Genesco Inc (GCO) 2008 Q3 法說會逐字稿

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  • Operator

  • Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Genesco third-quarter fiscal year 2008 earnings release conference call.

  • Just a reminder, today's call is being recorded.

  • At this time for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Mr.

  • Hal Pennington, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Genesco.

  • Please go ahead, sir.

  • Hal Pennington - Chairman, CEO

  • Good morning and thank you for joining us for our third-quarter fiscal 2008 conference call.

  • Participating with me on the call today are Bob Dennis, our President and Chief Operating Officer, and Jim Gulmi, our Chief Financial Officer.

  • As always, we will make some forward-looking statements in this call.

  • They reflect our expectations as of today, but actual results could be materially different.

  • We refer you to our earnings release and to our recent SEC filings, including the 10-K for the fiscal year 2007 and the second-quarter 10-Q, for some of the factors that could cause differences from our expectations.

  • For those listening to the replay of this call on the Internet, some of these factors can be read on the opening screen.

  • I want to remind you that my remarks today will focus on the business.

  • They will not address our pending merger or the litigation connected with it.

  • For the third quarter, we reported a net sales increase 17.3% to $372 million.

  • Earnings before interest, taxes, merger-related cost, and store closing costs were $20 million compared with $30.5 million last year, or a decrease of 34%.

  • Earnings per share were $0.23, which includes an estimated $0.16 in cost primarily related to the merger.

  • Jim will have more to say about the numbers in his portion of the call.

  • Journeys, as well as Hat World and Underground Station, showed the effects of a difficult retail climate in the quarter.

  • By contrast, both Johnston & Murphy and Dockers Footwear produced another set of strong quarterly results.

  • Now let's talk about each business in more detail.

  • Comps for the Journeys Group were negative 3% for the quarter, and comps in the Journeys stores were down 3.4% compared to a 9% increase last year.

  • This was an improvement over our second-quarter performance, but below our earlier expectation of low single digit positive comps in the quarter.

  • While we saw a shift in back-to-school and sales tax holiday sales out of the second quarter and into the early part of the third quarter, as we thought we would, this was more than offset by general weakness at retail -- in particular, in the footwear market -- and by problems with one particular brand, namely Heelys.

  • We believe that there were several factors that affected Journeys Group's business.

  • First, tough economic conditions have had a negative impact on demand in the mall.

  • As you know, factors including disruptions in the housing market and the high fuel prices are having an impact on consumer confidence, according to recently reported numbers.

  • Second, additional weakness specific to footwear magnified the effects of general economic conditions.

  • Throughout the spring and summer season, the industry suffered from the absence a fresh compelling product trend in the market.

  • There were simply no new must-have products to draw customers to the stores.

  • In addition, an unusually warm fall in much of the country kept focus on sandals and other opened-up footwear, and delayed the consumer's appetite for higher priced fall product.

  • Finally, Heelys, which performed strongly for us last year, were a significant problem in the third quarter of this year due largely to overdistribution relative to demand.

  • First, they hurt comp sales, which we believe would have been slightly positive without them.

  • In fact, our sales of Heelys were off $4.7 million for the quarter year-over-year, despite a higher inventory position.

  • Second, they hurt gross margins, as we took permanent markdowns on most Heely SKUs, offsetting gross margin gains in non-Heelys inventory.

  • Heelys hurt initial margin by $2.4 million and added $2.7 million of markdowns in the quarter this year.

  • To provide some sense of the magnitude of this change, our average sales price for Heelys dropped from about $72 in Q2 to about $62 in Q3.

  • The effect of Heelys on this quarter was as dramatic as it was because of the strong positive contribution of the brand to our results last year.

  • While we will continue to comp against this strong performance in the first half of next year, our merchants reacted quickly and adjusted the Heelys order flow in the back half of this year.

  • As a result, we expect Heelys inventories to be in line by the end of this year.

  • Even in a quarter with weaker top-line performance than we expected, there were signs of the long-term strength of the Journeys business.

  • For example, even though our gross margin percentage was hurt by Heelys underperformance, the Journeys Group's gross margins were still up from last year, further illustrating the power of the Journeys concept even in a tough environment.

