Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Abercrombie & Fitch Fourth Quarter and Year-End Fiscal Year 2021 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Pam Quintiliano. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 Abercrombie & Fitch 2021 年第四季度和年終財報電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。 （操作員說明）此時，我想將會議交給 Pam Quintiliano。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. Joining me today on the call are Fran Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Lipesky, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued our fourth quarter earnings release, which is available on our website at corporate.abercrombie.com under the Investors section. Also available on our website is an investor presentation.

謝謝你。早上好，歡迎參加我們的 2021 年第四季度財報電話會議。今天和我一起參加電話會議的是首席執行官 Fran Horowitz；和首席財務官 Scott Lipesky。今天上午早些時候，我們發布了第四季度收益報告，該報告可在我們的網站corporate.abercrombie.com 的“投資者”部分獲取。我們的網站上還提供投資者介紹。

Please keep in mind that any forward-looking statements made on the call are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions we mention today. A detailed discussion of these factors and uncertainties is contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

請記住，在電話會議上做出的任何前瞻性陳述均受 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的安全港條款的約束。這些前瞻性陳述受到可能導致實際結果出現重大差異的風險和不確定性的影響從我們今天提到的期望和假設來看。有關這些因素和不確定性的詳細討論包含在公司提交給證券交易委員會的文件中。

In addition, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures during the call. Additional details and a reconciliation of GAAP to adjusted non-GAAP financial measures are included in the release issued earlier this morning. With that, I will turn the call over to Fran.

此外，我們將在電話會議期間提及某些非公認會計原則的財務措施。更多細節以及 GAAP 與調整後的非 GAAP 財務指標的對賬包含在今天上午早些時候發布的新聞稿中。有了這個，我會把電話轉給弗蘭。

Good morning, everyone. I am excited to be here today to discuss our fiscal 2021 results and the initiatives that empowered us to achieve a 9.6% adjusted annual operating margin, our highest in over a decade and well above the 5.8% target outlined at our 2018 Investor Day. But first, I'd like to thank our global stores, distribution center and home office teams as well as our partners. Without you, we could not have realized such significant improvements. I'd also like to take a moment to send our thoughts and prayers to all of those impacted by the current situation in Ukraine.

大家，早安。我很高興今天來到這裡討論我們的 2021 財年業績以及使我們能夠實現 9.6% 的調整後年度營業利潤率的舉措，這是我們十年來的最高水平，遠高於 2018 年投資者日概述的 5.8% 目標。但首先，我要感謝我們的全球門店、配送中心和家庭辦公室團隊以及我們的合作夥伴。沒有你們，我們不可能實現如此重大的改進。我還想花點時間向所有受烏克蘭當前局勢影響的人表達我們的想法和祈禱。

Now on to our results. First, I'm going to discuss the substantial foundational changes made from fiscal year-end 2018, which anchors to our 2018 Investor Day through 2021 before turning to fourth quarter and full year results and our thoughts on 2022. As a reminder, at our 2018 Investor Day, we discussed the initiatives necessary to stabilize, transform and ultimately accelerate growth. These included: optimizing our global store network, enhancing digital and omni capabilities, increasing the speed and efficiency of our concept to customer life cycle, and improving customer engagement through loyalty programs and marketing optimization. As COVID hit and others were in survival mode, our balance sheet enabled us to double down our initiatives. As a result, today, we are firmly in our growth phase.

現在來看我們的結果。首先，我將討論從 2018 財年末到 2021 年的 2018 年投資者日發生的重大基礎性變化，然後再轉向第四季度和全年業績以及我們對 2022 年的看法。提醒一下，在我們的2018 年投資者日，我們討論了穩定、轉型和最終加速增長的必要舉措。其中包括：優化我們的全球商店網絡，增強數字化和全方位能力，提高我們的概念在客戶生命週期中的速度和效率，以及通過忠誠度計劃和營銷優化來提高客戶參與度。隨著 COVID 的襲擊和其他人處於生存模式，我們的資產負債表使我們能夠加倍努力。因此，今天，我們堅定地處於成長階段。

Let's take a moment to discuss. Starting with global store network optimization. Over the past 3 fiscal years, we have removed 1.5 million gross square feet or 23% out of our base through 228 closures, including 14 flagships. The vast majority of closures were oversized Abercrombies. This has resulted in a reduction in annual store occupancy costs of $197 million or 31% since fiscal 2018. A huge shout-out to our real estate team who has rigorously evaluated every store in our portfolio and the role it plays.

讓我們花點時間來討論一下。從全球門店網絡優化開始。在過去的 3 個財年中，我們通過關閉 228 家（包括 14 家旗艦店）從我們的基地中移除了 150 萬總平方英尺或 23%。絕大多數關閉是超大的 Abercrombie。自 2018 財年以來，這導致每年的門店入住成本降低了 1.97 億美元或 31%。我們的房地產團隊對我們的投資組合中的每家門店及其所扮演的角色進行了嚴格評估，這是一個巨大的呼聲。

But it's important to note that optimizing our footprint has not been solely focused on closures. We continue to reposition each brand while evolving the experience to enhance our suite of omni tools, including: purchase online, pick-up in store; curbside pickup; order in store; ship from store; and same-day delivery. At Abercrombie, which has a significantly higher digital penetration in Hollister, reflecting the shopping preferences of its millennial customer base, we have added 65 new experiences over the past 3 fiscal years.

但重要的是要注意優化我們的足跡並不僅僅關注閉包。我們繼續重新定位每個品牌，同時改進體驗以增強我們的全方位工具套件，包括：在線購買、店內提貨；路邊取貨；到店訂購；從商店發貨；和當天交貨。 Abercrombie 在 Hollister 的數字化滲透率顯著提高，反映了其千禧一代客戶群的購物偏好，在過去 3 個財年中，我們增加了 65 項新體驗。

On average, these are roughly 30% to 50% smaller than our heritage stores and better reflect the modern Abercrombie & Fitch through clean and open sight lines and improved functionality that supports the digital nature of our customer. Today, roughly 40% of Abercrombie stores are in an updated format.

平均而言，這些商店比我們的傳統商店小大約 30% 到 50%，並且通過乾淨和開放的視線以及支持客戶數字化本質的改進功能更好地反映了現代 Abercrombie & Fitch。今天，大約 40% 的 Abercrombie 商店採用了更新的格式。

At Gen Z brand, Hollister, the teen view is going to the malls for social activity. With a newer and more updated store base, the number and size of stores has remained relatively stable over the past 3 years, and our primary focus has been to open up and brighten the storefront and interior. Currently, around 60% of Hollisters are in an updated format. We also have a dedicated Gilly Hicks space in each Hollister globally, including 28 side-by-side locations.

在 Z 世代品牌 Hollister，青少年的觀點是去商場參加社交活動。隨著店鋪基礎的更新和更新，店舖的數量和規模在過去 3 年中保持相對穩定，我們的主要重點是開放和照亮店面和內部。目前，大約 60% 的 Hollisters 採用更新格式。我們還在全球的每個 Hollister 中都有一個專門的 Gilly Hicks 空間，包括 28 個並排的位置。

Simply put, there has been a fundamental shift in how we think about the purpose of a store. We no longer take a one-size-fits-all approach. With tens of millions of customers in our database, we have quantitative and qualitative data to inform our approach to each market. A great example is our recently opened Abercrombie Southport Chicago store. At roughly 2,300 selling square feet, it's one of our smallest footprints yet, offering only women's products, reflecting known demand in the area, and thus far, we are beating internal expectations.

簡而言之，我們對商店目的的看法發生了根本性轉變。我們不再採取一刀切的方法。我們的數據庫中有數以千萬計的客戶，我們擁有定量和定性數據來指導我們對每個市場的方法。一個很好的例子是我們最近開設的 Abercrombie Southport Chicago 商店。它的銷售面積約為 2,300 平方英尺，是我們迄今為止最小的足蹟之一，僅提供女性產品，反映了該地區已知的需求，到目前為止，我們的業績超出了內部預期。

We are excited to have added another highly productive customer-centric store format and we'll continue to explore different opportunities that reflect market-specific nuances. Needless to say, I am thrilled with our progress. We have shuttered underproductive locations and found new ways to meet our customers through enhanced shopping experiences, both in-stores and online. And while closing stores took a meaningful chunk of sales out of our base, it was absolutely the right decision for the longer-term health of our company and our brands. We are ready to move forward, unencumbered by a dated and expensive store base that does not accurately reflect who we are today.

我們很高興增加了另一種以客戶為中心的高效商店形式，我們將繼續探索反映特定市場細微差別的不同機會。不用說，我對我們的進步感到興奮。我們關閉了生產力低下的地點，並通過增強店內和在線購物體驗找到了新的方式來滿足我們的客戶。雖然關閉商店從我們的基地中佔據了相當大的一部分銷售額，但對於我們公司和品牌的長期健康來說，這絕對是正確的決定。我們已準備好向前邁進，不受陳舊且昂貴的商店基礎的阻礙，這些基礎無法準確反映我們今天的身份。

While there is no finish line, we have reached a pivotal moment for our company and our brands. We have exited our stabilization phase and are now on a path of growth with a continued focus on the omnichannel brand experience, which includes both stores and digital. In 2022, for the first time since 2008, we expect to see net store openings with a minimum of 50 new omni-enabled experiences, offset by an estimated 30 closures and square footage to be up in the low single-digit range for the year. We will continue to maintain our discipline, surrounding size, location and economics. Ultimately, we believe that stores and digital are complementary brand experiences and that there is the opportunity to further increase digital sales, even as we introduce more store locations.

雖然沒有終點線，但我們已經到了公司和品牌的關鍵時刻。我們已經退出穩定階段，現在正走上增長之路，繼續關注全渠道品牌體驗，包括商店和數字。 2022 年，自 2008 年以來首次，我們預計將看到至少 50 種新的全功能體驗的淨店開業，被估計的 30 家關閉所抵消，並且該年的面積將在低個位數範圍內上升.我們將繼續保持我們的紀律、周邊規模、位置和經濟性。歸根結底，我們相信商店和數字是互補的品牌體驗，即使我們引入更多商店位置，也有機會進一步增加數字銷售。

Turning to digital. When COVID accelerated the shift to this channel, the consistent investments we had made over the last several years enabled us to fulfill that demand. Financially, we executed against our long-term plan of reducing occupancy to fund increased digital fulfillment. In fiscal 2021, even as stores reopened, roughly half of our sales were digital versus about 1/3 in 2018.

