Q3 2024 Zumiez Inc Earnings Call

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zoomies Inc. Third Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone of the company's safe harbor language.

Today's conference call includes comments concerning ZoomE-Zinc Business Outlook and contains forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements, and all other statements that may be made on this call that are not based on historical facts, are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Actual results may differ materially.

Speaker Change: Additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed is available in Zumiez Inc's filings with the SEC. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brooks?

Rick Brooks: Hello and thank you everyone for joining us on the call today. With me is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer.

Rick Brooks: I'll begin with a few remarks about our third quarter and the start of the holiday season before touching on our strategic initiatives. Chris will then take you through the financials and our outlook for the balance of the year. After that, we'll open the call to your questions.

Rick Brooks: When we shared the outlook for 2024 during our Q4 earnings call back in March,

Rick Brooks: We believe that we could build on the improving trends that we were experiencing at that time and deliver total sales growth for the full year. I'm pleased to report that our third quarter results demonstrate further progress towards our goal, as comparable sales increased 7.5%.

Rick Brooks: Our top-line performance was fueled by the North American business as comparable sales in the region accelerated from mid single digits in the second quarter to low double digits in the third quarter.

Rick Brooks: US and Canada sales results more than offset some expected and some unexpected softness in our international regions.

Rick Brooks: Total sales of $222.5 million were in the middle of our guidance range as warm weather in Europe hampered demand for snow related apparel and hard goods late in the quarter. However, thanks to our continued focus on profitability, we reached the high end of our guidance range for earnings at six cents per share.

Rick Brooks: Much the same as the prior quarter, our third quarter comp performance was driven by contributions from multiple areas of our business. Our men's category continued its positive momentum, growing year over year for the fourth consecutive quarter at an accelerating pace.

Rick Brooks: Why footwear also experienced a noticeable pickup in sequential demand driving Compson to the low double digits from the mid single digits in the second quarter

Rick Brooks: The fourth quarter and holiday season are off to a good start and have us in a good position to deliver a meaningful improvement from our 2023 results.

Rick Brooks: While we're pleased with the progress we've made returning to positive comparable sales growth, improving profitability, and driving cash flow, we believe that business is capable of much more.

Rick Brooks: As we look ahead to 2025, we will continue to focus on the following strategies to grow sales and drive profitability.

Rick Brooks: First, accelerating top-line expansion through strategic investments to ensure we are winning with our customers. Our strategies continue to focus on three key areas.

Rick Brooks: Injecting Assortments with Newness. We are on track to introduce well over 100 new brands in 2024, following the launch of 150 brands in 2023.

Rick Brooks: These new brands constitute a larger portion of our sales this year compared to last year, demonstrating that they resonate with our customers.

Rick Brooks: We recognize that our customers rely on Zoomies to discover new and unique products, and we remain committed to continuing to fulfill that expectation.

Rick Brooks: Private label expansion. Private label represented approximately 12% of sales in 2021 compared to 18% in 2022 and 23% in 2023.

Rick Brooks: We've continued to see our private label share grow in 2024, as year-to-date private label represented over 27% of total sales.

Rick Brooks: The increase in penetration is a testament to our team's ability to capitalize on both trend and value conscious consumers, providing another avenue for growth.

Rick Brooks: Along with these top line initiatives, we will continue to focus on profitability, both in Europe and in North America.

Rick Brooks: In Europe, we have pivoted from our store expansion strategy to concentrate on enhancing the productivity of our nearly 90 stores across nine countries and our pan-European web business that currently serves the European market.

Rick Brooks: While our work has yielded progress, it has been slowed by what continues to be a difficult cycle in Europe, which in the past couple of months has been impacted by unfavorable weather.

Rick Brooks: Despite that setback, we are confident that by focusing on full price selling for our existing footprint, we can unlock the potential for the business and create value.

Rick Brooks: There's no doubt that trends emerge locally and grow globally, and our current penetration of the relevant markets is a significant advantage to Zoomies over the long term.

Rick Brooks: Overall, we believe we can achieve profitability in Europe with this new focus as we've done in other international markets like Canada and Australia.

