Oxford Industries Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
June 10, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Neutral Sentiment: Oxford’s first-quarter sales were roughly in line with expectations, while earnings came in better than expected thanks to stronger gross margin performance, despite an $11 million year-over-year tariff headwind.
  • Positive Sentiment: Tommy Bahama was the standout brand, with mid-single-digit direct-to-consumer comparable sales growth led by stronger men’s and especially women’s business, plus improved product assortment and execution.
  • Negative Sentiment: Lilly Pulitzer missed expectations, with weaker e-commerce sales tied to merchandising, allocation, pricing, and messaging issues that management says are fixable but will take time to fully resolve.
  • Positive Sentiment: Johnny Was is showing turnaround progress, with better gross margins, tighter inventory, lower promotions, and store closures, though wholesale and overall sales remain under pressure.
  • Negative Sentiment: Management said sales trends softened in April through early June, prompting a more cautious full-year outlook and a reduction in the top end of sales guidance, while EPS guidance was tightened to reflect lower tariff assumptions and expense control.
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Earnings Conference Call
Oxford Industries Q1 2027
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Oxford Industries first quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Brian Smith of Oxford Industries. Please go ahead.

Brian Smith
Brian Smith
Investor Relations at Oxford Industries

Thank you, and good afternoon. Before we begin, I would like to remind participants that certain statements made on today's call and in the question-and-answer session may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results of operations or financial condition to differ are discussed in our press release issued earlier today and in documents filed by us with the SEC, including the risk factors contained in our Form 10-K. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements. During this call, we'll be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures in our press release issued earlier today, which is posted under the investor relations tab at our website at oxfordinc.com.

Brian Smith
Brian Smith
Investor Relations at Oxford Industries

I'd now like to introduce today's call participants. With me today are Tom Chubb, Chairman and CEO, and Scott Grassmyer, CFO and COO. Thank you for your attention, and I'd like to turn the call over to Tom Chubb.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Thank you, Brian. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to be here today to discuss our first quarter results, the progress we are making across the portfolio, and our outlook for the balance of the year. Overall, sales in the first quarter were in line with our expectations, and earnings were better than we anticipated, primarily due to stronger than expected gross margin. That gross margin performance reflects meaningful work done by our teams over the past year to respond to tariff pressure, including updates to our sourcing strategies, refinements to our pricing architecture, improved freight rates through vendor negotiations, and the benefit from a higher mix of direct-to-consumer sales. Importantly, we achieved this margin performance while absorbing an $11 million, or $0.55 a share, year-over-year increase in tariff costs during the quarter.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Absent that increase, both gross margin and earnings would have improved over the prior year. Looking across the portfolio, the first quarter included several important positive takeaways. Tommy Bahama, our largest brand, performed well, led by healthy direct-to-consumer results. Our Emerging Brands continued to generate strong growth, particularly in The Beaufort Bonnet Company and Duck Head. However, these positive results were not consistent across the portfolio. Johnny Was is progressing through its turnaround plan, and we are encouraged by the progress on gross margin and direct-to-consumer performance, even as wholesale remains pressured. Lilly Pulitzer was below our expectations while lapping a strong prior year first year quarter. Its softness weighed on our overall results. The consumer backdrop remains unsettled. Consumers continued to navigate macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures, including conflicts around the world, higher energy prices, uncertainty around trade policy and tariffs, and pressured sentiment around discretionary spending.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

As we have discussed in recent quarters, while some hard data may suggest consumers have the ability to spend, the soft data and what we are seeing continue to point to consumers that is more cautious, selective, and highly discerning. In this type of environment, product relevance and brand connection are especially important. Consumer response is strongest to differentiated products and brands that create an emotional connection. That is where our portfolio is advantaged. Our brands are built around lifestyle, optimism, and experiences. Our job is to stay focused on the product, storytelling, and service that bring those brands to life for our consumers. Tommy Bahama delivered the strongest performance in the quarter. Our direct-to-consumer business comp positive in the mid-single-digit range, with encouraging results in retail and e-commerce and continued contribution from food and beverage.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