轉向數字。當 COVID 加速向這個渠道的轉變時，我們在過去幾年中所做的持續投資使我們能夠滿足這一需求。在財務上，我們執行了減少入住率以資助增加數字化實現的長期計劃。在 2021 財年，即使商店重新開業，我們大約一半的銷售額是數字化的，而 2018 年這一比例約為 1/3。

Now on to our third area of transformation. Speed. In order to be nimble and stay on top of current and upcoming trends, we refined our design calendar, rebalanced our vendors and expanded countries of origin. This has enabled us to move quicker and further improve the quality of our product. Looking ahead, we will continue to evolve our sourcing and transportation strategies to mitigate inventory risk by further diversifying production, adjusting our product calendar and adding ports and carriers.

現在進入我們的第三個轉型領域。速度。為了保持靈活並緊跟當前和即將到來的趨勢，我們改進了設計日曆，重新平衡了我們的供應商並擴大了原產國。這使我們能夠更快地行動並進一步提高我們的產品質量。展望未來，我們將繼續發展我們的採購和運輸戰略，通過進一步多樣化生產、調整我們的產品日曆以及增加港口和承運人來降低庫存風險。

Last, but certainly not least, let's discuss customer engagement, where the most critical step thus far has been clearly defining the purpose and competitive positioning of each brand. With this lens, our teams have evolved how we stay close to our customer and their ever-changing needs. While there are so many great examples, let's start with Abercrombie's best dressed guest franchise. For those of you who haven't heard, 2022 is predicted to be a record year for weddings. With our "Best Dressed Guest" Collection, we provide outfitting options for all their wedding, shower, bachelor and bachelorette party needs. For our Gen Z customer who's not preparing for wedding season just yet, we collaborated with World Fortnite Champion, Bugha, on gamer training events and associated product. These programs [at both] (added by the company after the call) Abercrombie and Hollister have been highly successful and speak to the innovative ways we are gathering customer insights and executing to them.

最後但同樣重要的是，讓我們討論客戶參與度，迄今為止最關鍵的一步是明確定義每個品牌的目的和競爭定位。有了這個鏡頭，我們的團隊已經改進了我們與客戶及其不斷變化的需求保持密切聯繫的方式。雖然有很多很好的例子，讓我們從 Abercrombie 的最佳著裝嘉賓系列開始。對於那些還沒有聽說過的人來說，預計 2022 年將是婚禮創紀錄的一年。憑藉我們的“最佳著裝賓客”系列，我們為他們的所有婚禮、淋浴、單身和單身派對需求提供服裝選擇。對於還沒有為婚禮季做準備的 Z 世代客戶，我們與世界堡壘之夜冠軍 Bugha 合作開展了遊戲玩家培訓活動和相關產品。這些計劃 [在這兩個地方]（由公司在電話會議後添加）Abercrombie 和 Hollister 都非常成功，並說明了我們收集客戶見解並為他們執行的創新方式。

With the DNA and positioning solidified for each of our brands, our marketing teams are authentically engaging with their respective customers on the channels that are most relevant to them. We continue to unlock and realize the power of social selling through influencers, affiliates and platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and LikeToKnowIt, or LTK. LTK, one of the top global influencer platforms, recently recognized Abercrombie by including 2 pieces on its 2021 Most Popular Items List, the seamless tank body suit and the asymmetrical snap-up fleece. We also launched a highly successful mini me collaboration for kids with one of LTK's top performers, Sister Studio. Additionally, we have tapped into social selling that is relevant to our teen with social tourists, hosting TikTok's first-ever live fashion show made by Gen Z for Gen Z.

隨著我們每個品牌的 DNA 和定位得到鞏固，我們的營銷團隊正在與他們各自的客戶最相關的渠道進行真正的互動。我們繼續通過影響者、附屬機構和平台（如 TikTok、Instagram 和 LikeToKnowIt 或 LTK）釋放和實現社交銷售的力量。 LTK 是全球頂級影響者平台之一，最近通過在其 2021 年最受歡迎單品列表中包括 2 件作品來認可 Abercrombie，即無縫背心緊身連衣褲和不對稱抓絨抓絨。我們還與 LTK 的頂級表演者之一 Sister Studio 為孩子們推出了非常成功的 mini me 合作。此外，我們還利用與我們的青少年和社交遊客相關的社交銷售，舉辦了 TikTok 有史以來第一次由 Z 世代為 Z 世代製作的現場時裝秀。

As our product voice and experience have clicked, our target customer has noticed. At fiscal year-end 2021, we had roughly 34 million combined growth global followers across brands and social media platforms and approximately 18 million loyalty accounts. And just recently, Abercrombie and Hollister were voted America's Best Loyalty Programs for 2022 by Newsweek and Statista. And here's the punchline. These initiatives have enabled us to increase sales shift investments from occupancy into marketing and digital, while growing our adjusted operating margin by 570 basis points from fiscal year-end 2018.

隨著我們的產品聲音和體驗的點擊，我們的目標客戶已經註意到了。截至 2021 財年末，我們在品牌和社交媒體平台上擁有約 3400 萬增長的全球追隨者，以及約 1800 萬忠誠度賬戶。就在最近，Abercrombie 和 Hollister 被《新聞周刊》和 Statista 評為 2022 年美國最佳忠誠度計劃。這是妙語。這些舉措使我們能夠增加從入住到營銷和數字的銷售轉移投資，同時將調整後的營業利潤率從 2018 財年末提高 570 個基點。

As we've evolved our brands and operating model, we have also been working on our corporate culture. We recently launched our corporate purpose, being here for you on the journey to being and becoming who you are. And we were named one of Fortune's 2021 Best Places to Work in Retail and designated a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index for the 16th year in a row.

隨著我們品牌和運營模式的發展，我們也一直在努力打造我們的企業文化。我們最近推出了我們的企業宗旨，在成為和成為自己的旅程中為您服務。我們連續第 16 年被人權運動企業平等指數評為《財富》2021 年零售業最佳工作場所之一，並被指定為 LGBTQ 平等最佳工作場所。

I know I have spoken for quite a while on our transformation initiatives, but it is a critical part of our story and the foundation for how we are going to thrive in the future. Since our 2018 Investor Day, we have become stronger, smarter, faster and more agile with 5 clearly defined and differentiated brands, all of which have global growth opportunity.

我知道我已經談論了很長時間我們的轉型計劃，但它是我們故事的關鍵部分，也是我們未來如何蓬勃發展的基礎。自 2018 年投資者日以來，我們已經變得更強大、更智能、更快、更敏捷，擁有 5 個明確定義和差異化的品牌，所有這些品牌都具有全球增長機會。

So focusing on 2021, we achieved the following: 19% sales growth from fiscal 2020 and 2% growth from fiscal 2019; a gross profit rate of 62.3%; 180 basis points above fiscal 2020 and 290 basis points above fiscal 2019, with double-digit AUR growth offsetting 370 basis points of freight cost headwinds compared to fiscal 2019; a 9.6% adjusted operating margin, our best since 2008; and adjusted earnings per share of $4.35, our highest since 2007. And this year, we also became more aggressive with shareholder returns, repurchasing 10.2 million shares for $377 million and reducing total shares outstanding by 15%. We were faced with many unexpected challenges throughout the year but especially in the fourth quarter, with the rise of a new COVID variant, elevated freight costs and major inventory receipt delays to name just a few.

因此，著眼於 2021 年，我們實現了以下目標：銷售額比 2020 財年增長 19%，比 2019 財年增長 2%；毛利率62.3%；比 2020 財年高 180 個基點，比 2019 財年高 290 個基點，與 2019 財年相比，兩位數的 AUR 增長抵消了 370 個基點的貨運成本逆風；調整後的營業利潤率為 9.6%，是自 2008 年以來的最佳水平；調整後每股收益為 4.35 美元，這是自 2007 年以來的最高水平。今年，我們在股東回報方面也變得更加積極，以 3.77 億美元回購了 1,020 萬股股票，並將流通股總數減少了 15%。全年我們都面臨著許多意想不到的挑戰，尤其是在第四季度，隨著新的 COVID 變體的興起、貨運成本的上升和主要的庫存接收延遲，僅舉幾例。

For the quarter, total sales were up 4% from [fiscal] (added by the company after the call) 2020 and down 2% from [fiscal] (added by the company after the call) 2019, with U.S. sales up 7% and 3%, respectively. We had significant unexpected inventory receipt delays from late November into December, leaving us unable to fulfill peak holiday demand. Following the delays in the mid-January Omicron peak, we ended the quarter strong as remaining receipts arrived and case counts declined. The fourth quarter marked our seventh consecutive quarter of AUR growth with all brands, regions and channels contributing to improvements on reduced promotions, markdown and clearance activity.

本季度，總銷售額比 2020 年[財政]（公司在電話會議後添加）增長 4%，比 2019 年[財政]（公司在電話會議後添加）下降 2%，美國銷售額增長 7%，分別為 3%。從 11 月下旬到 12 月，我們出現了嚴重的意外庫存接收延遲，導致我們無法滿足假日高峰需求。在 1 月中旬的 Omicron 高峰期延遲之後，我們在本季度結束時表現強勁，因為剩餘的收據已經到貨並且案件數量下降。第四季度是我們連續第七個季度實現 AUR 增長，所有品牌、地區和渠道都為減少促銷、降價和清倉活動做出了貢獻。

Turning to brand-specific performance. Hollister was the most heavily impacted by inventory receipt delays, store closures and EMEA exposure. Our teams navigated the challenges well and are in good position for the spring season. While there are many fourth quarter product standouts at Hollister, jeans remained one of the best performing categories as girls and guys embraced newer silhouettes. Even though jeans are already a top 3 sales driver on an annual basis, we believe there's opportunity for more growth and look forward to sharing additional detail on our plans as the year progresses.

