Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

But we feel very good about our forecast. We feel like we factored in a lot of potential downside impact and left a lot of room for upside on top of our forecast if we’re able to hit on all our strategic initiatives. I don’t know if you want to add anything there about — I called out — or I answered a previous question about some of the things versus Q3 and Q4 that are going to drive that and give us confidence in that I don’t know if you’ve got follow-up questions on those items, I would call those items out. It’s being the primary drivers of kind of the Q3, Q4 cadence.

Olivia Tong : Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Peter Grom with UBS. Please proceed.

Peter Grom: Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone. So I apologize if I missed this, Brian, in your remarks. But is the expectation for full year gross margin to still be around this 48%. And if so, can you maybe speak to the phasing from a gross margin perspective given the more challenged 3Q outlook? And I guess what I’m really trying to get at here is if that’s still the expectation that it’s more weighted to the fourth quarter, which seems to be the case given the change in the outlook in terms of phasing, like how does that inform your view on the gross margin potential for the business as you look out to fiscal 2025, particularly as Pegasus savings continue to build?

Brian Grass: Yes. Good question. We are seeing the — that will end the year with a slightly lower gross profit margin implied in our original guidance. And — but that’s really just from shift — margin mix shift in revenue impacts that are going on. So nothing structural that we’re concerned about and no concerns about fiscal year 2025. So structurally, we still have the ability to elevate our gross profit margin and achieve kind of what we’ve talked about through Pegasus and see that impact through into fiscal year 2025 and we’re still realizing the freight and commodity savings in the second half of fiscal year 2024. The — I’ll call it, one percentage point decrease in our full year gross profit margin expectation is really due to shifts in margin mix within our portfolio.

Julien Mininberg: Peter, no impact on our continued confidence that we can build it from there because of your comment about Pegasus. So as Pegasus has ramped, remember, 60% of the Pegasus savings are coming from cost of goods related work stream projects. As Noel reinforced in her comments about Pegasus is nicely on track. So with 60% of such a big number, which is Pegasus published target falling into COGS, it’s — we feel confident to say that not only will we keep the base gross margin gains that are reiterated now or can be used now for gross margin fiscal 2024 but build from there in fiscal 2025, 2026, et cetera.

Noel Geoffroy: And still have reinvestment opportunities.

Julien Mininberg: Yes. In fact, even more reinvestment opportunity because of the fuel from Pegasus and not to get into our Investor Day now, but there’s a very positive dynamic. Imagine more dollars coming in resulting in a higher gross margin than even the gains for this fiscal year, fueled by Pegasus, which also fuels the further reinvestment, which also fuels more growth, we start being at the idea not only of a flywheel, but have a higher sustained gross margin going forward.

Brian Grass: Peter, you asked a question about cadence. So I would say, roughly speaking, if you want a platform off of Q2, maybe 0.5 percentage point around that in Q3 and then 1.5%, maybe a little bit higher in Q4, that’s kind of the cadence of the increase in gross profit for the remainder of the year.

Peter Grom: Thanks. Just one clarification on that. So the 50 basis points versus Q2, so call it [indiscernible] is the 150 basis points relative to Q3. Or is it relative to the Q2 number, just so I’m clear.