North America, we've taken actions to

Rick Brooks: Along with our plan to close approximately 31 underperforming North American locations in 2024, we're implementing comprehensive operational efficiencies across our business. This includes optimizing store labor through targeted staffing model adjustments, particularly for lower volume stores.

Rick Brooks: We've executed structural changes to reduce shipping and logistics costs company-wide and have significantly reduced discount selling compared to previous elevated levels.

Rick Brooks: These strategic cost management initiatives are part of our broader effort to streamline operations and improve margin performance.

Rick Brooks: Carefully crafted initiatives have already demonstrated their value, helping us accelerate sales growth while simultaneously expanding margins, all while we continue to operate in a challenging retail environment.

Rick Brooks: While we recognize a significant amount of work ahead, we remain optimistic that these strategic initiatives will continue to drive near-term results and ultimately help return Zoomies to its historical performance and beyond.

Rick Brooks: Our path forward is clear. Stay focused, be adaptable, and create value for our customers, our brand partners, and our shareholders.

Rick Brooks: To that end, I want to thank the entire Zoomies team for their hard work and dedication to fostering a culture that has served as a cornerstone of the company's foundation for over 45 years. It will be the driving force behind our future success for many years to come.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Chris.

Chris Work: Thanks Rick and good afternoon everyone. I'm going to start with a review of our third quarter results I'll then provide an update on our fourth quarter to date sales trends and some perspective on how we're thinking about the full year

Chris Work: Third quarter net sales were $222.5 million, up 2.9% from $216.3 million in the third quarter of 2023.

Chris Work: Comparable sales increased 7.5% for the quarter. The shift in the retail calendar had a negative impact on our results, decreasing net sales growth by approximately 510 basis points during the third quarter. Comparable sales results, as reported, consider the calendar shift and represent a more accurate measure of operating results.

Chris Work: Our third quarter performance was driven by a North America business, which was positive for the third consecutive quarter. This strength was partially offset by a decline in international sales as we put greater emphasis on full price selling in Europe, which benefited margins but pressured our top line.

Chris Work: From a regional perspective, North American net sales were $186.8 million, an increase of 2.9% from 2023.

Chris Work: Other international net sales, which consist of Europe and Australia, were $35.7 million, up 2.7% from last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales increased 2.9%, and other international net sales decreased 0.3% year-over-year.

Chris Work: Comparable sales for North America were up 10.4% and comparable sales for other international were down 5.6% for the quarter. From a category perspective, men's with our largest positive comping category followed by women's and then footwear. Hard goods with our largest negative comping category followed by accessories.

Chris Work: The consolidated increase in comparable sales was driven by an increase in dollars per transaction and an increase in transactions. Dollars per transaction were up for the quarter, driven by an increase in average unit retail and an increase in units per transaction.

Chris Work: Third quarter gross profit was $78.3 million compared to $73.2 million in the third quarter of last year.

Chris Work: Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 35.2% for the quarter, compared to 33.8% for the third quarter of 2023.

Chris Work: 60 basis points of leverage in store occupancy costs, and 60 basis points of benefit in web shipping costs. These improvements were partially offset by a 30 basis point detriment related to inventory shrinkage and a 10 basis point detriment related to increased incentive compensation.

Chris Work: SG&A expense was $75.9 million or 34.1% of net sales in the third quarter compared to $73.4 million or 33.9% of net sales a year ago.

Chris Work: The 20-basis point increase in SG&A expenses at percent of net sales resulted from the following. 50 basis points from increased incentive compensation, 20 basis points of deleverage in non-wage store operating costs offset by a 40-basis point reduction related to employee training.

Chris Work: Operating income in the third quarter of 2024 was $2.4 million or 1.1% of net sales. Compared with an operating loss of $0.2 million or 0.1% of net sales last year.

Chris Work: Net income for the third quarter was $1.2 million, or $0.06 per share. This compares to a net loss of $2.2 million, or $0.12 per share, for the third quarter of 2023. Our effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2024 was 63.4%, compared with a modest tax expense in the prior year quarter, despite a pre-tax operating loss.

