European Wax Center Inc (EWCZ) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the European Wax Center's First Quarter Fiscal 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Amir Yeganehjoo, Senior Vice President of Financial Planning and Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

女士們先生們，下午好，感謝你們的支持。歡迎來到歐洲蠟中心 2022 財年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）此時，我想將會議轉交給財務規劃和投資者關係高級副總裁 Amir Yeganehjoo。先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, and welcome to European Wax Center's First Quarter Fiscal '22 Earnings Call. With me today are David Berg, Chief Executive Officer; David Willis, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer. For today's call, David Berg will begin with a brief review of our first quarter performance and discuss the progress against our fiscal '22 priorities. Then David Willis will provide additional details regarding our financial performance, our recently completed recapitalization and our updated guidance.

謝謝，歡迎來到歐洲蠟像中心的第一季度 22 財年收益電話會議。今天和我在一起的是首席執行官 David Berg； David Willis，首席運營官兼首席財務官。在今天的電話會議上，David Berg 將首先簡要回顧我們第一季度的業績，並討論我們在 22 財年優先事項方面取得的進展。然後 David Willis 將提供有關我們的財務業績、我們最近完成的資本重組和我們更新的指導的更多詳細信息。

Following our prepared remarks, David Berg, David Willis and I will be available to take questions you have for us today. Before we start, I would like to remind you of our legal disclaimer. We will make certain statements today, which are forward-looking within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements about the outlook of our business and other matters referenced in our earnings release issued today. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our SEC filings as well as our earnings release issued today for a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results.

在我們準備好的發言之後，大衛·伯格、大衛·威利斯和我將回答您今天向我們提出的問題。在我們開始之前，我想提醒您我們的法律免責聲明。我們今天將發表某些聲明，這些聲明在聯邦證券法的意義上是前瞻性的，包括關於我們業務前景的聲明以及我們今天發布的收益報告中提到的其他事項。這些前瞻性陳述涉及許多可能導致實際結果大不相同的風險和不確定性。請參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件以及我們今天發布的收益報告，以更詳細地描述可能影響我們業績的風險因素。

Please also note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this call, and we take no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to our forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Also during this call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which adjust our GAAP results to eliminate the impact of certain items. You will find additional information regarding these non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of these non-GAAP to GAAP measures in our earnings release. A live broadcast of this call is also available on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.waxcenter.com.

另請注意，這些前瞻性陳述僅反映我們截至本次電話會議之日的意見，我們沒有義務根據新信息或未來事件修改或公開發布對我們前瞻性陳述的任何修改結果.同樣在這次電話會議中，我們將討論非 GAAP 財務措施，這些措施調整我們的 GAAP 結果以消除某些項目的影響。您將在我們的收益發布中找到有關這些非 GAAP 財務措施的更多信息以及這些非 GAAP 與 GAAP 措施的調節。我們網站 investors.waxcenter.com 的投資者關係部分也提供此次電話會議的現場直播。

I will now turn the call over to David Berg.

我現在將把電話轉給 David Berg。

Thank you, Amir, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

謝謝你，阿米爾，大家下午好。感謝您今天加入我們。

Before discussing our first quarter performance and expectations for the remainder of the year, I'd like to remind everyone about European Wax Center's tremendous business model. As the category creator, we have built a leading personal care franchise brand that has revolutionized the growing, highly fragmented market for out-of-home hair removal. The simplicity and scale of our asset-light franchise platform enables us to deliver tens of millions of trusted, efficacious and accessible wax services each year.

在討論我們第一季度的業績和對今年剩餘時間的預期之前，我想提醒大家注意 European Wax Center 的巨大商業模式。作為類別創造者，我們已經建立了一個領先的個人護理特許經營品牌，徹底改變了不斷增長、高度分散的戶外脫毛市場。我們的輕資產特許經營平台的簡單性和規模使我們每年能夠提供數以千萬計的可信、有效和可訪問的蠟服務。

We are proud of everything we've accomplished to date and remain on track to deliver our long-term growth targets. I would like to thank all of our associates and franchisee partners for continuing to flawlessly execute our growth initiatives while delighting our guests with an unparalleled waxing experience.

我們為迄今為止所取得的成就感到自豪，並繼續按計劃實現我們的長期增長目標。我要感謝我們所有的員工和特許經營合作夥伴繼續完美地執行我們的增長計劃，同時以無與倫比的打蠟體驗讓我們的客人感到高興。

It's clear from our first quarter performance that fiscal 2022 is off to a solid start, reflecting the strength of our business, consumer demand for our services and continued recovery from COVID-related headwinds we experienced early in fiscal 2021. While we reported fourth quarter results just a few weeks ago, we have continued to make progress against our strategic priorities for fiscal 2022. Most notably, we completed the refinancing of our capital structure at the beginning of April, and look forward to issuing a $3.30 per share special dividend in the coming days.

從我們第一季度的業績可以清楚地看出，2022 財年開局良好，這反映了我們的業務實力、消費者對我們服務的需求以及我們從 2021 財年初經歷的與 COVID 相關的逆風中持續復甦。雖然我們報告了第四季度業績就在幾週前，我們在 2022 財年的戰略重點方面繼續取得進展。最值得注意的是，我們在 4 月初完成了資本結構的再融資，並期待在 2020 年發行每股 3.30 美元的特別股息。未來的日子。

Turning to our Q1 results. We delivered on both of our primary growth drivers, opening new centers and driving positive same-store sales. We opened 21 net new centers, ending the quarter with 874 centers in 44 states. Our development pipeline is deeper than ever and continues to grow as we generate increased interest from multiunit operators and existing franchisees who are excited to expand their portfolios within European Wax Center.

轉向我們的第一季度結果。我們實現了我們的兩個主要增長動力，開設新中心和推動積極的同店銷售。我們淨開設了 21 個新中心，本季度末在 44 個州擁有 874 個中心。我們的開發管道比以往任何時候都更深入，並且隨著我們對多單元運營商和現有特許經營商的興趣增加而繼續增長，他們很高興在歐洲蠟中心內擴展他們的投資組合。

From a same-store sales perspective, we expected to deliver growth in the low 20s since many of our centers nationwide were either closed due to COVID-19 or beginning to rebound in the first quarter of 2021. However, existing centers outperformed our expectations with strong Wax Pass sales and redemptions, delivering a 29% same-store sales growth in Q1. California, where COVID closures were more concentrated in early 2021, accelerated its recovery and contributed approximately 1/3 of our 29% growth in the quarter.

從同店銷售的角度來看，我們預計將在 20 多歲左右實現增長，因為我們在全國范圍內的許多中心要么因 COVID-19 而關閉，要么在 2021 年第一季度開始反彈。但是，現有中心的表現超出了我們的預期Wax Pass 銷售和贖回強勁，第一季度同店銷售額增長 29%。 2021 年初 COVID 關閉更加集中的加利福尼亞州加速了復甦，並貢獻了本季度 29% 增長的約 1/3。

Looking beyond California, we are especially proud that our mature centers generated strong double-digit growth driven by traffic and price. In addition to our 2 growth drivers, system-wide sales of $207 million increased 32%. Total revenue of $45.4 million grew 24% and adjusted EBITDA of $15.2 million increased 21% year-over-year.

放眼加州以外，我們感到特別自豪的是，我們成熟的中心在交通和價格的推動下實現了強勁的兩位數增長。除了我們的 2 個增長動力外，全系統銷售額 2.07 億美元增長了 32%。總收入為 4540 萬美元，同比增長 24%，調整後的 EBITDA 為 1520 萬美元，同比增長 21%。

We are pleased to raise our fiscal 2022 top line and bottom line guidance to incorporate our first quarter performance, which David Willis will cover on the second half of today's call. Overall, the continued positive trends in our business give us confidence that both existing and new guests have returned to their personal care routine.

我們很高興提高我們的 2022 財年收入和利潤指導，以納入我們第一季度的業績，David Willis 將在今天電話會議的後半部分介紹這一點。總的來說，我們業務的持續積極趨勢讓我們相信，現有和新客人都已經恢復了他們的個人護理常規。

While we are pleased with our first quarter results, we remain focused on our long-term growth objectives as supported by our fiscal 2022 priorities, which are expanding our national footprint through new centers, increasing the pipeline of wax specialist staffing our centers, capitalizing on our enhanced marketing and loyalty programs to drive deeper customer engagement, leveraging our scale to benefit our supply chain and franchisees and finally, optimizing our capital structure to lower our cost of capital and increase flexibility.

雖然我們對第一季度的業績感到滿意，但我們仍然專注於我們 2022 財年優先事項支持的長期增長目標，這些優先事項正在通過新中心擴大我們在全國的足跡，增加為我們中心配備蠟專家的渠道，利用我們加強了營銷和忠誠度計劃，以推動更深入的客戶參與，利用我們的規模使我們的供應鍊和特許經營商受益，最後優化我們的資本結構以降低我們的資本成本並提高靈活性。

We have continued to make progress on these priorities since our last earnings call in mid-March. Starting with new center development. We have made investments over the past 2 years to elevate our approach to unit growth.

