J.Jill, Inc. - Annual Report: 2017 (Form 10-K)

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended January 28, 2017

OR

For the transition period from             to            

Commission File Number 001-38026

J.Jill, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (617) 376-4300

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 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 and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, 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.

(Check one):

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 Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐     No  ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on NYSE Stock Market on April 21, 2017, was $194,290,605.20.

The number of shares of Registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of April 21, 2017 was 43,747,944.

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Annual Report”) contains forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” and, in each case, their negative or other various or comparable terminology. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenue, projected costs, prospects, plans, objectives of management and expected market growth are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are contained principally in the sections entitled “Item 1. Business,” “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and include, among other things, statements relating to:

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our results to vary from expectations include, but are not limited to:

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These forward-looking statements reflect our views with respect to future events as of the date of this Annual Report and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this Annual Report and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or review publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this Annual Report. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. You should read this Annual Report and the documents filed as exhibits to the Annual Report, completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments we may undertake. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

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PART I

Item 1. Business

In this Annual Report, unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, references to the “Company,” “J.Jill,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to J.Jill, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. We operate on a 52- or 53-week fiscal year that ends on the Saturday that is closest to January 31. Each fiscal year generally is comprised of four 13-week fiscal quarters, although in the years with 53 weeks, the fourth quarter represents a 14-week period. References in this Annual Report to “fiscal year 2016” refer to the fiscal year ending January 28, 2017 and references to “fiscal year 2014” refer to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015. References in this Annual Report to “pro forma fiscal year 2015” refer to the unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations, which has been derived from our consolidated audited statements of operations included elsewhere in this Annual Report. See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for additional information. Fiscal year 2016, pro forma fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2014 were each comprised of 52 weeks.

Company Overview

J.Jill is a nationally recognized women’s apparel brand focused on a loyal, engaged and affluent customer in the attractive 40-65 age segment. The J.Jill brand represents an easy, relaxed and inspired style that reflects the confidence and comfort of a woman with a rich, full life. We operate a highly profitable omni-channel platform that is well diversified across our direct (43% of net sales for fiscal year 2016) and retail (57% of net sales for fiscal year 2016) channels. We began as a catalog company and have been a pioneer of the omni-channel model with a compelling presence across stores, website and catalog since 1999. We have developed an industry-leading customer database that allows us to match approximately 97% of transactions to an identifiable customer. We take a data-centric approach, in which we leverage our database and apply our insights to manage our business as well as to acquire and engage customers to drive optimum value and productivity. Our goals are to Create a great brand, to Build a successful business and to Make J.Jill a great place to work. To achieve this, we have aligned our strategy and team around four guiding pillars – Brand, Customer, Product and Channel.

Brand

We have developed a unique brand image that encourages customers to build deep, personal connections with our brand and that differentiates us from our peers. Our brand promise to the J.Jill woman is to delight her with great wear-now product, to inspire her confidence through J.Jill’s approach to dressing and to provide her with friendly, guiding service wherever and whenever she chooses to shop. We use our key brand attributes—Naturally Authentic, Thoughtfully Engaging, Relaxed Femininity, Positive Energy and Confident Simplicity—to guide all brand messaging, which is consistently communicated to our customers, whether she chooses to shop on our www.jjill.com website, in our retail stores or through our catalog.

We believe we have the ability to create and maintain positive brand associations with customers. We have cultivated a differentiated brand that resonates with our loyal customers, as evidenced by one of the highest levels of brand satisfaction and one of the highest aided brand awareness scores relative to our peers.

Customer

While we find that women of all ages are attracted to our brand, our typical customer is 40 to 65 years old, is college educated and has an annual household income that exceeds $150,000. She leads a busy, yet balanced life, as she works outside the home, is involved in her community and has a family with children. She values comfort, ease and versatility in her wardrobe, in addition to quality fabrics and thoughtful details. She is fashion conscious and looks to J.Jill to interpret current trends most relevant to her needs and lifestyle. She buys wear-now product and is willing to invest in special, unique pieces. She is tech savvy, but also loves the J.Jill store experience and frequently engages with us across all channels.

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As our customers increase their tenure with our brand, they tend to spend more and purchase more frequently. Additionally, as we retain customers over time, they tend to migrate from single channel customers to more valuable omni-channel customers. Omni-channel customers reflect 22% of our active customer base for fiscal year 2016, which has increased from 20% in pro forma fiscal year 2015 and 19% in fiscal year 2014. See “Management’s Discussion of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Supplemental Unaudited Pro Forma Consolidated Financial Information” for discussion regarding our pro forma fiscal year 2015.

Product

Our Products

Our products are marketed under the J.Jill brand name and sold exclusively through our direct and retail channels. Our diverse assortment of apparel spans knit and woven tops, bottoms and dresses as well as sweaters and outerwear. We also offer a range of complementary footwear and accessories, including scarves, jewelry and hosiery. By presenting our merchandise to her in clear product stories, we strive to uncomplicate fashion across her entire wardrobe, providing comfortable, easy and versatile collections that enable her to dress confidently for a broad range of occasions. Our products are available across the full range of sizes including Misses, Petites, Women’s and Tall, and reflect a modern balance of style, quality, comfort and ease at accessible price points. The core products of our assortment are designed and merchandised in-house around clear product stories, grounded with essential yet versatile styles and fabrications that are typically represented across a season. Assortments are updated each month with fresh colors, layering options, novelty and fashion. Our foundation is comprised of a full assortment of knits, wovens and sweaters, and provides easy dressing options for everyday wear. In addition to our core assortment, we have developed two sub-brands as extensions of our brand aesthetic and our customer lifestyle needs:

Pure Jill: Our Pure Jill sub-brand reflects the art of understated ease. It is designed with a clear focus and minimalist approach to style, and reflected in simple shapes, unstructured silhouettes, interesting textures, soft natural fabrics and artful details.

Wearever: Our Wearever sub-brand consists of our refined rayon jersey knit collection that is designed for work, travel and home. It has a foundational collection of versatile shapes and proportions, in solids and prints that mix easily to provide endless options—everything works together. These soft knits are easy care and wrinkle-free, and always look great.

We also offer accessories in unique, versatile and wearable collections. These accessory collections are primarily driven by scarves and jewelry and seamlessly complete our customer’s wardrobe.

Product Design and Development

Each year we offer 12 merchandise collections that are introduced every four weeks and designed and delivered to provide a consistent flow of fresh products. All of our merchandise is designed in-house, and we create newness through the use of different fabrics, colors, patterns and silhouettes, with approximately 40% new styles in each monthly collection. We introduce each collection simultaneously on our website, in our retail stores and in our catalogs. We support each collection with continuous web updates, sequenced floor sets and 25 corresponding catalog editions in addition to regular, coordinated marketing activities. Our new product development lifecycle typically takes 48 weeks from design concept through delivery. We leverage feedback and purchasing data from our customer database along with continual collaborative hindsighting to guide our product and merchandising decision making. Joann Fielder, our Executive Vice President and Chief Creative and Merchandising Officer, oversees a team responsible for design, product development, sourcing, creative, merchandising and inventory planning. This close coordination between our creative and merchandising teams ensures that our product and brand message is clearly communicated to our customers across all channels.

We believe our merchandising strategy, a flow of fresh, new styles and ability to integrate continuous customer feedback and purchasing data allow us to consistently deliver relevant products to our customers. Our

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disciplined planning and product lifecycle management strategies enable effective in-season inventory management to maximize inventory turn and productivity. Through these effective inventory management practices, we are able to minimize markdowns and promotional activity, allowing us to drive favorable gross margins.

Channel

We are an omni-channel retailer, delivering a seamless brand experience to our customer, wherever and whenever she chooses to shop across our website, retail stores and catalog. Driven by our direct-to-consumer heritage, we have a highly profitable omni-channel platform that is well-diversified across our direct and retail channels. In 1999, we became an omni-channel retailer, with the launch of our website and the opening of our first retail stores. Our channels reinforce one another and drive traffic to each other, and we deliver a consistent brand message by coordinating the release of our monthly collection across our website, retail stores and catalogs, allowing our customers to experience a uniform brand message. We believe that our customers’ buying decisions are influenced by this consistent messaging and experience across our sales channels. We have a strong track record of migrating customers from a single-channel customer to a more valuable, omni-channel customer over time.

Direct Channel

Our direct channel, which represented 43% of total net sales for fiscal year 2016, consists of our website and catalog orders.

Industry-Leading E-commerce Platform

Our website, www.jjill.com, is a natural extension of our retail stores and our catalog, and provides customers with a broader range of colors and sizes, including Women’s and Tall sizes, than available in our stores. Our website has been optimized for shopping and purchasing across desktop, mobile phone and tablet devices. The website features updates on new collections, guidance on how to wardrobe and wear our products and the ability to chat live with a sales representative, all of which facilitate customer engagement and interaction. Additionally, we leverage our website as an efficient inventory clearance vehicle, which allows us to keep our retail store products fresh and representative of our newest collection. Within our direct channel, E-commerce represented 89% of fiscal 2016 net sales.

Catalog

Our catalogs are an integral part of our business. As one of our primary marketing vehicles, our catalogs promote and reinforce our brand image and drive customer acquisition and engagement across all of our channels. We produce 25 annual editions of our catalog that, when combined with an increasing investment in online marketing, drives customer acquisition and engagement across all of our channels. As on our website and in our retail stores, our catalogs reflect our product offering in settings that align with our merchandise segments, including our sub-brands, and provide guidance on styling and wardrobing. Our catalogs are designed in-house, providing us with greater creative control as well as effectively managing our catalog production costs. Within our direct channel, catalog orders represented 11% of fiscal year 2016 net sales.

Retail Channel

Our Stores

Our retail channel represented 57% of net sales for fiscal year 2016. As of January 28, 2017, we operated 275 stores across 43 states with approximately half located in lifestyle centers and the remaining in premium malls; all of our stores are leased. Our stores range in size from approximately 2,350 to 6,550 square feet, and the average store is approximately 3,750 square feet.

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We introduced a new store design concept in 2013 that showcases our brand concept and elevates, yet simplifies, the J.Jill shopping experience. The new store concept provides a welcoming, easy-to-shop format that guides her through clearly merchandised product stories. With natural materials in soothing neutral colors, comfortable fabrics and elegant seating areas, the atmosphere is aspirational, yet attainable. When she cannot find an item in-stock at her local store, our concierge service leverages our in-store ordering platform and ships products to her home with no shipping charge.

Site Selection

We believe our store expansion model supports our ability to grow our store footprint in both new and existing markets across the United States with the potential to simultaneously enhance our direct channel sales by migrating single-channel customers to omni-channel customers. New store locations are evaluated on various factors, including customer demographics within a market, concentration of existing customers, location of existing stores, and center tenant quality and mix. We also leverage our customer database, including purchasing history and customer demographics, to determine geographic locations that may benefit from a retail store. We target opening new stores in high traffic locations with desirable demographic characteristics and favorable lease economics. We believe we can add up to 100 stores to our store base of 275 over the long term. We plan to open 10-15 new stores in fiscal year 2017 and in each year thereafter. We also plan to selectively close underperforming stores on an annual basis.

The following table shows new store openings since the beginning of fiscal year 2012. The stores opened in the last three years were primarily in lifestyle centers.

Competitive Strengths

We attribute our success to the following competitive strengths:

Distinct, Well-Recognized Brand. The J.Jill brand represents an easy, relaxed and inspired style that reflects the confidence and comfort of a woman with a rich, full life. We have cultivated a differentiated brand and through our commitment to our customer and our brand building activities, we have created significant brand trust and an emotional connection with our customers.

Industry-Leading Omni-Channel Business. We have developed a powerful, omni-channel business model comprised of our industry-leading direct channel and our retail stores. Our direct and retail channels complement and drive traffic to one another, and we leverage our targeted marketing initiatives to acquire new customers across all channels. We have a strong track record of migrating customers from a single-channel customer to a more valuable, omni-channel customer over time. As a result, our direct penetration has grown rapidly and accounted for 43% of net sales for fiscal year 2016 driven primarily by growth in our E-commerce business. We believe our strong omni-channel capabilities enable us to deliver a seamless brand experience to our customer, wherever and whenever she chooses to shop.

Data-Centric Approach That Drives Consistent Profitability and Mitigates Risk. We believe we have strong customer and transaction data capabilities, but it is our use of the data that distinguishes us from our competitors. We have developed industry-leading data capture capabilities that allow us to match approximately

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97% of transactions to an identifiable customer, which we believe is significantly ahead of the industry standard. We maintain an extensive customer database that tracks customer details from personal identifiers and demographic overlay (e.g., name, address, age, household income and occupation) as well as contact history (e.g., catalog and email). We also have significant visibility into our customers’ transaction behavior (e.g., orders, returns, order value), including purchases made across our channels. As such, we can identify a single-channel customer who purchases a product through our website, our retail store or our catalog, as well as an omni-channel customer who purchases in more than one channel. We continually leverage this database and apply our insights to operate our business as well as to acquire new customers and then create, build and maintain a relationship with each customer to drive optimum value. As of the end of fiscal year 2016, our database had over ten million names. We believe our data-centric approach allows us to respond to customer preferences and mitigate risk leading to consistent, predictable operating and financial performance over time.

Affluent and Loyal Customer Base. We target an attractive demographic of affluent women in the 40-65 age range, a segment of the population that is experiencing outsized population growth between 2010 and 2020 in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With an average annual household income that exceeds $150,000, our customer has significant spending power. Our private label credit card program also drives customer loyalty and encourages spending. We believe we will continue to develop long-term customer relationships that will drive profitable sales growth.

Customer-Focused Product Assortment. Our customers strongly associate our product with a modern balance of style, quality, comfort and ease suitable for a broad range of occasions at accessible price points. Our customer-focused assortment spans a full range of sizes and is designed to provide easy wardrobing that is relevant to her lifestyle. Each year we offer 12 merchandise collections that are introduced approximately every four weeks and designed and delivered to provide a consistent flow of fresh products. We create product newness through the use of different fabrics, colors, patterns and silhouettes, with approximately 40% new styles delivered in each monthly collection, which motivates our customer to visit our stores and/or our website more frequently. We have an in-house, customer centric product design and development process that leverages our extensive database of customer feedback and allows us to identify and incorporate changes in our customers’ preferences, mitigating fashion risk. We believe our customer focused approach to product development and continual delivery of fresh, high quality products drives traffic, frequency and conversion.

Highly Experienced Leadership Team, Delivering Superior Results. Our leadership team is led by President and Chief Executive Officer, Paula Bennett, who joined J.Jill in 2008 and has over 35 years of experience. Ms. Bennett understands the importance of a strong brand, possesses deep knowledge of our customers and has extensive direct to consumer and retail channel experience. She has built a team from leading global organizations with an average of 25 years of industry experience and significant expertise in merchandising, marketing, retail, E-commerce, human resources and finance. We have developed a strong and collaborative culture aligned around our goals to Create a great brand, to Build a successful business and to Make J.Jill a great place to work. Our leadership team is aligned and incentivized around growing Adjusted EBITDA and has delivered superior and consistent operating results, growing net sales by a 10% CAGR, Adjusted EBITDA by a 25% CAGR and Adjusted EBITDA margin by 640 basis points from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2016.

Growth Strategy

Key drivers of our growth strategy include:

Grow Size and Value of Our Customer Base. We have a significant opportunity to continue to attract new customers to our brand and to grow the size and value of our active customer base across all channels. Historically, we grew our business by driving spend per customer. We strategically increased our marketing investment to drive growth through the acquisition of new customers, reactivation of lapsed customers and the retention of existing customers. This investment has proven effective as, for example, in fiscal year 2016 we

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increased our active customer base growth of 11% and new customer growth of 13%. We recently began a brand voice and customer segmentation initiative which, upon completion, will further enhance our ability to target the highest value customers and increase customer spending. Through these initiatives, we believe we will continue to attract new customers to our brand, migrate from single-channel to more profitable omni-channel customers and increase overall customer retention and spend.

Increase Direct Sales. Given our strong foundation that positions us to capitalize on the growth of online and mobile shopping, we believe we have the opportunity to grow our direct sales from 43% of our net sales to approximately 50% over the next few years. According to Euromonitor, online apparel sales are expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 15% from 2015 to 2020, which is significantly above the long-term growth of the broader apparel industry. We are undertaking several initiatives to enhance our capabilities and drive additional direct sales. We are in the process of converting our website to a new platform to improve our customers’ personalized shopping experience and increase the ease of navigation, checkout and overall engagement. Our new platform, managed by our experienced team will provide us with the opportunity to expand internationally. In addition, our mobile platform provides us with the ability to effectively engage with our customer on her mobile device by providing her with access to product research and the ability to connect with the brand socially. We believe our powerful direct platform will enable us to further strengthen our dominant market position and broaden our customer reach.

Profitably Expand Our Store Base. Based on our proven new store economics, we believe that we have the potential to grow our store base by up to 100 stores over the long term from our total of 275 stores as of January 28, 2017. We will target new locations in lifestyle centers and premium malls, and we plan to open 10-15 new stores in fiscal year 2017 and in each year thereafter. We introduced a new store design concept in 2013 that showcases our brand concept and elevates, yet simplifies the J.Jill shopping experience. The new store concept provides a welcoming, easy-to-shop format that guides her through clearly merchandised product stories. All of our new stores will reflect our new design concept and we intend to continue this design for new stores and refresh our existing stores as appropriate. We also plan to selectively close underperforming stores on an annual basis.

Strengthen Omni-Channel Capabilities. We are pursuing a variety of initiatives designed to enhance our omni-channel capabilities focused on best serving our customer, wherever and whenever she chooses to shop. In fiscal year 2016, we enhanced our management team to focus on the omni-channel customer experience, including the recent hires of a Chief Information Officer and a Senior Vice President of Marketing. We will continue to leverage our insight into customer attributes and behavior, which will guide strategic investments in our business. For example, we will enhance our ability to seamlessly manage our inventory across all of our channels. We also plan to implement technology to further fulfill customer demand, including ship from store to customer and order online for pickup in store. We expect our sustainable model, combined with our omni-channel initiatives, will continue to drive traffic, increase average transaction value and enhance conversion across all of our channels.

Enhance Product Assortment. We believe there is an opportunity to grow our business by selectively broadening and enhancing our assortment in certain product categories, including our Pure Jill and Wearever sub-brands, our Women’s and Petite’s businesses, and accessories. Based on strong demand for our extended size product and our sub-brands, we believe we have the opportunity to expand and focus these categories in selected stores as well as test the offering in stand-alone store formats. We also believe we have the opportunity to continue to optimize our assortment architecture and productivity by delivering the right mix and flow of fashion and basics to our channels. In addition, we will continue delivering high quality customer-focused product assortments across each of our channels, while strengthening visual merchandising. Through our focused and enhanced product offering, particularly in our sub-brands and extended sizes, we believe we will continue to drive profitable sales growth over time.

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Market

J.Jill operates as a specialty retailer in the large and growing women’s apparel industry. According to Euromonitor, total apparel sales in the United States grew from $301 billion in 2010 to $343 billion in 2015, reflecting a CAGR of 3%. Within apparel, E-commerce sales grew at a 15% CAGR from $23 billion to $46 billion, while brick-and-mortar sales remained relatively flat. As we continue to grow our business and expand beyond the United States, global apparel sales are expected to grow at a CAGR of 4%. Online sales are expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 15%, which is significantly above the long-term growth of the broader apparel industry. Given our strong foundation that positions us to capitalize on the growth of online and mobile shopping, we believe we have the opportunity to grow our direct sales from 43% of our net sales to approximately 50% over the next few years. Within the women’s apparel market, we believe we have an opportunity to gain share within the Sportswear market for women over the age of 40, which has a market size of approximately $42 billion for the twelve month period ended May 2015, according to data from the NPD Group, Inc., and consists of 79 million women, according to a U.S. Census Bureau projection.

