand our business around the world.Regarding our direct to consumer efforts we continue to focus on leading domestic and international markets, both with our directly operated stores and for our various licensed locations.As you saw in today's release same store sales trends for our retail segment remained soft although the size of the comp store decline improved from last quarter.The weakness is concentrated in the united states.Our international retail comps are positive in constant currency.Our retail segment is up against several years of consistently strong comp growth, a challenge in and of itself, and one that is one that is obviously intensified by the current economic conditions that have had a negative impact on consumer traffic, conversion, and average transaction size.In addition to strong international performance the improvement in retail profitability during the first quarter demonstrates the effectiveness of our efforts to respond to the rapidly evolving external dynamics.We are managing our expenses to be in line with lower sales and the fourth quarter restructuring efforts have helped to bolster our profits.

Related Articles:

Linked Articles

http://www.facecool.com/profiles/blogs/ralph-lauren-donne-polo-ralph-lauren

http://jianyand.allmyblog.com/2-christian-louboutin-shoes-own-any-shoe-that-may-have-been-found-in.html

http://jianyand.livesexbook.com/23794057/louboutin-uk-gold-standard-vo-and-dem-neu-produce-.html