Urban Outfitters Inc (URBN) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Urban Outfitters, Inc. Fourth Quarter Fiscal '23 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

女士們先生們，美好的一天，歡迎來到 Urban Outfitters, Inc. 23 財年第四季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，正在錄製此會議。

I would now like to introduce Oona McCullough, Executive Director of Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

我現在想介紹投資者關係執行總監 Oona McCullough。女士，您可以開始了。

Good afternoon, and welcome to the URBN Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2023 Conference Call.

下午好，歡迎來到 URBN 2023 財年第四季度電話會議。

Earlier this afternoon, the company issued a press release outlining the financial and operating results for the 3- and 12-month periods ending January 31, 2023.

今天下午早些時候，該公司發布了一份新聞稿，概述了截至 2023 年 1 月 31 日的 3 個月和 12 個月期間的財務和經營業績。

The following discussions may include forward-looking statements. Please note that actual results may differ materially from those statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results is contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

以下討論可能包含前瞻性陳述。請注意，實際結果可能與這些陳述存在重大差異。有關可能導致實際結果與預期結果存在重大差異的因素的更多信息包含在公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中。

On today's call, you will hear from Richard Hayne, Chief Executive Officer; Frank Conforti, Co-President and COO; and Melanie Marein-Efron, Chief Financial Officer. Following that, we will be pleased to address your questions. For more detailed commentary on our quarterly performance and the text of today's conference call, please refer to our Investor Relations website at www.urbn.com.

在今天的電話會議上，您將聽到首席執行官 Richard Hayne 的講話； Frank Conforti，聯席總裁兼首席運營官；首席財務官 Melanie Marein-Efron。之後，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。有關我們季度業績的更多詳細評論和今天電話會議的內容，請訪問我們的投資者關係網站 www.urbn.com。

I will now turn the call over to Frank.

我現在將電話轉給弗蘭克。

Thank you, Oona, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, I will begin the call discussing our total company fourth quarter results versus the prior comparable quarter, followed by some more detailed notes by brand. I will then turn the call over to Melanie and then Dick, who will discuss our thoughts on our future performance in fiscal 2024.

謝謝你，Oona，大家下午好。今天，我將開始電話會議，討論我們公司第四季度的總體業績與上一季度的對比情況，然後按品牌進行一些更詳細的說明。然後我會把電話轉給梅蘭妮，然後是迪克，他們將討論我們對 2024 財年未來業績的看法。

Overall, the fourth quarter performed relatively in line with our thoughts as we discussed on the third quarter call. Total company sales grew by 4% to a fourth quarter record of $1.4 billion, driven by a total retail segment comp increase of 3% and a newly segment revenue increase of $25 million. These increases were partially offset by a 7% decline in wholesale segment sales and approximately 140 basis points of unfavorable foreign currency translation. The growth in Retail segment comp sales was driven by a mid-single-digit positive store comp and a low single-digit digital comp. Nuuly's robust increase in revenue was due to a significant increase in subscribers from the prior year. Wholesale segment sales decline was due to a decrease at Free People.

總體而言，第四季度的表現與我們在第三季度電話會議上討論的想法相對一致。公司總銷售額增長 4%，達到創紀錄的第四季度 14 億美元，這得益於零售部門總收入增長 3% 和新部門收入增長 2500 萬美元。這些增長部分被批發部門銷售額下降 7% 和約 140 個基點的不利外幣折算所抵消。零售部門 comp 銷售額的增長是由中個位數正店面 comp 和低個位數數字 comp 推動的。 Nuuly 收入的強勁增長歸功於訂戶數量較上一年大幅增加。批發業務的銷售額下降是由於 Free People 的銷售額下降。

Gross profit dollars increased 1% to $372 million while our gross profit rate decreased by 68 basis points to 26.9%. The decrease in gross profit rate was primarily driven by store impairment charges of $5 million or 39 basis points. As we had planned, IMU improved nicely in the quarter, primarily due to a lower inbound transportation costs. We believe we could continue to see improved IMU throughout fiscal '24 due to these lower costs as well as several of our IMU-related initiatives. Offsetting the improvement in IMU in the fourth quarter with higher markdowns, leading merchandise margins slightly negative. The increased markdown rate was primarily due to increased markdowns at Urban Outfitters followed by Free People.

毛利潤增長 1% 至 3.72 億美元，而我們的毛利率下降 68 個基點至 26.9%。毛利率下降的主要原因是 500 萬美元或 39 個基點的商店減值費用。正如我們所計劃的那樣，IMU 在本季度有了很好的改善，這主要是由於入境運輸成本較低。我們相信，由於這些較低的成本以及我們的一些與 IMU 相關的舉措，我們可以在整個 24 財年繼續看到 IMU 的改進。第四季度 IMU 的改善與更高的降價幅度相抵消，導致商品利潤率略微為負。降價幅度的增加主要是由於 Urban Outfitters 的降價幅度增加，其次是 Free People。

Now moving on to SG&A expenses. For the quarter, SG&A increased 7% versus the prior comparable quarter and deleveraged by 63 basis points. The increase in expense and deleverage was primarily related to an increase in marketing expense followed by severance costs that occurred in the quarter. As a result of our increased SG&A, our operating profit declined from the previous year to $37 million, with earnings per share declining 17% to $0.34 per share. Total inventory increased 3% versus the prior year. This represents a large reduction from the year-over-year increases from the previous few quarters. Each brand has worked hard to improve its inventory to sales alignment. Looking forward to fiscal year 2024, we believe we can speed up our inventory turn and manage inventory growth below sales growth for the year. I know Melanie will speak to this a little more in her commentary.

現在繼續討論 SG&A 費用。本季度，SG&A 與上一季度相比增長 7%，去槓桿化了 63 個基點。費用和去槓桿化的增加主要與營銷費用增加有關，其次是本季度發生的遣散費。由於我們增加了 SG&A，我們的營業利潤比上一年下降到 3700 萬美元，每股收益下降 17% 到每股 0.34 美元。總存貨比上年增加 3%。這比前幾個季度的同比增長大幅減少。每個品牌都在努力改善其庫存與銷售的一致性。展望 2024 財年，我們相信我們可以加快庫存周轉速度，並將全年庫存增長控制在低於銷售增長的水平。我知道 Melanie 會在她的評論中更多地談到這一點。

I will now provide more details by brand, starting with the Anthropologie Group. The Anthropologie team delivered a strong 9% retail segment comp in Q4. This increase was driven by high single-digit positive store and digital comps. Both store and digital comps were driven by strong regular price sales and less promotions in apparel and accessories, driving healthy profit gains. By category, apparel, home and accessories delivered positive comps in the quarter.

我現在將按品牌提供更多詳細信息，首先是 Anthropologie Group。 Anthropologie 團隊在第四季度提供了強勁的 9% 的零售細分市場。這一增長是由高個位數的積極商店和數字組合推動的。商店和數字產品都受到強勁的正常價格銷售和服裝和配飾促銷減少的推動，推動了健康的利潤增長。按類別劃分，服裝、家居和配飾在本季度取得了積極的業績。

The Anthropologie customer remains optimistic and is choosing fashion newness that is versatile across multiple parts of their lifestyle, whether it's going out or returning to the office. The Anthro customer continues to respond favorably to the brand's more dressed up categories like dresses, pants, jackets and shoes with deals. The brand successfully distorted into these trends to drive strong sales in the quarter. In January, Anthropologie intentionally brought spring receipts in earlier than previous years, and the customer responded well to those early receipts. The brand has also started to see complementary growth of more casual and versatile product perform alongside the more occasion product, which has shown no signs of slowing. The home category delivered a positive comp driven by strength in decor, which was slightly offset by a decline in gift and entertaining.

Anthropologie 的客戶仍然保持樂觀，並選擇在他們生活方式的多個方面具有多功能性的時尚新品，無論是外出還是回到辦公室。 Anthro 的客戶繼續對該品牌的更多打扮品類做出積極回應，例如連衣裙、褲子、夾克和鞋子的優惠。該品牌成功地融入了這些趨勢，推動了本季度的強勁銷售。 1月份，Anthropologie特意提前收到春季收貨，客戶對提前收貨的反應很好。該品牌還開始看到更多休閒和多功能產品與更多場合產品的互補增長，而且沒有放緩的跡象。家居類別在裝飾實力的推動下表現積極，但被禮品和娛樂活動的下降略微抵消了。

The team's execution of the brand strategy to target a slightly younger customer under the age of 40 continued to gain traction. New customers in the quarter in North America increased by an impressive 7%. The strength in apparel, driven by a balance of interest in both occasion and casual apparel along with new customer acquisition has us optimistic that the Anthropologie brand can continue to drive nicely positive comps in fiscal 2024 with the first quarter of fiscal '24, looking similar to the fourth quarter of fiscal '23.