自 3 月中旬的上一次財報電話會議以來，我們在這些優先事項上繼續取得進展。從新中心開發開始。我們在過去 2 年中進行了投資，以提升我們的單位增長方法。

As we transitioned from European Wax Center's area representative model starting in 2019, we built a development function that allows us to be very thoughtful in how we address our extensive white space opportunity. As a reminder, we have a nationwide potential of more than 3,000 locations compared to the 874 open at the end of Q1. Our pipeline is several years deep and virtually all of our 330-plus licenses are held by existing franchisees.

當我們從 2019 年開始從歐洲蠟像中心的區域代表模型過渡時，我們建立了一個開發功能，使我們能夠非常周到地處理我們廣泛的空白空間機會。提醒一下，與第一季度末開放的 874 個相比，我們在全國范圍內有超過 3,000 個地點的潛力。我們的產品線已有數年之久，幾乎所有 330 多個許可證都由現有特許經營商持有。

With our improved development capabilities, we continue to focus our market planning to prioritize our top market opportunities. We are targeting 7% to 10% annual unit growth and expect more than 8% growth in fiscal 2022, also largely driven by our existing franchisees. 2/3 of our fiscal 2022 pipeline is either open or under construction, which gives us confidence in delivering on our full year goal while mitigating risk from a challenging construction environment.

隨著我們提高的開發能力，我們繼續專注於我們的市場規劃，以優先考慮我們的主要市場機會。我們的目標是年單位增長率為 7% 至 10%，並預計 2022 財年的增長率將超過 8%，這在很大程度上也受到我們現有特許經營商的推動。我們 2022 財年管道的 2/3 是開放的或在建的，這使我們有信心實現全年目標，同時降低具有挑戰性的施工環境帶來的風險。

Our second priority, increasing the pipeline of wax specialists is directly correlated to our new unit growth objectives as staffing is a critical component. We are passionate about licensed aestheticians and cosmetologists, delivering unmatched expertise with every service. As we open 70-plus centers per year for the foreseeable future, it is imperative that European Wax Center remains a brand of choice for licensed aestheticians. Our brand is already the #1 employer for Cosmetologists roles based on indeed.com engagement, and we're seeing early traction on our campaign to further elevate European Wax Center on hiring sites like Indeed and Glassdoor.

我們的第二個優先事項是增加蠟專家的管道，這與我們新的單位增長目標直接相關，因為人員配備是一個關鍵組成部分。我們熱衷於獲得許可的美容師和美容師，為每項服務提供無與倫比的專業知識。在可預見的未來，我們每年開設 70 多家中心，因此歐洲蠟像中心必須繼續成為持牌美容師的首選品牌。我們的品牌已經是基於 indeed.com 參與度的美容師職位的第一雇主，我們看到我們的活動在 Indeed 和 Glassdoor 等招聘網站上進一步提升 European Wax Center 的早期吸引力。

This spring, we also completed the pilot phase of a beauty school partnership program which attracts new graduates through educational and learning materials that showcase our brand and encourage students to connect with our local EWC center. Using that positive feedback from pilot participants, we better understand their desired employee value proposition and can share it with our franchisees to ensure a best-in-class workplace.

今年春天，我們還完成了美容學校合作計劃的試點階段，該計劃通過展示我們品牌的教育和學習材料吸引新畢業生，並鼓勵學生與我們當地的 EWC 中心建立聯繫。利用試點參與者的積極反饋，我們更好地了解他們期望的員工價值主張，並可以與我們的加盟商分享，以確保一流的工作場所。

Since the beauty school system is exceptionally fragmented and licensing requirements vary by state, the rollout of our successful pilot program is a long-term initiative that our dedicated operations and industry relations teams are advancing. They also generate significant engagement through large industry events which helps develop our direct e-mail campaign list with interest in candidates.

由於美容學校系統異常分散且許可要求因州而異，因此我們成功推出試點計劃是我們專門的運營和行業關係團隊正在推進的一項長期計劃。他們還通過大型行業活動產生了重要的參與度，這有助於開發我們對候選人感興趣的直接電子郵件活動列表。

In Q2, we are excited to launch a more robust portion of our website that not only offers insights into a general career in waxing but also highlights our in-center experience from a wax specialist perspective. The information we gather from a site will become yet another lever for European Wax Center to target candidates and promote a career with our brand.

在第二季度，我們很高興推出我們網站的更強大的部分，它不僅提供了對一般打蠟職業的見解，還從打蠟專家的角度突出了我們的中心體驗。我們從網站收集的信息將成為歐洲蠟像中心定位候選人並通過我們的品牌促進職業發展的另一個槓桿。

Turning to our third priority, our marketing and loyalty programs. Our marketing team is focused on 3 objectives: attract more, buy more and visit more. Our first marketing objective attract more leverages our media strategy to increase brand awareness and drive guests into our centers.

轉向我們的第三個優先事項，我們的營銷和忠誠度計劃。我們的營銷團隊專注於 3 個目標：吸引更多、購買更多和訪問更多。我們的第一個營銷目標吸引更多利用我們的媒體策略來提高品牌知名度並吸引客人進入我們的中心。

Our 2021 media plan reinforced our leadership position using branded content to make meaningful connections and drive nearly 30% more new guests into the center versus 2019. We are using this proven approach in 2022, while also broadening our reach to drive continued sustained growth. Utilizing advanced analytics, we've identified 2 new audiences, men and multicultural guests that are predisposed to waxing but are not yet aware of the EWC brand.

與 2019 年相比，我們的 2021 年媒體計劃利用品牌內容建立有意義的聯繫並吸引了近 30% 的新客人進入中心，鞏固了我們的領導地位。我們將在 2022 年使用這種行之有效的方法，同時擴大我們的影響力以推動持續的持續增長。利用先進的分析，我們確定了 2 個新的受眾群體，男性和多元文化的客人，他們傾向於打蠟，但還不知道 EWC 品牌。

We are concentrating our messaging to both of these segments during the warmer months which coincides with our peak season. We are also launching a new brand campaign this spring called a new state of smooth. Guest insights inform both the content and the creative assets of this campaign ensuring that it truly resonates with our target audiences, both visually and emotionally. Specifically, the content reinforces the 3 unique pillars of the European Wax Center brand.

在與我們的旺季相吻合的溫暖月份，我們將我們的信息集中到這兩個部分。今年春天，我們還推出了一項新的品牌活動，名為“新的順暢狀態”。客人的見解為該活動的內容和創意資產提供了信息，確保它在視覺和情感上真正與我們的目標受眾產生共鳴。具體而言，內容強化了歐洲蠟像中心品牌的 3 大獨特支柱。

One, our exclusive focus on waxing and our unique comfort wax; two, our expertise as the undisputed category leader; and three, the unapologetic confidence our guests feel after leaving a European Wax Center. Recent research indicates that we have been taking market share from independent salons, and we believe that through our attract more initiative we will maintain this momentum. We also continue to focus on in-center execution to drive services per transaction and retail product attachment to support our second objective, buy more.

第一，我們專注於打蠟和我們獨特的舒適蠟；第二，我們作為無可爭議的類別領導者的專業知識；第三，我們的客人在離開歐洲蠟像中心後感受到的毫無歉意的信心。最近的研究表明，我們一直在從獨立沙龍那里奪取市場份額，我們相信通過我們吸引更多的主動性，我們將保持這種勢頭。我們還繼續專注於中心執行以推動每筆交易的服務和零售產品附件以支持我們的第二個目標，購買更多。

Our proprietary retail products have recently earned beauty awards from prestigious publications like Glamour, Elle and NewBeauty. In fact, our award-winning ingrown hair serum and the new combing and brightening extensions that we launched in October have been such a hit with our guests that we launched an ingrown hair patch last month. These ingrown hair patches are the first and only patches on the market that are formulated to address ingrown hair, further demonstrating our drive for innovation and reinforcing our dominance in the category.

我們專有的零售產品最近獲得了 Glamour、Elle 和 NewBeauty 等知名刊物頒發的美容大獎。事實上，我們在 10 月推出的屢獲殊榮的內生髮精華素以及新的梳理和增亮產品在客人中大受歡迎，以至於我們上個月推出了內生髮貼。這些向內生長的毛髮貼片是市場上第一個也是唯一一個專為解決毛髮向內生長而設計的貼片，進一步展示了我們的創新動力並鞏固了我們在該類別中的主導地位。

Finally, in terms of encouraging our guests to buy more and visit more, our top priorities are to increase product attachment and guest retention through CRM programming and our EWC rewards loyalty offering. From a CRM standpoint, the appointment-based nature of our services means that all guests are contactable. As a result, we can deploy timely and targeted messages to any subset of guests to drive behaviors like purchasing or redeeming a Wax Pass or coming in for an additional visit.

