Earnings Labs

Under Armour, Inc. (UA)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 13, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Under Armour Inc., Fourth Quarter Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Lance Allega, Vice President of Investor Relations for Under Armour. Sir, you may begin.

Lance Allega

Analyst

Thank you, and good morning to everyone joining us on today's call to discuss Under Armour's fourth quarter and year end 2017 results. Participants on the call will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to certain uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These uncertainties are detailed in this morning's press release and documents filed regularly with the SEC, all of which can be found in our website at uabiz.com. During our call, we may reference certain non-GAAP financial information, including adjusted and currency-neutral terms, which are defined in this morning's release. We use non-GAAP amounts as the lead in some of our discussions because we feel it more accurately represent the true operational performance and underlying results of our business. You may also hear us refer to amounts in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures can be found in the supplemental financial tables included in the press release, which identify and quantify all excluded items and provide management's view why this information is useful to investors. Joining us on today's call will be Under Armour Chairman and CEO, Kevin Plank; President and COO, Patrik Frisk; and Chief Financial Officer, Dave Bergman. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for questions. And with that, I'll turn it over to Kevin Plank.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Thanks, Lance and good morning everyone. On our last call we spoke at length about our strategy of getting big fast and the rapid expansion of our business to gain scale. Scale and innovation product, sport categories and global footprint. All gear helping us to become one of the world's largest athletic brands. We also detailed some of the operational inefficiencies as a direct result to this growth, including an inconsistent go-to-market process, change management related to shifting toward a category based construct. In the mix match in our cost structure that was built to support the expectation of being a much larger company by 2018. These issues along with some macro challenges in the North American market including retail consolidation, changes in consumer preference and intensified competition, created a tough year for our company in 2017. It was tough, but also an opportunity to begin the work to transform ourselves into an operationally disciplined organization, capable of supporting the powerful global brand that is Under Armour. Over the past year, we've made strategic and proactive decisions to advance our systems, reset our structure and recalibrate our leadership in an effort to simplify our go-to-market address our inefficiencies and utilize the scale and infrastructure we built to better serve our consumers and retail customers. As we slowdown to speed up and simplify everything we do to become smarter, faster and stronger, our team is collaborative, humbled and hungrier than ever. Today, we reported our fourth quarter and year end 2017 results, relative to where we are in our journey in the offensive and defensive strategies we're employing, let's take a moment to review some full year highlights, which were fairly in line if not a little better than the outlook we gave in our last call. Revenue was up 3%…

Patrik Frisk

Analyst · Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open

Thanks Kevin. On our last call, I spoke about operate fuel innovate at the central construct of Hovr strengthening our underlying business. Thing accurate in product story service team, today I would like to detail some of the major initiatives we're working on within our operational transformation. This transformation has three main objectives, put the consumer first, simplify our operations and drive sustainable profitable growth. And its core starts with the consumer, as we work to significantly sharpen our knowledge and connection with our consumer athletes, it's critical that research and design, innovation engagement and does our overall go-to-market are based in consumer insights to create a demand centric growth model. To base this work, we've finished our global segmentation study targeting more than 20,000 people and gained an even deeper understanding of how consumers engage our brand; use our product and one and why they shop Under Armour. Within this consumer decision journey we are using both quantitative and qualitative attributes to further strengthen our building to analyze existing market spaces and identify unique areas of wide space where we might play. Now part of every seasons consideration, this data and analytics that serves to inform and support the tough decisions we have to make with respect to resource allocation and the financial discipline necessary to provide high returns. High returns then provide more agility for our business. Playing the central part of the strategic planning process, this enables us to refine our positioning, prioritize product, pricing and segmentation and ultimately unlock additional value drivers and growth levers. Second, following many years of rapid growth and infrastructure build, we are in the process of simplifying our operations. To reset, state well said earlier it's challenging to unpack 5 years and 5 quarters, but we are making progress. As we…