Marketing and Advertising

We leverage a variety of marketing and advertising vehicles to increase brand awareness, acquire new customers, drive customer traffic across our channels, and strengthen and reinforce our brand image. These include our 25 annual catalog editions, promotional mailings, email communications, digital and print advertisements and public relations initiatives. We leverage our customer database to strategically optimize the value of our marketing investments across customer segments and channels. This enables us to productively acquire new customers, effectively market to existing customers, increase customer retention levels and reactivate lapsed customers.

Our catalog, combined with an increased investment in online marketing, drive customer acquisition and engagement across all of our channels. We reinforce a consistent brand message by coordinating the release of our monthly collection across our website, retail stores and catalogs, allowing our customers to experience a uniform brand message wherever and whenever she chooses to shop. We also engage in a wide range of other marketing and advertising strategies to promote our brand, including media coverage in specialty publications and magazines.

In late 2014, we strategically increased our marketing investment to drive growth through the acquisition of new customers, reactivation of lapsed customers and the retention of existing customers. This investment has proven effective as, for example, in fiscal year 2016 we increased our active customer base growth of 11% and new customer growth of 13%. We recently began a brand voice and customer segmentation initiative which, upon completion, will further enhance our ability to target the highest value customers and increase customer spending. Through these initiatives, we believe we will continue to attract new customers to our brand, migrate from single-channel to more profitable omni-channel customers and increase overall customer retention and spend.

We offer a private label credit card program through an agreement with Comenity Capital Bank (“ADS”), under which they own the credit card receivables. We recently renewed our agreement with ADS with more favorable terms to us. All credit card holders receive invitations to exclusive customer events and promotions including special purchase events three times per year, a special offer for her birthday, and a 5% discount when purchases are made on the card. We promote the benefits of the credit card throughout our website, our retail stores and our catalog through banner ads, signage and customer service and selling associate representatives. Additionally, we leverage regional print advertising to promote the card and its benefits to new and existing customers. We believe that our credit card program encourages customer loyalty, repeat visits and additional spending. In fiscal year 2016, 53% of our gross sales were generated by our credit card holders.

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Sourcing and Supply Strategy

We outsource the manufacturing of our products, which eliminates the need to own or operate manufacturing facilities. In order to efficiently source our products, we work primarily with agents who represent suppliers and factories. In fiscal year 2016 approximately 83% of our products were sourced through agents and 17% were sourced directly from suppliers and factories. We currently work with three primary agents that help us identify quality suppliers and coordinate our manufacturing requirements. Additionally, the agents manage the development of samples of merchandise produced in the factories, inspect finished merchandise, ensure the timely delivery of goods and carry out other administrative and oversight functions on our behalf. We source the remainder of our products by interacting directly with suppliers and factories both domestically and abroad.

Agents work with 30 suppliers on our behalf and we work directly with five suppliers. We source our merchandise globally from eight countries including China, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. No single supplier accounts for more than 20% of merchandise purchased.

We have no long-term merchandise supply contracts as we typically transact business on an order-by-order basis to maintain flexibility. We believe our strong relationships with suppliers have provided us with the ability to negotiate favorable pricing terms, further improving our overall cost structure and profitability. Our dedicated sourcing team actively negotiates and manages product costs to deliver initial mark-up objectives. The team further focuses on quality control to ensure that merchandise meets required technical specifications and inspects the merchandise to ensure it meets our strict standards, including regular in-line inspections while goods are in production. Upon receipt, merchandise is further inspected on a test basis for consistency in cut, size and color, as well as for conformity with specifications and overall quality of manufacturing. Our sourcing team ensures that the customer has a consistent product and satisfying brand experience regardless of product size, color or collection.

Omni-Channel Distribution and Customer Contact Center

We lease our 520,000 square foot state-of-the-art distribution and customer contact center in Tilton, New Hampshire. The facility manages the receipt, storage, sorting, packing and distribution of merchandise for our direct and retail channels. Retail stores are replenished at least once a week from this facility and shipped by third-party delivery services, providing our retail stores with a steady flow of new inventory that helps to maintain product freshness. Our distribution system is designed to operate in a highly-efficient and cost-effective manner, including our ability to profitably support individual direct orders which we believe differentiates ourselves from our competitors. In fiscal year 2016, the distribution center handled 33.5 million units, split between 17.0 million retail (51%) and 16.5 million direct (49%) pieces, and we believe this facility is sufficient to support our future growth.

The customer contact center is an extension of our brand, providing a consistent customer experience at every stage of a purchase across all of our channels. In fiscal year 2016, we managed approximately 4.0 million customer interactions through our in-house customer contact center in Tilton, New Hampshire. Our customer contact center is responsible for nearly all live customer interactions, other than in retail stores, including order taking and further serves as an important feedback loop in gathering customer responses to our brand, product and service. We continue to refine and improve our contact center strategy and experience to support the constantly evolving digital landscape.

Information Systems

We use information systems to support business intelligence and processes across our sales channels. We continue to invest in information systems and technology to enhance the customer experience, drive sales and create operating efficiencies. We utilize third-party providers for customer database and customer campaign management, ensuring efficient maintenance of information in a secure, backed-up environment. We also utilize

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a proprietary E-commerce platform hosted by a third-party provider and a well-developed proprietary data warehouse for business intelligence.

In fiscal year 2016, we implemented a new core merchandising system in support of a single view of inventory across all channels, increased efficiency in sales support areas and superior product management and reporting tools. This system is foundational to our plans to create a more scalable and seamless omni-channel platform and enhances our capabilities in merchandising and inventory management. We also intend to replace our E-commerce platform in 2017 to drive future growth and further enable digital capabilities.

We also invested in a new central processor and upgraded infrastructure and communication networks to increase system processing speed and uptime, improve security, and increase system back-up and recovery capabilities. We also made strategic investments, including a significant upgrade to our retail inventory allocation system and the implementation of a new, scalable design and sourcing system (PLM) that enables significant benefits by enhancing collaboration and sharing in the creative process, increasing automation and adding analysis tools.

Seasonality

While the retail business is generally seasonal in nature, we have historically not experienced significant seasonal fluctuations in our sales. Our merchandise offering drives consistent sales across seasons with no quarter contributing more than 27% of total annual net sales in fiscal year 2016.

Competition

The women’s apparel industry is highly competitive. We compete with local, national and international retail chains and department stores, specialty and discount stores, catalogs and internet businesses offering similar categories of merchandise. We compete primarily on the basis of design, service, quality and value. We believe our distinct combination of design, service, quality and value allows us to compete effectively and we believe we differentiate ourselves from competitors based on the strength of our brand, our industry-leading omni-channel platform, our strong data capabilities, our loyal customer base, our customer-focused product assortment and our highly experienced leadership team. Our competitors range from smaller, growing companies to considerably larger companies with substantially greater financial, marketing and other resources.

Employees

As of January 28, 2017, we employed 1,406 full-time and 2,395 part-time employees. Of these employees, 342 are employed in our headquarters in Quincy, Massachusetts, 3,009 are employed in our retail stores and 450 work in our distribution and customer contact center and administrative office in Tilton, New Hampshire. The number of employees, particularly part-time employees, fluctuates depending upon seasonal needs.

Our employees are not represented by a labor union and are not party to a collective bargaining agreement. We consider our relations with our employees to be good.

Intellectual Property

Our trademarks are important to our marketing efforts. We own or have the rights to use certain trademarks, service marks and trade names that are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or other foreign trademark registration offices or exist under common law in the United States and other jurisdictions. Trademarks that are important in identifying and distinguishing our products and services include, but are not limited to, J.Jill^®, The J.Jill Wearever Collection^® and Pure Jill^®. Our rights to some of these trademarks may be limited to select markets. We also own domain names, including www.jjill.com.

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Corporate Information

We were originally organized as Jill Intermediate LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, in February 2011. On February 24, 2017, we completed transactions pursuant to which we converted into a Delaware corporation and changed our name to J.Jill, Inc. Our principal executive office is located at 4 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02169, and our telephone number is (617) 376-4300.

On May 8, 2015, an investment vehicle of investment funds affiliated with TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. (“TowerBrook”) acquired all of our outstanding equity interests through the newly formed entities JJill Holdings, Inc. (“JJill Holdings”) and JJill Topco Holdings, LP (“JJill Topco Holdings”). We refer to such acquisition and the related financing transactions as the “Acquisition.” See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for additional information.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our business is sensitive to economic conditions and consumer spending.

We face numerous business risks relating to macroeconomic factors. The retail industry is cyclical and consumer purchases of discretionary retail items, including our merchandise, generally decline during recessionary periods and other times when disposable income is lower. Factors impacting discretionary consumer spending include general economic conditions, wages and employment, consumer debt, reductions in net worth based on severe market declines, residential real estate and mortgage markets, taxation, volatility of fuel and energy prices, interest rates, consumer confidence, political and economic uncertainty and other macroeconomic factors. Deterioration in economic conditions or increasing unemployment levels may reduce the level of consumer spending and inhibit consumers’ use of credit, which may adversely affect our revenues and profits. In recessionary periods and other periods where disposable income is adversely affected, we may have to increase the number of promotional sales or otherwise dispose of inventory for which we have previously paid to manufacture, which could further adversely affect our profitability. It is difficult to predict when or for how long any of these conditions can affect our business and a prolonged economic downturn could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our inability to anticipate and respond to changing customer preferences and shifts in fashion and industry trends in a timely manner could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our success largely depends on our ability to consistently gauge tastes and trends and provide a balanced assortment of merchandise that satisfies customer demands in a timely manner. We enter into agreements to manufacture and purchase our merchandise well in advance of the applicable selling season and our failure to anticipate, identify or react appropriately in a timely manner to changes in customer preferences, tastes and trends and economic conditions could lead to, among other things, missed opportunities, excess inventory or inventory shortages, markdowns and write-offs, all of which could negatively impact our profitability and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Failure to respond to changing customer preferences and fashion trends could also negatively impact our brand image with our customers and result in diminished brand loyalty.

Our inability to maintain our brand image, engage new and existing customers and gain market share could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy and our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to maintain our brand image and reputation is integral to our business, as well as the implementation of our strategy to grow. Maintaining, promoting and growing our brand will depend largely on the success of our design, merchandising and marketing efforts and our ability to provide a consistent, high-

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quality customer experience. Our reputation could be jeopardized if we fail to maintain high standards for merchandise quality and integrity and any negative publicity about these types of concerns may reduce demand for our merchandise. While our brand enjoys a loyal customer base, the success of our growth strategy depends, in part, on our ability to keep existing customers engaged as well as attract new customers to shop our brand. If we experience damage to our reputation or loss of consumer confidence, we may not be able to retain existing customers or acquire new customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our inability to manage our inventory levels and merchandise mix, including with respect to our omni-channel retail operations, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Customer demand is difficult to predict and the lead times required for a substantial portion of our merchandise make it challenging to respond quickly to changes. Though we have the ability to source certain merchandise categories with shorter lead times, we generally enter into contracts for a substantial portion of our merchandise well in advance of the applicable selling season. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected if we are unable to manage inventory levels and merchandise mix and respond to changes in customer demand patterns. Inventory levels in excess of customer demand may result in lower than planned profitability. On the other hand, if we underestimate demand for our merchandise, we may experience inventory shortages resulting in missed sales and lost revenues. Either of these events could significantly affect our operating results and brand image and loyalty. Our profitability may also be impacted by changes in our merchandise mix and changes in our pricing. These changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, our omni-channel operations create additional complexities in our ability to manage inventory levels, as well as certain operational issues in stores and on our website, including timely shipping and returns. Accordingly, our success depends to a large degree on continually evolving the processes and technology that enable us to plan and manage inventory levels and fulfill orders, address any related operational issues in store and on our website and further align channels to optimize our omni-channel operations. If we are unable to successfully manage these complexities, it may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Competitive pressures from other retailers as well as adverse structural developments in the retail sector may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The women’s apparel industry is highly competitive. We compete with local, national and international retail chains and department stores, specialty and discount stores, catalogs and internet businesses offering similar categories of merchandise. We face a variety of competitive challenges, including price pressure, anticipating and quickly responding to changing customer demands or preferences, maintaining favorable brand recognition and effectively marketing our merchandise to our customers in diverse demographic markets, sourcing merchandise efficiently and developing merchandise assortments in styles that appeal to our customers in ways that favorably distinguish us from our competitors. In addition, the internet and other new technologies facilitate competitive entry and comparison shopping. We strive to offer an omni-channel shopping experience for our customers that enhances their shopping experiences. Omni-channel retailing is constantly evolving and we must keep pace with changing customer expectations and new developments by our competitors. Furthermore, many of our competitors have advantages over us, including substantially greater financial, marketing and other resources. Increased levels of promotional activity by our competitors, some of whom may be able to adopt more aggressive pricing policies than we can, both on our website and in stores, may negatively impact our sales and profitability. There can be no assurances that we will be able to compete successfully with these companies in the future. In addition to competing for sales, we compete for favorable store locations, lease terms and qualified sales associates and professional staff. Increased competition in these areas may result in higher costs and reduced profitability, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We may be unable to accurately forecast our operating results and growth rate, which may adversely affect our reported results.

We may not be able to accurately forecast our operating results and growth rate. We use a variety of factors in our forecasting and planning processes, including historical results, recent history and assessments of economic and market conditions, among other things. The growth rates in sales and profitability that we have experienced historically may not be sustainable as our active customer base expands and we achieve higher market penetration rates, and our percentage growth rates may decrease. The growth of our sales and profitability depends on the continued growth of demand for the merchandise we offer. A softening of demand, whether caused by changes in customer preferences or a weakening of the economy or other factors, may result in decreased net sales or growth. Furthermore, many of our expenses and investments are fixed, and we may not be able to adjust our spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in our net sales results. Failure to accurately forecast our operating results and growth rate could cause our actual results to be materially lower than anticipated, and if our growth rates decline as a result, investors’ perceptions of our business may be adversely affected, and the market price of our common stock could decline.

Our inability to successfully optimize our omni-channel operations and maintain a relevant and reliable omni-channel experience for our customers could have an adverse effect on our growth strategy and our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Growing our business through our omni-channel operations is key to our growth strategy. Our goal is to offer our customers seamless access to our merchandise across our channels, including both our direct and retail channels. Accordingly, our success depends on our ability to anticipate and implement innovations in sales and marketing strategies to appeal to existing and potential customers who increasingly rely on multiple channels, such as E-commerce, to meet their shopping needs. Failure to enhance our technology and marketing efforts to align with our customers’ developing shopping preferences could significantly impair our ability to meet our strategic business and financial goals. If we do not successfully optimize our omni-channel operations or if they do not achieve their intended objectives, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on our E-commerce business and failure to successfully manage this business and deliver a seamless omni-channel shopping experience to our customers could have an adverse effect on our growth strategy and our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Sales through our direct channel, of which our E-commerce business constitutes the vast majority, accounted for approximately 43% of our total net sales for fiscal year 2016. Our business, financial condition and results of operations are dependent on maintaining our E-commerce business and expanding this business is an important part of our strategy to grow through our omni-channel operations. Dependence on our E-commerce business and the continued growth of our direct and retail channels subjects us to certain risks, including:

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Our failure to successfully address and respond to these risks and uncertainties could negatively impact sales, increase costs, diminish our growth prospects and damage the reputation of our brand, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business depends on effective marketing and increasing customer traffic and the success of our direct channel depends on customers’ use of our website and response to catalogs and digital marketing.

We have many initiatives in our marketing programs. If our competitors increase their spending on marketing, if our marketing expenses increase, if our marketing becomes less effective than that of our competitors, or if we do not adequately leverage technology and data analytics needed to generate concise competitive insight, we could experience a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. A failure to sufficiently innovate or maintain adequate and effective marketing strategies could inhibit our ability to maintain brand relevance and increase sales.

In particular, the level of customer traffic and volume of customer purchases through our direct channel, which accounted for approximately 43% of our net sales for fiscal year 2016, is substantially dependent on our ability to provide a content-rich and user-friendly website, widely distributed and informative catalogs, a fun, easy and hassle-free customer experience and reliable delivery of our merchandise. If we are unable to maintain and increase customers’ use of our E-commerce platform, and the volume of purchases declines, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Customer response to our catalogs and digital marketing is substantially dependent on merchandise assortment, merchandise availability and creative presentation, as well as the selection of customers to whom our catalogs are sent and to whom our digital marketing is directed, changes in mailing strategies and the size of our mailings. Our maintenance of a robust customer database has also been a key component of our overall strategy. If the performance of our website, catalogs and email declines, or if our overall marketing strategy is not successful, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We occupy our stores under long-term leases, which are subject to future increases in occupancy costs and which we may be unable to renew or may limit our flexibility to move to new locations.

We lease all of our store locations, our corporate headquarters and our distribution and customer contact center. We typically occupy our stores under operating leases with terms of up to ten years, which may include options to renew for additional multi-year periods thereafter. We depend on cash flow from operations to pay our lease expenses. If our business does not generate sufficient cash flow from operating activities to fund these expenses, we may not be able to service our lease expenses, which could materially harm our business. In the future, we may not be able to negotiate favorable lease terms. Our inability to do so may cause our occupancy costs to be higher in future years or may force us to close stores in desirable locations. If we are unable to renew our store leases, we may be forced to close or relocate a store, which could subject us to significant construction and other costs. Closing a store, for even a brief period to permit relocation, would reduce the revenue contribution of that store. Additionally, the revenue and profit, if any, generated at a relocated store may not equal the revenue and profit generated at the previous location.

Long-term leases can limit our flexibility to move a store to a new location. Some of our leases have early cancellation clauses, which permit the lease to be terminated if certain sales levels are not met in specific periods, whereas some of our leases are non-cancelable. If an existing or future store is not profitable, and we have the right to close it, we may nonetheless be committed to perform our obligations under the applicable lease including, among other things, paying the base rent for the balance of the lease term. Moreover, even if a lease

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has an early cancellation clause, we may not satisfy the contractual requirements for early cancellation under that lease. Our inability to enter into new leases or renew existing leases on terms acceptable to us or be released from our obligations under leases for stores that we close could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our growth strategy depends in part on our ability to open and operate new retail stores on a profitable basis and if we are not successful in implementing future retail store expansion, or if such new stores would negatively impact sales from our existing stores or from our direct channel, our growth and profitability could be adversely impacted.

Our growth strategy depends in part on our ability to open and operate new retail stores on a profitable basis. We may be unable to identify and open new retail locations in desirable places in the future. We compete with other retailers and businesses for suitable retail locations. Local land use, local zoning issues, environmental regulations, governmental permits and approvals and other regulations may affect our ability to find suitable retail locations and also influence the cost of leasing them. We also may have difficulty negotiating real estate leases for new stores on acceptable terms. In addition, construction, environmental, zoning and real estate delays may negatively affect retail location openings and increase costs and capital expenditures. If we are unable to open new retail store locations in desirable places and on favorable terms, our net sales and profits could be materially adversely affected.

As we expand our store base, our lease expense and our cash outlays for rent under the lease terms will increase. Such growth will require that we continue to expand and improve our operating capabilities, including making investments in our information technology and operational infrastructure, and expand, train and manage our employee base, and we may be unable to do so. We primarily rely on cash flow generated from our operations to pay our lease expenses and to fund our growth initiatives. It requires a significant investment to open a new retail store. If we open a large number of stores relatively close in time, the cost of these retail store openings and lease expenses and the cost of continuing operations could reduce our cash position. If our business does not generate sufficient cash flow from operating activities to fund these expenses, we may not have sufficient cash available to address other aspects of our business or we may be unable to service our lease expenses, which could materially harm our business.

