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Burlington Stores, Inc.

For the period ended May 20, 2025. Filed Apr 3, 2025.

View on SEC.gov

About this filing

What shareholders are asked to vote on at a company's meeting. It is where to find what directors and top executives are paid, and who owns the most shares.

May 20, 2025 · Filed Apr 3, 2025

Use the contents to explore the available documents and sections.

BURL$246.76-1.6%Stored close · as of Nov 6, 2026
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Contents

PROXY STATEMENT SUMMARY

This summary highlights information about Burlington Stores, Inc. (referred to in this Proxy Statement as “we,” “us,” “our,” “Burlington” or the “Company”), our Board of Directors (the “Board” or the “Board of Directors”) and our upcoming 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “Annual Meeting” or “2025 Annual Meeting”) contained elsewhere in this Proxy Statement. This summary does not contain all of the information you should consider, and you should read the entire Proxy Statement carefully before voting.

This Proxy Statement includes several website addresses and references to additional materials found on those websites, including our Corporate Social Responsibility Report. These websites and materials are provided for convenience only and the content on the referenced websites is not incorporated by reference herein and does not constitute a part of the Proxy Statement or any of the Company’s other SEC filings.

Annual Meeting Information

Date and Time:Tuesday, May 20, 20258:00 a.m. Eastern Time
Location:Virtually online via live audio webcast at: www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/BURL2025
Record Date:March 26, 2025

Voting Matters and Board Recommendations

The Board of Directors recommends that you vote as follows on each proposal:

Voting Matter · Board’s Recommendation · Page Reference
Proposal 1:Election of Four Directors Nominated by the Board and Named in this Proxy StatementFOR each director nominee11
Proposal 2:Ratification of Appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the Company’s Independent Registered Certified Public Accounting Firm for the Fiscal Year Ending January 31, 2026FOR38
Proposal 3:Non-Binding Advisory Approval of the Compensation of the Company’s Named Executive Officers (“Say-On-Pay”)FOR41
Proposal 4:Approval of the First Amendment to the Burlington Stores, Inc. 2022 Omnibus Incentive PlanFOR77
2|Burlington Stores, Inc. 2025 Proxy Statement

PROXY STATEMENT SUMMARY

Company Overview

Headquartered in New Jersey, we are a nationally recognizedoff-price retailer with net sales of $10.6 billion for the fiscal year ended February 1, 2025 (“fiscal 2024”). We are a Fortune 500 company and our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BURL.” We operated 1,108 stores as of the end of fiscal 2024 in 46 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, principally under the name Burlington Stores. Our stores offer an extensive selection ofin-season, fashion-focused merchandise at up to 60% off other retailers’ prices, including women’sready-to-wear apparel, menswear, youth apparel, baby, beauty, footwear, accessories, home, toys, gifts and coats.

Under the oversight of our Board of Directors, we continue to focus on a number of ongoing initiatives aimed at increasing our overall profitability, including:

•Driving Comparable Store Sales Growth
•Expanding and Enhancing Our Retail Store Base
•Enhancing Operating Margins

These strategies, which are more fully discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2024 (the “fiscal 202410-K”), are designed to drive long-term value for our stockholders and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Fiscal 2024 Performance

In fiscal 2024 we delivered strong financial results. Below is a summary of our 52-week fiscal 2024 performance compared with our 53-week fiscal year ended February 3, 2024 (“fiscal 2023”):

•We generated total revenues of $10,635 million compared with $9,727 million in fiscal 2023
•Total sales increased 9%
•Net income increased 48% to $504 million, or $7.80 per share vs. $5.23 per share in fiscal 2023

For the 52 weeks ended February 1, 2025 compared with the 52 weeks ended January 27, 2024, and excluding approximately $16 million and $18 million, respectively, of expenses associated with bankruptcy acquired leases:

•Total sales increased 11% and comparable store sales increased 4%
•Adjusted Net Income increased 33% to $540 million and Adjusted EPS was $8.35 vs. $6.24, an increase of 34%
•Adjusted EBIT increased 28% to $761 million

We opened 101 net new stores and relocated 31 of our older oversized locations in fiscal 2024.

In fiscal 2024 we also strengthened our balance sheet, enhanced our liquidity position, and returned significant excess cash to our stockholders. We increased our Term Loan facility to $1,250 million to allow us to continue executing on our strategic initiatives such as growing our store base and owning critical infrastructure like our distribution centers. We also returned $242 million to stockholders through common stock repurchases, and we ended the fiscal year with $1.8 billion in liquidity, including $995 million in cash.

Information regarding how we calculate Adjusted Net Income (which is divided by our fully diluted weighted average shares outstanding for fiscal 2024 of 64,595 thousand and for fiscal 2023 of 64,917 thousand to arrive at Adjusted EPS) and Adjusted EBIT, and a reconciliation of thosenon-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is contained in Appendix A.

