Menu. You may be able to improve your health with discipline and a diet plan. Headlines from my radio cohost carol massar. Gap posted fourthquarter profits that exceeded estimates. It was partially thanks to deep discounts for the Holiday Shopping season. They fell to 4 billion. We had some results after the close of trading. Fourthquarter earnings at the auction house sothebys rose slightly. It has been a busy day for sothebys. Hedge fund manager dan lowe is seeking to add three members to the board. He is the largest owner of sothebys. Wells fargo plans to eliminate some jobs. The reductions at wells fargo, americas largest home lender, would come on top of cuts already made in january. Those are your top headlines at this hour. Thank you very much, carol massar. We have gotten the Financial Results from names such as best buy, jcpenney, macys, sears. Craig johnson has a look. He is the president at consumer growth partners. He has more than two decades of experience. Lets start off by getting your thoughts on gap. They are both californiabased. Gap is ok. They had a strong quarter. Retail is very soft right now. 1 is not great. 2 is better. They are lagging. They reported a 3 . Pretty good result this afternoon. It has been a challenging time in retail. Lets turn our attention and add to the mix, abercrombie fitch. Some stores are still reporting. All of the three as, the teen retailers, everybody is struggling. The entire sector, which is about 70 female. Why is it struggling . There is a macro rotation out of discretionary to nondiscretionary. There is no income growth. No one has excess money to spend. Very few people. Then you jump down. Whether it is a teen retailer or a womens retailer, they have reported slow growth. They were down. Then you jump to the teens. They have a very dated concept. The concept has been in the same place where they have been for the last 10 years. They lost customers to fast fashion. Forever 21, h m. They cannot get the inventory in the other stores . It is a shorter leadtime cycle. That is why they call it fast fashion. You can see it on the runway and then you will see it at h m a few weeks later. Exactly. They are able to deliver fashion that is current. Fashion is not about fabric. It is about newness. H m brings newness into the game. They have been doing a great job on it. I was just in the fifth avenue store and it looks great. New fashion that is fun and interesting that you do not see everywhere. Are they competing against macys for example . To some degree. Macys and jcp have departments that cater to millenial and teens. That is not their strong suit. Who is doing the best right now . You mentioned h m, who is the retailer that you think is capturing the most mind share . Costco has been knocking it out of the park. They sell apparel too. The apparel side has been doing very well. It is not fast fashion, but if the trend continues as you described, people spending money on nondiscretionary items, they do not have the money, what will they buy . Food and the things they need. Costco has household chemicals and consumables. They are very strong in consumer electronics. That is a low margin business. If you buy a tv, you do not go to walmart or best buy. You go to costco. Sales are soft overall. Margins, down 1 . They are trying to figure out a way. They had to go so deep. They are competing against walmart and amazon. They have a millstone on their back. Is that like sears . Partially. You go after amazon, and you are losing. Best buy had a huge outage with that. Walmart also competes on price. They have longterm changes in demand. They must repurpose some of the space. I learned a lot. Craig johnson, president at consumer growth partners. Janet yellen was the headliner today in the senate as she aknowledged that recent Economic Data has been weaker than expected. The fed will likely continue to trim its bond purchases for now. Chief washington correspondent peter cook has more. Peter, the debate is what . Over the weather . They are fighting over the weather and debating how much the poor weather has factored into that Economic Outlook. Two weeks ago, janet yellen was supposed to testify, but a snowstorm prevented that. Today she finally appeared and she was forced to acknowledge some of the softer numbers. How much is weather responsible . Part of that softness may be adverse weather conditions. It is difficult to discern the effect. In the weeks and months ahead, my colleagues and i will be attempting to figure out whether the recovery is progressing in line with our earlier expectations. Why is this important . The increased Economic Outlook is a big reason the fed began to. We were at 65 billion per month. There is a tapering question altogether. That is what senator Chuck Schumer put toward janet yellen. Here is what she had to say. If there is a significant change in the outlook, we would be open to reconsider. I do not want to draw any conclusions here. If the forecast holds up, this slowdown may be temporary. Yellen