Farfetch Limited (NYSE:FTCH) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Farfetch Limited (NYSE:FTCH) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript November 17, 2022

Farfetch Limited beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $-0.24, expectations were $-0.28.

Operator: Good afternoon, and welcome to Farfetch Q3 2022 Results Conference Call. My name is Olivia, and I’ll be your conference operator today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Thank you. I’d now like to turn the call over to Alice Ryder, VP of Investor Relations. Ms. Ryder, you may now begin your conference.

Alice Ryder: Hello, and welcome to Farfetch’s third quarter 2022 conference call. Joining me today to discuss our results are José Neves, our Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Elliot Jordan, our Chief Financial Officer; and Stephanie Phair, our Group President. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, and forward-looking statements made today speak only to our expectations as of today. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise them. For a discussion of some of the important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see the Risk Factors section of our Form 20-F filed with the SEC on March 4, 2022.

In addition, we will refer to certain financial measures not reported in accordance with IFRS on this call. You can find reconciliations of these non-IFRS financial measures to the IFRS financial measures in our earnings press release and the slide presentation, both of which are available on our website at farfetchinvestors.com. And now, I’d like to turn the call over to José.

José Neves: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Since 2019, we’ve navigated unprecedented world events and captured market share, placing us on track to broadly double our business over a three-year period, both in terms of GMV and revenue. Along the way, we cemented our ambition of becoming the global platform for luxury, advancing transformational partnerships that we believe will deliver strong growth and profitability in years to come. Luxury is an incredible industry, which has demonstrated its resiliency over the decades and is expected to grow from circa $350 billion in 2022 to over $500 billion by 2030. Farfetch has built a platform for this industry in pursuit of a unique mission that sees us more galvanized than ever as we continue to navigate the challenging macro environment.

I’m pleased to report that in Q3, we delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 14% and GMV growth of 4% on a constant currency basis with improved other contribution margins. This is in spite of the significant impact from our stoppage of operations in Russia and continued impacts of COVID restrictions in China, which were two of our three largest marketplace markets in 2021. In this year of macro headwinds, our focus has been on furthering the rationalization of our cost base. In this vein, we’ve taken the opportunity to redesign the entire Farfetch organization in order to seize the sizable enterprise milestones ahead with a sharpened focus on efficiency and profitability. And while this is ongoing, I’m pleased with the initial results and the performance of our energized leadership team under this new framework.

This reorganization is enabling us to fundamentally restructure our headcount allocation and cost base. And we are already seeing some initial benefits with SG&A costs declining quarter-over-quarter in Q3. The fact that this was achieved in parallel with our continued investments in our new FPS and NGG strategic initiatives, also demonstrates the scalability of our platform. And we’re doing all of this whilst remaining focused on our last time, as the incredible opportunity to build the global title for luxury becomes more relevant and attractive than ever. Another area of focus in the current environment has been on further expanding margins through greater emphasis on disciplined growth. As a result of this initiative, Q3 gross profit margin increased 160 basis points year-on-year to 45% and digital platform order contribution margin expanded 580 basis points year-on-year to 32.4%, and we plan to extend this trading strategy through Q4.

In the current global macro environment, we’re seeing continued digital media cost inflation for luxury, especially in the US as well as reports of higher inventories indicating we’re going to be heading to a very promotional environment. We’ve made the strategic decision of prioritizing margin profitability over growth in this promotional markets, which is reflected in our revised full-year 2022 guidance. Overall, our achievements in delivering disciplined underlying growth, expansion of margins and reduction of the fixed cost base position FARFETCH to emerge from this period as an even stronger business. As such, in 2023, we expect to return to solid growth while also delivering adjusted EBITDA profitability and positive free cash flow. And we will continue to focus on these top priorities while also supporting the strategic partnerships that we signed in 2022 for launch over the next two years.

Neiman Marcus Group, Ferragamo, Reebok and subject to regulatory approvals, Richemont and YNAP. We are tremendously excited about the future and are planning to share more details about our 2023 and long-term plans in our upcoming Capital Markets Day on December 1. And now, I’d like to let Stephanie update you on our audience and the strategic value we are bringing to brands.

Stephanie Phair: Thank you, José, and hello, everyone. Today, I would like to take you through some recent developments across our two key areas of focus. First, our outlook on the luxury customer; secondly, our brand partnerships and the opportunity to further elevate the strategic value we provide to them across our group. I’d like to begin by addressing the health of the luxury consumer. While global macro pressures of inflation and rising interest rates, we can grow consumer sentiment. In practice, luxury tends to be less impacted than the overall retail sector as we cater to an affluent consumer who is less reacted to these pressures. Our consumer continued to exhibit a strong interest in luxury in Q3, as evidenced by the year-on-year growth in active customers, driven by double-digit growth of existing customers as well as high single-digit growth in new customers.

