UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
x | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended: January 30, 201029, 2011
OR
¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
Commission File Number: 000-51300
ZUMIEZ INC.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
Washington | 91-1040022 | |
(State or other jurisdiction of | (IRS Employer | |
incorporation or organization) | Identification No.) | |
6300 Merrill Creek Parkway, Suite B, | ||
Everett, Washington | 98203 | |
(Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) |
(425) 551-1500
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered under Section 12(b) of the Act:Common Stock
Name of each exchange on which registered:The NASDAQ Global Select Market
Securities registered under Section 12(g) of the Act:None
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ¨ No x
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No x
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15 (d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the last ninety days. Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10–K. ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrantRegistrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrantRegistrant was required to submit and post such files). ¨Yes ¨ No¨
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10–K. ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer | ¨ | Accelerated filer | x | |||
Non-accelerated filer | ¨ | Smaller reporting company | ¨ |
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No x
As of the last business day of the second fiscal quarter, August 1, 2009,July 30, 2010, the aggregate market value of the Registrant’s voting and non-voting stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant was approximately $197,371,598$386,823,680 using the closing sales price on that day of $9.55.$18.30.
As ofAt March 23, 2010,15, 2011, there were 30,422,67030,989,173 shares outstanding of the Registrant’s common stock outstanding.stock.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
The information required by Part III of this report is incorporated by reference from the Registrant’s definitive proxy statement, relating to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders scheduled to be held May 26, 2010,25, 2011, which definitive proxy statement will be filed not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates.
FORM 10-K
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Item 1. | 1 | |||
Item 1A. | 10 | |||
Item 1B. | 22 | |||
Item 2. | 22 | |||
Item 3. | 23 | |||
Item 4. | 23 | |||
Item 5. | 24 | |||
Item 6. | 26 | |||
Item 7. | Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations | 28 | ||
Item 7A. | 40 | |||
Item 8. | 40 | |||
Item 9. | Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure | 41 | ||
Item 9A. | 41 | |||
Item 9B. | 41 | |||
Item 10. | 42 | |||
Item 11. | 42 | |||
Item 12. | Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters | 42 | ||
Item 13. | Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence | 42 | ||
Item 14. | 42 | |||
Item 15. | 42 | |||
44 | ||||
ZUMIEZ INC.
FORM 10-K
This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to our expectations for future events and future financial performance. Generally, the words “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “should,” “plans,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and future events and circumstances could differ significantly from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially. Factors which could affect our financial results are described in Item 1A below and in Item 7 of Part II of this Form 10-K. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this report to conform such statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
Comment regarding ourWe use a fiscal calendar widely used by the retail industry that results in a fiscal year end: The Company’s fiscal year is based onconsisting of a 52/52- or 53-week yearperiod ending on the Saturday closest to January 31. Each fiscal year consists of four 13-week quarters, with an extra week added to the fourth quarter every five or six years. Fiscal 2010 was the 52-week period ending January 29, 2011. Fiscal 2009 was the 52-week period ended January 30, 2010. Fiscal 2008 was the 52-week period ended January 31, 2009.
“Zumiez,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” “its,” “our” and similar references refer to Zumiez Inc. and ourits wholly-owned subsidiary Zumiez Nevada, LLC.subsidiaries.
BUSINESS |
We areZumiez Inc., a mall basedWashington corporation, is a leading specialty retailer of action sports related apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories operating under the Zumiez brand name. As ofAt January 30, 2010,29, 2011, we operated 377400 stores primarily located in shopping malls, giving us a presence in 3537 states. We were founded in 1978 by Thomas D. Campion, our Chairman. Our current Chief Executive Officer, Richard M. Brooks joined us as Chief Financial Officer in 1993. Our stores cater to young men and women between the ages of 12 and 24 who seek popular brands representing a lifestyle centered on activities that include skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, BMXbicycle motocross (or “BMX”) and motocross. We support the action sports lifestyle and promote our brand through a multi-faceted marketing approach that is designed to integrate our brand image with our customers’ activities and interests. This approach, combined with our differentiated merchandising strategy, store design, comprehensive training programs and passionate employees, allows us to provide an experience for our customers that we believe is consistent with their attitudes, fashion tastes and identities and is otherwise unavailable in most malls. In addition, we operate a website that sells merchandise online and provides content and a community for our target customers. The Company was formed in August 1978.
Our stores bring the look and feel of an independent specialty shop to the mall by emphasizing the action sports lifestyle through a distinctive store environment and high-energy sales personnel. We seek to staff our stores with store associates who are knowledgeable users of our products, which we believe provides our customers with enhanced customer service and supplements our ability to identify and react quickly to emerging trends and fashions. We design our stores to appeal to teenagers and young adults and to serve as a destination for our customers. Most of our stores, which average approximately 2,900 square feet, feature couches and action sports oriented video game stations that are intended to encourage our customers to shop for longer periods of time and to interact with each other and our store associates. To increase customer traffic, we generally locate our stores near busy areas of the mall such as food courts, movie theaters, music or game stores and other popular teen retailers. We believe that our distinctive store concept and compelling store economics will provide continued opportunities for growth in both new and existing markets.
We believe that our customers desire merchandise and fashion that is rooted in the action sports lifestyle and reflects their individuality. We strive to keep our merchandising mix fresh by continuously introducing new brands and styles and categories of product. Our focus on a diverse collection of brands allows us to quickly adjust to changing fashion trends. We believe that our strategic mix of both apparel and hardgoods, including
skateboards, snowboards, bindings, components and other equipment, allows us to strengthen the potential of the brands we sell and helps to affirm our credibility with our customers. In addition, we supplement our stores with a select offering of private label apparel and products as a value proposition that we believe complements our overall merchandise selection.
Over our 31-year32-year history, we have developed a corporate culture based on a passion for the action sports lifestyle. Our management philosophy emphasizes an integrated combination of results measurement, training and incentive programs, all designed to drive sales productivity at the individual store associate level. We empower our store managers to make store-level business decisions and consistently reward their success. We seek to enhance the productivity of our employees and encourage their advancement by offering comprehensive in-store, regional and national training programs, which we refer to collectively as “Zumiez University.” We have:
increased our store count from 140174 as of the end of fiscal 20042005 to 377400 as of the end of fiscal 2009,2010, a compounded annual growth rate of 21.9%18.1%;
experienced average net sales per square foot of $452$435 for our last five fiscal years ending with fiscal 2009;2010, from a peak of net sales per square foot of $499 in fiscal 2006;
increased net sales from approximately $153.6$205.6 million in fiscal 20042005 to approximately $407.6$478.8 million in fiscal 2009,2010, representing a compound annual growth rate of 21.6%18.4%;
been profitable in every fiscal year of our 3132 year history.
Competitive Strengths
We believe that the following competitive strengths differentiate us from our competitors and are critical to our continuing success.
Attractive Lifestyle Retailing Concept. We target a large population of 12 to 24 year olds, many of whom we believe are attracted to the action sports lifestyle and desire to promote their personal independence and style through the apparel, shoes and accessories they wear and the equipment they use. We believe that action sports is a permanent aspect of youth culture, reaching not only consumers that actually participate in action sports, but also those who seek brands and styles that fit a desired action sports image. We believe we have developed a brand image that our customers view as consistent with their attitudes, fashion tastes and identity that should allow us to benefit in our market.
Differentiated Merchandising Strategy. We have created a highly differentiated retailing concept by offering an extensive selection of current and relevant action sports brands encompassing apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories. The breadth of merchandise offered at our stores exceeds that offered by many other action sports specialty stores and includes some brands and products that are available within many malls only at our stores. The action sports lifestyle includes activities that are popular at different times throughout the year, providing us the opportunity to shift our merchandise selection seasonally. Many of our customers desire to update their wardrobes and equipment as fashion trends evolve or the action sports season dictates. We believe that our ability to quickly recognize changing brand and style preferences and transition our merchandise offerings allows us to continually provide a compelling offering to our customers.
Deep-rooted Culture. Our culture and brand image enable us to successfully attract and retain high quality employees who are passionate and knowledgeable about the products we sell. We place great emphasis on customer service and satisfaction, and we have made this a defining feature of our corporate culture. To preserve
our culture, we strive to promote store managers from within and they are given extensive responsibility for most aspects of store level management. We provide these managers with the knowledge and tools to succeed through our comprehensive training programs and the flexibility to manage their stores to meet localized customer demand. Our store leadership at the district manager level and above have all been promoted from within the Zumiez system and their leadership provides unique value and insight to our store managers and sales associates.
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Distinctive Store Experience. We strive to provide a convenient shopping environment that is appealing and clearly communicates our distinct brand image. Our stores are designed to reflect an “organized chaos” that we believe is consistent with many teenagers’ and young adults’ lifestyles. We seek to attract knowledgeable store associates who identify with the action sports lifestyle and are able to offer superior customer service, advice and product expertise. To further enhance our customers’ experience, most of our stores feature areas with couches and action sports oriented video game stations that are intended to encourage our customers to shop for longer periods of time, to interact with each other and our store associates in a familiar and comfortable setting and to visit our stores more frequently. We believe that our distinctive store environment enhances our image as a leading source for apparel and equipment for the action sports lifestyle.
Disciplined Operating Philosophy. We have an experienced senior management team. Our management team has built a strong operating foundation based on sound retail principles that underlie our unique culture. Our philosophy emphasizes an integrated combination of results measurement, training and incentive programs, all designed to drive sales productivity to the individual store associate level. Our comprehensive training programs are designed to provide our home office staff, managers and store associates with enhanced product knowledge, selling skills and operational expertise. We believe that our merchandising team’s immersion in the action sports lifestyle, supplemented with feedback from our customers, store associates, store leadership and managers, allows us to consistently identify and react to emerging fashion trends. We believe that this, combined with our inventory planning and allocation processes and systems, helps us mitigatebetter manage markdown and fashion risk.
High-Impact, Integrated Marketing Approach. We seek to build relationships with our customers through a multi-faceted marketing approach that is designed to integrate our brand image with the action sports lifestyle. Our marketing efforts focus on reaching our customers in their environment and feature extensive grassroots marketing events, such as the Zumiez Couch Tour, which is a series of interactive sports, music and lifestyle events held at various locations throughout the United States. Our marketing efforts also incorporate local sporting and music event promotions, advertising in magazines popular with our target market, and interactive contest sponsorships that actively involve our customers with our brands and products.products and various social network channels such as Facebook and Twitter. Events and activities such as these provide opportunities for our customers to develop a strong identity with our culture and brand. We believe that our immersion in the action sports lifestyle allows us to build credibility with our customers and gather valuable feedback on evolving customer preferences.
