UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended February 1, 2020

OR

For the transition period from                      to                     

Commission File Number 001-36107

BURLINGTON STORES, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(609) 387-7800

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to 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    ☐

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  ☒

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 past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.    ☐   

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on August 2, 2019, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $11,637,817,686. The aggregate market value was computed by reference to the closing price of the common stock on such date.

As of February 28, 2020, there were 65,892,508 shares of common stock of the registrant outstanding.

Documents Incorporated By Reference:

BURLINGTON STORES, INC.

INDEX TO REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED FEBRUARY 1, 2020

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about us, the industry in which we operate and other matters, as well as management’s beliefs and assumptions. For example, when we use words such as “projects,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “will,” “opportunity,” “potential” or “may,” variations of such words or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes, we are making “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements may relate to such matters as our future actions, including expected store openings, ongoing strategic initiatives and the intended results of those initiatives, future performance or results of current and anticipated sales, expenses, interest rates, foreign exchange rates and results and the outcome of contingencies such as legal proceedings. Our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially from the events or results anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including each of the factors discussed in Item 1A, Risk Factors as well as risks and uncertainties discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report. While we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, we caution that it is very difficult to predict the impact of known factors, and it is impossible for us to anticipate all factors that could affect our actual future events or results. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this Annual Report might not occur. In addition, as a result of these and other factors, our past financial performance should not be relied on as an indication of future performance. The cautionary statements referred to in this section also should be considered in connection with any subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements that may be issued by us or persons acting on our behalf. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. 

PART I

Overview

We are a nationally recognized retailer of high-quality, branded merchandise at everyday low prices. We opened our first store in Burlington, New Jersey in 1972, selling primarily coats and outerwear. Since then, we have expanded our store base to 727 stores as of February 1, 2020, inclusive of an internet store, in 45 states and Puerto Rico. We have diversified our product categories by offering an extensive selection of in-season, fashion-focused merchandise at up to 60% off other retailers’ prices, including: women’s ready-to-wear apparel, menswear, youth apparel, baby, beauty, footwear, accessories, home, toys, gifts and coats. We sell a broad selection of merchandise acquired directly from nationally recognized manufacturers and other suppliers.

As used in this Annual Report, the terms “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to Burlington Stores, Inc. and all of its subsidiaries. We were organized in 2013 under the name Burlington Holdings, Inc. and currently exist as a Delaware corporation. Our indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation (BCFWC), was initially organized in 1972 as a New Jersey corporation, was reincorporated in 1983 in Delaware, and currently exists as a Florida corporation. We completed an initial public offering of our common stock in October 2013.

Fiscal Year End

We define our fiscal year as the 52- or 53-week period ending on the Saturday closest to January 31. This is an annual report for the 52-week fiscal year ended February 1, 2020 (Fiscal 2019). The fiscal years ended February 2, 2019 (Fiscal 2018) and February 3, 2018 (Fiscal 2017) consisted of 52 weeks and 53 weeks, respectively.

Our Stores

Over 99% of our net sales are derived from stores we operate as Burlington Stores. We believe that our customers are attracted to our stores principally by the availability of a large assortment of first-quality, current, brand-name merchandise at everyday low prices.

Burlington Stores offer customers a complete line of merchandise, including: women’s ready-to-wear apparel, accessories, footwear, menswear, youth apparel, baby, home, coats, beauty, toys and gifts. Our broad selection provides a wide range of apparel, accessories and furnishings for all ages. We purchase both pre-season and in-season merchandise, allowing us to respond timely to changing market conditions and consumer fashion preferences. Furthermore, we believe Burlington Stores’ substantial selection of staple, destination products attracts customers from beyond our local trade areas. We believe these products drive incremental store traffic and differentiate us from our competitors.

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We believe the breadth of our selection and our ability to successfully operate in stores of varying square footage represents a competitive advantage. We believe that, as we continue to reduce our comparable store inventory, we will be able to reduce the square footage of our stores while continuing to maintain our broad assortment. As a result, we believe major landlords seek us as a tenant because the appeal of our merchandise profile attracts a desired customer base.

Our store base is geographically diversified with stores located in 45 states and Puerto Rico as set forth below:

Our internet store is excluded from the above table.

Store Expansion and Real Estate Strategy

We continue to explore expansion opportunities both within our current market areas and in other regions. We believe that our ability to find satisfactory locations for our stores is essential for the continued growth of our business. The opening of stores generally is contingent upon a number of factors, including the availability of desirable locations with suitable structures and the negotiation of acceptable lease terms.

We have a proven track record of new store expansion. Our store base has grown from 13 stores in 1980 to 727 stores, inclusive of an internet store, as of February 1, 2020. If we identify appropriate locations, we believe that we will be able to execute our growth strategy without significantly impacting our current stores. We have identified numerous market opportunities that we believe will allow us to operate at least 1,000 stores over the long-term. The table below shows our store openings and closings each of the last three fiscal years.

Distribution and Warehousing

We have four distribution centers that shipped approximately 98% of merchandise units to our stores in Fiscal 2019. The remaining 2% of merchandise units are drop shipped by our vendors directly to our stores. Our two east coast distribution centers are located in Edgewater Park, New Jersey and Burlington, New Jersey. Our two west coast distribution centers are located in San Bernardino, California and Redlands, California. These four distribution centers occupy an aggregate of 2,884,000 square feet, and

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each includes processing, shipping and storage capabilities. In addition, we entered into a lease for an additional distribution center in Riverside, California occupying approximately 900,000 square feet, which is expected to become operational during Fiscal 2020.

In addition to the distribution centers that we operate, we have arrangements with third parties for the use of pool point facilities, which we believe streamline and optimize our distribution network

We also operate three warehousing facilities to support our distribution centers. The east coast has two supporting warehouses in Burlington, New Jersey. The west coast has one supporting warehouse in Redlands, California. These three warehousing facilities occupy an aggregate of 1,456,000 square feet and primarily serve as storage facilities.

In addition, as of February 1, 2020, we occupied approximately 180,000 square feet of space at a third-party logistics center in Plainfield, Indiana to support our e-commerce business.

Customer Service

We are committed to providing our customers with an enjoyable shopping experience in stores that are clean, neat and easy to shop. In training our employees, our goal is to emphasize knowledgeable, friendly customer service and a sense of professional pride. We offer our customers special services in most of our stores, such as layaway, to enhance the convenience of their shopping experience.

We have empowered our store teams to provide an outstanding customer experience for every customer in every store, every day. We have streamlined processes and will continue to strive to create opportunities for fast and friendly customer interactions. Our goal for our stores is to reflect clean, organized merchandise presentations that highlight the brands, value and diversity of selection within our assortments.

Our Off-Price Sourcing and Merchandising Model

Our “open to buy” off-price model enables us to provide our customers with products that are nationally branded, fashionable, high quality and priced right. We have an experienced team of General Merchandise Managers, Divisional Merchandise Managers and buyers focused on improving comparable store inventory turnover, inventory age and freshness of merchandise.

We continue to improve the quality of our brand portfolio, driven by the growth of our merchandising team, excellent product availability, and a vendor community increasingly committed to grow with Burlington. We carry many different brands, none of which accounted for more than 2% of our net purchases during Fiscal 2019, Fiscal 2018 or Fiscal 2017. We have no long-term purchase commitments or arrangements with any of our suppliers, and believe that we are not dependent on any one supplier. We continue to have good working relationships with our suppliers.

We have designed our merchant organization so that buyers focus primarily on buying, planners focus primarily on planning, and information systems help inform data-driven decisions for both groups. Buyers are in the market each week and focus on purchasing great products for great value. We seek to purchase a majority of our merchandise in-season. Buyers spend time interacting face-to-face with new and existing vendors and on continuously evaluating trends in the market to which we believe our customers would respond positively. Our buyers use a merchant scorecard that rates products across four key attributes—fashion, quality, brand and price—to help formalize a framework for buying decisions.

