JAKKS Pacific Inc (JAKK) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the JAKKS Pacific first-quarter 2024 earnings conference call with management, who will review financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. JAKKS issued its earnings press release earlier today. Our earnings release and presentation slides related to today's call are available on the company's recently remodeled website in the Investors section.

大家下午好。歡迎參加 JAKKS Pacific 與管理層舉行的 2024 年第一季財報電話會議，他們將審查截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的季度的財務業績。JAKKS 今天稍早發布了收益新聞稿。我們與今天電話會議相關的收益發布和演示幻燈片可在該公司最近改版的網站的投資者部分中找到。

On the call this afternoon are Stephen Berman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and John Kimble, Chief Financial Officer. Stephen will first provide an overview of the quarter, along with highlights of recent performance and current business trends. Then John will provide some additional editorial around JAKKS Pacific's financial and operational results. Mr. Berman will then return with additional comments and some closing remarks prior to opening up the call for questions.

今天下午的電話會議由董事長兼執行長史蒂芬伯曼 (Stephen Berman) 主持。和財務長約翰·金布爾。史蒂芬將首先提供本季的概述，以及近期業績和當前業務趨勢的亮點。然後約翰將針對 JAKKS Pacific 的財務和營運業績提供一些額外的社論。然後，伯曼先生將在開始提問之前返回補充評論和一些結束語。

If you would like to submit a question, e-mail it to investors@jakks.net. Before we begin, the company would like to point out that any comments made about JAKKS Pacific's future performance, events or circumstances, including the estimates of sales, margins, and/or adjusted EBITDA in 2024, as well as any other forward-looking statements concerning 2024 and beyond, are subject to the Safe Harbor protection under federal security laws.

如果您想提交問題，請發送電子郵件至investors@jakks.net。在我們開始之前，公司想指出，有關 JAKKS Pacific 未來業績、事件或情況的任何評論，包括 2024 年銷售額、利潤率和/或調整後 EBITDA 的估計，以及任何其他前瞻性陳述2024 年及以後，受聯邦安全法的安全港保護。

These statements reflect the company's best judgment based on current market trends and conditions today and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. For details concerning these and other such risks and uncertainties, you should consult JAKK's most recent 10-K and 10-Q filings with the SEC as well as the company's other reports subsequently filed with the SEC from time to time.

這些陳述反映了公司根據當前市場趨勢和狀況做出的最佳判斷，並受到某些風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中預測的結果有重大差異。有關這些以及其他此類風險和不確定性的詳細信息，您應查閱 JAKK 最近向 SEC 提交的 10-K 和 10-Q 文件以及該公司隨後不時向 SEC 提交的其他報告。

In addition, today's comments by management will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share. Unless stated otherwise, the most directly comparable GAAP financial metric has been reconciled to the associated non-GAAP financial measure within the company's earnings press release issued today or previously. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

此外，管理層今天的評論將參考非公認會計準則財務指標，例如調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的每股盈餘。除非另有說明，否則最直接可比較的 GAAP 財務指標已與公司今天或之前發布的收益新聞稿中的相關非 GAAP 財務指標進行了調整。提醒一下，本次會議正在錄製中。

With that, I would now like to turn the call over Stephen Berman.

現在我想把電話轉給史蒂芬·伯曼。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. With our strong conviction, we are delighted with our current state of the business here at JAKKS. First, paying off our expensive and long-term debt last summer, and now retiring all the outstanding preferred shares. Our balance sheet has never been healthier.

下午好，感謝您今天加入我們。憑藉我們堅定的信念，我們對 JAKKS 目前的業務狀況感到滿意。首先，償還去年夏天昂貴的長期債務，現在註銷所有已發行的優先股。我們的資產負債表從未如此健康。

On the commercial side, I've personally been to Europe already twice this year, meeting with customers and licensors who are engaged about our renewed focus on those markets and excited to share their ideas to accelerate our growth there. And as we speak, we've had customers in our showrooms for the last month enthused about the current state of our portfolio and some of the new ideas we are chasing for 2025.

在商業方面，今年我個人已經去過歐洲兩次，會見了客戶和授權人，他們對我們重新關注這些市場表示關注，並很高興分享他們的想法，以加速我們在當地的成長。正如我們所說，上個月我們展廳裡的客戶對我們產品組合的現狀以及我們在 2025 年追求的一些新想法感到興奮。

With that said, as our long-term investors know, first quarter is always our lowest shipping quarter. Retailers are clean up the shelves after the holiday season, and outside of the new entertainment-driven releases at the time of year led by day-in and day-out sales in support of birthdays and other impulse-driven purchases.

話雖如此，正如我們的長期投資者所知，第一季始終是我們出貨量最低的季度。零售商在假期結束後清理貨架，除了每年推出的新的娛樂驅動產品外，以日復一日的銷售為主導，以支持生日和其他衝動驅動的購買。

What you don't see in the financial statements but is of the highest importance during this time of year is the table setting for the future business that I just talked about. Finalizing commitments against promotion opportunities and retail placement for later in the year happens now. Discussions about new listings for spring and even fall 2025 are happening now. And for us, in particular, conversations about new entertainment releases and new product initiatives for 2025 and even 2026 are happening as well.

你在財務報表中看不到，但在一年中的這個時候最重要的是我剛才談到的未來業務的表格設定。現在正在敲定今年稍後促銷機會和零售版面的承諾。關於 2025 年春季甚至秋季新上市的討論正在進行中。特別是對我們來說，有關 2025 年甚至 2026 年新娛樂版本和新產品計劃的討論也在發生。

Through that lens, the first quarter has gone well for us at JAKKS, even if the financial results are less than thrilling. Our revenues were in line with our expectations, given the absence of new films in our first-half portfolio. Unfortunately, despite lowering our expectations for the additional shipments and support of a key Q4 2023 film, the reality is its release via streaming has done little to improve what has been a real disappointment for all involved.

