Q1 2023 Helen of Troy Ltd Earnings Call
Speaker 1: That have that that.
Speaker 2: Coordinate.
Speaker 3: I would now like to turn the call over to Jack chanson, Senior Vice President of corporate business development. Thank you, you may bebeggood. Thank you, operator. Good morning everyone and welcome to hollenroy's first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings conference call. The agented for the call this morning is followlos ihelping beghim with a brief discussion of forward-looking statements. Mr Julian minberg, the company's CEO , will comment on the financial performance of the quarter and current trends.
Speaker 4: Then Mr Matt onheardred, the company's CFO will review the financials in more detail and provide an update on our financial outlook for fiscal' twenty-three-three.
Speaker 4: Following this, we will take questions here that for us today.
Speaker 4: This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectation with respect to future events or financial performance generally. The words anticipates belives expects, in other words similar, are words identifying forward-looking statements.
Speaker 4: Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause anticipated results to differ materially from the actual results.
Speaker 4: This conference call may also include information that may be considered non-GAAP financial information. These non-GAAP measures are not an alternative to GAAP financial information and may be calculated differently than the non-GAAP financial information disclosed by other parties.
Speaker 4: The company casts listoners not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or non-GAAP financial information.
Speaker 4: Before I turn the call over to Mr vinberg, I would like to inform all interested parties that a copy of today's earnings release has been posted to the Investor Relations section of the company's website at W lmetroy com. The earnings release contains tables that reconcile non-GAAP financial measures to their corresponding GAAP-based measures.
Speaker 4: The release can be obtained by selecting the Investor Relations tab on the company's home page and then the press releases tab. I will now turn the conference call over to Mr manberg.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Jack. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: Today I would like to talk about our first quarter results.
Speaker 3: The new headwinds that have emerged in the macro environments since our April call and our revised outlook for this fiscal year.
Speaker 4: I will also introduce several new initiatives we are implementing right now to address those headwinds, as well as a broader project we are launching this summer intended to realize additional improvements to our efficiency and overall cost structure.
Speaker 3: Starting with the quarter-quarter, we are very pleased to report consolidated revenue and adjusted diluted EPS above the outlook ranges we provided in April .
Speaker 4: The results for the quarter speak to the hard work throughout hell and Troy as we navigate what has rapidly become an even more challenging environment than we are, retail customers and consumers expected.
Speaker 4: Core sales declined 2% in by far the toughest comparison period of the year.
Speaker 4: As a reminder, we grew core sales thirty-point 4% in the first quarter of last year.
Speaker 4: As noted in our April release, retail customers pulled approximately $2 million in sales from this quarter into the fourth quarter of last fiscal year as they replenish their inventory levels from strong POS and some accelerated purchases ahead of our price increases.
Speaker 4: As also noted in our April call, we saw consumer buying patterns begin to change in March and April , resulting in a slowdown in demand in some categories.
Speaker 4: That continued in May as consumers adjusted that their purchasing patterns and began addressing rising inflation on Basics such as gasoline food, and faced the bike from escalating interest rates.
Speaker 3: In this environment, now more than ever, our efforts are focused on reinforcing the value and excellence our diversified portfolio trusted leadership brands provide to consumers.
Speaker 3: Looking at our business segments, home and outdoor led the way with 21% growth in the quarter. hydroflaskque saw healthy sales growth at brick-and-mortar, particularly in the sporting goods, collegiate and grocery channels.
Speaker 4: Online and international were also strongper for hyroplask.
Speaker 4: The insulated hydration botle category gained momentum growing over the prior year as consumers return to prepandemic levels of activity, such as travel, sporting events and in-person schooling.
Speaker 4: Hydro flass flwidits market share over the past 52 weeks as consumers continue to favor our brand.
Speaker 4: Oxo faced an especially tough comparison period versus year ago sales. This quarter were also impacted by the forward pull of some retail orders into the fourth quarter of last fiscal year and by a slowdown in the growth rate of the kitchen gadget category, as consumers shifted some spending away from home-related goods and adjusted their budgets to address inflation.
Speaker 3: orey performed well and in line with our expectations, despite some short-term production challenges and transit delays. As we catch up on inventory from the prior year, supply chain interruptions.
Speaker 3: Our integration plans are on track. one example: during the quarter with the integration of all three home and outdoor brands, oxohydroflat and ospray under one European go-to-market operation to begin leveraging the combined outdoor expertise of ospray and Hydro flab and benefit from the scale of our larger company-wide EMEA regional market organization.
Speaker 4: We are very excited about the growth prospects of this leadership brand.
Speaker 3: Turning to beauty, core segment sales declined by 15% in extremely difficult compared to the segment's core growth of 109% in the first quarter of last year.
Speaker 3: While sales this quarter were partially impacted by slowing consumer demand in the hair appliance category. Over the past four years. Our beauty hair appliances have gained significant market share in brick-and-mortar and gained even more market share on long.
Speaker 3: That growth in share is a strong, positive reflection of the power of consumer-centric innovation, of successful acquisition and to a much more capable organization that is deeply connected to the global shared services platform built under our transformation strategy.
Speaker 4: On the press. These liquid sides dry bar continueed to perform well, growing over the prior year as we return to better in-stock positions to meet the high demand.
Speaker 3: earill Smith performed well in this quarter, and this integration plan is also on track.
Speaker 4: While we're on beauty, some of you may have questions regarding the June bankruptcy filing by reffllon inkc, So I wanted to take a moment to address that matter, as it pertains to hell a tre.
Speaker 3: We have been licensing the Revlon brand for hair appliances for 30 years. We are an unaffiliated and sector company from Revlon inkc and therefore do not have specific information regarding their filing beyond what is in the public domain.
Speaker 3: Revlon's public statement emphasize their intention to operate their business normally, as they strategically reorganized and emerge as a healthier company operating a portfolio of strong consummer brands, including their flagship revlam brands.
Speaker 3: Based on publicly available information, we do not currently anticipate any material impact on our hairo clients business or on our ability to use the well-regarded Revlon brand name over the term of our 100 -year license.
Speaker 3: Turning to healthy wellness. The sales decline of 17% was slightly better than our expectation for the quarter.
Speaker 4: While health-related categories such as thermometers and air purifiers continue to moderate off the historic high basis set in the peak of the pandemic. It is important to note that, even with the impact of the EPA matter, overall health and wellness segment sales are up 9% this quarter versus the plele pandemic levels in the first quarter of fiscal 'twenty.
Speaker 4: unidification sales grew this quarter behind strong POS and lean retailer inventories.
