Greetings. Welcome to Torrid Holdings Inc First Quarter Fiscal 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host Mr. Vince Adams, SVP of FP&A and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining Torrid’s call today to discuss first quarter financial results for 2022, which we released this afternoon and can be found on our website at investors.torrid.com. With me today on the call are Lisa Harper, Chief Executive Officer of Torrid; and Tanner MacDiarmid, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to remind you of the company’s Safe Harbor language, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. Management may make forward-looking statements, including guidance and underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a further discussion of risks related to our business, see our filings with the SEC. This call will contain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. Reconciliations to these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release furnished to the SEC and available on our website. With that, I will now turn the call over to Lisa.

Good afternoon everyone and thanks for joining us for a discussion of our first quarter results. I’d like to start by saying that I’m very pleased to be hosting my first call today as the CEO of Torrid. I have a long history with the brand serving on the board of directors for the past 14 years. I also served as the CEO of Torrid and Hot Topic from 2011 to 2016. I’ve been incredibly proud to see the growth and evolution of Torrid over the last decade and I believe there’s tremendous opportunity for us to continue that growth. A large part of our success comes from the remarkable team behind the Torrid brand and I want to personally thank Liz for serving as our CEO for the past four years. Liz and I have worked together for more than a decade. She has an incredible passion for our product, customer and our brand and has played an integral role in getting the business to where it is today. I’m thrilled that Liz is taking on the role of Chief Creative Officer, where she will continue to lead division for design, product development, merchandising, and creative marketing. As for me, I bring a strong background in business strategy and operational oversight, and I will lead the brand’s overall vision and direction. Based on early observations, I’ve determined where we need to strengthen our focus and my top priority is to provide direction to the team that will drive sustainable and profitable growth. Before I share this action plan, I want to take a moment to briefly highlight our first quarter results. Net sales were $328 million, exceeding our high guidance of $305 million despite being up against stimulus from last year. This was an increase of 1% compared to…

Thank you, Lisa. And good afternoon, everyone. I’m pleased to be here today as the Interim CFO of Torrid. I have spent the majority of my career working with businesses to execute operational improvements, increase productivity, and determine where to best invest cash to drive profitable growth, both as an advisor and in interim management roles. I look forward to working with Lisa to help Torrid strengthen its foundation in support of long-term growth until a permanent CFO is named. I will begin my discussion with the review of our financial results for the quarter followed by our outlook. Starting with the first quarter results, we exceeded our sales guidance as net sales grew 1% to $328 million compared to $326 million in the first quarter last year. And they were up 30% versus pre-pandemic 2019. Comparable sales in the quarter declined 2% on a year-over-year basis. Our sales in the quarter were impacted by an estimated net five percentage points on a year-over-year basis due to shifts in event and shipment timing. Adjusting for these shifts, our net sales growth would have been up 6% for the quarter and comparable sales would have been up 3%. As a reminder, we were up against a difficult 108% comp increased last year as government stimulus and pent-up customer demand drove significant consumer spending. We’re pleased with the strong consumer demand throughout the first quarter and into our Torrid Cash event, which delivered above expectations. Gross profit to the quarter was $125 million or 38.1% of net sales. This compares to $145 million or 44.5% of net sales in the first quarter of last year. Roughly half of the 640 basis point decline in gross margin was from higher discounts and promotions compared to last year. And the remainder was due to…

Thank you. At this time, we’ll be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Mark Altschwager with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks for taking my questions. I guess first off you commented in the release that that the brand and the Torrid customer have proven to be extremely resilient. I was hoping you could expand on that a bit. How we should think about the durability of demand should the economic backdrops off in a bit in the back half of the year, and whether there’s anything you’re seeing within your customer data that would indicate she’s pulling back at all?

Thanks, Mark. Our customer is incredibly resilient. They have a household income of approximately 85,000. We continue to see the shopping patterns more customers coming into the store, which is encouraging average unit retails we’re comfortable with. So that that we are seeing as this what we consider to be a sustained performance by the customer broadly. So encouraging to that standpoint, because I think of their lack of kind of competitive opportunities. Our customers have – are highly retentive, as well as that higher household income we think make have a combination to help provides a net of stability as we kind of continue to navigate.

That’s very helpful. Thank you. And just as a follow-up, with respect to the new marketing and promotional strategy, does there necessarily need to be a sales reset in the near-term or in even into 2023 as you walk away from some of the less profitable sales? Or is this transition going to be a little bit more subtle than that? Just any further color there would be helpful. Thank you.

