百思買 (BBY) 2014 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by.

Welcome to Best Buy's first-quarter fiscal 2014 earnings conference call.

All participants are in a listen-only mode.

Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session.

(Operator Instructions)

As a reminder this call is being recorded for playback, and will be available by 12 PM Eastern Time today.

(Operator Instructions)

The call will end at 8.50 AM Eastern Time.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Bill Seymour, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Good morning and thank you.

Joining me on the call today are Hubert Joly, our President and CEO, and Sharon McCollam, our CAO and CFO.

As usual, the media will be participating in this call in a listen-only mode.

This morning's conference call must be considered in conjunction with the press release that we issued earlier today.

They both contain non-GAAP financial measures that exclude the impact of certain business events.

These non-GAAP financial measures are provided to facilitate meaningful year-on-year comparison.

But should not be considered superior to, or as a substitute for, and should not be read in conjunction with, the GAAP financial measures for the period.

A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, and an explanation of why these non-GAAP financial measures are useful, is discussed in the supplemental schedules in this morning's earnings release.

Today's press release and conference call also include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These statements address the financial condition, results of operation, business initiatives, growth plans and prospects of the Company.

And are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements.

Please refer to the Company's current press release and SEC filings for more information on these risks and uncertainties.

The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this call.

As a reminder, the first quarter of fiscal 2014 was a 13-week quarter versus 14 weeks in fiscal year 2013.

The extra week in fiscal 2013 added approximately $735 million in revenue, including $660 million in domestic and $75 million in international, and $0.12 in diluted EPS.

It is also important to note that as a result of our previously announced definitive agreement to sell our 50% interest in Best Buy Europe, financial results for that business are now presented as discontinued operations in our financial statements.

To assist investors with the financial modeling of this presentation, we have provided recast financial statements by quarter for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 on our investor relations website.

I will now turn the call over to Hubert.

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining us.

I'd like to begin today with an overview of our first quarter results, as well as an update of our Renew Blue priorities.

Then I'll turn the call over to Sharon to provide further details.

But before I do that, I would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to our teams and all of the people in Oklahoma City who have been affected by the tremendous devastation from the tornadoes yesterday, to the terrible tragedy.

And heart felt sympathy and wishes are extended to all of them.

At this moment not all of our employees or employee families has been accounted for.

And we remain in close contact with our regional leadership to ensure we're doing all that we can to support them in the moment of their greatest need and in the days and months ahead.

In the first quarter, we continue to make substantial progress on our Renew Blue priorities.

This progress included, number one, driving a 16% increase in domestic comparable online sales.

Number two, improving our customer net promoter score by over 300 basis points.

Number three, reaching an agreement with Samsung to establish Samsung Experience Shops in our retail stores and beginning their rollouts.

Number four, negotiating overall rent reductions for a number of our stores, including one large-format store.

And number five, eliminating $175 million in annualized SG&A and supply chain cost in addition to the $150 million last quarter.

And we also entered into a definitive agreement to sell our 50% interest in our European joint venture, as announced last month.

In addition, we reached an agreement with our founder and now just shareholder, Dick Schulze, to rejoin Best Buy as our Chairman Emeritus.

Dick has been public in his support of Renew Blue.

And while he has decided not to rejoin our Board of Directors, we are thrilled and grateful to have his entrepreneurial mind set and his nearly five decades of experience available to us.

We've also added three new Board members, each strengthening the Board with their important contributions.

Russ Fradin, the President and CEO of SunGard, is the newest member of our Board.

Before taking the helm of SunGard, Russ was CEO of Aon Hewitt, and brings substantial experience in operations and executive compensation to the Board.

Also joining the Board are two individuals who know Best Buy well.

And together they bring decades of retail experience to Best Buy.

Brad Anderson and Al Lenzmeier, of course, were instrumental in growing Best Buy into the world's largest consumer electronics retailer.

