Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jeff Gennette: Kimberly, so let me start with — some of this is predicated on how the balance of fourth quarter goes and what is — what’s the consumer buying through this time frame. But let me just say that we do think that this customer that this holiday is important to our consumers and the gift-giving is going to be important family gatherings are going to be more plentiful than other. We look at hotel reservations, airline flights, just all the surveys that say how many nights they’re going to spend away from their home with family members. This gifting season is going to be important. Now that is when you look at savings rates starting to deplete, you look at all the other, just the cumulative effects of inflation on our consumers across all discretionary and nondiscretionary spend, there may be a slowdown in as we think about the first quarter bind that they will be tapped out in terms of their budgets.

So while not giving you any guidance for ’23, we are looking very carefully at the base of your question, which is how might that come by quarter, and ensuring that we have the right supply and not oversupply of content. However, that quarter split might be out. So we think that the first quarter may be more pressed and we’re thinking through that right now. We’re making adjustments in our own ordering, obviously, watching our reserves very carefully on this. And so spring/summer, we have a better view of not sure yet about what fall holiday will look like, all that will obviously baked into our full guidance when we come back to you at the middle of February. So anything to add there?

Adrian Mitchell: Yes, I’ll just add a couple of things and Kimberly. What I would say is that within the context of what Jeff described, we remain committed to our previously stated longer-term targets, which are low single-digit sales growth and low double-digit adjusted EBITDA margins. And I think if you think about what Jeff shared a bit earlier with regards to how we’re thinking about the business, I think that the actions that we’ve been taking to strengthen our competitive position is really important. So we have a healthy balance sheet, we’re investing in new capabilities, we have a talented team, and we believe that positions us well for those longer-term targets of profitable growth. We’re investing in high-return initiatives.

These are the things that will strengthen our capabilities to be able to really go to the marketplace in a stronger position with the consumer, really building on that foundation around disciplined inventory management, investing in talent and all the things that we’ve spoken about earlier. To your point about headwinds and tailwinds, I think the biggest headwind still remains around inflation because that’s really affecting the capacity for consumers to spend on discretionary categories. It’s also — as we look ahead, one of the headwinds we’re also looking at is just what’s the rate of demand? How much will demand slow in a rising interest rate environment? The tailwinds that we think we have is how we compete in the marketplace. We know that the consumer value is important to the consumer, customer experience is important to the consumer, relevance is important to the consumer.

So we’re really focused on what we can control and how we compete, and I think that could be a real tailwind for us.

Operator: We’ll take our next question from Dana Telsey from Telsey Group. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Dana Telsey: As you think about the real estate portfolio, urban areas versus suburban areas, what you’re seeing in backstage, is the performance different at all from what you’re seeing in those areas? And then next year, as you think about supply chain broadly, how do you frame the tailwinds from supply chain and what it could mean to the business?

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