Upbound Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPBD) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Anthony Chukumba: That’s helpful. Thank you.

Fahmi Karam: Thanks, Anthony.

Operator: Thank you. And I show our next question comes from the line of Brad Thomas from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Bradley Thomas: Thanks for taking my question. First, I want to ask about the outlook for GMV on Acima. I think we’re all really excited about getting back to growth there. And so I was wondering if you could help put in a little more context, just some of the puts and takes on it for 3Q and the back half? Can you help us think about what the headwind has been from the kind of tighter underwriting, when you start to lap that, what the potential tailwind can be from incremental doors? And perhaps what kind of a headwind you may still be facing as the end market still has some challenges? And maybe just to start with that. Thanks.

Mitchell Fadel: I’d say when you think about the tighter underwriting, it started early in 2022. And I think that’s why we’re seeing the trajectory being what it is from minus 20s kind of numbers to minus roughly 13 in the first quarter and then 5.8 or whatever it was in the second quarter. And then by the third quarter, we pretty much where we wanted to be tightening wise, which is why we’ll be flat year-over-year in the third quarter and then flat to slightly positive in the fourth quarter. So we kind of fully start comping the underwriting tightening in the third quarter. So then once you get there, Brad, you’ve got a combination of the pull forward, especially in furniture, reducing demand in our furniture partners. So how do you even get even if there’s less demand on the retail side?

Well, we’ve grown our retail pipeline. We’ve grown merchants. So you got growth offsetting the retail softness, especially in furniture. We’ve done a nice job. The team at Acima’s done a really nice job of diversifying where furniture is only in the – isn’t 90% of our business anymore. It’s more like 60% of our business. Wheel and tire is really strong, and that didn’t have the pull forward. Jewelry is a big part of the business, but wheel and tire is a part of the business where we didn’t have to pull forward. So it’s a combination of growth making up for the pullback in furniture because of the stimulus programs, gets us flat once we’re comping over the full impact of the underwriting changes.

Bradley Thomas: That’s great. Well, I’m really excited to see the improvement there. And on the RAC side, can you just talk a little bit more about the loss rates that you’re seeing there? Obviously seeing some sequential improvements, but I think still a bit elevated from where you were pre-pandemic and of late. And are there additional initiatives you need to take there to be trying to bring down the loss rate?

Mitchell Fadel: Yes. We’d still like to get – we said at 4.5%, and that’s probably where the – roughly speaking, over the next couple of quarters come out. We think we can get it back into that 4% number, the 50 basis points lower, 50 basis points, 60 basis points lower and get down to 4% even in the high 3s. So we still have that goal. It’s really a matter of – partially would raise it is a lot more coming through the web. So that’s a riskier customer. So e-com is driving it up. We still think we can – if not this year, next year get back closer to 4 than the high 3s or 4 instead of being in the 4, 5. I think the key to doing that is just continuing to improve our underwriting and without cutting off too much, where the – would it come green shoots or whatever, where do you have an opportunity to add some volume here and there and so forth.