該團隊針對 40 歲以下稍年輕的客戶執行的品牌戰略繼續受到關注。北美本季度的新客戶增長了 7%，令人印象深刻。在對場合和休閒服裝的興趣平衡以及新客戶獲取的推動下，服裝的實力讓我們樂觀地認為，Anthropologie 品牌可以在 2024 財年繼續推動良好的積極業績，與 24 財年第一季度看起來相似到 23 財年第四季度。

Now I will call your attention to the Free People Group. Once again, the Free People team produced a strong quarter, with Retail segment comp achieving an impressive 15% gain versus last year. Retail segment comp was driven by double-digit growth in the digital comps and high single-digit store comps. During the quarter, the brand achieved double-digit growth across all major categories. The FP Movement brand delivered another outstanding quarter, achieving 38% retail segment growth on top of a very strong multiyear comparison. New and existing Movement stores continue to exceed expectations which builds well for the continued growth of the brand. Early customer reaction to the brand spring trends have been strong, and we believe the brand's retail segment performance could be nicely positive in Q1.

現在我將請您注意 Free People Group。 Free People 團隊再一次創造了強勁的季度業績，零售部門的收入與去年相比實現了令人印象深刻的 15% 的增長。零售部門的收入是由數字收入和高單位數商店收入的兩位數增長推動的。本季度，該品牌在所有主要類別中均實現了兩位數的增長。 FP Movement 品牌又創造了一個出色的季度，在非常強勁的多年比較基礎上實現了 38% 的零售業務增長。新的和現有的運動商店繼續超出預期，這為品牌的持續增長奠定了良好的基礎。早期客戶對品牌春季趨勢的反應很強烈，我們相信該品牌在第一季度的零售業務表現可能非常積極。

The Free People Wholesale segment sales decreased 13% during the fourth quarter as a result of weakness in department store accounts, partially offset by growth in specialty and closeout account partners. Additionally, segment profitability was challenged as the brand significantly increased closeout sales in order to reduce inventory levels. We believe wholesale segment sales will decline in fiscal '24 due to continued reductions within our department store partners while profitability will look relatively comparable in the low double-digit operating profit range.

由於百貨商店客戶疲軟，Free People Wholesale 部門銷售額在第四季度下降了 13%，部分被專業和清算客戶合作夥伴的增長所抵消。此外，由於該品牌顯著增加清倉銷售以降低庫存水平，該部門的盈利能力受到挑戰。我們認為，由於我們的百貨商店合作夥伴持續減少，批發部門的銷售額將在 24 財年下降，而盈利能力在兩位數的低營業利潤範圍內看起來相對可比。

Now moving on to the Urban Outfitters brand. Urban recorded a negative 10% Retail segment comp in Q4. UO's negative comp was the result of disappointing performance in North America due to double-digit negative store and digital comp sales. As noted previously, we believe the macro environment in North America is having an outsized impact on the Urban Outfitters customer.

現在轉向 Urban Outfitters 品牌。 Urban 在第四季度錄得負 10% 的零售業務收入。 UO 的負收入是由於兩位數的負商店和數字收入銷售額導致北美業績令人失望的結果。如前所述，我們認為北美的宏觀環境正在對 Urban Outfitters 客戶產生巨大影響。

While we know the macro environment for the urban customer is not ideal, we also know we can execute better. Additionally, we believe the disruption in the supply chain has had an outsized impact on this brand. The Urban Outfitters brand has a higher dependence on ocean as a means of transportation and during the supply chain disruptions over the past 2 years, the brand had to significantly extend their buy in planning calendars. The good news is that the supply chain speed and reliability has recovered, and the brand is now returning to their previous buy calendars. Since our fashion model is built in part on speed, the improvement in the supply chain will give our merchants the opportunity to make fashion calls closer to consumer demand, allowing more opportunity to chase into well-performing items.

雖然我們知道城市客戶的宏觀環境並不理想，但我們也知道我們可以更好地執行。此外，我們認為供應鏈中斷對該品牌產生了巨大影響。 Urban Outfitters 品牌更加依賴海洋作為交通工具，在過去 2 年的供應鏈中斷期間，該品牌不得不大幅延長購買計劃日曆。好消息是供應鏈的速度和可靠性已經恢復，該品牌現在又回到了之前的購買日曆。由於我們的時尚模式部分建立在速度之上，供應鏈的改進將使我們的商家有機會讓時尚電話更貼近消費者需求，從而有更多機會追逐表現良好的商品。

Entering fiscal 2024 with leaner inventories than the prior year and with the ability to react to trends in a timelier manner, the brand is better positioned to produce healthier IMU and markdown rates. UO Europe continued to perform remarkably well, delivering a 9% retail segment comp for the quarter. Reg price and total sales comps were positive for the quarter in all major categories. With exceptionally strong store customer traffic and lean inventory levels, we believe the brand is gaining market share.

進入 2024 財年，庫存比上一年減少，並且能夠更及時地對趨勢做出反應，該品牌更有能力產生更健康的 IMU 和降價率。 UO Europe 繼續表現出色，本季度零售業務收入佔 9%。本季度所有主要類別的註冊價格和總銷售額均為正。憑藉異常強勁的商店客流量和精益庫存水平，我們相信該品牌正在獲得市場份額。

While we also believe UO EU can continue to deliver positive Retail segment comps in fiscal 2024, we do recognize the macro environment only seems to be getting more difficult. The team is managing the business with conservative inventory levels and monitoring their consumers' behavior closely. As we look at Q1 for the Urban Outfitters brand, we believe the global Urban Outfitters brand could deliver results similar to Q4's results.

雖然我們也相信 UO EU 可以在 2024 財年繼續提供積極的零售業務，但我們確實認識到宏觀環境似乎只會變得更加困難。該團隊正在以保守的庫存水平管理業務，並密切監控消費者的行為。當我們審視 Urban Outfitters 品牌的第一季度時，我們相信全球 Urban Outfitters 品牌可以提供與第四季度類似的結果。

Finally, I will touch on the Nuuly business. Revenue and subscriber growth continues to outperform our expectations. Subscriber growth continues to be driven by not only new subscribers, but also improvements in subscriber retention. In addition to strong revenue numbers, Nuuly continues to make fast and steady strides towards profitability. Healthy progress in both top and bottom line leave us excited as we begin fiscal '24. I know Dick will speak more to this in his prepared remarks.

最後，我將談談 Nuuly 業務。收入和用戶增長繼續超出我們的預期。用戶增長繼續受到新用戶和用戶保留率提高的推動。除了強勁的收入數字外，Nuuly 還在繼續快速穩定地實現盈利。在我們開始 24 財年之際，收入和利潤的健康進步讓我們感到興奮。我知道迪克會在他準備好的發言稿中更多地談到這一點。

I will now turn the call over to Melanie Marein-Efron, our Chief Financial Officer.

我現在將把電話轉給我們的首席財務官 Melanie Marein-Efron。

Thank you, Frank, and good afternoon, everyone. On today's call, I will discuss our thoughts on the first quarter and full fiscal year '24. We are pleased that overall consumer demand has remained strong to start the quarter, and we believe this strength will continue throughout the first quarter. Right now, we believe that first quarter total company sales growth could be similar to Q4. Sales growth in Q1 could result from a doubling of Nuuly segment sales versus last year and Retail segment comp sales growing low single digit. Our growth in the Retail segment and Nuuly segments is likely to be partially offset by sales decline in our Wholesale segment. Additionally, similar to the fourth quarter, we believe that foreign exchange could negatively impact total sales growth by approximately 100 basis points. Based on current sales performance and plan, we believe our gross profit margins for the first quarter could improve by approximately 100 basis points versus first quarter fiscal year '23.

