Big Lots, Inc. (BIG) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Big Lots, Inc. (BIG) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 29, 2023 8:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Alvin Concepcion - Vice President, Investor Relations
Bruce Thorn - President and Chief Executive Officer
Jonathan Ramsden - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial officer and Chief Administrative Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jason Haas - Bank of America
Brad Thomas - KeyBanc Capital Markets
Krisztina Katai - Deutsche Bank
Daniel Silverstein - Credit Suisse

Alvin Concepcion

Good morning. This is Alvin Concepcion, Vice President of Investor Relations at Big Lots. Welcome to the Big Lots Second Quarter Conference Call. Currently, all lines are in a listen-only mode. [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 risks 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 would 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 second quarter earnings release, presentation and related financial information are available @biglots.com/corporate/investors. A 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. There are three key messages I want to convey this morning. First, our results for Q2 with comp sales down 14.6% and an adjusted EPS loss of $3.24 illustrate that we remain in a very challenging environment, which our core lower income customer remains under