最後，在鼓勵我們的客人購買更多和訪問更多方面，我們的首要任務是通過 CRM 編程和我們的 EWC 獎勵忠誠度產品來增加產品依戀度和客人保留率。從 CRM 的角度來看，我們服務的預約性質意味著所有客人都可以聯繫。因此，我們可以向任何客人子集部署及時且有針對性的消息，以推動購買或兌換 Wax Pass 或再次光顧等行為。

We expect the launch of our Unify Data Foundation later this year to make the design, implementation and measurement of our CRM initiatives easier than ever before. As we shared a few weeks ago, we are also encouraged by the early reads of our new loyalty program as a major function of our visit more and buy more objectives. We view EWC rewards as a tool to drive positive behavior over time while growing brand affinity among our guests.

我們預計今年晚些時候推出我們的 Unify Data Foundation 將使我們的 CRM 計劃的設計、實施和衡量比以往任何時候都更容易。正如我們在幾週前分享的那樣，我們也對我們新忠誠度計劃的早期閱讀感到鼓舞，這是我們訪問更多併購買更多目標的主要功能。我們將 EWC 獎勵視為一種工具，可以隨著時間的推移推動積極行為，同時提高客人對品牌的親和力。

Additionally, the program differentiates us from the independent service providers making up this highly fragmented category. Guests who have redeemed rewards in the program's first few months are spending more, particularly on our proprietary retail products. We have also seen higher guest frequency over the last 6 months. While we're still in the program's infancy, we look forward to continuing to analyze and share more updates later this year.

此外，該計劃使我們有別於構成這一高度分散類別的獨立服務提供商。在該計劃的前幾個月兌換獎勵的客人花費更多，特別是在我們的專有零售產品上。在過去的 6 個月裡，我們還看到了更高的客人頻率。雖然我們仍處於該計劃的初級階段，但我們期待在今年晚些時候繼續分析和分享更多更新。

Overall, we feel confident that we are taking the right steps to deepen our relationships with our guests as evidenced by our double-digit growth in retained guests versus Q1 of last year. Our fourth priority is to continue leveraging our scale to enhance our supply chain and share these benefits with our franchisees. European Wax Center's leading market share enables us to support our network through sourcing initiatives that mitigate costs for our franchisees, a distinct competitive advantage versus the independent salons and providers that make up most of the out-of-home waxing category.

總的來說，我們相信我們正在採取正確的步驟來加深我們與客人的關係，與去年第一季度相比，我們的保留客人數量實現了兩位數的增長就證明了這一點。我們的第四個優先事項是繼續利用我們的規模來加強我們的供應鏈，並與我們的加盟商分享這些好處。 European Wax Center 領先的市場份額使我們能夠通過採購計劃來支持我們的網絡，這些計劃可以降低我們的加盟商的成本，與構成大部分戶外蠟療類別的獨立沙龍和供應商相比，這是一個明顯的競爭優勢。

While we believe we are better positioned than most to navigate the current macro dynamics, inflation continues to impact the supply chain, and we are seeing higher inbound freight costs, and we are currently absorbing those additional costs on behalf of our franchisees. We believe this is the best approach at this time, and we will continue to evaluate if costs continue to increase. These higher freight costs are factored into the revised guidance that David Willis will address in a few minutes. We value the relationships with our franchisees and know that their profitability is key to our long-term growth.

雖然我們相信我們比大多數人更有能力駕馭當前的宏觀動態，但通貨膨脹繼續影響供應鏈，而且我們看到入境貨運成本更高，我們目前正在代表我們的特許經營商吸收這些額外成本。我們認為這是目前最好的方法，如果成本繼續增加，我們將繼續評估。這些更高的運費被納入修訂後的指南，大衛威利斯將在幾分鐘內解決。我們重視與特許經營商的關係，並且知道他們的盈利能力是我們長期增長的關鍵。

Our partnership has never been stronger. Over the long term, we believe that being the category leader gives us the pricing power to protect franchisee 4-wall margins. To date, we have not seen any notable volume impact because of the increased price on body services implemented earlier this year. In fact, despite the pandemic's impact on transaction volume, 4-wall margins increased from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2021.

我們的伙伴關係從未如此牢固。從長遠來看，我們相信，作為品類領導者，我們擁有保護加盟商 4 牆利潤率的定價權。迄今為止，由於今年早些時候實施的車身服務價格上漲，我們尚未看到任何顯著的銷量影響。事實上，儘管大流行對交易量產生了影響，但從 2019 財年到 2021 財年，4 層牆的利潤率有所增加。

We believe that our ability to drive margins higher over time is a hallmark of our appeal to both existing franchisees and private equity firms looking to invest and grow with us. Finally, our fifth priority for fiscal 2022 is to optimize our capital structure.

我們相信，隨著時間的推移，我們提高利潤率的能力是我們對希望與我們一起投資和發展的現有特許經營商和私募股權公司的吸引力的標誌。最後，我們 2022 財年的第五個優先事項是優化我們的資本結構。

To that end, we launched a whole business securitization in mid-March concurrent with our fourth quarter earnings call. While unique, this structure is used at many of the largest and highest quality franchisors. This debt instrument is especially suited for European Wax Center due to our asset-light nature, recurring revenue model, strong predictable cash flows and reliable growth trajectory.

為此，我們在 3 月中旬與第四季度財報電話會議同時啟動了整個業務證券化。這種結構雖然獨特，但已被許多最大和最高質量的特許人使用。由於我們的輕資產性質、經常性收入模式、強大的可預測現金流和可靠的增長軌跡，這種債務工具特別適合 European Wax Center。

We closed the transaction in early April and are using the net proceeds plus excess cash from our balance sheet to return capital to shareholders through a special dividend. From a long-term standpoint, we are especially excited that because our asset-light model enables us to delever quickly as we grow, this financing option gives us the flexibility to deliver shareholder value through special dividends, share buybacks or strategic investments without the need to restructure.

我們在 4 月初完成了交易，並使用淨收益加上資產負債表中的多餘現金通過特別股息向股東返還資本。從長遠來看，我們感到特別興奮的是，因為我們的輕資產模式使我們能夠隨著增長迅速去槓桿化，這種融資選擇使我們能夠靈活地通過特別股息、股票回購或戰略投資來實現股東價值，而無需重組。

In summary, while we remain watchful of the macroeconomic headwinds that continue to evolve and impact companies around the world, European Wax Center is uniquely positioned to navigate the environment and continue to unlock value. We are seeing strong traffic and increased frequency into our centers as our guests are highly engaged in the category and view waxing as a nondiscretionary part of their routine. This translates to a recurring revenue stream for our network and gives us the ability to leverage our pricing power.

總而言之，儘管我們繼續關注不斷發展並影響全球公司的宏觀經濟逆風，但 European Wax Centre 在駕馭環境並繼續釋放價值方面處於獨特的地位。由於我們的客人高度參與這一類別，並將打蠟視為他們日常生活中不可隨意的一部分，因此我們的中心客流量和頻率都在增加。這轉化為我們網絡的經常性收入流，並使我們能夠利用我們的定價能力。

We have also deployed several initiatives that should provide a pipeline of dedicated wax specialists. And lastly, our strong relationships with our suppliers and our scale enables us to support our franchisees with the tools that they need to provide best-in-class service. We remain inspired by our growth opportunities, both near and long term. We look forward to leveraging our new center pipeline, marketing initiatives and the superior guest experience to drive new guests and retain those guests that experience European Wax Center for the first time last year.

我們還部署了幾項舉措，這些舉措應該會提供一批專門的蠟專家。最後，我們與供應商的牢固關係以及我們的規模使我們能夠為我們的加盟商提供他們提供一流服務所需的工具。我們仍然受到近期和長期增長機會的鼓舞。我們期待利用我們新的中心管道、營銷計劃和卓越的賓客體驗來吸引新賓客並留住去年首次體驗歐洲蠟像中心的賓客。

2022 is off to a solid start, and we are well positioned to continue our favorable momentum and deliver another year of strong financial growth and significant accomplishments toward our long-term goals. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to David Willis to review our first quarter performance and increased guidance for fiscal 2022.

2022 年有了一個堅實的開端，我們已準備好繼續保持良好的勢頭，並在實現又一年的強勁財務增長和實現我們的長期目標方面取得重大成就。有了這個，我想把電話轉給大衛威利斯來審查我們第一季度的業績並增加對 2022 財年的指導。

David, over to you.

大衛，交給你了。

Thanks, David, and good afternoon, everyone. As a quick reminder, my remarks will focus on our adjusted results, which exclude costs related to our initial public offering and other onetime costs. You can find reconciliation tables to the most comparable GAAP figures in our press release and 8-K filed with the SEC today.

