Funko Inc (FNKO) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to Funko's conference call to discuss financial results for the fourth quarter of 2022. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that reproduction of this call in whole or in part is not permitted without written authorization from the company. And as a reminder, this call is being recorded.

下午好，歡迎參加 Funko 的電話會議，討論 2022 年第四季度的財務業績。（操作員說明）請注意，未經公司書面授權，不得全部或部分複制此電話會議。提醒一下，此通話正在錄音中。

I would now turn the call over to Ben Avenia-Tapper, Director of Investor Relations, to get started. Please proceed.

我現在將電話轉給投資者關係總監 Ben Avenia-Tapper 開始。請繼續。

Thank you, and good afternoon. With us on the call today are Brian Mariotti, Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Nave, newly appointed Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝，下午好。今天與我們通話的有首席執行官 Brian Mariotti； Steve Nave，新任命的首席運營官兼首席財務官。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during the course of this conference call, management will discuss forecasts, targets and other forward-looking statements regarding the company and its financial results. While these statements represent our best current judgment about future results and performance as of today, our actual results are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. In addition to any risks that we highlight during the call, important factors that may affect our future results are described in our most recent SEC reports and today's earnings press release.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒大家，在本次電話會議期間，管理層將討論有關公司及其財務業績的預測、目標和其他前瞻性陳述。雖然這些陳述代表了我們目前對未來結果和表現的最佳判斷，但我們的實際結果受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與我們的預期存在重大差異。除了我們在電話會議中強調的任何風險外，我們最近的 SEC 報告和今天的收益新聞稿中還描述了可能影響我們未來業績的重要因素。

In addition, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures during the discussion. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures and supplemental financial information can be found in the earnings press release and 8-K that we released earlier today.

此外，我們將在討論中提及非 GAAP 財務指標。可在我們今天早些時候發布的收益新聞稿和 8-K 中找到與最直接可比的美國 GAAP 財務指標和補充財務信息的調節。

All these items, plus a visual presentation that investors can consult to follow along with this discussion, are available on our Investor Relations website, investor.funko.com.

在我們的投資者關係網站 investor.funko.com 上提供了所有這些項目，以及投資者可以參考以跟進本次討論的視覺演示。

I will turn the call over to Brian.

我會把電話轉給布賴恩。

Good afternoon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. As most of you know, this is my first earnings call since I step back into the role of CEO in December. I'd like to use this call to provide an update for the important work that is underway at Funko.

下午好，謝謝大家今天加入我們。正如你們大多數人所知，這是我去年 12 月重新擔任首席執行官以來的第一次財報電話會議。我想使用此電話來為 Funko 正在進行的重要工作提供更新。

I want to first emphasize that I stepped back into the role of CEO because I fully believe in the power of the Funko brand and its potential but I also recognize the significant operational issues in front us. Our first priority is a reset of our operations, which we are addressing with urgency but won't happen overnight.

我想首先強調，我重新擔任首席執行官一職是因為我完全相信 Funko 品牌的力量及其潛力，但我也認識到擺在我們面前的重大運營問題。我們的首要任務是重置我們的運營，我們正在緊急解決這個問題，但不會在一夜之間發生。

Recognizing our current situation, I think it's important to understand how we got here. Since we IPO-ed approximately 5 years ago, we've more than doubled our revenue. We have taken a nascent direct-to-consumer business and grown it to 15% of total revenue this past quarter. We've expanded into multiple new geographies, and we've added amazing new brands for our pop culture platform. This rapid growth brought challenges that we are now addressing. Our history proved that we can deliver reliable, profitable growth. But to do so, we will need to reset our operational foundation.

認識到我們目前的情況，我認為了解我們如何走到這一步很重要。自從我們大約 5 年前首次公開募股以來，我們的收入翻了一番多。我們已經開展了一項新興的直接面向消費者的業務，並在上個季度將其增長到總收入的 15%。我們已經擴展到多個新的地區，並為我們的流行文化平台添加了令人驚嘆的新品牌。這種快速增長帶來了我們現在正在應對的挑戰。我們的歷史證明，我們可以實現可靠、盈利的增長。但要做到這一點，我們需要重新設定我們的運營基礎。

With that context, let's turn to the results for the quarter. Demand for our brands is stronger than ever, but we're still early in our operational reset.

在這種背景下，讓我們來看看本季度的結果。對我們品牌的需求比以往任何時候都強勁，但我們仍處於運營重置的早期階段。

Looking at our financial results for the fourth quarter. Net sales were $333 million, down 1% year-over-year, wrapping up a year in which we grew 29% year-over-year. In our direct-to-consumer business, the channel we have most control over, we grew 37% year-over-year. And on the wholesale side, while we don't typically comment on point-of-sales trends, wholesale sell-through has been very encouraging. In Q4, we posted double-digit POS growth, well ahead of NPD estimates of flat growth for the broader industry over the same period. While demand remains strong, our fourth quarter profitability was heavily impacted by our operational challenges. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $6 million and adjusted EPS was a negative $0.35.

看看我們第四季度的財務業績。淨銷售額為 3.33 億美元，同比下降 1%，結束了我們同比增長 29% 的一年。在我們最能控制的直接面向消費者的業務中，我們同比增長了 37%。在批發方面，雖然我們通常不會對銷售點趨勢發表評論，但批發銷售一直非常令人鼓舞。在第四季度，我們公佈了兩位數的 POS 增長，遠高於 NPD 對同期更廣泛行業持平增長的估計。儘管需求依然強勁，但我們第四季度的盈利能力受到運營挑戰的嚴重影響。調整後的 EBITDA 虧損 600 萬美元，調整後的每股收益為負 0.35 美元。

It was clear on our last earnings call that the business and our operations hit an inflection point, a combination of macro factors and Funko-specific issues have disrupted our financial and operating performance to an unacceptable degree. We'll share more details on our financial results shortly, but I want to spend this time discussing the important work that's underway and how we're going to get our operations back on track.

在我們上次的財報電話會議上很明顯，業務和我們的運營達到了一個拐點，宏觀因素和 Funko 特定問題的結合已經將我們的財務和運營績效擾亂到不可接受的程度。我們將很快分享更多關於我們財務業績的細節，但我想花時間討論正在進行的重要工作以及我們將如何讓我們的運營重回正軌。

Our Board and our management team are deeply focused on execution and unlocking the potential of Funko's unique value proposition. To begin, we have strengthened our leadership team. Steve Nave, who is with me on today's call, joined us in early December in an interim operations consulting capacity. We announced that today, Steve will serve as both the new Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Steve brings a wealth of expertise spanning retail, consumer and e-commerce industries. He served as CFO, COO and CEO of Walmart.com where he is responsible for all aspects of the multibillion-dollar e-commerce business. More recently, Steve was the CEO of Bluestem Brands, a multichannel retail. We're thrilled to have Steve onboard.

我們的董事會和我們的管理團隊非常專注於執行和釋放 Funko 獨特價值主張的潛力。首先，我們加強了領導團隊。與我一起參加今天電話會議的 Steve Nave 於 12 月初加入我們，擔任臨時運營諮詢職務。我們今天宣布，史蒂夫將擔任新的首席財務官和首席運營官。史蒂夫在零售、消費和電子商務行業擁有豐富的專業知識。他曾擔任 Walmart.com 的首席財務官、首席運營官和首席執行官，負責數十億美元電子商務業務的各個方面。最近，史蒂夫擔任多渠道零售公司 Bluestem Brands 的首席執行官。我們很高興史蒂夫加入。

We made good progress in aligning the finance and operations sides of the business, and that's exactly why Steve will be serving in both capacities as CFO and COO. Allowing Steve to oversee both functions, we believe we'll be in a better position for him to drive that alignment as we work across the organization to improve efficiencies and ultimately, our financial results.