轉向品牌特定的表現。 Hollister 受到庫存接收延遲、商店關閉和 EMEA 風險敞口的影響最大。我們的團隊很好地應對了挑戰，在春季賽中處於有利位置。雖然 Hollister 有許多第四季度的產品脫穎而出，但牛仔褲仍然是表現最好的類別之一，因為女孩和男孩都接受了更新的款式。儘管牛仔褲已經成為年度銷量的前三名，但我們相信還有更多增長的機會，並期待隨著時間的推移分享我們計劃的更多細節。

At Gilly Hicks, our customer responded well to underwear and sleep, 2 categories we added newness following the brand relaunch and continued to love our active collection, Gilly Go. Reaction to recently introduced men's product remains strong, and our first Gilly stand-alone store is exceeding internal expectations with additional locations, including in the U.K. and Germany scheduled to open this spring. At our newest brand, Social Tourist, we are learning something new with every collection. It's been an amazing ride curating this social-first brand with the D'Amelio family. We are leaning into Social Tourist's unique positioning, which has helped us find creative ways to engage and attract customers and have applied these learnings to our other brands.

在 Gilly Hicks，我們的客戶對內衣和睡衣反應良好，這兩個類別在品牌重新推出後我們增加了新品，並繼續喜愛我們的活躍系列 Gilly Go。對最近推出的男士產品的反應仍然很強烈，我們的第一家 Gilly 獨立店超出了內部預期，並增加了更多地點，包括計劃於今年春天開業的英國和德國。在我們最新的品牌 Social Tourist 中，我們從每個系列中都學到了一些新東西。與 D'Amelio 家族一起策劃這個社交第一品牌是一次了不起的旅程。我們傾向於 Social Tourist 的獨特定位，這幫助我們找到了吸引和吸引客戶的創造性方法，並將這些經驗應用於我們的其他品牌。

At A&F Adults, the young millennial customer continues to rediscover the brand. Elevated fashion content and size inclusivity have been key drivers of success. In the fourth quarter, women's remained on a path of accelerated growth driven by must-win categories, including jeans, where sales more than doubled, and we see additional opportunity as well as dresses, sweaters and knits. Abercrombie brand love is strong with customers and press continuing to support the theme that Abercrombie is back, and we could not agree more. Just last week, we had a soft launch of our active sub-brand, your personal best, and response has been amazing. This is another great example of taking and actioning on customer feedback. At Abercrombie Kids, our play is life mindset continue to drive our product and our comfy dressy assortment for holiday proved to be a standout.

在 A&F Adults，年輕的千禧一代客戶繼續重新發現該品牌。提升時尚內容和尺寸包容性一直是成功的關鍵驅動力。在第四季度，女裝繼續在必勝品類的推動下加速增長，包括牛仔褲，銷售額翻了一番以上，我們看到了更多機會，還有連衣裙、毛衣和針織品。 Abercrombie 品牌深受客戶和媒體的喜愛，媒體繼續支持 Abercrombie 回歸的主題，我們完全同意。就在上週，我們推出了我們的活躍子品牌，您的個人最好成績，反響非常好。這是對客戶反饋採取行動並採取行動的另一個很好的例子。在 Abercrombie Kids，我們的遊戲就是生活的心態繼續推動我們的產品，我們為假期準備的舒適考究系列被證明是傑出的。

Now on to marketing. Over the last few calls, we've discussed increased investments, and I want to take a moment to highlight some of our successes. At Hollister, we owned Black Friday on TikTok with 185 million impressions and a whopping 75% of Gen Z on TikTok seeing an ad for Hollister or Gilly Hicks. We also hosted Hollister's first virtual store in Snapchat, which launched on Black Friday, and they had a total of 30 million impressions and had 8 weeks of storytelling with influencers and affiliates across TikTok and Instagram, including weekly Instagram live shops for holiday. At Abercrombie Adults, Abercrombie & Fitch search volume grew 250% over the last year and 150% in Q4 alone. We had our best social selling quarter ever with triple-digit year-over-year growth, including a record Cyber Week for digital. We are at such an exciting point in our journey and have the foundation firmly in place to accelerate growth. Quarter-to-date, we've had a nice build in sales trend from Q4 levels and have seen a strong early response to our spring assortments.

現在開始營銷。在過去的幾次電話會議中，我們討論了增加投資，我想花一點時間來強調我們的一些成功。在 Hollister，我們在 TikTok 上擁有 1.85 億次展示的黑色星期五，並且 TikTok 上高達 75% 的 Z 世代看到了 Hollister 或 Gilly Hicks 的廣告。我們還在黑色星期五推出了 Hollister 在 Snapchat 中的第一家虛擬商店，他們總共有 3000 萬次展示，並與 TikTok 和 Instagram 的影響者和附屬公司進行了 8 週的講故事，包括每週一次的 Instagram 假日直播商店。在 Abercrombie Adults，Abercrombie & Fitch 的搜索量比去年增長了 250%，僅在第四季度就增長了 150%。我們有有史以來最好的社交銷售季度，同比增長三位數，其中包括創紀錄的數字網絡週。我們正處於我們旅程中如此激動人心的時刻，並且為加速增長奠定了堅實的基礎。到目前為止，我們從第四季度的水平開始有了很好的銷售趨勢，並且看到了對我們春季產品的強烈早期反應。

While we face several near-term headwinds, including ongoing COVID unknowns, the lapping of stimulus, supply chain and input cost pressure and the potential impact of geopolitical uncertainty, we believe that our target customer is currently healthy, engaged and hungry for the new fashion content we are offering across brands. Operationally, we are thoughtfully executing to growth. We have the balance sheet to support our long-term strategic view and are committed to profitable global expansion. We look forward to sharing more detail on our 3-year plan at our Investor Day this June.

雖然我們面臨一些近期的不利因素，包括持續的 COVID 未知因素、刺激措施的重疊、供應鍊和投入成本壓力以及地緣政治不確定性的潛在影響，但我們相信我們的目標客戶目前健康、參與並渴望新時尚我們跨品牌提供的內容。在運營方面，我們正在深思熟慮地執行增長。我們擁有資產負債表來支持我們的長期戰略觀點，並致力於實現盈利的全球擴張。我們期待在今年 6 月的投資者日上分享我們 3 年計劃的更多細節。

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Scott to discuss our recent results in more detail and our outlook for 2022.

有了這個，我將把它交給斯科特，更詳細地討論我們最近的結果以及我們對 2022 年的展望。

Thanks, Fran, and good morning. With 2021 coming to a close, we wrapped up a critical multiyear period where we made significant progress in transforming our operating model and improving our profitability profile. Like Fran, I'm extremely proud of how our teams have accelerated our transformation, while navigating a tremendous amount of personal and professional challenges over the past 2 years.

謝謝，弗蘭，早上好。隨著 2021 年即將結束，我們結束了關鍵的多年期，在此期間，我們在轉變運營模式和改善盈利狀況方面取得了重大進展。和 Fran 一樣，我為我們的團隊在過去 2 年中如何加速轉型，同時應對大量個人和職業挑戰感到非常自豪。

Turning to our results. I'll start by covering Q4 and full year 2021 with references to 2020 and 2019, where applicable. I'll finish with thoughts on 2022. For Q4, we delivered net sales of $1.16 billion, up 4% to 2020 and down 2% to 2019. As mentioned in our January business update, we experienced significant unforeseen inventory receipt delays for the peak holiday selling period, primarily impacting Hollister and Gilly Hicks. We are caught up on receipts and do not anticipate significant inventory supply issues for the first quarter. We continue to execute against multiple initiatives to mitigate go-forward inventory disruptions, including updating our product calendar and diversifying our ports, carriers and countries of origin.

轉向我們的結果。我將首先介紹 2021 年第四季度和全年，並在適用的情況下參考 2020 年和 2019 年。我將結束對 2022 年的想法。第四季度，我們實現了 11.6 億美元的淨銷售額，比 2020 年增長 4%，比 2019 年下降 2%。正如我們在 1 月份的業務更新中所提到的，我們在高峰期經歷了不可預見的嚴重庫存接收延遲假日銷售期，主要影響 Hollister 和 Gilly Hicks。我們趕上了收據，預計第一季度不會出現重大庫存供應問題。我們將繼續執行多項舉措以減輕未來的庫存中斷，包括更新我們的產品日曆以及使我們的港口、承運人和原產國多樣化。

Compared to 2020, net sales were up 2% for Hollister, which includes Gilly Hicks and Social Tourist and 6% for Abercrombie, which includes kids. By region, net sales increased 7% in the U.S. and decreased 4% in our international regions. Compared to 2019, net sales were down 6% at Hollister, up 4% at Abercrombie, up 3% in the U.S. and down 14% internationally. We continued to see stronger trends in the U.S. as compared to EMEA and APAC, where we saw ongoing disruptions from COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions. Our largest market, the U.K., was impacted throughout much of the quarter, while the Netherlands and Austria experienced COVID-related closures. As stores and markets have reopened, sales have rebounded nicely.

與 2020 年相比，Hollister 的淨銷售額增長了 2%，其中包括 Gilly Hicks 和 Social Tourist，Abercrombie 的淨銷售額增長了 6%，其中包括兒童。按地區劃分，美國的淨銷售額增長了 7%，而我們的國際地區則下降了 4%。與 2019 年相比，Hollister 的淨銷售額下降了 6%，Abercrombie 增長了 4%，美國增長了 3%，國際下降了 14%。與歐洲、中東和非洲和亞太地區相比，我們繼續看到美國的強勁趨勢，在這些地區我們看到與 COVID 相關的封鎖和限制正在持續中斷。我們最大的市場英國在本季度的大部分時間都受到了影響，而荷蘭和奧地利則經歷了與 COVID 相關的關閉。隨著商店和市場的重新開放，銷售已經很好地反彈。

Moving on to gross profit. Our rate of [58.3%] was down 220 basis points to 2020 and up 10 basis points to 2019. Compared to 2019, we saw approximately $80 million of freight inflation or 700 basis points, up slightly from our previous $75 million estimate. We fully offset these freight headwinds through higher AURs across brands and channels on reduced promotions and markdowns. Excluding these headwinds, the gross profit rate would have been up 710 basis points compared to 2019.

繼續看毛利。到 2020 年，我們的 [58.3%] 率下降了 220 個基點，到 2019 年上升了 10 個基點。與 2019 年相比，我們看到貨運通脹率約為 8000 萬美元或 700 個基點，略高於我們之前估計的 7500 萬美元。我們通過減少促銷和降價的品牌和渠道更高的 AUR 來完全抵消這些貨運阻力。排除這些不利因素，與 2019 年相比，毛利率將上升 710 個基點。

I'll now cover the rest of our Q4 results on an adjusted non-GAAP basis. Excluded from our non-GAAP results this quarter are $2 million of pretax asset impairment charges, which adversely impacted results by approximately $0.03. Last year, we excluded $16 million of pretax asset impairment charges, which adversely impacted results by $0.23. Operating expense, excluding other operating income, was $581 million versus $551 million last year and $566 million in 2019.

