Hibbett, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIBB) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Bob Volke: Good morning, Justin. As far as, obviously, we are not giving any guidance into the future at this point beyond the current fiscal year. But I think, directionally we are, obviously, looking to continue to try to slowly improve performance overtime, nothing’s a complete linear equation. So we are going to see some ebb and flow in margin. We will see some ebb and flow in SG&A. But I think, again, we have kind of — we have talked about this before about established kind of new baseline. We do believe that this is a number we can again be comfortable with probably into the near-term. But again, we will provide more formal guidance, obviously, into the fiscal 2025 after we finish the current year.

Justin Kleber: All right, guys. Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Mike Longo: Thanks. Thanksgiving to you.

Jared Briskin: Thanks. Same to you.

Mike Longo: Thank you.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the technical difficulties. We will move onto our next question, which is coming from the line of Alex Perry with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Alex Perry: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions here. I guess, first, I just wanted to ask a little bit more about the guidance and sort of the 4Q implied guidance, it looks like the comp guidance and gross margin guidance remains unchanged. Is that just conservatism or you talked about the launch calendar being strong or are you seeing more cautious consumer behavior that led to not raising the guide? Thanks.

Jared Briskin: Hey, Alex. Good morning. Jared, I will start. Yeah. I mean, I think, all the above, right? I think there’s still a lot of market uncertainty, there certain — uncertainty around the consumer. We still think there is elevated inventory levels in the market, which will likely lead to a pretty heavily promotional environment, the weather at the tail end of the third quarter, obviously, didn’t help that. So I think all of the above. There’s still lot of uncertainty in the market and even though we are confident that our plans and certainly confident about the investments we have made in the business, there is still lot of uncertainty in the market.

Alex Perry: That’s really helpful. And then just a follow-up. Can you maybe talk a little bit more about some of the secondary brand performance? I know that had been a bit softer earlier in the year. Are there any call outs to strong brands outside of Nike and Jordan are continuing to help the business?

Jared Briskin: Yeah. I mean we have a really broad brand portfolio. As you know, we typically don’t talk specifically about a lot of brands on this call. But, historically, we tend to have a pretty significant brand churn. There are some of our secondary brands that are doing a nice job from a pipeline perspective of innovation or at least the newness and innovation in our business doesn’t necessarily mean the technology that can mean something that hasn’t been in the market that’s brought back and put forth in front of the consumers. So some brands are doing a little better with regard to the innovation pipeline and they are succeeding and others are still unfortunately very slow with regard to innovation that’s continuing have challenges. So as brands improve throughout next year and into the future with regard to that newness and innovation profile, we would expect better performance out of our secondary brands.

Alex Perry: Perfect. And then just my last one, could you just talk a little bit more about Apparel inventories, are there still overages that need to be worked through, and I guess, on the seasonal product, does that improved a bit now that the weather has turned? Thanks.

Jared Briskin: Yeah. Hey, Alex. Jared again, we feel really good about where our Apparel inventory is. Obviously, that was a category that we really put — started putting solutions against first. So no real significant challenges with regard to Apparel. Obviously, there’s a lot of business to be done in the fourth quarter and a lot of uncertainty out there. So we will see how that all initiatives up. But again, we feel good about where the inventory is expected to land and really good about where we expected to have content as we get into next year.

Alex Perry: Perfect. That’s really helpful. Best of luck for this holiday season.

Mike Longo: Thank you so much.

Jared Briskin: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from John Lawrence with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question.

John Lawrence: Great. Thank you. Congrats guys. And Mike, would you talk about a little bit about expenses. I mean, obviously, great strides there and I know you are doing a lot. What inning are we in before you would wonder if you are cutting into muscle on the labor side, whatever. Just some thoughts on how much room you have on the expense cuts?

Mike Longo: Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for the question. Ben will come in after me on this one I think. To set the table on the question, if you will recall several quarters ago we spoke about the fact that sales had accelerated over the past few years and we drug some costs inadvertently as is normal. We drive some costs into our current structure. We went a little too far on a handful of things whether that was a handful of people or handful of projects or particular systems that we didn’t need and so we have been — we began a systematic process to review those about 12 months ago and that has borne fruit and we are pretty proud of that. We don’t think that we are anywhere near cutting into the muscle. We — I would permit more, we are taking the savings and reapplying them to the consumer experience, which has the virtuous circle of improving cost, improving our efficiency and effectiveness, and speed with which we can serve the customer. Ben?