Boot Barn Holdings Inc (BOOT) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Boot Barn Holdings Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎來到 Boot Barn Holdings 2023 年第四季度財報電話會議。提醒一下，此通話正在錄音中。

Now I'd like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Mark Dedovesh, Vice President of Financial Planning. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我想將會議轉交給您的主持人，財務規劃副總裁 Mark Dedovesh 先生。請繼續，先生。

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Boot Barn's fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 earnings results. With me on today's call are Jim Conroy, President and Chief Executive Officer; Greg Hackman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Jim Watkins, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝。大家下午好。感謝您今天加入我們討論 Boot Barn 的第四季度和 2023 財年收益結果。與我一起參加今天電話會議的有總裁兼首席執行官吉姆·康羅伊 (Jim Conroy)； Greg Hackman，執行副總裁兼首席運營官；和首席財務官 Jim Watkins。

A copy of today's press release, along with a supplemental financial presentation, is available on the Investor Relations section of Boot Barn's website at bootbarn.com. Shortly after we end this call, a recording of the call will be available as a replay for 30 days on the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

在 Boot Barn 網站 bootbarn.com 的投資者關係部分，可獲取今天新聞稿的副本以及補充財務報告。在我們結束此次通話後不久，通話錄音將在公司網站的“投資者關係”部分作為重播提供 30 天。

I would like to remind you that certain statements we will make in this presentation are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect Boot Barn's judgment and analysis only as of today, and actual results may differ materially from current expectations based on a number of factors affecting Boot Barn's business. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

我想提醒您，我們將在本演示文稿中做出的某些陳述是前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述僅反映 Boot Barn 截至今日的判斷和分析，實際結果可能與當前基於影響 Boot Barn 業務的多種因素的預期存在重大差異。因此，您不應過分依賴這些前瞻性陳述。

For a more thorough discussion of risks and uncertainties associated with the forward-looking statements to be made during this conference call and webcast, we refer you to the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements that is included in our fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 earnings release as well as our filings with the SEC referenced in that disclaimer. We do not undertake any obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

為了更深入地討論與本次電話會議和網絡廣播期間所做的前瞻性陳述相關的風險和不確定性，我們建議您參考包含在我們第四季度和 2023 財年收益發布中的有關前瞻性陳述的免責聲明以及該免責聲明中提及的我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。我們不承擔任何更新或更改任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論是由於新信息、未來事件或其他原因。

I will now turn the call over to Jim Conroy, Boot Barn's President and Chief Executive Officer. Jim?

我現在將把電話轉給 Boot Barn 的總裁兼首席執行官 Jim Conroy。吉姆？

Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. On this call, I will review our fiscal '23 and fourth quarter results, discuss the progress we have made across each of our 4 strategic initiatives and provide an update on current business. Following my remarks, Jim Watkins will review our financial performance in more detail, and then we will open the call up for questions.

謝謝你，馬克，下午好。謝謝大家加入我們。在這次電話會議上，我將回顧我們的 23 財年和第四季度業績，討論我們在 4 項戰略計劃中取得的進展，並提供當前業務的最新情況。在我發言之後，吉姆沃特金斯將更詳細地審查我們的財務業績，然後我們將公開提問。

Fiscal '23 was a solid year for Boot Barn as we achieved record sales, opened 45 new stores and continue to expand product margin. I am proud of the entire Boot Barn team for driving these results and for holding on to the outsized gains from the prior year.

23 財年對 Boot Barn 來說是穩健的一年，我們實現了創紀錄的銷售額，開設了 45 家新店，並繼續擴大產品利潤率。我為 Boot Barn 的整個團隊感到自豪，他們推動了這些結果，並保持了去年的巨大收益。

Fiscal '23 total sales grew 11.4% on top of 67% growth in the prior year, driven primarily by strong sales from new stores opened over the past 12 months. Consolidated same-store sales were flat to the prior year, which was comprised of 1.8% retail store same-store sales growth and a 10% decline online. The stores comp is notable as we cycled a 57% comp growth in the stores last year. Similarly, while our online business declined, that business is cycling 2 very strong years of 39% and 24% comp growth in fiscal '22 and fiscal '21, respectively. Given the extraordinary revenue increase last year, we are quite pleased with these results.

23 財年的總銷售額在上年增長 67% 的基礎上增長了 11.4%，這主要是由於過去 12 個月開設的新店銷售強勁。綜合同店銷售額與上年持平，其中零售店同店銷售額增長 1.8%，在線銷售額下降 10%。商店的收入值得注意，因為我們去年在商店中循環了 57% 的收入增長。同樣，雖然我們的在線業務有所下降，但該業務在 22 財年和 21 財年分別實現了 39% 和 24% 的強勁增長。鑑於去年的收入大幅增長，我們對這些結果感到非常滿意。

In addition to the sales performance, we were able to grow our product margin for the year by 30 basis points, primarily through growth in our exclusive brand penetration. This margin expansion was offset by 100 basis points of freight headwinds, resulting in a net 70 basis point reduction in merchandise margin. To put our sales and margin results in perspective, over the past 5 years, Boot Barn revenue has more than doubled, adding nearly $1 billion in sales and merchandise margin has expanded approximately 500 basis points.

除了銷售業績外，我們還能夠將全年的產品利潤率提高 30 個基點，這主要是通過我們獨家品牌滲透率的增長。這一利潤率增長被 100 個基點的貨運逆風所抵消，導致商品利潤率淨減少 70 個基點。為了正確看待我們的銷售和利潤率結果，在過去 5 年中，Boot Barn 的收入增加了一倍多，銷售額增加了近 10 億美元，商品利潤率擴大了約 500 個基點。

Turning to our fourth quarter results. Total sales continued to show solid growth, driven by sales from new stores. However, same-store sales declined 5.5% on a consolidated basis as we cycled same-store sales growth in the prior 2 years of 33% and 27%.

轉向我們的第四季度業績。在新店銷售的推動下，總銷售額繼續呈現穩健增長。然而，同店銷售額在綜合基礎上下降了 5.5%，因為我們將前兩年的同店銷售額分別增長了 33% 和 27%。

From a margin perspective, we saw product margin expansion of 30 basis points in the quarter. It is a testament to the strength of the Boot Barn brand, where we can continue to expand our selling margin despite a decline in same-store sales. While our full year results fell short of our original expectations, overall, I am pleased that we've been able to continue to grow the business on top of a record-setting year.

從利潤率的角度來看，我們看到本季度產品利潤率擴大了 30 個基點。這證明了 Boot Barn 品牌的實力，儘管同店銷售額下降，我們仍可以繼續擴大我們的銷售利潤率。雖然我們的全年業績沒有達到我們最初的預期，但總的來說，我很高興我們能夠在創紀錄的一年的基礎上繼續發展業務。

I will now spend some time highlighting the recent progress we have made across each of our 4 strategic initiatives. Let's begin with expanding our store base. [Our net] growth engine continues to significantly outperform our expectations. While we've historically targeted 10% new store openings, we were able to accelerate the growth to 15% for fiscal '23. We believe the 45 stores opened in the past 12 months will continue to generate average unit volumes of $3.5 million and pay back in less than 18 months.

我現在將花一些時間強調我們最近在 4 項戰略舉措中取得的進展。讓我們從擴大我們的商店基礎開始。 [我們的淨] 增長引擎繼續大大超出我們的預期。雖然我們的歷史目標是新店開張率達到 10%，但我們能夠在 23 財年將增長速度加快到 15%。我們相信過去 12 個月開設的 45 家門店將繼續產生 350 萬美元的平均單位銷量，並在不到 18 個月的時間內收回成本。

In the fourth quarter, we opened 12 new stores, which was our sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit new unit openings. These recent openings include our first stores in the states of New York and Maryland, further expanding our presence into untapped markets. We continue to be encouraged both by the new store performance in new markets and the lack of significant cannibalization as new stores are added to existing markets. The new store performance helped with a strong new store pipeline, further bolsters our confidence in the ability to expand to 900 more stores across the United States over the next several years.

第四季度，我們新開了 12 家門店，這是我們連續第六個季度新店開張數達到兩位數。這些最近的開業包括我們在紐約州和馬里蘭州的第一家商店，進一步將我們的業務擴展到未開發的市場。我們繼續對新市場中新店的表現以及隨著新店被添加到現有市場而沒有出現明顯的蠶食現象感到鼓舞。新店的業績有助於強大的新店渠道，進一步增強了我們對在未來幾年內在美國擴展到 900 家門店的能力的信心。

Moving to our second initiative, driving same-store sales growth. Fourth quarter consolidated same-store sales declined 5.5% with retail store same-store sales declining 3.3% and e-commerce comp sales declining 18.4%. From a merchandise department perspective, the more functional product lines performed better than the more discretionary categories. These include men's western boots and men's apparel, which performed better than the chain average and men's work boots and work apparel, which were in line with chain average. Ladies boots and ladies apparel declined 11% and 13%, respectively, as both departments cycled a 2-year stack of over 80%.

轉向我們的第二個舉措，推動同店銷售增長。第四季度綜合同店銷售額下降 5.5%，零售店同店銷售額下降 3.3%，電子商務同店銷售額下降 18.4%。從商品部門的角度來看，功能性更強的產品線比自主性更強的品類表現更好。其中包括表現優於連鎖平均水平的男士西部靴和男士服裝，以及與連鎖平均水平一致的男士工作靴和工作服。女士靴子和女士服裝分別下降了 11% 和 13%，這兩個部門在 2 年內循環了超過 80%。

From a marketing perspective, the brand continues to resonate across the country. The recent customer research we conducted was able to confirm that our outsized sales gains were due in part to the influx of many new customers, both from Western and work competitors and from retailers outside our industry. As we look forward, we will continue to prospect for new customers through broadcast media channels while nurturing our legacy customer base with tailored print and direct mail communication.

從營銷的角度來看，該品牌在全國范圍內持續引起共鳴。我們最近進行的客戶研究證實，我們超額的銷售收益部分是由於許多新客戶的湧入，這些客戶來自西方和工作競爭對手以及我們行業以外的零售商。展望未來，我們將繼續通過廣播媒體渠道尋找新客戶，同時通過量身定制的印刷品和直郵通信來培育我們的老客戶群。

We are pleased with the continued expansion we have seen in our customer base with 22% year-over-year growth in our B Rewarded loyalty members, ending the year at 7.1 million active members. Drilling down into our comp stores business from a geographic standpoint, we saw a slight decline in our East and North regions. The West and South regions both experienced a mid-single-digit decline.

我們對客戶群的持續擴張感到高興，我們的 B 獎勵忠誠度會員同比增長 22%，到年底活躍會員達到 710 萬。從地理角度深入研究我們的商店業務，我們發現東部和北部地區略有下降。西部和南部地區均出現了中個位數的下降。

As we look at our store KPIs, a decline in transactions per store during the quarter was partially offset by growth in average transaction amount. Our January stores business was positive on a same-store sales basis, which then turned negative in February and more negative in March. While top line performance in the stores was softer than we expected it to be at the outset of the quarter, we are relatively pleased with this result as we're recycling a 2-year stack comp of approximately 60%.

當我們查看我們的商店 KPI 時，本季度每家商店的交易量下降部分被平均交易量的增長所抵消。我們 1 月份的門店業務在同店銷售基礎上為正，然後在 2 月份轉為負數，3 月份更負。雖然門店的營收表現低於我們本季度初的預期，但我們對這一結果相對滿意，因為我們正在回收約 60% 的 2 年堆棧補償。

From an operational perspective, the field organization continues to deliver exceptional customer experience. With all the omnichannel offerings we currently have in place, our stores team has been tasked with balancing many operational responsibilities in addition to delivering high-quality customer service. The team has not only risen to this challenge but has also managed to sustain our elevated sales per store.

從運營的角度來看，現場組織繼續提供卓越的客戶體驗。憑藉我們目前擁有的所有全渠道產品，我們的商店團隊除了提供高質量的客戶服務外，還肩負著平衡許多運營職責的任務。該團隊不僅迎接了這一挑戰，而且還成功地維持了我們每家商店的高銷售額。

I do want to express my appreciation to the entire field team for their execution and their ability to adapt to the changing needs of the business.

我確實想對整個現場團隊的執行力和適應業務不斷變化的需求的能力表示感謝。

Moving to our third initiative, strengthening our omnichannel leadership. In the fourth quarter, our e-commerce same-store sales declined 18.4%, in line with the performance we saw in this channel during the third fiscal quarter. We believe these declines are a result of competitors having a stronger in-stock position compared to last year and expect this softness will be transitory.

轉到我們的第三項舉措，加強我們的全渠道領導地位。第四季度，我們的電子商務同店銷售額下降了 18.4%，與我們在第三財季在該渠道看到的表現一致。我們認為這些下降是由於競爭對手的庫存狀況比去年更強，預計這種疲軟將是暫時的。

For the past few years, we have successfully rolled out several omnichannel capabilities, including ship to store, ship from store, cross-channel returns and buy online pick up in store. Doing so has enabled us to increase the customer service options online while simultaneously expanding the breadth of the in-store assortment.

在過去的幾年裡，我們成功推出了多項全渠道功能，包括送貨到店、從店發貨、跨渠道退貨和在線購買店內提貨。這樣做使我們能夠增加在線客戶服務選項，同時擴大店內商品種類的範圍。

Today, approximately 2/3 of our online sales are touched in some way by the stores. We believe that leveraging our nationwide store presence will create a seamless integration of our 2 selling channels and provide us with a sustainable competitive advantage in our industry.

今天，大約 2/3 的在線銷售額以某種方式被實體店觸及。我們相信，利用我們遍布全國的門店將實現我們兩個銷售渠道的無縫整合，並為我們提供行業中可持續的競爭優勢。

In addition to the omnichannel capabilities that have been created, we are continuing to make progress in a number of areas. First, we continue to see strong growth in exclusive brand penetration online as we access the broader assortment that resides in all the stores across the country. With the incremental margin provided by our exclusive brands, we expect to further increase the profitability of our online sales in the coming years.

