NASDAQ:ZUMZ Zumiez Q2 2024 Earnings Report $11.88 -0.32 (-2.62%) Closing price 04/25/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$11.86 -0.02 (-0.13%) As of 04/25/2025 05:36 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Zumiez EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.44Consensus EPS -$0.67Beat/MissBeat by +$0.23One Year Ago EPS$0.16Zumiez Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$194.44 millionExpected Revenue$190.16 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$4.28 millionYoY Revenue Growth-11.60%Zumiez Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2024Date9/7/2023TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, September 7, 2023Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsZumiez's Q1 2026 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, June 5, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Zumiez Q2 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrSeptember 7, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zumaz, Inc. 2nd Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. We will conduct a question and answer session toward the end of this conference. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone of the company's Safe Harbor language. Operator00:00:20Today's conference call includes comments including ZumZ, Inc. Business outlook and companion's 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. 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 Zumeb's filings with the SEC. Operator00:00:51At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brooks, the floor is yours. Speaker 100:00:59Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. With me today is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin today's call with a few remarks about the Q2 and the start of the back to school season Before handing the call over to Chris, who will take you through the financials and some thoughts on the Q3 and the rest of the year. After that, we'll open up the call to your questions. As we forecasted back in May, our results have continued to track below prior year levels. Speaker 100:01:26That said, our 2nd quarter sales improved from the previous quarter trend line And finish ahead of our guidance. The operating environment in the U. S. Remains challenging with significant multiyear inflationary impacts weighing on consumer discretionary spending, Continued competition was spending on travel and experiences and higher levels of discounting to clear excess inventories. While this backdrop does not set up well for our full price selling model, we know from experience that these down cycles are temporary And our focus is on best position the business to capitalize on market conditions as market conditions improve. Speaker 100:02:02This means staying close to our customers, adjusting our assortments to ensure we have diverse and differentiated merchandise they seek and providing the world class customer service they've To expect from us. While we're not where we want to be from a results perspective, we made progress in the 2nd quarter And the work we've done this year against the plan we outlined in our earnings call in March has positioned the business for further improvement in the second half of twenty twenty three. The sequential moderation in our sales trend in Q2 has continued in the Q3 as we moved into the back to school season and higher volumes. Through Labor Day, 3rd quarter to date sales are down 7.7% compared with down 11.6% in Q2 and 17.1% in Q1. Given that back to school has historically been a good indicator for holiday demand, We're optimistic about continued improvement in the business through the peak selling periods this coming holiday season. Speaker 100:03:01The tough first half, but I'm confident that by staying the course, we will emerge from this turbulent period even stronger. This means being diligent with our spending, focusing on the strategic investments that we believe will create significant long term benefit for our customers and our shareholders while managing carefully in the short term What we can control. Some of the long term strategic investments we believe are important to push forward include continued investment in our people through best in class training Mentoring, optimizing trade area performance by ensuring that we have the right number of stores to serve our customers in each market And getting the right product in the right places to serve them as quickly as possible. Continue to work with brands to increase speed and flexibility while increasing margins. Investing in innovative approaches to generate human to human connections with our customers and engage with them in new ways that enhance the shopping experience. Speaker 100:03:56Continuing our international expansion with a focus on Europe and Australia. We know that brands emerge locally and grow globally, And our international presence provides us opportunity to better serve both our customers and our brand partners. While we continue to optimize these Many of the initiatives we have proven across North America. We feel good about the progress we made internationally this year, where first half comparable sales in our other international businesses increasing 8% and total sales increasing over 14%. Before I turn the call over to Chris, I would like to thank everyone in our organization for their continued hard work and dedication. Speaker 100:04:35You're the foundation of our unique culture and the reason I'm certain that Zumie's history of delivering long term value for its shareholders will continue for years to come. With that, Chris will now discuss the financials. Speaker 200:04:49Thanks, Rick, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to start with a review of our I'll then provide an update on our Q3 to date sales trends before providing some perspective on how we're thinking about the full year. 2nd quarter net sales were $194,400,000 down 11.6 percent from $220,000,000 in the Q2 of 2022. Comparable sales were down 13% for the quarter. The decrease in sales was primarily driven by our North America business offset by more favorable results for other international business. Speaker 200:05:20During the quarter, we continued to see softer sales, primarily driven by ongoing inflationary pressure, increased competition for discretionary spending and higher levels of discounting in the market. From a regional perspective, North America net sales were 159,700,000 There's a decrease of 15.9 percent from 2022. Other international net sales, which consists of Europe and Australia, were $34,800,000 up 15.5 from last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales increased 15.7% and other international net sales increased 11.8% compared with 2022. Comparable sales for North America were down 15.8% and comparable sales for other international were up 3.7% for the quarter. Speaker 200:06:03From a category perspective, all categories were down in comparable sales from the prior year during the quarter with hard goods being our most negative, followed by footwear, accessories, Women's and men's. Total dollars per transaction were up for the quarter driven by an increase in average unit retail, partially offset by a decrease in units per transaction. 2nd quarter gross profit was $61,700,000 compared to $75,100,000 in the Q2 of last year. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 31.7% for the quarter compared with 34.1% in the Q2 of 2022. The 240 basis point decrease in gross margin was primarily driven by lower sales in the quarter, driving deleverage in our fixed costs. Speaker 200:06:44The key areas driving this change were as follows: store occupancy costs deleveraged by 2 10 basis points on lower sales volumes Product margins decreased by 70 basis points and buying and private label costs deleveraged by 20 basis points. These decreases to gross margin were partially offset by a decrease of 30 basis points in web shipping costs and 30 basis point decrease in inventory shrinkage. SG and A expense was $72,200,000 37.1 percent of net sales in the 2nd quarter compared to $70,100,000 or 31.8 percent of net sales a year ago. The 5.30 basis point increase in SG and A expense as a percent of net sales was driven by the following: 2 10 basis point increase due to both deleverage of store wages on lower sales as well as increases in wage rates that could not be offset by hours reduction, 160 basis point increase due to deleverage of non wage store operating costs, 80 basis point increase in non store wages and a 60 basis point increase in training and events due to event timing. Operating loss in the Q2 of 2023 was $10,500,000 or 5.4 percent of Sales compared with operating profit of $5,000,000 or 2.3 percent of net sales last