La-Z-Boy Incorporated

La-Z-Boy Incorporated

LZBยทNYSE

$36.27

-0.44%
Consumer CyclicalFurnishings, Fixtures & Appliances

La-Z-Boy Incorporated manufactures, markets, imports, exports, distributes, and retails upholstery furniture products, accessories, and casegoods furniture products in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through Wholesale, Retail, Corporate and Other segments. The Wholesale segment manufactures and imports upholstered furniture, such as recliners and motion furniture, sofas, loveseats, chairs, sectionals, modulars, ottomans, and sleeper sofas; and imports, distributes, and retails casegoods (wood) furniture, including occasional pieces, bedroom sets, dining room sets, and entertainment centers. This segment sells its products directly to La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores, operators of La-Z-Boy Comfort Studio locations, England Custom Comfort Center locations, dealers, and other independent retailers. The company's Retail segment sells upholstered furniture, casegoods, and other accessories to the end consumer through its retail network. This segment operates a network of 161 company-owned La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores. La-Z-Boy Incorporated also produces reclining chairs; and manufactures and distributes residential furniture. Its Corporate and Other segment sells the products through its website. The company was formerly known as La-Z-Boy Chair Company and changed its name to La-Z-Boy Incorporated in 1996. La-Z-Boy Incorporated was founded in 1927 and is based in Monroe, Michigan.