More broadly, the brand benefited from a better assortment balance, improved key item execution, and the enduring appeal of its relaxed, warm weather lifestyle positioning. We are pleased with the execution at Tommy Bahama. The brand continues to occupy a unique position in the market with a lifestyle proposition that extends beyond any one product category or channel. Its advantage comes from the combination of compelling product, clear storytelling, strong customer engagement, and distinctive experiences across retail, digital, and hospitality. That combination continues to support our confidence in Tommy Bahama's long-term opportunity, even in an uncertain near-term environment. At Lilly Pulitzer, first quarter results were below our expectations, and we have work to do. Lilly Pulitzer remains a distinctive and beloved brand with a highly engaged customer and a very clear point of view. The business did not execute to its potential in the first quarter.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Sales were pressured, particularly in e-commerce. We believe that pressure reflected, in part, some merchandising and execution issues, including gaps in certain entry price points and allocation opportunities. We want to be clear that Lilly Pulitzer's performance was below our expectations and below where we are confident it can be. The brand has tremendous equity with its customer. In the first quarter, we did not bring together product pricing, allocation, and messaging. That is on us. The team is focused on correcting these issues. Keep in mind, this is the same highly talented Lilly team that has consistently delivered strong results, and we are very confident in their ability to address these issues. The good news is that we have identified what we believe are the core issues, and we believe they are addressable.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Some can be corrected relatively quickly, like messaging and marketing, while others related to merchandising can only move as fast as the product development life cycle and will accordingly take more time. We are focused on addressing these issues and reestablishing Lilly Pulitzer's positive trajectory and unlocking its long-term growth potential. The brand is strong, and we believe the team has the talent, experience, and urgency to restore the level of performance we expect. Turning to Johnny Was, we believe the brand is on track with its turnaround plan. As we have discussed previously, our focus has been primarily on improving profitability and reinforcing the fundamentals. During the first quarter, gross margin increased as the team made significant progress buying inventory tighter, reducing promotional activity, and improving gross margin return on investment.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

In terms of top-line results, sales were most under pressure in the wholesale, where Johnny Was has had the greater exposure than our other brands to specialty stores, a market that has declined meaningfully in recent years. Sales were also lower to off-price retailers due to healthier inventory levels, and to Saks Global, which has been impacted by its bankruptcy process. Historically, Neiman Marcus and Saks have been very important venues for Johnny Was. Importantly, performance in the direct-to-consumer business was much more in line with our expectations, and we believe that side of the business is becoming healthier. We are focused on bringing greater cohesion to the design process, refining the assortment, improving marketing effectiveness, and driving better execution across retail, e-commerce, and wholesale.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

With the new management team in place, we have also become more aggressive in reassessing and rationalizing our store base, closing five underperforming locations in the first quarter. We will continue to assess retail performance and opportunity on a market-by-market basis and location by location, and close underperforming stores where appropriate to ensure that our footprint is aligned with the brand's long-term potential. Turnarounds do not happen overnight, and there's still a lot of work to do, but we believe Johnny Was has meaningful long-term potential. Our objective is to build a stronger, more disciplined, and more profitable business that better reflects the strength and resonance of the brand. Our Emerging Brands also contribute positively with notable strength, particularly in the Beaufort Bonnet Company and Duck Head businesses.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

These brands continue to bring energy and growth potential to the portfolio, and we remain focused on building them in a disciplined way through stronger storytelling and growing distribution. Across the enterprise, we are also continuing to strengthen the operational foundation of the company. Our new Lyons, Georgia distribution center is an important part of that work. As we have said before, we do not expect the ramp-up to be without initial costs or complexity, particularly while we are transitioning between facilities. But over time, we believe Lyons will be a meaningful competitive advantage, particularly as direct-to-consumer demand continues to gain share across our portfolio. Stepping back from the individual brands, we were pleased with the way we started the fiscal year.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

At the same time, sales trends softened as we moved through April, and that deceleration continued into May and early June. Some of that reflects the broader consumer environment and the increased caution we are seeing in discretionary spending, along with a shift in timing of the important Father's Day holiday. Continued softness at Lilly Pulitzer is also an important factor, particularly given that some of the product and merchandising improvements we are making will take some time to fully flow through the assortment. Given these trends, we believe it's appropriate to take a more measured view of the upside sales opportunity for the balance of the year. As a result, we are narrowing our full year sales outlook by lowering the top end of the range. We believe this is a prudent approach based on what we are seeing in the business and the broader environment today.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

