On Holding AG (NYSE:ONON) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Alexandra Straton: Okay. Look forward to hearing more at the Investor Day. Thanks, guys.

Operator: And your next question comes from the line of Jay Sol from UBS. Your line is open.

Jay Sole: Great. Thank you so much. I want to ask about the stores, given the performance of the stores that you’ve opened in the last couple of quarters, how has it changed your confidence about opening more stores? And what are your plans for store openings over the rest of this fiscal year and even into next year, if you can share that with us?

David Allemann: Thank you for the question, Jay. So we are very — we already spoke about in Q1 and we continue to be very pleased on the retail performance, the On store performance. We’re able to attract and ignite and inspire new consumers, bring them into our On environment, which really helps, for example, the apparel share, because they can experience the brand in the full depth. So we right now, basically globally, On has seven stores, the next ones without China, so outside of China, the next openings are planned for Miami, Paris, and we’re relocating Portland. Austin should come pretty soon. So we’re really gaining confidence in the model. We’re seeing the impact that it has on the consumer. And we will provide a more detailed update on the store outlook and the retail outlook at the Investor Day and how we continue to build On’s own spaces.

Jay Sole: Great. And maybe if I can follow up with one more just on inventory. If you can elaborate a little bit more about the inventory, because the growth rate really improved a lot sequentially from the last quarter to this quarter. Can you just talk about your comfort with the inventory level and when you see the inventory level getting back in line with the sales growth rate, or at least to a level that you feel like is appropriate?

David Allemann: Yeah. So we’re really impressed with the work that the team is doing, also in collaboration with our factory partners who show a lot of flexibility, and we were able to decrease our inventory level compared to the last quarter. You have seen the numbers. So as communicated in the past towards the year end, we are aspiring to foresee that our inventory levels will be somewhere between our year-end 2022 and our Q1 number. We also shared that our aspiration at the current growth rate is to land at around 30% of net sales when it comes to our working capital. And now that we increased our guidance further, that would be equivalent to around CHF460 million of inventory. So basically right in line with the expectation that we gave.

Very importantly, we are very happy with our in-channel inventory. So the inventory that is our wholesale partners. In the US, we are generally between three to four months of inventory. In Europe, even below three months. So we have a very healthy channel. Our inventory in our own warehouse is still fresh and is in line and will allow us to continue selling at a high full price share also in the remaining part of the year.

Jay Sole: Got it. Thank you so much.

Operator: And your next question comes from a line of Olivia Townsend from JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Olivia Townsend: Hi everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. My first one is just on current trading. And you sort of alluded that trends have been quite encouraging as you’ve headed into Q3. I’m just wondering if you could put any numbers around that as to how you see the new guidance for H2 splitting between Q3 and Q4? And then just secondly, on the inventory point, could you just give us an idea as well of like how the aging looks versus what you would normally expect? What kind of effects or ASP impact you’re seeing in those numbers as well? That would be very helpful. Thank you.