AKA Brands Holding Corp

NYSE:AKA

Earnings Call Analysis

a.k.a. Brands Reports Strong Q3 Growth and Positive Outlook for 2024

In Q3 2024, a.k.a. Brands exceeded expectations with net sales of approximately $150 million, a 6.4% year-over-year increase. U.S. sales surged by 19.5%, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of growth. Gross margins reached 58%, up 260 basis points, while adjusted EBITDA soared 75% to over $8 million. The company anticipates full-year net sales between $567 million to $572 million, with gross margins around 57%. New store openings in the U.S. and expansions into Nordstrom underscore their strategic growth efforts. In the context of ongoing marketplace initiatives, a strong customer response positions a.k.a. Brands favorably for the upcoming holiday season.

Strong Performance and Growth Metrics

In the third quarter of fiscal 2024, a.k.a. Brands Holdings showcased robust growth, exceeding expectations with net sales approximately reaching $150 million, marking a 6.4% year-over-year increase. The U.S. market specifically thrived with a remarkable 19.5% growth. This quarter also marked the second consecutive period of growth overall and the fifth consecutive quarter of positive results in the U.S. Their active customer base grew impressively by 14%, highlighting the brand's increasing traction among both new and returning customers.

Record Gross Margins and Profitability

The company achieved a gross margin of 58%, representing a significant rise of 260 basis points compared to the same quarter last year, and is the highest margin recorded in three years. This improvement underscores the effectiveness of their test and repeat model and operational efficiencies. The adjusted EBITDA saw an impressive increase to $8 million, a 75% growth year-over-year, reflecting progressing profitability and operational strength.

Expansion and Omnichannel Strategy

Significant strides were made in brand visibility and customer reach through strategic partnerships and new store openings. Petal & Pup successfully launched in 40 Nordstrom doors, and Princess Polly expanded to 20 Nordstrom stores. Furthermore, Princess Polly opened two new stores in San Diego and Scottsdale, bringing its physical presence to six stores by year-end. Excitingly, a new 8,000 square-foot store is planned for Soho, New York, aiming to enhance brand exposure in a key market.

Guidance for Future Growth

Looking ahead, a.k.a. Brands has raised its full-year outlook, anticipating net sales between $567 million to $572 million for fiscal 2024. They foresee maintaining a gross margin of approximately 57%, with selling and marketing expenses projected to be around 27% and 12.5% of net sales, respectively. This guidance highlights a commitment to continuous growth and improving financial health as they navigate into the holiday season.

Operational Efficiency and Cost Management

In Q3, selling expenses increased to $41.9 million, constituting 27.9% of net sales, compared to 26% the previous year, primarily due to marketplace expansion and opening new stores. However, increased operational efficiencies and effective cost management have facilitated stronger EBITDA margins, indicating a strategic maneuvering of resources to align with growth initiatives.

Focus on Innovation and Consumer Engagement

a.k.a. Brands remains committed to consumer engagement through continuous product innovation. Their data-driven approach allows for weekly new style launches across brands, aligning inventory with market demand. This agile merchandising strategy plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining customers, allowing a.k.a. Brands to adapt rapidly to changing consumer preferences.

Navigating Challenges and Market Conditions

As a significant portion of their products is sourced from China, a.k.a. Brands is proactive in managing potential supply chain disruptions and tariff impacts by diversifying sourcing strategies. Currently, about 50% of Culture Kings products are exclusive, allowing flexibility to adjust prices if necessary. The team is focused on strategic planning to reduce their reliance on single markets.

Conclusion: Strong Outlook for Shareholders

Overall, a.k.a. Brands Holdings is showing strong momentum with increased customer metrics, enhancing operational efficiencies, and a healthy guide for the upcoming quarters. Their strategic positioning within the market and ongoing expansion efforts suggest promising prospects for long-term value creation for investors.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q3

[Operator]

Thank you for standing by. My name is [ Joe ], and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the a.k.a. Brands Holding Corp. Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Emily, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

[Emily Goldberg, executive]

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining a.k.a. Brands third quarter fiscal 2024 conference call to discuss the results released this afternoon, which can be found on our website at ir.aka-brands.com. With me on the call today is Ciaran Long, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

Before we get started, I'd like to remind you of the company's Safe Harbor language. Management may make forward-looking statements, which refer to expectations, projections and other characterizations of future events, including guidance and underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed. For a further discussion of risks related to our business, please see our filings with the SEC. Please note, we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.

This call will contain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the release furnished to the SEC and available on our website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Ciaran.

