Sharon John
Analyst · SCC Research
Good morning and thank you for joining us today. Late in the third quarter, we acknowledged our 24th anniversary, which marks the beginning of Build-A-Bear's milestone quarter century year of adding a little more heart to life. In preparation for a year-long celebration of our 25th anniversary, I want to thank our founder, Maxine Clark, and everyone that has been a part of this organization through the decades and around the world for the dedication and hard work that has resulted in an iconic brand and beloved company, enabling untold special memory and the creation of over 200 million furry friends for our guests.
Since 1997, Build-A-Bear has grown from a single retail location in the Saint Louis Galleria Mall to an evolved and diversified global corporation, reflecting many market and consumer changes. Most of the business model evolution has taken place in the past 8 years since I took the helm in 2013, with this passionate team staying focused on successfully turning around the company that had endured 8 consecutive years of comparable store sales declines by 2012 and to today's thriving entity that is now poised for a compelling future.
With that backdrop, it seemed relevant to highlight some of the remarkable progress that has been made since 2012, including: one, a comprehensive digital transformation resulting in significantly more efficient operations and impactful e-commerce growth. In fiscal 2012, web demand was 4% of total revenues or $14 million. In fiscal 2021, we expect digital penetration of nearly 20% of total revenues on a higher top line, reflecting a more than 5x increase in annual web demand, which would surpass the $70 million mark, the best e-commerce results in our history for both revenue and profitability.
Two, a meaningful expansion in merchandise margin. In fiscal 2020, we had steadily expanded merchandise margin by nearly 900 basis points compared to 2012. Even with some of the current supply chain pressures, we expect to end fiscal 2021 near those record 2020 levels.
Three, more than doubled the average store contribution rate. At the end of fiscal 2012, more than 20% of North American locations were unprofitable with an average contribution margin under 10%. In fiscal 2021, 98% of North American stores are expected to be profitable with an average contribution margin of over 25%.
Fourth, improvements across operational metrics such as dollars per transaction, which, for example, were $35.50 in fiscal 2012 and have now, through a combination of strategic initiatives, risen slightly above $54 year-to-date for fiscal 2021.
Five, fiscal 2021 revenue is expected to be at its highest level since 2012. In fact, the midpoint of the revised guidance from this morning's press release would translate to the highest total revenue in over a decade.
And six, we have created value for our shareholders with record-breaking profit as well as stock price appreciation. On my first day at Build-A-Bear in 2012, the stock closed at $6.56. Although it has fluctuated over the years like many, especially during COVID, yesterday's closing price was $17.06, with the U.S. news recently ranking BBW as the top 25 best performing stocks in 2021.
Upon further reflection of this financial progress since 2012, it's important to understand that the team needed to do more than just return to profitability after 8 years of contraction. We had also inherited a suboptimal supply chain, an outdated technological infrastructure and a company that had not yet pivoted its retail strategy to reflect the changing environment nor envision meaningfully leveraging the power of the brand to diversify revenue streams.
Therefore, the goal is two-pronged, quickly return to profitability while simultaneously evolving the fundamentals of the company to compete in a very different world than the past. In 18 months, the company returned to and sustained profitability for 4 of the next 5 years while self-funding a new IT infrastructure, rebuilding a website to compete in the growing digital economy and reorganizing and assembling a leadership team to execute the diversification strategy.
However, this necessary multidimensional, multiyear planned evolution unfolded during a period of rapid consumer shopping shift and economic turmoil coined as the retail apocalypse and Brexit, which continued to -- contributed to scores of retailers across the U.S. and U.K. filing for bankruptcy and thousands of store closures, while traditional mall traffic reportedly dropped by more than half.
Even with these headwinds, Build-A-Bear persevered, developing a variety of innovative new retail business models and formats while focusing beyond traditional malls to more tourist locations, where consumers were going for fun and entertainment and where our business tended to overindex on key metrics. We also leveraged the strength of our brand to expand into new non-plush product categories and add nontraditional retail locations.
Separately, because of the accelerating shift away from traditional advertising and kids media and marketing, we also developed new intellectual properties specifically designed to translate into owned, value-enhancing, brand-building content to directly connect and engage with children in new ways and through new venues. And we simultaneously leveraged the recently achieved multigenerational aspect of the brand to expand our consumer base beyond children.
Some of these evolutionary efforts include: Build-A-Bear is much less reliant on traditional malls. The Build-A-Bear Workshop North American retail locations have evolved from having 85% in traditional malls in 2012 to fewer than 65% in 2021. We also recently successfully renegotiated favorable terms for 99% of our leases while maintaining high levels of lease optionality.