謝謝你，弗蘭克，大家下午好。在今天的電話會議上，我將討論我們對第一季度和整個 24 財年的看法。我們很高興整體消費者需求在本季度開始時保持強勁，我們相信這種強勁勢頭將在整個第一季度持續。目前，我們認為第一季度公司總銷售額增長可能與第四季度相似。第一季度的銷售額增長可能是由於 Nuuly 部門的銷售額比去年翻了一番，而零售部門的銷售額增長低個位數。我們在零售部門和 Nuuly 部門的增長可能會被批發部門的銷售額下降部分抵消。此外，與第四季度類似，我們認為外匯可能對總銷售額增長產生約 100 個基點的負面影響。根據目前的銷售業績和計劃，我們認為我們第一季度的毛利率可能比 23 財年第一季度提高約 100 個基點。

The increase in gross profit rate could be primarily due to lower inbound freight costs, which will favorably impact initial product margins. We believe that the Wholesale segment gross profit margin could decline in the first quarter, partially offsetting the IMU gains in the Retail segment. The decline in Wholesale gross profit margin could be largely driven by increased sales discounts to clear through excess merchandise.

毛利率的上升可能主要是由於入境運費下降，這將對初始產品利潤率產生有利影響。我們認為第一季度批發業務的毛利率可能下降，部分抵消了零售業務的 IMU 收益。批發毛利率的下降可能主要是由於銷售折扣增加以清算過剩商品所致。

When thinking about gross profit margins for the full year, it's important to consider that for more than a year, supply chain disruptions have caused increased product costs from higher inbound freight costs. At the same time, we have had higher markdowns as we order products earlier than our speed model would dictate and maintained higher levels of inventory due to the slow and unreliable supply chain. With the improved supply chain versus prior year, we believe that there is the opportunity for lower inbound product transportation costs and lower markdowns as a speedier, more reliable, transit times will allow our merchants to order closer to demand.

在考慮全年的毛利率時，重要的是要考慮到一年多來，供應鏈中斷導致入境運費上漲導致產品成本增加。與此同時，由於供應鏈緩慢且不可靠，我們訂購產品的時間早於我們的速度模型要求並維持較高水平的庫存，因此我們的降價幅度更大。與去年相比，隨著供應鏈的改善，我們相信有機會降低入站產品運輸成本和減價幅度，因為更快、更可靠的運輸時間將使我們的商家能夠更接近需求地訂購。

As a result, we believe that gross profit margins in FY '24 could improve by more than 200 basis points as a result of higher initial product margins and lower markdown versus the full year fiscal '23. Based on our current sales performance and financial plan, we believe total growth in SG&A could outpace sales growth for the quarter and year. We believe the delta between SG&A and sales growth rate will be larger in the first half of the year than the second half of the year. The growth in SG&A primarily relates to increases in marketing expenses to support growth in customers and sales and increases in overall payroll due to lower vacancy rates, higher payroll rates and anticipated higher incentive pay.

因此，我們認為，與 23 財年全年相比，初始產品利潤率更高，降價幅度更低，因此 24 財年的毛利率可能會提高 200 個基點以上。根據我們目前的銷售業績和財務計劃，我們認為 SG&A 的總增長可能超過本季度和年度的銷售增長。我們認為上半年 SG&A 與銷售增長率之間的差值將大於下半年。 SG&A 的增長主要與營銷費用的增加有關，以支持客戶和銷售的增長，以及由於較低的空缺率、較高的工資率和預期的較高激勵薪酬而導致的整體工資的增加。

In the prior year, the company and several brands did not achieve their planned financial performance, therefore, a lower rate of bonus dollars were paid in fiscal year '23. As always, if sales performance fluctuates, we maintain a certain level of variable SG&A spending that we can fluctuate up and down depending on how our business is performing. Our annual effective tax rate is planned to be approximately 25% for the year and 33% for the first quarter.

在前一年，公司和幾個品牌沒有達到他們計劃的財務業績，因此，在 23 財年支付了較低的獎金。與往常一樣，如果銷售業績波動，我們會保持一定水平的可變 SG&A 支出，我們可以根據業務表現上下波動。我們計劃全年的年度有效稅率約為 25%，第一季度約為 33%。

Now moving on to inventory. As a result of an improved supply chain with faster speed and increased reliability, we have been able to reduce product lead time versus last year and bring product in closer to demand. In the coming year, we are focused on increasing our product turns. We believe that our inventory levels could grow at a rate below sales growth as we look to target product turns closer to pre-pandemic levels in the coming year.

現在繼續庫存。由於改進了供應鏈，速度更快，可靠性更高，與去年相比，我們能夠縮短產品交貨時間，並使產品更接近需求。來年，我們將專注於提高產品周轉率。我們認為，我們的庫存水平可能會以低於銷售增長率的速度增長，因為我們希望目標產品在來年更接近大流行前的水平。

Capital expenditure for the fiscal year is planned at approximately $230 million. The level of capital spending continues to be elevated due to investments in additional distribution facilities. In FY '24, we were completing our highly automated omni fulfillment facility in Kansas City, Kansas. We will be opening this facility during the second half of fiscal year '24.

本財年的資本支出計劃約為 2.3 億美元。由於對額外分銷設施的投資，資本支出水平繼續提高。在 24 財年，我們完成了位於堪薩斯州堪薩斯城的高度自動化的全向配送設施。我們將在 24 財年下半年開設該設施。

In addition, we will be investing in a new rental fulfillment facility in Missouri within the Kansas City region. We are targeting to open this facility by the end of fiscal year '24. The new Missouri facility, along with our existing facility in Bristol, Pennsylvania, will support the growth and expansion of our newly rental business in North America.

此外，我們將在堪薩斯城地區的密蘇里州投資一個新的租賃設施。我們的目標是在 24 財年末開設該設施。新的密蘇里設施以及我們在賓夕法尼亞州布里斯托爾的現有設施將支持我們在北美的新租賃業務的增長和擴展。

Lastly, we will be opening approximately 35 new stores and closing approximately 16 stores during fiscal year '24. Our net new store growth is being driven by growth in FP Movement stores. We plan on opening 10 FP Movement stores this year.

最後，我們將在 24 財年開設約 35 家新店並關閉約 16 家店。我們新店的淨增長是由 FP Movement 門店的增長推動的。我們計劃今年開設 10 家 FP Movement 門店。

As a reminder, the foregoing does not constitute a forecast, but is simply a reflection of our current views. The company disclaims any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

提醒一下，上述內容並不構成預測，而只是我們當前觀點的反映。公司不承擔任何更新前瞻性陳述的義務。

Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Dick Hayne, Chief Executive Officer of URBN.

現在，我很高興將電話轉給 URBN 首席執行官 Dick Hayne。

Thank you, Melanie, and good afternoon, everyone. The Anthropologie, Free People and Nuuly brands all delivered strong Q4 performances. And given their current trends, I'm optimistic about their prospects for this year's first half. Demand from new fashion remains robust, and we see no slowdown in consumer spending at those brands. Conversely, Q4 sales comps at Urban North America were challenging, and they remain negative in February. I will speak more about the Urban brand in a few moments.

謝謝梅蘭妮，大家下午好。 Anthropologie、Free People 和 Nuuly 品牌都在第四季度表現強勁。鑑於他們目前的趨勢，我對他們今年上半年的前景持樂觀態度。新時尚的需求依然強勁，我們認為這些品牌的消費者支出沒有放緩。相反，Urban North America 第 4 季度的銷售業績頗具挑戰性，2 月份仍為負值。稍後我將詳細介紹 Urban 品牌。

On today's call, I'll discuss the opportunities we see for sales and earnings growth this year, beginning with top line growth at Anthropologie. Tricia and team plan to grow Anthropologie sales by continuing to elevate the women's product assortment while acquiring more new customers, especially millennials. Until recently, the brand's revenue growth was led by outperformance in the home category. This was especially true during the COVID years when AnthroLiving produced powerful comps and capture a greater share of the home furnishing market. Sales growth for home products has slowed post COVID, and we believe women's apparel and accessories are now primed to lead the next chapter in Anthropologie's growth.

在今天的電話會議上，我將討論我們看到的今年銷售和盈利增長的機會，首先是 Anthropologie 的營收增長。 Tricia 和團隊計劃通過繼續提升女性產品種類來增加 Anthropologie 的銷售額，同時吸引更多新客戶，尤其是千禧一代。直到最近，該品牌的收入增長仍由家居品類的出色表現帶動。在 COVID 年代尤其如此，當時 AnthroLiving 生產了強大的產品並佔據了更大的家居市場份額。家居產品的銷售增長在 COVID 後放緩，我們相信女性服裝和配飾現在已準備好引領 Anthropologie 增長的下一章。

The average age of the Anthro apparel customer has grown steadily over time. The team's goal is to reverse that trend and attract more new and younger customers. To reach that young millennial customer, the team updated core categories like denim and dresses, introduced new concepts such as Water's Edge Resort dressing and elevated the market brands offered. The team also emphasized additional product categories that resonate especially well with younger customers, like intimate apparel, accessories and shoes. So far in Q1, the strategy is working well. Sales of women's apparel and accessories are posting strong double-digit gains.

