Playboy Inc (PLBY) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to PLBY Group's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Hosting today's call are Ben Kohn, Chief Executive Officer, and Marc Crossman, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. (Operator Instructions) While we wait for the queue to fill, I'd like to hand the call over to Ashley DeSimone of ICR.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 PLBY 集團 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。今天的電話會議由執行長 Ben Kohn 和財務長兼營運長 Marc Crossman 主持。 （操作員說明）當我們等待隊列填滿時，我想將通話轉給 ICR 的 Ashley DeSimone。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon. I'd like to remind everyone that the information discussed today is qualified in its entirety by the Form 8-K and Form 10-Q filings made today by PLBY Group, which may be accessed on the SEC's website and PLBY Group's website. Today's call is also being webcast, and a replay will be posted to PLBY Group's Investor Relations website.

謝謝你，接線生。午安.我想提醒大家，今天討論的資訊完全符合 PLBY Group 今天提交的表格 8-K 和表格 10-Q 文件的要求，這些文件可以在 SEC 網站和 PLBY Group 網站上存取。今天的電話會議也進行了網路直播，重播將發佈到 PLBY 集團的投資者關係網站上。

Please note that statements made during this call, including financial projections or other statements that are not historical in nature may constitute forward-looking statements. Such statements are made on the basis of PLBY Group's views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance at the time they're made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these statements.

請注意，本次電話會議期間發表的聲明，包括財務預測或其他非歷史性的聲明，可能構成前瞻性聲明。此類聲明是基於 PLBY 集團對未來事件和當時的業務績效的觀點和假設而做出的，我們不承擔更新這些聲明的任何義務。

Forward-looking statements are subject to risks which could cause PLBY Group's actual results to differ from its historical results and forecasts, including those risks set forth and PLBY Group's filings with the SEC. And you should refer to and carefully consider those for more information. This cautionary statement applies to all forward-looking statements made during this call. Do not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements.

前瞻性陳述存在可能導致 PLBY 集團的實際表現與其歷史績效和預測不同的風險，包括所闡述的風險和 PLBY 集團向 SEC 提交的文件。您應該參考並仔細考慮這些內容以獲取更多資訊。此警告聲明適用於本次電話會議期間所做的所有前瞻性聲明。請勿過度依賴任何前瞻性陳述。

During this call, PLBY Group may refer to non-GAAP financial measures, such non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the earnings release PLBY Group filed with its Form 8-K today and in its Form 10-Q filed.

在此電話會議期間，PLBY 集團可能會參考非 GAAP 財務指標，此類非 GAAP 指標並非根據公認會計原則編制。 PLBY Group 今天提交的 8-K 表格和 10-Q 表格中提供了非 GAAP 財務指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的調整表。

With that, I will hand the call back over to operator to begin the Q&A session. Operator?

這樣，我會將電話轉交給接線生開始問答環節。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Jason Tilchen, Canaccord Genuity.

Jason Tilchen，Canaccord Genuity。

Great. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the question. First off, I'm curious, you mentioned in the press release that you're not 100% convinced about selling Honey Birdette. I'm just curious what are some of the different factors you're weighing as you think about that asset and how it fits into your broader platform going forward? Maybe what are some of the options beyond continuing assets that you're currently looking at, at the moment?

偉大的。下午好，感謝您提出問題。首先，我很好奇，您在新聞稿中提到您並不 100% 相信出售 Honey Birdette。我只是很好奇，當您考慮該資產時，您正在權衡哪些不同因素，以及它如何融入您未來更廣泛的平台？除了您目前正在考慮的持續資產之外，也許還有哪些選擇？

Thanks, Jason. Good afternoon. It's Ben. I think right now, we are making the operational improvements we've talked about in previous calls to Honey Birdette. As we said today, we are instituting a 10% price increase that will start in the fourth quarter, and it will take us really until probably the second quarter of next year for all products. But we have not raised prices in the last two years. And yeah, we have faced rising inflation with wages, product costs, and shipping costs. We've also changed our free shipping as well as our expedited shipping policies. And we have other cost measures that we're taking.

謝謝，傑森。午安.是本。我認為現在我們正在對之前與 Honey Birdette 通話中討論過的運營進行改進。正如我們今天所說，我們將從第四季開始漲價 10%，所有產品的漲價可能要等到明年第二季。但過去兩年我們沒有漲價。是的，我們面臨著工資、產品成本和運輸成本不斷上升的通貨膨脹。我們也更改了免費送貨以及加急送貨政策。我們正在採取其他成本措施。

Given the macro environment right now from M&A and especially on the retail side, we don't think it's the right time to maximize shareholder value by selling that. However, we are looking at strategic alternatives and are pursuing partnerships, where we might be able to bring in a partner to help us grow the business without using cash from our balance sheet.

