Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings, Inc. (OLLI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings, Inc. Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. John Swygert. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Will the meeting please come to order? My name is John Swygert, and I'm the President and CEO of Ollie's. I would like to welcome you to the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings, Inc. I will be chairing the meeting today, which we'll be conducting virtually for the first time this year in light of the coronavirus to ensure we protect the health and safety of everyone. In the past, we have conducted our annual meeting in person in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and we hope to be returning to that practice in the future. In the event that we experienced technical difficulties that are not promptly resolved, I ask that you look for information on the annual meeting website regarding a continuation of the meeting. Since this is our first annual meeting since Mark Butler's passing, I wanted to take a moment to share how grateful I am for having the opportunity to work closely with Mark for nearly 16 years. He was a passionate and talented entrepreneur and individual as well as a great friend. We miss him every day, but he remains in our hearts, while his lessons and vision stay in our minds and frame our actions as we drive this business forward. Our business is simple. We buy cheap, and we sell cheap. I also want to acknowledge the incredible efforts of our team. Not only has everyone stepped up with enthusiasm to honor Mark's legacy, but they have demonstrated heroic efforts in operating our business and serving our customers to this unprecedented health crisis. I want to thank each and every one of our associates who have worked tirelessly through these past months to execute on behalf of our business and our customers. It is no small part due to their commitment that we have been able to continue to operate during this pandemic. I would also like to welcome members of our executive staff and our Board who have joined us at our meeting this year. I need to thank our Board and executive staff for their dedication, commitment and leadership as we continue to navigate through these unsettled times. The meeting will take place as described in the agenda. We have posted the proxy statement, annual report, agenda and rules for this meeting on the annual meeting website. The matters on which stockholders are voting are to: one, elect directors of the Board of Directors to hold office until 2021 annual meeting of stockholders; two, approve a nonbinding proposal regarding the compensation of the company's named executive officers; and three, ratify the appointment of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending January 30, 2021. Rob Bertram, the General Counsel of the company, will serve as the secretary of the meeting. An affidavit of distribution has been received, establishing the notice of this meeting was duly given. The affidavit will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. Stockholders of record as of close of business on April 27, 2020, are entitled to vote at this meeting. I declare the meeting convened. The meeting is now open and ready for business. Rob will discuss the procedures for transacting the business of the meeting.

Thank you, John. As a quorum is present, the polls now are open. If you have already voted, you do not need to vote again, unless you want to change your vote. If you have not already voted or you wish to change your vote, please do so by clicking Vote Here on the annual meeting website now. [Operator Instructions] I also want to remind you to take a moment to review the rules for the meeting, which are posted on the annual meeting website. While the votes are being tabulated, John will make a very brief presentation about Ollie's and our business. I also want to remind everyone that management's remarks on this call may contain forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, predictions, expectations or estimates, and that actual results could differ materially from those mentioned during the meeting. Any such items, including with respect to our future performance, should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise them for any new information or future events. Factors that may affect future results may not be in our control and are discussed in our SEC filings. We encourage you to review these filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, for a more detailed description of these factors.

Thank you, Rob. The first item of business is the election of the following directors to hold office until 2021 annual meeting of stockholders. They are: Alissa Ahlman, Robert Fisch, John Swygert and Richard Zannino. Biographies for the directors are set out in the proxy. At this point, I declare the nominations for the directors closed. Item 2. The second item of business is to approve a nonbinding proposal regarding the named executive officer compensation, which is sometimes called say on pay. We have decided to have this vote every year, seeking approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of our named executive officers. The third item of business is to ratify the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending January 30, 2021. At this time, I also want to take a moment to recognize [ Vincent Rose ] and Kelli Grassmyer from KPMG who worked on our audit of the company's financial statements for the year ended February 1, 2020. They are here with us virtually today. The polls are now closed, and Rob will provide the preliminary report of the inspector of election on the results of the voting later in the meeting after tabulation has been completed. I would like to take a few moments to offer some remarks about the company and our business. As I stated earlier, our business model is simple. We buy good stuff cheap, and we offer great deals to our customers. We carry a broad selection of ever-changing brand name merchandise at drastically reduced prices. Our stores provide a treasure hunt experience that is fun and engaging. We have an extremely loyal customer base that makes up Ollie's Army, which, at the end of the first quarter, boast almost 10.5 million members, and it keeps growing. Our business model and financial condition are both strong, and we are well positioned to execute our strategy. We have 366 stores today and a runway to 1,050 nationally. Finally, we have experienced -- we have an experienced and talented management team that is energized and excited about our future growth. We are Ollie's. At this time, I would like to open the meeting to any questions that stockholders may have. If you have a question related to the company but not the matters already voted on in the meeting, you may raise them while the vote is being tabulated. Only matters that may concern all stockholders should be raised at this time. Before we begin, I want to remind the company's -- remind you of the company's procedure for questions and comments, which is posted on the annual meeting website. Rob, will you please announce -- excuse me. If any stockholders have any questions, they may request now.

There are no questions at this time.

Rob, will you please announce results of the stockholders vote?

Thanks, John. The preliminary report of the inspector of election indicates that Alissa Ahlman, Robert Fisch, John Swygert and Richard Zannino have been elected as directors by the stockholders. Each candidate received the affirmative vote of at least 51 million votes, representing more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting. The nonbinding proposal regarding the compensation of the company's named executive officers has passed with at least 53 million votes in favor, representing a majority of the votes cast. Ratification of the appointment of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ended January 30, 2021, has been approved by the stockholders by the affirmative vote of at least 57 million votes, representing more than a majority of the votes cast at the meeting.

You have now heard the results of the voting, and this completes the business conducted at this meeting. Since there are no other matters to come before the meeting, we will now adjourn.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.