You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Kurt will begin and close the call, and Melinda will speak to the financials midway through.
We'll then open the call to questions.
Although we believe these statements to be reasonable, our actual results could differ materially.
The most significant risk factors that could affect our future results are described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We encourage you to review those risk factors as well as other key information detailed in our SEC filings.
With that, I'll turn over the call to Kurt Darrow, La-Z-Boy's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Following yesterday's close of market, we reported our fiscal 2021 first quarter results.
While still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased with how our business is progressing with strong written order trends.
To put the quarter in context, let me remind you of the pandemic related retail and plant closures and the subsequent ramp up timeline for La-Z-Boy.
As a result of the pandemic, furniture retailers including our La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery stores were closed for the tail end of March, all of April and most of May with some still closed in June depending on local guidelines.
Relatedly, the majority of our plants closed for four weeks and restarted in late April at reduced capacity.
With our Joybird's Tijuana facility restarting about a month later due to COVID-19 challenges in Mexico.
When we restarted our plants, we initially worked off the pre-pandemic backlog.
We then had to wait for order flow as our retailers open throughout May and June and in concert with that, we increased production accordingly.
But because of the lag from order entry, the written sale to building and delivering the product and recognizing the delivered sale, we essentially lost the majority of the month of May in terms of delivered sales as we expected when we commented last quarter.
We have continued to increase our rate of production -- production weekly and are now operating at about 90% of prior-year levels.
But our lag time is currently running at about double our normal rate given strong demand during the quarter and the challenge of hiring additional workers.
The real good news is that our written order trends across the business are strong.
For the entire La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery network, which accounts for about half of our wholesale business, written same-store sales increased 14.8% in the first quarter.
And to provide some additional perspective on the quarter, the cadence or written same-store sales by month was a decline of 13% in May, an increases of 30% in June and 32% in July.
So now, it's a matter of catching up on moving higher than expected written orders through our production cycle to deliver sales revenue as we continue to increase production.
Now it's too early to tell for certain, what's driving the strong written sales.
Whether it's pent-up demand which will eventually tail off or sector rotation with consumer shifting discretionary spending to their homes in an environment of no travel and limits on other leisure-related activity or probably a bit of both.
These COVID-19 related closures and reopenings transferred to a 31% sales decline versus a year ago to $285 million for the quarter with GAAP operating income declining to $4 million and non-GAAP operating income to $9 million.
We are still -- we were still however able to generate $106 million in operating cash supported partially by strong customer deposits and end the quarter with a balance sheet that remains strong.
The remainder of my remarks will detail our non-GAAP numbers, and Melinda will cover the non-GAAP adjustments in her remarks.
I will start with our Wholesale segment, which now includes both upholstery and casegoods.
On a sales decline of 30% to $224 million [Phonetic], non-GAAP operating margin was 9.4%, principally the result of the decline in production for the period and the consequent lower absorption of our fixed cost, partially offset by temporary cost reduction actions related to our COVID-19 action plan, which we announced in March.
Written sales for the Wholesale segment were up 2.5% for the quarter with a decline of 38% in May, more than offset by increases of 29% in both June and July, respectively.
Throughout this unusual and unpredictable period, we are managing our marketing investments with fiscal responsibility, but at the same time, we are very mindful of the increased interest in home furnishings in the core and the power of our brand.
In the spring, we did a soft launch of the second wave of the Live Life Comfortably campaign featuring Kristen Bell.
This way, focus is on La-Z-Boy's design and customization capabilities, one of our brand pillars, and we are planning for the TV spots to be more frequent and at more frequent rotation beginning this month as we move into what is typically the stronger fall selling season.
Additionally, we continue to invest in virtual capabilities as we increase our focus on offering consumers an omnichannel experience and providing seamless integration between our website and our stores.
From a product perspective, our modulars, sectionals and our wireless hand remote option on our power products continue to be in high demand.
On the manufacturing side, we continue to hire and train people to meet the unexpected demand surge while following all cohort related safety protocols.