And I speak for the entire Board when I welcome them back to Best Buy as Directors.

From a financial perspective during the quarter, while below last year, we delivered better than expected results on both the top and bottom lines.

On total Company revenue from continuing operations of $9.4 billion, which excludes Europe, we delivered non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.32.

Now that's important, to eliminate any confusion, revenues including Europe would have been $10.8 billion.

And diluted earnings per share would have been $0.36.

As expected, domestic comparable store sales were down 1.1%.

But this was driven by an 80 basis point impact from this year's Super Bowl shifting into last year's fourth quarter.

And a 30 basis points impact from our decision to reduce sales in certain non-core businesses.

Excluding these impacts, domestic comparable store sales were flat despite no new major product launches and late deliveries in the smartphone category.

Impactful traffic-generating and conversion initiatives that increase investment and price competitiveness drove the stronger than expected sales performance.

Overall performance for the quarter was driven by proactive solid execution.

And we continue to be encouraged by the intensity, collaboration, and momentum that our Renew Blue priorities are instilling into the organization.

To build on this momentum, we are remaining focused on the two problems we have to solve -- stabilizing and improving comparable store sales and profitability across all parts of our business.

To solve these problems we're continuing to focus on six Renew Blue priorities that we outlined for you last quarter.

Number one, accelerating online growth.

Number two, escalating the multi-channel customer experience.

Number three, increasing revenue and gross profit per square foot to enhance store space optimization and merchandising.

Number four, driving down cost of goods sold through supply chain efficiencies.

Number five, continuing to gradually optimize the US real estate portfolio.

And, number six, further reducing SG&A costs.

I'll now provide you with an update on each of these priorities.

To accelerate online growth, we are focusing on those initiatives that will drive increased traffic and conversion.

In Q1 these initiatives included, number one, deploying best-in-class search engine marketing tools, and correspondingly increasing our investment in pay search.

Number two, expanding affiliate marketing.

And, three, adding dynamic product recommendations from [channelity] to the check out process to bring customers back into the shopping path.

Collectively, these initiatives drove a 16% increase in domestic comparable online sales during the quarter.

In Q2 initiatives to optimize our natural search or SEO ranking are a top priority.

These initiatives include redesigning certain aspects of the website such as navigation, user interface and mobile and tablet experience, improving the quality structure and uniqueness of our content, and enhancing our keyword and tag optimization.

These SEO optimization initiatives are a top priority because 80% of all customers who are planning to buy a $100-plus hard-line product in a retail store are researching the product online before going to the store.

And using the first page of search results to decide where they're going to buy it.

That means that showrooming is not starting in our retail store, it is starting online.

And we are not showing up today on the first page our fair share of the time.

Also in Q2, to accelerate online growth, we are retiring our 10-year-old on-site search platform.

And replacing it with new industry-leading technology that will produce more relevant results based on a customer-specific search criteria.

We're creating a consistent customer experience across mobile, tablet and PC devices, including common navigation and product information.

We're implementing technology enhancements that will make it easier to add Geek Squad services to the shopping cart.

And we're adding functionality based on customer browsing behavior that will dynamically recommend products if no item has been added to the shopping cart.

Then as we enter Q3 and holiday, we will begin migrating Reward Zone customers to a seamless sign on.

We'll enhance the in-store pickup customer experience by creating an easier process for customers to add additional products and services to their basket when they arrive in the store.

And we'll add new marketplace partners to increase our online-only product assortment.

Now, while many of these online initiatives may sound like just basic functionality upgrades, they are actually game changing for an online retailer of our size, as we have historically under-invested in the online channel.

So, increasing our online investments and implementing these upgrades will significantly improve our online effectiveness.

And in some cases, like in the area of onsite search, take us to industry-leading levels.

A second Renew Blue priority for us this year is to escalate the multi-channel customer experience.

Late last year we introduced a new metric to track the customer experience known as Net Promoter Score, NPS.