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Our merchandising model allows us to provide our customers with a wide breadth of product categories. Sales percentage by major product category is as follows:

E-Commerce

We employ an online strategy focused on increasing awareness of the breadth of our merchandise selection, great brands and values, as well as driving traffic to our stores. We execute our strategy through our website and through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. We are in the process of winding down the sales of merchandise (other than gift cards) from our website. The website will transition from an e-commerce platform to an engaging online site filled with inspirational content, showcasing the great finds found in our stores at a great value. Merchandise sold directly from our website represented approximately 0.5% of our total sales in Fiscal 2019.

Customer Demographic

Our core customer is the 25-49 year old woman, with an average annual household income of $25,000-$100,000. The core customer is educated, resides in mid- to large-sized metropolitan areas and is a brand conscious fashion enthusiast. This customer shops for herself, her family, and her home. We appeal to value seeking and fashion conscious customers who are price-driven but enjoy the style and fit of high-quality, branded merchandise.

Marketing and Advertising

We use a variety of broad-based and targeted marketing strategies to efficiently deliver the right message to the targeted audience at the right time. These strategies include national television, direct mail, email, digital and social marketing, local radio and out-of-home communications. Our broad television broadcast communication and reach is balanced with relevant customer contacts to increase frequency of store visits.

Private Label Credit Card

During Fiscal 2019, we launched a private label credit card program. The program has been rolled out to all of our stores. We believe this program has the potential to deepen customer loyalty, inform customer contact strategies, and drive increases in trip frequency and transaction size.

Management Information Systems and Processes

We utilize a combination of industry-standard third party and internally developed information technology and system solutions to support our business functions. We continually evaluate and implement business system technologies and solutions that enhance the consistency of our execution and improve the scalability of business system functions. We utilize standard methodologies to evaluate new initiatives across our entire organization and make data-driven decisions that support our growth and cost management initiatives.

Competition

The U.S. retail apparel and home furnishings markets are highly fragmented and competitive. We compete on the basis of a combination of factors, including, among others, price, breadth, quality and style of merchandise offered, in-store experience, level of customer service, ability to identify and respond to new and emerging fashion trends, brand image and scalability. We compete for business with department stores, off-price retailers, specialty stores, online retailers, discount stores, wholesale clubs, and outlet stores, as well as with certain traditional, full-price retail chains that have developed off-price concepts. At various times throughout the year, traditional full-price department store chains and specialty shops offer brand-name merchandise at substantial markdowns, which can result in prices approximating those offered by us at our stores.

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Seasonality

Our business, like that of most retailers, is subject to seasonal influences. In the second half of the year, which includes the back-to-school and holiday seasons, we generally realize a higher level of sales and net income. Weather is also a contributing factor to the sale of our clothing. Generally, our sales are higher if the weather is cold during the Fall and warm during the early Spring.  Sales of cold weather clothing are increased by early cold weather during the Fall, while sales of warm weather clothing are improved by early warm weather conditions in the Spring. Although we have diversified our product offerings, we believe traffic to our stores is still driven, in part, by weather patterns.

Trademarks

We are the owner of certain registered and common law trademarks, service marks and tradenames (collectively referred to as the Marks) that we use in connection with our business. Our Marks include, but are not limited to, “Burlington Stores,” “BCF,” “Burlington,” “Burlington Coat Factory,” “Cohoes,” “Luxury Linens,” “MJM Designer Shoes,” “B” and “Baby Depot.” We consider these Marks and the accompanying name recognition to be valuable to our business. We believe that our rights to these properties are adequately protected. Our rights in these trademarks endure for as long as they are used.

Employees

As of February 1, 2020, we employed approximately 47,000 people, including part-time and seasonal employees. Our staffing requirements fluctuate during the year as a result of the seasonality of our business. We hire additional employees and increase the hours of part-time employees during seasonal peak selling periods. As of February 1, 2020, employees at one of our stores were subject to a collective bargaining agreement.

Available Information

We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. Therefore, we file reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC maintains a website (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including us.

You can access financial and other information about us in the Investor Relations page of our website at www.burlingtoninvestors.com. We make available through our website, free of charge, copies of our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed with or furnished to the SEC under Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing or furnishing such material to the SEC.

Investors and others should note that we currently announce material information using SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts. In the future, we will continue to use these channels to distribute material information about the Company, and may also utilize our website and/or various social media sites to communicate important information about the Company, key personnel, new brands and services, trends, new marketing campaigns, corporate initiatives and other matters. Information that we post on our website or on social media channels could be deemed material; therefore, we encourage investors, the media, our customers, business partners and others interested in the Company to review the information posted on our website, as well as the following social media channels: Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BurlingtonStores) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/burlington). Any updates to the list of social media channels we may use to communicate material information will be posted on the Investor Relations page of our website at www.burlingtoninvestors.com.

The information contained on, or accessible through, our website and these social media channels is not part of this Annual Report and is therefore not incorporated by reference. The references to our website and these social media channels are intended to be inactive textual references only.

Set forth below are certain important risks and uncertainties that could adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows and cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements made by us. Although we believe that we have identified and discussed below the key risk factors affecting our business, there may be additional risks and uncertainties that are not presently known or that are not currently believed to be significant that may adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.  Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information included or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report. If we are not successful in managing these risks and uncertainties, they could have a negative impact on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

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Risks Related to Our Business and Our Substantial Indebtedness

A downturn in general economic conditions or consumer spending could adversely affect our business.

Consumer spending habits, including spending for the merchandise that we sell, are affected by, among other things, prevailing global economic conditions, inflation, levels of employment, salaries and wage rates, prevailing interest rates, housing costs, energy costs, commodities pricing, income tax rates and policies, consumer confidence and consumer perception of economic conditions. In addition, consumer purchasing patterns may be influenced by consumers’ disposable income, credit availability and debt levels. Slowdown in the U.S. economy, an uncertain global economic outlook or a credit crisis could adversely affect consumer spending habits, resulting in lower net sales and profits than expected on a quarterly or annual basis. Consumer confidence is also affected by the domestic and international political situation. Our financial condition and operations could be impacted by changes in government regulations in areas, including taxes and healthcare. The outbreak or escalation of war, or the occurrence of terrorist acts or other hostilities in or affecting the U.S. could lead to a decrease in spending by consumers. In addition, natural disasters, industrial accidents, acts of war, and public health issues such as pandemics or epidemics could have the effect of disrupting supplies and raising prices globally which, in turn, may have adverse effects on the world and U.S. economies and lead to a downturn in consumer confidence and spending.

Concerns are rapidly growing about the outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) that was first reported in China in December 2019. Since then, the virus has spread to over 100 countries, including the U.S. The number of people ill with or dying of a viral pneumonia caused by the virus is rising rapidly, despite quarantines of millions of people and other measures to try to stop it or slow its spread. As the pandemic continues to grow, consumer fear about becoming ill with the virus and recommendations and/or mandates from federal, state and local authorities to avoid large gatherings of people or self-quarantine may continue to increase, which may adversely affect traffic to our stores.  Any significant reduction in customer visits to, and spending at, our stores caused by COVID-19 would result in a loss of sales and profits and other material adverse effects. The extent of the impact of COVID-19 on our business and financial results will depend largely on future developments, including the duration and spread of the outbreak within the U.S. and the related impact on consumer confidence and spending, all of which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted.  

We face increased competition from other retailers that could adversely affect our business.

The retail sector is highly competitive, and retailers are constantly adjusting their business models, promotional activities and pricing strategies in response to changing conditions. We compete on the basis of a combination of factors, including among others, price, breadth, quality and style of merchandise offered, in-store experience, level of customer service, ability to identify and respond to new and emerging fashion trends, brand image and scalability. We compete with a wide variety of retailers for customers, vendors, suitable store locations and personnel. In order to increase traffic and drive consumer spending, competitors, including department stores, mass merchants and specialty apparel stores, have been offering brand-name merchandise at substantial markdowns. Continuation of this trend, or the possible effect on consumer buying patterns that improving economic conditions could have, may cause consumer demand to shift from off-price retailers to other retail categories, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.  