David Bergman

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Thanks Patrik. Before we get into our fourth results and our outlook for 2018, I'd like to provide some more contexts around the 2017 restructuring plan and one-time items that impacted our quarter as well as the 2018 restructuring plan that we announced this morning. On our last call, we provided an update to our restructuring plan that we expected to incur approximately $140 million to $150 million of pre-tax restructuring and related charges in 2017. For the year, we recognized a total of $129 million in charges against that plan, including $37 million in the fourth quarter. As we move into 2018, we have uncovered additional opportunities to more closely align our financial resources to drive operational discipline and effectiveness. To that effect, we approved the new 2018 restructuring plan which is expected to include $110 million to $130 million of pre-tax restructuring and other related charges. This plan anticipates up to $105 million in cash related charges consisting of up to $55 million in facility and lease terminations and up to $50 million in contract termination and other restructuring charges. As well as up to $25 million in non-cash charges comprised of up to $10 million of inventory related charges and up to $15 million of asset related impairments. In 2017, we made several strategic decisions to drive toward a more efficient and effectively operated company. We are proud of the work we have done thus far and we use 2018 to further drive efficiencies and streamline our business to become more profitable. Based on our restructuring efforts in 2017 and 2018 we anticipate a minimum of $75 million in savings annually from these efforts as we move into 2019 and beyond. We already reviewed some of the full year highlights, so let's take a few minutes to…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Randy Konik with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Randy Konik

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Yes. Thanks a lot. I guess I had couple, two questions. My first question is for Dave. Dave there is a lot of moving pieces to the gross margin, I think the good news here is the gross margins moving up in 2018. Can you give us some perspective on some on the tailwinds that would be more sustainable to the gross margin beyond 2018 such as you mentioned some improvements in costing that you guys are seeing as well as, you mentioned that the promotional environment should be better in the back-half of 2018. So, I'm assuming that in tax, your gross margin in the front half of the 2018, so I want to get some perspective on how we should be thinking about long-term gross margin opportunity not maybe get the number, but you know some of the factors that you are looking at that kind of driving full gross margin on a, more than 12 month basis as we look out into the medium-term? Thanks.

David Bergman

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Sure. And we definitely feel good about the 50 basis point increase. I think the start and maybe just understanding that some of the past headwinds are definitely diminishing. So, we are assuming less promotion in the back-half of 2018 versus 2017. That's a planned perspective, a brand protection perspective and we feel pretty good about that. So, you will see a little bit better basis point improvement in the back-half versus the front-half. But also as far as some of the headwinds that are diminishing, international is no longer headwind for us, that's trending favorably especially with when you think about Asia Pac being our highest growth region and also with are now highest gross margin region as well. So that's helping. We also expect less airfreight as we are not maneuvering through a major ERP system implementation this year, which created some elevated airfreight last year. And then also when you think about FX after years of headwinds, this is now shifted to a slight tailwind and then we're also as you mentioned seeing some early success from some of the sourcing initiatives, Colin Browne on the supply chain working really well with our vendor base, working on various initiatives there, but relative to visibility negotiation consolidation et cetera. We're seeing some benefits of that in the back-half of this year, but full year benefits in 2019 and beyond. And then I think, as some of the past headwinds are diminishing some of the past tailwinds are continuing. So, if you think about channel mix, we should continue to see positive impact there primarily driven by the higher DTC growth. So, in summary we feel pretty good about the 50% basis points and what that could mean for 2019 and beyond.