Burlington Stores, Inc. 2025 Proxy Statement|3

PROXY STATEMENT SUMMARY

Governance Highlights

Our Board believes that good corporate governance promotes the long-term interests of stockholders, enhances Board and management accountability and helps build public trust in the Company. The Corporate Governance section beginning on page 21 describes our corporate governance framework and commitment. Highlights of our corporate governance practices include:

•Board will be fully declassified by the 2027 Annual Meeting of Stockholders
•Independent Board Chair
•10 out of 11 directors are independent
•4 out of 11 directors (36%) are female
•3 out of 11 directors (27%) reflect an ethnic/racial background
•At least 75% director and committee meeting attendance during fiscal 2024
•Majority voting standard and director resignation policy for directors in uncontested elections
•Proxy access for director candidates nominated by eligible stockholders
•Majority of director compensation paid in stock
•Annual Board, director and committee self-evaluations
•No unequal voting rights
•Robust CEO, executive and non-employee director stock ownership guidelines
•Corporate Governance Guidelines limit director membership on other public company boards
•Board oversight of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters
•Robust stockholder engagement program, engaging with stockholders representing approximately 59% of our outstanding shares in conversations on governance, executive compensation, and ESG matters
•No stockholder rights plan or “poison pill”

Board of Directors

The following table provides summary information about our directors. Additional information about each director’s background and experience can be found beginning on page 12.

Committee Memberships (1)
NamePrimary or Former OccupationAgeDirector SinceIndependentACCCNCGC
John J. MahoneyRetired Vice Chairman, Staples, Inc. Chairman of the Board732013✓
Ted EnglishExecutive Chairman, Bob’s Discount Furniture712016✓●●
Shira GoodmanFormer Chief Executive Officer, Staples, Inc.642025✓●
Michael GoodwinFormer Senior Vice President, Chief Information Technology Officer, PetSmart, Inc.642020✓●
Jordan HitchFormer Managing Director, Bain Capital582006✓C●
William McNamaraRetired President, Macy’s Reinvent Strategies, Macy’s, Inc.742014✓●
Michael O’SullivanChief Executive Officer, Burlington Stores, Inc.612019
Jessica RodriguezFormer Chief Marketing Officer and President of Entertainment, Univision Communications Inc.522018✓●
Laura J. SenFormer Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc.682018✓●
Paul J. SullivanRetired Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP772012✓C
Mary Ann TocioRetired President and Chief Operating Officer, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Inc.762015✓●C
(1)NCGC = Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee; CC = Compensation Committee; AC = Audit Committee; C = Chair
4|Burlington Stores, Inc. 2025 Proxy Statement

PROXY STATEMENT SUMMARY

Board Composition Highlights

The Board takes a thoughtful and deliberate approach to Board composition to ensure that our directors have a range of backgrounds, talents, skills, character, experience and expertise sufficient to provide sound and prudent guidance with respect to our operations and interests. Some of the key features of our Board composition are as follows:

Corporate Social Responsibility

Our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) is reflected in our most recent annual CSR report, covering fiscal year 2023, which discusses our efforts, including focus areas covering ESG issues of greatest importance to our business and stakeholders. Our CSR efforts, which the Board oversees, are reflected across the following five pillars:

AssociatesSupply ChainCommunitiesGovernance and EthicsEnvironment

Additional information about our CSR efforts can be found on page 33. We expect to publish our CSR report covering fiscal year 2024 in late Summer 2025.

Burlington Stores, Inc. 2025 Proxy Statement|5

PROXY STATEMENT SUMMARY

Executive Compensation Program Highlights

Our objective is to have an executive compensation program that will allow us to attract and retain executive officers of a caliber and level of experience necessary to effectively manage our business and to motivate those executive officers to drive stockholder value, consistent with our Core Values as described on page 33.

In fiscal 2024, approximately 89.6% of the target annual compensation for Mr. O’Sullivan, our Chief Executive Officer (the “CEO”), and approximately 81.5% of the average target annual compensation for our named executive officers (“NEOs”) other than Mr. O’Sullivan, was“at-risk.”

Significant features of our executive compensation program include:

✓Alignment of pay with Company financial performance
✓65% of annual long-term incentive grants to NEOs in 2025 will be performance-based awards, increased from 50% for pre-2025 annual grants
✓Balance short-term and long-term incentives
✓Limits on annual incentive award and PSU award payments
✓Robust CEO and executive stock ownership guidelines
✓Share grants managed carefully to minimize shareholder dilution
✓Robust compensation recoupment (or “clawback”) policy
✓Annual stockholder Say-on-Pay votes
✓Annual compensation risk assessment
✓Compensation Committee uses independent consultant
×No excise tax gross-ups
×No stock options granted below fair market value
×No evergreen provision or reload options
×No liberal share recycling
×No hedging or pledging of Company stock by executive officers or directors
×No automatic “single-trigger” change in control vesting of equity awards
×No pension plans or supplemental executive retirement plans (SERPs)
×No guaranteed bonuses or salary increases
×No stock option repricing without stockholder approval

Please see the Compensation Discussion and Analysis beginning on page 45 for an overview of our executive compensation program together with a description of the material factors underlying the decisions that resulted in the fiscal 2024 compensation provided to the NEOs identified below.

Named Executive Officers
Michael O’SullivanChief Executive Officer
Kristin WolfeExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Jennifer VecchioGroup President and Chief Merchandising Officer
Travis MarquettePresident and Chief Operating Officer
Matthew PaschExecutive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
6|Burlington Stores, Inc. 2025 Proxy Statement

2025 Proxy Statement

This Proxy Statement and the accompanying materials are being made available to stockholders of Burlington Stores, Inc. beginning on or about April 3, 2025. In this Proxy Statement, you will find information on the matters to be presented at the Annual Meeting and information to assist you in voting your shares.

ContentsView on SEC.gov

The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.