Playboy Inc (PLBY) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to PLBY Group's second-quarter 2024 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)

大家下午好，歡迎參加 PLBY 集團 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。今天的電話會議由執行長 Ben Kohn 主持。財務長兼營運長 Marc Crossman。（操作員說明）

While we wait for the queue to fill, I would like to hand the call over to Matt Chesler from the Investor Relations team. Please go ahead.

在我們等待隊列填滿的同時，我想將電話轉交給投資者關係團隊的 Matt Chesler。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. I'd like to remind everyone that the information discussed today is qualified in its entirety by the Form 8-K filed 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 the company's Investor Relations website.

謝謝您，接線員，下午好。我想提醒大家，今天討論的資訊完全符合 PLBY Group 今天提交的 8-K 表格的要求，該表格可以在 SEC 網站和 PLBY Group 網站上存取。今天的電話會議也將進行網路直播，重播將發佈到公司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 are 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聲明，可能構成前瞻性聲明。此類聲明是基於 PLBY 集團在做出時對未來事件和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 the company's actual results to differ materially from historical results and forecasts, including those risks set forth in the company'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.

前瞻性陳述存在風險，可能導致公司的實際結果與歷史結果和預測有重大差異，包括公司向 SEC 提交的文件中列出的風險，您應該參考並仔細考慮這些風險以獲取更多資訊。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, the company 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 earnest release PLBY Group filed with its Form 8-K today.

在這次電話會議中，公司可能會參考非公認會計準則財務指標。此類非公認會計準則衡量標準並非依公認會計原則制定。PLBY Group 今天向其 8-K 表格提交的認真發布的新聞稿中提供了非 GAAP 財務指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的調整表。

And with that, I'd like to hand the call back over to the operator to begin the Q&A session. Operator?

這樣，我想將通話轉回給接線生以開始問答環節。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Jason Tilchen, Cannacord Genuity.

（操作員說明）Jason Tilchen，Cannacord Genuity。

Great. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. First one for me is one of the interesting things that stood out in the comments in the press release was regarding the pipeline of sponsorship deals that you're seeing. I'm wondering if you could share a little bit more about how that's coming out, sort of what we can expect in terms of a timeline for when that could be a potential revenue contributor to the overall business? Thanks.

偉大的。午安.感謝您提出問題。對我來說，第一件事是新聞稿中評論中突出的有趣的事情之一，那就是關於您所看到的贊助交易的管道。我想知道您是否可以分享更多有關其結果的信息，以及我們在何時可以為整體業務帶來潛在收入貢獻者的時間表方面的預期？謝謝。

Sure, Jason. Good afternoon. Thanks for the question. I think as we talked about on the last call and also announced today, we have brought in a new digital team that we are continuing to build out. And as we've evolved our greater model with the creators really at the center of it, we think there's a lot of other opportunities around membership and around lifestyle events, et cetera. And part of that is driving what I would say is advertising or sponsorship sales as we activate that community that Playboy has.

當然，傑森。午安.謝謝你的提問。我認為正如我們在上次電話會議中談到的以及今天宣布的那樣，我們已經引入了一個新的數位團隊，我們正在繼續建立這個團隊。隨著我們不斷發展以創作者為中心的更大模式，我們認為圍繞會員資格和生活方式活動等還有很多其他機會。其中一部分是推動我所說的廣告或贊助銷售，因為我們激活了花花公子擁有的社區。

And so I would say it's a robust pipeline. We're very excited. We've already closed some deals, and we'll be announcing those as we move through the fall. We'll be participating in New York in September at an investor conference, as well as out there talking to investors, really unveiling our media strategy moving forward and what that means.

所以我想說這是一個強大的管道。我們非常興奮。我們已經完成了一些交易，我們將在秋季公佈這些交易。我們將參加 9 月在紐約舉行的投資者會議，並與投資者交談，真正揭示我們前進的媒體策略及其含義。

So I would say, there is a robust pipeline from big name advertisers and sponsorships that are very interested in what we can deliver. And we'll be sharing more of that in September, really the evolution of our membership and creator strategy. You can see that starting to come to life with the new website that we launched two days ago.