除了已經創建的全渠道功能，我們還在許多領域繼續取得進展。首先，我們繼續看到獨家品牌在線滲透率的強勁增長，因為我們可以訪問駐留在全國所有商店中的更廣泛的品種。憑藉我們獨家品牌提供的增量利潤，我們預計未來幾年將進一步提高我們在線銷售的盈利能力。

Second, during fiscal '23, we rolled out a Boot Barn mobile app. This app creates a more convenient shopping experience for our customers, offers a mobile-friendly option for purchasing and serves as an additional tool to drive in-store traffic. It enables our online customers to shop their local store, learn about events and concerts in their market and stream country music directly from the app. Our digital team did an incredible job with the development, and we are very pleased with the final product.

其次，在 23 財年期間，我們推出了 Boot Barn 移動應用程序。此應用程序為我們的客戶創造了更方便的購物體驗，提供了適合移動設備的購買選項，並作為增加店內客流量的附加工具。它使我們的在線客戶能夠在他們當地的商店購物，了解他們市場上的活動和音樂會，並直接從應用程序中播放鄉村音樂。我們的數字團隊在開發方面做得非常出色，我們對最終產品非常滿意。

Lastly, I am quite excited about a new project underway called Bandit. That utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the customer shopping experience. All Boot Barn stores are already equipped with touchscreen devices that guide customers through their purchase decisions by narrowing the assortment based on a series of filters and preferences.

最後，我對正在進行的名為 Bandit 的新項目感到非常興奮。它利用人工智能和機器學習來增強客戶的購物體驗。所有 Boot Barn 商店都配備了觸摸屏設備，可根據一系列篩選器和偏好來縮小分類範圍，從而指導顧客做出購買決定。

Our digital team has added to this capability tremendously. First, they have integrated machine learning to develop a recommendation engine based on market basket analysis. Second, they have created a fully integrated connection with Chat GPT to provide a customer with a conversational interactive experience. For example, if a customer is shopping for a pair of women's western boots, they will now be able to ask Bandit for a recommended outfit that would pair well with their selection. To wear to a country music concert and that recommendation will be rendered with a conversational tone adding qualitative reasons why these items would look good together.

我們的數字團隊極大地增強了這種能力。首先，他們集成了機器學習來開發基於購物籃分析的推薦引擎。其次，他們創建了與 Chat GPT 的完全集成連接，為客戶提供對話式交互體驗。例如，如果顧客正在購買一雙女式西部靴子，他們現在可以向 Bandit 詢問適合他們選擇的推薦服裝。穿著去參加鄉村音樂音樂會，該推薦將以對話的語氣呈現，並添加這些物品搭配在一起看起來不錯的定性原因。

Additionally, we have harnessed the same capability in the handheld devices utilized by our store associates when they are assisting customers. This new technology will empower our team greatly by providing them with a deep level of product expertise and an ability to pair items together regardless of how much product knowledge they have or experience they have working at Boot Barn.

此外，我們在店員協助客戶時所使用的手持設備中也採用了相同的功能。這項新技術將為我們的團隊提供深層次的產品專業知識和將項目配對的能力，無論他們擁有多少產品知識或在 Boot Barn 工作的經驗如何，都將極大地增強我們團隊的能力。

While there has certainly been a tremendous amount of recent discussion around the use of AI, we are thrilled to be on the cutting edge, having already rolled out both in customer-facing and in employee-facing applications to all of our stores. I'm looking forward to the potential this new offering has to enhance the customer experience and drive incremental sales. I do want to express my gratitude to the digital team, specifically to Justin for developing this incredible tool and enabling us to be first to market within our industry and integrating AI into the customer experience.

雖然最近肯定有大量關於人工智能使用的討論，但我們很高興能走在前沿，我們已經在我們所有的商店中推出了面向客戶和麵向員工的應用程序。我期待著這項新產品在增強客戶體驗和推動銷量增長方面的潛力。我確實要感謝數字團隊，特別是 Justin，感謝他開發了這個令人難以置信的工具，使我們能夠率先在行業內推向市場，並將 AI 集成到客戶體驗中。

Now to our fourth strategic initiative, exclusive brands. During the fourth quarter, our exclusive brand penetration increased 770 basis points to 37.3%. For the full year, our exclusive brands were 34% of sales and surpassed $550 million. For context, exclusive brand sales have increased more than 10 percentage points in penetration over the last 2 years.

現在是我們的第四個戰略舉措，獨家品牌。第四季度，我們的獨家品牌滲透率增加了 770 個基點，達到 37.3%。全年，我們的獨家品牌佔銷售額的 34%，超過 5.5 億美元。就背景而言，獨家品牌銷售在過去兩年中的滲透率增加了 10 個百分點以上。

Consistent with prior quarters, 3 of the top 5 selling brands were Cody James, Cheyenne and Idyllwind. Our exclusive brands not only provide us with competitive differentiation, but they are also financially accretive to the business by approximately 1,000 basis points of margin.

與前幾個季度一樣，前 5 大暢銷品牌中有 3 個是 Cody James、Cheyenne 和 Idyllwind。我們的獨家品牌不僅為我們提供了競爭優勢，而且還為業務帶來了大約 1,000 個基點的利潤增長。

Turning to current business. We are halfway through our first fiscal quarter and quarter-to-date same-store sales declined 5.8% compared to approximately 13.4% growth in the comparable prior year period. The consolidated 5.8% decline is driven by a 15.2% decrease in e-commerce sales and 4.3% decline in retail store same-store sales. Given that we are up against the toughest compares in the year ago period, it is encouraging to see a sequential improvement from March into our first quarter signaling a healthier tone in the business.

轉向當前的業務。我們的第一財季已過半，本季度至今的同店銷售額下降了 5.8%，而去年同期的增長率約為 13.4%。電子商務銷售額下降 15.2%，零售店同店銷售額下降 4.3%，導致綜合下降 5.8%。鑑於我們面臨去年同期最艱難的比較，令人鼓舞的是看到從 3 月到第一季度的連續改善表明業務基調更加健康。

I'd like to now turn the call over to Jim Watkins.

我現在想把電話轉給吉姆沃特金斯。

Thank you, Jim. In the fourth quarter, net sales increased 11% to $426 million. As Jim mentioned, our sales performance benefited from new stores opened over the past 12 months and the sales contribution from the 53rd week, partially offset by a same-store sales decline of 5.5%.

謝謝你，吉姆。第四季度，淨銷售額增長 11% 至 4.26 億美元。正如 Jim 提到的，我們的銷售業績得益於過去 12 個月開設的新店和第 53 週的銷售貢獻，部分被同店銷售額下降 5.5% 所抵消。

Gross profit increased 5% to $156 million or 36.6% of sales compared to gross profit of $149 million or 38.8% of sales in the prior year period. The 220 basis point decrease in gross profit rate resulted from 120 basis point decline in merchandise margin rate and 100 basis points -- and 100 basis points of deleverage in buying, occupancy and distribution center costs.

毛利潤增長 5% 至 1.56 億美元，佔銷售額的 36.6%，而去年同期的毛利潤為 1.49 億美元，佔銷售額的 38.8%。毛利率下降 220 個基點是由於商品利潤率下降 120 個基點和 100 個基點——以及購買、佔用和配送中心成本的去槓桿化 100 個基點。

The decline in merchandise margin rate was driven by 140 basis point headwind from higher freight expense, partially offset by 30 basis points of product margin expansion resulting from growth in exclusive brand penetration. Lower-than-expected freight expense was the primary driver of the beat to guidance on the merchandise margin line. As sales slowed during the quarter, we sold fewer high freight inventory items through the P&L compared to our expectations, resulting in lower freight expense.

商品利潤率下降的原因是運費增加導致 140 個基點的逆風，部分被獨家品牌滲透率增長導致的 30 個基點的產品利潤率擴張所抵消。低於預期的運費是超出商品利潤線指引的主要驅動因素。由於本季度銷售放緩，與我們的預期相比，我們通過損益表銷售的高運費庫存項目較少，從而導致運費降低。

Looking forward, we expect freight expense to be a benefit to fiscal year 2024's merchandise margin of approximately 100 basis points, recapturing the 100 basis point headwind from fiscal '23.

展望未來，我們預計運費將有利於 2024 財年約 100 個基點的商品利潤率，收復 23 財年的 100 個基點逆風。

Selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter were $93 million or 21.9% of sales compared to $86 million or 22.6% of sales in the prior year period. We leveraged SG&A expense primarily as a result of lower incentive-based compensation, marketing expenses and leverage from the 14th week.

本季度的銷售、一般和管理費用為 9300 萬美元，佔銷售額的 21.9%，上年同期為 8600 萬美元，佔銷售額的 22.6%。我們利用 SG&A 費用的主要原因是從第 14 週開始，基於激勵的薪酬、營銷費用和槓桿率較低。

Income from operations was $63 million or 14.7% of sales in the quarter compared to $62 million or 16.3% of sales in the prior year period. Net income was $46 million or $1.53 per diluted share compared to $45 million or $1.47 per diluted share in the prior year period and $0.82 per diluted share 2 years ago.

本季度運營收入為 6300 萬美元，佔銷售額的 14.7%，上年同期為 6200 萬美元，佔銷售額的 16.3%。淨收入為 4600 萬美元或稀釋後每股收益 1.53 美元，而去年同期為 4500 萬美元或稀釋後每股收益 1.47 美元，兩年前為每股稀釋後收益 0.82 美元。

Turning to the balance sheet. On a consolidated basis, inventory increased 24% over the prior year period to $589 million. This increase was primarily driven by new store inventory, exclusive brand growth and inflationary increases from our vendors. Average comp store inventory increased approximately 8% over the prior year period. On a 3-year stack basis, our retail store same-store sales growth of 56% has outpaced our 3-year stack average comp store inventory growth of 35%. We continue to be pleased with the content and quantity of our current inventory levels. We finished the quarter with $18 million in cash and $66 million drawn on our $250 million revolving line of credit.

轉向資產負債表。在綜合基礎上，庫存比上年同期增長 24% 至 5.89 億美元。這一增長主要是由新店庫存、獨家品牌增長和我們供應商的通脹增長推動的。平均商店庫存比上年同期增加約 8%。在 3 年堆棧的基礎上，我們的零售店同店銷售額增長 56%，超過了我們 3 年堆棧平均同店庫存增長 35%。我們繼續對我們當前庫存水平的內容和數量感到滿意。我們以 1800 萬美元的現金和 6600 萬美元的 2.5 億美元循環信貸額度結束了本季度。

Turning to our outlook for fiscal '24. The supplemental financial presentation we released today lays out the low and high end of our guidance ranges for both the full year and first quarter. I will then be speaking to the high end of the range for both periods in my following remarks.

轉向我們對 24 財年的展望。我們今天發布的補充財務報告列出了我們全年和第一季度指導範圍的低端和高端。然後，我將在接下來的發言中談到這兩個時期範圍的高端。

For the year, we expect total sales at the high end of our guidance range to be $1.7 billion, representing growth of 4% over fiscal '23, which, as a reminder, was a 53-week year. We expect same-store sales to decline 4.5% with a retail store same-store sales decline of 5.2% and e-commerce same-store sales growth of 1%. We expect gross profit to be $630 million or approximately 36.5% of sales.

今年，我們預計我們指導範圍高端的總銷售額為 17 億美元，比 23 財年增長 4%，提醒一下，這是一個 53 週的年度。我們預計同店銷售額將下降 4.5%，其中零售店同店銷售額下降 5.2%，電子商務同店銷售額增長 1%。我們預計毛利為 6.3 億美元，約佔銷售額的 36.5%。

Gross profit reflects an estimated 150 basis point increase in merchandise margin, which includes a 100 basis point improvement from freight expense. We expect to grow exclusive brand penetration by 400 basis points. We also anticipate 180 basis points of de-leverage in buying, occupancy and distribution center costs. This de-leverage is primarily the result of negative same-store sales, higher occupancy from new stores and the cost of the new Kansas City distribution center.

毛利反映商品利潤率估計增加 150 個基點，其中包括運費增加 100 個基點。我們預計獨家品牌滲透率將提高 400 個基點。我們還預計購買、入住和配送中心成本將降低 180 個基點。這種去槓桿化的主要原因是同店銷售額下降、新店入住率上升以及新堪薩斯城配送中心的成本增加。

I'd like to provide you with some color around leverage points. On a go-forward basis, we expect to leverage buying occupancy and distribution center costs with a 4% consolidated same-store sales growth. However, as a result of the cost of our new Kansas City distribution center, the annualization of the step-up in new unit growth from 10% to 15%, store remodels in fiscal '24 and the benefit of the 53rd week in fiscal '23, the same-store sales required to leverage buying, occupancy and distribution center costs in the current fiscal year is expected to be 14%. When adjusting for these transitory items, we expect to return to a more normalized leverage point of 4% in fiscal '25. Our leverage point in fiscal '24 on SG&A is a consolidated 2.5% comp.

我想為您提供一些關於槓桿點的顏色。在前進的基礎上，我們預計將利用購買佔用率和配送中心成本實現 4% 的綜合同店銷售額增長。然而，由於我們新的堪薩斯城配送中心的成本、新單位增長率從 10% 到 15% 的年度化、24 財年的商店改造以及第 53 財週的收益23 日，本財年槓桿購買、佔用和配送中心成本所需的同店銷售額預計為 14%。在針對這些暫時性項目進行調整時，我們預計將在 25 財年恢復到 4% 的更正常化的槓桿點。我們在 SG&A 的 24 財年槓桿點是合併的 2.5% comp。

Our income from operations is expected to be $209.9 million or 12.2% of sales. We expect net income for fiscal '24 to be $153 million and earnings per diluted share to be $5. We also expect our interest expense to be $4.3 million and capital expenditures to be $95 million. For the year, we expect our effective tax rate to be 25.6%. We plan to grow new units by 15%, adding 52 new stores during the year. We anticipate opening 13 new stores during each quarter of the year.