謝謝大衛，大家下午好。快速提醒一下，我的評論將集中在我們調整後的結果上，不包括與我們的首次公開募股相關的成本和其他一次性成本。您可以在我們的新聞稿和今天向美國證券交易委員會提交的 8-K 中找到與最具可比性的 GAAP 數據的調節表。

As David Berg mentioned, we are very pleased to share our results with you today. Since last year, we've acquired a significant number of new guests, increased the number of retained guests by double-digit rates and taken market share from independent competitors. We have strategically and thoughtfully managed cost increases on behalf of our network and raised prices on body services to preserve 4-wall EBITDA without seeing an impact on traffic.

正如 David Berg 提到的，我們很高興今天與您分享我們的成果。自去年以來，我們獲得了大量新客人，以兩位數的速度增加了保留客人的數量，並從獨立競爭對手手中搶走了市場份額。我們代表我們的網絡從戰略上和深思熟慮地管理了成本增加，並提高了車身服務的價格，以在不影響交通的情況下保持 4 壁 EBITDA。

Lastly, we have been disciplined with expenses while investing in the necessary capabilities to help us achieve long-term success as a public company. We believe all of these factors played a role in driving our solid performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2022.

最後，我們在投資必要的能力以幫助我們作為一家上市公司取得長期成功的同時，一直嚴格控制開支。我們相信，所有這些因素都對推動我們在 2022 財年第一季度的穩健表現發揮了作用。

Q1 system-wide sales increased 31.9% to $207 million and total revenue rose 23.9% from Q1 last year. We opened 21 net new centers during the first quarter and delivered 29% same-store sales growth. Most of our network was rebounding from COVID-related shutdowns and closures in Q1 of last year. So we expected Q1 2022 growth well above our long-term targets. However, robust Wax Pass redemptions across the network drove same-store sales performance above the low 20s outlook we shared in mid-March.

第一季度全系統銷售額增長 31.9% 至 2.07 億美元，總收入比去年第一季度增長 23.9%。我們在第一季度淨開設了 21 個新中心，實現了 29% 的同店銷售額增長。我們的大部分網絡都從去年第一季度與 COVID 相關的停工和關閉中恢復過來。因此，我們預計 2022 年第一季度的增長將遠高於我們的長期目標。然而，整個網絡強勁的 Wax Pass 贖回推動同店銷售業績高於我們在 3 月中旬分享的 20 多歲的低預期。

California was particularly constrained last year and contributed approximately 1/3 of our same-store sales growth. California has achieved its expected 2022 run rate faster than we had anticipated, which also contributed to our strong Q1 results. While we were pleased with California's recovery so far, it is still trending slightly below pre-COVID levels. And at this time, we do not expect an outsized contribution to future network performance.

加利福尼亞去年尤其受限，貢獻了我們同店銷售額增長的大約 1/3。加利福尼亞州 2022 年的預期運行速度比我們預期的要快，這也促成了我們強勁的第一季度業績。雖然我們對加州迄今為止的複蘇感到滿意，但它的趨勢仍略低於 COVID 前的水平。目前，我們預計不會對未來的網絡性能做出巨大貢獻。

From a profit standpoint, adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the impact of noncash items, onetime charges and other costs such as share-based compensation expense, increased 20.9% to $15.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin declined 80 basis points to 33.4% due to the introduction of public company costs this year as expected.

從利潤的角度來看，調整後的 EBITDA（不包括非現金項目、一次性費用和股權補償費用等其他成本的影響）增長 20.9% 至 1,520 萬美元。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率下降 80 個基點至 33.4%，原因是今年如預期引入了上市公司成本。

First quarter adjusted net income increased $5.7 million year-over-year to $8.6 million. In terms of the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $44.2 million, $178.9 million in borrowings outstanding under our term loan and no amounts outstanding under our $40 million revolver.

第一季度調整後的淨收入同比增長 570 萬美元，達到 860 萬美元。在資產負債表方面，我們在本季度結束時的現金和現金等價物為 4,420 萬美元，定期貸款項下的未償還借款為 1.789 億美元，而我們的 4,000 萬美元循環貸款項下沒有未償借款項。

As David Berg mentioned earlier, we were very pleased to complete the refinancing of our term loan just after the quarter ended. As of April 6, our long-term debt consist of $400 million of Class A senior secured notes, with a 5-year term and a 5.5% fixed interest rate. After deducting transaction fees, we used net proceeds of $372 million plus $15 million of excess cash off our balance sheet to pay off the previous term loan and declare a special dividend of $3.30 per share payable in a couple of days.

正如 David Berg 之前提到的，我們很高興在本季度結束後完成定期貸款的再融資。截至 4 月 6 日，我們的長期債務包括 4 億美元的 A 級優先擔保票據，期限為 5 年，固定利率為 5.5%。扣除交易費用後，我們使用 3.72 億美元的淨收益加上資產負債表上的 1500 萬美元超額現金來償還上期貸款，並宣佈在幾天內支付每股 3.30 美元的特別股息。

We are excited to already be generating strong shareholder returns post IPO, and we view this whole business securitization as a key step in our multiyear journey of delivering significant long-term value. Prior to the refinancing, our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio at the end of Q1 was 2x on a trailing 12-month basis. Pro forma for the transaction, our leverage ratio was approximately 5.3x. But given our current guidance for adjusted EBITDA growth in fiscal 2022, we would expect to delever more than half a turn during the balance of the year.

我們很高興在 IPO 後已經產生了可觀的股東回報，我們將整個業務證券化視為我們實現重要長期價值的多年旅程中的關鍵一步。在再融資之前，我們在第一季度末的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 的比率是過去 12 個月的 2 倍。交易的備考，我們的槓桿率約為 5.3 倍。但鑑於我們目前對 2022 財年調整後 EBITDA 增長的指導，我們預計在今年餘下時間將去槓桿化超過半週。

This whole business securitization not only locks in a fixed interest rate in this rising rate environment, but also enables us to easily grow our securitization as we naturally delever through consistent EBITDA growth. We believe that our modest capital expenditures and high cash flow generation uniquely position us to maintain longer-term leverage targets that are in line with best-in-class franchise models while lowering our cost of capital as we continue to fuel growth.

整個業務證券化不僅在這種利率上升的環境中鎖定了固定利率，而且還使我們能夠輕鬆地發展我們的證券化，因為我們通過持續的 EBITDA 增長自然地去槓桿化。我們相信，我們適度的資本支出和高現金流產生使我們能夠保持與一流特許經營模式一致的長期槓桿目標，同時在我們繼續推動增長的同時降低我們的資本成本。

Now I'd like to discuss the updates to our outlook for fiscal 2022. Despite some supply chain and permitting challenges in the development environment, we are pleased that our expectations for opening 70 to 72 net new centers this year remains unchanged. With the deepest pipeline in our history and 2/3 of our fiscal 2022 openings already opened or under construction, we feel confident in delivering more than 8% center growth in fiscal 2022. Our long-term growth expectations also remain intact, but we are raising our top and bottom line metrics for fiscal 2022 to incorporate our first quarter performance, net of some timing factors that I'll describe shortly.

現在我想討論一下我們對 2022 財年展望的更新。儘管存在一些供應鍊和允許開發環境中的挑戰，但我們很高興我們對今年淨開設 70 至 72 個新中心的預期保持不變。憑藉我們歷史上最深的管道和我們 2022 財年 2/3 的空缺已經開放或正在建設中，我們有信心在 2022 財年實現超過 8% 的中心增長。我們的長期增長預期也保持不變，但我們提高我們 2022 財年的頂線和底線指標，以納入我們第一季度的業績，扣除我稍後將描述的一些時間因素。

System-wide sales continued its robust momentum in Q1 and outperformed our expectations for 2 reasons: first, we collected cash related to Wax Pass sales earlier than we originally anticipated, which benefited Q1 system-wide sales in our total revenue. As a reminder, system-wide sales along with our royalty fee and marketing fund revenues are calculated based on when payments are collected from guests for services and Wax Pass purchases. Our centers accelerated the sale of Wax Passes in Q4 and early Q1 before our body service price increase went into effect, and we collected the related installment payments earlier than anticipated.

全系統銷售在第一季度繼續保持強勁勢頭並超出我們的預期，原因有兩個：首先，我們比我們原先預期的更早地收集了與 Wax Pass 銷售相關的現金，這有利於我們總收入中的第一季度全系統銷售。提醒一下，全系統銷售額以及我們的特許權使用費和營銷基金收入是根據向客人收取服務和 Wax Pass 購買款項的時間計算的。在我們的身體服務價格上漲生效之前，我們的中心在第四季度和第一季度初加快了 Wax Pass 的銷售，並且我們比預期更早地收取了相關的分期付款。

As a result, compared to our initial outlook, we estimate that approximately $5 million in cash-based system-wide sales pulled forward from Q2 into Q1. Second, due to the accelerated Wax Pass sales in Q4 and early Q1, Wax Pass redemptions were slightly stronger than expected. The increased Wax Pass purchases in December and January generated more first quarter visits than anticipated, contributing to our 29% comp.