Speaker 4: Market share for fixed apror pads grew strongly in the quarter. Heaters and diagnostics were also strong, including the bron pul-upck simmeter.
Speaker 4: In the U's for thermometers, we continue to earn market share gains.
Speaker 4: We have grown our share in 16 of the past 20 months.
Speaker 4: We are proud to continue earning consumers' trust and viics and bron thermometers to help take care of their families.
Speaker 4: Our market share and air purifiers has improved since the impact of the EPA matter in fiscal' twenty-two.
Speaker 4: The capturing more of that share is our primary focus in near purification, as we finish the repackaging work and as we return more and more of our line-up to the point of sale, where these products will make a difference for consumers.
Speaker 4: Similarly in water purification. I am pleased to note that pure has largely recovered the majority of its market share following the EPA matter.
Speaker 4: I would now like to turn to our revised full year fiscal' 23 outlook.
Speaker 4: Since our April earnings release, it has been well publicized that the macroeconomic environment has changed significantly.
Speaker 4: Consumers are shifting their buying patterns and adapting to a number of factors, including the impact of higher-than-expected inflation and interest rates rising more rapidly than previously signaled by central bankers.
Speaker 4: In response, many of our major retail customers announced actions to rebalance their inventory, stemming from rapid revisions to their sales forecasts.
Speaker 4: Our revised fiscal year outlook reflects our current assessment of the impact from these new headwinds on our business.
Speaker 3: With regard to the retailer inventory announcements made in May and June , the major players noted higher levels than made themselves expected and described their plans to rebalance their Holdings in the coming months.
Speaker 4: Our outlook includes our current assessment of the impact from the resulting slowdown in our shipment as they carry out these rightsizing plants.
Speaker 3: We are in close contact with our retail partners to help them meet the demand for our trusted and consumer-preferred products.
Speaker 3: We believe it is important to note that even with these headwinds included, we expect strong organic sales growth in fiscal' 23, versus the preCOVID base of fiscal' twenty.
Speaker 4: Our outlook also includes our plans to protect our market shares as consumers feel a pinch of higher inflation, and it preserves the most critical t-wheel investment projects that we have previously announced in supply chain, it and direct-to-consumer.
Speaker 4: Our outlook for our two most recent acquisitions, osppray and curl's Smith, remains unchanged.
Speaker 4: These businesses are on trend and continue to meet our expectations. We remain highly encouraged by their prospects and their fit within our portfolio and capabilities.
Speaker 3: Given the negative revenue impact on our EPS outlook. Our approach us to manage what is within our control.
Speaker 4: In addition to continuing to execute our playbook to mitigate inflation and supply chain disruption, we are announcing new plans to implement a robust round of initiatives intended to reduce the total cost structure of the company and unlock new initiatives.
Speaker 4: As part of these plans, we are making a strategic change to normalize our inventory levels.
Speaker 4: Second we are moving faster on several efficiency projects we have identified in our health and wellness segment.
Speaker 4: And third, we will be launching a new program to further improve the efficiency of our organization.
Speaker 4: While we are taking immediate actions in all three of these areas, we expect the majority of the benefits of these plans to fall into fiscal' twenty-four.
Speaker 3: With regard to our inventory, we are taking steps now to return to more normalized levels.
Speaker 3: During the pandemic, carrying elevated inventory improved to be a winning strategy. It helped us meet surgeon demand and mitigate supply chain disruptions that were hard to predict.
Speaker 4: It mooved input cost inflation and has delivered considerable benefits for consumers, retail customers, our sales, our profitability in our market shares.
Speaker 4: Now over two years into the pandemic, we believe it is time to decrease our inventory in areas where we have reliable visibility. Our goal is to reduce operating costs, increase efficiency in our distribution centers and improve cash flow without impacting customer service levels.
Speaker 4: As we reduce our purchase orders. We have a sharp eye on maintaining sufficient buffer stocks on items that continue to have longer lead times and we are leaning forward on some materials and critical components that remain challenging to secure.
Speaker 4: As we bring down inventory, we are also focusing on making sure we have the most valuable mix of products to maximize the productivity of our Holdings.
Speaker 4: With regard to health and wellness, we are launching a new initiative called project Delta.
Speaker 3: Similar to the playbook we used for project refuel in beauty about five years ago.
Speaker 3: Project Delta now focuses first on rightsizing the segment's cost structure and margin rates.
Speaker 3: And then on improving its growth rates and profitability under a new set of strategic choices.
Speaker 3: We recently began implementing a leaner health and wellness organization.
Speaker 3: In the coming months, we will continue to focus on cost structure improvements and the segment will implement an even sharper focus on consumer-centric innovation and design.
Speaker 3: And we will concentrate resources on those health and loanness categories, channels and countries where we see the most attractive prospects to grow revenues, increase margins and grow market share.
Speaker 3: As we work on new efficiencies in cost savings and health and wellness. The segment will also benefit from greater use of expertise in our global shared services, such as supply and demand planning, dual sourcing and further cost of good savings programs.
Speaker 3: We expect to share more on project Delta as these plans unfold.
Speaker 3: Turning to our new program to improve efficiency. Like we have done earlier stages of our transformation, this program will look at all aspects of our organization to identify the next roundound of areas where we can further improve.
Speaker 3: one example is moving faster on further enhancing the efficiency of our distribution network.
Speaker 3: With our previously amount two million squarefoot Tennessee distribution center on track to open an early calendar year 2023, we now believe we can complete our consolidation, renovation and warehouse management system upgrades a year sooner than originally planned.
Speaker 3: Our goal is to further reduce costs by exiting third-party facilities earlier and increase labor efficiency. Who scale it, upgrades and automation.
Speaker 3: We believe that moving faster will also allow it to accelerate realization of synergies from recent acquisitions.
Speaker 3: As we execute these plans, we are taking care to create ample expansion capability and capacity to efficiently manage continued long-term growth.
Speaker 3: We will provide more information on the new efficiency program as it takes shape and expect to provide you with an update on our October call.
Speaker 3: While it is too early to make a forecast for fiscal' 24, we are working hard to return to growth. To finish, be two with momentum.
Speaker 3: We are continuing our signature focus on consumer-centric innovation that distinguishes our leadership brands and helps us grow our market shares over time.
Speaker 3: Investing in our brands and continuing our geographic expansion also helps position us well to capitalize on opportunities as consumption recovers.
Speaker 3: We see specific opportunity in each of our business segments.
Speaker 3: In home and outdoor. All three brands have significant pipelines of om-trend and innovative new products such as omnthego and camp kitchen.