Now let me turn to the Retail segment.
Written same-store sales for the Company-owned stores increased 11% for the quarter, even with the majority of stores closed for the month of May and some and still closed in June.
Again for perspective on how the quarter played out by month, written same-store sales for the Company-owned stores were down 26% in May, but up 29% and 37% in June and July, respectively.
For the quarter, delivered sales declined 36% to $91 million and non-GAAP operating margin for the segment was a loss of 6.8% due primarily to our inability to increase our production fast enough to meet the unexpected momentum in demand.
As we've discussed over the last several quarters, our retail business has become a core competency for the Company and has been performing at a very high level, greatly contributing to the value of the La-Z-Boy enterprise.
The first quarter loss was an anomaly, given the dynamic of store closures and the impact of the written and delayed delivered sales.
Encouragingly, on the temporary decline in traffic, we saw conversion and average ticket improvement as consumers used our website to conduct research before shopping in our stores and our store teams continue to execute at a very high level to close sales.
Additionally, we were pleased to see positive traffic trends in July, after declines in May and June.
In this environment, we are deploying new ways to engage with our store guests, enable safe and healthy shopping experiences.
These range from the ability to book personal shopping appointments, mask wearing by all team members and store capacity management with the queuing system depending on local condition, ordinance and needs.
Feedback has been very positive from our store teams and customers in terms of creating a safe place to shop.
I'll now spend a few minutes on Joybird.
For the quarter, Joybird sales reported in Corporate & Other declined 22% to $13.4 million.
However, written sales increased 38%.
The deliveries expected to catch up in the later part of the second quarter, end of the third, due to the Joybird plant not fully reopening until June due to COVID-19.
Balancing sales growth with bottom line performance, Joybird reduced its quarterly operating loss on a year-over-year and sequential basis.
We expect quarter 2 delivered revenue rate to be restored to more normal levels, but anticipate it will continue to lag the strong written demand due to the short-term labor constraints.
I'll now turn things over to Melinda.
Last year's first quarter non-GAAP results excluded a pre-tax charge of $1.5 million or $0.02 per diluted share related to the Company's supply chain optimization initiatives, which included the closure of our Redlands, California facility and a pre-tax purchase accounting charge of $1.5 million or $0.02 per diluted share.
Additionally, I would point out a revision to our segment reporting beginning this quarter.
Due to similar financial structures and customer channels, we aggregated the former Upholstery segment with the former Casegoods segment to form the newly combined Wholesale segment.
And now on to our results.
My comments from here will focus on our non-GAAP reporting unless specifically stated otherwise.
As noted, on a consolidated basis fiscal '21 first quarter sales declined 31% to $285 million reflecting the continued impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Consolidated non-GAAP operating income was $9 million versus $26 million in last year's quarter and consolidated non-GAAP operating margin was 3.1% versus 6.3%.
Non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.18 per diluted share in the current quarter versus $0.42 in last year's first quarter.
Consolidated gross margin for the first quarter increased 30 basis points.
Improved gross margin was driven primarily by targeted cost reduction actions, including the closure of our Redlands, California facility about a year ago, as well as those temporary actions associated with our COVID-19 action plan announced in March.
Gross margin also benefited from improved performance at Joybird.
SG&A as a percent of sales increased 350 basis points reflecting the decline in sales relative to fixed costs.
Partially offsetting the increase in SG&A expense were temporary cost reductions taken as part of our COVID-19 action plan.
On a GAAP basis, our effective tax rate for fiscal '21 first quarter was 19.8% versus 22% in last year's first quarter.
Our effective tax rate varies from the 21% federal statutory rate, primarily due to state taxes.
Absent discrete adjustments, the effective tax rate for fiscal '21 first quarter would have been 26.1%.
For fiscal year '21, absent discrete items, we continue to estimate our effective tax rate on a GAAP basis, will be in the range of 25% to 26%.
Turning to cash, we generated $106 million in cash from operating activities in the quarter, including a $61 million increase in customer deposits from written orders for the Company's retail segment and Joybird.