Certain traditional, full-price retail chains have developed off-price concepts, which may directly compete with our business. Our competitors, including such retail chains, may seek to emulate facets of our business strategy, which could result in a reduction of any competitive advantage or special appeal that we might possess. In addition, most of our products are sold to us on a non-exclusive basis. As a result, our current and future competitors may be able to duplicate or improve on some or all of our product offerings that we believe are important in differentiating our stores. If our competitors were to duplicate or improve on some or all of our in-store experience or product offerings, obtaining the products we sell may become increasingly difficult, competition for customers may increase, and our competitive position and our business could suffer.

We may not be able to sustain our growth plans or successfully implement our long-range strategic goals.

Our growth largely depends on our ability to successfully open and operate new stores, as well as to expand our distribution capabilities in order to support that growth. We intend to open 54 net new stores in 2020, while refreshing, remodeling or relocating a portion of our existing store base annually. The success of these strategies is dependent upon, among other things, the current retail environment, the identification of suitable markets and the availability of real estate that meets our criteria for traffic, square footage, co-tenancies, lease economics, demographics, and other factors, the negotiation of acceptable lease terms, construction costs, the availability of financing, the hiring, training and retention of competent sales personnel, and the effective management of inventory to meet the needs of new and existing stores on a timely basis.  

Notably, as we continue to evolve our off-price model, we plan on more effectively chasing the sales trend, making greater investments in our merchandising capabilities, operating with leaner inventories, improving operational flexibility, and challenging expenses, among other things. Executing these initiatives while also maintaining the current pace of our expansion may place increased demands on our operational, managerial and administrative resources. These initiatives may require us to increase the

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number of merchants and other associates we employ, modify how we manage our liquidity and inventory, as well as to monitor and upgrade our management information and other systems and our distribution infrastructure.

 We may not be able to successfully execute our growth and other strategies on a timely basis or at all. If we fail to implement these strategies successfully, if we cannot keep up with the pace required for execution, or if these strategies do not yield the desired outcomes, our financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.

Our net sales, operating income and inventory levels fluctuate on a seasonal basis, and decreases in sales or margins during our peak seasons could have a disproportionate effect on our overall financial condition and results of operations.

Our net sales and operating income fluctuate seasonally, with a higher level of our operating income typically realized during the second half of the year. Any decrease in sales or margins during this period could have a disproportionate effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Seasonal fluctuations also affect our inventory levels. We must carry a significant amount of inventory, especially before the holiday season selling period. If we are not successful in selling our inventory, we may have to write down our inventory or sell it at significantly reduced prices or we may not be able to sell such inventory at all, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

A reduction in traffic to, or the closing of, the other destination retailers in the shopping areas where our stores are located could significantly reduce our sales and leave us with excess inventory, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, profitability and cash flows.

Many of our stores are strategically located in off-mall shopping areas known as “power centers.” Power centers typically contain three to five big-box anchor stores along with a variety of smaller specialty tenants. Due to many of our stores being located in such shopping areas, our sales are derived, in part, from the volume of traffic generated by the other destination retailers and the anchor stores in power centers where our stores are located. Customer traffic to these shopping areas may be adversely affected by the closing of such destination retailers or anchor stores, or by a reduction in traffic to such stores resulting from a regional or global economic downturn, a general downturn in the local area where our store is located, or a decline in the desirability of the shopping environment of a particular power center. Such a reduction in customer traffic would reduce our sales and leave us with excess inventory, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, profitability and cash flows. We may respond by increasing markdowns or transferring product to other stores to reduce excess inventory, which would further decrease our gross profits and net income.

Failure to execute our opportunistic buying and inventory management process could adversely affect our business.

We purchase the majority of our inventory opportunistically, with our buyers purchasing close to need. Establishing the “treasure hunt” nature of the off-price buying experience to drive traffic to our stores requires us to offer changing assortments of merchandise in our stores. While opportunistic purchasing provides our buyers the ability to buy at desirable times and prices, in the quantities we need and into market trends, it places considerable discretion with our buyers, which subjects us to risks related to the pricing, quantity, nature and timing of inventory flowing to our stores. If we are unable to provide frequent replenishment of fresh, high quality, attractively priced merchandise in our stores, it could adversely affect traffic to our stores as well as our sales and margins. We base our purchases of inventory, in part, on our sales forecasts. If our sales forecasts do not match customer demand, we may experience higher inventory levels and need to markdown excess or slow-moving inventory, leading to decreased profit margins, or we may have insufficient inventory to meet customer demand, leading to lost sales, either of which could adversely affect our financial performance. We need to purchase inventory sufficiently below conventional retail to maintain our pricing differential to regular department and specialty store prices, and to attract customers and sustain our margins, which we may not achieve at various times and which could adversely affect our results.

 In order to better serve our customers and maximize sales, we must properly execute our inventory management strategies by appropriately allocating merchandise among our stores, timely and efficiently distributing inventory to such locations, maintaining an appropriate mix and level of inventory in such locations, appropriately changing the allocation of floor space of stores among product categories to respond to customer demand, and effectively managing pricing and markdowns, and there is no assurance we will be able to do so. In addition, as we execute inventory localization initiatives, there could be disruptions in inventory flow and placement. Failure to effectively execute our opportunistic inventory buying and inventory management strategies could adversely affect our performance and our reputation.

In addition to our own execution, we may need to react to factors affecting inventory flow that are outside our control, such as adverse weather, natural disasters, epidemics or pandemics (including COVID-19) or other changes in conditions affecting our vendors and others in our supply chain, such as political instability, labor issues (including strikes or threats of strikes and scarcity of labor) or increasing cost of regulations. If we are not able to adjust appropriately to such factors, our inventory management may be affected, which could impact our performance and our reputation.

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Failure to identify customer trends and preferences to meet customer demand could negatively impact our performance and reputation.

Because our success depends on our ability to meet customer demand, we work to follow customer trends and preferences on an ongoing basis and to buy inventory in response to those trends and preferences. However, identifying consumer trends and preferences in the diverse product lines and many markets in which we do business and successfully meeting customer demand across those lines and for those markets on a timely basis is challenging. Although our flexible business model allows us to buy close to need and in response to consumer preferences and trends, and to expand and contract merchandise categories in response to consumers’ changing tastes, we may not do so successfully, which could adversely affect our sales and the markdowns required to move the resulting excess inventory will adversely affect our operating margins.

 Customers may also have expectations about how they shop in stores, or more generally engage with businesses across different channels or media (through internet-based and other digital or mobile channels or particular forms of social media), which may vary across demographics and may evolve rapidly. Customers are increasingly using technology and mobile devices to rapidly compare products and prices and to purchase products. Failure to effectively meet these changing expectations and demands, including any failure of the planned transformation of our e-commerce platform, may adversely impact our reputation and our financial results.

Many stakeholders, including investors, customers, consumers and others, have increasingly focused on sustainability matters. If we do not (or are perceived not to) act responsibly with respect to any sustainability matters, our reputation could be harmed, which could negatively impact our business and results of operations.

If we are unable to renew or replace our store leases or enter into leases for new stores on favorable terms, if our current leases are terminated prior to the expiration of their stated term and we cannot find suitable alternate locations, or if we cannot optimize our existing stores, our growth strategy and profitability could be negatively impacted.