Chris Work: The change in our effective tax rate was primarily due to the allocation of losses across the jurisdictions in which we operate.

Chris Work: Turning to the balance sheet, the business ended the quarter in a strong financial position. We had cash and current marketable securities of $99.3 million as of November 2, 2024, compared to $135.8 million as of October 28, 2023.

Chris Work: The $36.5 million decrease in cash in current marketable securities over the trailing 12 months was driven primarily by share repurchases of $25.2 million and capital expenditures of $14.2 million, offset by $3.7 million in cash provided by operating activities.

Chris Work: As of November 2, 2024, we have no debt on the balance sheet.

Chris Work: We ended the quarter with $187.2 million in inventory, up 6.5% compared to the $175.9 million last year.

Chris Work: On a constant currency basis, our inventory levels were up 5.6% from last year. Given our recent sales performance and current trend, we feel good about our ending inventory balance for the third quarter and expect to continue receiving newness as we move through the important holiday selling season.

Now to our fourth quarter-to-date results.

Chris Work: In discussing our fourth quarter results, it is important to recognize the significant calendar shifts and holiday movements impacting sales in the quarter.

Chris Work: These include one less week in the current year, with the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024 being a 13-week quarter and fiscal 2023 being a 14-week quarter.

Chris Work: Shifts in the retail calendar, which we expect to have a modest negative impact on the fourth quarter of roughly negative 50 basis points But benefited the quarter-to-date sales we are reporting by approximately 790 basis points

Chris Work: And Christmas is falling on a Wednesday this year, which we expect will condense more December volume around the holiday, and on a comparable basis, drive more sales into December.

Chris Work: With that said, comparable sales for the 31-day period in December 3, 2024 were up 2.9% from the comparable period in the prior year. Total sales for the 31-day period in December 3, 2024 increased 10% compared to the 31-day period in the prior year ended November 28, 2023, and benefited from the previously mentioned calendar shift.

Chris Work: From a regional perspective, net sales for our North America business for the 31-day period into December 3, 2024, increased 10.8% compared to a 31-day period into November 28, 2023, while our international business increased 7.3%.

Chris Work: Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North American net sales for the 31-day period ended December 31, 2024, increased 10.9% from the prior year, and other international net sales increased 8.3% compared to 2023.

Chris Work: Comparable sales for North America increased 5.5% for the 31-day period ended December 3rd, 2024, compared to the same weeks in the prior year, while comparable sales for our other international business declined 5.9%.

Chris Work: Total sales growth for the fourth quarter will be negative impact by the additional 53rd week included in the prior year, as well as the retail calendar shift. The total impact of these items will be a detriment to sales growth of approximately 520 basis points in the quarter.

Chris Work: Comparable sales growth for the 13 weeks ended February 1st, 2025 is expected to be between 6% and 7.5%. Comparable sales growth is not impacted by the 53rd week or calendar shift and represents a more accurate measure of our operating results.

Chris Work: We expect that our fourth quarter 2024 product margins will increase between 180 basis points and 210 basis points from the prior year.

Chris Work: and we anticipate that earnings per share will be between $0.83 and $0.93 compared to a loss of $1.73 per share in the prior year, which is inclusive of the $41.1 million goodwill impairment in 2023.

Chris Work: Lastly, with the upcoming change in U.S. government leadership and potential for change in international relations,

Chris Work: We are anticipating that some of our imported goods may be subject to new significant tariffs in 2025.

We are currently evaluating our product inflows from impacted regions.

Chris Work: and making determinations as to whether we pull forward some inventory purchases from these areas in fiscal 2024.

Speaker Change: and I'm a senior sales manager at the Federal Reserve. We are evaluating the potential future production of the Terrafaction inventory. Depending on the amount of inventory that we take in early, we anticipate that our ending 2024 inventory could grow more than our current sales trends and that it will have an impact on the timing of operating cash flows. We are also evaluating other regions not impacted by these

Speaker Change: Now, I want to give a few updated thoughts on our fourth quarter guidance rolls into our full fiscal 2024 results.

