Canadian Tire Corporation Ltd

TSX:CTC.A

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q4

[Operator]

Good morning. My name is Valerie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited Fourth Quarter and 2020 Year-end Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]This morning, Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited released their financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2020. A copy of the earnings disclosure is available on their website and includes cautionary language about forward-looking statements, risks and uncertainties, which also apply to the discussion during today's conference call.I will now turn the call over to Greg Hicks, President and CEO. Greg?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for participating in this morning's call. I'm joined today by our CFO, Gregory Craig; as well as TJ Flood, President of Canadian Tire Retail, who will be participating in the Q&A portion of the call.I'll start by saying that our results in Q4 were nothing short of phenomenal. And overall, we had a very strong year despite significant challenges. Before we dive into the specifics, I want to acknowledge our team. In an incredibly challenging environment, our entire team has remained focused on our customers and have looked out for each other. They have remained hyper-focused on safety, agility and service as they seamlessly adapted to abrupt changes in customer needs and shopping patterns. They have been a calming presence and a friendly face to our customers who are craving normalcy at a time when hardly anything feels normal. And our team members have passionately played an active, positive role in our communities during an incredibly turbulent year. Our people stepped up, reinforcing our purpose of being there for life in Canada at a time when Canadians needed us most. But more on the power of our purpose after I touch on our results. Starting with our full year results. 2020 was a year that impacted nearly every aspect of how we do business and has ultimately made us a stronger and more resilient company. Our retail sales grew a remarkable 11% on a full year basis, while our e-commerce sales tripled to $1.6 billion, as we continued to enable Canadians to make the most of their time living, working and playing at home.Through our Triangle program, we attracted more than 1.8 million new members and continued to deepen our engagement with our existing customer base. We made significant progress in improving our operating leverage, a long-standing goal of the core of our operational efficiency program and achieved an impressive 15.7% growth in our normalized retail income before tax.Our full year diluted EPS of $13 came in flat to 2019. And while the first 2 quarters of the year were significantly impacted by the pandemic, the team drove outstanding results, and in the second half, with EPS eclipsing 2019's full year performance and growing 48% year-over-year.Let's now move to the quarter's results. Our consolidated comparable sales growth of 9.5% was record breaking, despite increasingly stricter restrictions and store closures impacting our retail businesses. We achieved these results even with a more cautious approach to our Q4 promotional calendar to maintain safe levels of traffic at our stores. With this outstanding topline performance and improvement in our operating leverage, the retail businesses grew earnings by 70% in the quarter and our normalized diluted EPS increased 52% versus prior year.Moving on to banner performance, starting with CTR. Comp sales growth at CTR were up a record 12.8% in the quarter. CTR's performance was phenomenal despite retail restrictions in Manitoba, Ontario and Québec, which impacted us by approximately 3% in comp sales growth in the quarter. As was the case in Q3, CTR's category strength came shining through. Excluding the impact of the 53rd week, more than 80% of our product categories grew in the quarter and over 60% grew by double digits. Basket size increased 16% in the quarter, reflecting the continuing trend of trip consolidation and, more important, CTR's steadfast role as Canada's one-stop-shop destination.Our success in Q4 was powered by data and analytics, which allowed us to take decisive action by selectively investing in key categories. As early as May, it became clear that CTR played a critical role in the lives of Canadians during the pandemic. For example, we knew that travel and entertainment restrictions meant family time and celebrations at home would be even more special. We knew that we had to step up our game to enable the home-based joys of life in Canada. With that, we made a decision in Q2 to be aggressive on inventory for select key categories, which we deem critical to our success in Q4, and Christmas was one of these categories. We were confident that Canadians were going to find ways to celebrate the seasons and expected that decorating the house would be one of our customers' biggest choice this Christmas.In anticipation of the demand, we doubled up on inventory purchases and so did our dealers, and the risk paid off and Christmas grew an impressive 41% in the quarter. This tremendous performance allowed us to delight our customers with market-leading, innovative products and to exit the year with exceptionally clean inventory levels. Similar stories could be told about our seasonal recreation, toys, exercise and automotive adventure categories, all of which grew in double digits. With this performance, it should come as no surprise that we grew our market share in the year with impressive gains across Seasonal and gardening, Playing and Living. I want to acknowledge TJ Flood and his team for setting the bar high and delivering these outstanding results.As you may recall, back in Q2, we predicted that shipments would catch up to revenue as we move through the year. And this indeed was the case. In Q4, CTR saw all-time high shipment levels, driving revenue up 28% versus prior year and generating nearly as much growth in a single quarter as we've seen in the last 3 full years combined. Our dealers stepped up and ordered aggressively to meet customer demand, and shipments in Q4 were up in the double digits across all divisions. 