[Ciaran Long, executive]

Thanks, Emily. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our third quarter results. I'm very pleased that we had another strong quarter, exceeding expectations on both the top and bottom lines. I want to take a moment to thank the teams for their continued commitment to building great next-generation brands that customers love. Our steadfast focus on executing our strategic initiatives and innovation continues to drive growth and profitability.

Let me highlight some key achievements from the quarter. Our net sales growth surpassed expectations, reaching approximately $150 million, a 6.4% increase year-over-year. The momentum in the U.S. continues, and we delivered net sales of $100 million, a robust 19.5% increase over the same period last year. Our strong top line performance marks our second consecutive quarter of overall growth and importantly, our fifth consecutive quarter of positive growth in the U.S.

We're seeing tremendous traction with customers, both new and existing, and we achieved an impressive 14% growth in our active customer base year-over-year. We delivered gross margin of 58%, our highest level achieved in the past 3 years. Our strong gross margin underscores the strength and effectiveness of our test and repeat business model, the uniqueness of our portfolio brand strategy and our ability to drive operational efficiency.

And I'm proud to announce that we delivered over $8 million in adjusted EBITDA, an impressive 75% increase compared to the same period last year, which was ahead of our expectations.

Based on the exceedingly strong customer response from Petal & Pup on Nordstrom.com, Petal & Pup launched in over 40 Nordstroms in October. Princess Polly also launched in 20 Nordstrom stores in October, amplifying our brand's visibility and customer reach.

And lastly, on the brick and mortar expansion front, Princess Polly opened 2 new stores in the third quarter, one in San Diego and one in Scottsdale. Both are off to a fantastic start. I'm also excited that last week, we announced that Princess Polly will be opening its first store in New York City. The 8,000 square foot, 2-level store will be located in Soho and is expected to open in early 2025.

We continue to execute against our strategic operating framework that we laid out at the beginning of the year, which is anchored in 3 key priorities. Priority number one is to retain existing and attract new customers. As demonstrated by our 14% increase in active customer base, our brands are attracting new customers while also staying top of mind for existing customers.

Leveraging our test and repeat merchandising approach, our brands are launching new styles weekly, which when combined with innovative brand marketing across a variety of platforms, is resonating with existing and new customers across our brand portfolio.

Priority number two is showing up for our customers wherever they choose to shop. While we're continuing to strengthen our own online presence, we're also expanding into experiential stores, wholesale and marketplaces. I'll delve into brand-specific strategy shortly, but I'm thrilled to report that we're seeing success across all distribution channels, which significantly expands our brand reach.

This multichannel growth underscores our unique position of leveraging our successful, profitable, direct-to-consumer brands and introducing them to new customers through new channels. And it also reinforces the significant untapped potential for our brands in the U.S. market and globally.

And our third priority is streamlining our operations to deliver financial benefits. Our strong third quarter performance demonstrates the power of our operating model with robust top line growth, driving substantial EBITDA flow through and expansion compared to the prior year.

This success reflects our continued focus on operational efficiencies and showcases our ability to leverage the a.k.a. platform to deliver meaningful financial improvement.

Now I'll share some highlights from our brands before I dive deeper into the financials. On the women's side, both Princess Polly, our next-generation trend driven brand and Petal & Pup, which targets a slightly older demographic, continued to gain market share in the U.S. We're very pleased with the continued momentum and strong third quarter performance across both brands direct-to-consumer channels and omnichannel initiatives.

Our women's brands fully operate on a data-driven test and repeat merchandising approach, which allows them to introduce new styles weekly on their sites, providing customers with fresh, high-quality and exclusive styles.

In addition to Princess Polly's strength in dresses, the new categories that Princess Polly launched earlier this year, including loungewear and activewear are resonating with customers, expanding the brands' lifestyle reach. And the brand nailed both the merchandising and marketing execution for the back-to-school and homecoming seasons, which are especially important given that high school and college students comprise a significant portion of Princess Polly's customer base.

Petal & Pup also continues to grow its direct-to-consumer channel. And we're pleased that brand awareness continues to grow, driving new customers to the brand. In addition to the continued strength of Princess Polly's and Petal & Pop direct-to-consumer businesses, both brands are resonating with customers on every new channel they enter.

Princess Polly tested its first store last year in Century City, L.A., and based on the success and popularity of the store, the brand opened 2 more stores in the third quarter in San Diego and Scottsdale. And just last week, Princess Polly opened its first store on the East Coast on Newbury Street in Boston.