We lease substantially all of our store locations. Most of our current leases expire at various dates after ten-year terms, the majority of which are subject to our option to renew such leases for several additional five-year periods. While we have the right to terminate some of our leases under specified conditions, including by making specified payments, we may not be able to terminate a particular lease if or when we would like to close a particular store. If we decide to close stores, we are generally required to continue to perform obligations under the applicable leases, which generally include, among other things, paying rent and operating expenses for the balance of the lease term, or paying to exercise rights to terminate, and performing any of these obligations may be expensive. When we assign leases or sublease space to third parties, we may remain liable on the lease obligations, which could lead to significant expense if the assignee or sublessee does not perform. In addition, when the lease terms for the stores in our ongoing operations expire, our ability to renew such expiring leases on commercially acceptable terms or, if such leases cannot be renewed, our ability to lease a suitable alternative location, and our ability to enter into leases for new stores on favorable terms will each depend on many factors, some of which may not be within our control, such as conditions in the local real estate market, competition for desirable properties and our relationships with current and prospective lessors. As we renew and replace our store leases, we also strive to optimize the size of our existing stores to ensure maximum space utilization, which frequently means adjusting operations to accommodate smaller space through alternative floor plans and inventory turn optimization.

In addition, to the extent that our new store openings are in existing markets, we may experience reduced net sales volumes in existing stores in those markets. We expect to fund some of our expansion through cash flow from operations, lease incentives from our lessors, and, if necessary, by borrowings under our line of credit. If we experience a decline in performance or lease payment allowances from our lessors become unavailable, we may slow or discontinue store openings, relocations, refreshes and/or remodels.

If we are unable to effectively manage our existing portfolio of real estate leases, renew existing leases or lease suitable alternative locations, enter into leases for new stores on favorable terms, or optimize our existing stores, our growth and profitability may be negatively impacted.

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Extreme and/or unseasonable weather conditions, or catastrophic events could have a significant adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Extreme weather conditions in the areas in which our stores or distribution centers are located – especially in areas with a high concentration of our stores – could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, heavy snowfall or other extreme weather conditions over a prolonged period might make it difficult for our customers or employees to travel to our stores. In addition, natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, earthquakes, and other extreme weather or climate conditions, or a combination of these or other factors, could severely damage or destroy one or more of our stores or distribution facilities located in the affected areas, or disrupt our computer systems, thereby disrupting our business operations. Any of these events or circumstances also could disrupt the operations of one or more of our vendors. Day-to-day operations, particularly our ability to receive products from our vendors or transport products to our stores, could be adversely affected, or we could be required to close stores.  Finally, if the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow within the U.S., we may decide or be required to temporarily close a significant number of our stores in various affected areas, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 Our business is also susceptible to unseasonable weather conditions. For example, extended periods of unseasonably warm temperatures during the Fall or Winter seasons or cool weather during the Spring or Summer seasons could render a portion of our inventory incompatible with those unseasonable conditions, particularly in light of our historical product mix. These prolonged unseasonable weather conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, because higher net sales historically have occurred during the second half of the year, unseasonably warm weather during these months could have a disproportionately large effect on our business and materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Since we do not have long-term contracts with our vendors, if we are unable to purchase attractive brand name merchandise in sufficient quantities at competitive prices, we may be unable to offer an appealing merchandise mix and our sales may be harmed.

Our ability to purchase merchandise opportunistically from third party vendors depends upon the continuous, sufficient availability of high quality merchandise that we can acquire at prices sufficiently below those paid by conventional retailers in order to achieve the value proposition we strive to provide to our customers. Some of our key vendors may limit the number of retail channels they use to sell their merchandise, which may result in intense competition among retailers to obtain and sell these goods. In addition, most of the brands of our top vendors are sold by competing retailers and some of our top vendors also have their own dedicated retail stores. Moreover, we typically buy products from our vendors on a purchase order basis. We have no long-term purchase contracts with any of our vendors and, therefore, have no contractual assurances of continued supply, pricing or access to products, and any vendor could change the terms upon which they sell to us or discontinue selling to us at any time. Finally, if our vendors are better able to manage their inventory levels and reduce the amount of their excess inventory, the amount of high quality merchandise available to us could be materially reduced. 

If our relationships with our vendors are disrupted, we may not be able to acquire the merchandise we require in sufficient quantities or on terms acceptable to us. Any inability to acquire high quality merchandise would have a negative effect on our business and operating results because we would be missing products from our merchandise mix unless and until alternative supply arrangements were made, resulting in deferred or lost sales. In addition, events that adversely affect our vendors could impair our ability to obtain desired merchandise in sufficient quantities. Such events include difficulties or problems associated with our vendors’ businesses, finances, labor, importation of products, costs, production, insurance and reputation.

The loss of executives or other key personnel or our failure to facilitate senior management smooth transitions may disrupt our business and adversely affect our financial results.

We depend on the contributions of key personnel in various functions for our continued success. These executives and other key personnel may be hired by our competitors, some of which have considerably more financial resources than we do. The loss of key personnel, or the inability to hire, train, motivate and retain qualified employees, or changes to our organizational structure, operating results, or business model that adversely affect morale or retention, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Effective succession planning is also a key factor for our success.

In Fiscal 2019, we experienced significant transitions among the Company’s senior management with the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer and a new Chief Financial Officer. Our failure to enable the effective transfer of knowledge and facilitate smooth transitions with regard to these key personnel and others could adversely affect our strategic planning and execution and negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we fail to enable the effective transfer of knowledge and facilitate smooth transitions for key personnel, the operating results and future growth for our business could be adversely affected, and the morale and productivity of the workforce could be disrupted. 

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Our failure to attract, train and retain quality employees and temporary personnel in appropriate numbers could adversely affect our business.

Our performance depends on recruiting, developing, training and retaining quality sales, systems, distribution center and other employees in large numbers as well as experienced buying and management personnel, and we invest significant resources in training and motivating them to maintain a high level of job satisfaction. Many of our store employees are in entry level or part-time positions with historically high rates of turnover, which can lead to increased training and retention costs, particularly if employment opportunities increase. Availability and skill of employees may differ across markets in which we do business and in new markets we enter, and we need to manage our labor needs effectively.   

In addition, because of the distinctive nature of our off-price model, we must provide significant internal training and development for key employees across the company, including within our buying organization. Similar to other retailers, we face challenges in securing and retaining sufficient talent in management and other key areas for many reasons, including competition in the retail industry generally and for talent in various geographic markets. If we do not continue to attract qualified individuals, train them in our business model, support their development and retain them, our performance could be adversely affected or our growth could be limited.

We are also dependent upon temporary personnel to adequately staff our stores and distribution facilities, with heightened dependence during busy periods such as the holiday season and when multiple new stores are opening. Although we strive to secure long-term contracts on favorable terms with our service providers and other vendors, we may not be able to avoid unexpected operating cost increases in the future, such as those associated with minimum wage increases or enhanced health care requirements. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will receive adequate assistance from our temporary personnel, or that there will be sufficient sources of suitable temporary personnel to meet our demand. Any such failure to meet our staffing needs or any material increases in associate turnover rates could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. Further, any negative publicity regarding the agencies from which we source temporary personnel, such as in connection with immigration issues or employment practices, could damage our reputation, disrupt our ability to obtain needed labor or result in financial harm to our business.  

Labor costs, including healthcare costs, and other challenges from our large workforce may adversely affect our results and profitability.

We have a large workforce, and our ability to meet our labor needs while controlling costs, including costs of providing health, retirement and other associate benefits, is subject to various factors such as unemployment levels; prevailing wage rates and minimum wage requirements; participant benefit levels; economic conditions; interest rate changes; health and other insurance costs; and the regulatory environment, including health care legislation, and with respect to governmental labor and employment and associate benefits programs and requirements. When wage rates or benefit levels increase in the market or the unemployment rate is otherwise low, increasing our wages or benefits to compete for employees may cause our earnings to decrease, while failing to increase our wages or benefits competitively or reducing our wages or benefits could result in a decline in our ability to attract or retain employees or in the quality of our workforce, causing our customer service or performance to suffer, which could negatively impact our results.

Parties with whom we do business may be subject to insolvency risks or may otherwise become unable or unwilling to perform their obligations to us.