2/3 of the shipment growth in the quarter was in nonseasonal categories, such as kitchen, home decor, cleaning and tools; and another 1/3 came from replenishment activity, related to seasonally relevant categories such as Christmas lights, seasonal decor, toys and automotive car care products.CTR shipments continued to outpace sales for a second quarter in a row, and the full year revenue was up 16.5%, a trend that is more closely aligned to CTR's full year sales growth of 17.6%. This is a significant improvement from where we stood at the end of June. As a reminder, year-to-date revenue at the time was up 2.4%, significantly behind the retail sales growth of 13.7%. To process this record volume in Q4, we added an incremental 1.2 million square feet of distribution capability and relied on third-party logistic providers for additional inbound and outbound capacity. I'd like to thank our supply chain, forecasting and planning and merchandising teams for their exceptional collaboration that led to this performance and, of course, the dealers for their foresight and partnership.Now moving to SportChek. SportChek was our banner most impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions and closures in the quarter, and its comparable sales declined 3%. From an assortment perspective, categories related to outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, skiing, winter wear and accessories had the strongest performance, experiencing double-digit growth. The shift in our promotional calendar to an earlier start for the Q4 selling season paid off, and we realized a good portion of our holiday sales early on in the quarter, and this gave us a good lead ahead of the restrictions.As a matter of fact, at the end of November, SportChek's quarter-to-date comp sales were sitting at 5.7%. This trend reversed course in December when our stores started to face increasingly stricter retail measures. Stephen Brinkley and team continue to prioritize the profitability of the SportChek banner and were selective about the sales that they pursued. Additionally, SportChek closed the year with a healthy ending inventory position, setting the business up for increased productivity and turns improvement in 2021.Now let's move to Mark's. With a comparable sales growth of 7.6%, Mark's had one of its strongest Q4s on record. The strength was across the board with standout performance in workwear, women's casual wear and footwear; investments in key aspirational national brands, such as Levi's, Carhartt and Timberland, informed by customer analytics. Glean through our Triangle program insights paid off, leading to tremendous traction with younger customers. These national brands grew 26% in the quarter.Finally, I want to remind you that with over 84% of our Mark's stores being in stand-alone locations, our store accessibility was key to our strong performance in the quarter.And now moving on to Helly Hansen. I was very pleased with Helly Hansen's performance in the quarter. The brand demonstrated tremendous resilience, and it resumed its positive growth trajectory. Global revenue increased 4% in the quarter on a constant currency basis despite global restrictions and closures. Our direct-to-consumer, or D2C, business was exceptionally strong, representing 40% of our business in the quarter. E-commerce was the key driver of this performance, up 120% versus prior year, serving as a clear indication of the Helly Hansen brand appeal worldwide.Moving on, owned brands continued on a strong trajectory, growing an impressive 17.8% in the quarter, while penetration rate increased a remarkable 97 basis points to just under 39%. Owned brands sales of CTR were up 22% with NOMA and Canvas leading the way and driving the exceptional performance in the Christmas category. At SportChek, a strong sell-through of Helly Hansen, which was up 42% year-over-year, along with Ripzone, helped take SportChek's owned brand penetration rate up to 18%. And at Mark's owned brand sales grew 5%, driven by Dakota and Helly Hansen. The optimal balance of owned versus national brands at Mark's will ultimately be determined by our customers, and we will continue to leverage insights from our Triangle program to refine our approach.Before I hand it off to Gregory for our financial results, I'd like to highlight the tremendous progress we achieved in our digital experience in the quarter. After stabilizing our sites back in Q2, our digital platform stood up strong in the quarter, and we were able to double our e-commerce penetration rates across the banners. In the quarter, we hosted 240 million visits to our digital platforms, an increase of 40% versus prior year. In the quarter, e-commerce sales grew 142% versus prior year, and we generated $556 million in e-commerce sales, on par with the full year volume we saw in 2019. And for the full year, our total e-commerce sales reached $1.6 billion, increasing $1 billion over 2019 levels.At CTR, e-commerce sales grew 180% in the quarter. We focus on implementing process improvements to ensure a consistent curbside pickup experience. At the end of Q4, more than 25% of our stores had on-site pickup lockers, with many more stores expected to install by Q2 of this year. The lockers are a great convenience factor for customers and almost 2/3 of existing lockers are located in urban and suburban stores, which are typically associated with higher e-commerce activity.At SportChek, e-commerce increased 90% in the quarter. The team implemented operational improvements to better the customers in-store pickup experience by reducing order fulfillment time, including a commitment for curbside order availability in 1 hour or less.Finally, Mark's saw another quarter of triple-digit e-commerce sales, up 190% versus prior year. Sales growth was enabled through a 75% increase in digital traffic to marks.com and a strong conversion rate.With that, I'd like to hand it over to Gregory, who will go over the financials.

