Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Indigo Books & Music Inc Financial Year 2022 Q1 Analyst Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we'll conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, August 13th, 2021. I would now like to turn the conference over to Craig Loudon. Please go ahead. Good morning, and thank you for joining us to review Indigo's fiscal 2022 first quarter results. My name is Craig Loudon, and I'm the Chief Financial Officer. Joining us from Indigo today is the Chief Executive Officer, Heather Reisman. Regarding the materials for this conference call, we issued the press release yesterday. It can be found at indigo.ca and on SEDAR. The conference call will be recorded, and archived in the investor relations section of the Indigo website. A playback of the call will also be available by telephone until 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time on August 20th, 2021. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements, and to the extent that it does, we refer you to our cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements in the press release, and the MD&A related to this quarter. I would now like to turn the call over to Heather Reisman. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining us. First quarter sales performance, +27% revenue rebound over last year, reflects the beginning of a welcomed recovery in retail, and was achieved despite protracted COVID-19 store closures in our largest market, Ontario, as well as sporadic closures, and occupancy limitations throughout the country. To expand, over 50% of the company's store locations were impacted until late in the quarter. The double-digit revenue rebound does speak to the continued strength of Indigo's brand, reinforced by advances in digital, and phygital experience, as well as an outstanding retail team who have continued to drive our retail store experience despite the endlessly difficult demands of operating in this ever-changing environment. Our print, and general merchandise business both delivered solid results. The popularity of reading on TikTok created a whole new level of reading excitement, particularly for teens, adding to already strong performance in books overall. Our general merchandise business continues to benefit from the successful expansion of our proprietary lifestyle brand, OUI. These results validate our ability to evolve with the dynamic retail landscape. We remain keenly focused on our customer, and our commitment to being a leading omnichannel retailer, all toward delivering a return to full-year adjusted EBITDA profitability. I would now like to hand it over to Craig to speak to the financial results. Thank you, Heather. The results we are discussing are for the 13 weeks ended July 3rd, 2021. Comparative figures reference the 13 weeks ended June 27th, 2020. In the first quarter, we generated revenue of CAD 172.1 million, an increase of CAD 37 million, or 27.4% from the first quarter last year. This double-digit rebound in revenue was experienced across the company's print, and general merchandise businesses in both core categories, and new product assortments. The print business experienced strong demand, notably driven by a younger demographic, and the popularity of reading on TikTok. This evolution of social commerce in the book space is exciting. Not only does Indigo's market leadership position benefit from the organic user-generated content on BookTok, it sparked a sales resurgence for many previous released titles. In addition to introducing a new demand life cycle, these backlist titles tend to be less promotional than recent bestsellers, delivering strong margin dollars. As Heather discussed, the company's proprietary lifestyle brand, OUI, drove growth in general merchandise through successful assortment expansion, lifting its category sales above pre-pandemic levels. As a result of temporary store closures from COVID-19, the impact of social distancing, and government-mandated capacity constraints in reopened stores, we believe that comparable sales are not currently meaningful to evaluate performance. Instead, we focus on total revenue as discussed, as well as omnichannel fulfillment trends. The retail channel, which is inclusive of orders fulfilled through omnichannel store pickup, increased by 114.8% to CAD 90.2 million for the 13-week period ended July 3rd, 2021. Customers' desire to shop in-store drove this triple-digit revenue rebound, supported by the easement of COVID-19 containment measures in regions. Ontario-wide closures, and other localized rolling closures, and capacity constraints proved less disruptive than nationwide closures last year, but delayed an anticipated full recovery. Now, with meaningfully diminished COVID-19 restrictions across the company's retail network, we are seeing the positive impact of a full retail fleet to the early weeks of the second quarter. Ontario store locations featuring an external entrance reopened in the 10th week of the quarter, as