  • Furthermore, the trend in average selling price improved.

  • For the Journeys stores, footwear comp ASPs were down only 1.2% compared with a 5.3% drop in the second quarter.

  • This improving trend in ASPs has continued into the fourth quarter so far.

  • Unit comps were down 4.6% in the quarter compared to a 3.6% decline in the previous quarter.

  • Now, a return to the unit comp increases we are used to having, coupled with continuation of this improvement in ASPs, would obviously be very positive for operating results.

  • Women's casual shoes performed well in the quarter.

  • On the men's side, we continued to do well with the skate brands.

  • Sandals performed well for Journeys, and sandal ASPs were up.

  • Our mix of business changed somewhat, with accessories rising to 12% of sales this year from 9% last year.

  • Men's footwear made up about 42% of sales for the quarter, and women's was about 41%.

  • During the first nine months of the year, we have opened a total of 36 new Journeys stores and ended the quarter with 802 stores.

  • Looking ahead, there is still a lack of visibility about how the consumer is going to respond to general economic conditions in the current quarter.

  • We have heard, as you have, a range of feedback on the beginning of the holiday selling season; and we frankly started slower than we had hoped over the weekend.

  • But we like Journeys' product selection for the holiday season, which we would remind you for Journeys includes significant gift card redemption in January.

  • We feel sure that we will get our share of the dollars the consumer decides to spend on footwear.

  • Turning briefly to Shi by Journeys, while we continue to adjust to the seasonality, the category mix, and the pricing requirements of this business, we were pleased with the strong customer response and attractive gross margins in these stores.

  • Early reads on holiday product are good, and we are confident about the prospects for this business.

  • During the first nine months of the year, we have opened 28 Shi stores and ended the quarter with 40 Shi stores.

  • Our Journeys Kidz business had a strong comp increase of 7% in the quarter, compared to a 9% increase last year, and improved gross margin.

  • Several important brands contributed to these good results, enabling us to more than overcome the effects of the Heelys decline in the Kidz stores.

  • For the first nine months of the year, we have opened 30 stores compared with 18 last year and ended the quarter with 103 Journeys Kidz stores.

  • Turning now to Hat World, we had a 2% increase in comps for the quarter compared to a 1% decline last year.

  • This reflected improvement in both urban and regular doors.

  • While comps in our urban stores were still negative, this was their second consecutive quarterly improvement after a stretch of very difficult quarters in that market.

  • From a product standpoint, Major League Baseball remains our largest category.

  • Core MLB product continues to be strong.

  • On the fashion MLB side, we believe we have been successful in an effort to better match our inventory levels to the rate of sales, although we gave up some gross margin to achieve this during the quarter.

  • The branded action -- the branded category was also strong once again, driven by branded action product.

  • The NCAA category was challenging in the third quarter.

  • Some of our historically strongest college teams have had a difficult football season, especially teams like Notre Dame, Texas, and Michigan.

  • As you know, that impacts our business.

  • The NFL category was a little soft in the third quarter despite the fact that teams with strong fan bases, such as the Steelers, Packers, and Cowboys, have started the year strong.

  • The warm weather throughout the quarter reduced sales of knit hats across all product categories.

  • During the first nine months of the year, we opened a total of 82 new stores and ended the quarter with 856 stores in the Hat World Group.

  • Turning to the Underground Station Group, comps declined 19% during the third quarter for the Group, which was below our earlier expectations, compared to an 11% decline last year.

  • As we expected, this business was still affected by the difficult Nike comparison early in the quarter and by the fact that the new merchandising strategy was phasing in during the quarter.

  • Last year, Nike contributed approximately 16% of sales in the second quarter; approximately 17% of sales in the third quarter; and only 4% of sales in the fourth quarter.

  • Gross margin improved for the quarter in a nice reversal from the second quarter.

  • ASPs continued to be under pressure as a result of the loss of Nike price points and of general product mix.

  • Women's footwear made up about 30% of Underground Station's footwear sales in the third quarter this year compared with 24% last year.

  • On average, the women's footwear price points are lower, which impacts ASPs.

