Greetings, and welcome to a.k.a. Brands Holding Corporation Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn this conference over to your host today, Emily Schwartz, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining a.k.a. Brands to discuss our third quarter 2025 results released this afternoon, which can be found on our website at ir.aka-brands.com. With me on the call today is Ciaran Long, Chief Executive Officer; and Kevin Grant, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you of the company's safe harbor language. Management may make forward-looking statements, which refer to expectations, projections, and other characterizations of future events, including guidance and underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed. For a further discussion of risks related to our business, please see our filings with the SEC. Please note, we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. This call will also contain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the release furnished to the SEC and available on our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ciaran.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our third quarter results. We made meaningful progress on our strategic priorities this quarter. We opened Princess Polly's 11th store at The Westchester Mall, expanded our wholesale partnerships and successfully refinanced our debt, further strengthening our financial position. Our Australia region continues to grow. And importantly, we continue to advance the optimization of our supply chain. I'm also pleased to report that we delivered $7 million of adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. As I mentioned on our second quarter call in August, we've been swiftly diversifying our supply chain structure to build long-term flexibility and resilience. As we accelerated scaling this transition through the back half of the third quarter, we experienced some transitory and temporary supplier delays that impacted in-stock levels and the overall level of fashion newness, critical components of our operating model. These short-term pains were the primary drivers of our softer-than-anticipated sales in the quarter. Since the end of the third quarter, our in-stock levels have gradually improved, which has allowed us to get back to growth with fourth quarter growth to date net sales tracking positive low single digits. Importantly, we now feel confident in our inventory levels and our updated supply chain as we head into the holiday season. The transformation of our sourcing ecosystem allows us to maintain the high product quality standards that we and our customers expect while also working with manufacturing partners across multiple regions that are fully equipped to support and enhance our test and repeat merchandising approach. We are confident that we now have the operations and available capacity with our new and existing suppliers in multiple geographies, allowing us to meet our production needs. We remain confident that the swift and comprehensive transformation of our sourcing…

Thanks, Ciaran. As mentioned, we continue to be pleased with the demand for our brands and the strength of our business model. For the third quarter, net sales declined 1.9% to $147.1 million and 2.7% on a constant currency basis compared to the same period last year. Net sales in our U.S. business declined 3.6% to $97 million due largely to supply chain disruptions that led to out of stocks in our best sellers, which Ciaran mentioned earlier. We were pleased to see the strong sales growth in Australia continue with sales increasing 5.1% to $46 million. Total orders for the third quarter were $1.9 million, an increase of 2.2% compared to a year ago. Our trailing 12-month active customer count rose to 4.07 million at the end of the third quarter, a 50-basis point increase compared to a year ago. And our third quarter average order value was $78, 3.7% lower than the third quarter of last year, primarily driven by out-of-stocks in best sellers. Turning to our profitability metrics. Gross margin increased 110 basis points to 59.1%, ahead of our expectations compared to 58% in the same period last year. Our stronger-than-expected gross margin was driven by a higher mix of in-store sales, less promotional activity given our constrained inventory position, an improvement in the Culture Kings business and a benefit from duty drawback. We anticipate gross margin in the range of 56.6% to 57% for the fourth quarter, which contemplates the trend in the business that we're seeing today and our improved inventory position. Selling expenses were $43.2 million compared to $41.9 million in the third quarter of 2024. As a percentage of net sales, selling expenses were 29.4% compared to 27.9% a year ago. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to an increase in store selling…

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ryan Meyers with Lake Street Capital.

First off for me, I just want to make sure I understand the sort of updated guidance. The let's call it $7 million or so that you guys came in below sort of the expectations in the third quarter compared to the revised full year guidance. So it sounds like there was maybe a couple of million or so that led into the fourth quarter, but where the business is at right now, that kind of headwind with the inventory that's now gone. That's where there's kind of that delta there.

Thanks for the question, Ryan. Yes. First of all, we're really pleased with that our inventory has gotten back to a good spot here in Q4, and we're seeing those positive comps come back in the quarter. What the guidance is for Q4 is sort of low single digits overall, and that's 10% on a 2-year stack. So we're feeling really good going into the holiday. As you mentioned, we did get caught up a bit in the beginning of the quarter with our inventory situation, but we're in a much better spot headed into the holiday, into the end of the year.

And then just looking at the lower order value, can you just walk us through that and kind of how the inventory shortage ended up impacting that? Was that just you guys weren't able to sell through higher priced, more in-demand inventory? Just kind of any color on that would be helpful.

Yes, yes, for sure. I think on the bright side there, we really still saw great demand for our product. We saw strong traffic. We saw growth in active customers. We saw positive growth in orders as well. And that's -- the AOV decline really for us is related to the out of stocks, the lack of newness, and the lack of the product best sellers. And as I mentioned, into Q4, we've certainly seen the inventory improve, and we've seen AOVs correct as well. So we saw that as temporary and really just related to the inventory position overall.

The next question comes from Ashley Owens with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

So I wanted to start by asking about the store strategy and how it translates to margins. You're up to 12 now, almost doubling that into next year. So how should we be thinking about some of the gross margin gains in the medium term, just given the lower promo activity in person? And if you think some of these improvements you've seen are structural in nature as you continue to scale that brick-and-mortar store front?