We are party to contracts, transactions and business relationships with various third parties, including vendors, suppliers, service providers and lenders, pursuant to which such third parties have performance, payment and other obligations to us. In some cases, we depend upon such third parties to provide essential leaseholds, products, services or other benefits, including with respect to store and distribution center locations, merchandise, advertising, software development and support, logistics, other agreements for goods and services in order to operate our business in the ordinary course, extensions of credit, hedging instruments and other vital matters. Economic, industry and market conditions could result in increased risks to us associated with the potential financial distress of such third parties.  

If any of the third parties with which we do business become subject to bankruptcy, receivership or similar insolvency proceedings, our rights and benefits in relation to our contracts, transactions and business relationships with such third parties could be terminated, modified in a manner adverse to us, or otherwise impaired. We cannot make any assurances that we would be able to arrange for alternate or replacement contracts, transactions or business relationships on terms as favorable as our existing contracts, transactions or business relationships, if at all. Any inability on our part to do so could negatively affect our cash flows, financial condition and results of operations.

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Many of our vendors produce merchandise overseas, and our business is exposed to the risk of foreign and domestic operations and international tax policies and trade relations.

We do not own or operate any manufacturing facilities. As a result, we are dependent upon the timely receipt of quality merchandise from vendors, many of which produce merchandise overseas. Factors which affect overseas production could affect our vendors and, in turn, our ability to obtain inventory and the price levels at which they may be obtained. Factors that cause an increase in merchandise costs or a decrease in supply could lead to generally lower sales and gross margins in the retail industry.

Such factors include:

 Any of the foregoing factors, or a combination thereof, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Over the past couple years, uncertainty has increased with respect to tax and trade policies, tariffs and government regulations affecting trade between the U.S. and other countries. Although we source the majority of our merchandise from third party vendors located in the U.S., the production of that merchandise occurs primarily overseas. As a result, we continue to evaluate the impact of the effective and any additional proposed tariffs on our supply chain, costs, sales and profitability. Given the uncertainty regarding the scope and duration of the tariffs on Chinese goods, as well as the potential for additional trade actions by the U.S. or other countries, the impact on our operations and results is uncertain, and we can provide no assurance that any strategies we implement to mitigate the impact of such tariffs or other trade actions will be successful.

In addition, other major developments in tax policy or trade relations, such as the disallowance of tax deductions for imported merchandise or the imposition of additional unilateral tariffs on imported products could increase the cost of products purchased from suppliers in such countries or restrict the importation of products from such countries, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and liquidity.

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Any disruption to our distribution network, including the shutdown of one of our primary distribution centers or complications with any third-party vendors that support our network, or increases in the cost of their services, could cause disruptions in our business, a loss of sales and profits, increases in our expenses, and other material adverse effects.

Most of the merchandise we purchase is shipped directly to our distribution centers, where it is prepared for shipment to the appropriate stores. The success of our stores depends on their timely receipt of merchandise, and a strong, efficient and flexible distribution network is critical to our ability to grow and to maintain a low-cost operating structure. A disruption within our distribution network, including the shutdown of or loss of significant capacity by one of our current primary distribution centers, could adversely affect our ability to deliver inventory in a timely manner and significantly disrupt our business. In addition, any failure to continue to add capacity to our existing distribution centers and build out planned additional distribution centers timely and cost effectively could adversely affect our business.  

In addition to the distribution centers that we operate, we have arrangements with third parties for the use of pool point facilities, which we believe streamline and optimize our distribution network. If complications arise with a pool point facility or its operator, or if any such facility is severely damaged or destroyed, it may cause delays in the delivery of our merchandise to our stores. We also may be affected by disruptions in the global transportation network such as port strikes, weather conditions, work stoppages or other labor unrest, which may also adversely affect our ability to deliver inventory on a timely basis. We also depend upon third-party carriers for shipment of merchandise; any interruption in service by these carriers for any reason could cause disruptions in our business, a loss of sales and profits, and other material adverse effects.

Finally, if the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow, our import supply chain could experience severe delays due to closed factories and/or reduction in processing capacity as a result of workers not being able to return back to work or other labor shortages, which could cause disruptions in our business, a loss of sales and profits, and other adverse effects.

If we are unable to protect our information systems against service interruption, misappropriation of data, breaches of security, or other cyber-related attacks, our operations could be disrupted, we may suffer financial losses and our reputation may be damaged.

We rely extensively on various information systems, including data centers, hardware, software and applications to manage many aspects of our business, including to process and record transactions in our stores, to enable effective communication systems, to plan and track inventory flow, to manage logistics and to generate performance and financial reports. In addition, some aspects of our business, like that of most retailers, involve the receipt, storage and transmission of customers’ personal information and consumer preferences, as well as confidential information about our employees, our vendors and our Company, some of which is entrusted to third-party service providers and vendors. We are dependent on the integrity, security and consistent operations of these systems and related back-up systems, software, tools (including encryption technology) and monitoring to provide security and oversight for processing, transmission, storage and the protection of such confidential information.

Like most major corporations, however, we, our customers and our third-party services providers face an evolving, increasing threat landscape in which cybercriminals, among others, employ a complex array of techniques designed to access personal and other information, including, for example, the use of fraudulent or stolen access credentials, malware, ransomware, phishing, denial of service and other types of attacks. Hardware, software or applications we develop or obtain from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that are not presently known and could unexpectedly compromise information security. In addition, our employees, contractors or third parties with which we do business or to which we outsource business operations may attempt to circumvent our security measures in order to misappropriate such information, and may purposefully or inadvertently cause a breach involving such information or become subject to various other cyber-crimes. Further, our computer systems and the third-party systems of our vendors are also subject to damage or interruption from a number of non-criminal causes, including power outages; computer and telecommunications failures; computer viruses; and design or usage errors by our employees or contractors.  

If we or third parties with which we do business were to fall victim to successful cyber-attacks or experience other cybersecurity incidents, including the loss of individually identifiable customer or other sensitive data, we may incur substantial costs and suffer other negative consequences, which may include:

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Despite advances in security hardware, software, and encryption technologies, the methods and tools used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems are constantly changing and evolving, and may be difficult to anticipate or detect for long periods of time, and there is no guarantee that the proactive measures we put in place will be adequate to safeguard against all data security breaches or misuses of data.

Although we endeavor to protect consumer identity and payment information through the implementation and modification of security technologies, processes and procedures, including training programs for employees to raise awareness about phishing, malware and other cyber risks and certification of our major technology suppliers and any outsourced services through accepted security certification measures, we could experience increased costs associated with maintaining these protections as threats of cyber-attacks increase in sophistication and complexity. In addition, there are additional inherent risks associated with modifying or replacing systems, and with new or changed relationships, including accurately capturing and maintaining data, realizing the expected benefit of the change and managing the potential disruption of the operation of the systems as the changes are implemented. Potential issues associated with implementing technology initiatives and the time and resources required to optimize the benefits of new elements of our systems and infrastructure could reduce the efficiency of our operations in the short term.

Compliance with increasingly rigorous privacy and data security regulations could be costly, affect or limit our business opportunities and how we collect and/or use data, and potentially subject us to fines and lawsuits.

As described above, the protection of customer, employee, vendor and Company data is critical to our business. As the regulatory environment relating to retailers’ and other companies’ obligation to protect such sensitive data becomes increasingly rigorous, with new and evolving requirements applicable to our business, compliance with those requirements could result in additional costs; could have a significant impact on our current and planned privacy, data protection and information security-related practices, our collection, use, sharing, retention and safeguarding of customer and/or employee information, and some of our current or future business plans; and a material failure on our part to comply could subject us to fines or other regulatory sanctions and potentially to lawsuits.