從這個角度來看，儘管財務表現並不令人興奮，但 JAKKS 第一季的表現還是不錯的。鑑於我們上半年的投資組合中沒有新電影，我們的收入符合我們的預期。不幸的是，儘管我們降低了對 2023 年第四季度關鍵電影的額外出貨量和支持的預期，但現實是，它透過串流媒體發布並沒有改善所有相關人員真正失望的情況。

We continue to be an FOB-first company. In 2023, over 70% of our total company sales were made FOB out of Asia. Although this allows us to operate with leaner inventory and working capital than other companies in our space, it nonetheless means we are not immune to inventory write-down issues when results significantly deviate from expectations as was the case with the aforementioned film.

我們仍然是 FOB 優先的公司。2023 年，我們公司總銷售額的 70% 以上來自亞洲離岸價。儘管這使我們能夠以比我們領域的其他公司更精簡的庫存和營運資金進行運營，但這仍然意味著當結果顯著偏離預期時，我們無法免受庫存減記問題的影響，就像上述電影的情況一樣。

We're always operating in three different years at the same time in our industry, shipping to customers who are selling through to consumers daily, previewing 2025 product to retailers behind closed doors, and brainstorming new initiatives and opportunities internally and externally that might be 18 to 24 months away from ultimately shipping. That reality is in conflict to the quarterly reports of results in a business with our seasonality. And with that in mind, we know that SG&A in the latter quarters are going to look heavier from time to time.

我們總是在行業的三個不同年份同時運營，向每天向消費者銷售的客戶發貨，向零售商閉門預覽 2025 年產品，並在內部和外部集思廣益新舉措和機會，這可能是 18距離最終出貨還有24 個月。這一現實與我們季節性業務的季度業績報告相衝突。考慮到這一點，我們知道後幾季的SG&A 會不時顯得更重。

We have talked about increased spending on infrastructure, and we continue to do that in a thoughtful way, evaluating our full-year profit and cash generating targets. The efforts we're making today in areas like European and Mexico distribution capabilities, demand creation and related tech support are the right thing to do for our company. I am confident when we get into 2025 and '26, we will be even happier about the progress we're seeing today, even acknowledging it's not a straight line to success and there's a degree of test and learn in most of these things that we do.

我們已經討論了增加基礎設施支出的問題，我們將繼續以深思熟慮的方式這樣做，評估我們的全年利潤和現金產生目標。我們今天在歐洲和墨西哥的分銷能力、需求創造和相關技術支援等領域所做的努力對我們公司來說是正確的事情。我相信，當我們進入2025 年和26 年時，我們會對今天看到的進展感到更加高興，甚至承認這不是一條通往成功的直線，而且我們在大多數事情上都需要一定程度的測試和學習。

Finally, I want to talk a bit about the redemption of our preferred shares. When the company was recapitalized in 2019, we were at a very difficult situation as the bankruptcy of Toys R Us and other important customers in the preceding years sent a shockwave through our industry and significantly changed the market dynamics that we had been operating under in the decades-plus previously.

最後，我想談談我們優先股的贖回。當公司在2019 年進行資本重組時，我們處於非常困難的境地，因為前幾年玩具反斗城和其他重要客戶的破產給我們的行業帶來了衝擊，並極大地改變了我們在過去幾年中經營的市場動態。

Since the recapitalization, we have been clear in our goals to tighten the focus around our core business, improve our margins, and unencumber our balance sheet. The team's collective efforts as well as a collaborative success with our business partners has allowed us to exceed nearly every expectations over the following five years.

自資本重組以來，我們的目標一直很明確，即加強對核心業務的關注，提高利潤率，並減輕資產負債表的負擔。團隊的集體努力以及與業務合作夥伴的成功合作使我們在接下來的五年幾乎超越了所有期望。

We refinanced our debt in the middle of 2021, paid off that balance in 2023, and now, finally have retired the last artifact of that restructuring. The preferred shares required us to accrue or pay a quarterly dividend and prohibited us any return of capital to the common shareholder base. Although the negotiated settlement used up over half our cash on hand as we headed into a tight liquidity season, the Board and I felt the right decision to make was to take the opportunity to repurchase those shares at a discount to their contractually entitled pricing when that opportunity presented itself.

我們在 2021 年中期對債務進行了再融資，並在 2023 年還清了餘額，現在終於退休了重組的最後一個工件。優先股要求我們應計或支付季度股息，並禁止我們向普通股股東返還任何資本。儘管在我們進入流動性緊張季節時，談判達成的和解協議用掉了我們手頭現金的一半以上，但董事會和我認為做出的正確決定是趁機以低於合約規定定價的折扣回購這些股票。機會自然而然地出現了。

A company of our size has always had to be mindful of unanticipated market disruptions and the potential impact on our results and liquidity. And it is my highest priority, personally, to ensure that we are future proofing the company as best as we can to avoid the situation we found ourselves in back in 2019.

像我們這樣規模的公司必須始終注意意外的市場混亂以及對我們業績和流動性的潛在影響。我個人的首要任務是確保我們盡可能為公司的未來做好準備，避免 2019 年的情況。

As a preferred opportunity surfaced somewhat unexpectedly, we are not in a position today to articulate precisely what's next given what we've achieved in our aforementioned goals as it relates to a clean balance sheet. The Board and I are discussing a number of considerations, and John will touch upon the topic a bit, but I wanted to point out that we are mindful that investors community is understandably curious as to where we think we are heading, given our remarkable accomplishments in this area, at least in our opinion.