At a Glance

Live Snapshot
Market Cap$1.50B
EPS2.3900
P/E Ratio15.18
Earnings Date06/16/2026

Earnings Call Transcript

LZB โ€ข 2025 โ€ข Q3

Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the La-
Mark Becks
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to discuss our fiscal 2025 third quarter. With us today are Melinda Whittington, La-
Melinda Whittington
Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday following the close of market, we reported results for our January-ended third quarter. Our results reflect the steady progress we've made to build a more agile business and create our own momentum to drive growth in what is still a very challenged furniture industry. We delivered sales growth across each of our segments, led by retail and punctuated by strong same-store sales growth. And within our wholesale segment, our core North American La-
Taylor Luebke
Thank you, Melinda, and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, we present our results on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. We believe the non-GAAP presentation better reflects underlying operating trends and performance business. Non-GAAP results exclude items which are detailed in our press release and in the tables in the appendix section of our conference call slides. On a consolidated basis, fiscal 2025 third quarter sales grew 4% to $522 million versus the prior year, driven by strong same-store sales, acquisitions and new stores in our retail business, momentum in our core North America La-
Melinda Whittington
Thanks, Taylor. I'm excited about the momentum that is building across our enterprise. Our strong execution even despite a still challenging industry backdrop is leading to both sales growth and margin expansion. We are thoughtfully and efficiently controlling what we can control. And we'll continue to drive our Century Vision strategy with focus on expanding our La-
Mark Becks
We will now begin the question and answer portion. Jenny, please review the instructions for getting into the queue to ask questions.
Operator
Thank you very much. If you would like to ask a question, before you press the keys. Your first question is coming from Brad Thomas of KeyBanc Capital. Brad, your line is live.
Taylor Zick
Hey. Good morning, everyone. This is Taylor
Melinda Whittington
Yeah. Morning. So a couple of thoughts. We certainly, you know, we've been talking for a while about the consumer is coming out more around those peak holidays, those key holidays that we've always seen, but even more so here in this kind of malaise industry. So our strength during the quarter was strongest during the holiday period. But overall, year on year strength across all three months of our quarter. As far as February is concerned, I mean, we're still super early in our quarter. Super early in the month, and really still just seeing Presidents' Day results starting to come in from across all of our businesses. You know, overall, again, pleased with execution, feel comfortable with what we're doing there. We didn't see traffic as robust this Presidents' Day across the industry as what we've seen on some of the other recent holidays. But still way too early to tell kind of is that just weather related. You know, last year, the end of January was bad. This year, it's early February. It seems to be bad across more of the states. So, you know, time will tell. It continues to be a choppy environment.
Taylor Luebke
And on the phasing question, I would just point Melinda, it references more to the written trends that more impacted our ability to deliver product as winter weather last year shut down some of our plants. Complicated being able to deliver. Imprecise calculation exactly what shifted, which is why we look at our total back half of the year, which we're really proud you know, to outlook, you know, about a 2% growth year over year across the period.
Taylor Zick
Gotcha. Thank you. And then maybe if I could just touch on margins, Taylor. Is there any more color you can provide on some of the puts and takes for the 8.5% to 9.5% operating margin you're going to for this fourth quarter. I guess what would get you to the low end and high end and anything to keep in mind. Yeah. I'd start with a couple of points. One is where
Taylor Luebke
incredibly pleased that sustainability of margin progression on our core North America La-
Taylor Zick
Gotcha. Thank you. And then maybe if I could just, sneak one more in here, maybe for Melinda. You know, you've talked about the strategic partnerships. You've had you know, success with Slumberlands, Room To Go, and others. But can you kind of update us on the progress of those partnerships and maybe speak to, you know, the pipeline potentially, you know, rolling out some more strategic partnerships.
Melinda Whittington
Absolutely. Along a couple of lines. Yeah. Those b to b partners are foundational to us and remain important to our focus. Across some of the smaller some of our smaller partners, we continue to invest in what we call our comfort studios, which is branded space within the space, and we have call it 500 plus of those type of spaces and really making sure the branding comes through with those. So that's something that's been, again, foundation that we're not locking right away from, and in fact, we're refreshing We've got quite a few of those in the pipeline to refresh you know, with updated brand materials and everything. But to your point, those bigger regional strategic partnerships What we're seeing in the industry is those that are doing better in this ongoing challenging environment tend to be of the, you know, multi-branded retailers are those call them, you know, a little bit larger regional entities. And what we like them for a couple of reasons. One, you know, we've talked a lot about partnerships like Rooms To Go. Up here in the north, it's Gardner White in the Detroit area. You know, long-time partners, Slumberland, that advertise heavily, and that's great because that reminds the brand that reminds the consumer about our brand regardless of where they choose to shop. So that really increases our share of voice, as well as helps us get our product, select product out to consumers that we might not otherwise capture with our furniture galleries.
Taylor Luebke
I know recently, we've expanded our furniture row partnership. It's
Melinda Whittington
been about two years into the Rooms To Go. And there does continue to be a pipeline out there. But I think equally as important will be just growing with those existing partnerships and really doing more with those strategic ones as you mentioned.
Taylor Zick
Great. Thank you. I'll pass it on.
Operator
Thank you very much.
Taylor Luebke
Thank you.
Operator
And your next question is coming from
Bobby Griffin
Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Appreciate you taking my questions. Congrats on the good momentum during the quarter as well. I guess, the first aspect I want to hit on, we're making some progress in inside the core wholesale segment. So maybe can we talk a little bit about that on the margin front? Some more? Where from an efficiency standpoint, where are we in getting back That business back to the efficient you know, efficiency levels that you kind of are used to in wholesale. And I guess, exclude the international disruption where we can kind of think about it on a core on core basis.
Taylor Luebke
I mean, Bobby, thanks for the question. We're pleased with the progress as mentioned, particularly on our core North America wholesale business. Which has now grown margin. The first three quarters of the year versus the comparable period. So our supply chain from procurement through manufacturing through distribution is making headway across all fronts. So we're really pleased with the progress. End of the day, what really needs to get us back to our longer-term goal is we need volume. Which right now is still depressed from where we used to be, primarily driven by the fundamentals, drive the furniture industry is really a healthy housing market, whether new home starts, existing home sales, which albeit we've seen a little bit of a tick up the last couple of months, is still at decades a decade's low. So we continue to focus on what we can control, which is the improvements and efficiencies that we can drive end of the day, to get over the hump per se, we need some sustained industry growth. To get us there.