  • We ended the quarter with 215 stores in the Underground Station Group, and our previously-announced program to close underperforming stores is proceeding well.

  • We are encouraged by some of the early reads we are seeing from holiday products in our stores, but the urban segment is still difficult.

  • We need to work our way through the quarter to get a better sense of how well the new product selection is performing.

  • The fourth quarter is the first quarterly comparison this year that will not be significantly skewed by Nike sales.

  • Additionally, overall fourth-quarter comparisons become easier, as fourth-quarter comps were down 15% last year.

  • Now for Johnston & Murphy.

  • Johnston & Murphy had another strong quarter, showing improvement in sales, gross margin, and operating income.

  • The new initiatives launched to extend the Johnston & Murphy brand into other non-footwear categories are continuing to pay off.

  • Operating earnings were up 37% on a 4% increase in sales.

  • Year-to-date, sales were up 6%, and operating earnings are up 47%.

  • Same-store sales increased approximately 3% in the Johnston & Murphy Shops during the third quarter, on top of an increase of approximately 7% last year.

  • Footwear comp ASPs for the Johnston & Murphy Shops were up 5.2%, with [pairs] down 4.5%.

  • All three footwear categories -- dress, casual, and dress casual -- experienced an increase in total ASPs, along with fewer markdowns, which helped drive the improved gross margins.

  • Accessories sales continued to increase and accounted for 33% of sales compared to 31% last year.

  • For the first nine months of the year, we have opened 10 stores, seven Johnston & Murphy Shops, and three Johnston & Murphy Factory Stores.

  • We ended the quarter with 156 stores.

  • We continue to be very excited with the opportunity to grow the Johnston & Murphy brand.

  • Now turning to Licensed Brands, where sales increased 26% and operating income increased 73% in the quarter.

  • The increase has reflected another great quarter for the Dockers Footwear business, which grew sales 9%.

  • They also reflected incremental sales from the initial rollout of a new line of Chaps footwear that we are sourcing exclusively for Kohl's under a license agreement with Polo Ralph Lauren.

  • The moderate men's market that Dockers targets has had some of the same challenges as other segments of the footwear market.

  • Even a very challenging retail environment, our target consumers are continuing to respond very positively to the product styling, comfort, and value found in Dockers Footwear.

  • Our retail customers are very happy with the performance, and we believe we are poised for continued success.

  • Now, I will ask Jim to take you through the financials for the quarter.

  • Jim Gulmi - SVP Finance, CFO

  • Thank you, Hal.

  • I will now run through the P&L for the quarter starting at the top.

  • Third-quarter sales increased 2% to $372 million compared to $364 million last year.

  • Comp store sales decreased minus-3% in total.

  • Journeys Group sales decreased 1% to $183 million and comps were down 3%.

  • Hat World Group sales rose 13% to $88 million and comps increased 2%.

  • The Underground Station Group's sales were down 23% to $27 million with comps down 19%.

  • Johnston & Murphy Group's sales increased 4% to $46 million.

  • The Johnston & Murphy retail Shops had a 3% comp increase; and Johnston & Murphy wholesale sales are roughly equal to last year as higher levels of regular-price shipments this year offset higher closeout sales last year.

  • Licensed Brand sales increased 26% to $29 million on top of a 31% increase last year.

  • Dockers' increase was 9%, while the remaining increase was due to the introduction of the new Chaps product line we are sourcing for Kohl's as Hal mentioned.

  • Now turning to gross margin.

  • Total gross margin for Genesco increased to 50.5% from 49.8% last year.

  • This improvement was good to see, especially after gross margin was down 50 basis points in quarter 2 compared to last year.

  • Gross margin rates increased across all the footwear businesses during the quarter.

  • Journeys Group gross margin increased 30 basis points despite the previously-discussed weakness with Heelys.

  • Underground Station Group gross margin increased 150 basis points in the quarter.

  • Hat World's gross margin declined 130 basis points due to shift in the sales mix as well as more targeted markdowns and promotional activity to clear slow-moving inventory.

  • Johnston & Murphy's Group gross margin was once again up strongly, increasing by 390 basis points.