At the same time, we are tightening our EPS guidance range for the remainder of the year by raising the low end of our previous range due to the impact of the current lower tariff rates flowing through for the balance of the year, combined with focused expense and inventory management. Tariffs remain a major topic and source of uncertainty. Scott will provide more detail on the updated assumptions embedded in our outlook. From an operating standpoint, our priorities remain unchanged. Optimize sourcing, manage pricing thoughtfully, protect gross margin where we can, and avoid actions that would undermine the long-term health of our brands. Periods like this can push companies to become defensive and overly short term. We are not going to do that. Our brands exist to bring happiness, optimism, and a sense of possibility to our customers.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

That is a real source of differentiation, and we believe the near-term adjustments we are making in the current environment will capitalize on each brand's unique attributes and position us to deliver long-term value to our shareholders. As always, I want to thank our teams across Oxford. Their resilience, creativity, and commitment to our customers are the foundation of everything we do. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott for more detailed commentary on our financial performance and outlook.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Thank you, Tom. As Tom mentioned, our teams have shown great discipline and resilience in executing our plan against the backdrop of a challenging consumer and macro environment. Consolidated net sales were $391 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to $393 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, and above the midpoint of our guidance range of $385 million to $395 million. Total company comparable sales decreased 2%, including 2% decreases in both retail and e-commerce. The decline in retail comp sales was offset by sales from non-comp stores open primarily in the prior year. Notably, food and beverage sales increased 14%, driven primarily by non-comp locations. Wholesale sales decreased 5% compared to the prior year period, which is better than our original forecast.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

By brand, Tommy Bahama delivered solid results with total sales increasing year-over-year, driven by mid-single-digit comps in our DTC channels, partially offset by a decline in wholesale sales. Emerging Brands continued their momentum with sales growth in the low double digits. The positive comps at Tommy Bahama and growth in Emerging Brands were offset by sales declines at Lilly Pulitzer and Johnny Was. At Lilly Pulitzer, significant declines in the e-commerce channel and a difficult comparison to the prior year led to overall low teen negative comps. At Johnny Was, as Tom mentioned, the sales decline was driven by a significant decrease in the wholesale channel and mid-single-digit negative comps in our DTC channels.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Adjusted gross margin contracted 90 basis points to 63.4%, driven by approximately $11 million, or 280 basis points of increased cost of goods sold from the additional tariffs implemented starting in fiscal 2025. Despite this, U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in late February that previously paid tariffs were capitalized in the inventory that we sold during the first quarter. The increased tariffs were partially offset by updated sourcing and pricing architecture strategies across our portfolio, lower freight costs to customers due to improved carrier rates from contract renegotiations, and a change in sales mix, with wholesale sales representing a lower proportion of net sales. Adjusted SG&A expenses increased 1% to $209 million, compared to $206 million last year, impacted primarily by new brick-and-mortar retail and food and beverage locations, as well as increases in software and consulting costs and costs associated with the transition of our Lyons, Georgia, distribution center operations.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

These increases were partially offset by lower advertising costs and cuts in more discretionary categories like travel. The result of this yielded adjusted EBITDA of $45 million, or an 11.6% adjusted EBITDA margin, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $54 million or 13.7% in the prior year. Moving beyond EBITDA, adjusted depreciation amortization was flat compared to the prior year, with increases in depreciation related to our new Lyons facility and new brick-and-mortar locations offset by lower software related depreciation. Interest expense of $2 million was higher than the prior year due to higher average debt levels. Our effective tax rate of 25.4% was higher than the prior year due to certain discrete items. With all this, we ended with $1.39 of adjusted EPS.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Moving to the balance sheet, inventory decreased $15 million, or 9% on a LIFO basis, and $3 million, or 1% on a FIFO basis as compared to the first quarter of 2025, despite $9 million of additional tariff costs capitalized into inventory compared to $3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2025. Inventory decreased across our three larger brands, partially offset by higher inventory in the Emerging Brands group to support their higher levels of growth. We ended the quarter with long-term debt of $143 million as compared to $118 million at the end of the first quarter of 2025, and $116 million at the end of fiscal 2025.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Cash flows from operations provided $8 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to cash flows used in operations of $4 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, with lower earnings offset by positive changes in working capital. We also had capital expenditures of $23 million, primarily related to the Lyons, Georgia distribution center project and the addition of new brick-and-mortar locations, and $11 million of dividends that led to an increase in our long-term debt balance since the beginning of the fiscal year. I'll now spend some time on our updated outlook for 2026. As Tom mentioned, the positive momentum we saw at the start of the year decelerated a bit at the end of the first quarter and continued into the second quarter. For the second quarter, we now expect our total company comp to be in the low single-digit negative to flat range.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