Speaker 3: All three have compelling opportunities to cross-promote and to launch new products into adjacent categories, and each brand has plans to grow in new channels such as DTC and international.
Speaker 3: In beauty. Our appliance focus is on maintaining those big market share gains I mentioned earlier. On continuing to launch new products that delight consumers. On expanding in emmea, Asia and Latin America.
Speaker 3: We are also excited about the opportunities we seek to deliver incremental beauty sales and further sweepen our mix with growth from our portfolio of high-margin prestige liquids.
Speaker 3: In health and wellness. In addition to the margin improvement planans mentioned earlier. With project Delta, our goal is to drive revenue growth and market share gains F? Le a renewed focus on consumer-centric product and commercial innovation.
Speaker 3: The acquisitions we made so faror ign phase i- oxrey curarls, Smith and dryve bar- will also help drive momentum.
Speaker 3: We have built a reputation for acquiring and improving brands that consumers adore.
Speaker 3: Our acquisitions also deliver on our strategy to further diversify our portfolio ad brands that are growing fast in on-trend categories such as pressy's, beauty and outdoor, and accelerate our revenue and profitability growth.
Speaker 3: Each acquisition has compelling growth drivers and is expected to drive synergies and operating leverage.
Speaker 3: I remain confident in the power of our Phase I choices and the proven ability of our worldwide team to execute our plans with excellence.
Speaker 3: As demonstrated in Phase I and in the first three years of Phase 2, we have driven value creation with significant revenue and profitability growth ahead of our published targets.
Speaker 3: We have built a seasoned leadership team and capable organization that has proven to be nimble in rapidly changing environments over all of the years of our transformation.
Speaker 3: As we develop our Phase three plans. Our goal is to further scale that platform that we buildil in phases one and two and bring new consumer-centric innovation, new marketing plans, new expansion plans that will fuel the next generation of profitable organic and inorganic growth to drive significant additional value creation.
Speaker 3: With that, I would like to hand the call over to Matt osberg, our CFO .
Speaker 5: Thank you, Julian. Good morning everyone. I would like to be begin with a discussion of our first quarter results.
Speaker 6: Although we posted declines in both net sales and EPS in the first quarter, we are pleased to deliver results ahead of our expectation.
Speaker 6: As we mentioned in our fourth quarter earnings call, we had factored in some uncertainty given the unfavorable category consumption trends we began seeing in March and April .
Speaker 6: May sales ended up better than we had expected, with the driver being our estimation of how and when moderating consumer demand would impact results.
Speaker 6: This was also impacted by the fact that, despite softening POS, some customers continued to place additional orders ahead of announced price increases.
Speaker 5: Factoring in trends from consumer buying patterns and inflation, we now anticipate softer category and consumption trend to have a more significant impact on our results for the balance of the fiscal year. I will provide more detail later on this, as well as other factors affecting our revised fiscal fiscal year outlook later.
Speaker 6: Looking at the results for the quarter, we faced a tough comparison to the first quarter of fiscal 22, when we achieved consolidated net sales growth of 29% and adjusted diluted EPS growth of 38%, driven by strong demand in the beauty and home and outdoor segments.
Speaker 6: For the first quarter of fiscal' 23 are consolidated: net sales declined 6%, driven by a decline of $20.1 million related to the sale of the personal care business in fiscal' 22. the unfavorable comparative impacts of approximately $2 million from retailers that accelerated orders into the fourth quarter of fiscal' 22 and approximately $15 million from orders that were not able to be shipped at the end of fiscal 'twenty-one into the impact of winter storm yearine.
Speaker 6: Additionally, we saw a decrease in net sales in the health and wellness segment, primarily as a result of stronger COVID-driven demand for health care products in the prior year period.
Speaker 6: Also contributing to the decline were lower sales in the beauty segment, share clients category and home-related categories in the home and outdoor segment, due to lower consumer demand and shifts in consumer spending patterns.
Speaker 6: These factors were partially offset by growth from the acquisitions of ospspry currl Smith, which performed in line with our expectations.
Speaker 5: Even with the consolidated net sales decline of 6% posted in the first quarter, we grew 21% over fiscal 21 and 35% over fiscal' twenty.
Speaker 5: Gaap consolidated operating income with $33.9 million or 7% of net sales.
Speaker 5: On an adjusted basis, operating margin decreased three point nine percentage points to 14%, primarily driven by unfavorable operating leverage, higher marketing expense, the unfavorable impact of lower beauty segment sales within consolidated net sales revenue and the net diluted impact of inflationary costs and related customer price increases.
Speaker 5: Adjusted operating margin was down in all segments for the quarter, with the most significant decline in health and wellness, reflecting the unfavorable impacts of operating leverage and product mix.
Speaker 5: While we still expect to decline in adjusted operating margins for the full year in the health and wellness segment, we believe the initiatives included in project Delta will help to improve both short and long-term profitability of the segment.
Speaker 5: Net income was $24.6 million, or $1 and two cents per diluted sharenon-gaap core adjusted diluted EPS ecreased to $2 in 41 cents, primarily due to an operating loss in the health and wellness segment, lower adjusted operating income in the beauty segment and higher interest expense.
Speaker 5: We ended the quarter with total debt of $1.1 million, an increase of $292 million from the end of fiscal' 22, reflecting cash used in the quarter for the acquisition of curl Smith of 15 million dollarscapital asset expenditures related to our new distribution center of $7 million and cash used for inventory of $48 million.
Speaker 6: Our net leverage ratio was two point eight five X at the end of the first quarter.
Speaker 5: On June twenty-eighth 2022, we entered into an amendment to our credit agreement to, among other things, replac LIBOR with term sooffar as the reference interest rate. We also exercised the accordion under the credit agreement.
Speaker 6: And borrowed $25 million as term loanans and provided notice relating to a qualified acquisition which triggered temporary adjustments to the maximum leverage ratio.
Speaker 6: The proceeds from the term loans were used to repay revolving loans under the credit agreement.
Speaker 6: We may prepay the term loans in whole or in part at any time, without premium or penalty.
Speaker 6: After giving effect to the term loan borrowings and application of those loans to repay revolving borrowings. At may thirty-first, twentthousand and 22, the remaining amount available for revolving borrowings under our credit agreement would have been $373.8 million.
Speaker 6: On a short-term basis. This transaction will provide flexibility while we navigate higher leverage associated with recent acquisitions, investments in the construction of our new distribution center and uncertainty in consuconsumer spending behavior.