Anthro 服裝客戶的平均年齡隨著時間的推移穩步增長。該團隊的目標是扭轉這一趨勢，吸引更多年輕的新客戶。為了吸引年輕的千禧一代客戶，該團隊更新了牛仔布和連衣裙等核心類別，引入了 Water's Edge Resort 服飾等新概念，並提升了所提供的市場品牌。該團隊還強調了特別能引起年輕顧客共鳴的其他產品類別，例如貼身衣物、配飾和鞋子。到目前為止，在第一季度，該策略運作良好。女裝和配飾的銷售額實現了兩位數的強勁增長。

Moving on to the Free People brand, where Free People Movement, Free People's sub-branded specializes in active wear, continues to lead the brand's growth opportunity. Last year FP Movement achieved year-over-year sales growth of 38% and has continued to deliver strong double-digit sales growth in February. Movement is focused on efforts to increase customer acquisition and broaden this reach through greater brand awareness. To accomplish this, the brand continues to invest in social media, influencers, print campaigns, experiences and product partnerships like those with strong footwear brands launched this past year.

接下來是 Free People 品牌，Free People 的子品牌 Free People Movement 專注於運動服，繼續引領該品牌的增長機會。去年 FP Movement 實現了 38% 的同比銷售額增長，並在 2 月份繼續實現強勁的兩位數銷售額增長。 Movement 專注於努力增加客戶獲取並通過提高品牌知名度來擴大客戶範圍。為實現這一目標，該品牌繼續投資於社交媒體、有影響力的人、印刷活動、體驗和產品合作夥伴關係，例如與去年推出的強大鞋類品牌的合作夥伴關係。

Stores are another part of Movement's growth strategy. Last year, the team opened 11 new stand-alone stores, bringing the total to 31. These stores are performing above plan, with average sales per square foot similar to Free People collection stores. In addition, we found that a new Movement store list the brand's digital sales and surrounding ZIP codes. Movement product is also available in 55 shop-in-shops within Free People collection stores. This year, the team plans to open an additional 10 stand-alone Movement stores and expect these newer stores to be approximately 20% larger than the current fleet average.

商店是 Movement 增長戰略的另一部分。去年，該團隊新開了 11 家獨立門店，使總數達到 31 家。這些門店的業績超出計劃，每平方英尺的平均銷售額與 Free People 系列門店相似。此外，我們發現一家新的 Movement 商店列出了該品牌的數字銷售和周邊郵政編碼。運動產品也可在 Free People 系列商店的 55 家店中店購買。今年，該團隊計劃再開設 10 家獨立的 Movement 門店，預計這些新門店的規模將比目前的門店平均規模大 20% 左右。

The wholesale channel offers an opportunity to quickly build greater name recognition. Movement's partnership with activity-based specialty accounts like exporting goods builds awareness. These accounts give Movement additional credibility within the active wear space by being adjacent to more established athletic brands. We would expect Movement share with the active wear market to continue to expand as customer awareness and engagement grows across all 3 channels of distribution. Free People collection plans to deliver strong growth as well. This year, the team will execute a growth strategy centered on attracting additional digital customers through a more robust marketing efforts and expanding the product offering in areas like footwear, accessories and effortless attire, the brand refers to as [Friest].

批發渠道提供了一個快速建立更大知名度的機會。 Movement 與基於活動的專業賬戶（如出口商品）建立合作夥伴關係可以提高知名度。這些帳戶通過與更成熟的運動品牌相鄰，使 Movement 在運動服領域具有更高的可信度。隨著所有 3 個分銷渠道的客戶意識和參與度的提高，我們預計 Movement 在運動服市場的份額將繼續擴大。 Free People 系列也計劃實現強勁增長。今年，該團隊將執行一項增長戰略，重點是通過更強大的營銷努力吸引更多數字客戶，並擴大鞋類、配飾和休閒裝等領域的產品供應，該品牌稱為 [Friest]。

I now turn your attention to Nuuly, URBN's apparel rental business. Nuuly delivered an exceptionally strong Q4 and fiscal year, well outpacing expectations for both top and bottom line performance. Strong subscriber growth continued in February with current active subs now topping 140,000. We believe active subs could approach or possibly exceed 200,000 by year's end. In addition to top line momentum, Nuuly made significant progress toward profitability in FY '23 and expects to record its first profitable quarter later this year.

我現在將您的注意力轉向 URBN 的服裝租賃業務 Nuuly。 Nuuly 的第四季度和財年表現異常強勁，遠超預期的營收和利潤表現。 2 月份訂閱用戶繼續強勁增長，當前活躍訂閱用戶現已超過 140,000。我們認為，到年底，活躍用戶可能接近或可能超過 200,000。除了營收增長勢頭外，Nuuly 在 23 財年的盈利能力方面取得了重大進展，預計將在今年晚些時候錄得第一個盈利季度。

Faster-than-planned sub growth has accelerated the brand's need to invest in additional fulfillment capacity. As Melanie just reported, we recently announced a $75 million capital investment to open a second fulfillment center and [Wash] Center in the fourth quarter of this year. The new facility is located in Kansas City, Missouri and will include more automation, will triple our network capacity and will help us reach a larger portion of our customer base faster and at less cost. We believe there remains much untapped consumer interest in their rental concept, and this added capacity will help us support our next phase of subscriber growth.

快於計劃的子增長加速了該品牌對額外履行能力進行投資的需求。正如 Melanie 剛剛報導的那樣，我們最近宣布了一項 7500 萬美元的資本投資，以在今年第四季度開設第二個運營中心和 [Wash] 中心。新設施位於密蘇里州堪薩斯城，將包括更多的自動化，將使我們的網絡容量增加三倍，並將幫助我們以更低的成本更快地接觸到更多的客戶群。我們相信，消費者對他們的租賃概念仍有很多未開發的興趣，這種增加的容量將幫助我們支持下一階段的用戶增長。

Moving on to the Urban Outfitters brand. As stated earlier, the North American brand had a difficult holiday season, and comp sales have continued to be challenging so far in Q1. We know the Urban customer is facing economic headwinds that have negatively impacted their spending, but we believe much of the top line problem is self-inflicted. Our execution of this was due in part to several key vacancies within the North American brand team as well as the lingering impact of supply chain challenges that caused elevated inventory levels throughout FY '23. We have recently filled several key positions and are now actively searching for a brand leader.

轉到 Urban Outfitters 品牌。如前所述，這個北美品牌度過了一個艱難的假期，第一季度迄今為止的競爭銷售仍然充滿挑戰。我們知道城市客戶正面臨對他們的支出產生負面影響的經濟逆風，但我們認為大部分的頂線問題是自己造成的。我們執行此操作的部分原因是北美品牌團隊中的幾個關鍵職位空缺，以及供應鏈挑戰的持續影響導致整個 23 財年的庫存水平升高。我們最近填補了幾個關鍵職位，現在正在積極尋找品牌領導者。

As the year progresses, comps get easier, Thus, we believe the brand could return to revenue growth in the back half of the year. The team's top priority is to return the brand to profitability. Improving profitability is a focus for all our brands, not just Urban Outfitters. We believe this opportunity is directly tied to gross margin recapture. As some of you may remember, on our earnings call last March, we spoke of a 3-year plan to recapture 500 basis points of initial markup from the base established in Q4 of FY '22. We suggested improvements could come from taking advantage of lower overall inbound freight rates, utilizing a higher penetration of ocean versus air for inbound freight, increasing the penetration of our internally generated brands, increasing the depth of product buys to obtain more favorable pricing and leveraging earlier and deeper fabric positioning across more styles.

隨著時間的推移，競爭變得更加容易，因此，我們相信該品牌可能會在下半年恢復收入增長。該團隊的首要任務是讓品牌恢復盈利。提高盈利能力是我們所有品牌的關注重點，而不僅僅是 Urban Outfitters。我們認為這個機會與毛利率回收直接相關。你們中的一些人可能還記得，在我們去年 3 月的財報電話會議上，我們談到了一項為期 3 年的計劃，即從 22 財年第四季度建立的基礎上重新獲得 500 個基點的初始加價。我們建議改進可能來自於利用較低的總體入境運費率、利用海運比空運更高的入境貨運滲透率、增加我們內部產生的品牌的滲透率、增加產品購買的深度以獲得更優惠的價格和更早地利用以及更多款式的更深入的面料定位。

I'm pleased to report that we have started to make real progress implementing these initiatives. We saw a 160 basis point improvement in IMU this past Q4 versus the prior year period, and we believe we will see more benefit as we move through fiscal 2024. Our budget reflects a plan to realize nearly 2/3 of our 500 basis point goal by Q4 this year. Additionally, we have entered this year with cleaner comp inventory levels, which could enable us to lower our markdown rates, improved IMU and lower markdown rates together, could produce a very meaningful gross margin recapture this year and lead to higher profitability.

