Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BOOT) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jeremy Hamblin: Thanks. So I was going to ask about store growth. You’ve exceeded expectations in an environment where a lot of other retailers had to reduce their unit growth guidance. As we look ahead beyond FY ’23, do you see kind of that continuation of 13%, 14%? It almost feels like you’re stepping on the gas a little bit more. Any color you might be able to share at this point in time? I’m sure that you have a lot of leases signed already for FY ’24. But any additional color you might be able to share on that at this point.

JimConroy: Sure. Well, I think you’re alluding to a lot of companies are calling out supply chain challenges, permitting challenges, et cetera. And the honest answer is we are feeling many of those same challenges. The real estate team has done a really nice job of just casting a wider net, so we can continue to have a very healthy new store pipeline. So while we don’t have intentions of guiding next year, we’ve been opening up double-digit stores in terms of store count every quarter now for several quarters in a row. We thought we would get 40 stores this year. We’ll get more than that. So next year, I think it would be surprising if we didn’t guide 40 or 45 or 50 stores for fiscal ’24. And we’ll face into some of those challenges that the whole retail industry is facing, at least those that are growing stores.

But we’ve, I think, very strategically and carefully made sure that there’s enough stores in the pipeline that we can continue the pace that we’re going. So I think it’s a momentum that will continue as we look forward for at least the next few years.

Jeremy Hamblin: Okay. And then I’m going to avoid gross margin inventory questions and switch gears to SG&A. So I just wanted to understand. As we look back, as you point out, total sales growth since pre-COVID December quarter. As I look at your SG&A rate, 22.4% in the quarter, it was 21.9% back three years ago with a much lower sales base. Just wanted to get a sense for — I might think that given that massive amount of total sales growth that you’d see a little bit of leverage. But can you help us talk through and think through the puts and takes on that 50 basis points of deleverage over that 3-year period?

Jim Watkins: Sure. I think as we’ve level set the business and we’ve — yes, I think as we move forward and we get to the fiscal ’24 guidance and lay that out, I think we can probably build a little bit better bridge on what this new level of business and a normalized year looks like going forward, Jeremy. I think there are some variable costs in there that will continue to rise with sales, and that’s marketing and store labor. And so we’ll continue to have those. And then there’s some other things that we’ve done. We’ve had one hurdle this year is just around the inflation around the supply that we have at the stores. And so getting that through the system. Hopefully, those costs come down over time. But we have had some inflationary pressures.

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