BIG - Big Lots Inc. (BIG) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-06-06 10:39:07 ET
Big Lots, Inc. (BIG)
Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call
June 06, 2024, 08:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Alvin Concepcion - VP of IR
Bruce Thorn - President and CEO
Jonathan Ramsden - EVP, CFO and CAO
Conference Call Participants
Scott Stringer - Wolfe Research
Taylor Zick - KeyBanc Capital Markets
Mark Jordan - Goldman Sachs
Presentation
Alvin Concepcion
Good morning. This is Alvin Concepcion, Vice President of Investor Relations at Big Lots. Welcome to the Big Lots First Quarter Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
On the call with me today are Bruce Thorn, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jonathan Ramsden, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer.
Before starting today's call, we would like to remind you that any forward-looking statements made on the call involve risk and uncertainties that are subject to the company's safe harbor provisions as stated in the company's press release and SEC filings, and that actual results can differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. We'd also like to point out that commentary today is focused on adjusted non-GAAP results. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP adjusted results are available in today's press release. The first quarter earnings release, presentation, and financial information is available at biglots.com/corporate/investors. The question-and-answer session will follow the prepared remarks.
I will now turn the call over to Bruce.
Bruce Thorn
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us.
While we've made substantial progress on improving our business operations in Q1, we missed our sales goal due largely to continued pullback and consumer spending by our core customers, particularly in high-ticket discretionary items. The consumer environment softened in the first quarter, as both consumer confidence and settlement has declined since January due in part to concerns about inflation, unemployment, and interest rates.
Also, personal saving rates have been declining, while credit card balances have grown, indicating the pressure our core consumer is under as they try to manage their strained budgets. We remain focused on managing through the current economic cycle by controlling the controllables. Our operational initiatives to offer a large assortment of new and exciting extreme bargains, cut costs, and increased productivity exceeded our targets in Q1. This enabled us to improve consumer perceptions about our brand and the value we offer and to deliver a year-over-year improvement in gross margin rate and operating expenses despite the significant sales pressure this quarter....
Big Lots, Inc. (BIG) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript