Torrid Holdings Inc (CURV) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to Torrid Holdings, Inc. Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded.

問候。歡迎來到 Torrid Holdings, Inc. 2022 財年第四季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在錄製此會議。

I will now turn the conference over to Paula Dempsey, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

我現在將會議轉交給財務和投資者關係高級副總裁 Paula Dempsey。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining Torrid's call today to discuss the fourth quarter and fiscal year financial results for 2022, which we released this afternoon and can be found on our website at investors.torrid.com.

大家下午好，感謝您今天加入 Torrid 的電話會議，討論我們今天下午發布的 2022 年第四季度和財政年度財務業績，可以在我們的網站 investors.torrid.com 上找到。

With me today on the call are Lisa Harper, Chief Executive Officer of Torrid, and Tim Martin, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

今天與我通話的有 Torrid 首席執行官 Lisa Harper 和首席運營官兼首席財務官 Tim Martin。

Before we get started, I would like to remind you of the company's safe harbor language, which I'm sure you're familiar with. Management may make forward-looking statements, including guidance and underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements containing the words expect, believe, plan, will, may, should, estimate and some other expressions.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒你公司的安全港語言，我相信你很熟悉。管理層可能會做出前瞻性陳述，包括指導和基本假設。前瞻性陳述包括但不限於包含預期、相信、計劃、將、可能、應該、估計等詞語的陳述。

All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions as of today, March 23, 2023. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a further discussion of risks related to our business, see our filings with the SEC.

所有前瞻性陳述均基於截至 2023 年 3 月 23 日的當前預期和假設。這些陳述受風險和不確定因素的影響，可能導致實際結果出現重大差異。有關與我們業務相關的風險的進一步討論，請參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。

This call will contain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations to these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release furnished to the SEC and available on our website.

此電話會議將包含非 GAAP 財務指標，例如調整後的 EBITDA。這些非 GAAP 措施與最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的調節包含在提供給 SEC 的收益發布中，並可在我們的網站上查閱。

With that, I will turn the call over to Lisa.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給麗莎。

Thanks, Paula. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for a discussion of our fourth quarter and full year results. Before I begin, I'd like to thank the Torrid team for their dedication in providing our customers with exciting new products and a compelling customer experience. We've navigated a year of retail challenges with new leadership in many parts of the organization, elevated inventory levels resulting in a higher promotional environment and decreased customer discretionary spend.

謝謝，寶拉。大家下午好，感謝您加入我們討論我們的第四季度和全年業績。在開始之前，我要感謝 Torrid 團隊為我們的客戶提供令人興奮的新產品和引人入勝的客戶體驗的奉獻精神。我們通過組織許多部門的新領導層、提高庫存水平導致更好的促銷環境和減少客戶可自由支配的支出，度過了一年的零售挑戰。

Despite all of this, the team has accomplished a great deal in a short time. I believe that the changes we've made have been essential to reignite profitable long-term growth. I'm also very happy to announce the return of Mark Mizicko to Torrid as Chief Commercial Officer. Mark previously served as the Chief Operational Officer of Torrid back in 2016. And prior to that, he served as Chief Planning Officer of both Hot Topic and Torrid. He brings a wealth of experience and expertise in retailing, and we are excited to have him rejoin the team.

儘管如此，該團隊還是在短時間內取得了巨大成就。我相信我們所做的改變對於重新點燃盈利的長期增長至關重要。我也很高興地宣布 Mark Mizicko 返回 Torrid 擔任首席商務官。 Mark 曾於 2016 年擔任 Torrid 的首席運營官。在此之前，他曾擔任 Hot Topic 和 Torrid 的首席規劃官。他帶來了豐富的零售經驗和專業知識，我們很高興他能重新加入我們的團隊。

Mark will be leading all aspects of margin optimization, inventory planning and buying as well as working with Vivian Alhorn, our Chief Marketing Officer, on marketing and e-commerce activities, essentially focusing on all things that drive product sales for the company. We believe that with Liz Munoz focused on design, Vivian's expertise in marketing and e-commerce, my involvement in product selection as well as Mark's leadership of inventory planning, marketing, e-commerce and planning functions, we have a strong team focused on delivering the very best product for our customers.

Mark 將領導利潤優化、庫存規劃和採購的所有方面，並與我們的首席營銷官 Vivian Alhorn 合作開展營銷和電子商務活動，主要關注推動公司產品銷售的所有事情。我們相信，憑藉 Liz Munoz 專注於設計、Vivian 在營銷和電子商務方面的專業知識、我參與產品選擇以及 Mark 在庫存規劃、營銷、電子商務和規劃職能方面的領導，我們擁有一支專注於交付的強大團隊為我們的客戶提供最好的產品。

Now moving into our fourth quarter performance. We delivered net sales at the upper end of our guidance range. Customers responded favorably to our Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, taking the pressure off to our cash later in the quarter.

現在進入我們的第四季度業績。我們的淨銷售額處於指導範圍的上限。客戶對我們的黑色星期五和網絡星期一活動反應良好，減輕了本季度晚些時候現金的壓力。

Our gross margins began to stabilize in the fourth quarter as the rate of gross margin decline was significantly lower than the third quarter. The sequential improvement in gross margin enabled us to exceed the upper end of our guidance, delivering an adjusted EBITDA of $16 million.

我們的毛利率在第四季度開始趨於穩定，因為毛利率下降的速度明顯低於第三季度。毛利率的連續改善使我們能夠超過指導的上限，調整後的 EBITDA 為 1600 萬美元。

Our primary focus for '22 was on enhancing the organization's focus in order to reignite sustainable long-term growth. We brought on Tim Martin, our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer; Hyon Park, Chief Technology Officer; Bridgett Zeterberg, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Legal Officer; we promoted Vivian Alhorn to Chief Marketing Officer; and we have now brought on Mark Mizicko as our Chief Commercial Officer.

我們'22 的主要重點是加強組織的重點，以重新點燃可持續的長期增長。我們聘請了首席運營官兼首席財務官 Tim Martin； Hyon Park，首席技術官； Bridgett Zeterberg，首席人力資源官兼首席法務官；我們將 Vivian Alhorn 提升為首席營銷官；我們現在任命 Mark Mizicko 為我們的首席商務官。

These new leaders have a wealth of experience from public and private retail and consumer-facing companies, and they will be instrumental in bringing our teams into alignment and driving our strategic initiatives. We also invested in new technology across the business that will enable us to provide customers with a more seamless experience moving forward.

這些新領導擁有來自公共和私營零售以及面向消費者的公司的豐富經驗，他們將有助於使我們的團隊保持一致並推動我們的戰略計劃。我們還在整個業務領域投資了新技術，這將使我們能夠為客戶提供更加無縫的體驗。

In the distribution center, we put in place new technology that has increased our capacity and allows us to deliver product to our customers faster than ever before, much improved over last year. Our new ERP system provides the foundation for an improved shopping experience on the website and enhanced data integration across the organization.

在配送中心，我們採用了新技術，提高了我們的能力，使我們能夠比以往更快地向客戶交付產品，比去年有了很大改進。我們新的 ERP 系統為改善網站購物體驗和增強整個組織的數據集成奠定了基礎。

Within inventory and product, we prioritized rightsizing our inventory with the goal of entering 2023 with adequate levels to support demand and the environment. Although we had to be more promotional to move these units last year, we were successful in these efforts and ended the year with inventory up only 6% compared to prior year, with the year-over-year increase coming solely from basics and early spring receipts. Normalizing for these categories, we were down 5% to the prior year, representing the most efficient levels of inventory we have seen in some time.

在庫存和產品中，我們優先調整我們的庫存，目標是進入 2023 年時以足夠的水平支持需求和環境。儘管去年我們不得不加大促銷力度來移動這些單元，但我們在這些努力中取得了成功，到年底庫存與去年相比僅增長 6%，同比增長僅來自基本庫存和早春庫存收據。將這些類別標準化後，我們比上一年下降了 5%，這是我們一段時間以來看到的最有效的庫存水平。

We know that new product consistently drives customer anticipation and demand. We delivered new collections for her this year with the successful relaunch of our Studio collection, relaunch of testing and other collaboration with Betsey Johnson and a refined focus on delivering more colors and fashion-forward pieces that drove frequency and demand from our loyal customer base.

我們知道，新產品會不斷推動客戶的預期和需求。今年，我們為她推出了新系列，成功地重新推出了我們的 Studio 系列，重新推出了測試和與 Betsey Johnson 的其他合作，並專注於提供更多顏色和時尚前衛的單品，從而推動了我們忠實客戶群的頻率和需求。

And finally, we focus on expanding our customer file through reengagement of lapsed customers and new customer acquisition. We shifted our marketing efforts toward customer retention, bringing back lapsed customers and reaffirmed our commitment to attract new customers into our brand through our store channel. These efforts allowed us to deliver an increase in our active customer file this year.

最後，我們專注於通過重新吸引流失的客戶和獲取新客戶來擴大我們的客戶檔案。我們將營銷工作轉向留住客戶，帶回流失的客戶，並重申我們通過商店渠道吸引新客戶加入我們品牌的承諾。這些努力使我們今年的活躍客戶檔案有所增加。

Overall, 2022 was a year of new learnings transformation and laying the groundwork for the brand's continued success and expansion. We believe that the changes we made this past year were critical to set us up for future growth. As we look ahead to 2023, we will continue to expand our store footprint driving customer file growth, delivering exciting merchandise to fill every need in our cost and enhance our customer relationships. With these key areas in mind, we will keep investing in optimizing and growing our store footprint to acquire new customers into the brand and expand our customer file.

總體而言，2022 年是新知識轉型的一年，為品牌的持續成功和擴張奠定了基礎。我們相信，我們在過去一年所做的改變對於為未來的增長做好準備至關重要。展望 2023 年，我們將繼續擴大我們的商店足跡，推動客戶檔案增長，提供令人興奮的商品以滿足我們的成本需求並加強我們的客戶關係。考慮到這些關鍵領域，我們將繼續投資優化和擴大我們的門店足跡，以吸引新客戶加入品牌並擴大我們的客戶檔案。

Our store base is profitable, and they remain our primary new customer acquisition channel. New stores drive significant web sales from newly acquired customers and the net spend of these customers in the first year is approximately 25% higher than that of web acquired customers in their first year.

我們的商店基地是有利可圖的，它們仍然是我們主要的新客戶獲取渠道。新店推動了新獲得客戶的顯著網絡銷售，這些客戶第一年的淨支出比網絡獲得客戶第一年的淨支出高出約 25%。

Customers develop connection with our product and brand by interacting with us in our stores. We are committed to bringing customers into our stores where we believe a compelling and personalized experience will increase engagement and loyalty. We plan to open between 30 and 40 new stores in 2023 as stores are a proven competitive advantage for this business.

客戶通過在我們的商店與我們互動，與我們的產品和品牌建立聯繫。我們致力於將顧客帶到我們的商店，我們相信引人入勝的個性化體驗將提高參與度和忠誠度。我們計劃在 2023 年開設 30 至 40 家新店，因為經證實，店面是這項業務的競爭優勢。

We understand the customer loyalty is determined by our ability to provide her with new and innovative products that increase her frequency of purchases. In 2023, we plan on launching a steady stream of new products across multiple categories to peak her interest and increase our engagement with the brand. The new products we introduced generated positive feedback in customer interest, and we will build on this throughout the year.

我們了解客戶忠誠度取決於我們是否有能力為她提供新的和創新的產品，從而增加她的購買頻率。 2023 年，我們計劃推出跨多個類別的穩定新產品，以激發她的興趣並增加我們與品牌的互動。我們推出的新產品在客戶興趣方面產生了積極的反饋，我們將在這一年中以此為基礎。

In terms of marketing and promotional strategies, we are focused on improving our promotional cadence. We plan to offer a more consistent flow of smaller, exciting events to engage our customer and drive spend frequency. As part of this, we are redesigning our Torrid Cash promotion from a quarterly event to smaller and shorter events throughout the year. This change will reduce our reliance on large Torrid Cash events at the end of every quarter.

在營銷和促銷策略方面，我們專注於提高促銷節奏。我們計劃提供更一致的小型、激動人心的活動，以吸引我們的客戶並提高消費頻率。作為其中的一部分，我們正在重新設計我們的 Torrid Cash 促銷活動，從每季度一次的活動改為全年舉辦的規模較小、時間較短的活動。這一變化將減少我們對每季度末大型 Torrid Cash 活動的依賴。

While there is a lot of discussion in the retail industry about the macro environment, we will remain laser-focused on what we can control. We believe that the product and operational improvements we've made will position us for success and allow us to focus on key areas that we know will drive the business such as enhancing the customer experience, driving productive growth in our customer file and delivering exceptional product. I am thrilled to see our team continue to provide our customers with world-class fitting products that are truly life-changing as well as unmatched in-store customer experience.

雖然零售業對宏觀環境有很多討論，但我們仍將高度關注我們可以控制的事情。我們相信，我們所做的產品和運營改進將使我們取得成功，並使我們能夠專注於我們知道將推動業務發展的關鍵領域，例如增強客戶體驗、推動客戶檔案的生產性增長以及提供卓越的產品.我很高興看到我們的團隊繼續為我們的客戶提供真正改變生活的世界級配件產品以及無與倫比的店內客戶體驗。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Tim, who will provide more detailed quarterly and annual financials.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給蒂姆，他將提供更詳細的季度和年度財務數據。

Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon to all of you. Before I begin, I'd like to recognize the Torrid team for how much they've accomplished while navigating through uncertainties associated with all the changes they dealt with this past year. We implemented operational and strategic changes that have improved the foundational health of our business, and we focused on controlling what we can control. I believe that the changes we made will allow us to increase shareholder value and deliver long-term growth.

謝謝你，麗莎，大家下午好。在開始之前，我想表彰 Torrid 團隊，感謝他們在過去一年應對的所有變化帶來的不確定性中取得的成就。我們實施了運營和戰略變革，改善了我們業務的基本健康狀況，並且我們專注於控制我們可以控制的東西。我相信我們所做的改變將使我們能夠增加股東價值並實現長期增長。

I would like to begin by highlighting the accounting policy change that you may have seen in today's press release. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, we made a voluntary change in our accounting policy regarding the classification of private-label credit card funds. Historically, we recorded PLCC Funds as a reduction to SG&A expenses.

我想首先強調您可能在今天的新聞稿中看到的會計政策變更。在 2022 財年第四季度，我們自願更改了有關自有品牌信用卡資金分類的會計政策。從歷史上看，我們將 PLCC 基金記錄為 SG&A 費用的減少。

Under the new policy, we record PLCC in net sales, and all metrics reported using net sales will be impacted. We believe the recognition of the PLCC Funds in net sales is preferable because it will enhance the comparability of our financial statements with those of many of our industry peers and provide greater transparency into the performance metrics related to our industry. This reclassification has been retrospectively applied to all periods discussed in today's prepared remarks.

根據新政策，我們在淨銷售額中記錄 PLCC，所有使用淨銷售額報告的指標都將受到影響。我們認為 PLCC 基金在淨銷售額中的認可是更可取的，因為這將增強我們的財務報表與我們許多行業同行的財務報表的可比性，並為與我們行業相關的績效指標提供更大的透明度。這一重新分類已追溯應用於今天準備好的評論中討論的所有時期。

I will now provide a detailed discussion of our financial results followed by our outlook, starting with the fourth quarter results. Net sales came in at $301 million compared to $318 million last year. Comparable sales in the quarter declined 5.4%. We had a strong start to the quarter as customers were eager to shop doing our Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, which took the pressure off our Torrid Cash event later in the quarter.

我現在將詳細討論我們的財務業績，然後是我們的展望，從第四季度業績開始。淨銷售額為 3.01 億美元，而去年為 3.18 億美元。本季度可比銷售額下降 5.4%。我們本季度開局良好，因為客戶渴望在我們的黑色星期五和網絡星期一活動中購物，這減輕了本季度晚些時候我們的 Torrid Cash 活動的壓力。

Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $96 million or 31.9% of net sales compared to $104 million or 32.6% of net sales in the fourth quarter of last year. The 70 basis point decline was primarily driven by promotional events and higher inflationary costs, partially offset by the higher PLCC Funds. Selling, general and administrative expenses in the quarter were $78 million compared to $70 million for the fourth quarter in the prior year. As a percentage of sales, SG&A increased from -- to 25.8% from 22.0% compared to the fourth quarter of last year.

第四季度的毛利潤為 9600 萬美元，占淨銷售額的 31.9%，而去年第四季度為 1.04 億美元，占淨銷售額的 32.6%。 70 個基點的下降主要是由促銷活動和更高的通貨膨脹成本推動的，部分被更高的 PLCC 基金所抵消。本季度的銷售、一般和管理費用為 7800 萬美元，而去年第四季度為 7000 萬美元。與去年第四季度相比，SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比從 22.0% 增加到 25.8%。

The increase of 380 basis points was primarily driven by higher wages, onetime expenses related to employee separation agreements and disposal of assets and other miscellaneous items. I should note that approximately 110 basis points of our increase is related to unusual items with 70 basis points related to severance, which is in our adjusted EBITDA add-back and 40 basis points related to the disposal of assets. We continue to be focused on controlling our controllables and leveraging SG&A as we see sales volume increase going forward.

增加 380 個基點的主要原因是工資上漲、與員工離職協議相關的一次性費用以及資產處置和其他雜項。我應該注意到，我們增加的大約 110 個基點與異常項目有關，其中 70 個基點與遣散費有關，這是在我們調整後的 EBITDA 加回中，40 個基點與資產處置有關。我們繼續專注於控制我們的可控物並利用 SG&A，因為我們看到未來銷量會增加。

Marketing expenses in the quarter came in at $16 million compared to $17 million last year. As a percentage of sales, marketing expense was relatively flat last year at 5.3% compared to 5.5% in the fourth quarter of last year. Net loss for the quarter was $4 million or a loss of $0.04 per share compared to a net loss of $23 million or a loss of $0.21 per share for the same period last year. We did not have any adjustments to net income in the fourth quarter of 2022. But for comparison purchases, adjusted net income last year was $10 million or $0.09 per share.

本季度的營銷費用為 1600 萬美元，而去年為 1700 萬美元。與去年第四季度的 5.5% 相比，去年營銷費用佔銷售額的百分比相對持平，為 5.3%。本季度淨虧損為 400 萬美元或每股虧損 0.04 美元，而去年同期為淨虧損 2300 萬美元或每股虧損 0.21 美元。我們沒有對 2022 年第四季度的淨收入進行任何調整。但對於比較購買，去年調整後的淨收入為 1000 萬美元或每股 0.09 美元。

In addition to the GAAP measures, we believe that adjusted EBITDA is an important measure that we use to evaluate and manage our business. Adjusted EBITDA came in above our guidance range at $16 million or 5.4% of net sales compared to $28 million in the fourth quarter of last year or 8.9% of net sales.

除了 GAAP 措施外，我們認為調整後的 EBITDA 是我們用來評估和管理我們業務的重要措施。調整後的 EBITDA 高於我們的指導範圍，為 1600 萬美元或淨銷售額的 5.4%，而去年第四季度為 2800 萬美元或淨銷售額的 8.9%。

Now turning to our fiscal 2022 results. For the full year, net sales were down 1% to $1.29 billion compared to $1.30 billion last year, and comparable sales were down 3.4% to last year. Although we delivered an increase in transactions and units sold, we saw lower average order values that impacted our total sales.

現在轉向我們 2022 財年的業績。全年淨銷售額從去年的 13 億美元下降 1% 至 12.9 億美元，可比銷售額比去年下降 3.4%。儘管我們實現了交易量和銷售量的增加，但我們發現平均訂單價值下降影響了我們的總銷售額。

Our total customer base grew by 2% in fiscal 2022 to 3.9 million customers and net sales per customer was down 3% to last year. The size of our loyalty program -- our customer loyalty program grew from 3.5 million customers in 2021 to 3.7 million customers in 2022 as they represented 95% of our total sales.

我們的總客戶群在 2022 財年增長了 2%，達到 390 萬客戶，每位客戶的淨銷售額比去年下降了 3%。我們忠誠度計劃的規模——我們的客戶忠誠度計劃從 2021 年的 350 萬客戶增加到 2022 年的 370 萬客戶，因為他們占我們總銷售額的 95%。

We continue to be focused on delivering product anchored in a compelling fit, which we believe delivers an industry-leading return rate and speaks to the quality of our fit and assortment as evidenced by our 10% return rate.

我們繼續專注於提供以引人注目的合身為基礎的產品，我們相信這提供了行業領先的退貨率，並證明了我們合身和分類的質量，我們的 10% 退貨率就是證明。

As mentioned in prior calls, we renegotiated a private -- a new private-label credit card agreement this year and continue to see growth and positive reception to the program. In 2022, over 30% of our sales came from the private-label credit card. And we saw higher tender share rates coming from our most valuable VIP customers and new customers shopping the brand.

正如之前的電話所述，我們今年重新談判了一項私人 - 一項新的私人標籤信用卡協議，並繼續看到該計劃的增長和積極接受。 2022 年，我們超過 30% 的銷售額來自自有品牌信用卡。我們看到更高的投標份額來自我們最有價值的 VIP 客戶和購買該品牌的新客戶。

Our private label credit card has been instrumental in helping drive frequency and retention from our customers, as evidenced by our credit cardholders spending more than 2x more than noncredit cardholders this past year.

我們的私人標籤信用卡在幫助提高客戶頻率和保留率方面發揮了重要作用，我們的信用卡持卡人去年的支出是非信用卡持卡人的 2 倍多就證明了這一點。

We opened 6 Torrid stores and 6 Curve stores in the fourth quarter, and we closed 2 Torrid stores. We opened a total of 18 Torrid stores and 8 Curve stores in fiscal 2022, and we closed 11 Torrid stores. Our stores continue to be our primary acquisition channel to bring customers into the brand, and customers acquired through our stores are more likely to shop in both channels and become omnichannel customers.

我們在第四季度開設了 6 家 Torrid 商店和 6 家 Curve 商店，並關閉了 2 家 Torrid 商店。我們在 2022 財年共開設了 18 家 Torrid 商店和 8 家 Curve 商店，並關閉了 11 家 Torrid 商店。我們的商店仍然是我們將客戶帶入品牌的主要獲取渠道，通過我們的商店獲得的客戶更有可能在這兩個渠道購物並成為全渠道客戶。

This behavior strengthens our channel mix contributing to a 61% e-commerce penetration rate in 2022 compared to the 63% we delivered last year. Our omnichannel customers also shop 3.4x more than a single channel customer and drove over half of our total sales across the brand. Gross profit in fiscal '22 was $460 million or 35.7% of net sales.

這種行為加強了我們的渠道組合，使我們在 2022 年的電子商務滲透率達到 61%，而去年為 63%。我們的全渠道客戶的購物量也比單一渠道客戶多 3.4 倍，並推動了我們整個品牌總銷售額的一半以上。 22 財年的毛利潤為 4.6 億美元，占淨銷售額的 35.7%。

Adjusted EBITDA was $152 million or 11.8% of net sales compared to $246 million or 19.0% of net sales in 2021. Although we were promotional in order to clear our inventory in what the retail industry has referred to as a difficult macro environment, we still delivered double-digit adjusted EBITDA margins, which speaks to the strength of our brand and its ability to drive profitability.

調整後的 EBITDA 為 1.52 億美元，占淨銷售額的 11.8%，而 2021 年為 2.46 億美元，占淨銷售額的 19.0%。儘管我們進行了促銷以在零售業稱之為艱難的宏觀環境中清理庫存，但我們仍然實現了兩位數的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率，這說明了我們品牌的實力及其推動盈利能力的能力。

Net income for the year was $50 million or $0.48 per share compared to a net loss of $30 million or $0.27 per share for the same period last year. For comparison purposes, adjusted net income for fiscal 2021 was $121 million or $1.10 per share.

全年淨收入為 5000 萬美元或每股 0.48 美元，而去年同期淨虧損為 3000 萬美元或每股 0.27 美元。出於比較目的，2021 財年調整後的淨收入為 1.21 億美元或每股 1.10 美元。

Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash and cash equivalents at the end of fiscal 2022 totaled $14 million. Total liquidity at the end of the year, including available credit, was $147.8 million. Total debt at the end of the year was $329 million,compared to $341 million at the end of 2021. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 2.1x at year-end.

轉向資產負債表。截至 2022 財年末，我們的現金和現金等價物總計 1400 萬美元。年底的總流動資金（包括可用信貸）為 1.478 億美元。年底的總債務為 3.29 億美元，而 2021 年底為 3.41 億美元。年底時我們的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 之比為 2.1 倍。

Inventory at the end of the quarter was $180 million, an increase of 6% compared to the $171 million in the prior year. The increase is from early spring receipts and basics, which have a longer life. We are very pleased with the quality of our inventory, and excluding the spring and basics, our inventory levels were down 5% to last year, putting us in a good position as we enter 2023.

本季度末的庫存為 1.8 億美元，與上年同期的 1.71 億美元相比增長了 6%。增長來自早春收據和基礎款，它們的使用壽命更長。我們對庫存質量非常滿意，不包括春季和基礎庫存，我們的庫存水平比去年下降了 5%，這使我們在進入 2023 年時處於有利地位。

Turning to the outlook for the year. Our outlook is based on our current understanding of the environment and business trends. However, we continue to operate in an uncertain macro environment in 2023 and material changes beyond our control may have an impact to our projections. For the full year, which is a 53-week for 2023, we expect net sales to be between $1.265 billion and $1.320 billion. We anticipate that growth will be skewed towards the second half of the year, owing primarily to the net new stores and 53-week reporting period in the fourth quarter. We estimate that adjusted EBITDA to be between $140 million and $152 million. Although we expect to see gross margin stabilization for the full year, we are funding a slight increase in SG&A primarily due to incentive compensation plans.

談到今年的展望。我們的展望基於我們當前對環境和業務趨勢的理解。然而，我們在 2023 年繼續在不確定的宏觀環境中運營，我們無法控制的重大變化可能會對我們的預測產生影響。對於全年，即 2023 年的 53 週，我們預計淨銷售額將在 12.65 億美元至 13.20 億美元之間。我們預計增長將偏向於今年下半年，這主要是由於第四季度的淨新店和 53 週的報告期。我們估計調整後的 EBITDA 在 1.4 億美元至 1.52 億美元之間。儘管我們預計全年毛利率會穩定，但我們正在為 SG&A 的小幅增長提供資金，這主要是由於激勵補償計劃。

In the first quarter of 2023, we expect net sales to be between $305 million and $313 million. Our guidance incorporates deceleration of demand trends we've seen in the most recent quarters as we navigate through the current environment. We estimate that adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter to be between $35 million and $40 million. This assumes the same continued pressure on our gross margin rate as we comp a tighter comparison to last year.

2023 年第一季度，我們預計淨銷售額將在 3.05 億美元至 3.13 億美元之間。我們的指導意見結合了我們在當前環境中導航時在最近幾個季度看到的需求趨勢減速。我們估計第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 在 3500 萬至 4000 萬美元之間。這假設我們的毛利率持續面臨壓力，因為我們與去年進行了更嚴格的比較。

Capital expenditures are projected to be between $40 million and $45 million for fiscal '23, reflecting infrastructure improvements and investments and between 30 and 40 new store openings. Our new stores in 2023 are planned late in the third and fourth quarter with the majority of the stores opening in the fourth quarter. We are also planning to close 5 stores this year.

23 財年的資本支出預計在 4000 萬美元至 4500 萬美元之間，這反映了基礎設施的改善和投資以及 30 至 40 家新店的開業。我們計劃在第三季度末和第四季度末在 2023 年開設新店，其中大部分門店將在第四季度開業。我們還計劃今年關閉 5 家門店。

In closing, we navigated a number of challenges and still delivered a double-digit adjusted EBITDA margins and profitable net income for the year as well as growth in our customer file. As we look ahead into 2023, we believe that the changes implemented in the past year will position us to deliver positive long-term growth for our shareholders. We will remain focused on the results that we can control, emphasizing a customer experience, productive customer file growth and ensuring we have the best quality of product.

最後，我們克服了許多挑戰，仍然實現了兩位數的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率和當年的盈利淨收入以及我們客戶檔案的增長。展望 2023 年，我們相信過去一年實施的變革將使我們能夠為股東帶來積極的長期增長。我們將繼續專注於我們可以控制的結果，強調客戶體驗、富有成效的客戶檔案增長並確保我們擁有最好的產品質量。

With that, I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給接線員提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自美國銀行的 Lorraine Hutchinson。

I wanted to follow up on the changes you're making to Torrid Cash. Have you been able to test these? And what's the customer reaction look like?

我想跟進您對 Torrid Cash 所做的更改。你能測試這些嗎？客戶的反應是什麼樣的？

So we've just tested our -- we're in the midst of testing our first shift in the first quarter. So normally, we would have the redemption rate towards the end of the quarter. This year, we've had an earlier Torrid Cash redemption time period about, I guess, 10 days ago, it ended, and we'll have another one towards the end of the quarter. A lot of the shipping for that redemption rate will happen and move into the second quarter.

所以我們剛剛測試了我們 - 我們正在測試第一季度的第一次轉變。所以通常情況下，我們會在本季度末獲得贖回率。今年，我們有一個更早的 Torrid Cash 贖回時間，我猜，大約 10 天前，它結束了，我們將在本季度末有另一個。該贖回率的大量出貨將發生並進入第二季度。

So we'll have a better indication of how we see that moving forward. Lorraine, I would say that we're offsetting kind of the historical strength of the Torrid Cash program, which has softened in the last year with other types of promotional stories for the customer. And we've been testing many of these over the past, since I arrived at the company, hampered a bit by the large inventory position that we had last year. But have accumulated a lot of very positive learnings in terms of how to promote and then compel the customer at a much more positive and healthy gross margin return on that.

因此，我們將更好地表明我們如何看待這一進展。洛林，我想說我們正在抵消 Torrid Cash 計劃的歷史優勢，該計劃在去年因針對客戶的其他類型的促銷故事而有所減弱。自從我來到公司以來，過去我們一直在測試其中的許多功能，但由於我們去年的大量庫存狀況而受到了一些阻礙。但是在如何促進和迫使客戶獲得更積極和健康的毛利率回報方面積累了很多非常積極的經驗。

And so one of the reasons we're bringing -- I'm very excited about bringing Mark into the company as he has an extensive amount of experience in not just inventory management and planning but also in margin optimization through these promotional elements.

因此，我們帶來的原因之一——我很高興將馬克帶入公司，因為他不僅在庫存管理和規劃方面擁有豐富的經驗，而且在通過這些促銷元素優化利潤方面也擁有豐富的經驗。

More to come on this, but what we've done is really this year, mitigated the risk of the program as we saw it softening over time by switching it to a fixed smaller time period and also augmenting that with other promotional activity that has been very margin accretive at this point in the testing stage.

更多關於這方面的內容，但我們今年所做的確實是，降低了該計劃的風險，因為我們看到它隨著時間的推移而軟化，方法是將其切換到一個固定的更小的時間段，並通過其他促銷活動來增加它在測試階段的這一點上利潤非常增加。

And then on the gross margin front, can you speak a bit about the product cost inflation that you expect and any transportation savings that you think will flow through this year?

然後在毛利率方面，您能否談談您預期的產品成本通脹以及您認為今年將產生的任何運輸節省？

Sure. So we do feel that and have plans that we will have some recovery in gross margin this year. As we are moving towards the back of the year, we're starting to see some improvement in first cost on product, and we're also starting to see some improvement as we have been seeing and will continue to see in freight.

當然。因此，我們確實感覺到併計劃今年我們的毛利率將有所回升。隨著我們邁向年底，我們開始看到產品的初始成本有所改善，而且我們也開始看到一些改善，正如我們已經看到並將繼續看到的那樣。

But that is in inbound freight and outbound freight related to customer delivery is still growing and expanding. So it offsets some level of that. But we are seeing some improvement in costing. We also brought in a new SVP of product development and sourcing last year. And his strategies are in terms of new vendor bases and new country of origins that have the quality that we expect are being able to be integrated into our sourcing strategies and those are also helping our cost to this as we move forward.

但是，與客戶交付相關的進港運費和出港運費仍在增長和擴大。所以它抵消了一定程度的影響。但我們看到成本計算有所改善。去年，我們還聘請了一位新的產品開發和採購高級副總裁。他的戰略是在新的供應商基地和新的原產國方面，它們具有我們期望的質量，能夠整合到我們的採購戰略中，並且隨著我們的前進，這些也有助於我們為此付出代價。

Our next question is from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group.

我們的下一個問題來自 Telsey Advisory Group 的 Dana Telsey。

Nice to see the progress that you're making. Can you give us an update on the Studio line, what you've seen from the Studio line, how it's performing relative to your expectations? And as you went through the fourth quarter, how was the exit rate? And Lisa, how would you define the health of the consumer? And then just lastly, with the SG&A uptick slightly, how do you think of that cadence through the year if you unpack the measures of the margins going forward?

很高興看到你正在取得的進步。您能否向我們介紹一下 Studio 系列的最新情況，您從 Studio 系列中看到了什麼，它的表現如何與您的預期相符？當你經歷第四季度時，退出率如何？麗莎，你如何定義消費者的健康？最後，隨著 SG&A 的小幅上升，如果你拆開未來的利潤率措施，你如何看待這一年的節奏？

Dana, we're really pleased with how Studio is performing. The core product there, the core fabrication is [spunky], but we also have 4 to 5 other fabrics that we've been testing and that will become part of the core assortment of that line. We are expanding it as we move forward and adding polished denim, so Studio denim in that line, some what I would call Studio streetwear. So very happy. We see any time that we introduce a new idea is very compelling to our customer. It drives frequency, it drives conversion and a need to need that she absolutely has. So that's exciting. We have linen in it now, and that's a linen blend, and that's doing well in addition to that. So great launch and more opportunity as we move forward. I'm not quite sure your second question about the fourth quarter. Can you...

Dana，我們對 Studio 的表現非常滿意。那裡的核心產品，核心製造是 [spunky]，但我們還有 4 到 5 種我們一直在測試的其他面料，它們將成為該系列核心產品的一部分。隨著我們的前進，我們正在擴展它並添加拋光牛仔布，所以該系列中的 Studio 牛仔布，我稱之為 Studio streetwear。所以很開心。我們發現任何時候我們引入的新想法對我們的客戶都非常有吸引力。它驅動頻率，它驅動轉換和她絕對擁有的需要。所以這很令人興奮。我們現在有亞麻，這是一種亞麻混紡，除此之外，它的表現還不錯。隨著我們前進，如此偉大的發布和更多機會。我不太確定你關於第四季度的第二個問題。你可以嗎...

The cadence of the quarter, how are you seeing the health of the consumer as the quarter ended? Or any update to know how the state of the consumer is?

本季度的節奏，您如何看待本季度結束時消費者的健康狀況？或了解消費者狀態的任何更新？

Sure. So what we've seen is some positive momentum over the fourth quarter back to stores, which was very exciting. And at the beginning of this quarter, we also saw an improvement in store traffic. It has become choppy in the last couple of weeks, but we -- there's a lot of seasonality and lots of different conversations that could be had about that. but some really nice green shoots in terms of the customers' recovery and return to the stores.

當然。所以我們看到的是第四季度回到商店的一些積極勢頭，這非常令人興奮。在本季度初，我們還看到商店客流量有所改善。在過去的幾周里它變得不穩定，但我們 - 有很多季節性和很多不同的對話可以就此進行。但就客戶的恢復和返回商店而言，一些非常好的綠芽。

That, combined with our focus in the stores on customer acquisition and getting that customer to the dressing room. So -- and tracking conversion rates in the stores in conjunction with traffic, we're seeing some nice improvement there. And the focus of getting the customer to the dressing room, the conversion rate almost doubles what you get a customer in the dressing room.

再加上我們在商店中專注於吸引客戶並將該客戶帶到更衣室。所以 - 並結合流量跟踪商店的轉化率，我們在那裡看到了一些不錯的改進。以及將客戶帶到更衣室的重點，轉化率幾乎是在更衣室吸引客戶的兩倍。

And so we've done some additional training in the stores and onboarding in the stores that really focuses on that customer journey, and we're seeing some very positive reaction from that, both from customer acquisition as well as conversion.

因此，我們在商店中進行了一些額外的培訓，並在商店中進行了真正專注於客戶旅程的入職培訓，我們看到了一些非常積極的反應，包括客戶獲取和轉化。

Again, nice positive shoots, a little bit choppy on the store return. And actually, we're seeing some -- now we had a little bit of softness online, I think it's a lot of people have discussed and we're seeing a bit more of a shift back to online. Again, we look at it as an omni customer, and we baked in what we think are the most likely scenarios for this year with, again, 1 more year of really having a lot of moving pieces on the macro front that could have an impact at any time.

再一次，很好的正面拍攝，商店退貨時有點不穩定。實際上，我們看到了一些——現在我們在網上有一點軟化，我想很多人都在討論，我們看到更多的人回到了網上。同樣，我們將其視為全能客戶，我們考慮了我們認為今年最有可能發生的情況，再過一年，宏觀方面確實有很多可能產生影響的活動隨時。

And so really managing this, as Tim says, controlling the controllables and being nimble and aggressive and a multi-channel environment. So happy with some of the things we're seeing, looking for margin recovery this year, really thinking about that done in 2 steps on the merch margin side. And then I'll let Tim, who always love to talk to me about SG&A, tell you about SG&A.

因此，正如蒂姆所說，真正管理這一點，控制可控因素，變得靈活、積極和多渠道環境。對我們所看到的一些事情感到非常高興，期待今年的利潤率回升，真正考慮在商品利潤率方面分兩步完成。然後我會讓總是喜歡和我談論 SG&A 的蒂姆告訴你關於 SG&A 的事情。

Dana, from an SG&A perspective, I think on a full year basis, we are going to see a slight deleveraging just because of the return of incentive compensation, although we're going to do everything we can to mitigate that over time. I think you'll see that start to improve itself by the back half of the year as we expect that the sales velocity in the back half will be better than the front half.

Dana，從 SG&A 的角度來看，我認為在全年的基礎上，由於激勵補償的回歸，我們將看到輕微的去槓桿化，儘管我們將盡一切努力隨著時間的推移減輕這種情況。我認為你會看到它在今年下半年開始自我改善，因為我們預計下半年的銷售速度將好於上半年。

We are still seeing a lot of the same things that other retailers talking about around wage pressure in stores and things like that. But we are focusing on a lot of efficiency activity around how we staff our stores, how we staff and run our distribution centers overall costing programs in terms of understanding how we source non-merch procurement. And my goal is to drive that number down as we talked about controlling the controllables and find a way to drive leverage in that number.

我們仍然看到許多與其他零售商談論商店工資壓力等類似的事情。但我們正在關注很多效率活動，圍繞我們如何為我們的商店配備人員，我們如何配備人員和運行我們的配送中心整體成本核算計劃，以了解我們如何採購非商品採購。我的目標是在我們討論控制可控因素時降低這個數字，並找到一種方法來推動這個數字的槓桿作用。

Our next question is from Mark Altschwager with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Baird 的 Mark Altschwager。

I guess, first, with respect to the revenue guidance, it does imply a strengthening trend as we move through the year. Can you talk a little bit more about what's giving you the confidence there and key drivers you'd call out aside from the timing of the store openings and the 53rd week as you mentioned? And then just also on the revenues, any color on your underlying expectations on customer growth versus spend per customer?

我想，首先，關於收入指導，它確實意味著我們在這一年中有加強的趨勢。你能多談談是什麼給了你信心，以及除了你提到的開店時間和第 53 週之外你會提到的主要驅動因素嗎？然後就收入而言，您對客戶增長與每位客戶支出的潛在預期有何不同？

So we do expect that we will have easier comparisons, by the way, in the second half of the year. The new store growth will be an opportunity. And then we're seeing that we're getting more and more receptivity to new product launches, and I think we're excited about sort of what we're going to see that contribute over the course of the year. So it's a combination of all of those things. So the easier comparison being one of the major aspects of it.

因此，我們確實希望在今年下半年進行更容易的比較。新店的增長將是一個機會。然後我們看到我們對新產品發布的接受度越來越高，我認為我們對我們將在這一年中看到的貢獻感到興奮。所以它是所有這些東西的組合。因此，更容易比較是它的主要方面之一。

Okay. And then on gross margin for the fourth quarter, results were a little bit better than we were looking for, and it seems like you beat perhaps your plans. I know the quarter was really about clearing the inventory to set you up for a better 2023, but curious what drove the upside or the better trend maybe than expected in the fourth quarter? And if there's any takeaways from some of the test and learning that you're doing on new promotional tactics that you would call out?

好的。然後關於第四季度的毛利率，結果比我們預期的要好一點，看起來你可能超過了你的計劃。我知道本季度實際上是為了清理庫存，為更好的 2023 年做好準備，但好奇是什麼推動了第四季度的上行趨勢或比預期更好的趨勢？如果從一些測試和學習中有任何收穫，你正在做你會大聲疾呼的新促銷策略？

I think that it was less -- there was less pressure to clear than there had been in third quarter, number one. So -- and because receipts mitigated at the end of the year. We really ahead of our early spring receipts, as we had mentioned in the body of the comments.

我認為它更少 - 與第三季度相比，清除壓力更小，第一。所以 - 因為收款在年底有所減少。正如我們在評論正文中提到的那樣，我們確實提前收到了早春的收據。

We also are starting to see some positive movement in gross margin efforts. So some of the promotional and marketing strategies that we have put in place are starting to see some leverage in gross margin. And so I think the rate was slightly better than we anticipated. And that -- just by a smidge, but we're still making better progress and less of a delta on a year-over-year quarterly gross margin basis.

我們也開始看到毛利率方面出現了一些積極的變化。因此，我們實施的一些促銷和營銷策略開始對毛利率產生一定的影響。所以我認為這個比率比我們預期的要好一些。而且 - 只是一點點，但我們仍在取得更好的進展，並且在同比季度毛利率基礎上的增量更少。

So I think the nice news on that is some -- for us internally, some -- when we didn't have the excess inventory that was overwhelming at the level of the business, we were actually able to employ some of our strategies to see some margin improvement. And that's positive as we move forward.

所以我認為這方面的好消息是——對我們內部來說，一些——當我們沒有在業務層面壓倒一切的過剩庫存時，我們實際上能夠採用我們的一些策略來查看一些保證金改善。隨著我們前進，這是積極的。

Our next question is from Corey Tarlowe with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Corey Tarlowe。

So Lisa, I wanted to ask you on new customer acquisition. You have clearly emphasized that stores serve as a great way to acquire new customers. But I'm just curious, over the last quarter, what has worked from a marketing or product perspective, obviously, outside of stores that has really helped to drive new customers into the Torrid brand?

所以麗莎，我想問你關於新客戶獲取的問題。您已經明確強調商店是獲取新客戶的好方法。但我只是很好奇，在上個季度，從營銷或產品的角度來看，顯然在商店之外真正幫助推動新客戶進入 Torrid 品牌的是什麼？

Sure. So we look at the total customer file. And one of the big successes we had last year was customers who had lapsed bringing them back to the brand. And so that was a growth area for us in the customer scenario.

當然。因此，我們查看整個客戶檔案。去年我們取得的巨大成功之一是讓流失的客戶重新回到該品牌。因此，這是我們在客戶場景中的一個增長領域。

We've also just -- this didn't really apply as much to last year, but some of the nice things that we're seeing early this year is we've just switched to a new digital marketing agency with a very clear strategic direction to build customer file throughout all categories, reactivation, new customers, and then focus on retention and frequency as well. And we're feeling like we're on the right path in terms of doing that.

我們也只是 - 這並沒有真正適用於去年，但我們今年年初看到的一些好事是我們剛剛轉向了一個戰略非常明確的新數字營銷機構方向是在所有類別、重新激活、新客戶中建立客戶檔案，然後還要關注保留率和頻率。我們覺得我們在這樣做方面走在正確的道路上。

But to your point and reinforcing what we said in the call, what has really worked for this business over many years is the customer experience that she has in the dressing room in the stores as a new customer, her conversion into an omni-customer and the incredible lifetime value that -- and dedication that customer has with very high retention rates. And that is fundamentally the underlying philosophy of this business, of this organization.

但就你的觀點而言，並強調我們在電話會議中所說的，多年來真正對這家企業起作用的是她作為新顧客在商店更衣室裡的顧客體驗，她轉變為全方位顧客，以及令人難以置信的終身價值 - 以及客戶具有非常高保留率的奉獻精神。這從根本上說是這個企業、這個組織的基本理念。

Definitely, omni, the most effective, most productive opportunity for us to acquire new customers, retain them and build frequency is through the store experience. All of our data on the customer experience in the stores is the highest I've ever seen in a retail environment and that opportunity to get her in a dressing room and double the regular store conversion rate by getting her in there. And then the long focused marketing strategies to build frequency are really the strategy that we're moving forward and move that customer quickly to an omni-environment because they do spend more as an omni-customer.

毫無疑問，全方位是我們獲得新客戶、留住他們和建立頻率的最有效、最有成效的機會是通過商店體驗。我們所有關於商店客戶體驗的數據都是我在零售環境中見過的最高水平，並且有機會讓她進入更衣室，並通過讓她進入更衣室將常規商店的轉化率提高一倍。然後，長期專注於建立頻率的營銷策略實際上是我們正在推進的策略，並將該客戶快速轉移到全環境，因為他們作為全客戶確實花費更多。

So that's simply the story. And by moving from, I think, when I walked in the door, there's -- all of the focus on marketing was top-of-funnel awareness and consideration moving that to a much more robust 360-degree focus that starts with the journey that the customer has primarily in the store.

這就是故事。我認為，當我走進門時，所有對營銷的關注都是漏斗頂部的意識和考慮，將其轉移到更強大的 360 度關注點，從旅程開始顧客主要在商店裡。

So we'll start opening more stores this year, and we will accelerate that as we move into following years. We have all of the data that we need to indicate that this is a very sound business strategy for us as we move forward. And we're going to go into this very thoughtfully, strategically with a test-and-react mentality as we do this. But I'm feeling excited about the opportunity, the runway that we can build by reigniting this method that we've used historically in the brand to drive the growth of the brand. That was a big answer to your question, Corey. So I hope I answered what you wanted to hear.

因此，我們今年將開始開設更多門店，並在接下來的幾年中加快步伐。我們擁有所有需要的數據來表明這對我們來說是一個非常合理的業務戰略，因為我們向前邁進。在我們這樣做的時候，我們將以一種測試和反應的心態，非常周到地、戰略性地進行這項工作。但我對這個機會感到興奮，我們可以通過重新點燃我們在品牌歷史上使用的這種方法來推動品牌的增長來建立跑道。這是對你問題的一個很好的回答，科里。所以我希望我回答了你想听到的。

Yes. It's very helpful. And then just, Tim, we've talked about controlling the controllables. I know that, that is your focus. And I recognize there's a lot that you probably couldn't control at the onset of COVID, and now there's probably a little bit more in your control now than there has been in quite some time. But as you think about what you can control and you think about prioritizing those actions that you need to take, how do you think about ranking some of those aspects that you're -- that you have on your priority list?

是的。這非常有幫助。然後，蒂姆，我們談到了控制可控因素。我知道，那是你的重點。而且我認識到，在 COVID 剛開始時，您可能無法控制很多事情，現在您可以控制的事情可能比過去相當長一段時間要多一些。但是，當您考慮可以控制的內容並考慮對需要採取的行動進行優先排序時，您如何考慮對您在優先列表中的某些方面進行排名？

Yes. I think we look at sort of the biggest and best bang for our buck and that's always going to be managing inventory and how we buy, rank and sell through the product. That's always going to be the biggest contribution to profitability and growth of this business. I think overall, we're also going to dig into every aspect within SG&A. We're going to look at how we staff our stores, how we're compensating our store associates, how efficient we can be in the distribution center and how we can drive efficiencies to leverage SG&A the lowest possible, sales volume as possible.

是的。我認為我們著眼於最大和最好的投資方式，那就是管理庫存以及我們如何通過產品購買、排名和銷售。這將永遠是對該業務盈利能力和增長的最大貢獻。我認為總的來說，我們還將深入研究 SG&A 的各個方面。我們將研究我們如何為我們的商店配備人員，我們如何補償我們的商店員工，我們在配送中心的效率如何以及我們如何提高效率以盡可能低地利用 SG&A，銷售量。

So we're taking a look at pretty much everything, how we buy bags in stores, how we're doing distribution of store supplies. Basically, everything and anything that is driving cost in the organization or causing inflationary cost pressure, we're going to take a look at.

所以我們正在研究幾乎所有事情，我們如何在商店購買包包，我們如何分發商店用品。基本上，所有推動組織成本或導致通貨膨脹成本壓力的事情，我們都會看看。

Our next question is from Jonna Kim with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Jonna Kim。

Just curious what you're assuming in terms of the promotional environment in your guidance. And also, as you continue to open new stores, have you noticed any difference in the store ramp and performance of your new stores versus historical levels? And how do you think about store productivity as you continue to open stores?

只是好奇您在指南中對促銷環境的假設。而且，隨著您繼續開設新店，您是否注意到新店的門店數量和業績與歷史水平有何不同？隨著您繼續開店，您如何看待商店生產力？

So as we considered this year, we realized we were coming off of a very aggressive promotional environment due to the inventory scenario that we had at the company. So we're taking a measured approach. We don't think we can just pull the rug out from under the customer that we have to be compelling from a promotional story, but we're also focused on mitigating that over time with smaller events and more margin-rich events as we move forward. And then again, of course, inventory management will help control that promotional environment as well. So we're focused on all of those things.

因此，正如我們今年所考慮的那樣，我們意識到由於公司的庫存情況，我們正在擺脫非常激進的促銷環境。所以我們正在採取慎重的方法。我們不認為我們可以只是從客戶下面拉出我們必須從促銷故事中吸引人的地毯，但我們也專注於隨著時間的推移通過更小的活動和更多利潤豐厚的活動來緩解這種情況向前。當然，庫存管理也將有助於控制促銷環境。所以我們專注於所有這些事情。

We don't have -- we haven't opened a lot of stores in the last 4 years. So COVID to now, we really haven't been opening a lot of stores. The stores that we are opening and the performance that we're seeing for new stores are very, very healthy. Our ramps, we basically don't have a ramp. Our ramp is very, very fast on stores. And our new -- of the limited number of new stores that we've opened, they are hitting or beating their pro forma. So we're happy with that.

我們沒有——在過去的 4 年裡我們沒有開設很多商店。所以 COVID 到現在，我們真的沒有開設很多商店。我們正在開設的商店和我們看到的新商店的表現非常非常健康。我們的坡道，我們基本上沒有坡道。我們的坡道在商店裡非常非常快。而我們新開的新店數量有限，他們正在打敗他們的備考。所以我們對此很滿意。

Our next question is from Don (sic) [Dylan] Carden with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自 Don (sic) [Dylan] Carden 和 William Blair。

I guess to follow up on that one, on the promo, I mean, I kind of understand that, but there's a lot of margin to put back into the business for just stabilizing gross margin from a promotional standpoint. I mean what's the risk that you kind of, after 2 years, get that customer fully used to a more promotional business, I guess?

我想跟進那個，在促銷上，我的意思是，我有點理解，但是從促銷的角度來看，為了穩定毛利率，有很多利潤可以重新投入到業務中。我的意思是，在 2 年後，讓那個客戶完全習慣更具促銷性的業務，你有什麼風險，我猜？

So we're pulling back this year, to be clear. What I said is we're pulling back and being more, I would say, surgical about it and that because we don't have an inventory issue that we are not having to be highly promotional. The other thing that's going to make a difference for us as we move forward is really fundamentally how we by product, by channel, how we rank product and using all the analytics that we have at our disposal to make better inventory investment choices based on customer behavior.

所以我們今年要退縮，明確一點。我說的是我們正在撤退，我想說的是，對它進行外科手術，因為我們沒有庫存問題，所以我們不必進行高度促銷。在我們前進的過程中，另一件對我們產生影響的事情實際上是我們如何按產品、渠道、我們如何對產品進行排名以及使用我們擁有的所有分析來根據客戶做出更好的庫存投資選擇行為。

So the quality of the inventory, the channel assortment of the inventory, the overall investment, combined with much more surgical promotional cadence is a combination of how we see moving forward. So we think we'll have a level of recovery this year, and then we should be back next year in due time to some historical merch margins.

因此，庫存的質量、庫存的渠道分類、整體投資，再加上更外科手術式的促銷節奏，是我們如何看待未來發展的結合。所以我們認為我們今年會有一定程度的複蘇，然後我們應該在明年適當的時候回到一些歷史商品利潤率。

So it's -- we're not trying to get it all back in 1 year, but we also are telling a different promotional story than we had been telling and managing inventory more appropriately by channel, which allows us to pull back on the promotional messages as well.

所以它是——我們並不想在 1 年內全部恢復，但我們也講述了一個不同於以往的促銷故事，並通過渠道更適當地管理庫存，這使我們能夠收回促銷信息以及。

So the offset then as it relates to kind of the language around gross margin guidance for the year would be input inflation, cost inflation?

那麼，與今年毛利率指導相關的某種語言的抵消將是投入通貨膨脹、成本通貨膨脹？

I'm sorry, I don't -- can you ask that again?

對不起，我不知道——你能再問一遍嗎？

Yes. So I thought the big gross margin commentary is more or less a stabilization of gross margin. And so I guess if you are pulling back, even to some extent on promotional activity, why you wouldn't expect to give -- why there wouldn't be more flow through in gross margin?

是的。所以我認為大毛利率評論或多或少是毛利率的穩定。因此，我想如果你正在撤退，即使在某種程度上是在促銷活動上，你為什麼不期望給予——為什麼毛利率不會有更多的流動？

There is flow through to the gross margin. We're just mitigating that to make sure that we're not -- we are up against a highly promotional year. We don't think we're going to get it all back in 1 year, and we're doing -- we're thinking about the recovery over a 2-year period.

有流向毛利率。我們只是在減輕這種情況，以確保我們不會——我們正面臨一個高度促銷的一年。我們認為我們不會在 1 年內全部恢復，而我們正在做——我們正在考慮 2 年內的複蘇。

The question is how quickly that comes through. And then -- and we also, I would say, have factored in a variable related to an uncertain economic situation. And so there is a balance between what we've invested, margin recovery and some, I guess, some hedge against macro environment -- economic issues. Does that make sense?

問題是它能多快通過。然後——我想說的是，我們也考慮了與不確定的經濟形勢相關的變量。因此，在我們的投資、利潤率恢復和一些，我想，一些對沖宏觀環境——經濟問題之間存在平衡。那有意義嗎？

So gross margin, yes, I think I just misunderstood the language around the commentary for gross margin.

所以毛利率，是的，我想我只是誤解了毛利率評論中的語言。

Gross margin expands this year.

今年毛利率有所擴大。

Yes, we do expect expansion.

是的，我們確實期待擴張。

And no -- okay. I'll take that offline. And my actual question was more along the lines of so it sounds like sort of inventory is a big piece of the recovery this year. Is that are you increasing the frequency of newness? How are you thinking about kind of like the architecture kind of coming out of this year, yes?

不——好吧。我會把它離線。我的實際問題更像是這樣，所以聽起來庫存是今年經濟復甦的重要組成部分。那是你在增加新的頻率嗎？你如何看待今年出現的建築類型，是嗎？

The newness is similar to prior years. The breadth and depth of that newness, it might be slightly different and shifted. But in general, we're not changing the rhythm of the business. We're changing how we're buying it and how we're promoting it. And that just the base level of inventory will help mitigate and soften the level of promotions.

新意與往年相似。這種新穎性的廣度和深度可能會略有不同和改變。但總的來說，我們不會改變業務節奏。我們正在改變我們購買它的方式以及我們推廣它的方式。而且僅基本庫存水平將有助於減輕和軟化促銷水平。

And we know that -- I'm just -- what drives this customer are new ideas, new product, new fashion, studios, those types of things. And so we're -- we have a calendar for the year of introducing new ideas to this customer, which -- so there are 2 things that we really think about as a business. It's store expansion, customer acquisition related to that and the drive to omni. And then the launch of new ideas to the customer, not always just fashion but core ideas as well because we can provide everything she needs to buy for her closet. And so we focus on those -- that as well as we move forward.

我們知道——我只是——驅動這個客戶的是新想法、新產品、新時尚、工作室，這些類型的東西。因此，我們 - 我們有一個日曆，用於向該客戶介紹新想法的那一年 - 因此，我們真正考慮的業務有兩件事。這是商店擴張、與之相關的客戶獲取以及全向驅動力。然後向客戶推出新創意，不僅是時尚，還有核心創意，因為我們可以提供她衣櫥所需的一切。因此，我們專注於這些——以及我們向前邁進。

And then last year, as far as from a mix standpoint, am I correct in remembering that they're sort of skewed more towards basics and less occasion?