我們的運營收入預計為 2.099 億美元，佔銷售額的 12.2%。我們預計 24 財年的淨收入為 1.53 億美元，攤薄後每股收益為 5 美元。我們還預計我們的利息支出為 430 萬美元，資本支出為 9500 萬美元。今年，我們預計我們的有效稅率為 25.6%。我們計劃在年內將新單位增長 15%，增加 52 家新店。我們預計在今年每個季度開設 13 家新店。

As we look to the first quarter, we expect total sales at the high end of our guidance range to be $364 million. We expect the same-store sales decline of 7% with retail store same-store sales declining 6% and e-commerce same-store sales declining 15%. We expect the gross profit to be $131.1 million or approximately 36% of sales.

展望第一季度，我們預計我們指導範圍高端的總銷售額為 3.64 億美元。我們預計同店銷售額下降 7%，其中零售店同店銷售額下降 6%，電子商務同店銷售額下降 15%。我們預計毛利為 1.311 億美元，約佔銷售額的 36%。

Gross profit reflects an estimated 80 basis point increase in merchandise margin, which assumes flat freight expense year-over-year. We anticipate 250 basis points of de-leverage in buying, occupancy and distribution center costs, primarily relating from -- resulting from negative same-store sales, higher occupancy from new stores and the cost of the new Kansas City distribution center.

毛利反映了商品利潤率估計增長 80 個基點，假設運費同比持平。我們預計購買、佔用和配送中心成本將降低 250 個基點，這主要與同店銷售負增長、新店佔用率增加以及堪薩斯城新配送中心的成本有關。

Our income from operations is expected to be $36.2 million or 9.9% of sales. We expect earnings per diluted share to be $0.85.

我們的運營收入預計為 3620 萬美元，佔銷售額的 9.9%。我們預計每股攤薄收益為 0.85 美元。

Now I'd like to turn the call back to Jim for some closing remarks.

現在我想把電話轉回給吉姆，請他做一些結束語。

Thank you, Jim. We are pleased with our fiscal '23 results and believe we are well positioned to continue our growth. During fiscal '23, we accelerated new store openings with the addition of 45 new stores across the country, through product margin for the seventh consecutive year and expanded the penetration of exclusive brands by a record 570 basis points.

謝謝你，吉姆。我們對 23 財年的業績感到滿意，並相信我們有能力繼續增長。在 23 財年，我們連續第七年通過產品利潤率在全國范圍內增加了 45 家新店，加快了新店開張速度，並將獨家品牌的滲透率擴大了創紀錄的 570 個基點。

With new stores continuing to well exceed our financial targets and our growing store footprint, providing even greater integration with our digital channel, we are confident the business is on course to deliver profitable market share gains and increased shareholder value.

隨著新店繼續遠遠超過我們的財務目標和我們不斷擴大的門店足跡，與我們的數字渠道提供更大的整合，我們相信該業務正在實現有利可圖的市場份額收益和增加股東價值。

I'm very proud of the entire team across the country, I want to thank you all for your continued hard work and execution. I also would like to take a brief moment to publicly express my gratitude to Greg Hackman, who will be retiring this summer. Greg has had a significant impact on the growth of the company and on the personal development of [countless] executives. Thank you, Greg, for all that you have done for Boot Barn, for your team and for me personally.

我為全國的整個團隊感到非常自豪，我要感謝大家一直以來的辛勤工作和執行力。我還想花點時間公開表達我對將於今年夏天退休的格雷格·哈克曼 (Greg Hackman) 的感激之情。 Greg 對公司的發展和 [無數] 高管的個人發展產生了重大影響。感謝 Greg，感謝你為 Boot Barn、你的團隊和我個人所做的一切。

Now I would like to open the call to take your questions. [Shamali]?

現在我想打開電話來回答你的問題。 【沙瑪莉】？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Matthew Boss with JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Matthew Boss。

Great. So maybe, Jim, as we think about FY '24 comps, and I think, guided down 5.5% at the midpoint. Two questions. So can you speak to trends that you're seeing today across your existing legacy customers versus new customers that you've acquired, just the general trend across both?

偉大的。所以也許，吉姆，當我們考慮 FY '24 comps 時，我認為，在中點下降了 5.5%。兩個問題。那麼，您能否談談您今天在現有舊客戶與您獲得的新客戶中看到的趨勢，只是兩者的總體趨勢？

And then as we think about the guide in terms of the first quarter of '24 relative to the back half, if you could just help us bottoms up build same-store sales as the year progresses 1Q relative to assumptions baked into the back half? I think that would really help.

然後，當我們考慮 24 年第一季度相對於後半部分的指南時，如果你能幫助我們自下而上地建立同店銷售額，因為今年 1Q 相對於後半部分的假設而言？我認為那真的很有幫助。

Sure, I'll take the first piece of it. It's hard to split out the comp between new and legacy customers. I wouldn't read much into a slightly negative comp after we cycled last year's 53.7%, even if we give a little bit of that back, it's not like there's this massive exodus of customers from our database. In fact, we called out ongoing growth in our customer count.

當然，我會拿走它的第一塊。很難區分新老客戶的收入。在我們循環了去年的 53.7% 之後，我不會對略有負面的補償進行太多解讀，即使我們回饋了一點點，這並不是說我們的數據庫中有大量客戶外流。事實上，我們呼籲客戶數量持續增長。

And if we look at our stores, specifically, right, our stores were up 57% last year and still positive in fiscal '23. So I think what might be happening if you think about what many other companies are calling out with some softness in March and April, it may just be sort of the natural downdraft that we're seeing in retail. And while some very marquee companies have called out softer business in the spring, companies that we have a great deal of respect for, they weren't even cycling the numbers that we were cycling.

如果我們看看我們的商店，具體來說，我們的商店去年增長了 57%，並且在 23 財年仍然是積極的。因此，我認為，如果您考慮許多其他公司在 3 月和 4 月的一些疲軟呼籲，可能會發生什麼，這可能只是我們在零售業看到的一種自然下降趨勢。雖然一些非常知名的公司在春季呼籲業務疲軟，但我們非常尊重的公司，他們甚至沒有循環我們正在循環的數字。

So the fact that we're down just slightly when the rest of the world of retail seems to be down just slightly. And our LY compares are sort of higher than everybody else, we honestly are not worried about sort of a slow decline for the next several years and I think this could just be a small effect for a transitory amount of time.

因此，當世界其他零售業似乎略有下降時，我們略有下降。我們的 LY 比較比其他人都高，老實說，我們並不擔心未來幾年會出現緩慢下降，我認為這可能只是暫時的一小部分影響。

And Matt, I'll take the second part. The -- in guiding the year, we used the last few months of sales volume and projected the sales for the balance of the year using the historical weekly sales penetration. And so as that flows out through the year, the second quarter stores are going to -- the comp is going to look similar to the first quarter stores comp with e-com improving to run flat in that second quarter.

Matt，我來做第二部分。 -- 在指導這一年時，我們使用了過去幾個月的銷量，並使用歷史每週銷售滲透率預測了今年剩餘時間的銷售額。因此，隨著這一年的流出，第二季度的商店將 - 該 comp 看起來與第一季度的商店類似，電子商務在第二季度有所改善以持平。

As we get to Q3 and Q4, the stores get better, but they're still projected to be down in that mid-single-digit range, better than what we'll see in Q1 and Q2 but still not positive and e-com improved to a plus mid-single digit.

當我們進入第三季度和第四季度時，商店會變得更好，但預計它們仍會下降到中等個位數範圍內，好於我們在第一季度和第二季度看到的情況，但仍然不是積極的和電子商務提高到正中個位數。

Great. And then maybe just a follow-up. As we think about the profitability side, could you just speak or elaborate to promotional behavior that you're seeing today within your own business? Or what you're seeing in the larger Western wear industry? Or just what gives you confidence in the 150 basis points of merchandise margin expansion in FY '24 despite the -- it sounds like a little bit of a softer demand backdrop?

偉大的。然後也許只是一個後續行動。當我們考慮盈利方面時，您能否談談或詳細說明您今天在自己的業務中看到的促銷行為？或者你在更大的西方服裝行業看到了什麼？或者，是什麼讓您對 24 財年商品利潤率增長 150 個基點充滿信心，儘管這聽起來有點像需求疲軟的背景？

Sure. I would say that the Western industry's promotional tenor is similar to pre-pandemic times, right, with a relatively modest amount of sales and promotions across the industry, perhaps more promotional than 2 years ago when sales were strong across the industry. But nothing really out of the question or out of the ordinary.

當然。我會說西方行業的促銷活動與大流行前類似，對，整個行業的銷售和促銷活動相對溫和，可能比 2 年前整個行業銷售強勁時的促銷活動更多。但沒有什麼是真正出問題或不尋常的。

And maybe the follow-up point to that is, regardless of what the rest of the industry does, we never really chase a promotion or a sale or a reduction in prices across -- from any of our competitors. We think the Boot Barn proposition goes far beyond sort of a short-term reduction in price. And when we look at the health of our inventory, we see no reason to make any significant reductions to move through product. So we're going to continue with our full price selling philosophy. We're going to continue to drive exclusive brands. We get a nice tailwind from (inaudible) this year. So we're looking forward to, I guess, an eighth consecutive year of margin expansion.

也許後續的一點是，無論其他行業做什麼，我們從不真正追求促銷、銷售或降價——來自我們的任何競爭對手。我們認為 Boot Barn 的提議遠遠超出了短期降價的範疇。當我們審視庫存的健康狀況時，我們認為沒有理由大幅減少產品轉移。所以我們將繼續我們的全價銷售理念。我們將繼續推動獨家品牌。今年我們從（聽不清）那裡得到了很好的順風。因此，我猜我們期待著連續第八年的利潤率擴張。

And Matt, just to add on to that, the 150 basis points of [merchant] margin expansion does include the 100 basis points of freight tailwind for the year. So it is 50 basis points of product margin that we're guiding to. And with exclusive brand penetration growth of 400 basis points for the year, that's what's driving a lot of that product margin expansion.

馬特，補充一點，[商戶] 利潤率擴張的 150 個基點確實包括當年貨運順風的 100 個基點。因此，我們指導的產品利潤率是 50 個基點。隨著今年獨家品牌滲透率增長 400 個基點，這正是推動產品利潤率大幅增長的原因。

Our next question comes from the line of Steven Zaccone with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Steven Zaccone。

Great. I wanted to follow up on Matt's question about same-store sales. What have you seen from a category performance thus far in the first quarter? And can you talk about your expectations from a category perspective for the year? And then just also, how do we think about ticket versus transaction performance within the guidance range?

偉大的。我想跟進 Matt 關於同店銷售的問題。您從第一季度迄今為止的品類表現中看到了什麼？您能從類別的角度談談您對這一年的期望嗎？然後，我們如何考慮指導範圍內的機票與交易性能？

Sure. On the second part, I guess we don't really outline our guidance in traffic versus ticket, but we expect to see continued pressure probably low single digit in traffic or average transactions per store with a higher ticket for most of the year. At some point, we'll cycle the increases that we had or the inflationary price increases we took last year.

當然。在第二部分，我想我們並沒有真正概述我們在流量與票務方面的指導，但我們預計在一年中的大部分時間裡，流量或每家商店的平均交易量可能會保持低個位數的低個位數壓力。在某個時候，我們將循環我們去年的漲幅或通脹價格上漲。

In terms of category by category, it's -- some of the businesses that are less discretionary, more staple-type products are -- continue to do better. What men's Western apparel has seen a slight sequential improvement from the fourth quarter into the first quarter, men's Western boots as roughly flat for the first quarter, quarter to date. The businesses that are down in any significant way are -- they continue to be more discretionary purchases, at least in general. So Ladies boots and ladies apparel continue to be softer. Ladies apparel is down, call it, 12 points or so. Ladies Western boots is high single-digit declines.

就類別而言，它是 - 一些非自由支配的業務，更多的主要產品 - 繼續做得更好。西部男士服裝從第四季度到第一季度略有環比改善，西部男士靴子第一季度基本持平，本季度至今。以任何重大方式下滑的企業都是——至少在一般情況下，它們仍然是更多的可自由支配的購買。因此，女靴和女裝繼續變得更加柔軟。女裝羽絨服，12分左右。女士西式靴子是高個位數的跌幅。

I always feel obligated to remind the call that the ladies business is up against just enormous growth numbers in both boots and apparel. If I look at Q4, ladies apparel, just as an example, in Q4, it was up against an 83% growth last year and a 43% growth the prior year. So if we wind up giving 10 or 15 points of that back, internally within the 4 walls of the company, we won't get that fussed over that, right? We just grew at 40% and then 80% on top of that. So giving a little bit of it back is almost expected. And when we put it all together, if we end up with a modest decline in same-store sales, coming off of the years and most recent couple of years, I think we should feel pretty good about that.

我總是覺得有義務提醒大家，女裝業務正面臨著靴子和服裝的巨大增長。如果我看一下第四季度，女士服裝，例如，在第四季度，去年增長了 83%，前一年增長了 43%。因此，如果我們最終在公司的 4 堵牆內回饋 10 或 15 分，我們就不會為此大驚小怪，對吧？我們剛剛增長了 40%，然後又增長了 80%。因此，幾乎可以預料回饋一點點。當我們把所有這些放在一起時，如果同店銷售額在過去幾年和最近幾年出現適度下降，我認為我們應該對此感覺很好。

Just to follow up on that comment. What gives you confidence that it's not fashion risk to the business, right? Like some of the discretionary categories are slowing now, do you think that potentially fashion is working against you, whereas last year, maybe a couple of years, it's worked for you?

