Tilly’s Quarter; Income Down on Higher Sales.

NOTE: Net income fell even more, from $5.9 to $2.3 million. In last year’s quarter the company wasn’t public yet and, due to a different corporate structure, showed only $68,000 in income tax expense. In this year’s quarter, as a public company following the change in legal structure, income tax expense was $1.56 million. Now that’s a real expense, but it does sort of screw up the comparison. They provide some proforma numbers that show their net income last year would have been just $3.6 million with the same tax situation they have now. That’s a drop of 36%. 

 

Okay, back to what went on. $11.6 million of the sales increase came from opening new stores that weren’t open in the quarter last year. Comparable store sales were up 1.1%, or by $1 million. They rose 4.3% in last year’s quarter. Ecommerce sales rose 16% from $10.9 to $12.6 million.

 

They ended the quarter with 175 stores in 30 states compared to 145 at the end of last year’s quarter and expect to open at least 25 new stores in this fiscal year. They “…plan to continue opening new stores at an annual rate of approximately 15% for the next several years…”

 

Average net sales per store in the quarter fell from $605,000 to $565,000.  

 

The gross profit margin fell from 31.5% to 29.5%. “The decrease in gross profit margin was due to a 1.1% increase in product costs as a percentage of sales due to increased markdowns and a 0.9% increase in buying, distribution and occupancy costs as a percentage of sales due to costs increasing faster than the growth in net sales.” That doesn’t sound good.

 

 Selling, general and administrative expenses as a percent of sales rose from 25.3% to 25.9%. Within this increase of $3.9 million or 16%, store selling expenses accounted for $2.6 million of the increase. The specific causes were: 

 

“• store and regional payroll, payroll benefits and related personnel costs increased $2.3 million, or 0.7% as a percentage of net sales, as these costs increased at a higher rate than net sales due to a relatively small increase in comparable store sales and a greater proportion of the store base this year comprised of newer stores with immature sales volumes”

 

“• marketing costs, credit card processing, supplies and other costs increased $0.4 million, which represents a decrease of 0.2% as a percentage of net sales, due to these costs increasing at a lower rate than the net sales.”

 

The biggest chunk of the general and administrative expenses increase was stock-based compensation expense of $0.9 million, which they didn’t have last year because they weren’t yet public.

 

In the conference call, President and CEO Daniel Griesemer described the quarter’s results this way:

 

“…our business performance was better than expected as we achieved positive comparable store sales and net income of $0.08 per diluted share reflecting the strength of our business model and the diligent execution of our team in support of our growth initiatives.”

 

There are no balance sheet issues to discuss. The balance sheet improved markedly as a result of the public offering as you would expect. They went public on May 12, 2012. Of the $107 million raised, $84 million went to pay notes previously issued to the pre-offering shareholders.

 

Total inventory rose consistent with the opening of new stores but was down 6% on a per square foot basis. They note they “…have always committed to in season not carrying forward into future seasons. So you know we begin each quarter with inventory that’s clean and current and ready to do business for the forward season.” I like that policy, though of course it’s no substitute for picking the right inventory in the first place.

 

For the current quarter, Tilly’s expects “…comparable store sales growth in the range of flat to a positive low single digit increase…” This compares to a 5.1% increase in last year’s quarter. They tell us that “…the 2013 fiscal calendar shift will cause the first week peak week of the company’s back-to-school season to fall on the last week of the second quarter this year compared to being the first week of the third quarter last year. As a result we expect an estimated $8 million to $9 million in sales will shift into the company’s second quarter from the third quarter when compared to the 2012 fiscal calendar.”

 

So their second quarter prediction of comparable stores sales growth of “flat to a positive low single digit increase” includes that additional $8 or $9 million in revenue.

 

Tilly’s has a strong balance sheet and it’s great to see any comparable stores growth. But the increase in expenses, decline in gross margin and resulting drop in income (even adjusting for the impact of the public offering) tells me this is a work in progress.