Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jonathan Shar: Yes, Alex, it’s really too early for us to tell at this point. And we’ll have a lot more visibility into that in the next 30 to 60 days. But at this point, it’s still too early and most institutions need to get through their had drop periods to really have that number locked down. But you get more and more visibility as classes start and you’re in that first and second week as well. So unfortunately, a little too early for that at this point.

Alex Fuhrman: Sure. No, that makes sense. And then I guess, at this point, we’re pretty much 1 quarter into the year. I know the summer term is generally obviously a low volume period for you guys is not a lot of people on campus. But what have you seen on the general merchandise side of the business to the extent that there has been traffic in your stores, have people been gravitating, you mentioned carrying more of an assortment of nonemblematic as well as emblematic apparel. Is that something that you’ve seen a lot of demand and interest for? Is that something that’s been selling this summer?

Jonathan Shar: Yes, we’re seeing really good demand for general merchandise various categories and we’re really excited about the assortment and what we have ready for consumers and really well merchandised in our stores for consumers for this back-to-school period. But general merchandise and the opportunity to continue to see growth in general merchandise is something that we’re focused on, excited about and think that we’re really well positioned to continue to see growth. And then there is some sort of components of that, that we’ve seen over the last couple of months. But really, it’s about back-to-school and rush and being prepared for that, which we are, and we think our growth initiatives and focus really have us right now operating from a position of strength in that business.

Hunter Blankenbaker: And Alex, the only thing I might add to that is, you’re right, we’re well into the first quarter, it’s not done. When we laid out our guidance that we just provided, we incorporated those first quarter trends into the guidance. So some of that commentary around general merchandise growth and having good progress thus far on store profitability, all incorporated into the guidance. And so we’re moving on track here.

Operator: Our next call comes from Mr. Ryan MacDonald with Needham.

Ryan MacDonald: Maybe on the First Day Complete transition, just to clarify, are you — is the guidance for fiscal ’24 today, inclusive of the expectation of incremental schools churning. And I’d just be curious what you’re seeing thus far through the transition in terms of mix of schools that have chosen to adopt versus that are choosing to churn?

Jonathan Shar: Yes. Ryan, thanks for the question. It’s Jonathan. Yes, the fiscal ’24, our plan and guidance include all of our First Day Complete assumptions. All of our total store assumptions, both new store opens and closes for the year. And so it all factors that in, inclusive of the new stores transitioning to First Day Complete in the spring as well beyond the 157 that we referenced that are supporting the program this fall. So that is built in to the model. And in terms of sort of what we’re seeing in terms of transitions, I would say that we’re really excited about what we saw. And as we mentioned, we had a record number of stores in terms of growth in terms of stores to get to the 157 and we’re continuing to add to that, already have others transition.

We did close certain stores that were unprofitable and couldn’t get to that model this fiscal year and — but as Hunter said, as we’ve referenced, we’re really focusing on profitability, and that is what is built into our fiscal ’24 plan and guidance.

Ryan MacDonald: I appreciate the increased focus on profitability. As we think about the amended and extended credit facility. Can you talk about sort of the updated terms there? And then what sort of flexibility does this give you over the next 12 months? And are there any milestones that you need to hit, I guess, as you’re progressing towards the updated sort of extension deadline?

Jason Snagusky: Ryan, this is Jason. I’ll answer that. The amended extend that we undertook, stretched out the maturities of both the ABL and the term loan. The ABL is now out until the end of December of 2024. The term loan has stretched out through March of 2025. I would say that the additional covenants that we now have are nothing that we haven’t been undertaken before previously. We’ve been managing through this for the past few years. And everything that we are doing now is just managing and monitoring through this current agreement. This agreement has also provided us ample liquidity and additional liquidity to allow us to fund our operations from day 1 of that signing. So a lot of what we did with our current bank group was obvious support that they showed us, but this is a bank group who understands our business and has worked with us since 2015.

Mike Miller: And I would just add, Ryan. This is Mike Miller. I would just add that the new amend and extend gives us the flexibility and the support and the growth platform not just for fall rush, but through spring rush as well, which, as you know, our most critical seasons. So it gives us the runway to really pivot and continue this turnaround and really see the success of our initiatives with First Day Complete and then general merchandise really take hold. As far as milestones, as you know, there are 2 new board members that will be added to the Board. And who will be constituting a strategic alternatives committee and that is in short order within the next week or so, they need to be appointed to the Board. So that’s the most imminent milestone that we have.

Ryan MacDonald: Okay. That’s helpful color. I appreciate that. On the Fanatics and Lids partnership, I noticed the comment during the call about sort of a changing of the commission structure there. Can you just provide a little bit more color about what the changes are there? And then, I guess, how you’re feeling about the growth and the potential profitability of that partnership moving forward?

Hunter Blankenbaker: Mike, why don’t you take the first part of that question and maybe Jonathan can tag on the second part of that.