year. Speaker 200:07:56Net loss for the Q2 was $8,500,000 or $0.44 per share. This compares to net income of $3,100,000 or $0.16 per diluted share for the Q2 of 2022. Our effective tax rate for the Q2 of 2023 was an 8.5% benefit compared to 44.7% provision for income taxes in the year ago period. The decrease in our effective tax rate was primarily due to increase in net losses and allocation of those losses across the jurisdictions in which we operate. Turning to the balance sheet, the business ended the quarter in a strong financial position. Speaker 200:08:30We had cash and current marketable securities of $140,000,000 as of July 29, 2023, compared to $166,200,000 as of July 30, 2022. The $26,200,000 increase in cash and current marketable securities over the trailing 12 months was driven primarily by capital expenditures of $27,300,000 As of July 29, 2023, we have no debt on the balance sheet and continue to maintain our full unused credit facility. We ended the quarter with $156,700,000 in inventory, up 3.7% compared to $151,100,000 last year. The inventory growth was driven primarily by store count increases in our international business, While inventory in North America is down 3.5% from the prior year, on a current constant currency basis, our inventory levels were up 2.3% from last year. Now to our Q3 to date results. Speaker 200:09:23Net sales for the 37 day period ended September 4, 2023 decreased 7.7% compared to the same 37 day period in the prior year ended September 5, 2022. Comparable sales for the 37 day period September 4, 2023 decreased 10.1% over the comparable period last year and other international business increased 14 point 7 versus last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales decreased 9.9% and other international net sales increased 8.5% compared with 2022. From a category perspective, the men's category had a positive comp for the 37 day period ended September 4, 2023, while all other categories were negative. Footwear was our most negative category, followed by Women's, accessories and hard goods. Speaker 200:10:24Total dollars per transaction were up for the period driven by an increase in both average unit retail and units per transaction. With respect to our outlook for the Q3 of fiscal 2023, I want to remind everyone that 4,000,000 in our guidance involves some inherent uncertainty and complexity in estimated sales, product margin and earnings growth given the variety of internal and external factors that impact our performance. Our Q3 to date results have continued to show incremental progress to the trends experienced in the 1st and second quarter, but are still trending below year ago levels as consumer demand remains under pressure from the continued impact of high inflation on discretionary spending. With that in mind, we are planning total sales for the 3rd quarter will be $211,000,000 $216,000,000 We expect that our Q3 2023 product margins will be down slightly from the Q3 of fiscal 20 And negative 2.5 percent and we anticipate a loss of $0.15 to $0.25 per share. Similar to the first half, the decline in earnings is largely due to deleveraging the cost structure on lower sales base coupled with margin pressure. Speaker 200:11:41Our biggest areas of deleverage continue to be tied to fixed costs such as occupancy expense, base hours in our store that are driven by mall operating hours, Fixed payroll costs across the business and other corporate costs. As has been our practice this year, we are refraining from giving Specific annual financial guidance due to the uncertainty and volatility in the macro environment, but do want to provide some context around how we currently believe the business will trend throughout the year. We have seen the trend line of sales results to prior year get stronger as we have moved through 2023 and expect that to continue as we move through the back half of the year when compared to fiscal 2022 results. In fiscal 2022, product margins were down 50 basis points from the prior year after 6 consecutive years of growth. The majority of this year over year decrease was driven by our Q4 2022 product margin, which was impacted by increased discounting as we work to right size inventory balance. Speaker 200:12:38We anticipate the front half of 2023 would also run down in product margin as we continue to work through aged inventory and the market remains promotional. For the 1st 6 months of fiscal 2023, margin decreased 70 basis points from the first half of twenty twenty two, which included the mix impact of our international business, which has a lower product margin and is growing as a percentage of total sales. As we transition to the back half of the year, we believe that product margins could stabilize as inventories come in line and comparisons get easier. Our model is sensitive to sales fluctuations And we have seen deleverage as sales decline in fiscal 2022 and also year to date in fiscal 2023, while the opposite was In 2021, when we experienced record sales and operating margin driven by meaningful leverage. We continue to diligently manage expenses as we navigate this current environment and our position to take advantage when conditions improve. Speaker 200:13:37We have seen a reduction in our bottom line results during 20222023 creating significant variability in our consolidated tax rate. This is tied to the distribution of income across our current tax jurisdictions. Given this, we are expecting a tax expense could be in excess of pre tax income for the full year. We are planning to open 19 new stores during the year, including approximately 5 stores in North America, 10 stores in Europe and 4 stores in Australia. We expect capital expenditures for the full 2023 fiscal year to be between $19,000,000 $21,000,000 compared to $26,000,000 in 20 21 for 2022. Speaker 200:14:15We expect that depreciation and amortization excluding non cash lease expense will be approximately $23,000,000 We are currently projecting our share count for the full year to be approximately 19,500,000 diluted shares. With that operator, we'd like to open the call up for questions. Operator00:14:37Thank Our first question for today will be coming from Mitch Kummetz of Seaport. Your line is open. Speaker 300:15:12Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got 3 of them. Chris, on the sales guide, I think the range you gave That has sales down, I think it's, let's see here, 9% to 11%, and you're running better than that Quarter to date. So that obviously implies that you expect tougher results in The rest of September and into October, could you maybe just address that? Speaker 300:15:42And I'm also curious, now that you're kind of Post peak back to school, have you seen some softening maybe in the weekly numbers since possibly kind of mid August? Speaker 200:15:54Sure, Mitch. Yes, I'll try to take a crack at that. So and you're right, the guide that we gave is Down 9 to 11, which is slightly worse than what our Speaker 400:16:05run rate has been. Speaker 200:16:06And I think as we've worked through August And kind of the back to school season, I would tell you, we are encouraged that our trend line has accelerated from where we were in Q2, But it was choppy and I think it started a little softer. Weeks 23 were our best weeks and then the last couple of weeks have been a little bit softer. And we've looked at that a few different ways. Obviously, the timing of when different markets go back to school have Some poll on kind of what the overall results were, but we're also looking at it from a greater sense of knowing the need based of back to school shopping and where that's at. Our historical results would tell us that typically when you get out of peak, you'll see a little bit less demand. Speaker 200:16:49And So we're sort of buffering the current run rate for that under the assumption of just kind of where the market's at. And hopefully, as we try to do is It's a guidance that we can beat. Speaker 300:17:04Okay. And then, I know you're not providing Specific guidance beyond 3Q, but you talked about kind of the improvement in the run rate. When I look at the trajectory on your sales growth, Down 17 1Q, down 12 2Q, the midpoint of 3Q is down 10. Are you thinking that 4Q sales growth lands somewhere kind of in the, I don't know, upper mid to lower high single digit negative range. Is that Kind of the trajectory that you think the business is on? Speaker 200:17:37Yes. I'm going to stay away from giving specific Q4 guidance. I think what I would say Is this, as we look at Q4, we've historically been able to take a lot away from back to school, kind of in the trends of the business And what we've seen happening and I'll tell you, even though this is a softer back to school for us, we look back