Growth Strategy
We intend to expand our presence as a leading action sports lifestyle retailer by:
Opening New Store Locations. We believe that the action sports lifestyle has national appeal that provides store expansion opportunities throughout the country.country and internationally. Since the end ofJanuary 28, 2006 through January 29, 2005 (fiscal 2004) through the year ended January 30, 2010 (fiscal 2009)2011, we have opened or acquired 241233 new stores consisting of 35 stores in fiscal 2005, 62 stores in fiscal 2006, 50 stores in fiscal 2007, 58 stores in fiscal 2008, and 36 stores in fiscal 2009.2009 and 27 stores in fiscal 2010. We have successfully opened stores in diverse markets throughout the United States, which we believe demonstrates the portability and growth potential of our concept. We plan to open approximately 25 stores in fiscal 2010, including stores in our existing markets and in new markets, toTo take advantage of what we believe to be a compelling economic store model.model, we plan to open approximately 44 stores in fiscal 2011, including stores in our existing markets, in new markets domestically and the planned opening of our first international stores in Canada. The number of anticipated store openings may increase or decrease due to market conditions.
Continuing to Generate Sales Growth through Improved Store Level Productivity.Productivity and Continued Ecommerce Sales Growth. We seek to maximize our comparable store sales, including sales from our ecommerce site, and net sales per square foot by maintaining consistent store-level execution and offering our customers a broad and relevant selection of action sports brands and products. We also intendseek to continue to expandgrow our ecommerce sales with a continued focus on enhancing and integrating the unique Zumiez brand awareness in an effort to maintain high levelsexperience through this channel. In fiscal years 2010, 2009 and 2008, ecommerce sales represented 4.7%, 2.5% and 1.7% of customer traffic.our total net sales.
Enhancing our Brand Awareness through Continued Marketing and Promotion. We believe that a key component of our success is the brand exposure that we receive from our marketing events, promotions and
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activities that embody the action sports lifestyle. These are designed to assist us in increasing brand awareness in our existing markets and expanding into new markets by strengthening our connection with our target customer base. We believe that our marketing efforts have also been successful in generating and promoting interest in our product offerings. In addition, we use our ecommerce presence, designed to convey our passion for the action sports lifestyle, to increase our brand awareness. We plan to continue to expand our integrated marketing efforts by promoting more events and activities in our existing and new markets.
The Action Sports Market
We believe that action sports is a permanent aspect of youth culture, reaching not only consumers that actually participate in action sports, but also those who seek brands and styles that fit a desired action sports image. We believe that teens enjoy shopping in malls and purchasing clothing, hardgoods and fashion-related merchandise.benefit from branded vendors’ marketing.
Merchandising and Purchasing
MerchandisingOur goal is to be viewed by our customers, both young men and young women, as the definitive source of merchandise for the action sports lifestyle. We believe that the breadth of merchandise offered at our stores, which includes apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories, exceeds that offered by many other action sports specialty stores at a single location, and makes our stores a single-stop purchase destination for our target customers. Our apparel offerings include tops, bottoms, outerwear and accessories such as caps, bags and backpacks, belts, jewelry and sunglasses. Our footwear offerings primarily consist of action sports related athletic shoes and sandals. Our equipment offerings, or hardgoods, include skateboards, snowboards and ancillary gear such as boots and bindings. We also offer a selection of other items, such as miscellaneous novelties and DVDs.
We seek to identify action sports oriented fashion trends as they develop and to respond in a timely manner with a relevant in-store product assortment. We strive to keep our merchandising mix fresh by continuously introducing new brands or styles in response to the evolving desires of our customers. We also take advantage of the change in action sports seasons during the year to maintain an updated product selection. Our merchandise mix may vary by region, reflecting the specific action sports preferences and seasons in different parts of the country.
We believe that offering an extensive selection of current and relevant brands used and sometimes developed by professional action sports athletes is integral to our overall success. No single brand, including private label, accounted for more than 6.0%6.5%, 7.1% and 6.9% of our net sales in fiscal 2010, 2009 and fiscal 2008. We believe that our strategic mix of both apparel and hardgoods, including skateboards, snowboards, bindings, components and other equipment, allows us to strengthen the potential of the brands we sell and affirms our credibility with our customers.
We believe that our ability to maintain an image consistent with the action sports lifestyle is important to our key vendors. Given our scale and market position, we believe that many of our key vendors view us as an important retail partner. This position helps ensure our ability to procure a relevant product assortment and quickly respond to the changing fashion interests of our customers. Additionally, we believe we are presented with a greater variety of products and styles by some of our vendors, as well as certain specially designed items that are only distributed to our stores.
We supplement our merchandise assortment with a select offering of private label products across many of our apparel product categories. Our private label products complement the
branded products we sell, and some of our private label brands allow us to cater to the more value-oriented customer. For fiscal 2010, 2009 2008, and 20072008 our private label merchandise represented approximately, 15.7 %,18.0%, 15.7% and 15.0% and 15.4% of our net sales.
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Purchasing Our merchandising staff consists of a general merchandising manager, divisional merchandising managers, planning staff, and a staff of buyers and assistant buyers. Our purchasing approach focuses on quality, speed and cost in order to provide timely delivery of merchandise to our stores. We have developed a disciplined approach to buying and a dynamic inventory planning and allocation process to support our merchandise strategy. We utilize a broad vendor base that allows us to shift our merchandise purchases as required to react quickly to changing market conditions. We manage the purchasing and allocation process by reviewing branded merchandise lines from new and existing vendors, identifying emerging fashion trends and selecting branded merchandise styles in quantities, colors and sizes to meet inventory levels established by management. We also coordinate inventory levels in connection with individual store sales strength, our promotions and seasonality. Our management information systems provide us with current inventory levels at each store and for our Company as a whole, as well as current selling history within each store by merchandise classification and by style. We purchase most of our branded merchandise from domestic vendors.
Our merchandising staff remains in tune with the action sports culture by participating in action sports, attending relevant events and concerts, watching action sports related programming and reading action sports publications. In order to identify evolving trends and fashion preferences, our staff spends considerable time analyzing sales data by category and brand down to the stock keeping unit, or “SKU” (an identification used for inventory tracking purposes) level, gathering feedback from our stores and customers, shopping in key markets and soliciting input from our vendors. As part of our feedback collection process, our merchandise team receives merchandise requests from both customers and store associates and meets with our store managers two to three times per year to discuss current customer trends.
We source our private label merchandise from foreign manufacturers around the world. We have cultivated our private brand sources with a view towards high quality merchandise, production reliability and consistency of fit. We believe that our knowledge of fabric and production costs combined with a flexible sourcing base enables us to source high-quality private label goods at favorable costs.
Distribution and Fulfillment
Timely and efficient distribution of merchandise to our stores is an important component of our overall business strategy. We process the vast majority of our merchandise throughDuring fiscal 2010, we relocated our distribution center infrom Everett, Washington.Washington to Corona, California to reduce distribution costs, expand capacity and increase speed of merchandise delivery to our customers. At thisour Corona, California facility, merchandise is inspected, allocated to stores, ticketed when necessary and boxed for distribution to our stores or segregated in our ecommerce fulfillment area for delivery to our ecommerce customers.stores. A significant percentage of our merchandise is currently pre-ticketed by our vendors, which allows us to ship merchandise more quickly, reduces labor costs and enhances our inventory management. We continue to work with our vendors to increase the percentage of pre-ticketed merchandise.merchandise as well as other value added services. Each store is typically shipped merchandise five times a week, providing our stores with a steady flow of new merchandise. We currently use United Parcel Service to ship the majority of our merchandise to our stores. We believe our current distribution infrastructure is sufficient to accommodate our expected store growth and expanded product offerings over the next several years. In our effort to reduce distribution costs and increase speed of merchandise delivery to our customers, on March 2, 2010, we acquired a 168,450 square foot building in Corona, California for $11.8 million. We plans to relocate our current distribution facility in Everett, Washington to this facility and begin distributing inventory to our retail stores in late April 2010.
Stores
As ofStore Locations.At January 30, 2010,29, 2011, we operated 377400 stores with an average of approximately 2,900 square feet per store in 3537 states. All of our stores are leased and substantially all are located in shopping malls of different types. All references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to square footage of our stores refers to gross square footage, including retail selling, storage and back-office space.
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The following store list shows the number of stores we operated in each state as ofat January 30, 2010:29, 2011:
State | Number of Stores | Percent of Total Stores | Number of Stores | Percent of Total Stores | |||||||||
Alaska | 3 | 0.8 | % | 3 | 0.7 | % | |||||||
Arizona | 13 | 3.4 | % | 13 | 3.3 | % | |||||||
California | 73 | 19.4 | % | 75 | 18.7 | % | |||||||
Colorado | 17 | 4.5 | % | 18 | 4.5 | % | |||||||
Connecticut | 8 | 2.1 | % | 8 | 2.0 | % | |||||||
Delaware | 2 | 0.5 | % | 2 | 0.5 | % | |||||||
Florida | 16 | 4.2 | % | 16 | 4.0 | % | |||||||
Hawaii | 1 | 0.3 | % | 1 | 0.2 | % | |||||||
Iowa | 2 | 0.5 | % | 2 | 0.5 | % | |||||||
Idaho | 6 | 1.6 | % | 6 | 1.5 | % | |||||||
Illinois | 16 | 4.2 | % | 16 | 4.0 | % | |||||||
Indiana | 6 | 1.6 | % | 7 | 1.8 | % | |||||||
Kansas | 3 | 0.8 | % | 3 | 0.7 | % | |||||||
Maine | 1 | 0.3 | % | 1 | 0.2 | % | |||||||
Maryland | 8 | 2.1 | % | 8 | 2.0 | % | |||||||
Massachusetts | 4 | 1.1 | % | 7 | 1.8 | % | |||||||
Michigan | 2 | 0.5 | % | ||||||||||
Minnesota | 11 | 2.9 | % | 11 | 2.8 | % | |||||||
Missouri | 2 | 0.5 | % | 2 | 0.5 | % | |||||||
Montana | 4 | 1.1 | % | 4 | 1.0 | % | |||||||
New Jersey | 16 | 4.2 | % | 16 | 4.0 | % | |||||||
New Hampshire | 2 | 0.5 | % | 3 | 0.7 | % | |||||||
Nevada | 8 | 2.1 | % | 8 | 2.0 | % | |||||||
New Mexico | 5 | 1.3 | % | 5 | 1.3 | % | |||||||
New York | 31 | 8.2 | % | 30 | 7.5 | % | |||||||
North Carolina | 2 | 0.5 | % | ||||||||||
Oklahoma | 3 | 0.8 | % | 3 | 0.7 | % | |||||||
Oregon | 12 | 3.2 | % | 12 | 3.0 | % | |||||||
Pennsylvania | 15 | 4.0 | % | 16 | 4.0 | % | |||||||
Rhode Island | 1 | 0.3 | % | 1 | 0.2 | % | |||||||
South Dakota | 1 | 0.3 | % | 2 | 0.5 | % | |||||||
Texas | 36 | 9.5 | % | 41 | 10.3 | % | |||||||
Utah | 12 | 3.2 | % | 12 | 3.0 | % | |||||||
Virginia | 4 | 1.1 | % | 5 | 1.3 | % | |||||||
Washington | 23 | 6.1 | % | 24 | 6.0 | % | |||||||
Wisconsin | 10 | 2.7 | % | 13 | 3.3 | % | |||||||
Wyoming | 2 | 0.5 | % | 2 | 0.5 | % | |||||||
Total Number of Stores | 377 | 100.0 | % | 400 | 100.0 | % | |||||||
As of January 30, 2010, approximately 74.9%
Approximately 63% of our stores hadhave been opened or remodeled within the previous five fiscal years. The following table shows the number of stores (excluding temporary stores that we operate from time to time for special events) opened and closed in each of our last five fiscal years including 20 stores acquired in the fiscal 2006 Fast Forward acquisition (we closed one Fast Forward store in fiscal 2006):acquisition:
Fiscal Year | Stores Opened | Stores Acquired | Stores Closed | Total Number of | ||||
2005 | 35 | — | 1 | 174 | ||||
2006 | 42 | 20 | 1 | 235 | ||||
2007 | 50 | — | — | 285 | ||||
2008 | 58 | — | — | 343 | ||||
2009 | 36 | — | 2 | 377 |
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Fiscal Year | Stores Opened | Stores Acquired | Stores Closed | Total Number of | ||||
2010 | 27 | — | 4 | 400 | ||||
2009 | 36 | — | 2 | 377 | ||||
2008 | 58 | — | — | 343 | ||||
2007 | 50 | — | — | 285 | ||||
2006 | 42 | 20 | 1 | 235 |
Store Design and EnvironmentEnvironment.We design our stores to create a distinctive and engaging shopping environment that we believe resonates with our customers and it reflects an “organized chaos” that is consistent with many teenagers’ and young adults’ lifestyles. Our stores feature an industrial look with concrete floors and open ceilings, dense merchandise displays, action sports focused posters and signage and popular music, all of which are consistent with the look and feel of an independent action sports specialty shop. Most of our stores have couches and action sports oriented video game stations that are intended to encourage our customers to shop for longer periods of time, to interact with each other and our store associates and to visit our stores more frequently. Our stores are constructed and finished to allow us to efficiently shift merchandise displays throughout the year as the action sports season dictates. To further enhance our customers’ experience, we seek to attract enthusiastic store associates who are knowledgeable about our products and are able to offer superior customer service and expertise. We believe that our store atmosphere enhances our image as a leading provider of action sports lifestyle merchandise.
