Rustin Welton: Yeah, I’m not going to get into guiding the specific weeks of supply, but I think you’re hitting on the right point, Sam, which is, as Tom sort of indicated, we’re trying to make sure that we’re balancing servicing the €“ the needs in the US market. Again, that’s where the bulk of the inventory sits, with also reducing from these elevated inventory levels where we’re currently sitting at. So we intend to continue to see that sequential improvement on that year-on-year growth as we move forward throughout 2023.
Sam Poser: And the inventory €“ and the wholesale, the unwillingness of retailers to, I guess, write fill-in orders based on the demand. Is that a result of their overall inventory, not necessarily yours, or are they heavy with you, right, with Lee Wrangler in the US? Are they heavy there, or is this €“ were overstocked in prime pants and we can’t fill in denim.
Rustin Welton: Yes. I won’t comment on the specific retailers’ inventories. But I think Scott hit it well earlier, Sam, in his prepared remarks, where you kind of talked a little bit about there are times where you get disconnects between POS and shipments. But really, the brands here are really focused on the POS. And as Tom indicated, and Chris indicated in their remarks, really making sure that we’re focused on delivering that compelling product and that great consumer value that we’re known for and making sure that we’re selling through a POS. And over time, as you have that strong POS certainly, the shipments catch up and come better in balance, but that’s what we’re seeing at the moment.
Scott Baxter: Thanks, Sam.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Jim Duffy with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Jim Duffy: Thank you. I’m going to start, with a follow-up to Sam’s question. Just look at POS trends at retail, certainly, that’s the most important thing. But for us as investors, we’re very curious where inventory stands in the channel specific to the US market, can you represent where your inventory position and maybe it’d be weak inventory on hand relative to more typical levels or something like that to give us a view?
Scott Baxter: Well, I would say, Jim, that we haven’t really gone ahead and published that or talked about that in specifics. But what I would tell you, Jim, is that we are very contentious. We’re working really hard on our inventory. I think we’ve been upfront about the fact that we weren’t happy with it the last couple of quarters, and we’ve been very serious about getting that down. It’s been a full attack here from a company-wide standpoint, and we’re going to continue to do that. One of the things that I’m fairly happy with is, as you know, our inventory is pretty good, right? So our inventory sells and owning our own manufacturing facilities allows us to go ahead and make and continue to make good inventory. But we have a really good plan in place €“ from a retailer perspective, we just can’t comment.
I don’t know, what they’re going to do or how they’re going to behave and react. But we’re going to continue to go ahead and put good demand creation platforms together, continue to make sure that we’re doing all the things that we can to control our business in both the digital and our owned retail standpoint, and with our wholesale customers and making sure that we put ourselves in a position to win.
Rustin Welton: And Jim, it’s Rustin. I would add a little bit just €“ certainly, the US retailer inventory rebalancing that took place in Q2 and Q3 has been well chronicled. And certainly, again, we’re focusing on sell-through, not shipments. But I do think there’s a couple of important points to sort of call out. So in terms of shipments or sell-in, there was quarter-to-quarter volatility in 2022 based on the retailer actions, particularly in Q2 and Q3 again, but I think focusing on the full year is really important. So in 2022, our US wholesale business was up 11% over 2021 with both Wrangler and Lee posting double-digit growth. So again, you may have some near-term fluctuations between POS and shipments. But clearly, we’re confident in our strategies and the investments in the brands are working. And I think you’ve seen that retail inventories have come down from where they peaked earlier in the year.