at The quarter to date and what we've learned and I think it would continue to tell us that we have A good trend line going into Q4. So as we think about the sequential sales improvement From Q3 to Q4, we're currently planning Q4 to be much stronger than what we've seen from Q1 to Q2 And now from Q2 to the Q3 guidance that we've given. So we do expect this trend line to improve. Speaker 200:18:30Those beliefs are based on a few things. First, I think our continued ability to drive stronger results. Think as we kind of break down back to school further, we are really encouraged. Men's is our largest category, 50% of the business was our best performing category in Q2 and then turned positive during back to school. When we view that It's a really good indicator for where the business is at. Speaker 200:18:58I mean, Mitch, you followed the company for some time. I mean, if we look back at 'eight and 'nine and Kind of how we climbed out of those times and even 2015 2016, which were softer for us, men's was a huge catalyst for that. So I think we're really encouraged by that. We're encouraged by what we saw from the customer during the period. I mean, transactions was our problem During back to school, we saw increased AUR and actually units when the consumer was shopping, which I think was another good turn that we saw in the back to school season. Speaker 200:19:31So that gives us some confidence heading in. And then obviously, as we think about just the compares And how we move into the Q4 of Q4 of 2022 was our softest compared to really historical kind of pre pandemic results. And so We do believe that some of the bigger drags on the business that have been more challenged around footwear and Hard goods, they just soften as we get into the 4th quarter. So I think that gives us some comfort that we could see a good incremental step up in the 4th Quarter and obviously not giving guidance at this time, but we'll get more honed in on that here when we report at the end of November. Speaker 300:20:14All right. That's helpful color. I appreciate that. And then lastly, just on the SG and A, especially thinking about it from Dollar standpoint, so SG and A dollars were up $2,000,000 in 2Q versus last year. That follows, I think, 4 consecutive Quarters where the dollar SG and A was actually down year over year. Speaker 300:20:33So how are you thinking about that in 3Q like from a dollar standpoint? And is there sort of a run rate to kind of think about SG and A dollars going forward? Like, I know you're not giving 4Q guide, so you probably don't want to talk about next year. But like should we be thinking about SG and A dollars higher next year than this year? Or is there a chance You can actually take that down just from a cost cutting standpoint. Speaker 300:20:59So I guess a couple of questions there. Speaker 200:21:01Yes, yes, there's quite a bit there. So what I'll try to do is kind of High level about how we think about SG and A and then obviously how it pertains to where we're at today. So as I think about SG and A, we have a highly fixed business, fixed costs both within the store system as well as Our corporate overhead and web and things like that. So, this has created some challenges as you know in 20222023 of just With the sales coming down, the deleverage in the business also is part of the reason we were able to leverage so well in 2021 when we saw increased sales. I think as we look at 2022 SG and A and I do think sometimes it's important to step back and look at full year SG and A, it was up 1.8% compared to 2021 I'm sorry, down 1.8% compared to 2021 and it was up 4.6% compared to 2019, which As we look back and we looked at inflation and where the cost structures have gone over that time period, I think we saw that as being fairly positive. Speaker 200:22:07As we looked at the 1st 6 months of this year, SG and A was up about 0.6%. So I think again, we are feeling pretty good. The Q3 guide includes a little higher run rate, which is really around some timing of spend things and we are continuing to invest in the business. I That's an important distinction for where we're at. Obviously, our results are tougher, but we do continue to believe there There's good value long term in investing through these cycles. Speaker 200:22:37We've built a really strong balance sheet. I think we're in a good financial position. That being said, we're being very prudent about how we think about it too. To your point, managing fixed costs everywhere as possible. I think we're really Rethinking our store payroll model and where we have hours there to try to pull back as much as possible and In certain departments and areas of the business leaving open positions open, I think those are all things that we've looked at. Speaker 200:23:08While trying not to cut things that are long term for the business, I think as we look forward, what you should expect from us is We got to grow sales at a much greater factor than SG and A. And because we have not done Tons of substantial cuts to SG and A, I think we still feel like we've got the right balance to be able to drive sales going forward. So That's really our focus. That will be our drive as we move into 2024. And I think as we look at SG and A overall for 2023, we won't see huge growth. Speaker 200:23:42What we'll see is some of the inflationary pressures that are really hitting lots of people on the industry. Speaker 300:23:48Okay. Thanks again. Operator00:23:52Thank you. One moment while we prepare for the next question. And we have our next question will be coming from Jeff Van Sinderen of B. Riley, your line is open. Speaker 400:24:10Yes. Hi, everyone. Wondering if you guys could talk a little bit about what you're seeing in the sales and margin performance of your private label product? Speaker 200:24:24Yes. I'll go ahead and talk about it just kind of from a numbers perspective and obviously welcome Rick to chime in. I think one of the things we've talked about throughout this year is our consumer really seeking value. And we are I think we've seen that out in the external market, it's clearly surely been clear in our business too. Private label as a percent of the business has continued to climb. Speaker 200:24:52We've seen it from 2022 throughout 2022 and now into the first Quarter and Q2 of this year and then pretty substantially here in the Q3 to date, which you'd expect in back to school And where we're at. I think we're really proud of our teams and how they've executed here because while there's certainly a value I think our teams have also done a really good job bringing great product to market. So we've seen that really resonate both in our tops and bottoms business, But in other areas as well, but that's the primary drivers on the apparel side. So overall, I think seeing really good private label trends. I think we've been able to do some things with bundling and packages in our stores related to private label as well, which has been beneficial and we're also seeing the growth internationally too. Speaker 200:25:44And so we're encouraged by that with some of the brands really working in Europe and our Fast Times in Australia team also has some private label that they're pushing as well. So overall, I think we're pretty encouraged by what we're seeing in that area of the business. Speaker 100:26:00And I'd only add, Jeff, that I think this What Chris has just described is what's driving and the success of our bundling promotions is what's driving The UPT gains, and that's why I'm so proud of our sales teams is that they're using that with our customers coming in the door and we generated not only how we had the AUR gains But we've seen again UPT start to increase in back to school, which is I think a credit to our team, our sales team to put those bundles, to sell those bundles And to have some of our highest now dollars per transit I think ever at back to school, which I think speaks well to how we're positioned with our core consumer. Speaker 400:26:37That's helpful. Just as a follow-up to that, and I don't know, I'm not sure you really break this out often, but just wondering if there's any Color, you can give us a kind of where that concentration of private label is running at this point. Speaker 200:26:52Yes. I can speak to that. We are about 21.5% through the second quarter compared to about 17% last year. So it's about 450 basis point Increase year over year as a penetration in total sales. Speaker 400:27:09Okay, interesting. And then I have sort of an off the cuff question for you guys, but I'm just wondering how you're handling getting people back to the office at this point. I know that out there we hear some resistant. What's your latest policy to get folks back to the office? Speaker 100:27:26We have