由於首選機會的出現有些出乎意料，鑑於我們在上述目標中所取得的成就，我們今天無法準確闡明下一步的行動，因為它與乾淨的資產負債表有關。董事會和我正在討論一些考慮因素，約翰將稍微談一下這個話題，但我想指出，鑑於我們取得的卓越成就，投資者群體對我們的發展方向感到好奇，這是可以理解的在這個領域，至少我們認為。

And with that, I will pass it over to John.

接下來，我會將其交給約翰。

Thank you, Stephen, and hi, everybody. First-quarter results are never a particularly interesting topic from a financial perspective. Over the past four to five years, our Q1 revenues have never represented more than 15% of our full-year results, which is not a great starting point when looking at most P&L metrics.

謝謝你，史蒂芬，大家好。從財務角度來看，第一季業績從來都不是一個特別有趣的話題。在過去的四到五年裡，我們第一季的營收從未佔全年業績的 15% 以上，在考慮大多數損益指標時，這並不是一個很好的起點。

Nonetheless, as we are always on the lookout for ways to add transparency to our business while being mindful of the confidentiality of data with respect to our partners, I wanted to highlight some increased disclosures we have made in the presentation deck that we include along with our earnings releases.

儘管如此，由於我們一直在尋找增加業務透明度的方法，同時注意我們合作夥伴的數據機密性，因此我想強調我們在簡報中增加的一些揭露，這些資訊包括我們的收益發布。

You've heard us talk about our core business of evergreen brands, categories, and play patterns. But investors who are less familiar with the toy space are sometimes challenged to understand the combination of our core evergreen business and the additional product lines enabled by new entertainment. Our daily objective is expanding those core evergreen product lines into more points of distribution and deeper buys. But our existence, adjacent to the entertainment and gaming industries, occasionally provides us with another lever to pull for more volume and margin on top of that core business.

您已經聽過我們談論我們的核心業務——常青品牌、品類和玩法。但對玩具領域較不熟悉的投資者有時會面臨挑戰，難以理解我們的核心常青業務與新娛樂帶來的附加產品線的結合。我們的日常目標是將這些核心常青產品線擴展到更多的分銷點和更深入的購買。但我們毗鄰娛樂和遊戲產業的存在，有時會為我們提供另一個槓桿，以在核心業務之上拉動更多的銷售和利潤。

For recent years, our published financial data disclosed net sales organized by four operating divisions: action playing collectibles; dolls, role play, and dress-up; outdoor seasonal toys and consumer products; and our costume business. And we will continue to share those results going forward.

近年來，我們公佈的財務數據揭露了由四個營運部門組織的淨銷售額：動作遊戲收藏品；娃娃、角色扮演和裝扮；戶外季節性玩具和消費品；以及我們的服裝業務。我們將繼續分享這些成果。

But as we've crunched the numbers more and discussed internally, it's the latter two businesses, seasonal and costumes, which we have concluded are somewhat less sensitive to new entertainment. Unless someone makes a movie about ball pits, we're generally going to sell a certain number of ball pits every year and what drives the numbers more individual retailers tweaking their dedicated shelf space and/or our portion of that space more than entertainment driving more per capita consumption.

但隨著我們更多地處理數據並進行內部討論，我們得出的結論是後兩項業務（季節性業務和服裝業務）對新娛樂不太敏感。除非有人製作一部關於球坑的電影，否則我們通常每年都會銷售一定數量的球坑，是什麼推動了更多個體零售商調整其專用貨架空間和/或我們在該空間中的部分，而不是娛樂驅動更多人均消費。

As support for that argument, I'll point out how the seasonal business has struggled in recent years as the larger cube footprint of a lot of the items suffered through high container costs, inventory backups, and retailers taking a more critical view of allocating floor space to those items, especially after selling a lot of them during COVID.

作為對這一論點的支持，我將指出近年來季節性業務如何陷入困境，因為許多商品的立方體佔地面積較大，受到集裝箱成本高、庫存備份以及零售商對分配樓層採取更嚴格的看法的影響為這些物品騰出空間，尤其是在新冠疫情期間出售了大量物品之後。

The costumes business similarly is trying to find its footing in a post-COVID world as 2020, 2021, 2022 have probably been the most unpredictable years in the business for a really long time. But on the flip side, it's the action figures and doll business where the new entertainment will generate an entirely new product line of anywhere from six to a couple of dozen unique SKUs as opposed to one or two new ball pits taking the place of last year's ball pits. And those new product ranges will get dedicated shelf space for a season or two or end-cap placement or out-of-aisle pallets, or all of the above.

服裝業同樣試圖在後新冠疫情時代找到立足點，因為 2020 年、2021 年、2022 年可能是該行業很長一段時間以來最難預測的年份。但另一方面，在人偶和玩偶業務中，新的娛樂將產生一個全新的產品線，其中包括六到幾十個獨特的 SKU，而不是一兩個新的球坑取代去年的球坑。球坑。這些新產品系列將獲得一個或兩個季節的專用貨架空間，或端蓋放置或過道外托盤，或以上所有。

Retailers who only carry toys for a portion of the year will be looking to stock these hottest on-trend properties, and that's the lift that the right entertainment releases can generate. So informed by that understanding of the business, we went back and essentially recut the two divisions that we've been disclosing previously and created an alternate view of them to provide you with a better understanding of how the underlying business is performing.

一年中部分時間只銷售玩具的零售商將尋求庫存這些最熱門的流行產品，而這正是合適的娛樂產品可以產生的提振作用。基於對業務的了解，我們回過頭來，基本上重新削減了我們之前披露的兩個部門，並創建了它們的替代視圖，以便您更好地了解基礎業務的表現。

We can do that in part because our licensing agreements require us to be very precise on what we report back to the licensors. And a new film property will almost always have a unique packaging look. It's the only place you can find new characters unique to that film, where our day-in, day-out evergreen product will be reported separately and found in different packaging.

