Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Eva Boratto: No. Mark, we’re pleased that we’re roughly flat in the fourth quarter. Obviously, it’s our largest sales quarter. And from a cost perspective, scaling that new customer fulfillment center, of course helps with the leverage. And we’ll have more specifics as we head into next year.

Gina Boswell: Thank you for the question.

Heather Hollander: Thanks, Mark. Operator, I think we have time for one more question.

Operator: Thank you. Our last question is from Dana Telsey with The Telsey Group. Please proceed with your question.

Dana Telsey: Hi. Good morning, everyone. As you think about the performance in the third quarter, the off-mall locations versus on-mall, was there any difference in terms of cadence or what you saw there? And then, hi, Julie. As you think about the new launches that you have and the new product assortment, any thoughts on 2024 and what the launches will look like? And the launches that you introduced this year, how are prices, would you say, on average versus your core product? Thank you.

Gina Boswell: Thank you, Dana. I’ll go to Julie for both those questions on the mall, as well as the new product assortment.

Julie Rosen: Hi, Dana. Nice to hear your voice. So, as far as the performance of mall versus non-mall, off-malls outperformed mall stores. And just for a little more color, performance between the regions and the income cohorts were relatively uniform. As far as the new launches, they’re all at various stages of rollout. So, as Gina mentioned, hair is in about 30% of our stores. We will complete the North American rollout of hair in spring. Laundry is in a small group of stores. We’re looking to roll that. We’ll let you know at the next earnings call how many stores we actually make it to with laundry. We’re just in the midst of testing, optimizing, and rolling, as we don’t want to disappoint any customers. And it’s the same with lip.

We have this new lip fixture and a new lip assortment that we’ve been testing in a small group of stores. And performance has been threefold off of those fixtures. So, we’re very excited about that. We have a lip ritual, which is a scrub, mask, tint, and we are seeing both with lip and hair, that they’re garnering a younger customer. So, we do think that 2024 has an opportunity to really go after these launches, roll them out. And to your point about AUR, gain the most AUR from the new categories that we possibly can.

Eva Boratto: And Julie, I’d just like to come back to real estate a little more broadly, as you talked about off-mall. And Dana, just remind you that our long-term strategy is focused on off-mall. Our goal is to be about two thirds of the portfolio. And our new stores continue to perform extremely well. We have strong returns. Our payback remains about two years. And our real estate team has just been doing a tremendous job on an excellent real estate portfolio.

Dana Telsey: Thank you.

Heather Hollander: Thanks, Dana, and thank you, everyone. That concludes today’s call. I want to thank you for joining us and extend our best wishes for the holiday season.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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