steadfastly throughout the entire pandemic Period and into where we're at today, Jeff, we've always considered ourselves to be an office environment where people are going to be here. Of course, our SOAR employees are in the office every day, as our DC teams in the office every day down in our DC facility. So We believe that collaboration is key at Central so that throughout the pandemic when whatever the rules were, we've definitely followed them. But if we could have 50% capacity, we're rotating everyone in fifty-fifty over alternating weeks. And so pretty much for us, everyone's back. Speaker 100:28:01We have some exceptions for certain Specific situation, but pretty much on the fall, we've been back. Okay. Good to hear. And then I have Speaker 400:28:09one more sort of broader question for you. I think you were kind of running on average about an 8% to 10% operating margin, call it pre COVID. But of course, we have elevated labor expenses now and other inflationary inputs. What do you think is a normalized Operating margin for the company, are we looking now probably mid single digit, do you think? Or just assuming sort of modest sales recovery, call it maybe a mid Single digit positive comp, all else being roughly equal. Speaker 400:28:43How do you think about that? Speaker 200:28:45Yes. I mean, Jeff, we've done a lot of work around this. And obviously the step back we've had the last couple of years has been super challenging. But as we break it down, we've broken down lots of different ways. I really believe it's generally sales related and this is the bigger challenge in our business. Speaker 200:29:04And We actually if you came coming out of 2014 2015, we had talked about getting back to high single digits From an operating profit perspective, we were able to accomplish that. We actually got into double digits. And I think we still believe over the long term, if we can get sales Right. And there are other things in the business that help offset some of the inflation. We've been able to drive product margin higher. Speaker 200:29:29We've been able to We have an international business that still has a lot of growth around it. I think that high single digit goal is still achievable. And that's really our push and that's our drive as we think about the business recovering and seeing the sales come back Is trying to build a model that will get to that high single digits and obviously, hopefully, potentially beyond, but I think that still seems realistic in our heads. Speaker 400:29:59Okay. Thanks for taking my questions and best of luck in the remainder of Q3. Speaker 200:30:04Yes. Thanks, Jeff. Operator00:30:07Thank you. One moment for the next question. The next question will be coming from Tarek Speaker 500:30:28I think you cited some Encouraging trends in men's, I was wondering if there's anything into back to school or into the Q3 that Has maybe surprised you from a category or fashion trend standpoint that you can talk about? Speaker 100:30:46I'll start and let Chris add in, Cory. And I guess One of these we've already talked about, which is the strength of our private label business. And I think that is clearly a strong trend driven business. I think As Chris said earlier, our teams have done a really good job here of being on trend and on cycle. And of course, we had to plan for that. Speaker 100:31:04This is In our most of these private label categories are cut and sew categories. So there's some we plan for back to school, I think, executed well by our private label product teams And then executed really well with our overall team strategy and the bundling that worked both in stores and online for providing value for our customers and Driving DBTs in the process as well as driving margin. The other I'd call out for you and so that's a big driver Definitely for Men's too. The other way I'd call out for you, I think that's important is and I think exciting for us is the emerging brands. And We feel very encouraged about our pipeline in emerging brands here in 2023, and we have seen sequential improvement month over month In terms of brands launched in 20222023 gaining share within our total sales mix. Speaker 100:31:57And that continued on into the back to school season. So that's the other aspect that turned our printables business positive In back to school. So that if you want to look at the real driver behind men's, it's getting positive for the back to school season. It's those two things, the quality Of our on trend private label product, the quality of our sales teams in selling multiple units and combine that with newness On the brand side and improved dramatic improvement in our screenables business. And so I'm really I think that's another area that's exciting for us as we think about this internally is we're hoping, of course, we can continue to see that month over month sequential growth and that these brands launched in 2022 and 2023 can continue to be growth drivers within the printable It's screenable areas of our business. Speaker 500:32:49Great. Thanks. That's very helpful. And just on product margins, you gave some helpful color as to how they've trended over the last couple of quarters. Could you maybe unpack for us how you're thinking about promotions ahead and how you think about product margins into the back half and how that might unfold as we Heading to holiday. Speaker 200:33:12Sure. Yes, I just as we think about product margin, we mentioned in our prepared comments, we were down 70 basis points year to date. And what I would just add to that is obviously the mix Component that we talked about is pretty significant when you have an international business comping up and growing sales and Our domestic business is more challenged and given that the international margin is quite substantially lower than our domestic margin. So when I even when we say down 70 basis points, the lion's share of that is really a mix challenge versus actually product margin decline. So As we look forward, part of what we knew coming into this year is that we would have some product margin challenges. Speaker 200:34:01We had some Inventory to clear out as of the end of last year and we saw some of that even added into that 70 basis points down as we move through inventory in the first half. Now as we transition into the back half, we do think we have Some opportunity in product margin now. I think it will be down slightly in the Q3, again tied to just mix And also tied to some clearing that we're doing specifically in the area of footwear. If I look at the inventory overall, We feel really good about where our aging sits with the exception of footwear. And I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. Speaker 200:34:41It's been pretty Well talked about out there of some of the challenges in footwear across the market. And so we're not immune to that. But I think our teams have done a good job kind of working through it and Clearing it. And so that will be one thing that we continue to have planned into the model. It's planned into the Q3 guidance. Speaker 200:35:00And obviously, any thoughts we've given for the year. That being said, you've also seen private label increase as a percentage of sales. That's a benefit to us. We think we have the ability to continue to drive margin here domestically as well as internationally. And most of our initiatives On the product side are built around trying to do that in addition to sales. Speaker 200:35:20So I think as we move forward, we are hoping that we'll have some more against prior year product margin versus what we saw in the front half, even with the mix shift that we've seen from Where our sales are coming from. Speaker 500:35:37Great. Thanks so much and best of luck. Operator00:35:42Thank you. That does conclude our Q and A session for today. I would like to turn the call back over to Rick Brooks, CEO for closing remarks. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:35:51All right. Thank you very much everyone for your time today. We greatly appreciate your interest in Zumiez, and we'll look forward to talking to you in late November about 3rd quarter results and early reads on the holiday season. Thank you, everybody. Operator00:36:04Thank you all for joining today's conference call. This does conclude today's call. You all may disconnect and have a great wonderfulRead morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallZumiez Q2 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Zumiez Earnings HeadlinesZumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) Short Interest Down 21.1% in MarchApril 19, 2025 | americanbankingnews.com1 Consumer Stock to Own for Decades and 2 to Turn DownMarch 27, 2025 | msn.comHere’s How to Claim Your Stake in Elon’s Private Company, xAIElon Musk has done it again. He’s developed a powerful new AI model that’s already turning heads — and turning the industry upside down. Some say it could threaten Google’s search engine dominance. Others believe it could mark the beginning of the end for ChatGPT.April 26, 2025 | Brownstone Research (Ad)Zumiez Is Getting Cheaper But Remains Unattractive Given General Apparel PessimismMarch 19, 2025 | seekingalpha.comZumiez Is Getting Cheaper But Remains Unattractive Given General Apparel PessimismMarch 19, 2025 | seekingalpha.comWhy Zumiez (ZUMZ) Stock Is Up TodayMarch 16, 2025 | msn.comSee More Zumiez Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Zumiez? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Zumiez and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About ZumiezZumiez (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) operates as a specialty retailer of apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods for young men and women. The company provides hardgoods, including skateboards, snowboards, bindings, components, and other equipment. It operates stores in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia under the names of Zumiez, Blue Tomato, and Fast Times. It operates zumiez.com, zumiez.ca, blue-tomato.com, and fasttimes.com.au e-commerce websites. 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There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zumaz, Inc. 2nd Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. We will conduct a question and answer session toward the end of this conference. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone of the company's Safe Harbor language. Operator00:00:20Today's conference call includes comments including ZumZ, Inc. Business outlook and companion's 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. 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 Zumeb's filings with the SEC. Operator00:00:51At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brooks, the floor is yours. Speaker 100:00:59Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. With me today is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin today's call with a few remarks about the Q2 and the start of the back to school season Before handing the call over to Chris, who will take you through the financials and some thoughts on the Q3 and the rest of the year. After that, we'll open up the call to your questions. As we forecasted back in May, our results have continued to track below prior year levels. Speaker 100:01:26That said, our 2nd quarter sales improved from the previous quarter trend line And finish ahead of our guidance. The operating environment in the U. S. Remains challenging with significant multiyear inflationary impacts weighing on consumer discretionary spending, Continued competition was spending on travel and experiences and higher levels of discounting to clear excess inventories. While this backdrop does not set up well for our full price selling model, we know from experience that these down cycles are temporary And our focus is on best position the business to capitalize on market conditions as market conditions improve. Speaker 100:02:02This means staying close to our customers, adjusting our assortments to ensure we have diverse and differentiated merchandise they seek and providing the world class customer service they've To expect from us. While we're not where we want to be from a results perspective, we made progress in the 2nd quarter And the work we've done this year against the plan we outlined in our earnings call in March has positioned the business for further improvement in the second half of twenty twenty three. The sequential moderation in our sales trend in Q2 has continued in the Q3 as we moved into the back to school season and higher volumes. Through Labor Day, 3rd quarter to date sales are down 7.7% compared with down 11.6% in Q2 and 17.1% in Q1. Given that back to school has historically been a good indicator for holiday demand, We're optimistic about continued improvement in the business through the peak selling periods this coming holiday season. Speaker 100:03:01The tough first half, but I'm confident that by staying the course, we will emerge from this turbulent period even stronger. This means being diligent with our spending, focusing on the strategic investments that we believe will create significant long term benefit for our customers and our shareholders while managing carefully in the short term What we can control. Some of the long term strategic investments we believe are important to push forward include continued investment in our people through best in class training Mentoring, optimizing trade area performance by ensuring that we have the right number of stores to serve our customers in each market And getting the right product in the right places to serve them as quickly as possible. Continue to work with brands to increase speed and flexibility while increasing margins. Investing in innovative approaches to generate human to human connections with our customers and engage with them in new ways that enhance the shopping experience. Speaker 100:03:56Continuing our international expansion with a focus on Europe and Australia. We know that brands emerge locally and grow globally, And our international presence provides us opportunity to better serve both our customers and our brand partners. While we continue to optimize these Many of the initiatives we have proven across North America. We feel good about the progress we made internationally this year, where first half comparable sales in our other international businesses increasing 8% and total sales increasing over 14%. Before I turn the call over to Chris, I would like to thank everyone in our organization for their continued hard work and dedication. Speaker 100:04:35You're the foundation of our unique culture and the reason I'm certain that Zumie's history of delivering long term value for its shareholders will continue for years to come. With that, Chris will now discuss the financials. Speaker 200:04:49Thanks, Rick, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to start with a review of our I'll then provide an update on our Q3 to date sales trends before providing some perspective on how we're thinking about the full year. 2nd quarter net sales were $194,400,000 down 11.6 percent from $220,000,000 in the Q2 of 2022. Comparable sales were down 13% for the quarter. The decrease in sales was primarily driven by our North America business offset by more favorable results for other international business. Speaker 200:05:20During the quarter, we continued to see softer sales, primarily driven by ongoing inflationary pressure, increased competition for discretionary spending and higher levels of discounting in the market. From a regional perspective, North America net sales were 159,700,000 There's a decrease of 15.9 percent from 2022. Other international net sales, which consists of Europe and Australia, were $34,800,000 up 15.5 from last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales increased 15.7% and other international net sales increased 11.8% compared with 2022. Comparable sales for North America were down 15.8% and comparable sales for other international were up 3.7% for the quarter. Speaker 200:06:03From a category perspective, all categories were down in comparable sales from the prior year during the quarter with hard goods being our most negative, followed by footwear, accessories, Women's and men's. Total dollars per transaction were up for the quarter driven by an increase in average unit retail, partially offset by a decrease in units per transaction. 2nd quarter gross profit was $61,700,000 compared to $75,100,000 in the Q2 of last year. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 31.7% for the quarter compared with 34.1% in the Q2 of 2022. The 240 basis point decrease in gross margin was primarily driven by lower sales in the quarter, driving deleverage in our fixed costs. Speaker 200:06:44The key areas driving this change were as follows: store occupancy costs deleveraged by 2 10 basis points on lower sales volumes Product margins decreased by 70 basis points and buying and private label costs deleveraged by 20 basis points. These decreases to gross margin were partially offset by a decrease of 30 basis points in web shipping costs and 30 basis point decrease in inventory shrinkage. SG and A expense was $72,200,000 37.1 percent of net sales in the 2nd quarter compared to $70,100,000 or 31.8 percent of net sales a year ago. The 5.30 basis point increase in SG and A expense as a percent of net sales was driven by the following: 2 10 basis point increase due to both deleverage of store wages on lower sales as well as increases in wage rates that could not be offset by hours reduction, 160 basis point increase due to deleverage of non wage store operating costs, 80 basis point increase in non store wages and a 60 basis point increase in training and events due to event timing. Operating loss in the Q2 of 2023 was $10,500,000 or 5.4 percent of Sales compared with operating profit of $5,000,000 or 2.3 percent of net sales last year. Speaker 200:07:56Net loss for the Q2 was $8,500,000 or $0.44 per share. This compares to net income of $3,100,000 or $0.16 per diluted share for the Q2 of 2022. Our effective tax rate for the Q2 of 2023 was an 8.5% benefit compared to 44.7% provision for income taxes in the year ago period. The decrease in our effective tax rate was primarily due to increase in net losses and allocation of those losses across the jurisdictions in which we operate. Turning to the balance sheet, the business ended the quarter in a strong financial position. Speaker 200:08:30We had cash and current marketable securities of $140,000,000 as of July 29, 2023, compared to $166,200,000 as of July 30, 2022. The $26,200,000 increase in cash and current marketable securities over the trailing 12 months was driven primarily by capital expenditures of $27,300,000 As of July 29, 2023, we have no debt on the balance sheet and continue to maintain our full unused credit facility. We ended the quarter with $156,700,000 in inventory, up 3.7% compared to $151,100,000 last year. The inventory growth was driven primarily by store count increases in our international business, While inventory in North America is down 3.5% from the prior year, on a current constant currency basis, our inventory levels were up 2.3% from last year. Now to our Q3 to date results. Speaker 200:09:23Net sales for the 37 day period ended September 4, 2023 decreased 7.7% compared to the same 37 day period in the prior year ended September 5, 2022. Comparable sales for the 37 day period September 4, 2023 decreased 10.1% over the comparable period last year and other international business increased 14 point 7 versus last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales decreased 9.9% and other international net sales increased 8.5% compared with 2022. From a category perspective, the men's category had a positive comp for the 37 day period ended September 4, 2023, while all other categories were negative. Footwear was our most negative category, followed by Women's, accessories and hard goods. Speaker 200:10:24Total dollars per transaction were up for the period driven by an increase in both average unit retail and units per transaction. With respect to our outlook for the Q3 of fiscal 2023, I want to remind everyone that 4,000,000 in our guidance involves some inherent uncertainty and complexity in estimated sales, product margin and earnings growth given the variety of internal and external factors that impact our performance. Our Q3 to date results have continued to show incremental progress to the trends experienced in the 1st and second quarter, but are still trending below year ago levels as consumer demand remains under pressure from the continued impact of high inflation on discretionary spending. With that in mind, we are planning total sales for the 3rd quarter will be $211,000,000 $216,000,000 We expect that our Q3 2023 product margins will be down slightly from the Q3 of fiscal 20 And negative 2.5 percent and we anticipate a loss of $0.15 to $0.25 per share. Similar to the first half, the decline in earnings is largely due to deleveraging the cost structure on lower sales base coupled with margin pressure. Speaker 200:11:41Our biggest areas of deleverage continue to be tied to fixed costs such as occupancy expense, base hours in our store that are driven by mall operating hours, Fixed payroll costs across the business and other corporate costs. As has been our practice this year, we are refraining from giving Specific annual financial guidance due to the uncertainty and volatility in the macro environment, but do want to provide some context around how we currently believe the business will trend throughout the year. We have seen the trend line of sales results to prior year get stronger as we have moved through 2023 and expect that to continue as we move through the back half of the year when compared to fiscal 2022 results. In fiscal 2022, product margins were down 50 basis points from the prior year after 6 consecutive years of growth. The majority of this year over year decrease was driven by our Q4 2022 product margin, which was impacted by increased discounting as we work to right size inventory balance. Speaker 200:12:38We anticipate the front half of 2023 would also run down in product margin as we continue to work through aged inventory and the market remains promotional. For the 1st 6 months of fiscal 2023, margin decreased 70 basis points from the first half of twenty twenty two, which included the mix impact of our international business, which has a lower product margin and is growing as a percentage of total sales. As we transition to the back half of the year, we believe that product margins could stabilize as inventories come in line and comparisons get easier. Our model is sensitive to sales fluctuations And we have seen deleverage as sales decline in fiscal 2022 and also year to date in fiscal 2023, while the opposite was In 2021, when we experienced record sales and operating margin driven by meaningful leverage. We continue to diligently manage expenses as we navigate this current environment and our position to take advantage when conditions improve. Speaker 200:13:37We have seen a reduction in our bottom line results during 20222023 creating significant variability in our consolidated tax rate. This is tied to the distribution of income across our current tax jurisdictions. Given this, we are expecting a tax expense could be in excess of pre tax income for the full year. We are planning to open 19 new stores during the year, including approximately 5 stores in North America, 10 stores in Europe and 4 stores in Australia. We expect capital expenditures for the full 2023 fiscal year to be between $19,000,000 $21,000,000 compared to $26,000,000 in 20 21 for 2022. Speaker 200:14:15We expect that depreciation and amortization excluding non cash lease expense will be approximately $23,000,000 We are currently projecting our share count for the full year to be approximately 19,500,000 diluted shares. With that operator, we'd like to open the call up for questions. Operator00:14:37Thank Our first question for today will be coming from Mitch Kummetz of Seaport. Your line is open. Speaker 300:15:12Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got 3 of them. Chris, on the sales guide, I think the range you gave That has sales down, I think it's, let's see here, 9% to 11%, and you're running better than that Quarter to date. So that obviously implies that you expect tougher results in The rest of September and into October, could you maybe just address that? Speaker 300:15:42And I'm also curious, now that you're kind of Post peak back to school, have you seen some softening maybe in the weekly numbers since possibly kind of mid August? Speaker 200:15:54Sure, Mitch. Yes, I'll try to take a crack at that. So and you're right, the guide that we gave is Down 9 to 11, which is slightly worse than what our Speaker 400:16:05run rate has been. Speaker 200:16:06And I think as we've worked through August And kind of the back to school season, I would tell you, we are encouraged that our trend line has accelerated from where we were in Q2, But it was choppy and I think it started a little softer. Weeks 23 were our best weeks and then the last couple of weeks have been a little bit softer. And we've looked at that a few different ways. Obviously, the timing of when different markets go back to school have Some poll on kind of what the overall results were, but we're also looking at it from a greater sense of knowing the need based of back to school shopping and where that's at. Our historical results would tell us that typically when you get out of peak, you'll see a little bit less demand. Speaker 200:16:49And So we're sort of buffering the current run rate for that under the assumption of just kind of where the market's at. And hopefully, as we try to do is It's a guidance that we can beat. Speaker 300:17:04Okay. And then, I know you're not providing Specific guidance beyond 3Q, but you talked about kind of the improvement in the run rate. When I look at the trajectory on your sales growth, Down 17 1Q, down 12 2Q, the midpoint of 3Q is down 10. Are you thinking that 4Q sales growth lands somewhere kind of in the, I don't know, upper mid to lower high single digit negative range. Is that