Membership Collective Group Inc. (NYSE:MCG) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Carnie: Yes. So, I’ll go first. Our strategy hasn’t changed on the types of houses we’re in. That’s all based on our CWH members that we have in each city that kind of define what type of house you put in there, be it a small or mid or a large house. So, that’s fundamental to our growth. The only change that we’ve put in place, Steven, is we just want to slow down. We want to go back to the five to seven, which we articulated at the IPO because a part of generating more profits is that we want to streamline things. And what we found this year is that given all the challenges in the macro, be it supply chain, be it labor, even on opening houses, it was — it just makes sense just to go to five to seven. Five to seven houses is still a lot of houses each year for our members to enjoy. And we will continue with our tried and tested strategy of CWH and then figuring out what configuration of a house is suitable for that city.

Thomas Allen: Yes. Just — wanted to give a couple of additional comments on the updated house guidance. I mean if you think about it, we’ve delivered seven — we’re on track to deliver seven houses this year and we delivered six houses last year. And the five to seven is in line with our signed pipeline for the next three years. As we think about next year, a lot of those projects are already underway. And so this is really relieving the burden on the company and giving us — allowing us to deliver on a plan that’s really already set. To give you a little bit more geographical color about next year, there’s going to be a lot — there’s going to be a big increase in the Americas. What we found, and as you know, we — one of our largest segment is North America now. We’re expanding into Latin America with Mexico next year, and we’re going to continue to expand in the region.

Steven Zaccone: Okay. Great. Then to go back to the other question about potential recession impact, I think you made the last time we had the call, you talked a bit about how the business has performed in recessions in the past. And I’m curious if you could just opine on that topic. What do you see in terms of member engagement during weaker economic environments? The rate that they visit the houses less? Do they actually visit a bit more? Just like — just talk through that impact would be very helpful.

Nick Jones: Hi, Stephen. Well, yeah, I’ve been doing this for 27 years, and we’ve seen a number of slowdowns and recessions. And what we’ve seen in the past is members actually go back to the houses even more because it’s a home away from home. And I think people look at their subscriptions at times like this and go to the ones which they feel that they don’t need so often or don’t use so much. And Soho House is one of those subscriptions. And we are a membership business. So we care deeply about our member. And I think they look at it and say, “Oh, I’m going to use that more”. And when they come into the house, we’re always sensitive to the economic conditions outside, so as value items on the menu, et cetera. So we — in the last 2008, 2009, we saw growth in our membership and no increase in people resigning our membership.

And I really think the membership side of this business is — they’re so loyal to us. They’re so good to us. We’ve never seen more people on our wait list. We’ve never seen applications higher. And I think whatever the economic conditions are over the 12 months that in the past, it hasn’t harmed us and I don’t think it will harm us this time.

Steven Zaccone: Great. Thanks very much for the detail. Best of luck.