Randy Konik

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Yes. It's really helpful. And then Kevin, congratulations on this Hovr technology, I guess what I wanted to ask around that is, since it's been, it looks like selling really on the website and new stores. What if you learned from, you are not just the technology, but the esthetic of what the product actually looks like, especially Phantom and success you had with design improvements? So, what we kind of take away that you guys learn and bring forth either and continued in the footwear or even in the apparel category or whether it would be on product design or marketing around these products going 2018 and beyond? Thanks.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Yes. Thanks Randy. I think one of the best things about our industry is as simple as it is at the end of the day. When it comes down to it, the consumer as a very basic expectation and we've defined that we call the tri-sector the Under Armour, and its style, performance and fit and that what makes us unique as a brand and I think what really makes our product differentiated is that when we deliver on those three things, first and foremost it looks great, number two, it's got performance through a technology in it which is what makes it Under Armour and as a reason and purpose for being. And then also just the comfort and the fit that goes into the product I think that's one thing that Hovr really exemplifies for us and our brand. It also it's a simple story, I think it falls on what we call a franchise, is that the consumer can look for, they know what it is, it was a program that we're able to execute globally, all around the world including we got a, we have one of our UA Hovr houses which will be kicking off in Los Angeles this week and then the All-Star Game, we've been and, uniquely been in Shanghai, so the team has really done a great job as our first two global launch. But I think it says it's very challenging it's that, the consumer comes to Under Armour for first and foremost great product that's delivered in design right way. But they also want to easily communicate it through a story. So, we believe we have massive opportunity, I think in footwear for us a brand and we think about footwear women's in the international being our three big growth…

Randy Konik

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Very helpful. Thank you.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Jefferies. Your line is open

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open.

Jonathan Komp

Analyst · Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open

Yes. Hi. Thank you. Kevin, you've done a good job of really summarizing a lot of what's going on currently to address some of the issues, I want to take a step back, I know you've talked about the recovery is being really a two year journey for the company, and I love it, if you can maybe take some time to talk about specific examples that have given you more or less confident Matthew.

Patrik Frisk

Analyst · Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open

I think I'll take this one -- this is Patrik here. I think some of the things that are giving us real confidence. Kevin touched on the Hovr story here, but I think it's the way we're now approaching everything that we're doing putting the consumer at the center of what we do. We've just completed as I said a major global consumer segmentation study as well as some other interesting work in the space where we compete which is giving us more insight into understanding where we can be competitive in the space. We're coupling that together with the process improvements that we've made around our go-to-market and are driving now a much more coherent calendar if you like which is also giving us a line of sight into improvements in the calendar as it relates to speed to market. So the teams are really starting to work much better together. And the reason, we're referring so much to Hovr is because it was the first time we were able to execute a 360 degree campaign a few weeks ago across the world simultaneously at the same time. And we clearly see that when we do that the consumer responds. So for us it's kind of the first showing if you like inside the new go-to-market. And that's one of the big things for us as we look into 2018 and beyond which gives us a lot of confidence. And the second thing is also as you think about efficiencies inside of the work we're doing around SKU optimization for example. The fact that we're driving 40% less SKUs more or less over a two-year period and 25% just in 2018 to 2019 alone also shows that when we put our mind to it and when we really understand the consumer in the space we're able to make those difficult decisions of what not to do as well. So that's giving us a lot of confidence in our team's ability to execute in this new environment that we're in. Kevin, I don't know if you want to add something to that maybe.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open

Yes. I think it's important that as a company we really focused on scale over the last several years. And I think it's probably one of the most debated topics, if is it right, is it wrong, as you hear there. It's a decision that we made and frankly really glad that we're able to go through I think what many companies are facing especially what we're seeing right now is $5 billion brand. So having built that and one thing we know is, they're building a brand is frankly much more difficult than becoming streamlined the way we want to be in operations and so we feel like we've done one. What you're hearing from us is that we have a heavy focus to what we're going to build into we've done in 2017, what we're building into 2018 and we're not done and we're not going to probably take either one easy. We're going to focus on continue to be a great brand but, of course, getting operationally excellent. And the good news about this as Patrik said is, this journey began back in 2017. We made a lot of really hard difficult decisions from modifying our structure of going from a head of apparel footwear and accessories to category management with distinct categories that really like running and Soccer and Golf and training et cetera. We also upgraded our ERP systems with SAP and something that we're continuing to see the fruits of what that's going to mean for us going forward. And then, of course, bringing in the leadership with Patrik joining our team. So we have to say all three of these things are about seven months into it right now. And so 2017 was about us getting started and 2018 is about us really optimizing. And I think you'll see us do that. But we want to be clear there's a lot of work for us to do in 2018. But as I think hopefully you're hearing from us is that we feel very confident with the strategy and the plan that we have in place, so we'll keep running on that.