只是為了跟進該評論。是什麼讓您確信這不會給企業帶來時尚風險，對嗎？就像一些可自由支配的類別現在正在放緩一樣，你認為潛在的時尚對你不利，而去年，也許幾年，它對你有用嗎？

Well, actually, I would say it is fashion working against us. I mean we've seen some really outsized growth in the ladies business. Now being mindful of the fact that we're overly generalizing. There's a tremendous amount of our ladies categories that are basic product for women that are working, riding horses, et cetera. But there is sort of a layer on top of that, that we believe was helping us from a fashion sense in the last couple of years.

好吧，實際上，我會說這是時尚對我們不利。我的意思是我們已經看到女裝行業出現了一些非常大的增長。現在請注意我們過度概括的事實。我們有大量的女士類別是工作、騎馬等女性的基本產品。但在這之上還有一層，我們相信它在過去幾年中幫助我們從時尚感中脫穎而出。

If you go back several quarters, we said it was probably an 8% help. We haven't quantified it, but that 8% help has probably turned against us. I would point you to Page 12 in the supplemental deck that would point to how small the fashion component is within our assortment, and how it's sort of diluted down or really dominated by the more functional product.

如果你回顧幾個季度，我們說這可能有 8% 的幫助。我們還沒有對其進行量化，但那 8% 的幫助可能對我們不利。我會向您指出補充甲板上的第 12 頁，它會指出時尚成分在我們的分類中有多小，以及它是如何被稀釋或真正被功能性更強的產品所主導。

The second thing I feel obligated to call out is, historically, there's been a lot of dialogue around our outsized growth being driven by fashion or television shows or something. And one of the things we tried to do this quarter is to validate whether that's true or not. So there's not a tremendous amount of publicly available data, but there are for companies that sell product that we sell.

我覺得有義務指出的第二件事是，從歷史上看，有很多關於我們在時尚或電視節目或其他方面推動的超大增長的對話。本季度我們嘗試做的其中一件事就是驗證這是否屬實。因此，沒有大量的公開可用數據，但是對於銷售我們銷售的產品的公司來說，是有的。

And if there was this massive fashion trend or macro cycle based on a television show, you'd see everybody seeing that same growth. And again, if you go back to that same document, I just pointed you to on Page 10, you'll see that the growth we experienced just far outpaces anything that anybody else has seen in the industry, which I think speaks mostly to the execution of the people (inaudible) Boot Barn, not some sort of artificial transitory piece of fashion.

如果有這種基於電視節目的大規模時尚趨勢或宏觀週期，你會看到每個人都看到同樣的增長。再一次，如果你回到同一份文件，我剛剛在第 10 頁指出你，你會看到我們所經歷的增長遠遠超過業內其他任何人所看到的，我認為這主要說明了執行人員（聽不清）Boot Barn，而不是某種人為的短暫時尚。

Our next question is -- I'm sorry. Our next question comes from the line of Peter Keith with Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題是——對不起。我們的下一個問題來自 Peter Keith 和 Piper Sandler 的台詞。

I wanted to look at the recent store growth that you have. So you've accelerated up to kind of mid-teens unit growth this past year and expect that to continue. The stores are coming out pretty strong out of the gate, but historically, your new stores have comped double digit in year 2. What are you expecting from [a maturation] angle from this most recent batch of openings the last 12 to 18 months?

我想看看你們最近的商店增長情況。因此，在過去的一年裡，你已經加速了十幾歲中期的單位增長，並預計這種情況會繼續下去。這些商店一開始就表現強勁，但從歷史上看，您的新店在第 2 年取得了兩位數的增長。從 [成熟度] 的角度來看，您對過去 12 到 18 個月的最近一批開業有何期待？

Yes, you're right. The stores have gotten out of the gate extremely quickly. The first year performance has been a little bit more in line with sort of the chain comp. So when we're comping slightly positive last year, they were comping slightly positive. We haven't seen a great waterfall for those recent openings.

你是對的。商店很快就走出了大門。第一年的表現在某種程度上更符合連鎖公司的表現。因此，當我們去年的業績略有上漲時，他們的業績略有上漲。我們還沒有看到最近開放的大瀑布。

I do think there's been a lot of other sort of macro things moving around. So we'll see what happens as we continue to open up stores over the next couple of years. But we continue to be very enthusiastic about the new store openings, pipeline that we have. We're on pace now for opening up a store a week, so that will be about 100 stores over the next 2 years and add, call it, $350 million worth of revenue and the flow through along with that. So we're excited about the growth prospects going forward.

我確實認為有很多其他類型的宏觀事物在四處移動。因此，隨著我們在未來幾年繼續開設商店，我們會看到會發生什麼。但我們仍然對我們擁有的新店開業和管道充滿熱情。我們現在正朝著每週開一家店的步伐前進，因此在未來兩年內將有大約 100 家店，並增加，稱之為 3.5 億美元的收入以及隨之而來的流量。因此，我們對未來的增長前景感到興奮。

Okay. Great. And then just looking back at the falloff in comp trend that happened in March and particularly at retail. I guess there's been a debate that I've had with investors in recent weeks around the weather impact and all of the rain out West. Do you think that actually impacted demand, either positively or negatively at all in the last 2 months?

好的。偉大的。然後回顧 3 月份發生的補償趨勢下降，尤其是零售業。我想最近幾週我與投資者就天氣影響和西部的所有降雨進行了辯論。您認為在過去 2 個月中，這是否真的影響了需求，無論是正面影響還是負面影響？

Well, as you know, we tend to not use weather very often as a reason or a rationale for much of anything. So I think over periods of time, of course, it normalizes. I do think if your question is specifically around California, the challenge that we're seeing in California was we have gone from drought to torrential downpours. And we often talk about it as the impact it will have on a particular customer. But in the extremes that we've seen, the impact that it's having is on the farming industry.

好吧，如你所知，我們往往不會經常將天氣作為任何事情的理由或理由。所以我認為，隨著時間的推移，它當然會正常化。我確實認為，如果您的問題具體針對加利福尼亞，我們在加利福尼亞看到的挑戰是我們已經從乾旱變成了傾盆大雨。我們經常談論它對特定客戶的影響。但在我們所看到的極端情況下，它對農業產生了影響。

So during the drought, we had a more difficult agricultural market in the Central Valley, for example, which is one of our strongholds of stores. And then as the rain started to come, we thought that would help that market. It's unclear what that will be going forward because they've had so much rain that we've seen farmland now flooded. So those businesses, we have 2 specific districts in California that are being impacted. And they're down, call it, 15% or so, and they're very high-volume districts.

因此，在乾旱期間，我們在中央谷地的農產品市場更加困難，例如，這是我們的商店據點之一。然後隨著雨開始下，我們認為這將有助於那個市場。目前還不清楚接下來會發生什麼，因為雨水太多，我們看到農田現在被洪水淹沒了。所以那些企業，我們在加利福尼亞州有 2 個特定地區受到影響。他們下降了，可以稱之為 15% 左右，而且他們是人流量非常大的地區。

But we'll get through that, whether that's in 2 months or 6 months will be on the other side of the weather. And those businesses, as you know well, Peter, have been perennial strongholds and just real great growth drivers for us for 5 or more years coming into this period, and the team will pick up from -- once the weather passes, and we're pretty certain we'll start to see growth there again.

但我們會度過難關，無論是在 2 個月還是 6 個月內，天氣都會發生變化。彼得，正如你所知，這些業務一直是我們的常年據點，並且在進入這一時期的 5 年或更長時間裡一直是我們真正偉大的增長動力，團隊將從 - 一旦天氣過去，我們'我們很確定我們會再次開始看到那裡的增長。

Our next question comes from the line of Max Rakhlenko with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Max Rakhlenko 與 TD Cowen 的對話。

So first, can you speak to your new customer counts on a same-store basis compared to where you were pre pandemic? Are your new shoppers behaving similar or showing any differences versus the legacy shoppers? And then just your confidence in being able to hold on to them when the Western cycle does inevitably slow?

因此，首先，與大流行前相比，您能否在同店的基礎上談談您的新客戶數量？與傳統購物者相比，您的新購物者的行為是否相似或有任何差異？那麼當西方周期不可避免地放緩時，您是否有信心能夠堅持下去？

Max, can you repeat the first part of your first question, it cut out on us?

麥克斯，你能重複你第一個問題的第一部分嗎？它打斷了我們？

Sorry about that. Just your customer accounts on a same-store basis because you typically speak to it overall, and obviously, you've grown a lot of stores. So just curious what they look like on a same-store basis.

對於那個很抱歉。只是您在同一家商店的客戶帳戶，因為您通常會整體談論它，而且顯然，您已經發展了很多商店。所以只是好奇他們在同店的基礎上是什麼樣子的。

I'm not sure any of us have that number specifically at hand. I guess what we could point you to is new stores grew 15%. And of course, the customer count in new stores on average would be less than a legacy store. And our be rewarded customer count grew 22%. So we've seen more customers just mathematically on an average store basis at bare minimum on the delta between those 2 different numbers.

我不確定我們中的任何人手頭都有那個號碼。我想我們可以指出的是新店增長了 15%。當然，新店的平均顧客數量會少於老店。我們的獎勵客戶數量增長了 22%。因此，我們已經看到更多的客戶只是在平均商店的數學基礎上至少在這兩個不同數字之間的增量上。

On the second piece, yes. I think -- again, there's been a lot of conversation around all the help that fashion trends have given us. The businesses that we would consider fashionable right now are undoubtedly headwinds to our comp and were in the fourth quarter for sure. So I'm not sure there's a big shift that will be seen. And candidly, I kind of come back to the comments I made earlier, a lot of the other companies in our space didn't see the growth that we saw that you would have expected if it was a Western wear trend across retail.

在第二部分，是的。我想——再一次，圍繞時尚趨勢給我們的所有幫助進行了很多討論。我們現在認為時尚的業務無疑是我們公司的逆風，而且肯定是在第四季度。所以我不確定是否會出現重大轉變。坦率地說，我有點回到我之前發表的評論，我們這個領域的許多其他公司沒有看到我們看到的增長，如果這是零售業的西方服裝趨勢，你會期望的。

Again, I would point you to point to Page 10, where our growth sort of considerably outpaced, the only 4 companies we can get data on from a public company standpoint, and these are great companies, extremely well run, great partners to us, but we certainly were able to outpace whatever underlying fashion cycle there was. But that whatever fashion cycle, there may have been is no longer here. We're certainly up against these outsized growth rates, particularly in ladies apparel, which has a portion of that, that is fashion.

再次，我要指出第 10 頁，我們的增長速度大大超過了我們可以從上市公司的角度獲得數據的僅有的 4 家公司，這些公司都是偉大的公司，經營得非常好，是我們的偉大合作夥伴，但我們當然能夠超越任何潛在的時尚週期。但無論時尚週期如何，都可能不再存在。我們肯定會反對這些超高的增長率，特別是在女裝方面，其中有一部分是時尚。

Got it. Okay. And then what do you attribute the acceleration in exclusive brand mix in 4Q? And then it looks like that you raised your exclusive brand penetration growth for '24 for the first time in a while. So just is there anything that you're seeing differently? Are the shoppers may be behaving a little bit differently?

知道了。好的。那麼您認為第四季度獨家品牌組合的加速是什麼？然後看起來你一段時間以來第一次提高了 24 年的獨家品牌滲透率增長。那麼，您有什麼不同的看法嗎？購物者的行為可能會有所不同嗎？

I think our new stores just continue to build -- I'm sorry, our new brands continue to build momentum. Historically, we had 6 brands, then we launched 4 brands in the last 18 months or so. And when we launch a new brand, it starts off small to medium sized and then continues to get more traction and is added into more categories. So that part of the business will continue to grow. We expect it to grow again this year. It has exceeded all of our expectations that we had 5 years ago and 2 years ago and last year.

我認為我們的新店只是在繼續建設 - 對不起，我們的新品牌繼續建立勢頭。從歷史上看，我們有 6 個品牌，然後在過去 18 個月左右推出了 4 個品牌。當我們推出一個新品牌時，它從中小型開始，然後繼續獲得更多關注並被添加到更多類別中。因此，這部分業務將繼續增長。我們預計它今年會再次增長。它超出了我們 5 年前、2 年前和去年的所有預期。

Customers are really responding to them. And they've -- they're just great complements to the third-party brands that we have out there. So most of our big brands and the names that you would know, that our third-party brands, continue to see growth with us. And the exclusive brands are, in general, taking share from secondary or tertiary or certainly nonstrategic brands out there.

客戶真的在回應他們。他們已經——他們只是對我們現有的第三方品牌的很好的補充。所以我們的大多數大品牌和你知道的名字，我們的第三方品牌，繼續看到我們的增長。一般來說，獨家品牌正在從那裡的二級或三級品牌或當然是非戰略品牌那里奪取份額。

So we're excited to see that part of the business continue to grow. You can only buy that product at Boot Barn. It's financially accretive, of course and as you well know. So we'll continue to build that business and work it into the assortment to a point where we ultimately say, yes, we've hit a ceiling in a particular category and then we'll slow down. But I don't see that happening for a few years.

因此，我們很高興看到這部分業務繼續增長。您只能在 Boot Barn 購買該產品。當然，正如您所知，它在經濟上是增值的。因此，我們將繼續建立該業務並將其納入分類，直到我們最終說，是的，我們已經在特定類別中達到了上限，然後我們會放慢速度。但我認為幾年內不會發生這種情況。

Sorry, just on that last point, does the ceiling change at all? Or is it sort of similar as what you thought a year or 2 years or 3 years ago?