As ofAt January 30, 2010,29, 2011, our stores averaged approximately 2,900 square feet. All references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to square footage of our stores refers to gross square footage, including retail selling, storage and back-office space. In fiscal 2010,2011, we plan on opening new stores with square footage similar to this average. New storesstores’ size is determined by our expected sales volume; for instance, if we project higher sales, we generally try to build larger stores and, conversely, if we believe stores will be lower volume stores we generally try to build smaller stores.
Expansion Opportunities and Site SelectionSelection. Since the end of fiscal 2004, we have opened 241 stores, including 20 acquired in fiscal 2006 through the Fast Forward acquisition, to enhance our position in existing markets, to enter into new markets, to build our brand awareness and to capitalize on our successful store model. We plan to open approximately 25 new stores in fiscal 2010 and to continue to open new stores in future years. The number of anticipated store openings in fiscal 2010 may increase or decrease due to market conditions. We have opened or acquired, on a compounded annual growth rate, approximately 22% new stores over each of the last five years. We plan to open new stores in both existing and new markets. We operate stores in high and low sales volume malls.
In selecting a location for a new store, we target high-traffic mall space with suitable demographics and favorable lease terms. We seek locations near busy areas of the mall such as food courts, movie theaters, music or game stores and other popular teen retailers. We generally locate our stores in malls in which other teen-oriented retailers have performed well. We also focus on evaluating the market and mall-specific competitive environment for potential new store locations. We seek to diversify our store locations regionally and by caliber of mall. We have currently identified a number of potential sites for new stores in malls with appropriate market characteristics.
We have successfully and consistently implemented our store concept across a variety of mall classifications and geographic locations. Our 5836 new stores opened in fiscal 20082009 generated average net sales of approximately $0.9 million per store in fiscal 2010 during their first full year of operation. On average, our net capital investment to open the 58 new stores in fiscal 2008 was approximately $311,000 per store, which includes capital expenditures, net of landlord contributions. In fiscal 2009,2010, we opened 3627 stores with an average net capital investment of approximately $221,000$0.2 million per store which includes capital expenditures, net of landlord contributions. We successfully lowered our new store net capital investment by $90,000 or 28.9% by negotiating betterfavorable terms with our construction contractors and increasingobtaining tenant improvement allowances from landlords. In addition to capital investments, we make working capital investments between $0.1 million and $0.2 million per store consisting primarily of merchandise inventory. However, our capital investment to open new stores and net sales generated by new stores vary significantly and depend on a number of factors, including manager and sales associate competency and tenure, the geographic location, type of mall, sales volume of the mall and sizesquare footage of those stores. Accordingly, net sales and other operating results for stores that we open or have opened subsequent to the end of fiscal 2009,2010, as well as our net capital investment to open those stores, may differ substantially from net sales and other operating results and our net capital investment for the stores we opened in prior years.
Store Management, Operations and Training. We believe that our success is dependent in part on our ability to attract, train, retain and motivate qualified employees at all levels of our organization. We have developed a
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corporate culture that we believe empowers the individual store managers to make store-level business decisions and consistently rewards their success. We are committed to improving the skills and careers of our workforce and providing advancement opportunities for employees, as evidenced by a significant number of our store managers that began their careers with us as store associates.
Our store operations are currently organized into divisions, regions and districts. Each division is managed by a divisional manager, responsible for approximately 125one third of our stores. Each region is managed by a regional manager, responsible for approximately 50 stores. We employ one district sales manager per district, responsible for the sales and operations of approximately 910 stores. Each of our stores is typically staffed with one store manager, one or more assistant managers and two or more store associates, depending on the season and sales volume of the store. The number of store associates we employ generally increases during peak selling seasons, particularly the back-to-school and the winter holiday seasons, and will increase to the extent that we open new stores.
We believe we provide our managers with the knowledge and tools to succeed through our comprehensive training programs and the flexibility to manage their stores to meet customer demands. While general guidelines for our merchandise assortments, store layouts and in-store visuals are provided by our home office, we give our store managers and district managers substantial discretion to tailor their stores to the individual market and empower them to make store-level business decisions. We design group training programs for our managers, such as our “Zumiez Managers Retreat,” and “Rocktember,“Rocktober,” to improve both operational expertise and supervisory skills. Our comprehensive training programs are offered at the store, regional and national levels. Our programs allow managers from all geographic locations to interact with each other and exchange ideas to better operate stores. Our store, district, and regional managers are compensated in part based on the sales volume of the store or stores they manage.
Our store associates generally have an interest in the action sports lifestyle and are knowledgeable about our products. Through our training, evaluation and incentive programs, we seek to enhance the productivity of our store associates. Our store associates receive extensive training from their managers to improve their product expertise and selling skills. We evaluate our store associates weekly on measures such as sales per hour, units per transaction and dollars per transaction to ensure consistent productivity, to reward top performers and to identify potential training opportunities. We provide sales incentives for store associates such as sales-based commissions in addition to hourly wages and our annual “Zumiez 100K” event, which recognizes outstanding sales performance in a resort setting that combines recreation and education. These and other incentive programs are designed to promote a competitive, yet fun, corporate culture that is consistent with the action sports lifestyle we seek to promote.
Ecommerce Operations. Our website provides current information on our upcoming events and promotions, store locations and merchandise selection. We also sell products directly through our website, although ecommerce sales currently comprise a small portion of our overall net sales. In fiscal years 2009, 2008 and 2007, ecommerce sales represented 2.3%, 1.5% and 1.1%, of our total net sales. With respect to the freight component of our ecommerce sales, we arrange and pay the freight for our customers and bill them for this service unless the customer chooses to have their product shipped to one of our stores, in which case shipping is free. Such amounts billed are included in revenue and the related freight cost is charged to cost of goods sold.
Marketing and Advertising
We seek to reach our target customer audience through a multi-faceted marketing approach that is designed to integrate our brand image with the action sports lifestyle. Our marketing efforts focus on reaching our customers in their environment, and feature extensive grassroots marketing events, such as the Zumiez Couch Tour, which give our customers an opportunity to experience and participate in the action sports lifestyle.
Our marketing efforts also incorporate local sporting and music event promotions, advertising in magazines popular with our target market such as Transworld Snowboarding and Transworld Skateboarding and interactive
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contest sponsorships that actively involve our customers with our brands and products. We believe that our immersion in the action sports lifestyle allows us to build credibility with our target audience and gather valuable feedback on evolving customer preferences.
Our grassroots marketing events are built around the demographics of our customer base and offer an opportunity for our customers to develop a strong identity with our brand and culture. For example, the Zumiez Couch Tour is a series of entertainment events that includes skateboarding demonstrations from top professionals, autograph sessions, competitions and live music, and has featured some of today’s most popular teenage personalities in action sports and music. The Zumiez Couch Tour provides a high-impact platform where customers can interact with some of their favorite action sports athletes and vendors can showcase new products. In fiscal 2009,2010, our Zumiez Couch Tour completed a twelve-city tour across the United States.
Advertising expense was approximately $822,000, $775,000
Our marketing efforts also incorporate local sporting and $805,000music event promotions, advertising in fiscal 2009, 2008magazines popular with our target market, interactive contest sponsorships that actively involve our customers with our brands and 2007.products and various social network channels such as Facebook and Twitter. We believe that our immersion in the action sports lifestyle allows us to build credibility with our target audience and gather valuable feedback on evolving customer preferences.
Management Information Systems
Our management information systems provide integration of store, merchandising, distribution, financial and human resources functions. The systems include applications related to point-of-sale, inventory management, supply chain, planning, sourcing, merchandising and financial reporting. We use software licensed from ANT USA for merchandise planningcontinue to invest in technology to align our systems with our business requirements and software licensed from Epicor CRS that is used for SKU and classification inventory tracking, purchase order management, merchandise distribution, automated ticket making and sales audit functions. Our financial systems are licensed from SAGE and are used for general ledger, accounts payable, payroll, financial reporting and asset management.