As we increase the number of retail stores, our stores may become more highly concentrated in geographic regions we already serve. As a result, the number of customers and related net sales at individual stores may decline and the payback period may be increased. The growth in the number of our retail stores could also draw customers away from our direct business and if our competitors open stores with similar formats, our retail store format may become less unique and may be less attractive to customers as a shopping destination. If either of these events occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

There can be no assurances that we will be able to achieve our store expansion goals, nor can there be any assurances that our newly opened stores will achieve revenue or profitability levels comparable to those of our existing stores in the time periods estimated by us. In addition, the substantial management time and resources which our retail store expansion strategy requires may result in disruption to our existing business operations which may decrease our profitability. If our stores fail to achieve, or are unable to sustain, acceptable revenue, profitability and cash flow levels, we may incur store asset impairment charges, significant costs associated with closing those stores or both, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on third-party service providers, such as Federal Express and the U.S. Postal Service, for the delivery of our merchandise and our catalogs.

We primarily utilize Federal Express to support retail store shipping. We also use the U.S. Postal Service to deliver millions of catalogs each year, and we depend on third parties to print and mail our catalogs. As a result,

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postal rate increases and paper and printing costs will affect the cost of our catalog and promotional mailings. We rely on discounts from the basic postal rate structure, such as discounts for bulk mailings and sorting. The operational and financial difficulties of the U.S. Postal Service are well documented. Any significant and unanticipated increase in postage, shipping costs, reduction in service, slow-down in delivery or increase in paper and printing costs could impair our ability to deliver merchandise and catalogs in a timely or economically efficient manner and could adversely impact our profitability if we are unable to pass such increases directly on to our customers or if we are unable to implement more efficient delivery and order fulfillment systems, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Competitive pricing pressures with respect to shipping our merchandise to our customers may harm our business and results of operations.

Historically, the shipping and handling fees we charge our direct customers are intended to recover the related shipping and handling expenses. Online and omni-channel retailers are increasing their focus on delivery services, as customers are increasingly seeking faster, guaranteed delivery times and low-price or free shipping. To remain competitive, we may be required to offer discounted, free or other more competitive shipping options to our customers, which may result in declines in our shipping and handling fees and increased shipping and handling expense. Declines in the shipping and handling fees that we generate may have a material adverse effect on our profitability to the extent that our shipping and handling expense is not declining proportionally, or if our shipping and handling expense would increase, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to payment-related risks.

We accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, cash and bank checks. For existing and future payment methods we offer to our customers, we may become subject to additional regulations and compliance requirements (including obligations to implement enhanced authentication processes that could result in increased costs and reduce the ease of use of certain payment methods), as well as fraud. For certain payment methods, including credit and debit cards, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time, thereby raising our operating costs and lowering profitability. We rely on third-party service providers for payment processing services, including the processing of credit and debit cards. In each case, it could disrupt our business if these third-party service providers become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules, including data security rules, certification requirements and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. If we fail to comply with these rules or requirements, or if our data security systems are breached or compromised, we may be liable for card issuing banks’ and others’ costs, subject to fines and higher transaction fees and/or lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments from our customers and process electronic funds transfers or facilitate other types of payments. Any of these developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

On October 1, 2015, under payment card industry standards, liability shifted for certain debit and credit card transactions to retailers who do not accept Europay, MasterCard and Visa (“EMV”) chip technology transactions. Until we complete the implementation of EMV chip technology in our stores, we may be liable for chargebacks related to counterfeit transactions generated through EMV chip enabled cards, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, we may experience a decrease in transaction volume if we cannot process transactions for cardholders whose issuer has migrated entirely from magnetic strip to EMV chip enabled cards.

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If we fail to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner, it could have an adverse impact on our growth strategy as we may not be able to increase net revenue or profit per active customer.

The success of our growth strategy depends in part on our ability to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner. In order to expand our active customer base, we must appeal to and acquire customers who identify with our brand. We have made significant investments related to customer acquisition and expect to continue to spend significant amounts to acquire additional customers. As our brand becomes more widely known in the market, future marketing campaigns may not result in the acquisition of new customers at the same rate as past campaigns. There can be no assurances that the revenue from new customers we acquire will ultimately exceed the cost of acquiring those customers.

We use paid and non-paid advertising. Our paid advertising includes catalogs, paid search engine marketing, email, display and other advertising. Our non-paid advertising efforts include search engine optimization and social media. We obtain a significant amount of traffic via search engines and, therefore, rely on search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Search engines frequently update and change the logic that determines the placement and display of results of a user’s search, such that the purchased or algorithmic placement of links to our site can be negatively affected. A major search engine could change its algorithms in a manner that negatively affects our paid or non-paid search ranking, and competitive dynamics could impact the effectiveness of search engine marketing or search engine optimization. We also obtain traffic via social networking websites or other channels used by our current and prospective customers. As E-commerce and social networking continue to rapidly evolve, we must continue to establish relationships with these channels and may be unable to develop or maintain these relationships on acceptable terms. Additionally, digital advertising costs may continue to rise and as our usage of these channels expands, such costs may impact our ability to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner. If the level of usage of these channels by our active customer base does not grow as expected, we may suffer a decline in customer growth or net sales. If we are unable to acquire new customers in a cost-effective manner, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Interruptions in our foreign sourcing operations and the relationships with our suppliers and agents could disrupt production, shipment or receipt of our merchandise, which would result in lost sales and increased costs.

We do not own or operate any manufacturing facilities and therefore depend upon independent third-party suppliers for the manufacturing of all of our merchandise, primarily through the use of agents. In fiscal year 2016, approximately 83% of our products were sourced through agents and 17 % were sourced directly from suppliers and factories. Our merchandise is manufactured to our specifications primarily by factories outside of the United States. Some of the factors that might affect a supplier’s ability to ship orders of our merchandise in a timely manner or to meet our quality standards are outside of our control, including inclement weather, natural disasters, political and financial instability, legal and regulatory developments, strikes, health concerns regarding infectious diseases, and acts of terrorism. Inadequate labor conditions, health or safety issues in the factories where goods are produced can negatively impact our brand’s reputation. Late delivery of merchandise or delivery of merchandise that does not meet our quality standards could cause us to miss the delivery date requirements of our customers or delay timely delivery of merchandise to our stores for those items. These events could cause us to fail to meet customer expectations, cause our customers to cancel orders or cause us to be unable to deliver merchandise in sufficient quantities or of sufficient quality to our stores, which could result in lost sales.

We have no long-term merchandise supply contracts as we typically transact business on an order-by-order basis. If we are unable to maintain the relationships with our suppliers and agents and are unexpectedly required to change suppliers or agents, or if a key supplier or agent is unable or unwilling to supply acceptable merchandise in sufficient quantities on acceptable terms, we could experience a significant disruption in the supply of merchandise. We could also experience operational difficulties with our suppliers, such as reductions in the availability of production capacity, supply chain disruptions, errors in complying with merchandise

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specifications, insufficient quality control, shortages of fabrics or other raw materials, failures to meet production deadlines or increases in manufacturing costs.

We source our imported merchandise from eight countries including China, India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. Approximately 84% of our products were sourced in southeast Asia in fiscal year 2016. Any event causing a sudden disruption of manufacturing or imports from Asia or elsewhere, including the imposition of additional import restrictions, could materially harm our operations. Many of our imports are subject to existing or potential duties, tariffs or quotas that may limit the quantity of certain types of goods that may be imported into the United States from countries in Asia or elsewhere. We compete with other companies for production facilities and import quota capacity. While substantially all of our foreign purchases of our merchandise are negotiated and paid for in U.S. dollars, the cost of our merchandise may be affected by fluctuations in the value of relevant foreign currencies.

In addition, we are engaging in growing the amount of production carried out in other developing countries. These countries may present other risks with regard to infrastructure available to support manufacturing, labor and employee relations, political and economic stability, corruption, regulatory, environmental, health and safety compliance. While we endeavor to monitor and audit facilities where our production is done, any significant events with factories we use can adversely impact our reputation, brand and product delivery.

Furthermore, many of our suppliers rely on working capital financing to support their operations. To the extent any of our suppliers are unable to obtain adequate credit or their borrowing costs increase, we may experience delays in obtaining merchandise, our suppliers increasing their prices or our suppliers modifying payment terms in a manner that is unfavorable to us.

The failure of our suppliers to comply with our social compliance program requirements could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

We require our third-party suppliers to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, as well as our Terms of Engagement-Commitment to Ethical Sourcing, which cover many areas, including labor, health, safety, environmental and other legal standards. We monitor compliance with these standards using third-party monitoring firms. Although we have an active program to provide training for our third-party suppliers and monitor their compliance with these standards, we do not control the suppliers or their practices. Any failure of our third-party suppliers to comply with our ethical sourcing standards or labor or other local laws in the country of manufacture, or the divergence of a third-party supplier’s labor practices from those generally accepted as ethical in the United States, could disrupt the shipment of merchandise to our stores, force us to locate alternative manufacturing sources, reduce demand for our merchandise, damage our reputation and/or expose us to potential liability for their wrongdoings. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on third parties to provide services in connection with certain aspects of our business, and any failure by these third parties to perform their obligations could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have entered into agreements with third parties that include, but are not limited to, logistics services, information technology systems (including hosting our website), servicing certain customer calls, software development and support, catalog production, select marketing services, distribution and employee benefits servicing. Services provided by third-party suppliers could be interrupted as a result of many factors, such as acts of nature or contract disputes. Any failure by a third party to provide services for which we have contracted on a timely basis or within expected service level and performance standards could result in a disruption of our business and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Increases in the demand for, or the price of, cotton and other raw materials used to manufacture our merchandise or other fluctuations in sourcing or distribution costs could increase our costs and negatively impact our profitability.

We believe that we have strong supplier relationships, and we work continuously with our suppliers to manage cost increases. Our overall profitability depends, in part, on the success of our ability to mitigate rising costs or shortages of raw materials used to manufacture our merchandise. Cotton and other raw materials used to manufacture our merchandise are subject to availability constraints and price volatility impacted by a number of factors, including supply and demand for fabrics, weather, government regulations, economic climate and other unpredictable factors. In addition, our sourcing costs may fluctuate due to labor conditions, transportation or freight costs, energy prices, currency fluctuations or other unpredictable factors. The cost of labor at many of our third-party suppliers has been increasing in recent years, and we believe it is unlikely that such cost pressures will abate.

Most of our merchandise is shipped from our suppliers by ocean vessel. If a disruption occurs in the operation of ports through which our merchandise is imported, we may incur increased costs related to air freight or use of alternative ports. Shipping by air is significantly more expensive than shipping by ocean and our margins and profitability could be reduced. Shipping to alternative ports could also lead to delays in receipt of our merchandise. We rely on third-party shipping companies to deliver our merchandise to us. Failures by these shipping companies to deliver our merchandise to us or lack of capacity in the shipping industry could lead to delays in receipt of our merchandise or increased expense in the delivery of our merchandise. Any of these developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Reductions in the volume of mall traffic or the closing of shopping malls as a result of changing economic conditions or demographic patterns could significantly reduce our sales and leave us with unsold inventory.

A significant portion of our stores are currently located in shopping malls. Sales at stores located in malls are highly dependent on the traffic in those malls and the ability of developers to generate traffic near our stores. In recent years, there has been increased purchasing of merchandise online. This has adversely affected mall traffic. A continuation of this trend could adversely impact the sales generated by our mall stores, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Unseasonal or severe weather conditions may adversely affect our merchandise sales.

Our business is adversely affected by unseasonal weather conditions. Sales of certain seasonal apparel items are dependent in part on the weather and may decline when weather conditions do not favor the use of this apparel. Severe weather events may also impact our ability to supply our retail stores, deliver orders to customers on schedule and staff our retail stores and distribution and customer contact center, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Material damage to, or interruptions in, our information systems could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, and we may be exposed to risks and costs associated with protecting the integrity and security of our customers’ information.

We depend largely upon our information technology systems in the conduct of all aspects of our operations, including to operate our website, process transactions, respond to customer inquiries, manage inventory, purchase, sell and ship goods on a timely basis and maintain cost-efficient operations. Such systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, security breaches and natural disasters. Damage or interruption to our information technology systems may require a significant investment to fix or replace the affected system, and we may suffer interruptions in our operations in the interim. In addition, costs and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems could also disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations.

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Additionally, a significant number of customer purchases across our omni-channel platform are made using credit cards, and a significant number of our customer orders are placed through our website. We process, store and transmit large amounts of data, including personal information, for our customers. From time to time, we may implement strategic initiatives related to elevating our customer service experience, such as customer membership programs, where we collect and maintain increasing amounts of customer data. We also handle and transmit sensitive information about our suppliers and workforce, including social security numbers, bank account information and health and medical information. We depend in part throughout our operations on the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks. In addition, security breaches can also occur as a result of non-technical issues, including vandalism, catastrophic events and human error. Our operations may further be impacted by security breaches that occur at third-party suppliers. Although we maintain cyber-security insurance, there can be no assurances that our insurance coverage will be sufficient, or that insurance proceeds will be paid to us in a timely manner.

States and the federal government have enacted additional laws and regulations to protect consumers against identity theft, including laws governing treatment of personally identifiable information. As the data privacy and security laws and regulations evolve, we may be subject to more extensive requirements to protect the customer information that we process in connection with the purchases of our merchandise. There can be no assurances that we will be able to operate our operations in accordance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), other industry recommended practices or applicable laws and regulations or any future security standards or regulations, or that meeting those standards will in fact prevent a data breach. These laws have increased the costs of doing business and, if we fail to implement appropriate safeguards or we fail to detect and provide prompt notice of unauthorized access as required by some of these laws, we could be subject to potential claims for damages and other remedies.

If a third party is able to circumvent our security measures, they could destroy or steal valuable information or disrupt our operations. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Any security breach could expose us to risks of data loss, fines, litigation and liability and could seriously disrupt our operations and harm our reputation. In addition, we could be required to expend significant resources to change our business practices or modify our service offerings in connection with the protection of personally identifiable information, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The impact of privacy breaches at service providers could also severely damage our business and reputation.

We rely heavily on technology services provided by third parties for the successful operation of our business, including electronic messaging, digital marketing efforts and the collection and retention of customer data and associate information. We also rely on third parties to process credit card transactions, perform E-commerce and social media activities and retain data relating to our financial position and results of operations, strategic initiatives and other important information. The facilities and systems of our third-party service providers may be vulnerable to cyber-security breaches, acts of vandalism, computer viruses, misplaced or lost data, programming and/or human errors or other similar events. Any actual or perceived misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized disclosure of confidential or personally identifiable information by our third-party service providers could severely damage our reputation and our relationship with our customers, associates and investors as well as expose us to risks of litigation, liability or other penalties, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our failure to comply with data protection laws and regulations could subject us to sanctions and damages and could harm our reputation and business.

We collect and process personal data as part of our business. As a result, we are subject to U.S. data protection laws and regulations at both the federal and state levels. The legislative and regulatory landscape for

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data protection continues to evolve, and in recent years there has been an increasing focus on privacy and data security issues. The strategic use of our customer data base, including interactions with our customers, marketing efforts and analysis of customer behavior, rely on the collection, retention and use of customer data and may be affected by these laws and regulations and their interpretation and enforcement. Alleged violations of laws, regulations or contractual obligations relating to privacy and data protection, and any relevant claims, may expose us to potential liability, require us to expend significant resources in responding to and defending such allegations and claims, and result in negative publicity and a loss of confidence in us by our customers, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, it is unclear how the laws and regulations relating to the collection, process and use of personal data will further develop in the United States, and to what extent this may affect our operations in the future. Any failure to comply with data protection laws and regulations, or future changes required to the way in which we use personal data, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Increased usage of social media poses reputational risks.

As use of social media becomes more prevalent, our susceptibility to risks related to social media increases. The immediacy of social media precludes us from having real-time control over postings made regarding us via social media, whether matters of fact or opinion. Information distributed via social media could result in immediate unfavorable publicity for which we, like our competitors, do not have the ability to reverse. This unfavorable publicity could result in damage to our reputation and therefore have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on our executive management and key personnel and may not be able to retain or replace these employees or recruit additional qualified personnel, which could harm our business.

We believe that we have benefited substantially from the leadership and experience of our senior executives, including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Paula Bennett. The loss of the services of any of our senior executives could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, as we may not be able to find suitable management personnel to replace departing executives on a timely basis. In addition, as our business expands, we believe that our future success will depend greatly on our continued ability to attract and retain highly skilled and qualified personnel. There is a high level of competition for personnel in the retail industry. Our inability to meet our staffing requirements in the future could impair our ability to increase revenue and could otherwise harm our business.

Our failure to find store employees that reflect our brand image and embody our culture could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our success depends in part upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of store employees, including store managers, who understand and appreciate our culture and customers, and are able to adequately and effectively represent this culture and establish credibility with our customers. The store employee turnover rate in the retail industry is generally high. Labor shortages and excessive store employee turnover will result in higher employee costs associated with finding, hiring and training new store employees. If we are unable to hire and retain store personnel capable of consistently providing a high level of customer service, our ability to open new stores and operate existing stores may be impaired and our performance and brand image may be negatively impacted. Competition for such qualified individuals and wage increases by other retailers could require us to pay higher wages to attract a sufficient number of employees. We are also dependent upon temporary personnel to adequately staff our stores and distribution and customer contact center, with heightened dependence during busy periods such as the holiday season. There can be no assurances 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 employee turnover rates could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Labor organizing and other activities could negatively impact us.

Currently, none of our employees are represented by a union. However, our employees have the right at any time to form or affiliate with a union. Such organizing activities could lead to work slowdowns or stoppages, which could lead to disruption in our operations and increases in our labor costs, either of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Increases in labor costs, including wages, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The labor costs associated with our retail stores and our distribution and customer contact center are subject to many external factors, including unemployment levels, prevailing wage rates, minimum wage laws, potential collective bargaining arrangements, health insurance costs and other insurance costs and changes in employment and labor legislation or other workplace regulation. From time to time, legislative proposals are made to increase the federal minimum wage in the United States, as well as the minimum wage in a number of individual states and municipalities, and to reform entitlement programs, such as health insurance and paid leave programs. As minimum wage rates increase or related laws and regulations change, we may need to increase not only the wage rates of our minimum wage employees, but also the wages paid to our other hourly or salaried employees. Any increase in the cost of our labor could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations or if we fail to pay such higher wages we could suffer increased employee turnover. Increases in labor costs could force us to increase prices, which could adversely impact our sales. If competitive pressures or other factors prevent us from offsetting increased labor costs by increases in prices, our profitability may decline and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We could be materially and adversely affected if our distribution and customer contact center is damaged or closed or if its operations are diminished.

Our distribution and customer contact center is located in Tilton, New Hampshire. The distribution center manages the receipt, storage, sorting, packing and distribution of merchandise to our stores and to our direct customers. Independent third-party transportation companies then deliver merchandise from the distribution center to our stores or direct to our customers. The customer contact center handles all customer interactions, other than those in retail stores, including phone sales orders and service calls, emails and internet contacts. Any significant interruption in the operations of our Tilton distribution and customer contact center, our third-party distribution, fulfillment or transportation providers, for any reason, including natural disasters, accidents, inclement weather, technology system failures, work stoppages, slowdowns or strikes or other unforeseen events and circumstances, could delay or impair our ability to receive orders and to distribute merchandise to our stores and/or our customers. This could lead to inventory issues, increased costs, lower sales and a loss of loyalty to our brand, among other things, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Inventory shrinkage could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to the risk of inventory loss and theft. Although our inventory shrinkage rates have not been material, or fluctuated significantly in recent years, there can be no assurances that actual rates of inventory loss and theft in the future will be within our estimates or that the measures we are taking will effectively reduce inventory shrinkage. Although some level of inventory shrinkage is an unavoidable cost of doing business, if we were to experience higher rates of inventory shrinkage or incur increased security costs to combat inventory theft, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We may be unable to protect our trademarks and other intellectual property rights.