mentioned, ahead of remaining locations on June 29th, 2021. The company was well-positioned to handle this adversity with convenient omnichannel store pickup capabilities, a product of investments made over the past 12 months. Revenues generated through omnichannel store pickup grew nearly five times from the same period last year, and will continue to be a pillar of our omnichannel strategy as customer expectations evolve post-pandemic. Online channel revenue decreased by CAD 15.8 million, or 17.5%, to CAD 74.5 million for the 13-week period ended July 3rd, 2021. This moderated demand reflects the healthy rebound of retail, as discussed. The online channel sustained sales levels over three times pre-COVID-19 fiscal 2020 levels, and continues to be a lever of growth, and investment focus for the company. Cost of sales increased by CAD 4.7 million - CAD 101.6 million for the 13-week period ended July 3rd, 2021, compared to the prior year. Excluding the impact of online shipping costs, cost of sales increased by CAD 9.1 million - CAD 88.9 million for the period. As a percentage of total revenue, represents a decrease of 7.4% - 51.7%, compared to 59.1%. These improvements were driven by the retail channel rebound, which typically has a higher margin profile, and merchandise margin improvements in both channels. The strength of these assortment, and the success of efforts to be less promotional delivered this stronger margin rate. Online shipping costs decreased by CAD 4.4 million - CAD 12.7 million for the 13-week period ended July 3rd, 2021, largely in response to tempered demand in the online channel, as discussed. The company also realized improvements in online shipping unit economics year-over-year, a result of final-mile carrier diversification, and less disruptions from COVID-19 at its distribution centers. Overall, operating, selling, and administration costs increased by CAD 23 million - CAD 86.4 million for the period. Operating costs were offset by the recognition of CAD 6.5 million in government rent, and payroll subsidies, markedly lower than the CAD 16.8 million the company was eligible for, and recognized in the prior year. Operating costs also increased on the return of higher sales volumes in the retail channel. Adjusted EBITDA improved by CAD 8.8 million to a loss of CAD 14.9 million for the 13-week period ended July 3rd, 2021. As a percent of total revenue, adjusted EBITDA improved 8.8% to a loss of 8.7% this year, reflecting a strong product assortment, and an early retail recovery. The company recognized a net loss of CAD 21.9 million for the 13-week period ended July 3rd, 2021, or CAD 0.79 net loss per common share, compared to a net loss of CAD 31.6 million, or CAD 1.15 net loss per common share for the same period last year, an improvement of CAD 9.7 million. With no outstanding debt, a clean inventory position, and cash of CAD 81.4 million, the company is well-positioned to see through the remaining COVID-19 uncertainty, and the execution of our post-pandemic growth strategy. At this point, we would like to open the call for any questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star, followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You'll hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be polled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star, followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment for your first question. Okay. Your first question comes from David McFadgen from Cormark Securities. David, please go ahead. Oh, thank you. A couple of questions. Just wondering how the business is trending so far in this quarter now that all the stores are open. Just kind of wondering how the mix is going to be going forward between online and in-store. If you can provide any commentary there. Hi, David. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? Good. Craig, just within the context of what we are allowed to say, do you wanna take that just so I don't? Sure Cross any lines here? David, we're certainly, you know, seeing strength since the stores reopened. It's actually exceeding our expectations overall from an omni-channel revenue perspective. I would say, yeah we don't know if this is gonna continue, but we're certainly seeing revenue slightly ahead of two years ago. Again, it's early days. I don't want to speculate that that will continue, or not. Obviously, we don't know because the Ontario reopening's pretty fresh. As far as your question regarding online, with the, you know, in the quarter, with the Ontario stores closed, obviously online was a, was still very, very high compared to historical levels, and then also, also our expectations. Even with the stores reopened, you know, it is still holding ground, and we really think it's going to be, you know, our path to growth in the future. As we noted, the order online pickup in store capability, even though we had it last year, the volumes to that have grown by five times. We think people have really enjoyed that service, and latched