Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fossil 2008 second quarter earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Allison Malkin with ICR. Please go ahead, Madam.

Thank you. Good morning. Before we begin, you should be aware that during this conference call, certain discussions will contain forward looking information. Actual results could differ materially from those that will be projected during these discussions. Fossil’s policy on forward looking statements and additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements is readily available on our Form 10 K and 10 Q reports filed with the SEC. In addition, Fossil undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements, whether jordans cheap as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

If any non GAAP financial measure is used on this call, a presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and a reconciliation of the non GAAP financial measure to GAAP will be provided as supplemental financial information to this release under the earnings release section of the investor relations heading on Fossil’s website.

Please note that this call is being webcast live on Fossil’s website. It will be available for replay on the website under the investor relations heading after the conclusion of the call.

And now, I would like to turn the call over to cheap nike Cyber Monday deals Fossil’s CEO, Kosta Kartsotis. Go ahead.

Thanks, Allison. Good morning, everyone and thanks for joining us. Also here today are Mike Barnes, our President and COO, and our CFO, Mike Kovar. This morning, we will provide you with an overview of our second quarter results, as well as our outlook for the balance of the year. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will open for questions.

We are pleased to report record second quarter results. This performance clearly demonstrates the strength of our business model. Our diversified global distribution of high margin accessories gives us a significant long term opportunity. The combination of great brands and innovative product development, executed with cost and inventory discipline, puts us in a position to perform reasonably well despite difficult economic conditions in several markets worldwide.

Specific highlights of the quarter included net sales of $353 million, a gross profit margin nike schuhe damen of 53.9%, and earnings per share of $0.36, reflecting a 71% increase from $0.21 last year.

Our performance was driven by key growth initiatives, including our direct to consumer and international businesses. Our direct to consumer segment enjoyed a terrific performance, recording sales growth of 25% in the quarter, with total comp store sales rising 4.2% ex currency.

Our global accessory store comps were 2.7%, which included a 5.1% increase in the United States, which is on top of a 5.6% increase in Q2 last year. The momentum we are experiencing in this segment indicates that the innovative styling in our watch and accessory lines is resonating with consumers around the world and that the infrastructure we’ve been building to support this initiative is paying nice derivatives.

We are also seeing that these trends are continuing into the early part of Q3. As a result, we are maintaining our pace to open between 80 to 85 stores this year, with more than half of these outside of the United States.

On the international front, we experienced net sales growth of 9.5% ex currency, fueled by a 21.4% increase in our other international segment. We are making excellent progress in advancing our wholesale business in the Asia Pacific region and are experiencing solid growth with our distribution partners around the world.

While our European wholesale business reflected a slower growth rate of 2.9%, we are confident that we will see some improvement during the second half of the year.

One factor that will help us internationally is that our accessory business continues to gain momentum outside the United States. The opening of our retail stores overseas is introducing more customers to our leather products and this is giving us additional wholesale opportunities. department store and they are now testing women’s leather. We are also doing leather test in both Australia and Japan. We also have a solid and growing business in Germany in leather goods.

Another bright spot is the fact that the Fossil brand increased in sales 13% ex currency during the quarter with all categories combined. In addition, our Fossil watch comps within our own retail stores were in the plus 15% range during Q2. These results are very promising as we enter the more seasonal second half of the year with an improved assortment and more focused branding efforts. The brand is continuing to gain momentum worldwide and this is again a significant long term opportunity.

We also have a number of new initiatives that we believe will further advance our long term growth opportunities, including we are very excited to announce today that we have signed a licensing agreement with DKNY for jewelry that will launch in Europe in Q3 of this year. As you know, our jewelry business is very strong in Europe and there is an appetite there for branded jewelry. We also have a very successful DKNY watch business in Europe, so we expect the jewelry to be very successful relatively quickly.

Most of this product will go to the same specialty and department stores where we sell DKNY watches and participate in our extensive shop in shop programs that we have in Europe.

We also have unveiled our Fossil men’s footwear line at the recent footwear show and got a strong response and will be shipping to a relatively small number of doors in the United States and Germany in the spring of next year. A women’s line is also in the works, with an anticipated launch date of fall 2009.

We have assembled several world class footwear professionals that have done a great job in delivering an assortment that further promotes the image of the Fossil brand. We believe this is a natural extension to our leather goods categories and will benefit from the strength of the brand in the United States and Germany.

We also recently launched to the trade another new business category, which is Michelle handbags. The line was very well received, the product is terrific, and we will be shipping also in the first quarter of 2009. The distribution will be in luxury department stores in the United States plus some unique specialty stores across the country. This should be a strong business for us and complements the Michelle watch business, as well as the sunglass line that was launched earlier this year.

From a balance sheet perspective, we ended the quarter with cash balances of $212 million and minimal debt. The inventory growth was slightly higher than sales growth during the quarter but included 61 new retail stores opened over the last year.

Now I would like to turn the call over to Mike Barnes to review our sales highlights in more detail.

Thanks, Kosta. Good morning, everyone. I will start the review of our domestic business, where we saw sales rise 1.5% for the quarter, with watches up 2.3% black friday nike sale and non watch categories up 0.5%.

Domestic wholesale watch growth was driven by our licensed watches and Michele brands and was partially offset by a modest sales decline in Fossil watches. Mass market watch sales were also down but as we noted last quarter, some shipments moved into Q1 this year versus Q2 last year.

Growth from our licensed watch category was led by a strong Emporio Armani business as well as continued success with the rollout of Michael Kors. economy and the fact that department stores are holding down inventories to increase turns, we are pleased with the results of our domestic watch business. We’ve maintained a leadership position in this category and we are continuing to outperform others in the space. We believe the second half of this year could result in an improved performance as department stores flow inventory for the holiday season, given the health of our stock to sales ratios at the end of this quarter.

As mentioned on previous calls, we are continuing to experience great sponsorship from our department store customers. We believe the newness coming in the second half of the year, combined with improvements in our inventory flow, especially compared to last year, will also help drive our second half performance.

As previously noted, our proprietary luxury watch brand, Michelle, experienced a solid increase in wholesale shipments for the quarter. This sales strength, combined with a lower rate of returns compared to the prior year quarter, helped to deliver a strong net sales performance for the brand and Michelle remains the best selling watch in the fashion, luxury tier of distribution.