Columbia Sportswear Company (COLM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Columbia Sportswear Company's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The meeting is now called to order. I'm Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tim Boyle. To ensure the health and safety of our employees and of shareholders, we're hosting this event virtually. We will start today's meeting by considering the matters described in our proxy statement. I will then provide a quick review of our 2020 financial results and strategies for 2021. We will then open up the meeting for questions. You will be afforded the opportunity to vote your shares if you have not already done so. We will close the voting after the question-and-answer session at the end of the meeting. In the bottom right hand of your screen, you should see relevant materials for today's meeting, including our 2020 annual report, our 2021 proxy statement and a copy of the rules of conduct and procedures for this meeting. We're fortunate to have members of the Board of Directors and management team attending the virtual meeting today, including Board members, Stephen Babson, Malia Wasson and John Culver; Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Peter Bragdon; Executive Vice President, Global Omnichannel, Franco Fogliato; Executive Vice President and Columbia Brand President, Joe Boyle; Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Jim Swanson; Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Human Resources Officer, Richelle Luther; and Senior Vice President, Emerging Brands, Craig Zanon. I'd also look to recognize Lana Smith with Deloitte & Touche, our independent registered public accounting firm; and John Thomas and Angie Burcham with Perkins Coie, the company's external legal counsel. I will now review boarding formalities. Peter Bragdon, our General Counsel and Secretary, will record the minutes of this meeting. Notice of this meeting was sent on or about April 20, 2021. I have obtained a certificate of mailing from Broadridge, our service provider for this virtual meeting, and will file it with the meeting record. Also, as required under Oregon Corporate Law, a link to the registered shareholder list is available on the meeting portal. Kevin Chau has been appointed as the Inspector of Elections for the meeting and is participating today. He has taken and signed an oath of inspector of elections that will also be filed with the meeting minutes. As of the record date, March 29, 2021, 66,457,049 shares of our common stock were issued and outstanding and able to be voted at this meeting. This is the only authorized class of voting security of the company, and Mr. Chau has confirmed that we have received 96.3% of votes by proxy, which constitutes a quorum. Therefore, the meeting is duly constituted, and we may proceed with business. The polls are now open for those who have not voted. If you have previously voted over the Internet, phone or mail, you do not need to take any action. If you have previously voted and wish to change your vote, please do so before the polls close. Once the polls close, we will announce our preliminary results. If you wish to vote during the meeting, you should be able to do so by clicking on the link on the right-hand side of the screen in the meeting portal. [Operator Instructions] Portions of this meeting, in particular the business update, may contain forward-looking statements regarding Columbia's business opportunities and anticipated results of operations. Please bear in mind that forward-looking information is subject to many risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from what is projected. Many of these risks and uncertainties are described in Columbia's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and subsequent filings with the SEC. Matters to be considered. I will now review the proposals to be acted upon at this meeting. There are 3 matters on the agenda for consideration today. We did not receive notice in accordance with our bylaws of any additional matters to be considered. Therefore, no other proposals or nominations may be introduced at today's meeting. The first item on the voting agenda is the election of 9 directors for the next year. The experience and qualifications of each of our nominees are described in our most recent proxy statement, which is easily accessible on the meeting portal. The Board has recommended the following slate of nominees: Timothy Boyle, Stephen Babson, Andy Bryant, John Culver, Walter Klenz, Kevin Mansell, Ronald Nelson, Sabrina Simmons, Malia Wasson. I'd like to welcome John Culver to our Board of Directors. John has been instrumental in driving international growth at Starbucks for almost 20 years. We're excited for him to bring that knowledge and expertise to our Board as we continue to focus on unlocking our international omnichannel growth opportunities. Mr. Culver also brings a deep understanding of the consumer and consumer trends, including digital transformation which we hope to leverage during his service on the Board. Our Board recommends that shareholders vote for all of these nominees. The second item on today's agenda is to ratify the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. Our Board recommends that shareholders vote for such a ratification. The third item on today's agenda is to approve by nonbinding vote the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in this proxy statement in accordance with SEC rules. Our Board recommends a vote for approval by nonbinding vote of executive