We believe that our trademarks and service marks are important to our success and our competitive position due to their name recognition with our customers. We devote substantial resources to the establishment and protection of our trademarks and service marks. We are not aware of any valid claims of infringement or challenges to our right to use any of our trademarks and service marks. Nevertheless, there can be no assurances that the actions we have taken to establish and protect our trademarks and service marks will be adequate to prevent imitation of our merchandise by others or to prevent others from seeking to block sales of our merchandise as a violation of the trademarks, service marks and intellectual property of others. Also, others may assert rights in, or ownership of, our trademarks and other intellectual property and we may not be able to successfully resolve these types of conflicts to our satisfaction.

We may be subject to liability if we infringe upon the intellectual property rights of third parties.

Third parties may sue us for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights. The party claiming infringement might have greater resources than we do to pursue its claims, and we could be forced to incur substantial costs and devote significant management resources to defend against such litigation. If the party claiming infringement were to prevail, we could be forced to discontinue the use of the related trademark or design and/or pay significant damages or enter into expensive royalty or licensing arrangements with the prevailing party, assuming these royalty or licensing arrangements are available at all on an economically feasible basis, which they may not be. We could also be required to pay substantial damages. Such infringement claims could harm our brand. In addition, any payments we are required to make and any injunction we are required to comply with as a result of such infringement could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate and changes to the regulatory environment in which we operate or failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business requires compliance with many laws and regulations in the United States and abroad, including, without limitation, labor and employment, tax, environmental, privacy, anti-bribery laws and regulations, trade laws and customs, truth-in-advertising, E-commerce, consumer protection and zoning and occupancy laws and ordinances that regulate retailers generally and/or govern the importation, promotion and sale of merchandise and the operation of stores and warehouse facilities. In addition, in the future, there may be new legal or regulatory requirements or more stringent interpretations of applicable requirements, which could increase the complexity of the regulatory environment in which we operate and the related cost of compliance. While it is our policy and practice to comply with all legal and regulatory requirements and our procedures and internal controls are designed to ensure such compliance, failure to achieve compliance could subject us to lawsuits and other proceedings, and could also lead to damage awards, fines and penalties. Litigation matters may include, among other things, government and agency investigations, employment, commercial, intellectual property, tort, advertising and stockholder claims. We cannot predict with certainty the outcomes of these legal proceedings and other contingencies. The outcome of some of these legal proceedings, audits and other contingencies could require us to take, or refrain from taking, actions which could negatively affect our operations or require us to pay substantial amounts of money adversely affecting our business, financial condition and results of operations. Even a claim of an alleged violation of applicable laws or regulations could negatively affect our reputation. Additionally, defending against these lawsuits and proceedings may be necessary, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of management’s attention and resources, causing a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any pending or future legal proceedings and audits could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Changes in tax laws and regulations or in our operations may impact our effective tax rate and may adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

Changes in tax laws in any of the multiple jurisdictions in which we operate, or adverse outcomes from tax audits that we may be subject to in any of the jurisdictions in which we operate, could result in an unfavorable change in our effective tax rate, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

Additionally, results of the November 2016 U.S. elections have introduced greater uncertainty with respect to tax and trade policies, tariffs and government regulations affecting trade between the U.S. and other countries. We source the majority of our merchandise from manufacturers located outside of the U.S., including a significant amount from Asia. Major developments in tax policy or trade relations, such as the disallowance of tax deductions for imported merchandise or the imposition of unilateral tariffs on imported products, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and liquidity.

War, terrorism, civil unrest or other violence may negatively impact availability of merchandise and/or otherwise adversely impact our business.

In the event of war, terrorism, civil unrest or other violence, our ability to obtain merchandise available for sale in our stores or on our websites may be negatively impacted. A substantial portion of our merchandise is imported from other countries, see “—Interruptions in our foreign sourcing operations and the relationships with our suppliers and agents could disrupt production, shipment or receipt of our merchandise, which would result in lost sales and could increase our costs.” If commercial transportation is curtailed or substantially delayed, our business may be adversely impacted, as we may have difficulty shipping merchandise to our distribution and customer contact center and stores, as well as fulfilling catalog and website orders. In addition, our stores are located in public areas where large numbers of people typically gather. Terrorist attacks, threats of terrorist attacks or civil unrest involving public areas could cause people not to visit areas where our stores are located. Other types of violence in malls or in other public areas could lead to lower customer traffic in areas in which we operate stores. If any of these events were to occur, we may be required to suspend operations in some or all of our stores, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The terms of our term loan credit agreement and asset-based revolving credit facility restrict our operational and financial flexibility, which could adversely affect our ability to respond to changes in our business and to manage our operations.

Our term loan credit agreement, dated as of May 8, 2015, by and among Jill Holdings LLC, Jill Acquisition LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of us, the various lenders party thereto and Jefferies Finance LLC as the administrative agent, as amended on May 27, 2016 by Amendment No. 1 thereto (the “Term Loan”) and our ABL credit agreement, dated as of May 8, 2015, by and among Jill Holdings LLC, Jill Acquisition LLC, certain subsidiaries from time to time party thereto, the lenders party thereto and CIT Finance LLC as the administrative agent and collateral agent, as amended on May 27, 2016 by Amendment No. 1 thereto (the “ABL Facility” and, together with the Term Loan, the “Credit Agreements”), contain, and any additional debt financing we may incur would likely contain, covenants that restrict our operations, including limitations on our ability to grant liens, incur additional debt, pay dividends, cause our subsidiaries to pay dividends to us, make certain investments and engage in certain merger, consolidation or asset sale transactions. A failure by us to comply with the covenants or financial ratios contained in our Credit Agreements could result in an event of default, which could adversely affect our ability to respond to changes in our business and manage our operations. Upon the occurrence of an event of default, the lenders could elect to declare all amounts outstanding to be due and payable and exercise other remedies as set forth in our Credit Agreements. If the indebtedness under our Credit Agreements were to be accelerated, our future financial condition could be materially adversely affected. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities.”

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Changes to estimates related to our property, fixtures and equipment or operating results that are lower than our current estimates at certain store locations may cause us to incur impairment charges on certain long-lived assets, which may adversely affect our results of operations.

In accordance with accounting guidance as it relates to the impairment of long-lived assets, we make certain estimates and projections with regard to individual store operations, as well as our overall performance, in connection with our impairment analyses for long-lived assets. When impairment triggers are deemed to exist for any location, the estimated undiscounted future cash flows are compared to its carrying value. If the carrying value exceeds the undiscounted cash flows, an impairment charge equal to the difference between the carrying value and the fair value is recorded. The projections of future cash flows used in these analyses require the use of judgment and a number of estimates and projections of future operating results. If actual results differ from our estimates, additional charges for asset impairments may be required in the future. If future impairment charges are significant, our reported operating results would be adversely affected.

Goodwill and identifiable intangible assets represent a significant portion of our total assets and any impairment of these assets could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets, which consist of goodwill from the Acquisition, and our trade name, represented a significant portion of our total assets as of January 30, 2016. Accounting rules require the evaluation of our goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment at least annually, or more frequently when events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of such assets may not be recoverable. Such indicators are based on market conditions and the operational performance of our business.

To test goodwill for impairment, we may initially use a qualitative approach to determine whether conditions exist to indicate that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value. If our management concludes, based on its assessment of relevant events, facts and circumstances that it is more likely than not that a reporting unit’s carrying value is greater than its fair value, then a quantitative analysis will be performed to determine if there is any impairment. We may also elect to initially perform a quantitative analysis, which is a two-step assessment. In step one we estimate the reporting unit’s fair value by estimating the future cash flows of the reporting units to which the goodwill relates, and then discount the future cash flows at a market-participant-derived weighted average cost of capital. The estimates of fair value of reporting units are based on the best information available as of the date of the assessment. If the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its estimated fair value in the first step, a second step is performed. Step two compares the implied fair value of goodwill to the carrying amount of goodwill. The implied fair value of goodwill is determined by a hypothetical purchase price allocation using the reporting unit’s fair value as the purchase price. If the implied fair value of the goodwill is less than the reporting unit’s carrying amount, then goodwill is impaired and is written down to the implied fair value amount.

To test our other indefinite-lived assets for impairment, which consists of our trade name, we determine the fair value of our trade name using the relief-from-royalty method, which estimates the present value of royalty income that could be hypothetically earned by licensing the brand name to a third party over the remaining useful life. If in conducting an impairment evaluation we determine that the carrying value of an asset exceeded its fair value, we would be required to record a non-cash impairment charge for the difference between the carrying value and the fair value of the asset. If a significant amount of our goodwill and identifiable intangible assets were deemed to be impaired, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

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, including

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but not limited to revenue recognition, business combinations, impairment of goodwill, indefinite-lived intangible assets and long-lived assets, inventory and equity-based compensation, 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.

Changes in lease accounting standards may materially and adversely affect us.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, recently adopted new accounting rules, to be effective for our fiscal year beginning after December 2018 that will require companies to capitalize all leases on their balance sheets by recognizing a lessee’s rights and obligations. When the rules are effective, we will be required to account for the leases for stores as assets and liabilities on our balance sheet, where previously we accounted for such leases on an “off balance sheet” basis. As a result, a significant amount of lease related assets and liabilities will be recorded on our balance sheet and we may be required to make other changes to the recording and classification of our lease related expenses. Though these changes will not have any direct impact on our overall financial condition, these changes could cause investors or others to believe that we are highly leveraged and could change the calculations of financial metrics and covenants under our debt facilities, as well as third-party financial models regarding our financial condition.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

We are an “emerging growth company,” and are taking advantage of reduced disclosure requirements applicable to “emerging growth companies,” which could make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or JOBS Act, and, for as long as we continue to be an “emerging growth company,” we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to “emerging growth companies.” These exemptions include not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an “emerging growth company” for up to five years, or until the earliest of (i) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenues exceed $1 billion, (ii) the date that we become a “large accelerated filer” as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act, which would occur if the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter, or (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt during the preceding three-year period. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result of any choices to reduce future disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

We will incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result of operating as a public company particularly after we are no longer an “emerging growth company.”

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. For example, we are required to comply with certain of the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the NYSE, our stock exchange, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. We expect that compliance with these requirements will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time consuming and costly. In addition, we expect that our management and other personnel will need to divert attention from operational and other business

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matters to devote substantial time to these public company requirements. In particular, we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In that regard, we expect to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge.

However, for as long as we remain an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act, we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We intend to take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an “emerging growth company.”

Under the JOBS Act, “emerging growth companies” can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies.”

After we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur additional management time and cost to comply with the more stringent reporting requirements applicable to companies that are deemed accelerated filers or large accelerated filers, including complying with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur as a result of becoming a public company or the timing of such costs.

If we are unable to design, implement and maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, it could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price. We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting.

As a public company, we have significant requirements for enhanced financial reporting and internal controls. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company. If we are unable to maintain appropriate internal financial reporting controls and procedures, it could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations on a timely basis, result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements and harm our operating results. In addition, we are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for the first fiscal year beginning after the effective date of our initial public offering. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. Testing and maintaining internal controls may divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to our business. We may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of January 30, 2016 and for the period from May 8, 2015 through January 30, 2016, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

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We determined that we did not maintain a sufficient complement of personnel with the level of accounting expertise and supervisory review structure commensurate with the complexity of our financial accounting and financial reporting requirements. We also did not design and maintain controls related to the accounting for business combinations. Specifically, we did not design controls to review certain purchase accounting adjustments such as the amortization of customer list intangibles. These control deficiencies resulted in audit adjustments to our consolidated financial statements and could result in material misstatements to our annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected. Accordingly, our management has determined that these control deficiencies constitute material weaknesses. In response to the identified material weaknesses, we implemented measures to improve our internal control over financial reporting, including hiring additional personnel in our finance and accounting department with experience commensurate with our financial accounting and financial reporting requirements, establishing an internal audit function to routinely assess our internal control environment, and implementing a control specific to the review of the customer list intangible asset.

We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, together with any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to remediate the control deficiencies that led to our material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or to avoid potential future material weaknesses. If we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting or if our efforts are not successful to remediate the control deficiencies that led to our material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or other material weaknesses or control deficiencies occur in the future, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements and investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting, which could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our stock.

We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE rules and, as a result, qualify for and intend to rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.

TowerBrook controls a majority of the voting power of our outstanding voting stock, and as a result we are a controlled company within the meaning of the NYSE corporate governance standards. Under the NYSE rules, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by another person or group of persons acting together is a controlled company and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:

These requirements do not apply to us as long as we remain a controlled company. Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE.

We continue to be controlled by TowerBrook, and TowerBrook’s interests may conflict with our interests and the interests of other stockholders.

TowerBrook owns 59% of our common stock. As a result, TowerBrook will have effective control over the outcome of votes on all matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including entering into significant

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corporate transactions such as mergers, tender offers and the sale of all or substantially all of our assets and issuance of additional debt or equity. In addition, as long as TowerBrook beneficially owns at least 50% of our common stock, a Stockholders Agreement provides TowerBrook with veto rights with respect to certain material matters. The interests of TowerBrook and its affiliates could conflict with or differ from our interests or the interests of our other stockholders. For example, the concentration of ownership held by TowerBrook could delay, defer or prevent a change of control of our company or impede a merger, takeover or other business combination which may otherwise be favorable for us. Additionally, TowerBrook is in the business of making investments in companies and may, from time to time, acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete, directly or indirectly with us. TowerBrook may also pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business, and as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us. So long as TowerBrook continues to directly or indirectly own a significant amount of our equity, even if such amount is less than 50%, TowerBrook will continue to be able to substantially influence or effectively control our ability to enter into corporate transactions.

Our certificate of incorporation contains a provision renouncing our interest and expectancy in certain corporate opportunities.

Our certificate of incorporation provides for the allocation of certain corporate opportunities between us and TowerBrook. Under these provisions, neither TowerBrook, its portfolio companies, funds or other affiliates, nor any of their officers, directors, agents, stockholders, members or partners have any duty to refrain from engaging, directly or indirectly, in the same business activities, similar business activities or lines of business in which we operate. For instance, a director of our company who also serves as a director, officer, partner or employee of TowerBrook or any of its portfolio companies, funds or other affiliates may pursue certain acquisitions or other opportunities that may be complementary to our business and, as a result, such acquisition or other opportunities may not be available to us. These potential conflicts of interest could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects if attractive corporate opportunities are allocated by TowerBrook to itself or its portfolio companies, funds or other affiliates instead of to us.

Provisions in our organizational documents and Delaware law may discourage our acquisition by a third party.

Our certificate of incorporation authorizes our board of directors to issue preferred stock without stockholder approval. If the board of directors elects to issue preferred stock, it could be more difficult for a third party to acquire us. In addition, some provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us, even if the change of control would be beneficial to our stockholders.

Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the “DGCL”) affects the ability of an “interested stockholder” to engage in certain business combinations, for a period of three years following the time that the stockholder becomes an “interested stockholder.” We have elected in our certificate of incorporation not to be subject to Section 203 of the DGCL. Nevertheless, our certificate of incorporation contains provisions that have the same effect as Section 203 of the DGCL, except that it provides that affiliates of TowerBrook and their transferees will not be deemed to be “interested stockholders,” regardless of the percentage of our voting stock owned by them, and will therefore not be subject to such restrictions. These charter provisions may limit the ability of third parties to acquire control of our company.

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 agreements governing the indebtedness of our subsidiaries impose restrictions on our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of

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Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities.” The deterioration of the earnings from, or other available assets of, our subsidiaries for any reason could also limit or impair their ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us.

Future sales of our common stock in the public market, or the perception in the public market that such sales may occur, could reduce our stock price.

We have 43,747,944 outstanding shares of common stock. The number of outstanding shares of common stock includes 31,216,277 shares, including shares controlled by TowerBrook, that are “restricted securities,” as defined under Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and eligible for sale in the public market subject to the requirements of Rule 144. We, each of our officers and directors, TowerBrook and substantially all of our existing stockholders have agreed that (subject to certain exceptions), for a period of 180 days after the date of our initial public offering, we and they will not, without the prior written consent of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Jefferies LLC, dispose of any shares or any securities convertible into or exchangeable for our common stock, see “Underwriting.” Following the expiration of the applicable lock-up period, all of the issued and outstanding shares of our common stock will be eligible for future sale, subject to the applicable volume, manner of sale, holding periods and other limitations of Rule 144. Sales of significant amounts of stock in the public market could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock.

There can be no assurances that a viable public market for our common stock will be maintained.

An active, liquid and orderly trading market for our common stock may not be maintained. Active, liquid and orderly trading markets usually result in less price volatility and more efficiency in carrying out investors’ purchase and sale orders. We cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in our common stock will lead to the maintenance of an active trading market on the NYSE or otherwise or how liquid that market might continue to be. If an active public market for our common stock is not sustained, it may be difficult for you to sell your shares at a price that is attractive to you or at all.

Our stock price may be volatile.

The market price of our common stock could vary significantly as a result of a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control. In the event of a drop in the market price of our common stock, you could lose a substantial part or all of your investment in our common stock. The following factors could affect our stock price:

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The stock markets in general have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock. Securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the overall market and in the market price of a company’s securities. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in very substantial costs, divert our management’s attention and resources and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or publish negative reports, our stock price could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline. Moreover, if one or more of the analysts who cover our company downgrades our common stock or if our operating results do not meet their expectations, our stock price could decline.

The issuance by us of additional shares of common stock or convertible securities may dilute your ownership of us and could adversely affect our stock price.

We have filed a registration statement with the SEC on Form S-8 providing for the registration of 2,237,303 shares of our common stock issued or reserved for issuance under our long-term incentive plan. Subject to the satisfaction of vesting conditions and the expiration of lock-up agreements, shares registered under the registration statement on Form S-8 will be available for resale immediately in the public market without restriction. From time to time in the future, we may also issue additional shares of our common stock or securities convertible into common stock pursuant to a variety of transactions, including acquisitions. The issuance by us of additional shares of our common stock or securities convertible into our common stock would dilute your ownership of us and the sale of a significant amount of such shares in the public market could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock.

We may issue preferred stock whose terms could adversely affect the voting power or value of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue, without the approval of our stockholders, one or more classes or series of preferred stock having such designations, preferences, limitations and relative rights, including preferences over our common stock respecting dividends and distributions, as our board of directors may determine. The terms of one or more classes or series of preferred stock could adversely impact the voting power or value of our common stock. For example, we might grant holders of preferred stock the right to elect some number of our directors in all events or on the happening of specified events or the right to veto specified transactions. Similarly, the repurchase or redemption rights or liquidation preferences we might assign to holders of preferred stock could affect the residual value of the common stock.

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Our designation of the Delaware Court of Chancery as the exclusive forum for certain types of stockholder legal proceedings could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a more favorable forum.