我現在將在調整後的非公認會計原則基礎上介紹我們第四季度的其餘結果。本季度我們的非公認會計原則結果中不包括 200 萬美元的稅前資產減值費用，這對結果產生了約 0.03 美元的不利影響。去年，我們排除了 1600 萬美元的稅前資產減值費用，這對業績造成了 0.23 美元的不利影響。不包括其他營業收入的營業費用為 5.81 億美元，而去年為 5.51 億美元，2019 年為 5.66 億美元。

Compared to 2019, operating expense increased by 3% due primarily to investments in marketing, higher digital fulfillment expense and higher incentive-based compensation, partially offset by savings and store-related expenses. Operating income was $100 million compared to $131 million last year and $125 million in 2019. The effective tax rate was approximately 25%. Net income per diluted share was $1.14 compared to $1.50 last year and $1.31 in 2019.

與 2019 年相比，運營費用增加了 3%，主要是由於營銷投資、更高的數字履行費用和更高的基於激勵的薪酬，部分被儲蓄和商店相關費用所抵消。營業收入為 1 億美元，而去年為 1.31 億美元，2019 年為 1.25 億美元。有效稅率約為 25%。稀釋後每股淨收入為 1.14 美元，而去年為 1.50 美元，2019 年為 1.31 美元。

Turning to full year 2021 results, which I'll cover on an adjusted non-GAAP basis. Due to the COVID-driven impact on fiscal 2020, I will be using 2019 as the primary comparison year. Full year results exclude approximately $12 million of pretax asset impairment charges primarily attributable to COVID. These charges adversely impacted results by $0.15. In 2019, we excluded $13 million of pretax asset impairment charges, which adversely impacted results by $0.13.

轉向 2021 年全年業績，我將在調整後的非公認會計原則基礎上進行介紹。由於 COVID 對 2020 財年的影響，我將使用 2019 作為主要比較年。全年業績不包括主要歸因於 COVID 的約 1200 萬美元的稅前資產減值費用。這些費用對結果產生了 0.15 美元的不利影響。 2019 年，我們排除了 1300 萬美元的稅前資產減值費用，這對業績造成了 0.13 美元的不利影響。

For the year, net sales were $3.7 billion, up 2% to 2019 driven by record high digital sales, partially offset by lower store sales. For the year, digital sales penetration was 47%. Gross profit rate was 62.3%, up 290 basis points in 2019. For the full year, freight inflation adversely impacted gross profit rate by approximately 370 basis points. We fully offset this impact through higher AURs on reduced promotions and markdowns. As a reminder, we did not increase ticket prices in 2021. Operating expense, excluding other operating income, was $1.97 billion compared to $2.07 billion in 2019. 2019 results included $47 million of flagship charges primarily related to the exit of our SoHo Hollister flagship. In 2021, we continued to tightly manage expenses, which represented 52.9% of sales, our lowest rate since 2007.

全年淨銷售額為 37 億美元，較 2019 年增長 2%，主要受創紀錄的數字銷售額推動，但部分被門店銷售額下降所抵消。全年，數字銷售滲透率為 47%。毛利率為 62.3%，較 2019 年上升 290 個基點。全年，運費通脹對毛利率造成不利影響約 370 個基點。我們通過降低促銷和降價的更高 AUR 來完全抵消這種影響。提醒一下，我們在 2021 年沒有提高票價。營業費用（不包括其他營業收入）為 19.7 億美元，而 2019 年為 20.7 億美元。2019 年的業績包括 4700 萬美元的旗艦費用，主要與我們的 SoHo Hollister 旗艦店的退出有關。 2021 年，我們繼續嚴格管理費用，佔銷售額的 52.9%，這是自 2007 年以來的最低水平。

Compared to 2019, store occupancy was lower due to store closures and right sizes. This reduction was partially offset by higher digital fulfillment, marketing and incentive-based compensation expenses. Operating income was $355 million or 9.6% of sales, our highest operating margin since 2008. The effective tax rate for the year was 13%. Net income per diluted share was $4.35. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the year with inventory of $526 million, up 30% to last year. Of the increase, 10 points came from higher end transit due to extended shipping times and around 20 points came from higher freight costs. Units on hand were approximately flat to last year.

與 2019 年相比，由於門店關閉和合適的規模，門店入住率有所下降。這一減少部分被更高的數字履行、營銷和基於激勵的薪酬費用所抵消。營業收入為 3.55 億美元，佔銷售額的 9.6%，是我們自 2008 年以來的最高營業利潤率。當年的有效稅率為 13%。稀釋後每股淨收入為 4.35 美元。轉向資產負債表。我們年底的庫存為 5.26 億美元，比去年增長 30%。其中，10 個點來自於由於運輸時間延長而導致的高端運輸，大約 20 個點來自於更高的運費成本。手頭的單位與去年大致持平。

Moving through 2022. We plan to continue to maintain a disciplined approach to inventories, while optimizing receipt timing with the assumption that the supply chain will remain challenged for the foreseeable future. We exited the year in a strong financial position with cash and cash equivalents of $823 million and total liquidity of approximately $1.1 billion. The cash balance at year-end was $280 million lower than last year as we aggressively returned excess cash to shareholders in the form of share repurchases. In the fourth quarter, we repurchased 4.1 million shares for $142 million, bringing the total for the year to 10.2 million shares for $377 million.

到 2022 年。我們計劃繼續保持嚴格的庫存方法，同時優化收貨時間，假設供應鏈在可預見的未來仍將面臨挑戰。我們以強勁的財務狀況結束了這一年，現金和現金等價物為 8.23 億美元，總流動資金約為 11 億美元。由於我們以股票回購的形式積極將多餘的現金返還給股東，因此年末的現金餘額比去年減少了 2.8 億美元。第四季度，我們以 1.42 億美元回購了 410 萬股，使全年以 3.77 億美元回購了 1020 萬股。

At year-end, we had 53 million shares outstanding, down 15% from the beginning of the year. Capital expenditures were $97 million with roughly 1/3 of the spend attributable to stores and the remainder to digital technology and maintenance needs. On the store fleet historically, for the year, we closed a total of 44 locations and opened 38, ending the year with 729 stores. We continue to evolve our go-to-market strategy as we increasingly leverage the data and known shopping behaviors of the respective local consumer and are excited about our planned store count growth in 2022.

到年底，我們有 5300 萬股流通股，比年初下降了 15%。資本支出為 9700 萬美元，其中約 1/3 的支出用於商店，其餘用於數字技術和維護需求。從歷史上看，今年我們關閉了 44 家門店，開設了 38 家門店，到年底共有 729 家門店。隨著我們越來越多地利用當地消費者的數據和已知購物行為，我們將繼續發展我們的上市戰略，並對我們計劃在 2022 年實現的商店數量增長感到興奮。

I'll finish up with our thoughts on 2022. In our outlook, we make assumptions on inflation for the year based on our current knowledge. For the full year, we expect net sales to be up 2% to 4% from $3.7 billion in 2021 with the U.S. continuing to outperform EMEA and APAC. We are cautiously optimistic we'll see a trend change in these regions as COVID restrictions continue to abate. As a reminder, our largest international exposure is the U.K., followed by Germany and France.

我將結束我們對 2022 年的想法。在我們的展望中，我們根據我們目前的知識對今年的通貨膨脹做出假設。全年，我們預計淨銷售額將從 2021 年的 37 億美元增長 2% 至 4%，而美國的表現將繼續優於 EMEA 和 APAC。我們持謹慎樂觀的態度，隨著 COVID 限制繼續減弱，我們將看到這些地區的趨勢發生變化。提醒一下，我們最大的國際業務是英國，其次是德國和法國。

Gross profit rates will be down around 200 basis points to 2021 level of [62.3%]. Compared to 2021, we expect to see 300 to 400 basis points of freight and raw material inflation, weighted towards freight in the first half and raw materials in the second half. Our expectations assume we will offset a portion of these headwinds through higher AURs on a balance of select ticket increases and further reductions in promotional depth and breadth.

毛利率將下降約 200 個基點至 2021 年的水平 [62.3%]。與 2021 年相比，我們預計貨運和原材料通脹將增加 300 至 400 個基點，其中上半年的貨運和下半年的原材料偏重。我們的預期假設我們將通過更高的 AUR 抵消部分不利因素，以平衡選擇門票的增加和促銷深度和廣度的進一步減少。

Operating expense, excluding other operating income, to be up in a range similar to sales of up 2% to 4% to 2021 adjusted non-GAAP level of $1.97 billion. Outside of inflation, expense increases are planned to be focused primarily on improving the digital experience, modernizing technology and opening new stores. Finally, we expect an effective tax rate in the high 20s.

營業費用（不包括其他營業收入）的增長幅度與銷售額增長 2% 至 4% 相近，至 2021 年調整後的非公認會計原則水平 19.7 億美元。除通貨膨脹外，費用增加計劃主要集中在改善數字體驗、技術現代化和開設新店。最後，我們預計有效稅率將在 20 年代高點。

Assuming we deliver against these expectations, we expect our full year operating margin to be in the 7% to 8% range. Regarding capital allocation. We expect capital expenditures of approximately $150 million with about half related to digital and technology and half related to stores and maintenance. For excess cash, we plan to continue to focus on share repurchases, pending market conditions and share price. Entering 2022, we have $358 million remaining on the $500 million share repurchase authorization established in November 2021.

假設我們實現了這些預期，我們預計我們的全年營業利潤率將在 7% 至 8% 的範圍內。關於資本配置。我們預計資本支出約為 1.5 億美元，其中約一半與數字和技術有關，一半與商店和維護有關。對於多餘的現金，我們計劃繼續關注股票回購、未決的市場狀況和股價。進入 2022 年，我們在 2021 年 11 月設立的 5 億美元股票回購授權中剩餘 3.58 億美元。

As Fran mentioned, we are pleased with our quarter-to-date performance. For the first quarter, we expect net sales to be up low single digits to Q1 2021 level of $781 million. Gross profit rate to be down around 400 basis points to 2021 rate of 63.4%, reflecting around $65 million of incremental freight costs compared to Q1 2021, partially offset by improved AUR.

