Greetings. Welcome to a.k.a. Brands Holding Corp.'s Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Emily Schwartz, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, and you may begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining a.k.a. Brands to discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal 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, adjusted EBITDA margin and constant currency net sales. 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. Thanks for joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. I'm pleased to report that we delivered another year of growth, reflecting the continued strength of our brands and the power of our business model. Despite a dynamic environment, we executed on our strategic priorities, strengthened our foundation and entered 2026 positioned for accelerated growth and expanding margins. I want to thank our teams across the business for their focus and disciplined execution throughout the year. Their commitment and hard work were central to the progress we made and the momentum we carry into the year ahead. Let me start with a few highlights from the year. For the full year, we grew net sales 4.4% to $600 million, marking another consecutive year of growth. Our U.S. region, which remains our largest and fastest-growing market, delivered net sales growth of 7% to $394 million. On a 2-year stack, the U.S. is up 25%, further reinforcing our conviction in our U.S. expansion plans, and the U.S. now makes up 66% of the business. Princess Polly continued to deliver strong performance throughout the year, generating double-digit net sales growth and advancing its omnichannel expansion strategy. The brand opened 7 new stores in the U.S. in 2025 and launched its first location in Australia in the fourth quarter, ending the year with 14 stores globally. Wholesale continued to perform well across the portfolio, with our partnership at Nordstrom exceeding expectations with both Princess Polly and Petal & Pup delivering strong results. We also strengthened the leadership team, operations and go-to-market strategy within our streetwear brands. These actions improved merchandising discipline and inventory productivity, positioning Culture Kings and mnml for accelerated growth and stronger margin contribution in 2026. And importantly, we exited the year with inventory…

Thanks, Ciaran. Turning to our financial results for the fourth quarter. Net sales increased 3.1% to $164 million, in line with our guidance. As we noted on our third quarter call, due to the accelerated supply chain transition, we entered October with meaningful out-of-stock positions in key best-selling styles, which limited sales in the early part of the quarter, but inventory levels stabilized as we moved through the quarter, and we ramped up our marketing engine to regain sales momentum. Net sales in Australia were also in line with expectations, increasing 1.6% to $58.1 million. As Ciaran mentioned, we entered 2026 with strong momentum with first quarter to-date net sales growth in the mid-single digits. As a reminder, as we continue expanding across channels, the shape of the P&L will continue to evolve, though we expect overall margin dollars to increase as we pursue the growth opportunity ahead of us. Total orders were $2.2 million, up 6.4% year-over-year. Trailing 12-month active customers, excluding wholesale, were 4.18 million compared to 4.07 million a year ago. And average order value was $76, down 2.6% year-over-year. Turning to our profitability metrics. Gross margin declined 30 basis points to 55.6% compared to 55.9% last year, reflecting the impact of the out-of-stocks and best sellers in October, partially offset by a higher mix of retail stores. Selling expenses were $51 million or 31% of net sales, reflecting the retail footprint expansion and onetime fulfillment charges. Marketing expense was $20.5 million or 12.5% of net sales. General and administrative expenses were $30.3 million or 18.5% of net sales. G&A expenses increased year-over-year primarily due to charges for a nonrecurring legal matter as well as an increase in headcount to support our channel expansion strategy. And we delivered adjusted EBITDA of $2.5 million or 1.5% of net…

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

First off, just thinking about the EBITDA guide for 2026, obviously, a pretty significant step up here from what you guys reported in 2025. Can you just walk us through kind of the key drivers of that? Is most of that coming from the gross margin side? Are we seeing any operating expense leverage? And then are there any lower nonrecurring costs? Just kind of bridge that gap for us would be helpful.