compensation. The Compensation Committee and the Board value the views of Columbia's shareholders and are committed to excellence in the design and effectiveness of Columbia's executive compensation program. This program is designed to attract, retrain and -- retain and motivate highly talented executive officers and to align executive officer and shareholder financial interests. We believe this program also encourages prudent risk-taking in order to achieve long-term shareholder objectives. Columbia believes that its executive compensation program, which includes long-term equity awards as a significant component of an executive officer's overall compensation opportunity, satisfies this goal and is strongly aligned with the long-term interest of its shareholders. Columbia's total shareholder return over the 1-, 3- and 5-year periods ended December 31, 2020, was negative 12%, plus 25% and plus 88%, respectively. The Board and the Compensation Committee believe that the 2020 compensation program for the named executive officers helped to motivate the executive officers and encourage operating discipline during a period of unprecedented risk and uncertainty. Although this vote is advisory and nonbinding, the Board and the Compensation Committee, which is responsible for designing and administering Columbia's executive compensation program, value the opinions expressed by shareholders. The Board and Compensation Committee will consider the outcome of the vote when making future compensation policies and decisions for named executive officers. I'll use the next few minutes to review our 2020 financial performance and strategies for 2021. In early 2020, as COVID-19 cases surged around the world, it became increasingly clear that the dedication of our global workforce and our disciplined operating approach were some of our most valuable strengths. Facing tremendous uncertainty, we implemented several cost reduction actions, including minimized discretionary spending, reducing demand creation spending, curtailing hiring and reductions of staff. Taken together, these cost containment actions and lower variable expenses reduced 2020 operating margins by more than $100 million in comparison to 2019 before nonrecurring expenses and charges. We also took steps to reduce capital outflows. The company's Board of Directors approved the suspension of the company's quarterly dividend. We suspended share repurchases and reduced planned capital expenditures. Collectively, these actions reduced 2020 capital outflows by over $130 million. While we diligently managed our cost structure and capital outflows, it's important to note that our fortressed balance sheet allowed us to sustain our new product innovation pipeline and invest in critical areas of the business, including digital capabilities. During 2020, we went live with our new mobile-first e-commerce platform, X1, in North America for the Columbia, SOREL and Mountain Hardware brands. I'm pleased to report the X1 platforms performed exceptionally well and contributed to improved site performance and conversion. You may recall, in 2019, we implemented X1 across 10 countries in our Europe direct business and for the prAna brand in the U.S. Ultimately, our team's swift cost containment and capital preservation actions, along with disciplined working capital management, enabled operating cash flow of over $270 million in 2020. Exiting the year, we had cash and short-term investments of over $790 million and no borrowings. At its regular Board meeting on January 29, 2021, the Board of Directors had the confidence to approve our quarterly cash dividends, increased our stock repurchase authorization and return to pre-pandemic capital allocation strategy. For the full year, net sales declined 18% and earnings per share declined 66% year-over-year, primarily reflecting the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A bright spot for the year was our DTC e-commerce net sales, which grew 39% year-over-year and represented 19% of total net sales. If you include our wholesale partners' online businesses, along with our own e-commerce sites, we estimate online sales were over 30% of our global net sales mix in 2020. From our review of 2020 net sales by brand, I'll reference year-over-year net sales percentage changes. Columbia brand net sales declined 20%. Given our direct-to-consumer stores primarily sell Columbia products, the brand's net sales performance was particularly hard hit by the temporary store closures which occurred at various points in time across all regions during 2020. Our long-term focus remains on making Columbia the #1 outdoor brand in the world. SOREL net sales declined 7%. As the pandemic took hold, consumer brand affinity for SOREL remained high, and demand shifted towards versatile collections such as Kinetic Sneakers and Ella Sandals. Success in these new categories validates SOREL's evolution beyond its legacy winter utility business to become a year-round brand. prAna net sales declined 13%. The brand remains focused on its commitment to being an industry leader in sustainability and its mission to create clothing for positive change. Mountain Hardware net sales declined 11%. We're excited about Mountain Hardware's reenergized product line and modernized messaging and look. This is an important step to realizing the brand vision of becoming the most desired mountain sport brand in the world. I'd now like to shift our focus to 2021. It's clear the pandemic has changed consumer shopping behavior, and we believe many of these shifts, including