Jonathan Komp

Analyst · Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open

Great. If I could follow up specifically on the cost efficiencies and SG&A reductions and I'm curious if you could share a little bit more on the pay scene of some of the benefits you expect. I know the guidance is for at least $75 million of savings by 2019. Will you be getting some of that this year? And then also, longer term when you look to get the G&A ratio back below 40%. Does that sound like a one year or a three year, a five year type aspiration, just curious how you think about kind of the duration of the path to get there?

David Bergman

Analyst · Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open

And this is Dave. I'll give you a little bit of feedback on this year and what were driving through. I think we'll hold future years to our Investor Day, which will be excited to talk about later in the fall. But relative to what we're doing now first it's really just driving through a lot of it is the fixed cost and the committed cost that we're working on. If you think about it North America is deleveraging due to top line that's really distorts and imbalances SG&A even more. But, within the fixed cost area we've got global distribution center 3 PL expansion. We've got offices, facility run around the world, the FMS and IT systems. We've got pretty significant depreciation expense from previously higher CapEx years. Just to name some of those order areas. So it's not easy to slow down or turn off quickly. But we've made meaningful progress in 2017 going into 2018. When you think about those fixed costs they were growing well, well ahead of revenue in 2016 and 2017 and we're getting them much closer in line with revenue growth in 2018 which is great. And then, when you look at the variable expenses we've got to continue to prioritize there because we want to be able to support the growth in our DTC and International which are SG&A intensive. So it's definitely something that we're balancing in the mix appropriately. It's all about running smarter, leaner and more efficient. So when you think about the benefits from the 2017 restructuring, there are definitely benefits that we're already seeing in 2018, the benefits are bigger -- be bigger in 2019 and beyond. You're not really maybe seeing externally those benefits from the 2017 plan as well mainly because they are partially masked by those higher fixed costs and also the SG&A intensive international expansion and DTC growth that we're going through. So again, it's a little difficult to unpack the five years in five quarters, but we're driving hard and we're excited about what it means for 2019 and beyond.

Jonathan Komp

Analyst · Jonathan Komp with Baird. Your line is open

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Edward Yruma with KeyBanc. Your line is open.

Edward Yruma

Analyst · Edward Yruma with KeyBanc. Your line is open

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. It seems like some strong enthusiasm around international results this year and your guidance for next year. You also talked about improving profitability there. So would you help kind of quantify how we should think about international profitability and the trajectory? And then as a follow up there's been a little bit of noise around covenants, so kind of comfort around your debt and the covenants that you have. Thank you.

David Bergman

Analyst · Edward Yruma with KeyBanc. Your line is open

Sure. This is Dave. From an international perspective, you're right. I mean we've been doing extremely well there. The teams in these international regions are simply amazing. I honestly I hope they're listening to this call and I'm sure they are because they've just been doing a phenomenal job growing in each of those regions and doing it in a brand right way. We've been exceeding 40% growth in the international regions for the last three years. When you look at Asia Pacific we're very bullish especially in China and Korea. We have the highest growth, but also with the sport and performance becoming more important culturally there. So we're uniquely positioned I think to capture and gain that momentum. Also in EMEA there's great strides and traction there with some of our larger wholesale partners along with accelerating DTC growth and helping to drive improve profitability there. Latin America, which is our most recent and the smallest international market right now, but quickly become a significant contributor to the international portfolio. So they have balanced growth in DTC and wholesale. To your point around profitability that's probably just as exciting or if not more exciting. From my position is that after years and years of investment in these international areas they are really turning the corner at this point and becoming profitable. And take an example like Asia Pacific becoming very profitable and really starting to contribute back to the consolidated pre-tax income of the company which is great to see, which we're also excited about what that means for future tax rates as well. So again, international up and down doing very, very well for us. Those teams have been amazing. We continue to drive on that together. On your other comment relative to leverage and the debt covenant. This is really a short-term issue partially it's the math with the 12-month trailing EBITDA. But due to the combined impact of two-year pivot period that we talked about with a little bit lower profitability and roughly two years or in total $250 million in potential restructuring charges. However, we do anticipate having over 50% available within our revolver even at our peak leverage points in Q2 and Q3. And we have line of sight to being free cash flow positive by year end. So we're in good shape but we do have some short-term pressure on the leverage ratio driven by the forecasted EBITDA. So we've been in discussions with our banks and we're in the process of obtaining an amendment to alleviate those short-term pressures. And we expect to execute quickly. So we feel like we're in a good spot to work through that.