[Gregory George Craig, CFO & Executive VP]

Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everyone. As Greg mentioned, our performance in the fourth quarter was exceptional, and we could not be more pleased with the strong finish to a very challenging year. Before diving into the results, I wanted to point out a few things. Our Q4 results reflect an extra week of operations, as 2020 is a 53-week retail year for us. To address this, we have provided a comparable sales and gasoline volume growth figures on a 13- and a 52-week comparable basis. As per our usual practice, we have not provided any further disclosure on the additional week's impact on our results.Also, our financial results in the quarter include $35 million of operational efficiency charges, which we have normalized in our results. The charges included a $27 million write-down associated with the closure of National Sports, which I'll speak more about in a few minutes. And on a full year basis, our results have been normalized for a total of $57 million in the operational efficiency charges.With those points of clarifications out of the way, let's go through the results. In the quarter, our bottom line came in strong, and we reported diluted EPS of $7.97 per share, an increase of 47% versus a very successful performance in Q4 2019. And on a normalized basis, EPS was up -- EPS was $8.40, up 52% year-over-year. I am particularly pleased with our full year performance. We faced our fair share of headwinds in 2020, and our results in the year were negatively impacted by approximately $138 million or the equivalent of $1.60 in earnings per share of COVID-related impacts that excludes any of the effects that the store closures had on revenue in the year.Despite these headwinds, it is an incredible accomplishment that our full year normalized diluted EPS came in at $13 per share, essentially flat to 2019. I'd like to recognize the exceptional efforts of our teams and our dealers in driving this performance. For the year, on a normalized basis, the retail segment IBT increased 15.7% and contributed 65% to CTC's consolidated earnings before tax, results driven by outstanding performance at our core CTR banner.And while financial services recorded strong operational and credit performance metrics, full year profitability was impacted by the ongoing effects of reduced credit card spend and lower customer acquisition, both of which impacted receivables and revenue in the year. I'll come back to financial services in a few minutes.I want to highlight the drivers of exceptional performance of our core retail business in the quarter, which, as I said, delivered a 70% increase in normalized IBT. With respect to top line in Q4, revenue growth, excluding petroleum, was up 20%, more than double the comparable sales trend of 9.5% in the quarter. The strong revenue growth in the quarter was primarily driven by continuing dealer demand at CTR, stimulated by double-digit sales growth in categories such as Christmas, toys, kitchen, tools, car care and accessories. In addition, strong sales at Mark's and at Helly Hansen were further contributed to revenue. The growth was partially offset by softer performance at SportChek, impacted by reduced promotional activity and the impact of increasingly more restrictive retail measures, which started to take effect at the end of November.Retail gross margin rate, excluding petroleum, generated an impressive margin rate expansion of 153 basis points in the quarter. All of our retail business units experienced margin rate expansion in the quarter and there are several factors that led to this. First and foremost, CTR delivered a stronger margin profile due to more profitable shipment mix in Q4, with heavier contributions from Christmas and the Automotive, adventure categories. Additionally, gross margin benefited from our margin-sharing arrangement with our dealers due to the exceptional performance at CTR in 2020. Margin rate at both Mark's and SportChek also improved in the quarter due to mostly a profitable product mix. Additionally, Mark's margin rate benefited from a more precision-based approach to promotional activity and at SportChek from a lower promotional activity overall.At the end of Q4, our inventory was sitting $100 million in prior year, mostly as a result of bringing in more products to support our continuing strength in CTR sales. As Greg mentioned, our merchants have made investments in select categories, and they are reflected in our numbers. The increase at CTR was partially offset by lower levels of inventory at Mark's and SportChek, linked to a strong sell-through at Mark's and lower purchases at SportChek due to lower demand for cornerstone categories, such as hockey, licensed apparel and team sports.Consolidated normalized OpEx ratio, excluding petroleum, improved 102 basis points in the quarter. And while absolute operating expense levels saw an increase in the quarter versus prior year, reflecting an additional week of retail operations and elevated supply chain costs in support of the higher shipments, we were once again able to drive significant improvement in our OpEx ratio due to strong retail revenue growth and the benefits from the operational efficiency initiatives.Earlier today, we shared our decision to close all 18 National Sports retail stores, as we believe there is an opportunity to reduce overlap in our sporting goods assortment and gain efficiencies in the way we go to market by limiting distribution to fewer banners. This has been a difficult decision, particularly due to its impact on people. And we're making every effort to place effective employees within our family of companies.The operational efficiency program continues to be on a solid track to achieve our target of $200 million-plus in run rate savings by 2020. With respect to our financial health, at year-end, our balance sheet was in a strong position, with over $2 billion in cash and short-term investments, driven by higher Retail earnings, lower levels of receivables in Financial Services and an overall reduction in capital spend and share buybacks. Our operating capital spend at $267 million was roughly half of our original capital guidance of $450 million to $500 million, as we carefully prioritize investments in our store network and our digital platform. With the continuing uncertainty due to the impacts of the pandemic on our businesses and on consumer behavior, we feel that it isn't appropriate to provide capital guidance or restart our share buyback program at this time. Rest assured, we are committed to investing in the long-term health of our business, and we will continue to allocate capital to strategic initiatives and our store network.Finally, I'd like to highlight several key impacts in our financial services business, which continues to deliver strong operational metrics. Last quarter, I spoke to you about the encouraging signs we had started to see with respect to credit card spending. While that trend softened in December with the implementation of additional retail restrictions across the country, credit card sales in the Q4 ended up positive, up 1.1% after 2 consecutive quarters of declines. Typically, higher sales on the card are a key building block for growth in receivables. However, in Q4, this growth was offset by a lower number of active counts as a reduction of reduced customer acquisition.All in all, these impacts led to a $692 million reduction in year-end receivables and gross average receivables being down 8.8% in the quarter. This resulted in lower interest charges leading to a revenue decline of 11.3% in Q4. The lower level of receivables also had an impact on the level of allowance on our books, resulting in a $27 million reduction. Operationally, our credit card portfolio continued to be favorable with PD2+ rate of 1.97%, better by 80 basis points compared to Q4 last year, as customer payments remained strong. Despite the adjustment to allowance and the low rates of delinquency, the ECL rate is at 14.77%, given the lower level of receivables, along with the continued expectation that future losses will pick up once pandemic relief and government support programs come to an end. All in all, in the quarter, financial services delivered earnings before taxes of $115 million, an increase of $6 million versus the prior year. While there's still uncertainty as we look ahead, we are pleased with the continuing strength of our brand, our assortments and our operating model as we enter into 2021.With that, I'd like to hand it back over to Greg for his closing remarks.