因此，與我們最初的展望相比，我們估計大約 500 萬美元的全系統現金銷售額從第二季度提前到第一季度。其次，由於第四季度和第一季度初 Wax Pass 銷售加速，Wax Pass 贖回略強於預期。 12 月和 1 月增加的 Wax Pass 購買產生了比預期更多的第一季度訪問量，為我們的 29% 貢獻了貢獻。

We are raising our full year system-wide sales expectations by $5 million to $875 million to $915 million and increasing our same-store sales outlook by 150 basis points to 9.5% to 10.5% to flow through our Q1 performance. Our outlook implies same-store sales increases for the balance of the year, slightly below our long-term target of high single digits because we're lapping strong COVID rebound tailwinds in Q2 and Q3. It's still early in the fiscal year, but we're pleased with our trajectory as we start to analyze guest behavior in a much more normalized environment than we've seen in the past 2 years.

我們將全年全系統銷售預期提高 500 萬美元至 8.75 億美元至 9.15 億美元，並將我們的同店銷售預期提高 150 個基點至 9.5% 至 10.5%，以反映我們第一季度的業績。我們的展望意味著今年餘下時間的同店銷售額增長，略低於我們高個位數的長期目標，因為我們在第二季度和第三季度迎來了強勁的 COVID 反彈順風。現在仍處於本財年的早期，但我們對我們的軌跡感到滿意，因為我們開始在比過去 2 年所見的更加規範化的環境中分析客人的行為。

We're also raising our 2022 total revenue outlook by $1 million to $199 million to $209 million. At the midpoint, our guidance represents 14% total revenue growth year-over-year. Higher than our long-term target of low double-digit growth in part because of an incremental $8 million to $10 million from the new medical supply arrangement with franchisees, we started in Q1.

我們還將 2022 年的總收入預期提高了 100 萬美元至 1.99 億美元至 2.09 億美元。在中點，我們的指導代表總收入同比增長 14%。高於我們低兩位數增長的長期目標，部分原因是與特許經營商的新醫療供應安排增加了 800 萬至 1000 萬美元，我們從第一季度開始。

From a profit standpoint, we now expect fiscal '22 adjusted EBITDA of $69.5 million to $72.5 million. Our revised outlook incorporates 4 factors: the flow-through from higher top line expectations, better expense management in Q1, partially offset by increased freight costs to import our unique Comfort Wax. And finally, a shift in timing of certain advertising and SG&A expenses from Q1 into Q2.

從利潤的角度來看，我們現在預計 22 財年調整後的 EBITDA 為 6950 萬美元至 7250 萬美元。我們修訂後的展望包含 4 個因素：更高的收入預期帶來的收益，第一季度更好的費用管理，部分被進口我們獨特的 Comfort Wax 的運費增加所抵消。最後，某些廣告和 SG&A 費用的時間從第一季度轉移到第二季度。

Full year adjusted EBITDA margin expectations remain at nearly 35%, with Q4 expected to have the highest margin of the year as we invest more advertising dollars in Q2 and Q3 to support guest acquisition during peak season. Long term, we continue to expect low to mid-teens compounding annual adjusted EBITDA growth with margins in the mid- to high 30s. Finally, we've updated our adjusted net income guidance for the full year to reflect a few updated assumptions. First, the flow-through of the adjusted EBITDA factors described above, and second, we expect approximately $23.5 million in interest expense this year when factoring in the new senior secured notes and amortization of the related transaction fees.

全年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率預期保持在近 35%，預計第四季度的利潤率將是今年最高的，因為我們在第二季度和第三季度投入更多的廣告資金以支持旺季的客戶獲取。從長遠來看，我們繼續預計調整後的 EBITDA 年復合增長率為 15 到 15 左右，利潤率在 30 多歲到 30 多歲之間。最後，我們更新了全年調整後的淨收入指引，以反映一些更新後的假設。首先，上述調整後的 EBITDA 因素的流轉，其次，在考慮新的優先擔保票據和相關交易費用的攤銷後，我們預計今年的利息支出約為 2350 萬美元。

Lastly, given our ownership structure and updated valuation allowance expectations, our outlook now assumes negligible corporate income tax expense for fiscal 2022. We remain committed to providing annual guidance but because we are still newly public and lapping an abnormal year due to COVID recovery, we believe it's important to be clear about how the quarters are expected to play out.

最後，鑑於我們的所有權結構和更新的估值準備金預期，我們的展望現在假設 2022 財年的企業所得稅費用可以忽略不計。我們仍然致力於提供年度指導，但由於我們仍然是新上市的，並且由於 COVID 恢復而度過了異常的一年，我們相信重要的是要弄清楚這些季度的預期結果。

To recap the factors I just discussed, we assume a pull forward of approximately $5 million in system-wide sales from Q2 into Q1 versus our previous expectations for the second quarter. That equates to a pull forward of approximately $0.5 million of total revenue through the calculation of our marketing and royalty fees.

回顧一下我剛才討論的因素，我們假設從第二季度到第一季度的全系統銷售額將比我們之前對第二季度的預期提前約 500 萬美元。通過計算我們的營銷和特許權使用費，這相當於預支了約 50 萬美元的總收入。

The adjusted EBITDA impact to Q2 is approximately $700,000, comprised of the flow-through from the revenue pull forward as well as a shift in operating expenses from Q1 into Q2. All of these items are expected to be net neutral to the full year. From a long-term standpoint, we remain confident in our previously communicated growth targets of compounding annual growth of high single digits for new centers, high single digits for same-store sales, low double digits for total revenue and low to mid-teens for adjusted EBITDA.

調整後的 EBITDA 對第二季度的影響約為 700,000 美元，其中包括收入的流動以及從第一季度到第二季度的運營費用轉移。所有這些項目預計全年都將保持淨中性。從長期的角度來看，我們仍然對我們之前傳達的增長目標充滿信心，即新中心的複合年復合增長率為高個位數，同店銷售額為高個位數，總收入為低兩位數，而調整後的 EBITDA。

While we are pleased with our continued momentum in 2022 and excited about the year ahead of us, we look forward to growing shareholder value for years to come. I'll now turn the call back over to the operator for questions. Operator?

雖然我們對 2022 年的持續發展勢頭感到滿意，並對未來的一年感到興奮，但我們期待著在未來幾年增加股東價值。我現在將電話轉回接線員詢問問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) And the first question comes from Randy Konik with Jefferies.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Randy Konik。

I guess my first question is I wanted to get some perspective on how services patterns are changing as masks have been coming off broadly even on the planes. So have customers started to kind of increase upper lip, brow wax, facial services and -- if so, is that contributing to more services per visit, higher transaction value per visit? Just curious on what you're seeing there.

我想我的第一個問題是，我想了解一下服務模式是如何變化的，因為口罩甚至在飛機上也廣泛脫落。那麼，客戶是否開始增加上唇、眉毛蠟、面部服務——如果是這樣，這是否有助於每次訪問提供更多服務，每次訪問的交易價值更高？只是好奇你在那裡看到了什麼。

Randy, thanks for the question. I think the ease of the mask mandate is still pretty early. So we have not seen a substantial mix shift from what we've reported before, which was heavily indexed towards body services. We continue to expect that we will see facial services become a bigger part of our mix going forward. But in Q1, I think it was just too early to tell. But -- and we're -- you'll see as we talk to our guests, again, just reminding them that it's safe not only to come back in, but it's also safe to come back in and get those facial services. So it's an emphasis of how we're looking at this as we go forward.

蘭迪，謝謝你的提問。我認為口罩授權的放鬆還為時過早。因此，我們沒有看到與我們之前報告的情況相比有實質性的變化，後者與身體服務密切相關。我們繼續期望我們將看到面部服務成為我們未來組合中更大的一部分。但在第一季度，我認為現在下結論還為時過早。但是——我們是——你會看到，當我們與客人交談時，再次提醒他們，不僅回來是安全的，而且回來接受面部護理也是安全的。因此，這是我們在前進過程中如何看待這一點的重點。

Got it. And then just with the strength in the same-store sales and productivity in the units, obviously, it looks like you're continuing to gain market share against a fragmented landscape of competition. Any sense of kind of share transfer you're seeing out there and any types of geographies you're particularly seeing it more pointed versus other geographies? Anything to note there?