考慮到目前併購的宏觀環境，尤其是零售方面，我們認為現在不是透過出售來最大化股東價值的合適時機。然而，我們正在尋找策略替代方案並尋求合作夥伴關係，我們也許能夠引入合作夥伴來幫助我們發展業務，而無需使用資產負債表中的現金。

Great. That's really helpful. And then just a follow-up, not on Honey Birdette, but on the licensing business. You mentioned in the prepared remarks in the press release about potentially having a Chinese private equity firm making an offer for some of the Chinese trademarks. I'm just curious if you could expand a little bit about how that would impact the shape or trajectory of the licensing business in that market going forward?

偉大的。這真的很有幫助。然後是後續行動，不是關於 Honey Birdette，而是關於授權業務。您在新聞稿中準備好的評論中提到，一家中國私募股權公司可能會對部分中國商標提出要約。我只是好奇您能否詳細說明這將如何影響該市場未來許可業務的形態或軌跡？

Sure. There's not much I can say at this point. What I can say -- and we talked about this in the press release as well, over the past few months, we've done extensive audits of our old partners, both from a legal and financial perspective. We saw multiple violations and incurable violations of those agreements, as well as we've talked about previously, they haven't -- all partners have not been paying us. So we have decided to terminate a number of them.

當然。此時我無話可說。我能說的是——我們也在新聞稿中談到了這一點，在過去的幾個月裡，我們從法律和財務的角度對我們的老合作夥伴進行了廣泛的審計。我們看到了多次違反這些協議的行為，而且是無法治癒的違反行為，而且我們之前也談過，但它們並沒有——所有合作夥伴都沒有向我們付款。因此，我們決定終止其中一些。

We have strong interest from some of their subs as well as new partners that might be interested in licensing the brand. And at the same time, we received an unsolicited offer to buy our IP. We are still evaluating that deal and whether that deal makes sense for us or not, given the business, the valuation, the geopolitical situation, et cetera. In its current format, we would be selling all of our China business, and we would not have a China business moving forward, but a return we would receive a significant amount of cash. But again, it's early in that and we're still evaluating it from a company perspective.

他們的一些子公司以及可能有興趣獲得該品牌授權的新合作夥伴對我們產生了濃厚的興趣。同時，我們收到了一份主動提出的購買我們 IP 的要約。考慮到業務、估值、地緣政治局勢等，我們仍在評估該交易以及該交易對我們是否有意義。按照目前的形式，我們將出售所有中國業務，並且我們不會繼續推進中國業務，但我們將獲得大量現金作為回報。但同樣，現在還處於早期階段，我們仍在從公司的角度對其進行評估。

Great, that's really helpful. And just one last one. I was wondering if you could perhaps share some of the -- an update on some of the key metrics that you've been discussing in regards to the creator platform that you shared a lot about, plans to sort of change that rebranding and also, introduce membership. I'm just curious as to what are some of the underlying trends that you're seeing on recent months?

太棒了，這真的很有幫助。還有最後一張。我想知道您是否可以分享一些關於您一直在討論的有關創作者平台的一些關鍵指標的更新，您分享了很多內容，計劃對品牌重塑進行一些改變，還有，介紹會員資格。我只是好奇你最近幾個月看到的一些潛在趨勢是什麼？

Yeah, we're still very happy with where the creator platform is. Moving forward, we're not going to be talking about GMV, because that is not the metric by which we think we should be judged. What we're going to be talking about is digital revenue. I think that we are not -- to be clear, we are not trying to compete with OnlyFans. We don't believe in being Costco at Playboy, but I think we've view ourselves more from -- as a Neiman Marcus than a Costco. And so we think we have a way of -- with the Playboy Club, which really from the people we've talked to, resonates with people. It makes sense, this is the place to interact with creators.

是的，我們仍然對創作者平台的現狀感到非常滿意。展望未來，我們不會談論 GMV，因為這不是我們認為應該評判我們的指標。我們要討論的是數位收入。我認為我們不是——要明確的是，我們並不想與 OnlyFans 競爭。我們不相信自己是花花公子的好市多，但我認為我們更多地將自己視為內曼馬庫斯而不是好市多。所以我們認為我們有辦法——透過花花公子俱樂部，它確實從我們交談過的人那裡得到了人們的共鳴。有道理，這是與創作者互動的地方。

But also, the addition of membership, we have ways for creators to make more money with Playboy than any other platform. We're building on an affiliate program where they can sell memberships and get paid. They can participate in live events. There's a really unique value proposition for membership. And so for us, it's much more about revenue.

