Calvin McDonald
Analyst · JPMorgan
Thank you, Howard. I am pleased to be here today and share with you the highlights of our quarter 1 performance. It's been just over a month since I saw many of you in person at our recent Analyst Day presentation in New York. These are exciting times for lululemon as we embark upon our next 5-year growth plan, the Power of Three x2. Our teams are energized and deep in the work of the plan we shared. I look forward to providing you with updates on future earnings calls as we make progress on the key initiatives we laid out.
However, I'd like to spend our time today discussing the macro environment and the unique aspects of lululemon, which continue to contribute to our strong performance. As you saw in our press release, the momentum in our business continues and 2022 is off to an impressive start. Revenue in the first quarter increased 32% versus last year and 27% on a 3-year CAGR basis and adjusted earnings per share grew 28% and 26% on the same basis.
There are several notable metrics that underscore our performance this quarter. Starting with product, the guest response to our core and new merchandise remains very strong. Our product continues to drive demand, and we experienced robust traffic growth in both channels with stores and e-commerce up approximately 40%. And finally, we're in a strong inventory position relative to last year. While our levels are higher than our historical norms, we are comfortable with the quality and composition of our inventory. This allows us to balance the momentum we're seeing in the business with the challenges that remain within the global supply chain.
With that in mind, I'd like to spend a few minutes on China, given the current conditions related to COVID-19 and its impact on both our operations and supply chain. Consistent with many retailers in the region, we are seeing modest impacts of the COVID-19-related lockdowns on our stores and with some of our vendors. Throughout the first quarter and into the second quarter, we have seen up to 1/3 of our 71 stores closed for a period of time. As I'm sure you've seen, this week, stores are reopening in Beijing, and we are starting to see restrictions ease in Shanghai.
Even with the closures, our business remained solid in the first quarter, with revenue growing double digits versus last year and growing over 60% on a 3-year CAGR basis. In addition, our growth plans remain on track as the majority of our 40 international new store openings this year are planned for Mainland China.
From a sourcing perspective, when looking at finished goods for the upcoming fall season, Mainland China represents only 4% to 6% of our total unit volume. When we include trims and other components, the volume increases. Although the majority of our vendors are now up and running, we have experienced delays and expect some level of impact on future receipts. Our teams are closely monitoring the situation, staying in regular contact with our vendors and working to mitigate the current risks.
Having said all of this, we remain excited about our business in China, and we view the current situation as short term in nature. Our brand momentum remains strong, and we will continue to invest in the region, and we're excited about what the future holds for lululemon in this important market.
When looking at the global supply chain, overall, the environment remains challenging. Ocean lead times are not improving and air freight costs remain high. To address these issues, our team is carefully balancing our business momentum with time line uncertainties to help ensure we meet guest demand. This comes with a commensurate investment in air freight, which is important given we see satisfying guest demand as a priority. Our time lines allow us to pivot when we see trends change from air to ocean and all costs are included in our guidance. We will continue to carefully assess and manage.
Switching now to inflation. As we mentioned last quarter, we are seeing increased input costs on raw materials, labor and as I just spoke about, air freight. We continue to monitor the situation closely and are taking actions to mitigate the impact on our P&L. These include ongoing cost management, working with our vendor partners to identify additional efficiencies and pricing opportunities.
As I've shared previously, we are implementing some select price increases and have not seen any negative impact to our sales volume as a result. However, unlike many in the industry, we do not use promotional pricing as a lever to drive top line sales. Therefore, we are very intentional with our pricing strategies, and we monitor guest response accordingly. That said, I remain cautious around increasing prices in this period of uncertainty, and we will continue to monitor and maintain a measured approach toward this strategy.
Given the times in which we are operating, I wanted to highlight for you the unique strengths of lululemon, which drive our performance quarter after quarter. We have many attributes that make our brand unique, create competitive advantages and lead to the ongoing momentum in our business. As I've shared before, the pandemic has contributed to a fundamental change in guest behaviors that provide us with compelling opportunities to grow. These include our guests wanting to live an active and healthy lifestyle and looking for additional support related to well-being and recovery, and as normalcy returns, their desire for versatile apparel has increased.
Plus, our D2C model provides a strong and direct connection to our guests with incredible insights across every touch point. And we have a very balanced approach to growth across channels, geographies, merchandise categories, gender and activities. And finally, our primary focus on technical athletic apparel creates demand for our product across seasons and mitigates the need for markdowns. All of this positions us for continued growth and we will continue to take a balanced and holistic view of our business. In fact, our business is in the early innings and all levers are contributing to our performance. This is unique, speaks to the strength of our brand and our opportunity to innovate, all while maintaining our momentum.
Finally, let's look further at our product innovation. We continue to leverage our Science of Feel development platform to solve for the unmet needs of athletes and to bring new technical features into our merchandise assortment. Our foundational principle is when you feel your best, you perform your best. We utilized the Science of Feel to bring a consistent flow of innovation to our assortment across a variety of activities. Our product pipeline remains very strong, and it's the bedrock of the business.
In quarter 1, we launched footwear, golf and tennis, all meeting with great guest response. With footwear, we leveraged 20-plus years of experience designing and developing technical apparel to bring a unique solve to the women's footwear space. Many in the industry design footwear for men and then adopt for women. We designed our shoe for women first.
We introduced our first shoe, Blissfeel, in March, and we were proud that it was named the best women's specific shoe in 2022 by Runner's World. The response has been enthusiastic. And since we were prudent with our inventory buys, we have seen out of stocks. Although we expect to be in a better inventory position in the coming weeks, demand has far exceeded our sales forecast. As a result, we do anticipate that we will be chasing into additional inventory for the remainder of the year.
Turning to our play activities. Golf and tennis both performed well this quarter. These collections are comprised of pieces from our core assortment as well as styles designed specifically for these activities. This strategy allows us to manage our assortment, grow share of wallet while also leveraging our core and driving sales. We are pleased with these results and will continue to lean into these strategies.
Looking ahead into quarter 2, we have several exciting product stories to tell. First is SenseKnit. To continue expanding our run apparel assortment, this week, we launched our newest fabric innovation. After 4 years of research and development, we have brought to market SenseKnit, a proprietary fabric that seamlessly engineers zones of support, breathability and mobility directly into the fabric. Based upon collaborative work with our ambassadors and athletes, we determined the sensation runners are looking with unrestricted lightweight support while also delivering the technical performance and endurance they expect from lululemon. And our SenseKnit collection provides this sensation in 9 styles for men and women.
Second is hike. To leverage the versatility of our core as we've done with golf and tennis, we're on track to launch hike in the coming weeks. This assortment will combine elements of our core assortment with new styles designed specifically for hiking. This is an unmet need we heard from our guests specifically as hiking has gained popularity during the pandemic.
Next is throwbacks. Our product team has been spending time in our archives to find the best of the best and re-release limited additions of some of our guests' favorite styles, including revamped versions of our Astro Pants, Shape Jacket and Inspire Crop.
And finally, footwear, as I mentioned, we are excited with the initial response. We just launched our second style, the Restfeel slide this week, and we remain on track to roll out our next 2 styles later this year, Chargefeel and Strongfeel. This is just the beginning for us within this category, which has considerable opportunity.
So in summary, our results and our guidance demonstrate the strength of our business and the momentum of our brand. This is enabled by our omni operating model, our product innovation and our balanced approach to growth. We have shown our ability to successfully manage through what's happening around us, and I am continually inspired by how our teams around the globe consistently deliver for our guests, for each other and for our stakeholders.
With that, I'll now turn it over to Meghan.