said that the Bond Buying Program would be the best case scenario. She talked about the fact that Interest Rates are not going up anytime soon. When can the u. S. Economy go back to normal . Several years. You spoke to the most controversial lawmaker in washington. The house ways and means chairman dave camp. He wants to blow up the tax code. Not everybody likes that. He is getting it from all sides. He unveiled his plan yesterday. This is a more than a 900 page effort. They want to totally overhaul the tax code. He is under fire from big banks. He even takes on the nfl. They have a tax exempt status. He is defending his plan amongst criticism from republicans and democrats that aspects of this go too far. Because we have to simplify and get lower rates, we can grow the economy by 20 . If we get 20 growth, that will translate to almost 2 million jobs. Jobs and the economy is the number one issue facing americans. Americans want to do something about it. This proposal is one way to do something about it. The argument from critics is that it may be too controversial for those who would otherwise support it. Dave camp says that he will push forward on it and start the conversation. Is dave camp running for reelection . He is running for reelection. Again, this is someone who has been a serious lawmaker for a long time. People were waiting for this proposal. He will wait to see what happens, and then he will stand by it. Thank you, peter cook, from washington, d. C. Coming up, teslas giga factory to build batteries. Will this incite tax incentives . Tesla motors has identified four states that may host their factory. That is where they will build lithium batteries. They are thinking of arizona, new mexico, texas, and nevada. Seth weintraub is here. He is the publisher and editorial director of electrek co. And matt miller, an enthusiast. Thats a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. Lets talk about this factory. It is making batteries there is a lot to that. The idea is that one of the states that you mentioned will be home to that. Tesla is shopping around. They are trying to get the best deal on taxes and workers. What make the batteries that go into a tesla different from anything, or the batteries you would find in a regular automobile . The battery in a regular car Stores Electricity at a lower energy density. They are lighter. They cost a lot more. You can pick up the battery in your car for 150. The lithiumion batteries in a tesla cost about 40,000. Is his plan going to be built with a combination of public and private money . We do not know yet. There will certainly be some tax incentives involved. Originally elon musk said that he would announce the state at the earnings call. He has not announced it yet. He is playing hardball. Why do you think nevada is the place that will get it . If you look at they build the car in california. Geographically, they are the winners. There are rail lines. The lithium is there. There is a lithium mine in northern nevada. There are reserves in wyoming. That is good. Lithium is a big cost. Think about how exciting this is. Maybe i have drunk the elon musk koolaid. It is going to be a huge factory. They will have the capacity to build more Battery Power than all the other lithiumion factories in the world combined. How many automobiles do they want to sell . They will be able to produce 500,000 vehicles per year. They are just saying this so you know how much they can make. They will create 5700 jobs. They can do much more than just build car batteries. They will be able to use these batteries to store energy that is created at wind farms. They are making super charging stations. They are all around the big city areas. They will be able to store electricity and move it to you as needed. It is taking tesla so much further. It is not only partly owned by elon musk, but if you buy a tesla, they will offer to put in solar panels. You have a tesla . Yes, i do. What about the cost . What about electricity bill . It goes up slightly, but your gas bill goes down to zero. The cost of electricity versus gas is about 3 1. That is a huge incentive that people do not know about. Thank you very much. We will see if nevada actually gets the giga. Seth weintraub, the editor and publisher at electrek co. And thank you matt miller. We have breaking news about jos. A. Banks and the mens wearhouse. The battle continues. We have more right here on taking stock. Michigan congressman dave camp has a plan to overhaul the tax code. It is going under the microscope. One of the lobbyists represents the municipal law industry. The bloomberg trade organization is an associate member. Lets talk about what the dave camp plan suggests should happen with the amount of money people receive from their Municipal Bonds. There are a few provisions that address Municipal Bonds. One of the provisions that i would like to talk about first is a tax. They want to raise the tax rate from 25 to 35 . Taxpayers at 400,000 or 450,000 depending on whether you