Good morning, and welcome to the Dick's Sporting Goods Third Quarter 2012 Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Anne Marie Magellan. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss our Q3 2012 financial results. Please note that a rebroadcast of today's call will be archived on the Investor Relations portion of our website located at dicksportinggoods.com for approximately 30 days. In addition, as outlined in our press release, the dial in replay will be available for approximately 30 days. In order for us to take advantage of the Safe Harbor rules, I would like to remind you that today's discussion includes some forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which includes, but are not limited to, our views and expectations concerning our future results.
Such statements relate to future events and expectations and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Our actual results or actions may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements. For a summary of risk factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward looking statements, please refer to our periodic reports filed within the SEC, including the company's annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended January 28, 2012. We disclaim any obligation and do not intend to update these statements except as required by the securities law. We've also included some non GAAP financial measures in our discussion today.
Our presentation of the most directly comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and related reconciliations can be found on the Investor Relations portion of our website atdicksportaguts.com. Leading our call today will be Ed Stack, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Ed will review our Q3 financial and operating results and discuss our guidance. Joe Schmidt, Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer, will provide greater detail regarding our financial results and expectations. I will now turn it over to Ed Stack.
Thank you, Anne Marie. I'd like to thank all of you for joining us today. In the Q3, we again generated record results with earnings per diluted share increasing 25% to $0.40 and exceeding our original expectations of approximately $0.36 Sales increased 11.2% in the 3rd quarter, driven by the growth of our store network, a 5.1% increase in consolidated same store sales, which was on top of a 4.1% increase in the Q3 of last year. Same store sales in the Q3 of 2012 for DICK'S Sporting Goods were up 3.9%, Gulf Galaxy up 2.3% and e commerce sales were up 46.7%. We generated positive comps in all three of our major categories, apparel, footwear and hardlines.
Looking to our progress on the digital front, we've accomplished much in the Q3. We continue to grow our e commerce business while improving transaction profitability, increasing inventory productivity, providing customers more choices about where, when and how they shop and fortifying our competitive positioning. We also made significant progress in the Q3 with our ship from store testing. It continues to progress very well with 115 stores operating under this program at the end of the Q3. Ship from store is an incredibly powerful tool as it reduces delivery time to the customer while improving productivity and transaction profitability.
Because ship from store allows us to utilize inventory located in our stores, which was previously unavailable online to customers, we are seeing a meaningful increase in our online sales. We will continue to roll this program out and add more stores in 2013. Finally, in the Q3, we also launched a comprehensive mobile application through which users have access to all the benefits of the ScoreCard Rewards program. The ability to locate our stores or make purchases directly from the app as well as be rewarded for engaging with the Dick's Sporting Goods brand on social media. As I've said before, the digital space provides us a powerful growth opportunity.
So while we have accomplished a lot on this front, we continue to aggressively invest in our people, infrastructure and partner relationships so that we are positioned to maximize this opportunity. Looking to the Q4 of 2012, we have raised the low end of our prior expectations and now anticipate consolidated earnings per diluted share of $1.03 to $1.05 We previously anticipated a range of $1.01 to 1 $0.05 dollars The Q4 this year includes a 14th week, which is expected to contribute approximately $0.03 in earnings per diluted share. On a 13 week basis, earnings per diluted share for the 4th quarter is expected to be $1 to 1.02 dollars compared with non GAAP consolidated earnings per diluted share of $0.88 for the same period last year. Consolidated same store sales are expected to increase approximately 4% on top of a 0.1% increase in the Q4 last year. Our Q4 guidance contemplates a 0.01 dollars earnings per diluted share impact from the start up costs related to our new distribution center.
Our guidance also takes into account the NHL lockout and Hurricane Sandy, which includes a donation of approximately $1,000,000 in retail value of outdoor supplies, footwear and cold weather apparel that we made to the American Red Cross to assist with relief efforts. We are raising our full year guidance and now expect non GAAP consolidated earnings per diluted share to increase 25% to 26% to between $2.53 $2.55 a share, which includes approximately $0.03 coming from the 53rd week this year. On a 52 week basis, non GAAP earnings per diluted share are expected to be $2.50 to 2.52 dollars This guidance compares to non GAAP earnings per diluted share of $2.02 in 2011. On a 52 week to 52 week comparative basis, we anticipate consolidated same store sales will increase approximately 5% on top of a 2% increase last year. In summary, we delivered record 3rd quarter earnings anchored by steady increases in both sales and operating margins as well as the expansion of our store network and our continued success in driving inventory productivity.
We also made significant progress in growing our omnichannel presence by enhancing our e commerce site, ramping up our digital marketing strategy, and giving our customers more choices about how, when, and where to shop at Dick's Sporting Goods. We are optimistic about our continued growth and have adjusted our full year earnings estimates to reflect this. I'd like to thank our team of associates. Our progress is a direct result of their hard work and unwavering commitment to our goals, and I'm deeply grateful for their support. I'd now like to turn the call over to Joe.