Kind of the trajectory that you think the business is on? Speaker 200:17:37Yes. I'm going to stay away from giving specific Q4 guidance. I think what I would say Is this, as we look at Q4, we've historically been able to take a lot away from back to school, kind of in the trends of the business And what we've seen happening and I'll tell you, even though this is a softer back to school for us, we look back at The quarter to date and what we've learned and I think it would continue to tell us that we have A good trend line going into Q4. So as we think about the sequential sales improvement From Q3 to Q4, we're currently planning Q4 to be much stronger than what we've seen from Q1 to Q2 And now from Q2 to the Q3 guidance that we've given. So we do expect this trend line to improve. Speaker 200:18:30Those beliefs are based on a few things. First, I think our continued ability to drive stronger results. Think as we kind of break down back to school further, we are really encouraged. Men's is our largest category, 50% of the business was our best performing category in Q2 and then turned positive during back to school. When we view that It's a really good indicator for where the business is at. Speaker 200:18:58I mean, Mitch, you followed the company for some time. I mean, if we look back at 'eight and 'nine and Kind of how we climbed out of those times and even 2015 2016, which were softer for us, men's was a huge catalyst for that. So I think we're really encouraged by that. We're encouraged by what we saw from the customer during the period. I mean, transactions was our problem During back to school, we saw increased AUR and actually units when the consumer was shopping, which I think was another good turn that we saw in the back to school season. Speaker 200:19:31So that gives us some confidence heading in. And then obviously, as we think about just the compares And how we move into the Q4 of Q4 of 2022 was our softest compared to really historical kind of pre pandemic results. And so We do believe that some of the bigger drags on the business that have been more challenged around footwear and Hard goods, they just soften as we get into the 4th quarter. So I think that gives us some comfort that we could see a good incremental step up in the 4th Quarter and obviously not giving guidance at this time, but we'll get more honed in on that here when we report at the end of November. Speaker 300:20:14All right. That's helpful color. I appreciate that. And then lastly, just on the SG and A, especially thinking about it from Dollar standpoint, so SG and A dollars were up $2,000,000 in 2Q versus last year. That follows, I think, 4 consecutive Quarters where the dollar SG and A was actually down year over year. Speaker 300:20:33So how are you thinking about that in 3Q like from a dollar standpoint? And is there sort of a run rate to kind of think about SG and A dollars going forward? Like, I know you're not giving 4Q guide, so you probably don't want to talk about next year. But like should we be thinking about SG and A dollars higher next year than this year? Or is there a chance You can actually take that down just from a cost cutting standpoint. Speaker 300:20:59So I guess a couple of questions there. Speaker 200:21:01Yes, yes, there's quite a bit there. So what I'll try to do is kind of High level about how we think about SG and A and then obviously how it pertains to where we're at today. So as I think about SG and A, we have a highly fixed business, fixed costs both within the store system as well as Our corporate overhead and web and things like that. So, this has created some challenges as you know in 20222023 of just With the sales coming down, the deleverage in the business also is part of the reason we were able to leverage so well in 2021 when we saw increased sales. I think as we look at 2022 SG and A and I do think sometimes it's important to step back and look at full year SG and A, it was up 1.8% compared to 2021 I'm sorry, down 1.8% compared to 2021 and it was up 4.6% compared to 2019, which As we look back and we looked at inflation and where the cost structures have gone over that time period, I think we saw that as being fairly positive. Speaker 200:22:07As we looked at the 1st 6 months of this year, SG and A was up about 0.6%. So I think again, we are feeling pretty good. The Q3 guide includes a little higher run rate, which is really around some timing of spend things and we are continuing to invest in the business. I That's an important distinction for where we're at. Obviously, our results are tougher, but we do continue to believe there There's good value long term in investing through these cycles. Speaker 200:22:37We've built a really strong balance sheet. I think we're in a good financial position. That being said, we're being very prudent about how we think about it too. To your point, managing fixed costs everywhere as possible. I think we're really Rethinking our store payroll model and where we have hours there to try to pull back as much as possible and In certain departments and areas of the business leaving open positions open, I think those are all things that we've looked at. Speaker 200:23:08While trying not to cut things that are long term for the business, I think as we look forward, what you should expect from us is We got to grow sales at a much greater factor than SG and A. And because we have not done Tons of substantial cuts to SG and A, I think we still feel like we've got the right balance to be able to drive sales going forward. So That's really our focus. That will be our drive as we move into 2024. And I think as we look at SG and A overall for 2023, we won't see huge growth. Speaker 200:23:42What we'll see is some of the inflationary pressures that are really hitting lots of people on the industry. Speaker 300:23:48Okay. Thanks again. Operator00:23:52Thank you. One moment while we prepare for the next question. And we have our next question will be coming from Jeff Van Sinderen of B. Riley, your line is open. Speaker 400:24:10Yes. Hi, everyone. Wondering if you guys could talk a little bit about what you're seeing in the sales and margin performance of your private label product? Speaker 200:24:24Yes. I'll go ahead and talk about it just kind of from a numbers perspective and obviously welcome Rick to chime in. I think one of the things we've talked about throughout this year is our consumer really seeking value. And we are I think we've seen that out in the external market, it's clearly surely been clear in our business too. Private label as a percent of the business has continued to climb. Speaker 200:24:52We've seen it from 2022 throughout 2022 and now into the first Quarter and Q2 of this year and then pretty substantially here in the Q3 to date, which you'd expect in back to school And where we're at. I think we're really proud of our teams and how they've executed here because while there's certainly a value I think our teams have also done a really good job bringing great product to market. So we've seen that really resonate both in our tops and bottoms business, But in other areas as well, but that's the primary drivers on the apparel side. So overall, I think seeing really good private label trends. I think we've been able to do some things with bundling and packages in our stores related to private label as well, which has been beneficial and we're also seeing the growth internationally too. Speaker 200:25:44And so we're encouraged by that with some of the brands really working in Europe and our Fast Times in Australia team also has some private label that they're pushing as well. So overall, I think we're pretty encouraged by what we're seeing in that area of the business. Speaker 100:26:00And I'd only add, Jeff, that I think this What Chris has just described is what's driving and the success of our bundling promotions is what's driving The UPT gains, and that's why I'm so proud of our sales teams is that they're using that with our customers coming in the door and we generated not only how we had the AUR gains But we've seen again UPT start to increase in back to school, which is I think a credit to our team, our sales team to put those bundles, to sell those bundles And to have some of our highest now dollars per transit I think ever at back to school, which I think speaks well to how we're positioned with our core consumer. Speaker 400:26:37That's helpful. Just as a follow-up to that, and I don't know, I'm not sure you really break this out often, but just wondering if there's any Color, you can give us a kind of where that concentration of private label is running at this point. Speaker 200:26:52Yes. I can speak to that. We are about 21.5% through the second quarter compared to about 17% last year. So