are married or single. If you are an individual and your gross is 400,000 and you are a married couple your gross is 450,000, you would be subject to an additional 10 on income that you receive above that amount from Municipal Bonds. Not just Municipal Bonds, bonds, although they are included. The issue is that investors are taxed more. When investors are taxed more for an investment, they will demand additional yields. When you have to go out to compensate for that additional demand if borrowing costs go up, people will have to pay for that. Projects will not go forward. That means less money for things like building bridges. It sure does. Having said that, what about the taxfree status income from the Municipal Bonds . This is something we have talked about since 2012. It is something that we have worked very closely on in washington with state and local groups. The Municipal BondsTax Exemption has been in existence since there was a tax code. 100 years. It is not a loophole in the tax code. It provides the ability for state and local government to fund vital projects at the lowest possible cost. Does the proposal have any chance . It will be tough to move this year. The provisions will be very attractive moving forward. Thank you very much for joining me. Mike nichols. Coming up, tom brady, he is 38 years old. What is next for the future hall of famer . You will find out next. This is taking stock. Joseph a bank is rejecting the latest offer from mens wearhouse which would increase the bid by 10 . At long last they will meet with the board of mens wearhouse to consider whether or not a higher offer could be worth actually tying up. This is the latest development in a takeover battle that has gone backandforth since october, when joseph a Bank Launched a bid for its larger rival, mens wearhouse. Mens wearhouse has been trying to buy joseph a bank. Eddie bauer would make them so big that mens wearhouse could not afford to buy them. Some of the headlines are saying that joseph a bank has gotten permission to actually get out of the deal to buy eddie bauer. Bank is willing to talk to mens wearhouse again. The latest bid was 63. 50 per share. Joseph a bank shares are rallying up. It looks like jos. A. Bank wants to hold out more but theyre getting closer to a deal. Thanks. My next guest spent seven seasons playing for four different nfl franchises. When injury cut michael stones career short in 2007 he switched his focus to an alternative franchise. He founded the professional athlete franchise initiative, a program for retired athletes. Also joining us, the president of Title Boxing Club, john rotche. John is also a former football coach with the university of michigan. Thank you for being here. What was the injury . I was playing for the giants and had a hip injury in the preseason. Week five i decided to have the surgery. Thats when i found out i was retired. That was it. That must not have been a happy day. I dont think any athlete retires on their own terms. You got the word that you involuntarily were retired. Yes. What went through your mind . Getting prepared. It is something that you know is coming but youre not prepared for it. To transition from being an active player to transitioning to the world, where you have to create money . Exactly. You had a transition but of a different nature. If you could explain what your injury was, what your state was and how you have managed to work through that to create this boxing franchise. Unlike michael. He transitioned after an injury. Mine came prior to playing seven years in the nfl. I was a recruited middle linebacker for michigan and i ended up with a career ending neck injury that broke my fifth cervical vertebrae and left me a quadriplegic for some time. Headed you regain your focus and discipline to work through that to create this franchise . I cannot take credit for my recovery. I worked with the athletic department. When i left they joined the franchise world. I have been doing this about 20 something years and i took over with my partners, Title Boxing Club, two years ago. Whats the biggest challenge for people to make this transition into the Business World . Theres an interesting dynamic. You want to be an entrepreneur. When you are getting into a franchise, by nature of what a franchise is you have to follow a process. Sometimes people have a difficult time being an entrepreneur to want to go off on their own but stay within the banks of a river and follow its system. Michael, that seems to be at least a potential stumbling block. You are used to being a star. People do what you say. In the world of a franchise, you have to be mindful of what other people are requiring of you. Exactly. When i played professional sports, i had a playbook. When you get out of that world and start over in the Business World, it is freeflowing as an entrepreneur. That is why franchising is good. Athletes execute to win. Tell us about the program you have developed. We take professional athletes from all sports. The reason we