我們之所以能夠做到這一點，部分原因是我們的授權協議要求我們向授權人報告的內容非常準確。新的薄膜特性幾乎總是具有獨特的包裝外觀。這是您可以找到該電影獨特的新角色的唯一地方，我們日復一日的常青產品將單獨報道並在不同的包裝中找到。

To be clear, in any given year, we're bringing to market over 40 different product lines, representing an even broader array of characters, and of course, selling across all the major markets of the world. By extension, each of those lines are their own unique business, and it's the accumulated portfolio that we check in and talk about on a quarterly basis.

需要明確的是，在任何一年，我們都會向市場推出 40 多種不同的產品線，代表著更廣泛的角色，當然，銷往世界所有主要市場。推而廣之，每條業務線都有自己獨特的業務，我們每季檢視並討論的是累積的投資組合。

I subject you to all that as a bit of a back story to understand the nuance there. As much as we're not thrilled with top line being down, the data supports what we know to be true that our underlying core business has steadily expanded over the past few years, even while we benefited from some exceptional upsides driven by films and episodic TV at the same time. That's the best insight I can think of to provide as it relates to sales.

我將所有這些作為一個背景故事讓您了解其中的細微差別。儘管我們對營收下降並不感到興奮，但數據支持了我們所知道的事實，即我們的基礎核心業務在過去幾年中穩步擴張，儘管我們受益於電影和劇集驅動的一些特殊優勢同時看電視。這是我能想到的與銷售相關的最佳見解。

I know some of you are now asking, yeah, but what the heck is going on with margins? Fair question. It's a bunch of different things as it turns out, which tend to pile up on each other when they appear all at once. Product margin was something of a tight rope and likely will be most of the year.

我知道你們有些人現在會問，是的，但是利潤到底是怎麼回事？公平的問題。事實證明，這是一堆不同的東西，當它們同時出現時，它們往往會相互堆積。產品利潤率在某種程度上是緊繃的，而且可能會在今年的大部分時間裡如此。

The newest hottest product tends to sell through cleanly and secure the best margins at the beginning of the product lifecycle. So based upon what we've said about the first half, we don't have that working in our favor. Lower royalties may help you a bit here, but you have both the volume and rate components there.

最新最熱門的產品往往會乾淨俐落地銷售，並在產品生命週期之初確保最佳利潤。因此，根據我們關於上半場的內容，我們並沒有看到對我們有利的情況。較低的版稅可能會對您有所幫助，但您同時擁有數量和費率組成部分。

The films in the back half should help. We have two in particular that we're excited about, but we had one last year that we were excited about back then. So the year-over-year excitement increment, from a margin point of view at least, is really only one noteworthy film that doesn't release until December, that being Sonic 3.

後半部分的電影應該會有幫助。我們有兩個特別令人興奮的地方，但去年我們有一個讓我們當時感到興奮的地方。因此，至少從利潤率的角度來看，逐年增加的興奮度實際上只是一部直到 12 月才上映的值得注意的電影，那就是《索尼克 3》。

Rough numbers, we usually see 25% to 30% of marginal sales flow through to EBITDA. So in summary, I'd say sales volume created a $4 million to $5 million negative comp this quarter.

粗略計算，我們通常看到 25% 到 30% 的邊際銷售額流向 EBITDA。總而言之，我認為本季的銷量造成了 400 萬至 500 萬美元的負收益。

Issue number two, the Clean up on Aisle 7 of the aforementioned disappointing Q4 2023 theatrical release. Should this topic be somewhat done and resolved now? Yes, we hope so. I would say this was as big of an issue as issue number one in the quarter, if not a bit more. You have product on shelf, product in the warehouse, product in components in anticipation of spring orders, all of which is suddenly a bit ill-advised when the consumer isn't responding. We're moving on.

第二期是上述令人失望的 2023 年第四季院線上映的《清理第 7 頻道》。這個話題現在應該做一些處理和解決嗎？是的，我們希望如此。我想說，這與本季的第一個問題一樣大，甚至更嚴重。貨架上有產品，倉庫中有產品，組件中有產品等待春季訂單，當消費者沒有回應時，所有這些突然就有點不明智了。我們繼續前進。

Separate but related, call it to be, beginning in the second half of last year and so far this year, we are seeing a return to more pre-COVID-like levels of product needing more price promotion to sell through cleanly. This can be a very challenging area to forecast prospectively as you are inevitably presuming recent results will be indicative of future performance. But the alternative is to presume everything will be awesome and nothing bad will ever happen, and that's not responsible or GAAP either. So assume there was a bit of this happening in Q1 as well.

可以說，從去年下半年開始到今年到目前為止，我們看到產品回到了新冠疫情前的水平，需要更多的價格促銷才能乾淨地銷售。這可能是一個非常具有挑戰性的前瞻性預測領域，因為您不可避免地會假設最近的結果將預示未來的表現。但另一個選擇是假設一切都會很棒，不會發生任何糟糕的事情，這既不是負責任的，也不是公認的會計準則。因此，假設第一季也發生了一些這種情況。

But with all those thoughts in mind, we still feel we're running a business that will generate a gross margin percentage that starts with a 3, despite what Q1 might imply.

但考慮到所有這些想法，我們仍然認為我們正在經營的業務將產生以 3 開頭的毛利率，儘管第一季可能意味著什麼。

Issue number three, we are spending more money on G&A areas as we've said in recent quarters. Our focus in 2020 and 2021 was survival and fixing the balance sheet. 2022 was a wild ride chasing a great revenue year. 2023 and now 2024 are gradually tuning up the organization, processes, and infrastructure for the next wave of revenue growth.