it's about 450 basis point Increase year over year as a penetration in total sales. Speaker 400:27:09Okay, interesting. And then I have sort of an off the cuff question for you guys, but I'm just wondering how you're handling getting people back to the office at this point. I know that out there we hear some resistant. What's your latest policy to get folks back to the office? Speaker 100:27:26We have steadfastly throughout the entire pandemic Period and into where we're at today, Jeff, we've always considered ourselves to be an office environment where people are going to be here. Of course, our SOAR employees are in the office every day, as our DC teams in the office every day down in our DC facility. So We believe that collaboration is key at Central so that throughout the pandemic when whatever the rules were, we've definitely followed them. But if we could have 50% capacity, we're rotating everyone in fifty-fifty over alternating weeks. And so pretty much for us, everyone's back. Speaker 100:28:01We have some exceptions for certain Specific situation, but pretty much on the fall, we've been back. Okay. Good to hear. And then I have Speaker 400:28:09one more sort of broader question for you. I think you were kind of running on average about an 8% to 10% operating margin, call it pre COVID. But of course, we have elevated labor expenses now and other inflationary inputs. What do you think is a normalized Operating margin for the company, are we looking now probably mid single digit, do you think? Or just assuming sort of modest sales recovery, call it maybe a mid Single digit positive comp, all else being roughly equal. Speaker 400:28:43How do you think about that? Speaker 200:28:45Yes. I mean, Jeff, we've done a lot of work around this. And obviously the step back we've had the last couple of years has been super challenging. But as we break it down, we've broken down lots of different ways. I really believe it's generally sales related and this is the bigger challenge in our business. Speaker 200:29:04And We actually if you came coming out of 2014 2015, we had talked about getting back to high single digits From an operating profit perspective, we were able to accomplish that. We actually got into double digits. And I think we still believe over the long term, if we can get sales Right. And there are other things in the business that help offset some of the inflation. We've been able to drive product margin higher. Speaker 200:29:29We've been able to We have an international business that still has a lot of growth around it. I think that high single digit goal is still achievable. And that's really our push and that's our drive as we think about the business recovering and seeing the sales come back Is trying to build a model that will get to that high single digits and obviously, hopefully, potentially beyond, but I think that still seems realistic in our heads. Speaker 400:29:59Okay. Thanks for taking my questions and best of luck in the remainder of Q3. Speaker 200:30:04Yes. Thanks, Jeff. Operator00:30:07Thank you. One moment for the next question. The next question will be coming from Tarek Speaker 500:30:28I think you cited some Encouraging trends in men's, I was wondering if there's anything into back to school or into the Q3 that Has maybe surprised you from a category or fashion trend standpoint that you can talk about? Speaker 100:30:46I'll start and let Chris add in, Cory. And I guess One of these we've already talked about, which is the strength of our private label business. And I think that is clearly a strong trend driven business. I think As Chris said earlier, our teams have done a really good job here of being on trend and on cycle. And of course, we had to plan for that. Speaker 100:31:04This is In our most of these private label categories are cut and sew categories. So there's some we plan for back to school, I think, executed well by our private label product teams And then executed really well with our overall team strategy and the bundling that worked both in stores and online for providing value for our customers and Driving DBTs in the process as well as driving margin. The other I'd call out for you and so that's a big driver Definitely for Men's too. The other way I'd call out for you, I think that's important is and I think exciting for us is the emerging brands. And We feel very encouraged about our pipeline in emerging brands here in 2023, and we have seen sequential improvement month over month In terms of brands launched in 20222023 gaining share within our total sales mix. Speaker 100:31:57And that continued on into the back to school season. So that's the other aspect that turned our printables business positive In back to school. So that if you want to look at the real driver behind men's, it's getting positive for the back to school season. It's those two things, the quality Of our on trend private label product, the quality of our sales teams in selling multiple units and combine that with newness On the brand side and improved dramatic improvement in our screenables business. And so I'm really I think that's another area that's exciting for us as we think about this internally is we're hoping, of course, we can continue to see that month over month sequential growth and that these brands launched in 2022 and 2023 can continue to be growth drivers within the printable It's screenable areas of our business. Speaker 500:32:49Great. Thanks. That's very helpful. And just on product margins, you gave some helpful color as to how they've trended over the last couple of quarters. Could you maybe unpack for us how you're thinking about promotions ahead and how you think about product margins into the back half and how that might unfold as we Heading to holiday. Speaker 200:33:12Sure. Yes, I just as we think about product margin, we mentioned in our prepared comments, we were down 70 basis points year to date. And what I would just add to that is obviously the mix Component that we talked about is pretty significant when you have an international business comping up and growing sales and Our domestic business is more challenged and given that the international margin is quite substantially lower than our domestic margin. So when I even when we say down 70 basis points, the lion's share of that is really a mix challenge versus actually product margin decline. So As we look forward, part of what we knew coming into this year is that we would have some product margin challenges. Speaker 200:34:01We had some Inventory to clear out as of the end of last year and we saw some of that even added into that 70 basis points down as we move through inventory in the first half. Now as we transition into the back half, we do think we have Some opportunity in product margin now. I think it will be down slightly in the Q3, again tied to just mix And also tied to some clearing that we're doing specifically in the area of footwear. If I look at the inventory overall, We feel really good about where our aging sits with the exception of footwear. And I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. Speaker 200:34:41It's been pretty Well talked about out there of some of the challenges in footwear across the market. And so we're not immune to that. But I think our teams have done a good job kind of working through it and Clearing it. And so that will be one thing that we continue to have planned into the model. It's planned into the Q3 guidance. Speaker 200:35:00And obviously, any thoughts we've given for the year. That being said, you've also seen private label increase as a percentage of sales. That's a benefit to us. We think we have the ability to continue to drive margin here domestically as well as internationally. And most of our initiatives On the product side are built around trying to do that in addition to sales. Speaker 200:35:20So I think as we move forward, we are hoping that we'll have some more against prior year product margin versus what we saw in the front half, even with the mix shift that we've seen from Where our sales are coming from. Speaker 500:35:37Great. Thanks so much and best of luck. Operator00:35:42Thank you. That does conclude our Q and A session for today. I would like to turn the call back over to Rick Brooks, CEO for closing remarks. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:35:51All right. Thank you very much everyone for your time today. We greatly appreciate your interest in Zumiez, and we'll look forward to talking to you in late November about 3rd quarter results and early reads on the holiday season. Thank you, everybody. Operator00:36:04Thank you all for joining today's conference call. This does conclude today's call. You all may disconnect and have a great wonderfulRead morePowered by