知道了。然後，憑藉同店銷售和單位生產率的優勢，很明顯，看起來你在分散的競爭格局中繼續獲得市場份額。您在那裡看到的任何類型的股份轉讓以及您特別看到的任何類型的地區與其他地區相比更有針對性？有什麼要注意的嗎？

I think -- I don't think there's any specifics. As you know, we're a little bit more heavily skewed in the suburban areas. We do know, Randy, that from our research that 1 in 5 guests coming to us in 2021 was coming from a competitor. We know probably up to 10% of the mom-and-pop salons did not reopen coming out of COVID. I think probably the -- our well-known history of focus on hygiene and training. If you were at all concerned about that in your previous provider, it was probably what someone was driving -- coming to our brand.

我認為 - 我認為沒有任何具體細節。如您所知，我們在郊區的偏向程度更大一些。蘭迪，我們確實知道，根據我們的研究，2021 年來我們這裡的客人中有五分之一來自競爭對手。我們知道可能有多達 10% 的夫妻店沙龍在 COVID 之後沒有重新開業。我想可能是——我們眾所周知的注重衛生和培訓的歷史。如果您在以前的供應商中完全擔心這一點，那可能是有人在推動 - 來到我們的品牌。

And candidly, we think as sort of things get a little bit tougher, our customer demographic skews more towards that household income over $100,000, and they're a bit more immune from some of the higher prices that they're experiencing in other places. And we've just seen the brand continue to show its dominance as folks continue to make this part of their nondiscretionary beauty regimen. So we think we'll continue to take market share because of our superior value proposition.

坦率地說，我們認為隨著事情變得更加艱難，我們的客戶人口結構更傾向於家庭收入超過 100,000 美元，並且他們更能免受其他地方的一些更高價格的影響。我們剛剛看到該品牌繼續顯示其主導地位，因為人們繼續將這作為他們非隨意美容養生的一部分。因此，我們認為，由於我們卓越的價值主張，我們將繼續佔據市場份額。

The next question comes from Jonathan Komp with Baird.

下一個問題來自 Jonathan Komp 和 Baird。

I want to ask a follow-up on the comps outlook for the year. And I know you highlighted more difficult comparisons after the first quarter. And my question is, are you seeing the business go against those tougher comparisons already now? And how are the comps reacting? Or are you assuming the comps slow from sort of the run rate trajectory that you're on today?

我想問一下今年的補償展望的後續行動。我知道你在第一季度後強調了更困難的比較。我的問題是，您是否看到企業現在已經與那些更嚴格的比較背道而馳了？補償如何反應？或者你是否假設 comps 從你今天的運行率軌跡開始變慢？

Jon, David Willis. Thanks for the question. We're just trying to call out as we had candidly a bit of a softball comp in the first quarter with California centers just starting to come back online in the first quarter of 2021. California started getting some momentum in the second quarter and the third quarter and the rest of the country did as well. So the only thing we wanted to call out is we're just lapping a tougher comp in the second quarter and third quarter of 2021. But no, we wanted to be clear, we don't see any degradation in kind of our long-term targets there.

喬恩，大衛威利斯。謝謝你的問題。我們只是想大聲疾呼，因為我們在第一季度坦率地進行了一些壘球比賽，加州中心在 2021 年第一季度才開始重新上線。加州在第二季度和第三季度開始獲得一些勢頭季度和該國其他地區也是如此。因此，我們唯一想說的是，我們只是在 2021 年第二季度和第三季度推出了一個更強硬的組合。但是不，我們想明確一點，我們沒有看到我們的長期 -長期目標在那裡。

Okay. That's very helpful. And then just one follow-up on the costs and the EBITDA projections. I know you -- David Willis, you highlighted some of the shifts quarter-to-quarter. But are you baking in any discrete inflation impacts during the balance of the year? Or could you just comment more broadly how inflation is impacting the business if it is?

好的。這很有幫助。然後只是關於成本和 EBITDA 預測的後續行動。我認識你——大衛威利斯，你強調了一些季度到季度的轉變。但是，您是否在今年餘下的時間裡考慮了任何離散的通脹影響？或者您能否更廣泛地評論通貨膨脹如何影響業務？

Yes. You bet, Jon. So the item that we called out, strategic decision on our part, we are seeing higher freight costs for the wax that we're importing over from Europe. So the ocean freight rates continue to escalate. You may recall, previously, we had passed on a freight surcharge to our network and a wax price increase to our network.

是的。你打賭，喬恩。因此，我們提出的項目，我們的戰略決策，我們看到我們從歐洲進口的蠟的運費更高。因此，海運費率繼續上漲。您可能還記得，以前，我們已經將運費附加費轉嫁給我們的網絡，並將蠟價上漲轉嫁給我們的網絡。

We, in turn, took pricing in the 4-wall center to protect 4-wall EBITDA in both of those instances. What we're seeing in terms of -- which we have factored into our guidance, our increased higher freight costs for the wax that we're importing from Europe. We made the decision to absorb that to candidly protect 4-wall economics. We will continue to monitor this. If costs go up -- we're also committed to delivering the Street, the numbers that we have communicated. So if costs go up more than what we are forecasting, we'll evaluate when and if we have to pass on those higher costs to our franchisees.

在這兩種情況下，我們反過來在 4 牆中心定價以保護 4 牆 EBITDA。我們所看到的——我們已經將其納入我們的指導方針，我們從歐洲進口的蠟的運費增加了。我們決定吸收它以坦率地保護 4 牆經濟。我們將繼續對此進行監控。如果成本上升——我們也致力於提供街道，我們已經傳達的數字。因此，如果成本上漲超過我們的預測，我們將評估何時以及是否必須將這些更高的成本轉嫁給我們的特許經營商。

The next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group.

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

Congratulations on the progress. Just want to get any updates. I think the gross margin guidance that we've talked to in the past, for this year was around 71% to 71.5%. Are you still looking at that? And how do you think about that going forward? And on the aestheticians or the wax specialists, are you finding them now more so in California? And how are labor rates versus your plan?

祝賀你的進步。只想獲得任何更新。我認為我們過去討論過的今年的毛利率指導約為 71% 至 71.5%。你還在看那個嗎？你如何看待未來的發展？至於美容師或蠟像專家，你現在在加利福尼亞發現他們更多嗎？人工費率與您的計劃相比如何？

Dana, I'll start on the gross margin. So in terms of our guidance for the full year, we outperformed in the first quarter relative to expectations. You may recall the medical supply arrangement that we put in place in the first quarter was gross margin -- gross profit dollars accretive, but gross margin percentage diluted. We implemented that a few weeks later than we had anticipated. So we had a few weeks of kind of higher gross margin percentage in the first quarter relative to our initial expectations. On the margin, we still think the overall year is going to be at the gross margin profile that we had previously guided to.

Dana，我將從毛利率開始。因此，就我們全年的指導而言，我們在第一季度的表現優於預期。您可能還記得我們在第一季度實施的醫療供應安排是毛利率——毛利潤美元增加，但毛利率百分比被稀釋。我們比預期晚了幾週才實施。因此，相對於我們最初的預期，我們在第一季度有幾週更高的毛利率。在利潤率方面，我們仍然認為全年將處於我們之前指導的毛利率水平。

With respect to wax specialists, we are seeing continued momentum in our California centers in terms of our franchisees' ability. They are not up to optimal staffing levels yet or pre-COVID staffing levels yet, but our franchisees continue to make good progress there. So we're encouraged by that. And with respect to labor rates, I think we touched on this, Dana, a bit in March. The average franchise EBITDA margins were actually higher in 2021 than they were in 2019. So thus far, our franchisees have been able to manage inflationary rates with respect to labor. We'll continue to monitor that. Obviously, our franchisees dictate the compensation they pay to their wax specialists and their guest service associates. But thus far, they've been able to kind of weather that without an issue.

關於蠟專家，我們在我們的加州中心看到我們特許經營商能力的持續增長勢頭。他們尚未達到最佳人員配備水平或 COVID 之前的人員配備水平，但我們的加盟商繼續在這方面取得良好進展。所以我們對此感到鼓舞。關於人工費率，達娜，我想我們在 3 月份稍微談到了這一點。 2021 年的平均特許經營 EBITDA 利潤率實際上高於 2019 年。到目前為止，我們的特許經營商已經能夠管理勞動力方面的通貨膨脹率。我們將繼續對此進行監控。顯然，我們的加盟商決定了他們支付給蠟專家和賓客服務助理的報酬。但到目前為止，他們已經能夠毫無問題地應對這種天氣。

Got it. And then just lastly, on the topic of inflation, do you see it at all any different in different areas of the country in terms of the perceived impact on the consumer? And how do you think -- how are you planning pricing going forward? When do you plan to pass on any cost increases and to what magnitude?