onto it, and will continue to use it. Yeah, we see online being a very big part of the portfolio going forward. Okay. I mean, obviously online benefited significantly from COVID in fiscal 2021, I was just wondering? Yep. Do you think it could hold this line, or it's probably gonna drop a bit just because it had such a positive benefit from COVID? Well, certainly, Q1, it's probably a little higher than it will end up being given that Ontario was closed. Certainly, it will be well beyond historic levels, there's no question. I mean to be honest, I'm not, I can't give you a straight answer because I'd be speculating, and I think everyone's finding their way through this. It's certainly going to be well beyond historic levels, no question. Yeah. If I would just, of course, 100% agree with everything that Craig is saying here, and would just add, it's clear that the consumer, this protracted COVID-19 experience has changed the consumer. People's comfort with buy online, pick up in store, be in store, ship to home. What we're seeing is an evolution of the customer, and you're reading this everywhere. You read this in the retail, in the food retail sector everywhere, and we see huge opportunity in the route that we're going, and the business we're in to continue for both channels to evolve. Yeah, absolutely. Actually. That's where we're putting our effort, and we're pretty, we're feeling like y eah. Yeah. One final point, Dave, because we did talk about this at year-end, but we have seen a new younger customer emerging in the online channel. I think it's important to think about it, also that it's not just that retail customer that's going to shift back. We have seen new customers in the online channel that will likely stay there. It's important to keep that in mind, too. Okay. Just following along your comment you mentioned earlier, I mean it's obviously it's early in Q2, and things could change quite a bit, so no one's going to hold you to anything, but y ou said it was, at this point, slightly ahead versus 2019. Are you talking total revenue, or, or in store? Yeah. No, I'm talking total. Yeah, omnichannel. Okay. Omnichannel. Okay. Just on margins, obviously your gross margin improved quite a bit as in-store sales picked up. I'm just wondering, if the mix tilts more to be in store, shouldn't we expect to see more improvement in your gross margin? Yes. You're right. We will benefit from the channel economics when the shipping costs come out of cost of sales. Also, a huge benefit here has been being less promotional, and our intent is to continue with that. You're right, there will be, there will be that channel effect as well. Yes. Okay. Then maybe just a question on investment this year, if you could give us an idea of what you expect in terms of CapEx this year versus, say, fiscal 2021? Sure. Our planned CapEx this year is in the CAD 15 million-CAD 17 million range. That will really just vary depending on how many projects get executed. But by far, the focus of that investment is in our digital capabilities, given that's the growth engine, has been so important in this environment, and will be going forward. That's a, that's certainly the focus of the investment. Okay. Heather, where do you stand on your store count? Are you happy with the total number of large format stores? We have no, right now, we have no plans to expand the store count, or to make it smaller. The odd core store may close or not. We see a stable base right now. We have a huge focus, as Craig has just said, in expanding digital capability. We are not, we put a lot of money into the stores where we thought there's real opportunity. For now, we're just focusing all of our effort on digital investment. Okay. All right. Okay, well, that's it for me. Thank you. We have good coverage here, and at some point, we're going to go back to our original plan, which was to see expansion outside of Canada. Obviously the whole COVID-19 thing put a bit of a sort of slowdown on any further expansion there. To the extent that we look at it in the future, that'll be the approach we take. Well, maybe if I may, just following up on that comment. I thought that the New Jersey store was kind of, the performance pre-COVID was just kind of mediocre, but maybe I'm mistaken. We don't, we obviously don't report by store, but it's taken a little bit of time for it to establish in the market because it was one, w e originally thought we were going to do a cluster. I will just say that right now we are seeing wonderful improvement in the performance in that store. Okay. All right. Okay, thank you. Thanks, David. There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed. Thank you for your time and attention today. We appreciate you calling in, and look forward to reconnecting on a quarterly basis. Our second quarter results will be announced on, or around November 9th. Thank you again for your support, and have a great day. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, and ask that you please disconnect your lines.