For the full year, our updated comp assumption assumes a range of slightly negative to slightly positive. The updated second quarter and full-year comp assumptions are lower than our previous expectations of flat to low single-digit positive comps. As a result of the change in our comp assumptions, we're revising the top end of our revenue guidance range for the full year. For the full year, net sales are expected to be between $1.475 billion and $1.505 billion, a relatively flat to up 2%, compared to sales of $1.478 billion in fiscal 2025. Our revised sales plan for the full year of 2026 includes a sales increase in Tommy Bahama and continued growth in Emerging Brands, partially offset by a sales decrease in Lilly Pulitzer and Johnny Was.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Our updated sales plan does include improvement in the second half as we correct the issues discussed at Lilly Pulitzer, and Johnny Was continues its turnaround plan. We will also benefit from correcting the tariff-related merchandising issues that impacted the results of most of our brands in the second half of the prior year, specifically in the fourth quarter and during the holiday season. By distribution center, the full-year sales plan consists of high single-digit increase in our food and beverage channel that is benefiting from the addition of new locations added during fiscal 2025, partially offset by low single-digit decreases to flat sales in our direct-to-consumer channels, and a mid-single-digit decrease in wholesale. Moving on to gross margin. Our current assumption is that the current lower tariff rate of 10% will remain in place for the remainder of the year.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

These rates are generally consistent with the rates in effect for most of our inventory receipts during the first quarter of 2026. While we are not including the impact of tariff refunds in our guidance, we paid approximately $40 million of tariffs in fiscal 2025, an additional $5 million of tariffs in the first quarter of 2026 that were ultimately invalidated by the Supreme Court ruling in February. To date, we have filed for approximately $25 million in phase one claims and have begun to receive refunds. A refund process for phase two and the remainder of our unfiled claims has not yet been established, but we are ready to file claims for refunds as soon as a process is established.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

It is important to note that given the timing of our planned inventory receipts for the balance of the year, changes in tariff rates during fiscal 2026 would be expected to have a more limited impact on fiscal 2026 results than they would on future periods. In addition to lower tariff assumptions, we expect that gross margins will benefit significantly from the shifts in sourcing and updates to our pricing architecture that our teams have worked on for the last year, and a shift to a higher proportion of direct-to-consumer sales. As a result, we expect gross margins to improve 100 to 200 basis points in Q2, Q3, and Q4 of fiscal 2026 compared to the prior year periods, and an overall approximate 100 basis point increase for the year when including the headwind from the first quarter.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

In addition to lower sales and higher gross margins, we expect SG&A to grow in the low single-digit range, primarily due to increased software-related cost and the annualization of incremental SG&A from new stores added since the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2025. Within the EBITDA, we expect higher royalties and other income of approximately $2 million in fiscal 2026. Outside of EBITDA, we expect an increase in depreciation due to significantly all of the incremental costs to operate the new Lyons DC and fiscal 2026 depreciation related. Considering all these items, interest expense of $7 million, a higher tax rate of 28%, we are tightening our 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $2.30 to $2.70 versus adjusted EPS of $2.11 last year. Again, our guidance does not include the impact of any tariff refunds.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