我很高興地報告，我們已經開始在實施這些舉措方面取得真正的進展。與去年同期相比，我們在過去第四季度看到 IMU 提高了 160 個基點，我們相信隨著 2024 財年的推進，我們將看到更多收益。我們的預算反映了實現 500 個基點目標近 2/3 的計劃到今年第四季度。此外，我們今年進入了更清潔的庫存水平，這可能使我們能夠降低我們的降價率、改進的 IMU 和較低的降價率，今年可能會產生非常有意義的毛利率回收並帶來更高的盈利能力。

In sum, sales growth remained strong at all of our brands except Urban North America, and we believe that may improve in the back half of the year. Besides sales, we believe our brands can increase profitability by raising IMU and recapturing gross margins.

總而言之，除 Urban North America 外，我們所有品牌的銷售增長都保持強勁，我們認為下半年可能會有所改善。除了銷售，我們相信我們的品牌可以通過提高 IMU 和重新獲得毛利率來提高盈利能力。

That concludes our prepared remarks. I want to thank our brand, creative and shared service leaders. I also want to thank our 26,000 associates worldwide for the hard work, dedication and amazing creativity. I thank our many partners around the world. And finally, I thank our shareholders for their continued interest and support.

我們準備好的發言到此結束。我要感謝我們的品牌、創意和共享服務領導者。我還要感謝我們全球 26,000 名員工的辛勤工作、奉獻精神和驚人的創造力。我感謝我們在世界各地的眾多合作夥伴。最後，我感謝我們的股東一直以來的關注和支持。

I will now turn the call over for your questions. As a reminder, please limit your questions to one per caller.

我現在將把電話轉過來回答你的問題。提醒一下，請將您的問題限制為每個來電者一個。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自美國銀行的 Lorraine Hutchinson。

I was hoping you could give a little bit more insight into the turnaround that you're working on with the Urban Outfitters brand. I appreciate the inventory improvement strategy and filling some key vacancies. But as you look at the issues there, are there deeper pricing adjustments that you need to take to attract a more price-sensitive consumer? Or do you think you can fix this with inventory management and fashion alone?

我希望你能更深入地了解你正在與 Urban Outfitters 品牌合作的轉變。我很欣賞庫存改進策略和填補一些關鍵空缺。但是當你審視那裡的問題時，你是否需要進行更深入的定價調整以吸引對價格更敏感的消費者？或者您認為您可以僅通過庫存管理和時尚來解決這個問題嗎？

Lorraine, this is Dick talking. I'm going to let Sheila answer that question because she's very involved in this turnaround process, and she have details of that business than -- she is much closer to it than I. But I do want to suggest you that we do not believe that it's a pricing problem. It's more of a product problem. But Sheila, do you want to answer that?

洛林，這是迪克說話。我會讓 Sheila 回答這個問題，因為她非常參與這個轉變過程，而且她比 - 她比我更了解該業務的詳細信息。但我確實想建議你，我們不相信這是一個定價問題。這更多是產品問題。但是希拉，你想回答這個問題嗎？

Yes. So I think part of the change in Urban is coming from; one, the ability to read and react with the customer in a stronger way with the speed model, so that's number one. I think being more liquid is going to allow the team to react to the fashion, which is really important to this customer. This young consumer moves much quicker than the balance of our brand. And I think getting back to this model, which relates to open inventory is our number 1 strategy. Number 2, building a team that is ready and to react to that information and building strong product upfront and getting ahead of that as well. While price is definitely key, they will 100% pay a premium price for the right product. We feel like we're getting our architecture back into the correct placed in each and every category as well, Lorraine. And I think filling some of our key positions across our cross-functional teams is also really important for the team to run in perfect health.

是的。所以我認為 Urban 的部分變化來自；第一，使用速度模型以更強的方式閱讀客戶並與客戶做出反應的能力，所以這是第一位的。我認為更具流動性將使團隊能夠對時尚做出反應，這對這位客戶來說非常重要。這個年輕消費者的行動比我們品牌的平衡快得多。我認為回到這個與開放庫存相關的模型是我們的首要策略。第二，建立一個準備好對信息做出反應的團隊，預先構建強大的產品並領先於此。雖然價格絕對是關鍵，但他們會 100% 為合適的產品支付高價。 Lorraine，我們覺得我們正在讓我們的架構回到每個類別的正確位置。而且我認為填補我們跨職能團隊的一些關鍵職位對於團隊的完美健康運行也非常重要。

Our next question comes from the line of Adrienne Yih with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Adrienne Yih。

So my one question is on the topic of wholesale. But Dick, I think I needed a little bit of a tutorial from you. So do you think the wholesale is due to retail kind of department store conservatism because demand is going away. And so they're just buying obviously down, right -- down units or whatever. Or is it because they bought a lot of earlier receipts last year for fear that they wouldn't have their inventory and that this is in part sort of a timing issue, right? So they don't buy it in the first half and they kind of put back their weeks of supply where they should be, which would mean that wholesale should get better in the back half, possibly. And then for Frank and/or Melanie, when you say wholesale decline in 2024, can you help us is it low double digit? And why would profitability be similar if the sales are down?

所以我的一個問題是關於批發的。但是迪克，我想我需要你的一些指導。所以你認為批發是由於零售類百貨公司的保守主義，因為需求正在消失。所以他們只是購買明顯下降的，對的——下降單位或其他什麼。或者是因為他們去年買了很多早期的收據，因為擔心他們沒有庫存，這在一定程度上是時間問題，對吧？所以他們不會在上半年購買它，他們會把幾週的供應時間推遲到他們應該的位置，這意味著下半年的批發情況可能會好轉。然後對於 Frank 和/或 Melanie，當你說 2024 年批發量下降時，你能幫助我們嗎？它是低兩位數嗎？如果銷售額下降，為什麼盈利能力會相似？

Adrienne, I'll do my best. A disclaimer upfront is we don't have perfect insight into what our wholesale partners are either doing or what stage they're in their inventory journey, there's no question that I think almost all apparel retailers over-ordered during the COVID supply chain crisis. And last year, many of our customers had to pull back. And so that left the wholesalers with quite a lot of inventory. And Sheila and the Free People team has been very, very disciplined in working that down. They're not quite done, but they will hopefully be done by the first or second quarter of the current year. We think then the business will be much more stabilized, and we think that it's either a low to mid-teens operating margin business and that we can deliver that on a fairly consistent ongoing basis.

艾德麗安，我會盡力的。預先免責聲明是，我們無法完全了解我們的批發合作夥伴在做什麼或他們在庫存過程中處於什麼階段，毫無疑問，我認為幾乎所有服裝零售商在 COVID 供應鏈危機期間都超額訂購。去年，我們的許多客戶不得不退縮。因此，這給批發商留下了大量庫存。 Sheila 和 Free People 團隊在處理這些問題時非常非常有紀律。它們還沒有完全完成，但有望在今年第一季度或第二季度完成。我們認為那時業務將更加穩定，我們認為它要么是低至中等的營業利潤率業務，我們可以在相當一致的持續基礎上交付。

And Adrienne, this is Frank. As it relates to sales, I think we believe it could be down in the high single-digit range. But as Dick said, after the first quarter, we think we can deliver improvement in operating profit in Q2 and going forward and for the year. And that's largely due to having a less sales to close out accounts as well as less discounts just due to the clearance that we had in Q4 of fiscal '23 of excess inventory as well as some of the experience that we'll have in Q1 of fiscal '24 of excess inventory. Once we get through that, you'll see the improved margins, and we do think that you'll have improved profit margin -- slightly improved profit margin in fiscal '24 versus '23 due to the lower closeout sales.