Our certificate of incorporation provides that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, 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, employees or agents to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine, in each such case subject to such Court of Chancery having personal jurisdiction over the indispensable parties named as defendants therein. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock will be deemed to have notice of, and consented to, the provisions of our certificate of incorporation described in the preceding sentence. 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, employees or agents, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and such persons. See “Description of Capital Stock—Forum Selection.” Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our 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 that we do not currently anticipate associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

We are headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts. Our principal executive offices are leased under a lease agreement expiring in December 2021, with options to renew thereafter. Our 520,000 square foot distribution and customer contact center, located in Tilton, New Hampshire, supports both our direct and retail channels and is leased under a lease agreement expiring in September 2030, with options to renew thereafter. We consider these properties to be in good condition and believe that our facilities are adequate for operations and provide sufficient capacity to meet our anticipated future requirements.

As of January 28, 2017, we operated 275 stores in 43 states. Of these stores, 273 are full-price locations with approximately half located in lifestyle centers and half in premium malls. The average size of our stores is approximately 3,750 square feet. All of our retail stores are leased from third parties and new stores historically have had terms of ten years. The average remaining lease term is 4.6 years. A portion of our leases have options to renew for periods up to five years. Generally, store leases contain standard provisions concerning the payment of rent, events of default and the rights and obligations of each party. Rent due under the leases is generally comprised of annual base rent plus a contingent rent payment based on the store’s sales in excess of a specified threshold. Some of the leases also contain early termination options, which can be exercised by us or the landlord under certain conditions. The leases also generally require us to pay real estate taxes, insurance and certain common area costs. We renegotiate with landlords to obtain more favorable terms as opportunities arise.

The current terms of our leases expire as follows:

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The table below sets forth the number of retail stores by state that we operated as of January 28, 2017.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

From time to time, we are subject to certain legal proceedings and claims in the ordinary course of business. We are not presently party to any legal proceedings the resolution of which we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results or cash flows. We establish reserves for specific legal matters when we determine that the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome is probable and the loss is reasonably estimable.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information

Our common stock began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “JILL” on March 9, 2017. Prior to that time, there was no public market for our common stock.

The following table sets forth the high and low sales prices of our common stock as reported on the NYSE from March 9, 2017 through April 21, 2017.

Holders of Record

As of April 21, 2017, there were approximately 30 holders of record of our common stock. This number does not include beneficial owners whose shares are held of record by banks, brokers and other financial institutions.

Dividends

On June 6, 2016, Jill Intermediate LLC, our predecessor entity prior to our conversion to a Delaware corporation, paid a $70.0 million dividend to the partners of JJill Topco Holdings.

Since March 9, 2017, we have not declared or paid any cash dividends. We currently do not plan to declare cash dividends on shares of our common stock in the foreseeable future. We expect that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business. Subject to the foregoing, the payment of cash dividends in the future, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon such factors as earnings levels, capital requirements, restrictions imposed by applicable law, our overall financial condition, restrictions in our debt agreements, including our Term Loan and ABL Facility, and any other factors deemed relevant by our board of directors. As a holding company, our ability to pay dividends depends on our receipt of cash dividends from our operating subsidiaries, which may further restrict our ability to pay dividends as a result of restrictions on their ability to pay dividends to us under our Term Loan, our ABL Facility and under future indebtedness that we or they may incur. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities.”

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

Information regarding our equity compensation plans is set forth in Item 12, Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Shareholder Matters.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data

The following tables present our selected consolidated financial and other data as of and for the periods indicated. As more fully described below, the periods are presented as “Predecessor” or “Successor”, depending on whether they relate to periods preceding or periods succeeding the acquisition of all of our outstanding equity interests on May 8, 2015. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the fiscal years ended January 28, 2017 (Successor) and January 31, 2015 (Predecessor), the periods from May 8, 2015 to January 30, 2016 (Successor) and from February 1, 2015 to May 7, 2015 (Predecessor), and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of January 28, 2017 (Successor) and January 30, 2016 (Successor) are derived from our audited

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consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We have derived the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of January 31, 2015 (Predecessor), February 1, 2014 (Predecessor) and February 2, 2013 (Predecessor) and the consolidated statement of operations data for the fiscal years ended February 1, 2014 (Predecessor) and February 2, 2013 (Predecessor) from our audited consolidated financial statements, which are not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our historical audited results are not necessarily indicative of the results that should be expected in any future period.

On May 8, 2015, an investment vehicle of investment funds affiliated with TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. acquired all of our outstanding equity interests through the newly formed entities JJill Holdings, Inc. (“JJill Holdings”) and JJill Topco Holdings, LP (“JJill Topco Holdings”). We refer to such acquisition and the related financing transactions as the “Acquisition.” As a result of the Acquisition and related change in control, JJill Holdings applied purchase accounting as of May 8, 2015. We elected to push down the effects of the Acquisition to our consolidated financial statements. As such, the financial information provided in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is presented as “Predecessor” or “Successor” to indicate whether they relate to the period preceding the Acquisition or the period succeeding the Acquisition, respectively. Due to the change in the basis of accounting resulting from the Acquisition, the consolidated financial statements for the Predecessor periods and the consolidated financial statements for the Successor periods, included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are not necessarily comparable.

For purposes of presenting a comparison of our fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2014 results, in addition to standalone results for the 2015 Successor Period and 2015 Predecessor Period, we have also presented supplemental unaudited pro forma consolidated financial and other data for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016. The unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016 has been derived from the historical audited statements of operations included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and represents the addition of the 2015 Successor Period and the 2015 Predecessor Period and gives effect to certain transactions, as described in “Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Supplemental Fiscal Year Ended January 28, 2017 to Pro Forma Fiscal Year Ended January 30, 2016” contained elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as if they had occurred on February 1, 2015. We believe that this presentation provides meaningful information about our results of operations on a period to period basis. The unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations is presented for illustrative purposes and does not purport to represent what the results of operations would actually have been if the transactions had occurred as of the date indicated or what the results of operations would be for any future periods.

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The selected historical financial data presented below does not purport to project our financial position or results of operations for any future date or period and should be read together with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as the information presented under “Selected Financial Data.” The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and assumptions. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences are discussed in the sections of this Annual Report on Form 10-K titled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

We operate on a 52- or 53-week fiscal year that ends on the Saturday that is closest to January 31. Each fiscal year generally is comprised of four 13-week fiscal quarters, although in the years with 53 weeks, the fourth quarter represents a 14-week period. Fiscal year 2016, pro forma fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2014 ended on January 28, 2017, January 30, 2016 and January 31, 2015, respectively, and were each comprised of 52 weeks.

Overview

J.Jill is a nationally recognized women’s apparel brand focused on a loyal, engaged and affluent customer in the attractive 40-65 age segment. The J.Jill brand represents an easy, relaxed and inspired style that reflects the confidence and comfort of a woman with a rich, full life. We operate a highly profitable omni-channel platform that is well diversified across our direct (43% of net sales for fiscal year 2016) and retail (57% of net sales for fiscal year 2016) channels. We began as a catalog company and have been a pioneer of the omni-channel model with a compelling presence across stores, website and catalog since 1999. We have developed an industry-leading customer database that allows us to match approximately 97% of transactions to an identifiable customer. We take a data-centric approach, in which we leverage our database and apply our insights to manage our business as well as to acquire and engage customers to drive optimum value and productivity. Our goals are to Create a great brand, to Build a successful business and to Make J.Jill a great place to work. To achieve this, we have aligned our strategy and team around four guiding pillars—Brand, Customer, Product and Channel.

Factors Affecting Our Operating Results

Various factors are expected to continue to affect our results of operations going forward, including the following:

Overall Economic Trends. Consumer purchases of clothing and other merchandise generally decline during recessionary periods and other periods when disposable income is adversely affected, and consequently our results of operations may be affected by general economic conditions. For example, reduced consumer confidence and lower availability and higher cost of consumer credit may reduce demand for our merchandise and may limit our ability to increase or sustain prices. The growth rate of the market could be affected by macroeconomic conditions in the United States.

Consumer Preferences and Fashion Trends. Our ability to maintain our appeal to existing customers and attract new customers depends on our ability to anticipate fashion trends. During periods in which we have successfully anticipated fashion trends, we have generally had more favorable results.

Competition. The retail industry is highly competitive and retailers compete based on a variety of factors, including design, quality, price and customer service. Levels of competition and the ability of our competitors to more accurately predict fashion trends and otherwise attract customers through competitive pricing or other factors may impact our results of operations.

Our Strategic Initiatives. We are in the process of implementing significant business initiatives that have had and will continue to have an impact on our results of operations, including our brand voice and customer

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segmentation initiatives. Although these initiatives are designed to create growth in our business and continuing improvement in our operating results, the timing of expenditures related to these initiatives, as well as the achievement of returns on our investments, may affect our results of operation in future periods.

Pricing and Changes in Our Merchandise Mix. Our product offering changes from period to period, as do the prices at which goods are sold and the margins we are able to earn from the sales of those goods. The levels at which we are able to price our merchandise are influenced by a variety of factors, including the quality of our products, cost of production, prices at which our competitors are selling similar products and the willingness of our customers to pay for products.

How We Assess the Performance of Our Business

In assessing the performance of our business, we consider a variety of financial and operating metrics, including GAAP and non-GAAP measures, including the following:

Net sales consists primarily of revenues, net of merchandise returns and discounts, generated from the sale of apparel and accessory merchandise through our direct channel and retail channel. Net sales also include shipping and handling fees collected from customers. Revenue from our retail channel is recognized at the time of sale and revenue from our direct channel is recognized upon receipt of merchandise by the customer.

Net sales are impacted by the size of our active customer base, product assortment and availability, marketing and promotional activities and the spending habits of our customers. Net sales are also impacted by the migration of single-channel customers to omni-channel customers who, on average, spend nearly three times more than single-channel customers.

Total company comparable sales includes net sales from our full-price stores that have been open for more than 52 weeks and from our direct channel. This measure highlights the performance of existing stores open during the period, while excluding the impact of new store openings and closures. When a store in the total company comparable store base is temporarily closed for remodeling or other reasons, it is included in total company comparable sales only using the full weeks it was open. Certain of our competitors and other retailers may calculate total company comparable sales differently than we do. As a result, the reporting of our total company comparable sales may not be comparable to sales data made available by other companies.

Number of stores reflects all stores open at the end of a reporting period. In connection with opening new stores, we incur pre-opening costs. Pre-opening costs include expenses incurred prior to opening a new store and primarily consist of payroll, travel, training, marketing, initial opening supplies and costs of transporting initial inventory and fixtures to store locations, as well as occupancy costs incurred from the time of possession of a store site to the opening of that store. These pre-opening costs are included in selling, general and administrative expenses and are generally incurred and expensed within 30 days of opening a new store.

Gross profit is equal to our net sales less costs of goods sold. Gross profit as a percentage of our net sales is referred to as gross margin. Costs of goods sold includes the direct costs of sold merchandise, inventory shrinkage, and adjustments and reserves for excess, aged and obsolete inventory. We review our inventory levels on an ongoing basis to identify slow-moving merchandise and use product markdowns to efficiently sell these products. Changes in the assortment of our products may also impact our gross profit. The timing and level of markdowns are driven by customer acceptance of our merchandise. Certain of our competitors and other retailers may report costs of goods sold differently than we do. As a result, the reporting of our gross profit and gross margin may not be comparable to other companies.

The primary drivers of the costs of goods sold are raw materials, which fluctuate based on certain factors beyond our control, including labor conditions, transportation or freight costs, energy prices, currency fluctuations and commodity prices. We place orders with merchandise suppliers in United States dollars and, as a result, are not exposed to significant foreign currency exchange risk.

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Selling, general and administrative expenses include all operating costs not included in costs of goods sold. These expenses include all payroll and related expenses, occupancy costs and other operating expenses related to our stores and to our operations at our headquarters, including utilities, depreciation and amortization. These expenses also include marketing expense, including catalog production and mailing costs, warehousing, distribution and shipping costs, customer service operations, consulting and software services, professional services and other administrative costs.

Our historical revenue growth has been accompanied by increased selling, general and administrative expenses. The most significant increases were in occupancy costs associated with retail store expansion, and in marketing and payroll investments. While we expect these expenses to increase as we continue to open new stores, increase brand awareness and grow our business, we believe these expenses will decrease as a percentage of net sales over time.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. We expect that compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time consuming and costly. In addition, we expect that our management and other personnel will need to devote substantial time to these public company requirements. In particular, we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In that regard, we expect to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin. Adjusted EBITDA represents net income (loss) plus interest expense, provision (benefit) for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, the amortization of the step-up to fair value of merchandise inventory resulting from the application of a purchase accounting adjustment related to the Acquisition, certain Acquisition-related expenses, sponsor fees, equity-based compensation expense, write-off of property and equipment, prior period adjustment for tenant allowances, and other non-recurring expenses, primarily consisting of outside legal and professional fees associated with certain non-recurring transactions and events. We present Adjusted EBITDA on a consolidated basis because our management uses it as a supplemental measure in assessing our operating performance, and we believe that it is helpful to investors, securities analysts and other interested parties as a measure of our comparative operating performance from period to period. We also use Adjusted EBITDA as one of the primary methods for planning and forecasting overall expected performance of our business and for evaluating on a quarterly and annual basis actual results against such expectations. Further, we recognize Adjusted EBITDA as a commonly used measure in determining business value and as such, use it internally to report results. Adjusted EBITDA margin represents, for any period, Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net sales.

While we believe that Adjusted EBITDA is useful in evaluating our business, Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that has limitations as an analytical tool. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered an alternative to, or substitute for, net income (loss), which is calculated in accordance with GAAP. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently or not at all, which reduces the usefulness of Adjusted EBITDA as a tool for comparison. We recommend that you review the reconciliation and calculation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin to net income (loss), the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, below and not rely solely on Adjusted EBITDA or any single financial measure to evaluate our business.

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Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA and Calculation of Adjusted EBITDA Margin

The following table provides a reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA and the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA margin for the periods presented:

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Factors Affecting the Comparability of our Results of Operations

On May 8, 2015, an investment vehicle of investment funds affiliated with TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. acquired all of our outstanding equity interests through the newly formed entities JJill Holdings, Inc. (“JJill Holdings”) and JJill Topco Holdings, LP (“JJill Topco Holdings”). We refer to such acquisition and the related financing transactions as the “Acquisition.” JJill Holdings acquired approximately 94% of the outstanding interests of Jill Intermediate LLC, our predecessor entity, and JJill Topco Holdings acquired the remaining 6% of the outstanding interests of Jill Intermediate LLC in the Acquisition. The purchase price was $396.4 million, which consisted of $386.3 million of cash consideration and $10.1 million of noncash consideration in the form of an equity rollover by Jill Intermediate LLC’s predecessor management owners. The Acquisition was funded through an equity contribution by JJill Holdings and JJill Topco Holdings and borrowings under our seven-year $250.0 million Term Loan, as described under “Credit Facilities” below.

JJill Holdings accounted for the Acquisition as a business combination under the acquisition method of accounting. Accordingly, the purchase price was allocated to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values at the date of Acquisition.

We have elected to push down the effects of the Acquisition to our consolidated financial statements. As such, the financial information provided in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is presented as “Predecessor” or “Successor” to indicate whether they relate to the period preceding the Acquisition or the period succeeding the Acquisition, respectively. The financial information for all periods after May 7, 2015 represents the financial information of the Successor. Prior to, and including, May 7, 2015, the consolidated financial statements, included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, include the accounts of the Predecessor.

Due to the change in the basis of accounting resulting from the Acquisition, the Predecessor’s consolidated financial statements and the Successor’s consolidated financial statements, included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, are not comparable. See our historical audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding the Acquisition.

On February 24, 2017, we completed a conversion from a Delaware limited liability company named Jill Intermediate LLC into a Delaware corporation and changed our name to J.Jill, Inc. In conjunction with the conversion, all of our outstanding equity interests converted into shares of common stock. Accordingly, all historical earnings per share amounts presented in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) and the related notes to the consolidated financial statements have been adjusted retroactively to reflect our conversion from a limited liability company to a corporation.

Following our conversion from a limited liability company to a corporation, J.Jill, Inc. merged with and into its direct parent company, JJill Holdings, on February 24, 2017, with J.Jill, Inc. continuing as the surviving entity. JJill Holdings did not have operations of its own, except for buyer transaction costs of $8,560 incurred to execute the Acquisition.

On May 27, 2016, we entered into an agreement to amend our Term Loan to borrow an additional $40.0 million. The other terms and conditions of the Term Loan remained substantially unchanged, as discussed in “—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities.” We used the additional loan proceeds, along with cash on hand, to fund a $70.0 million dividend to the partners of JJill Topco Holdings, which was approved by the members of Jill Intermediate LLC and the board of directors of JJill Topco Holdings on May 27, 2016.

On January 18, 2017, we made a voluntary prepayment of $10.1 million, including accrued interest, on our Term Loan.

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Results of Operations

Fiscal Year Ended January 28, 2017 (Successor) Compared to the Period from May 8, 2015 through January 30, 2016 (Successor) and the Period from February 1, 2015 to May 7, 2015 (Predecessor)

The following table summarizes our consolidated results of operations for the periods indicated:

Net Sales

Net sales were $639.1 million for the Successor fiscal year ended January 28, 2017 (“fiscal year 2016”) compared to $420.1 million for the Successor period from May 8, 2015 to January 30, 2016 (“2015 Successor Period”) and $141.9 million for the Predecessor period from February 1, 2015 to May 7, 2015 (“2015 Predecessor Period”). At the end of those same periods, we operated 275, 261 and 250 retail stores, respectively.

Our direct channel was responsible for 43% of our net sales in fiscal year 2016, 41% in the 2015 Successor Period and 37% in the 2015 Predecessor Period. Our retail channel was responsible for 57% of our net sales in fiscal year 2016, 59% in the 2015 Successor Period and 63% in the 2015 Predecessor Period. The increase in net sales in fiscal year 2016 was due to an increase in total comparable company sales, driven by an increase in our active customer base, and an increase in store count.

Gross Profit and Costs of Goods Sold

Gross profit was $427.9 million for fiscal year 2016 compared to $265.0 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $97.7 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period. The increase in fiscal year 2016 was primarily due to an increase in net sales and an increase in costs of goods sold during the 2015 Successor Period resulting from the amortization of the fair value step-up of merchandise inventory reflected in the purchase price allocation at the date of the Acquisition.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $368.5 million for fiscal year 2016 compared to $246.5 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $80.2 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period. The increase in fiscal year 2016 included higher sales related expenses, increased marketing and corporate expenses to support business growth, and costs associated with our initial public offering in March 2017. These increases are partially offset by lower incentive compensation expense.

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As a percentage of net sales, selling, general and administrative expenses were 57.7% in fiscal year 2016 compared to 58.7% for the 2015 Successor Period and 56.5% for the 2015 Predecessor Period.

Acquisition-Related Expenses

We incurred acquisition-related expenses of $13.3 million during the 2015 Predecessor Period, consisting primarily of legal and advisory fees. No such costs were incurred during fiscal year 2016 or the 2015 Successor Period.

Interest Expense

Interest expense was $18.7 million for fiscal year 2016 compared to $11.9 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $4.6 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period. The increase in fiscal year 2016 is due to the addition of $40.0 million to our Term Loan pursuant to an amendment on May 27, 2016 and an acceleration of the amortization of deferred financing costs due to a voluntary prepayment on our Term Loan on January 18, 2017.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes was $16.7 million for fiscal year 2016 compared to $2.3 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $1.5 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period. Our effective tax rates for the same periods were 40.9%, 35.0% and (372.9%), respectively. The increase in fiscal year 2016 was primarily due to higher income (loss) before provision for income taxes. The effective tax rate in the 2015 Predecessor Period reflects transaction costs related to the Acquisition, which were not deductible for tax purposes.