Speaker Change: Inclusive of our fourth quarter guidance, we anticipate that total sales will increase in the 2% to 2.5% range for fiscal 2024 compared to 2023, despite the anniversary of the 53rd week and store closures previously reported.

Speaker Change: The 53rd week will have a negative impact on annual sales growth of approximately 150 basis points.

Speaker Change: After two years of difficult performance in product margin, we believe that with a more stable sales environment and a full price strategy in Europe, we'll grow product margin for the full year in fiscal 2024.

Speaker Change: With sales growth in 2024, we anticipate we will leverage SG&A costs year over year. Beyond the benefit, we will receive a moving past the $41.1 million goodwill impairment charge we recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Speaker Change: With the previously mentioned assumptions, we believe we'll return positive operating margins for the full year. While effective tax rates are likely to fluctuate significantly by quarter, we anticipate that our full year effective tax rate will be roughly 80% in fiscal 2024, using the high end of our guidance.

Speaker Change: We are planning to open seven new stores during the year, including three in North America, two in Europe, and two stores in Australia. This is down from 19 stores in 2023 and 32 stores in 2022 as we focus on optimizing our current footprint.

Speaker Change: We are planning to close approximately 33 stores in fiscal 2024, with 31 of those closures in North America. The number of closures could go up or down depending on our operating results in each location, as well as our ability to work with our landlord partners.

Speaker Change: We expect that depreciation and amortization, excluding non-cash lease expense, will be approximately $23 million and consistent with the prior year. We are currently projecting our diluted share count for the full year to be approximately 19.3 million shares. And with that, Operator, we'd like to open the call up for questions.

Thank you.

Speaker Change: Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please first start 1-1 on your telephone, then wait for your name to be announced.

To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.

Speaker Change: Our first question comes from the line of Mitch Kometz with Seaport. Your line is open.

Yeah, thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker Change: Chris, let me start with the comp guide for the fourth quarter. If I heard you correctly, you're saying six to seven and a half percent.

Speaker Change: quarter to date. I think you're running a 2.9. Could you kind of help me bridge that gap? I assume you're expecting

Speaker Change: A big December. Can you, first of all, can you confirm that? And if so, what gives you the confidence that that's something you guys can achieve?

Speaker Change: and we're trending around 2.9 as we as we thought about the fourth quarter and we we went and looked at kind of how the quarters falling and mentioned in some of our prepared remarks.

Speaker Change: the impact of the calendar shift within the third quarter. What we do is what we normally do. We get pretty detailed in our planning and we went back to prior periods, prior quarters where Christmas fell on a Wednesday, and we looked at the cadency of sales moving through that quarter.

Speaker Change: And as we looked at that makeup, what we found in our results is that we will see a higher concentration, our expectation is, we'll see a higher expectation of sales around that Christmas timing. So as we looked across the quarter, November, from a comp perspective, becomes a little less important. December becomes a lot more important. And January, a little less important as well. So just based on the timing of how the calendar moved, we believe there'll be a bigger pickup in December. This obviously, from a guidance perspective, creates a little bit of a challenge. We have less sales in at the time we're reporting today than we do in other quarters in the fourth quarter.

Speaker Change: and our footwear business has turned positive through the third quarter. Now, that's not the case as we moved into November, but again, we sort of expected November to be a little softer coming into the quarter. And then of course, as I said earlier, we expect some concentration around the peaks.

If we talk about the peaks just in general,

Speaker Change: that Black Friday this year was a week closer to Christmas than it was a year ago. But if we just take that time period of Thanksgiving through, actually we go through Tuesday, the day after Cyber Monday, we were up about nine nine from a comp perspective.

Speaker Change: and maybe equally as important, we are up 310 basis points in product margin.

Speaker Change: Last year, we were very promotional in clearing some inventory, specifically in the footwear category, which is part of the reason that we believe that the footwear category went negative here quarter to date. So, we got a lot of volume ahead of us is the real kind of crux of providing guidance for Q4, but we're seeing some things within the data that gives us some confidence in the trend line we've seen through the third quarter. And we're generally on our plan in North America for the time we're talking today, and that's given us some confidence in how we're planning Q4.

