Christopher Work
Analyst · the SEC. At this time, I will turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brooks
Thanks, Rick, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to start with a review of our second quarter results. I'll then provide an update on our third quarter-to-date sales trends. Second quarter net sales were $214.3 million, up 1.9% from $210.2 million in the second quarter of 2024. Comparable sales were up 2.5% for the quarter. As Rick mentioned, the primary driver was our North America business, which shows outsized strength even as macroeconomic uncertainty spurred by global trade policy intensified during the period. For the second quarter, North America net sales were $180 million, an increase of 2.1% from 2024. Other international net sales, which consist of Europe and Australia, were $34.2 million, up 1% from last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales increased 2.1% and other international net sales decreased 4.2% year-over-year. Comparable sales for North America were up 4.2%, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of comparable sales growth. After positive comparable sales in the important fourth quarter of 2024, our other international comparable sales have been negative in 2025, declining 5.5% in the second quarter. From a category perspective, women's was our largest positive comping category, followed by hardgoods and accessories. Footwear was our largest negative comping category, followed by Men's. The consolidated increase in comparable sales was driven by an increase in dollars per transaction, partially offset by a decrease in transactions. Dollars per transaction were up for the quarter, driven by an increase in average unit retail, offset by a decrease in units per transaction. Second quarter gross profit was $76 million, up 5.9% compared to $71.8 million in the second quarter of last year. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 35.5% for the quarter compared to 34.2% in the second quarter of 2024. The 130 basis point increase in gross margin was primarily driven by 60 basis points of improvement in product margin and 60 basis points of benefit related to the leverage of store occupancy costs on higher sales and the closure of underperforming stores. SG&A expense was $75.9 million or 35.4% of sales in the second quarter compared to $72.2 million or 35.4% of net sales a year ago. The 100 basis point increase in SG&A expense was driven by a 40 basis point increase in corporate costs, 30 basis points related to higher-than-anticipated legal settlement, 20 basis point increase related to annual incentive compensation, 20 basis point increase related to store wages, a 20 basis point increase in non-store SG&A wage costs and 30 basis point increase related to numerous smaller changes to impairment costs, training and other miscellaneous costs. These increases were partially offset by 60 basis points of benefit in non-wage store operating costs. Operating income in the second quarter of 2025 was $0.1 million or 0.1% of net sales compared with an operating loss of $0.4 million or 0.2% of net sales last year. Net loss for the second quarter was $1 million or $0.06 per share. This compared to a net loss of $0.8 million or $0.04 per share in the second quarter of 2024. Our effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2025 was 210% compared with 252% in the year ago period. The higher-than-usual tax rate in the second quarter this year and last year was primarily due to the allocation of losses across the jurisdictions in which we operate. Turning to the balance sheet. The business ended the quarter in a strong financial position. We had cash and current marketable securities of $106.7 million as of August 2, 2025 compared to $127 million as of August 3, 2024. The decrease in cash and current marketable securities over the trailing 12-month period was driven primarily by share repurchases and capital expenditures of $38.3 million and $14.1 million, respectively, partially offset by $26.6 million in cash provided by operating activities and the release of $3 million in restricted cash. As of August 2, 2025, we have no debt on the balance sheet. During the second quarter, we repurchased 0.6 million shares at an average cost, including commission of $13.10 per share for a total of $7.8 million. As of August 2, 2025, we had $7.2 million remaining on the $15 million repurchase authorization approved by the Board on June 4. We ended the quarter with $157.7 million in inventory, down 0.6% compared with $158.8 million last year. On a constant currency basis, our inventory levels were down 1.7% from last year. We feel good about our current inventory position. Now to our third quarter-to-date results. Net sales for the 30-day period ended September 1, 2025, increased 10.6% compared to the 30-day period in the prior year ended September 2, 2024. Comparable sales for the 30-day period ended September 1, 2025, were up 11.2% from the comparable period in the prior year representing a 2-year comparable sales stack of 23.3%. From a regional perspective, net sales for our North America business for the 30-day period ended September 1, 2025 increased 11.7% compared to the 30-day period ended September 2, 2024, while our other international business increased 2.3%. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales for the 30-day period ended September 1, 2025, increased 11.7% from the prior year, while the international net sales decreased 2.1% compared to 2024. Comparable sales for North America increased 13% for the 30-day period ended September 1, 2025, compared to the same weeks in the prior year, while comparable sales for other international business declined 3.2%. From a category perspective, all categories delivered positive comparable sales quarter to date with women's being the largest comp followed by men's, accessories, footwear and hardgoods. The consolidated increase in comparable sales was driven by an increase in dollars per transaction and an increase in transactions. Dollars per transaction were up for the period, driven by an increase in average unit retail, partially offset by a slight decrease in units per transaction. With respect to our outlook for the third quarter of fiscal 2025, I want to remind everyone that formulating our guidance involves some inherent uncertainty and complexity in estimating sales, product margin and earnings growth given the variety of internal and external factors that impact our performance. This is even more pronounced in today's environment with the current tariff situation that adds additional uncertainty and complexity to pricing and the potential to limit the ability of the consumer to continue to spend. Our recent trend line in North America during back-to-school has been very encouraging and provides confidence as we head into the holiday season. That said, we think it is prudent to balance our current domestic momentum with some near-term conservatism given the general uncertainty in the macro environment and recent trends where we have seen nonpeak consumer traffic soften. We are anticipating total sales will be between $232 million and $237 million for the 13 weeks ended November 1, 2025, including comparable sales growth of 5.5% to 7.5% over the prior year. For the third quarter, we are expecting product margin to increase from the third quarter of last year and consolidated operating income for the third quarter is expected to be between 2.3% and 3.3% of sales and we anticipate earnings per share will be between $0.19 and $0.29 compared to EPS of $0.06 in the prior year. Regarding full year 2025 results, uncertainty remains in the macro environment. The overall tariff situation continued pressure on consumer discretionary income require caution. We have performed well in North America during the important back-to-school season, which is generally a reasonable indicator for holiday performance. Overall, barring a significant downturn in the economy, we remain confident in our original projections for the year. We now believe that we'll see year-over-year sales growth of 3% to 4% in 2025 despite the closure of 33 stores in fiscal 2024 and 20 store closures planned primarily in late 2025, which combined are estimated to have a negative impact on sales of roughly $14 million for the year. We anticipate modest year-over-year growth in product margins in 2025 on top of 70 basis points of improvement in fiscal 2024. We anticipate driving additional gross margin leverage through the other expense categories such as occupancy, distribution and logistics. And finally, we believe that we can hold our 2025 SG&A costs, excluding the onetime legal charges relatively flat as a percent of sales with our fiscal 2024 results through continued focus on expense management, while also investing in important long-term strategic initiatives. Combined, these expectations will drive a year-over-year increase in operating margins and net profit for fiscal 2025, bringing the company back to profitability. Including these fiscal 2025 expectations are the following: six new store openings during the year, including five in North America and one in Australia. We also plan to close approximately 20 stores in fiscal 2025, including up to 17 in the United States, two in Canada and one in Europe. We expect our capital expenditures for 2025 will be between $11 million and $13 million compared to $15 million in fiscal 2024 and $20.4 million in 2023. We expect the depreciation and amortization, excluding noncash lease expense, will be approximately $22 million, in line with the prior year. And while effective tax rates are likely to fluctuate significantly by quarter, we anticipate that our full year effective tax rate will be roughly 50% to 60% in fiscal 2025. We are currently projecting our diluted share count for the full year to be approximately 17.3 million shares, which excludes any stock repurchases beyond the end of the second quarter. With that, operator, we would like to open the call up for questions.