  • This was driven by continued sourcing improvement and lower markdowns across all segments of this business.

  • Licensed Brands also posted a strong improvement in gross margin of 250 basis points, partially due to the new product line Hal mentioned earlier.

  • Now turning to SG&A.

  • Total SG&A as a percentage of sales increase to 46.8% during the quarter compared to 41.4% last year.

  • Included in this expense percentage is about $6.1 million or 165 basis points of costs associated with The Finish Line merger.

  • Expense dollars excluding merger costs were lower than our earlier internal forecasts.

  • Much of the remaining increase in SG&A as a percentage of sales reflects our lower-than-expected sales; the relatively fixed nature of SG&A expenses in our retail businesses; and new and expanded store growth.

  • Journeys' overall dollar expenses were up slightly from our earlier expectations.

  • Compared to last year we were unable to leverage expenses due in part to the negative comps and new and expanded store growth.

  • Expenses in the Hat World and Underground Station were down compared to our earlier expectations.

  • But we were not able to leverage in either business due in part to the comps and, in the case of Hat World, to new store openings.

  • The Johnston & Murphy Group SG&A as a percent of sales was up primarily due to additional advertising expenses.

  • Licensed Brands was able to leverage SG&A due to the strong sales growth and introduction of the new product line with little in added expenses.

  • Operating income was 3.7% compared to 8.1% last year.

  • Included here are $6.2 million of merger-related charges and impairment charges that negatively impacted operating margin by 166 basis points.

  • Last year, impairment charges of $1.1 million impacted margin by 30 basis points.

  • Overall operating margin declined due to lower operating margins in Journeys, Hat World, and Underground Station, partially offset by higher operating margins at Johnston & Murphy and Licensed Brands.

  • In addition, corporate expenses excluding litigation and merger-related expenses, were down as a percentage of sales.

  • Journeys' operating margin was 8.4%.

  • Hat World's operating margin was 5.3%.

  • Underground Station's operating margin was minus-11%, which was an improvement over the second quarter's operating margin.

  • Johnston & Murphy's operating margin was up nicely once again to 9.4% from 7.2% due to increased sales and better gross margin.

  • Licensed Brands' operating margin also increased once again to a strong 14% from 10.2% due to gross margin expansion and solid expense leverage influenced by the introduction of the new product line.

  • Net interest expense during the quarter was $3.5 million compared with $2.9 million last year.

  • This increase was due in part to increased borrowings for the acquisition of Hat Shack late last year and borrowings necessary to support seasonal working capital requirements.

  • Earnings before discontinued operations of $5.6 million or $0.23 per diluted share compared with $0.62 last year.

  • Included in this year's earnings are merger and impairment charges of $6.2 million pretax, and a higher tax rate due primarily to the non tax-deductibility of merger-related fees.

  • As Hal noted, we estimate that those items negatively impact EPS by about $0.16.

  • Last year, EPS for the quarter included impairment charges of about $0.02 per share.

  • As you know, we have announced a program to close or convert up to 57 underperforming stores, which consist of 49 Underground Station and Jarman stores and eight Hat World stores.

  • Over the past two quarters we have closed or converted two Hat World stores and six Underground Station and Jarman stores from this Group.

  • We now expect to close or convert 31 of these stores this fiscal year and the remaining stores in the following year.

  • Now turning to the balance sheet.

  • We ended the quarter with $129 million in bank debt compared to $72 million last year.

  • This increase in bank debt is due to the Hat Shack acquisition; the impact of some Accounts Payable timing differences due to the one-week later accounting cut-off this year; lower earnings; and our normal seasonal working capital cycle.

  • Our inventory levels increased 15% from the same period last year, which was in line with our 15% square footage increase.

  • Inventory per store is up slightly from last year.

  • Also, in-transit inventory is up this year, which we believe is due in part to the later quarter-end closing.

  • For all these reasons, we are comfortable with our current inventory levels.

  • For the quarter, capital expenditures were $26 million and depreciation was $11 million.

  • We ended the quarter with 2,172 stores compared with 1,925 stores last year.