Based on feedback from customers, the new Princess Polly stores are slightly larger, have more styles and additional fitting rooms to better showcase the brand and enhance the shopping experience. I'm pleased to report that to-date, all of the stores are performing ahead of plan, and we're excited to open 2 more stores in California in the fourth quarter this year.

As I mentioned, last week, we announced that Princess Polly will open its first store in New York City on Broadway in Soho in the beginning of next year. We're thrilled to tap into the New York market and put Princess Polly on the map in one of the largest cities and iconic streets in the world.

The 8,000 square foot store spans 2 levels and will feature hundreds of the latest of Princess Polly styles. And consistent with Princess Polly's other stores, the New York store will feature hallmark experiential elements, including social media worthy installations, LED displays streaming curated content and bespoke furniture pieces throughout, creating a fully immersive Princess Polly shopping experience.

In addition to our retail expansion efforts, our women's brands have also made significant strides in expanding their wholesale presence. In a major milestone, we're thrilled to announce that based on the success of Petal & Pup on Nordstrom.com, the brand launched in 40 Nordstrom stores across the U.S. And Princess Polly also debuted in 20 Nordstrom stores in October as it continues to expand its brand awareness through select wholesale partnerships.

These strategic moves not only enhance our brands' visibility, but also unlock new channels for customers to discover these great brands and see and feel the product in real life. Since Petal & Pup began testing omnichannel initiatives, we're seeing a double-digit increase in Petal & Pup's website traffic. And importantly, organic traffic is outpacing paid channels, which we attribute to an increase in overall brand awareness.

Shifting to our streetwear brands. Culture Kings, which is a premier streetwear destination continues to deliver growth in the U.S. As a reminder, Culture Kings' unique strength lies in its blend of premium in-house designed apparel brands and curated third-party partnerships, particularly in footwear and headwear to deliver a complete streetwear offering.

This quarter, I want to share some updates on the progress we're making scaling Culture Kings' in-house brands. Since late 2023, we've been transforming Culture Kings' in-house brands by adopting Princess Polly's proven data-driven test and repeat strategy, moving away from traditional merchandising cycles.

Loiter, one of Culture Kings' flagships in-house brands, spearheaded this transition to test and repeat, and the early results are impressive. Loiter achieved triple-digit revenue growth with outpaced margin dollar growth in the third quarter compared to last year, powered by fresh quick to market merchandise. And we know that when we get the streetwear product rights and have new drops regularly, we're able to market and showcase the brand that much better.

Next week, Culture Kings and Loiter will be partnering with the WWE for a full-scale activation at the first ever Las Vegas ComplexCon. Loiter and WWE will be collaborating on an exclusive capsule collection for the event and will create an on-the-ground activation at ComplexCon featuring a shoppable booth, customization stations, superstar wrestler appearances and more.

Now I'll provide more detail on the P&L before taking your questions. For the third quarter, as I mentioned, net sales increased more than 6% to approximately $150 million compared to the same period last year, driven by strength in our U.S. business, in which net sales increased 19.5% compared to the third quarter of last year. As expected, this was slightly offset by softer sales in Australia and New Zealand, which contracted 12% compared to a highly promotional third quarter of 2023.

Total orders for the third quarter were 1.84 million, increasing 6.4% as compared to the third quarter last year. As I mentioned, we're really pleased with our new customer acquisition and our strong retention. Our trailing 12-month active customer count rose 14% to approximately 4.05 million at the end of the third quarter. Our third quarter average order value was $81, which was flat compared to the third quarter last year.

Turning now to profitability. Gross margin expanded 260 basis points in the third quarter to 58%, compared to 55.4% in the same period last year, driven by strong product newness and full price selling. As I mentioned earlier, this was the strongest gross margin we've delivered in over 3 years, and I'm very proud of the team's continued hard work to achieve this milestone.

Selling expenses were $41.9 million, compared to $36.7 million in the third quarter of 2023. Selling expenses were 27.9% of net sales compared to 26% in the same period last year, due primarily to the impact from growing marketplace initiatives and additional stores.

Marketing expenses in the quarter were $19.3 million, compared to $18.5 million in the third quarter of 2023. As a percentage of net sales, marketing expenses leveraged 20 basis points to 12.9%, compared to 13.1% in the third quarter of 2023.

General and administrative expenses were $27.8 million, compared to $24.6 million in the third quarter of 2023. As a percentage of net sales, G&A expenses increased to 18.6% from 17.5% in the third quarter of last year.

General and administrative costs deleveraged year-over-year due to a $2 million accrual in connection with a pending legal matter. Please note that the legal accrual is reflected in G&A since it is a GAAP measure, but was excluded as a non-routine item from adjusted EBITDA or non-GAAP profitability measure.