Both new and existing customers also increased the number of items per basket, which is even more encouraging as this behavior over time has historically been correlated with higher repurchase rates. Overall, our customers are highly engaged and the demand generation leverage delivered during the quarter indicates that we have become more efficient in interacting with them. This is also a reflection of our investments in building our brand, which is particularly beneficial in times like these. Our private clients continue to outshine other customer cohorts and exemplify the resiliency of the industry. In line with last quarter, we maintained over 90% retention of our private clients, who delivered average order values of circa $1,100 on continued strong demand for high price point items, including a recent sale of a $930,000 Emerald’s Burberry ring.

During the quarter, we expanded our services to facilitate similar types of transactions via Fashion Concierge, our proprietary and differentiated sourcing service with the launch of Fashion Concierge On Demand, extending the service to all private clients via the app. Q3 also marked a reemphasis on targeted in-person events, with a focus on private clients. In September, we hosted an event at Paris Fashion Week, which saw hundreds of press, influencers and guests visit our Farfetch House, which drove a social media reach of over 25 million, as well as incremental GMV directly linked to the event. Just last week, we cohosted an event with Ferragamo as part of the overall partnership, to introduce our private clients to the new Ferragamo offering at the London Bond Street store.

And later this month, we’ll partner with Art Basel in Miami, engaging with our private clients who have a strong affinity to art, while leveraging the targeted marketing efforts we are making in specific US regions where we see growth potential. On our industry partners, we continue to maintain strong relationships with brands and saw double-digit increases in supply from our top 20 non-NGG brands in Q3. Recently, José and I visited the CEOs of our top brands. Our conversations with them confirm that they are moving away from wholesale and believe in the power of multi-brand e-concessions, a model which we pioneered in luxury and are facilitating via our marketplace and our e-concessions as-a-service FPS offering. While luxury brands are focused on growing owned direct-to-consumer, they are also choosing partnerships and platforms that add value, not only from a distribution standpoint, but also as a marketing partner.

This is something which we have invested in over the past few years. As a result, we believe Farfetch is one of the destinations they are prioritizing. This is because Farfetch has the ability to provide value to brands through multiple services across our group, by leaning into our USPs. First, as the innovation partner in the industry, marrying fashion and tech. As we develop new features, we make them available to brands or we specifically launch new capabilities as part of broader partnerships. This quarter, for example, we are rolling out a 3D viewer for handbags across our platform, which will benefit our top accessories brands and improve the customer experience. Second, our global reach, where Farfetch overindexes in emerging markets, such as Mexico, Brazil and the Middle East and offers access to regions where brands may not have as strong D2C presence.

This is particularly the case in China, where despite the overall macro environment, we believe it is a long-term luxury opportunity. And our investment in localization and technology means we are the leading west introductory player in the strategic market. And third, our luxury audience. Though we’ve become known as the platform for Gen Z and millennials, as a marketplace, we can appeal to a variety of said aesthetics and demographics and can, therefore, offer access to a broader range of the brand’s collections, making us a more attractive partner for brands to work with who can choose to highlight parts of their collection by curation and personalization. This is valuable from an ongoing commercial perspective around supply and a broad base to support the continued growth of our media solutions business.

We were encouraged by our recent discussions with brands where they confirm that this aligns with how they would want to target our customers, as well as how they structure their distribution. We believe this further positions Farfetch as a partner who understands brands and their overall strategic goals from a commercial, audience and technology standpoint, further cementing our role as one of their most strategic partners in the industry. And now, I’ll hand the call over to Elliot to discuss our financial results and outlook.

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Elliot Jordan: Thank you, Stephanie, and hello to you all. I’m pleased to share with you our third quarter 2022 results. I wanted to start by addressing the impact of a stronger US dollar year-on-year, which materially distorts our underlying results, which I am very pleased with given the backdrop of a challenging economic environment. There are four numbers to focus on, all on a constant currency basis. First, our Q3 revenue grew 14% year-on-year. Our digital platform GMV grew 10%, excluding Russia. Our brand platform revenue grew 14% year-on-year. And our stores grew revenue 54% year-on-year. At the same time, our three business segments expanded gross margins year-on-year and we started to crystallize the financial benefits of our actions to rationalize the cost base.

These results indicate a business successfully adapting to the current environment, whilst continuing to deliver underlying growth. Our reported numbers deviate from these underlying results due to the continued strength of the US dollar year-on-year, coupled with the financial impact of closing our operations in Russia earlier this year as well as ongoing COVID restrictions across China. This means our reported GMV, revenue and EBITDA profitability are lower than we previously expected. Whilst these factors will continue to challenge us in the next two to three quarters, I am confident we will return to profitable growth in 2023. With respect to Q3 2022 profitability, order contribution margin was up 580 basis points year-on-year to 32.4%, reflecting ongoing efforts to drive margin improvements, and our cost of technology and operating overheads were lower quarter-on-quarter.

