J.Jill, Inc. (NYSE:JILL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Mark Webb: Thanks, Daniel. Yes, so the capital guide of $18 million to $20 million you’re right. We spent $15 million this year. We’re quite honestly excited to return to investing in the business and primarily investing in some of these very important foundational systems, the POS being, sort of, the first element of that and very excited to invest there. And it will really upgrade and bring current our store and omni opportunities around the point of sale. So that is a very large project. We’ve been executing it as I mentioned through 2022 and we’ll begin to pilot it and roll it out with being true to our cautious approach to things, we’ll be rolling it out and piloting it through 2023 in the coming months. And very excited about that.

The store investments are both refreshes, as well as some new stores, Claire mentioned, to — that are more excited about in the coming weeks. And no further guidance on that other than say that we stand ready to invest in stores as the economics come together in the way that we need them to support this very important channel for us. And then the technology bucket that we mentioned is really about business process, support and more business intelligence type investments than we’ve had previously. So from our perspective, it’s a manageable level of investment. The business generates significant cash flow and these are really investments that strengthen foundations and help us pivot as we do to the profitable growth profile we want to obtain in the coming years.

Daniel Lupo: Got it. That’s very helpful. And then lastly, as we kind of head into 2023, you mentioned inventories in a good starting position. Can you maybe comment a little bit further on the working capital picture and maybe how nimble you can be in adjusting working capital to further protect to the downside if there is any sort of rapid change in the economic environment?

Mark Webb: Yes. The purchases that we’ve sort of entered the year, the purchasing mindset, I guess, I would call it, is one of caution given the macroeconomic conditions. Claire, mentioned best offense is defense or best defense is offense, I just get those two messed up. But that includes a very cautious absolute level of inventory investment and that’s reflected in the way that we enter the year and the go forward profile is going to continue to be one of a conservative investment in inventory. The flexibility at this point in the year is marginal to the middle of the year and a bit more room to flex both down, but as well as up. Should conditions improve into the back half of the year really into late Q3, Q4 timeframe.

Daniel Lupo: Got it. That’s very helpful. Thanks for the time today. Nice quarter.

Mark Webb: Thanks, Daniel.

Claire Spofford: Thanks, Daniel.

Operator: And this ends our Q&A session and does conclude today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.