Edward Yruma

Analyst · Edward Yruma with KeyBanc. Your line is open

Great. Thanks so much.

David Bergman

Analyst · Edward Yruma with KeyBanc. Your line is open

Thanks, Ed.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Jim Duffy with Stifel. Your line is open.

Jim Duffy

Analyst · Jim Duffy with Stifel. Your line is open

Thanks. Good morning. My question is on inventory management, what are the key steps to bring inventory growth more in line with revenue growth and what are the expected consequences to the margin in doing so. There are a lot more clearance and discounting that you'll need to see before the back half of the year. And then, building on that what are the plans to improve inventory turns to more industry appropriate levels in the future and some of the steps necessary to get there?

David Bergman

Analyst · Jim Duffy with Stifel. Your line is open

Yes, Jim. This is Dave. I will start and then pilot Pat chime in as well. I think first just make sure we have the context around that fact that if you step back to October 31, we took over $300 million out of our top-line plan for 2017. And obviously, at that point a lot of that inventory had already been produced was either on its way to us or was already within our distribution facility. So there's definitely some overhang coming into 2018 that we're dealing with and we're going to be actively moving through that in a brand right way through our own outlet stores but also through our third-party off price partners which have been great as well. So we're going to get after that pretty hard in the first half of the year. We expect to be much more in line towards revenue growth in the back half of the year. And that's part of the reason why you'll see gross margin improvements a little bit more in the back half versus the front half. But as far as a lot of the different levers, I can turn it over to Patrik can give a little more color on that as well.

Patrik Frisk

Analyst · Jim Duffy with Stifel. Your line is open

Yes. I think it's for us very much also planning the business correctly right. So for us going into 2018 especially the back half we've thought about our planning differently. We talked a little bit about this SKU optimization that we're implementing and how we're now thinking more holistically around our inventory levels across our distribution, across our segmentation and that's going to continue into 2019 as well. So we feel that we're more in control if you like in terms of how we think about inventory across the world across our channels of distribution. And we feel that we're planning our business much better and that will accelerate through the back half of 2018.

Jim Duffy

Analyst · Jim Duffy with Stifel. Your line is open

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open.

Bob Drbul

Analyst · Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open

Hi. Good morning. The questions I have are around -- it's just different segments in the business. Can you talk about where you think you are in women's and in the youth businesses and how they trended in the fourth quarter and the expectation for 2018?

Patrik Frisk

Analyst · Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open

Yes. I'll take that on here. This is Patrik. I think in terms of how we think about our opportunity for growth going forward we still believe that women's is a tremendous growth opportunity for us across the world. Together with of course footwear and we talked also about our international business. We believe youth continues to be a very, very important part of our business and an area where we want to actually increase our market share going forward. We have a lot of engagement especially in North America with youth and travel and club organizations. We have contracts with over 400 of those organizations across our business. We currently deal with about 1000 high schools directly with contracts out of the 16000 that exist and we sell through another 1000. So as we think about our youth business, it's currently in a state where we feel that we're going to be really having an opportunity to grow that also as we expand our direct-to-consumer and our e-commerce and digital business going forward. So we feel very good about our youth business. Our women's business we continue to invest into this. And remember we're about seven months into our category management where we really stood up our women's business in a stronger way. And as we're coming out of 2017 and heading into 2018, we feel that our assortment and our distribution is now much more put together and getting sharper. And that's what Kevin said before the SPF factor, the style performance and fit factor is getting that specific Under Armour point of view across much, much better in the back half of 2018. So we believe that as we look into 2018 and beyond with the category management that we put into place. With the understanding -- the deeper understanding of the consumer, with a deeper understanding of the segments where we're competing into, we're going to get a stronger and stronger business for women as we move forward across the world.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open