我們在協調業務的財務和運營方面取得了良好進展，這正是史蒂夫將同時擔任首席財務官和首席運營官的原因。允許史蒂夫監督這兩個職能，我們相信我們將能夠更好地推動這種協調，因為我們在整個組織內開展工作以提高效率並最終提高我們的財務業績。

Our efficiency improvements fall in 3 categories: gross margin initiatives, fulfillment cost reductions and other SG&A savings. These actions are well underway, but 2023 is still very much a year to operationally reset. Once completed, we believe these actions will save us between $150 million and $180 million annually.

我們的效率改進分為 3 類：毛利率舉措、履行成本降低和其他 SG&A 節省。這些行動正在順利進行，但 2023 年仍然是進行運營重置的一年。一旦完成，我們相信這些行動每年將為我們節省 1.5 億至 1.8 億美元。

Our first category of focus to improve execution is on the gross margin line. Here, we have 2 primary levers: price and product costs which, together, we expect to contribute approximately $60 million to $70 million in annualized adjusted EBITDA. Last quarter, we discussed extending our price increases to include our exclusive product line. The resection has been encouraging, and we believe our products remain firmly at an affordable price range for our customers. We are also driving down our product costs with the introduction of a more competitive bidding process from our vendors and a more comprehensive assessment of cost throughout the product development life cycle.

我們提高執行力的第一類重點是毛利率。在這裡，我們有 2 個主要槓桿：價格和產品成本，我們預計它們將共同貢獻約 6000 萬至 7000 萬美元的年化調整後 EBITDA。上個季度，我們討論了擴大價格上漲以包括我們的獨家產品線。切除一直令人鼓舞，我們相信我們的產品始終保持在客戶可承受的價格範圍內。我們還通過引入更具競爭力的供應商投標流程以及對整個產品開發生命週期的成本進行更全面的評估來降低產品成本。

The second and third categories include addressing our fulfillment obstacles and reducing other SG&A spending. Since the pandemic, we've added approximately $85 million in annual fulfillment expenses despite similar overall throughput in our distribution center. The mix of the business has changed since 2021. But by focusing on the execution, we can reclaim a significant portion of that spending increase. Combined, we expect fulfillment savings and other SG&A reductions to add $90 million to $110 million in annualized adjusted EBITDA.

第二和第三類包括解決我們的履行障礙和減少其他 SG&A 支出。自大流行以來，儘管我們的配送中心的總吞吐量相似，但我們的年度履行費用增加了約 8500 萬美元。自 2021 年以來，業務組合發生了變化。但通過專注於執行，我們可以收回支出增長的很大一部分。結合起來，我們預計履約節省和其他 SG&A 減少將使年化調整後 EBITDA 增加 9000 萬至 1.1 億美元。

The first action addresses the efficiency of our distribution center. We're implementing a warehouse management system that we believe will dramatically improve our cost to fulfill. This system is expected to be up and running this summer.

第一項行動解決了我們配送中心的效率問題。我們正在實施一個倉庫管理系統，我們相信它會顯著降低我們的履行成本。該系統預計將於今年夏天啟動並運行。

The second fulfillment improvement action is addressing our elevated inventory levels. We are beyond the intended capacity of our Arizona-based distribution center. The volume is restricting our distribution center's throughput and incurring incremental container rental charges. By eliminating this inventory, which we expect to do in the first half of this year, we expect that we'll both reduce SG&A expenses and improve our gross margin by saving on incremental container rental charges.

第二個履行改進行動是解決我們升高的庫存水平。我們超出了我們位於亞利桑那州的配送中心的預期容量。該數量限制了我們配送中心的吞吐量，並產生了增量集裝箱租賃費用。通過消除我們預計在今年上半年進行的庫存，我們預計我們將通過節省增量集裝箱租賃費用來減少 SG&A 費用並提高我們的毛利率。

Finally, we are taking steps to reduce operating expenses across the board, including a workforce reduction of approximately 10%, tighter marketing spend, and other cost reduction actions to ensure our spending is aligned with our top line results. These changes are ongoing, and we are focused on executing on all these initiatives with a high degree of urgency.

最後，我們正在採取措施全面減少運營費用，包括裁員約 10%、收緊營銷支出和其他成本削減措施，以確保我們的支出與我們的頂線結果保持一致。這些變化正在進行中，我們專注於高度緊迫地執行所有這些舉措。

We expect the margins in the first half of the year for me under significant pressure. However, by the second half of the year, we expect the combination of gross margin initiatives, improved fulfillment and reduced SG&A spending to return our adjusted EBITDA margins to double digits.

我們預計上半年的利潤率對我來說壓力很大。然而，到今年下半年，我們預計毛利率舉措、改善履行和減少 SG&A 支出的組合將使我們調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率恢復到兩位數。

2023 is a year for us to focus on operations. Most of that work is already underway and will continue throughout the first half of the year. Many of our retail partners have been very tentative in their post-holiday restocking, and we expect that to weigh in on first half selling. However, as already noted, demand and sell-through remained strong. We expect a robust second half rebound in the content calendar. These factors give us confidence in top line performance in the second half. That sales trend, coupled with the bulk of our operational improvements coming in the first half, we expect our results to improve in the second half of the year. I look forward to updating you on the progress along the way.

2023年是我們重點經營的一年。大部分工作已經在進行中，並將在今年上半年繼續進行。我們的許多零售合作夥伴在節後補貨方面都非常謹慎，我們預計這將影響上半年的銷售。然而，如前所述，需求和銷售仍然強勁。我們預計下半年內容日曆將出現強勁反彈。這些因素讓我們對下半年的營收表現充滿信心。這種銷售趨勢，加上我們上半年的大部分運營改進，我們預計我們的業績將在下半年有所改善。我期待著向您通報最新進展。

While we are heavily focused on execution, we have not lost sight of opportunities to grow our core business through new collaborations, adjacent product categories, new direct-to-consumer experiences and new geographies. These opportunities are exciting and expected to help grow our business. Today, however, operational improvements are the most important. Our execution here will help us to ensure we're well positioned to win in these new growth opportunities in the future.

雖然我們非常注重執行，但我們並沒有忽視通過新的合作、相鄰的產品類別、新的直接面向消費者的體驗和新的地域來發展我們核心業務的機會。這些機會令人興奮，有望幫助我們發展業務。然而，今天，運營改進是最重要的。我們在這裡的執行將幫助我們確保我們有能力在未來贏得這些新的增長機會。

We know 2023 will be a year of reset, but I'm confident we will come out of this a stronger Funko from top to bottom. These steps will allow us to regain our operating leverage as we accelerate growth in the near future and deliver long-term value creation for the company and our shareholders.

我們知道 2023 年將是重置的一年，但我相信我們會從上到下成為一個更強大的 Funko。隨著我們在不久的將來加速增長並為公司和股東創造長期價值，這些步驟將使我們能夠重新獲得經營槓桿。

Now let's turn it over to Steve to provide more details on the financial results of the quarter.

現在讓史蒂夫提供有關本季度財務結果的更多詳細信息。

Thanks, Brian. Hey, everyone. It's nice to meet you. I look forward to future conversations with each of you. I'm super excited about this business and helping to unlock Funko's potential. I look forward to getting to know you all over the coming quarters as we continue on the operational and financial initiatives we have underway.

謝謝，布萊恩。嘿大家。很高興認識你。我期待著與你們每個人的未來對話。我對這項業務以及幫助釋放 Funko 的潛力感到非常興奮。我期待著在接下來的幾個季度裡認識你們，因為我們將繼續開展我們正在進行的運營和財務計劃。

Now jumping into the results. In the fourth quarter, we delivered net sales of $333 million, down 1% over the prior year. Our direct-to-consumer channel grew 37% to $49 million driven by very well-received events, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The strong performance in our direct-to-consumer business was offset by slower sell-in on the wholesale side. Wholesale declined 6% to $284 million as we manage through a period of muted destocking across most of our retail partners. In the U.S., net sales declined 5% to $241 million, while net sales in Europe were relatively flat at $64 million. Other international net sales increased 45% to $28 million with double-digit growth in all of our emerging geographies.