正如弗蘭所說，我們對本季度迄今的表現感到滿意。對於第一季度，我們預計淨銷售額將小幅增長至 2021 年第一季度的 7.81 億美元水平。毛利率將下降約 400 個基點至 2021 年的 63.4%，反映出與 2021 年第一季度相比增加了約 6500 萬美元的貨運成本，部分被改善的 AUR 所抵消。

Operating expense, excluding other operating income, to be up around 6% to Q1 2021 level of $436 million, with approximately half of the increase due to lapping COVID-related rent abatements and government assistance recognized in Q1 2021. We enter this year in a position of strength and are excited to build on our recent success. While we expect to see high levels of inflation, we have evolved our gross margin and expense structure to a place where we anticipate absorbing a significant amount of this pressure and once again delivering an operating margin, well above pre-pandemic levels.

營業費用（不包括其他營業收入）將增長約 6%，達到 2021 年第一季度的 4.36 億美元水平，其中大約一半的增長是由於與 COVID 相關的租金減免和 2021 年第一季度確認的政府援助。我們今年進入實力地位，並很高興在我們最近的成功基礎上再接再厲。雖然我們預計會看到高水平的通貨膨脹，但我們已經將我們的毛利率和費用結構發展到我們預計會吸收大量這種壓力並再次實現遠高於大流行前水平的營業利潤率的地步。

Looking ahead, we plan to utilize our strong balance sheet and cash generation to make ongoing investments in our customer experience and in the modernization of our systems to improve agility, speed and further embed data and analytics in our decision-making. We view these investments, along with our ongoing focus on our customer as critical to enabling long-term global growth across our portfolio of brands. We look forward to discussing these themes as well as our multiyear financial targets in more detail at our Investor Day this June.

展望未來，我們計劃利用我們強大的資產負債表和現金產生，對我們的客戶體驗和系統現代化進行持續投資，以提高敏捷性、速度並進一步將數據和分析嵌入我們的決策中。我們認為這些投資以及我們對客戶的持續關注對於實現我們品牌組合的長期全球增長至關重要。我們期待在今年 6 月的投資者日更詳細地討論這些主題以及我們的多年財務目標。

With that, operator, we are ready for questions.

有了這個，接線員，我們準備好提問了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today comes from Paul Lejuez of Citi.

（操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自 Citi 的 Paul Lejuez。

Curious if you can give any more color on the sales guidance in terms of what you assume by geography or concept? Just trying to understand which pieces of the business are likely to outperform versus underperform that top line guidance for both quarter and full year. Any quantification there? And I'm curious if you've seen any recent impact in your European business. Just what everything that's going on over there. Curious how the European customer is responding. And then last, just also curious if you're seeing any change in the promotional cadence out there amongst the competition. Or any signs from your customer that they might be resisting the higher AURs?

想知道您是否可以根據您對地理或概念的假設為銷售指南提供更多顏色？只是想了解哪些業務可能會在季度和全年表現優於或低於最高線指導。有量化嗎？我很好奇您是否看到最近對您的歐洲業務產生的任何影響。那裡發生的一切。好奇歐洲客戶的反應如何。最後，如果您在比賽中看到促銷節奏的任何變化，也很好奇。或者您的客戶有任何跡象表明他們可能會抵制更高的 AUR？

Yes. Paul, good to hear from you. I'll start with the color on the sales guidance. So thinking about the year in total, so up 2% to 4% this year, thinking about that in 2 ways, there'll be a balance of new stores. So that will be a net new store grower this year, which is a great thing for the company. We've been reducing our store count for years and years, and we're at a point now where we are turning that up the other way. So really exciting on that side. And then we'll have a balance of comps.

是的。保羅，很高興收到你的來信。我將從銷售指南上的顏色開始。所以考慮今年的總體情況，今年增長 2% 到 4%，從兩個方面考慮，新店將保持平衡。因此，這將是今年的淨新店種植者，這對公司來說是一件好事。多年來，我們一直在減少商店數量，而現在我們正以另一種方式改變這一點。在那方面真的很令人興奮。然後我們將有一個補償平衡。

When we think about growth, we expect growth from both of our brands, Abercrombie and Hollister. Likely Hollister will continue -- I'm sorry, Abercrombie will continue to outperform Hollister a bit, but we expect growth by both brands and really the same trends continuing across geos. Expect the U.S. to outperform the international regions. Again, we're cautiously optimistic that the international business will inflect here as we get through the worst of COVID, but time will tell, and we're not going to forecast that until it actually happens. So that's how we're thinking about the sales outlook. And I would say those themes, pretty consistent as you think about Q1.

當我們考慮增長時，我們預計我們的兩個品牌 Abercrombie 和 Hollister 都會增長。 Hollister 可能會繼續下去——對不起，Abercrombie 的表現將繼續優於 Hollister，但我們預計這兩個品牌都會增長，並且在各個地區都將繼續保持相同的趨勢。預計美國將超越國際地區。同樣，我們謹慎樂觀地認為，隨著我們度過 COVID 最糟糕的時期，國際業務將在這裡發生變化，但時間會證明一切，在它真正發生之前，我們不會進行預測。這就是我們對銷售前景的看法。我會說這些主題，與您對第一季度的看法非常一致。

Yes. I'll jump in on promotional cadence, Paul. So we look back on '21, what an exciting year for us. To reduce the promotions that we were able to take out of the business in '21 were quite an exciting accomplishment for all of us. So we did see the consumer, to your point, 7 quarters of AUR growth and 4 recent quarters of double-digit AUR growth. So he and she have shown some elasticity that is clearly based on the fact that our product voice and experience are resonating and we are keeping tight control on inventory. We will keep both of those things as part of our strategy as we head into '22, and we'll continue to monitor this customer on a weekly basis, like Scott and I do with the teams.

是的。我會加入促銷節奏，保羅。因此，我們回顧 21 年，對我們來說是多麼激動人心的一年。減少我們在 21 年能夠從業務中撤出的促銷活動對我們所有人來說都是一項令人興奮的成就。所以我們確實看到了消費者，就你而言，7 個季度的 AUR 增長和最近 4 個季度的兩位數 AUR 增長。因此，他和她表現出了一定的彈性，這顯然是基於我們的產品聲音和體驗正在引起共鳴，並且我們正在嚴格控制庫存。在進入 22 年之前，我們將把這兩件事作為我們戰略的一部分，我們將繼續每週監控這個客戶，就像斯科特和我對團隊所做的那樣。

Just to close the loop on the EMEA current climate, Paul. A lot going on, obviously, in the European region. It's a horrible situation, what's happening in the Ukraine. We do not have a large exposure to that part of the world in Eastern Europe. And on the Western European side, we're kind of comping the reopening this year versus a pretty shutdown economy last year. So a lot of moving parts there, and our hearts go out to what's happening in that region.

只是為了結束歐洲、中東和非洲當前氣候的循環，保羅。顯然，在歐洲地區發生了很多事情。這是一個可怕的情況，烏克蘭正在發生什麼。我們對東歐世界的那一部分沒有太多的了解。在西歐方面，我們有點將今年的重新開放與去年相當關閉的經濟進行比較。所以那裡有很多活動的部分，我們的心都在關注那個地區正在發生的事情。

And we can now move on to Susan Anderson of B. Riley.

我們現在可以繼續討論 B. Riley 的 Susan Anderson。

I was wondering if maybe you can talk a little bit more about Gilly Hicks on maybe give some color on the size of the brand now, if it's material, and then the growth you're expecting over the next few years in number of stand-alone stores. And potentially other new product categories you can expand into such as like the Gilly Go as we look forward.

我想知道你是否可以多談談 Gilly Hicks，也許現在就品牌的規模，如果它是物質的，然後你期望在未來幾年的展位數量增長 -單獨的商店。以及您可以擴展的其他新產品類別，例如我們期待的 Gilly Go。

Hey, Susan. Love to talk about Gilly. So as you know, we launched Gilly back in July and established a nice new platform for it, which is finding your happy place, which is really resonating with our consumer, and we introduce guys into the brand as well. So starting with that, we carry guys now in our side-by-side, in our freestanding store in Easton and that is resonating nicely and selling nicely. Gilly Go, we added during the pandemic, and that has also been a nice growth vehicle for us.

嗨，蘇珊。喜歡談論吉利。如您所知，我們早在 7 月就推出了 Gilly，並為它建立了一個不錯的新平台，它正在尋找您的快樂之地，這確實引起了我們的消費者的共鳴，我們也將男士引入品牌。因此，從那開始，我們現在並排地在我們位於伊斯頓的獨立商店裡載人，這引起了很好的共鳴，並且賣得很好。 Gilly Go，我們在大流行期間補充說，這對我們來說也是一個很好的增長工具。

So Gilly had a strong year, excited about the product acceptance that we're seeing, as you mentioned. So we did open up Easton and have seen a nice response to that store. We are a test-and-learn culture here. So what we're learning from that store is enabling us to open up 2 that we named this morning. So we're opening up a store in the U.K. and Germany as well. And we have a few more on the docket. When we get to our Investor Day in June, we're going to give more specificity about Gilly.

正如你所提到的，Gilly 度過了強勁的一年，對我們看到的產品接受度感到興奮。因此，我們確實開設了 Easton，並看到對該商店的良好反應。我們在這裡是一種測試和學習的文化。所以我們從那家商店學到的是讓我們能夠打開我們今天早上命名的 2。所以我們也在英國和德國開設了一家商店。我們還有一些待辦事項。當我們到了 6 月的投資者日時，我們將更加具體地介紹 Gilly。

Okay. Great. And then maybe you could talk about -- have you seen, I guess, it sounds like denim is still very strong, maybe dresses are coming back. But have you seen I guess is everything selling very well, including fashion now? Or have you kind of seen that pendulum swing towards more fashion? And is that what you're expecting for this year for maybe dresses to kind of take the strength and denim is still strong but maybe not as strong as they had been?