Sure. I think reassessing our promotional strategy in a time period that we have a little bit more inventory than we would ideally like to have is we have to be very cautious about that in addition to the macro conversations that are perpetually being shared at this point, we feel very strongly that we have an opportunity to test price elasticity models in terms with a more surgical approach to promotions. So and also to enhance our product launch strategy, so building franchise businesses. So for instance, we have a big relaunch of the studio concept in September of this year, which is one of our biggest launches ever. So we have good product progression and innovation, but I also think is something that I’m excited about in the back half of the year. But broadly to the promotional mindset, we’re not resetting sales. We’ve considered this as we’ve continued to reinforce our guidance moving forward. I feel like we just have to take a more holistic 360-degree strategic approach to our promotional, as well as our marketing strategies that allow us to really give the best advantage and really call out the advantages of this – of the product and our brand to the customers as we’re acquiring them and retaining them. So Mark, to your point, all of that has been considered into – in our forecasting and we’ll test and learn particularly in second quarter, but going into the third quarter with these more surgical offerings that give – so that we can really model the price elasticity as we move forward. And then, again, to reinforce, focusing on product launches and product benefits and features that I think will enhance our desirability as we move forward at a lower discount rate.

Okay. Thank you for all the detail. I’ll jump back in the queue.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks. Good afternoon. Can you talk a little bit more about what happened in the quarter with Curve that’s causing you to step away from the longer term goals? Was it a specific product line? Was it the attachment to other products? Maybe just a little more insight into that and then the changes you’re making to try to improve on that business?

Sure. I wouldn’t say that there was an abrupt shift in Curve. There’s some categories of business, particularly active on the athletic businesses that are waning, I think, as the customer comes out of the pandemic and makes different choices. I also think that we have an opportunity to highlight our five core frames and really build franchises off of those. We are a little bit over bought in Basics, which isn’t a long-term issue will work out of those that inventory really productively. But I just wanted to make sure that we have so many things that we’re learning about Curve, the 50-50 stores towards the Curve standalone stores that are launching in the third quarter, the tabbed experience that I wanted to make sure that we were moving forward in a really productive and profitable long-term mindset versus really just rushing to make those things happen. I’m still incredibly bullish about this. I think that’s seven per – I don’t know, if this is – I’m like – now I’m thinking if I’m getting in trouble, seven of our top 10 items for customer acquisition are bras. So it’s absolutely a way that the customer enters the brand. And it still – so we’re seeing consistency in that and that it’s really a driver for customer acquisition and retention. It’s just an opportunity to be more prudent and step back a little bit, take the real learnings from the – all of these initiatives that we have undertaken and make sure that we put together a plan that is profitable and sustainable over a long – slightly longer timeframe.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from Dylan Carden with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.

Yes. I guess, mine is kind of a follow-up from that. I mean, if you’re talking about sort of a more radical or not radical perhaps, but definitely a shift in the promotional activity, the promotional stance and your customer historically has really been – it’s been a call to arms for them and Curve has sort of a different outlook here. It sounds like, is there something here where you’re measuring profit versus growth whereby the longer term sales outlook kind of is muted in favor of gross margin? Is that kind of the way that we should be thinking about how this progresses from where kind of our models are currently set coming out of the IPO?

No, I would still consider us to be a growth company. Absolutely. I think it’s prudent to make sure that we’re growing productively and profitably. I think one of the things that we’re really focusing on, I’ll give you an example of how this applies. There is an enormous focus placed on top of funnel acquisition marketing. That – while that is – acquisition is always important, our number one acquisition mode is through the stores. Our highest quality customer comes from the stores. Those customers all convert, not all, but a large percentage of them convert to an omni customer. All of those things still exist. Curve is still an enormous growth vehicle for the company, but we also have an enormous opportunity within the core businesses to grow the Studio launches, the dressy, pretty, polished looks, she’ll buy everything in her closet. And I think we need to have a very broad based approach to growth and profit as we move forward. So it’s not one or the other it’s balancing. And I think that as we move forward, we want to make sure that our margin expectations and how we’re managing the business from a margin perspective, ensures that we can have continue that long-term profitable growth still at a high level of growth. So I’m not changing that model at all. I’m just trying to explain our approach, which is more of prudent to ensure that we – before we accelerate something that we’re clear what that acceleration means to the ultimate business. And while we’re opening the stores, I still think Curve is the standalone intimate concept. I still think that there’s enormous growth there. There’s enormous growth in the core of the business, the Torrid side of the business as well. And we’re committed to making sure that we continue the growth and we continue it profitably.

