As we mentioned in the remarks, holiday for us on hair tools in particular was softer than we anticipated, and it really kind of came down to that category of the $199 and less not performing as well in the holiday period. In terms of what it’s going to take, it’s going to take–it’s really the fundamentals. It’s really making sure that we’ve got great innovation that addresses consumers’ needs, whether it’s their pain points or whether it’s the opportunity to save them time, get a better result, etc., and the right claims and marketing to reach them when and where they’re most receptive. That’s certainly part of the activity and plan that our team has as we move forward into fiscal ’25, to continue to do that. We’ve done that very well in the past – you know, Volumizer was a ringing success for us from an innovation standpoint, so we know how to do it, we know how to understand consumers’ needs and build those opportunities, and that’s exactly what the team is focused on doing.
Linda Bolton Weiser: Thanks. Then I just wanted to ask – I mean, you talked quite a bit about the flu season and everything, but certainly in China, they’re going through a first post-COVID flu season, so it’s been very severe in China. I understand–you mentioned in the past, your Braun thermometers do very well online in China. Is that a source of strength right now? Are you seeing growth in that part of your portfolio?
Noel Geoffroy: We are, Linda. You’re exactly right – we are seeing higher level of illness in China right now and our Braun business, which is quite developed outside of the U.S. in both Europe and Asia, and we are growing very nicely in the absolute based on just the trends that you’re calling out, as well as our share performance is growing in that part of the business. An interesting phenomenon that we’re seeing over there is during COVID, there was a really big run-up in the no-touch portion of thermometers. At that point, people were really kind of looking to get whatever thermometer they could, and a lot of no-touch thermometers were sold. Since the pandemic has ended, consumers there have kind of come to the realization that they’re a lot less accurate than the ear thermometers are, and we’re seeing a lot of backlash on that as we monitor social media and we monitor ratings and reviews, etc.
They’re really coming to the ear thermometer driven by the accuracy, and then you layer on top of that the strength of the Braun brand and the trust that consumers have in it, it’s really making for a winning combination. That’s a bright spot for sure in the business.
Linda Bolton Weiser: Thanks, and then just my last question is on Hydro Flask. What is the root of why it is performing so much better online than in brick and mortar? Then finally, I just want to say farewell as well to Julien – Julien, it’s been a pleasure working with you, I’ve learned so much, and best of luck with everything.
Julien Mininberg: Thank you Linda.
Noel Geoffroy: On Hydro Flask, here’s what I would say. I mean, I think one of the reasons I think it performed better online than in brick and mortar is that the whole holiday trend went to online more than brick and mortar. We were looking at some syndicated studies, etc., and you really see brick and mortar traffic over the holidays down overall, and down more in December than it was in November, so I think this was a holiday season that really skewed more online than in brick and mortar in most categories and in most cases. Then as I mentioned, this was a place that we leaned into – you know, the travel tumbler did well, we continue to see that shift from bottles to tumblers, and so that was an area that we really leaned into, both with retail partners online but also on our own D2C site, we saw really significant increases in the personalization over the holiday period on Hydro Flask. I think those extra offerings really made the online side of it perform well.
Linda Bolton Weiser: Thank you.
Noel Geoffroy: You’re welcome.
Operator: Our next questions are from the line of Susan Anderson with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your questions.
Alec Legg: Hi, good morning – Alec Legg on for Susan. First, we just wanted to share our congratulations as well to Julien on all of your successful work and your long career at Helen. Noel, we’re also very excited to see you execute the next step of Helen of Troy’s story. My question, just on the gross margins in the quarter and longer term, for this quarter, how much was driven by lower inbound freight versus the SKU rationalization, and then looking forward, how should we expect gross margins to play out between the two buckets? Thank you.
Brian Grass: Yes, we’ve not really broken out or parsed out publicly the specific impacts from SKU-rat versus the other, some of the other factors, but there is meaningful impact year over year, starting to get less and less as we anniversary quarters of inbound freight reductions, so I would say more pronounced at the beginning of the year on that and then becoming less and less over the course of the year, so probably still meaningful but less meaningful than it had been, maybe in Q1 and Q2. SKU-rat, very meaningful impact that we expect to continue to do in smaller degrees as we go forward. This was kind of a fresh look at it as we went through Project Pegasus, so I don’t want people to expect the kind of revenue impact that we had going into this year from it, but we did that because we could get the meaningful profit impact that you’re now seeing in gross profit margins, so we felt like the juice was worth the squeeze.