好的。偉大的。然後也許你可以談談——你有沒有看到，我猜，聽起來牛仔布仍然很強大，也許連衣裙正在回歸。但是你有沒有看到我猜所有東西都賣得很好，包括現在的時尚？或者你有沒有看到鐘擺朝著更時尚的方向擺動？這就是你今年所期望的，也許連衣裙會有點力量，牛仔布仍然很結實，但可能不像以前那麼結實了？

This is actually -- our denim business and our dress business has been strong for quite a few years now. We even talked back during the real height of the pandemic that we were selling fashion in both denim and dresses. I couldn't tell you exactly where everybody was wearing it too, but we certainly talked about the fact that, that they were both resonating. Today, that continues to be so. We had a strong year in both those categories, in both of our brands for '21. We're still seeing strength in both of them. I mentioned during my script that we are looking at what could be a record year in weddings, and so dresses are resonating in both brands.

這實際上是——我們的牛仔佈業務和我們的服裝業務多年來一直很強勁。我們甚至在大流行的真正高峰期進行了回擊，我們正在銷售牛仔布和連衣裙的時裝。我也無法準確地告訴你每個人都穿著它的確切位置，但我們確實談到了這樣一個事實，即他們都產生了共鳴。今天，情況仍然如此。在這兩個類別中，我們在 21 年的兩個品牌中都表現出色。我們仍然在他們兩個身上看到了力量。我在我的劇本中提到，我們正在研究可能是婚禮創紀錄的一年，因此禮服在兩個品牌中都引起了共鳴。

There's so much fashion and exciting new things happening, particularly in the denim area that the more newness and the more fashion we keep sending out to our consumer, the hungrier and excited they are about the product. So again, just to sum it up, both are strong and expect to continue to see that.

有如此多的時尚和令人興奮的新事物正在發生，尤其是在牛仔布領域，我們不斷向消費者發送越多的新鮮和時尚，他們對產品的渴望和興奮就越大。因此，再次總結一下，兩者都很強大，並希望繼續看到這一點。

We can move on to Dana Telsey of Telsey Group.

我們可以轉到 Telsey Group 的 Dana Telsey。

As you think about the digital business, which I believe is around 48% of sales or so, where do you see that going? And now that you're shifting to being a net store opener, how do you see the percentage in the U.S. business malls versus off-mall? And going forward, is your rent expense going forward lower than what it had been in 2019? Or how are you thinking about occupancy cost?

當您考慮數字業務時，我認為它約佔銷售額的 48% 左右，您認為這將走向何方？現在您正在轉向成為網店開店者，您如何看待美國商業購物中心與非購物中心的百分比？展望未來，您的租金支出是否低於 2019 年的水平？或者您如何考慮入住成本？

Dana, good morning. I'll kick this one off. So exciting. Digital business has grown tremendously for us from 1/3, as you said, close to half of our business. As we think about the future of our business, both are important. Digital will grow and stores will grow. That is clearly the magic that makes our omni business. As the stores have reopened, we're actually seeing the channels rebalance a bit. So we haven't declared exactly where we think that's going. But today, at about 50% for both and growth for both is how we see it.

達娜，早上好。我會踢掉這個。如此令人興奮。正如您所說，數字業務從 1/3 為我們帶來了巨大的增長，接近我們業務的一半。當我們考慮業務的未來時，兩者都很重要。數字將增長，商店將增長。這顯然是我們全能業務的魔力。隨著商店重新開業，我們實際上看到了渠道的重新平衡。所以我們還沒有確切地宣布我們認為會發生什麼。但今天，兩者的增長率都在 50% 左右，兩者的增長就是我們的看法。

As we think about on-mall, off-mall, the Southport, the Chicago example we gave is a good one. We're going to continue to evolve our toolkit as it comes to stores and how we approach each market. So more to come there. I think we'll start to see a little bit more off-mall than we've had in our past.

當我們考慮商場內、商場外、紹斯波特時，我們給出的芝加哥例子就是一個很好的例子。我們將繼續發展我們的工具包，因為它涉及到商店以及我們如何進入每個市場。所以更多的來那裡。我認為我們將開始看到比過去更多的非購物中心。

Going to the occupancy question, which was the last question. We've been on quite a journey here on occupancy. You've been on that journey with us. Our occupancy dollars are down close to $200 million when you look back a couple of years to that 2019 level. At this point, we're baking that into our outlook for next year. It's a great starting point. Our occupancy dollars will tick up a little bit as we become net openers of stores. But we're not going to lose that discipline that we've had here for the past couple of years. It's got to be the right size at the right location and the right economics. And if we get that, we will sign the deal. And so we don't expect large oversized expensive stores like we've had in the past, but we are going to maintain that discipline going forward.

轉到佔用問題，這是最後一個問題。我們在入住方面經歷了一段相當長的旅程。你和我們一起踏上了這段旅程。當您回顧幾年到 2019 年的水平時，我們的入住費用下降了近 2 億美元。在這一點上，我們正在將其納入明年的展望。這是一個很好的起點。隨著我們成為商店的淨開業者，我們的入住費用將會增加一點。但我們不會失去過去幾年在這裡的紀律。它必須在正確的位置和正確的經濟條件下具有正確的尺寸。如果我們得到了，我們將簽署協議。因此，我們預計不會出現像過去那樣的大型超大型昂貴商店，但我們將繼續保持這種紀律。

And the next question comes from Matthew Boss of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Matthew Boss。

Great. So Fran, you cited top line acceleration in February relative to the fourth quarter. Could you elaborate on trends that you're seeing across your brands? Any early reception that you're seeing to spring assortments? And then, Scott, what is embedded this year for AUC or freight as we think about shaping the margin structure this year?

偉大的。所以弗蘭，你提到了 2 月份相對於第四季度的收入增長。您能否詳細說明您在各個品牌中看到的趨勢？您對春季系列有什麼提早接待嗎？然後，斯科特，當我們考慮塑造今年的利潤率結構時，今年的 AUC 或貨運嵌入了什麼？

Hey, Matt. So yes, we are excited to see where we are for February. That's coming off of 2 specific things. We talked a lot during ICR about the delayed receipts. Those continue to sell through from our consumers. So excited to see that. And the reception to our early spring receipts have been strong, and that's across brands and genders.

嘿，馬特。所以是的，我們很高興看到我們在二月份的位置。這是來自 2 個具體的事情。我們在 ICR 期間談了很多關於延遲收據的問題。那些繼續從我們的消費者那裡銷售。很高興看到這一點。我們對早春收據的接受度一直很高，而且跨越品牌和性別。

Yes. On the AUC, as we think about the full year, we're looking at about 300 to 400 basis points impact on margin from AUC. And I'd say that the front half is going to be weighted more towards freight as we lap lower freight last year. The freight really started to spike up in Q3 and Q4 last year. So -- we'll lap that with higher freight this spring. And in the back half, we'll start to see some of that cotton inflation flow through. So in total, we're saying about 300 to 400 basis points from cost increases into AUC. We do expect gross margins to be down approximately 200 basis points. So our expectation is that we will offset a portion of that 300 to 400 basis points freight, and raw material cost headwinds with higher AURs.

是的。在 AUC 方面，當我們考慮全年時，我們正在考慮 AUC 對利潤率的大約 300 到 400 個基點的影響。我想說的是，由於我們去年的運費較低，前半部分將更多地側重於運費。去年第三季度和第四季度的貨運量確實開始飆升。所以 - 我們將在今年春天增加運費。在後半部分，我們將開始看到一些棉花通脹的流動。所以總的來說，我們說從成本增加到 AUC 大約有 300 到 400 個基點。我們確實預計毛利率將下降約 200 個基點。因此，我們的預期是，我們將抵消 300 至 400 個基點運費的一部分，以及 AUR 較高的原材料成本逆風。

And our next question comes from Janet Kloppenburg of JJK Research Associates.

我們的下一個問題來自 JJK Research Associates 的 Janet Kloppenburg。

I'm just wondering about the freight assumptions for the year. I think you said, Scott, that there's $65 million impact in the first quarter. How do you see -- in your 7% to 8% EBIT margin assumptions for this year, how do you see freight for the rest of the year? Is there some opportunity for moderation later in the year? And Fran, it sounds like Abercrombie is -- has really got some strong momentum. And it feels like it's a little bit better than Hollister's. I was just wondering, is that just because productivity levels of being recaptured at A&F? Or do you think that there are some other issues confronting Hollister, perhaps the impact of your having more restrictions than the U.S.? I'd just love to see -- understand your view on the sales momentum of Hollister versus A&F and how we should think about that going forward.

我只是想知道今年的運費假設。我想你說過，斯科特，第一季度有 6500 萬美元的影響。您如何看待 - 在您今年 7% 至 8% 的息稅前利潤率假設中，您如何看待今年剩餘時間的運費？今年晚些時候是否有一些緩和的機會？而 Fran，聽起來 Abercrombie 是——確實有一些強勁的勢頭。而且感覺比霍利斯特的要好一點。我只是想知道，這僅僅是因為在 A&F 重新獲得了生產力水平嗎？還是您認為 Hollister 還面臨其他一些問題，也許是您的限制比美國更多的影響？我很想看看 - 了解您對 Hollister 與 A&F 的銷售勢頭的看法，以及我們應該如何看待這一點。

Okay. So let's start. We'll go backwards, Janet. So starting with A&F, yes, the brand is on fire, and it is so awesome that the brand is back.

好的。所以讓我們開始吧。我們會倒退，珍妮特。所以從 A&F 開始，是的，這個品牌火了，這個品牌又回來了，真是太棒了。

I'm sure you've been with us for quite a time.

我敢肯定你已經和我們在一起很長時間了。

Right. It looks amazing. I mean it's just -- it's really quite well done. Yes.

正確的。看起來很神奇。我的意思是它只是 - 它真的做得很好。是的。

Thank you. So it's obviously, Hollister got to start much earlier in this journey. And I will tell you that we are actually really excited about our Hollister business. Our U.S. business, specifically, let's focus on that for a minute. Yes, we were 6% ahead of 2019 in the U.S., and Hollister has a different composition to it. So to your point, it's more store-based, it's more international-based. And we do see the delays that we incurred in December and January, a higher penetration on Hollister and on Gilly. So both brands are resonating. A&F trend is a bit stronger than Hollister, but Hollister is still strong, and we're excited. They got their assortment architecture right. Their denim business is terrific. So lots of good things happening in both brands.

