JOANN Inc. (NASDAQ:JOAN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Scott Sekella: Yes. So we will provide more color on fiscal 2024 on our next call. But like I said, we do plan to end the year around the mid-900s. And with the cash generation that we are planning from the Focus, Simplify grow, from the working capital initiatives and the capital expenditures, just to name a few, we do expect to pay down debt in fiscal 2024, but not ready to give more color on exactly how much, but I do expect it to come down in fiscal 2024.

Cristina Fernandez: Okay. Thank you. And one last one. What would it take to reinstate the dividend?

Wade Miquelon: I think part of what little bit more visible on where the world is going, right? When you look at the pace of increases of rates about the fastest in 30 or 40 years, when you look at the inflation, which I believe is turning is the warmest turn for our inputs. It’s also, I think, turning for the consumer. I just take a little bit of time to just make sure we understand where the world is going. I mean we didn’t take it lightly. But on the other hand, we absolutely want to be ahead of it and drive cash relentlessly just to make sure that we can weather any storm if, in fact, there is a storm. But there is a lot of uncertainty out in the world. I actually have said this many times, I’ll say it again, but worst thing for our business is stagflation, which I think relative to our business, that’s where we’ve been stuck to last year.

I take a recession over stagflation because a consumer being squeezed and inflation from all angles is a much tougher picture than having inflation down and have some compression on growth. So not that, that recession is the fact of certainty either, but I think we just want to make sure that we are doing everything possible to strengthen the balance sheet, generate as much cash as we can to also invest in the core initiatives. We talked a little about the Blue Oceans. We’ve got an incredible opportunity there, our omni business is actually very, very strong and getting the underpinning engine here running is going to open up a lot of opportunity. Our core customer proposition is pretty strong too, and we will be at the first quarter cycling what was a really tough 2-year comp.

So I think we’ll start to gain some momentum there, too. But we just want to make sure we don’t get put into a position where, again, with rising rates, inflation, consumer squeeze everything where we don’t have room to invest in the things that are going to make us great longer term as well. So I don’t know I’ve answered your question, but I think it’s just over the next year, let’s just see where the macro environment unfolds. But we are going to and hope for the best here.

Cristina Fernandez: Okay. Thank you and good luck with holiday season.

Wade Miquelon: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question will be from with Beach Point Capital. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. First, do you guys have any sense of how your market share is trending versus your peers?

Wade Miquelon: We have several ways we triangulate. As you know, these are very fragmented industries, there’s no clear read. From everything we can gather, we’ve held our own across the board kind of everywhere with a few core categories, we think we’ve actually built up some meaningful share. I’m not going to comment on what those are. but we are pretty certain that we haven’t given anything up.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. And in terms of inventory, do you have a sense for — like how do you feel about your current inventory levels? Do you guys feel that there will be any need to sort of go deeper into promotions to reduce inventory? And do you have a sense of that — if you’re in the same situation as your competitor is there?