Zales Corporation F1Q09 (Qtr End 10/31/08) Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-11-25 11:59:14.0

Tags: Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Call Transcript, Earnings, Refinement, Operational Accounting, Payroll Solutions, Finance, Seeking Alpha, Zale Corp.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Lorraine Maikis - Merrill Lynch.

Lorraine Maikis - Merrill Lynch

You have been talking about this SG&A reduction plan for a while and SG&A dollars this quarter were flat despite the decline in sales so can you just talk about what the increase in SG&A dollars was that was partially offset by the cost reduction plan and what we should expect for the rest of the year?

Neal Goldberg

SG&A initiative we had talked about last year was described in the form of a run rate reduction. We had normal escalation in terms of rent inflationary increases and store payroll increases. This is really driven by a variety of overall savings. The restructuring we had previously announced in terms of the alignment of brands, both field management and support center management, marketing, administrative, SG&A costs, inventory, interest expense savings from the programs that we had initiated in terms of inventory reductions. So there is continued refinement in a variety of categories throughout the business that are a driving force there.

Rodney Carter

We also said we planned originally $65 million plus. We have now taken that up to $75 million plus and as importantly we are still aggressively looking at different things we can do to make our company run much more efficiently, nimble and quick and help us get even additional expense saves.

Neal Goldberg

To kind of give you some magnitude as the expense savings to date will be more than doubled at the end of Q2 as this program builds momentum.

Lorraine Maikis - Merrill Lynch

Can you just talk about priorities for cash flow going forward? Are you expecting to start paying down debt or will you continue the share repurchase?

Neal Goldberg

I think we will continue to pay down debt.

Operator

The next question comes from Adrienne Shapiro – Goldman Sachs,

Adrienne Shapiro – Goldman Sachs

Following up on the cost savings comment could perhaps Rodney or Neal share with us where the incremental $10 million of cost savings are coming from?

Rodney Carter

I think it is a refinement of each category whether it is some things to refine in distribution costs, whether it is some efficiency in some of the operating expense here as well as continued refinement in process and organizational structure. It is a variety of bits and pieces from a lot of things.

 

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