艾德麗安，這是弗蘭克。由於它與銷售有關，我認為我們相信它可能會下降到高個位數範圍內。但正如迪克所說，在第一季度之後，我們認為我們可以在第二季度以及未來和全年實現營業利潤的改善。這主要是由於我們在 23 財年第四季度清理了過剩庫存以及我們將在庫存過剩的財政'24。一旦我們解決了這個問題，你就會看到利潤率有所提高，我們確實認為你的利潤率會有所提高——由於清倉銷售額較低，24 財年的利潤率與 23 財年相比略有提高。

In addition to that, as we mentioned, the IMU improvements. They don't only affect our retail segments. So the lower supply chain costs coming through that also benefits the Wholesale business as well as the speed and reliability allows wholesaler to go back to their normal mix of ocean to air from a mode perspective as well.

除此之外，正如我們提到的，IMU 有所改進。它們不僅影響我們的零售部門。因此，通過降低供應鏈成本也有利於批發業務，而且速度和可靠性也使批發商能夠從模式的角度回到他們正常的海運到空運的組合。

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Paul Lejuez。

Could you give us an update on performance of suburban stores versus urban? Have you've been able to close the gap there and just have a differ by concept. And then I think -- Dick, I think you mentioned on the Movement stores that you were opening slightly larger stores. Can you just maybe run through the store count, the openings this year and if that larger store pattern is going to be consistent throughout the rest of the concepts as well.

您能否向我們介紹一下郊區商店與市區商店的最新表現？您是否已經能夠縮小那裡的差距並且只是概念不同。然後我想 - 迪克，我想你在 Movement 商店提到你要開更大的商店。你能不能看看商店數量，今年的開業情況，以及更大的商店模式是否也會在其他概念中保持一致。

Urban versus suburban stores, what we see is the big urban spenders. New York is still having difficulties. Now they're comping on a year-over-year basis the best. But when you look at the comp versus FY '20, and Garnet, we try to wean ourselves away from looking at FY '20, but we always look at that as a reference. The urban stores and the big metro areas are still off, and they're off the most of any the -- of any group of stores that we have. The superfan stores have bounced back nicely and stores, in general, have bounced back pretty nicely. And last, in Q4, traffic in all stores, retail segment stores was up double digits.

城市與郊區商店，我們看到的是城市消費者的大戶。紐約仍然有困難。現在他們的表現逐年最佳。但是，當您比較 comp 與 FY '20 和 Garnet 時，我們試圖讓自己擺脫對 FY '20 的關注，但我們始終將其視為參考。城市商店和大都市區仍然關閉，而且它們是我們擁有的任何一組商店中關閉最多的。超級粉絲商店反彈得很好，商店，一般來說，反彈得很好。最後，在第四季度，所有商店、零售部門商店的客流量都增長了兩位數。

Now again, when you go back and look at it versus '20, it's not up. So we have -- we still have some work to do in getting those -- the store productivity up.

現在再一次，當你回頭看它與 20 年相比時，它沒有上升。所以我們 - 我們仍然有一些工作要做 - 提高商店生產力。

Okay. Movement stores. I'll take a first shot at that and then ask Sheila to add whatever she wishes to add. The reason we want the Movement stores to be a bit larger. And when we say a bit larger, I think the average Movement store is now 1,500 to 1,800 square feet. And we're talking about raising that 2,100 to 2,400 square feet. The reason we want to do that is because Movement has expanded its product categories over the last 2 years.

好的。運動商店。我會先嘗試一下，然後請 Sheila 添加她想添加的任何內容。我們希望 Movement 商店更大一點的原因。當我們說大一點時，我認為 Movement 商店現在的平均面積為 1,500 至 1,800 平方英尺。我們正在談論將那 2,100 平方英尺增加到 2,400 平方英尺。我們想要這樣做的原因是因為 Movement 在過去 2 年中擴大了其產品類別。

And there's a nice variety of product now that just -- most of it just won't fit in these stores. I'll give you an example. One of the best categories we had in Q4 was the Free People performance outerwear meant for hiking, skiing and other types of outdoor activities. And that would have done even better had we had room to carry more of it in the stores. So that's the reason for the enlargement of the stores. And I think Melanie, in her prepared remarks, said that we plan to open 10 additional -- approximately 10 additional stand-alone Movement stores. That could go up a little bit, and we're still negotiating with some of our landlord partners and expect that it may go up. But if you want to plan conservatively, I would say 10 new stores would be the number to use.

現在有各種各樣的產品——其中大部分都不適合這些商店。我給你舉個例子。我們在第 4 季度擁有的最好的類別之一是 Free People 高性能外套，適用於遠足、滑雪和其他類型的戶外活動。如果我們有足夠的空間在商店裡裝更多的東西，那會做得更好。這就是擴大商店的原因。我認為梅蘭妮在她準備好的發言中說，我們計劃再開 10 家——大約 10 家獨立的 Movement 商店。這可能會上漲一點，我們仍在與我們的一些房東合作夥伴進行談判，並預計它可能會上漲。但如果你想保守地計劃，我會說 10 家新店是可以使用的數字。

I think, the increase that Dick is talking about 20% just allows the merchants to fit a little bit more product in. We also have stores that are currently the sizes, that are performing extremely well with extremely healthy sales per square foot, which is giving us the confidence that we're not going to oversize ourselves, but just giving space for our new ideas as well as our accessory classifications and part of the growth strategy.

我認為，Dick 所說的 20% 的增長只是讓商家能夠容納更多的產品。我們也有目前規模的商店，它們表現非常好，每平方英尺的銷售額非常健康，這是讓我們相信我們不會過度擴大自己，而只是為我們的新想法以及我們的配件分類和增長戰略的一部分提供空間。

Our next question comes from the line of Alex Straton with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自 Alex Straton 與摩根士丹利的對話。

I just wanted to zoom out here a little bit and think about kind of what the right long-term operating margin is here. I think you guys were high single digits or so pre-COVID and in 2021. Now you're ending this year at just under 5%. So can you just help us understand the bridge from here to wherever you think it is possible longer term?

我只是想把這裡縮小一點，想一想這裡的長期營業利潤率是多少。我認為你們在 COVID 之前和 2021 年都是高個位數。現在你們今年年底的增長率略低於 5%。那麼，您能否幫助我們了解從這裡到您認為可能長期存在的任何地方的橋樑？

Alex, this is Frank. I'll take that question. So I think as Melanie mentioned in her prepared remarks, we are anticipating growing our operating profit rate here in fiscal '24, that will largely be driven by over 200 basis points of improvement in gross profit margin, which would be due to our improvement in IMU as well as favorable markdown rates on a year-over-year basis. We are talking about some elevated SG&A this year, a little bit of a reset there. But then as we move into fiscal '25, we believe that SG&A will be in line to actually leveraging with our top line sales as well as we think we still have incremental IMU opportunity in fiscal '25 and going forward, continuing to work towards that 10% operating profit goal, which is still our goal, and we still think it is achievable over the longer term view.

亞歷克斯，這是弗蘭克。我會回答這個問題。因此，我認為正如 Melanie 在她準備好的發言中提到的那樣，我們預計 24 財年的營業利潤率將有所增長，這在很大程度上將受到毛利率提高 200 多個基點的推動，這將是由於我們在IMU 以及有利的同比降價率。我們談論的是今年 SG&A 的一些提升，那裡有一些重置。但是當我們進入 25 財年時，我們相信 SG&A 將與我們的頂線銷售實際相結合，我們認為我們在 25 財年和未來仍然有增加 IMU 的機會，繼續努力實現這一目標10% 的營業利潤目標，這仍然是我們的目標，我們仍然認為從長遠來看這是可以實現的。

And I'd just like to mention if I could. First, Alex, welcome. I think this is the first call that we've had with you and you've been on. But I also want to thank Kimberly Greenberger, who I understand is going off of our calls. She's been with us for 20 years, right, Kimberly? And we appreciate those 20 good years and certainly appreciate how professionally you've handled our calls in the past. So good luck to you in the future.

如果可以的話，我想提一下。首先，亞歷克斯，歡迎。我認為這是我們與您打的第一個電話，您一直在接電話。但我還要感謝 Kimberly Greenberger，據我所知，她正在掛斷我們的電話。她已經和我們在一起 20 年了，對吧，金伯利？我們感謝這 20 年的美好時光，當然也感謝您過去處理我們電話的專業程度。祝你未來好運。

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Boss with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Matthew Boss。

Great. So Dick, maybe could you elaborate on the category interplay that you're now seeing between the more casual and the occasion-based wear and Anthro? To me, that was a clear inflection that you cited on that on the call. When did you see this change in behavior? And then, Frank, maybe could you just expand on the increasingly challenging macro backdrop that you cited facing the UO customer this year? And just how that's factored into the top line growth forecast in the back half of the year?