所以我想說，來自知名廣告商和贊助商的強大管道對我們能夠提供的服務非常感興趣。我們將在 9 月分享更多內容，真正是我們的會員和創作者策略的演變。您可以看到我們兩天前推出的新網站開始變得栩栩如生。

You'll see that that website is a state for website featuring content. Some of it, with a wink and a nod to the past 20 questions, et cetera, but also featuring the creators that we work with on our platform. And all of that is a way to promote those creators, to get them integrated and working with brands, something that differentiates us from other platforms out there.

您會看到該網站是具有內容的網站的狀態。其中一些，包括對過去 20 個問題的眨眼和點頭等等，而且還包括我們在平台上合作的創作者。所有這些都是推廣這些創作者、讓他們整合並與品牌合作的一種方式，這也是我們與其他平台的不同之處。

Great. Very, very helpful. Another thing that sort of stood out from the press release, obviously the return of the magazine. I'm just wondering, a few sort of small questions off this one. A little bit, if you could share a little bit more about the strategy behind bringing the actual physical magazine back? And then sort of what level of investment is needed and is this going to be more of the goal for more of a financial contribution or is it more as a marketing tool to drive sort of more awareness around some of the other initiatives that you're doing on the digital side? Thanks.

偉大的。非常非常有幫助。新聞稿中另一件引人注目的事情顯然是該雜誌的回歸。我只是想知道這個問題的一些小問題。一點點，您是否可以分享更多有關恢復實體雜誌背後的策略？然後需要什麼樣的投資水平，這是否更多地是更多財務貢獻的目標，還是更多地作為一種營銷工具，以提高人們對您正在實施的其他一些舉措的認識在數字方面做什麼？謝謝。

Sure. Yeah, we're very excited. I think we've talked about this in the past, but really returning the company to its roots. Especially with the greater platform, as we look at that and we say, how do we feature creators? How do we offer something that other people don't have?

當然。是的，我們非常興奮。我想我們過去已經討論過這個問題，但實際上是讓公司回歸本源。尤其是有了更大的平台，當我們看到這一點時，我們會說，我們如何為創作者提供特色？我們如何提供別人沒有的東西？

The magazine is the ultimate tool, right? It's something that people ask us for all the time, both from a user perspective and from a creator perspective. And so we're happy to bring that back in the beginning of '25. We're going to be kicking that off next month with an eight-city Playmate casting call. Very excited for that, for the marketing.

雜誌是終極工具，對嗎？無論是從使用者的角度還是從創作者的角度來看，這是人們一直要求我們做的事情。因此，我們很高興能在 25 年初恢復這項功能。我們將在下個月透過八個城市的《花花公子》選角活動來拉開序幕。對此和行銷感到非常興奮。

But the magazine is mostly for promotional purposes and we'll see how that evolves. But you should expect just like the historical magazine, Playmate's in it and you should expect great content in it as well. 20 questions, the Playboy Advisor and other franchises, as well as potentially a celebrity cover.

但該雜誌主要用於促銷目的，我們將看看情況如何發展。但你應該像歷史雜誌一樣期待其中的《玩伴》，你也應該期待其中的精彩內容。 20 個問題、花花公子顧問和其他特許經營權，以及可能的名人封面。

And so we're excited to bring that back. It's been a long time coming and we think it's a great promotional tool for everything else we're doing on the digital and something that we look to present to investors as we move into the fall, what the comprehensive and cohesive digital strategy looks like.

所以我們很高興能把它帶回來。這是一個很長的時間，我們認為它是我們在數位領域所做的其他一切的一個很好的促銷工具，也是我們希望在進入秋季時向投資者展示全面和有凝聚力的數位策略的樣子。

Awesome. Very, very helpful. And then one last one for me. Yesterday, you made an announcement regarding a new licensing agreement on the e-commerce side. It seems more like a domestic deal. I was curious, if you could share a little bit more about what was exciting about that partnership and then also maybe if there's an update on sort of how we can expect the trajectory of the recovery for the China licensing business to evolve? Thanks.

驚人的。非常非常有幫助。然後是最後一張給我的。昨天，你們發布了有關電子商務方面新授權協議的公告。看起來更像是國內交易。我很好奇，您是否可以分享更多有關該合作夥伴關係的令人興奮的事情，或者是否有關於我們如何預期中國授權業務復甦軌跡發展的最新資訊？謝謝。

Sure. Yeah. So I think we've been really focused on building back our licensing business. We have a robust pipeline of deals. The e-commerce partner that we announced yesterday not only provides, $7.5 million of guarantees over the life of the deal, plus a percentage of the revenue above that. But it also is structured in a way to work with the creators on our platform.