謝謝你。所以很明顯，Hollister 必須在這段旅程中更早地開始。我會告訴你，我們實際上對 Hollister 業務感到非常興奮。具體來說，我們的美國業務讓我們專注於這一點。是的，我們在美國比 2019 年領先 6%，而 Hollister 的構成有所不同。所以就你的觀點而言，它更基於商店，更基於國際。我們確實看到了我們在 12 月和 1 月發生的延誤，對 Hollister 和 Gilly 的滲透率更高。所以這兩個品牌都引起了共鳴。 A&F 趨勢比 Hollister 強一點，但 Hollister 仍然強勁，我們很興奮。他們的分類架構是正確的。他們的牛仔布生意很棒。兩個品牌都發生了很多好事。

Right, Janet, on the freight, the $65 million that we called out for freight is related to Q1, so year-over-year growth in freight in Q1. Zooming out to the year, getting back to that 300 to 400 basis points is our estimate right now for freight and raw material impact for the year. I think we as well as pretty much everyone that ships product across the ocean, we're all hopeful for some kind of moderation in the back half, but who knows when that might come. We're not planning for it. I think we're all hoping for it.

對，珍妮特，關於運費，我們要求的 6500 萬美元運費與第一季度有關，因此第一季度的運費同比增長。縮小到今年，回到 300 到 400 個基點是我們目前對今年貨運和原材料影響的估計。我認為我們以及幾乎所有將產品運送到大洋彼岸的人，我們都希望在後半部分有所緩和，但誰知道什麼時候會到來。我們沒有計劃。我想我們都希望它。

When we think about the operating margins for the year, our sales are up 2% to 4%, expenses will track against that. So call it expense leverage, deleverage, essentially 0. And then we look at that gross margin in the middle. We're expecting around 200 basis points decrease from 2021. So that's really what's driving the expected operating margins down from this year into next year. And we'll see, we're putting a realistic AUR out there. We've had a really strong run on AUR, 7 straight quarters, double-digit for last year. We're expecting more on top of that. But at this point, we're not expecting we would overcome all of that inflation.

當我們考慮今年的營業利潤率時，我們的銷售額增長了 2% 到 4%，費用將與之相匹配。所以稱之為費用槓桿，去槓桿，基本上是0。然後我們看看中間的毛利率。我們預計從 2021 年起將下降約 200 個基點。因此，這確實是推動預期營業利潤率從今年到明年下降的真正原因。我們會看到，我們正在那裡放置一個逼真的 AUR。我們在 AUR 上的表現非常強勁，去年連續 7 個季度達到兩位數。我們期待更多。但在這一點上，我們並不期望我們會克服所有的通貨膨脹。

The next question comes from Kimberly Greenberger of Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的金伯利格林伯格。

I wanted to ask about the outlook for gross margin here in 2022. Are you contemplating any return of some promotions either across the industry or in your store? Or do you think you'll be able to hold all of those AUR gains that you got last year and build upon those with the additional price actions in 2022?

我想問一下 2022 年的毛利率前景。您是否正在考慮在整個行業或您的商店中進行一些促銷活動的回報？還是您認為您將能夠保持去年獲得的所有 AUR 收益，並在 2022 年的額外價格行動的基礎上再接再厲？

Our expectation is that we will be able to hold those gains. Our expectation for the year, I just mentioned, the AUR to be up off of 2021 levels. We are increasing tickets in select places, and we also think we have an opportunity to pull back on some additional promotions. You know better than anyone. I read your tracker. It's very nice. We were promotional all year last year. We are in a promotional business. So what we are trying to do as a company is pull down our promotions. What used to be 40 to 50 are now a 30 and a 20, and we've had great success with that.

我們的期望是我們將能夠保持這些收益。我剛剛提到，我們對今年的預期是 AUR 將高於 2021 年的水平。我們正在某些地方增加門票，我們也認為我們有機會取消一些額外的促銷活動。你比誰都清楚。我讀了你的追踪器。這是很不錯的。去年我們全年都在促銷。我們從事促銷業務。因此，作為一家公司，我們正在嘗試做的就是降低我們的促銷活動。過去是 40 到 50，現在是 30 和 20，我們在這方面取得了巨大的成功。

So what we're going to do, stepping back, looking at the full year, we're going to deliver great products. We're going to keep our inventory in control and that's going to put us in the best control of our promotional calendar. So the short answer is yes. We think we can hold those gains and build on them in 2022.

所以我們要做的，退後一步，看看全年，我們將提供偉大的產品。我們將控制我們的庫存，這將使我們能夠最好地控制我們的促銷日曆。所以簡短的回答是肯定的。我們認為我們可以在 2022 年保持這些收益並在此基礎上再接再厲。

Okay. Great, Scott and that is a great segue to my second question, which is just on inventory. How should we think about inventory levels throughout the year 2021? Do you expect a similar kind of increase to what we're seeing here at the end of Q4 to be relatively durable over the next 3 quarters?

好的。太好了，斯科特，這很好地解決了我的第二個問題，這只是在庫存中。我們應該如何看待 2021 年全年的庫存水平？您是否預計與我們在第四季度末看到的類似增長在接下來的三個季度中會相對持久？

Yes. Coming into this year, just breaking apart of that inventory, so we were up 30%, which have seen a lot of that across the industry. There's some interesting things happening out there. In transit, we all know the transportation lag now versus the past. So we're seeing higher in transit this year. And then we're also seeing some of those higher freight costs baked into that inventory level.

是的。進入今年，只是分解庫存，所以我們上漲了 30%，這在整個行業中已經看到了很多。外面發生了一些有趣的事情。在運輸過程中，我們都知道現在與過去的運輸滯後。因此，我們今年看到的運輸量更高。然後我們還看到一些較高的運費成本被納入該庫存水平。

As we think about the units on hand, our units on hand starting the year were flat to last year. So we're in a really good place, continue to be clean. As we look towards the rest of the year, as we've gone through last year, specifically back-to-school and more into holiday, we lessen business on the table due to some of those late receipts. So we're going to make sure that some of those receipts are here at a better time line than last year. All of the efforts that our supply chain and sourcing team have been making to ensure our receipts are properly timed and placed and received. as we're optimistic that we'll have better on-hand inventories as we start some of these peak quarters and the peak holiday selling period.

當我們考慮手頭的單位時，我們從今年開始的手頭單位與去年持平。所以我們在一個非常好的地方，繼續保持清潔。當我們展望今年餘下的時間時，正如我們去年所經歷的那樣，特別是返校和更多假期，由於一些遲到的收據，我們減少了桌面上的業務。因此，我們將確保其中一些收據的時間線比去年更好。我們的供應鍊和採購團隊一直在努力確保我們的收據及時、放置和接收。因為我們樂觀地認為，隨著我們開始一些高峰季度和假日銷售高峰期，我們將擁有更好的現有庫存。

Our next question comes from Corey Tarlowe of Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Corey Tarlowe。

You had mentioned that, I believe 40% of Abercrombie stores are in updated format. Can you talk about the comp performance of these updated stores versus some of the older stores?

您提到過，我相信 40% 的 Abercrombie 商店都在更新格式。你能談談這些更新商店與一些舊商店的比較表現嗎？

Hey, Corey. Scott, I'll grab this one. Yes. The performance in these stores has been good, and it's been interesting to read. I'd say it's hard to read during COVID here because of the wild nature of the stores in each region. So going back to 2019 when we were talking about this, the store performance was really strong in these stores.

嘿，科里。斯科特，我會抓住這個。是的。這些商店的表現一直很好，讀起來很有趣。我想說在 COVID 期間這裡很難閱讀，因為每個地區的商店都很野蠻。所以回到 2019 年，當我們談論這個時，這些商店的商店表現非常強勁。

And regardless of the performance, this is a significant step for the brand to modernize the experience in the stores to match what's happening on social and to match what's happening on our sites and our apps, whenever we're marketing. So we will continue to remodel these Abercrombie stores. We'll continue to close some of the legacy stores and reposition the new stores. So excited about raising that 40% rates of the modern store experiences because we just love where this brand is and where this brand is going.

無論表現如何，這對於品牌來說都是重要的一步，它使商店的體驗現代化，以匹配社交上正在發生的事情，並在我們進行營銷時與我們的網站和應用程序上發生的事情相匹配。因此，我們將繼續改造這些 Abercrombie 商店。我們將繼續關閉一些舊店並重新定位新店。對提高 40% 的現代商店體驗率感到非常興奮，因為我們只是喜歡這個品牌的位置和這個品牌的發展方向。

Great. And then just a follow-up on stores. How should we be thinking about the idea that you're going to be a net store opener this year after years of closing stores with some flagships still, I believe, remaining to be closed and the continued evolution of digital and the continued expansion of your store fleet? Just any color as it relates to expectations for store growth this year in the context of kind of continued flagship closures and expansion of digital, that would be very helpful.

偉大的。然後只是對商店的跟進。我們應該如何考慮您今年將成為網店開店者的想法，在多年關閉商店之後，一些旗艦店仍然關閉，我相信，數字化的持續發展和您的持續擴張商店車隊？在旗艦店持續關閉和數字化擴張的背景下，任何與今年商店增長預期相關的顏色都會非常有幫助。

Corey, the way to think about this thing a net store opener is that it is an exciting new chapter for us. We have not been a net store opener since 2008. Omni for us equals stores plus digital, and we believe that we have an opportunity to grow both. Our capital is invested in both. As Scott just talked about, I mean, new smaller, more efficient stores for us, which are omni hubs, right, the consumer comes to bring their pop in or do their DTC return or shop for new product is a winning formula for us. So we need to have stores in order to be omni-capable. So the way I would think about it, just to sum it up, is that being a net store opener for us is an exciting new chapter. It talks about the fact that our balance sheet is strong and that we have growth ahead of us.

科里，將這件事視為網店開店者的方式是，這對我們來說是一個激動人心的新篇章。自 2008 年以來，我們一直沒有開店。Omni 對我們來說等於商店加數字，我們相信我們有機會同時發展。我們的資本投資於兩者。正如斯科特剛剛談到的，我的意思是，對我們來說，新的更小、更高效的商店，它們是全方位的樞紐，對，消費者帶來他們的流行商品或進行 DTC 退貨或購買新產品對我們來說是一個成功的公式。所以我們需要有商店才能做到全能。所以我的想法是，總結一下，對於我們來說，成為一家網店開店者是一個令人興奮的新篇章。它談到了這樣一個事實，即我們的資產負債表很強勁，而且我們前面還有增長。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question today comes from Mauricio Serna of UBS.