抱歉，就最後一點而言，上限是否有任何變化？還是與您一年、兩年或三年前的想法有點相似？

I think the ceiling has continued to be increased, if you will -- 10 years ago, and I know that wasn't your question. But 10 years ago, we thought, well, maybe something we could give a 20% and could we do that and still maintain a compelling assortment and a house of brands commitment to our customers and then we kind of marched right through the 20%. Then candidly, what happened was COVID hit and that challenged supply chain.

我認為上限一直在增加，如果你願意的話——10 年前，我知道這不是你的問題。但 10 年前，我們想，好吧，也許我們可以給一些東西 20%，我們能不能做到這一點，同時仍然保持引人注目的分類和品牌之家對我們客戶的承諾，然後我們就直接通過了 20%。然後坦率地說，發生的事情是 COVID 襲擊，這對供應鏈提出了挑戰。

So it gave us a unplanned experiment where we had access to exclusive brands and less access to third-party brands. And that really resulted in a very nice increase in our exclusive brand penetration. At the same time, sales were growing 50%, 55%. So when we put those 2 facts together, we say, well, look, we can double the business in 3 years and grow exclusive brands. We certainly don't see them as a detriment to top line growth.

所以它給了我們一個計劃外的實驗，我們可以使用獨家品牌，而較少使用第三方品牌。這確實使我們的獨家品牌滲透率有了非常好的提高。與此同時，銷售額分別增長了 50%、55%。所以當我們把這兩個事實放在一起時，我們說，好吧，看，我們可以在 3 年內將業務翻一番，並發展獨家品牌。我們當然不認為它們會損害收入增長。

If you -- if I really had to answer that question, I have to go -- and I won't do this on the public call, I promised I'd have to go category by category because there are certain departments or certain parts of our business that are dominated by a brand or 2 and others that have much less national brand strength where the ceiling would be higher. So -- and as a company, our ceiling would be a composite number of rolling up all those departments.

如果你 - 如果我真的必須回答那個問題，我必須去 - 我不會在公開電話會議上這樣做，我保證我必須逐個類別地去，因為有某些部門或某些部分我們的業務由一個或兩個品牌主導，而其他品牌的國家品牌實力要低得多，上限會更高。所以——作為一家公司，我們的上限將是所有這些部門的綜合數字。

Our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Komp with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jonathan Komp 與 Baird 的對話。

I wanted to just ask a broader question. The whole increase in unit volumes that you've seen in the past few years. It looks like you're embedding about 4.4 million mature store unit volumes for the year ahead. Just any change in your confidence in holding that level? And then as you think about the build for this year based on the weekly sales trends, any perspective you can provide? Does that give enough room if unemployment starts to tick up or how have you factored in any sort of macro sensitivity?

我只想問一個更廣泛的問題。你在過去幾年看到的單位數量的整體增長。看起來您為來年嵌入了大約 440 萬個成熟的商店單位數量。您對保持該水平的信心有任何變化嗎？然後，當您根據每週銷售趨勢考慮今年的構建時，您可以提供任何觀點嗎？如果失業率開始上升，這是否提供了足夠的空間，或者您如何考慮任何類型的宏觀敏感性？

So for the folks on the call, John is alluding to a slide in the supplemental presentation, Page 11, which is similar -- slightly different but similar to a slide that we've used in the past. That says, look, we've had a step-up in the average sales per store and it's now been 24 months. And while we're down slightly from a comp basis that 4.6 has gone to 4.4 that triangulates to roughly a negative 5 comp. We expect that business to stay in the 4.4-ish range going forward, which is kind of this bar chart and the same-store sales guide that's out there.

因此，對於電話會議的人員，約翰指的是補充演示文稿第 11 頁中的一張幻燈片，它與我們過去使用的幻燈片略有不同但相似。那就是說，看，我們每家商店的平均銷售額有所提高，現在已經 24 個月了。雖然我們的補償基礎略有下降，但 4.6 已經下降到 4.4，三角測量大致為負 5 補償。我們預計該業務未來將保持在 4.4 左右的範圍內，這就是這種條形圖和現有的同店銷售指南。

Could it be better than that? It probably could. I think we are trying to keep an eye on what's happening from a macro standpoint, some of the softness in the discretionary categories, some of the things that the sort of mega cap retailers are calling out who have insight into a much broader portion of the population. So we're trying to keep a little bit. If you look at our guide, our guide is more conservative than our current quarter, and I think that's the gap. Yes.

能比這更好嗎？它可能會。我認為我們正試圖從宏觀角度關注正在發生的事情，自由裁量類別的一些疲軟，一些大型零售商正在呼籲的一些事情，他們對更廣泛的部分有洞察力人口。所以我們試圖保留一點。如果您查看我們的指南，我們的指南比當前季度更保守，我認為這就是差距。是的。

That's helpful. And then maybe question just on the margin profile. It looks like you're rebasing this year around 12% operating margin, give or take. Any perspective you can share just quantifying how much additional expense that includes from the step-up in unit growth and the distribution center? And then as we think out to 2025 and beyond, is it realistic to think you get back to your long-term earnings algorithm after the reset this year?

這很有幫助。然後可能只對保證金概況提出質疑。看起來你今年將重新設定 12% 左右的營業利潤率，無論是給予還是接受。您可以分享任何觀點，只是量化包括單位增長和配送中心的提昇在內的額外費用是多少？然後，當我們考慮到 2025 年及以後時，認為在今年重置後回到長期收益算法是否現實？

Yes, Jon, just walking you through some of the move out of the occupancy de-leverage and the negative same-store sales guide for the year is worth around 60 basis points. If you look at the acceleration of getting us from ramping up the new store growth from 10% to 15% is a step up that cost us about 50 basis points on that occupancy de-leverage. The Kansas City distribution center is about 35 basis points of that de-leverage. And that's one where once we get that up to full run rate, we're expecting to see some relief from freight expenses. We're shipping from the center of the country now. So again, as we get to fiscal '25, that will be full run rate in helping us.

是的，喬恩，只是帶您了解一些搬出入住率去槓桿化的舉措，以及今年的負同店銷售指南價值約 60 個基點。如果你看一下讓我們將新店增長率從 10% 提高到 15% 的加速，那麼我們在入住率去槓桿化方面損失了大約 50 個基點。堪薩斯城配送中心的去槓桿率約為 35 個基點。這就是一旦我們達到全速運轉的地方，我們預計運費會有所減輕。我們現在從該國中部發貨。因此，當我們進入 25 財年時，這將是幫助我們的全速運轉。

We've got some remodels that we're doing to get some of our stores, approximately 30 to 35 stores brand right. And so that's in there, that's a step-up from last year that's costing us about 20 basis points. And then there's a lapping of the 53rd week is about 15 basis points. So I think just from a margin perspective, those are some of the things that are dragging this year, and that's outlined in that leverage point slide that we put together.

我們正在對一些商店進行一些改造，大約 30 到 35 家商店品牌正確。所以就在那裡，這比去年有所提高，這使我們損失了大約 20 個基點。然後是第 53 週的重疊大約 15 個基點。因此，我認為僅從利潤率的角度來看，這些是今年拖累的一些事情，我們放在一起的槓桿點幻燈片中概述了這些事情。

As we turn to the following year, whether we get back to the kind of the algorithm, assuming the top line recovers and gets back to the growth that we've outlined of the low to mid-single-digit same-store sales growth, the expectation would be to continue at 15% new unit growth into the future. And so that's a little bit more of a drag on occupancy, at least initially until we can hit that full run rate but there's no reason to think that we wouldn't get back to that algorithm.

當我們轉向第二年時，我們是否回到算法的類型，假設收入恢復並回到我們概述的中低個位數同店銷售增長的增長，預計未來將繼續保持 15% 的新單位增長。因此，這對入住率造成了更大的拖累，至少在我們達到全運行率之前是這樣，但沒有理由認為我們不會回到該算法。

And if I could just add to the commentary around the algorithm, I think we often use the algorithm term as an abbreviation for our same-store sales growth. If we went through the original algorithm, it assumed 10% new unit growth with new stores doing $1.7 million, and we're at 15% unit growth with new stores doing double that. It assumed exclusive brands would grow 250 basis points a year. Over the last 2 years, they've grown 5 basis points a year.

如果我可以添加圍繞算法的評論，我認為我們經常使用算法術語作為同店銷售增長的縮寫。如果我們按照原來的算法，它假設新店的銷售額為 170 萬美元，新單位增長率為 10%，而我們的單位增長率為 15%，新店的銷售額是這個數字的兩倍。它假設獨家品牌每年增長 250 個基點。在過去的兩年裡，他們每年增長 5 個基點。

500.

500。

Right, 500 basis points a year. Thank you, our 10 points of penetration. So we really wildly exceeded the algorithm. And if you look at EPS, 3 years ago, we were at $2 this year, we're guiding to $5. The algorithm would [you hit at] 20% EPS growth, we're sort of wildly over 20% EPS growth.

對，每年 500 個基點。謝謝你，我們的10點滲透。所以我們真的瘋狂地超越了算法。如果你看看 EPS，3 年前，我們今年是 2 美元，我們指導到 5 美元。該算法會 [you hit at] 20% EPS 增長，我們有點瘋狂超過 20% EPS 增長。

So getting back to the algorithm would be a slowdown, if you look at multiple year period an acceleration other than the most recent year's comp. So I do want to make sure that everybody on the call doesn't lose sight of the multiple levers we have to grow this business and how we're overachieving on all of them other than comps for the last few quarters.

因此，如果您查看多年期加速而不是最近一年的比較，那麼回到算法將是一個放緩。因此，我確實想確保通話中的每個人都不會忽視我們發展這項業務所必須的多種槓桿，以及我們如何在過去幾個季度的 comp 以外的所有這些方面取得超額成就。

That's really helpful. And I guess what I'm asking is, do you see a multiyear earnings reset after the strength you've delivered? Or is there any reason that you can't get back to nice growth with 2024 being the new base here?

這真的很有幫助。我想我要問的是，在你表現出實力之後，你是否看到多年的收益重置？還是有什麼理由不能以 2024 年為新基點恢復良好的增長？

I'll take that. So Jim Watkins doesn't feel obligated to give out a 2025 guide as we just have everybody digesting their 2024 guide. I think if we look to next year, the 2 things we have a pretty high degree of confidence in is we'll open 52 stores or maybe slightly more because we'll try to keep the 15% growth. And we expect to continue to see exclusive brands continue to build, whether that's 2.5 or 3 points or 4 points. The same-store sales piece is a little bit more or perhaps a lot more murky, right? We've had incredible growth over the last couple of years. We've given a little bit of it back now.

我會接受的。因此，Jim Watkins 覺得沒有義務發布 2025 年指南，因為我們只是讓每個人都在消化他們的 2024 年指南。我認為，如果我們展望明年，我們非常有信心的兩件事是我們將開設 52 家門店，或者可能更多，因為我們將努力保持 15% 的增長。我們預計將繼續看到獨家品牌繼續建立，無論是 2.5 點、3 點還是 4 點。同店銷售額有點多，或者可能更模糊，對吧？在過去的幾年裡，我們取得了令人難以置信的增長。我們現在已經回饋了一點。

My intuition tells me that we'll be back to low single digits, mid-single digits for fiscal '25, but we'll know a whole lot better in 12 months when we're putting out that guide. But if you're thinking about where the risk is, where the beta is, we do have 100 stores upcoming in the next 24 months that will generate $350 million of sales and $100 million worth of EBIT regardless of what the comp is. And maybe we'll be slightly lower than that or slightly higher than that, but the new store engine is really building momentum.

我的直覺告訴我，我們將在 25 財年回到低個位數、中個位數，但在我們發布該指南的 12 個月內，我們會知道得更多。但是，如果您正在考慮風險在哪裡，貝塔在哪裡，我們確實有 100 家商店將在未來 24 個月內開業，這些商店將產生 3.5 億美元的銷售額和 1 億美元的息稅前利潤，無論補償是什麼。也許我們比那個略低或略高於那個，但新的商店引擎真的會建立勢頭。

And if you look at our total sales growth, that's where we're continuing to see total sales growth for this upcoming year. Because despite the fact that we're comping down 5% or slightly better than that or guiding to that for this year, we're still seeing total sales growing. And despite a minus [4.5]% comp, we're still assuming we're going to get to a $5 EPS number. So again, we feel pretty good about how we're positioned right now.

如果你看看我們的總銷售額增長，那就是我們將繼續看到來年總銷售額增長的地方。因為儘管今年我們的業績下降了 5% 或略好於 5% 或略高於該目標，但我們仍然看到總銷售額在增長。儘管 comp 為負 [4.5]%，但我們仍然假設我們將獲得 5 美元的 EPS 數字。因此，我們再次對我們現在的定位感到非常滿意。

Our next question comes from the line of Janine Stichter with BTIG.

我們的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Janine Stichter。

I want to ask about the e-commerce business. It seems like it's a bit weaker for longer than we would have expected. So just wanted to understand if there's anything you might change there in terms of the strategy that's still a case of kind of prioritizing the stores business and prioritizing profitability of e-commerce? Or could anything potentially change there in the strategy with maybe the advertising dollars? And then along those lines, just wanted to get your confidence in it turning flat in Q2.

我想問一下電子商務業務。它似乎比我們預期的要弱一些。所以只是想了解在仍然是優先考慮商店業務和優先考慮電子商務盈利能力的戰略方面是否有什麼可以改變的？或者有什麼可能會改變戰略，也許是廣告費？然後沿著這些思路，只是想讓你對它在第二季度持平的信心。

So the second part is also on e-com?

那麼第二部分也在電子商務上？

Yes. .

是的。 .

Yes. No change. I mean similar to how we don't chase promotions in our retail stores, we don't think spending more marketing online is going to be EBIT accretive. We certainly could spend more and grow top line and have it be EBIT eroding, but that's just we tend to focus, as you well know, Janine, on the profitability of the business and on growing earnings and not sort of a short-term boost to the e-commerce channel.

