DSW Inc. Q3 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

DSW Inc. (DSW) Q3 2009 Earnings Call November 24, 2009 8:00 AM ET

Executives

Leslie Neville – Director IR
Michael MacDonald – President & CEO
Deborah Ferree – Chief Merchandising Officer
Douglas Probst – EVP & CFO

Analysts

Jeff Black - Barclays Capital
Christopher Svezia - Susquehanna Financial Group
David Mann - Johnson Rice & Company
[Mike Shritka] – Longacre Fund Management
John Zolidis - Buckingham Research
Dana Walker – Komar Investments

Presentation

Operator

Good day ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the third quarter 2009 DSW Inc. earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today’s call, Leslie Neville, Director of Investor Relations.

Leslie Neville

Good morning. Welcome to DSW’s third quarter 2009 earnings conference call. With me today in Columbus are Michael MacDonald, our CEO, Debbie Ferree, Vice Chairperson and Chief Merchandising Officer and Douglas Probst our CFO.

Before we proceed please note that earlier this morning we issued a press release detailing the results of operations for the quarter ended October 31, 2009. Various remarks we make about the future expectations, plans, and prospects of the company constitute forward-looking statements.

The actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those listed in today's press release and in our public filings with the SEC.

With that, I will turn it over to Douglas Probst

Douglas Probst

Thanks Leslie, good morning everyone. We will begin with the financial performance for the third quarter and then update our outlook for 2009. Net sales for the third quarter increased 14% to $444.6 million. Same store sales increased 8.7% for the comparable period versus a decrease of 4.1% last year.

By segment our comps for our DSW business