Build-A-Bear is now more than plush and more than workshop. Not only have we built on the power of the master brand via outbound licensing deals in multiple categories beyond plush to expand the Build-A-Bear brand reach and deliver margin-accretive revenue, we have also created a content pipeline using internally developed proprietary IP that we prove out in our stores and then partner with best-in-class entertainment companies to drive awareness, affinity, engagement and revenue through content creation and marketing such as we have done with the newly launched Honey Girls live action movie in conjunction with Sony Pictures.
And Build-A-Bear has a much broader consumer base. In 2012, the vast majority of our sales were for kids under 10 years old. Although children remain a core audience, we have purposely and successfully expanded our consumer base to include more tweens, teens and adults, attracting a broader demographic and a larger addressable market, which means greater potential. This expanded older demo, which leverages the multigenerational aspect of the brand, now represents more than 40% of our total sales.
I share this with you because the execution of these and other transformational strategies, combined with keen financial oversight, had not only once again led to successful reemergence of the company even as we manage through the ongoing impact of a global pandemic that led to the unprecedented temporary closure of 100% of our locations in 2020. We believe they have set us up for the future opportunities as well and these important building blocks in place.
Since that time, the team has been able to deliver the most profitable first 3 quarters in our history. Specific highlights from our record-breaking third quarter 2021 results include: $95 million in total revenue, the highest level in more than 10 years for third quarter, representing growth of over 27% compared to fiscal 2020 third quarter and 35% versus 2019, in fact, on a year-to-date basis, through the third quarter, total revenues of $282 million, which is also the highest level in over a decade; and pretax income of nearly $8 million, representing the highest for a third quarter in our history and the third quarter -- third period in a row that we have set records for most profitable quarters. Accordingly, year-to-date pretax income of $23 million is also a record-breaking performance.
While we acknowledge the impact of COVID-related factors such as pent-up demand and government stimulus, we also firmly believe that this year's momentum is reflective of the ongoing successful execution of our strategy, combined with our ability to continually adapt in a volatile environment. These multiyear infrastructure, operational and organizational shifts were designed to create a more diversified corporation poised for long-term success.
Now I'd like to update you on our progress on 3 of these key priorities. Our first strategic priority is the further acceleration of the digital transformation of the company. When our stores were closed due to COVID in 2020, we quickly pivoted to generate new levels of e-commerce demand. In 2021, not only have we successfully sustained that elevated digital sales level, we've also been working to drive continued incremental e-comm growth with innovative new products and experiences for a variety of consumer segments. Some examples include, first, the large and expanding gifting category has emerged as an important component of our digital demand growth strategy, further leveraging our efforts to broaden our consumer base. We intend to continue to fuel this initiative by building out our gifting selections and occasions online as many of these consumers prefer the convenience of digital shopping and directories -- delivery, and we look forward to sharing some innovative new concepts as they launch.
Second, our adult, fan-based affinity products continue to be an online growth driver, now further enabled by a new dedicated space on our website called the Bear Cave, offering some surprising collectibles and licenses. In the Bear Cave, these highly valuable, predominantly adult guests can find products that, like in a cave, are just a little bit cooler or maybe even a little bit darker while still being on brand.
Our offerings feature popular entertainment properties, including our late third quarter collaboration with the FRIENDS television show, the recent introduction of Marvel's WandaVision, an update of our popular Deadpool bear and the anticipated launch of many other fan favorites.
Third, we are rolling out our consumer-facing marketing launch of a new interactive e-commerce experience called Bear Builder 3D, or BB 3D, where guests can complete an online transaction via a reimagined animated Build-A-Bear Workshop, where their furry friends of choice come to life in a video game-like world. Recently given credit in a popular business podcast as pioneering e-commerce 2.0, with the process being dubbed as experiential e-commerce or e-e-commerce, this exciting innovation opens up a new way for guests to engage and shop with us.
Fourth, given the increasing desire for more Internet consumer payment options, we have recently added the Klarna extended payment plan to our website. Klarna transactions have a 30% higher average order value versus non-Klarna orders. And the relationship also provides Build-A-Bear marketing exposure to millions of Klarna shoppers.
And fifth, since the relaunch of our Bonus Club, loyalty membership and e-mail access has continued to expand. To leverage this, late in the quarter, we launched the next module of Salesforce, known as Service Cloud. This effort is reflective of our continued integration and elevation of digital capabilities via the multiple platforms we are using to create value through the more effective use of our first-party data.