Speaker Change: All right, that's helpful. And Chris, you started to answer my follow-up question, which is around

Speaker Change: that is more where demand is just more concentrated around peak buying than like maybe apparel is. Would that explain it? Is that the category that you expect pretty meaningful inflection, you know, from November to December?

Speaker Change: footwear has been one of the biggest drivers of that. So if we look at, you know, we break down, we look at full price and sale footwear, our bigger problem in November is sale footwear. So we're just down from where we were a year ago. And I think that's okay, as we really focus on full price and full margin. So we'll see how it plays out as we move into the heavier volume here in the quarter around Christmas and after.

And then maybe lastly,

Speaker Change: on occupancy. What are you expecting in the fourth quarter? Obviously on a six to seven and a half percent comp, normally you would probably get some good leverage there, but then

Speaker Change: I know you're going 13 weeks versus 14. How does that kind of impact occupancy as well?

Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Will you stand by for our next question?

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from the line of Richard Magnuson with B Raleigh. Your line is open.

Speaker Change: Hello, thank you for taking my call. I was wondering what more can you tell us about any promo strategy and ability to be agile with inventory apart from the point forward of inventory you just discussed as you progress through the post-Black Friday holiday season and are there any particular trends that you believe have yet to deliver in this latter part beyond what you've mentioned so far?

Speaker Change: I don't think so, Richard. I think we are, you know, we are, basically our promo strategy doesn't really change throughout the year.

Speaker Change: You know, as we've talked about the importance of our private label in terms of delivering value to our customer, both, and again, value doesn't mean just from lower price. What value means is really cool stuff at a value structure. So in our case, often that is like the bundling as an example of how we'll do it.

Speaker Change: where we're giving the consumer a group of products that had a really good value, but it's clearly a really trending and on-trend product.

Speaker Change: when we have unusual situations like that, is really pretty wrenchy around. So we were definitely less promotional than our competitors in the marketplace. And that reflects, I think, positively, our results reflect very positively when you understand that.

Speaker Change: of how uniquely we're positioned in terms of the product assortment, how on-trend our product assortment is with private label, and then how well our value proposition works for the customers in how we're presenting product forms.

Speaker Change: I love that position, right? To be a leader on trend and uniqueness of product because that drives margins and profitability. So we don't really change our pricing structure at all. Now, as we look through the rest of our promotional structure very much at all, as we look into the...

Speaker Change: rest of the holiday season I think we expect it to be very promotional and I I'm

Speaker Change: What we focus on is uniqueness and how we deliver uniqueness. And yeah, when we do have markdown issues, we clearly address them through that perspective. But again, I think what most people see in our store is just really cool stuff. And when we deliver value, it's through our promotional bundling.

Speaker Change: And Richard, I just think the second part question on trends, you know, what we're really proud of is what we've seen here through the third quarter in our apparel categories. I think we've really seen some acceleration. They're really tied to a few different things. You know, our, our private label brands that we talked about in our second quarter call continue to do well as have our newer brands that we've launched within the portfolio. They are representing a larger portion of our overall sales. And I think that's a really good thing for us long term because it's that continued newness that Rick talked about in our prepared remarks.

Thank you.

All right, thank you. I'll get back in with you.

Speaker Change: Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that's star 1-1 to ask the question.

Please stand by for our next question.

Speaker Change: Our next question comes from the line of Corey Tarlow with Jeffrey. Your line is open.

Speaker Change: Great, thanks. I was wondering if you could parse out for us, as you think about your endeavor to become more profitable in the U.S. and Europe, what the different moving parts would be, and then if you could maybe rank the opportunity by category or by segment as you think of a bridging margin from what it is today to where you think it could go over time. And then I just have a follow-up on hard goods as well.

Speaker Change: Okay, well, Corey, I'll try to take this sort of high level as you can imagine in a business like ours that has operations in so many different parts of the globe. This is a more complicated answer overall, but from a high level perspective, I guess what I would say is this.