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Thanks, Gregory. When I opened the call, I alluded to our purpose, a purpose which has and will continue to serve as our North Star throughout the crisis, a purpose that is about so much more than being there for our customers through the products we sell or services we provide. Our purpose is about being there for our communities and how our local presence helps fuel our brands' resilience. Our teamwork and live in the communities in which we operate. As members of their communities, they are emotionally connected and understand how best to serve and support in times of need.Canada is a vast country, comprised of countless communities coast to coast. And by understanding the needs of our communities, we can truly be there for Canadians. That's why in 2020, Canadian Tire Corporation gifted an initial $8 million in funding support that enabled jump start to launch its sport relief fund. And although our charity helped an astounding nearly 700 sport organizations across Canada, we saw there was still significant need for support.COVID-19 has amplified the value of and need for sport and play. They've never been more at risk than they are today, which is why last week, we committed an additional $12 million to jump start sport relief fund to help build back sport and play in Canada. When we finally reach the proverbial other side of the pandemic, our country and communities will need recreational and amateur sport more than ever before, and we will be there to help bring back sport and play.Being there for Canadians also means considering how our decisions of today will impact our world of tomorrow. Canadians' concern over the effects of climate change and resource scarcity continues to grow. As a large corporation, we have a responsibility to ensure our sustainability initiatives are intrinsic to our purpose. That's why we are so proud to have recently been named among the world's 100 most sustainable corporations by Corporate Knights. We were the only North American retailer to make the list, which is no small feat and speaks to how difficult it is to make the cut.Breaking into the top 100 represents our significant progress on an important journey that has no finish line. It's a process, not a project, and we're far from done, which is exactly why we helped cofound the Canada Plastics Pact. Launched in late January, the pact aims to end plastic waste and pollution by bringing together key players from across the value chain to collectively work towards ambitious 2025 targets, targets that I'm confident we can achieve. For nearly a century, we've been there for Canadians. We plan to continue with our purpose for another 100 years and recognize that we had a significant role to play when it comes to making that so.Lastly, and before I close, I'll give you some insight into what we're seeing so far in Q1. As you know, Ontario, Québec and Manitoba have been subject to significant retail restrictions due to COVID-19, and collectively, these 3 provinces represent over 60% of CTR's POS.Quarter-to-date sales at CTR are down low single digits, driven by the regions impacted by retail restrictions and closures. Sales remained very strong in the provinces without restrictions.Throughout our 98-year history, Canadian Tire has been tested, and every time we've come back stronger. The COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception. Being there for life in Canada is not simply a tagline, it's who we are and what we do. The proof is not only in our results but in our actions and behaviors.With that, I'll turn it back over to the operator for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Mark Petrie with CIBC.

[Mark Robert Petrie]

I just wanted to ask about sort of how you're positioning for spring/summer? Obviously, lots of moving parts and unknowns between dealer restocking, consumer demand, but I guess, how have you approached your buying? Are you keeping the additional distribution capacity you added in the second half of 2020? And then similar to your comments going into Q4, any comment about how you're thinking about your promo balance would be helpful.

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Sure, Mark. I'll take that and maybe given -- go into a little bit more detail. And if there's any follow-up, specifically to CTR, I know you mentioned CTR and dealers there, we can hand it over to TJ. I think I'd start by saying, Mark, that in nonrestricted areas, what we're seeing in 2021 is similar to what we saw in 2020. We're still seeing big trends like one-stop shopping. So basket size is still elevated. We see elevated e-commerce levels with pickup in-store being a very strong fulfillment channel, especially for bulkier items at CTR.We're seeing Canadians still looking to keep themselves busy indoors and out. They're taking care of themselves and their homes. Customers are still focused on wellness. So our Playing division in CTR is performing well with the business like exercise being a key driver, playing outside with toboggans and sleds and toys. Home DIY is still a critical focus area for families at home, so our fixing business continues to perform well, and our kitchen business is still very strong in the living division.Industrial and Mark's comes to mind as well. Shipments are very strong in spring businesses, which we previously forecasted, given where we ended in terms of retail inventory. But winter demand categories in Seasonal and Automotive are soft. So like always with Canadian Tire's vast multi-category portfolio, there are puts and takes. But overall, when stores have reopened, demand has been very strong with people wanting to get out and feeling better about making a trip. Early indicators for spring sales in the West have actually already started, believe it or not. We're seeing pools and bikes and patio furniture start to sell earlier than usual and before real indicators of spring weather. And we're also seeing much stronger browse activity on our website for these categories nationally. So there is extremely strong interest in our spring/summer businesses. So our expectation, Mark, is that the categories that were strong in 2020 will again be drivers this year.As it relates to supply chain, I think you've heard us talk about recommissioning our Airport Road facility. So that is up and running with more and more doors and more and more portions of the building being ready and operational in Q1. We're also repurposing some of our Brampton distribution centers. So we don't have all of the 3PLs up and running that we had in Q4. And as our existing facilities ramp up, we'll start to ramp down the 3PL facilities.

[Mark Robert Petrie]

Okay. That's really helpful. And then I guess just a follow-up. We're hearing increased discussion and seeing evidence of higher production costs, particularly out of Asia and certainly higher freight costs. So as you think about your assortment and sort of planned promos and marketing, how does this factor in? And I guess by what part of the year do you think this is actually going to be substantially flowing or materially impacting your business?

[Thomas J. Flood, President of Canadian Tire Retail]

Mark, it's TJ. Thanks for the question. Yes, we're seeing the same type of thing you're describing, inflation on a couple of fronts. One is in categories and on the product side, where demand has just outpaced supply categories like fitness and bikes and things like that, we're starting to see product cost inflation. And then as you pointed out, there's a lot of dynamics industry-wide going on right now on the freight side with container shortages and a consolidation of production in China, which is causing some freight pressure.So yes, we are seeing some inflationary pressure. As we've described on numerous calls over the last couple of years, for us, margin management and pricing management is now scientific, and it's part of what our kind of, we call it, respiratory here at Canadian Tire. Teams are aware well versed in managing that. We're obviously going to have to balance some of these cost pressures that we're facing against our promotional activity, but we have to be competitive as well. We're not going to give an inch from a competitive standpoint on pricing. So we're going to pick our spots and engineer margin as best as we can as we go forward. And we've demonstrated that over the last 6 or 7 years, gosh, with the FX exposure we experienced a couple of years ago, we had to swallow probably $400 million in pressure by managing margins. So we're good at that, and we're going to continue to do it as we go forward.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Irene Nattel with RBC Capital Markets.