The second quarter of 2026, we expect sales of $380 million to $400 million, compared to sales of $403 million in the second quarter of 2025. This primarily reflects our low single-digit negative to flat comp assumption and decreased wholesale sales in the high single-digit range. By brand, we expect lower sales at Lilly Pulitzer and Johnny Was to be partially offset by a sales increase at Tommy Bahama and continued growth at Emerging Brands. We also expect gross margins to expand approximately 100 basis points, SG&A to grow in the low single-digit range, royalty income of approximately $5 million, interest expense of $2 million, and a higher effective tax rate of approximately 29%, primarily related to the impact of our annual stock vesting. We expect this to result in second quarter adjusted EPS between $1.20 and $1.40, compared to $1.26 last year.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Moving to our CapEx outlook for the remainder of the year, we expect capital expenditures for the year to be approximately $60 million, including the $23 million spent in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to a total of $108 million in fiscal 2025. Remaining capital expenditures relate to the new distribution center in Lyons, Georgia, and new brick-and-mortar locations. Thank you for your time today. We'll now turn the call over for questions. Paul?

Operator

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Our first question is from Ashley Owens with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Ashley Owens
Ashley Owens
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Thanks. Good afternoon. I want to click down on the comments about the trend softening through April into May and then early June, and then you flagged that Father's Day shift. Is there any way to help us isolate how much of that deceleration is calendar versus the genuine demand softness? Once you normalize for that Father's Day timing, what does the underlying trend look like there? I have a follow-up.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

I would say, we built into our guidance flat to low single-digit negative for Q2, and I think we're more on, at the moment, in the low single-digit negative. I think when we get past Father's Day, we'll be in that zone of flat to low single-digit negative, I believe is where we'll land. I think we're going to pick up a bit through Father's Day. Right now, we're tracking fine.

Ashley Owens
Ashley Owens
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

All right. Understood. Maybe then just secondly, more broadly on wholesale, would just be curious, since we last spoke, there's obviously been elevated gas prices have continued, consumer discretionary sentiment is weak. I would just be curious if you're seeing any shifts in some of the wholesale order behavior across your portfolio for the balance of the year. Any retailers trimming buys here, pushing out deliveries? Anything to call out? Thanks.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

They're still being cautious, we still think we'll be down, we're not seeing a drastic change. I think everybody is, given the environment, is being a bit cautious. I think the opportunity for some increases might not be there quite the way we had hoped. I think they're seeing a lot of what we're seeing right now. Yeah, you do have the shift, I think a lot of people are trying to sort through the current business and how much this Father's Day shift is impacting it versus how much is the consumer. That's a hard thing to really tell. There's, I think, some of both in what's going on.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Ashley, it always comes down to how you're performing on their floor, our wholesale performance overall has hung in pretty well so far year-to-date. Some places are stronger than others, I would say overall it's been pretty strong.

Ashley Owens
Ashley Owens
Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Okay. Understood. Thank you. I'll pass it along.

Operator

Our next question is from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory.

Dana Telsey
Dana Telsey
Analyst at Telsey Advisory Group

Good afternoon. I want to unpack the performances of Tommy Bahama and Lilly. Certainly, the improvement in the performance of Tommy Bahama, even from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, is impressive and wanted to get whether it's men's, women's prices category, what's driving that? The Lilly downtick, I think last quarter when we all spoke, you talked about the headwinds, whether it was the Florida, the weather, felt like the structural components of Lilly was very much intact. What's changed? Where's the softness coming from? Is it by region, by channel, by customer? Is it print, pattern, solid, promotions? What's the timeline of the Lilly fix? Thank you.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Okay. Let me start with Tommy Bahama. I would say it was a very nice quarter for Tommy Bahama. We're very proud of it. Men's had an increase in our direct-to-consumer business year-over-year. We talked about this in March. That was really driven by core product that we were sort of weak on last year. That's things like the M-Field or the Boracay and some of our big linen programs that really drove it. The real strength in the quarter, men's was good. Women's was even better. The numbers were really driven by the women's side of the business, which we love seeing, because, as you know, long term, we continue to believe we have a very large opportunity in Tommy Bahama's women's.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

The women's DTC business was up, I think about 7.5% for the quarter, which is quite strong. It was driven by what we would consider the fashion part of the business. There were a couple of categories within fashion. I think pants and wovens were both strong during the quarter. We were glad to see that. We're still very much a men's-driven business. Seeing that strength in women's, where it really helped drive our quarterly results to a large degree, was great. One other little stat that I'll throw out at you that I love is that during the first quarter of 2026, 30% of our e-com orders included both a men's and a women's item. That's up from last year when it was 25%.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