And if I could too Bob, if there's one thing about this brand is that kids love this brand. This brand was built because of the aspiration that the little boys and little girls put on our products, apparel and footwear and make them feel that they could jump a little higher, be a little stronger, run a little faster. And so that's something you'll continue to see as double down on. As far as the women's space again to echo what Patrik just said, we can just be better. So we're invested there. We're positioned there. But what you'll see from us is a brand that gets and understands that what we need to do for her is simply deliver on fit, style and color. And I think you'll see that coming up from us in a progressive way as we continue to get better and better in our women's business. But we believe in it, we're focused and we think that she likes us. We just have to do a better job, give them more reasons to buy Under Armour that's head to a toe statement as well.

Bob Drbul

Analyst · Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open

Great. I guess the second question I have is, you talked about I think its 30% to 40% reduction in SKUs in the fall if 2019. Can you talk about your segmentation of product by channel with a lower number of SKUs and sort of where you think you are from that perspective?

Patrik Frisk

Analyst · Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open

Well, I think it's really thinking through our distribution across the world right and every channel and understanding our positioning in each segment. And as we stood up category management about seven months ago as we've said here today and we've coupled that now also with a deeper understanding of the consumer and as well as our channels. We're getting just more pointed and we're getting a stronger point of view. We're taking out the noise if you like in terms of the SKUs that we believe should be driving our business going forward ensuring that every product that we put into every channel has the right price value equation, has the right SPF, style performance and fit equation. And we just looked honestly at ourselves and said listen what do we really need to drive the business in the brand appropriate way for each channel. And we made those hard decisions and that's what just you're going to start seeing from Under Armour going forward, us making those really hard decisions.

Bob Drbul

Analyst · Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open

Great. Thank you very much. Good luck.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Bob Drbul with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open

Thanks Bob.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open.

John Kernan

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Good morning everyone. Thanks to my question.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Thanks John.

John Kernan

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

International seems to be obviously a real point of strength, Asia Pac was up over 60% in 2017. What are you learning about China besides that market, we can all see that the popularity of Steph Curry in China, two of your biggest competitors generate operating margins north of 30% in that region. So just want to know what you're learning about that market and how big you think it can be for Under Armour?

Kevin Plank

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Yes. I think I'll take it. I will go. Okay. So I think what's interesting for us in China is that if you compare us to most of our competitors we're still relatively small. And we're very premium. We've definitely come in at the upper end of the marketplace. Most of our distribution right now in terms of the direct-to-consumer business that we have there is positioned in the Tier-1 and into the Tier-2 cities. We believe we have an enormous amount of opportunity to continue to grow our brick and mortar business there. But what we also see is an expanding digital e-commerce business that is really resonating with the consumer. So we believe like Dave said earlier that our teams have done an incredible job in terms of positioning the brand in that marketplace. We're fortunate to also have some of the best athletes on the planet to support that business especially inside of the basketball category. And for us that's of course a great asset. I don't know, Dave if you want to expand on the gross margins.