[Irene Ora Nattel]

Just building on the answer to that last question. What are you seeing in terms of competitive activity. Walmart, in their report this morning, they noted food and e-commerce did not note general merchandise or anything as being seasonally strong. So wondering what you're seeing there.

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Sure. Thanks, Irene. It's Greg. I'll take that. I'd say the market is as competitive as it's always been. I think you've heard us talk about the fact that we measure to a competitive price index. And our index relative to the competition improved in each of the last few quarters relative to last year. So we do feel confident in our competitive position right now. I think everyone needed to dial back the intensity to manage safety and traffic during the crisis at various times throughout 2020.We've seen some evidence of more dynamic pricing in the market, particularly with digital pure plays, as they've been promoting shorter supply lines when inventory becomes available, which is probably a little more intense than it has been in the past. But then you have marketplace offerings, showing more availability. And in many of these cases, price isn't the driver, as our pricing is significantly better. In these situations, third parties have inventory availability, and they seem to be trying to make some money. So it hasn't been overly disruptive. I think as you've heard us talk, trip consolidation and being in stock for customers has been a bigger driver for our sales. Non-discounted sales experienced a real positive trend throughout the last few quarters, which has helped our margin on both units and average retail.So overall, I wouldn't say -- you put all that together, I wouldn't say you've seen an increased competitive landscape or felt the need to invest to drive sales. And as TJ just sat across all of our businesses, we've got windows into that competitive activity, and we'll continue to react as dynamically as we need to in season as we move forward here this year.

[Irene Ora Nattel]

That's really helpful. And I was wondering if you could just spend a minute or 2 talking about the ways in which sort of, I guess, the evolving ways in which you're using your increasingly large database from Triangle to really influence your promotional activity, your pricing, your assortment and how far knock down this road of really being able to customize individual store assortments we may be getting?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Yes. There's a lot in that question, and we kind of anticipated that, that would be something that you might want to know about. So why don't I try and dive into that a little bit for you because I feel like we need a good amount of time providing you all more context on how Triangle is changing the way we're intending to run our business as a first step before we start working backwards in terms of the loyalty program played in driving our results in any particular quarter. Although it's worthy of a larger unpack, I think the big thing I want to leave you with is the fact that we're starting to look at the health of our business in a fundamentally different way.Our Triangle program and the data it provides is giving us the ability to look at the underlying health of our customer base and take action to better manage the engagement with these customers based on the lifetime value of each customer segment. And our Medallia implementation that we talked about in 2020 allows us to go beyond what customers are buying to understand how they're feeling about our experience. So it's the summation of the what and the how together that's coming together in our data with NPS measurements at each stage of their journey with us. And it's the combination of these 2 that's a powerful way to understand our business and ready it for the future.Ultimately, Irene, we're moving from a transactional view to an engagement view at the customer level. I think this understanding really enables us to manage customer relationships in a more -- much more sophisticated way. In order to do this effectively, we need to identify customer metrics in aggregate that give us an indication of the health of the business. So what do I mean by that? Well, you're starting to see some of these customer metrics work their way into how we describe the performance of our business. And over time, we intend to drive full understanding of our most critical metrics.For instance, we talked today about 1.8 million new customers in today's release, as an example. These are customers are new to us and have signed up and joined the base loyalty or credit card program for the first time. But we're tracking much more than new members. We have to get a handle on overall churn and life cycle management. So you're going to hear us talk about other customer metrics, metrics like reengaged customers. These are members in the program that didn't shop with us for 12 months but have come back to shop with us, and the opposite being inactive members, those being members that shop with us, but then lapse for 12 months. And for sure, measuring returning members and meaning those members who return to shop with us year-over-year will be critically important.So Triangle is going to be a massive driver to our results going forward, good or bad, depending on how well we manage these segments. And while the concept of churn management is well understood and very valuable in sectors like financial services and our financial business, where customer data has been readily available for many years, very few retailers have the data available to look at their customer base this way. And even fewer have the capability to manage that churn through their digital and personalization platform.So we now have the data on what customers are buying and how they're feeling about their experience. We're building the platforms for automated engagement and, therefore, feel very well equipped to understand the root cause of why a customer churn or may churn and solve the problem, not just for one customer, but for a whole cohort. So I probably gave you way more than what you were looking for there, but I think the context and the vision is important here, and it's pretty central to how we intend to run the business.

[Irene Ora Nattel]

That's really fascinating. So just one quick follow-up. Is your data showing you the customers are viewing Canadian Tire more favorably and you're increasing slightly their share of wallet spend at Canadian Tire?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Yes. I mean it depends on the segment. We can -- we slice it and dice it across. I think we've got about 37 segments. We've got 3 or 4 critical segments. We are absolutely gaining traction from a spend standpoint in the categories that are most important to us. So spend per customer and active families has been a big driver of our growth in all of 2020. I think you heard me talk about what's happening from a young customer segment profile and the acquisition that Mark's is providing for us, especially with some of the national brands that they have put for us.So you'll hear us talk about spend per customer, and that's the kind of -- at the end of the day, what we're after is that outcome. And you'll also hear us talk about our NPS and our NPS around the things that matter in our business. And that's mostly around experiences. How was the checkout experience? How was the browse experience? How was the click and collect experience? How was the Automotive experience?So juxtaposing that NPS measurement by customer segment and spend, we can really start to be able to triage and engage with customers on a relationship basis. And we're feeling really, really good about the traction we made with our core customer cohorts in 2020. We think it's a tremendous opportunity for us going forward in addition to having this whole new 1.8 million cohort of new customers that we can engage with or we can reach out and build a relationship to try and drive that engagement and spend. And we're going to be tracking that new cohort like hawks in 2021.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Peter Sklar with BMO Capital Markets.