We don't have any great benchmarking on that. We believe that benchmarks really well in terms of our ability to sell both genders effectively. When you've got almost a third of your orders are dual gender orders, we think that's really great. Really like what we saw in Tommy Bahama during the quarter. Some of that softness that we saw in April and May had to do with some timing shifts and maybe a little planning hiccup. I really believe that we're going to get through Father's Day and still be on a very good track. It's a little hard to see it today just because of the shift. It's still good. It's just not quite as strong as it was. I think that's the Father's Day shift that we're seeing.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

On Lilly Pulitzer, I do believe that the February weather in Florida was a contributing factor. At the time we were talking in March, I think that was very valid because it was, especially during February and the first part of March, where the average daily temperatures were much, much lower than the normal average daily temperatures. That's that time of year when it matters a lot in Florida as to whether people are motivated or not. As we got deeper into the quarter, we realized that there were other issues with both the assortment and with the messaging and marketing around them. As we identified during the prepared remarks, Dana, some of the issues that we were way under inventoried in our opening price point bucket, and I think that cost us some business.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Some of those customers were willing to move up a price point scale, I think some of them just ended up not buying, and I think that's where we saw a lot of the sales erosion. From a print and color perspective, if you've been watching it, we leaned heavily into the sort of vintage prints. While we love those prints and they're beautiful, I think we probably overdid that. Those tend to appeal a little bit more to the most dedicated Lilly fans and maybe a little less so to the newer Lilly fans. I think that was an issue. The last big one I would identify is what we're calling novelty. As you know, Dana, there's been a lot of emphasis, not only from us, but across the marketplace on newness and novelty and that kind of thing.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

I believe we just swung the pendulum a little bit too far on that this spring. It's good to have a good bit of that, we just had too much of it, not enough of our assortment was more versatile. I think especially when you get into a time period where people are being a little bit more discerning about their purchases, I think she's looking at the versatility of that dress. Maybe a little more than she would when she's in more of a free spending mode. We were talking about this yesterday, we have had this spring an absolutely gorgeous dress that was the type of dress that you would wear to some kind of charity ball or gala or something like that. Absolutely gorgeous, it's really one of those dresses that you're probably only going to wear once.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Because it's so unique and so special and so dramatic and stunning. It was over $700, which for us is a high price point. We just have a little too much of that. In terms of the timeline to fixing, I would also say that that leaning into vintage and nostalgia, I think, also showed up in our messaging and marketing. You know the way this works, Dana. Messaging and marketing can be addressed more quickly, generally, and how we're targeting and some of that stuff. We're already adapting and things like promotions. You may have watched, we did a big Lilly Pulitzer promotion this past weekend. That was something that we did in what I would call an agile response to the situation. Those things can be done more quickly. The product development timeline is what it is.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

It's more of a resort before you can really up until resort, you're dealing with the product that you designed and bought way back when you did that. I believe we feel that some of our later summer deliveries are a bit stronger and maybe don't have quite the degree of issues. What we're doing just in sort of our agile response and rethinking promotions and all, I think we're going to make the best of it. I'm super proud of the Lilly Pulitzer team and the way that they've responded to it. Dana, you know this well, but this is a fashion business, and you're going to have a hiccup like this every now and again. That's part of the business. Hopefully, it's not very often, but it's going to happen every once in a while.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

The key is how do you respond to that in the short term and then in the long term? I think as they do, the Lilly Pulitzer team is doing a terrific job on both fronts. That was a lot, but hopefully answered your question.

Dana Telsey
Dana Telsey
Analyst at Telsey Advisory Group

Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question is from Janine Stichter with BTIG.