第三個問題，正如我們在最近幾季所說的那樣，我們在一般管理費用領域投入了更多資金。我們 2020 年和 2021 年的重點是生存和修復資產負債表。 2022 年是追逐高收入的瘋狂一年。 2023 年和現在的 2024 年正在逐步調整組織、流程和基礎設施，以迎接下一波收入成長。

Unfortunately, at a time where everything tends to cost more than it did prior, that can be a bad look when revenues and gross margins are down. Some of the spending that's happening in G&A is going to persist for a time until the revenue line makes it seem less notable or we get to better places from an efficiency point of view. That said, you're not going to see us leaning into talking about, quote, one-time, unquote, projects, and backing those numbers out. That's not in our plans.

不幸的是，在現在所有東西的成本都比以前更高的時候，當收入和毛利率下降時，情況可能會很糟糕。G＆A 中發生的一些支出將持續一段時間，直到收入線使其看起來不那麼引人注目，或者從效率的角度來看，我們達到了更好的水平。也就是說，你不會看到我們傾向於談論、引用、一次性、取消引用、項目，並支持這些數字。那不在我們的計劃之內。

Some of these efforts are tallying up to six-digit spend on a full-year basis to give you an order of magnitude. But we wanted to point it out is they're real as much as we're trying to self-fund as much as we can by cutting back in other places. We're simply trying to manage the business for the long term as much as that sounds like an obvious thing to say. And some of that work is driving spending in areas where we've been lighter the past couple of years. That's in addition to the reality that costs for most SG&A areas tend to be running higher year over year on a rate basis, which we know was a phenomenon not unique to us.

其中一些工作統計全年支出高達六位數，為您提供一個數量級。但我們想指出的是，它們是真實的，因為我們正試圖透過削減其他地方的開支來盡可能地自籌資金。我們只是想長期管理業務，這聽起來是顯而易見的事。其中一些工作正在推動過去幾年我們支出減少的領域的支出。除此之外，大多數 SG&A 領域的成本是按費率計算往往逐年上升，我們知道這種現象並非我們獨有。

Finally, four, it's a small-revenue quarter, someone knocking over a vase in the lobby impacts the bottom line. No, that didn't really happen. But metaphorically, it does happen from time to time over the course of the year. Q1 seem to have more than its fair share, low seven digits.

最後，四，這是一個收入很少的季度，有人打翻了大廳裡的花瓶，影響了利潤。不，那並沒有真正發生。但打個比方，這種情況在一年中確實會時不時地發生。第一季的份額似乎超過了其應有的份額，即低七位數。

In addition, there were some timing elements in total that were unfavorable for the quarter, but ideally, will just prove to be some full-year spending being pulled forward a bit more than 2023. That's it for the P&L.

此外，整體上還有一些時間因素對該季度不利，但理想情況下，全年支出將比 2023 年提前一些。這就是損益表。

Balance sheet, Stephen has talked about the preferred; happy to not be talking about them anymore. We were on a path to start paying the dividends in cash this year to stop the accretion. So the fact that we're not, eliminates about $1.7 million in cash that would have gone out the door and represents nearly 10% of the cash payment we did make in closing the transaction. That payment is digging deep into the bank account for us given the time of the year.

資產負債表方面，史蒂芬談到了首選；很高興不再談論他們。我們今年準備開始以現金支付股息，以阻止成長。因此，我們沒有這樣做，就消除了大約 170 萬美元的現金，這些現金可能會洩露出去，相當於我們在完成交易時支付的現金的近 10%。考慮到一年中的這個時間，這筆付款正在深入我們的銀行帳戶。

Not unlike when we paid off the term loan last June, we have enough confidence in our outlook for the balance of the year that we can take the calculated risk to extend ourselves cash-wise without jeopardizing our overall liquidity. As of April 22, our total cash on hand was around $22 million as an additional reference point for you.

就像我們去年六月還清定期貸款時一樣，我們對今年剩餘時間的前景有足夠的信心，我們可以承擔計算出的風險，在不損害我們整體流動性的情況下擴大現金規模。截至 4 月 22 日，我們手頭現金總額約 2,200 萬美元，僅供您參考。

Next, I wanted to update the narrative a bit on capital allocation. As Stephen mentioned, the preferred redemption opportunity surfaced on relatively short notice. So something we contemplated as more of a 2025 scenario has accelerated on us. We're being more diligent in monitoring cash given the unscheduled outflow and have a path forward to get to the end of the year with the backstop of our credit line. Separately, we are going deeper than we would otherwise in our 2025 and 2026 projections to give us the best view of liquidity and the related sensitivities.

接下來，我想稍微更新一下關於資本配置的敘述。正如史蒂芬所提到的，首選的贖回機會是在相對較短的時間內出現的。因此，我們在 2025 年設想的一些事情已經加速發生。考慮到計劃外的資金外流，我們將更加努力地監控現金，並且在我們的信貸額度的支持下，我們有辦法在今年年底前實現這一目標。另外，我們對 2025 年和 2026 年的預測進行了更深入的研究，以便更好地了解流動性和相關敏感性。

As that work is ongoing, there are four areas that are floating to the surface as key considerations, which I'll run through you without a rank order of importance. Working capital is clearly one. You've heard us talk about ramping up our international footprint. We know that sales outside of North America are meaningful opportunity.

隨著這項工作的進行，有四個領域作為關鍵考慮因素浮出水面，我將在不按重要性排序的情況下向您介紹這些領域。營運資金顯然就是其中之一。您已經聽過我們談論擴大我們的國際足跡。我們知道北美以外的銷售是有意義的機會。

The breadth and depth of our current product portfolio and the proof point around sales in the US position us well to reengage key international markets to ensure we are on-shelf year-round in all the key categories and in all the key accounts. We are moving people around, rejuggling organizations, questioning why we do things the way we've always done them, and all of those fun things.