是的。不用找了。我的意思是類似於我們不追逐零售店的促銷活動，我們認為在網上花費更多的營銷不會增加息稅前利潤。我們當然可以增加支出並增加收入，但它會受到 EBIT 的侵蝕，但正如你所知，Janine，我們傾向於關注業務的盈利能力和不斷增長的收入，而不是短期的提振到電商渠道。

In terms of the cycling of negative numbers, I think we've been pretty consistent that it would be in the second quarter of fiscal '24, where we would see that business turn positive. So we haven't been surprised. If we've been surprised at all, the one thing we don't split out often is the difference between bootbarn.com and sheplers.com. And the bootbarn.com.com business is already [back to flag] as being dragged down by sheplers.com, which while that might be disappointing when people look at -- when investors look at a negative e-commerce, that business isn't sort of our marquee brand. It's not strategic to us other than it's a -- it gives us the ability to be price competitive if we ever had to be.

就負數的循環而言，我認為我們一直非常一致地認為，在 24 財年的第二季度，我們將看到業務轉正。所以我們並不感到驚訝。如果我們感到驚訝的話，我們通常不會分開的一件事是 bootbarn.com 和 sheplers.com 之間的區別。 bootbarn.com.com 業務已經 [回到旗幟] 被 sheplers.com 拖累，雖然當人們看到時這可能令人失望 - 當投資者看到負面的電子商務時，該業務是'不是我們的大品牌。這對我們來說不是戰略性的——它使我們有能力在必要時具有價格競爭力。

So I think we're going to continue to operate that business as we have been. I think our degree of confidence that it will turn positive by mid- to late second quarter is still pretty good. And we are -- we continue to focus that part of the organization on building out capabilities for customers across channels, and it's -- they've done some just incredible work. The amount of shipments that are not now shipped from our stores versus a couple of years to put the best product that you could possibly imagine in all of our stores, build the in-store shopping experience. And if it doesn't sell, we can move the markdowns through the e-commerce channel. So I can't say enough about how well the digital team has been doing. And I certainly don't want to spend unprofitable advertising dollars to boost the sales line.

所以我認為我們將繼續像以前一樣經營這項業務。我認為我們對它在第二季度中後期轉為積極的信心程度仍然很高。而且我們 - 我們繼續將組織的這一部分集中在為跨渠道的客戶構建能力上，而且 - 他們已經做了一些令人難以置信的工作。現在沒有從我們的商店發貨的貨物數量與幾年後將您可能想像到的最好的產品放在我們所有的商店中，建立店內購物體驗。如果賣不出去，我們可以通過電子商務渠道進行降價。所以我不能說數字團隊的表現如何。而且我當然不想花費無利可圖的廣告費來提升銷售線。

Okay. Perfect. And then a follow-up on the freight. I know you said 100 basis points fit this year. I think over the last few years, you've lost over 2 basis points from freight headwinds. Should we expect that you get some of that in fiscal '25? Or is there just kind of the sense that you're not getting it all back, is that how you're thinking about it?

好的。完美的。然後是運費的跟進。我知道你說今年適合 100 個基點。我認為在過去的幾年裡，你已經從貨運逆風中損失了超過 2 個基點。我們是否應該期望您在 25 財年獲得其中一些？或者只是有一種感覺，你沒有把它全部拿回來，你是這麼想的嗎？

It's a great question, Janine. I think it's really going to come down to what where freight rates stabilize. We're seeing container costs that are back to pre-COVID levels. Again, I think 9 to 12 months from now or even 6 months from now, we'll probably have a better idea if we get some of that back in the following year in fiscal '25, but we feel comfortable guiding 100 basis points of recovery for what we gave back last year, and then we'll just have to see how the macro settles in.

這是一個很好的問題，珍妮。我認為這真的要歸結為運費穩定的地方。我們看到容器成本回到了 COVID 之前的水平。同樣，我認為從現在開始的 9 到 12 個月甚至 6 個月後，如果我們在下一年的 25 財年收回一些資金，我們可能會有更好的想法，但我們很樂意指導 100 個基點恢復我們去年的回饋，然後我們只需要看看宏觀經濟如何穩定下來。

Our next question comes from the line of Jason Haas with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Jason Haas。

I was curious if you could talk about how new stores are performing in your newer markets, particularly in the Northeast. I know that there's maybe some concern that the concept wouldn't resonate with customers in the Northeast. So maybe you could tell us how those stores have been performing lately?

我很好奇您能否談談新店在新市場中的表現，尤其是在東北地區。我知道可能有人擔心這個概念不會引起東北客戶的共鳴。那麼也許你可以告訴我們這些商店最近的表現如何？

Sure. Sure. They're outperforming our new store model for sure. Historically, we thought a new store could do $1.7 million or $2 million, and we've updated that to $3.5 billion. And that $3.5 million has proven to be true in legacy markets like Texas and California as well as markets like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey.

當然。當然。他們的表現肯定優於我們的新商店模式。從歷史上看，我們認為一家新店可以賺 170 萬或 200 萬美元，我們已經將其更新為 35 億美元。事實證明，這 350 萬美元在德克薩斯州和加利福尼亞州等傳統市場以及賓夕法尼亞州、弗吉尼亞州、馬里蘭州、紐約州和新澤西州等市場都是真實的。

And while it may seem to (inaudible) conventional wisdom, we are seeing new stores in that part of the country, selling Western product in equal proportion to the rest of the country. So it's not like we open up a store on Long island, and it's selling all jeans and work boots, it sell in cowboy boots and cowboy hats and we'll be on par with the new store model on Page 8 of the sorry -- on Page -- it's in the deck someplace.

雖然這似乎（聽不清）傳統智慧，但我們正在該國的那個地區看到新的商店，與該國其他地區一樣銷售西方產品。所以這不像我們在長島開一家商店，它銷售所有牛仔褲和工作靴，它銷售牛仔靴和牛仔帽，我們將與第 8 頁上的新商店模式相提並論，抱歉——在頁面上——它在甲板上的某個地方。

7.

7.

Page 7, sorry. So the -- in summary, we're quite pleased with new store openings in our new markets. And then while there's some concern often about, well, what's the downside risk of opening up new stores, well we have 352 stores today and either 0 or 1 or 2 lose money. So the downside risk is pretty low for us. So we're going to continue to expand the footprint across the country. That will continue to give us more economies of scale, continue to build the brand and has a high degree of certainty that we'll get between $3 million and $4 million of additional revenue for every new unit that we open.

第七頁，對不起。所以 - 總而言之，我們對在我們的新市場開設新店感到非常滿意。然後，雖然經常有人擔心，開新店的下行風險是什麼，但我們今天有 352 家商店，0 家或 1 家或 2 家虧損。因此，下行風險對我們來說非常低。因此，我們將繼續擴大在全國的足跡。這將繼續為我們帶來更多的規模經濟，繼續打造品牌，並高度確定我們每開設一個新單位，就會獲得 300 萬至 400 萬美元的額外收入。

That's great. And then as a follow-up, I was looking at the 2.5% leverage point for SG&A in fiscal 2024. Is that a good leverage point to think about for like fiscal 2025 and beyond? Or is it less than that because there's more investments in 2024 -- in fiscal 2024?

那太棒了。然後作為後續行動，我正在研究 2024 財年 SG&A 的 2.5% 槓桿點。對於 2025 財年及以後的情況，這是一個值得考慮的好槓桿點嗎？還是因為 2024 年（2024 財年）有更多投資，所以比這少？

I think that is a good number to use going forward. If that changes with the business. If that changes (inaudible) with the business, we'll update you on that, but it's what we've been at historically, maybe it's a little bit higher, but it's in line with where we've been. And expenses is something that we're constantly taking a look at and trying to improve on and maintain our cost-conscious culture here at Boot Barn.

我認為這是一個很好的數字，可以繼續使用。如果業務發生變化。如果業務發生變化（聽不清），我們會更新您的情況，但這是我們歷史上的情況，也許會高一點，但它與我們的情況一致。費用是我們不斷關注的事情，並試圖改進和維護我們在 Boot Barn 注重成本的文化。

And so we'll continue to chip away at ways that we can save some of those costs. But at the same time, we're going to continue to invest in the business and things that will provide us growth and into the future. So we'll keep you updated on that, Jason.

因此，我們繼續想方設法節省部分成本。但與此同時，我們將繼續投資於將為我們提供增長和未來的業務和事物。傑森，我們會及時通知您最新情況。

Our next question comes from the line of Dylan Carden with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自 Dylan Carden 和 William Blair 的台詞。

Just kind of getting back to the long-term margin conversation. Another way of asking that question maybe to kind of use numbers you've given, you've doubled the business over, however many years, it's been 4 or so years. At which point, you've added 500 basis points of merchandise margin, I think, largely through private label penetration. At that point in your history, you were kind of a 33-ish percent gross margin business.

只是有點回到長期保證金對話。另一種問這個問題的方法可能是使用你給出的數字，你的業務翻了一番，不管多少年，已經 4 年左右了。在這一點上，你已經增加了 500 個基點的商品利潤率，我認為，主要是通過自有品牌滲透。在你歷史上的那個時候，你的毛利率大約是 33%。

I know there's a lot of puts and takes between freight and deleverage on occupancy. But just simple math gets you to 38%, 39% gross margin. Is that kind of the structural level of that line item at this point, all else being equal? I know you're guiding to 36.5%. I get the guidance. But yes, behind the hood, I guess.

我知道在入住率和去槓桿化之間有很多看跌期權。但只需簡單的數學運算就能讓你達到 38%、39% 的毛利率。在其他所有條件都相同的情況下，此時該行項目的結構水平是這樣的嗎？我知道你的目標是 36.5%。我得到指導。但是，是的，我猜是在引擎蓋後面。

Yes. In fiscal '22, we did get to 38.6% against the year. I think it is returning to same-store sales growth and leveraging some more of those buying and occupancy and distribution center costs and marching back towards that 38% and towards 39% is what we have in our sites and how we're planning the business internally.

是的。在 22 財年，我們確實達到了 38.6%。我認為它正在恢復同店銷售增長，並利用更多的購買和占用以及配送中心成本，並向 38% 和 39% 邁進，這是我們在我們的網站上擁有的以及我們如何規劃業務在內部。

Excellent. And then there was sort of an offhand comment on remodels. I think you said 35 remodels in the current year or maybe you did them last year. Is that something -- is that a number that's bigger than what has been historically? I know you're kind of putting more into the boxes to warrant maybe some retrofitting. But is that something going forward to -- is that going to increase, accelerate, drive comp? Any comment on that?

出色的。然後有一些關於改造的不經意的評論。我想你說今年進行了 35 次改造，或者你去年做過。那是什麼——是一個比歷史上更大的數字嗎？我知道你在某種程度上把更多的東西放進盒子裡，以保證可能進行一些改造。但這是未來的事情嗎 - 會增加，加速，推動競爭嗎？對此有何評論？

Yes. So the -- we'll do a certain number of relocations into -- within a market, and that will drive some comp sales and typically drives a pretty nice comp tailwind for us. When we do remodels, we'll often expand the size. And if we can get a bigger box than out of it, then we'll see some growth. A lot of the remodels that we're looking at now are the stores that have been in the chain for 10 years or so and need or longer and need a refresh.

是的。因此，我們將在市場內進行一定數量的搬遷，這將推動一些 comp 銷售，通常會為我們帶來相當不錯的 comp 順風。當我們進行改造時，我們通常會擴大尺寸。如果我們能得到一個比原來更大的盒子，那麼我們就會看到一些增長。我們現在看到的很多改造都是連鎖店已有 10 年左右的時間，需要或更長時間，需要更新。

And so there's not necessarily a comp lift that we plan in those stores, but it's something we need to do to get them brand right and looking nice into the future and functioning the way that we need them to.

因此，我們不一定會在這些商店中計劃提升競爭力，但這是我們需要做的事情，以使它們的品牌正確，並在未來看起來不錯，並按照我們需要的方式運作。

As far as whether that's a new number, it is something that we started last year in a smaller degree. I would expect we'll continue to look at 35-ish stores as we go into the next couple of years as we try to get all those stores brand right. We built over 150 stores over the last several years, those are all in great shape. But the other stores prior to that, a lot of those need some work. And so we're going to take those off.

至於這是否是一個新數字，這是我們去年在較小程度上開始的事情。我希望在接下來的幾年裡，我們會繼續關注 35 家左右的商店，因為我們試圖讓所有這些商店的品牌都正確。在過去的幾年裡，我們建立了 150 多家商店，它們都狀況良好。但在那之前的其他商店，很多都需要一些工作。所以我們要把它們取下來。

You kind of answered my next question. So as far as magnitude, round numbers, 150 stores, 35 a year kind of takes you 4 years or so to kind of work through those, Is that more or less what you're saying?

你有點回答了我的下一個問題。因此，就規模、整數、150 家商店、每年 35 家而言，您需要 4 年左右的時間才能完成這些工作，這或多或少是您所說的嗎？

Yes, Yes, maybe a little longer. And the number, Dylan, this year at around $15 million in the budget for the year.

是的，是的，也許更長一點。而這個數字，迪倫，今年的預算約為 1500 萬美元。

Our next question comes from the line of Corey Tarlowe with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Corey Tarlowe 與 Jefferies 的合作。

I don't know if Greg is around there, but congrats to Greg if he's there on his retirement announcement.

我不知道 Greg 是否在附近，但如果 Greg 宣布退休，我會祝賀他。

Thank you, Corey.

謝謝你，科里。

So I wanted to ask on the distribution center that you built in Kansas City. Could you maybe just remind us, number one, about what your current distribution fleet looks like?

所以我想問一下你們在堪薩斯城建造的配送中心。第一，你能不能提醒我們你目前的配送車隊是什麼樣子的？

And Jim, you mentioned that you're adding around 100 stores or so over the next 2 years, you added 45 in the last fiscal year. So clearly, there's a lot of new stores that are ramping up. Do you feel like you now have the capacity built out to be able to support the new store growth ahead? And just remind us some of the benefits of this new DC that you built?

