We are reiterating our Hold rating and projections for Vera Bradley after visiting stores in Long Island and New Jersey. Increasingly, we believe Vera Bradly stores have slowly rebuilt trust with their former core consumer, as they sharpen the focus on key OG-driven styles, fabrics and silhouettes. Further, we are seeing certain fashion driven items continue to drive traffic, especially in main line and Outlet 2.0 locations. As such, we believe increasingly the sales drivers will be the keys we have seen historically at Vera Bradley, from patterns to newness to inventory availability and the ability to solve the everyday problems of the Vera Bradley user. While there is still clearance to be done (especially in the outlets) and the product flows remain somewhat rough, as we move closer to the vision of new management one can see the potential in the store visits.