我們目前產品組合的廣度和深度以及美國銷售的證據使我們能夠很好地重新參與主要國際市場，以確保我們在所有關鍵類別和所有關鍵客戶中全年都有現貨。我們正在調動人員，調整組織，質疑為什麼我們按照一貫的方式做事，以及所有這些有趣的事情。

A second area is M&A. As many of you know, JAKKS has built on M&A over the years. And walking through the showroom, you can see how our company today is really in many ways the accumulation of those acquisitions, well over 50% of our total sales volume. That said, we do not anticipate anything changing from an investment thesis perspective. It would have to be the right assets, importantly priced at the right level that clearly fit in our go-to market today.

第二個領域是併購。正如許多人所知，JAKKS 多年來一直以併購為基礎。穿過展廳，您可以看到我們公司今天在許多方面確實是這些收購的積累，遠遠超過我們總銷售額的 50%。也就是說，從投資理論的角度來看，我們預期不會有任何變化。它必須是正確的資產，重要的是定價在正確的水平，顯然適合我們今天的市場。

We are not looking to diversify our business model or extend into services or anything like that. One of the first questions we always ask is could we see JAKKS successfully selling this product line? To give you some insight as to how we view this topic.

我們並不打算使我們的業務模式多樣化或擴展到服務或類似的領域。我們總是問的第一個問題是 JAKKS 能否成功銷售該產品線？讓您了解我們如何看待這個主題。

Third is acquiring new licenses. We have found over time that securing the right license is a less risky, less expensive way to enter new categories than M&A, even if it might mean a slower build. Nonetheless, it does tend to require our investing cash ahead of revenue between satisfying the license or ensuring we have the right internal resources to be successful in the associated product development work.

第三是獲得新的許可證。隨著時間的推移，我們發現，與併購相比，獲得正確的許可是一種風險更小、成本更低的進入新類別的方式，即使這可能意味著建造速度較慢。儘管如此，它確實往往要求我們在滿足許可證或確保我們擁有適當的內部資源以在相關產品開發工作中取得成功之間先於收入投資現金。

Fourth on the list is capital return. We know that return of capital to shareholders is an important consideration for investors when a company is not in hyper-growth mode. It was a key consideration in the retirement of the preferred shares. Some of these uses of capital are more lasting and visible than others. So we are being rigorous in our assessment of how those balance out as you would hope us to be.

第四個是資本回報。我們知道，當公司不處於高速成長模式時，股東資本回報是投資人的重要考量。這是優先股退役的關鍵考慮因素。其中一些資本用途比其他用途更持久、更明顯。因此，我們正在嚴格評估這些因素如何達到您所希望的平衡。

Finally, as some of you know, the world of sell-side equity research has undergone a lot of change over the past 20 years and continues to do so. Recently, the lead analyst covering our stock moved onto a new role. So we wish him well with that. With that in mind, we're probably not going to have any questions at the end of the prepared remarks this quarter, just so you know why.

最後，正如你們中的一些人所知，賣方股權研究領域在過去 20 年裡經歷了很大的變化，並且仍在繼續。最近，研究我們股票的首席分析師調任新職務。所以我們祝他一切順利。考慮到這一點，我們在本季準備好的評論結束時可能不會提出任何問題，只是為了讓您知道原因。

But if you want to send something into investors@jakks.net e-mail address during the call, we'll see if we can work it in. Or if there are questions or observations you wish were being surfaced in our quarterly narratives, feel free to funnel them through that address, which is also tagged to our earnings release and we'll add it to the consideration set going forward or we can try to work you into the list of follow-up investor calls that we conduct regularly.

但如果您想在通話期間向investors@jakks.net 電子郵件地址發送一些內容，我們會看看是否可以處理。或者，如果您希望在我們的季度敘述中提出任何問題或意見，請隨時透過該地址進行交流，該地址也標記在我們的收益發布中，我們會將其添加到未來的考慮範圍中，或者我們可以嘗試將您列入我們定期進行的後續投資者電話會議的名單中。

And now, I'll pass things back to Stephen.

現在，我將把事情傳回給史蒂芬。

Thank you, John. As we have expressed over the past years, our main goals for JAKKS were getting JAKKS to a strong financial position, which we have achieved in addition to building an evergreen portfolio of products and categories, which we can build upon year after year for stable cash flows and growth across the categories. At the same time, we have been working to secure some exciting new IP and areas of new businesses that leverage our expertise and create new avenues for growth to add to our portfolio of products and categories.

謝謝你，約翰。正如我們在過去幾年中所表達的那樣，我們對JAKKS 的主要目標是讓JAKKS 建立強大的財務狀況，除了建立常青的產品和類別組合之外，我們還實現了這一目標，我們可以年復一年地以此為基礎獲得穩定的現金跨類別的流動和成長。同時，我們一直在努力確保一些令人興奮的新智慧財產權和新業務領域，利用我們的專業知識並創造新的成長途徑，以增加我們的產品和類別組合。

As we move into a new year, we will benefit from new products supported by upcoming movies and evergreen IP such as Moana 2, Sonic 3, The Simpsons, and the ABG brand portfolio. These additions of strong IP help strengthen the brick-by-brick methodology of how we have built our businesses over the years. These new businesses are why we are looking forward to the latter part of the year and how we see these new areas developing into 2025 and beyond.