Yes. Look, I think we're certainly really happy with the continued execution on the strategy and that being put our product in front of our customers wherever they are. I think seeing great performance from Princess Polly in stores ahead of sales plan, ahead of profitability, really great from a payback period. And as kind of we talked about in the script, certainly see a higher gross margin there, which is helping uplift from a Q3 perspective. And I think we're going to continue on that strategy of leaning into stores for Princess Polly and Culture Kings next year. I think Petal & Pup will be more focused on continuing expanding its wholesale presence. We'll certainly see that we've a lot of opportunity across the brands to continue on kind of increasing sales and profitability.

And then just quickly as well, I would be curious as to how marketing ROI trended through the quarter. Were you able to maintain efficiency even with limited newness? Or did you pull back at all to avoid inefficient spend? And then as we look to 4Q, is this something you expect to ramp again now that inventory levels are more normalized?

Yes. I think as Kevin mentioned, we certainly saw the demand was there during the quarter and the customer was there. And I think in particular areas where we had better inventory depth, whether that's kind of stores, wholesale, or Australia, so really strong sales performance. I think as we saw kind of or as we got really, I would say, a bit surprised by the out of stocks in late August and September, we did pull back on some marketing spend from a dollar perspective, just we knew that the efficiency wouldn't be there with the level of out of stocks that we had. And as we've gone through kind of the October period, gotten back in stock back to overall positive comps as we talked about, we are starting to ramp up our marketing spend again and feel good on our ability with our in-stock levels back to where we want them to be, feel good that we can execute against the strong holiday opportunity.

The next question comes from Eric Beder with SCC Research.

Let's talk a little bit about the inventory levels. What should we be thinking as this kind of normalizes into Q4 about how inventory should be moving going forward?

Yes. Thanks, Eric. Yes, as we mentioned, inventory finished the quarter, finished Q3 down 9%, and we really saw the inventory levels improve into October and through Q4. We feel really well set up for the holiday and things are back to where they should be. By the end of the year, we see inventory about flat year-over-year, and that's relative to sort of mid-single-digit growth, and that's managing it sort of right where we want it, slightly below our sales growth.

And how should we be thinking about the Australia, I guess, that's become an opportunity in that you're opening a Princess Polly store there, margins even before that -- I don't know about the margin, revenue even before that has started to go and this has kind of worked last year cleaning up in terms of inventory and getting the margins better there. How should we be thinking about that as a potential upside driver going forward?

Yes. Look, it's great to see 3 quarters in a row now of positive comps in Australia. I think, look, we've seen that across all of the brands. And I think particularly as we talked about the last couple of quarters, great progress from the Culture Kings team and the leadership there as they've moved the Culture Kings first-party brands on to a test and repeat model and certainly seeing outsized growth from that. And I think, as you said, really excited to open our first Princess Polly store in Australia in Bondi. I think looking for, I would say, that overall Australian market to continue to be a growth driver, but I think in that kind of mid-single digits is where we would expect it to be going forward. But certainly looking forward to the consistency of that and the kind of increased brand awareness and profit that will generate from us.

And last question for me. Where do you expect now when the supply chain is finished in terms of the upgrades and the pieces here, what should be the level of China exposure? And how much more diversified will you be than you have been before?

Yes. Look, I'm really happy with the progress the teams have made over the last 12 months as we look to diversify the supply chain. We started this time last year looking for ways that we could diversify out of China. I think the teams have made phenomenal progress. We're now at a place where we have for key historic vendors that we've used for the last number of years and have diversified outside of China and are in multiple regions. We've also brought on new partners that are also in multiple regions. So I think, look, where we are today, we feel really good that we're kind of going forward and certainly from a long-term perspective, we have the ability to move volume across regions as we see different changes in the macro environment or the tariff environment and that all of the groups that we're now working with can meet our quality, pricing, and delivery time lines that we need. So I feel really good about the progress we've made over the last 12 months.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory.

As you think about some of the metrics can, basically AOV, I think it was down just under 4%. Given what's changing now with the sourcing structure, how do you see some of those metrics evolving, whether it's orders, active customers? What are you seeing? And how do you see it different by region?

Yes. Look, I think it's great to see continued positive growth in active customers, and we've been consistently doing that now for quite a while, continued growth in orders. I think AOV did come down a little bit in Q3, and we can very much see that that's impacted by just those short-term period that we were out of stocks with all the supply chain changes that we were making. But we also see that it's back to kind of positive growth in AOV in Q4. So I think that's stable that we expect it to be going forward. I think, look, as we sit here, we do see that there's just tremendous opportunity to continue on that strategy. And I feel like as we continue to roll out stores, and roll out wholesale opportunities, we probably -- we'll continue to see growth in all the metrics, which I think will just really kind of drive the overall growth of the business. So looking forward to executing on in Q4 and in 2026.

And just when you commented that the fourth quarter to date sales, I think you mentioned up low single digits. How does it differ by region?

Yes. I think as we've gone through that period, right, we've seen pretty consistent growth in Australia. They are not impacted by any of the changes we've made from the sourcing perspective. So the growth there has been really consistent over the last 3 quarters and into Q4. I would say as we've gotten back into stock as we went through October in the U.S. region, we did see comps improving. And that's comp just really from that better in stock. The customer has been there all the time. We've seen the traffic. We've seen the demand. So feeling good now with the inventory levels we have, the quality of the inventory and looking forward to executing against a really strong holiday.

Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And at this time, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.