Speaker 6: On a longer-term basis once we return to lower debt and leverage levels. The cordion allows for additional capacity for long-term accretive capital deployment opportunities.
Speaker 6: Now turning to our revised outlook for the fiscal year.
Speaker 6: Our full year outlook for fiscal' 23 has been materially impacted by changes in the macroeconomic and market trends.
Speaker 6: Our outlook for net sales revenue is declining, primarily due to changes in consumer behavior and spending patterns, higher levels of inventory at retailers, ongoing supply chain disruptions and the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rates.
Speaker 6: In addition to the sales volume decline, our adjusted diluted EPS outlook is being unfavorably impacted by lower adjusted operating margin, higher interest expense due to increases in forecasted interest rates related to recent fed activity and a higher expected effective income tax rate.
Speaker 6: For fiscal 23, we now expect consolidated net sales revenue in the range of $2.15 billion to $2.2 billion, which implies a consolidated decline of 3% to 1% and a core decline of 2% to growth of zero 0%.
Speaker 5: We are pleased that our previous sales expectations for both ospspray and charl Smith remain intact in our revised outlook.
Speaker 6: By segment we have the following net sales expectation.
Speaker 6: homeldan outdoor growth of 9% to 11%, including net sales from mosprate of $18 million to $185 million.
Speaker 6: Health and wellness decline of 10% to 8% and a beauty core business decline of 7% to 5%, including net sales from cor Smith of $3 million to $35 million for the 10 -month period of ownership in fiscal twenty-three.
Speaker 6: We now expect consolidated GAAP diluted EPS of $6 and 51 cent to $7 in 11 cent and consolidated non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $9 and 85 cents to $10 and 35%.
Speaker 6: Which implies the consolidated decline of 20% to 16% and a core decline of 19% to 15%.
Speaker 5: This includes an adjusted diluted EPS contribution from mospray of approximately 40 cents to 45%.
Speaker 6: And a pro rad of fiscal' 23 contribution from currl Smith of approximately 15 cents to 20 cents.
Speaker 5: The decline in EPS contributions for both acquisitions versus our previous outlook primarily reflects the impact of higher interest expense due to our updated assumption of 350 basis points of interest rate increases in calendar year twotwenty-two.
Speaker 7: Although we have implemented cost control measures and are moving forward with further efficiency programs. We expect adjusted operating margin to decline 80 to 100 basis points in fiscal' twenty-three and.
Speaker 6: This expectation is driven primarily by an anticipated decrease in operating leverage, the net dilutive effect of inflationary price increases.
Speaker 6: And an unfavorable product mix in the health and wellness segment.
Speaker 5: As Julian mentioned, we are putting in place both global and health and wellness specific initiatives to reduce costs and improve efficiency in order for us to finish Phase I strong and set us up for further long-term value creation.
Speaker 5: We have already begun to put insuate some actions that will benefit fiscal' 23 and we are working on further actions that we expect to have a more significant financial impact on fiscal' twenty-four.
Speaker 6: Our outlook includes an estima, Ted after tax impact of incremental inflationary cost of approximately $6 million to $65 million, or approximately $2 and 50 cents to $2 and 70 cents of adjusted diluted EPS.
Speaker 5: Through the execution of our playbook. We continue to believe we can mitigate the majority of these costs.
Speaker 5: We have contracted all our expected shipping needs for the fiscal year, which create visibility on se freight costs at rates that are at considerable discount to current spot rates.
Speaker 5: We are also continuing to implement the in-flight productivity and cog savings initiatives planned with our suppliers.
Speaker 7: Finally we have implemented our price increases across our customer base in a considered manner that take into account key consumer price points and competitive activity.
Speaker 5: Our outlook includes an increase in expected interest expense.
Speaker 5: With a new range of $45 million to $47 million, primarily driven by our revised assumption that the federal increase interest rates by 350 basis points in calendar year twenty-two.
Speaker 5: As we mentioned in our call in April , due to the recent acquisitions and investments in our new distribution center in the first half of fiscal' 23, we continue to expect higher average debt balances and increasing leverage ratios during the first half of our fiscal year, with debt levels and leverage ratios improving sequentially in the second half of our fiscal year.
Speaker 7: Due to the assumptions of the impact of changing consumer demand and related higher levels of retail inventory reflected Internet sales outlook, we are working to strategically adjust our inventory purchasing trends to match our new expectation of retail and consumer demand.
Speaker 5: However due to the fact that coed-related supply chain disruptions have extended purchasing lead times, we expect that it will be more difficult to reduce our inventory levels at the same pace as previously anticipated.
Speaker 5: We therefore believe that we will end fiscal 23 with a leverage ratio in a range of two point five to three X.
Speaker 5: As Julian mentioned, over time we intend to strategically decrease our inventory levels through thoughtful purchase order management. We will continue to plan and navigate through the expected supply chain challenges.
Speaker 5: That are resulting in longer lead times, instances of component delivery delays and higher material prices.
Speaker 5: We are balancing these supply chain challenges with the shifts in consumer buying behavior and expected retailer reorder patterns.
Speaker 5: We believe that we have the talent and capability to serve retailers and consumers through this unusual period.
Speaker 5: We now expect a fiscal 23 GAAP effective tax rate of 16% to 16% and an an adjusted effective tax rate of 13% to 14%, primarily driven by lower expected pretax income.
Speaker 7: Due to the current highly dynamic market conditions and unique factors affecting the comparability to the prior year base, we are providing additional quarterly context for our current expectations of the net sales revenue and adjusted diluted EPS outlooks.
Speaker 5: With regard to quarterly cadence of the consolidated net sales outlook for the fiscal year, we now expect.
Speaker 5: Low double-digit growth in the second quarter, due to the second quarter of fiscal' 22 having the largest adverse impact from the EPA matter.
Speaker 5: Approximately flat sales growth in the third quarter and a low double-digit sales decline in the fourth quarter due to the high base of the fourth quarter of fiscal' twenty-two.
Speaker 4: With regard to the quarterly locadence of consolidated adjusted diluted EPS outlook for the fiscal year, we now expect a mid-teen decline in the second quarter, primarily due to lower adjusted operating margin and higher interest expense.
Speaker 5: The low double-digit decline in the third quarter, primarily due to higher interest expense and higher adjusted effective tax rate, and a mid-single-digit decline in the fourth quarter, primarily due to lower net sales, higher interest expense and a higher adjusted effective ific tax rate. The current uncertainty of dynamic macroeconomic and consumer conditions has had a significant impact on our fiscal' 23 outlook.
