Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors
The following risk factors supplement and update our risk factors as set forth in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 1, 2020, as amended.
The COVID-19 outbreak has had, and may continue to have, a material adverse impact on our business, operations, liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. On March 18, 2020, to help control the spread of the virus and protect the health and safety of our customers, employees, and the communities we serve, we temporarily closed all of our stores in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, we took several actions in late March 2020 to reduce costs and operations to levels that were more commensurate with then-current sales, including furloughs and pay reductions. However, as this continues to be an unprecedented period of uncertainty, we have made and may continue to make adjustments to our operational plans, inventory controls, liquidity management, and reductions to our expense and capital expenditure plans.
With the easing of stay-at-home orders and other state-imposed restrictions on non-essential businesses, during the second quarter and into the third quarter of fiscal 2020, we have re-opened the majority of our stores, discontinued the furlough program, and restored pay for our associates that had taken pay reductions. In July 2020, we implemented an internal reorganization and reduction of our workforce, resulting in the elimination of over 1,000 associate positions, including approximately 220 vacant positions that will not be filled.
Given the continuation of overall depressed consumer sentiment, customer behavior has been and may continue to be slow to return to pre-COVID-19 patterns and levels, if at all. We have continued to serve our customers through our e-commerce businesses during the period that our stores were closed and beyond, but store closures resulted in a sharp decline in our net sales and cash flows during the first half of fiscal 2020. Although the majority of our stores are now open, we are experiencing, and may continue to experience, significantly reduced customer traffic and net sales. Our retailer customers in the Brand Portfolio Segment are having similar experiences.
The COVID-19 pandemic remains challenging. The continuation of the outbreak or a new surge in cases may cause new and prolonged periods of store closures, further adjustments to store operations, and changes in customer behaviors and preferences, which may necessitate further shifts in our business model, and potential reductions in consumer spending. As such, the ultimate impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak to our businesses remain highly uncertain and we may have additional write-downs of inventories, accounts receivables, long-lived assets, intangibles, and goodwill and an inability to realize deferred tax assets.
Measures intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 may negatively impact our operations.
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the government mandates implemented to control its spread, most of our corporate office associates are working remotely. If our employees are unable to work effectively as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, including because of illness, quarantines, office closures, ineffective remote work arrangements or technology failures or limitations, our operations would be adversely impacted. Further, remote work arrangements may increase the risk of cybersecurity incidents, data breaches or cyber-attacks, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations, due to, among other things, the loss of proprietary data, interruptions or delays in the operation of our business, damage to our reputation and any government-imposed penalty.
COVID-19 may negatively impact our international operations, including, but not limited to, our foreign sources of merchandise.
We have international operations in China, Canada, and Brazil. Our international operations may be adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. For example, all of the products we manufacture in the Brand Portfolio segment come from third-party facilities outside of the U.S., with 83% sourced from China during fiscal 2019, whereas our U.S. Retail and Canada Retail merchandise is purchased from both domestic and foreign vendors. Many of our domestic vendors import a large portion of their merchandise from abroad, with the majority manufactured in China. The COVID-19 outbreak has led to work and travel restrictions within, to, and out of mainland China, which in turn may affect our and our vendors’ manufacturers. The COVID-19 outbreak also may make it difficult for our suppliers and our vendors’ suppliers to source raw materials from, manufacture goods in, and export products from China and other countries. If the severity and reach of the COVID-19 outbreak continues or worsens, there may be significant and material disruptions to our supply chain and operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows.
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The success of our business is dependent on the strength of our relationships with our retailer customers, and reductions in or loss of sales to such customers as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
Our major retailer customers have experienced and may continue to experience a significant downturn in their businesses as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and, in turn, these customers have and may continue to reduce their purchases from us, which has had and may continue to have a material adverse effect on the Brand Portfolio segment.