We use NPS to measure not only the satisfaction of customers who buy, but also the customers who don't.

NPS here at Best Buy is tracked on a monthly basis for our individual stores, the online channel, and our service organization.

It is also a key component of all corporate incentive plans from the store manager to the CEO.

And since November, when we first began using NPS as a key performance indicator, we've increased our score by more than 300 basis points.

We've also increased year-over-year in-store and online conversion rates.

In addition to the rollout of NPS, we've also invested in two initiatives that we believe over time will have significant impact on our top and bottom lines in the customer experience.

The first is our new low price guaranteed initiative that was launched in March as a follow-up program to our fourth-quarter price match program.

Another related opportunity to improve our price competitiveness, while not in our control, is, of course, sales tax equality in the online channel.

By the end of the fiscal year, as most states implement their laws, Amazon.com will be collecting sales taxes in states that cover 50% of the US population.

And in states that are already collecting, we're seeing an incremental benefit in our online and retail store sales.

The second initiative there is our Buy Online, Ship From Store initiative.

This initiative is critical in resolving the number one customer pain point in our online channel, which is product not in stock.

Depending on the month, 2% to 4% of all of our online traffic does not buy because we do not have the inventory in our online distribution centers.

And we are telling them it is out of stock.

And yet, an estimated 80% of the time we actually have it in one or more of our retail stores.

So, as this initiative progresses, we expect to gradually see an increase in online conversion, online sales and customer satisfaction.

For most multi-channel retailers, Buy Online, Ship From Store is a complex IT and operational undertaking.

But we at Best Buy have actually already made the vast majority of the investments necessary to move this initiative forward over the next 6 to 12 months.

This quarter we began piloting this initiative in 50 of our retail stores.

And if the pilot is successful, we will extend it to as many stores as necessary to fulfill online demand.

And so Buy Online Ship From Store has other significant operational benefits as well.

It will allow us to improve our inventory management by helping us to more effectively manage new product inventory.

And more efficiently clear returned opened box and clearance inventory in our stores by being able to display the return product on the web.

But be able to ship it out of the store when it was returned.

The third Renew Blue priority is to increase revenue and gross profit per square foot to enhance store space optimization and merchandising.

As I said last quarter, our plan this year is to reduce space allocated to the negative growth and low margin CD and DVD categories.

And replace it with higher growth, higher margin categories like mobile, appliances and accessories, while deepening strategic partnerships with key vendors.

These changes are being made in two phases.

In phase one, which is complete, we've opened 525 Samsung Experience Shops in our large-format stores and 390 in our standalone mobile stores.

In phase two, which is expected to be completed by the end of this summer, we will open the remaining Samsung Experience Shops and complete the large-format store space allocation initiatives.

Both of these are expected to enhance our four-wall profitability and our in-store customer experience by increasing space in higher demand product categories, improving product adjacencies, and offering more in-depth product knowledge.

We are also taking a more holistic approach to managing clearance inventory by creating dedicated clearance zones in selected stores.

And enabling customers to buy in-store clearance items through the online channel regardless of where the inventory is located.

The fourth Renew Blue priority for this year is to drive down cost of goods sold through supply chain efficiencies.

Our first supply chain initiative is to optimize our retail store inventory replenishment model.

In the first quarter we have enhanced our algorithms to optimize our retail store delivery model for half of the US, which has resulted in the improved cubing of our trucks.

And a corresponding reduction in the number of loads and miles driven.

The remainder of the US will be addressed in the back half of the year.

Our second supply chain initiative is to continue to expand our online delivery capabilities as we continue to grow the online business.

To achieve this in time for holiday, we expect to extend our online fulfillment capabilities to our final three of eight distribution centers.

And then reallocate the inventory to the distribution center closest to the customer.

We are also rationalizing our population of supply chain vendors.

And working across the industry to further drive down costs and improve our overall distribution network management.