Thanks, Hat. In the Q3 of 2012, we opened 21 new Dick's Sporting Goods stores, bringing our total store count at the end of the quarter to 511 Dick's Sporting Goods stores with 27,900,000 Square Feet and 81 Golf Galaxy Stores with 1,300,000 Square Feet. Within our stores, we have 166 shared service footwear decks, 159 Nike Fieldhouse Concepts, 88 Under Armour All American Shops and 10 Under Armour Blue Chip Shops at the end of the expect to have approximately 174 shared service footwear decks, 171 Nike Fieldhouse Concepts, 97 Under Armour All American Shops and 10 Under Armour Blue Chip Shops. Our New Dick's Sporting Goods stores continue to perform well with new store productivity of 98.9% in the Q3 compared to 101.9% in the Q3 last year. The detailed calculation of new store productivity is found in the table section of the press release we issued this morning.
We completed our 2012 new store plan in the 1st 2 weeks of Q4. In total, we opened 38 new Dick's Sporting Goods stores this year. We also relocated 5 Dick's Sporting Goods stores, which were at the end of their leases to preferred locations. For Golf Galaxy, we repositioned 1 store in the Q4. This store is larger than our current format and includes more services and more experiential shopping.
We remain on plan to open our 4th distribution center in January of 2013. This 600,000 square foot facility will be located in Arizona and combined with our existing DC network, we will be able to support a total of 7 50 stores. I will now turn the call over to Tim to review our financial performance in greater detail. Thanks, Joe. Sales for the Q3 of 2012 increased by 11.2% to $1,300,000,000 compared with the same period a year ago.
Consolidated same store sales increased 5.1%. Dick's Sporting Goods same store sales increased 3.9%, Golf Galaxy increased 2.3%, and our e commerce business increased 46.7%. The increase in same store sales in the Dick's Sporting Goods stores was driven by a 2.9% increase in sales per transaction and by a 1% increase in traffic. Consolidated gross profit was $406,100,000 or 13.95 percent of sales and was 123 basis points higher than the Q3 of 2011. This increase was driven by merchandise margin expansion of 91 basis points and occupancy leverage of freight and distribution remained relatively flat.
SG and A expense in the Q3 of 2012 were 314 3.98 percent of sales compared to non GAAP SG and A expenses of $274,400,000 or 23.26 percent of sales in last year's Q3. This deleverage of 72 basis points was due to previously announced shifts of expenses from Q2 to Q3 related to the Dixie's Sporting Goods Open, our World Series marketing sponsorship this year and increased administrative expenses. On the balance sheet, we ended the Q3 2012 with $294,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents and with no outstanding borrowing under our $50,000,000 revolving credit facility. Last year, we ended the 3rd quarter with $483,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents and with no outstanding borrowings under the facility. Over the course of the past 12 months, we've utilized capital to fund the $200,000,000 share repurchase program, pay quarterly dividends, purchase our store support center and make investments to acquire intellectual property rights to the Top Flight and Field and Stream brands and to build our new distribution center.
Inventory per square foot increased by 4% at the end of the Q3 this year compared to the end of Q3 of last year. Net capital expenditures were $53,000,000 in the Q3 of 2012 or $62,000,000 on a gross basis compared with net capital expenditures of $48,000,000 or $62,000,000 on a gross basis in the Q3 of last year. In the Q4, we now anticipate earnings per diluted share of $1.03 to $1.05 compared to our previous expectations of $1.01 to $1.05 This guidance includes approximately $0.03 for the 14th week in the quarter. On a 13 week basis, earnings per diluted share are expected to be $1 to $1.02 compared to earnings per diluted share of $0.88 in the Q4 of last year. 4th quarter same store sales are anticipated to increase approximately 4%.
Gross profit margin expansion is expected to be driven primarily by merchandise margin and occupancy leverage. SG and A as a percentage of sales is expected to increase in the 4th quarter due to increased administrative expenses, primarily payroll related. Just as a reminder, when contemplating the Q4, we anticipate the start up costs of our new distribution center will have an EPS impact of approximately $0.01 per diluted share. Also in the Q4, we expect to earn $0.03 per diluted share due to the extra week. For the full year 2012, we anticipate consolidated same store sales to increase approximately 5% and non GAAP consolidated earnings per diluted share to grow approximately 25% to 26% in the range of $2.53 to $2.55 as compared to non GAAP consolidated earnings per diluted share of $2.02 in 2011.
Fiscal 2012 includes the 53rd week which we believe will add approximately $0.03 to the non GAAP consolidated earnings per diluted share and is contemplated in our guidance of $2.53 to $2.55 On a 52 week basis, non GAAP earnings per diluted share is anticipated to be $2.50 to $2.52 Operating margin expansion in 2012 is expected to be generated from an increase in gross margin rate, primarily driven by merchandise margin and occupancy leverage. SG and A as a percent of sales is expected to remain relatively flat compared to 2011. Advertising and store payroll expense leverage is expected to be offset by increased administrative expenses. With execution of our share repurchase program, diluted shares outstanding are expected to be approximately 126,000,000 for our full year similar to the outstanding shares in 2011. For the full year, net capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $190,000,000 or $235,000,000 on a gross basis.
Net capital expenditures for 2011 were $154,000,000 or $202,000,000 on a gross basis. Anticipated increase in capital expenditures for 2011, 2012 is primarily the result of the new distribution center and to a lesser extent investments in new stores, vendor shops, system enhancements and e commerce. Before concluding, I would like to discuss a change in our disclosure policy for same store sales. Beginning in 2013, we will report same store sales for our Dick's Sporting Goods e Commerce business together with our brick and mortar business. We will continue to provide the size of the e Commerce business as a percentage of total sales.
