Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:WOOF) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Peter Benedict: Got it. That’s helpful. And then I guess just a question on inventory and nice to see it managed well, but certainly in an environment where a lot of people have weighed too much, but let me flip that in a minute. How do you know you’re not running too lean on inventory? I know we’ve been in some stores and things €“ you see the out-of-stocks in certain areas. Just talk to us about just break down that inventory a little better. Do you feel like you’re too lean in certain areas? What are you doing to make sure your service to the customer? Thanks.

Ron Coughlin: I would say we are in the strongest inventory position that we’ve been in a few years. We have a great leader. We brought in who has Best Buy experience under Amy College, and they’ve done a great job managed inventory. We have favorable in-stocks versus a year ago that are tangible right now that turn green probably 6 to 8 weeks ago. And so our inventory position should be a contributor to growth and is a contributor to growth already. And as Brian cited, we don’t feel like we’re over-inventoried in any places or any tangible places but we feel like we have the right inventory in the right places. You always have episodic vendor type issues but just getting ahead of kind of a current conversation, our exposure to China is very low. We actually moved a lot of our sourcing away from China on supplies several years ago, and that is serving us well, should China have any issues with a kind of relapse of COVID.

Operator: Our next question comes from Oliver Wintermantel from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Oliver Wintermantel: Yes. Good morning. I had a question regarding the comp and ticket versus traffic. I think, Brian, you said mostly with basket. Is it fair to assume that transactions were negative and ticket was all the offset?

Brian LaRose: Yes. It was driven by basket, Oliver. We did see some trip consolidation on the transaction side, but I would say, look, the team has done a tremendous job in continuing to drive basket, not all price driven, by the way that was the question prior on price. Most of our pricing actions, if you recall, holistic pricing actions took place in the second half of last year, which we’re starting to lap. So back it drove it, we did see some term consolidation on transactions.

Oliver Wintermantel: Got it. And then a quick follow-up.

Ron Coughlin: I would also build on that. We are not your traditional purely merchandise retailer. Our services are tangible. So as we get this significant increase in visits for vets, visits for grooming, training, etcetera, that drives trips for us. So that is a tangible lever, which is why we’re so intent on continuing out our vet network. So that’s another trip driver for us. Sorry to interrupt.

Oliver Wintermantel: No, perfect, thank you for that. I just had a follow-up question on the gross margins. Can you just explain again the freight component of gross margins? Was that €“ how did that trend in the quarter versus the first half? And how do you expect that to play out in the fourth quarter?

Brian LaRose: Yes. So in the first half, we had more elevated freight and broader supply chain costs, and those get €“ I think as we touched on last quarter, capitalized on the balance sheet and start to cycle through the P&L. So we signaled, we expected the P&L impact from those to get worse quarter-on-quarter Q2 to Q3. Now taking a step back on what’s on the balance sheet in terms of base rates and overall supply chain costs, those are starting to improve a bit in the second half. We expect to see more tangible improvement into 2023.