進入新的一年，我們將受益於即將上映的電影和常青 IP（例如《莫阿娜 2》、《索尼克 3》、《辛普森一家》和 ABG 品牌組合）支持的新產品。這些強大知識產權的增加有助於加強我們多年來建立業務的逐磚方法。這些新業務是我們期待今年下半年的原因，也是我們如何看待這些新領域在 2025 年及以後發展的原因。

As expressed in our fourth-quarter year-end conference call, we said the first half of this year would be less than exciting as we had two blockbuster films launched in the first half of last year with the accompanying products for the Super Mario Brothers movie and the Little Mermaid movie, both in toy, in Halloween, and role play and dress-up.

正如我們在第四季度年終電話會議中所表達的那樣，我們表示今年上半年不會那麼令人興奮，因為去年上半年我們推出了兩部大片，以及《超級瑪利歐兄弟》電影的配套產品還有小美人魚電影，無論是在玩具方面，還是在萬聖節方面，以及角色扮演和裝扮方面。

So looking into the second half of 2024, from a content perspective, we were delighted that Disney plans to release Moana 2 in theaters this holiday season. The film tells the next chapter in the world of Moana, their successful 2016 film. We chased demand with the original Moana film exceeded commercial expectations, and it has been a constant seller for us ever since. We'll have a broader array of products and a new focused line of products inspired by the film on shelf in Q4.

因此，展望 2024 年下半年，從內容角度來看，我們很高興迪士尼計劃在今年假期在影院上映《莫阿娜 2》。這部電影講述了他們 2016 年大獲成功的電影《莫阿娜》世界的新篇章。我們用原版《莫阿娜》電影來滿足需求，超越了商業預期，從那時起它就一直是我們的經典產品。我們將在第四季上架更廣泛的產品系列和受該電影啟發的新的重點產品系列。

And as a reminder, we are enjoying three new pieces of entertainment in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog. Season 3 of Sonic Prime, which released in mid-January on Netflix, in addition to Knuckles, something of a prequel to the third film launching in December. Our friends at SEGA are doing an exceptional job managing the Sonic franchise as you really will see Sonic in more places and resonated with more and more kids.

提醒一下，我們正在享受《刺蝟索尼克》世界中的三項新娛樂內容。《Sonic Prime》第三季已於 1 月中旬在 Netflix 上映，此外還有《指關節》（Knuckles），後者是 12 月推出的第三部電影的前傳。我們世嘉的朋友們在管理索尼克系列方面做得非常出色，因為你真的會在更多的地方看到索尼克，並與越來越多的孩子產生共鳴。

We have made great progress on sharing our new Simpsons line with retailers across our major markets. We are now just starting to tease out the product to consumers and the reaction has been extremely strong. And the going-forward retail commitments occurring this fall are exciting, which we hope will build into 2025 and beyond for the strong evergreen property and brand.

我們在與主要市場的零售商分享新的辛普森一家系列方面取得了巨大進展。我們現在剛開始向消費者展示產品，反應非常強烈。今年秋天做出的未來零售承諾令人興奮，我們希望將這些承諾延續到 2025 年及以後，為強大的常青產業和品牌奠定基礎。

I wanted to highlight that our Disney ily business continues to steadily build. Our original 18 installed line continues to perform well, with new waves of assortment, allowing consumers to engage with their favorite characters. We launched the fashion doll scale last fall and have seen great sell-throughs then and this spring. The inspired stitched doll continues to be top seller week after week.

我想強調的是，我們的迪士尼業務仍在穩步發展。我們最初安裝的 18 個系列繼續表現良好，並推出了新的品種，讓消費者能夠與他們最喜歡的角色互動。我們去年秋天推出了時尚娃娃秤，當時和今年春天的銷量都很高。這款充滿靈感的縫製娃娃繼續一周又一周成為最暢銷的產品。

In our outdoor and seasonal division, we continue to work extremely close with ABG, meeting with retailers and sharing some of our potential collaborations. We have been working on iconic assortments of their properties, names like Element, Quiksilver, Roxy, Billabong, Volcom, Forever 21, Juicy Couture, Sports Illustrated, and Prince, just to name a few. All customers coming through our showroom recently were extremely impressed by the amazing new designs for Element, Volcom and Billabong and Quicksilver skateboards, which will be at specialty and mass retailers in store and online.

在我們的戶外和季節性部門，我們繼續與 ABG 密切合作，與零售商會面並分享我們的一些潛在合作。我們一直在研究他們旗下品牌的標誌性品種，例如 Element、Quiksilver、Roxy、Billabong、Volcom、Forever 21、Juicy Couture、Sports Illustrated 和 Prince，僅舉幾例。最近來到我們展廳的所有顧客都對 Element、Volcom、Billabong 和 Quicksilver 滑板的驚人新設計印象深刻，這些滑板將在專賣店和大眾零售商的商店和線上銷售。

In 2025, we are expanding into branded roller skates, inline skates, volleyballs, outdoor furniture including chairs, umbrellas and canopies, beach accessories, inflatable pool floats, foldable wagons, and the extensive line of dolls and doll accessories infused with fashion elements from Forever 21, Prince, Sports Illustrated, Roxy, and Billabong. When it comes to disguise, we have new product for a large number of new releases, the new Ghostbusters movie, the new Despicable Me and Kung Fu Panda movies, and releasing this fall, Wicked.

到2025 年，我們將業務拓展至品牌輪滑鞋、直排輪滑鞋、排球、戶外家具（包括椅子、雨傘和簷篷）、海灘配件、充氣泳池浮標、可折疊馬車以及注入Forever 時尚元素的廣泛的娃娃和娃娃配件系列21、《Prince》、《體育畫報》、《Roxy》和《Billabong》。說到偽裝，我們有大量新上映的新產品，新的《捉鬼敢死隊》電影、新的《神偷奶爸》和《功夫熊貓》電影，以及今年秋天上映的《魔法壞女巫》。

In addition to all the above, we have some new private-label initiatives, some new seasonal product lines extensions from our foot-to-floor ride-on category, new play environments ranging from ball pits and tents to our new expansive sports zone line, inclusive of gaga pits, ladder baseball, ski ball golf, and Cross Strike, to name a few. And we're also bringing out some new indoor licensed juggle gyms. So keep an eye out for those.