To provide an example, had we reported 3rd quarter results with this new methodology, the comps would have been as follows: a 5.1% increase in consolidated same store sales with same store sales for DICK'S Sporting Goods up 5.3% and Golf Galaxy up 2.3%. E commerce penetration will be reported as 4.4% of total sales. We are making this reporting change because as we build out our omni channel platform, it is becoming apparent that the traditional sales channels are overlapping with the digital space and that providing comp sales on a combined basis will be more meaningful. We had an excellent 3rd quarter with notable increases in sales and margins. As a result, we delivered strong 3rd quarter earnings that exceeded our original expectations.
We are solidly positioned to continue to profitably grow the business and we have raised our earnings estimates for the full year 2012 to reflect our expectation. This concludes our prepared remarks. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Matthew Fazler of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thanks a lot. Good morning. One strategic question and then one on the numbers. So you just spoke, Tim, a second ago about multi channel convergence. Can you talk about to
the extent that this is
transpiring, what you're learning about your customers, what the access to more data as more of your business comes in online contributes and how you think about the overlap between in store and online customers as they patronize different channels within your business?
Matt, we're finding out what I don't think there's going to be surprises here. People are shopping at Dick's Sporting Goods from a number of different directions, whether it be in the store, whether it be online, people that are researching product and coming into the store to buy. The ship from store program has been more successful than we had anticipated. That's been a big adder to our online sales and we're making sure that we've got all of these tools available to our customer to make sure that he or she can shop whenever they want whatever device they want.
And I guess related to that, this is not my original follow-up, but I will ask it. To the extent that your profitability is improving nicely, particularly this quarter on the gross margin line, Is that is any of that coming from the shift in online business away from your traditional fulfillment partner, which we know is has terms that are somewhat onerous for your company? Or is the mix shift to online with that margin pressure still outweighing, I guess the mix within the online piece?
Well, the overall business it didn't have a huge impact, but as we move this fulfillment channel to be in the stores that's meaningfully more profitable than if we go through GSI's warehouse.
Got it. And then my original follow-up question, which I will still ask. So you talked about merchandise margin being the primary driver of gross margin expansion here in the Q3, there were still about 30 bps of additional leverage. If you could just indicate whether that came primarily from occupancy, from freight and distribution or from somewhere else. And then related to that, the Q4 last year, you leveraged occupancy despite a flat comp.
It looks like you had some things really go your way in Q4 last year. So any color you could give us on the compares and whether that would stand in the way of more leverage here in Q4?
Sure. Matt, this is Tim. The extra 33 basis points you're talking about came from occupancy leverage in Q3. And in Q4, we expect to leverage occupancy once again.
Got it. Thank you so much.
The next question comes from Christopher Horvers of JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Thanks and good morning. Also wanted to follow-up on the gross margin a little bit. The merchandise margin expansion was very impressive and you continue to really a long string of merchandise margin comparison to ups and downs on the comp. Can you talk about what's driving that? How much of that is the new merchandising planning system?
How much of that is just clearance inventory and so forth?
There's not a silver bullet. There's a whole there's a number of things. So it's the merchandise planning system, it's inventory control, it is it's also the mix of more apparel and footwear as we've moved to the shared service footwear concept and to the brand concepts with the Nike Fieldhouse, the Under Armour shops and what we're doing with The North Face. We've also taken a look at some of the what we've learned from this and how we've applied this to other areas of our business, whether it be the outerwear business, the golf apparel business. So we've moved that mix has been helpful also.
We expect now that the election has concluded, we expect that the gun and ammunition business will move to be a slightly bigger part of our business going forward. And that will help the earnings, but that could have a little bit of impact on gross margins going forward. Although we don't think really significantly as we've got so much momentum on the apparel side. But the election will have a has had an impact on the amount of guns and ammunition that we're selling.
And then as you think about how that merchandise merge, I know you're thinking about having laid out 2013 quite yet, but how do you think about merchandise margin expansion progression over the year next year given that the price and the space and so forth will really start contributing towards the midpoint of the year?
Well, we still think that we've got margin rate expansion going into next year. We're not going to provide a glimpse into guidance for next year, but we still think that we've got margin rate expansion available to us.
And then one follow-up on Sandy. You have a lot of stores in New York, New Jersey and it's the hot topic out there with investors. Can you talk about if you saw a negative impact into the end of the quarter given Sandy and is there anything that you're seeing in November that you can talk about in the region? Thanks.
Well, as we said, we've to the best of our ability included the impacts of Sandy in our guidance in the Q4. But yes, as you could imagine that there was some impact to our business at the end of the Q3 as we had I mean, at one point, we had 114 stores closed because of Sandy. They weren't closed for a long period of time, but we did have 114 stores closed. And our heart goes out to the people affected by this storm as they started to redevelop their lives and kind of try to get things back to normal. Coming to shop at a sporting goods store was probably not on the top of their list.
They had other more essentials that they needed to take care of. So yes, it had an impact and we've kind of put that impact into our guidance into the Q4.
Could that have been a half a point of comp perhaps for you in 3Q that was lost?