Another top supply chain priority is reverse logistics, which is actually one of the most financially punitive business processes in the Company.

Customer returns, replacement and damages are approximately 10% of our revenue.

And are costing the Company over $400 million a year in P&L losses.

To address these losses, as I mentioned earlier, we are creating clearance zones in our stores and implementing Buy Online Ship From Store capabilities for this merchandise.

We're also implementing in-store procedures to insure a greater level of diligence around the returns that are accepted from customers.

And a higher level of rigor around inventory that is then ultimately returned by the stores to our centralized return centers.

Our sense of urgency around this initiative is extraordinarily high due to the substantial financial opportunity it represents.

Based on the magnitude of this opportunity, and the others we've discussed, I think you can see now why we are so confident in our Renew Blue commitment to reduce cost of goods sold by $325 million.

To date we've delivered $30 million, and expect to deliver substantially more over the next several quarters.

As this is an area that affects virtually every operating area in the Company and carries significant contractual commitments, progress will be gradual and incremental but substantial.

Our fifth Renew Blue priority is to continue to gradually optimize our US real estate portfolio.

Occupancy cost reduction and retail capital allocation remains a key focus.

As such, during the quarter we renegotiated overall rent reductions for a number of our stores, and closed one large-format store.

As for new store openings, we're continuing to extend the time frame by which we are measuring the performance of new prototype stores.

This includes our Richfield prototype store and our Best Buy mobile standalone stores.

There are, however, a small number of select and opportunistic markets where we are moving forward with new store openings, including 10 new Best Buy mobile standalone stores that were open in Q1.

And two additional Best Buy mobile standalone stores that will be open later this year.

Our sixth Renew Blue priority is to further reduce SG&A cost.

As we laid out at our Analyst Day in November, we believe there is an opportunity to remove $400 million in SG&A from our North American business.

And we're making substantial progress.

In the first quarter, we eliminated $135 million in annualized SG&A costs, including $40 million in Canada.

That's in addition to the $150 million in annualized reductions we announced in March.

This brings us to $295 million.

And we will take out additional costs as the year progresses.

Moving to international.

Improving the performance of our international businesses is also one of the key priorities for us we announced last quarter.

And we're making progress there, too.

To this end, as I said earlier, we have agreed to sell our 50% interest in Best Buy Europe to Carphone Warehouse.

This transaction allows us to simplify our business, substantially improve our return on invested capital, which is one of the five pillars of our Renew Blue transformation, and, of course, strengthen our balance sheet.

We continue to expect that this transaction will close in June 2013.

Also in international we are rolling out our Renew Blue priorities this year.

To lead us in our international Renew Blue transformation we have recently hired new leaders in both Canada and China.

I will now turn the call over to Sharon to cover more details on our Q1 financial performance and our outlook for the year.

Sharon?

Thank you, Hubert.

And good morning, everyone.

While non-GAAP financial results to the quarter were above expectations, they were also below last year.

The highlights of the financial quarter were as follows.

Enterprise revenue, excluding the additional week last year, declined 2.6% to $9.38 billion.

And non-GAAP diluted earnings per share declined to $0.32.

These declines were primarily driven by a significantly greater investment in price competitiveness and the year-over-year impact of high velocity product launches that occurred in the first quarter of last year that did not recur this year.

These impacts were partially offset by the impact of Company-wide SG&A and cost containment initiatives.

Domestic revenue, excluding the additional week last year, declined 2.2% to $7.98 billion.

This decline was driven by the loss of revenue from 49 large-format stores that were closed last year.

And a comparable store sales decline of 1.1%, that Hubert described earlier.

Domestic comparable online sales increased 16.3%.

This increase was driven by higher traffic and higher conversion across all online platforms.

From a merchandising perspective, strong growth in mobile phones and appliances was more than offset by declines in home theatre and gaming.

International revenue, excluding the additional week last year, and our European discontinued operations, declined 5.1% to $1.4 billion.