現在進入結果。第四季度，我們實現了 3.33 億美元的淨銷售額，比上年下降 1%。我們的直接面向消費者的渠道增長了 37%，達到 4900 萬美元，這得益於非常受歡迎的活動，包括黑色星期五和網絡星期一。我們直接面向消費者業務的強勁表現被批發方面的銷售放緩所抵消。批發銷售額下降 6% 至 2.84 億美元，因為我們在大多數零售合作夥伴之間經歷了一段時間的溫和去庫存。在美國，淨銷售額下降 5% 至 2.41 億美元，而在歐洲的淨銷售額相對持平，為 6400 萬美元。其他國際淨銷售額增長 45% 至 2800 萬美元，我們所有新興地區的銷售額均實現兩位數增長。

On a brand category basis, net sales in our core collectible brands declined 7% to $244 million on lower evergreen content as we prioritize more time-sensitive current content in light of our constrained logistics. The Loungefly brand grew 31% to $71 million, bringing the full year growth to 68% year-over-year as the brand saw strong demand. Among our other brands, which include toys and games and our digital products, net sales declined 13% to $18 million as the ongoing strength of our digital collectibles was offset by fulfillment challenges in our games business.

在品牌類別的基礎上，我們的核心收藏品牌的淨銷售額下降 7% 至 2.44 億美元，原因是常青內容減少，因為我們在物流受限的情況下優先考慮對時間敏感的當前內容。 Loungefly 品牌增長 31% 至 7,100 萬美元，由於該品牌的需求強勁，全年同比增長 68%。在我們的其他品牌中，包括玩具和遊戲以及我們的數字產品，淨銷售額下降了 13% 至 1800 萬美元，因為我們數字收藏品的持續實力被我們遊戲業務的履行挑戰所抵消。

Turning to margin and expenses. Fourth quarter gross margin was 28%, well below our expectations due to multiple factors, including container rental charges and, to a lesser extent, charge-backs. These 2 factors reduced gross profit by approximately $15 million. While freight rates do continue to improve, this was offset by container rental charges incurred when capacity constraints within our distribution center prevented us from unloading containers. As Brian discussed, we believe that our ongoing inventory management practices, combined with our lower product costs and increased pricing, will allow us to get back to our historical margin range in the second half of this year.

轉向保證金和費用。第四季度毛利率為 28%，遠低於我們的預期，這是由於多種因素造成的，包括集裝箱租賃費用和較小程度上的退款。這兩個因素使毛利潤減少了大約 1500 萬美元。雖然運費確實繼續提高，但由於我們的配送中心容量限制導致我們無法卸載集裝箱而產生的集裝箱租金費用抵消了這一影響。正如 Brian 所討論的那樣，我們相信我們持續的庫存管理實踐，加上我們較低的產品成本和更高的定價，將使我們能夠在今年下半年回到我們的歷史利潤率範圍。

Moving on to operating expenses. We experienced significant headwinds due to constrained logistics. SG&A was $139 million, which includes a onetime $33 million noncash charge for the write-down of capitalized costs related to a pivot in our ERP deployment strategy. In addition, there was approximately $3 million in incremental labor and third-party fulfillment expenses.

繼續經營費用。由於物流受限，我們遇到了很大的阻力。 SG&A 為 1.39 億美元，其中包括一次性 3300 萬美元的非現金費用，用於減記與我們的 ERP 部署戰略的關鍵相關的資本化成本。此外，還有大約 300 萬美元的增量人工和第三方履行費用。

For the fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA was negative $6 million due to container rental charges, charge-backs and additional fulfillment expenses, all of which we are addressing in the first half of this year. Finally, adjusted diluted loss per share was $0.35.

第四季度，由於集裝箱租賃費用、退款和額外的履行費用，調整後的 EBITDA 為負 600 萬美元，我們將在今年上半年解決所有這些問題。最後，調整後的每股攤薄虧損為 0.35 美元。

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $19 million of cash on hand. We ended the quarter with total debt of $246 million. Today, we announced an amended credit agreement which provides us with additional room under our financial covenants as we implement this year's cost savings initiatives. Please refer to our 10-K filing for additional details.

轉向資產負債表。我們在本季度結束時手頭有 1900 萬美元現金。我們在本季度末的總債務為 2.46 億美元。今天，我們宣布了一項修訂後的信貸協議，該協議在我們實施今年的成本節約舉措時，根據我們的財務契約為我們提供了額外的空間。有關更多詳細信息，請參閱我們的 10-K 文件。

Inventory at quarter end totaled $246 million, up 48% year-over-year. As Brian previously mentioned, we've conducted an exhaustive analysis of our fulfillment network and have decided to reduce our inventory levels to improve our overall cost to fulfill by managing our inventory to the proper efficient operating capacity of our U.S. distribution center. We expect this action to result in an inventory write-down in the first half of between $30 million and $36 million.

季度末庫存總額為 2.46 億美元，同比增長 48%。正如 Brian 之前提到的，我們對我們的履行網絡進行了詳盡的分析，並決定降低我們的庫存水平，以通過管理我們的庫存來提高我們的總體成本來履行我們的美國配送中心的適當高效運營能力。我們預計這一行動將導致上半年的庫存減記 3000 萬至 3600 萬美元。

Before I move on to our guidance, I'll note that we've all been incredibly focused on identifying and addressing opportunities for improvement. We believe that executing on our initiatives will position us to drive sustained long-term shareholder value. However, these initiatives will take time and, in some cases, several quarters. As a result, we don't expect adjusted EBITDA to be positive until the second half of 2023 but to improve sequentially throughout the year as these initiatives take hold.

在我繼續我們的指導之前，我會注意到我們都非常專注於識別和處理改進機會。我們相信，執行我們的計劃將使我們能夠推動持續的長期股東價值。但是，這些舉措需要時間，在某些情況下需要幾個季度。因此，我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 直到 2023 年下半年才會為正，但隨著這些舉措的實施，全年將連續改善。

For the first quarter, we expect revenue of between $225 million and $255 million. Excluding our anticipated inventory write-down, we expect gross margin to be slightly below this past quarter and improve sequentially throughout the year as our inventory actions, pricing and product costing efforts take hold. We expect SG&A to be sequentially lower by approximately $25 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter is expected to be between negative $50 million and negative $45 million, returning to positive territory in the second half of 2023. We expect adjusted net loss of negative $53 million to negative $48 million based on a blended tax rate of 25% and adjusted loss per diluted share of negative $1 to negative $0.90 based on a weighted average diluted share count of 52.3 million.

對於第一季度，我們預計收入在 2.25 億美元至 2.55 億美元之間。排除我們預期的庫存減記，我們預計毛利率將略低於上一季度，並隨著我們的庫存行動、定價和產品成本核算工作的開展，全年將有所改善。我們預計 SG&A 將依次降低約 2500 萬美元。本季度調整後的 EBITDA 預計在負 5000 萬美元至負 4500 萬美元之間，並在 2023 年下半年恢復正值。根據 25 的混合稅率，我們預計調整後的淨虧損為負 5300 萬美元至負 4800 萬美元根據 5230 萬股的加權平均稀釋股數計算，調整後每股攤薄虧損為負 1 美元至負 0.90 美元。

For the full year, as gross and operating margins improve, we expect year-over-year revenue growth between 0% and 5%. We expect adjusted EBITDA for the year to be between $50 million and $75 million with effectively all of that coming in the second half of the year.