Janine Stichter
Janine Stichter
Analyst at BTIG

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Wanted to delve into the gross margin side a bit. You talked about having some big wins on the sourcing side. Maybe you could just talk about what's working there, how much you view as structural and able to continue. As we think about the guidance for gross margin to increase throughout the balance of the year, what does it assume in terms of promotions by brand, how you're planning them, and also how consumers are shopping around those promotions? Thank you.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Yeah. On the gross margin, we had done a lot of sourcing shifts. A lot of the price increases, a lot of them were on newness. We do have some products with some good margins. At Tommy especially, we sold through at full price nicely, and so we had a pretty nice higher than expected gross margin there. As we mentioned, the tariffs are 10% now, that's our assumption going forward. We did have overall some lower promotions both in the first quarter internally and on sales of full price to wholesale accounts. That helped. Direct was a higher percentage of our total sales versus wholesale, so that always helps also. As far as promotions, Lilly will probably be a little more promotional than we planned at the beginning of the year, just given the start. Tommy, pretty much the normal cadence at Tommy.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

I think overall, I don't think our overall total company promotional cadence will be drastically different, probably a little bit more at Lilly. Quite a bit less at Johnny Was. Johnny Was is really on the inventory down and being much more disciplined on promotional events, and their gross margins were very good, and I think they'll continue to be for the rest of the year. I think some structural things at Johnny Was that are really starting to show through on the gross margin line and some of the SG&A controls there. I think they'll begin to show on the top line later in the year.

Janine Stichter
Janine Stichter
Analyst at BTIG

Got it. With the price increases, have you seen any pushback at either of the brands, the price increases? Just any more plans to get increases the rest of the year?

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

I would say, Janine, there's a nuanced answer to that. There hasn't really been any direct pushback to it. If you look at our numbers, We're selling less units. The AOV is going up, the AUR is going up, so people are selling or paying the price, but the total number of units that we sold during the quarter was down a bit. It's not drastic. It's hard to know exactly how to interpret that. I think some of that's about the softness and just general caution among the consumer. We're looking at it hard to make sure we're not out of whack with what the consumer's willing to pay. We do not believe we're out of whack with the market at all. We think we're in sync with our peers or competitors, whatever you want to call them. It bears further scrutiny for sure.

Janine Stichter
Janine Stichter
Analyst at BTIG

Great. Thanks for the color.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Thank you, Janine.

Operator

Our next question is from Mauricio Serna with UBS.

Mauricio Serna
Mauricio Serna
Analyst at UBS

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. First on Tommy Bahama, could you talk about your expectations in terms of the comps for Q2 and the rest of the year? Just thinking about the very good traction you got in Q1, is it fair to assume that the brand can sustain a mid-single digit comp? Similar question on Johnny Was. It seemed like you're really being able to bring that business into a healthier place, at least in terms of margins, gross margin. How should we think about the timing for an inflection to positive sales growth of the brand? Could it happen by second half of the year? Thank you.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Tommy, we think we can have positive comps the rest of the year. Our model has a little bit lower than the mid-single, just slightly lower than the first quarter. A lot of it's just some of what we're seeing now and we got the whole Father's Day shift. I think it's really once we get through Father's Day and get that dust settled, I think we'll be in a good place there. At Johnny Was, we think we can start having positive comps in the second half. Some of the discipline that we've got and then the product. We really couldn't impact product in the first half of the year.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

In second half of the year, we really think a lot of the work we've been doing in identifying how we ought to be assorting the line, that was known going into the design process. We think we'll have better commercial lines, and we also will have our line of more essentials that go with the prints. We have very little of that right now, and we'll have quite a bit more of that in the second half. We think first half, the comp will be a little tough at Johnny Was but a lot more discipline on healthier gross margins and a lot more expense discipline. Second half, we really think the comp can start turning around.

Mauricio Serna
Mauricio Serna
Analyst at UBS

Got it. A couple of follow-ups on the gross margin side. It seems like the assumption is, even though if tariffs go back to IEEPA after July, the way that you flow your inventory, it shouldn't have a meaningful impact for at least fiscal 2026. I just want to make sure that I understood that.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Yeah.

Mauricio Serna
Mauricio Serna
Analyst at UBS

I guess that means that you could face a headwind in 2025.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

We'll have fall pretty much be in-house. Then you've got some core that also goes even further during the year. If tariff rates did go back to IEEPA. Right now, I think what they're talking is more of a 10 to 12, is at least what's being discussed, and how quickly that happens. You could have a gap where you don't have any. These are going to expire. The Section 122 will expire in July. I don't know if these others can be in place right away. The tariffs are still fairly uncertain but even if they went all the way back to IEEPA, it would not have a huge impact because I think fall's pretty much in at 10. Resort could have a little bit of impact.