[Peter Sklar, Analyst]

Really, I think it's the question for TJ. When you look at the gross margin that the company reported, up 100 -- just over 150 basis points, that's a real reversal of the trend of the previous quarters where you had negative pressure in terms of your gross margin. So I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what's going on in the stores. I don't -- we've got kind of like little snippets here and there on the call, but TJ, if you could maybe drill down a little bit. What is driving this very strong gross margin performance in the stores? Is it mix? Are you getting a good weighting in Seasonal categories like Christmas that carry higher margins? Or what are the factors that are at play here?

[Thomas J. Flood, President of Canadian Tire Retail]

Peter, yes, I mean when we think about the breakdown of margin in Q4, there's probably 3 key areas that I would talk about, and the first is what you just touched on, which is category mix. We saw a lot of growth in high-margin categories like seasonal decor, Christmas lights, winter recreation, exercise accessories, auto travel and storage and paint. All of these categories kind of punch above their weight in terms of margin rate. And we got favorable mix from that perspective. So definitely, business mix is helping us from -- on a margin rate perspective.The other piece is around reg/promo mix. We -- with us -- honestly, in Q4 and throughout 2020, we were chasing just unprecedented demand and trying to keep up with supply. So that really helped us and drove our reg mix a little bit higher than it would have been previous year.Thirdly, in terms of the business's own brands continue to grow and outpace our national brands and, obviously, our own brand margin profile is higher. And then lastly, what I would say that Greg touched on, I think, a bit earlier was around our margin-sharing agreement with dealers. They also participated in a lot of the benefit that I just described from category mix as well as reg/promo mix. With our margin-sharing arrangement with them, we simply were able to book more margin relative to last year. So those are kind of the 4 components of what -- of how I would unpack our margin rate performance.

[Peter Sklar, Analyst]

Yes. And TJ, in terms of the margin sharing, was there -- like you've kind of accrued through the course of the year. Was there any favorable catch-up? Or is the margin, like the retail margin that the corporation booked in the fourth quarter, that that's what the dealers actually realized in the fourth quarter?

[Gregory George Craig, CFO & Executive VP]

It's Gregory, Peter. Let me give TJ break on that one. You can ask him a tough accounting question next, but let me take that one for him. I think the way I would answer the question is we -- the booking kind of -- when the dealer year-end is kind of matters is kind of the first point. But I think the simplest way to think about this, to be frank, we had such strong performance in the last half of the year, when you got to the year-end, you understood kind of that there was a need to book more margin. I mean, as you know, we do this every year, but it was much more pronounced this year, given the incredible performance that we saw, frankly, in the last half of the year. So there's more complexity there around dealer year-ends, et cetera, et cetera. But if I really try to simplify it, I would just really point to the significant -- the fantastic performance in the last half of the year at CTR.

[Peter Sklar, Analyst]

Okay. And TJ, I didn't quite understand your point, too, that you were making about the promotional mix side. Are you cutting back on promotion?

[Thomas J. Flood, President of Canadian Tire Retail]

Well, what I would say is, given the demand that we saw, there was definitely a migration toward regularly priced goods relative to promotion. And in certain instances, we couldn't keep up with the demand with supply. So when you're in that situation, it puts you in a position where you can't promote as much as you traditionally would have. So those 2 factors would have contributed to our kind of reg mix being a little bit higher than our promotional mix.

[Peter Sklar, Analyst]

Right. Okay. And then the last question I had is for Greg. Just in terms of the outlook for Q1, you talked about -- I believe you said quarter-to-date, your sales were down low single digits. Are those -- are you talking about retail sales or warehouse sales? And are you attributing all of that to the government restrictions? Or are there other factors at play as well?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Yes. So the remark that I made with respect to low single digits would be comp store sales in the CTR banner. And I think I also made a comment about the fact that shipments in CTR, so revenue continues to be very strong in Q1. So those -- that would be the clarification, I think, to my remarks.

[Peter Sklar, Analyst]

Okay. And are you attributing that slowdown from Q4 levels all to the lockdowns and other retail restrictions? Or are there any other factors at play that you would want to point to?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

I mean -- again, I tried to provide a little bit of color in terms of what we're seeing in stores that aren't impacted by restrictions and without giving it too much forward visibility. We -- there is a marked difference between performance in the stores that are operating in restricted regions and stores that are operating in nonrestricted regions. And I think Gregory is chiming to get in here.

[Gregory George Craig, CFO & Executive VP]

I know. It was like a jump ball. So anyway, I just want to emphasize what Greg just said around. As you know, Peter, there's still lots of game to be played in the quarter and March is -- not all these months in the quarter are all created equal. And I just want to reinforce that point. But yes, I think we're in the low single digits, and look at the weather outside up until recently. So I think that has also been part of the puzzle of this as well is kind of what the weather trends have been like. But I think Greg's remarks kind of outlined it well around kind of stores that were closed and stores that weren't and the behavior we're seeing. But just to be clear, there's still some big months left in the quarter. So that's all.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Vishal Shreedhar with National Bank.