Speaker 5: We currently are working on plans to return to growth in fiscal' 24 and believe that the strength of our brands, our ability to execute in the face of challenges and benefits of the new global efficiency initiatives we expect to implement will help us drive towards this outcome.
Speaker 5: As the rest of the fiscal year plays out, we will have a better view of our expectations for for fiscal 24. however, given our expectations for fiscal 23, we do not believe we will be in a position to achieve our previously stated objective of average annual organic growth rates of 3% for net sales and 8% for adjusted diluted EPS over the last two years of Phase two
Speaker 7: In conclusion, I am proud of how our teams are navigating a rapidly changing environment by focusing on serving our customers and consumers.
Speaker 5: While proactively identifying and acting on opportunities to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Speaker 4: We will continue to balance the short-term top line and earnings pressure against investing in our most important transformation initiatives that feed our flywheel and drive long-term shareholder value. And with that I would like to turn it back to the operator for questions.
Speaker 8: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. You would like to ask a question? Please press star one on your telephone key pad. A confirmation total will indicate your line as in the question. que you may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue for participants using speaker equipment and may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the Star keys.
Speaker 3: We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. You may requeue for additional questions. one moment Please, while we pull for your questions.
Speaker 9: Our first questions come from the line of Bob lvck with cj Securities. Please proceed with your questionssoon.
Speaker 10: Good morning does a lot of information. Thank you very much for all that. Just wanted to start. Maybe we could dig a little further into the inventory situation at your customers. Can you give us a sense of kind of your visibility there and maybe how much of their shift intheir dering- and might be hard of the ingu, but how much oftheir shift intheir ordering is due to the fact that maybe they over ordered, thinking they couldn't get what they needed because of the supply chain, or they already had too much inventory, versus how much of a shift in their ordering relates to lower expectations for consumer takeaway and demandyeahhi, good morning Bo, thanks and nice, nice to hear from you and also hello to everyone.
Speaker 3: On the question yes, we were as surprised as I think the customers themselves were about the amount of change in the consumer buying patterns. So, as they themselves said in their own press releases in May and June that those changes led to the over inventory situation that they're working on now. So, in terms of the change itself, we're largely reflecting its impact on our business. As we look on the visibility that we have, which is pretty good with the big customers, we see that their choices in our Q4 were to take on more inventory.
Speaker 3: Some of that was replenishment of the strong POSs that you heard us talk about quite a lot in the fourth quarter call that we made in April , and some of it was forward buying against the remainder of our price increases. As the demand shifted in their own forecast they then got a realization that they want to reduce their inventory. Those actions now are showing up in those shift in orders. I can't say how much of it was them attempting to secure the inventory based on potential supply chain interruptions, and I say that because our track record in that area has been very good.
Speaker 3: We have been able to deliver nearly all of our products because we ourselves are taken on more inventory during the pandemic. Now that we ourselves are reducing hours and they're reducing theirs, it'll lead for an opportunity to rennormalize for both and it'll be for the benefit of all over time. It's just painful on the path from here to there.
Speaker 10: Got it okay, Thank you. And then another broad question just.
Speaker 10: I you've spoken to this before. If you can speak to this right now, but can you give us a sense of you knowover the?
Speaker 10: Of course the pandemic I guess how much of you TA in price or how much of the how much is the price of the goods being sold. Your goods being sold gone up due to the inflationary macro environment and.
Speaker 10: Is there? Has there been a destruction in demand as a result of that, and how do you think about pricing going forward?
Speaker 3: Yes it's a great question. I mean, demand elasticity is probably on the minds of almost any industry in the world right now, even on commoditized things like gasoline is just a daily headline indicator that everyone sees. And because it's a commodity, there's questions about how much will people adjust their behavior's. Your question about the amount of increases: while we don't disclose specific numbers, think of mid high, single digits, So numbers like five to 9, in some cases even even like a 10, but it depends skkew by skw, product by product, situation by situation. We're super careful on this. We look at competitors.
Speaker 3: We look at trade, we look at margins, we look at potential substitutes and we come up with our numbers. So it's less about just offset the impact of inflation and we use the rest of the playbook, whether it was the elevated inventory of ourselveses taking in products ahead of cost increases, whether it was the ability to negotiate the greatly discount to se freight late rates for the other playbook items prices a part of it. And so those are the numbers, I think five cent to 10% in terms of the demand elasticity. I think everyone is finding out now where that is, category by category.
Speaker 3: As inflation goes higher. It's very clear that in some categories, consumers are making choices on where to spend their money and they're freely spending in some places- think travel related or experiences- as opposed to goods, and in the certain kind of good especially, and in the case of which goods, within the categories that we trade in our brands or winners, our products or winners- consumer know it. They see value and we're reinforcing that value in the marketplace. That said, there's also some consumers that are just choosing the trade down because they just have less money in their pocket based on the real income after the inflation takes a bite out of their nominal salary increasesgot. Okay greatre, and then.
Speaker 10: um'm just, I'm sorry. one last clarification on comments on held of Troy' inventory, specifically inventory levels, and I think that you know at a little more color at the end, but could you just maybe summarize: I believe you said the expectation is and and intention is to lower your inventory, absolute inventory levels be, now that we're, you know, two years through the pandemic andsupply chain, normalized a littlebit on U But at the same time it'll be harder to do that in a and the time period which you thought you would do it.
Speaker 10: So just Yeah, just trying and think it is talked through that please.
Speaker 11: Yes no'm say little mat. We want to say more here. It worked for us that that playbook of a move of taking on higher inventory than the pandemic a winner. I spoke to it in the prepared remarks and you heard. You heard those. So I'm very glad that we did this. As we normalize a bit more and as the demand equation changes, the customer situation changes. It's right. It's right to Egypt to reduce ours. Now the slowness is is simply because the demand of or the sell out will be a little slower. There's just less demand in certain categories and the customers have more inventory. So between what's in certain retailers and the pull through rate that they were surprised, that mean that it LL just flow through slower. It'll take longer to reduce to the levels that we're now targeting.
Speaker 3: Which you think of it, not normalized, to use the word to use before. That's a good good thought in terms of number of turnms and the healthy levels. On the seasonal stuff, we're also being very careful to load in certain components that are just hard to secure. So when we make those deals or subcomponents through our suppliers or through their suppliers, we're not shy about bring the right amount of componenttry in in order to avoid some of the stuff you read about in the newspaper where certain materials, certain semiconductors etc. Are just hard to find, we're very expensive. It's important to us to have certainty.