當然。是的。所以我認為我們一直致力於重建我們的授權業務。我們擁有強大的交易管道。我們昨天宣布的電子商務合作夥伴不僅在交易期限內提供 750 萬美元的擔保，還提供高於此的收入的一定比例。但它的結構也與我們平台上的創作者合作。

Really, when you sort of look at the growth of what I would say is online shopping, TikTok, et cetera, we obviously we see that in China with Douyin. And what's happening there, it's an integrated strategy working with great designers of apparel and integrating that with their creators. Again, looking at ways to differentiate ourselves from other platforms that are out there, but stay true to who the brand is.

確實，當你看看我所說的線上購物、TikTok 等的成長時，我們顯然在中國透過抖音看到了這一點。那裡正在發生的事情是一個綜合策略，與偉大的服裝設計師合作並將其與他們的創造者結合起來。再次，尋找使自己與其他平台區分開來的方法，但要忠於品牌本質。

As far as China, our partner is making great progress in their product line and developing that, which is coming up here in about a month. And we are seeing other opportunities both in Asia and the rest of the world from a licensing perspective. And hope as much as we wanted to get some of these deals done in the second quarter, some of them have slipped to the third quarter, but hope to be making further announcements on new licensing opportunities.

就中國而言，我們的合作夥伴正在其產品線方面取得巨大進展並進行開發，該產品將在大約一個月後到達這裡。從許可的角度來看，我們在亞洲和世界其他地區看到了其他機會。儘管我們希望在第二季度完成其中一些交易，但其中一些交易已推遲到第三季度，但希望能夠進一步宣布新的許可機會。

And especially when you sort of think about this as a brand, this is a brand that has never gone out and spent money in the traditional marketing way that brands spend. It's always done it through content. And so part of the content strategy and the team that we brought in, we also believe will lead to more licensing opportunities moving forward as the brand continues to reestablish its voice.

尤其是當你將其視為一個品牌時，你會發現這是一個從未以傳統行銷方式走出去並花錢的品牌。它總是透過內容來完成的。因此，我們也相信，隨著品牌繼續重建其聲音，內容策略和我們引入的團隊的一部分將帶來更多的授權機會。

Very helpful. Thanks a lot.

非常有幫助。多謝。

Salil Sanjiv, Jefferies.

薩利爾·桑吉夫，杰弗里斯。

Hi, this is Salil Sanjiv with Jefferies on for James Heaney. Thanks for taking the question. My first is a bit of a follow-up on the China business. Could you go over just overall the contrast structures with the new partners versus previous partners? Any color on how you are picking those partners and basically getting the confidence that these deals will come through? Thanks.

大家好，我是薩利爾·桑吉夫，傑弗里斯代表詹姆斯·希尼。感謝您提出問題。我的第一個任務是對中國業務的一些後續行動。您能否整體回顧一下新合作夥伴與先前合作夥伴的對比結構？您如何選擇這些合作夥伴並基本上獲得這些交易將會成功的信心？謝謝。

Sure. So the first thing I think is just refreshing what we had to do because of changes in the market in China post-COVID or since COVID. It was partially driven by the platforms, which was we had a legacy licensing model over there where we were licensing and then our partners violating our contracts started sub-licensing or they were basically what we found out through our audits were selling what we call bags of tags.

當然。因此，我認為第一件事就是更新我們必須做的事情，因為中國市場在新冠疫情之後或自新冠疫情以來發生了變化。這部分是由平台驅動的，我們在那裡有一個遺留的許可模式，我們在那裡進行許可，然後我們的合作夥伴違反我們的合約開始進行再許可，或者我們透過審計發現他們基本上正在銷售我們所說的袋子標籤。

And that did not work with the Douyin, who were driving a big percentage of the e-commerce over in China today. And so we ended up, because of contract violations and non-payment, terminating our old partners. And what we went out to find was really what I would say is, operator owners or operator managers versus a middleman who was selling bags of tags.

