Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Kelly Crago: Got it. And just 2 quick follow-ups. Just on the strength you’re seeing in AMS. Just curious if you could maybe talk more about the new customers you bring to the fold and some of the new categories that the customer is giving you permission to offer. And just what gives you confidence that you can comp the comp at AMS next year? And then just on cash uses, any thoughts on share repos, given the significant cash you’ll likely generate in the fourth quarter?

Fran Horowitz : Okay. I’ll take that one. So as I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago, so we have really expanded Abercrombie to be a lifestyle brand, and that has for us the opportunity to add many new categories, things that we never were able to sell in the past. Non-denim bottoms is one particular one. I mean our pant business is very strong, both in men’s and women’s. There’s a lot of fashion have today in that category. And he and she continued to choose that category. They can wear that for many different wearing occasions, and that’s also a big win for us. So expanding the addressable market as far as who’s buying from us, late teens early 20s all the way up to 40 plus. We’re seeing a very varied customer in our stores, which is super exciting.

As far as franchises go, we just talked a little bit about YPB, our best dressed guest business is also very good. Our fleece and licensing business has been very strong. So we continue to learn lots about what the customer is looking for and continue to offer that to them.

Scott Lipesky: On the cash piece, yes, so great to see the cash flow generation this year, $350 million of operating cash flow through the first 9 months. As the business and profitability has improved inventory is obviously nice and lean. We’re seeing that cash flow come in. We did put $50 million to work. We bought in some of those high-yield bonds this quarter, $50 million there. So exciting to put that cash to work. Going forward, it’s really the same story we’ve talked about over the past couple of years. We’re going to look at debt and share repurchases, our main ways to put excess cash to work.

Operator: And our next question coming from the line Janet Kloppenburg with JJK Research Associates, Inc.

Janet Kloppenburg: Congratulations from really exciting results and trends. It’s just thrilling to see this come back. couple of questions, Fran. On Hollister MEMS, do you look for that momentum to pick up, just as we look out, I’m not talking about any particular time frame, but given what you see in the merchandising execution going forward and the opportunities that you appreciate. And then for Scott, when we think about the AUC opportunity, should we think about that building starting in the fourth quarter and then going through fiscal ’24, like each quarter consecutively better as you sell through higher cost goods? I just want to understand about how we should think about that. And for Scott as well, when the freight benefits might start to wane.

Fran Horowitz : Thanks, Dan. We’ll start with Hollister Guys. So it’s exciting to see the progress in the entire brand, right? The second quarter of growth and as you know, led by the girls business, which is exactly the same pattern that we saw when we turned the A&F business. But what’s good today though is that our supply chain and our ability to chase is back in the business, and that is really the win for us. So for Hollister guys, we’re going category by category. We’re testing. We’re learning. We’re chasing after those opportunities. So we saw progress in non-denim bottoms in fleece and sweaters. Those categories we expect to continue into the fourth quarter, and we’re going to go category by category as we head into ’24 and continue to put test out our turn and drive that business.

Scott Lipesky: Yes. On the AUC piece, Jane, so as we think about — we’ll continue to see freight benefits here in Q4. And like I said, cotton and raw materials, just a little bit of a hurt here and then turning into a tailwind next year. I’m not going to break apart or 2024 in a big way, but we talked about freight being kind of a first half Q1 benefit tailwind coming into 2024. And then on the cotton side, we’ll talk more about that on the Q4 call.

Operator: And our next question coming from the line of Dylan Carden with William Blair.

Dylan Carden: I just have 2. The first is just kind of trying to get a sense of particularly on the A&F brand, how many remodels repositionings that you feel you have left in the time frame we might expect that rollout?

Scott Lipesky: Yes. On that one, Dylan. We have some opportunities left. And we’ve actually made a lot of progress on the A&F fleet, and it was really through the closures that we did back in 2020. We closed a bunch of those legacy oversized Abercrombie stores, and we’ve just come back to those markets with newer, leaner, more modernized stores. So we’ve made good progress there. So we have some more remodels left Yes, we do, but not in a huge way. The path to the future for Abercrombie is really about opening new stores in markets where we don’t have a presence. We’ve talked about these neighborhood stores and street stores that are a new thing for Abercrombie and we’re probably about 8 or 10 in at this point, and there’s a nice opportunity heading forward in that regard.