吉姆，你提到你將在未來兩年內增加大約 100 家商店，你在上一個財政年度增加了 45 家。很明顯，有很多新店正在崛起。你覺得你現在有能力支持未來新店的增長嗎？並提醒我們您構建的這個新 DC 的一些好處？

Sure. So on the first piece, the current distribution center footprint, I'm going to oversimplify it slightly. In Wichita, we have a fulfillment center that takes care of e-commerce predominantly. And historically, we've had a distribution center in California relatively close to the office that takes care of stores almost exclusively.

當然。因此，在第一部分，即當前的配送中心足跡，我將稍微簡化一下。在威奇托，我們有一個主要負責電子商務的運營中心。從歷史上看，我們在加利福尼亞州有一個配送中心，離辦公室相對較近，幾乎專門負責商店。

So a little bit of a blurred line for shipping some e-commerce there, but let's assume that the Fontana, California distribution center is stores only. That DC sort of was hitting capacity. And we knew this was coming. So we had a -- we had a multiyear plan to build the Kansas City distribution center. And what actually happened was our sales grew so fast that we pushed Fontana to it's, almost its breaking fee last year. And -- so Kansas City is coming online as originally scheduled, but our sales line is sort of way ahead of plan.

因此，在那裡運送一些電子商務的界限有點模糊，但我們假設加利福尼亞州豐塔納的配送中心只是商店。那個 DC 正在達到容量。我們知道這即將到來。所以我們有一個 - 我們有一個建立堪薩斯城配送中心的多年計劃。實際發生的是我們的銷售額增長如此之快，以至於我們將 Fontana 推向了它，幾乎是去年的破費。而且 - 堪薩斯城按原計劃上線，但我們的銷售線有點提前了計劃。

That -- with those 2 distribution centers, Fontana and Kansas City that will service our store base, again, for simplicity's sake, split the country in half and Fontana will take care of the Western states and Kansas City will take care of the Eastern states. We should be good from a distribution center capacity standpoint for 4 or 5 years. If we use assumptions of 15% new unit growth and a low to mid-single-digit comp and exclusive brand penetration continuing to build, then that's the way we've modeled it. The next one would come on in call it, 2028 or '29 or something like that. And it would be even further [ease] to take care of the stores that have been built on the East Coast.

那 - 有了這兩個配送中心，豐塔納和堪薩斯城將為我們的商店基地提供服務，為了簡單起見，再次將國家一分為二，豐塔納將負責西部各州，堪薩斯城將負責東部各州.從配送中心容量的角度來看，我們應該在 4 或 5 年內保持良好狀態。如果我們使用 15% 的新單位增長和低至中個位數的補償和持續建立的獨家品牌滲透率的假設，那麼這就是我們建模的方式。下一個會在 2028 年或 29 年或類似的時候出現。照顧在東海岸建造的商店會更加[輕鬆]。

The benefits are, well, one, we just needed capacity. Two, in this particular case, the Kansas City distribution center will be able to do some value-added services that are presently done in the stores now will be done in the D.C. which is a bit more efficient use of labor and have the store associates or store partners, as we call them, focused primarily on customer service and sales driving and not sort of end product floor-ready of course, because we'll have 2 distribution centers and will be closer to each of the stores, the freight expense outbound to our stores will be lower. It's probably we'll get there in a more timely fashion. And some of the other sort of familiar or typical benefit you'd get from having a network that's out closer to your end points or your stores in this case.

好處是，嗯，一個，我們只需要容量。第二，在這種特殊情況下，堪薩斯城配送中心將能夠提供一些目前在商店中完成的增值服務，現在將在華盛頓特區完成，這樣可以更有效地利用勞動力並讓商店員工或商店合作夥伴，正如我們所說，主要專注於客戶服務和銷售推動，而不是最終產品的現場準備，當然，因為我們將有 2 個配送中心，並且離每個商店更近，運費到我們商店的出貨量會更低。我們可能會更及時地到達那裡。在這種情況下，擁有一個更接近您的端點或您的商店的網絡，您可以獲得其他一些熟悉或典型的好處。

Got it. And then just the -- what's the financial impact associated with opening that distribution center? Is most of that in the review at this point? I think that there's some impact I believe that's embedded on the slide that you talked about in your prepared remarks as well in the guidance. Can you just remind us what that is?

知道了。然後只是 - 與開設該配送中心相關的財務影響是什麼？此時大部分內容都在評論中嗎？我認為有一些影響，我相信它嵌入在您在準備好的評論中以及指南中談到的幻燈片中。你能提醒我們那是什麼嗎？

Yes. So we spent about $20 million on the distribution center throughout last year, getting it up and ready. We'll spend another $8 million in this coming year. And so we'll have the full expense of that capital is starting to depreciate through in this fiscal year and into next year, and we'll see that in that buying occupancy and distribution center line. The labor is going to be coming online here shortly. And so that will be in that in the gross margin number also. And then there's some in SG&A a little bit related to the IT and supplies related to that facility.

是的。因此，我們去年全年在配送中心上花費了大約 2000 萬美元，準備就緒。明年我們將再花費 800 萬美元。因此，我們將在本財年和明年開始將資本的全部費用開始貶值，我們將在購買佔用率和配送中心線上看到這一點。勞動力將很快在這裡上線。因此，這也將出現在毛利率數字中。然後在 SG&A 中有一些與 IT 和與該設施相關的用品有點相關。

Okay. Great. And then just lastly from me on inventory. Sales are obviously projected to be up, comps are projected to be down, but it looks like inventory is also up. So could you just maybe talk about how you feel about the relative positioning of your inventory at present? And maybe how you expect that to trend throughout the rest of the year?

好的。偉大的。最後是我的庫存。銷售量顯然預計會上升，補償預計會下降，但看起來庫存也在上升。那麼，您能否談談您對目前庫存相對定位的看法？也許您預計今年餘下時間的趨勢如何？

Sure, Corey, it's Greg. I'll take that because that's part of my line of sight in my last month or so. So of the 24% increase in inventory, a little more than half of that is related to the new units that we've added over the last year. So that 15% unit growth as well as the new stores that we've got planned in kind of the first half of the year. And then about 30% of the growth is related to inventory in our distribution centers that supports our exclusive brand.

當然，科里，是格雷格。我會接受它，因為這是我上個月左右視線的一部分。因此，在 24% 的庫存增長中，超過一半與我們去年增加的新單位有關。因此，15% 的單位增長以及我們在今年上半年計劃的新店。然後大約 30% 的增長與支持我們獨家品牌的配送中心的庫存有關。

So again, as we grow brand penetration, we need to house more of that inventory in those 2 distribution centers. And then the balance of the growth is related to comp stores, right? And our comp store cost inventory dollars are up 8% year-over-year and our units are up about 3%, right? So that delta 5% is the inflationary impact of last year's price increases. If we look at our inventory at the end of the year and we look at forward weeks of supply based on our guide, we've got about 30 weeks of supply, and that compares favorably to the pre-COVID years of fiscal '21, '20 and '19 when those weeks of supply were 36, 34 and 32. And I'm looking at Slide 13 of the supplemental deck.

因此，隨著我們提高品牌滲透率，我們需要在這兩個配送中心存放更多庫存。然後增長的平衡與商店有關，對嗎？我們的商店成本庫存美元同比增長 8%，我們的單位增長約 3%，對嗎？因此，delta 5% 是去年價格上漲的通脹影響。如果我們在年底查看我們的庫存，並根據我們的指南查看未來幾週的供應，我們有大約 30 週的供應，這與 21 財年 COVID 之前的年份相比是有利的， 20 年和 19 年的供應週數分別為 36、34 和 32。我正在查看補充平台的幻燈片 13。

So we feel very good about the inventory levels. And we feel very good about the quality of that inventory. As we look at, again, on that same slide on the right-hand side, we've grown merchandise margin for many, many years, and we've always kind of carried this level of inventory. So I don't think anybody should be concerned about that 24% inventory growth.

所以我們對庫存水平感覺非常好。我們對該庫存的質量感到非常滿意。正如我們再次看到的那樣，在右側的同一張幻燈片上，我們多年來一直在增加商品利潤率，而且我們一直保持著這種水平的庫存。所以我認為沒有人應該擔心 24% 的庫存增長。

Our next question comes from the line of Sam Poser with Williams Trading.

我們的下一個問題來自 Williams Trading 的 Sam Poser。

So on the freight -- on the freight impact on gross margin, how much of the inventory that you currently have has that higher freight cost attached to it right now? How long is it going to take for that freight to roll through the inventory, so then you can take full benefit of the lower risk?

那麼關於運費——關於運費對毛利率的影響，你目前擁有的庫存中有多少現在附加了更高的運費？運費需要多長時間才能通過庫存，這樣您就可以充分利用較低的風險？

So we turn our inventory twice a year, so it takes about 6 months to get that through the peak freight costs were coming in last summer and then they've been coming down since then. So we're mostly through that, Sam. We thought we'd get through more of it in Q4, but we'll have a little bit coming into Q1, but we've guided Q1 flat so from a freight expense. I think we're mostly through that. We just thought we'd get through -- get some of that capitalized freight -- additional capitalized freight through the P&L in Q4 and with the sales on which just didn't happen.

因此，我們每年調整庫存兩次，因此需要大約 6 個月的時間才能度過去年夏天出現的貨運成本高峰期，此後一直在下降。所以我們基本上已經完成了，山姆。我們認為我們會在第四季度完成更多的工作，但我們會在第一季度完成一些工作，但我們已經從運費中引導第一季度持平。我認為我們主要是通過那個。我們只是認為我們會通過 - 獲得一些資本化的運費 - 通過第四季度的損益表以及沒有發生的銷售獲得額外的資本化運費。

And then you mentioned that in the fourth quarter, you reduced your marketing spend. My question is, when you look about the pieces of -- like what is your ROI on marketing when you look at the discretionary, especially in the women's part of the business? Is it that could you be doing more marketing and theoretically getting a disproportionate return on investment in the parts of the businesses that aren't working as well as others or even in the parts of the businesses that are (inaudible) well, could you get them working better as by evolving marketing rather than cutting it when business gets tough, that -- (inaudible)?

然後你提到在第四季度，你減少了營銷支出。我的問題是，當你看一些東西時——比如當你看可自由支配的東西時，你的營銷投資回報率是多少，尤其是在女性業務中？你是否可以做更多的營銷，並在理論上獲得不成比例的投資回報，投資於那些運作不佳的業務部分，甚至是那些（聽不清）良好的業務部分，你能得到嗎？他們通過發展營銷而不是在業務變得艱難時削減營銷來更好地工作，那 - （聽不清）？

I think that's the age old question around marketing, Sam. I mean it's -- if it were EBIT accretive and we could prove that out, we would certainly just spend more marketing, get more sales as long as the flow-through in the sales exceeded the marketing expense that we invested.

我認為這是關於營銷的古老問題，山姆。我的意思是——如果它是 EBIT 增長的，並且我們可以證明這一點，我們肯定會花費更多的營銷費用，只要銷售額超過我們投資的營銷費用，我們就會獲得更多的銷售額。

Yes. Our marketing budget hovers around 3% of sales a year. We've grown from roughly $200 million to $1.8 billion in 10 years. So I think the marketing is helping us grow at this current budget. I'm not sure doing more would be EBIT enhancing or just spending money to get an artificial lift some place, particularly online.

是的。我們的營銷預算徘徊在每年銷售額的 3% 左右。我們在 10 年內從大約 2 億美元增長到 18 億美元。所以我認為營銷正在幫助我們在當前預算下實現增長。我不確定做更多的事情會提高 EBIT 還是只是花錢在某個地方（尤其是在線）獲得人工升降機。

We do know the ROI on our online marketing. And essentially, what we do there is we spend to the point where the last dollar just about breaks even, at least sort of theoretically, that's how we think about it. I know a lot of companies spend way past that under the notion that the lifetime value is going to be higher, et cetera. I don't personally subscribe to that theory. So we, from a direct marketing, if you think about it, our digital marketing, we're pretty aggressive there. And if we get a higher return on net spend, we'll spend a bit more. And as the return to spend comes down, we'll ratchet back, always trying to, again, at least on a theoretical basis, have that last dollar be just above breakeven.

我們確實知道在線營銷的投資回報率。從本質上講，我們在那裡所做的就是花費到最後一美元幾乎收支平衡的程度，至少在理論上是這樣，這就是我們的想法。我知道很多公司在生命週期價值會更高等觀念下花費了很多錢。我個人並不贊同該理論。所以我們，從直接營銷，如果你考慮一下，我們的數字營銷，我們在那裡非常積極。如果我們獲得更高的淨支出回報，我們就會多花一點錢。隨著支出回報率的下降，我們將縮減開支，總是再次嘗試，至少在理論上，讓最後一美元剛好高於收支平衡。

Just one last thing. Is -- like what percent -- like -- of that 3%, what portion of that is directed to the e-commerce business versus, call it, brand marketing sort of longer-term efforts (inaudible)?

最後一件事。這 3% 中的百分比是多少，其中有多少是針對電子商務業務的，而所謂的品牌營銷是一種長期努力（聽不清）？

Roughly 10% is probably earmarked for digital marketing specifically. We're also hopeful that all of our marketing drives customers to both channels, of course. But in terms of the split between digital spend and traditional spend, we tend to believe pretty strongly in some of our traditional media channels and continue to invest there.

大約 10% 可能專門用於數字營銷。當然，我們也希望我們所有的營銷都能將客戶吸引到這兩個渠道。但就數字支出和傳統支出之間的差距而言，我們傾向於非常相信我們的一些傳統媒體渠道，並繼續在那裡投資。

I didn't mean that. I meant against your e-commerce business, let's say, against that marketing against the e-commerce versus your overall brand marketing, not -- I mean, because you can do overall brand marketing digitally too. So I'm really saying like of that sort of that part that you want to break even on, which is against your e-commerce business, how much -- what percent of the total spend is that?

