Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Chip Bergh: Yes. And I may be forgetting the second of the three part question, but the mass channel is soft. And I think softer in general and the balance of wholesale — balance of wholesale also includes Amazon, which is pretty strong right now. But our value brands, and I would say, in general, the mass consumer overall is under pretty tough economically challenged, I guess, and you saw that in their last results, their last quarter. So — but that is an in signature, which sell in that channel, respectively, is down double digits. We do have Levi’s of target. And I would say Levi’s of Target is performing roughly in line with how Levi’s is performing elsewhere in the wholesale channel. And that’s, I think, collectively, our focus with Target is how do we continue to expand on the success that we’ve had over the last several years with the Levi’s of Target.

And I think over time, we’re going to the trading out floor space for Denison for more floor space for Levi’s. Did you have one other question?

Harmit Singh: And Dana, your question was, I think, on marketing?

Dana Telsey: Exactly.

Harmit Singh: Yes. So in the first half, we spent more than a year ago because of the 501 campaign that fell in H1, in the second half it will be a little less and then we are adjusting our marketing expenses depending on which part of the world is working on hard. And so, overall, our marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue is slightly lower than a year ago.

Chip Bergh: Yes. And just, I mean, to be blunt, in the U.S., where U.S. wholesale is down, below our plan, we’ve had to cut advertising expenses in the second half. We did have the 501 campaign globally. Our spending was front loaded this year. And so, we have had to scale back a little bit in the second half just to kind of balance the books and keep our spending as a percentage of revenue, roughly in line with what we guided originally. But in total dollars, the spending is coming down in the second half, reflecting the softer outlook that we have on the top line.

Dana Telsey: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Laurent Vasilescu of BNP Paribas.

Laurent Vasilescu: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking my question. Harmit, Chip, could you hear me?

Chip Bergh: Yes, we can.

Laurent Vasilescu: Fantastic. Thank you very much for taking my question. Just two questions, two follow-ups, One on Ike’s question. Harmit, last quarter you gave us a very helpful bridge around the gross margin, noting product cost was a 20 bps headwind. Promotionality was about 300 bps. Maybe you can you just — for the audience, can you maybe parse that out for the second quarter? And how much are you expecting in terms of promotions for the second half of the year? And then a separate question, great to hear on China that is back to pre-COVID level. Maybe Harmit, could you give a little bit of color on just what you’re seeing in China? Are seeing sequential improvement every month in that marketplace?

Harmit Singh: Yes. So I’ll quickly help answer both. So H2, in my prepared remarks, I mentioned gross margin versus last year flat to slightly up. The — relative to a year ago. So I’d say pricing 70 basis points to 80 basis points, adversely impacting. So a year ago, COGS second half really offsetting that. So that’s largely flat. I mean, that’s broadly — there’s a little bit of airfreight, which is a tailwind. But broadly, that’s what’s really driving between the two factors, pricing and the COGS benefit. And the COGS benefit is less in Q3, more in Q4. So we exit the year with a higher COGS benefit that obviously rolls into 2024. To your question in China. Michelle, Chip and I, along with our teams were recently in China.