This decline was primarily driven by the loss of revenue from 15 large-format stores that were closed last year in Canada, and a comparable store sales decline of 2.8%.

Comparable store sales were negatively impacted by ongoing competitive pressure in Canada, partially offset by effective promotions that drove positive comparable store sales in China.

Turning now to gross profit, the enterprise gross profit rate for the first quarter was 23.1% versus 24.9% last year, a decline of 180 basis points.

If you exclude the additional week last year, the enterprise gross profit also declined 180 basis points.

The domestic gross profit rate was 23.4% versus 25.3% last year, a decline of 190 basis points.

Excluding the additional week last year, the domestic gross profit rate additionally declined 190 basis points.

This decline was primarily driven by a greater investment in price competitiveness, including higher promotional activity in mobile and computing, higher inventory shrinkage, and increased product warranty-related costs.

These impacts were partially offset by proceeds from legal settlements.

The international gross profit rate was 21.3% versus 22.6% last year, 130 basis point decline.

Excluding the additional week last year, international gross profit also declined 130 basis points.

This decline was primarily driven by a higher mix of China revenue that carries a lower gross profit rate and a more promotional environment in China.

Now turning to SG&A.

Enterprise level non-GAAP SG&A was $1.98 billion, or 21.2% of revenue, versus 21% last year, an increase of 20 basis points.

Excluding the additional week last year, however, non-GAAP SG&A as a percentage of revenue declined 10 basis points.

Domestic non-GAAP SG&A was $1.64 billion or 20.6% of revenue, versus $1.8 billion or 20.4% of revenue last year, an increase of 20 basis points.

Excluding the additional week last year, domestic non-GAAP SG&A as a percentage of revenue declined 10 basis points again.

This 10 basis point decline was primarily driven by lower payroll and incentive compensation costs, and tighter expense management throughout the Company.

International non-GAAP SG&A expenses were $340 million or 24.3% of revenue, versus $381 million or 24.6% of revenue last year, a decline of 30 basis points.

Excluding the additional week last year, international non-GAAP SG&A expense as a percentage of revenue also declined 30 basis points.

This decline was primarily driven by SG&A leverage in China.

As we look forward to the second quarter, while not providing financial guidance, we believe that the ongoing investment in price competitiveness that contributed to our gross profit and EPS declines in the first quarter will continue into the second quarter.

Additionally, disruptions caused by the physical deployment of the Samsung Experience Shops, and the optimization of our retail floor space, are expected to have short-term operational impacts during the second quarter.

We also expect to see a greater negative impact from our Renew Blue capital and SG&A investments in the second quarter in the areas of online, mobile, the multi-channel customer experience, and the replatforming of BestBuy.com from which substantial financial benefits are not expected to be realized until fiscal '15 and beyond.

These Renew Blue SG&A investments, however, are expected to be substantially offset, particularly in the back half of the year by the fiscal 2014 realization of our Renew Blue annualized cost reduction initiatives.

Including the $175 million we eliminated this quarter, the $150 million we eliminated last quarter, and the additional reductions that we expect to announce over the balance of the year.

As we sit here today, we are encouraged by the progress we are making against our Renew Blue priorities, and excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for the balance of the year.

Our better-than-expected results in the first quarter, following our better-than-expected results from the fourth quarter are reaffirming what Hubert and I believe since the days we both joined the Company.

Best Buy is the market leader in a highly fragmented and growing market.

We have a powerful platform from which to deliver a superior multi-channel shopping and service experience for our customers.

While already the tenth largest eCommerce retailer in the US, we are underpenetrated from a market share perspective.

And early investment returns and the momentum we are seeing in the growth of the channel today validate the potential of this significant growth opportunity.

And the runway to improve financial returns through increased online growth, enhanced retail execution, and extensive structural cost is tremendous.

I'll now turn the call over to the Operator for Q&A.

