Eva C. Boratto
Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. The energy level here at BBW is high, and our teams are hard at work to accelerate growth under Daniel's leadership. I'll begin with a high-level summary of the quarter, including key business drivers. I'll then share more detail on our Q2 financial performance and provide an update on our Q3 and fiscal year 2025 guidance. Throughout the quarter, we were disciplined and decisive in our actions while navigating through continued macro volatility and our Q2 performance is evidence of that. As a reminder, we are focused on 3 priority areas: first, accelerating top line growth while maintaining or expanding margins. Second, enhancing operational excellence; and third, consistently deploying our strong cash flow to invest in growth opportunities and return value to shareholders. Overall, we delivered a solid quarter with net sales up 1.5% and adjusted earnings per diluted share of $0.37, both at the high end of our range. In terms of our top line performance, it was our fourth consecutive quarter of underlying sales growth with positive dual channel traffic and stores traffic exceeding third-party benchmarks we track. This performance was led by a strong semiannual sale, thanks to focused execution by our teams. We put our learnings from prior semiannual sales into action, strategically shifting the event back by 2 weeks to better align with the market dynamics and consumer mindset. Our stores were ready with the right mix of product and clearly signaling the sale event, effectively drawing in deal-seeking shoppers from the start. We also built excitement across social media, Billy the Duck, our newly relaunched brand mascot became a breakout star, driving strong engagement across platforms and generating over 260 million impressions. Additionally, partnerships with leading fragrance influencers helped boost awareness and traffic, both online and in stores. Additionally, there were other key contributors to our performance in the quarter. First, our sanitizer business performed above the shop with consumers responding positively to our newer products like our moisturizing PocketBacs and our 1 ounce sanitizer sprays. We drove growth in our men's business, which we highlighted during Father's Day, and we're pleased with the performance of our True Blue Spa collection relaunch. Finally, we launched our Summerween product collection earlier to capture consumer demand. Fan favorite fragrances like Ghoul Friend and Vampire Blood performed well, and our new Frankenstein bakery concept featuring ice cream float became a standout hit. Looking ahead, we will bring consumers more newness and more collaborations in Q3 and Q4. We're excited about the fragrance experiences will drive this fall including our Disney Villains collaboration, which launched with early access to loyalty members this week. Building on the success of our Princess collaboration, this launch will soon be available to all consumers globally. We have also introduced a new ceramic candle vessel, elevating our assortment with an enhanced design. At the same time, we're evolving our in- store technology and loyalty program, along with the planned enhancements to our digital capabilities will strengthen the consumer experience. This quarter, we successfully completed the deployment of a new point-of-sale system across our store base with no consumer disruption. This new point of sale is easier for our store associates to navigate and allows them to provide a better customer experience. Our loyalty program is performing well with existing customers and is driving increased spend, trip frequency, cross- channel purchases and retention. In Q2, we had approximately 39 million active loyalty customers up 5% compared to the prior year. Now I'll turn to the details of our Q2 financial performance and guidance. In Q2, we delivered net sales of $1.5 billion up 1.5% to the prior year. These results were at the high end of our guidance range, led by strong semiannual sale performance as I previously stated. In U.S. and Canadian stores, net sales totaled $1.2 billion, an increase of 5% versus the prior year. Direct net sales were $267 million, a decrease of 10% compared to last year when adjusted for buy online, pickup in store, which is reported as store sales, direct net sales were down 3%. That said, we're not satisfied with our digital business. And as Daniel noted, our teams are moving quickly to enhance the digital experience. International net sales were $86 million in the second quarter, a decline of 3% and in line with expectations. The decline in the quarter was driven by the timing of ship sales between Q1 and Q2. Year-to-date, net sales were up 2% versus prior year, representing the first positive seasonal net sales results we've seen since the start of the Middle East conflict. International system-wide retail sales grew 9% in the quarter, in line with our expectations and a continued improvement in performance. Our second quarter gross profit rate of 41.3% exceeded our expectations and increased 30 basis points compared to prior year, while including $16 million or approximately 100 basis point headwind from tariffs. Gross profit expansion resulted from B&O leverage, largely due to the exit of a third-party fulfillment center. Adjusted SG&A as a percentage of net sales was 30.2%, representing a 110 basis point deleverage compared to the prior year. The increase was driven by selling expense, including