Period from May 8, 2015 through January 30, 2016 (Successor) and Period from February 1, 2015 to May 7, 2015 (Predecessor) Compared to the Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2015 (Predecessor)

The following table summarizes our consolidated results of operations for the periods indicated:

Net Sales

Net sales were $420.1 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $141.9 million for 2015 Predecessor Period, compared to $483.4 million for the Predecessor fiscal year ended January 31, 2015 (“fiscal year 2014”). We operated 261, 250 and 248 retail stores at the end of these same periods, respectively.

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Our direct channel was responsible for 41% of our net sales in the 2015 Successor Period, 37% in the 2015 Predecessor Period, and 39% in fiscal year 2014. Our retail channel was responsible for 59% in the 2015 Successor Period, 63% in the 2015 Predecessor Period, and 61% of our net sales in fiscal year 2014. The increase in net sales was due to an increase in total comparable company sales, primarily driven by an increase in our active customer base.

Gross Profit and Costs of Goods Sold

Gross profit was $265.0 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $97.7 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period, compared to $318.6 million for fiscal year 2014. The increase was primarily due to an increase in net sales partially offset by an increase in costs of goods sold during the 2015 Successor Period resulting from the amortization of the fair value step-up of merchandise inventory reflected in the purchase price allocation at the date of the Acquisition.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $246.5 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $80.2 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period, compared to $279.6 million for fiscal year 2014. The increase included higher sales related expenses, increased marketing costs to acquire and retain customers and increased corporate payroll and other expenses to support business growth. The increase also reflects increased depreciation and amortization expense, including deferred rent amortization, due to (i) the revaluation of assets and liabilities that occurred in connection with the Acquisition, (ii) increased capital spending in stores as a result of opening new stores and remodeling existing stores, and (iii) increased capital spending on information systems primarily due to the implementation of a new merchandising system. This increase also includes an increase in incentive compensation expense driven by the improved performance of our business.

As a percentage of net sales, selling, general and administrative expenses were 58.7% for the 2015 Successor Period and 56.5% for the 2015 Predecessor Period, compared to 57.8% for fiscal year 2014.

Acquisition-Related Expenses

We incurred acquisition-related expenses of $13.3 million during the 2015 Predecessor Period, consisting primarily of legal and advisory fees. No such costs were incurred during the 2015 Successor Period or fiscal year 2014.

Interest Expense

Interest expense was $11.9 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $4.6 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period, compared to $17.9 million for fiscal year 2014. During the 2015 Successor Period, interest incurred on debt decreased as a result of a decrease in the weighted average interest rate and lower amortization of deferred financing costs, offset by an increase in debt. In fiscal year 2014, our interest expense was higher due to voluntary prepayments on our predecessor term loan facility, which accelerated the amortization of deferred financing costs.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes was $2.3 million for the 2015 Successor Period and $1.5 million for the 2015 Predecessor Period, compared to $10.9 million for fiscal year 2014. Our effective tax rates for the same periods were 35.0% , (372.9)%, and 51.3%, respectively. The decrease in provision for income taxes was primarily due to lower income (loss) before provision for income taxes for the 2015 Predecessor Period as a result of the inclusion of certain expenses related to the Acquisition in that period.

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Supplemental Unaudited Pro Forma Consolidated Financial Information

The following unaudited pro forma financial information should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto, included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations for the year ended January 30, 2016 has been derived from our consolidated audited statements of operations included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and represents the addition of the Predecessor period from February 1, 2015 through May 7, 2015 and the Successor period from May 8, 2015 through January 30, 2016, and gives effect to the following as if they had occurred on February 1, 2015:

The unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations does not include the impacts of any revenue, cost or other operating synergies that may result from the Acquisition.

The pro forma adjustments reflect events that are (i) directly attributed to the Acquisition and related Financing; (ii) factually supportable; and (iii) with respect to the pro forma statements of operations, expected to have a continuing impact on the consolidated results.

The unaudited pro forma consolidated financial information presented is based on available information and assumptions we believe are reasonable. The unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations is presented for illustrative purposes and does not purport to represent what the results of operations would actually have been if the Acquisition and the related Financing had occurred as of the date indicated or what the results of operations would be for any future periods.

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Description of the Acquisition and Financing

On May 8, 2015, JJill Holdings and JJill Topco Holdings completed the Acquisition of the Company. The purchase price of the Acquisition was $396.4 million, which was funded through an equity contribution by JJill Holdings and JJill Topco Holdings and borrowings under our Term Loan. JJill Holdings accounted for the Acquisition as a business combination under the acquisition method of accounting. Accordingly, the purchase price was allocated to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values at the date of Acquisition. We have elected to push down the effects of the Acquisition to our consolidated historical financial statements.

In conjunction with the Acquisition, we entered into a seven-year Term Loan of $250.0 million, which contains certain terms and conditions that require us to comply with financial and other covenants. The Term Loan has a variable interest rate which is based on a rate per annum equal to LIBOR plus 5.0%, with a minimum required LIBOR per annum of 1.0%. The rate per annum was 6.0% at January 30, 2016. The Term Loan is collateralized by all of our assets and contains a provision requiring scheduled quarterly repayments that began October 31, 2015 and that continue until maturity on May 8, 2022.

We also entered into a five-year secured $40.0 million asset-based ABL Facility. Our ABL Facility is collateralized by a first lien on accounts receivable and inventory. Amounts outstanding under the ABL Facility bear interest of LIBOR plus the applicable margin, as defined in the agreement. The ABL Facility consists of revolving loans whereby interest on each revolving loan is payable upon maturity, with durations ranging between 30 to 180 days. Principal is payable upon maturity of the ABL Facility on May 8, 2020. The ABL Facility also requires the payment of monthly fees based on the average quarterly unused portion, as well as a fee on the balance of the outstanding letters of credit.

In securing the Term Loan and the ABL Facility, we incurred financing and issuance costs of $9.6 million. Debt issuance costs are deferred and amortized using the effective interest rate method for the Term Loan and the straight-line method for the ABL Facility. Debt discounts are deferred and amortized using the effective interest rate method over the term of the Term Loan agreement.

Notes to Unaudited Pro Forma Consolidated Statement of Operations Adjustments:

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Fiscal Year Ended January 28, 2017 Compared to Pro Forma Fiscal Year Ended January 30, 2016

In addition to the historical analysis of results of operations for the audited historical statements of operations presented for fiscal year 2016, the 2015 Successor Period and the 2015 Predecessor Period, we have also presented a supplemental unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016 (“pro forma fiscal year 2015”).

The following table summarizes our consolidated results of operations for the periods indicated:

Net Sales

Net sales for fiscal year 2016 increased $77.0 million, or 13.7%, to $639.1 million, from $562.0 million for pro forma fiscal year 2015. This increase was primarily due to an increase in total comparable company sales of 11.2%, which was substantially driven by an 11.2% increase in our active customer base. Our direct channel was responsible for 43% of our net sales in fiscal year 2016, an increase from 40% in pro forma fiscal year 2015. Our retail channel was responsible for 57% of our net sales in fiscal year 2016 and 60% in pro forma fiscal year 2015. We operated 275 and 261 retail stores at the end of these same periods, respectively.

Gross Profit and Cost of Goods Sold

Gross profit for fiscal year 2016 increased $54.8 million, or 14.7%, to $427.9 million, from $373.2 million for pro forma fiscal year 2015. This increase was due primarily to the increase in net sales of 13.7%. The balance of the increase reflects gross margin for fiscal year 2016 increasing to 67.0% from 66.4% for pro forma fiscal year 2015. The increased gross margin was primarily due to supply chain efficiencies.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses for fiscal year 2016 increased $36.8 million, or 11.1%, to $368.5 million from $331.8 million for pro forma fiscal year 2015. As a percentage of net sales, selling, general and administrative expenses for fiscal year 2016 were 57.7% as compared to 59.0% for pro forma fiscal year

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2015. These increases related to higher sales related expenses of $15.2 million, increased marketing costs of $11.9 million and increased corporate payroll and other expenses of $17.3 million to support business growth and costs associated with our initial public offering. This increase was offset by decreases related to depreciation and amortization expense of $3.9 million, including deferred rent amortization, and a decrease in incentive compensation expense of $3.8 million.

Interest Expense

Interest expense for fiscal year 2016 increased by $1.8 million, or 10.5%, to $18.7 million from $16.9 million for pro forma fiscal year 2015. The increase in interest expense was due to an increase in the average debt outstanding to $276.7 million during fiscal year 2016 from $249.4 million in pro forma 2015, the increase in average debt was due to an additional $40.0 million of debt incurred in May 2016, and higher amortization of deferred financing costs resulting from a voluntary prepayment on our term loan in January 2017.

The average debt balance and weighted average interest rates for pro forma fiscal year 2015 assume our Term Loan and ABL Facility were entered into on February 1, 2015. See “Supplemental Unaudited Pro Forma Consolidated Financial Information,” “—Factors Affecting the Comparability of our Results of Operations,” “—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities” elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding our Term Loan and ABL Facility and the Acquisition.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes for fiscal year 2016 increased by $6.4 million, or 63.1%, to $16.7 million from $10.2 million for pro forma fiscal year 2015. Our effective tax rate was 40.9% for fiscal year 2016 and 41.7% for pro forma fiscal year 2015.

Pro Forma Fiscal Year Ended January 30, 2016 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2015 (Predecessor)

In addition to the historical analysis of results of operations for the audited historical statements of operations presented for the 2015 Successor Period, the 2015 Predecessor Period and the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015, we have also presented a supplemental unaudited pro forma consolidated statement of operations for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016 (“pro forma fiscal year 2015”).

The following table summarizes our consolidated results of operations for the periods indicated:

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Net Sales

Net sales for pro forma fiscal year 2015 increased $78.6 million, or 16.3%, to $562.0 million, from $483.4 million for fiscal year 2014. This increase was primarily due to an increase in total comparable company sales of 12.4%, which was driven substantially by an 11.6% increase in our active customer base. Our direct channel was responsible for 40% of our net sales in pro forma fiscal year 2015, an increase from 39% in fiscal year 2014. Our retail channel was responsible for 60% of our net sales in pro forma fiscal year 2015 and 61% in fiscal year 2014. We operated 261 and 248 retail stores at the end of these same periods, respectively.

Gross Profit and Costs of Goods Sold

Gross profit for pro forma fiscal year 2015 increased $54.6 million, or 17.1%, to $373.2 million, from $318.6 million for fiscal year 2014. This increase was due primarily to the increase in net sales of 16.3%. The balance of the increase reflects gross margin for pro forma fiscal year 2015 increasing to 66.4% from 65.9% for fiscal year 2014. The increased gross margin was primarily due to supply chain efficiencies.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses for pro forma fiscal year 2015 increased $52.2 million, or 18.7%, to $331.8 million from $279.6 million for fiscal year 2014. As a percentage of net sales, selling, general and administrative expenses for pro forma fiscal year 2015 were 59.0% as compared to 57.8% for fiscal year 2014. These increases related to higher sales related expenses of $16.6 million, increased marketing costs of $7.6 million and increased corporate payroll and other expenses of $5.3 million to support business growth. The increase also related to increased depreciation and amortization expense of $22.6 million, including deferred rent amortization, due to (i) the revaluation of assets and liabilities that occurred in connection with the Acquisition, (ii) increased capital spending in stores as a result of opening new stores and remodeling existing stores, and (iii) increased capital spending on information systems primarily due to the implementation of a new merchandising system. Further, incentive compensation expenses increased $4.7 million, driven by improved performance of the business, offset by an equity-based compensation decrease of $4.5 million due to the implementation of a new equity-based compensation plan following the Acquisition compared to the plan that was in place prior to the Acquisition.

Interest Expense

Interest expense for pro forma fiscal year 2015 decreased by $1.0 million, or 5.6%, to $16.9 million from $17.9 million for fiscal year 2014. The decrease in interest expense was due to a decrease in the weighted average interest rate to 6.1% from 15.4% and lower amortization of deferred financing costs. In fiscal year 2014, we incurred additional amortization resulting from voluntary prepayments on our predecessor term loan facility, which accelerated the amortization of deferred financing costs. The decrease in interest expense was partially offset by an increase in average debt outstanding, to $249.4 million during pro forma fiscal year 2015 from $97.3 million in fiscal year 2014.

The average debt balance and weighted average interest rates for pro forma fiscal year 2015 assume our Term Loan and ABL Facility were entered into on February 1, 2015. See “Supplemental Unaudited Pro Forma Financial Information,” “—Factors Affecting the Comparability of our Results of Operations,” “—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Credit Facilities” elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding our Term Loan and ABL Facility and the Acquisition.

Provision for Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes for pro forma fiscal year 2015 decreased by $0.6 million, or 5.9%, to $10.2 million from $10.9 million for fiscal year 2014. Our effective tax rate was 41.7% for pro forma fiscal year 2015 and 51.3% for fiscal year 2014. This decrease in the effective rate was due to the higher amount of non-deductible equity-based compensation expenses in fiscal year 2014 compared to pro forma fiscal year 2015.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

General

Our primary sources of liquidity and capital resources are cash generated from operating activities and availability under our ABL Facility. Our primary requirements for liquidity and capital are working capital and general corporate needs, including merchandise inventories, marketing, including catalog production and distribution, payroll, store occupancy costs and capital expenditures associated with opening new stores, remodeling existing stores and upgrading information systems. Additional future liquidity needs will include costs of operating as a public company. We believe that our current sources of liquidity and capital will be sufficient to finance our continued operations, growth strategy and additional expenses we expect to incur as a public company for at least the next 12 months. There can be no assurance, however, that our business will generate sufficient cash flows from operations or that future borrowings will be available under our ABL Facility or otherwise to enable us to service our indebtedness, or to make capital expenditures in the future. Our future operating performance and our ability to service or extend our indebtedness will be subject to future economic conditions and to financial, business, and other factors, many of which are beyond our control.

Capital expenditures were $37.1 million during fiscal year 2016, $26.6 million during the 2015 Successor Period, $7.4 million during the 2015 Predecessor Period and $24.1 million during fiscal year 2014. The increase in capital expenditures in fiscal year 2016 was due primarily to an increase in the remodeling of stores and investment in information systems.

Cash Flow Analysis

The following table shows our cash flows information for the periods presented:

Net Cash provided by Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities during fiscal year 2016 was $67.2 million. Key elements of cash provided by operating activities were (i) net income of $24.1 million, (ii) adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities of $36.3 million, primarily driven by depreciation and amortization, and (iii) a decrease in net operating assets and liabilities of $6.8 million, primarily driven by increases in other noncurrent liabilities.

Net cash provided by operating activities during the 2015 Successor Period was $50.6 million. Key elements of cash provided by operating activities were (i) net income of $4.3 million, (ii) adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities of $36.4 million, primarily driven by depreciation and amortization and amortization of the step-up to fair value of merchandise inventory resulting from the application of a purchase accounting adjustment related to the Acquisition, and (iii) a decrease in net operating assets and liabilities and other activities of $9.9 million, primarily due to a decrease in accounts receivable and an increase in accounts payable as well as an increase in accrued incentive plan expenses resulting from increased earnings, partially offset by increases in taxes receivable, prepaid expenses, and other current assets.

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Net cash provided by operating activities during the 2015 Predecessor Period was $5.7 million. Key elements of cash provided by operating activities were (i) net loss of $1.9 million, (ii) adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities of $6.7 million, which primarily consisted of depreciation and amortization, and payment-in-kind interest on debt, and (iii) a decrease in net operating assets and liabilities and other activities of $0.9 million, primarily driven by accrued Acquisition expenses paid at the Acquisition date, partially offset by a decrease in accounts payable and increases in accounts receivable and inventories.

Net cash provided by operating activities during fiscal year 2014 was $41.4 million. Key elements of cash provided by operating activities were (i) net income of $10.3 million, (ii) adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities of $28.8 million, primarily driven by depreciation and amortization, payment-in-kind interest, and equity-based compensation charges, and (iii) a decrease in net operating assets and liabilities of $2.3 million, largely due to an increase in accrued expenses and an increase in accounts payable partially offset by increases in inventories and accounts receivable.

Net Cash used in Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities during fiscal year 2016 was $37.1 million, representing purchases of property and equipment related to new store openings, remodeling existing stores and upgrading our information systems, including our merchandising system.

Net cash used in investing activities during the 2015 Successor Period was $412.3 million, consisting of the $385.7 million of cash paid in connection with the Acquisition, net of cash received, and $26.6 million of purchases of property and equipment to new store openings, remodeling existing stores and upgrading our information systems, including our merchandising system.

Net cash used in investing activities during the 2015 Predecessor Period was $7.4 million, consisting of purchases of property and equipment related to new store openings, remodeling existing stores and upgrading our information systems, including our merchandising system.

Net cash used in investing activities during fiscal year 2014 was $24.1 million, representing purchases of property and equipment related to new store openings, remodeling existing stores and upgrading our information systems infrastructure and select software.

Net Cash (used in) provided by Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities during fiscal year 2016 was $44.2 million, including $38.3 million of proceeds received on long-term debt, net of $1.7 million debt issuance costs paid. The proceeds from the long-term debt, along with cash on hand, were used to fund a $70.0 million dividend to the partners of JJill Topco Holdings. Financing activities also included a $10.0 million prepayment on our Term Loan and $2.8 million of scheduled repayments on our Term Loan.

Net cash provided by financing activities during the 2015 Successor Period was $389.2 million, primarily consisting of $240.4 million of proceeds from borrowings under our Term Loan, net of $9.6 million debt issuance costs paid, and $160.5 million of equity proceeds, both incurred in connection with the Acquisition. Financing activities also included an $8.6 million distribution to JJill Topco Holdings as reimbursement for Acquisition-related costs and $1.3 million of scheduled repayments of our Term Loan.

Net cash provided by financing activities during the 2015 Predecessor Period was $1.6 million, consisting of $7.3 million of net proceeds from borrowings on our previous revolving credit facility in excess of repayments, which was partially offset by $5.0 million of prepayments and $0.7 million of scheduled repayments on our predecessor term loans.

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Net cash used in financing activities during fiscal year 2014 was $17.1 million, consisting of the use of cash from operations to make voluntary prepayments and scheduled payments of our predecessor term loans.

Dividends

On June 6, 2016, we paid a $70.0 million dividend to the partners of JJill Topco Holdings.

We intend to retain any future earnings for use in the operation and growth of our business, and therefore we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

Credit Facilities

As described above, we entered into our Term Loan and ABL Facility in connection with the Acquisition. Concurrently, we repaid the principal and interest balances outstanding under our previous credit facilities, as required by the respective agreements upon a change-in-control transaction. The following describes the credit facilities entered into in connection with the Acquisition.