但這對抖音來說並不奏效，抖音在當今中國推動了很大一部分電子商務的發展。因此，由於違反合約和未付款，我們最終終止了我們的舊合作夥伴。我們出去尋找的實際上是我想說的是，運營商所有者或運營商經理與銷售標籤袋的中間人。

The partner -- the main partner we've picked is an operator. They not only do design, but they have their own physical studios, where they're bringing in influencers to sell products on Douyin, et cetera. The deals that we've done are shorter term in nature than what our historical deals were.

合作夥伴－我們選擇的主要合作夥伴是營運商。他們不僅做設計，而且還擁有自己的實體工作室，在那裡他們引入有影響力的人在抖音等上銷售產品。我們所做的交易本質上比我們歷史上的交易期限更短。

So these are five-year deals. They have lower NGs, largely in the beginning because there had to be some market cleanup that was done as we moved away from our old partners. And so we worked with our new partner, but we have a higher percentage of the revenue in those deals.

所以這些是五年期的協議。他們的NG 較低，主要是在開始時，因為當我們離開舊合作夥伴時，必須進行一些市場清理。因此，我們與新合作夥伴合作，但我們在這些交易中獲得了更高的收入比例。

And the way I would think about it is it's a starting point right now for us to rebuild the business the right way. And the goal would be that if the partners are successful, which we think they will, that there'll be an opportunity to revisit those NGs as sales continue to build.

我的想法是，現在是我們以正確方式重建業務的起點。我們的目標是，如果合作夥伴取得成功（我們認為他們會成功），那麼隨著銷售的持續成長，將有機會重新審視這些 NG。

The other thing that we've done within those contracts is we've put much greater controls in those contracts than we had in our previous contracts. And I would say, the best way to know they perform is the partners that paid us today. And so that in any contract is always the best way to know they're performing.

我們在這些合約中所做的另一件事是，我們對這些合約進行了比之前合約更大的控制。我想說，了解他們表現的最佳方式是今天向我們付款的合作夥伴。因此，在任何合約中，這始終是了解他們表現的最佳方式。

But I think through our joint venture with a subsidiary of [Liam Baum], we have the right people on the ground, the right controls in the contract to make sure that we are enforcing our contracts moving forward, something that we did not have previously.

但我認為，透過我們與 [Liam Baum] 子公司的合資企業，我們在當地擁有合適的人員，在合約中擁有正確的控制權，以確保我們能夠繼續執行我們的合同，這是我們以前沒有的。

Appreciate the color there. A follow-up, a new question on Honey Birdette. It seems like last quarter there was a bit of momentum that was being built up, but it seems that this quarter is a bit weaker. Can you talk about some of the dynamics you're seeing in that business?

欣賞那裡的顏色。後續，關於 Honey Birdette 的新問題。上個季度似乎有一些勢頭正在增強，但本季似乎有點疲軟。您能談談您在該行業看到的一些動態嗎？

Yeah, I'll take the high level and then I'll turn it over to Marc because I don't think the numbers tell the full story. I think the first thing is we were down if you look at quarter-over-quarter. So if you go back to '23, Marc joined us in April, give or take, of '23. The second quarter in '23 was the last, what I would say, previous heavily discounted quarter.

是的，我會採取高水平，然後我會將其交給馬克，因為我認為這些數字並不能說明全部。我認為第一件事是，如果你看季度環比的話，我們的業績是下滑的。所以，如果你回到 23 年，Marc 是在 23 年 4 月加入我們的。我想說，23 年第二季是最後一個大幅折扣的季度。

And so we're now past that. But if you look at Q2 '24, we were down 50% in the number of days that we were on sale versus Q4 '23. The good news is we saw a close margin expansion during that period of time.

所以我們現在已經過去了。但如果你看看 24 年第二季度，我們的促銷天數比 23 年第四季下降了 50%。好消息是我們在那段時間看到了利潤率的小擴張。

I'll let Marc comment on some of the new hires we've made on U.S. retail and what we're seeing. I would say that so far in Q3, we're up double digits over last year and we're seeing that not only from an e-commerce perspective, but from a store perspective too. Marc?

我會讓馬克評論一下我們在美國零售業招募的一些新員工以及我們所看到的情況。我想說，到目前為止，第三季度，我們比去年增長了兩位數，我們不僅從電子商務的角度看到這一點，而且從商店的角度也看到了這一點。馬克？

Yeah, excuse me. In terms of what we're seeing in the US, we just hired a head of stores in the US and typically our stores have been comping down for a while and we're actually seeing stores in the US comp up. So a lot of the things we're doing there are creating the momentum that we need that's dovetailing off of what's going on with our online business.

