The Container Store Group, Inc. (NYSE:TCS) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Steven Forbes: And if I can, just a follow up on that, because I’m just trying to better contextualize in frame the second quarter guidance with the full year, second half guidance, because it almost seems like you’re sort of calling for or guiding for an inflection and I know compares get easier. But then you got these sort of learnings right around promotional activity. You have newness, right? You have the holiday time period. And so is that the key message right around sort of the second half outlook, is that the inflection is becoming more visible, whether it’s all macro related, but also strategic priority-driven?

Satish Malhotra: Yes, so I believe you categorize it correct. And I’ll let Jeff add a little bit more. What I would say is, as we think of particularly on Q2, we definitely saw some softness in July, primarily probably due to peak travel season. So we thought it was prudent to kind of revise our guidance relative to that. Having said that, we’ve got a ton of new exciting products coming to fruition, like we talked about with Citizenry [indiscernible] that’s launching is an ethically sourced home goods from around the world that we think will really bode well with our customers. Plus, we have something really special planned for our customers to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Elfa. So that’s one of the reasons we were a bit prudent in respect to our Q2 guide. And as it relates to the back half, as you categorize it quite well, we do have some easier compares as we think about what happened last year, and then with all the newness and excitement that we have planned.

Steven Forbes: Thank you.

Satish Malhotra: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Ryan Meyers with Lake Street Capital. Please proceed.

Ryan Meyers: Yes. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one for me just kind of curious if you could comment on and highlight how some of the newer stores are performing?

Satish Malhotra: Yes. Hi, Ryan. How are you?

Ryan Meyers: I’m doing well. Thank you.

Satish Malhotra: Good. Look, relative to our new stores, what I would say is, we continue to attract new customers, the three new stores that we’ve opened. We see over 60% of customers shopping us are new. We also see a higher degree of penetration as it relates to our custom spaces almost at 37%. And our NPS score across all of them actually are in the mid 80s rather, around 83, 84. So we are seeing great consumer response to the new doors that we’re opening. Now having said that, they are still dealing or contending with the current macro and climate. They’re not immune to that. But we are generally pleased with what we are seeing across those three stores. As you know, we’ve got six new stores still planned coming up for fiscal ’23 and some really great locations.

Half of them are actually built to suit locations. So that really means it helps us on the CapEx front. And we are still very much committed to new store growth expansion and believe we still have a tremendous amount of whitespace, given the current economic climate. However, as we’ve stated many times before, we will be smart around the doors that we open and particularly ensuring that we keep to our goal of generating positive free cash flow, and we may moderate plans accordingly based on that.

Ryan Meyers: Great, that sounds good. Just one question for me. Thank you.

Satish Malhotra: Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

Kate McShane: Hi. Thanks for taking our question. We wondered, Satish, if you had a view on how much of what you’re seeing is macro versus a prioritization of dollars by the consumer as they focus potentially on travel and services. It also seems like premium is maybe holding up better than non-premium, both in the custom spaces and in the store. So we wondered if you could talk to that a little bit more as well.