On May 8, 2015, we entered into the seven-year Term Loan of $250.0 million in conjunction with the Acquisition. Obligations under the Term Loan are guaranteed by all of our current and future domestic restricted subsidiaries, subject to certain exceptions. Our borrowings under the Term Loan are secured by (i) first-priority liens on substantially all assets other than the ABL Priority Collateral (as defined below) and (ii) second-priority liens on the ABL Priority Collateral, in each case subject to permitted liens and certain exceptions. The Term Loan contains certain terms and conditions which require us to comply with financial and other covenants, including certain restrictions on our ability to incur additional indebtedness, create liens, enter into transactions with affiliates, transfer assets, pay dividends, cause our subsidiaries to pay dividends to us, consolidate or merge with other entities or undergo a change in control, make advances, investments and loans and modify our organizational documents. The financial covenants requiring us to comply with a maximum leverage ratio and limiting our capital expenditures are considered by us to be the covenants which are currently the most restrictive. The maximum leverage ratio covenant requires us not to exceed, with respect to the four quarter period ending January 28, 2017, a ratio of consolidated debt (net of unrestricted cash) to Adjusted EBITDA (subject to certain adjustments under the Term Loan) of 5.0 to 1.0, which steps down to 3.0 to 1.0 over time. The Term Loan contains a financial covenant limiting our capital expenditures to $45.0 million for the fiscal year ending January 28, 2017 plus additional amounts as permitted, decreasing to $27.5 million per fiscal year over time. The Term Loan prohibits our ability to pay dividends to our shareholders and the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends to us, subject to certain exceptions. We may pay dividends, and our subsidiaries may pay dividends to us, if our leverage ratio would not exceed 2.5 to 1.0 after giving effect thereto. We may also pay dividends up to the amount of our retained excess cash flow, plus certain other amounts, if our leverage ratio would not exceed 3.25 to 1.0 after giving effect thereto. The Term Loan contains certain events of default. If a default occurs and is not cured within an applicable cure period or is not waived, our obligations under the Term Loan may be accelerated. The Term Loan allows us to elect, at our own option, the applicable interest rate for borrowings under the Term Loan using a LIBOR or Base Rate variable interest rate plus an applicable margin. LIBOR loans under the Term Loan accrue interest at a rate equal to LIBOR plus 5.00%, with a minimum LIBOR per annum of 1.00%. Base Rate loans under the Term Loan accrue interest at a rate equal to (i) the highest of (a) the prime rate, (b) the Federal Funds Effective Rate plus 0.50%, (c) LIBOR with a one-month interest period plus 1.00% and (d) 2.00%. As of January 28, 2017, we were in compliance with all financial covenants under our Term Loan.

On May 8, 2015, we also entered into the ABL Facility, our five-year secured $40.0 million asset-based revolving credit facility. Obligations under the ABL Facility are guaranteed by all of our current and future domestic restricted subsidiaries, subject to certain exceptions. Our borrowings under the ABL Facility are secured by (i) first-priority liens on accounts, inventory and certain other assets (the “ABL Priority Collateral”) and (ii) second-priority liens on substantially all other assets, in each case subject to permitted liens and certain

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exceptions. The ABL Facility provides for a calculated borrowing base of up to (i) 90% of the net amount of eligible credit card receivables, plus (ii) 85% of the net book value of eligible accounts receivable, plus (iii) the lesser of (A) 100% of the value of eligible inventory and (B) 90% of the net orderly liquidation value of eligible inventory, plus (iv) the least of (A) 100% of the value of eligible in-transit inventory, (B) 90% of the net orderly liquidation value of eligible in-transit inventory and (C) the in-transit maximum amount (the in-transit maximum amount is an amount not to exceed $12.5 million during the 1st and 3rd calendar quarters and $10.0 million during the 2nd and 4th calendar quarters), minus (v) the sum of certain reserves established from time to time by the administrative agent under the ABL Facility.

The ABL Facility allows us to elect, at our own option, the applicable interest rate for borrowings under the ABL Facility using a LIBOR or Base Rate variable interest rate plus an applicable margin. LIBOR loans under the ABL Facility accrue interest at a rate equal to LIBOR plus a spread ranging from 1.50% to 1.75%, subject to availability. Base Rate loans under the ABL Facility accrue interest at a rate equal to (i) the highest of (a) the prime rate, (b) the overnight Federal Funds Effective Rate plus 0.50%, (c) LIBOR with a one-month interest period plus 1.00% and (d) 2.00%, plus (ii) a spread ranging from 0.50% to 0.75%, subject to availability. Principal is payable upon maturity of the ABL Facility on May 8, 2020. The ABL Facility also requires the payment of monthly fees based on the average quarterly unused portion of the commitment, as well as a fee on the balance of the outstanding letters of credit.

The ABL Facility contains certain terms and conditions which require us to comply with financial and other covenants, including certain restrictions on the ability to incur additional indebtedness, create liens, enter into transactions with affiliates, transfer assets, pay dividends, consolidate or merge with other entities, undergo a change in control, make advances, investments and loans or modify our organizational documents. The ABL Facility contains a financial covenant requiring us to maintain a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio of 1.0 to 1.0, with the ratio being Adjusted EBITDA (subject to certain adjustments under the ABL Facility) to fixed charges. The ABL Facility prohibits our ability to pay dividends to our shareholders and the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends to us, subject to certain exceptions. We may pay dividends, and our subsidiaries may pay dividends to us, if our fixed charge coverage ratio is at least 1.0 to 1.0 and our availability under the ABL Facility exceeds certain thresholds after giving effect thereto. The ABL Facility contains certain events of default. If a default occurs and is not cured within an applicable cure period or is not waived, our obligations under the ABL Facility may be accelerated. As of January 28, 2017, we were in compliance with all financial covenants under our ABL Facility.

At January 28, 2017 and January 30, 2016 there were no loan amounts outstanding under the ABL Facility. At those same dates, we had outstanding letters of credit in the amounts of $2.1 million and $1.5 million, respectively. Based on the borrowing terms of the ABL Facility, the maximum additional borrowing capacity was $37.9 million at January 28, 2017 and $38.5 million as of January 30, 2016.

On May 27, 2016, we entered into an agreement to amend our Term Loan to borrow an additional $40.0 million in additional loans, for a total of $288.1 million outstanding, to permit certain dividends and to make certain adjustments to the financial covenant. The other terms and conditions of the Term Loan remained substantially unchanged.

On January 18, 2017, we made a voluntary prepayment of $10.1 million, including accrued interest, on our Term Loan.

See our audited consolidated financial statements and Note 9 thereto for a discussion of our credit facilities prior to the Acquisition.

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Contractual Obligations

We enter into long-term contractual obligations and commitments in the normal course of business. As of January 28, 2017 our outstanding contractual cash obligations were due during the periods presented below.

Off Balance Sheet Arrangements

We are not a party to any off balance sheet arrangements.

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Estimates

Our discussion of results of operations and financial condition is based upon the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and certain assumptions about future events that affect the classification and amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes, including revenue and expenses, assets and liabilities, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. These estimates and assumptions are based on our historical results as well as management’s judgment. Although management believes the judgment applied in preparing estimates is reasonable based on circumstances and information known at the time, actual results could vary materially from estimates based on assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

The most significant accounting estimates involve a high degree of judgment or complexity. Management believes the estimates and judgments most critical to the preparation of our consolidated financial statements and to the understanding of our reported financial results include those made in connection with revenue recognition, including accounting for gift card breakage and estimated merchandise returns; accounting for business combinations; estimating the value of inventory; impairment assessments for goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets, and long-lived assets; and estimating equity-based compensation expense. Management evaluates its policies and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our significant accounting policies related to these accounts in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements are described below (see Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements presented elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding our critical accounting policies).

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Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue and the related cost of merchandise sold when merchandise is received by our customers. Revenue from our retail operations is recognized at the time of sale. Revenue from catalog and E-commerce sales is recognized upon receipt of merchandise by the customer. Discounts provided to customers are recorded as a reduction to sales revenue. The criteria for recognition of revenue is met when persuasive evidence that an arrangement exists, delivery of product has occurred, the price is fixed or determinable and collectability is reasonably assured. In circumstances where either title or risk of loss passes upon receipt by the customer, we defer recognition of revenue until such event occurs, based on shipping records.

At the time sales revenue is recognized, we record a reserve for merchandise returns based on prior returns experience and expected future returns in accordance with our return policy and discretionary returns practices. We monitor our returns experience and resulting reserves on an ongoing basis and we believe our estimates are reasonable. We do not believe there is a reasonable likelihood that there will be a material change in the assumptions used to calculate the allowance for sales returns. However, if the actual cost of sales returns are significantly different than the estimated allowance, our results of operations could be materially affected.

We sell gift cards without expiration dates to customers. Proceeds from the sale of gift cards are deferred and reflected as gift cards redeemable until the customer redeems the gift card or when the likelihood of redemption is remote. Based upon historical experience, we estimate the value of outstanding gift cards that will ultimately not be redeemed (breakage) nor escheated under statutory unclaimed property laws. This amount is recognized as revenue over the time pattern established by our historical gift card redemption experience. We monitor our gift card redemption experience and associated accounting on an ongoing basis. Our historical experience has not varied significantly from amounts historically recorded and we believe our assumptions are reasonable.

Business Combinations

JJill Holdings accounted for the Acquisition under the acquisition method of accounting. We elected to push down the effects of the Acquisition and the application of the acquisition method of accounting to our consolidated financial statements. This method requires allocating the purchase price to the acquisition date fair value of assets acquired, including separately identifiable intangible assets, and liabilities assumed. The excess of the purchase price over the fair value of net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill. Determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed requires management’s judgment, based on available information at the time of acquisition and subsequently obtained during a measurement period up to one year following the date of acquisition, relating to events or circumstances that existed at the acquisition date. Management’s judgment relies upon estimates and assumptions related to future cash flows, discount rates, useful lives of assets, market conditions and other items. The fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination is estimated in accordance with the policies described below.

Inventory: Our inventory consists entirely of finished goods merchandise. Management values the inventory acquired in business combinations based on the income approach, which bases fair value on the net retail value, less operating expenses and a reasonable profit allowance.

Property and equipment: Our property and equipment consists primarily of leasehold improvements, furniture and fixtures, computer software and hardware, and construction in progress. To determine the fair value of property and equipment acquired in a business transaction, we primarily apply the replacement cost approach, which assumes that replacement cost is the best indication of fair value. In certain instances, particularly with respect to determining the fair value of assets with an active secondary market, we also give consideration to the market approach, which is based on current selling prices of similar assets available for purchase in an arms-length transaction.

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Intangible assets other than goodwill: The fair value of intangible assets other than goodwill acquired in a business combination is recorded at fair value at the date of acquisition, as follows:

Trade Name: The fair value of our trade name is determined using the relief-from-royalty method, a variation of the income approach. The relief-from-royalty method determines the present value of the economic royalty savings associated with the ownership or possession of the trade name based on an estimated royalty rate applied to the cash flows to be generated by the business. The estimated royalty rate is determined based on the assessment of a reasonable royalty rate that a third party would negotiate in an arm’s-length license agreement for the use of the trade name.

Customer Relationships: The fair value of customer relationships are calculated using the excess earnings method. Under this method, the value of an intangible asset is equal to the present value of the after-tax cash flows attributable solely to the subject intangible asset, after making adjustments for the required return on and of the other associated assets.

Leasehold interests: Leasehold interests acquired are recorded as intangible real estate assets to the extent the terms of a lease are favorable compared to current market transactions, or as liabilities to the extent lease terms are unfavorable compared to the current market transactions. We assess the value of its assumed leaseholds based on the difference between contractual rent and market rent calculated for each remaining lease year of each lease, discounted to present value. Market rent is estimated by analyzing comparable leases in the location of its retail locations and an assumed annual inflation rate. The rate applied to calculate present value is based upon data available from industry reports. Variations in any of these factors could have an impact on the classification of leaseholds and the value of resulting assets and liabilities. We include favorable and unfavorable leasehold interests as other assets and other liabilities, respectively, on its consolidated balance sheet.

Deferred tax assets and liabilities: We record deferred tax assets and liabilities in connection with a business combination in accordance with the basis of the purchase price consideration for tax purposes as allocated to the assets acquired, based on the established hierarchy of tax regulations.

Merchandise Inventory

Inventory consists of finished goods merchandise held for sale to our customers. Inventory is stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value, net of reserves for inventory. Cost is calculated using the weighted average method of accounting, and includes the cost to purchase merchandise from our manufacturers, duties, commissions and inbound freight.

In the normal course of business, we record inventory reserves based on past and projected sales performance, as well as the inventory on hand. The carrying value of inventory is reduced to estimated net realizable value when factors indicate that merchandise will not be sold on terms sufficient to recover its cost.

We monitor inventory levels, sales trends and sales forecasts to estimate and record reserves for excess, slow-moving and obsolete inventory. We utilize internal channels, including sales catalogs, the internet, and price reductions in retail and outlet stores to liquidate excess inventory. In some cases, external channels such as inventory liquidators are utilized. The prices obtained through these off-price selling methods varies based on many factors. Accordingly, estimates of future sales prices requires management judgment based on historical experience, assessment of current conditions and assumptions about future transactions. In addition, we conduct physical inventory counts to determine and record actual shrinkage. Estimates for shrinkage are recorded between physical counts, based on actual shrinkage experience. Actual shrinkage can vary from these estimates. When observed differences are identified, we adjust our inventory balances accordingly. We believe our assumptions are reasonable, and monitor actual results to adjust estimates and inventory balances on an ongoing basis. We have not made significant changes to our assumptions during the periods presented in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and estimates have not varied significantly from historically recorded amounts.

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Asset Impairment Assessments

Goodwill

We evaluate goodwill annually at year end to determine whether the carrying value reflected on the balance sheet is recoverable, and more frequently if events or circumstances indicate that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its fair value. Our two reporting units applicable to goodwill impairment assessments are defined as our direct and retail sales channels. Examples of impairment indicators that would trigger an impairment assessment of goodwill between annual evaluations include, among others, macro-economic conditions, competitive environment, industry conditions, changes in our profitability and cash flows, and changes in sales trends or customer demand.

We may assess our goodwill for impairment initially using a qualitative approach (“step zero”) to determine whether conditions exist to indicate that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value. If management concludes, based on assessment of relevant events, facts and circumstances, that it is more likely than not that a reporting unit’s fair value is greater than its carrying value, no further impairment testing is required.

If management’s assessment of qualitative factors indicates that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value, then a two-step quantitative assessment is performed. We also have the option to bypass the qualitative assessment described above and proceed directly to the two-step quantitative assessment. “Step one” requires comparing the fair value of a reporting unit to its carrying value, including goodwill. We estimate the fair value of reporting units using the income approach. The income approach uses a discounted cash flow analysis, which involves significant estimates and assumptions, including preparation of revenue and profitability growth forecasts, selection of the discount rate and the terminal year multiple.

If the fair value of the respective reporting unit exceeds its carrying amount, goodwill is not considered to be impaired and no further testing is required. If the carrying amount of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, the second step of the goodwill impairment test is to measure the amount of impairment loss, if any. “Step two” compares the implied fair value of goodwill to the carrying amount of goodwill. The implied fair value of goodwill is determined by a hypothetical purchase price allocation using the reporting unit’s fair value as the purchase price. If the carrying amount of goodwill exceeds the implied fair value, an impairment charge is recorded to write down goodwill to its implied fair value.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016 we performed a step zero test, during the 2015 Successor Period, we performed a step one test, and for fiscal year 2014 we performed a step zero test. Our tests for impairment of goodwill resulted in a determination that the fair value of each reporting unit exceeded the carrying value of its net assets during fiscal year 2016, the 2015 Successor Period and fiscal year 2014. We do not anticipate any material impairment charges in the near term. This analysis contains uncertainties because it requires us to make assumptions and to apply judgments to estimate industry economic factors and the profitability of future business strategies. If actual results are not consistent with our estimates and assumptions, we may be exposed to future impairment losses that could be material.

Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets

Our trade name has been assigned an indefinite life as we currently anticipate that it will contribute cash flows to us indefinitely. Our trade name is reviewed at least annually to determine whether events and circumstances continue to support an indefinite, useful life.

We evaluate our trade name for potential impairment at least annually during the fourth fiscal quarter, or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that its carrying value may not be recoverable. Conditions that may indicate impairment include, but are not limited to, significant loss of market share to a competitor, the

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identification of other impaired assets within a reporting unit, loss of key personnel that negatively and materially has an adverse effect on our operations, the disposition of a significant portion of a reporting unit or a significant adverse change in business climate or regulations.

Impairment losses are recorded to the extent that the carrying value of the indefinite-lived intangible asset exceeds its fair value. We measure the fair value of our trade name using the income approach, which uses a discounted cash flow analysis. The most significant estimates and assumptions inherent in this approach are the preparation of revenue and profitability growth forecasts, selection of the discount rate, and selection of the terminal year multiple.

We assessed the carrying value of intangible assets as described above and determined that no impairment losses were required during fiscal year 2016, the 2015 Successor Period or fiscal year 2014.

Long-Lived Assets

Long-lived assets include definite-lived intangible assets subject to amortization and property and equipment. Long-lived assets obtained in a business combination are recorded at the acquisition-date fair value, while property and equipment purchased in the normal course of business is recorded at cost.

We assess the carrying value of long-lived assets for potential impairment whenever indicators exist that the carrying value of an asset group might not be recoverable. Indicators of impairment include, among others, a significant decrease in the market price of an asset, a significant adverse change in the extent or manner in which an asset is being used or in its physical condition, and operating or cash flow performance that demonstrates continuing losses associated with an asset group.

When indicators of potential impairment exist, we compare the sum of estimated undiscounted future cash flows expected to result from the use and eventual disposition of the asset group to the carrying value of the asset group. If the carrying value of an asset group exceeds the sum of estimated undiscounted future cash flows, we record an impairment loss in the amount required to reduce carrying value of the asset group to fair value. We estimate the fair value of an asset group based on the present value of estimated future cash flows, calculated by discounting the cash flow projections used in the previous step.

We assessed the carrying value of long-lived assets as described above and determined that no impairment losses were required during fiscal year 2016, the 2015 Successor Period, the 2015 Predecessor Period or fiscal year 2014.

Determining the fair value of long-lived assets requires management judgment and relies upon the use of significant estimates and assumptions, including future sales, our margins and cash flows, current and future market conditions, discount rates applied, useful lives and other factors. We believe our assumptions are reasonable based on available information. Changes in assumptions and estimates used in the impairment analysis, or future results that vary from assumptions used in the analysis, could affect the estimated fair value of long-lived intangible assets and could result in impairment charges in a future period.

Equity-based Compensation

Successor

JJill Topco Holdings maintains an Incentive Equity Plan that allows JJill Topco Holdings to grant incentive units to certain of our directors and senior executives, by granting Class A Common Interests (“Common Interests”). During the 2015 Successor Period, JJill Topco Holdings issued Common Interests, which are considered to be equity-classified awards. We recognize the fair value of the awards as compensation expense, net of forfeitures, over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the award. We account for equity-based compensation for JJill Topco Holdings’ Common Interests by recognizing the fair value

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of equity-based compensation as an expense within selling, general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) as the costs are deemed to be for our benefit. Fair value of the awards is determined at the date of grant using an option pricing model. Use of an option pricing model requires that we make assumptions as to the volatility of JJill Topco Holdings’ Common Interests, the expected dividend yield, the expected term and the risk-free interest rate that approximates the expected term. All key assumptions and inputs are the responsibility of management and we believe them to be reasonable.

During the periods presented, JJill Topco Holdings’ Common Interests were not publicly traded. As there has been no public market for JJill Topco Holdings’ Common Interests to date, the estimated fair value of the Common Interests has been determined by JJill Topco Holdings’ board of directors as of the respective grant date of each Common Interest, with input from management, considering as one of the factors the most recently available third-party valuations of common stock and JJill Topco Holdings’ board of directors’ assessment of additional objective and subjective factors that it believed were relevant and which may have changed from the date of the most recent valuation through the date of the grant. These third-party valuations were performed in accordance with the guidance outlined in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Accounting and Valuation Guide, Valuation of Privately-Held-Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation. JJill Topco Holdings’ Common Interests valuation was prepared using the option-pricing method (“OPM”), which uses market approaches to estimate the enterprise value. The OPM treats common interests and preferred stock as call options on the total equity value of a company, with exercise prices based on the value thresholds at which the allocation among the various holders of a company’s securities changes. Under this method, the common interest has value only if the funds available for distribution to stockholders exceeded the value of the preferred stock liquidation preferences at the time of the liquidity event, such as a sale. In addition to considering these valuations, JJill Topco Holdings’ board of directors considered various objective and subjective factors to determine the fair value of JJill Topco Holdings’ common interest as of each grant date, including:

The assumptions underlying these valuations represent management’s best estimates, which involve inherent uncertainties and the application of management judgment. As a result, if factors or expected outcomes change and we use significantly different assumptions or estimates, our equity-based compensation expense could be materially different.