（操作員說明）我們今天的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Mauricio Serna。

Great. I wanted to ask about the store -- the new stores. You mentioned you plan to open 50 new stores then close 30. Does that store closure include any flagships? And then you also mentioned about the sales growth expectations being a mix of higher comp store sales and expansion. Could you provide a little bit more details on that breakdown? And lastly, regarding marketing. I mean how much should we think marketing as a percentage of sales should increase this year? I mean is the intention to continue investing at a higher pace than sales growth?

偉大的。我想問一下這家店——新店。您提到您計劃開設 50 家新店，然後關閉 30 家。關閉的商店是否包括任何旗艦店？然後您還提到銷售增長預期是更高的商店銷售和擴張的組合。您能否提供有關該故障的更多詳細信息？最後，關於營銷。我的意思是我們應該認為今年營銷佔銷售額的百分比應該增加多少？我的意思是打算繼續以高於銷售增長的速度進行投資嗎？

All right. Let me click down through these. So let's start with the closures. We will have a couple of flagships run off this year, more than likely pending any kind of short-term extensions. But the estimate on the rest of the closures of around 30 will be across brands. We'll continue to target those malls where landlords not investing and our customers moving away from those centers as well as oversized stores and legacy stores. So part of the great thing about closing stores and then opening more stores is repositioning that fleet. And to the question we just discussed, being able to close legacy stores and open more modernized experience is a great thing for all of our brands.

好的。讓我點擊這些。所以讓我們從閉包開始。今年我們將有幾家旗艦店停產，很可能等待任何形式的短期延期。但對其餘約 30 家關閉的估計將跨品牌。我們將繼續針對那些房東不投資的購物中心以及我們的客戶離開這些中心以及超大型商店和傳統商店。因此，關閉商店然後開設更多商店的部分好處是重新定位該車隊。對於我們剛剛討論的問題，能夠關閉舊店並開設更現代化的體驗對我們所有品牌來說都是一件好事。

I'll hop to the marketing question. So as a percent of sales, we did increase marketing nicely this year versus 2019. That was funded by those reductions in occupancy, that almost $200 million that we talked about. So really nice to be able to position from a fixed cost to a variable cost, number one, but also give us the best chance to grow and win with our brands. So our marketing as a percent of sales. We feel good where we were in 2021. So we'll probably keep that pretty level as we go forward. On the sales comp, as we -- I missed that middle question. Can you repeat that again?

我會跳到營銷問題。因此，作為銷售額的百分比，我們今年與 2019 年相比確實增加了營銷。這是由入住率的減少提供的，我們談到了將近 2 億美元。非常高興能夠從固定成本定位到可變成本，排名第一，但也為我們提供了與我們的品牌一起成長和取勝的最佳機會。所以我們的營銷佔銷售額的百分比。我們在 2021 年的時候感覺很好。所以我們可能會在前進的過程中保持這個相當的水平。關於銷售補償，正如我們——我錯過了中間的問題。你能再重複一遍嗎？

Yes. The sales growth for guidance for the year, I recall you mentioned there's some contribution from comp store sales, but also the store expansion. If we could -- could you give us an idea of how is that balance?

是的。今年的銷售增長指導，我記得你提到過商店銷售有一些貢獻，還有商店擴張。如果可以，您能否告訴我們這種平衡如何？

Yes, sure. I'd say it's a balance, probably down the middle. We'll get some comp growth, half of it and some of it will come from new store expansion. We did close 38 stores last year, 44 stores last year. So we'll see -- we'll lose those sales, and we'll offset that with new store openings this year, so call it about half and half.

是的，當然。我會說這是一個平衡，可能在中間。我們將獲得一些補償增長，其中一半和一部分將來自新店擴張。我們去年確實關閉了 38 家商店，去年關閉了 44 家商店。所以我們會看到 - 我們將失去這些銷售額，我們將通過今年的新店開業來抵消這一點，所以稱之為大約一半。

And just very quickly, the stores that you're closing, are they bigger than the ones that you're opening like on an individual store basis?

很快，您要關閉的商店是否比您在單個商店中開設的商店更大？

More than likely, we have an estimate for the year, not exactly a targeted store list, but we still have a portion of the fleet that is oversized, and we will continue to work through that as quickly as we can.

很有可能，我們對今年有一個估計，不完全是一個目標商店清單，但我們仍然有一部分機隊過大，我們將繼續盡快解決這個問題。

And the next question comes from Marni Shapiro of Retail Tracker.

下一個問題來自 Retail Tracker 的 Marni Shapiro。

Stores really look fantastic. And congrats on the new launch in activewear. Looks great. Fran, can you talk a little bit about what -- you've talked a little bit about this omni-enabled. But I'm curious from your perspective, what that means to the company. It sounds a little bit like using those stores as a hub. What does that mean for the shopper? Are there also things happening in the stores, the cash rep is still there, for example. Can she scan items? Or what's the long-term thought about the omni? And then I have one follow-up question just on inventory.

商店看起來真的很棒。並祝賀新推出的運動服。看起來很棒。弗蘭，你能談談什麼——你已經談了一點關於這個全能的。但我很好奇從你的角度來看，這對公司意味著什麼。聽起來有點像將這些商店用作樞紐。這對購物者意味著什麼？商店中是否也發生了一些事情，例如，現金代表仍然在那裡。她可以掃描物品嗎？或者關於全能的長期想法是什麼？然後我有一個關於庫存的後續問題。

Sure. So kicking off with omni. I mean what is omni to us, Marni? It's our future, right? Having a great omnichannel brand experience for the consumer, so every touch point that he or she comes to the brand on, that they have a seamless consistent experience is our end goal, and that's what we're working to. Scott brought up a little bit about this store we just opened up in Chicago, the Southport store. That speaks to a couple of things. First, it speaks to data and analytics, right, telling us that this consumer, we had a big digital consumer in that market and she needed a place to pop in, right, pop in and (inaudible) online or return our DTC purchases or just come in and shop. So as we continue to build out our data analytics and our omni. Those 2 things come hand in hand, will help us continue to grow the business.

當然。所以從omni開始。我的意思是什麼對我們來說是全方位的，瑪尼？這是我們的未來，對吧？為消費者提供出色的全渠道品牌體驗，因此他或她接觸品牌的每一個接觸點，他們擁有無縫一致的體驗是我們的最終目標，這就是我們正在努力的目標。斯科特談到了我們剛剛在芝加哥開設的這家商店，紹斯波特商店。這說明了幾件事。首先，它涉及數據和分析，是的，它告訴我們這個消費者，我們在那個市場上有一個龐大的數字消費者，她需要一個地方來彈出，正確，彈出和（聽不清）在線或退回我們購買的 DTC 或只要進來購物。因此，隨著我們繼續構建我們的數據分析和我們的全方位。這兩件事齊頭並進，將幫助我們繼續發展業務。

Yes. But just to add on, when you think about a store, I'd call it maybe 80% of the functionality is going to be similar. But then it's really on the build-out. That other 20%, how do we tailor that market to the local consumer? Depending on the store or the market, we see pop-ins at a much higher rate in some places, and a lot of places, it's smaller. And there's not a lot of digital returns, and it's purely a shopping experience. So what we do is we tweak the store format to match that market. We have all the same functionality in those stores, but it depends on how much space we give to those. That functionality, where we put the cash rep, how many fitting rooms we have. So that's and the technology we put in the fitting room. So that's all the work that we're doing and really tailoring that experience for each market.

是的。但補充一點，當你想到一家商店時，我認為它可能 80% 的功能都是相似的。但後來它真的在擴建。剩下的 20%，我們如何為當地消費者量身定制這個市場？根據商店或市場的不同，我們在某些地方看到彈出式廣告的比例要高得多，而在很多地方，彈出式廣告的比例要小得多。並且沒有很多數字回報，純粹是一種購物體驗。所以我們要做的是調整商店格式以匹配那個市場。我們在這些商店中擁有所有相同的功能，但這取決於我們為這些商店提供了多少空間。那個功能，我們把現金代表放在哪裡，我們有多少試衣間。這就是我們在試衣間放置的技術。這就是我們正在做的所有工作，並真正為每個市場量身定制這種體驗。

Would it allow you -- I know this is kind of a silly question given how lean inventories are right now. But would it allow you to, longer term, carry less inventory in those stores as well?

它會允許你 - 我知道這是一個愚蠢的問題，考慮到現在的庫存狀況如何。但從長遠來看，它是否也能讓您在這些商店中減少庫存？

Yes, some cases and in some cases, more.

是的，在某些情況下，在某些情況下，更多。

Right, exactly.

沒錯，正是。

Okay. And then just a follow-up on the inventory. I know Hollister was more severely impacted than Abercrombie. As the inventory start to flow into the stores, was it highly seasonal? Is this something you had to pack away? Or is it something you were able to flow through when the customer responded to the full price anyway?

好的。然後只是對庫存的跟進。我知道 Hollister 受到的影響比 Abercrombie 更嚴重。隨著庫存開始流入商店，是不是季節性很強？這是你必須收拾的東西嗎？或者當客戶對全價做出回應時，您是否能夠通過它？

The latter. So what's exciting, Marni, for our business, we don't do a lot of deals -- true seasonal product. We do some mostly probably in our sleepwear category. And so we made those decisions before we bought the product, and we did have to pack away a little bit nothing, nothing significant. But the exciting thing was that we knew [the receipts] that were coming in. We had some testing on them, and the consumer responded accordingly. So we are selling through those nicely as well as our new spring receipts. So both are working.

後者。那麼令人興奮的是，Marni，對於我們的業務，我們不會做很多交易——真正的季節性產品。我們做一些可能主要是在我們的睡衣類別中。所以我們在購買產品之前做出了這些決定，我們確實不得不收拾一些東西，沒有什麼重要的東西。但令人興奮的是，我們知道收到的 [收據]。我們對它們進行了一些測試，消費者做出了相應的反應。所以我們很好地通過這些以及我們的新春季收據進行銷售。所以兩者都在工作。

As there are no further questions at this time, I would like to turn the call back to Fran Horowitz for any additional or closing remarks.

由於目前沒有其他問題，我想將電話轉回給 Fran Horowitz，以獲取任何補充或結束語。

Just want to thank everyone for joining us today.

只想感謝大家今天加入我們。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。