Speaker 3: And we're willing to slow down our inventory reduction in order to prioritize securing the right stuff. That helps a ton. It helps with out of stock issues that kill consumer centric companies because you want consumers to have access to the product. It hurts with customers from a retailer standpoint and it hurts for market share if the product is not there. So I'd rather go a little slower than to take a a hatchche, a based approach, what we're not in that kind of cris. That said, we want our cash freed up. Everyone on this call once the cash flow and, as I said in our prepared remarkswe're keenly aware of the need to review costs and pull our efficiencies either forward for things that we future planned.
Speaker 3: Or things that we can just do faster right now and then start some new projects on increased efficiencies to attack the cost side while we work on all the new products in the rest that feeds into demand recovery. That will naturally make the inventory rotate at the right number of terms.
Speaker 12: Yes I would just add to that that as you look at the year and how this isplaying out you've got this very sharp decrease in customer demand and retailer inventory levels are high meanwhile because of what's happened from COVID-19 and supply chain disruption. You have longer than longer lead times than you used to have in the past sometimes six to nine months. So you've got this this tipping point where demand is falling off sharply but you have a long lead time of inventory purchases that are either being produced or on the water or to you so.
Speaker 12: In order for us to be able to kind of resshift to our inventory to the forward demand that we're seeing now. It's going to take some time for us to go and sort of of smooth out bthat inventory pattern. So what I would expect Bob, in terms of just the year and how to think about our inventory levels: probably going to go up from where we are now in Q2 and then sequentially come down in Q3, in Q4, and we'd love to target getting down to where we were by the end of the year this year, somewhere where we were close to last year where we finished. But a lot of that's going to be dependent in the next few months and how fast we can adjust to what's already in the order pattern.
Speaker 13: Okay great, very helpful. Thank you so much. I will get back in Q.
Speaker 8: Thank you. As a reminder, we do ask that you please lit yourself to one question and one follow-up question and then reach Q for additional questions.
Speaker 8: Our next questions come from the line of ruppass paritk with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your questions.
Speaker 14: Good morning, thanks for taking my question. So I one started with a category question. So which categories are most impacted by some of the inventory issues our retailer facing in the demand falloff, and then which, which ones are actually more resilient?
Speaker 15: Sure are high reve, starting with the categories and in the resilience. It's a couple of things to keep in mind here. First, the health related stuff is not truly a bit lower because the pandemic is a bit lower and we've been clear that the pandemic has been directly helpful and health related. So think of thermometers as an example. Our share keeps growing. I think I mention the public call 16 of the last 20 months we've gwn share in thermometers is just an example for the United States RE in the case of the total size of the category, on the other hand, is it is coming down. That's one we believe the air purifier category is coming down.
Speaker 3: A bit. But in the case of air puriers, still significantly higher than the pre pandemic levels, so important to keep that in mind. And in the case of other pandemic related, it's hard to tell. On humidifiers, we've seen a significant demand for humidifiers. We called it out in Q4, we call it out again today and in our forward looking statements today we said that we are seeing further demand still for humidifier. So it's one that is definying that trend a bit. I think what's also happening is other. This is just an opinion. Other types of sickness, and not just COVID-19, are a little bit more prevalent to a normalization of the cold flu cycle.
Speaker 16: Which was so greatly suppressed during the COVID-19 here due to the social isolation. So these are examples of co categories that been infected negatively. Another surprisingly, is beauty has nothing to do with the pandemic. I think it never has. Many people have told us that the beauty was a code play. We've never understood that. People want to look great all the time, and not just from the neck up on Zoom, but they want to look and be their best. And we had such a big market share gain in beauty, not just because of the volume meers, but our other innovations too. And nonetheless the beauty category itself is down a bit.
Speaker 3: Our share is is flat to up depending where you look in beauty. So we continue to win. But in a lower overall category iless scratched my head. A little biton why categy itself is a bit down on the liquid side and beauty on the other hand generally up and up for us. All others like Al and others have called that out targets called that out in their calls and up for us because we greatly improve the supply of our liquids and dry bar and there's demand for them salons. Reopen and the products are highly desired. So it just makes a lot of sense. So there's a sense of cgorgories in Housewares and I don't mean home and outdoor I mean the home the housewhere part of home. We are seeing some reduction but again like the air purifiers.
Speaker 3: Down from a higher base that was pumped up while people are home more and importantly, significantly above the precoed levels. So back down to just much bigger, not crazy big versus the precot levels. So I hope you get the sense. In fact I have the nervousness on this call that people might be thinking that if there is a cline then it means there's something wrong with the fundamental underlying demand. In some cases the categories lower, like I just said it, COVID-19 related, but in others, like the housesewhereare related products or the beauty related products, down from elevated basis but up from the precot levels. We went as far as to point that out in literally the very first headline of our press release on revenue.
Speaker 16: Yeah the answer is strong. Yes, hydroofask is ushing it, hydroflx gaining share ain share over the last 52 weeks. The category is growing. People are returning to in person schooling, although the school year happens to be out right now, but not during the quarter. The quarter that we just had was a school period of time. It's summertime now. People are big on all kinds of activities. Outdoor is big, experiences are big. osppry is doing well is, as a result, same story and then the category itself is just up. So if the category up and we'reup more, that's where the share gain comes and the resiliency is terrific. We heard stories during the pandemic of how Hydro Flask got hurt So bad we.
Speaker 16: Demonstrated in our calls that that was not the case. It did much better than people suspected and now it's doing better still as the category grows and we grow, share in it. So stronggo on outdoors and it's not just tied to flatit's other on trend products, including osprycorre. And my quick followup: is there a way to frame exposure? Took that do to be on, I don't know. There's something you yshave common is on before. Yeah, we haven't. Actually that their news is news since we last werein in our open window period, So their news is fairly fresh. That said, what's not news is that Bed Bath has struggled for some time- there's been multiple iterations of their work- to write their ship.
Speaker 3: We strongly encourage and support their desire to resstring the pendulum back towards the national brands. They themselves said that they'had over swung towards private label and didn't have their assortment rights. We've had those conversations with them for some time and we not only agree but encourage them to follow through with that and we'll help to support that. In terms of the exposure, we watch them and any other retailer that is of concern on their financial condition. That unfortunately, is certainly the case, as they do the hard work to take themselves where they need to be. So we'll keep a close eye. In terms of actual exposure. It's important to note and we've been pretty clear in our last.
