Victoria’s Secret & Co. Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Great. And then, TJ, I guess just one follow-up. As we’re looking ahead to next fiscal year, I understand obviously you’re not going to want to guide, but you talked about some of the easing supply chain pressures. Is there a reason why maybe why we shouldn’t think about gross margins being up next fiscal year as inventories are in a better place, you’re last seen some of the excess promotions here in the back half and some of the freight headwind flip the other way?

TJ Johnson: Yes. I think from our perspective, you’re correct, we are not giving guidance. But as we think about 2023, I’ll pivot back to the Investor Day and really the messaging and the story remains the same, Kate. I think we’re very focused on strengthening the core, which, as you’ll recall, we do need some improvement in the North American side of the business and particularly in the economic environment for our customer. We continue to be focused on growing our market share from an intimate and beauty perspective. Clearly, we had very good performance from an international perspective. So if you think about the excite growth pillar that we talked about. International is strong. New business development continues to progress, particularly with our success of Beauty on Amazon and increasing points of distribution and the sort of the future, we continue to be excited about.

So, all of those growth opportunities remain intact for 2023. However, we do believe we need some help from the economy from a North American perspective. When we think about the margin, just focusing in on your question for a moment, we do expect to have some tailwind as we go into spring season, particularly around freight rates and freight opportunity year-over-year. I think the overall gross margin performance and rate performance, there will be some level of impact on where do sales go because we do anticipate that from an economic perspective, I think most people believe that the challenges in North America will continue in the spring. So what kind of deleverage does that create on the base? And then where does the promotional environment go in the mall.

I think you’re correct in assuming that most retailers seem to be in a much better inventory position coming out of the fall season. So does the promotional activity across the mall subside. And does it go lower than where it was in Q3 and Q4. I think that’s the TBD. We’ll see where that goes. We will want to be competitive in the mall though, to continue to focus on traffic and conversion, but we do have some tailwinds from a freight perspective. So we’re really going to have to wait, Kate, to see where trends go and how do we continue to remain to be competitive on the mall and continue to gain share.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Matthew Boss with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Matthew Boss: Great. So Martin, could you expand on the lower conversion rates that you’re seeing in both stores and digital. I guess what gives you confidence that this is macro and not tied to product or pricing? Is there a competitive element in underwear that impacted trends this quarter? And then, TJ, to your point, as we turn the printer post holiday, I guess what are the puts and takes to consider as it relates to revenues relative to this year? Meaning, do we need macro improvement to stem the level of revenue decline? Or just maybe if you could walk through the initiatives on the top line and if growth is reasonable as we think about next year?

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