Scott Lipesky: Yes. We’ll continue to expect Americas to outperform. And it’s by far our biggest region, so that’s a good thing. Whenever we think about the total company, when we think about the inflection in EMEA for the second quarter, it was a good proof point for us. We’ve talked a lot over the, call it, six to nine months about that Hollister assortment. The evolution of that assortment and the balancing of that assortment, we knew or we hoped, I guess, I should say, that would help us outside of the U.S., and we saw that in Europe, and that was a good sign that we’re making the right moves there in Hollister. And then in APAC, obviously, the smallest part of our business, but continuing to see good trends there out of China and Hong Kong. So our goal is to keep that momentum rolling.
Mauricio Serna: Great. Thanks so much.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Paul Lejuez with Citi. Your line is open.
Paul Lejuez: Hey, thanks, guys. Scott, I think you said that sales improved each month during the quarter. Curious, if I heard that right, if that was at each brand, each region, maybe you could just clarify that comment and if you’ve seen further acceleration in August. And then curious about just performance in denim at both brands. I know you said not denim bottoms. I think we’re leading the charge, but curious specifically how denim has performed. And anything else you could share on the China business? Thanks.
Fran Horowitz: Let’s see, where should we start with that, Paul? I’ll start in the middle with the denim. So yes, we’re pleased with our denim business. But as I mentioned, bottoms is much, much bigger than denim is today. And we had for second quarter, a very strong bottoms business across brands and across genders. So we’re excited about what we’re seeing there. Within denim, there are things happening. She’s and he, are both responding to bag your fits and looser denim, the low rise is actually starting to emerge again. So there’s still things that are happening that are exciting, but we are really focused on the fact that bottoms are much more than denim today.
Scott Lipesky: Back to the beginning on the sales improvement, yes, we saw sales improve across brands each month as we went through the quarter at a nice start. It enabled us to take that outlook up for Q2 back sitting there in May, and then we saw some acceleration part of the reason for the outperformance in our second quarter. As we think about August, we haven’t given numbers and compare to Q2. But puts us in a position where we feel good enough to put an outlook out there for Q3 of up low-double-digits and then also raise our outlook for the year there to around 10% on the sales line. Last piece were thoughts on China. Again, I kind of said it a minute ago, but a small part of our business, we’re seeing ourselves — our brands get some share back.
It’s been a slow return for us coming out of COVID and many others. So we’re pleased with that business. Obviously, there’s a lot of headlines coming out of China, but all we can do is control what we can control, and that’s good balanced assortments, making sure our teams locally distort the assortments, make sure we’re setting it at the right times, make sure we’re performing well in all the digital platforms in that country, and we feel confident that we’re doing those things.
Paul Lejuez: Great. Thank you. Good luck.
Fran Horowitz: Thanks, Paul.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Janet Kloppenburg with JJK Research. Your line is open.
Janet Kloppenburg: Hi, everybody. Can you hear me?
Fran Horowitz: Yes, we can.
Janet Kloppenburg: Thank you. Congratulations to you all. Really nice performance and particularly thrilled to see Hollister inflect. Fran, if you could talk about the performance of Hollister in Europe, particularly and maybe distinguish for the U.K. market where there has been some turbulence and pull back on consumer spending more than expected. And the outlook for that to be sustained. As you said, the women’s is leading the charge like it did at Abercrombie when that turned. And I’m wondering how far behind men’s is? And just lastly, given the success at A&F brand, are there more opportunities for price increases going forward? Thank you.
Fran Horowitz: Okay. So let’s start at the top, Janet. So we’re excited to see the total Hollister business inflect this past quarter, and that’s inclusive of the EMEA market. We saw strength both in U.K. and in Germany, which is where the team was really specifically focused to make sure we turn those two first. I know you’ve been on this journey with us, but we have really evolved this regional operating model over time and put some significant talent in the offices both in London and in Shanghai, and we’re excited about them apply these new marketing techniques in those markets as well. So more to come there, but we’re happy to see the inflection in EMEA as well. I didn’t mean that men’s was far behind women’s in Hollister and Abercrombie.
What I meant was that when we start to see the businesses turn, we do normally see it turn first with women’s and we’re excited to see how well that’s now proceeded for Abercrombie our expectation is not to see that continue in guide for Hollister as well. And regarding the A&F more opportunity for price increases, the way that we’re thinking about it is that we are getting our product and our voice and experience lined up and the consumer is telling us that, because that the prices that we’re giving them, they are enjoying for a quality and value perspective. So we do have some of increased AUR planned for the back half. We came into the year really expecting to hold our AUR and really proud and pleased to see the progress that we’ve been able to make.
Scott Lipesky: Yes. One last thing on Abercrombie. We have no planned ticket increases as we go through the back half. We made some ticket increases in fall of last year, and those have kind of cycled through at this point for Abercrombie, the plan is about maybe mixing up the assortments. We continue to mix up that assortment, sweaters, jackets, I mean there’s many things that are working in that brand that were not working years and years ago. So it’s really excited to see that. And on top of that, being able to pull off some promotions, we still run promotions strategically and targeted. But if we can soften those a little bit here and there, then it gives us a chance to maybe take that AUR up a little bit more.