對於全年，隨著毛利率和營業利潤率的提高，我們預計收入同比增長在 0% 至 5% 之間。我們預計今年調整後的 EBITDA 將在 5000 萬美元至 7500 萬美元之間，實際上所有這些都將在今年下半年實現。

We've made steady progress, and there's still much more to do. We've identified initiatives to capture between $150 million and $180 million in annualized adjusted EBITDA. The next 2 quarters will see us rebuild a stronger foundation for Funko, and we are confident it will produce meaningful benefit in the second half and into 2024 and beyond.

我們已經取得了穩步進展，還有很多工作要做。我們已經確定了在年化調整後 EBITDA 中獲得 1.5 億至 1.8 億美元的舉措。在接下來的兩個季度中，我們將為 Funko 重建更強大的基礎，我們相信它將在下半年和 2024 年及以後產生有意義的收益。

We appreciate your time this afternoon. Now I'll turn it back over to Brian.

我們感謝你今天下午的時間。現在我將把它轉回給布賴恩。

Thank you, Steve. In closing, we remain very encouraged by the strong support and demand we continue to see from our devoted fans. As I've said, we recognize our results are not where we want them to be, and we are working with urgency to take operational steps we need to deliver margin improvement and drive long-term shareholder value. We are confident in our ability to execute.

謝謝你，史蒂夫。最後，我們繼續從忠實的粉絲那裡看到的強烈支持和需求讓我們感到非常鼓舞。正如我所說，我們認識到我們的業績不是我們想要的，我們正在緊急採取行動，採取我們需要的運營措施，以提高利潤率並推動長期股東價值。我們對我們的執行能力充滿信心。

Thank you for the time today, and I will now turn it over to the operator for Q&A.

謝謝大家今天的時間，下面就交給接線員進行答疑了。

(Operator Instructions) The first question on the line comes from Alexander Perry from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

（操作員說明）線路上的第一個問題來自美銀美林的亞歷山大佩里。

I guess just first, sort of is there any indication on when the operational headwinds from the lack of the warehouse management software at the new DC will be behind us? And then I guess the obvious question is, how much of a drag on sales, gross margin, SG&A, is that this year? So like if we sort of exclude the operational headwinds, what would the guidance have been? You mentioned some pretty positive color about wholesale POS being up double-digit percent in the quarter. Is that the type of growth rate that 2023 sort of would be if it weren't for the operational issues you guys are facing?

我想首先，是否有任何跡象表明新 DC 缺乏倉庫管理軟件所帶來的運營不利因素何時會過去？然後我想一個明顯的問題是，今年對銷售額、毛利率、SG&A 的拖累有多大？因此，如果我們排除運營不利因素，那麼指導是什麼？您提到了批發 POS 在本季度增長了兩位數百分比的一些非常積極的色彩。如果不是因為你們面臨的運營問題，2023 年的增長率會是這樣嗎？

Sure. This is Steve. I'll take the first cut at this. On your first set of questions around the operational efficiency initiatives that we have underway, it's going to kind of come in kind of phased throughout the year. For example, we're already taking action on the inventory, and we're already seeing some efficiency gains from that, although we're not done with that work yet. We are starting to see some benefit there. We've already started to see these container rental charges that we've been incurring. We basically cut those in half as of a couple of days ago. So we're seeing that benefit already. And that benefit is going to continue to get bigger and bigger as we work through the inventory.

當然。這是史蒂夫。我會首先削減這個。關於我們正在進行的運營效率計劃的第一組問題，它將在全年分階段進行。例如，我們已經在對庫存採取行動，並且我們已經看到了一些效率的提高，儘管我們還沒有完成這項工作。我們開始在那裡看到一些好處。我們已經開始看到我們一直在產生的這些集裝箱租賃費用。截至幾天前，我們基本上將其減半。所以我們已經看到了這種好處。隨著我們處理庫存，這種好處將繼續變得越來越大。

On the systems side, which is really the biggest hamstring in our U.S. distribution, we expect to have a warehouse management system in place this summer. And normally, in a systems implementation like that, it takes 45, 60 days to fully burn in and work out the kinks. But we're confident that after that burn-in period, we'll see some really nice efficiency, especially on the variable labor side of fulfillment.

在系統方面，這確實是我們美國分銷中最大的障礙，我們預計今年夏天會有一個倉庫管理系統。通常，在這樣的系統實施中，需要 45、60 天才能完全適應並解決問題。但我們相信，在那個磨合期之後，我們會看到一些非常好的效率，尤其是在履行的可變勞動力方面。

Great. That's really helpful. And then I guess just sort of 2 follow-up questions. Can you give us a little more color on the anticipated inventory write-down? Was this due to sort of lower wholesale reorders? Or is it primarily just the logistics issue, which didn't allow you to unload the containers? And then my last question is what sort of led to the decision to not go through with the ERP implementation and take the charge in the quarter?

偉大的。這真的很有幫助。然後我想只是 2 個後續問題。你能給我們更多關於預期庫存減記的顏色嗎？這是由於較低的批發再訂單嗎？還是主要只是物流問題，導致您無法卸下集裝箱？然後我的最後一個問題是，是什麼導致了不通過 ERP 實施並在本季度負責的決定？

Sure. On the inventory, it's purely an operational thing. The products are good, but the facility was running at over 100% capacity when it needs to run around 80% capacity to be as efficient as we'd like it to be. And we were incurring all these kind of storage costs, both in terms of the container rentals as well as some off-site storage, that we had to procure in the fall of last year and then another temporary one that we've had to put in place a few weeks ago. So the inventory reduction is purely in order to be able to operate more efficiently and save a lot of money on storage costs. We work that trade-off through pretty tightly to understand that it takes a hit to get rid of that inventory, but we're very confident of the payback that we're going to get as a result of just being more efficient and saving on storage costs.

當然。在清單上，這純粹是一種操作性的東西。產品很好，但是當設施需要運行大約 80% 的容量才能像我們希望的那樣高效時，它以超過 100% 的容量運行。我們承擔了所有這些存儲成本，包括集裝箱租金和一些場外存儲，我們必須在去年秋天採購這些，然後我們不得不放置另一個臨時存儲幾週前到位。所以減少庫存純粹是為了能夠更有效地運作，節省大量的倉儲成本。我們非常嚴格地進行權衡，以了解擺脫該庫存會受到打擊，但我們對通過提高效率和節省成本而獲得的回報非常有信心存儲成本。

On the ERP question, so it's a little bit of an involved answer. We figured out in early part of this year, let's call it, January, that we were not going to be on time with the launch of the ERP that was scheduled to happen this summer. And unfortunately, the warehouse management system for the Buckeye facility would have been tied to the launch of the ERP. So we took a look at the landscape, other system solutions that were out there that maybe we could implement much more quickly, including the ERP that we run very successfully in our EMEA business, and basically made the decision that we could move forward, invest less money in a pivot in our strategy than it would have cost to complete the original strategy. And the side benefit is it gives us the ability to actually launch a warehouse management system in advance this summer. So full-blown ERP Phase 1 will not be completed until sometime in 2024, but we're able to separate warehouse management from that now and go down that path separately.

關於 ERP 問題，這是一個有點複雜的答案。我們在今年年初（我們稱它為 1 月）發現，我們無法按計劃在今年夏天推出 ERP。不幸的是，Buckeye 設施的倉庫管理系統將與 ERP 的啟動聯繫在一起。因此，我們審視了現狀，了解了其他可能我們可以更快實施的系統解決方案，包括我們在 EMEA 業務中非常成功運行的 ERP，並基本上做出了我們可以向前推進的決定，投資與完成原始戰略所需的成本相比，我們戰略中樞軸的資金更少。附帶的好處是它使我們能夠在今年夏天提前實際啟動倉庫管理系統。因此，成熟的 ERP 第一階段要到 2024 年的某個時候才能完成，但我們現在能夠將倉庫管理與其分開，並單獨走這條路。

The next question on the line comes from Linda Bolton-Weiser of D.A. Davidson & Co.