Mauricio Serna
Mauricio Serna
Analyst at UBS

Got it. Then just the last point on that. With tariff refunds, what would be the primary use of the proceeds?

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Debt repayment.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Pay down debt.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Yeah.

Mauricio Serna
Mauricio Serna
Analyst at UBS

Yeah, just wanted to check

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

We announced it this quarter but some of that is seasonal and we expect second quarter debt to come down and then if we get the tariff refunds then we'll come down even more significantly.

Mauricio Serna
Mauricio Serna
Analyst at UBS

Awesome. Well, thanks for answering the questions and best of luck.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

All right.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Thank you, Mauricio.

Operator

Our next question is from Joseph Civello with Truist Securities.

Joseph Civello
Joseph Civello
Analyst at Truist Securities

Hey guys, thanks so much for taking my questions. Just trying to zero in a little bit more on the consumer versus Father's Day. Is there any way you could break down the tax refund impact on 1Q?

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

I'm not sure we can do that, Joe.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

I don't know. Yeah.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

I believe it was probably a positive for us for sure but I don't know that we have a good way to break that down. As you know, Joe, there are a lot of people, including some of your peers out there in the analyst world that are trying to do all kinds of things about tax returns, and I've read a lot of that, but I'm not sure we can translate it exactly.

Joseph Civello
Joseph Civello
Analyst at Truist Securities

Yeah. I figured it'd be pretty tough, but figured I'd ask. Secondly, can you just talk a little bit more about the-

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

One analysis that I've read is that when you get to $4.50 a gallon, you've eaten up all the benefit of the tax return.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Some people are thinking about it. We're not at $4.50 a gallon most places, with where oils settled down, it's been in the high 80s, low 90s, and seems pretty immune to what the news headlines are in terms of any big swings. At that level, you're looking at $3.75 a gallon on average, I think, which I don't think is going to cripple the economy. People don't like it impacts sentiment, but I don't think it's going to cripple the economy.

Joseph Civello
Joseph Civello
Analyst at Truist Securities

Got it. That's helpful. Can you give any more color on the regional performance of Tommy and maybe how the new DC has impacted operations?

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

You want to talk about D.C.?

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Yeah. New DC, we moved our first brand over at the very end of February. We now have four brands over there. We've got three more brands to move. As you remember, Alliance was doing a tiny bit for Tommy. They were doing all the Emerging Brands. They were doing a tiny bit for Lilly, and all of Johnny Was. Then we'll end up moving, once we get all the brands in and get it all settled down, we will actually start shifting more Tommy over. We currently have Jack Rogers in a 3PL, and that will move. The move, probably end of July, early August, we'll have all the brands moved over. Then as our efficiencies get better, we'll move more and more Tommy there.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

We're kind of in the startup phase and, with a project like this, you work out the different kinks, and you kind of move the brands over slowly, and then you really absorb them and get more efficient, and then you move the next brand. We're kind of in that phase now. This summer, we'll get all the brands over and then continue to move more Tommy over and continue to get more efficient. It's going to be a great operation, and it's going to be a great long-term asset for the company.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Joe, from a geographic standpoint for Tommy, it's really a West Coast or western part of the country versus Eastern issue.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

The West has been strong this year, which is really good to see. We had a couple of years where it was lagging, and that's really been the strongest part of the country for us, which we're really glad to see.

Joseph Civello
Joseph Civello
Analyst at Truist Securities

Got it. Thanks so much, guys.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Thank you.

K. Scott Grassmyer
K. Scott Grassmyer
EVP, CFO, and COO at Oxford Industries

Thanks, Joe.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Tom Chubb for any closing remarks.

Thomas C. Chubb III
Thomas C. Chubb III
Chairman, President, and CEO at Oxford Industries

Okay, thank you very much for your time and attention today. We appreciate your interest in our company, and we look forward to talking to you again at the end of the summer.

Operator

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you again for your participation.

Executives
    • Brian Smith
      Brian Smith
      Investor Relations
    • K. Scott Grassmyer
      K. Scott Grassmyer
      EVP, CFO, and COO
    • Thomas C. Chubb III
      Thomas C. Chubb III
      Chairman, President, and CEO
Analysts
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