  • This represented a net new store increase of 247 or 13% year-over-year, while total square footage increased 15% to 3 million square feet.

  • In the third quarter, we opened 72 stores and closed 11.

  • In the third quarter last year we opened 66 stores and closed 11.

  • The current expectation for capital expenditures for the full year is in the $86 million range.

  • Depreciation for the full year is now expected to be about $45 million.

  • To update you on how we are tracking against our plan with regard to the current forecast for new stores in FY '08, we now plan to open about 42 Journeys stores and close two.

  • We believe we will open about 42 Journeys Kidz stores and about 35 Shi by Journeys stores.

  • Hat World expects to open about 98 stores and close altogether 21 stores for the year.

  • We expect to open two Underground Station stores and close about 24.

  • We expect to close 12 Jarman stores and convert two to Underground Station.

  • We expect to open eight Johnston & Murphy Shops and close three, and to open three Johnston & Murphy Factory Stores and close one.

  • All together, we expect to open about 230 stores, and we estimate we will close 63 stores this fiscal year.

  • Included in these store closings for the full year are two Hat World, 23 Underground Station, and six Jarman stores which are part of the 57-store closing initiative we discussed earlier.

  • Now I will turn the call back to Hal for some closing comments.

  • Hal Pennington - Chairman, CEO

  • Thank you, Jim.

  • Having spent many years in a cyclical business influenced by external factors and product trends, I can say that it never gets any easier to live through a down cycle.

  • While short-term external factors do affect us, what is most important are the long-term strengths of our individual businesses, some of which we have tried to highlight on the call today, and the strategic power within our portfolio of businesses.

  • We also believe that we have taken appropriate action to be sure we deal with current market conditions and to maintain our prospects for long-term growth.

  • Now before we opened the lines for Q&A, I need to remind you again that we will focus on the business and that we will not be able to address any questions about our pending merger or the litigation connected with it.

  • Now with that, let's open it up to your questions.

  • Operator

  • (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Jeff Klinefelter from Piper Jaffray.

  • Jeff Klinefelter - Analyst

  • Yes, my questions, guys, would focus on brand trends.

  • You did discuss at length, and it was helpful, Hal, on the Heelys performance and challenges.

  • But could you talk about any other brand trends that kind of stand out on the positive side or negative side?

  • Some of your kind of key contributors last year, Crocs, UGG in the boot area, DC, Rocket Dog -- anything else that you can share with us on trends there?

  • Then, in terms of your comps, you said Black Friday weekend or the start of the season was a little bit less than expected.

  • Could you give us more specific guidance or thoughts on kind of where you would expect your comp trends for the fourth quarter in Journeys and Hat World?

  • Hal Pennington - Chairman, CEO

  • I will address the product question first.

  • With regard to Journeys, the women's fashion is performing well.

  • The women's boot category, now that we have some cooler weather, is certainly showing promise.

  • Casuals in the suede or that which has any fleece with it seems to be performing well.

  • Wedges.

  • I think the overall women's casual product is showing some nice improvement.

  • In the men's area, the casual category is not as strong.

  • The skate brands continue to perform well for us.

  • The overall athletic category in itself continues to perform well, with skate being a big part of that.

  • Over in the Underground Station Group, there are some things such as you might expect -- Ecko; some of the Apple Bottoms product; Polo is performing well there.

  • Those are the few that come to mind.

  • The children's mentioned in the children's category, there were several brands.

  • Some of those brands have just expanded their offering into more available product for the younger kid, if you will.

  • Some of the ones that you might expect, of course, the Puma, the Nike, and Converse area, those were the ones.

  • During the third quarter there was still, because of the extended warm weather pattern through much of the country, during the third quarter canvas continued to be a big item.

  • And Crocs, of course, continuing to be a part of our mix.

  • Jim, (inaudible)?

  • Operator

  • Anything else, Mr.

  • Klinefelter?

  • Jeff Klinefelter - Analyst

  • Yes, my second question was on the sales trends, Black Friday, and then what you expect going into the fourth quarter for comps.

  • Jim Gulmi - SVP Finance, CFO

  • Well, we really -- in terms of going into the fourth quarter on comps, we are really not going to give any guidance going forward.