而且，除了會員資格之外，我們還為創作者提供了比任何其他平台都可以透過《花花公子》賺取更多收入的方法。我們正在建立一個聯盟計劃，他們可以在其中出售會員資格並獲得報酬。他們可以參加現場活動。會員資格有一個非常獨特的價值主張。因此對我們來說，更重要的是收入。

We also believe with the creator tiering that we've rolled out that OnlyFans has set the market at 80-20, we don't think 80-20 for a creator platform split is necessarily relevant, nor should that be where we are moving forward. And so -- sorry, not to answer the question directly, but we're going to be focusing on digital revenue moving forward as we're bringing our whole entire digital ecosystem together into one offering.

我們也相信，隨著我們推出的創作者分層，OnlyFans 將市場設定為 80-20，我們認為 80-20 的創作者平台劃分不一定相關，也不應該是我們前進的方向。因此，抱歉，不直接回答這個問題，但我們將專注於數位收入的發展，因為我們正在將整個數位生態系統整合到一個產品中。

Great, that's very helpful. Thanks a lot.

太好了，這非常有幫助。多謝。

Greg Pendy, Chardan.

格雷格·彭迪，查丹。

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my question. I'm just flipping back over to Honey Birdette. Can you just kind of let us know, what are you seeing in terms of the ability to raise prices? You said you're going to be doing it gradually over the next six months. Where do you think competitively the retail environment in that space is positioned?

嘿，夥計們，謝謝你提出我的問題。我只是翻回《親愛的小鳥》。您能否告訴我們，您認為提價能力如何？您說過您將在接下來的六個月內逐步進行。您認為該領域零售環境的競爭定位在哪裡？

Thanks, Greg. Yeah, look, I think October is a great example. And we talked about this, but October of '23 versus October of '22, which is a month that we had no sales in either year, we were up 16% year-over-year. And so with the right product, we are easily seeing the demand for that. We've also made changes already to expedited shipping to free shipping thresholds.

謝謝，格雷格。是的，我認為十月就是一個很好的例子。我們談到了這一點，但是 23 年 10 月與 22 年 10 月（我們在任何一年都沒有銷售的月份）相比，我們同比增長了 16%。因此，有了合適的產品，我們就很容易看到對此的需求。我們也已經對加急送貨到免費送貨的門檻進行了更改。

We have not seen any impact to consumer demand for the product. And we believe that we have room to raise prices. Obviously, labor and other costs have gone up. And when you look at the competitive landscape, we've seen others raise prices, we have not. And so that is something that we will start implementing here in the fourth quarter. And just given how we tag items based on the factories, it will take us until the second quarter to have that across our full product suite.

我們沒有看到消費者對該產品的需求受到任何影響。我們相信我們還有提價的空間。顯然，勞動力和其他成本都上漲了。當你觀察競爭格局時，我們看到其他人提高了價格，而我們卻沒有。這就是我們將在第四季開始實施的事情。鑑於我們如何根據工廠標記商品，我們需要到第二季度才能在整個產品套件中實現這一點。

Right. And then just one more on Honey Birdette. Can you just remind us what the store base sits at right now, where it was last year, and if there are any plans for new stores?

正確的。然後再講一首《Honey Birdette》。您能否告訴我們現在的門市基地在哪裡，去年在哪裡，是否有新店的計畫？

Yeah. So Greg, it's Marc. Right now, store base has got 48 in Australia. We've got 12 in the US, and we have 3 in the UK. And since then, we had opened I think, a year ago, three new stores. I'll get the exact number for you, but I think that was in the US.

是的。格雷格，是馬克。目前，澳洲門市基地已達48家。我們在美國有 12 個，在英國有 3 個。從那時起，我想一年前我們就開了三家新店。我會給你確切的號碼，但我認為那是在美國。

Greg, I think we would like to open new stores. I think that we are committed to becoming a capital-light model -- to moving to that capital-light model we talked about. We don't think that's the best use of shareholder capital on our balance sheet, just given our limited resources and the debt that we have. But we are we are exploring, as we said, strategic alternatives to potentially bring in a partner to help us expand that business. It's just not the right time for us to sell 100% of it after consulting with our advisors based on the macro environment.

格雷格，我想我們想開新店。我認為我們致力於成為輕資本模式——轉向我們談論的輕資本模式。考慮到我們有限的資源和債務，我們認為這並不是我們資產負債表上股東資本的最佳利用方式。但正如我們所說，我們正在探索策略替代方案，以潛在地引入合作夥伴來幫助我們擴展業務。根據宏觀環境諮詢顧問後，我們現在還不是100%出售的合適時機。

Makes sense. Okay, thanks a lot.

說得通。好的，非常感謝。

We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. Therefore, I'll turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節已經結束。因此，我會將電話轉回給管理層以供結束語。

We appreciate everyone listening, and we look forward to talking to you on our next call to discuss the full year 2023 results. Thank you.

感謝大家的聆聽，我們期待在下次電話會議上與您討論 2023 年全年業績。謝謝。

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

今天的會議到此結束，此時您可以掛斷電話了。感謝您的參與。