Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

That’s true, actually, not just for stores. That’s true for home office as well, just given the current environment we are in. So, we will continue to make the investments in our people as appropriate in the current environment. We have quantified on past calls, as you know that we do have some retention that will €“ that is one-time that will come off starting next year. And then we do have some CEO transition costs, which will go away in 2023. So, lots of moving pieces and it’s a very dynamic environment. We are committed to trying to manage expenses as frugally and as smartly as we can. And we will be back to you in February with a lot more information and guidance as we think about 2023. Thanks. Next question please.

Operator: Our next question comes from Janet Kloppenburg with JJK Research Associates. Your line is now open.

Janet Kloppenburg: Hello and congratulations on the progress. A couple of quick questions. Last year in the fourth quarter, the semi-annual sale, I believe did not meet your expectations. Perhaps you could talk about what’s embedded in guidance this year and what some of the opportunities might be year-over-year in terms of promotions and content, etcetera. And just on the men’s business, nice rollout. I noticed that perhaps the Cologne ASP is higher on average versus women’s. And I wondered if you could talk about that opportunity. Thank you.

Wendy Arlin: Thanks Janet. Julie?

Julie Rosen: Yes As far as the sale goes this year, it will not be quite as long as last year. We have tightened that up. We know that our customer response to newness. So, we have a different flow strategy this year to throughout January, be dropping in small drops of newness to offset sales. We also are committed to having clean units at the end of the year. So, we are highly cognizant of what we bought for sale and using our agile supply chain to ensure that we are not overbought and that we end clean. So, I think we are very confident that our sale will be short, sweet and get us to clean inventory. The men’s Cologne is slightly higher than the women’s. It’s definitely something that we are looking at. And I would say that both of those forms have been performing incredibly well for us, and we do not promote them.

They are so comfortable. The designs are just so beautiful that our customer comes back season-after-season to get the new one and almost keep them. They are very counter proud. So, we will continue to look at that. But our single-fragrance launches have just been such a great success for us over the last few quarters, which is why we launched After Dark for men in Q4…

Janet Kloppenburg: Packaging is beautiful, really beautiful, Julie.

Julie Rosen: Thank you.

Wendy Arlin: Daniel, I think we have time for one more question.

Operator: Our final question comes from Marni Shapiro with Retail Tracker. Your line is now open.

Marni Shapiro: Hey guys. Congratulations on a great quarter and the launch of MOXY. I actually wanted to ask you a little bit about MOXY. I guess how long has it been in development, what costs were associated with it? And is that embedded €“ it’s obviously been going? And how should we think about that going forward? And specifically, what are you doing about marketing this brand will it be pushed through? I know it’s tiny, but will it be pushed with the marketing costs be pushed through BBW, or are you thinking as a separate entity? Like could it be sold third-party? Just where is your bigger picture head about this? And then what do the finances look like?