下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Linda Bolton-Weiser。戴維森公司

I'm sorry if you answered this because I missed the very beginning of your commentary, but like my understanding was that this distribution center was like almost inaccessible, like it was just so many problems and that therefore, you had to have duplicative storage and inventory in third-party locations. So are you saying now that you are accessing the DC? I'm trying to figure out like what has happened since the last time you spoke about all this.

如果你回答了這個問題，我很抱歉，因為我錯過了你評論的開頭，但就像我的理解是這個配送中心幾乎無法訪問，就像它有太多問題，因此，你必須有重複的存儲和第三方位置的庫存。所以你現在是說你正在訪問 DC？我想弄清楚自從你上次談到這一切以來發生了什麼。

Yes. Sure. So we've been operating that distribution center since, I believe, June or July of last summer when it went live. The problem with the inventory is it just became too cumbersome to operate in any sort of efficient manner. So the notion that we've not been able to access it, I would say, is not quite accurate. We've been using it. It's been incredibly inefficient both because of the system issue as well as the inventory starting to pile up. And so yes, I mean, like I answered from the last caller, we're already seeing some of the benefits of the changes that were taking place. Does that cover everything you asked?

是的。當然。因此，我相信自去年夏天 6 月或 7 月啟用以來，我們一直在運營該配送中心。庫存的問題在於它變得太麻煩了，無法以任何有效的方式進行操作。因此，我想說，我們無法訪問它的說法並不十分準確。我們一直在使用它。由於系統問題以及庫存開始堆積，效率極低。所以是的，我的意思是，就像我從上一個來電者那裡回答的那樣，我們已經看到了正在發生的變化的一些好處。這是否涵蓋了您提出的所有問題？

Yes. That's fine. And previously, I know you were just giving very rough guidance because you didn't quite know probably, but I know you were talking about an adjusted SG&A level of $100 million per quarter thereabouts. Is that still the case? I know you said like it's going to be that high in first quarter, then it's going to come down. What's the color on that?

是的。沒關係。之前，我知道你只是給出了非常粗略的指導，因為你可能不太清楚，但我知道你在談論調整後的 SG&A 水平，即每季度大約 1 億美元。現在還是這樣嗎？我知道你說過第一季度會那麼高，然後就會下降。那上面是什麼顏色的？

Yes. So our SG&A expenses this year, we've got some headwinds there, the annualization of some expenses and new payroll that we incurred last year. We are working very aggressively to bring that down. Inside SG&A is the variable labor -- well, it's more than just the variable labor -- but mostly the variable labor of our distribution centers. So you're going to see improvements there, again, back to my previous answers, probably not until -- I mean we're seeing some benefit now but real benefit not until later this year. And then we've got a number of cost takeout initiatives that Brian alluded to that are underway that are going to bring it down even more.

是的。所以我們今年的 SG&A 費用，我們在那裡遇到了一些不利因素，一些費用的年化和我們去年產生的新工資單。我們正在非常積極地努力將其降低。 SG&A 內部是可變勞動力——好吧，它不僅僅是可變勞動力——但主要是我們配送中心的可變勞動力。所以你會再次看到那裡的改進，回到我之前的答案，可能直到 - 我的意思是我們現在看到了一些好處，但真正的好處要到今年晚些時候。然後我們有一些布賴恩提到的成本削減計劃正在進行中，這些計劃將進一步降低成本。

Sorry, I didn't glance at your SG&A in the fourth quarter yet, but what was that number? And then how much of that in the fourth quarter SG&A is unusual type expenses that will eventually go away?

對不起，我還沒有看你第四季度的 SG&A，但那個數字是多少？然後，第四季度的 SG&A 中有多少是最終會消失的不尋常類型的費用？

I might need to follow up with you on that question just to make sure that I'm capturing it correctly. Our fourth quarter SG&A was $139 million. That includes a $32 million charge for the ERP write-down that I just discussed and then small single-digit millions of other nonrecurring onetime expenses.

我可能需要就該問題與您跟進，以確保我正確捕獲了它。我們第四季度的 SG&A 為 1.39 億美元。這包括我剛剛討論的 ERP 減記費用 3200 萬美元，以及數百萬其他非經常性一次性費用。

Right. So even excluding the charge, that's like, whatever, $100 million, that's a very large number for a company of your size. So I'm trying to figure out like what's normal, if you've got all these things going on? Because just a few quarters ago, your SG&A was like, I don't know, it was like below $70 million or something. So how much of it is like unusual, like that's nonrecurring sort of, once you fix all your problems?

正確的。因此，即使不包括費用，也就是 1 億美元，對於像您這樣規模的公司來說，這是一個非常大的數字。所以我想弄清楚什麼是正常的，如果你有所有這些事情嗎？因為就在幾個季度前，你的 SG&A 就像是，我不知道，它大約低於 7000 萬美元。那麼，一旦您解決了所有問題，其中有多少是不尋常的，就像是非經常性的？

Well, I mean, the things that I just mentioned, that's going to total about $40 million of nonrecurring expense that we got hit with in the fourth quarter that we're not going to see going forward into 2024. There are some other headwinds in the number for this year. The annualization of any new hires that took place last year is the best example of that. But again, the cost takeout initiatives that Brian mentioned and that I've mentioned as well, you're going to see a pretty dramatic reduction in our SG&A expenses over time.

好吧，我的意思是，我剛才提到的事情，我們在第四季度遭受的非經常性支出總計約為 4000 萬美元，我們不會在 2024 年看到這些支出。還有一些其他不利因素今年的數字。去年發生的任何新員工的年度化就是最好的例子。但同樣，Brian 提到的成本削減計劃以及我也提到的，隨著時間的推移，您將看到我們的 SG&A 費用大幅減少。

And will that be noticeable in third quarter 2023 or not until fourth quarter?

這會在 2023 年第三季度或直到第四季度才會引人注目嗎？

It will be noticeable in third quarter.

這將在第三季度引人注目。

Okay. Got you. And then one more thing, just the retail situation, I have a lot of my other companies talk about how specialty retailers didn't stock up as much inventory, so they're not reducing inventory because they never had it, but it's the bigger big-box retailers that are more problematic. And I think you talked about that. However, Walmart said their inventory was flat year-over-year in the last quarter. It seems like the problem is like fixed almost, pretty much. So is that the case? And like why wouldn't your sales growth then kind of snap back a little bit more quickly?

好的。明白了還有一件事，就是零售情況，我有很多其他公司都在談論專業零售商如何沒有庫存那麼多，所以他們不會減少庫存，因為他們從來沒有庫存，但它更大問題更多的大型零售商。我想你談到了這一點。然而，沃爾瑪表示，上一季度他們的庫存同比持平。看起來問題幾乎已經解決了。那麼是這樣嗎？就像為什麼你的銷售增長不會更快地恢復一點？

Yes, Linda, this is Brian. Yes, I would say that you're accurate on the first part. Definitely, specialty has not had the dip that some of our bigger partners did when they had some over-inventory positions and began basically canceling orders in late third quarter and also fourth quarter. We are seeing some rebound, but we're also still seeing a little bit of conservative nature in terms of ordering with some of the bigger accounts. The one thing that is in our favor and always has been is our lack of concentration, right? I mean, no one retailer is more than 8% of our overall business. And then obviously, our #1 customer ourselves at close to 15% for the quarter, which is our direct-to-consumer channels. But yes, I mean, it's been a slow but starting to thaw take on our bigger retailers in terms of increasing their orders with exclusive content and the everyday items.