We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $8.2 million, compared to $4.7 million, representing a 75% increase from the same period last year, ahead of expectations. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the third quarter of 2024 increased 220 basis points to 5.5%, compared to 3.3% in the same period last year.

Turning now to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $23.1 million in cash and cash equivalents. Debt totaled $111.9 million at the end of the third quarter. We ended the quarter with $106 million in inventory, an increase of 6% compared to a year ago. We strategically increased our inventory to meet the demand across multiple channels from new store openings to expanded wholesale initiatives.

Additionally, as momentum continues to accelerate, we're chasing into demand to position us well for the critical holiday season. We're very confident with the freshness and quality of our inventory and feel we are well prepared as we enter the holiday season.

A quick update on our stock repurchase program. In the third quarter, we repurchased 3,380 shares for a total cost of approximately $83,000. As of the end of the quarter, we have approximately $1.6 million remaining in our share repurchase authorization.

Looking at ahead at the remainder of 2024, we're energized by the momentum across our brands and the growth opportunities across our portfolio that you heard about this afternoon. We are raising our full year outlook and anticipate delivering between $567 million to $572 million in net sales for the full year.

We also anticipate gross margins of approximately 57%, and we're anticipating selling expenses to be approximately 27% of net sales, and marketing expenses of approximately 12.5%. We expect G&A expense of approximately $100 million for the full year 2024.

For the year, we expect adjusted EBITDA of between $22 million and $23 million, weighted average diluted share count of 10.6 million, capital expenditures of between $10 million to $12 million and an effective tax rate of a negative 4%.

In closing, our performance this quarter has reinforced my conviction in our company, strategic growth initiatives, our ability to execute and the potential ahead. We're really encouraged by the progress we have made over the last 2 years, which is driving strong top and bottom line growth and momentum. I'm more optimistic than ever about the future of a.k.a. Brands as we continue to grow our brands, expand our market reach and tap into new segments of our total addressable market.

With our proven business model and our talented teams executing at the highest level, I'm confident in our ability to deliver exceptional value for our shareholders. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to updating you on our progress.

Now I will open up the call to your questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Ashley Owens of KeyBanc.

[Ashley Owens, analyst]

Maybe just to start with the guide for 4Q, help us unpack some of the puts and takes here, how we should be thinking about the balance between AOV and order growth? And then just any color on current trends quarter-to-date?

[Ciaran Long, executive]

Thanks, Ashley. Yes, I think as we head into Q4, I think we're certainly, like I said on the call, really energized by the performance we've seen over the last couple of quarters that we're continuing to be overall back to growth. And I think really a standout for us is that 19.5% growth in the U.S., coupled with gross margins up 260 basis points and increasing EBITDA 75% year-over-year to $8 million. I think just really great performance.

As we think about Q4, we feel really good about the composition, quality of the inventory as we head into the quarter. And for us, from a guide perspective, expecting the same trends we're seeing on the regional growth rates that we've seen now across kind of Q3 and Q2. We're expecting those to continue into Q4.

As it relates to AOV and the AOV and orders, I think a slight increase in AOV year-over-year and probably more of the growth coming from order volume year-over-year. And I think that's kind of how we feel the business is performing and feeling good as we head into the Q4 period.

[Ashley Owens, analyst]

Just a follow-up. As we think about additional marketplace and wholesale expansion, it's going well for Petal & Pup and you increased into some physical doors there. Would you say you're open to continued expansion? And is this a strategy you're assessing for any of your other brands in the portfolio?

[Ciaran Long, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Ashley. Look, I think we're really happy with the performance and the work all of the different brands are doing to test new omnichannel opportunities. Certainly, I think Petal & Pup is one of the standouts, the test that they did on Nordstrom.com performed really well. They put product on there in February of this year. We saw really strong success. And with that, Nordstrom have asked them to test in 40 doors in the Q4 period. So I think we're really looking forward to seeing the results there and hopefully expanding on that. Great to see Polly also in 20 doors for Nordstrom.

I think, look, we're open to -- like we said in our strategy, putting our product in front of customers wherever they are, and that's leaning into and testing marketplace wholesale opportunities. And also, I think what Princess Polly is doing in opening new stores, one store last year, they'll have 6 by the end of the year. And I think just seeing really strong success there coming from just sales, the EBITDA delivery, but also introducing the brand to new customers with over 30% of the customers in the stores are new to Princess Polly.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey of the Telsey Group.