David Bergman

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Yes. I guess I'm just adding a little bit to that. The Asia Pac region is definitely going to be or continue at least in the near term to be one of our highest growth areas. But it also is becoming one of our most profitable. Their gross margins are strong and now that we've actually over the past years been building up the distribution structure that we need, the office structure that we need a lot of the foundation has been laid. So now Erick Haskell and his team in Asia Pac are really driving forward hard. And now that we've got some scale we can really start returning some of that profit to the bottom line. So we might not be driving right away to the profitability that some of our competitors have in the region, but I think we're trying to make sure that we go with the right pace to stay in line with the brand and make sure that we're working with the best partners out there and we're going get a good steady pace that's right for Under Armour and we'll continue doing that.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

And just again to pile on sort of the energy excitement we have around Asia as a whole that started with Japan a relationship that goes back nearly 20 years now for the brand. So we've been there for a long time. China since 2010, but really amplified in the last couple of years due to the leadership that Dave mentioned. But we have a terrific team on the ground hundreds of doors opened in China last year. We'll repeat that again this year. There's a tremendous amount of capacity. We're now over 60 cities right now across China. And we see the ability for us to begin to backfill and obviously there's many more cities that we have the opportunity to go to as well. We just opened our largest store in Asia over 20,000 square feet. So I mean in Beijing. So we feel like we're in a really good position and really proud I think of what this team has put together, I think the opportunity that we have so great things. But international again we talked about going for scale in the last several years really doubling down and getting behind our international business is something that is paying dividends for us today as we are able to manage through North America right now and be able to lean on what we have coming in from the international markets.

John Kernan

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Okay. Thanks. If I can just ask a quick follow-up on a North American wholesale market. Dave, what's was embedded in your guidance for North America wholesale as we go through -- go into the back half of the year when compares obviously.

David Bergman

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Yes. I mean I guess a couple of things we mentioned a lot of the same factors that drove business in North America in 2017 are going to carry into 2018. I do think that we're going to be challenging ourselves to make sure that we're brand right and potentially tempering some of the promotional activity in the back half of the year and we plan for that accordingly. We expect there's going to be a little bit of additional contraction in the U.S. market as we continue to optimize our distribution there. There is a little bit weaker consumer demand driven by a variety of factors there that are impacting us that we talked about over the past. So we're not expecting a miraculous turnaround in North America. Again that's why we've been kind of talking about 2018 being fairly similar to 2017 and we're continuing to maneuver through that in the most strategic way.

John Kernan

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Okay. Thank you.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Thanks John.

David Bergman

Analyst · John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open

Thanks John.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question is from the line of Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open.

Omar Saad

Analyst · Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open

Good morning guys. Thanks for taking my question. I actually wanted to ask about the comments you made early on about evolving the creative process that the product design and development process. Maybe you guys can elaborate on that and what your aim is and what you think the outcome will be in terms of elevating the company's ability to produce better products that are more relevant. Thanks.

Patrik Frisk

Analyst · Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open

Hi, Omar. This is Patrik, I think what we're referring to there is the entirety of the process. And we're now starting out with the consumer first. And that goes for all of the teams that we have engaged. And the idea is that they're not just starting with the consumer first, they are starting out with the consumer first inside of the space where we're competing. So it's about purpose ultimately and making sure that to Kevin's earlier point the SPF factor, style, performance and fit is part of that equation all the way through. But it's being more purposeful in other words we're cutting SKUs, we're being focused on the consumer. We understand the space that we're going to be competing in. And as a consequence the design teams and the product development teams are being more focused around their execution. We believe that this will ultimately drive better product from us in both the short-term and the long-term. If you couple that with a great go-to-market process, we're actually both marketing and product start out together. We're having the teams joined at the hip as they go through the process that enables us to better build out our 360 degree approach to the consumer truly understanding the consumer journey as the consumer moves through the purchase journey and understanding each touch point for the consumer what they they're expecting from us at each touchpoint. And then, understanding what we are best delivering against that expectation for each touchpoint consistently time and time again. So a lot of it is about consistency and a lot of it is about the process itself enabling our teams both from a design product development and marketing perspective to learn and how to better [indiscernible] right in terms of incremental improvement for each season that goes by that gives us a lot of confidence going forward. I don't know Kevin, if you want to add on to that something may be.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open