greater consumer preference for online shopping, will remain intact long after COVID-19 is contained. All aspects of our business operations are being impacted, and our distribution channels around the world are evolving. This is creating both disruptions and opportunities. As the consumer marketplace evolves, we are adapting our business model to capture demand and unlock our brand portfolio's full potential. I'd like to highlight a few key areas of management focus in 2021. First, we're committed to creating products that inspire active consumers. We know that products are the foundation of our business. As the pandemic took hold, we did not back down our investments in product design and innovation, and I'm excited about the robust pipeline of innovative product that we have for many seasons to come. This fall, we're launching Omni-Heat Infinity. We expect this to be the largest innovation launch in our company's history, and early retailer feedback and orders have been very encouraging. This new addition to the Omni-Heat family provides significant more heat reflection and a dramatically different visual appearance to consumers. We're also committed to investing in demand creation to leverage our compelling brand portfolio and connect with consumers. Given the confidence in our products and brand portfolio, we're planning to increase our demand creation investments this year. We anticipate demand creation increasing as a percentage of sale to 6% in 2021 compared to 5.7% in 2020 and 5.5% in 2019. In 2021, continuing to enhance digital and supply chain capabilities are key enablers to support growth. On the digital front, we're building on the recent investments of our X1 e-commerce platform with a focus on leveraging consumer data and deploying new capabilities to better segment and target consumer marketing efforts. We're enhancing our supply chain capabilities to improve inventory management processes and to adapt our supply chain to shifts in our business, including increased penetration of DTC sales through our e-commerce sites and brick-and-mortar stores. I'm pleased to report that 2021 is off to a strong start. In April, we reported first quarter 2021 net sales increased 10% year-over-year with diluted earnings per share of $0.84 compared to breakeven earnings per share in the first quarter of 2020. In summary, I'm confident in the strategy we outlined today and encouraged by the fundamental recovery underway. We're committed to driving sustainable and profitable long-term growth and investing in our strategic priorities to drive global brand awareness and sales growth through increased focused demand creation investments; enhance consumer experience and digital capabilities in all of our channels and geographies; expand and improve global direct-to-consumer operations with supporting processes and systems; and invest in our people and optimize our organization across our portfolio of brands. Now I'd like to discuss the questions we've received via the web portal. Andrew Burns, Director of Investor Relations, will be reading the questions. Please be reminded that the rules of conduct and procedures posted on the web portal will cover in this session. Andrew, can you help us?

Thanks, Tim. Let's leave the Q&A open here for just a few more seconds to see if there's any last minute questions. At this time, we have no questions in the queue. That will conclude our Q&A session. And with that, I will turn the meeting back over to Tim.

Thanks, Andrew, and thanks, everyone, for the -- on the call today for listening and for keeping us informed. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I now declare the polls for 2021 Columbia Sportswear Company Annual Shareholder Meeting closed. I understand that the votes have been counted and the preliminary report of the inspector of elections has been delivered to the company. The preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections indicates that all of the nominees for director positions for the coming year have been elected. Each candidate received the affirmative vote of at least 56,392,469 votes. The Ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021 has been approved by the shareholders by the affirmative vote of at least 62,803,662 votes. This represents more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting. The compensation of the company's named executive officers, as disclosed in the proxy statement pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC, has been approved by the shareholders by the affirmative vote of at least 61,442,909 votes. This represents more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting. Confirmed results -- excuse me, confirmed results will be reported on a current report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC within the next 4 days. You've now heard the results of the voting, and this completes the business to be conducted at this meeting. Since there are no other matters to properly come before the meeting, I will now adjourn the meeting. In appreciation for joining us today, we would like to offer you an opportunity to buy our great products at a discount. An e-mail with the details will be sent to the e-mail addresses provided while signing into the meeting today. We'd also like to direct your attention to our Investor Relations website, investor.columbia.com. The website contains stock quotes, our proxy statement and our annual report and other investor information. I want to thank you again for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support.