We're not going to get to that level of granularity. I'm not sure what it is, but you have 114 stores closed and you have a lot of people who can't get to your store that has an impact. Thanks very much.
Sure.
The next question comes from Gary Vaucher of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Thank you. On the comps, you guided to 4% in Q4, which implies a significant deceleration on a 2 year basis. What's the thinking behind the comp guidance?
There's a couple of things, Gary. There's Sandy. There's the NHL lockout. There is the fiscal cliff. There's a number of things that are going on out there that we're aware of and we need to be careful
of. So once the lockout gets settled in any day now as I keep on hoping, we should raise our comp kind of?
No, we're hoping, Gary. We'd like to see some hockey play here in Pittsburgh, let me tell you, and everywhere else.
Could you talk also about your private label? Like, obviously, that's been one of that continues to strengthen. I don't think you gave us the percent that it was in this quarter.
Yes. No, we didn't. We haven't laid that out there.
J. Rice:] Anymore. J.
Rice:] Sorry, go ahead.
We continue to invest from a private brand and a private label standpoint. We invested in the Field and Stream name, which will be accretive to the business because we won't have a licensing fee going forward. We've bought the Top Flight brand. This is an area that we continue to be very aggressive with and feel that is an important part of our future going forward.
Just a follow-up and then I'll get off the You talked about how strong the online business is. How is the mix different online versus the stores? And how is it changing with sales in the stores? And how are you reacting to that in terms of the way you're presenting merchandise? Thank you.
Sure. Well, we are the mix is changing. We're doing more apparel and footwear business than we've had in the past. The mix is always going to be a little bit different online than it is going to be in the store. And therefore, on a gross margin merchandise rate standpoint, we think that it will eventually be higher than what the stores are because we don't sell guns and ammunition online.
So there's a mix benefit there from an online standpoint, which we expect will continue to improve as we go forward. But we're really enthusiastic about the response we're getting from apparel and footwear online.
Our next question comes from Robbie Ohmes of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. A couple of quick questions. Ed, can you talk about just how you may be positioned the same or differently for holiday this year?
What is going to be different? And maybe specifically on the outerwear category and maybe remind us what kind of carryover position you're in and outerwear for the Q4 and what could go really right or really wrong year over year? And then the other question also on the Q4 and maybe into the Q1 is you're coming up against very tough comparisons in the golf category. Are there things that can help you anniversary that or maybe speak to how you're thinking about the tough golf comparisons that begin this quarter? Thanks.
So what could go right or wrong in the Q4? If we could if we get some snow and some cold weather this year that would go right. We need it at the right time. We don't need it like a couple of years ago that last weekend before last weekend or 2 weekends before Christmas we had that big snowstorm. But we feel we're very well positioned.
Our merchants have done a terrific job working with planning our inventory. Our carryover, we kind of laid out what that carryover was. We expect it to be no more this year than it was last year, notwithstanding what the weather is, meaning if we have a winter like we had last year, we would expect the carryover to be no worse than it was last year. So we feel pretty comfortable about where we're at. As far as the golf comparisons go, we are against difficult golf comparisons in the Q1 of next year.
There were two things that drove that. There was the product cycle and there are some new products coming out that we think the product cycle for next year is probably as strong as it has been this past year. The biggest driver in the Q1 comps around the golf business was really the weather, and we've got no control over that. We would suspect that if it's reasonable weather, comps may shift from the Q1 to the Q2. Like this year, they went from the Q2 to the Q1, but as you get done with the 1st two quarters, we think weather will have little impact overall.
So we're pretty optimistic about the golf business going forward. Great. Thanks very much. Okay, Ravi. Thanks.
The next question comes from Sean Naughton of Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead.
Hi. Given the change you're describing on the comp reporting for next year and some of the success you guys are seeing in the multi channel efforts, how does this change your overall thoughts on store prototype size moving forward and then potentially the overall store base in the U. S. At this point?
So this is just from a reporting standpoint. We think it doesn't change the strategy at all. We still feel that we can have at least 900 stores in the United States. Our store footprint categories that we're looking to expand, we don't we may modify some allocation of space, but we don't think that we have the wrong store size as we take a look at categories of business that are doing extremely well. We'd like to increase our space allocated to apparel.
We'd like to increase space allocated to our team sports category. We'd like to increase space allocated to our footwear area. And what we're doing online doesn't really impact that. We really think the customer is going to shop online for mobile apps, going to shop at the stores, and we haven't seen any reason to change our strategy. We really like the way we're positioned.
I think based on what you saw from our comps, not only this quarter, but this year, we feel like we're in a really very good spot.
All right. And then just secondly on the on all three categories, like they performed well in the quarter. But just thinking specifically about some of the easier comparisons you might have had in the outdoor segment, maybe you can talk about how the lodge business performed in the quarter. You've mentioned firearms a couple of times on the call as being strong. Maybe just any changes you're seeing in the competitive environment with that particular segment?
Thanks.
All the as I said, the 3 categories were all very strong. We're not going to call out specifically on and rank them. I indicated that the firearms sales have spiked since the election, which is really in the Q4, not in Q3, but based on the results of the election, which we anticipated if the election went this way that this business would react in this fashion.
Okay. Good luck for holiday. Thanks. Thank you.