Yes. Omar, I've got a pretty unique perspective of 21 years in this company, 13 now nearly as a public company in sort of the difference in being the ability to be an entrepreneur to be able to move from when there's a problem you just you go sit on the problem for a day, a week, a month until it's fixed. And the size and scale that we've been able to get through as a company, I think it's a real testament to the team and the hard work that we put in. But it also requires the process that we need. And while Patrik was such a great fit to be able come and help our organization as the industry experience and just the understanding really in the go-to-market process of being able to drive all the way through, to drive the calendar discipline and to put the things in place that as a growth company that was could build and just maybe make a few SKUs and put it in aisles and have second high and let it fly. That's not the case. Our competitors are very good and are the expectation, the shopping experience is incredibly competitive and something that we've got to be great at. And that means, we need to be great with a product that we put into the existing distribution, we did make sure and ensure that distribution is segmented. And so now because it translates and crosses over so many different languages, we've got to be simple in that messaging to. And so it really is a bit of a process that really has us rethinking the way that we bring product to market as a company. Our job is simple -- again it's not to be over complicated. Our jobs unlike consumers' where product exceeds our expectations. And we got to be able to tell in a really simple way. And one thing we know is that when we innovate we win and I want to be clear too for the call is that, while you'll see us talk about how incorporating style and of course to be Under Armour, let's have performance and the fit and comfort must be great. But, we do believe in our performance heritage. We do believe that the current perceived weakness of performance is something that's going to prove to be our long-term greatest strength. So we are not going to back off of that. You will continue to see us double down. But I'd probably use again Hovr as the archetype for as we make this definition of what is our brand. Our job is to make you better. And that's frankly where our new mission statement says. So every time [indiscernible] just going to make you little bit better.

Omar Saad

Analyst · Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open

Kevin I was going to say it feels a little bit like as I listen to you guys talk about the brand and where its core competencies are and you mentioned I think focusing on running and men's training and women's training. Is it's hard to interpret from you guys that there's a little bit and I don't want to say back to basics, but back to the core and origins of what the Under Armour brand has stood for albeit on a global scale in a much bigger platform. Is that the right way to think about it, especially in the construct of the market seems to be moving so much towards lifestyle and sport fashion. Are you really kind of just carving out the Under Armour positioning in the marketplace as a performance leader, is that fair to interpret it that way?

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open

Yes. We are not ignoring the market and I want to make sure people understand. We're not tone deaf. We just understand who we are and who we are as what's built this company that we have today. And I think what's exciting for everyone here and the reason that our team came to work in this brand to begin with is because the belief that they had that we could make athletes just a little bit better. And so there's a lot of people that are running the play right now. What it means to turn strictly to our lifestyle and frankly ignoring performance at some level. So what we're saying is that we get it. But we believe that every product that we make yet, it has to look great, it has to be stylish, but it has to have the DNA that makes it Under Armour. So again, when you see it, you should start with wow what an amazing looking product and b) wow is that Under Armour and c) is wow, if it's Under Armour what to do. That's the thing that makes it the DNA for our brand. And we won't be able to answer that with it's not just a normal sweatshirt, but you can wear this thing in a rainstorm. We want to be able to say that, it's not just a pant, but it's a golf pant with super stretch and you can spill on it or you can take mud or dirt and wash in the wash and that after the dry cleaners. So the things that make the DNA, the amount of science and technology and time that goes into the products that we build. I don't think we've got enough credit for. And I think other people are trying to enter our categories and not get and not probably do the homework that we do in order to put the products out in the marketplace that we do. So Under Armour special, when you see an Under Armour logo it means that the product does something it's doing something to make you better. And so we're going to make sure a) that comes through in every product that we have. We're going to make sure because I don't think we've been as emphasized on design as we can be to take credit because all of the cost and the structures been in the fabrications. So we're going to make sure that we're not going to back off on the fabrics, but you're going to see a bit more thought and a bit more finish and things are completely relevant to what we do. But it'll be marketing trend right and something that you'll continue to see us evolve into.

Omar Saad

Analyst · Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open

Thank you. That's helpful to hear.

Kevin Plank

Analyst · Omar Saad with Evercore. Your line is open

Thank you, Omar.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen this concludes today's question-and-answer sessions. Thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.