Sales, including ecommerce sales, are updated daily into support our merchandising reporting systems by polling sales information from each store’s point-of-sale, or “POS,” terminals. Our POS system consists of registers providing processing of retail transactions, price look-up, time and attendance and e-mail. Sales information, inventory tracking and payroll hours are uploaded to our central host system. The host system downloads price changes, performs system maintenance and provides software updates to the stores through automated nightly two-way electronic communication with each store. We evaluate information obtained through nightly polling to implement merchandising decisions, including product purchasing/reorders, markdowns and allocation of merchandise on a daily basis.
In addition to our home office staff, each of our regional and district managers can access relevant business information, including current and historical sales by store, district and region, transaction information and payroll data.continuing growth.
Competition
The teenage and young adult retail apparel, hardgoods and accessories industry is highly competitive. We compete with other retailers for vendors, teenage and young adult customers, suitable store locations and qualified store associates and management personnel. In the softgoods markets, which includes apparel, accessories and footwear, we currently compete with other teenage-focused retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Co., Aeropostale, Inc., American Apparel, American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., Tillys, Anchor Blue Clothing Company,Boathouse, CCS, Forever 21, Inc., Hollister, Co., Hot Topic, Inc., Old Navy, Inc., Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc., The Buckle, Inc., The Wet Seal, Inc. andTillys, Urban Outfitters Inc.and West 49. In addition, in the softgoods markets we compete with independent specialty shops, department stores and direct marketers that sell similar lines of merchandise and target customers through catalogs and ecommerce. In the hardgoods markets, which includes skateboards, snowboards, bindings, components and other equipment, we compete directly or indirectly with the following categories of companies: other specialty retailers that compete with us across a significant portion of our merchandising categories, such as local snowboard and skate shops; large-format sporting goods stores and chains, such as Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc., Sport Chalet Inc. and The Sports Authority Inc., and ecommerce retailers.
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Competition in our sector is based on, among other things, merchandise offerings, store location, price and the ability to identify with the customer. We believe that we compete favorably with many of our competitors based on our differentiated merchandising strategy, compelling store environment and deep-rooted culture. However, some of our competitors are larger than we are and have substantially greater financial, marketing and other resources than we do. See “Item 1A Risk Factors.” We may be unable to compete favorably in the highly competitive retail industry, and if we lose customers to our competitors, our sales could decrease.
Seasonality
Historically, our operations have been seasonal, with the largest portion of net sales and net income occurring in the third and fourth fiscal quarters, reflecting increased demand during the back-to-school and year endwinter holiday selling seasons. During fiscal 2009,2010, approximately 60%61% of our net sales occurred in the third and fourth quarters.quarters, similar to previous years. As a result of this seasonality, any factors negatively affecting us during the last half of the year, including unfavorable economic conditions, adverse weather or our ability to acquire seasonal merchandise inventory, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations for the entire year. Our quarterly results of operations may also fluctuate based upon such factors as the timing of certain holiday seasons, the popularity of seasonal merchandise offered, the timing and amount of markdowns, store remodels and closings, competitive influences and the number and timing of new store openings.
Trademarks
“Zumiez,” “Free World,” “Alab,” “Alibi,” “Aperture (snowboards),” “Empyre”The “Zumiez” trademark and “Rälik”certain other trademarks, have been registered, or are among our trademarks registeredthe subject of pending trademark applications, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.Office and with the registries of certain foreign countries. We regard our trademarks as valuable and intend to maintain such marks and any related registrations. We currently have U.S. trademarks pending for the “Dravus,” “Trillium,” “Zine,” “Aperture (apparel),” “Couch Tour,”registrations and “Zumiez Couch Tour” marks. We are not aware of any claims of infringement or other challenges to our right to use our marks in the United States. We vigorously protect our trademarks. We also own numerous domain names, which have been registered with Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Employees
As ofAt January 30, 2010,29, 2011, we employed approximately 1,1301,380 full-time and approximately 3,2003,460 part-time employees, of which approximately 330440 were employed at our home office, distribution center and ecommerce fulfillment center and approximately 4,0004,400 at our store locations. However, the number of part-time employees fluctuates depending on our seasonal needs and, in fiscal 2009,2010, varied from between approximately 2,6003,000 and 4,5005,400 part-time employees. None of our employees are represented by a labor union and we believe generally that our relationship with our employees is good.
Available Information
Our principal website address is www.zumiez.com. We make available, free of charge, our proxy statement, annual report to shareholders, annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC at http://ir.zumiez.com. Information available on our website is not incorporated by reference in and is not deemed a part of this Form 10-K.
Item 1A. | RISK FACTORS |
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. The following risk factors, issues and uncertainties should be considered in evaluating our future prospects. In particular, keep these risk factors in mind when you read “forward-looking” statements elsewhere in this report. Forward-looking statements relate to our expectations for future events and time periods. Generally, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and future events and circumstances could differ significantly from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Any of the following risks could harm our business, operating results or financial
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condition and could result in a complete loss of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties that are not yet identified or that we currently think are immaterial may also harm our business and financial condition in the future.
Significant fluctuations and volatility in the price of cotton, foreign labor costs and other raw materials used in the production of our merchandise may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial conditions.
Increases in the cost of cotton, foreign labor costs or other raw materials used in the production of our merchandise can result in higher costs in the price we pay for this merchandise. The costs for cotton are affected by weather, consumer demand, speculation on the commodities market and other factors that are generally unpredictable and beyond our control. Our gross profit and earnings per share could be adversely affected to the extent that the selling prices of our products do not increase proportionately with the increases in the costs of cotton or other materials. Increasing labor costs and oil-related product costs, such as manufacturing and transportation costs, could also adversely impact gross profit. Additionally, significant changes in the relationship between carrier capacity and shipper demand could increase transportation costs, which could also adversely impact gross profit.
We are aware of increasing cotton, oil and other input costs that affect our cost of goods sold. We are working with our vendors and private label manufacturers to manage these cost increases. Our current expectation is that increases in product cost will be higher in the second half of 2011 versus the first half. While we believe we have strategies in place to mitigate the increase in cost, there can be no assurance our efforts will be successful and our gross profit margins may decline.
Most of our merchandise is produced by foreign manufacturers; therefore, the availability and costs of these products may be negatively affected by risks associated with international trade and other international conditions.
Most of our merchandise is produced by manufacturers around the world. Some of these facilities are located in regions that may be affected by natural disasters, political instability or other conditions that could cause a disruption in trade. Trade restrictions such as increased tariffs or quotas, or both, could also affect the importation of merchandise generally and increase the cost and reduce the supply of merchandise available to us. Any reduction in merchandise available to us or any increase in its cost due to tariffs, quotas or local issues that disrupt trade could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. Although the prices charged by vendors for the merchandise we purchase are primarily denominated in United States dollars, a continued decline in the relative value of the United States dollar to foreign currencies could lead to increased merchandise costs, which could negatively affect our competitive position and our results of operation.
Our ability to attract customers to our stores depends heavily on the success of the shopping malls in which our stores are located; any decrease in customer traffic in those malls could cause our sales to be less than expected.
In order to generate customer traffic we depend heavily on locating our stores in prominent locations within successful shopping malls. Sales at these stores are derived, in part, from the volume of traffic in those malls. Our stores benefit from the ability of a mall’s other tenants to generate consumer traffic in the vicinity of our stores and the continuing popularity of malls as shopping destinations. Our sales volume and mall traffic generally may be adversely affected by, among other things, economic downturns in a particular area, competition from ecommerce retailers, non-mall retailers and other malls, increases in gasoline prices and the closing or decline in popularity of other stores in the malls in which we are located. The continuing slowdown in the United States economy or anAn uncertain economic outlook could curtail new shopping mall development, decrease shopping mall traffic, reduce the number of hours that shopping mall operators keep their shopping malls open or force them to cease operations entirely. A reduction in mall traffic as a result of these or any other factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our growth strategy depends on our ability to open and operate new stores each year, which could strain our resources and cause the performance of our existing stores to suffer.
Our growth largely depends on our ability to open and operate new stores successfully. However, our ability to open new stores is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including the current deterioration of the macroeconomic environment, and we may be unable to open new stores as planned, and any failure to successfully open and operate new stores would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and on the market price of our common stock.operations. We intend to continue to open new stores in future years while remodeling a portion of our existing store base annually. In addition, our proposed expansion will place increased demands on our operational, managerial and administrative resources. These increased demands could cause us to operate our business less effectively, which in turn could cause deterioration in the financial performance of our individual stores and our overall business. To the extent our new store openings are in markets where we already have stores, we may experience reduced net sales in existing stores in those markets. In addition, successful execution of our growth strategy may require that we obtain additional financing, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain that financing on acceptable terms or at all.
The number of anticipated store openings in fiscal 2010 may increase or decrease due to market conditions. We have opened or acquired, on a compounded annual growth rate, approximately 22% new stores over the last five years. As we look to fiscal 2010 and beyond, we will likely slow this rate of growth until we see the macroeconomic environment improve.
Our business could suffer from the effects of inflation that could have a significant effect on increased prices for merchandise inventories.
We may experience significant cost increases for inventories purchased from foreign vendors. Such increases are primarily attributable to unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates, giving rise to potential increases in the cost of manufacturing which our vendors may seek to pass along to us. These increases could have a negative impact on our product margins for our private label and domestic brands.
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If we fail to effectively execute our expansion strategy, we may not be able to successfully open new store locations in a timely manner, if at all, which could have an adverse affect on our net sales and results of operations.
Our ability to open and operate new stores successfully depends on many factors, including, among others, our ability to:
identify suitable store locations, the availability of which is outside of our control;
negotiate acceptable lease terms, including desired tenant improvement allowances;
source sufficient levels of inventory at acceptable costs to meet the needs of new stores;
hire, train and retain qualified store personnel;
successfully integrate new stores into our existing operations; and
identify and satisfy the merchandise preferences of new geographic areas.
In addition, many of our planned new stores are to be opened in regions of the United States or international locations in which we currently have few, or no, stores. The expansion into these markets may present competitive, merchandising and distribution challenges that are different from those currently encountered in our existing markets. Any of these challenges could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
The expansion of our store base to Canada may present increased risks due to our limited familiarity with that market.
In fiscal 2011, we plan to open store locations in Canada. The Canadian market may have different competitive conditions, consumer tastes and discretionary spending patterns than our existing markets. As a result, new stores in that market may be less successful than our stores in the United States. Additionally, consumers in the Canadian market may not be familiar with our brand, and we may need to build brand awareness in that market. Furthermore, we have limited experience with the legal and regulatory environments and market practices outside of the United States and cannot guarantee that we will be able penetrate or successfully operate in the Canadian market. We may also incur additional costs in complying with applicable Canadian laws and regulations as they pertain to both our products and our operations.
Our business is dependent upon our being able to anticipate, identify and respond to changing fashion trends, customer preferences and other fashion-related factors; failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on us.