是的，琳達，這是布賴恩。是的，我會說你在第一部分是準確的。當然，專業並沒有像我們的一些較大的合作夥伴那樣出現庫存過剩的情況，並且在第三季度末和第四季度開始基本上取消訂單。我們看到了一些反彈，但我們仍然看到一些大客戶在訂購方面有些保守。對我們有利且一直如此的一件事是我們注意力不集中，對嗎？我的意思是，沒有一家零售商超過我們整體業務的 8%。然後很明顯，本季度我們的第一大客戶自己接近 15%，這是我們直接面向消費者的渠道。但是，是的，我的意思是，在增加獨家內容和日常用品的訂單方面，我們的大型零售商正在緩慢但開始解凍。

The next question on the line comes from Megan Alexander of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的梅根亞歷山大。

I guess maybe to follow up on that, is there any way within the guide of the first quarter, at the midpoint maybe down 25%, that you could unpack the impact from maybe some normalizing seasonality, the impact of destocking? Just help us understand what the actual core underlying demand that you're projecting there is and maybe what you're expecting for POS. And are you seeing more destocking than your POS might suggest given your inability to fulfill product? And when would you expect that dynamic to reverse?

我想也許可以跟進，在第一季度的指導下，在中點可能下降 25% 的情況下，你可以從可能正常化的季節性、去庫存的影響中解開影響嗎？只需幫助我們了解您預測的實際核心潛在需求是什麼，以及您對 POS 的期望是什麼。鑑於您無法履行產品，您是否看到比 POS 可能建議的更多的去庫存？您預計這種動態何時會逆轉？

Yes. So I think there's a lot to unpack there, and it's going to take a little bit of time to unpack that for you. But I mean, great questions. Also, you've got to keep in mind that we are trying to comp an artificially high quarter in the first quarter of last year. So when we look at our sales guide for the first quarter, it's taking into consideration especially January and February of last year, had really high sales, as a lot of the supply chain challenges caused orders, and replenishment orders specifically, to move from like a November, December time line into January and February. So a big part of the basically flat to 5% growth, which was pretty muted, obviously, for the first quarter of this year is a result of that.

是的。所以我認為那裡有很多東西要拆開，要花一點時間為你拆開。但我的意思是，很好的問題。此外，你必須記住，我們正試圖在去年第一季度人為地計算一個高季度。因此，當我們查看第一季度的銷售指南時，特別考慮到去年 1 月和 2 月的銷售額非常高，因為許多供應鏈挑戰導致訂單，特別是補貨訂單，從a 11 月、12 月時間線進入 1 月和 2 月。因此，很明顯，今年第一季度基本持平至 5% 的增長很大一部分是這一結果。

Yes. We're still definitely seeing great trends on the sell-through on POS. So the brand continues to do extremely well. It's just a slower amount of orders coming in from some of the bigger customers. But that, again, like I said on the last question by Linda, starting to thaw a little bit and it's looking a lot better for us. But we're very encouraged by the strong POS.

是的。我們仍然可以肯定地看到 POS 銷售量的巨大趨勢。因此，該品牌繼續表現出色。只是來自一些大客戶的訂單數量減少了。但是，就像我在 Linda 的最後一個問題中所說的那樣，開始解凍一點，對我們來說看起來好多了。但我們對強大的 POS 感到非常鼓舞。

Okay. And then maybe a separate question, are there more investments in capacity needed after this? I think you mentioned you were running additional 3PLs, and last I heard you hadn't moved Loungefly into the new DC. So if that warehouse is kind of already at 100% capacity. How should we be thinking about additional investments beyond this needed to achieve the growth you expect? And related to that, how much of the $180 million of savings actually flows through to the bottom line?

好的。然後可能是一個單獨的問題，在此之後是否需要更多的產能投資？我想你提到過你正在運行額外的 3PL，最後我聽說你沒有將 Loungefly 移到新的 DC 中。因此，如果該倉庫的容量已經達到 100%。我們應該如何考慮超出實現預期增長所需的額外投資？與此相關的是，1.8 億美元的節省中有多少實際流向了利潤線？

Sure. So the first thing that I'll say is we're leaving no stone unturned on the supply chain side. So we're looking at every possible option to enhance the network in a way that's more financially efficient than what we're delivering today.

當然。所以我要說的第一件事是我們在供應鏈方面不遺餘力。因此，我們正在研究每一種可能的選擇，以一種比我們今天提供的方式更具財務效率的方式來增強網絡。

Specifically on things like Loungefly, we've moved the Loungefly direct-to-consumer business into Buckeye. If that hasn't happened already, it's like happening this week or next. So we're going to start fulfilling that product out of the Buckeye, Arizona facility here very soon. We are looking at all of the third-party logistics partners that we have, not just the Loungefly partners but all of them, to understand if there are some synergies we can get by collapsing those into 1 or 2 larger facilities, et cetera.

特別是在 Loungefly 等方面，我們已將 Loungefly 直接面向消費者的業務轉移到 Buckeye。如果這還沒有發生，這就像本週或下週發生的一樣。因此，我們將很快開始在亞利桑那州 Buckeye 工廠完成該產品。我們正在研究我們擁有的所有第三方物流合作夥伴，不僅僅是 Loungefly 合作夥伴，而是所有合作夥伴，以了解我們是否可以通過將它們合併為 1 或 2 個更大的設施等來獲得一些協同效應。

As it relates to Buckeye specifically, the inventory reduction initiative is going to allow that building to handle the capacity that we needed to handle for the next couple of years, for sure. But we are also still looking at potential long-term 3PL solutions as we grow into more and more volume.

由於它具體涉及七葉樹，庫存減少計劃將使該建築能夠處理我們未來幾年需要處理的容量，這是肯定的。但隨著我們的業務量越來越大，我們仍在尋找潛在的長期 3PL 解決方案。

Yes. I'll add just one more thing on to what Steve said, which is a real hyper focus on FOB pickups from some of our bigger customers that we finally had a chance to set up direct ship. So we're also pushing a lot more volume out of Asia in '23 than we ever have before, so another encouraging trend for us as we put in the WMS for mid-summer and really think that the efficiencies in the warehouse in terms of just getting product out the door and cost to fulfill will be on their way down starting as soon as third quarter.

是的。我將在史蒂夫所說的基礎上再補充一件事，這是對我們一些大客戶的 FOB 皮卡的真正高度關注，我們終於有機會建立直接發貨。因此，我們也在 23 年從亞洲推出了比以往任何時候都多的數量，因此，當我們在仲夏推出倉庫管理系統時，我們的另一個令人鼓舞的趨勢確實認為倉庫的效率在從第三季度開始，只需將產品推出市場，履行成本就會下降。

Okay. That's helpful. Maybe if I could sneak in one more, just as a follow-up to the previous question, is there any way you can share what DTC looks like through the first 2 months of the year relative to the 37% you talked about in the fourth quarter?

好的。這很有幫助。也許我可以再偷偷說一個，作為上一個問題的後續問題，有沒有什麼方法可以分享 DTC 在今年前兩個月的情況，相對於你在第四個月談到的 37%四分之一？

Yes. I mean, look, it just continues to grow for us. I mean it is our strongest growth category. The fact that we have control of the narrative on that, it makes it a little bit easier with some of the difficulties in the last 1 quarter, 1.5 quarters of some of the bigger retail partners. We continue to just broaden the ability to fulfill quicker out of those direct-to-consumer orders. And we have great content coming out of the DTC channel. So we do expect, again, significant growth for direct-to-consumer throughout the entire year. Obviously, the content slate gets a little bit better toward the middle and end of the year as compared to the content slate in 2022, which was about as poor as I've seen it in years.

是的。我的意思是，看，它只是繼續為我們增長。我的意思是這是我們最強勁的增長類別。事實上，我們可以控制這方面的敘述，這使得過去 1 個季度的一些困難變得更容易一些，一些較大的零售合作夥伴的 1.5 個季度。我們繼續擴大從那些直接面向消費者的訂單中更快地完成訂單的能力。我們有來自 DTC 頻道的精彩內容。因此，我們再次預計全年直接面向消費者的業務將出現顯著增長。顯然，與 2022 年的內容名單相比，到年中和年底的內容名單會好一些，這是我多年來看到的最糟糕的情況。

So again, Loungefly and Funko continue to do really great things in direct-to-consumer. And Mondo's business, which is going to grow significantly this year since we acquired it, is pretty much all direct-to-consumer. So we will continue to see a lot of heat on that channel for us, and we're really happy about that.