除了上述所有內容之外，我們還有一些新的自有品牌計劃、一些新的季節性產品線（從我們的腳到地板騎乘類別延伸）、新的遊戲環境（從球坑和帳篷到我們新的擴展運動區系列） ，包括加加坑、梯子棒球、滑雪球高爾夫和 Cross Strike 等。我們也推出了一些新的室內許可雜耍健身房。所以請留意那些。

It's a lot. We are extremely busy, but it's the right kind of busy and we're excited. We're thrilled to see another great year coming together at JAKKS, capped as always by the upcoming Halloween and holiday season. Thank you again for your interest in our company. And we look forward to meeting with many of our key stakeholders at Licensing Show next month in Las Vegas. Thank you. Operator?

很多。我們非常忙碌，但這種忙碌是正確的，我們很興奮。我們很高興看到 JAKKS 又迎來了美好的一年，一如既往地以即將到來的萬聖節和假期為結束。再次感謝您對我們公司的關注。我們期待下個月在拉斯維加斯舉行的授權展上與我們的許多主要利益相關者會面。謝謝。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) And I'm currently showing no questions at this time. I'd like to hand the call back over to Stephen Berman for closing remarks.

（操作員說明）目前我沒有顯示任何問題。我想將電話轉回給史蒂芬·伯曼（Stephen Berman）做總結發言。

Thank you, operator. So we actually have had received some questions via e-mail, and we also have lined up calls right after this. But to address one of the questions with regards to authentic brands and Simpsons, the first half -- the second half of the year, we're expanding into the specialty and collective retail markets and then the full expansion of the ABG line from the Element skateboards to the outdoor furniture to the canopies. Really the breadth of the line hits spring, summer 2025, but we have the initial launch of skateboards coming into the fall this year.

謝謝你，接線生。所以我們實際上已經透過電子郵件收到了一些問題，之後我們也立即撥打了電話。但為了解決有關正宗品牌和辛普森一家的問題之一，上半年 - 下半年，我們正在擴展到專業和集體零售市場，然後全面擴展 Element 的 ABG 系列從滑板到戶外家具再到簷篷。實際上，該系列產品將於 2025 年春夏推出，但我們將在今年秋季首次推出滑板。

And really the biggest impact of The Simpsons line of product we'll jump into a tease during the fourth quarter, but the whole, call it rollout, hits in the spring '25 and go through fall '25. But we have the initial launch happening worldwide during probably fourth quarter -- third, fourth quarter this year, but the big impact will be in 2025.

實際上，《辛普森家庭》系列產品的最大影響我們將在第四季度進行，但整個產品（稱之為推出）將在 25 年春季推出，並在 25 年秋季推出。但我們可能會在今年第四季（第三、第四季）在全球首次推出，但重大影響將在 2025 年出現。

There's additional question regarding margin and I'll turn it over to John.

還有關於保證金的其他問題，我會將其轉交給約翰。

Thanks, Stephen. So there was a question asking us to unpack gross margin a little bit more. I think I went through that in some level of detail, even though it was perhaps a bit quick. But I think there's a level of explanation in there if people want to go back and kind of sift through it a bit.

謝謝，史蒂芬。因此，有一個問題要求我們進一步提高毛利率。我想我在某種程度上詳細地了解了這一點，儘管可能有點快。但我認為，如果人們想回去仔細研究一下的話，裡面有一定程度的解釋。

But what I did want to speak to is, although on one hand, we certainly talked about seeing more pressure for price promotion and moving product lately and anticipate that lasting this year, it's certainly the case that from a first-quarter perspective, we saw a number of negative impacts on gross margin, which we think are hopefully going to be unique to Q1.

但我確實想說的是，雖然一方面，我們確實談到了最近價格促銷和轉移產品的更大壓力，並預計這種情況會持續到今年，但從第一季的角度來看，我們確實看到了這種情況對毛利率的一些負面影響，我們認為這有望成為第一季獨有的。

And so, as we look forward into the rest of the year, especially with the backdrop that we're always kind of working to sharpen the pencil on product margins, that's what gives us a degree of confidence about what we said in that as much as this quarter's results in that area weren't anything that would be aspirational that for the balance of the year we think hopefully a lot of that kind of bad news is behind us.

因此，當我們展望今年剩餘時間時，特別是在我們總是努力提高產品利潤率的背景下，這讓我們對我們在其中所說的內容有一定程度的信心由於本季度該領域的業績並不理想，因此在今年餘下的時間裡，我們認為希望許多此類壞消息已經過去。

And not exactly in a one-timey way, but in terms of over the long haul, sometimes things don't break your way and that we certainly had a little bit of that as we close out this quarter.

不完全是一次性的，但從長遠來看，有時事情不會破壞你的方式，當我們結束本季時，我們肯定有一點這樣的情況。

And with that, we have received some very nice communications through our e-mails. We’ll be addressing those during our investor calls right after this call. Thank you, everybody, for joining the call today. We look forward to speaking to you during our second-quarter conference call and throughout some of the investor meetings we have coming up in the next few months. Thank you.

就這樣，我們透過電子郵件收到了一些非常好的溝通。我們將在本次電話會議之後的投資者電話會議上解決這些問題。謝謝大家今天加入電話會議。我們期待在第二季電話會議以及未來幾個月舉行的一些投資者會議上與您交談。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。