The next question comes from Dan Wewer of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Thanks. I just wanted to follow-up with your comments about the product cycle for the golf industry. Are you alluding to the Rocket Blades from Taylor Made and supposedly a new product lineup from Callaway Golf? Is that what you're alluding to for next year?
Yes. Well, we've looked at it's not just them, but we've looked at we've seen all the product that's coming out. So, whether it be the ROCKETBLADES, the what Taylor Made is doing to follow-up on the ROCKETBLADES, FAIRWEEWOODS, Nike's got their new driver coming out, we think is terrific. Callaway is great. And we think that there's a big move in footwear as we continue to the spikeless the shift to spikeless shoes is extremely important.
And we've had great luck in the apparel business and we will continue to expand our apparel business in our golf business both at Dick's and Golf Galaxy, taking what we've learned from the Nike Fieldhouse concept and the Under Armour shops and applying those into our golf business. And where we've done that within a couple of test areas, the results have been very encouraging.
The price points on some of the brands that you're alluding to are moving higher. Do you think it's primarily benefiting Golf Galaxy in 2013, maybe more so than for the Dick's Golf Departments?
No, not really. And we don't really see I mean the basic high end driver from Callaway and from Taylor Made, Nike, they're all going to be relatively the same prices they were last year. So the top end Taylor Made driver will be 3.99 dollars There'll still be product in that $3.99 $2.99 standpoint. The average unit retail isn't going up significantly. Where we do think we've got some AUR opportunity is on the footwear side, because as odd as it sounds, the spikeless shoes are actually more expensive than the traditional golf shoe and we've had some really good luck in that category.
And just a real quick follow-up. Have you had a chance to pencil through the Affordable Healthcare Act? It looks like that's going to be the law for a long time now. How that might impact your operating expenses over the next couple of years?
Well, we've looked at it. We're not ready to kind of comment about what that will be, but it will certainly be more expensive and it really doesn't kick in any meaningful way till 2014. So we've got some time to kind of work through that.
Okay, great. Thank you. Sure.
The next question comes from Michael Lasser of UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Can you size the EPS impact in the Q4 from all of those one time ish type items that you talked about between the MHA lockout, the donation and etcetera?
No, no. I mean, we're not going to for competitive reasons, we're not going to lay out what we think we're earning from NHL product. Sandy, as we indicated that we did make a $1,000,000 donation to the Red Cross to help the relief efforts there. And if you take a look at $1,000,000 that's 0.5 dollars
But so altogether, you think there'll be a material impact from all these one time events?
I didn't say that. We said we've kind of laid those into our guidance. The $1,000,000 donation that we thought was absolutely the right thing to do to help the relief efforts of these of those that were in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, we think was the right thing to do. That's 0.5 dollars And we've taken into account what we think could happen to the NHL, what we can or what is happening to the NHL right now and kind of the effects of Hurricane Sandy of when people are going to get back to shopping for this product once they kind of get their lives and their homes back in order.
And switching gears on the e commerce front, how is your e commerce doing in markets where you have a pretty good store presence versus other areas where you're less penetrated on the retail side?
As you would expect, we do more business in markets where we have stores than in markets where we don't have stores.
And is that because of the shift from store and associates walking consumers over and ordering from stores? Or is it just because of the brand awareness? And so there should be a halo benefit as you get more penetrated across the country? Thanks a lot.
We think it's all three of those things that you laid out, and we found that once we open a store in the trade area that our sales primarily go up.
Okay. Good luck with the holidays. Thank you very much. Thank you.
The next question is from Rick Nelson of Stephens. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I'd like to ask about the SG and A, the deleverage that you're guiding to for the Q4 with a 4% comp, curious what the driver is there, the Red Cross payment obviously one of those.
Well, one of the this is Tim. One of the things that we've talked about continuously last year and this year was the investments that we were going to be making in systems and in our e commerce business. You can see the fruits of those labor is already coming through our numbers. So along with those investments are headcount investments. So on the administrative expense side, that is a primarily payroll and related benefits cost that we're seeing coming through the numbers.
Got you. And the $0.03 in EPS that you're calling out for the extra 53rd week. Can you tell us what that represents in terms of top line sales?
We haven't broken out the top line sales, but we've been very open about the $0.03 impact on the EPS.
And as we model the quarters for next year, 52 week compared to a 53 week, are there meaningful shifts and high volume weeks between the quarters that would impact the quarterly comp? There are not. Thanks.
The next question comes from Michael Baker of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Thank you. A couple of questions I'd want to ask.
First of all, can you sort
of parse out what the quarter looks like maybe early in the quarter versus late in the quarter? Was back to school particularly strong or any hint there on how the pace of business may have been?
Michael, this is Tim. We just don't talk about sequential or individual month performance within a quarter. So we aren't going to make you very happy with that answer.
Well, at the very least, can you tell us if there are wide variations that would be something that would be interesting or relatively consistent? Or can you even go that far?
We won't go that far.
Okay. Then I will ask you something else. Let me ask about the merchandise margins. And is the biggest driver to the improvement in the merchandise margins, is it price within the categories? Are you seeing is it the mix from hard goods to apparel and footwear?
And then maybe even more, is it within each of those categories move to more higher end type product? Just trying to parse out what's driving that merchandise margin gain?