  • We are just [spending] guidance as in relation to what Hal had said earlier.

  • I think over Black Friday (multiple speakers).

  • Bob Dennis - President, COO

  • You know, Black Friday was -- this is Bob, Jeff.

  • Black Friday was a little disappointing to us, as Hal said.

  • We are still trying to figure out what the rest of the industry seemed to have seen.

  • We think the stores are all set pretty well for holiday.

  • So as you probably know, there's a lot of questions about exactly how well the consumer will shop.

  • I think Hal said it well when we said we think we are well set to get our fair share of what the consumer spends.

  • So we think the stores are all properly set.

  • It is just a little hard to say exactly how robust the Christmas season will be.

  • Jeff Klinefelter - Analyst

  • Okay, in terms of that Black Friday weekend, how did you approach it promotionally this year versus last year?

  • It sounds like seasonal product did improve; I guess Hal referenced the boot category.

  • That sounds like that was the trend.

  • Either there was a doorbuster or some kind of a promotion that really converted most of that traffic.

  • So, how did you compare, you think, to other retailers in the mall with respect your seasonal sellthroughs or your promotions?

  • Bob Dennis - President, COO

  • Well, in terms of promotions, Jeff, as you probably know, we're not -- we don't use price as a traffic builder.

  • We will use price really only to clear merchandise that we are having trouble selling.

  • In this instance, that would have been Heelys; but even with Heelys, we stayed at the high end of the pricing for that weekend.

  • So I think year-over-year, we were pretty consistent with maintaining some pretty good price integrity and not getting overly aggressive in terms of trying to meet what everybody else is doing in the marketplace.

  • Jeff Klinefelter - Analyst

  • Okay, thank you.

  • Operator

  • (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Scott Krasik from C.L.

  • King.

  • Scott Krasik - Analyst

  • Hi, guys.

  • Thanks.

  • You know, continuing to Journeys, where do you see -- I know you said that there is no trends emerging.

  • But what are you hearing from your product guys on a go-forward basis?

  • It seems like there might be some new interesting things in technical athletic on the crosstraining or running side next year.

  • Do you still yourselves as primarily a skate outlet going into 2008?

  • Hal Pennington - Chairman, CEO

  • We still maintain the position our athletic is fashion with a large part of that being skate.

  • We don't consider ourselves a destination shop for the performance footwear.

  • We will leave that up to some others.

  • But ours is focused on that [teen] who is looking for fashion, and we believe we are the destination shop for that.

  • Scott Krasik - Analyst

  • So for next spring, is it the same brand?

  • Are you trying anything new or different?

  • Hal Pennington - Chairman, CEO

  • There will be some new initiatives there, I think, as far as some styling and perhaps some testing of other brands.

  • But that I won't go into.

  • Scott Krasik - Analyst

  • Do you think any of the weakness on the casual side -- you went too far in the direction of your own house brands as opposed to keeping the branded product?

  • Hal Pennington - Chairman, CEO

  • We did not go too far on our house brands.

  • The casual product and that, if you will, the low-profile aspect of the casual product is not as strong as it has been.

  • I think that is pretty widely known.

  • But no, we do not believe that we have gone too far with our private brand or our in-house brands or the smaller brands, if you will.

  • We still consider ourselves a destination shop for brands, and we realize brands are important for our customer in Journeys.

  • Scott Krasik - Analyst

  • Yes, okay.

  • Then just lastly, Bob, I know you don't want to give guidance.

  • But just looking at Hat World next year, you obviously had the urban issue, the Major League Baseball issues in the first half of the year.

  • Is it better to use 2005 as a model in terms of profitability than 2006 for the first half of next year?

  • Bob Dennis - President, COO

  • You're absolutely correct that we're not giving guidance.

  • You know, in terms of -- there's a lot of things that went on with Hat World this year; a lot of things that went on the year before.

  • So this year, one of the big things that did go on was a rotation out of that more hip-hop inspired fashion baseball, and that gave us some pressure on margins.

  • We have got that inventory now right-sized.