Customer tastes and fashion trends in the action sports lifestyle market are volatile and tend to change rapidly. Our success depends on our ability to effectively anticipate, identify and respond to changing fashion tastes and consumer preferences, and to translate market trends into appropriate, saleable product offerings in a timely manner. If we are unable to successfully anticipate, identify or respond to changing styles or trends and misjudge the market for our products or any new product lines, our sales may be lower than predicted and we may be faced with a substantial amount of unsold inventory or missed opportunities. In response to such a situation, we may be forced to rely on markdowns or promotional sales to dispose of excess or slow-moving inventory, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
The current uncertainty surrounding the United States economy coupled with cyclical economic trends in action sports retailing could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
The action sports retail industry historically has been subject to substantial cyclicality. As economic conditions in the United States change, the trends in discretionary consumer spending become unpredictable and discretionary consumer spending could be reduced due to uncertainties about the future. When discretionary
consumer spending is reduced, purchases of action sports apparel and related products may decline. The current uncertainty in the United States economy and increased government debt spending may have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial position.
Because of this cycle, we believe the “value” message has become more important to consumers. As a retailer that sells approximately 82% branded merchandise, this trend may negatively affect our business, as we generally will have to charge more than vertically integrated private label retailers.
Our sales and inventory levels fluctuate on a seasonal basis, leaving our operating results particularly susceptible to changes in back-to-school and winter holiday shopping patterns.
Our sales and profitability are typically disproportionately higher in the third and fourth fiscal quarters of each fiscal year due to increased sales during the back-to-school and winter holiday shopping seasons. Sales during these periods cannot be used as an accurate indicator of annual results. Our sales in the first and second fiscal quarters are typically lower than in our third and fourth fiscal quarters due, in part, to the traditional retail slowdown immediately following the winter holiday season. As a result of this seasonality, any factors negatively affecting us during the last half of the year, including unfavorable economic conditions, adverse weather or our ability to acquire seasonal merchandise inventory, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations for the entire year. In addition, in order to prepare for the back-to-school and winter holiday shopping seasons, we must order and keep in stock significantly more merchandise than we carry during other times of the year. Any unanticipated decrease in demand for our products during these peak shopping seasons could require us to sell excess inventory at a substantial markdown, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our quarterly results of operations are volatile and may decline.
Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated significantly in the past and can be expected to continue to fluctuate significantly in the future. As discussed above, our sales and operating results are typically lower in
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the first and second quarters of our fiscal year due, in part, to the traditional retail slowdown immediately following the winter holiday season. Our quarterly results of operations are affected by a variety of other factors, including:
the timing of new store openings and the relative proportion of our new stores to mature stores;
whether we are able to successfully integrate any new stores that we acquire and the presence or absence of any unanticipated liabilities in connection therewith;
fashion trends and changes in consumer preferences;
calendar shifts of holiday or seasonal periods;
changes in our merchandise mix;
timing of promotional events;
general economic conditions and, in particular, the retail sales environment;
actions by competitors or mall anchor tenants;
weather conditions;
the level of pre-opening expenses associated with our new stores; and
inventory shrinkage beyond our historical average rates.
Failure to successfully integrate any businesses or stores that we acquire could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and financial performance.
We may from time to time acquire other retail stores, individually or in groups, or businesses. We may experience difficulties in assimilating any stores or businesses we may acquire and any such acquisitions may also result in the diversion of our capital and our management’s attention from other business issues and opportunities. We may not be able to successfully integrate any stores or businesses that we may acquire, including their facilities, personnel, financial systems, distribution, operations and general operating procedures. If we fail to successfully integrate acquisitions or if such acquisitions fail to provide the benefits that we expect to receive, we could experience increased costs and other operating inefficiencies, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial performance.
Our business is susceptible to weather conditions that are out of our control including the potential risks of unpredictable weather patterns, including any weather patterns associated with naturally occurring global climate change, and the resultant unseasonable weather could have a negative impact on our results of operations.
Our business is susceptible to unseasonable weather conditions. For example, extended periods of unseasonably warm temperatures (including any weather patterns associated with global warming and cooling) during the winter season or cool weather during the summer season could render a portion of our inventory incompatible with those unseasonable conditions. These prolonged unseasonable weather conditions, particularly in regions of the United States where we have a concentration of stores, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We may be unable to compete favorably in the highly competitive retail industry, and if we lose customers to our competitors, our sales could decrease.
The teenage and young adult retail apparel, hardgoods and accessories industry is highly competitive. We compete with other retailers for vendors, teenage and young adult customers, suitable store locations, qualified store associates and management personnel. In the softgoods market, which includes apparel, accessories and
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footwear, we currently compete with other teenage-focused retailers. In addition, in the softgoods market we compete with independent specialty shops, department stores and direct marketers that sell similar lines of merchandise and target customers through catalogs and ecommerce. In the hardgoods market, which includes skateboards, snowboards, bindings, components and other equipment, we compete directly or indirectly with the following categories of companies: other specialty retailers that compete with us across a significant portion of our merchandising categories, such as local snowboard and skate shops;shops, large-format sporting goods stores and chains and ecommerce retailers.
Some of our competitors are larger than we are and have substantially greater financial, marketing, including advanced ecommerce marketing capabilities, and other resources than we do. Direct competition with these and other retailers may increase significantly in the future, which could require us, among other things, to lower our prices and could result in the loss of our customers. Current and increased competition could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If we fail to maintain good relationships with vendors or if a vendor is otherwise unable or unwilling to supply us with adequate quantities of their products at acceptable prices, our business and financial performance could suffer.
Our business is dependent on continued good relations with our vendors. In particular, we believe that we generally are able to obtain attractive pricing and other terms from vendors because we are perceived as a desirable customer, and deterioration in our relationship with our vendors would likely have a material adverse effect on our business. We do not have any contractual relationships with our vendors, other than normal course of business purchase orders and, accordingly, there can be no assurance that our vendors will provide us with an
adequate supply or quality of products or acceptable pricing. Our vendors could discontinue selling to us or raise the prices they charge at any time. There can be no assurance that we will be able to acquire desired merchandise in sufficient quantities on terms acceptable to us in the future. Also,In addition, certain of our vendors sell their products directly to the retail market and therefore compete with us directly and other vendors may decide to do so in the future. There can be no assurance that such vendors will not decide to discontinue supplying their products to us, supply us only less popular or lower quality items, raise the prices they charge us or focus on selling their products directly. In addition, a number of our vendors are smaller, less capitalized companies and are more likely to be impacted by unfavorable general economic and market conditions than larger and better capitalized companies. These smaller vendors may not have sufficient liquidity during economic downturns to properly fund their businesses and their ability to supply their products to us could be negatively impacted. Any inability to acquire suitable merchandise at acceptable prices, or the loss of one or more key vendors, would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If we lose key management or are unable to attract and retain the talent required for our business, our financial performance could suffer.
Our performance depends largely on the efforts and abilities of our senior management, including our Co-Founder and Chairman, Thomas D. Campion, our Chief Executive Officer, Richard M. Brooks, our President and General Merchandising Manager, Lynn K. Kilbourne, our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, Trevor S. Lang and our Executive Vice President of Stores, Ford K. Wright. None of our employees have employment agreements with us and we do not plan to obtain key person life insurance covering any of our employees. If we lose the services of one or more of our key executives, we may not be able to successfully manage our business or achieve our growth objectives. As our business grows, we will need to attract and retain additional qualified management personnel in a timely manner and we may not be able to do so.
Our failure to meet our staffing needs could adversely affect our ability to implement our growth strategy and could have a material impact on our results of operations.
Our success depends in part upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of qualified employees, including divisional managers, regional managers, district managers, store managers and store
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associates, who understand and appreciate our corporate culture based on a passion for the action sports lifestyle and are able to adequately represent this culture to our customers. Qualified individuals of the requisite caliber, skills and number needed to fill these positions may be in short supply in some areas, and the employee turnover rate in the retail industry is high. Competition for qualified employees could require us to pay higher wages to attract a sufficient number of suitable employees. If we are unable to hire and retain store managers and store associates capable of consistently providing a high level of customer service, as demonstrated by their enthusiasm for our culture and knowledge of our merchandise, our ability to open new stores may be impaired and the performance of our existing and new stores could be materially adversely affected. We are also dependent upon temporary personnel to adequately staff our stores, distribution center and distributionecommerce fulfillment center particularly during busy periods such as the back-to-school and winter holiday seasons. There can be no assurance that we will receive adequate assistance from our temporary personnel, or that there will be sufficient sources of temporary personnel. Although none of our employees areis currently covered by collective bargaining agreements, we cannot guarantee that our employees will not elect to be represented by labor unions in the future, which could increase our labor costs and could subject us to the risk of work stoppages and strikes. Any such failure to meet our staffing needs, any material increases in employee turnover rates, any increases in labor costs or any work stoppages, or interruptions or strikes could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.
Our operations, including our sole distribution center, are concentrated in the western United States, which makes us susceptible to adverse conditions in this region.
Our home office and sole distributionecommerce fulfillment center are located in a single facilityWashington, our sole distribution center is located in Washington,California and a substantial number of our stores are located in the western half of the United States.
We also have a substantial number of stores in the New York/New Jersey region and Texas. As a result, our business may be more susceptible to regional factors than the operations of more geographically diversified competitors. These factors include, among others, economic and weather conditions, demographic and population changes and fashion tastes. In addition, we rely on a single distribution center to receive, store and distribute the vast majority of our merchandise to all of our stores and to fulfill our ecommerce sales.stores. As a result, a natural disaster or other catastrophic event, such as an earthquake affecting the West Coast, could significantly disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are relocatinghave relocated our sole distribution center previously located in Everett, Washington to Corona, California in April and May 2010 to receive, store and distribute the vast majority of our merchandise to all of our retail stores. As a result, events may occur during the relocation period and the operating periods subsequent to the relocation that could significantly disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are required to make substantial rental payments under our operating leases and any failure to make these lease payments when due would likely have a material adverse effect on our business and growth plans.
We do not own any of our retail stores or our combined home office and ecommerce distribution facility,fulfillment center, but instead we lease all of these facilities under operating leases. Payments under these operating leases account for a significant portion of our operating expenses and has historically been our third largest expense behind cost of sales and our employee related costs. For example, total rental expense, including additional rental payments (or “percentage rent”) based on sales of some of the stores, common area maintenance charges and real estate taxes, under operating leases was $61.8 million, $58.0 million and $52.9 million for the fiscal 2010, 2009 and $43.5 million for fiscal 2009, 2008, and 2007. As of2008. At January 30, 2010,29, 2011, we were a party to operating leases requiring future minimum lease payments aggregating approximately $202.3$227.8 million through fiscal year 20142015 and approximately $118.9$120.0 million thereafter. In addition, substantially all of our store leases provide for additional rental payments based on sales of the respective stores, as well as common area maintenance charges, and require that we pay real estate taxes, none of which is included in the amount of future minimum lease payments.taxes. These amounts generally escalate each year. We expect that any new stores we open will also be leased by us under operating leases, which will further increase our operating lease expenses.