It's a combination of a number of things. So it's the mix of products and it's not just the mix from hard lines to soft lines because we've got a number of hard lines areas that are extremely profitable. But it is that mix to those higher margin categories. It's also better inventory control from a planning standpoint, so we've mitigated markdowns on the back end. And those are the key drivers of that.
Okay, great. Thanks.
The next question is from Sam Poser of Stern AG. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. A couple of questions. Just a clarification. Sandy didn't affect Q3.
It's really a Q4 story just based on when it happened. Am I thinking about that correctly? Yes, Sam, this is Towne. That's about that correctly?
Yes, Sam. This is Tim. That's correct.
Okay.
You talked about adding headcount. Was that entirely on in your digital platform or did you have you added some headcount in the stores as well?
This is primarily my discussion point was on administrative expense and payroll. So that is the home office support center payroll primarily IT, e commerce and marketing and then a little bit spread on the other functional areas.
Will we find any is there any variation of headcount in the stores this year over last year?
Not significantly. The research that we've gotten back has been great from a service standpoint. As we compare it this year to last year, the metrics that we use has been very positive. Thank you.
And then lastly, there's been some conversation about trucks moving more slowly, given Sandy deliveries. Are your 2 ways. Is your flow of goods better than it was? And are you finding yourself with your non private brand, private label business ordering or being able to order closer to need than you have in the past?
There hasn't been any meaningful change.
And as far as the flow of merchandise given Sandy trucks and rail and so on?
Nothing meaningful, no.
All right. Thank you very much and good luck.
The next question comes from David Gober of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to follow-up on SG and A. Obviously, you've had a decent amount of lumpiness this year and a couple of moving pieces. Is there anything you could say about what you think kind of normalized SG and A per store looks like, maybe not specifically in 2013, but more on an ongoing basis, obviously given some of the puts and takes in 2Q, 3Q and 4Q this year?
Well, I'd actually answer it this way. When we're in a situation where we're delivering very large profits for the store and we're investing in the business, which we said we were going to do, there is going to be some lumpiness in SG and A. So as we continue the investment mode into 20142013, you're going to continue to see some lumpiness there. So rather than trying to give you a normalized number, as we go forward in the next 2 years in particular, I won't be able to do that for you.
Okay, fair enough.
And I guess more of a kind
of a quick detailed We've heard that the new NFL jerseys have been selling particularly well. Any sense of how that helped the comp or more generically speaking, how those types of changes tend to impact the business over time?
I'm not sure I really understood. I'm not sure I understand the question. Sorry, just the switchover
in manufacturers for the NFL jerseys. We've heard that, that has been a benefit this quarter, and that those jerseys are selling particularly well. But I'm just curious if you found that to be the case historically or specifically if you could comment on any impact this quarter.
Well, yes, I mean, it's definitely a positive impact. You change the jerseys, a lot of the fans want to have the jersey on that the players are wearing and it's been very positive. We would expect that to be a positive impact in the Q4 also. Especially since last year, people knew the jersey was going to change, so it negatively impacted the Q4 last year, people not wanting to buy a jersey that they know were going to be obsolete at the end of the year.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. Sure.
The next question comes from John Zolodis of the Buckingham Research Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Question on your longer term operating margin target of 10%. You look like you're going to get almost 100 or around 100 basis points of operating margin expansion in the current year based on the updated guidance. Would you say that you're running ahead of plan relative to that 10% target that you originally laid out?
I would say, John, based on the way we've outlined our future plans that we are on plan.
Okay. So then over the next 2 years, more modest operating margin expansion should be expected?
Yes.
Okay, great. And then just one other question. For the Q4, you gave us some big picture things that you expect to potentially be disruptive to sales. Can you talk about specific product categories that are either going to be a drag or that you think can outperform the chain? Thank you.
We don't want to get into specifics on merchandise categories as we've not done that before. But some of the aspects that will drive it will be the gun and ammunition business based on the results of the election. We anticipate that the results that we're getting out of some of the vendor shops that we've done will continue to be additive. One of the drags on this will be that we don't have a World Series team of any meaningful impact on our business this year with the Giants winning the World Series versus what happened last year. So that's going to be a bit of a drag on sales this year.
But for the most part, we're relatively positive. I think the fitness business will continue to be a bit challenged, but most other areas of the business we're pretty enthusiastic about.
Great. Thanks very much and good luck.
The next question comes from Kate Wendt of Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, thanks. It sounds like if you could talk a little bit to your strategy with respect to prices and promotions for the holiday season this year compared to last year and given that some of your competitors have discussed plans to adopt more aggressive stance?
Yes. We don't have anything planned right now. We've done our merchants have really done a terrific job differentiating ourselves in the marketplace with product. The majority of the brands that we're selling, we don't feel that they need to be there needs to be a significant promotional strategy around what we're doing in the Nike Fieldhouse concept, what we're doing with The North Face, what we're doing with Under Armour, what we're doing with some of the Gulf brands that are out there right now. So we've got the flexibility to move promotionally if we need to.
Right now, we don't feel that we have to. So we don't we're not looking we're not anticipating a negative impact on margin rates.
Okay, got it. And then on SG and A, can you remind us when you really started to ramp up investments in systems and e commerce? And even though we'll continue to see some lumpiness, whether the rate of increase in spend will be as meaningful going forward given that you've already increased investment this year?