[Dana Telsey, analyst]

As you think about the potential for tariffs coming forward -- going forward, can you elaborate on what percent of your goods are directly imported, including how much comes from China? If there is a tariff, how do you offset it, whether it's changes in sourcing or pricing?

[Ciaran Long, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Dana. Look, the majority of our product does come in from China. And we're actively working with our manufacturing partners to reduce the exposure that we have there. That will take some time. We are very fortunate with the test and repeat model that we have. The brands are pretty much currently going for Q1 next year.

And also, across Petal & Pup, Princess Polly and mnml, pretty much 100% of the product we have is exclusive to us. And as we think about Culture Kings, about 50% of it is exclusive to us. So, we feel that if we need to take pricing actions, we can. But look, we're very focused on reducing our concentration within China. We have a very nimble team of really strong performers, and they're going to react and continue to adjust as we get clarity on any changes in the area.

[Dana Telsey, analyst]

And can you just talk a little bit on the wholesale channel, how is that doing? What are you seeing in terms of growth there? And how do you think of full price selling and the margins on that distribution channel?

[Ciaran Long, executive]

Sure. Thanks, Dana. Yes, I think, look, we're really happy with the success that we've seen across all of the brands on these omnichannel initiatives. And I think really coming a nice part of that 19.5% growth we saw in the U.S., the expanding gross margins up 260 basis points and that the great delivery of EBITDA.

At the moment, all of the brands are performing well in all of the channels they're in, right, direct-to-consumer, wholesale, marketplace and stores. It's really strong performance on full price selling. I feel the inventory that we have on our own direct-to-consumer sites in these channels is just performing really, really well. And we're continuing to chase into demands across the brands and across the channels and expecting that -- to see that again with some nice strong Q4 performance like we've seen over the last couple of quarters.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Beder of SCC Research.

[Eric Beder, analyst]

Congratulations. I want to talk about the stores. So you anniversaried the Century City location in September. What is kind of the learning experience from that? And how have you transported that into the rest of the chain and the newer stores here?

[Ciaran Long, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Eric. Look, I think we're really happy with the performance we're seeing across all of the stores. We opened our first one in Century City last year and in Q3, we opened in Scottsdale and San Diego. And I would say and over the last couple of weeks, we opened in Boston. I would say all of the new openings performing ahead of expectations from all of our metrics.

I think what we're seeing is -- well, I think, firstly, people love the brand Princess Polly. It just performs really, really well. And the fact that we can give them now that in real life experience with the product where they can touch and feel it, is really resonating with our customers. And it's amazing the lines that they have for the new openings of the store and that demand that's there.

We are in the new openings, they are bigger than the Century City store. Century City is about 3,800 square foot. The new stores are more around that 5,000 square foot. And we're certainly seeing, as we put more product in front of customers and more of that breadth of the range that they can see online, they're reacting to it really, really positively.

And we're also able to do more in just different categories, more accessories, more on footwear and other categories with that additional space. So, I think we can see that. Look, we can see the model is working really well. Customers are responding to it, and we feel there's just a lot of opportunity for Princess Polly to continue to put their customer or put their products in front of more customers and broaden their omnichannel opportunities.

[Eric Beder, analyst]

Are the 2 California stores going to be open, I guess, in the next week or 2 to take full advantage of the holiday?

[Ciaran Long, executive]

We're working hard to get them open. I think we just opened Boston last week. So the team are on to the next 2. It will be touch and go before they get them open before Thanksgiving. But if not, it will be really quickly afterwards.

[Eric Beder, analyst]

Okay. I had a question about Culture Kings with the test and repeat. You mentioned the brand. How -- what percent of Culture Kings will work with the test and repeat model? And how should we be thinking about that and the opportunity for it going forward?

[Ciaran Long, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Eric. Really happy with the -- firstly, with the progress the team at Culture Kings are making, and that's the team in the U.S., the team in Australia. Culture Kings in the U.S. continues to do really well, and we're making good progress on getting back to where we feel we should be in the Australian market.

So, for Culture Kings, about 50% of their product is first-party exclusive brands that they have developed in-house. And I would say within that, all of that product can be on that test and repeat model. And we see the strength of that test and repeat model across the other brands. And we also see the strength of it as we move more and more of the brands and the assortment for Culture Kings onto that model.

I would say Loiter's certainly for us the first example and the best example of the success there. It's up over 100% comp this year and even more from a gross margin dollar perspective. And so, we can certainly see big improvements there, and that will continue across all of the Culture Kings first-party assortment and about 50% of the revenue.

[Operator]

With no further questions, this concludes our Q&A session and today's conference call. You may now disconnect.