In recent years, there has been increasing regulatory enforcement and litigation activity in the area of privacy, data protection and information security in various states in which we operate. Notably, on January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) became effective. The CCPA requires certain companies to satisfy new requirements regarding the handling of personal and sensitive data, including its use, protection and the ability of California residents whose data is stored to know specifically what data types each company has collected on them and, if they so choose, the right to demand that such companies delete their data. While we believe we have sufficient measures in place to comply with our obligations under the CCPA, failure to comply with its requirements could result in civil penalties, and it additionally provides a private right of action that allows consumers to seek, either individually or as a class, statutory or actual damages and injunctive and other relief, if their sensitive personal information is subject to unauthorized access and exfiltration, theft or disclosure as a result of a business’s failure to implement and maintain required reasonable security procedures. Compliance with the CCPA and other similar laws will likely increase the costs of doing business, especially if we face differing regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions and/or a lack of adequate regulatory guidance. New legislation or regulations such as the CCPA, including any potential comprehensive federal privacy legislation, as well as any associated inquiries or investigations or any other government actions, could also result in negative publicity, require significant management time and attention, and subject us to remedies that may harm our business, including fines or demands or orders that we modify or cease existing business practices.

We are subject to payment-related risks that could increase our operating costs, expose us to fraud or theft, subject us to potential liability and potentially disrupt our business.

We accept payments using a variety of methods, including cash, checks, credit and debit cards, and gift cards, and we may offer new payment options over time. Acceptance of these payment methods subjects us to rules, regulations, contractual obligations and compliance requirements, including payment network rules and operating guidelines, data security standards and certification requirements, and rules governing electronic funds transfers. These requirements may change over time or be reinterpreted, making compliance more difficult or costly.  

For certain payment methods, including credit and debit cards, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs. We rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, including the processing of credit cards, debit cards, and other forms of electronic payment. If these companies become unable to provide these services to us, or if their systems are compromised, it could potentially disrupt our business. The payment methods that we offer also subject us to potential fraud and theft by criminals, who are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, seeking to obtain unauthorized access to or exploit weaknesses that may exist in the payment systems. If we fail to comply with applicable rules or requirements for the payment methods

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we accept, or if payment-related data is compromised due to a breach or misuse of data, we may be liable for costs incurred by payment card issuing banks and other third parties or subject to fines and higher transaction fees, or our ability to accept or facilitate certain types of payments may be impaired. In addition, our customers could lose confidence in certain payment types, which may result in a shift to other payment types or potential changes to our payment systems that may result in higher costs. As a result, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

Issues with merchandise safety could damage our reputation, sales and financial results.

Various governmental authorities in the jurisdictions where we do business regulate the safety of the merchandise we sell to consumers. Regulations and standards in this area, including those related to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, state regulations like California’s Proposition 65, and similar legislation, impose restrictions and requirements on the merchandise we sell in our stores. These regulations change from time to time as new federal, state or local regulations are enacted. If we or our merchandise vendors are unable to comply with regulatory requirements on a timely basis or at all, or to adequately monitor new regulations that may apply to existing or new merchandise categories, significant fines or penalties could be incurred or we could have to curtail some aspects of our sales or operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial results.

We rely on our vendors to provide quality merchandise that complies with applicable product safety laws and other applicable laws, but they may not comply with their obligations to do so. Although our arrangements with our vendors frequently provide for indemnification for product liabilities, the vendors may fail to honor those obligations to an extent we consider sufficient or at all. Issues with the safety of merchandise, and issues with the authenticity of merchandise, or customer concerns about such issues, regardless of our fault, could cause damage to our reputation and could result in lost sales, uninsured product liability claims or losses, merchandise recalls and increased costs, and regulatory, civil or criminal fines or penalties, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial results.

Difficulty complying with existing laws, rules, regulations and local codes, or changes in existing laws, rules, regulations and local codes, could negatively affect our business operations and financial performance.   

We are subject to federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations in the operation of our business. In addition to complying with current laws, rules and regulations, we must also comply with new and changing laws and regulations, new regulatory initiatives, evolving interpretation of existing laws by judicial and regulatory authorities, and reforms in jurisdictions where we do business. Complying with local zoning codes, real estate land use restrictions, employment-related laws, and other local laws across numerous jurisdictions is particularly challenging as we grow the number of our stores in new municipalities and need to stay abreast of changes in such local laws. The increasing proliferation of local laws, some of which may be conflicting, further complicates our efforts to comply with all of the various laws, rules and regulations that apply to our business.

All of the above legal, regulatory and administrative requirements collectively affect multiple aspects of our business, including those involving labor and employment benefits; health, welfare and finance; real estate management; consumer protection and product safety; climate change, supply chain, energy and waste; electronic communications, data protection and privacy; and protection of third party intellectual property rights. Changes to these laws and regulations could increase our costs of compliance or of doing business, and could adversely affect our operating results.  In addition, if we fail to comply with these laws, rules and regulations, we may be subject to judgments, fines or other costs or penalties, which could materially adversely affect our business operations and financial performance.

Changes in accounting standards and subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments by management related to complex accounting matters could significantly affect our financial results or financial condition.

Generally accepted accounting principles and related accounting pronouncements, implementation guidelines and interpretations with regard to a wide range of matters that are relevant to our business, such as inventories, leases, and self-insurance reserves, are highly complex and involve many subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments. Changes in these rules or their interpretation, or changes in underlying assumptions, estimates or judgments, could significantly change our reported or expected financial performance or financial condition.

Our future growth and profitability could be adversely affected if our advertising and marketing programs are not effective in generating sufficient levels of customer awareness and traffic.   

We rely on advertising to increase consumer awareness of our product offerings and pricing to drive traffic to our stores. In addition, we rely and will increasingly rely on other forms of media advertising, including digital, social media and e-marketing. Our future growth and profitability will depend in part upon the effectiveness and efficiency of our advertising and marketing programs. Our advertising and marketing programs may not be successful if we do not:

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Our planned advertising and marketing expenditures may not result in increased total or comparable store sales or generate sufficient levels of product awareness. Further, we may not be able to manage our advertising and marketing expenditures on a cost-effective basis. Additionally, some of our competitors may have substantially larger marketing budgets, which may provide them with a competitive advantage over us.

Damage to our corporate reputation or brand could adversely affect our sales and operating results.

Building brand reputation is important to our continuing success. Our reputation is partially based on perceptions of various subjective qualities and overall integrity. Any incident that erodes the trust or confidence of our customers or the general public could adversely affect our reputation and business, particularly if the incident results in significant adverse publicity or governmental inquiry. In addition, information concerning us, whether or not true, may be instantly and easily posted on social media platforms and similar devices at any time, which information may be adverse to our reputation or business. The harm may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction. Damage to our reputation in any form could result in declines in customer loyalty and sales, affect our vendor relationships, development opportunities and associate retention, and otherwise adversely affect our business.

Use of social media by the Company or third parties at our direction may adversely impact our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties.   

There has been a substantial increase in the use of social media platforms, including blogs, social media websites, and other forms of internet-based communications, which allow individuals access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons. We have increasingly utilized social media in our marketing and employment recruiting efforts in order to reach as many current and potential new customers and potential employment candidates as efficiently and cost effectively as possible, and have also retained third parties with expertise and distinction in the social media realm to bolster our social media efforts. As laws and regulations rapidly evolve to govern the use of these platforms, the failure by us, our employees or third parties acting at our direction to abide by applicable laws and regulations in the use of these platforms could adversely impact our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties.

Legal and regulatory proceedings could have an adverse impact on our results of operations.  

We are subject to various legal and regulatory proceedings relating to our business, certain of which may involve jurisdictions with reputations for aggressive application of laws and procedures against corporate defendants. We are impacted by trends in litigation, such as representative claims under the California Private Attorneys’ General Act and class action litigation brought under various consumer protection, employment, and privacy and information security laws, including wage and hour lawsuits alleging employee misclassification as discussed in Note 17 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, “Commitments and Contingencies.” Accruals are established based on our best estimates of our potential liability. However, we cannot accurately predict the ultimate outcome of any such proceedings due to the inherent uncertainties of litigation. Regardless of the outcome or whether the claims are meritorious, legal and regulatory proceedings may require that we devote substantial time and expense to defend our Company. Unfavorable rulings could result in a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our business could be impacted as a result of actions by activist stockholders or others.