Speaker Change: Domestically, the business is about growing sales back. As you know, we reached our kind of peak sales there right around the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Had a very strong run of sales going into the pandemic, and I think for us, our focus is really to get back to that level of sales within the business. That will drive everything from a profitability perspective.

Speaker Change: Beyond that, we do look up and down the P&L with a variety of opportunities in regarding to how we drive this business back into profitability and well beyond where we want to be.

Speaker Change: It starts with product margin, beyond sales, continuing to push product margin and drive product margin growth initiatives. We think it's really important to be a full-price, full-margin retailer. I think it differentiates you in the marketplace and allows you to really, I think, accelerate that profitable growth.

Speaker Change: to how we manage payroll within our stores. And that includes, you know, looking at some of our lower volume stores and really challenging our staffing structure and the hours put into the model. And I think our teams have responded pretty well. We've been able to take some meaningful costs out of the business.

Speaker Change: And then, of course, I think the last thing is we've had to make some tough decisions domestically with the shrinking of the business. There has been some elimination of some roles, elimination of events, training, travel, things like that, that we've had to cut in the short term based on where we're at.

Speaker Change: Internationally it's a similar and different story. It starts with sales. We've got to get higher producing units.

Speaker Change: The last part with the international side is because they have historically been unit growers, we do expect to see some SG&A growth, but that growth has got to be moderated and managed within the sales profile so that we can get the right level of flow through. And so I think that's how we're really trying to manage those entities. And then of course, you know, where we can really trying to export techniques and things that have helped us here at Zumiez grow over time and scale our business to help them optimize what they're doing in the SG&A layers.

Speaker Change: That's very helpful, Keller. Thank you. And then just on hardwoods, it's been obviously a pressured category for quite some time, and it was the most negative category in Q3. How's that trending in Q4? Can you talk about any green shoots you've seen in the category? When do you think they could turn? And Keller, you're really helpful. Thank you so much.

Speaker Change: Sure, Corey. The answer to the question is similar here to what we talked about in Q3, which is...

Speaker Change: It's still a tough department for us in terms of results, but the green shoot is really happening in Australia which went into the downturn of the skate cycle a little earlier than the rest of our businesses, so

Chris Work: And they've been positive, I think, Chris, for five consecutive months now? Yeah.

Chris Work: So, and running decent gains in the skate hard goods category, so we're still running down in the other parts of business to be clear.

Chris Work: Our situation at Kate Hargis is really unique in this cycle, because usually the cycles are fairly long cycles from peak to peak or trough to trough, about eight-year cycles is what it's run for us.

Speaker Change: But obviously with the pandemic, a lot of Skate Hard goods volume got all moved into 2020. And it achieved its all-time high as a mix of our sales in 2020. And we're now at, I think, a all-time low for the mix. So it would be another indicator for us, Corey, that we're approaching the bottom.

Great, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Speaker Change: Ladies and gentlemen, at this time I would like to turn the call back over to Rick for closing remarks.

Rick Brooks: All right, again, I just want to offer my thanks to everyone for your continued interest in Zoomies, and of course, I wish everyone a happy holidays. Thanks, everybody.

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Speaker Change: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ZoomE-Zinc 3rd Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will conduct a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference.

Speaker Change: Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone of the company's safe harbor language.

Speaker Change: Today's conference call includes comments concerning Zumi's business outlook and contains forward-looking statements.

Speaker Change: These forward-looking statements, and all other statements that may be made on this call that are not based on historical facts, are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Actual results may differ materially.

Speaker Change: Additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed is available in Zoomi's Inks filings with the SEC. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brooks? Hello, and thank you everyone for joining us on the call today. With me is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer.

Speaker Change: I'll begin with a few remarks about our third quarter and the start of the holiday season before touching on our strategic initiatives. Chris will then take you through the financials and our outlook for the balance of the year. After that, we'll open the call to your questions.

Chris Work: When we shared the outlook for 2024 during our Q4 earnings call back in March,

Chris Work: We believe that we could build on the improving trends that we were experiencing at that time and deliver total sales growth for the full year. I'm pleased to report that our third quarter results demonstrate further progress towards our goal as comparable sales increased 7.5%.

