Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Brian Nagel : Great quarter, congratulations. So I just want to — my question — I just want to focus on inventories because I know that has been a big topic for lululemon as well as the sector. So you had fantastic results here in the fourth quarter. I’m looking at the math you, you ended the year, inventory is up, I guess, just around 50%. So as we think about ’23, within the context of the guidance you gave, how should we expect that inventory to moderate? And is it — are your essentially saying you’re just going to work through that primarily for the normal course of business without really any excess promotions?

Meghan Frank : Yes. So in terms of inventory, we’ve been navigating obviously, the dynamic supply chain environment. And we did a number of core buys earlier to try and manage our airfreight expense. We do have a higher proportion of our inventory in core versus 40% historically. We also saw increased airfreight impacting our cost inventory balances. And then we also saw vendors who were shipping later than historically, pivot to shipping more on time. So the team is still navigating and adjusting to that new reality. And I would say, at the end of Q1, we’re going to see inventory moderate to 30% to 35% growth, and we expect it to come in line towards the second half of the year. Our goal overall is to manage our inventory in line with our revenue growth and believe we’ll be there over time.

Operator: The next question comes from Paul Lejuez from Citi.

Paul Lejuez : Just piggyback on the inventory question. Curious if you’re a little bit heavier in certain geographies versus others? And if it’s going to take a little bit more time to clear and get to where you want to be in certain geographies. And then just separately, curious what you’re looking at from a product cost perspective this year, first half versus second half, if you can share what you’re anticipating on the side?

Meghan Frank : Yes. I would say nothing notable by geography in terms of inventory balances. We’re pleased overall with the content composition, and we plan to, as we mentioned, have a healthy full price penetration as we move throughout the year. In terms of product costs, we haven’t experienced any significant increases, and we don’t expect any significant changes as we move throughout 2023, relatively stable.

Operator: The next question comes from Ike Boruchow from Wells Fargo.

Ike Boruchow : Two-part question. Maybe first for Calvin. Just on the MIRROR hardware decision. Can you walk us through a little bit more about what you saw in the holiday, and I guess, the past several quarters, that kind of informed your decision that you guys ultimately made to eliminate the hardware piece of the business? And then Meghan, is there anything you can quantify in the P&L? What kind of revenue or operating losses are being removed by eliminating that piece of the business this year?

Calvin McDonald : Thanks, Ike. On MIRROR, I just want to clarify, we’re not eliminating the hardware, but we are adding an app feature that will allow a guest to sign up and pay a lower monthly subscription fee and acts the same content without having to purchase the hardware. So I just want to clarify that. And that will launch later this summer. And we think with the lower cost to entry, not being hardware restricted and the 9 million Essential members that we’ve built and will continue to build, it will allow us to more easily migrate and attract guests into it. We did see an improvement in our performance with the launch of lululemon Studio in October. But as we shared, it just didn’t meet our expectations. And although tax are improving, they’re still not proving fast enough that we didn’t — that we felt it prudent to make this pivot to open up the TAM and appeal to a broader audience within our collective.