I think you can consider the fact that that rate of spend started pretty much in the second quarter and will also impact Q3 and Q4 and a little bit of Q1 next year.
Okay. That's helpful. And then just finally, do you have an update on your plans for rolling up pickup in store and what the timing of that might look like next year?
Kate, right now, it looks like we'll be testing that in 2014. We haven't announced specifically, but probably look mid year in 2014 for us to or excuse me, 2013 to be testing that. I'm sorry, Kate. 2013, we'll be testing that.
Okay, great. Thanks, guys. Yes.
The next question comes from Paul Swinend of Morningstar Investment Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning and thanks for your patience through all these questions. I wanted to I think you've got the longest list in the book here. But I wanted to ask, I've seen a lot of merchandise that is saying only at Dick's or special for Dick's. And I know you guys have always worked on this type of thing, but I'm seeing it even for Under Armour or some of the national brands. Is that really that new?
And is it starting to move the needle for you? And then have you planned down the merchandise that would have been at every other competitor's store, so it's a net neutral or is it actually additive?
Well, some of it's additive and some of it's neutral. And we've worked very closely with our brand partners, whether it be Nike, The North Face, Under Armour, some of the other groups on the hard line side and have developed franchises, if you will, that are either exclusive or primarily exclusive to Dick's Sporting Goods. It's really kind of gained traction over the last 12 to 18 months, and we will continue to be very aggressive in this and our partners have been very helpful in working through this with us. We feel that it's important to differentiate ourselves not only with as it relates to our other brick and mortar competitors, but also to differentiate ourselves with online competitors that we have out there. So this will it's gotten more important and we expect it to continue to be more important as we go forward.
Interesting. Thanks. And can you give us any metrics, like is it better margin, better sell through or I know you don't want to share everything, but anything color there?
Directionally, it would be better margins because we don't we're not competing with anybody else from a price standpoint on this. The sell throughs, I wouldn't say are significantly better. Some are better, some are not as good, but that's just because if you run a business like we do, you buy some winners and you make some mistakes. And what we've always done is when we've made a mistake, we go as in any merchandising category, if we make a mistake, we fix it pretty quickly, mark it down and get out of it. So but overall, I would say the margin rates will be better.
Interesting. Thanks again and best of luck for the holidays.
Thank you.
The next question is from David Magee of SunTrust. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good morning. Good quarter.
Thank you.
Just two questions. One is that what are you seeing right now with regard to competitive openings? Is that something that's sort of unchanged or is that getting better or worse as we go into next year?
As a percent of the total, I would say it's relatively the same.
Okay. And then secondly, can you talk a little bit about advertising in terms of the different approach that you've taken this year and whether you're leveraging that cost item at this point?
We're taking a look at from a marketing standpoint and really have made some big changes to our marketing. We've reduced as we indicated that we plan to do, we reduced our spend in newspaper inserts and have moved more dollars into talking directly with the consumer through our direct marketing program, whether it be through the digital online marketing and also through the TV campaigns that we've done. The TV campaigns, the digital marketing, some of these things are much easier to leverage as we go forward than the newspaper insert program. So as we go forward, we're not planning to leverage our marketing dollars over the next 12 to 24 months in any meaningful way, but we're going to continue to look to reallocate the spend and we're getting what we anticipate a great ROI on this change and you'll see us moving more out of the inserts and more into digital direct to consumer and the TV campaigns that we've put together.
Great. Thanks, Ed.
Sure. Thank you.
The next question is from Camilo Lyon of Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning. Ed, you mentioned that you're seeing an acceleration in apparel and that's offsetting the Guns and Ammo margin drag. I was wondering if you could specifically call out if it's coming from the outerwear category or is it the athletic performance gear or is it the Nike NFL jerseys? Any color there would be helpful.
Well, I won't get too specific, but I will tell you based on it's not coming from the outerwear category right now. It's coming from other apparel and footwear categories. The license piece has been on the NFL side has been good, but that's been offset by the lack of a World Series champion and what's going on in the NHL. But overall, we're very pleased with what's going on from an athletic standpoint. As we get further into the quarter, the outerwear business gets to be a much more important part of our business and we expect that that will also be helpful in leveraging against the gun and ammunition business.
We don't look at the gun and ammunition business as being bad for our business. It's going to be additive. It's going to drive more foot traffic into the store. It may impact the growth of our rate, but it's going to certainly positively be accretive to our
earnings. Great. And then switching gears, you could update us on price optimization and where you are with that initiative?
We're still very early in the process. As we've indicated on some of the calls and some of our meetings that this the benefit of these programs was really going to be felt more in 2013, 2014 and 2015. As I said, we're in the very early innings.
Okay. And then my final question is, Ed, on shop in shops, it looks like the annual run rate for, say, the Under Armour shop in shops is about 50 or so per year. Is that the right pace of openings that we should think about? Or could you conceivably accelerate the pace of those openings?
Well, right now, I would look at it to be relatively what it has been. And as we kind of look and work with Under Armour, if we find that we can move quicker on this, we will. But right now, I would kind of look at it as it's been in the past.
And that's related to more new store openings and remodels?