We ended the quarter with $337 million in cash, including $50 million in cash proactively drawn on the Company's credit facility to enhance liquidity and response to COVID-19 back in March, compared with $114 million in cash at the end of last year's first quarter.
We also held $16 million in investments to enhance returns on cash, compared with $33 million last year.
During the quarter, we repaid $25 million of the original $75 million drawn against our credit line based on business performance and ongoing liquidity.
Also during the quarter, we invested $10 million in capital, primarily related to machinery and equipment, upgrades to our Dayton manufacturing facility and investments in our retail stores.
We expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $40 million to $45 million for the fiscal year, although spending will be largely dependent on economic conditions, continued business recovery and liquidity trends.
Our spending for the year will prioritize essential maintenance projects already under way, including plant upgrades to our Upholstery manufacturing facilities, technology upgrades and improvements to several retail stores.
As part of our COVID-19 action plan, in an effort to preserve cash in the near term and provides for financial flexibility, we eliminated our expected June dividend and temporarily suspended opportunistic share repurchases.
We are pleased to announce -- we have announced that -- we are pleased to announce that yesterday, our Board of Directors elected to reinstate a regular quarterly dividend to shareholders of $0.07 per share.
This is 50% of the quarterly dividend amount paid prior to the pandemic, as we continue to monitor current business trends and remain vigilant with respect to the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.
Over time, we will continue to evaluate our dividend level and management may also at its discretion resume share repurchases based on an assessment of business trends.
There are currently 4.5 million shares of purchase availability under our authorized program.
And finally, before turning the call back to Kurt, let me highlight several important items for fiscal '21.
First, a reminder that our expected non-GAAP adjustments will continue to include purchase accounting adjustments for acquisitions to date, which are estimated to be in the range of $0.04 to $0.05 for the full year.
And we anticipate pre-tax charges of $0.01 to $0.02 per share in the second quarter related to the completion of our recent business realignment, which included the closure of the Newton assembly plant and the 10% reduction in our global workforce.
The total charges for these actions is coming in slightly lighter than anticipated due to lower severance benefits than originally forecast.
And relative to business trends, we are pleased with the progress we've made in Q1 in written sales and restarting our manufacturing facilities.
But we remain cautious on future sales trends, given ongoing economic uncertainty and pandemic risks.
Further, we continue to aggressively manage our cost structure across the business, but our ability to return to or exceed pre-pandemic margins is largely dependent on increasing our production rate.
And if demand continues at the current pace, in an odd twist, our challenge won't be sales velocity, it will be more about how much we can make during this period of time based on our ability to hire to support demand.
And finally a note on tariffs.
The exclusion on tariffs that provided two years of tariff rebates received at the end of fiscal '20 was not renewed.
So we will have that expense going forward similar to most quarters in the last two years.
And now back to Kurt for his concluding remarks.
As noted, we are pleased with our written order trends and believe there is still some pent-up demand in the marketplace, given the long period of time, retailers were closed as well as some shift in discretionary spending with more money going into the home category.
As Melinda noted, because we are mindful that pandemic is still is still upon us, we are cautious in our optimism on demand and our ability to flex our workforce as we move into the fall selling season.
As we manage the business tightly day to day, we are focused on providing great service to our customers and maintaining fiscal conservatism through this uncertain period.
I'm confident, we will emerge a stronger company on the other side of this crisis.
And I'm quite pleased with how well the Company is faring as we move through it.
We will continue to capitalize on the strength of our well-known and trusted brand, our vast distribution network, including the vibrant La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery store system, our world class supply chain and our strong balance sheet to deliver long-term value to all stakeholders.
And now I will turn things over to Kathy to provide instructions for getting into the queue.
We'll begin the question-and-answer period now.
Jess, please review the instructions for getting into the queue.

user
q1 non-gaap earnings per share $0.18.
for entire la-z-boy furniture galleries network, written same-store sales increased 14.8% for fiscal 2021 q1.

assistant