Speaker 16: six or seven calls that we keep at earning new distribution for brands like OXO, which historically are very prominent in Bed Bath. We've spoken about target, we've spoken about the club channel and then we have spoken about continuing to bring new products into the market through our major retailers and also online and on DTC and through other etailers. So, when you put all of that together, we've reduced that exposure considerably on the one hand. On the other hand, we're wroting for Bed Bath and beyond and we're eager to work with them in the appropriate way, given their financial condition, to do exactly what they themselves wanted, which is to restore the pendulum where it belongs.
Speaker 3: Between national brands and private. lgreat, Thank you for all the color. I'll toss alone. My pleasure, Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of lendabolt and Weiser with da Davidson. Please forece with your questions.
Speaker 17: Yes good morning. How are you? I fear from you it's been yes, well know. I'm interested very much in what you're talking about in terms of the focus on improving the performance in the, the health and health and wellness business. Can you just talk about, like I guess, the business that used to be the old CAD business, which of course you know very wellwhile? Is there something that you can do to actually pair down the product lines? Are there certain areas of products that are lower in margins of structurally like, I don't know, maybe fansis?
Speaker 18: D low profitability, whereas humidifiers are much better, where you could actually significantly prune psas or even exit whole entire product lines. Is that something that you're looking at?
Speaker 16: Yes it is, and yes, for the rest on the call, your assessment is just right that it is the old cas business that's now been reshaped a bit because of all that we've done since that acquisition at the end of 2010. So a lot of time has passed and the pure acquisition, as an example, the massive expansion in Asia that occurred during the decade of 2010, the big numbers that we spoke about in our international success story during Phase 2, came in part from that international expansion of health and wellness. It also came from the international expancial beauty.
Speaker 3: So it's come a long way since the casbs. In the case of the product lines yes, we are taking a look at the portfolio for health and wellness. We like those categories and they are on trend. You saw what happening COVID-19 and that helped a lot. We're now paying the price for some of those categories, like I just mentioned, P coming down a bit, but importantly, in ones like air puriffi, still well above their prefvid high fans is also very much on trend. Who on the call thinks the planet is going to be cooler in the next- I don't know- 10 years?
Speaker 16: And that said, can we make the kind of money that is appropriate on the margin side? So LL take a look at the first of all that. Can we improve the margins despite the cost stuff, or is it right to do? Last, to your point, air purifiers, on the other hand, very much on trends unfortunately, wildfires are a big deal. Sickness is a big deal. There's a stickiness to the new consumer awareness of airborne illness and the ways to prevent that. There's an institutional aspect. There's so many reasons why that's a good category. Air quality in general is one of the big public health threats that there is an. Unfortunately that's getting worse.
Speaker 3: So big opportunities. Same story on water quality. So we'll take a good look at each one and will, as I said on the call, pick the categories, the countries and the channels where we see the best prospects and that will be what comes out. The other side of project Delta, and all of that with a leaner organization right now, which we've already started implementing in all of this is designed to fix the growth rate on revenue margins, very importantly, and market shares.
Speaker 19: Ok thanks. And then, as my follow up, I just wanted to ask about just the nature of the margin composition, I mean obviously the. You're pointing to operating margin being down in F Y 23. you used to say that for the year you thought gross margin could be up. So I'm curious that that outlook has changed. And if you're offsetting the cost inflation- you know the majority of it, which you say you are- then I guess what is the root of the operating margin decline? Is it just the lack of the leverage on the's G N a line? Is that the main reason why you're?
Speaker 18: Operating margin is going to be down so muchyes, let me just say a little- I'm going to give the rest of that- on the gross margin and the difference in the outlook. But the key message is what you said, which is thea deleveraging from a reduction in sales and importantly, the reduction in sales is related to the retailer adjustments that were announced after our ition, our original April call, and all the underlying consumer stuff. So there's a deleveraging from the sales that affects the total ability to make the same margins. We are working on taking out costs. You VE heard quite a few things in the call. We're happy to elaborate on those as helpful.
Speaker 16: And then that might be able to speak to the GM comments in the operating margin trend. Yes Linda, So I appreciate the question. I would say you're right. In terms of the overall operating margin decline for the year is mainly driven by the deleveraging as well as, as we talked before, there's a net dilutive impact of the price increases on operating margin. That's another one And then we called out a third factor in my comments say, which is some unfavorable product mix and the health and wellness segment. It's, I would say, from a gross profit perspective I would think, flattish to last year and most of the margin decline is being driven by the things I talked about.
Speaker 19: Thank you LL pass it on to the next person thanks.
Speaker 8: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line. If Anthony leave it dy with sidodi, Please proceed with your questions.
Speaker 20: Yes good morning everyone in and thank you for taking the questions here. So I guess you just to follow up as far as your own inventory levels. Obviously you comment on your desire to bring those, bring that down. Now as you work through that, I mean, is there any potential risk that you will have to, you know, maybe discount on some of those products to move that inventory, or how should we think about that?
Speaker 16: Sure it's not our intention at this time and it's not what we've seen from retailers. That said, I think most people on the call would agree that the consumer situation is hard to predict, and the reason is because there's an odd thing that people haven't seen before. It's hard to look to history to know when was the last time that the confluence of a global pandemic, high inflation, rising interest rates from zero- as opposed to just rising interest rates to chke off inflation, but importantly, from zero- and then the huge amount of government stimulus measured in trillions that has put a couple of trillion dollars on consumer balance sheets that they're now spending.
Speaker 3: As the face this situation, so hard to look to history and say, oh yes, we've seen that before, So I can't really tell you that the consumer situation is predictable. I think our reaction today demonstrates that that's not the case, and remember was the retailers themselves in May and June who they themselves said that's not the case. So it's hard to say in terms of what's going to happen with the pricing. It is possible that there'll be promotion and deals in the market, but that doesn't necessarily mean that will be spending a lot on this. Our focus is more on value reframing, and this is the idea of making sure consumers appreciate the value that's built into the excellence of our products.
Speaker 3: They know this already, but it's especially relevant right now because they just have less money in their pocket for the prices they they face and we want the market share, So that that's more the vogcus than it is. On price price, price guys. And then in terms of my solos here. So you provided an information on the? U's sales versus international and that's definitely helpful. So if if you were just to look at organic growth and clwill be recent acquisitions- just wanted to get a better sense as to how the? U's demand versus international- Yeah, similar story on the international drivers- are not.
Speaker 3: Core in beauty sales. In the last quarter it was, oh my goodness, double digit decline, but from a base that was 108 percent's 103 up in the year ago. So maybe puts a little perspective. So the international does doesn't face quite that situation and for that reason held up a little better. In terms of the? U's organic, it's definitely true that we've seen decline categories where they are the same ones I just outlined with repion in his question, and then we're seeing growth in other areas such as Hydro Flask and curarl Smith. Of course is that's inorganic osprey, not only because it's inorganic but because it's on trend.