From time to time, we may be subject to legal and business challenges in the operation of our Company due to stockholder proposals, media campaigns, proxy contests, and other such actions instituted by activist stockholders or others. Responding to such actions could be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our operations, may not align with our business strategies and could divert the attention of our Board of Directors and senior management from the pursuit of current business strategies. Perceived uncertainties as to our future direction as a result of stockholder activism or potential changes to the composition of the Board of Directors may lead to the perception of a change in the direction of the business or other instability, and may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel and business partners.

Circumstances limiting our ability, or the ability of our vendors, to access capital markets could adversely affect our business or financial condition.   

Changes in the credit and capital markets, including market disruptions, limited liquidity and interest rate fluctuations, may increase the cost of financing or restrict our access to this potential source of future liquidity. A decrease in the ratings that rating agencies assign to our short- and long-term debt may also negatively impact our access to the debt financing markets and increase our cost of borrowing. These circumstances may negatively impact our access to capital markets, which could have a materially adverse impact on our business or financial condition.

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In many cases, our vendors depend upon commercial credit to finance their operations. If they are unable to secure commercial financing, our vendors could seek to change the terms on which they sell to us, which could negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, the inability of vendors to access liquidity, or the insolvency of vendors, could lead to their failure to deliver merchandise to us.

Our substantial indebtedness requires a significant amount of cash. Our ability to generate sufficient cash depends on numerous factors beyond our control, and we may be unable to generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt obligations.

As of February 1, 2020, our obligations include $957.5 million, inclusive of original issue discount, under our $1,200.0 million senior secured term loan facility (Term Loan Facility). We had no outstanding balance on our $600.0 million asset-based lending facility (ABL Line of Credit) as of February 1, 2020. Our debt obligations also include $50.1 million of finance lease obligations as of February 1, 2020. Estimated cash required to make interest payments for these debt obligations amounts to approximately $44.7 million for the fiscal year ending January 30, 2021.

Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our debt, and to fund planned capital expenditures, will depend on our ability to generate cash in the future, which is to some extent subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow to service our debt and meet our other commitments, we will be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as refinancing all or a portion of our debt, selling material assets or operations or raising additional debt or equity capital. We may not be able to successfully carry out any of these actions on a timely basis, on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or be assured that these actions would be sufficient to meet our capital requirements. In addition, the terms of our existing or future debt agreements, including the Term Loan Facility and the ABL Line of Credit, may restrict us from affecting any of these alternatives. 

Our failure to comply with the agreements relating to our outstanding indebtedness, including as a result of events beyond our control, could result in an event of default that could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and our financial condition.

If an event of default under any of the agreements relating to our outstanding indebtedness occurred, the holders of the defaulted debt could cause all amounts outstanding with respect to that debt to be due and payable immediately. Our assets or cash flow may not be sufficient to fully repay borrowings under our outstanding debt instruments if accelerated upon an event of default. Further, if we are unable to repay, refinance or restructure our secured indebtedness, the holders of such debt could proceed against the collateral securing that indebtedness through foreclosure proceedings and/or by forcing us into bankruptcy or liquidation. In addition, any event of default or declaration of acceleration under one debt instrument could also result in an event of default under one or more of our other debt instruments.

It is unclear how increased regulatory oversight and changes in the method for determining LIBOR may affect the financial obligations owed by us that are linked to LIBOR, or how such changes could affect our results of operations or financial condition.

In the recent past, concerns have been publicized that some of the member banks surveyed by British Bankers’ Association, or (the BBA), in connection with the calculation of LIBOR across a range of maturities and currencies may have been under-reporting, over-reporting or otherwise manipulating the inter-bank lending rate applicable to them in order to profit on their derivative positions or to avoid an appearance of capital insufficiency or adverse reputational or other consequences that may have resulted from reporting inter-bank lending rates higher than those they actually submitted. A number of BBA member banks entered into settlements with their regulators and law enforcement agencies with respect to alleged manipulation of LIBOR, and investigations by regulators and governmental authorities in various jurisdictions are ongoing. Other member banks may also enter into such settlements with, or have proceedings brought by, their regulators or law enforcement agencies in the future. If manipulation of LIBOR occurred, it may have resulted in LIBOR having been artificially lower (or higher) than it would otherwise have been. Any such manipulation could have occurred over a substantial period of time.

On July 27, 2017, the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, announced that it intends to phase out LIBOR by the end of 2021. It is unclear whether LIBOR will cease to exist or if new methods of calculating LIBOR will be established such that it continues to exist after 2021.  The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large U.S. financial institutions, announced an alternative to U.S. dollar LIBOR with a new index calculated by short term repurchase agreements, backed by Treasury securities, called the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). Whether or not SOFR attains market traction as a LIBOR alternative or replacement for U.S. dollar-denominated instruments remains in question and future of LIBOR at this time is uncertain. To address a potential transition away from LIBOR, the Term Loan Facility and ABL Line of Credit agreements each provide for an agreed upon methodology to amend such agreements to substitute LIBOR with an agreed replacement rate, subject to our consent and the applicable administrative agent, and in each case subject to a short lender negative consent period. However, there is no guarantee that any such replacement rate would be agreed by

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the applicable agents and lenders or that such consents would be obtained, and in such event we would be required to pay a rate of interest higher than expected on the amount owed under such agreements where the interest rate is subject to LIBOR. We have also entered into LIBOR‑based interest rate swap agreements to manage our exposure to interest rate movements resulting from changes in the benchmark interest rate of LIBOR. Any replacement of LIBOR as the basis on which interest on our floating-rate debt and/or under our interest rate swaps is calculated may result in interest rates and/or payments that do not correlate over time with the interest rates and/or payments that would have been made on our obligations if LIBOR was available in its current form.

In addition, any further changes or reforms to the determination or supervision of LIBOR may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in reported LIBOR, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are a holding company and rely on dividends, distributions and other payments, advances and transfers of funds from our subsidiaries to meet our obligations.

We are a holding company that does not conduct any business operations of our own. As a result, we are largely dependent upon cash dividends and distributions and other transfers from our subsidiaries to meet our obligations. The deterioration of income from, or other available assets of, our subsidiaries for any reason could limit or impair their ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

Our stock price has been and may continue to be volatile.

The market price of our common stock has fluctuated substantially in the past and may continue to fluctuate significantly. For example, in Fiscal 2019, our stock price fluctuated from a high of $236.02 to a low of $136.30. Future announcements or disclosures concerning us or any of our competitors, our strategic initiatives, our sales and profitability, our financial condition, any quarterly variations in actual or anticipated operating results or comparable sales, any failure to meet analysts’ expectations and sales of large blocks of our common stock, among other factors, could cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate substantially. In addition, the stock market has experienced price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market price of many retail and other stocks that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law might discourage or delay acquisition attempts for us that stockholders might consider favorable.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of the Company more difficult without the approval of our Board of Directors. These provisions:

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These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions under Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of the Company, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, subject to limited exceptions, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or (iv) any other action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine.

Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation described above. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Because we do not intend to pay cash dividends in the near term, stockholders may not receive any return on investment unless they are able to sell their common stock for a price greater than their purchase price.

The continued operation and expansion of our business will require substantial funding. Accordingly, we do not anticipate that we will pay any cash dividends on shares of our common stock in the near term. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions, including those under our ABL Line of Credit and Term Loan Facility, any potential future indebtedness we may incur, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant. Accordingly, if stockholders purchase shares of our common stock, realization of a gain on investment will depend on the appreciation of the price of our common stock, which may never occur.

Not Applicable.

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We own the land and/or buildings for 36 of our stores and have leases for 690 of our stores. Our new stores are generally leased for an initial term of ten to fifteen years, the majority of which are subject to our option to renew such leases for several additional five-year periods. Store leases generally provide for fixed monthly rental payments, plus the payment, in most cases, of real estate taxes and other charges with escalation clauses. In many locations, our store leases contain formulas providing for the payment of additional rent based on sales. Most of our stores are freestanding or located in regional power centers, strip shopping centers or in malls.