[Vishal Shreedhar, Analyst]

On the operational efficiency program, management called that out as a contributor to the quarter. There's so many things going in on the various line items this quarter. I was hoping you can give me a little bit more context on the extent to which it contributed and maybe where you are in the program. Is it early days, 20% done, so on and so forth?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Yes, I can start. And if there are specifics that Gregory wants to jump in on, he can. The team continued to prioritize execution of initiatives in 2020 with 2021 and 2022 benefit and real high impact strategic priorities throughout 2020. Despite the headwinds in COVID, we feel like we've achieved all of the objectives that we set out for the program in 2020, and we are absolutely on track to achieve our publicly stated target of $200 million plus, which I think you pointed out, Vishal, in run rate savings by 2022.While there's no specific timeline and schedule that we're going to share with you on the costs, I can tell you that right now, there are over 200 initiatives in the pipeline to be executed this year in 2022. As it relates to our OpEx ratio, as we've discussed there isn't a straight line from our OE program savings to our OpEx ratio, cost-out initiatives take time and inflation in your cost base can happen at any time. But overall, we're very pleased with the direction of our OpEx ratio in 2020.But keep in mind, we have -- we absolutely had the power of operating leverage, given substantial top line and revenue growth throughout the system. But we also had full fixed cost absorption in months where we had minimal revenue in some banners. So again, it's very difficult to use 2020 as a base year or leaping off point. I can tell you that we're running the business with efficiency in mind. And through 2021, we're going to start to see more broad-based system efficiencies and transformative initiatives come to life through the OE program.

[Vishal Shreedhar, Analyst]

Okay. That's helpful. And as we reflect on 2021 and beyond, how should we think about Canadian Tire's intention for real estate growth? And maybe you can give us a sense by your bigger banners?

[Gregory George Craig, CFO & Executive VP]

Maybe I'll start, Greg. I think, Vishal, one of the things we've talked about is just given kind of this environment with the level of uncertainty, I don't think we feel comfortable at this stage kind of providing guidance or forward-looking information as it relates to kind of real estate. And I'll give you a reason why. I mean you looked at last year when we had a lot of projects had to close. And even in December with those restrictions and shutdowns that happened then, we had some jurisdictions construction was allowed to continue and some it wasn't. I mean I think the longer-term answer, of course, is we're committed to real estate, and we see great opportunities to continue to build out and enhance our network. But in terms of actually giving something more specific kind of in the short term, I just think it's just too uncertain for us to kind of provide that, but I'm sure Greg will want to add to that as well.

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

We're going to be working this quarter as long as we feel like we have fairly good line of sight to what's happening in the economy to update our strategic thinking with respect to capital requirements going forward. We've talked to you about the modernization investments as part of our OE program in our core technology infrastructure. We're in the middle of building a new state-of-the-art distribution center in Mississauga, which is going to really help drive e-commerce fulfillment capabilities. And we've certainly learned a great deal during the crisis in terms of the role our store plays in driving connected experiences for the customer.We're seeing growth in all market types across the board, but the highest levels of growth are happening in the suburban markets across Canada, markets that kind of index higher on homeownership, [ a grass ], a yard, active families. And we think these markets are going to continue to benefit going forward as workplaces embrace work from home. And we see tremendous opportunities to improve the store experience. The in-store technology for enabling e-commerce wasn't built for this type of scale, and the stores are doing a tremendous job with it right now. We see lots of opportunities to reduce friction in the system on their end, minimize touches, use automation for some of the order processes and really put our associates in a much better position to deliver a compelling experience.So we're going to be -- we're having lots of conversations about putting an Investor Day into the calendar this year, but we want to make sure we can do it live and in person with you all, Vishal. So we're just going to have to put all the considerations together and develop the right communications approach. But rest assured, we're not standing still in terms of where we think we have an opportunity to invest capital in our business. It's going to be in the customer experience, both physical and digital. It's going to be in supply chain and automation. We think we have the team. We've got the assets and strong understanding and momentum with the customer. And our financial position is strong. We're just looking for a little bit more certainty here as we look forward into the economy.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Chris Li with Desjardins.

[Christopher Li, Research Analyst]

First question, I guess, is for Greg. Greg, how has your longer-term vision or strategy for SportChek changed as a result of the pandemic? Is there an opportunity to perhaps rationalize your store base and focus even more on the e-commerce channel longer term?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Listen, we're -- we think, Chek had a fantastic quarter. All things considered, we're really happy about how the business is performing, considering the restrictions. And they have a very different mall dynamic than what I would have alluded to for Mark's. And we're really excited about the owned brand penetration for the business. We're seeing the Chek banner really be a strong customer acquisition driver for the overall ecosystem with a couple of those core segments that I talked about earlier. And so that's where we're spending a good amount of our time.And we have lots of initiatives around whether it's store leases or store labor or e-commerce fulfillment. We rolled out a few hub stores, as an example -- made a few of our stores hub stores as an example. So we're looking at the network differently. And I think the decision that we made with respect to closing National Sports will drive some velocity and productivity of the SportChek stores. So we're constantly evaluating the role that, that business plays in our portfolio. And we're feeling really good about what we're seeing in the business right now.

[Christopher Li, Research Analyst]

Okay. That's helpful. And maybe just a couple of quick one for Gregory. In terms of the COVID cost, by my estimate, I think the company incurred about $70 million-ish of cost from Hero pay and increased safety protocols. How much of those costs do you expect to recur again this year?

[Gregory George Craig, CFO & Executive VP]

In 2021, I think, as I think you're aware, the premium pay program came to an end at Canadian Tire. I think it was -- Middle of August, I think, was the time period. So that really wasn't in the fourth quarter. Frankly, that was our decision as to why we didn't isolate the COVID-related costs in the fourth quarter, Chris, was that, in my mind, they weren't all that significant in the quarter, number one. Number two, they became a bit more recurring in our base operations, so we didn't feel that it was really helpful to kind of isolate those and separate them out. I mean we'll have to watch depending on uncertainty and third waves, et cetera. I might regret saying this, but from what we understand right now, I would call them more kind of in our continuing operations, and we'll just keep an eye on that. And hopefully, it's safe enough for everyone to continue to operate, and we don't have to have this discussion again. But that's how I'd answer your question.

[Christopher Li, Research Analyst]

Okay. That's helpful. Maybe just a quick second on gross margin. Can you maybe tease out for us just the impact of the margin-sharing agreement with the dealer? How beneficial was that to your gross margin?