Understood. And I guess more near-term, how should we think about sort of the cadence of gross margin second quarter, third quarter? It sounds like maybe more promotions in the near-term and maybe some opportunities in the back half is that...

Yes. As Tanner said in his comments, we would expect more promotions in the short-term and also some testing of some of these more surgical concepts at the – in conjunction with that. So we can really kind of – we can determine price elasticity and the customer’s appetite for the different types of promotions, which we have an opportunity to address. And then on the back half, we would expect it would be somewhat more moderated.

Very good. And I guess one quick, one, sorry. The ideal leverage ratio here is that changed, are you going to prioritize debt pay down at this point?

We’re comfortable with where we are.

Thank you very much.

Yes, we’re comfortable while we were allocating capital.

Thanks.

Your next question comes from Brooke Roach with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Good afternoon and thank you so much for taking our question. Can you provide some additional color on your third priority of efficiency and resource allocation? How do you envision this playing out in terms of SG&A investment behind technology and fulfilment versus potentially increasing the rate of marketing spend as you invest behind profitable growth at lower promotions? Thank you.

Sure. So when we think about resource allocation, it’s really about ensuring we’re making investments in infrastructure that that really help us meet customer demand, streamline our processes and support long-term growth. As of now we’re sort of focused on investing resources and distribution capacity and some technology upgrades, which is e-comm site enhancements and looking at our ERP systems. As an example, we’ve implemented infrastructure and system enhancement in our DC and it will significantly increase our daily fulfilment. The changes are – it really sort of focus on reconfiguration to increase the throughput and productivity and should resolve some of the shipping delay issues that you’re seeing through customer sentiment online.

And from a marketing perspective, we’re going to continue to invest in marketing. At the same time, we’re going to be clear that the goal of marketing is to build the ultimate customer file, build retention and build frequency. And we’re going to invest in all aspects of that from acquisition, retention, reactivation, frequency into reduced attrition. So we have a – again, fundamentally the same goal, which is to build the customer file. We also want to make sure we’re building that customer file with very high quality omni customers. And so the investments will continue, not in the same area as the first quarter. but we still expect to be spending about – this year, about 5% on marketing. Does that answer your question, Brooke?

Yes. Thank you. And if I could squeeze in one follow-up. Would love to hear a little bit more about how you’re thinking about AUC inflation into the back half. What are you seeing in terms of rate of cost increases, both in terms of raw materials and freight in the back half of this year and into early 2023. Thank you.

Go ahead, sorry.

We see it continuing through the remainder of the year, and it’s been included in our guidance for the year. On a year-over-year basis, we believe that the product cost inflation to be somewhere close to 10% on a year-over-year basis.

And we are able to bridge that gap with increased initial retail. And so we will continue to thoughtfully and carefully reconsider retail as it applies to closing the gap on higher cost.

Thank you so much. I’ll pass it on.

Okay.

Your next question comes from Kimberly Greenberger with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. Great. Thanks so much. Lisa, I wanted to dig a little bit more into marketing, if we could. If I’m sort of reading between the lines of what you’re saying, it sounds like you’re – you’ve been most successful acquiring and retaining customers, meaning minimizing the churn rate for those customers acquired in store, whereas there has been maybe success at acquiring customers online, but you have maybe a very high churn rate. Am I reading you correctly on those? Are those the correct assumptions that I’m walking away with. And do you think that some of the shipping issues are at play here in terms of the churn in digital customer acquisition? Because I would think that there’s such a vast market out there for this product that and so many women – so many of those women don’t necessarily shop at the mall. So there has to be other ways of talking to those women, whether it’s through a sort of more developed influencer network or some other form of social commerce. But I’m just wondering, I don’t know if you’ve had time to sort of rethink if you with Vivian, for example, together, have had time to sort of rethink marketing strategies and where you take this going forward? Thank you.