知道了。最後，關於通貨膨脹這個話題，您認為在對消費者的感知影響方面，該國不同地區的通貨膨脹有什麼不同嗎？您如何看待 - 您如何計劃未來的定價？您計劃什麼時候轉嫁成本增加，轉嫁幅度有多大？

Sure, Dana. So we did implement a price increase for our body services earlier this year. You may recall, we have 7 different price tiers throughout the country. So by design, we charge a little bit more for services in those markets that have higher wage rates and higher rent expense. We currently do not plan to implement across-the-board service price increases for the balance of the year. However, we do allow our franchisees to raise rates if they want to outside of our standardized price increases. So nothing is planned in our guidance, but we wouldn't prohibit a franchisee. If they saw hyperinflation in a given market, we would not prohibit them the ability to take price within that market.

當然，達娜。因此，我們在今年早些時候確實提高了車身服務的價格。您可能還記得，我們在全國有 7 個不同的價格等級。因此，根據設計，我們對那些工資率和租金支出較高的市場的服務收取更高的費用。我們目前不打算在今年餘下時間實施全面的服務價格上漲。但是，如果我們的特許經營商希望在我們的標準價格上漲之外提高價格，我們確實允許他們提高價格。因此，我們的指南中沒有任何計劃，但我們不會禁止加盟商。如果他們看到特定市場出現惡性通貨膨脹，我們不會禁止他們在該市場內採取價格的能力。

The next question comes from Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Simeon Gutman。

Last quarter, we quantified the California drag somewhere between the 400 to 500 basis point impact. Did you say that the drag is completely gone. And then as it moves through the year, the drag, it's just you have tougher compares. So even if the drag is gone, it's just not going to be the same year-over-year benefit to the overall comp.

上個季度，我們量化了加州阻力在 400 到 500 個基點之間的影響。你是不是說拖累完全沒有了。然後隨著它在這一年中的發展，拖累，只是你有更強硬的比較。因此，即使阻力消失了，它也不會對整體公司產生同樣的同比收益。

Yes. I mean, so last year, in 2021, all of our comps were against 2019 pre-COVID levels. We thought comping against 2020 would be a bit confusing. This year, in 2022, we're now comping against 2021. So as you think about last year, California was a drag relative to 2019. Given the momentum there when they started reopening in 2021, it's actually an improvement to comp this year. So that relationship has essentially -- it's the inverse of what we talked about last year.

是的。我的意思是，所以去年，也就是 2021 年，我們所有的補償都是針對 2019 年 COVID 前的水平。我們認為與 2020 年相比會有點混亂。今年，即 2022 年，我們現在正在與 2021 年進行比較。因此，正如您去年所想的那樣，相對於 2019 年，加利福尼亞是一個拖累。鑑於他們在 2021 年開始重新開放時那裡的勢頭，這實際上是對今年比較的改進。所以這種關係本質上 - 這與我們去年談到的相反。

As I think we had mentioned, Simeon, in our prepared remarks, to kind of frame range that of our overall 29% comp in the quarter, about 1/3 of that is driven from our California centers and about 2/3 of that is driven from rest of network.

正如我想我們已經提到的，Simeon，在我們準備好的評論中，我們在本季度的整體 29% comp 的框架範圍內，大約 1/3 來自我們的加利福尼亞中心，其中大約 2/3 來自從網絡的其餘部分驅動。

Okay. That's right. Okay. And then -- if you look at the mix of the comp between appointment center growth and then ticket. Can you share -- it sounds like the appointment centers picked up, there were several comments around that, it sounds like the mix of that would have increased in the quarter. Is that fair? And I guess, I don't know if there's a way that we should think about that going forward.

好的。那就對了。好的。然後——如果你看看預約中心增長和票務之間的組合。你能分享一下嗎——聽起來預約中心有所好轉，對此有幾條評論，聽起來這種情況的組合在本季度會有所增加。這公平嗎？我想，我不知道我們是否應該考慮未來的方式。

Yes. So good question. Last year was a consistent story, the comp was overweighted with price less so on tickets. In the first quarter of this year, tickets or traffic accounted for about 70% overall comp and 30% price. Now I think that we'll see that more balance out throughout the year because first quarter was so heavyweight with California recovering. But we are pleased to see a much more balanced view that we're seeing tickets and traffic drive more of our comp than just price.

是的。好問題。去年是一個一致的故事，補償超重，門票價格較低。今年第一季度，門票或流量約佔整體收入的70%和價格的30%。現在我認為我們會在全年看到更多的平衡，因為第一季度是如此重量級，加州正在復蘇。但我們很高興看到一個更加平衡的觀點，即我們看到門票和流量比價格更多地推動了我們的競爭。

The next question comes from Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Lorraine Hutchinson。

I wanted to first follow up on the comments you made around the supply chain inflation vis-a-vis freight, understanding you are digesting those costs yourself. Just wondering if you're having any difficulty receiving any of your supplies or simply, it's just costing more.

我想首先跟進你對供應鏈通貨膨脹與運費的評論，我知道你正在自己消化這些成本。只是想知道您是否在接收任何供應品時遇到任何困難，或者只是花費更多。

Lorraine, we're not, and we feel fortunate. Candidly, we're not importing thousands of SKUs from all over the world. We're reporting a handful of SKUs from Europe. So thus far, we did see port congestion earlier in the year that's been a bit more decluttered, you may recall, we maintain kind of 4 to 5, in some cases, 6 months of wax as a bit of an insurance policy.

洛林，我們不是，我們感到很幸運。坦率地說，我們並沒有從世界各地進口數以千計的 SKU。我們報告了一些來自歐洲的 SKU。到目前為止，我們確實看到了今年早些時候的港口擁堵情況更加整潔，你可能還記得，我們維持了 4 到 5 個月，在某些情況下，6 個月的蠟作為一種保險政策。

So earlier in the year, we saw probably more wax on the water than what we would like. That has since decluttered, and we have more wax in DC. So we will continue to monitor that. The port congestion for the ports that we're accessing have gotten better, but our supply chain team is looking at that every day.

所以在今年早些時候，我們看到水上的蠟可能比我們想要的要多。那已經整理好了，我們在華盛頓有更多的蠟。因此，我們將繼續對此進行監控。我們正在訪問的港口的港口擁堵情況有所好轉，但我們的供應鏈團隊每天都在關注這一點。

And then I wanted to follow up on the ramp in advertising in 2Q and 3Q. Will that look different than what you've -- how you've marketed before? Are you testing or using any new channels? I was just hoping for a little bit more detail there.

然後我想跟進第二季度和第三季度的廣告增長。這看起來會與您之前的營銷方式有所不同嗎？您正在測試或使用任何新渠道嗎？我只是希望那裡有更多細節。

Yes. We typically -- Lorraine, it's David. We typically ramp in Q2 and Q3. If there's any seasonality of the business, it's very marginal as we've explained previously. But we'll spend more in those months. And we continue to look at our media mix. We skew heavily towards digital and social, and that's the way we'll continue to do it. As we get deeper CRM and better analytics, we're getting to a much more -- a much greater ability to get personalized and get into subsets of our guests to target those guests. So you will see the consistent ramp that we have in years past and targeted across those digital mediums.

是的。我們通常——洛林，是大衛。我們通常在第二季度和第三季度增加。如果業務有任何季節性，那麼正如我們之前解釋的那樣，它是非常微不足道的。但在那幾個月我們會花更多的錢。我們繼續關注我們的媒體組合。我們嚴重偏向數字和社交，這就是我們將繼續這樣做的方式。隨著我們獲得更深入的 CRM 和更好的分析，我們獲得了更多 - 更強大的能力來獲得個性化並進入我們的客人子集以瞄準這些客人。因此，您將看到我們在過去幾年中一直保持的增長勢頭，並針對這些數字媒體。

The next question comes from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim.

下一個問題來自古根海姆的約翰海因博克爾。

This is Julio Marquez on for John Heinbockel for today. Just a couple of quick questions. Do you have any update on customer segmentation in terms of average visitation and spend by the most loyal customer versus the average customer and following up over the last 3 quarters, you have averaged about 20 center openings. How conservative is the full year target? Is there anything that can come up in the second half that might impact set openings, either to the upside or downside?

我是 Julio Marquez 今天的 John Heinbockel。只是幾個簡單的問題。在最忠誠的客戶與普通客戶的平均訪問量和支出方面，您是否有關於客戶細分的最新信息？在過去 3 個季度中，您平均開設了大約 20 個中心。全年目標有多保守？下半場是否會出現任何可能影響開局的事情，無論是上行還是下行？

Mark, thanks for the question. Listen, I'll address the customer segmentation. We've -- we have segmented our customers. We've got kind of 5 key customer segments that we go after. We mentioned in our prepared remarks that we -- the enterprise data warehouse has gone live, and we are really excited about getting much deeper and robust profiles around our guests, and we'll share in more detail around guest metrics and customer segments as we go forward. But we do know, as we sort of alluded to, in some of the calls about the questions around inflation is that our guests do skew that higher income level, a little bit more immune in terms of the elasticity of prices of our services, and we've been very, very pleased with kind of the robustness and the traffic that we've seen. But more to come on sort of specific customer segments as we go forward in the year.