(Operator Instructions)

David Schick with Stifel Nicolaus.

Hi, good morning, it's Schick.

Thank you.

I would ask about -- it seems like, obviously, the calendar, the product cycle as you mentioned, and your competitors are all talking about these headwinds in retail overall.

They've talked about a quarter with some awful sentiment early in the quarter and trends later.

Would you agree -- you've talked about some of the pressures on the business in the first quarter -- would you agree that the product cycle should start to help you more.

An update on how you're thinking about that as the year plays out, and broadly the consumer, as well?

Good morning, David.

Thank you for your question.

I would say a couple of things.

Yes, in Q1, the product cycle was a little bit lighter than last year, and the rest of the year is more exciting.

As a management team, though, we're less focused on headwinds and more focused on what we can control.

We continue to believe that our role in the market is large and growing.

And that we have ample opportunities to impact our destiny from that standpoint.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Peter Keith.

A little bit on the gross margin and the price competitiveness, and understand if anything changed from Q4 to Q1.

It looked like the gross margin pressure intensified a little bit.

Was there more pressure in Q1 from the price match?

Or would that price competitiveness -- you did call out mobile and computing, and last quarter you called out home theater -- could you just provide a little more detail on what's going on there and how we think about that trend going forward?

Thank you, Peter.

It's a good opportunity for us to clarify what's taking place.

What we have had, really starting in Q4, is greater investment on the part of the Company to strengthen its price competitiveness.

That's independent from the price match policy.

Meaning we've ensured that our prices are more competitive, and we've enhanced our price competitiveness in the marketplace.

The cost of the price matching is actually quite low for two reasons.

One, our prices are actually now quite competitive.

And, B, the frequency of the price matching is actually low.

What the price matching policy and tool has done, notably, is enhanced the confidence of our Blue Shirts as they work with the customers to understand their needs, and then close the sale.

We've eliminated any obstacle to this.

So the impact on the gross profit margin, to reiterate, is primarily coming from the greater investment, starting in Q4 of last year, into our price competitiveness.

Okay, very helpful.

Thank you very much.

David Strasser with Janney Capital Markets.

Thank you very much.

I wanted to change the topic a little bit and talk about Samsung.

It's in, I don't know how many stores, over 500, maybe not quite 1,000 yet.

When you look at that, has there been anything that really has jumped out at you to date, either positive or negative, about this strategy, and about having those stores in there?

And as you look at it, do you think there's opportunity for more, for other brands to do similar type things?

And the last one, which is maybe a little sensitive, as all part of this is, is you look at where it's been placed in the store front, it's front and center in the store, have you heard anything from other vendors as far as complaints that maybe Samsung is getting too much visibility inside the store being placed so well and so prominently in the store?

Thank you.

Good morning, David.

Thank you for your question.

I think one of the things that struck me the most over the last several months is the feedback from many of our vendors about how valuable distribution capability is.

Of course, in the stores as well as online.

In many ways, making our real estate, in their eyes, an asset rather than a liability, quite frankly.

So, specifically as it relates to Samsung, what's really positive is the customer experience.

These vendors invest billions of dollars in R&D to develop these great products.

And showcasing the experience, the functionalities and the experience, of the individual products, as well as across products, is very challenging if you don't have the space and the available advice.

And Best Buy is very unique in providing the opportunity to do just that.

So the customer experience is just terrific.

The feedback we're getting from customers is very positive.

Including in that growth -- relates to your second and third question -- because customers can now look at the Samsung set of products and customer experiences, as well as other competing universes and ecosystem, as some people call these things.

So this is a very positive thing.

If anything, the announcement of Samsung, the deployment of Samsung, has triggered more conversations with other vendors who are agreeing that this is a very positive.

And the more traffic is attracted to our stores, the better this is for everybody.

So will there be more?

There's nothing to talk about today, but we are interested doing more.

And we see it as win-win-win.