Yes. Thanks, Ryan, for the question. Yes, we're coming out of the quarter with good momentum. That strong performance for the year, over 4% growth, 5% on a constant currency basis. We've mentioned we've seen mid-single-digit growth so far in Q1. The guide for the year on the top line is that sort of mid-single digits. And then from a profit perspective, we mentioned EBITDA, we expect over the entire year about 120 basis points of EBITDA expansion. I would say the bulk of that, Ryan, comes from gross margin. We mentioned the headwind of 100 basis points in gross margin in FY '25. So we'll be moving past that in the year. We're finishing inventory in a really strong position, down 10% year-over-year and down 10% sequentially. So we're feeling great about that. We'll have some channel mix impact in the gross margin as well. The balance of the EBITDA improvement will come across the rest of the operating expense lines. As mentioned, we'll continue to see the shape of the P&L move, as the channels change shape of the P&L. But overall, I feel really good about that guidance. And then on the nonrecurring charges, no, not really anything of note for the guide for FY '26.

Okay. Got it. And then just switching to the retail business. Can you guys tell us what percentage of the revenue mix now does come from retail? Obviously, pretty significant store openings in 2025, expected again here in 2026. Is that starting to become a more meaningful percentage of the overall revenue mix? And then how should we think about the growth of the stores or the revenue growth at the stores relative to the direct-to-consumer business? Is the growth outpacing that there? Just any more details on that as it's becoming a larger portion of the business?

Yes, Ryan, this is Ciaran. We are really happy with the store performance. And I think for us, seeing really good productivity on a square foot in the Princess Polly stores also really strong 4-wall profitability and I think really feel good about the opportunity that we have to continue to lean into stores. We've now 13 open in the U.S., which is great progress. As we mentioned, signed 8 more leases. And I would say kind of 4 to 5 of them will open in FY '26. So we're going to continue to lean into the opportunity that we have at the stores. I think tremendous growth. It's also great for us bringing in new customers. We're also seeing a nice halo effect from the online business or to the online business from the stores. So I think just kind of more and more ahead of us.

The next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey with Telsey Group.

As you think about the Princess Polly business and the opening of the 8 stores, how do you envision the business retail versus wholesale, your direct online? What do you want the complexion to look like? And can you talk about what the gross margin differential is between?

Yes. Sure, Dana. Look, I think there is tremendous opportunity. And just as a reminder, Princess Polly is about half the revenue for the group at the moment, 13 stores open, also a great presence in Nordstrom across all Nordstrom doors in the U.S., just like the Petal & Pup brand has and seeing really good response rate really across all of the channels for new and existing customers. I think, look, from a long-term perspective, we're going to continue to grow the online business. We think we are -- still have a lot of opportunity there. But obviously, from a wholesale and stores perspective, we are extremely early. I think as it relates to those, I would see the more focus from the Polly team is on opening stores and building out that store footprint. I would say on the Petal team, they're more focused on the wholesale opportunity in front of them. And we mentioned a few of the new partners that they have this year and coming in 2026. From a margin perspective, I would say, look, it's all -- they're all profitable channels. They're all bringing new customers. We do see gross margins a little bit higher in the stores than online as the stores are a little bit less promotional at this stage. Obviously, gross margins lower in the wholesale channel, but very limited selling expenses, marketing in those channels as well. So kind of on a contribution profit basis, pretty similar across the mall and really gives us confidence to kind of our ability to push into the mall and that they'll all be margin accretive.

Got it. And just lastly, the shaping of the year, how are you thinking of the cadence of top line and adjusted EBITDA given the lapping of tariffs and the supply chain transition that you had?

Yes, Dana. So from a top line perspective, we've talked about that sort of mid-single-digit growth for the full year and the guide for FY '26. As you alluded to, there's definitely a lot of disruption with the tariffs and supply chain issues in FY '25 that sort of disrupts our normal cadence. So that's why we're guiding from a top line perspective the growth from Q2 through Q4 on a 2-year stack, it's sort of that high single-digit perspective. We mentioned EBITDA over the balance of the year expanding about 120 basis points with that really picking up in Q2. So Q2 and Q3 look very similar and will be about 100 basis points higher than FY '25 with a little bit of a larger impact in Q4.