因此，Loungefly 和 Funko 再次在直接面向消費者方面繼續做著真正偉大的事情。 Mondo 的業務自我們收購以來今年將顯著增長，幾乎都是直接面向消費者的業務。因此，我們將繼續在該頻道上看到很多熱度，我們對此感到非常高興。

The next question on the line comes from Gerrick Johnson of BMO.

下一個問題來自 BMO 的 Gerrick Johnson。

Steve, can you talk about the inventory that you are liquidating, what type of product that is? I think it's important given that a lot of your customers are collectors. And where is that product being liquidated? And how is that being done?

史蒂夫，你能談談你正在清算的庫存嗎？那是什麼類型的產品？我認為這很重要，因為您的很多客戶都是收藏家。該產品在哪裡被清算？那是怎麼做到的？

Sure. So obviously, we went after the oldest inventory first. Again, inventory that we felt like we could sell over time, but due to the operational constraints, it's just better to get out of it. So we've looked at all the inventory that's been the oldest as our first bucket. And then we're looking at anything where we feel like, sure, we're selling quite a bit of it, but we might have more weeks of supply than we need, right, to manage the business efficiently. I mean there are about 8 different lenses that we're using to look at all of our inventory to determine which units are going to get destroyed.

當然。很明顯，我們首先尋找最舊的庫存。同樣，我們覺得我們可以隨著時間的推移出售庫存，但由於運營限制，最好還是擺脫它。因此，我們查看了所有最古老的庫存作為我們的第一個存儲桶。然後我們正在尋找任何我們覺得的東西，當然，我們賣了相當多的東西，但我們可能有比我們需要的更多周的供應，對，以有效地管理業務。我的意思是我們使用大約 8 種不同的鏡頭來查看我們所有的庫存以確定哪些單元將被銷毀。

Speaking to how and where that's happening, we're using a third-party, and they're not far from our distribution center in Buckeye, Arizona, and so we're not going to incur too much transportation expense to do that. But we're using a facility that can certify the destruction for us so that we can provide certificates of destruction to our licensors.

談到發生的方式和地點，我們正在使用第三方，他們離我們在亞利桑那州 Buckeye 的配送中心不遠，因此我們不會為此承擔太多的運輸費用。但是我們正在使用可以為我們證明銷毀的設施，以便我們可以向我們的許可方提供銷毀證書。

Okay. So it's being destroyed, clear. And the product, I guess, would be a whole range of products from POP on to other product that you sell, I don't know.

好的。所以它正在被摧毀，很清楚。我猜，該產品將是從 POP 到您銷售的其他產品的全系列產品，我不知道。

Absolutely. Yes.

絕對地。是的。

Okay. And Steve, can you talk about the inventory at hobby and specialty a little bit more? And more importantly, I'm wondering, now that you've stepped into this role and you had a look under the hood, do you have confidence in Funko's systems and ability to track that inventory?

好的。史蒂夫，你能多談談業餘愛好和專業方面的庫存嗎？更重要的是，我想知道，既然您已經擔任這個角色並且了解了幕後情況，您對 Funko 的系統和跟踪庫存的能力有信心嗎？

Well, that's a 2-part question, for sure. My confidence level, yes, we don't have the best systems right now, which is why we talked about things like an ERP and a warehouse management system. So I have confidence that we're going to get to a place where our systems infrastructure supports the business the way it needs to. In the meantime, a lot of this stuff is done semi-manually. And especially on initiatives like this inventory effort, we've put in so many redundant controls in the generation of the products that we have flagged to get rid of as well as kind of the execution of getting the files passed back and forth between our planning group and the distribution center that I'm confident that we'll do this without messing it up. Very confident.

嗯，這是一個由兩部分組成的問題，這是肯定的。我的信心水平，是的，我們現在沒有最好的系統，這就是為什麼我們談論 ERP 和倉庫管理系統之類的東西。所以我有信心，我們將到達一個地方，我們的系統基礎設施可以按照需要的方式支持業務。與此同時，很多這樣的事情都是半手工完成的。尤其是在像這種庫存工作這樣的計劃中，我們在我們標記為要擺脫的產品的生成以及在我們的計劃之間來回傳遞文件的執行中加入了很多冗餘控制小組和配送中心，我相信我們會做到這一點而不會把事情搞砸。非常有信心。

One thing that I wanted to go back and just emphasize for you though, Gerrick, is, yes, we are destroying this product, but we're doing it through a very green third-party firm that's going to recycle everything, to the extent that it can be recycled. So I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew that we're trying to do this the most responsible way we possibly can.

不過，Gerrick，我想回去向你強調的一件事是，是的，我們正在銷毀這個產品，但我們正在通過一家非常環保的第三方公司來做這件事，該公司將回收所有東西，在某種程度上它可以被回收。所以我只是想確保每個人都知道我們正在努力以我們可能做到的最負責任的方式來做這件事。

The next question on the line comes from Stephen Laszczyk of Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的 Stephen Laszczyk。

Maybe just one more on the new distribution system, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what the biggest differences will be between the new system compared to the one proposed last year. And do you anticipate that the new system, once implemented, will have an opportunity for efficiency over the long term as the plan you laid out at Investor Day last year?

也許只是關於新分配系統的更多信息，我想知道您是否可以多談談新系統與去年提議的系統之間最大的區別是什麼。您是否預計新系統一旦實施，將有機會像您去年在投資者日制定的計劃那樣長期提高效率？

Yes. Steve, so that's a good question and prompts me to clarify something for everybody. So the new warehouse management system that we're talking about deploying this summer is what I would call a warehouse management system light. It's not necessarily the permanent solution, but it's something that we know we can deploy very quickly with very little incremental cost, relatively speaking.

是的。史蒂夫，這是一個很好的問題，促使我為大家澄清一些事情。因此，我們在今年夏天討論部署的新倉庫管理系統就是我所說的輕型倉庫管理系統。它不一定是永久性的解決方案，但相對而言，我們知道我們可以用很少的增量成本快速部署它。

It may be that as we complete our analysis around what the right permanent solution is that we'd be tied to a full ERP launch. It may be that we go in a different direction again. Although I expect, what we're going to find with the lighter system that I just mentioned, is we're going to end up with about 70% to 80% of the feature and functionality that we would have gotten with a full-blown, top-shelf warehouse management system. It's such a leap forward for our business to have the 70% to 80%, that it's going to produce amazing benefits in terms of our ability to operate efficiently, but it may not be the full-term solution going forward.

可能是當我們完成關於正確的永久解決方案是什麼的分析時，我們將與完整的 ERP 啟動聯繫在一起。也許我們會再次走向不同的方向。雖然我預計，我們將通過我剛才提到的更輕的系統找到什麼，但我們最終將擁有我們通過成熟的系統獲得的大約 70% 到 80% 的特性和功能, 頂級貨架倉庫管理系統。擁有 70% 到 80% 對我們的業務來說是一個巨大的飛躍，它將在我們高效運營的能力方面產生驚人的收益，但這可能不是未來的全面解決方案。

Now the one benefit that I will say of taking this bifurcated approach to the deployments is we won't be dependent on the actual ERP to get the systems implemented. And that also means that when we implement the new ERP, we don't, at the same time, have to implement a new top-shelf warehouse management system if we decide to go down that path. We can still keep it bifurcated through the ERP, let that burn in, figure out the tweaks and the issues that every systems implementation has, and then go back and upgrade our warehouse management system if we decide that the juice is worth the squeeze.