Speaker 3: In fact, if we could get more inventory for ospry faster, we could just sell more ospry than even what we forecasted and we did not reduce our outlook for ospry, as we called out in that prepared remarks. So hopefully it gives you a sense of the organic aspect versus the acquisitions. I think the key message it depends how you're looking at the business. If you're looking from the short term, the numbers are where they are. If you're looking from the multiyear perspective, which I suspect is troue for most of the people on the call, hopefully you see what we do, which is phenome: nal brands with huge possibilities that we have a long track record of exploiting. This company has doubled its revenues in the last nine years.
Speaker 3: And we have expanded our profits by multiples, even with the reduced guidance that we're giving today. And so if you look at it in the future and say, is that the is still intact? The answer is not only yes, but strongly So. And it's not just international, it's not just acquisition, it's the underlying leadership brands that are fundamentally appealing. They have a track record of gaining share and they have opportunities both through new products, through geographical expansion, through marketing and through entering new adjacencies. That make the story very compelling. All we want to do is pick up some efficiency faster, while we invest in enabling that.
Speaker 3: And that will be the magic of Phase three ones. We're ready to go to that period of timewell. Thank you very much. Would very helpful and best the work going forward. Yes thanks, andon. Thank you. Our final questions come from the line of Steve mada with C. Please procesee with your questions.
Speaker 3: Phase three ones. We're ready to go to that period of timewell. Thank you very much the very helpful and both the look going forward. Yeah thanks, andon. Thank you. Our final questions come from the line of Steve marada with C K. Please procesee with your questionsion, Matt and jud morning.
Speaker 21: I have two quick questions. You've answewer this implicitly already in the call, but I'm going to ask explicitly: has there been any change in your ability or outlook to push through price increases from now to the balance of the year in the wholesale channel? Yeah, expect the question, So explicit answer. We're not planning much in the way of further pricing in the United States in any channel in the balance of the fiscal year. Outside the United States it takes longer to get price increases to go forward at all because of contracts and agreements with retailers. So there's a longer cycle to that. So some of that is still pending.
Speaker 3: And I suppose it's possible that if the consumer demand sensitivity or elasticity is tipping in some way, that it would be harder or some of those price increases may have to be slower. That said, everyone on the planet, including the retailers, are keenly aware that the underlying costs, whether it's labor, transportation and certain commodities, are still up. Fx has also played a role. Now people have seen the moves in FX in recent weeks. That's new- whether it's the pound or the Europe or the Chinese R M B, just to pick three very prominent ones. And in the case of the U S.
Speaker 3: It's not our plan to have significant new ounset price. Are you us about rolling back Steve, for you're talking about pushing other ones into the marketplace on a forward basis? Let's assume for a moment that in the month of September you are expected to ship items that were priced at fivepercent to 10% above last year's September level.
Speaker 21: Have you received any additional incremental pushback from the wholesale channel saying no, it's not going to be five or 10%, we're only going to take flat or something along those lineses? There been any Delta in what was otherwise expected to be shipped on to unit price basis for the balance of the year versus?
Speaker 21: Additional incremental pushback from the wholesale channel saying, you know no, it's not going to be five or 10%, we're only going to take, you know, flat or something along those. There been any Delta in what was otherwise expected to be shipped on a to unit price basis for the balance of the year, versus two months ago.
Speaker 16: Yes got it, not now I understand. So no is the answer. But those increases were already made, the arrangements with the retailers already made. And then the consumer shelf prices. They can vary. We don't set social set, that's for the retailer. And then the demand curve is now playing out. In certain categories there is sensitivity, So some consumers are either trading down or they're just spending their money somewhere else, which is a buying pattern thing. So it's hard to buy a plant ticket these days at the prices that people were paying before, as an example, and yet people want more of them just to give a little color, and yet, that said that their money is also going to the kinds of things we buy.
Speaker 3: I tried to get this point across before, I just don't know if it that's coming through- which is most of those categories still at an elevated rate versus the preCOVID level, and there's datapoint after data point in our press release. Even in health and wellness, I mentioned in the prepared remarks that the expectations for the rest of this fiscal year, the outlook that we're given giving just now, is 9% above the prepandemic level in the category that was most exposed to the pandemic, up and down the one that's the full runs of the e P a matter. So it speaks to the underlying demand comment I'm trying to make. And in terms of your specific question about would we be shipping in September products that we had priceed higher and now their price lower, the answer no, that's not our expectation at all.
Speaker 21: That's very helpful. My follow-up question is: are you experiencing the very same dynamic in your own point of sales from a DTC standpoint than you're experiencing at wholesale?
Speaker 11: Generally no and the reason is surprising though it's because our DTC is biggest in the categories that are most on trend with the current buying patterns. So think especially ospray and.
Speaker 3: Hydro Flask. Those are the two biggest ones for DTC, o is behind it and o is having a reduction in DTC versus the pandemic highs that we've done so much on DTC, so much on that website and come quite far that it's still up versus the prepandemic level as well. And as we've said many times on these calls, we have major investments going in future DT C products and we expect DTC to be a significant building block for us going forward. That big warehouse that we're building in Tennessee is going to have best in-class DTC fulfilling capability. That will lower our cost to serve.
Speaker 16: Greatly improve our ability to track the entire order from order to cash, So people can have better experiences. And then from a volume standpoint it's multies of what we've been able to do before. So stronggo on DTC and surprisingly resilient, but it's because of the categories on the tren to watch per helpful, Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like's turn the call back over to management for any any closing comments.
Speaker 3: We're just a quick one is a thanks Thanks very much for listening today for being with us. As Bob said at the beginning of the call is quite a lot of information in the material today because the world changed so much since April and we tried as always to be very transparent. I also would say that we're quite diligent on all of the three areas that we talked about on the cost side. Whether it's inventory project. Delta and health and wellness or the new broader corporate look at our our costs and efficiency programs and we gave some examples in the call. So we're quite focused on this and other than that we look forward to speaking to many of you in the coming days and week. There's multiple forums and.
Speaker 16: umwe're out of our quiet period and looking forward to it. So thank you very muchthis does conclude today' teleconce. We appreciate your participation. You may justdisconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day. Conference center: the next available conference specialist will be with you. arily conference, that ER man have ning pleaseyes, Manheim. This is Rachel smi, but by era yes, correct. What's conference, Please here, free helllen of choy earnings. Call, say by, Please you.