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Our substantial operating lease obligations could have significant negative consequences, including:
increasing our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;
limiting our ability to obtain additional financing;
requiring that a substantial portion of our available cash be applied to pay our rental obligations, thus reducing cash available for other purposes; and
limiting our flexibility in planning for or reacting to changes in our business or in the industry in which we compete, and placing us at a disadvantage with respect to some of our competitors.
We depend on cash flow from operations to pay our lease expenses and to fulfill our other cash needs. If our business does not generate sufficient cash flow from operating activities, and sufficient funds are not otherwise available to us from borrowings under bank loans or from other sources, we may not be able to service our operating lease expenses, grow our business, respond to competitive challenges or to fund our other liquidity and capital needs, which would have a material adverse effect on us.our business.
The terms of our revolving credit facility impose operating and financial restrictions on us that may impair our ability to respond to changing business and economic conditions. This impairment could have a significant adverse impact on our business.
We renewed and amended our secured credit agreement with Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank, N.A., on June 10, 2009, and the prior facility agreement was terminated. The credit agreement provides us with a secured revolving credit facility until September 1, 2011 of up to $25.0 million. The secured revolving credit facility
provides for the issuance of a standby letter of credit in an amount not to exceed $5.0 million outstanding at any time and with a term not to exceed 365 days. The commercial line of credit provides for the issuance of a commercial letter of credit in an amount not to exceed $10.0 million and with terms not to exceed 120 days. The amount of borrowings available at any time under our secured revolving credit facility is reduced by the amount of standby and commercial letters of credit outstanding at that time. There were no outstanding borrowings under the secured revolving credit facility at January 29, 2011 or January 30, 2010. The CompanyWe had open commercial letters of credit outstanding under our secured revolving credit facility of approximately $0.3$0.5 million and $0.6 million at January 31, 200929, 2011 and approximately $0.6 million at January 30, 2010. The secured revolving credit facility bears interest at the Daily One Month LIBOR rate plus 1.00%. The credit agreement contains a number of restrictions and covenants that generally limit our ability to, among other things, (1) incur additional debt, (2) undergo a change in ownership and (3) enter into certain transactions. The credit agreement also contains financial covenants that require us to meet certain specified financial tests and ratios, including, a maximum net loss not to exceed $10.0 million after taxes on a trailing four-quarter basis provided, that, there shall be added to net income all charges for impairment of goodwill and store assets not to exceed $5.0 million in aggregate, and a minimum quick ratio of 1.25. The quick ratio is defined as our cash and near cash equivalents plus certain defined receivables divided by the outstanding borrowings. All of our personal property, including, among other things, our inventory, equipment and fixtures, has been pledged to secure our obligations under the credit agreement. We must also provide financial information and statements to our lender. We were in compliance with all such covenants at January 30, 2010.29, 2011.
A breach of any of these restrictive covenants or our inability to comply with the required financial tests and ratios could result in a default under the credit agreement. If a default occurs, the lender may elect to declare all borrowings outstanding, together with accrued interest and other fees, to be immediately due and payable. If we are unable to repay outstanding borrowings when due, whether at their maturity or if declared due and payable by the lender following a default, the lender has the right to proceed against the collateral granted to it to secure the indebtedness. As a result, any breach of these covenants or failure to comply with these tests and ratios could have a material adverse effect on us. There can be no assurance that we will not breach the covenants or fail to comply with the tests and ratios in our credit agreement or any other debt agreements we may enter into in the future and, if a breach occurs, there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain necessary waivers or amendments from the lenders.
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The restrictions contained in our credit agreement could: (1) limit our ability to plan for or react to market conditions or meet capital needs or otherwise restrict our activities or business plans; and (2) adversely affect our ability to finance our operations, strategic acquisitions, investments or other capital needs or to engage in other business activities that would be in our interest.
Our business could suffer if our ability to acquire financing is reduced or eliminated.
In the current economic environment, we cannot be assured that our borrowing relationship with our lender will continue or that our lender will remain able to support its commitments to us in the future. If our lender fails to do so, then we may not be able to secure alternative financing on commercially reasonable terms, or at all.
Our business could suffer as a result of small parcel delivery services such as United Parcel Service or Federal Express being unable to distribute our merchandise.
We rely upon small parcel delivery services for our product shipments, including shipments to, from and between our stores. Accordingly, we are subject to risks, including employee strikes and inclement weather, which may affect their ability to meet our shipping needs. Among other things, any circumstances that require us to use other delivery services for all or a portion of our shipments could result in increased costs and delayed deliveries and could harm our business materially. In addition, although we have contracts with small parcel delivery services, we and the service providers have the right to terminate these contracts upon 3030-90 days written notice. Although the contracts with these small parcel delivery services provide certain discounts from
the shipment rates in effect at the time of shipment, the contracts do not limit their ability to raise the shipment rates at any time. Accordingly, we are subject to the risk that small parcel delivery services may increase the rates they charge, that they may terminate their contracts with us, that they may decrease the rate discounts provided to us when an existing contract is renewed or that we may be unable to agree on the terms of a new contract with them, any of which could materially adversely affect our operating results.
Our business could suffer if a manufacturer fails to use acceptable labor practices.
We do not control our vendors or the manufacturers that produce the products we buy from them, nor do we control the labor practices of our vendors and these manufacturers. The violation of labor or other laws by any of our vendors or these manufacturers, or the divergence of the labor practices followed by any of our vendors or these manufacturers from those generally accepted as ethical in the United States, could interrupt, or otherwise disrupt, the shipment of finished products to us or damage our reputation. Any of these, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In that regard, most of the products sold in our stores are manufactured overseas, primarily in Asia and Central America, which may increase the risk that the labor practices followed by the manufacturers of these products may differ from those considered acceptable in the United States.
Additionally, our products are subject to regulation of and regulatory standards set by various governmental authorities with respect to quality and safety. Regulations and standards in this area are currently in place. These regulations and standards may change from time to time. Our inability to comply on a timely basis with regulatory requirements could result in significant fines or penalties, which could adversely affect our reputation and sales. Issues with the quality and safety of merchandise we sell in our stores, regardless of our culpability, or customer concerns about such issues, could result in damage to our reputation, lost sales, uninsured product liability claims or losses, merchandise recalls and increased costs.
Our failure to adequately anticipate a correct mix of private label merchandise may have a material adverse effect on our business.
Sales from private label merchandise accounted for 15.7%18% of our net sales in fiscal 2009.2010 and generally carries higher gross margins than our other merchandise. We may take steps to increase the percentage of net sales of private label merchandise in the future, although there can be no
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assurance that we will be able to achieve increases in private label merchandise sales as a percentage of net sales. Because our private label merchandise generally carries higher gross margins than other merchandise, ourOur failure to anticipate, identify and react in a timely manner to fashion trends with our private label merchandise, would likely have a material adverse effect on our comparable store sales, financial condition and results of operations.
Most of our merchandise is produced by foreign manufacturers, therefore the availability and costs of these products may be negatively affected by risks associated with international trade and other international conditions.
Most of our merchandise is produced by manufacturers around the world. Some of these facilities are located in regions that may be affected by natural disasters, political instability or other conditions that could cause a disruption in trade. Trade restrictions such as increased tariffs or quotas, or both, could also affect the importation of merchandise generally and increase the cost and reduce the supply of merchandise available to us. Any reduction in merchandise available to us or any increase in its cost due to tariffs, quotas or local issues that disrupt trade could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. Although the prices charged by vendors for the merchandise we purchase are all denominated in United States dollars, a continued decline in the relative value of the United States dollar to foreign currencies could lead to increased merchandise costs, which could negatively affect our competitive position and our results of operation.
If our information systems hardware or software fails to function effectively or does not scale to keep pace with our planned growth, our operations could be disrupted and our financial results could be harmed.
Over the past several years, we have made improvements to our infrastructure and existing hardware and software systems, as well as implemented new systems. If these or any other information systems and software do not work effectively, this could adversely impact the promptness and accuracy of our transaction processing, financial accounting and reporting and our ability to manage our business and properly forecast operating results and cash requirements. To manage the anticipated growth of our operations and personnel, we may need to continue to improve our operational and financial systems, transaction processing, procedures and controls, and in doing so could incur substantial additional expenses that could impact our financial results.
Our inability or failure to protect our intellectual property or our infringement of other’s intellectual property could have a negative impact on our operating results.
We believe that our trademarks and domain names are valuable assets that are critical to our success. The unauthorized use or other misappropriation of our trademarks or domain names could diminish the value of the
Zumiez brand, our store concept, our private label brands or our goodwill and cause a decline in our net sales. Although we have secured or are in the process of securing protection for our trademarks and domain names in a number of countries outside of the United States, there are certain countries where we do not currently have or where we do not currently intend to apply for protection for certain trademarks or at all. Also, the efforts we have taken to protect our trademarks may not be sufficient or effective. Therefore, we may not be able to prevent other persons from using our trademarks or domain names outside of the United States, which also could adversely affect our business. We are also subject to the risk that we may infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties. Any infringement or other intellectual property claim made against us, whether or not it has merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause product delays or require us to pay royalties or license fees. As a result, any such claim could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.
The effects of war or acts of terrorism could adversely affect our business.
Substantially all of our stores are located in shopping malls. Any threat of terrorist attacks or actual terrorist events, particularly in public areas, could lead to lower customer traffic in shopping malls. In addition, local authorities or mall management could close shopping malls in response to security concerns. Mall closures, as well as lower customer traffic due to security concerns, would likely result in decreased sales. Additionally, the
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escalation of the armed conflicts in the Middle East, or the threat, escalation or commencement of war or other armed conflict elsewhere, could significantly diminish consumer spending, and result in decreased sales for us. Decreased sales would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The outcome of litigation could have a material adverse effect on our business, and may result in substantial costs and could divert management’s attention.
We are involved, from time to time, in litigation incidental to our business including complaints filed by investors. This litigation could result in substantial costs, and could divert management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business. Risks associated with legal liability are often difficult to assess or quantify, and their existence and magnitude can remain unknown for significant periods of time. While we maintain director and officer insurance for litigation surrounding investor lawsuits, the amount of insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover a claim and the continued availability of this insurance cannot be assured. The CompanyWe also maintainsmaintain other forms of insurance that have historically been adequate to address lawsuits,lawsuits; however, there can be no assurance that the actual outcome of pending or future litigation will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.