The next question comes from the line of Eric Beder with SCC Research.

Can you talk a little bit -- I know a little bit about the inventories here. So that's a really nice number, down 10%. I'm assuming given the tariffs and the SKU count, that's down even more. Is that something that -- what we should be thinking about that going forward for this year given the kind of ups and downs in the tariffs last year?

Yes, Eric, I think really good to see kind of inventory down 10% and doing that in a period where we're growing the overall business up 4.4% for the year and in a period when such progress on diversifying our sourcing last year as well. I would say a big driver of that change in inventory is just the progress we've made at the Culture Kings business and moving them on to test and repeat. It's a slow build to change that and kind of such a transformational difference for the group. But I think the leadership team that's been in there now for 12 months and longer have just made huge progress, and that's a big driver of the inventory change. Look, I think philosophically, we always want to have lower inventory growth and sales growth, and that's how we're looking to go through this year.

Okay. And Australia and New Zealand, 4 quarters of growth here. Is this market back? And how can you leverage that even more now that pretty much the inventories have been cleaned up and some of the other positives have rolled through there?

Yes. It is great to see 4 quarters in a row of growth in the Australia region. And I think, look, Petal & Pup and Princess Polly have been doing well there because they have been on that test and repeat model. I think now that Culture Kings is and the new leadership and kind of ways of working that the team has there, we're really seeing progress there. We're seeing real improvements in productivity for new products and new SKUs that we're bringing in. So I think back to growth there is great. Also, as we talked about, we opened -- we relocated a store in Brisbane for Culture Kings down at a 5,000 square foot kind of size. It's a new model that we can -- testing there, we can do that quickly and then leverage the rollout in the U.S. I think for us, we are expecting moderate growth in Australia, but I think glad that it's back to growth and will be consistently there.

And just a follow up on that. What is the average size of the Culture Kings stores outside of the Brisbane store in Australia and New Zealand?

Yes. Traditionally, they were more in that kind of 80,000 square foot size. And as a reminder, the Vegas store in the U.S. bigger again. So for us, really figuring out as we look to scale in the U.S., how do we retain those key aspects of the retail payment that is just core to Culture Kings, sets it apart from anybody else out there and is really the opportunity for us to show off the great 1P brands that we have in that business. So look, we're fortunate that you can test a bit quicker down in Australia from the store side and also being the off-season there does give us a good view into what should be best sellers in the U.S. going forward.

Our last question comes from Ashley Owens with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

So maybe to start, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I heard that the 1Q quarter-to-date growth has been mid-single digits. Could you just provide more detail as to what's shaping the key assumptions driving deceleration from current trends in the quarter and maybe from a brand perspective, where that moderation is coming from? Or if this is just general conservatism built in?

Ashley, yes, good observation. Yes, we've seen strong mid-single-digit growth so far in the quarter, and that's largely coming from the U.S. online business, which is great to see. Just as a reminder, we launched in all the Nordstrom doors for both Polly and Petal in March of '25. And that's what's driving kind of that more difficult comp as we move through the quarter and kind of explains where we're guided for Q1.

Okay. That's super helpful. And then maybe just to follow up, thinking about some of the other drivers of growth in 2026, how we should break this down or balance between order growth and AOV as the primary drivers. I know AOV was declining in through the first half of the year, and then we're also lapping really strong order volume in 2Q and then a little bit in 3Q as well. So just any insight there would be helpful.

Yes, for sure. From a -- we're pleased really to see in the year that growth in our active customers as well as that strong growth in orders. Q4 order growth was over 6%, and that's really what drove the top line performance. Listen, like with our evolving channel mix, we're going to see some up and down in the AOV, and we've got channels like wholesale will drive the AOV up. We've got other channels like TikTok and new categories that will drive the opposite. We've modeled AOV flat for FY '26 with the top line growth really coming from growth in orders.

Ladies and gentlemen, this now concludes our question-and-answer session and does conclude today's conference as well. Thank you for your participation. Please disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.