馬克，謝謝你的提問。聽著，我將解決客戶細分問題。我們已經——我們對客戶進行了細分。我們有 5 個我們追求的關鍵客戶群。我們在準備好的評論中提到，我們 - 企業數據倉庫已經上線，我們非常高興能夠獲得更深入和更強大的客人檔案，我們將分享更多關於客人指標和客戶群的細節，因為我們前進。但我們確實知道，正如我們提到的那樣，在一些關於通貨膨脹問題的電話中，我們的客人確實偏向於較高的收入水平，在我們服務價格的彈性方面更具免疫力，並且我們對我們所看到的穩健性和流量感到非常非常滿意。但隨著我們在今年的前進，更多的是針對特定的客戶群。

And I'll just touch on development. So we're pleased with the net 21 centers delivered in the first quarter. We had a nice balance mix both from franchisees and geographies. So we had 17 franchisees, opening centers in 13 different states. So we feel good overall about our pipeline and our construction process. Having said that, we're still seeing permitting delays in some markets. So we'll continue to monitor that, but we feel really good where we're sitting here today on May 4. And in that we've opened 21, and we have a decent amount that are actively under construction.

我將只談發展。因此，我們對第一季度交付的淨 21 個中心感到滿意。我們在特許經營商和地區之間取得了很好的平衡。所以我們有 17 個加盟商，在 13 個不同的州開設了中心。因此，我們對我們的管道和施工過程總體感覺良好。話雖如此，我們仍然看到某些市場允許延遲。因此，我們將繼續對此進行監控，但我們今天 5 月 4 日坐在這裡感覺非常好。我們已經開放了 21 個，並且我們有相當多的正在積極建設中。

(Operator Instructions) The next question comes from Beth Reed with Truist Securities.

（操作員說明）下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Beth Reed。

I guess just given the uncertain macro environment, can you talk about what the business experienced from a demand perspective during the '08, '09 recession, recognizing obviously that was much earlier days as well as what sort of impact you've historically seen when implementing price increases?

我想鑑於不確定的宏觀環境，您能否談談在 08 年、09 年經濟衰退期間從需求的角度來看企業經歷了什麼，顯然認識到那是更早的日子，以及您在歷史上看到過什麼樣的影響實施漲價？

Yes, Beth, thanks for the question. You're right. I mean, in '08, '09, the brand was very, very young. We comped positively during that period of time, and we continue to open new centers during that time period. So we feel good of our -- a little bit of history that we've got in an actual recession. I think the other learning point for us is certainly how quickly we rebounded coming out of COVID that guests came back and not just sort of that pent-up demand for that first visit. But got back into their regular beauty care regimen and visited us on their regular basis. So we feel good about kind of the -- whether it's recession-proof or recession resiliency of the brand as evidenced by our history.

是的，貝絲，謝謝你的提問。你是對的。我的意思是，在 08 年、09 年，這個品牌還非常非常年輕。我們在那段時間裡取得了積極的成績，並且在那段時間裡我們繼續開設新的中心。因此，我們對我們在實際經濟衰退中的一些歷史感到滿意。我認為對我們來說，另一個學習點當然是我們從 COVID 中恢復過來的速度有多快，客人又回來了，而不僅僅是第一次訪問時被壓抑的需求。但是回到他們的常規美容護理方案並定期拜訪我們。因此，我們對某種感覺很好——無論是品牌的抗衰退能力還是抗衰退能力，正如我們的歷史所證明的那樣。

I think one of the things that we do believe that just kind of given our scale that we've got the ability to weather the storm and probably actually would be a share beneficiary in some inflationary periods versus the smaller players that don't have the kind of scale advantage.

我認為我們確實相信的一件事是，鑑於我們的規模，我們有能力渡過難關，並且在某些通貨膨脹時期可能實際上會成為股票受益者，而不是那些沒有種規模優勢。

Got it. That's helpful. And then just quickly, if I could ask -- can you talk about maybe some efforts to generate more brand awareness, either before a center opens or right after in order to improve that year 1 productivity. You mentioned in the past 20% of new guests are coming from a competitor, I guess, any efforts to get that other 80% into European Wax Center more quickly?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後很快，如果我可以問的話——你能談談在中心開放之前或之後為了提高第一年的生產力而做出的一些努力來產生更多的品牌知名度嗎？你在過去提到 20% 的新客人來自競爭對手，我想，是否有任何努力讓其他 80% 的客人更快地進入歐洲蠟像中心？

Yes. From an operations standpoint, one of our key priorities is how do we get our franchisees to break even faster. The other is how do we get them to north of 25% 4-wall EBITDA. So our operations team led by Julie Hauser-Blanner is hyper-focused on driving that ramp in that first year bet. We've revamped our new store grand opening package to include local marketing, more directed marketing to try to build that book in advance of centers being opened.

是的。從運營的角度來看，我們的首要任務之一是如何讓我們的加盟商更快地實現收支平衡。另一個是我們如何讓他們達到 25% 4-wall EBITDA 以北。因此，由 Julie Hauser-Blanner 領導的我們的運營團隊非常專注於推動第一年賭注的增長。我們修改了我們的新店盛大開業套餐，以包括本地營銷和更有針對性的營銷，以嘗試在中心開業之前製作這本書。

So I think we're pleased with some of the early results that we've seen in terms of the ramping of our centers. As you know, our centers ramp across cohort very, very consistently, and we've seen some improvement in those earlier years, and we continue to believe as we focus on that, that will show continued improvement.

因此，我認為我們對我們在中心擴張方面看到的一些早期結果感到滿意。如您所知，我們的中心非常、非常一致地在整個隊列中傾斜，並且我們在早些年看到了一些改進，並且我們繼續相信，在我們專注於此的過程中，這將顯示出持續的改進。

The next question comes from Paul Lejuez with Citigroup.

下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Paul Lejuez。

It's Tracy Kogan filling in for Paul. I had a question about the new audiences you guys mentioned that you'd be targeting. I was wondering maybe if you could talk about how big the market size is, I think, in men and I think you said the ethnic audience. But maybe if you could talk about the market sizes versus your current female market and then specifically, what you think the growth rates will be in those markets.

Tracy Kogan 代替了 Paul。我有一個關於你們提到的目標新受眾的問題。我想知道你是否可以談談男性的市場規模有多大，我想你說的是少數民族觀眾。但也許如果你能談談市場規模與你目前的女性市場，然後具體來說，你認為這些市場的增長率是多少。

Yes. Sure, Tracy. Thanks for the question. As you know, today, we're 97-plus percent female in the guest in European Wax Center. So we did some work last year around where there were opportunities. In that overall $18 billion total addressable market here in the U.S. that we could go after, and we identified the 2 categories that we talked about. So this would be -- this is additive, right? So the male category makes up about $3.5 billion of that $18 billion TAM. And multicultural, I can't give you the exact number, but it's a significant portion of a guest that just has been underserved candidly in the whole out-of-home waxing industry, and we believe that we're the right people to go after that.

是的。當然，特蕾西。謝謝你的問題。如您所知，今天，歐洲蠟像中心的來賓中有 97% 以上是女性。所以我們去年在有機會的地方做了一些工作。在我們可以追求的美國總價值 180 億美元的潛在市場中，我們確定了我們談到的兩個類別。所以這將是——這是附加的，對吧？因此，在 180 億美元的 TAM 中，男性類別約佔 35 億美元。多元文化，我不能給你確切的數字，但在整個戶外打蠟行業中，有很大一部分客人沒有得到坦率的服務，我們相信我們是合適的人選在那之後。

We're really going to ramp up, as we talked about in our prepared remarks, our advertising and focus campaign on those 2 categories of guests as we approach -- as we get into the summer months here in Q2 and Q3. So we're excited about some of the early returns as we had sort of a soft launch in the late fall and really with much more earnest and much more focused, you'll see those efforts from a marketing standpoint ramp up here in the coming months.

正如我們在準備好的評論中談到的那樣，我們真的會加大力度，隨著我們進入第二季度和第三季度的夏季月份，我們將針對這兩類客人開展廣告和重點宣傳活動。因此，我們對一些早期回報感到興奮，因為我們在深秋進行了某種軟啟動，並且真的更加認真和更加專注，你會從營銷的角度看到這些努力在未來逐漸增加個月。

We have no further questions. So this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

我們沒有其他問題了。我們的問答環節到此結束。我會將會議轉回管理層，聽取任何閉幕詞。

Thanks, Tom. Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. Obviously, we're very proud of the start that we're off to. We will look forward to speaking with you all in early August as we report on Q2. Have a great rest of the day. Thank you.

謝謝，湯姆。謝謝大家今天加入我們。顯然，我們為即將開始的工作感到非常自豪。在我們報告第二季度時，我們期待在 8 月初與大家交談。好好休息一天。謝謝你。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。