investments in new stores and higher health care costs. Now bringing it all together, Second quarter adjusted operating income was $172 million, down 6% to last year. With respect to inventory, we ended the second quarter with total inventory up 13% to prior year. This includes the impacts of tariffs on purchases as well as planned strategic pull forward. We exited the season with healthy inventory levels. Turning to real estate. Our portfolio remains healthy with 58% of our fleet in off-mall locations. In the second quarter, we opened 20 new North American stores, all in off-mall locations and permanently closed 16 stores, primarily in malls. Internationally, our partners opened 14 new stores and closed 1 store during the quarter, and we ended the quarter with 537 stores. Our international store expansion plans for 2025 remain on track with at least 30 planned net new store openings. Turning now to our 2025 financial guidance. Our full year and third quarter guidance includes the estimated impact of all tariff rates communicated by the U.S. government and other countries as of this week including the recent removal of Canadian retaliatory tariffs effective September 1. For the full year, we expect tariffs, net of mitigation efforts to negatively impact growth gross profit by approximately $85 million, with $40 million of that impact in Q3. As a reminder, we import approximately 10% of goods from China and 7% from Canada and Mexico. We believe our vertically integrated predominantly U.S.-based supply chain positions us well to compete in the current environment and to fully absorb the impact of tariffs at current levels in our fiscal 2025 guidance. Looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to further mitigate these costs over time through strategic sourcing, operational efficiencies and other targeted initiatives. For the full year, we are narrowing our net sales guidance from 1% to 3% growth to 1.5% to 2.7% growth and raising the low end of our adjusted earnings per diluted share guidance from $3.25 to $3.60 to $3.35 to $3.60. Our guidance reflects strong first half performance and consistent expectations of 1% to 3% net sales growth for the second half of the year. We continue to expect gross profit rate of approximately 44%, and I am confident in our ability to absorb the $85 million impact of tariffs most of which was not included in our initial guidance range back in February. We now expect our adjusted SG&A rate to be approximately 27.7% driven by higher health care costs and strategic investments. And we are increasing our planned share repurchases to $400 million, up from $300 million. Turning now to the third quarter. We expect net sales growth of 1% to 3% growth versus the prior year. We expect Q3 system-wide international retail sales to be up high single digits with reported net sales up mid- single digits. We expect third quarter gross profit rate to be approximately 42.2% including approximately $40 million of tariff impact. Tariffs are expected to disproportionately impact third quarter results due to inventory receipts that were subject to the 145% China tariff rate between April 9 through May 13. We expect our third quarter SG&A rate to be approximately 31.5%, also reflecting higher health care and technology costs as well as strategic investments. We are diligently working to mitigate these impacts. Our third quarter outlook includes interest expense and other of approximately $65 million and a tax rate of approximately 25% and weighted average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 206 million. Considering all of these inputs, we are forecasting third quarter earnings per diluted share of $0.37 to $0.45. You can find additional details on our guidance in our slide presentation. Now for an update on capital allocation. We are a strong cash flow generating business, and our top priority remains driving durable profitable growth through strategic investments in the business. To support this, we continue to plan capital expenditures of $250 million to $270 million during the year with a focus on real estate and technology. In the second quarter, capital expenditures totaled $56 million, bringing the year-to-date total to $93 million. Our full year free cash flow expectation remains in the range of $750 million to $850 million, reflecting working capital improvement driven by our fuel for growth initiatives. In Q2, we returned $42 million to shareholders through dividends and repurchased 4.1 million shares of common stock for $121 million at an average price of $29.14 per share. Year-to-date, we have returned $85 million to shareholders through dividends and we have repurchased 8.5 million shares of common stock for $256 million. As I mentioned, we are increasing our planned full year share repurchases from $300 million to $400 million. Our business generates strong free cash flow, and we view our shares as an attractive investment at current levels. In summary, I'm encouraged by our first half performance and energized by the opportunity to accelerate growth. We believe that our agile business model positions us well to compete effectively in today's dynamic consumer and macro environment. We are executing with discipline focusing on what we can control and introducing newness and collaborations to consumers in the second half of the year. I'd like to extend my gratitude to our teams across the company for their hard work and strong execution. Now let's open it up for questions.