educate athletes is because i was offered just about every day an opportunity to invest. I was never offered an opportunity to educate myself. We put education first, what franchising is and how you can be successful in it. Is this a one to one experience or does it take place over a particular period of time in a classroom . We do oneday workshops, threeday workshops. We partnered with the nfl last year to create the nfl franchise boot camp. How many people are you looking to have in the program . Throughout the past years we have taken 500 athletes. We hope they all learn what franchising is about. We are talking about football players. Your experience as a football player, but with a boxing franchise. What about people from different sports . With Title Boxing Club, one of the reasons we got involved with this program, its all about transition and franchising, people are transitioning whether they are transitioning from the i. T. Industry, marketing, manufacturing or athletics. Title boxing club is the nations largest. Does michael bring you into the seminars and coaching situations . Are whole thing is about educating these folks. People think a franchise is a subway and mcdonalds. When there are 770,000 different franchisees in america. Do you find in meeting players who are not as familiar as you are that there are big misconceptions about franchising . There is. I dont know if it is misconceptions as much as lack of awareness. It is often people think it is the qsr industry. Quick service restaurant. What about the money involved in this . It is an investment into your self. A lot of athletes look at it as, how can i invest in myself in creating my own business. What would the course cost . Upfront for athletes it is free. How do you make money . We are totally supported by the franchise company. You want to be able to tap into this network of people who want to do this business. We want to educate them and if it works out the Title Boxing Club is right for them, even better. I want to thank you very much, john rotche and michael stone. Coming up next, we will talk about another franchise, bojangles. It has served billions of pieces of chicken since 1977. Breakfast is no longer a one chicken race in the fast Food Industry. Burger king and taco bell want your business in the morning. The booming business of breakfast. Its time for your fast food breakfast economic. Fast food chains want your business before lunch. Its a huge opportunity for them to ring up extra sales, since their employees are already there preparing lunch great case in point, mcdonalds. Burger king rolling out creative items. Wendys try to offer breakfast and it did not go too well. We spoke with Food Industry consultancy about how fast foods are getting sleepy customers through their doors in the morning. Number one, coffee. Good coffee. Look at the recent success of starbucks and dunkin donuts. Coffee is highly credible and its a daily ritual craveable and its a daily ritual. Two, low prices. Many people dont even eat breakfast and those who do not want to spend a lot. Three, creative menu items. Did i mention taco bells waffle taco . Four, speed. No one wants to be late for work because of an egg mcmuffin. If all fails, copy mcdonalds. The egg mcmuffin is king when it comes to fast food economics. One company vanessa did not speak about is bojangles, with a menu structured around serving breakfast all day. The chain expects to host 1 billion worth of sales this year. Eric newman is a 30 year veteran of bojangles and serves as executive Vice President of the company. How appropriate they were talking about breakfast and 40 of the sales of bojangles is breakfast. 40 is before 11 00. We may do up to another 10 throughout the day in breakfast. Some places we may approach 50 of our sales are breakfast. What makes breakfast so special at bojangles . The biscuit has been copied by others and gone mainstream in terms of american cuisine. The biscuit is superb, buttery, fluffy, made fresh every 20 minutes. There are over 100 possible combinations of fillings you can put in the biscuit. What is the most popular breakfast biscuit . Cajun filet breakfast, spicy fried chicken. Chicken for breakfast. Tell us about the history of bojangles. You are based in charlotte trade it is a restaurant that at one point was owned by they were the owners and acquired in 1981 and sold it in 1990. They were with us a while. They were made famous by the automatic. They were the original fast food and did not know it. The granddaddy of fast foods in the automats. Then they were acquired by other groups. What is the strategy for bojangles . Starbucks is getting into the business. What are your plans . Snacks, breakfast, lunch and dinner. That is one of the reasons for that is one of the reasons for our success and growth. We have threeday parts, different demographic groups, people coming from different parts of town at different times of day. The strategy is to build on that base. Do you have to go out and check the competition . I do Pay Attention to competition. What do you think of the waffle taco . I dont know much about the waffle taco. We are busy executing our product. What volume do you expect to do in biscuits this year . I dont have any idea on the biscuits. I know we will serve more than 140 million customers. As far as the cost of food, how does that go . Have we seen increase in poultry prices . Beef looks like it will be more of a problem than chicken. Chicken is ok. We are at highs right now but we are ok. What about moving into different territories in the u. S. . Our focus is on building market share. We are the Fastest Growing freestanding qsr in the country, and the Fastest Growing chicken chain in the country. Were opening 55 to 60 restaurants this coming year, one every six days. We are trying to get market share where we are. Food is a headline item, not only in terms of peoples day but in the news. Paula deen, she will be coming back and opening operation near Dolly Partons themepark. Any connection, any thoughts about what that teaches you about how the food is presented and the images used . Bojangles is comfort food. Bojangles is made from scratch and fresh. That impacts all we do and our marketing. That presentation and marketing is about the incredible loyalty that bojangles has. Thats where we aim that message. Thank you very much, eric newman. Do you have a favorite biscuit . The cajun filet, but theres nothing like the country biscuit, double ham. Eric newman, executive Vice President , general counsel of bojangles. Stocks of nutrisystem fell 10 . I will talk with the chief executive of the Weightloss Company next. One of the big movers in todays stock market, nutrisystem, shares falling 10 . It is the guidance of the First Quarter that it was less than analysts had estimated. Joining me is the president and chief executive, dawn zier. Welcome to taking stock. Lets try to make your day we will tie up the stock business at the beginning. It cannot be fun to see your stock fall 10 . What do you think the reason was . A rough day but a great year. The stock is double what it was a year ago. As we look forward were talking about the first year of Revenue Growth in five years. We are pleased about where were going. I think there was confusion about shifting in quarters due to the promotion we are doing. We need to explain that differently to investors so they fully understand it. Some difference versus consensus, we were in line for most of our analysts and there was an outlier that actually skewed it. We are pleased with our growth projections, two quarters of Revenue Growth, fullyear Revenue Growth. Lets talk about the plan, and about what youre trying to do with the company and where you are in the companys growth plan. We are still in the early innings of a torrent. The exciting thing about what were doing is were bringing in more new customers for the first time quarter over quarter, year over year in many years. Its a renaissance showing the resilience of the brand. We expanded into retail and were still in our infancy there. We are in walmart, but we are conducting a test in target in april. Our consumer channel which delivers the weightloss food program home to the doors of the consumers has a lot of runway in it. Maintenance and transition programs, new diet windows. Were very excited. Theres no debt in the company. Would that be something you would ever revisit and say, money is less expensive than it might be in the future . Maybe i will borrow some money now because i will want to expand to more customers . We are always looking at different opportunities that present themselves. Lets talk about the menu. What has changed . There are 150 different food varieties. One of the exciting things we have done is launched a fast five kit which allows customers to lose five pounds in their first week. Why is that so important . It gives you the momentum. Studies show if you are successful in that first week of weight loss you will be more successful over the long term. You continuously lose one to two pounds a week, which is longterm safe. We introduced new energizing shakes, a lot of new things in our program in addition to different food groups. Mens favorite food is lasagna and women savor it is fudge bars. What is the favorite food of female customers . Fudge graham bars. We love chocolate. And men . They like lasagna. Any breakdown in terms of geographical areas of the country . We have a lot of different scenarios. Personally, i like the ice cream sandwich. There was a report talking about obesity rates in children. Talk about nutrisystems and its focus on health and wellness. The news on children was good news for the country. But the adults are still having a huge problem, with 66 of the Adult Population being overweight or obese. Its good there are solutions out there to help on this journey. It impacts people financially, emotionally and physically. Thank you for joining me. Dawn zier of nutrisystems. Thanks for taking stock. Im pimm fox. Good night