I’d like to walk you through the drivers behind our performance across our three business segments, starting with the Digital Platform. Digital Platform GMV was $787 million, a reported decrease of 5% year-on-year, but growth of 3% on a constant currency basis. GMV from the Farfetch marketplace, which represents the lion’s share of digital platform GMV, declined year-on-year across EMEA, largely due to the stronger US dollar and closure of Russia. GMV also declined year-on-year in Asia Pacific due to the stronger US dollar and ongoing COVID restrictions in China. And GMV was flat year-on-year in the Americas with GMV in the US down, the impact of a deliberate decision to reduce demand generation spend by 20% year-on-year to focus on higher margin profitability from this key market.

Despite these headline figures, I’m pleased to report underlying order growth of 13% ex-Russia and 9% year-on-year growth in active consumers. Active consumers increased quarter-on-quarter with gross adds up over $500,000, offset by circa 100,000 fewer active consumers due to the Russia market closure. In parallel, we have achieved significant efficiencies in our customer acquisition costs, which were down 18% year-on-year. Supply remains equally as strong with both brands and boutiques continuing to increase overall stock value on the marketplace, which was up 25% year-on-year at quarter end to a record $5.5 billion. I’d also highlight that average order value is circa 10% lower year-on-year at $530, which is predominantly due to currency translation to US dollars.

Third-party take rate was 32.6%, 250 basis points higher year-on-year, the highest as a public company. This increase is attributable to our recent efforts to negotiate higher commissions, particularly from brand direct partners and continued growth in revenue of our high-margin Media Solutions product. First-party GMV grew 4% year-on-year to $139 million and represented 20% of digital platform GMV. Q3 2022 digital platform order contribution margin was 32.4%, an increase of 580 basis points year-on-year. This increase was achieved by; first, strong third-party gross margin of 70%, up 720 basis points year-on-year, which is predominantly being driven by efficiencies in our shipping duties and returns costs. Secondly, we achieved efficiencies in demand generation expense with a 400 basis point reduction year-on-year to 19% of digital platform services revenue this Q3, the lowest level in five quarters.

This improvement reflects initiatives to lower customer acquisition and engagement costs, including a reallocation of spend towards lower-cost markets, more profitable transactions and the annualization of the impacts of IDFA restrictions. These positive impacts were partially offset by clearance activity within our first-party business, producing lower gross margins year-on-year as a result. Moving to the brand platform, where we saw GMV of $148 million, a decrease of 10% year-on-year, but an increase of 5% on a constant currency basis. Brand platform revenue decreased 2% to $162 million. The difference between GMV and revenue being an addition of revenue from our partnership with Reebok, which commenced in March 2022. The brand platform generated gross profit of $81 million at a 49.8% margin, an increase of 120 basis points year-on-year, which was driven by the additional net economic benefit from the Reebok partnership.

Finally, in-store GMV grew 35% year-on-year to $32 million and achieved gross profit of $19 million at a 70% gross margin. In terms of our cost reduction initiatives, I’m pleased to report that we are starting to see that our efforts are taking effect. During the third quarter, these delivered savings across our operations platform, our retail network, marketing spend, and corporate people costs. Further cost saving opportunities will crystallize as we embed the new leaner and simpler operating structure and we expect to achieve operating cost leverage in 2023. Overall, adjusted EBITDA was minus $4 million. However, on a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA would have been circa $5 million. Loss after tax was $275 million, after the following non-cash items: an increase in financing costs year-on-year due to unrealized FX losses, an increase in depreciation and amortization year-on-year as we started to amortize the Reebok partnership licensing agreement in March, higher share-based payments due to 2022 equity grants and an impairment charge on our Browns business as a result of impacts of the macro environment.

Finally, we have taken measures to reinforce our liquidity position by issuing a $400 million five-year term loan instrument. This instrument can be repaid at par after 24 months, which provides valuable working capital over the near-term. Note that as part of this transaction, we also settled the remaining $50 million of our February 2020 convertible instrument with Tencent, with whom we continue to have a strong relationship. I’d now like to cover our outlook for the rest of the year. Our updated expectations for the full year 2022 on a reported basis are: Digital Platform GMV of $3.4 billion to $3.5 billion, a decline of 5% to 7% year-on-year. Brand platform GMV will be broadly flat year-on-year, Digital Platform order contribution margin in the range of 32% to 33% ahead of 2021.

