Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

And that’s really why for — the full first half of the year, we’ll stay within the 20% to 30%, even though we were slightly better in the first quarter. We do expect to come down a little bit in Q2 as we spend a little bit more into the strength of good initiatives that we have going, including the tumbler rollout and new introduction.

Devin Weinstein: That makes sense. Thank you. And if I could just tack on the second part of that question. You guys did call out some of the wildfire dynamics that impacted demand for air purifiers. Just curious what you’re seeing quarter-to-date, when we’ve looked in the past, we’ve seen a good bump to your sales for some of the heightened wildfire seasons. So curious, if you’re seeing that same sort of dynamic or perhaps if there’s just been more air purifier purchases over the course of COVID and maybe people who want one, already have one of the household or if there’s area for new customers that enter your brand?

Noel Geoffroy: Yeah. In terms of air purification, as we’ve all seen in the news and experience, the Canadian wildfires have impacted us mostly in May and June. So a lot of that sort of happened after our — the end of our first quarter. I will note, U.S. wildfires are actually below average at this point in the year. If you think about all of the snow — heavy snowfall that was out on the West Coast this past winter, it’s a slower start, well below kind of the second lowest in the last 10 years from a U.S. standpoint. So high in (ph) Canada, but lower in the U.S., you’ve got some offsets that are happening there. But that said, the air purifier category point of sale in the last couple of months is up. I would say air purification, the category has some relatively speaking higher retailer inventories.

We’ve talked about in the past in pockets where there’s still some higher inventory coming off of COVID, and this is one of those examples. So the good news is, retailers are working through some of that inventory. We did see point-of-sale increases for the category. We also saw some elevated point of sale in the last four weeks kind of past the end of the first quarter. We do have inventory, and we’re really — as I said in my remarks, really pleased to be able to help retailers and consumers during the time as it continues.

Devin Weinstein: Super helpful. Thanks so much and congrats again.

Brian Grass: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Peter Grom with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Peter Grom: Thanks, operator and good morning, everyone. So I have one maybe follow-up and then just kind of my real question, I guess, just a follow-up on 2Q. Just the outlook still implies a pretty wide range for earnings, especially considering we’re pretty close to halfway through the quarter. At this point, can you maybe just help us understand the building blocks between the high end and the low end and maybe the key watch points or is it kind of fair to say that you would probably expect to be at the stronger end of that range? And then, I guess my real question is just shifting gears like, consumer demand. Obviously, a lot of concern around what that looks like as we move forward. But it seems at least based on what you just delivered this morning and then it can be faring better than you expected.

So I just — a broad-based question, but portfolio spend a lot of different categories. Can you just give us a sense of what you’re seeing around the health of the consumer and broader demand? Are some categories seeing improved performance quicker than you would have anticipated or some more challenged? And just would be curious how the demand environment is evolving versus your expectations, especially considering that there are some other companies that are pointing to a more prolonged period of depressed top line growth? Thanks.