In the case of Service Cloud, our goal is to improve our ability to identify, collate and impactfully market to consumers through the creation of personal preference profile, which can lead to better buyer journey and more accurate look-alike shopper data, which can improve our ability to drive incremental sales. These initiatives have contributed to significantly higher site traffic compared to prior year, record-setting digital demand and all-time e-commerce profitability.
I would like to congratulate the e-commerce team for these results as well as the Build-A-Bear -- for buildabear.com being recognized by Newsweek as one of the best online shops for their recently published 2022 consumer guide.
Our second strategic priority relates to the continued evolution and leverage of our store footprint, including new formats, business and usage models and locations to assure consumer access to the important one-on-one retail payment experience that helps build our brand affinity. As such, we are using our stores as e-commerce fulfillment centers. With our recently expanded inventory management capabilities, we are leveraging our geographically dispersed store footprint to expand our omnichannel consumer delivery options via buy online, ship from store, buy online, pick up in store and same-day delivery with our Shipt relationship.
This strategic use of hundreds of store locations as many pool points significantly improves e-commerce fulfillment efficiency, decreases ship time, which is especially critical to minimize holiday cutoff days, and significantly expands our overall e-commerce throughput capacity versus using the warehouse alone.
We are adding new tourist locations to our fleet. Given our overall improved store profitability, strong store metrics associated with tourist location and the current favorable rent environment as well as the fact that we believe Build-A-Bear is not overstored, we have recently started to strategically expand into a number of key tourist environments through a combination of corporately managed and third-party models. Thus far, we have added new tourist locations at: Pier Park in Panama Beach City (sic) [ Panama City Beach; ] The Hub at WaterSound Beach, near seaside, Florida; ICON Park and SeaWorld in Orlando; Busch Gardens in Tampa; Rivercity (sic) [ Rivercenter ] in San Antonio; JW Marriott Hill County (sic) [ JW Marriott Hill Country ] in Austin; and Kings Dominion amusement park in Richmond, Virginia. Plus, we have recently reopened 5 historically successful temporary seasonal holiday shops at Gaylord hotels.
Finally, we are dedicated to continued retail innovation. And through our new relationship with the Hudson Group, who recently announced Build-A-Bear Workshop's first interactive teddy bear making machine located at JFK Airport, we now have automatic teddy machine, or ATM, which provide an opportunity for us to expand with Hudson into other airports across the country for last-minute gifts and traveling family as we look into additional sites for this brand-extending, low-labor retail concept.
It is important to note that many of these initiatives have been in the works for quite some time but were delayed due to the COVID business disruption. However, we are now [ extremely ] pleased to start rolling out a variety of these transformational and innovative concepts as we look forward to sharing additional strategic opportunities already planned for next year and beyond in upcoming discussions.
Our third strategic priority is to maintain and leverage our strong financial position. Thus far, in 2021 and for the third quarter, Build-A-Bear has delivered record results while maintaining a solid balance sheet and strong cash position with no borrowings on our credit facility. We continue to support our business with strategic investments as we also recognize the opportunity to more directly return value to our shareholders, especially given the results and the ongoing strong fourth quarter-to-date trends.
With that, as noted in yesterday's press release, on the precipice of our 25th anniversary celebration year, I'm pleased to reiterate that the Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program of up to $25 million in effect through November 30, 2023, and a special cash dividend of $1.25 per share to be paid on December 27, 2021, to all shareholders of record as of December 10. We believe that the multiyear, multimillion-dollar buyback program is reflective of the Board's confidence in this company. And again, given this record-breaking year, the special dividend is intended to immediately return value to our shareholders.
We look to the upcoming peak selling -- as we look to the upcoming peak selling season, like many companies, we too are monitoring the potential impact of the newly identified COVID variant and also juggling logistics and inventory challenges. However, because of the team's long-range planning and focused efforts on our supply chain, we remain confident that we will be in an inventory position to support our expected holiday demand.
We also believe that we are appropriately staffed and trained with Bear Builder associates ready to assure that there are plenty of teddy bears under the tree this Christmas. With that in mind, as noted in the earnings release from this morning, we have once again increased our annual guidance for total revenues and EBITDA for the fiscal year, which Voin will expand on in his comments.
In closing, I am proud of our team of talented, committed and passionate associates for delivering another record-breaking quarter and what has so far been a record-breaking year. I would also like to acknowledge our Board of Directors and welcome our recently announced new Board members, Narayan Iyengar and Lesli Rotenberg to the Build-A-Bear family. We look forward to working with you.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Voin.