Adjusted EBITDA margin of minus 3% to minus 5%, with a year-on-year impact from the FX translation of the brand platform operating entity. And cash on hand of $750 million to $800 million as of December 31, 2022. Once again, the stronger US dollar year-on-year has a significant impact on our expected reported figures. This view also reflects a deliberate decision to step away from what we believe will be a heightened promotional environment across key markets during Q4. This decision follows our previously stated strategy to drive a higher full price mix and maintain order contribution margin above 30% at the expense of GMV growth. Despite this, our actions to deliver operating cost efficiencies as well as our focus on short-term growth prospects remain in place, meaning we expect to see a return to GMV growth in 2023.

This growth will accelerate as we progress throughout the year. In addition, we expect to achieve low single-digit adjusted EBITDA margins and positive free cash flow in 2023. We will provide the building blocks of this guidance as well as medium-term expectations for each of our three platforms: marketplaces, FPS and brand platform on December 1 and our inaugural Capital Markets Day. And with that, I’ll turn it back over to José for some closing remarks.

José Neves: Thank you, Elliot. I am very pleased we are successfully navigating an unprecedented macro environment in 2022 with the following strategic responses: one, seizing this opportunity to redesign the entire Farfetch organization, creating stronger accountability around our three pillars, marketplaces, platform solutions and brand platform and furthering our enterprise readiness. Two, capitalizing on this reorganization to fundamentally transform the way we allocate headcount and restructure our fixed cost base. Three, exit 2022 with a much more efficient business and SG&A structure whilst. Four, continuing to build on our mission to become the global platform for luxury, which remains intact and in fact, reinforced as a tremendous opportunity.

And five, demonstrating the scalability of our platform by reallocating headcount and investments to deliver on strategic initiatives such as Reebok, Neiman Marcus Group, Ferragamo and Richemont, YNAP, which we expect to complete in 2023 after regulatory approvals have been received. I am extremely confident that these ongoing measures will make Farfetch emerge in 2023 as an even more powerful, efficient and profitable business, which continues to lead the online luxury industry and on a mission to become its preeminent global platform. And with that, I’d like to open up for your questions. Thank you.

Q&A Session

Operator: We will now move into our Q&A session. Our first question is from Will Gardner from Wells Fargo. Please unmute your audio and ask your question.

Will Gardner: Good afternoon, guys. Just a couple for me. There’s a bunch of macro headwinds impacting the business currently. Maybe you could just frame out how the underlying business is performing now? And you gave some breadcrumbs for 2023. Maybe just discuss the underlying business heading into 2023 as well? Thanks.

José Neves: Hi. This is José. I’ll take that question. I think, first of all, it’s really important to take a step back here. And these have been very volatile three years with several world events, COVID, the war in Ukraine, strength of the dollar, inflation, et cetera. And we have been navigating these very volatile times very successfully. We broadly doubled the business in the last three years, both in terms of GMV and in terms of revenue. This is significantly higher than our peers, be it online luxury or even our luxury brands. So the comps are different. I just want to highlight that. And there were a few uncontrollables this year. Russia, the stoppage in Russia; China COVID restrictive policies; and FX to name the three most powerful macro factors impacting our performance.

The underlying business, to your question, is still growing. So if we exclude Russia, even if you leave all the other macro factors, China and FX, just excluding Russia, we will grow this year. And we have — if you look at the underlying business, we have very strong data points here. So we’ve added last quarter another 500,000 customers, so we can continue to add new customers to the platform with lower demand generation costs. We — in terms of orders, as Elliott pointed out, excluding Russia, others went up 13% last quarter. This is a good metric because, obviously, with others you want to abstract the impact of FX on the average order value. And our most valuable customers, our private clients, we keep above 90% in terms of retention, $1,100 average order value.

That’s including the FX impact. Without the FX impact would be even higher. So very, very solid underlying business in spite of the general macro environment, which is adverse. And then on the controllables, we are absolutely taking every action that we feel needs to be taken here. We are taking this year of macro volatility as an opportunity to reorganize the company. We’ve outlined that in May and then in more detail in August, we’ve done a complete reorganization and redesign of the Farfetch leadership and of the Farfetch company. And that allowed us to unveil strategic opportunities to shrink costs, prune initiatives, rebalanced headcount, reducing headcount in certain areas of the business and allowing us to rebalance that headcount to the new initiatives that we’ve signed that we’re going to launch in 2023 and 2024.

You already see that in the SG&A line, which is shrinking quarter-on-quarter. This is ongoing. So you will continue to see the results of this cost discipline. The other controllable is our strategy in terms of full price, and we are absolutely continuing to focus on our higher quality customers and higher quality sales. We’ve reduced the demand generation spend. We’ve increased margins. We have the highest stake rate on record since we were a public company, the highest on the contribution margin in the last five quarters, 580 basis points year-on-year. So this was a deliberate action to protect our margin profitability. And all of this really sets us up very well for 2023. We believe that we need to have our eyes firmly on our Northstar. The huge opportunity of building the global platform for luxury remains intact.