On Holding AG (NYSE:ONON) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Martin Hoffmann: Yes. I’m happy to start with your first part, and then maybe David elaborate further on the apparel opportunity. So as mentioned, if we look at the excess of airfreight that we had that’s about 350 basis points probably saving if we think about the normal — more normalized year of airfreight use next year. And so that’s basically the part that we intend to reinvest in a higher bottom line, but also into more contribution into market share and brand building. We need to observe closely the currency development. So we were speaking about the impact that we have seen now in the third quarter and also in the fourth quarter based on the current environment with the weak euro and the strong U.S. dollar. So we are in a position to approach the year with the necessary caution when it comes to building expenses and driving up our cost lines, so we are able to react to those impacts and protect both our gross profit margin as well as our bottom line.

In addition, we see that the price increases are accepted strongly from our customers. They don’t lead to a slower demand. And we are also seeing that we are able to benefit from our economies of scale with our factory partners, and therefore, we do not expect an impact from inflation from higher raw material prices on our product cost. So most of that upside from higher prices will also be available for compensating some of those FX impacts.

David Allemann : So, Michael, I’m very happy to take your apparel question. You mentioned it, in our On stores, apparel is up to 20% of share, in China sometimes up to 30%. And we feel that’s super encouraging because it shows that we have clear product market fit with our consumers. And so we continue that road, and we also see that when we partner with wholesale partners, where we open stores, like, for example, recently in Nordstrom, where we have shop-in-shops €“ On branded shop-in-shops, we get to a similar share. So we feel product market fit is there. Now it’s about giving apparel a bigger presence in the channels where we operate and then, frankly, also expanding the portfolio in apparel because many of the pieces are actually fan favorites, which have been there for a long time and have been continued fan favorites, so that gives us stability, and that’s where we can scale from.

So it’s great to see that apparel is coming of age within On. And if you’re talking to Chinese consumers, they don’t see On as a footwear company, they see On already as a sportswear company, and that’s reflected in these figures as well.

Operator: The next question is coming from Jim Duffy from Stifel.

Jim Duffy: Congratulations on crossing the CHF 1 billion threshold on a trailing 12-month basis. I wanted to start by asking about the wholesale business. The wholesale number is particularly strong. You’ve spoken about strong orders. Can you comment on channel inventories? Others are seeing cancellations, is that something you’ve experienced? And I’m curious how you’re seeing the brand fare against a more promotional backdrop? Has that any impact on demand as others get more promotional?

David Allemann: Marc, do you want to take this one?

Marc Maurer: Yes. Welcome, everyone, also from my side. So I’m currently sitting in the APAC region. So it’s quite dark out here. But it’s great to be part of this call. So we’ve been very close to the channel, and we actually all spent a lot of time with our biggest partners as well really exactly diving into what is inventory on hand? And how do they look at the next month? And what we’re seeing is that our inventory position in the channel is very, very healthy. It’s sometimes even too low and also due to the constraints that we had in the Atlanta warehouse, and it’s across the board. So it’s in Europe, it’s in the U.S., also in Asia Pacific and Japan, has a very, very strong sell-through, for example, with some of our key partners.