Steve Silver: Good morning. Thanks, operator. And thanks for taking the questions. And congratulations on the new dividend policy, the underlying confidence in the business that must have helped inform that decision. I appreciate the color on the positive impact that the Merry Mission movie had across all the various touch points across the business. I am just curious as to whether there were any surprises or any unexpected lessons that you learned going through that process that you expect to now be able to leverage in future content projects.
Sharon Price John: Well, there is always things that we learn, particularly with a new initiative, when we – that was our first, as I mentioned, theatrical animated feature, and we made the decision to do that with Merry Mission because we had already enjoyed multiple years of success with these characters and the marketing of the storyline and already had an app, and we had a real sense of that this would be something that we would hope would resonate with guests. Additionally, because, and I mentioned it in the call the power of the Build-A-Bear brand, we were able to secure a talent level that would typically, I would think not be that normal for a “specialty retailer creating a film.” So from Chevy Chase to Julia Michaels, it was a – it’s a really fun adventure for moms and kids alike.
So we went into this with eyes wide open in terms of looking at it like we do so much of our content creation as a primary marketing tool, something to make it a center point of what we do, a reason to communicate and spread it across everything that we do to create a comprehensive impact on the guest. And so from what we learned, well, we didn’t expect that we would have a theatrical release that was not part of a thought process. But we were able to create a partnership with Cinemark early on for exclusive theatrical release in October and early November. And that was an interesting – we’ve never been a theatrical marketer before. So that was an interesting process for us. And we were pleased that people were willing to come out to theaters and see our film.
And we believe that we could actually next year, because what we’re trying to create, and I believe we have created is an evergreen concept that we don’t have to reinvent the marketing for the holidays every year. If you think about the longevity of holiday films that are targeted to kids, we will have a Merry Mission tradition marketing campaign next Christmas. And each year, I would hope that we would learn something and improve. And I expect that look [ph] to be the case next year as we look through our marketing programs, look through our communications, look through our content, and as well as the media plan on how we can elevate not just the Merry Mission program, which we shared was up significantly, but to raise the water level of everything that we do.
Steve Silver: Great. I appreciate the color and congratulations again.
Voin Todorovic: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Kanen with Kanen Wealth Management. Please proceed with your question.
David Kanen: Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is in the guide for 2024 mid-single digit growth. What is – it looks like if I back into it, you’re expecting same-store sales to decline for the year. Can you give me an approximation on that? Or please correct me if I’m wrong and you expect it to grow.
Voin Todorovic: I just think I answered that question just a minute ago, but I’ll go again through this exercise. So as we talked about the mid-single digit growth year-over-year in our guidance, that’s compared on an adjusted 52-week basis 22. And we expect our growth to come from the store base as well as from our e-comm base. In addition to that, we would expect to see growth from our base business as well. We haven’t quantified that growth and that number, but we expect to grow that portion of the business as well.
David Kanen: Okay. And then on e-commerce, I know it was down and the comparisons were more difficult. Do you expect in 2024 e-commerce to resume growth? And if so, is it similar to the overall guidance of mid-single digit?
Voin Todorovic: We haven’t specified specifically for e-comm, but again based on some of the challenges we have seen in 2023, we believe that that particular segment with all the digital transformation initiatives that we have in place should be growing at a faster pace than some of the other initiatives.
David Kanen: Okay. So are you thus far in 2024, have you seen the trends reverse to positive in e-commerce?
Voin Todorovic: Yes, we have.
David Kanen: Okay. Great. And then final question, I’m not sure if this is meaningful or not, but this new product, SKOOSHERZ, what’s that – I know there’s a lawsuit there and a claim that you’ve infringed upon them, but is it a meaningful product? I know it just launched. Was it a significant contributor to the quarter or it’s essentially de minimis. And therefore, even if you lose that, it’s not going to affect results. Any color you can provide there is appreciated.