Our operations expose us to the risk of litigation, which could lead to significant potential liability and costs that could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We employ a substantial number of full-time and part-time employees, a majority of whom are employed at our store locations. As a result, we are subject to a large number of federal and state laws and regulations relating to employment. This creates a risk of potential claims that we have violated laws related to discrimination and harassment, health and safety, wage and hour laws, criminal activity, personal injury and other claims. We are also subject to other types of claims in the ordinary course of our business. Some or all of these claims may give rise to litigation, which could be time-consuming for our management team, costly and harmful to our business.
In addition, we are exposed to the risk of class action litigation. The costs of defense and the risk of loss in connection with class action suits are greater than in single-party litigation claims. Due to the costs of defending against such litigation, the size of judgments that may be awarded against us, and the loss of significant management time devoted to such litigation, we cannot assure you that such litigation will not disrupt our business or impact our financial results.
Our failure to comply with federal, state or local laws, or changes in these laws, could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and financial performance.
Our business is subject to a wide array of laws and regulations. Changes in the regulations, the imposition of additional regulations, or the enactment of any new legislation including those related to health care, taxes, environmental issues and trade, could adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.
Recent federal health care legislation could increase our expenses.
We are self-insured with respect to our health care coverage and do not purchase third party insurance for the health insurance benefits provided to employees with the exception of pre-defined stop loss, which helps limit the cost of large claims. In March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Act”) and the Health Care Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the “Reconciliation Act”) were signed into law. The Act, as modified by the Reconciliation Act, includes a large number of health care provisions to take effect over four years, including expanded dependent coverage, incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, a prohibition on the denial of coverage and denial of claims on pre-existing conditions, a prohibition on limits on essential benefits and other expansions of health care benefits and coverage. The costs of these provisions are expected to be funded by a variety of taxes and fees. Some of the taxes and fees, as well as certain health care changes required by these acts, are expected to result, directly or indirectly, in increased health care costs for us. For example, the prohibition on limits on essential benefits (whereas we currently cap health-related benefits) could result in increased costs to us. At this time, we cannot quantify the impact, if any, that the legislation may have on us due to the changing regulatory environment around this legislation and due to the government’s requirement to issue future unknown regulatory rules. There is no assurance that we will be able to absorb and/or pass through the costs of such legislation in a manner that will not adversely impact our results of operations.
Our ecommerce operations subject us to numerous risks that could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
Although ecommerce sales constitute a small, but increasing portion of our overall sales, our ecommerce operations subject us to certain risks that could have an adverse effect on our operational results, including:
diversion of traffic and sales from our stores;
liability for online content; and
risks related to the computer systems that operate our website and related support systems, including computer viruses, and electronic break-ins and similar disruptions.
In addition, risks beyond our control, such as governmental regulation of the ecommerce, entry of our vendors in the ecommerce business in competition with us, online security breaches and general economic conditions specific to the ecommerce and online commerce could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
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We have incurred and will continue to incur significant expenses as a result of being a public company, which will negatively impact our financial performance.
We completed our initial public offering in May 2005 and we have incurred and could continue to incur significant legal, accounting, insurance and other expenses as a result of being a public company. Rules and regulations implemented by Congress, the SEC and Thethe NASDAQ Global Select Market hashave required changes in corporate governance practices of public companies. Compliance with these laws could cause us to incur significant costs and expenses, including legal and accounting costs, and could make some compliance activities more time-consuming and costly. Thesenegatively impact our financial performance. Additionally, these rules and regulations may make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as officers. As a result, we may incur significant legal, accounting, insurance and certain other expenses on an ongoing basis, which would negatively impact our financial performance and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
Failure to maintain adequate financial and management processes and controls could lead to errors in our financial reporting and could harm our ability to manage our expenses.
Reporting obligations as a public company and our anticipated growth are likely to place a considerable strain on our financial and management systems, processes and controls, as well as on our personnel. In addition, we are required to document and test our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 so that our management can certify as to the effectiveness of our internal controls and our independent registered public accounting firm can render an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting on an annual basis. This process requires us to document our internal controls over financial reporting and to potentially make significant changes thereto, if applicable. As a result, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur substantial expenses to test our financial controls and systems, and we have been and in the future may be required to improve our financial and managerial controls, reporting systems and procedures, to incur substantial expenses to make such improvements and to hire additional personnel. If our management is ever unable to certify the effectiveness of our internal controls or if our independent registered public accounting firm cannot render an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, or if material weaknesses in our internal controls are ever identified, we could be subject to regulatory scrutiny and a loss of public confidence, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and our stock price. In addition, if we do not maintain adequate financial and management personnel, processes and controls, we may not be able to accurately report our financial performance on a timely basis, which could cause a decline in our stock price and adversely affect our ability to raise capital.
Changes to accounting rules or regulations could significantly affect our financial results.
Our financial statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). New accounting rules or regulations and changes to existing accounting rules or regulations have occurred and may occur in the future. Future changes to accounting rules or regulations, such as changes to lease accounting guidance or a requirement to convert to international financial reporting standards, could negatively affect our results of operations and financial condition through increased cost of compliance.
The security of our databases that contain personal information of our retail customers could be breached, which could subject us to adverse publicity, litigation and expenses. In addition, if we are unable to comply with security standards created by the credit card industry, our operations could be adversely affected.
Database privacy, network security and identity theft are matters of growing public concern. In an attempt to prevent unauthorized access to our network and databases containing confidential, third-party information, we have installed privacy protection systems, devices and activity monitoring on our network. Nevertheless, if unauthorized parties gain access to our networks or databases, they may be able to steal, publish, delete or modify our private and sensitive third-party information. In such circumstances, we could be held liable to our customers or other parties or be subject to regulatory or other actions for breaching privacy rules. This could result in costly investigations and litigation, civil or criminal penalties and adverse publicity that could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and reputation. Further, if we are unable to comply with the security standards established by banks and the credit card industry, we may be subject to fines, restrictions and expulsion from card acceptance programs, which could adversely affect our retail operations.
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The current uncertainty surrounding the United States economy coupled with cyclical economic trends in action sports retailing could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
The action sports retail industry historically has been subject to substantial cyclicality. As economic conditions in the United States change, the trends in discretionary consumer spending become unpredictable and discretionary consumer spending could be reduced due to uncertainties about the future. When discretionary consumer spending is reduced, purchases of action sports apparel and related products may decline. The current recession in the U.S. economy and increased government debt spending may result in economic uncertainties that could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial position.
Because of this cycle, we believe the “value” message has become more important to consumers. As a retailer that sells 85% branded merchandise, this trend may negatively affect our business as we generally will have to charge more than vertically integrated private label retailers.
We may fail to meet analyst expectations, which could cause the price of our stock to decline.
Our common stock is traded publicly and various securities analysts follow our financial results and issue reports on us. These reports include information about our historical financial results as well as the analysts’ estimates of our future performance. The analysts’ estimates are based upon their own independent opinions and are oftencan be different from our estimates or expectations. If our operating results are below the estimates or expectations of public market analysts and investors, our stock price could decline. In December 2007, a
securities class action litigation and associated derivative lawsuits was brought against us and such actions are frequently brought against other companies following a decline in the market price of their securities. These lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice in March 2009. If our stock price is volatile, we may become involved in this type of litigation in the future. Any litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources that are needed to successfully run our business.
The trading pricevalue of our investment in marketable securitiesinvestments may fluctuate.
We have our excess cash primarily invested in diversified high quality money market accounts,state and local municipal securities, U.S. treasuries,Treasury securities, U.S. government agency enterprises, certificates of deposit, municipal bondsAgency securities and auction rate securities. Thevariable-rate demand notes. These investments have historically been considered very safe investments with minimal default rates. However,At January 29, 2011, we had $114.6 million of investments in state and local government securities and variable-rate demand notes, excluding our auction rate security. These securities are not guaranteed by the United States government and are subject to additional credit risk based upon each local municipality’s tax revenues and financial stability. As a result, we may experience a reduction in value or loss of liquidity of our investments, which may have a negative adverse effect on our results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.
The uncertainties in the credit markets have prevented us and other investors from liquidating holdings of auction rate securities in recent auctions for these securities because the amount of securities submitted for sale has exceeded the amount of purchase orders. As ofAt January 30, 2010,29, 2011, we had $0.9 million, net of $0.1 million temporary impairment, invested in an auction rate security that is classifiedincluded in long-term marketable securitiesinvestments on ourthe consolidated balance sheet. For fiscal 2009, we did not incur an impairment charge on this investment. However, if market liquidity issues continue, weWe may incur additional impairment charges on this investment in the future.
In addition, we made a $2.0 million equity investment in a manufacturer and expect the value of this investment to increase. However, we do not have control over this investment and it may encounter unanticipated operating issues or negative financial performance that could adversely impact the value of our investment.
A decline in the market price of our stock and our performance may trigger an impairment of the goodwill recorded on ourthe consolidated balance sheet.sheets.
Goodwill and other intangible assets with indefinite lives mustis required to be tested for impairment at least once a yearannually or more frequently if management believes indicators of impairment exist. We evaluate the recoverability of goodwill annually based on a two-step impairment test. The first step compares the fair value of each reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. If the carrying amount exceeds fair value, then the second step of the impairment test is performed to measure the amount of any impairment loss. Any reduction in the carrying value of our goodwill as a result of our impairment analysis could result in a non-cash goodwill impairment charge to our statement of operations. A goodwill impairment charge could have a significant impact on earnings and potentially result in a violation of our financial covenants, thereby limiting our ability to secure short-term financing.
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Changes to estimates related to our leasehold improvements and equipment,fixed assets, or operating results that are lower than our current estimates at certain store locations, may cause us to incur non-cash impairment charges.
We make certain estimates and projections in connection with impairment analyses for certain of our store locations and other property and equipment. For example, we review for impairment all stores for which current cash flows from operations are either negative or nominal. Recoverability of store assets is measured by a comparison of the carrying amount of an asset to estimated undiscounted future cash flows expected to be generated by the asset. If the carrying amount is higher, impairment loss is measured by the amount, if any, by which the carrying amount of the assets exceeds their fair value based on the present value of estimated future discounted cash flows. These calculations require us to make a number of estimates and projections of future results. If these estimates or projections change or prove incorrect, we may be and have been, required to record impairment charges on certain store locations and other property and equipment. If these impairment charges are significant, our operating results would be adversely affected and our bank covenants may be violated.
Item 1B. | UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS |
None.
Item 2. | PROPERTIES |
In early February 2005, we completedAll of our move from the 49,000stores, primarily located in shopping malls and encompassing approximately 1,174,000 total square foot combined home office and distribution center that wefeet at January 29, 2011, are occupied since 1994 to a newunder operating leases.
We lease an 87,350 square foot combined home office and distributionecommerce fulfillment center both in Everett, Washington. This lease expires in 2017.
