Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:GO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Charles Bracher: Hey, John. It’s Charles. Let me tackle the first part with respect to your question around ticket and the basket. Yeah, as I mentioned, really the comp headwind we saw in the third quarter, it impacted ticket, and specifically, it was lower units. So we are not having the normal sort of levels of inventory in stocks and variety as a result of the system transition was really the headwind there and would expect that continues to be the driver of the headwind in the fourth quarter. As I mentioned, a bigger comp impact because you have got the full three months, but do anticipate that that improves over the balance of the fourth quarter.

RJ Sheedy: And that’s really to the second part of your question. The customer experience has improved where we were a little bit lighter in inventory and variety impacting the basket. That has since improved quite a bit. And so still a little bit to go, but we feel really good about the inventory levels and what’s represented in the store now and so the experience is even better, and as you know, an important time of the year for us. And then, as far as clustering goes, yeah, that is our approach. We do try to cluster as best we can. Of course, you have real estate availability and timing that you can’t do it exactly to how you might draw it up from a brand awareness and support standpoint. But we think pretty close within the geographies that we are looking at.

We have our first store in Western Pennsylvania recently opened. So that will carry over now to Ohio, just across the border for our first store and so very close markets there. And then we are building the brand awareness, whether it’s in Maryland or New Jersey, as we continue to infill there and so while these are different markets, still trying to stay more concentrated rather than opening a store in Florida or opening a store in Texas or where have to be really, really spread far apart. So we do try to follow that clustering strategy as part of our real estate growth strategy.

John Heinbockel: All right. Thank you.

Charles Bracher: Thanks, John.

RJ Sheedy: Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Mark Carden with UBS. Please proceed.

Mark Carden: Good afternoon. Thanks so much for taking my questions. So you guys talked about strength continuing in the closeout market. How is the product pipeline shaping up relative to what you have seen in the past few quarters and then for how long would you expect the CPG innovation-related opportunities remain elevated going forward?

RJ Sheedy: The pipeline continues to be really strong, Mark. It has been the case throughout the year. I’d say consistent where we are, well, third quarter and then where we are in the fourth quarter here, consistent with the strength that we have seen throughout the year, meaning it’s broad across categories, it’s broad across suppliers, there continues to be a lot of positive momentum in terms of the breadth and the depth of the lists that we are seeing. And you asked about innovation. Innovation is one of several trends that continue to benefit surplus supply in our business. First, I’d say, forecasting continues to be really hard. That’s been true throughout. I think it continues to be a challenge for suppliers and any time there are these imbalances that yield surplus inventory.

Innovation, as you noted, that has increased new items, new brand extensions, brand label changes, as consumer preferences or changes, innovation goes along with that. I see that continuing well in front of us and so that’s a positive trend for us. And then just changes in the assortment more generally, there’s been a lot of that and anticipate that to continue as well. So no reason for us to think, we certainly haven’t seen any signs of that slowing down and we expect that strength to continue into next year.

Mark Carden: Great. Thanks so much. Good luck.

RJ Sheedy: Thanks, Mark.

Operator: The next question comes from Corey Tarlowe with Jefferies. Please proceed.