  • Assuming that all of our inventories stay reasonably balanced, that we don't make another big adjustment, you could anticipate some recovery on the margin line year-over-year.

  • Scott Krasik - Analyst

  • Given the assortment or the mix you have now, a return to historical margins is not out of the question, assuming you get some sales follow-through?

  • Bob Dennis - President, COO

  • Well, there's a bunch of mix things going on as well.

  • You know, when our college business came down we gave up margin, because the college business is the most profitable of the large categories that we compete in.

  • So in order to get all the way back to historical levels, I would argue that we need the college business to become more important in the business again.

  • Scott Krasik - Analyst

  • That's interesting.

  • Okay, thanks, guys.

  • Operator

  • John Shanley, Susquehanna.

  • John Shanley - Analyst

  • Thank you and good morning, folks.

  • Jim or Hal, I am wondering if you can just clarify first a little bit the operating margins on Journeys.

  • Obviously, you went from 13.7% last year to 8.4% in the third quarter this year.

  • But the gross margin, as you pointed out, was up 40 bps.

  • Can you give us a sense, was this due to a deleverage because of the 1% sales decline or 3% comps decline?

  • Or did the underperformance of the Heelys brand play an integral part of that overall operating margin decline for the Journeys business?

  • Jim Gulmi - SVP Finance, CFO

  • Well, John, of course, Heelys played a part in it.

  • We went through -- we talked some about the effect on gross margin and we also talked about the effect on sales.

  • So the deleveraging -- and it is a deleveraging, obviously; gross margin was a slightly better.

  • And it was a factor -- it was a combination of things, I think.

  • One is the negative comp certainly hurt.

  • We talked all along that we need a positive comp in order to begin to leverage.

  • With that negative comp it is just -- obviously, we're just not able to.

  • The second issue here is that we are opening stores, and so we have got additional store growth; and productivity at the newer stores are -- we have talked many times about how in the Journeys stores themselves in the first year they do about 75% of maybe what the average does.

  • So I think it is primarily a combination of the negative comps plus the new store growth.

  • If you look at the absolute dollars of expenses, they are not far off where we thought they would be.

  • So it is more of a question of top-line growth as being the issue; and then also the new store growth is affecting the leveraging.

  • John Shanley - Analyst

  • So the Heelys really wasn't an integral part.

  • It was just a kind of corollary part (multiple speakers)?

  • Jim Gulmi - SVP Finance, CFO

  • No, no.

  • It did have an impact, because gross margin would have been better without them, so it would have some impact.

  • But also sales were off, which we talked about, which had an impact.

  • Obviously the top line h ad an impact on the leveraging factor.

  • John Shanley - Analyst

  • Okay, all right.

  • I understand.

  • All right.

  • The other question I have is really for you as well.

  • Litigation expenses are clearly becoming a very significant cost factor for the Company.

  • Is there any way you can give us some sense in terms of how much litigation expenses -- with all the law firms that you have hired, basically battling all the UBS and Finish Line law firms.

  • What could the nut be going forward on this thing, particularly in the fourth quarter?

  • You must have a sense as to how much all these law firms are going to be charging you.

  • Jim Gulmi - SVP Finance, CFO

  • John, we're just not giving any forward-looking comments here.

  • Plus, who knows?

  • I mean, I really don't know at this point.

  • We are in the middle of all this, and we just don't know what it is going to be.

  • John Shanley - Analyst

  • Do you think it could be as much as it was in the third quarter?

  • Jim Gulmi - SVP Finance, CFO

  • I just -- John, I don't know.

  • John Shanley - Analyst

  • Okay.

  • (multiple speakers) All right.

  • Well, it would be helpful to try to give us some guidance on that whenever you are in a position to be able to do so.

  • All right.

  • Thank you very much.

  • Operator

  • (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) At this time, Mr.

  • Pennington, I would like to turn the call back to you for any additional or closing remarks.

  • Hal Pennington - Chairman, CEO

  • Very good.

  • Well, thank you for joining us for our call today, and have a good rest of the day.

  • Operator

  • Thanks, everyone, for your participation.

  • That does conclude today's conference.

  • Thank you for your participation and have a great day.