Chris Work: Our top-line performance was fueled by the North American business as comparable sales in the region accelerated from mid single digits in the second quarter to low double digits in the third quarter.

Chris Work: US and Canada sales results more than offset some expected and some unexpected softness in our international regions.

Chris Work: Total sales of $222.5 million were in the middle of our guidance range as warm weather in Europe hampered demand for snow related apparel and hard goods late in the quarter.

Chris Work: However, thanks to our continued focus on profitability, we reached the high end of our guidance range for earnings at $0.06 per share.

Chris Work: Much the same as the prior quarter, our third quarter comp performance was driven by contributions from multiple areas of our business.

Chris Work: Our men's category continued its positive momentum, growing year-over-year for the fourth consecutive quarter at an accelerating pace.

Chris Work: Our women's category, which turned positive in Q1, again accelerated meaningfully after posting strong double-digit growth year-over-year in Q2, while footwear also experienced a noticeable pickup in sequential demand, driving Compson to the low double digits from the mid-single digits in the second quarter.

Chris Work: The fourth quarter and holiday season are off to a good start and have us in a good position to deliver a meaningful improvement from our 2023 results.

Chris Work: While we're pleased with the progress we've made returning to positive comparable sales growth, improving profitability, and driving cash flow, we believe that business is capable of much more.

Chris Work: As we look ahead to 2025, we will continue to focus on the following strategies to grow sales and drive profitability.

Chris Work: First, accelerating top-line expansion through strategic investments to ensure we are winning with our customers. Our strategies continue to focus on three key areas.

Chris Work: Injecting Assortments with Newness. We are on track to introduce well over 100 new brands in 2024, following the launch of 150 brands in 2023.

Chris Work: These new brands constitute a larger portion of our sales this year compared to last year, demonstrating that they resonate with our customers.

Chris Work: We recognize that our customers rely on Zoomies to discover new and unique products, and we remain committed to continuing to fulfill that expectation.

Chris Work: Private label expansion. Private label represented approximately 12% of sales in 2021 compared to 18% in 2022 and 23% in 2023.

Chris Work: We've continued to see our private label share grow in 2024, as year-to-date private label represented over 27% of total sales.

Chris Work: The increase in penetration is a testament to our team's ability to capitalize on both trend and value conscious consumers providing another avenue for growth

Chris Work: In Europe, we have pivoted from our store expansion strategy to concentrate on enhancing the productivity of our nearly 90 stores across nine countries and our pan-European web business that currently serves the European market.

Chris Work: While our work has yielded progress, it has been slowed by what continues to be a difficult cycle in Europe, which in the past couple of months has been impacted by unfavorable weather.

Chris Work: Despite that setback, we are confident that by focusing on full price selling for our existing footprint, we can unlock the potential for the business and create value.

Chris Work: There's no doubt that trends emerge locally and grow globally, and our current penetration of the relevant markets is a significant advantage to Zoomies over the long term.

Chris Work: Overall, we believe we can achieve profitability in Europe with this new focus as we've done in other international markets like Canada and Australia.

North America, we've taken actions to

Chris Work: along with our plan to close approximately 31 underperforming North American locations in 2024, we're implementing comprehensive operational efficiencies across our business.

Chris Work: This includes optimizing store labor through targeted staffing model adjustments, particularly for lower volume stores.

Chris Work: We've executed structural changes to reduce shipping and logistics costs company-wide, and have significantly reduced discount selling compared to previous elevated levels.

Chris Work: Carefully crafted initiatives have already demonstrated their value, helping us accelerate sales growth while simultaneously expanding margins.

Chris Work: all while we continue to operate in a challenging retail environment.

Chris Work: While we recognize a significant amount of work ahead, we remain optimistic that these strategic initiatives will continue to drive near-term results and ultimately help return Zoomies to its historical performance and beyond.

Chris Work: Our path forward is clear. Stay focused, be adaptable, and create value for our customers, our brand partners, and our shareholders.