We may be unable to anticipate and respond to fashion trends, consumer preferences and changing customer expectations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
With our customers staying home more as a result of COVID-19, we believe that there will continue to be a clear shift in consumer behavior and corresponding preferences to increased demand for athleisure and casual products and away from dress and seasonal categories. This requires us to anticipate and respond to numerous and fluctuating variables in fashion trends and other conditions in the markets in which our customers are situated. A variety of factors will affect our ability to maintain the proper mix of products, including: local economic conditions impacting customers' discretionary spending; unanticipated fashion trends; our ability to provide timely access to popular brands at attractive prices; our success in distributing merchandise to our stores and our wholesale retailer customers in an efficient manner; and changes in weather patterns, which, in turn, may affect consumer preferences. If we are unable to anticipate trends and fulfill the merchandise needs of our customers, we may experience decreases in our net sales and may be forced to increase markdowns in relation to slow-moving merchandise, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Being an omni-channel retailer is a business necessity to meet customer experience expectations. In the event that our omni-channel strategy does not meet customer expectations or is not differentiated from our competitors, it may have a material adverse effect on our business.
We rely on our strong relationships with vendors to purchase products. If these relationships were to be impaired, we may be unable to obtain a sufficient assortment of merchandise at attractive prices or respond promptly to changing fashion trends, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
Our success depends, to a significant extent, on the willingness and ability of our vendors to supply us with merchandise that meets our changing customer expectations, especially as we concentrate our receipts to fewer branded vendors. If we fail to maintain strong relationships with these vendors or if they fail to ensure the quality of merchandise they supply us, our ability to provide our customers with merchandise they want at favorable prices may be limited, which could have a negative impact on our business. Decisions by vendors to not sell to us or to limit the availability of their products to us could have a negative impact on our business. In addition, our inability to stock our sales channels with desired merchandise at attractive prices could result in lower net sales and decreased customer interest in our sales channels, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, if our merchandise costs increase due to increases incurred by our vendors in raw materials, energy, labor, or duties and taxes on imports, or other reasons, our ability to respond or the effect of our response could adversely affect our net sales or gross profit. During fiscal 2019, three key third-party vendors together supplied approximately 21% of our retail merchandise. For fiscal 2020, we expect these and other high-volume vendors to become more concentrated for our total purchases. The loss of, or a reduction in, the amount and quality of merchandise supplied by any one of these vendors could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, any negative brand image, wide-spread product defects, or negative publicity related to these key vendors, or other vendors, could have a material adverse effect on our reputation and on our business.
We rely on consumer discretionary spending, which may be adversely affected by economic downturns and other macroeconomic conditions or trends and/or exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our business and operating results are subject to global economic conditions and their impact on consumer discretionary spending. Many factors that may negatively influence consumer spending are becoming increasingly present as a result of COVID-19 and political instability, including high levels of unemployment, higher consumer debt levels, reductions in net worth, declines in asset values and related market uncertainty, fluctuating interest rates and credit availability, fluctuating fuel and other energy costs, general uncertainty regarding the overall future political and economic environment, and recent large-scale social unrest across much of the U.S. Consumer purchases of discretionary items, including our products, generally decline during periods of economic uncertainty, when disposable income is reduced or when there is a reduction in consumer confidence. Additionally, any of these adverse economic, political or social conditions may have the effect of directly or indirectly impacting our operating results in a negative manner. Moreover, we are unable to predict the severity of macroeconomic uncertainty, whether or when such circumstances may improve or worsen, or the full impact such circumstances could have on our business.
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Stein Mart filing for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance.
On August 12, 2020 , Stein Mart, one of our ABG retail partners, filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code and announced its plan to liquidate inventory. The ultimate outcome of the filing and liquidation sale is subject to the oversight and approval of the bankruptcy court. We are monitoring the status of the filing and are taking appropriate actions to maximize the recovery value of the inventory we own at Stein Mart locations. As of August 1, 2020, inventory we owned at Stein Mart locations was $ 15.2 million at cost and we had a receivable balance due from Stein Marts of $ 2.1 million. Although we do not expect to incur material losses as a result of Stein Mart's actions, there can be no assurances that we will successfully recover the full value of these assets.
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