In October 2006, we entered into a new lease agreement whereby we agreed to expand our existing lease of 87,350 square feet of home office and distribution center space by 37,350 square feet, bringing the aggregate square footage leased to 124,700 square feet effective January 1, 2007. The new lease agreement terminated and replaced the original February 2005 lease with the landlord. The new lease agreement provides for an initial lease term of 126 months within which we have an option to extend the lease term for an additional period of five years. Subsequent to the fiscal 2009 year end,2010, we acquired a 168,450 square foot building in Corona, California that will serveserves as our new warehouse and distribution facility, beginningfacility. Additionally, in fiscal 2010, we acquired approximately 253,500 square feet of land in Lynnwood, Washington, which we plan to use as the first half of fiscal 2010.
Alllocation of our stores, encompassing approximately 1,107,000 total square feet as of January 30, 2010, are occupied under operating leases. The store leases range for a term of five to ten years and we are generally responsible for payment of property taxes and utilities, common area maintenance and marketing fees.new home office starting in 2012.
Item 3. | LEGAL PROCEEDINGS |
We are involved from time to time in litigation incidental to our business. We believe that the outcome of current litigation is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.
See Note 129 to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements found in Part IV Item 15 of this Form 10-K (listed under “Litigation” under Commitments and Contingencies).
Item 4. |
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Item 5. | MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES |
Market Information
Our common stock has traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “ZUMZ.” As ofAt January 30, 2010,29, 2011, there were 30,250,66130,834,713 shares of common stock issued. We began trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market on May 6, 2005. Accordingly, no information prior to this date is available.outstanding. The following table sets forth the high and low last reported sales prices for our common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market for the fiscal years ended January 30, 2010 (fiscal 2009) and January 31, 2009 (fiscal 2008).fiscal 2009.
Fiscal 2010 | High | Low | ||||||||||||
First Fiscal Quarter (January 31, 2010—May 1, 2010) | $ | 22.53 | $ | 12.54 | ||||||||||
Second Fiscal Quarter (May 2, 2010—July 31, 2010) | $ | 19.79 | $ | 14.98 | ||||||||||
Third Fiscal Quarter (August 1, 2010—October 30, 2010) | $ | 26.45 | $ | 14.44 | ||||||||||
Fourth Fiscal Quarter (October 31, 2010—January 29, 2011) | $ | 33.13 | $ | 22.24 | ||||||||||
Fiscal 2009 | High | Low | High | Low | ||||||||||
First Fiscal Quarter (February 1, 2009—May 2, 2009) | $ | 12.89 | $ | 6.43 | $ | 13.07 | $ | 5.70 | ||||||
Second Fiscal Quarter (May 3, 2009—August 1, 2009) | $ | 12.31 | $ | 7.38 | $ | 12.86 | $ | 7.27 | ||||||
Third Fiscal Quarter (August 2, 2009—October 31, 2009) | $ | 17.13 | $ | 9.54 | $ | 17.43 | $ | 9.25 | ||||||
Fourth Fiscal Quarter (November 1, 2009—January 30, 2010) | $ | 14.73 | $ | 10.93 | $ | 15.74 | $ | 10.68 | ||||||
Fiscal 2008 | High | Low | ||||||||||||
First Fiscal Quarter (February 3, 2008—May 3, 2008) | $ | 22.76 | $ | 13.84 | ||||||||||
Second Fiscal Quarter (May 4, 2008—August 2, 2008) | $ | 22.33 | $ | 12.29 | ||||||||||
Third Fiscal Quarter (August 3, 2008—November 1, 2008) | $ | 18.25 | $ | 8.72 | ||||||||||
Fourth Fiscal Quarter (November 2, 2008—January 31, 2009) | $ | 9.72 | $ | 6.12 |
Performance Measurement Comparison
The following graph shows a comparison for total cumulative returns for Zumiez Inc., The NASDAQ Composite Index and the NASDAQ Retail Trade Index during the period commencing on January 28, 2006 and ending on January 29, 2011. The comparison assumes $100 was invested on January 28, 2006 in each Zumiez, the NASDAQ Composite Index and the NASDAQ Retail Trade Index, and assumes the reinvestment of all dividends, if any. The comparison in the following graph and table is required by the SEC and is not intended to be a forecast or to be indicative of future Company common stock performance.
1/28/06 | 2/3/07 | 2/2/08 | 1/31/09 | 1/30/10 | 1/29/11 | |||||||||||||||||||
Zumiez Inc. | 100.00 | 136.16 | 81.02 | 28.91 | 51.47 | 90.20 | ||||||||||||||||||
NASDAQ Composite | 100.00 | 109.00 | 107.45 | 66.46 | 97.13 | 123.13 | ||||||||||||||||||
NASDAQ Retail Trade | 100.00 | 103.41 | 111.20 | 75.42 | 127.28 | 168.13 |
Holders of the Corporation’s Capital Stock
We had approximately 341356 shareholders of record as of March 16, 2009.7, 2011.
Dividends
No cash dividends have been declared on our common stock to date nor have any decisions been made to pay a dividend in the foreseeable future. Payment of dividends is evaluated on a periodic basis and if a dividend were paid, it would be subject to covenants of our lending facility, which may have the effect of restricting our ability to pay dividends.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
The following table presents information with respect to purchases of common stock of the Company made during the thirteen weeks ended January 29, 2011.
Period | Total Number of Shares Purchased (1) | Average Price Paid per Share | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs | ||||||||||||
October 31, 2010—November 27, 2010 | — | $ | — | — | — | |||||||||||
November 28, 2010—January 1, 2011 | 134 | $ | 29.32 | — | — | |||||||||||
January 2, 2011—January 29, 2011 | 77 | $ | 22.31 | — | — | |||||||||||
Total | 211 | — | — | |||||||||||||
None
None
Item 6. | SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION |
The following selected consolidated financial information has been derived from our audited Consolidated Financial Statements. The data should be read in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes thereto, and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included elsewhere herein.
Each fiscal year consists of four 13-week quarters, with an extra week added to the fourth quarter every five or six years. Our fiscal years ended, January 28, 2006, February 2, 2008, January 31, 2009 and January 30, 2010
Fiscal Year Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||
January 29, 2011 | January 30, 2010 | January 31, 2009 | February 2, 2008 | February 3, 2007 (1) | ||||||||||||||||
(in thousands, except per share data) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Statement of Operations Data: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Net sales | $ | 478,849 | $ | 407,603 | $ | 408,669 | $ | 381,416 | $ | 298,177 | ||||||||||
Cost of goods sold | 308,452 | 272,865 | 274,134 | 244,429 | 189,959 | |||||||||||||||
Gross profit | 170,397 | 134,738 | 134,535 | 136,987 | 108,218 | |||||||||||||||
Selling, general and administrative expenses | 133,030 | 122,003 | 109,927 | 98,042 | 75,774 | |||||||||||||||
Operating profit | 37,367 | 12,735 | 24,608 | 38,945 | 32,444 | |||||||||||||||
Interest income, net | 1,496 | 1,176 | 2,059 | 1,722 | 1,178 | |||||||||||||||
Other (expense) income, net | (8 | ) | 96 | 36 | 3 | (16 | ) | |||||||||||||
Earnings before income taxes | 38,855 | 14,007 | 26,703 | 40,670 | 33,606 | |||||||||||||||
Provision for income taxes | 14,652 | 4,876 | 9,499 | 15,344 | 12,750 | |||||||||||||||
Net income | $ | 24,203 | $ | 9,131 | $ | 17,204 | $ | 25,326 | $ | 20,856 | ||||||||||
Earnings per share: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Basic | $ | 0.81 | $ | 0.31 | $ | 0.59 | $ | 0.89 | $ | 0.76 | ||||||||||
Diluted | $ | 0.79 | $ | 0.30 | $ | 0.58 | $ | 0.86 | $ | 0.73 | ||||||||||
Weighted average shares outstanding: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Basic | 29,971 | 29,499 | 29,127 | 28,609 | 27,543 | |||||||||||||||
Diluted | 30,794 | 30,133 | 29,694 | 29,322 | 28,703 |
23
(1) | The fiscal year ended February 3, 2007 consisted of 53 weeks. |
January 29, 2011 | January 30, 2010 | January 31, 2009 | February 2, 2008 | February 3, 2007 | ||||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Balance Sheet Data: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and current marketable securities | $ | 128,801 | $ | 108,051 | $ | 78,582 | $ | 76,532 | $ | 51,977 | ||||||||||
Working capital (1) | 155,400 | 133,927 | 112,092 | 92,161 | 54,929 | |||||||||||||||
Total assets | 301,631 | 260,265 | 233,349 | 216,095 | 167,294 | |||||||||||||||
Total long-term liabilities | 29,435 | 27,802 | 24,177 | 18,097 | 12,910 | |||||||||||||||
Total shareholders’ equity | 226,735 | 192,676 | 177,951 | 154,602 | 104,812 |
each consisted of 52 weeks. Our
(1) | Working capital is defined as current assets minus current liabilities. The fiscal year ended January 30, 2010 has been restated to account for the reclassification of certain assets from current assets to long-term assets. Reclassification of these assets from current assets to long-term assets is immaterial for prior periods. |
Fiscal Year Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||
January 29, 2011 | January 30, 2010 | January 31, 2009 | February 2, 2008 | February 3, 2007 (1) | ||||||||||||||||
Other Financial Data: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Gross margin (2) | 35.6 | % | 33.1 | % | 32.9 | % | 35.9 | % | 36.3 | % | ||||||||||
Capital expenditures (in thousands) | $ | 29,361 | $ | 16,548 | $ | 28,349 | $ | 30,722 | $ | 22,160 | ||||||||||
Depreciation, amortization and accretion (in thousands) | $ | 17,923 | $ | 22,092 | $ | 19,470 | $ | 14,762 | $ | 10,499 |
(1) | The fiscal year ended February 3, 2007 consisted of 53 weeks. |
(2) | Gross margin represents gross profit divided by net sales. |
Fiscal Year Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||
January 29, 2011 | January 30, 2010 | January 31, 2009 | February 2, 2008 | February 3, 2007 (1) | ||||||||||||||||
Store Data: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Number of stores open at end of period | 400 | 377 | 343 | 285 | 235 | |||||||||||||||
Comparable store sales increase (decrease) (2) | 11.9 | % | (10.0 | %) | (6.5 | %) | 9.2 | % | 14.5 | % | ||||||||||
Net sales per store (3) (in thousands) | $ | 1,162 | $ | 1,081 | $ | 1,240 | $ | 1,405 | $ | 1,389 | ||||||||||
Total square footage at end of period (4) (in thousands) | 1,174 | 1,107 | 1,005 | 829 | 667 | |||||||||||||||
Average square footage per store at end of period (5) | 2,935 | 2,937 | 2,930 | 2,909 | 2,840 | |||||||||||||||
Net sales per square foot (6) | $ | 396 | $ | 367 | $ | 424 | $ | 488 | $ | 499 |