偉大的。所以迪克，也許你能詳細說明一下你現在看到的更休閒和基於場合的服裝與 Anthro 之間的類別相互作用嗎？對我來說，這是你在電話中提到的一個明顯的變化。您是什麼時候看到這種行為變化的？然後，弗蘭克，也許你可以擴展你引用的今年 UO 客戶面臨的日益具有挑戰性的宏觀背景嗎？這又是如何影響到今年下半年的收入增長預測的呢？

Matthew, I could give you an answer, but I think it would be much, much more appropriate for Tricia Smith to give you that answer. I have seen it in the numbers. She and her team have predicted it and saw it in the inventory carried. So I'll let her answer the category issue.

馬修，我可以給你一個答案，但我認為 Tricia Smith 給你這個答案會更合適。我已經在數字中看到了。她和她的團隊已經預測到了這一點，並在攜帶的庫存中看到了這一點。所以我會讓她回答類別問題。

Matthew, I think we really have started to see a pick up primarily with the early spring receipts that we brought in, in January that Frank referenced. And I think the exciting part about that is the occasion and kind of return-to-office product that has been driving our sales really isn't showing any signs of slowing down either. So I think being able to get that balance between casual and occasion rights being able to kind of diversify not only our product range, our price range and kind of capture even more, I think, of our customers' lifestyle. We feel really good about that. So we think there's incremental growth that come from this growth that we're seeing now in the cash flow segment of our product offer.

馬修，我認為我們真的已經開始看到回升，主要是我們在 1 月份帶來的早春收據，弗蘭克提到了這一點。而且我認為令人興奮的部分是一直推動我們銷售的場合和返回辦公室產品的種類確實也沒有顯示出任何放緩的跡象。因此，我認為能夠在休閒權利和場合權利之間取得平衡，不僅可以使我們的產品範圍、價格範圍和捕獲方式多樣化，我認為，我們的客戶的生活方式。我們對此感覺非常好。因此，我們認為我們現在在產品供應的現金流部分看到的這種增長會帶來增量增長。

And Matt, responding to the increasingly difficult macro backdrop for the urban customer, I think this is a little nuanced. That wasn't in reference to North America. I think that consumer has faced a difficult backdrop for some time now. I don't think it's gotten any better, nor I think it's gotten any worse. We do, however, think that the market -- the macro backdrop in Europe has gotten worse over the fourth quarter and into year -- into the first quarter, they continue to face incredibly high inflation, price so forth and so on. I think that backdrop has continued to be very challenging there. The team has executed at an extremely high level. But that would be the only change I would talk about is related to a macro backdrop. North America here, I think, is fairly consistent.

而馬特，針對城市客戶日益困難的宏觀背景，我認為這有點微妙。那不是指北美。我認為消費者一段時間以來一直面臨困難的背景。我認為它沒有變得更好，也沒有變得更糟。然而，我們確實認為市場——歐洲的宏觀背景在第四季度和今年變得更糟——進入第一季度，他們繼續面臨令人難以置信的高通脹、價格等等。我認為那裡的背景仍然非常具有挑戰性。該團隊的執行水平非常高。但那將是我要談論的唯一變化與宏觀背景有關。我認為這裡的北美是相當一致的。

Our next question comes from the line of Marni Shapiro from The Retail Tracker.

我們的下一個問題來自 The Retail Tracker 的 Marni Shapiro。

Fantastic end to the holiday, even with Urban Outfitters. And Trish, Anthro is just -- has its motto back. But I'm going to stick with the Urban Outfitters conversation for a little bit. Urban Outfitters Europe, that customer has been under a lot of pressure and yet business remains very strong there. And that team, as I recall, has been in place for a while. So I think you commented to somebody that it is product based. It feels like the trends in the market are very favorable for Urban, and you've alluded to the ability to chase. So is the biggest hurdle in near term getting the team -- you've made a few hires getting the team kind of gelled together, which we all know from years and years of experience takes more than 1 month to do. And so as you think through this year, should we start to see those improvements as the team gels, but obviously, I guess, weighted towards the back half, if they have started recently and you're still looking for a leader there.

假期完美結束，即使是 Urban Outfitters。而 Trish，Anthro 只是——回到了它的座右銘。但我將繼續討論 Urban Outfitters 的話題。 Urban Outfitters Europe，該客戶一直承受著很大的壓力，但那裡的業務仍然非常強勁。我記得，那個團隊已經成立了一段時間。所以我認為你對某人評論說它是基於產品的。感覺市場上的趨勢對Urban很有利，你也暗指追的能力。短期內組建團隊的最大障礙也是如此——你僱傭了一些員工讓團隊凝聚在一起，我們都知道，從多年的經驗來看，這需要超過 1 個月的時間才能完成。因此，正如你今年所想的那樣，我們是否應該開始看到這些改進隨著團隊的凝聚，但顯然，我想，如果他們最近才開始，而你仍在尋找領導者，那麼他們將重點放在後半部分。

Okay, Marni. I -- again, I'm going to defer to Sheila. She's very close to this, but let me just give a couple of comments. I think it is largely around the team. Yes, I think there's lots of products that would do very well at Urban, and they have to be ordered correctly, meaning the right quantities, and they have to be assorted correctly. So I think that, that's an issue. But let me just say that recently, we've hired a number of people, including a Chief Customer Officer, a new director of planning and a finance chief. So we want to assemble a new team, and we are in the process of that. As you said, we're looking for -- Sheila is busy searching for a new brand leader. And we think that, that will be one of the key items of this turnaround. And we're confident in the turnaround. I know that we've discussed inflation impacting this customer, and I still believe that. But I think there's plenty of business to be done, and we will get it done. And Sheila, what else would you like to say about it?

好的，瑪尼。我——再一次，我要聽從 Sheila 的意見。她非常接近這一點，但讓我發表一些評論。我認為這主要是圍繞團隊。是的，我認為有很多產品在 Urban 會做得很好，它們必須正確訂購，也就是正確的數量，並且必須正確分類。所以我認為，這是一個問題。但我只想說，最近我們聘請了一些人，包括一名首席客戶官、一名新的規劃總監和一名財務主管。所以我們想組建一個新團隊，我們正在這個過程中。正如你所說，我們正在尋找 - Sheila 正忙於尋找新的品牌領導者。我們認為，這將是這次轉變的關鍵項目之一。我們對轉機充滿信心。我知道我們已經討論過影響該客戶的通貨膨脹，我仍然相信這一點。但我認為還有很多事情要做，我們會完成的。還有 Sheila，你還有什麼想說的嗎？

I think it's exactly right that the word gel definitely means something in retail like getting the left and right brain working at the same time and talking to each other that is half the battle. So as you look forward to getting the cross-functional teams, working well, same -- usual profitability and bringing the brand back to where it should be.

我認為凝膠這個詞在零售業中的含義絕對正確，比如讓左右腦同時工作並相互交談，這就成功了一半。因此，當您期待讓跨職能團隊運作良好時，同樣 - 通常的盈利能力並將品牌帶回應有的位置。

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Altschwager with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Mark Altschwager 與 Baird 的對話。

This is Amy Teske on for Mark today. You've talked about improved inventory setting up for a better ability to chase. Can you talk to us a little bit about the trend cycle and if there are any areas of opportunity that you're seeing like event dressing was in 2022? And then for Anthropologie specifically, could you share the owned versus third-party brand mix, and how you were thinking about that mix in fiscal 2024 as you look to chase?

我是 Amy Teske 今天為 Mark 做的。你談到了改進庫存設置以獲得更好的追逐能力。你能和我們談談趨勢週期嗎？你是否看到任何領域的機會，比如 2022 年的活動著裝？然後特別是對於 Anthropologie，您能否分享自有品牌與第三方品牌的組合，以及您在尋求追逐時如何考慮 2024 財年的這種組合？

Amy, I think we're going to have to ask you to repeat the first part of that question. It didn't really come through that well.

艾米，我想我們將不得不請你重複這個問題的第一部分。它並沒有真正通過那麼好。

Yes, sure. Can you talk a little bit about the trend cycle? And if there are any areas of opportunity to chase specifically that you're looking at like how event dressing was in 2022? What are you looking at as the bright spot to chase in?

是的，當然。你能談談趨勢週期嗎？如果有任何機會可以具體追逐您正在尋找的領域，例如 2022 年的活動著裝情況？您將什麼視為追逐的亮點？

Are you referring specifically to the Anthropologie?

您是指 Anthropologie 嗎？

No, that was a broader question. The Anthropologie one was specifically on the third-party net.