現在我要說的一個好處是採用這種分叉的部署方法，我們將不再依賴實際的 ERP 來實現系統。這也意味著當我們實施新的 ERP 時，如果我們決定沿著這條路走下去，我們不必同時實施新的頂級倉庫管理系統。我們仍然可以通過 ERP 將它分成兩部分，讓它燃燒，找出每個系統實施所存在的調整和問題，然後如果我們認為果汁值得榨取，則返回併升級我們的倉庫管理系統。

That's helpful. And then maybe separately, could you talk some more about the assumptions behind your '23 outlook? Maybe just in terms of your outlook for the economy, the health in pacing of the consumer and what you're hearing out of the retail channels in terms of the back half orders picking up, that would be helpful.

這很有幫助。然後也許單獨地，你能談談你的 23 年展望背後的假設嗎？也許就你對經濟的展望、消費者節奏的健康狀況以及你從零售渠道聽到的後半部分訂單回升而言，這可能會有所幫助。

Yes, I'll take that one. So look, we have obviously visibility to our order book through all the way through Q3, and we also know there's a lot of great content in '23 compared to '22. We're seeing, like I said earlier, falling of some of the bigger customers in terms of liking back to their normal levels or bring on a week-to-week basis for us. So between the combination of all 3, I mean, we think we're in a really good position to start building momentum towards the second half of the year.

是的，我會拿那個。所以看，從第三季度開始，我們就可以清楚地看到我們的訂單簿，而且我們也知道與 22 年相比，23 年有很多很棒的內容。正如我之前所說，我們看到一些大客戶在喜歡回到正常水平或為我們帶來每週的基礎上有所下降。因此，我的意思是，在這三者的結合中，我們認為我們處於非常有利的位置，可以在今年下半年開始建立勢頭。

And then as we do that, obviously, the implementation of the parachute, the WMS, the FOB fulfillment increasing dramatically in Asia and just better systems in places, like Steve said, every angle that we're looking at in terms of getting better in fulfilling, getting faster in fulfilling and reducing our cost to fulfill, should all be taking place and hold in the Q3 and Q4. So ultimately, based on the super-positive POS for the brand and specialty always been a big part of our overall business with the lack of concentration we have, we see this thing continuing to build back to what we think are really good levels in the second half of the year.

然後當我們這樣做的時候，很明顯，降落傘的實施、WMS、FOB 履行在亞洲急劇增加，並且在一些地方有更好的系統，就像史蒂夫說的，我們正在考慮的每個角度都在變得更好實現，更快地實現並降低我們的實現成本，都應該在第三季度和第四季度發生並保持。因此，最終，基於品牌和專業的超積極 POS 一直是我們整體業務的重要組成部分，我們缺乏專注，我們看到這件事繼續恢復到我們認為真正好的水平下半年。

The final question on the line comes from Andrew Uerkwitz of Jefferies.

最後一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Andrew Uerkwitz。

I appreciate the time. Just 2 quick ones, the first one is with all these moving pieces and kind of a stronger back half, could you share with us kind of a little bit of color around what you think like exit rate gross margins or exit rate operating margins would be as we exit this year and get a lot of these issues behind us?

我很感激時間。只有 2 個快速的，第一個是所有這些移動部件和更強壯的後半部分，你能和我們分享一下你認為退出率毛利率或退出率營業利潤率的一些顏色嗎？當我們今年退出並把很多這些問題拋在腦後時？

I'm not sure if we're sharing that level of detail yet about the exit rate on the year, but we'll certainly bring you along for the ride throughout the year, and you can see for yourself as those trends improve.

我不確定我們是否會分享有關當年退出率的詳細信息，但我們肯定會帶你一起度過這一年，隨著這些趨勢的改善，你會親眼看到。

I think as we get towards the very end of Q3 and Q4, we're going to start seeing our EBITDA in the double digits, in the positive. So we are getting back to historical numbers that Funko has operated for years and years. Again, like Steve said, it's going to take us a little while to get there. But as we end the year, we're going to feel like we're in a really, really good place going into Q1 of 2024, with numbers that are much more in line with how we've usually operated the business for the last couple of years.

我認為當我們接近第三季度和第四季度末時，我們將開始看到我們的 EBITDA 呈兩位數增長，呈正數。所以我們要回到 Funko 多年來運營的歷史數據。同樣，正如史蒂夫所說，我們需要一些時間才能到達那裡。但是當我們年底時，我們會覺得我們在進入 2024 年第一季度時處在一個非常非常好的位置，數字與我們過去通常經營業務的方式更加一致許多年。

Got it. That's helpful. I appreciate it. And then last question, I guess, now that you kind of come back in the seat and you've always been a creative guy, dealing with all these issues, is it holding back R&D projects or growth initiatives or anything along those lines?

知道了。這很有幫助。我很感激。然後是最後一個問題，我想，既然你有點回到座位上，你一直是一個有創造力的人，處理所有這些問題，它是否阻礙了研發項目或增長計劃或任何類似的東西？

Look, we made some conscious decisions on some of our initiatives to push into '24 so that the entire company was focused on one thing, which is to be operationally a heck of a lot better than we have been and to cut SG&A. And so I think, yes, we've made a couple of sacrifices for the very short term. It will not affect the promising nature of some of those investments in '24, but we wanted the entire company pulling in the same direction in terms of fixing our ills as fast as we possibly can.

看，我們對我們的一些舉措做出了一些有意識的決定，以推進 '24，以便整個公司專注於一件事，即在運營上比我們以前好得多，並削減 SG&A。所以我認為，是的，我們在短期內做出了一些犧牲。它不會影響 24 年某些投資的前景，但我們希望整個公司朝著同一個方向努力，盡快解決我們的問題。

Look, we had a fairly botched ERP process and, unfortunately, a really nice warehouse that was configured for an ERP and WMS that never arrived on time. But I think it was important for us to continue all of the company pulling in the same direction on fixing these 2 problems. Meanwhile, though, we have 3 new product lines that are all launching middle of this year or later that have had a phenomenal response from our retail partners on a global basis, one of which is Bitty Pop! that we're just insanely excited about, which is a micro POP collectible.

看，我們有一個相當拙劣的 ERP 流程，不幸的是，一個非常好的倉庫配置了 ERP 和 WMS，但從未按時到達。但我認為對我們來說，讓所有公司繼續朝著同一個方向努力解決這兩個問題很重要。不過，與此同時，我們有 3 條新產品線都將在今年年中或之後推出，它們在全球範圍內得到了我們零售合作夥伴的熱烈反響，其中之一就是 Bitty Pop！我們非常興奮，這是一個微型 POP 收藏品。

So we feel like a much better content slate, 3 great new products dropping, plan to more than double Mondo since we've acquired it, Loungefly seems to be on fire, and we just have to fix our fulfillment issues and some of our operational issues while we reduce SG&A. So the focus has been on that, but I think you're still going to see some new disruptive products in the market, and then we'll pick up with some of the other new initiatives we have in '24 as we get the business back in order as fast as we possibly can.

所以我們覺得內容要好得多，有 3 種很棒的新產品正在投放，計劃在我們收購 Mondo 後增加一倍以上，Loungefly 似乎著火了，我們只需要解決我們的履行問題和我們的一些運營問題在我們減少 SG&A 的同時解決問題。所以重點一直放在這上面，但我認為你仍然會在市場上看到一些新的顛覆性產品，然後我們會在我們獲得業務時採用我們在 24 年推出的一些其他新舉措盡快恢復秩序。

Got it. I really appreciate the candor on that.

知道了。我真的很感激你對此的坦率。

Yes. Thank you, Andrew.

是的。謝謝你，安德魯。

We currently have no further questions, so I'll hand back to the management team for any closing remarks.

我們目前沒有進一步的問題，所以我會把任何結束語交還給管理團隊。

Yes. We appreciate everybody's questions and their time, so thank you very much.

是的。我們感謝大家的問題和他們的時間，所以非常感謝你。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect from the call.

今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開通話。