For the most part, yes. Great. We continue to remodel our stores. One of the things that we always talk about internally is we don't want to wake up someday and have a tired old chain. So we're constantly remodeling stores, relocating stores.
So that's an important part of our overall strategy.
Thanks very much and best of luck for the holiday.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Chris Fezzia of Susquehanna Financial Group. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my call. Just not to beat
this to death, but just
on the SG and A piece, Tim, just so
I got you here, you said some of the increase in SG and A spend began in Q2, obviously Q3, Q4 and some of Q1 next year?
Yes.
Okay. Let me ask it this way. Would you fair to say that SG and A is a leverageable line item on an annualized basis assuming you do a, call it, 2% to 3% same store sales increase? Is that fair? That is correct.
Okay. All right. Last question, real simple here. Store openings for next year, any thoughts at this point, roughly the number relative to this year to 38? Any color you can add about what that potentially could be?
It should be at least the amount that we did last year. Okay.
All right. Thank you very much and all the best on the holiday. Thank you.
The next question is from Joe Feldman of Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, guys. Congratulations on the quarter. Wanted to ask about also on the stores. Any update on real estate?
Any changes in terms of availability of the real estate? And also within real estate and the stores, as far as productivity goes, are there any differences you see by region or the format, some of the smaller format stores or any of those kind of things you could address?
Yes, Joe. Ed indicated that we'd open at least as many stores for next year and we've been pretty consistent over the last couple of years with around an 8% growth rate and I think you can look for something pretty similar to that in 2013. As far as the market is concerned, there isn't a big change in the marketplace as far as availability of real estate. We are seeing some opportunities with some of the REITs are buying some properties from department stores. We are seeing some more repurposing of mall shop space.
And we have had some discussions with Sears about repurposing some of its space. We have nothing to talk about today specifically, but we are having those discussions. New store growth has been pretty consistent in the last couple of years. Around 50% of our boxes are ground up construction versus repurpose, and I think you can look for something pretty similar in 2013 as well. As far as productivity by region, we're not seeing a meaningful difference across the country as to how these stores are performing as we open them.
Got it. That's good to hear. Excellent. That was it. Most of my others were answered.
Thanks, guys. Good luck with this quarter.
Thank you.
The next question is from Wayne Hood of BMO Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks. I just had two questions. One was the percentage of sales that are tied to free shipping now. Is that growing at a faster rate than you would expect?
And as you get into the Q4, maybe even greater? And to what extent if it does place at risk any gross margin targets you have or does pick up
in store help mitigate some of that? We aren't seeing a meaningful increase in free shipments. It will be more competitive as we get into the Q4 as you would expect, but we don't see anything meaningfully different this year versus last year, and we haven't seen anything over the last quarter with a significant change there.
Okay. And my other last question was on e commerce again. The conversion rate, how close are you to bridging the gap between where you are in industry average of about 2.4 in your conversion on the e commerce business. Did you narrow that gap in the quarter? And do you think you can get there over the next year?
We've narrowed the gap. In the next year, I would think that we will not get there, but we're working at that and we expect it to continue to increase, but I don't expect us to be at 2.4 by the in a year.
All right. Thank you, guys. Thank you.
The next question is from Matthew Fazler of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks a lot for taking my follow-up question. I want to think now about Q4 and sort of interplay between the fact that you have some leeway inventory, essentially inventory that you held over the course of the year, the fact that your vendors and your competitors for that matter seem to be planning outerwear reasonably conservatively. What's your sense on the availability of product on how vendor plans given last year's tough experience will impact their flexibility and also the margin in that category here in Q4?
Matt, we've got we've worked with our partners as we have in the past with what we characterize as partnership orders. So we've got a flow of product that we have scheduled to come in. So we're not over inventoried right now. If winter doesn't come, we've got the ability to cancel this product. We have it on the books.
If it does come, we have the ability to bring that product in. We've got a couple of different trigger dates, one of them coming up right now after the Monday after Thanksgiving, Monday, Tuesday after Thanksgiving. And then we'll have another one later in the month of December. So we've got some trigger points here. We feel that we've got inventory available to us if business if it gets cold and this business takes off, we've got the ability to grab that product.
And if it stays similar to last year, we've got the ability to move that product off or cancel that product and we'll end up with no more inventory no meaningful difference in inventory this year versus last year.
And how should we think about last year's gross margin compare? The merch margin was up 27 bps. It was the 2nd smallest increase you've had in a while. Would you consider that 27 basis point improvement a difficult compare given that it could have been worse? Or is that something that should be very much surmountable given the momentum that you have right
now? Well, the group did a very good job last year of managing the inventory and managing through a very difficult year. I won't say that that's I won't say that it's a slam dunk, But if it gets cold, it will be better. And if it doesn't, it will be about the same.
And one other quick one. Your West Coast competitors, kind of smaller, not necessarily perfect comps to you, came up with some better numbers recently. I know your exposure to that part of the country is still modest and growing. Have you seen any regional recovery on the West Coast relative to prior trends?
Yes, we're actually pretty happy with what's going on in the West Coast right now. So we're very pleased with what's going on out there.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Matt.
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ed Stack for any closing remarks.
I'd like to thank everyone for joining us for the our Q3 call. Wish everybody happy holidays and look forward to seeing everybody for our Q4 call. Thank you.
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