然後去年，就混合的角度而言，我記得他們更傾向於基本款而不是場合，我是否正確？

Well, we overbought everything last year. Well, certainly, we're not left out when inventory was split around. The approach to basics was we just didn't -- we weren't as aggressive because of the longer shelf life of that product. And so we have a bit more time this year to work through the basics, and we just make sure that we were as clean as possible in any prior season clothes and that we've started the year as fresh as possible. And we did.

好吧，我們去年超買一切。好吧，當然，當庫存被分割時，我們並沒有被排除在外。基本的方法是我們只是沒有——我們沒有那麼激進，因為該產品的保質期更長。所以今年我們有更多的時間來完成基礎工作，我們只是確保我們在任何前一季的衣服上都盡可能乾淨，並且我們以盡可能新鮮的方式開始新的一年。我們做到了。

Our fall holiday inventory is down substantially. The increase in inventory, the OP is really related to spring, early receipts or on-time receipts because of supply chain challenges in the past. So happy -- I am happy with what we're -- how we were able to get through the excess inventory last year without taking the liability into this year.

我們的秋季假期庫存大幅下降。庫存的增加，OP確實與春季有關，因為過去供應鏈的挑戰而導致提前收貨或準時收貨。很高興——我對我們現在的情況感到高興——我們去年如何在不承擔責任的情況下解決過剩庫存。

Our next question is from Brooke Roach with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的布魯克羅奇。

My question is on the marketing outlook for the year. Can you talk to any further changes that you see on the horizon to improve the customer engagement? And do you need to reinvest some of the promotional recapture into additional marketing spend to continue to fuel the business's growth?

我的問題是關於今年的營銷前景。您能否談談您看到的任何進一步的變化以提高客戶參與度？您是否需要將部分促銷活動重新投入到額外的營銷支出中以繼續推動業務增長？

Sure. What I would tell you is that we've engaged 2 new digital marketing agencies. One is a more traditional approach where we have a strategy, we deploy the funds within that strategy. They optimize it and make the investments. As we move through with this new agency that is much more focused on retail in general than our previous agency was, we will invest as we start to see productivity in that.

當然。我要告訴你的是，我們已經聘請了 2 家新的數字營銷機構。一種是更傳統的方法，我們有一個戰略，我們在該戰略中部署資金。他們對其進行優化並進行投資。隨著我們與這個比我們以前的機構更專注於零售的新機構的發展，我們將在我們開始看到生產力時進行投資。

We are also testing with a different agency things like connected TV, very small, very minimal, but again, giving us the visibility to how we should invest, and we will continue to invest as we move forward. I think on a multiyear basis, as we start accelerating store openings, we will also supplement that customer acquisition with more investment in marketing as we move through and not just marketing for top of the funnel but marketing to actually also drive customers to the stores so that they can convert at a higher level there and become omni.

我們還在與不同的機構進行測試，比如聯網電視，非常小，非常小，但再次讓我們了解應該如何投資，我們將在前進的過程中繼續投資。我認為在多年的基礎上，隨著我們開始加速開店，我們還將在我們前進的過程中通過更多的營銷投資來補充客戶獲取，而不僅僅是營銷漏斗頂部，而是實際上也將客戶吸引到商店的營銷，所以他們可以在那裡進行更高級別的轉換並成為無所不能的。

So I think I'm very happy with -- I'm very pleased with the marketing team that we have in place and their strategic approach to the business, and we're seeing nice progress there. So to year-end, once we see productivity, we will continue to invest in it, to that productivity. And on a longer-term basis, we are anticipating a higher level of investment, particularly to support the customer acquisition through both stores and digital.

所以我想我很高興——我對我們現有的營銷團隊和他們的業務戰略方法感到非常滿意，我們在那裡看到了很好的進展。因此，到年底，一旦我們看到生產力，我們將繼續對其進行投資，以提高生產力。從長遠來看，我們預計會有更高水平的投資，特別是支持通過商店和數字渠道獲取客戶。

And if I could just ask one more for Tim. Can you speak to your priorities for cash use, including the debt level, and any plans for potential repayment this year?

如果我能再為蒂姆再要一個。您能否談談現金使用的優先順序，包括債務水平，以及今年可能的還款計劃？

No, our plan to -- any excess cash we have right now is going to be focused on growing the business and that store growth that we talked about. It seems to be the best source of generation, both of new customers and return on investment. So that's the #1 focus as of today. And we'll see as the business evolves through the course of the year, where we are, but we're very comfortable from a liquidity perspective. We're very comfortable with cash flow generation. And we feel like we've got enough to manage what we need to do to grow this business. And then beyond that, we'll come back with the highest and best use after we've focused on that growth.

不，我們的計劃是——我們現在擁有的任何多餘現金都將專注於發展業務和我們談到的商店增長。它似乎是新客戶和投資回報的最佳來源。所以這是今天的#1 焦點。隨著業務在一年中的發展，我們會看到我們所處的位置，但從流動性的角度來看，我們非常滿意。我們對產生現金流非常滿意。我們覺得我們已經有足夠的能力來管理我們需要做的事情來發展這項業務。然後除此之外，在我們專注於這種增長之後，我們將以最高和最好的使用率回來。

Our next question is from Alex Straton with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Alex Straton。

Two for me. First on SG&A., I'm trying to understand how much of the $78 million number this quarter was unusual and how you think about that going into 2023? And then second, a bit related to the last question, it looks like cash levels are at the lowest of the year and down quite a bit year-over-year. It seems like that might be normal cadence for you, but I want to understand, is that right and kind of how you feel about cash levels at the moment.

兩個給我。首先在 SG&A 上，我試圖了解本季度 7800 萬美元的數字中有多少是不尋常的，以及您如何看待進入 2023 年的情況？其次，與最後一個問題有點相關，看起來現金水平處於今年最低水平，並且同比下降了很多。這對您來說似乎是正常的節奏，但我想了解，您目前對現金水平的看法是否正確？

Sure. I'll answer your second question first. We're very comfortable with cash levels. It is a seasonal thing as we come out of the holiday and also as we built up the inventory that we came through last year with, we paid that off. So I'm not at all concerned about cash flow or liquidity. As I mentioned, we have more than an ample amount of liquidity and will drive the business to generate incremental cash flow throughout 2023. And we'll focus on cash flow and investment as the growth vehicles, primarily the store things we talked about.

當然。我先回答你的第二個問題。我們對現金水平非常滿意。這是一個季節性的事情，因為我們結束了假期，而且當我們建立了去年的庫存時，我們還清了。所以我根本不關心現金流或流動性。正如我提到的，我們擁有充足的流動性，並將推動業務在整個 2023 年產生增量現金流。我們將專注於現金流和投資作為增長工具，主要是我們談到的商店。

From an SG&A perspective in the fourth quarter, I kind of tried to address in my commentary. We had about $2 million related to severance-related activities. Those were included in our SG&A backed out for adjusted EBITDA. And then we had close to $1 million associated with some noncash write-off of some assets that we no longer were utilizing in our technology space. So those are the quantities of the SG&A unusual items. I did break out for you in my script the basis point impact of that, which was 70 basis points of our increase was due to severance and 40 basis points due to the disposal of assets.

從第四季度的 SG&A 角度來看，我有點試圖在我的評論中解決。我們有大約 200 萬美元與遣散費相關的活動有關。這些包含在我們的 SG&A 中，用於調整後的 EBITDA。然後我們有近 100 萬美元與一些我們不再在我們的技術領域使用的資產的非現金註銷相關。所以這些是 SG&A 不尋常項目的數量。我確實在我的腳本中為你打破了它的基點影響，這是我們增加的 70 個基點是由於遣散費和 40 個基點是由於資產處置。

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.

我們的問答環節已經結束。我想將會議轉回管理層徵求結束意見。

Thanks so much for joining us today and your interest in the company. We look forward to sharing our progress with you as the year progresses.

非常感謝您今天加入我們以及您對公司的興趣。隨著時間的推移，我們期待與您分享我們的進展。

Thank you, everyone.

謝謝大家。

This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開您的線路，感謝您的參與。