Following our initial public offering on March 9, 2017, the fair value of our common stock is determined based on the quoted market price of our common stock.

Predecessor

During the Predecessor periods, we accounted for compensation expense related to our share-based awards using the intrinsic value method, as permitted by ASC 718 for nonpublic entities, with changes in the value of the share-based awards being recognized as compensation expense at each reporting period. JJIP LLC (“JJIP”), a Limited Partnership, was formed by our then current owners and held a portion of our outstanding common units. A management incentive unit equity program was established by JJIP to provide the opportunity for our key employees to participate in the appreciation of the business. During such periods, service-based and performance-based awards were issued. For service-only share-based awards, we recognized the related compensation expense in the period in which the award holder is required to provide service, which is generally over the required service period.

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For the performance-based awards, vesting occurred upon achievement or satisfaction of a specified performance condition. Such conditions would be met upon the earlier of the attainment of a predetermined return on investment by certain equity investors in the Predecessor entity, or a change in control, whereby all outstanding unvested awards would immediately vest. We considered the probability of achieving the established performance targets in determining our equity-based compensation with respect to these awards at the end of each reporting period. During fiscal year 2014 and the 2015 Predecessor Period, there was no compensation expense recognized for the performance-based awards. The performance conditions of the Predecessor plan were met only on the date of the Acquisition.

Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (JOBS Act)

In April 2012, the JOBS Act was signed into law. The JOBS Act contains provisions that, among other things, reduce certain reporting requirements for an “emerging growth company.” As an “emerging growth company,” we are electing not to take advantage of the extended transition period afforded by the JOBS Act for the implementation of new or revised accounting standards, and, as a result, we will comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for non-emerging growth public companies. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that our decision not to take advantage of the extended transition period is irrevocable.

We have chosen to rely on the other exemptions and reduced reporting requirements provided by the JOBS Act. Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, as an “emerging growth company” we are not required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Act, (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the consolidated financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis) and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation-related items, such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the chief executive officer’s compensation to median employee compensation. We may remain an “emerging growth company” until the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering on March 9, 2017. However, if certain events occur prior to the end of such five-year period, including if we become a “large accelerated filer,” our annual gross revenue equals or exceeds $1.0 billion or we issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt in any three-year period, we will cease to be an “emerging growth company” prior to the end of such five-year period.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 3 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information regarding recently issued accounting pronouncements.

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Interest Rate Risk

We are subject to interest rate risk in connection with borrowings under the Term Loan and ABL Facility, which bear interest at variable rates equal to LIBOR plus a margin as defined in the respective agreements described above. As of January 28, 2017, there was no outstanding balance under the ABL Facility, and $2.1 million letters of credit outstanding. The undrawn borrowing availability under the ABL Facility was $37.9 million and the amount outstanding under the Term Loan had increased to $276.0 million as a result of the amendment described above. We currently do not engage in any interest rate hedging activity and we have no intention to do so in the foreseeable future. Based on the interest rate on the ABL Facility at January 28, 2017, and the schedule of outstanding borrowings under our Term Loan, a 10% change in our current interest rate would affect net income by $1.1 million during fiscal year 2017.

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Impact of Inflation

Our results of operations and financial condition are presented based on historical cost. While it is difficult to accurately measure the impact of inflation due to the imprecise nature of the estimates required, we believe the effects of inflation, if any, on our results of operations and financial condition have been immaterial. We cannot assure you our business will not be affected in the future by inflation.

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

The financial statements required to be filed pursuant to this Item 8 are appended to this report. An index of those financial statements is found in Item 15.

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Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed in the reports we file or submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Our management, under the supervision of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form-10-K. Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form-10-K our disclosure controls and procedures were effective to provide such reasonable assurance.

Limitations on the Effectiveness of Controls and Procedures

In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures, our management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and our management is required to apply judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs. The design of any disclosure controls and procedures also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions.

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

This Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include a report of management’s assessment regarding internal control over financial reporting or an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm due to a transition period established by SEC rules and regulations for newly public companies.

Remediation of Previously-Identified Material Weaknesses in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

As we previously disclosed, in connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of January 30, 2016 and for the period from May 8, 2015 through January 30, 2016, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We determined that we did not maintain a sufficient complement of personnel with the appropriate level of accounting expertise and supervisory review structure commensurate with the complexity of our financial accounting and financial reporting requirements. We also did not design and maintain controls related to the accounting for business combinations. Specifically, we did not design controls to review certain purchase accounting adjustments such as the amortization of customer intangibles. These control deficiencies resulted in audit adjustments to our consolidated financial statements and could result in material misstatements to our annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Accordingly, management determined that these control deficiencies constitute material weaknesses.

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In response to the identified material weaknesses, we took a number of actions to improve our internal control over financial reporting during the year ended January 28, 2017, including the following:

Management believes that these and other actions taken during the fiscal year ended January 28, 2017 have been implemented and are operating effectively. As a result, we have concluded that our remediation efforts have been successful, and that the previously-identified material weaknesses in our internal controls have been remediated. However, while these material weaknesses have been remediated, we continue to seek improvements to enhance our control environment and to strengthen our internal controls.

Item 9B. Other Information

Not applicable.

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PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

The following table sets forth the name, age and position of each of our executive officers and directors.

Executive Officers

Paula Bennett was appointed President of J.Jill in January 2008 and was named Chief Executive Officer in July 2009. She has also served on our board of directors since our conversion to a corporation in February 2017 and served on the board of directors of our former parent companies since 2009. Ms. Bennett is responsible for the strategic leadership, growth and profitability of the brand and business, while guiding the organization successfully through profitable turnaround and ownership transitions. Ms. Bennett has over 35 years of retail management experience and has extensive expertise in apparel merchandising, buying, marketing and brand building across both direct and retail marketing channels. Prior to joining J.Jill, Ms. Bennett served as President and Chief Executive Officer of a number of portfolio companies of Orchard Brands Corporation, a direct marketing company. From 1998 through 2005, Ms. Bennett was Chief Operating Officer of Eileen Fisher, Inc., where she led the development of the retail portfolio while launching the E-commerce business. Earlier in her career, she also served as Vice President of Retail Sales at Calvin Klein Collection. From 1987 through 1995, Ms. Bennett held significant leadership positions at Tiffany & Co., including Vice President of Sales and Customer Service, Vice President and General Manager of the Fifth Avenue Flagship store, Vice President of Retail Administration and Vice President of the Trade Division. Ms. Bennett began her career in buying and merchandise management at Bloomingdale’s, and later, Federated Merchandising Services. Ms. Bennett is a graduate of The Ohio State University. She was selected to serve on our board of directors because of her experience as an apparel industry executive, including as our Chief Executive Officer, and her extensive knowledge of the omni-channel and women’s apparel industry.

David Biese joined J.Jill as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in August 2009 and is responsible for providing strategic guidance on all financial matters, as well as the Real Estate and Distribution functions. Until the recent hiring of our Chief Information Officer and General Counsel, Mr. Biese was responsible for information services and legal oversight. Before joining J.Jill, he was Senior Vice President of Merchandise Operations for Trans World Entertainment Corporation (“FYE”), a publicly held national specialty retailer. He previously served as Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at FYE. Earlier in his career, Mr. Biese was Vice President and Controller at Carson Pirie Scott & Co., a department store division of publicly held Saks Incorporated. Mr. Biese is a Certified Public Accountant and started his career as a public accountant at KPMG. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.

Joann Fielder has served as J.Jill’s Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising and Creative Officer since July 2015. Ms. Fielder joined J.Jill in September 2011 as Senior Vice President of Design, Product Development and Sourcing. She was promoted to Senior Vice President, Chief Creative Officer in August 2013.

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Ms. Fielder has extensive experience in design and product development. Prior to joining J.Jill, Ms. Fielder served as Senior Vice President and Chief Design Officer at Avenue. Prior to her role at Avenue, she served as Executive Vice President of Design Development at Ann Taylor. Earlier in her career, Ms. Fielder also held roles as Vice President of Merchandising for Brooks Brothers and Vice President of Product Development for Talbots. Ms. Fielder is a graduate of The Tobe Coburn School.

Board of Directors

Michael Rahamim has served as Chairman of the board of directors of J.Jill since our conversion to a corporation in February 2017 and served as Chairman of the board of directors of our former parent company since May 2015. From January 2011 through January 2014, Mr. Rahamim served as the Executive Chairman of Phase Eight (Fashion & Designs) Limited (“Phase Eight”), a portfolio company of TowerBrook, our principal stockholder, and remained Chairman of the Board until January 2015, when Phase Eight was sold. Mr. Rahamim has over 20 years of experience in the fashion retail industry. In 1992, Mr. Rahamim developed the UK franchise of Kookai S.A., a French high fashion business, and introduced the Sandro and Maje French high fashion brands to the UK. Mr. Rahamim has previously worked in soft commodities and financial futures and was one of the founding seat holders on the London International Financial Futures Exchange. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1977. Mr. Rahimim currently serves as a director of Kaporal Jeans and has served as a director of Whistles Limited from March 2009 until April 2016. He is also a member of the Senior Advisory Board of TowerBrook. Mr. Rahamim was selected to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive understanding of the International fashion retail industry through his experience in leadership positions and his investments with other retailers.

Andrew Rolfe has served as a director of J.Jill since our conversion to a corporation in February 2017 and served on the board of directors of our former parent company since May 2015. Mr. Rolfe has served as a Managing Director and the Head of Private Equity, USA of TowerBrook, our principal stockholder, since January 2011. Mr. Rolfe is also the Chairman of the Portfolio Committee and a member of the Management Committee at TowerBrook. Prior to joining TowerBrook, Mr. Rolfe served as President of The Gap Inc.’s (“The Gap”) International Division from November 2003 until February 2006, where he also served as a member of the Executive Leadership Team. Mr. Rolfe has also held roles as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pret A Manger (Europe) Ltd and the Chief Executive Officer of Booker Foodservice. He currently serves as a director of True Religion Apparel, Inc., Wilton Industries, Inc., Kaporal Jeans and Beverages & More, Inc. Mr. Rolfe received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.A. from Oxford University. He was selected to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive experience in leadership positions in the retail industry.

Travis Nelson has served as a director of J.Jill since our conversion to a corporation in February 2017 and served on the board of directors of our former parent company since May 2015. Mr. Nelson has served as a Managing Director at TowerBrook, our principal stockholder, since January 2011. Prior to joining TowerBrook, Mr. Nelson co-founded Pacific Partners LLC (“Pacific Partners”), a private equity firm specializing in healthcare, media and communications investments and served as a Managing Director from 2000 to 2005. Prior to founding Pacific Partners, Mr. Nelson served as a Principal at Oak Hill Capital Management where he worked on private investments in a wide range of companies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Nelson was an investment professional at Goldman Sachs and Freeman Spogli & Co., and served as a consultant to the CEO of NetJets. He currently serves as a director of Vistage International, Inc., Floworks International, LLC, True Religion Apparel, Inc. and Beverages & More, Inc. Mr. Nelson earned his B.A. from DePauw University and received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was selected to serve on our board of directors because of his broad finance experience, including extensive experience in financing and mergers and acquisitions.

Marka Hansen has served as a director of J.Jill since our conversion to a corporation in February 2017 and served on the board of directors of our former parent company since May 2015. Ms. Hansen previously served as a Retail Consultant at Stitch Fix, Inc. from February 2013 to August 2013. Prior to that, she was the President of Gap North America from February 2007 until February 2011. Ms. Hansen served as the President of Banana

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Republic, LLC, a division of The Gap, from June 2003 until February 2007, and has served in various leadership positions at The Gap since joining the company in 1987. Ms. Hansen currently serves as a director of Sur la Table, Stitch Fix, Inc., The Orvis Company, Inc. and True Religion Apparel, Inc. She received her B.A. in Liberal Studies from Loyola Marymount University. Ms. Hansen was selected to serve on our board of directors because of her extensive experience in leadership positions in the retail industry.

Michael Recht has served as a director of J.Jill since our conversion to a corporation in February 2017 and served on the board of directors of our former parent company since May 2015. Mr. Recht has served as a Senior Principal at TowerBrook, our principal stockholder, since August 2013. From August 2010 to August 2013, Mr. Recht was a Senior Associate with the Retail & Consumer team at Apax Partners LLP (“Apax”). Prior to joining Apax, Mr. Recht was an Associate at Thoma Cressey Bravo where he focused on investments in the consumer products and services sector. Prior to that, Mr. Recht was a member of the Technology & Defense teams at CIBC World Markets. He currently serves as a director of Wilton Industries, Inc. He received his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.A. from Williams College. Mr. Recht was selected to serve on our board of directors because of his broad finance experience, particularly in the retail and consumer products industry.

Michael Eck has served as a director of J.Jill since our conversion to a corporation in February 2017 and served on the board of directors of our former parent company since November 2016. Mr. Eck was the Global Head of the Consumer and Retail Investment Banking Group at Morgan Stanley from 2008 until his retirement in 2014. Prior to that, Mr. Eck worked at Citigroup from 1993 to 2008, where he was the Global Head of the Consumer and Retail Banking Group, and at Credit Suisse First Boston from 1987 to 1993. In January 2016, Mr. Eck joined M Klein and Company, a global strategic advisory firm, as a Senior Advisor. He is currently an independent board member of Blue Buffalo Pet Products, Inc., a publicly-held leading natural pet food company, where he serves as Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Eck is also a board member of USA Ultimate and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Steer for Student Athletes. In addition, he previously served as a member of the Senior Advisory Board of Shopkick. Mr. Eck received his Masters in Management from Northwestern University and his B.S. in Business from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He was selected to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive knowledge of corporate strategy, corporate financing and accounting, capital investment and operations and the consumer sector.

Linda Heasley has served as a director of J.Jill since March 2017. Ms. Heasley has served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Honey Baked Ham Company, LLC since February 2017. From February 2013 to September 2016, she was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Lane Bryant, Inc., a division of Ascena Retail Group, Inc., and from October 2016 to February 2017, she was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Plus Fashion Segment, also a division of Ascena Retail Group, Inc. Prior to that, Ms. Heasley served as the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Limited Stores LLC from August 2007 until February 2013. She has held senior leadership roles at CVS Health Corporation, Timberland LLC and Limited Brands, Inc. Ms. Heasley received her M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and her A.B. from Harvard University. She was selected to serve on our board of directors because of her expertise in women’s apparel businesses and her extensive experience in leadership positions in the retail industry.

Family Relationships

There are no family relationships among any of our directors or executive officers.

Board Composition

Our board of directors consists of eight members. Each director is to hold office until his or her successor is duly elected and qualified or until his or her earlier death, resignation or removal. The authorized number of each class of directors may be increased or decreased by the stockholders in accordance with our bylaws. At any meeting of the board of directors, except as otherwise required by law, a majority of the total number of directors then in office will constitute a quorum for all purposes.

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Our certificate of incorporation provides that the board of directors is divided into three classes of directors, with staggered three-year terms, with the classes to be as nearly equal in number as possible. As a result, approximately one-third of the board of directors will be elected each year. The classification of directors has the effect of making it more difficult for stockholders to change the composition of the board of directors.

We are party to a Stockholders Agreement with TowerBrook. Under the Stockholders Agreement, TowerBrook has the right, to designate for nomination representatives to our board of directors and committees of our board of directors. TowerBrook is currently entitled to designate for nomination five of our eight directors.

Board Committees

Our board of directors has established an audit committee, a compensation committee and a nominating and corporate governance committee. Each of these committees operates under a charter that has been approved by our board of directors.

Audit Committee

Our audit committee assists our board of directors in monitoring the audit of our consolidated financial statements, our independent registered public accounting firm’s qualifications and independence, the performance of our audit function and independent auditors and our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The audit committee has direct responsibility for the appointment, compensation, retention (including termination) and oversight of our independent auditors, and our independent auditors report directly to the audit committee. The audit committee also reviews and approve related party transactions as required by the applicable NYSE rules.

Michael Eck, Travis Nelson, Michael Rahamim and Linda Heasley serve on our audit committee. Our board of directors has determined that Michael Eck, Michael Rahamim and Linda Heasley are “independent” for purposes of Rule 10A-3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and under the listing standards of the NYSE. Our board of directors has determined that Michael Eck is an “audit committee financial expert” as such term is defined in Item 407(d)(5) of Regulation S-K.

Compensation Committee

Our compensation committee is responsible for reviewing and recommending policies relating to the compensation and benefits of our directors and employees, including our Chief Executive Officer and other executive officers.

Because we are a “controlled company” under the rules of the NYSE, our compensation committee is not required to be comprised entirely of “independent” directors, although if such rules change in the future or we no longer meet the definition of a controlled company under the current rules, we will adjust the composition of the compensation committee accordingly in order to comply with such rules. Andrew Rolfe, Marka Hansen, Michael Rahamim and Michael Recht serve on our compensation committee.

The compensation committee has the sole authority to retain and terminate any compensation consultant to assist in the evaluation of employee compensation and to approve the consultant’s fees and the other terms and conditions of the consultant’s retention.

Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee

Our nominating and corporate governance committee is responsible for selecting or recommending that our board of directors select candidates for election to our board of directors, developing and recommending to the board of directors corporate governance guidelines that are applicable to us and overseeing board of director and management evaluations.

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Because we are a “controlled company” under the NYSE rules, our nominating and corporate governance committee is not required to be comprised entirely of “independent” directors, although if such rules change in the future or we no longer meet the definition of a controlled company under the current rules, we will adjust the composition of our nominating and corporate governance committee accordingly in order to comply with such rules. Linda Heasley, Andrew Rolfe and Travis Nelson serve on our nominating and corporate governance committee.

Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance

Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act requires our directors, executive officers and beneficial owners of more than 10% of our common stock to file reports with the SEC regarding their ownership and changes in ownership of our securities. Our directors, executive officers and beneficial owners of more than 10% of our common stock did not become subject to such Section 16(a) reporting requirements until March 8, 2017, after the completion of fiscal year 2016.

Code of Business Conduct and Ethics

Our board of directors has adopted a code of conduct and ethics that applies to all of our directors, officers and employees and is intended to comply with the relevant listing requirements for a code of conduct as well as qualify as a “code of ethics” as defined by the rules of the SEC. The statement contains general guidelines for conducting our business consistent with the highest standards of business ethics. We intend to disclose future amendments to certain provisions of our code of conduct and ethics, or waivers of such provisions applicable to any principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer and controller, or persons performing similar functions, and our directors, on our website at www.jjill.com. The code of conduct and ethics is available on our website at www.jjill.com.

Board Leadership Structure and Board’s Role in Risk Oversight

The board of directors has an oversight role, as a whole and also at the committee level, in overseeing management of its risks. The board of directors regularly reviews information regarding our credit, liquidity and operations, as well as the risks associated with each. The compensation committee of the board of directors is responsible for overseeing the management of risks relating to its employee compensation plans and arrangements and the audit committee of the board of directors oversees the management of financial risks. While each committee is responsible for evaluating certain risks and overseeing the management of such risks, the entire board of directors is regularly informed through committee reports about such risks.

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Item 11. Executive Compensation

Summary Compensation Table

The following summary compensation table sets forth information regarding the compensation paid to, awarded to, or earned by our President and Chief Executive Officer and our two other most highly compensated executive officers for services rendered in all capacities during the years ended January 30, 2016 and January 28, 2017.