[Gregory George Craig, CFO & Executive VP]

Yes. It's a tough -- it's Gregory, again. I'll try to answer that, Chris. It's a difficult thing to kind of unpack and separate. It's so -- there's so many puts and takes to it. And I think the key point that I want to make, and I mentioned this a few times on kind of some calls this morning, is we had strong margin performance across every banner. So we're thrilled with what we saw in CTR, and the team did a great job there, but I also don't want to downplay the contributions at Helly, the contributions at Mark's, the contributions at Chek. This was a strong overall retail margin quarter. And was CTR a leading part of that? Absolutely. Was part of that reason because of the margin sharing? For sure. But it's not necessarily a straight line to kind of say, here's the answer because there are different puts and takes. I'd just say, overall, we recognize more as a result of this arrangement because of the fantastic half or even full year that CTR had. That's how I'd answer your question.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Patricia Baker with Scotiabank.

[Patricia A. Baker, Analyst]

I want to dig a little deeper into the capital expenditures. And you made a very good point in response to an earlier question that you know that there's a lot of important areas where you will be investing in the business over the longer term. But I just want to ask 2 specific things about your outlook for CapEx. I don't want guidance or anything like that, but just the way that you look at it. So in fiscal 2020, the capital spend was a lot lower than you originally had anticipated. And some of that, I presume, was associated with timing of specific things. But buried in there also, there must have been more taking a very, very close look at particular projects and making decisions not to go ahead with certain ones for various reasons. If you could share any decisions where you decided not to go ahead with something that we have a better understanding of that?And then secondarily, is there anything you take away from how you view capital investments in 2020 that will feature in your future philosophy about capital spend? And then Greg, you noted that you've learnt a great deal about your stores in 2020. And is there anything that you learnt through -- learned about the stores in 2020, anything you learned operating through this -- these particular challenges that will inform or change the way that you're thinking about investments in terms of, like, discovering that maybe there's places that you wouldn't have invested in that you think now are better places to invest for the long term?

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Sure. Yes, lots in that, Patricia. Let me try and keep them straight. I think if we go back to CapEx -- yes, I tried to kind of give you a real window there in terms of how we're thinking about it and how we're thinking about communicating it. I think, Patricia, National Sports is a classic example. It gives you a pretty good idea or an indicator in terms of how we're thinking about capital. It's a smaller banner for us, for sure, but the decision to close the business is a matter of focus. There's always been a fair amount of overlap with this banner, both SportChek and CTR. And now in addition to having store density in these trade areas, we have significant e-commerce capabilities as well. This was a business that was receiving just enough capital for maintenance needs over the years and just wasn't a core asset for us and as we evaluated our portfolio.So we intend to evaluate -- review our assets as part of our operational efficiency program with an investor mindset, ensuring there's an intended purpose to our investing. And in this case, we just couldn't find a continued purpose. And on our docket in 2020 was a replacement of a whole ERP and POS application for the banner, as an example. So I think coming to a conclusion strategically with the right portfolio view and lens around how we think about that business in the context of the ecosystem, I think, is, it gives you a pretty good indication around looking at capital on a more holistic enterprise basis.As it relates to the store, what we've learned, et cetera, I think about -- I think we're all thinking about relevance a lot, Patricia. I think today, retailers are either relevant or they're not. There's not much middle ground. I think we've been seeing rising customer expectations for relevance, and COVID only magnified it. Today's more kind of global e-commerce retailers can offer consumers everything. So customers aren't lacking any choice when it comes to products or places to purchase them. However, I think our biggest learning is -- through COVID is, the customers are expecting more than product or even free delivery. They're demanding more value in ways that are relevant to them.And although customers love shopping online, I think COVID has demonstrated that what they really want is control, control over where and how they receive their online orders. And the popularity of pickup services has challenged the notion of what customers want from e-commerce. I mean, sure, it seems a little odd that someone would get dressed up for winter in the middle of the pandemic no less and get into the car and go pick up the product at the store, in our case, BOPIS or curbside, but that is exactly what's happening. And it's happening across the global retail industry.So I think having a wide range of fulfillment options and choice for the customer is the way of the future. And using kind of the store for fulfillment, which we're doing, has enabled us to ramp up capacity in a way that many others struggle to do. So I think being an omnichannel retailer is a huge advantage right now, and I don't see it going away. So it's a double click on, is e-commerce here to stay? It's, okay, well, let's double click and really think about what experience in e-commerce is here to stay. And for us, we really believe that the store playing a fundamental role at the core of our strategy -- e-commerce strategy is critical. And the great news is we're getting better at it. 65% of orders now -- pickup orders at Canadian Tire, are ready in 2 hours or less, and we certainly weren't delivering at this level of experience earlier in the pandemic, and we can see what it can do for the business.So I think if you link that back to the question that Vishal asked around how to think about investment in the network, and it's about digital and physical coming together, you get a pretty good idea of where we're going to be focused from a capital standpoint.

[Operator]

That is all the time that we have for questions today. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Gregory for closing remarks.

[Gregory Huber Hicks, CEO, President & Executive Director]

Okay. Thank you, operator. In summary, these continue to be extraordinary and challenging times, but we're an extremely resilient company. The strength of our brand is built upon deep-rooted values and a fantastic team. I'm proud of our performance in the quarter for the year and of the thousands of team members I'm fortunate enough to represent. So thank you for your interest in Canadian Tire and for participating in today's call. Be well. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you, everyone. This will conclude today's call. A webcast of the conference call will be archived on Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited Investor Relations website for 12 months. Please contact Investor Relations if there are follow-up questions regarding today's call or the material provided. You may now disconnect.