It's winning for the customers, it's winning for the vendors, and it's winning for Best Buy.

So this is exciting.

Thank you very much.

Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer.

Hi, good morning.

My question is on recent sales trends.

A competitor of yours last night, a smaller regional competitor, when they reported their quarterly results, talked very clearly about a pick-up in sales trends really throughout this year and, in particular, in the recent month or so.

They didn't specify specifically between consumer electronics and appliances.

But is Best Buy seeing that in your business, as well?

Brian, if your question is are we seeing an acceleration of trends from a market standpoint, I personally find that month to month it's a bit hard to track because there's so much noise in the system related to new product introductions.

The governing thought we have, Brian, is that we see the market as being a large-growing market, in that, if anything, the next few months and quarters we'll see a number of exciting new product introductions that will help the market.

This is one of the extraordinary things about this industry, is that new products keep coming up.

And, of course, we don't do so well in VCRs anymore so you have to be focused on the new categories.

But, so yes, we see a positive environment.

A very competitive environment, as well.

We don't want to give the impression of a rosy picture, but one where we have very fair opportunity to compete and drive -- first stabilize, and then begin increasing comps and our profitability, which has been our theme since November.

Thank you.

Brad Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Thanks, good morning.

Wanted to ask about the opportunity to improve cost of goods sold.

You guys have been very clear about the savings that you've realized on the SG&A side of things.

You've also mentioned, I believe it was $30 million that you'd seen already on the cost of goods sold side.

Could you just help quantify for us maybe what that run rate is today, and the timing with which you could start to see more benefits on that side of the equation?

Sharon, would you like to take that?

Absolutely.

Yes, Brad, I'd be happy to.

The cost of goods opportunity is actually one of the most compelling cost reduction opportunities that we have in the Company right now.

And in Hubert's prepared remarks he talked about the biggest of those opportunities, which is this returns, replacements and damages.

Today, the reverse logistics process in the Company is resulting in a business model that is losing well over $400 million a year on a revenue base -- reverse logistics revenue base, returns from customers -- of over $3.5 billion.

Best Buy has focused on a lot of things over the years.

This particular area is one where it has received virtually no focused attention.

As the Company had been growing and growing, the reverse logistics side of it are not, obviously, the primary focus.

But today it is our number one priority to address this.

So, when we look at that, we quantified that for you.

Clearly you've got to get your arms around what portion of those losses you can effectively go after.

But it is clearly a substantial opportunity.

And Hubert even went on to point out that, because of the magnitude of this challenge, the confidence that we have in achieving that is extraordinarily high.

The other place in the supply chain that we have significant opportunity is in the optimization of our shipping lanes.

We again have opportunity through systems enhancements and other areas to be able to further cube out our retail replenishment model, which is a substantial cost when you think about our cube.

Another area that we are aggressively going after is the vendor selection, vendor management aspect of supply chain.

And that is an area, again, where there has been less focus than some of the areas in the Company.

So collectively, when you look at that and you think about what we ship here, between the flash drives and the flat screens, it is a very large cubic endeavor.

So, going forward, now let's talk about how you get there.

And I think in your question that you're looking at the SG&A and saying we've taken out substantially more SG&A than we have cost of goods.

When you're talking about the supply chain, what you need to be thinking about is a gradual and incremental ongoing improvement in the process.

Remember, the supply chain touches every operational activity that we have in the Company.

And a lot of that business is contractually committed at any point in time.

So, in order to make progress on that, you have to work through those contractual obligations.

So, what you need to expect from us every single quarter is, just as we've said with SG&A, is a consistent and gradual recovery of this tremendous amount of cost.

But there is nothing structural in the Company right now that would indicate anything other than this is all about execution and going to get it.

That's very helpful.

Thank you Sharon, thank you, Hubert.

Alan Rifkin with Barclays.

Thank you very much.

My question will focus on the SG&A side of the cost reduction efforts.