是的，對不起。就我們在美國看到的情況而言，我們剛剛在美國聘請了一位商店負責人，通常我們的商店已經縮減了一段時間，但實際上我們看到美國的商店正在增加。因此，我們正在做的很多事情正在創造我們需要的動力，這與我們在線業務的發展相吻合。

So we brought that in. We're also expanding our online business because that's one area where we think we need to participate in social channels. There's a lot of stuff that the learnings we're seeing from CENTERFOLD can bring that into Honey Birdette. So we're beefing up that team.

所以我們把它帶進來了。我們也正在擴大線上業務，因為這是我們認為需要參與社交管道的領域之一。我們從 CENTERFOLD 中學到的很多東西都可以帶入 Honey Birdette 中。所以我們正在加強這個團隊。

I think we feel good with where we are with Honey Birdette and I think Honey Birdette gives us another lever. Also, we announced today that we've reached an exclusivity period with our lenders to repurchase our debt at a significant discount. I think for us from a balance sheet and a leverage perspective, should we be successful in executing and paying off our significant discount, it significantly reduces the leverage outstanding on the company, which gives us, again, more operational flexibility in running the company.

我認為我們對 Honey Birdette 的處境感到滿意，我認為 Honey Birdette 為我們提供了另一個槓桿。此外，我們今天也宣布，我們已與貸方達成獨家期限，可以以大幅折扣回購我們的債務。我認為，從資產負債表和槓桿的角度來看，如果我們成功執行並償還大幅折扣，就會顯著降低公司的槓桿率，這再次為我們在經營公司時提供了更大的營運靈活性。

Great. Thank you. And just my final is a bit of a follow-up on the capital allocation strategy. Can you talk about, I guess, the strategy going forward given the ability to now pay down the debt at a discount? Is it likely coming from further asset sales or how are you thinking about going towards paying down that debt? Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。我的期末考是對資本配置策略的一些後續行動。我想，考慮到現在有能力以折扣價償還債務，你能談談未來的策略嗎？它是否可能來自進一步的資產出售，或者您如何考慮償還債務？謝謝。

Sure. So right now, there's called $215 million of gross debt outstanding. We've reached an exclusivity with the lenders where we can pay that off at a substantial discount. And then to raise the money to pay that off, we have a lot of arrows in our quiver.

當然。目前，未償還債務總額為 2.15 億美元。我們已經與貸方達成了排他性協議，我們可以以大幅折扣還清貸款。然後為了籌集資金來償還債務，我們的箭袋裡有很多箭。

So we've talked historically that we've had interest in hunting for debt. We've also engaged the leading investment bank to pursue a new debt facility, albeit at a much smaller amount than the existing debt, but that would satisfy our existing lenders.

因此，我們歷史上曾說過，我們有興趣尋找債務。我們還聘請了領先的投資銀行尋求新的債務融資，儘管金額比現有債務少得多，但這將使我們現有的貸方滿意。

And we've actually even had interest since the rebuild of our China business and our Asia business. And so, yeah, we're pursuing all options. I think that we can get it done in the senior market. And if we're successful in doing that here, the gross debt outstanding on the company will be significantly reduced from where it is. But we have a lot of different options and we'll see which one gets done first.

事實上，自從我們的中國業務和亞洲業務重建以來，我們甚至對此產生了興趣。所以，是的，我們正在尋求所有選擇。我認為我們可以在老年人市場上做到這一點。如果我們成功地做到了這一點，公司的未償債務總額將比現在大幅減少。但我們有很多不同的選擇，我們會看看哪個先完成。

Great. Thank you. I'll get back in the queue.

偉大的。謝謝。我會回到隊列中。

With no further questions at this time, I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題，我想將會議轉回管理階層進行閉幕致詞。

I appreciate everyone dialing in today. We look forward to sharing more about our digital strategy as we move into the fall and then talking to you guys after our Q3. So thank you very much for dialing in today.

我感謝今天撥通電話的每個人。我們期待在秋季到來時分享更多有關我們數位化策略的信息，然後在第三季之後與大家討論。非常感謝您今天撥通電話。

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。