Sure. Thanks, Kimberly. Broadly on the marketing strategy, I think there – if you walk away with nothing else, what I would ask you is, we have many different ways of filling the customer file. And the efforts that we’re – the company was focused on was very, very high top of funnel consideration mindset. And that was the big investment that went into first quarter that we’re not going to continue that focused level of high funnel investment in marketing. What I’m asking the team to do and have met directly face-to-face with the digital agencies that we use is really to focus on a 360 approach to acquisition retention reactivation frequency. And because we can still have customer file, we have many different touch points that we can use to maintain and build that customer file. And I want to – we have a real opportunity to do that in a more comprehensive, integrated strategic way. My ultimate goal is to build the customer file with high-quality, highly retentive high-frequency customers. So that is fundamentally the marketing goal. That’s the brief, and we have many different tactics. Part of that also is to acknowledge the store’s role in customer acquisition, the quality of the customer that comes there and that there should be – there will be a shift in some small way to drive customers to the store because of that quality of acquisition has the highest conversion to omni customers long-term. I do agree with you, our net promoter score in storage for the store experience is exorbitantly high. It’s in, I don’t know if I can give it to you but it’s in the 90s, it’s in the mid-90s for the experience in the store environment. It isn’t echoed as effectively in our digital experience.…

It does. Thank you.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from Oliver Chen with Cowen & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you for taking our question. This is Joanne Manno for Oliver. Could you just talk about which category perform well during the quarter? And if you think you have the ability to chase into some of the trends and categories that are working better in the second half, and maybe also touch on your – the opportunities to take pricing. I know you mentioned you have some room, but how do you think about that across your portfolio and how much room there is going forward? Thank you.

Thank you. Some of our best categories for the quarter were dresses. Anything that was occasion based was great on accessories is also area particularly shoes that we see expansion in and anything that that, as I said, that was more occasion based. Swim is doing well. We’re happy with that. So I think that we did not shift quite enough into those more polished or occasion based categories, and we have as we moved into the back half of the year. So I’m really happy with how they’ve bought the back half of the year and the types of product categories are reflected based on the selling that we’re seeing in the half of the year, where to work, dress those types of things. So I feel that we’re well positioned in the back half to capitalize on the trends that were seen in the front half.

Got it. And just on pricing, how much room do you think you have to increase pricing?

I think we have some room in particular categories. I think we have room and I won’t – I won’t go category by category. I’ve seen where we have race prices that we’ve actually had good results. So we’re focused on the team where you look at the value of the product and make sure that the value equation remains the same, or we think that it holds a high value for the customer we’re repricing good. So that’s under constant evaluation, but I do think we have room to take some prices up in the back half.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, good afternoon. Lisa, the framework – the holistic framework that you set out regarding the adjustments to the business that you’re making whether it’s the surgical promotions, the marketing, the efficiencies in the team, as you think of the markers as we go through the balance of this year, what should we be looking for to say, check the box – check the box. And how do you embed this with the macro environment that you’re navigating with supply chain and inventory levels? Thank you.

Thank you, Dana. I think that I’m going to take the end of your question first. We’ve been – business has been managing in a very nimble way for 2.5 years now and that continues. So I think we’ve all developed the skill set to be able to be nimble after different macro pressures coming, but we’ve certainly had a lot of shipping and cost of goods challenges for a while now. So I’m less concerned about that broadly. What I would say is in terms of marker, I would expect to see more launch messaging. I would expect to see more product franchise messaging. I would expect to see more storytelling. I would expect to see influencers that are guided towards store events. I would expect to see – I can’t give you a timeline on kind of margin shifts until I can read more, what we learned in the second quarter and the third quarter. But I was – you guys are all very good about watching our marketing, our promotional cadence, and it should be more focused on storytelling as we move into the third and fourth quarter. That being said, we always have the opportunity if the macro pressures are there to be slightly more promotional in order to – based on the competitive scenario that we might face in the broader marketplace. So we will be nimble in those terms. But our goal is we have world-class fit. We have product that she wants that, she fills her closet with, and we want to make sure that we have the opportunity to tell her that story and sell the product on its own merit and make sure that we focus on the opposite side on the customer file development, and that will kind of offset our need for high levels of promotionality to continue to build that file.

Got it. And then on the inventory levels, Lisa and Tanner, what should we be thinking about inventory growth as you move through the year?

So we are comfortable with the position of the inventory through the remained year. We are going to have to be more promotional in Q2, so that we’re feeling cleaner off of our inventory heading to the post summer time frame. But we feel like, we’ve planned receipts in the back half of the year, such that we’re going to be comfortable with our inventory position Q3 to Q4 timeframe.

Yes, our receipts are in the back half or below last year and I’m happy with the categories that we’ve invested in. And so that we should be – I think we can turn faster, obviously, even in the back half of this year, on a year-over-year basis. And our goal will be to make sure that we are investing appropriately in inventory to also drive the highest level of productivity in the overall business.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and I would like to turn the call back to Lisa Harper, CEO for closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I really appreciate your focus on Torrid and our time together. We’ll look forward to our next call with you at the end of the summer. Have a great call – have a great season, everybody. Thanks.

This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you all for your participation.