Bobby Griffin
And, Taylor, I think you mentioned you're talking to La-
Taylor Luebke
I would say the general theme on volume is consistent across our entire wholesale segment. I mean, whether it's La-
Bobby Griffin
Okay. And then when you think about the international transition taking place there and some of that disruption, Are we past kind of the peak in that disruption? And then I guess I'm getting at, is that become an incremental tailwind, a little bit less of a headwind in FY26 or is there should we assume that that headwind continues for FY26 against the wholesale margin.
Melinda Whittington
I would expect you'll see incremental improvement, but it'll be slow. It'll be slow and steady.
Taylor Luebke
I mean, you've taken our largest customer globally and completely changed them out. So I actually just met with that team at Vegas Market a few weeks ago. They're super happy with where the partnership is, but it's a brand new ground-up partnership, so it's gonna take some time.
Taylor Luebke
And in the meantime, we're not just waiting for it to organically improve. We're driving both that top to top on, call it, commercial levers growth partnership, but we also can action efficiencies across our international organization, including rightsizing our manufacturing capacity, to help, you know, improve those results sequentially looking forward.
Bobby Griffin
Perfect. And then maybe just on the guidance, unpacking it a little further, You know, again, when you look at the midpoint, price roughly flat year over year, you guys just throughout the prior three quarters have grown on a year over year basis. Is that only just the function of the shift Faye, that you talked about? Or did you see kinda something that in the quarter that gives you a little bit more caution than maybe what we were seeing earlier in the quarter. Some of our checks, I guess, have indicated you know, some strength in November, but then a slowdown, you know, to kinda start our kind of as we moved into twenty-five,
Taylor Luebke
Yeah, Bobby. I would answer it in a couple of ways. One is the international we just talked through. We'll have a, again, a shorter-term impact. Quarter four, So that doesn't just alleviate within the next quarter Two, as mentioned, we have plans to stand up five to seven Again, new La-
Melinda Whittington
Sure. You know, we as you recall, you know, Joy Bird was on a really nice growth trajectory in the middle of the pandemic, and, you know, along with many many, you know, primarily ecom, digital kind of businesses. We pulled back when a lot of them went out of business. We pulled back to really get the fundamentals right on that business. And I feel like we're there. And that is that's not just on the, like, sort of the mat the financial fundamentals, but it's on the execution of who we are as a brand and how are we gonna bring that to life. And we need to keep in mind how where Joybird's Fifth. To sort of our capabilities as an enterprise is that because of this same North America base footprint, Joybird can offer customization and enable the consumer to really express themselves and enjoy brand stands for that expressive, you know, color color forward, if you will, kind of customized furniture. So I feel good about knowing what the brand stands for as well as the financial discipline you know, as we move forward. So with that, you know, we talked several years ago about seeing a near-term footprint or at least a medium-term footprint to 25 stores. We got to 12 when we paused that. We've turned that funnel back on. Now that takes a little bit of time to start up, but I would see us at a pace of call it three to four stores next year for Joybird. And then, you know, we'll continue we're gonna be we're gonna be cautious because the environment is still challenged. But we feel like the fundamentals are there and we're ready to start investing back into seeing Joybird grow while still keeping a close eye on making progress on that bottom line.
Bobby Griffin
Thank you. I appreciate the details, and best of luck here wrapping up the year.
Melinda Whittington
Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you very much. Just a reminder, if there are any remaining questions Your next question is coming from Anthony Lebiedzinski of Sidoti and Company. Anthony, your line is live.
Anthony Lebiedzinski
Questions. And, you know, certainly nice to see the trends in the written sales being up. Just curious, did you guys see any notable differences in terms of your different markets or regions? Anything to call out there as far as the third quarter trends?
Melinda Whittington
Nothing that nothing that really stands out dramatically. Of course, you know, again, at any given time, there's what other weather event or whatever, but nothing dramatic. Cross markets.
Anthony Lebiedzinski
Gotcha. Okay. Thanks, Melinda. And then, you know, in the retail segment, your operating margin was down slightly given increased selling expenses and fixed cost. The Okay. Is that primarily advertising, or can you share more details and how should we think about these expenses going forward?
Taylor Luebke
Yeah. Anthony, it's really, you know, a couple of things. It's, you know, the pace of new stores that we've stood up, both in the quarter as well as quarter two. So six stores over a very short period of time. Again, those don't start at a going level. It takes time to ramp up. As well as, you know, over quarter three is one of our bigger written periods around the holidays. So we have more commissions that hit us in the quarter. So I think those are the two primary drivers for retail.
Anthony Lebiedzinski
Alright. Thanks, Taylor. And then far as, you know, thinking about the potential impact of tariffs, obviously, your guidance, as you said, excludes any tariff impact. Obviously, it needs to be a dynamic situation, but can you provide any sort of more details as far as how you're thinking about that if there are tariffs on Canada and Mexico and elsewhere? Where, you know, any additional things you can highlight as to how you're thinking about that.
Taylor Luebke
Yeah, Anthony. So on the Terra front, our hope is it's just noise we think at the end of the day, it's gonna more challenge a consumer who's been challenged now for a while. We like a healthy consumer. But with that being said, you know, since November, we've been planning on a wide range of scenarios, whether Mexico, Canada, or other markets. So we've developed a playbook to respond to whatever could happen, which will, again, leverage our global supply chain from sourcing through where we manufacture as well as potential pricing actions to ensure we're mitigating whatever could be put into place. So we're planning for all eventualities and we're acting on only on what's fact. Today, there's not much of that. And what has gone into place, we've taken to ensure we're mitigating the impact.
Anthony Lebiedzinski
Got it. Alright. Well, thank you very much, and best of luck.
Melinda Whittington
Thanks, Anthony. Thanks, Anthony.
Operator
Thank you very much. Well, we appear to have reached the end of our question the back over to the management team for any closing remarks.
Mark Becks
Thanks everyone for joining us. Melinda, Taylor, and I will be in our offices to take any follow-up calls. Thanks, and have a great day.
Transcript from February 19, 2025

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