We own approximately 235 acres of land in Burlington and Florence, New Jersey on which we have constructed our corporate campus, which includes our corporate headquarters and a warehouse facility. We own approximately 43 acres of land in Edgewater Park, New Jersey on which we have constructed our Edgewater Park, New Jersey distribution center and an office facility. We lease approximately 35,000 square feet of office space in New York City (east coast buying office), and we are relocating our 10,000 square feet of office space in Los Angeles, California (west coast buying office) to a larger space consisting of approximately 25,000 square feet.

Like many retailers, the Company has been named in potential class or collective actions on behalf of groups alleging violations of federal and state wage and hour and other labor statutes, and alleged violation of state consumer and/or privacy protection and other statutes. In the normal course of business, we are also party to representative claims under the California Private Attorneys’ General Act and various other lawsuits and regulatory proceedings including, among others, commercial, product, product safety, employee, customer, intellectual property and other claims. Actions against us are in various procedural stages. Many of these proceedings raise factual and legal issues and are subject to uncertainties. Refer to Note 17 to our Consolidated Financial Statements, “Commitments and Contingencies,” for further detail.

Not applicable.

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PART II

Market Information

Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BURL.”

Holders

As of February 28, 2020, we had 277 holders of record of our common stock. This figure does not include the significantly greater number of beneficial holders of our common stock.

Dividends

During the past two fiscal years, we have not declared, and do not anticipate declaring in the near term, dividends on shares of our common stock. We currently do, and intend to continue to, retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund all of the Company's capital expenditures, business initiatives, and to support any potential opportunistic capital structure initiatives. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions, including those under our ABL Line of Credit and Term Loan Facility, any potential future indebtedness we may incur, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant.

In addition, since we are a holding company, substantially all of the assets shown on our consolidated balance sheets are held by our subsidiaries. Accordingly, our earnings, cash flow and ability to pay dividends are largely dependent upon the earnings and cash flows of our subsidiaries and the distribution or other payment of such earnings to us in the form of dividends.

Stock Performance Graph

The performance graph below and related information shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any future filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, except to the extent that we specifically incorporate it by reference into such filing.

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The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock from the closing prices as of the end of each fiscal year from January 31, 2015 through February 1, 2020, with the return on the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index and the S&P Retailing Index over the same period. This graph assumes an initial investment of $100 and assumes the reinvestment of dividends, if any. Such returns are based on historical results and are not intended to suggest future performance.

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Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

The following table provides information regarding our purchases of common stock during the three fiscal months ended February 1, 2020:

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The following table presents selected historical consolidated financial data. The historical consolidated balance sheet data and consolidated statement of operations data for Fiscal 2019, Fiscal 2018 and Fiscal 2017 and for the fiscal years ended January 28, 2017 (Fiscal 2016) and January 30, 2016 (Fiscal 2015) have been derived from our historical audited Consolidated Financial Statements.

The historical consolidated financial data presented below should only be read in conjunction with our audited Consolidated Financial Statements (and the related notes thereto) and Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, each of which are included elsewhere in this Annual Report. Our historical consolidated financial data may not be indicative of our future performance.

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Item 7.Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

For purposes of the following “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” unless the context requires otherwise, references to “the Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us” refer to Burlington Stores, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

The following discussion summarizes the significant factors affecting our consolidated operating results, financial condition, liquidity and cash flows as of and for the periods presented below. The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with “Item 6, Selected Financial Data” and our Consolidated Financial Statements, including the notes thereto, appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report.

In addition to historical information, this discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, such as our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions set forth under the caption above entitled “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” Our actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in Item 1A, Risk Factors and elsewhere in this Annual Report.

General

We are a nationally recognized retailer of high-quality, branded apparel at everyday low prices. We opened our first store in Burlington, New Jersey in 1972, selling primarily coats and outerwear. Since then, we have expanded our store base to 727 stores as of February 1, 2020, inclusive of an internet store, in 45 states and Puerto Rico. We have diversified our product categories by offering an extensive selection of in-season, fashion-focused merchandise at up to 60% off other retailers’ prices, including: women’s ready-to-wear apparel, menswear, youth apparel, baby, beauty, footwear, accessories, home, toys, gifts and coats. We sell a broad selection of desirable, first-quality, current-brand, labeled merchandise acquired directly from nationally-recognized manufacturers and other suppliers.

Executive Summary

Overview of Fiscal 2019 Operating Results

Highlights from Fiscal 2019 compared with Fiscal 2018 include the following:

Store Openings, Closings and Relocations

During Fiscal 2019, we opened 76 new stores, inclusive of 16 relocations, and closed eight stores, exclusive of the aforementioned relocations, bringing our store count as of February 1, 2020 to 727 stores, inclusive of an internet store. We will wind down operations of the internet store during Fiscal 2020. We continue to pursue our growth plans and invest in capital projects that meet our financial requirements. During the fiscal year ending January 30, 2021 (Fiscal 2020), we plan to open approximately 54 net new stores, which includes approximately 80 gross new stores, along with approximately 26 store relocations and closings.

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Ongoing Initiatives for Fiscal 2020

We continue to focus on a number of ongoing initiatives aimed at driving merchandise value and increasing our overall profitability by improving our comparable store sales trends, increasing total sales growth and reducing expenses. These initiatives include:

We intend to continue to increase comparable store sales through the following initiatives:

We intend to expand and enhance our retail store base through the following initiatives:

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We intend to increase our operating margins through the following initiatives:

Uncertainties and Challenges

As we strive to increase profitability through achieving positive comparable store sales and leveraging productivity initiatives focused on improving the in-store experience, more efficient movement of products from the vendors to the selling floors, and modifying our marketing plans to increase our core customer base and increase our share of our current customers’ spending, there are uncertainties and challenges that we face as an off-price retailer of apparel and accessories for men, women and children and home furnishings that could have a material impact on our revenues or income.

Seasonality of Sales and Weather Conditions. Our business, like that of most retailers, is subject to seasonal influences. In the second half of the year, which includes the back-to-school and holiday seasons, we generally realize a higher level of sales and net income.

Weather continues to be a contributing factor to the sale of our clothing. Generally, our sales are higher if the weather is cold during the Fall and warm during the early Spring. Sales of cold weather clothing are increased by early cold weather during the Fall, while sales of warm weather clothing are improved by early warm weather conditions in the Spring. Although we have diversified our product offerings, we believe traffic to our stores is still driven, in part, by weather patterns.

General Economic Conditions. Consumer spending habits, including spending for the merchandise that we sell, are affected by, among other things, prevailing global economic conditions, inflation, levels of employment, salaries and wage rates, prevailing interest rates, housing costs, energy costs, commodities pricing, income tax rates and policies, consumer confidence and consumer perception of economic conditions. In addition, consumer purchasing patterns may be influenced by consumers’ disposable income, credit availability and debt levels.

A slowdown in the U.S. economy, an uncertain global economic outlook or a credit crisis could adversely affect consumer spending habits resulting in lower net sales and profits than expected on a quarterly or annual basis. Consumer confidence is also affected by the domestic and international political situation. Our financial condition and operations could be impacted by changes in government regulations in areas including taxes and healthcare. The outbreak or escalation of war, the occurrence of terrorist acts or other hostilities in or affecting the U.S., or public health issues such as pandemics or epidemics, including the recent outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19), could lead to a decrease in spending by consumers. We are continuing to monitor and assess the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on our operations. In addition, natural disasters, industrial accidents, acts of war in various parts of the world and public health issues could have the effect of disrupting supplies and raising prices globally which, in turn, may have adverse effects on the world and U.S. economies and lead to a downturn in consumer confidence and spending.

We closely monitor our net sales, gross margin and expenses. We have performed scenario planning such that, if our net sales decline, we have identified variable costs that could be reduced to partially mitigate the impact of these decl