我不是那個意思。我的意思是反對你的電子商務業務，比方說，反對針對電子商務的營銷與你的整體品牌營銷，而不是 - 我的意思是，因為你也可以通過數字方式進行整體品牌營銷。所以我真的是在說那種你想要收支平衡的部分，這對你的電子商務業務不利，佔總支出的百分比是多少？

I'd have to get back to you on a specific number. I mean, it's north of 10%.

我必須通過特定號碼回复您。我的意思是，它超過 10%。

Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Hamblin with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. .

我們的下一個問題來自 Jeremy Hamblin 與 Craig-Hallum Capital Group 的對話。 .

This is Jack Cole on for Jeremy. So the guidance implies about 15% unit growth in 2024 or FY '24. Can we assume that given your comments about of about one opening per week, you'll follow that run rate of about 10 to 12 openings per quarter? And then any color on average construction lead times, that would be great.

這是傑里米的傑克科爾。因此，該指導意味著 2024 年或 24 財年單位增長約 15%。我們是否可以假設根據您對每週約 1 個空缺的評論，您將遵循每季度約 10 到 12 個空缺的運行率？然後平均施工交貨時間的任何顏色，那就太好了。

Sure. Yes. I mean they're roughly phased at 13 a quarter and the lead time -- look, we're experiencing the same thing that other retailers that are adding a lot of stores are experiencing. I guess there aren't many other retailers doing this, but we kind of just manage it into the pipeline.

當然。是的。我的意思是，他們大致在每季度 13 次和交貨時間分階段進行——看，我們正在經歷與其他正在增加大量商店的零售商正在經歷的相同的事情。我想沒有多少其他零售商這樣做，但我們只是將其管理到管道中。

And we see stores that get delayed from time to time. We try to have some conservatism in the lead times that a store will get developed. But sort of hats off to our real estate and construction department because we've been hitting our cadence of number pretty closely for a few years now. In fact, I think there's a page in the deck on that as well. You're right to call out that it's been consistently double digits for several quarters now. I feel very strongly that we'll hit at least 13 stores in the first quarter of this year. We opened 2 stores today actually. So again, if you're trying to phase it or build a model, I would put them in roughly evenly throughout the year.

我們看到商店不時延遲。我們試圖在商店開發的交付週期內保持一些保守主義。但有點向我們的房地產和建築部門致敬，因為我們幾年來一直在非常接近地達到我們的數字節奏。事實上，我認為甲板上也有一個頁面。你說得對，現在幾個季度一直是兩位數。我非常強烈地認為，我們將在今年第一季度衝擊至少 13 家門店。我們今天實際上開了2家店。再說一次，如果你想分階段或建立模型，我會在全年大致均勻地投入它們。

Great. That's great color. And then just kind of switching back to the inventory discussion. You guys noted you feel pretty comfortable with the inventory levels. Just drilling down a little deeper. Are there any specific categories where inventory is a little out of balance? Or just any color you could give category-wise?

偉大的。那是很棒的顏色。然後只是切換回庫存討論。你們注意到你們對庫存水平感到非常滿意。只是鑽得更深一點。是否有任何特定類別的庫存有點失衡？或者只是您可以按類別提供的任何顏色？

Sure, Jack. It's Greg. The 2 categories we've talked about, and we're getting those into line, but they're still probably a bit heavier than we'd like is in the work boot business. That's a very functional area. The boots and the work boots don't tend to come in and out of cycles or anything like that. They tend to be evergreen, if you will.

當然，傑克。是格雷格。我們已經討論過的 2 個類別，我們正在將它們整合在一起，但它們可能仍然比我們希望的工作靴業務重一點。這是一個非常實用的區域。靴子和工作靴不會經常進出週期或類似的東西。如果你願意的話，它們往往是常青樹。

So we don't have any concern about that and we're getting that in line. The other category was men's Western performance boots or rubber sole boots that we were a bit heavy, and we've continued to make really good progress on. And in both of those merchandise categories, we expect to be on kind of our merchandise plan based on our expected sales volumes by middle of this year.

所以我們對此沒有任何擔憂，我們正在努力做到這一點。另一類是男士西式性能靴子或橡膠底靴子，我們有點重，我們繼續取得很好的進展。在這兩個商品類別中，我們預計將根據今年年中的預期銷量製定我們的商品計劃。

Our next question comes from the line of Jay Sole with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Jay Sole。

Just curious about Bandit. Maybe, Jim, can you talk about what consumer experiences when they use Bandit and then do you have other ideas in mind for how to use AI to enhance the business?

只是對 Bandit 好奇。也許，Jim，你能談談消費者在使用 Bandit 時的體驗嗎？然後你對如何使用 AI 來增強業務有其他想法嗎？

So it just rolled out this week. So we don't have a lot of use cases yet, but it is pretty amazing. Probably, everybody in this call has experimented with Chat GPT at some point asking you to do crazy silly things. But when you ask it for sort of styling advice or why is a composite toe different than a steel toe and it gives you sort of a explanation in well written pros, it's just -- it's remarkable.

所以它剛剛在本週推出。所以我們還沒有很多用例，但它非常棒。很可能，這個電話中的每個人都在某個時候嘗試過聊天 GPT，要求你做一些瘋狂的傻事。但是，當您向它詢問樣式建議或為什麼複合鞋頭與鋼鞋頭不同時，它會為您提供寫得很好的專業人士的解釋，這真是——太了不起了。

So that's the consumer-facing piece. It's also going to be used to help sales associates or our sales partners drive more sales. And then if you think about the next several levels of what we can do with it, first, will the notion of it being available in the store drive store traffic, I don't know, maybe. Will it help drive conversion where otherwise somebody would walk out empty handed because now they can get sort of real-time counsel and perhaps even build their basket because they're getting increased advice saying, "Hey, this belt would go great with that jeans kind of thing?"

這就是面向消費者的部分。它還將用於幫助銷售人員或我們的銷售合作夥伴推動更多銷售。然後，如果您考慮我們可以用它做什麼的下幾個級別，首先，它在商店中可用的概念是否會驅動商店流量，我不知道，也許吧。它是否有助於推動轉換，否則有人會空手而歸，因為現在他們可以獲得某種實時建議，甚至可能會建立他們的購物籃，因為他們得到的建議越來越多，他們會說，“嘿，這條腰帶和那條牛仔褲很配之類的事情？”

If you continue to extend it, if it is helpful for new store associates, we -- it helps us grow stores maybe even more quickly because now we can hire sales associates that have this great crutch because they can use their handheld device to at least appear like they have more knowledge and more experience. I can keep going, right?

如果你繼續擴展它，如果它對新店員有幫助，我們 - 它可以幫助我們更快地發展商店，因為現在我們可以僱用擁有這種強大拐杖的銷售員，因為他們至少可以使用他們的手持設備看起來他們有更多的知識和經驗。我可以繼續，對吧？

Then if we look at the logs of what they're typing into their handheld, we can understand where their knowledge shortfalls are. And there's probably 10 other use cases that I could go through, but we're so far over time that I'll stop. But needless to say, we're excited about this. We do feel like we're first to market, certainly within the Western industry, if not the retail market in general. We're not even a digital native company. We're an analog native company, but first to market with AI, look at that. But we're pretty excited about it.

然後，如果我們查看他們在掌上電腦中輸入的內容的日誌，我們就可以了解他們的知識不足之處。我可能還有 10 個其他用例，但隨著時間的推移，我會停下來。但不用說，我們對此感到興奮。我們確實覺得我們是第一個進入市場的人，當然是在西方行業內，如果不是一般的零售市場的話。我們甚至不是數字原生公司。我們是一家模擬本土公司，但首先將人工智能推向市場，看看那個。但我們對此感到非常興奮。

Our next question comes from the line of Mitch Kummetz with Seaport Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Mitch Kummetz 與 Seaport Research 的合作。

Jim, on ladies boots and apparel, you referenced the tough multi-year comparisons. When do those get easier? And is that what you're looking for in terms of that business turning and starting to perform more in line with the chain as a whole? And I have a hopefully a quick follow-up.

吉姆，關於女靴和女裝，你提到了艱難的多年比較。這些什麼時候變得更容易？這就是您在業務轉向和開始與整個鏈條保持一致的情況下正在尋找的東西嗎？我希望有一個快速跟進。

I think we have another 2 quarters before we start to cycle negative business in the ladies side. And look, we're always looking for growth and that we have a rock-solid team of merchants on the ladies boots and apparel business. So they're bringing in new vendors, they're expanding their assortment. They're also managing their inventory quite closely, so we don't get overextended in a sales environment that's up during that particular category. But we just had -- we had so much growth and perhaps even drove industry-wide retail trend towards Western based on the combination of our marketing and our product assortment that we're now up against that.

我認為我們還有兩個季度才能開始在女士方面出現負面業務。看，我們一直在尋求增長，而且我們在女士靴子和服裝業務方面擁有一支堅如磐石的商人團隊。所以他們正在引進新的供應商，他們正在擴大他們的品種。他們還非常密切地管理庫存，因此我們不會在特定類別的銷售環境中過度擴張。但我們剛剛 - 我們有如此多的增長，甚至可能基於我們的營銷和產品分類的結合推動整個行業的零售趨勢轉向西方，我們現在正面臨這種情況。

And there's a time that you have to play a little defense and just be a little bit more prudent. But I think within the next 6 months or so, we'll see those businesses start to come back around.

有時您必須採取一些防禦措施，並且要更加謹慎。但我認為在接下來的 6 個月左右，我們會看到這些企業開始復蘇。

Okay. And then on California and the weather, I think you mentioned that there were 2 districts in particular that were most severely impacted, including the Central Valley, where they comped down. I think you said mid-teens or down 15% in the quarter. I don't know how many stores that would be, but could you say what the impact that was on 4Q comp? Like was that as much as 100 basis points? And then also, can you say what's factored into the outlook going forward? I know there's been some talk about Zero Nevada snow melt that might make the Central Valley challenging through the summer and all of that, so?

好的。然後關於加利福尼亞州和天氣，我想你提到有 2 個地區受到的影響尤其嚴重，包括中央山谷，他們在那裡進行了降級。我想你說的是十幾歲或本季度下降了 15%。我不知道會有多少家商店，但你能說說這對 4Q comp 有什麼影響嗎？就像那多達 100 個基點一樣？然後，你能說說未來前景的因素是什麼嗎？我知道有一些關於內華達州零融雪的討論，這可能會使中央山谷在整個夏天都充滿挑戰，所以呢？

We called out 2 districts of 30. It's probably roughly 10% of our store sales because they're bigger. Yes -- and yes, it's 8% of our total business or in those 2 districts or 10% of our store sales. And if they're down 15%, right, it's 1.5 -- 150 basis points of comp erosion if you take a negative 15% on 10% of the business.

我們召集了 2 個區，每區 30 個。這可能大約占我們商店銷售額的 10%，因為它們更大。是的 - 是的，它占我們總業務的 8% 或在這兩個地區或我們商店銷售額的 10%。如果他們下降了 15%，那麼如果你對 10% 的業務進行負 15% 的計算，那麼它就是 1.5 - 150 個基點的侵蝕。

And those districts have been down for 12 months now, just the ag pressure that Jim was talking about related to the drought. And so as we begin to cycle that in the next quarter, we're modeling them to be less negative than what we've seen in the last 12 months.

這些地區現在已經下降了 12 個月，吉姆所說的農業壓力與乾旱有關。因此，當我們在下個季度開始循環時，我們正在將它們建模為比我們在過去 12 個月中看到的更少負面。

And our next question comes from the line of John Lawrence with Benchmark Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Benchmark Company 的 John Lawrence。

I know it's running late. I'll be quick here. Jim, would you comment a little bit about the loyalty number, how big is that business now? What's the attributes of that guy that has a loyalty card? How long -- how much more is the shopping with you [other than average]?

我知道來晚了。我會很快的。吉姆，你能評論一下忠誠度數字嗎？那家公司現在有多大？那個有會員卡的傢伙有什麼屬性？多長時間——和你一起購物 [比平均水平] 多多少？

So it's a great question. There's over 7 million, I think, 7.1 million. I think last year it was 5.8 million (inaudible) Rewarded members. It's A little bit more than 2/3 of our sales dollars go through that program. So we then get who's buying, how often, how much they're spending. They -- all the metrics you perhaps might expect, their average basket is higher, their frequency is more frequent. Presumably, they're more loyal to us and shopping competitors less frequently. And the stores just do a really great job of introducing customers to that program. And it's been a critical asset for Boot Barn now for a dozen years or even longer, certainly for (inaudible).

所以這是一個很好的問題。我認為有超過 700 萬，710 萬。我認為去年有 580 萬（聽不清）獎勵會員。我們有超過 2/3 的銷售額來自該計劃。這樣我們就可以了解誰在購買，購買頻率，他們花費了多少。他們——所有你可能期望的指標，他們的平均籃子更高，他們的頻率更頻繁。據推測，他們對我們更忠誠，而購物競爭對手的頻率更低。商店在向顧客介紹該計劃方面做得非常好。十幾年甚至更長時間以來，它一直是 Boot Barn 的重要資產，當然是（聽不清）。

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Jim Conroy for closing remarks.

我們已經結束了問答環節。我現在將把電話轉回給吉姆康羅伊作結束語。

Well, thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. I'm sorry it went so long. We look forward to speaking with you all on our first quarter call. Take care.

好吧，謝謝大家今天加入電話會議。很抱歉拖了這麼久。我們期待在第一季度電話會議上與大家交談。小心。

And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束，此時你們可以掛斷電話。感謝您的參與。