Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Steve Forbes: Good morning and thanks for taking the question. Marvin, Brandon, I just wanted to follow-up with a quick modeling question given the exit of Canada. And so I’m not sure if you could help us think about the mix impact on gross margin because I would think the Canadian business and the exit of it has a positive impact on gross. And can you help us quantify that relative to the 60 basis point net impact and whether this is partially sort of supportive of the 2023 outlook for a flattish gross margin in 2023?

Brandon Sink: Yes, Steve, 60 basis points was a full year impact on operating margin. And when you think about the split there between gross margin and SG&A, it’s roughly half and half.

Steve Forbes: Thank you for that. And then lastly, the ongoing compensation related to investments that you noted during the prepared remarks, which is great to hear. I was curious, if we just take a step back and think about the dollar level of OpEx productivity initiatives you’ve highlighted at the Analyst Days in 2020 and 2022. Any contextualization about how much still remains in front of us in dollar terms. And Marvin, I’m not sure if you could maybe talk about some specific PPI initiatives that you’re most excited about this year?

Marvin Ellison: Yes. Well, it’s a really good question, Steve. A couple of things. Number one, as you can imagine, we have been working aggressively to update our IT infrastructure. We still have a 30-year-old basically mainline system that we’re getting ready to retire, and it’s literally taken us 4.5 years to get to this point. The moment that system is officially retired, it gives us the ability to create so many technology advancements that will do two things, will simplify the associate’s job and limit friction points for customers, which will reduce payroll and improve customer service. And that’s what Joe cited in some of his prepared comments. And so holistically, a lot of our PPI initiatives on the store and merchandising side, and candidly, the supply chain side are tied and correlates to the retirement of this 30-year-old operating system that we are excited is going to be going away over the next few months.

And as we look at that, you’ll start to see a more omni-channel type of systems available in the store at point of sale, you’ll start to see pricing initiatives and pricing systems advanced on the merchandising side. You’ll start to see us have the ability to do more relative to integrating gig network deliveries online in a more seamless way in addition to all the supply chain and some of the advanced sourcing logic we’ll be able to do that will give us the ability to ship merchandise, aggregate merchandise, from different points of stores, distribution centers without having to go out and build these monolithic DCs that some retailers have had to do. So, all of those things are tied together. But again, it’s almost foundationally driven to a lot of the IT work that’s been done the last four-plus years.

Steve Forbes: Thank you.

Kate Pearlman: Thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you on our first quarter earnings call in May.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes the Lowe’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings call. You may now disconnect.

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