不，這是一個更廣泛的問題。 Anthropologie 那個是專門在第三方網上的。

Okay. Just let you know, Meg and I met with Sheila today, and I think that she went over maybe a dozen -- maybe 2 dozen styles of apparel in Urban Outfitters women's that they are currently chasing because the sale-throughs are very strong, and we don't have enough product of those particular items. And so this is what the shorter lead times, how that would benefit us. And so the fact that the supply chain is back is really exciting where we can have a sort of a test and learn and then chase. And so I'm very enthusiastic about that, and I think it would make a big difference in the business. Did you get the -- I think that Tricia -- both Tricia and Sheila believe that, and it's not just for the Urban brand, it's for all brands.

好的。告訴你吧，梅格和我今天會見了希拉，我想她在 Urban Outfitters 女裝中瀏覽了大約一打 - 可能有 2 打款式的服裝，她們目前正在追逐這些款式，因為銷量非常好，而且我們沒有足夠的這些特定項目的產品。所以這就是更短的交貨時間，這對我們有何好處。因此，供應鏈回歸這一事實非常令人興奮，我們可以在其中進行某種測試、學習然後追逐。所以我對此非常熱心，我認為這會對業務產生重大影響。你有沒有 - 我認為 Tricia - Tricia 和 Sheila 都相信，這不僅適用於 Urban 品牌，它適用於所有品牌。

Yes. I think I can take the Anthro owned brand question. That own brand penetration differs fairly dramatically between categories. In apparel, specifically, it represents the majority of our business, and it's been skewing incredibly well. Our design teams, our buying teams, our planning teams are all working very well, and then our marketing and creative teams are really bringing that product to life in a really unique way. So that penetration has grown significantly, not over last year, but over the last 3 years and represents significantly higher, both IMU and margin rate as we're adding that buy down, investing more deeply as Dick had mentioned, in product and really rationalizing, I think the assortment of what that looks like.

是的。我想我可以回答 Anthro 自有品牌的問題。自有品牌的滲透率在類別之間差異很大。具體來說，在服裝領域，它代表了我們的大部分業務，而且它的傾斜度非常好。我們的設計團隊、我們的採購團隊、我們的規劃團隊都工作得很好，然後我們的營銷和創意團隊真正以一種真正獨特的方式使該產品栩栩如生。因此，滲透率顯著增長，不是在去年，而是在過去 3 年，並且代表顯著更高，IMU 和保證金率，因為我們正在添加購買，正如 Dick 提到的那樣更深入地投資於產品和真正合理化，我認為那看起來像什麼的分類。

I will say though that the market mix as we have been elevating and making some changes there and that's working incredibly well for us as well. But the primary growth is coming from, I think the strength of the team is all working very well together on with our own brand penetration, particularly in apparel.

我會說，儘管我們一直在提升市場組合併在那裡做出一些改變，但這對我們來說也非常有效。但主要的增長來自於，我認為團隊的力量在我們自己的品牌滲透方面合作得很好，尤其是在服裝方面。

Our next question comes from the line of Jay Sole with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Jay Sole。

Can you just talk about your assumption for markdown rates in your 200 basis point gross margin improvement guidance for the year? And maybe just talk about how markdown rates break out relative to your expectation for how much freight impacts the gross margin this year?

你能談談你在今年 200 個基點的毛利率改善指導中對降價率的假設嗎？也許只是談論相對於您對今年運費影響毛利率的預期而言，降價率如何突破？

Jay, this is Frank. So in the over 200 that Melanie talked about in her prepared remarks, I would say about half of that is due to IMU and about half of that is due to improved markdown rates. I think they could flex up and down a little bit depending on the quarter. I think the markdown rate becomes more impactful as the year goes on, whereas IMU fairly -- is actually fairly consistent from quarter from quarter-to-quarter. And those favorable markdown rates are largely due to inventory being more aligned with sales. Obviously, with the supply chain improving from a speed and a reliability perspective, you can hear the excitement investment in the brands about their ability and their ability to chase and to navigate now similar to pre-pandemic levels and having to buy calendars and the open to buy back to -- close to back to where it was previously.

傑伊，這是弗蘭克。因此，在 Melanie 在她準備好的發言中談到的 200 多個問題中，我想說其中一半是由於 IMU，一半是由於降價率的提高。我認為他們可能會根據季度的不同而上下調整。我認為隨著時間的推移，降價率會變得更有影響力，而 IMU 相當——實際上每個季度都相當一致。而那些有利的降價率主要是由於庫存與銷售更加一致。顯然，隨著供應鏈從速度和可靠性的角度得到改善，您可以聽到對品牌的興奮投資，因為它們的能力以及追逐和導航的能力現在與大流行前的水平相似，並且必須購買日曆和開放時間買回——接近回到之前的水平。

Our last question will come from the line of Ike Boruchow.

我們的最後一個問題將來自 Ike Boruchow。

This is Jesse Sobelson on for Ike. I was just curious if you could elaborate on current customer behavior by channel. You've moved from 40% of sales through e-commerce pre-COVID to -- by our math, maybe 50% plus today. So I'm just wondering if consumers are still shopping online to the extent you would have expected post-COVID or for reversal in trends there could a margin recapture in the future?

這是 Ike 的 Jesse Sobelson。我只是想知道您是否可以按渠道詳細說明當前的客戶行為。你已經從 40% 的銷售額通過 COVID 之前的電子商務轉移到——根據我們的數學計算，今天可能超過 50%。所以我只是想知道，消費者是否仍在網上購物達到您預期的 COVID 後的程度，或者趨勢的逆轉是否會在未來重新奪回利潤？

Jesse, I'll try to handle that. I don't think it's surprising given the fact that COVID is now over that we've seen a rebound in store traffic. Many of our stores were impaired -- closed first and then impaired for a while. So the store traffic has definitely picked up and in Q4 was up double digit. Comps very much positive. And as I said, I think that the traffic is inching closer to pre-pandemic level. Conversion is still a little softer, but I think that's largely because prices are up a bit and markdowns were down a bit, except that the urban Outfitters North America brand. So in total, comp store sales in Q4 rose double digits and as did the AUR.

傑西，我會盡力處理的。鑑於 COVID 現已結束，我們看到商店客流量出現反彈，我認為這並不奇怪。我們的許多商店都受到了損害——先是關閉，然後又受到了一段時間的損害。因此，商店客流量肯定有所回升，並且在第四季度增長了兩位數。比較積極。正如我所說，我認為流量正在逐漸接近大流行前的水平。轉換仍然有點疲軟，但我認為這主要是因為價格上漲了一點並且降價幅度有所下降，除了 urban Outfitters North America 品牌。因此，總的來說，第四季度的商店銷售額和 AUR 一樣增長了兩位數。

Now with the digital channel, it's actually varied by brand. Free People delivered a very strong Q4 growth in digital, double digit as a matter of fact, and they saw gains in both sessions and sales. But when you look at total company digital, it's only up 2% with traffic actually being down a little bit. That negative traffic is largely driven by Urban Outfitters both in North America and in Europe. So it's much more varied.

現在有了數字渠道，它實際上因品牌而異。 Free People 在第四季度實現了非常強勁的數字增長，事實上是兩位數，而且他們在會話和銷售額方面都取得了增長。但是當你看一下公司的整體數字化時，它只增長了 2%，而流量實際上下降了一點。這種負流量主要是由北美和歐洲的 Urban Outfitters 推動的。所以它更加多樣化。

But again, I think it's not necessarily unexpected that as COVID ends and stores rebound, some of the people who shopped online are anxious to go back into the store and then don't shop online. So that gives you a sort of a view overall of how the channels are performing. But in some they're actually, when you look at the comp sales, we're now remarkably similar. So we're basically not with all brands, but we're basically the 50-50 digital versus stores.

但同樣，我認為隨著 COVID 結束和商店反彈，一些網上購物的人急於回到商店然後不再網上購物並不一定出乎意料。因此，您可以從總體上了解渠道的表現。但實際上，在某些情況下，當您查看 comp 銷售額時，我們現在非常相似。所以我們基本上不是所有品牌，但我們基本上是 50-50 數字與商店。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our Q&A session. I would now like to turn the call back to Mr. Richard Hayne for closing remarks.

女士們，先生們，我們的問答環節到此結束。我現在想把電話轉回給理查德·海恩先生，請他作結束語。

Okay. Thank you all very much for joining. I appreciate it very much, and we hope to see you in a few months.

好的。非常感謝大家的加入。非常感謝，我們希望在幾個月後見到你。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。