In only six months you have very admirably realized about 75% of the targeted SG&A reductions.

I was wondering if the opportunity exists for those reductions to actually be over and above the $400 million.

And then the second question, if I may, is, with the disposition of Europe -- and it seems like for now you're certainly committed to China -- I know up to now you've been reluctant to talk about the cost reduction opportunities on the international front.

But Hubert or Sharon, can you maybe just address what you think those opportunities could be?

Yes, Alan, thank you for your very kind comments.

I will ask Sharon who, of course, is leading our work on SG&A, to answer your question.

Alan, our $400 million target I believe is one that, just like I just explained on the cost of goods side, is evident and extremely achievable.

As Hubert and I learn more and more about the organization -- and, quite frankly, what I would tell you is when you look at the results, even of the first quarter, this has become an organizational mission on SG&A.

The results that we delivered this quarter were the collective effort of this entire organization.

And the leaders in Best Buy have embraced these initiatives at a level that you could only hope you could accomplish in such a short period of time.

So, while I am extraordinarily encouraged about the potential, today when I get to $400 million I'll start talking to you about bigger numbers.

But what I can tell you is that we see nothing that says you don't put that $400 million in the bank -- over time.

Okay, thank you, Sharon.

And on the international cost reduction opportunity?

On the international side I would say that we are in early innings.

Hubert mentioned in his prepared remarks that Canada did take out $40 million of SG&A in the first quarter.

But, as we've discussed in previous calls, and continue to discuss, we have only just begun to instill our Renew Blue priorities in our Canadian and China businesses.

So I believe that that opportunity continues to be significant, as well.

And as we get more deeply into it, of course we'll continue to communicate on our progress there.

We have two extraordinarily wonderful new leaders, one in Canada and one in China.

And they have come in blazing.

And I think that they are going to lay the foundation for very similar progress against Renew Blue that we are seeing here in the US.

Okay, thank you very much.

Anthony Chukumba with BB&T Capital Markets.

Good morning.

Just had a quick question.

I just wanted to circle back to the price investments.

Would you say that those are largely behind the Company?

Or should we expect some additional level of price investments going forward?

Thanks.

Anthony, thank you so much for your question and your continued support.

Your question is do we plan to expand the investments.

Certainly I would say we plan to maintain the investments.

We feel that being competitive, price competitive, is of the utmost importance at this particular time.

It's possible that we will selectively increase the investments as we look ahead.

And, of course, it's going to be a balancing act between these price investments and then the capture of the cost of goods sold, cost reduction opportunities that Sharon highlighted.

So, I'm not giving you very specific guidance but rather a general sense of direction of the importance we place on these investments.

And also the fiscal responsibility we feel to, over time, balance this.

So I think as we look ahead in the next quarters, we'll continue to update you, of course, on this, but count on us to be in there fighting to attract and keep customers.

And I'll just add to that, Anthony, that the one area that will add to the margin impact of the investment that we're making in price will be the optimization of our footprint in our retail stores.

And focusing on balancing that mix along with all the other initiatives that Hubert is talking about.

By the end of the summer we're going to be complete with our first phase of the floor space optimization.

And, of course, once we've made those changes we will be tweaking that going forward.

And we think that that is a very important opportunity for us as we focus on the balance that Hubert mentioned between the investment in price and the optimization of our margin while having to invest in price.

So altogether, as we wrap this conference call, first of all, I want to thank you for your attention and your support.

I want to convey the fact that these continue to be very exciting times for Best Buy.

I feel very encouraged by the actions we've been taking in this quarter, the opportunities we have that I think we tried to detail on the call today as we look ahead, and the early results in our efforts to stabilize and begin improving the performance of the business.

So, as I said, these are very intensive and exciting times for us.

And we look forward to continued dialogue.

So, Bill, over back to you.

That's the end of the call, Operator.

Thank you.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

This concludes the first-quarter Best Buy earnings conference call.

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