Kirkland’s, Inc. (NASDAQ: KIRK) announced financial results for the 13-week and 52-week periods ended January 30, 2021.
“We are pleased to report record earnings for the fourth quarter, which reflect the appeal of our merchandise assortments with customers and the earnings leverage in the business from our cost and infrastructure changes,” noted Woody Woodward, Chief Executive Officer. “This has been a year filled with challenges as a company, as individuals and as a nation. I am proud of how Kirkland’s team members embraced the reinvention and innovation required of us during the pandemic. Their commitment to our customers and to one another during this period is inspiring and affirming. Their diligence also provides us the confidence that we can achieve our vision for Kirkland’s and execute on our strategic priorities and financial goals. We are ahead of where we expected to be when we originally outlined these goals a year ago and the results speak for themselves, but we have more work ahead of us to accomplish all that is possible at Kirkland’s. We are energized by these opportunities for continued improvement.”
Mr. Woodward continued, “We continue to carefully, deliberately and strategically evolve Kirkland’s into a value-oriented specialty retailer. Our strategy has been to incrementally improve the quality and design of our merchandise while maintaining our opening price points and delivering value for our customers. Merchandising will be front and center again for us in 2021, along with leveraging the improvements in infrastructure and operating costs and accelerating our ongoing digital transformation. With total liquidity of $140 million at year end, we are well positioned to fund the evolution of Kirkland’s.”
Strategic Priorities and Financial Goals
Kirkland’s key strategic initiatives include:
- Accelerating product development to reinforce quality and relevancy as we continue the transformation of the Kirkland’s brand into a specialty retailer where customers are able to furnish their entire home on a budget;
- Improving omni-channel via website enhancements, more focused marketing spend, an expanded online assortment, and an in-store experience that is aligned with our omni-channel capabilities;
- Improving the customer experience with our re-launched loyalty program, extended credit options and broadened delivery options; and
- Utilizing our leaner infrastructure to be nimbler in our response to changes in consumer preference and buying behaviors.
Kirkland’s annual financial goals for the next two to three years include:
- Improving comparable sales performance, driven by e-commerce growth, merchandising, brick-and-mortar store productivity and closure of underperforming stores. We expect e-commerce to continue to grow as a percent of our total business, but also intend to focus on improving the contribution of our remaining store base, which is an integral part of our omni-channel strategy and supports improved profitability of our e-commerce sales.
- Stabilizing gross margin by continuing with our current discipline of limited promotional offers, expanding direct sourcing, improving supply chain efficiency and reducing occupancy costs. With improved merchandise quality and to support a better customer experience, we will continue to move towards more targeted promotions. Direct sourcing is expected to increase from approximately 20% of purchases in 2020 to 40% to 50% over the next two to three years. With these product margin improvements, continued efficiencies in our supply chain and lower occupancy costs, our goal is to improve our annual gross profit margin to a mid-30% range over the next two to three years.
- Improving profitability by leveraging the leaner infrastructure with comparable sales growth. We believe our ideal store count should be in the range of 300 to 350 stores. We believe there will be additional opportunities for more favorable rent terms with ongoing lease renewals. With approximately $45 million in annualized operating expenses eliminated from the business, we expect to reach annual EBITDA as a percent of sales in the high-single to low-double-digit range and annual operating income in the mid to high-single-digit range within two to three years.
- Maintaining adequate liquidity and generating free cash flow while continuing to invest in key strategic initiatives of the business and returning excess cash to our shareholders.
The key strategic initiatives and financial goals are based on current information as of March 12, 2021, and are dependent on, among other things, consumer preferences, economic conditions and our own successful execution of these initiatives. The information on which these initiatives and financial goals is based is subject to change, and investors are cautioned that the Company may update the initiatives and goals, or any portion thereof, at any time for any reason.
