Chris Metz: Well, first of all, I like our position in retail. I mean, there’s elements I like and frankly there’s elements that I’d like to see us focus on more and then there’s elements that I’d like to see us, frankly, make some improvements on. I think overall, your point on inventory, we’re seeing the same thing. And it’s encouraging that when you look across the channels, inventory is frankly at — probably the best point I think we’ve been at in the last couple of years. And it’s evidenced by your inventory checks, but also open to buy dollars we see increasing in some of our key retailers. So that’s encouraging. Now you’ll see us continue to drive retail, but we want to do it strategically. We want to partner. Our first priority is to take the doors that we’re in and increase the performance within those doors.
Then secondly, we want to take those strategic customers that we are already partnered with and expand to other doors that make sense. And then a third priority would be looking at new customers, new doors that we think would attract our core consumer in different ways. Now you mentioned Target. And so Target was an initial test for us. And it was — first of all, the product was placed into Target. We didn’t have a lot of experience within Target. And I think it’s one of those strategic accounts for us that if we get the product mix right for that consumer that shops at Target, I think we can do very, very well. And so I think you’re going to be looking at potentially a different SKU assortment as we work with the buying group to make sure that we’re really, really targeted to the price point and the consumer that is looking for our product, particularly in holiday periods like Black Friday, Cyber Monday time of year.
Ryan Sigdahl: Great. Then just as you — the strategic review that’s going on, I guess, is a full sale of the company being considered within that? And then water sports, it doesn’t sound, or at least that’s my interpretation, as core to the business. So I guess any specific thoughts there on what your plans are?
Chris Metz: Well, as you might imagine, we don’t comment on things as it relates to sales or whatever. But I can tell you affirmatively, there’s no question that this company’s not for sale. The Board brought me in to take this iconic brand that’s got terrific consumer affinity and so many strong attributes. And they’ve given me a mandate to fix what needs to be fixed and put this company back on a growth track. Now, part of that in my early assessment is simply just taking the core businesses of Chubbies and Stove and saying these are two outstanding brands in of themselves that ought to have great growth going forward and ought to contribute meaningful valuation or value creation for our firm. It’s not to say that we’re not going to continue to support our water sports brands.
I didn’t want to make that — I didn’t comment on it because I didn’t want to say that that was the track we’re on. It’s just more that we’re focusing on the two big businesses where we think we can give investors the greatest return near term.
Ryan Sigdahl: For what it’s worth, we agree with that strategy. Thanks, Chris. Good luck, guys.
Chris Metz: Yeah, thank you.
Operator: The next question comes from Chasen Bender with Citi. Please go ahead.
Chasen Bender: Good morning. Thanks for taking the question and congrats on the new roles, all. Laura, maybe to loop you in here, I was hoping you could comment on the EBITDA guidance. Do you mind just unpacking the marketing compression? You noted the investments and process systems talent, but can you also talk about how you’re thinking about the magnitude of marketing spending from here beyond just the ways you’re spending?
Laura Coffey: Sure, and thanks for the question. As we said in our guidance and to start off with — when Chris and I sat down to do 2024 guidance, we took a very hard look from bottoms up, tops down, to build out sales and EBITDA to provide to you guys today. With the performance that we had in the fourth quarter, we knew we needed to act quickly and decisively on how to pull things together and look towards the rest of the year. So while we didn’t give full guidance for the year, we tried to give a little more color on the first quarter. With regards to marketing, we, as Chris said in our — in his remarks, we do have a contract that we are looking to exit. It’s not been efficient in how we’ve been spending our marketing dollars and we’re spending a lot of time making sure that we can unwrap that.
This year, we hope to be able to get back to a level of marketing that we know is efficient and creating a real ROAS return for us. We want to make sure that we make good investment decisions with marketing. And quite frankly, if I’m honest, quarter one, we’re still engaged with the firm that we don’t have effective marketing for ourselves. And so that’s why we’re having to act very quickly. We’ve got a new team in place that — this is their number one priority to get this back on track.
Chris Metz: And I’ll just add to Laura’s comments there and emphasize the fact that, we walked into the first quarter here that was, I wouldn’t say the first quarter is baked because we’ve been able to impact the quarter that we’re in, but not as much as you might expect. And so, Laura’s point on some of the continual marketing spend not as effective as we would like to see it, that’s an ongoing change here. So your question on marketing spend, I wouldn’t look to see marketing spend change versus historical rates. We’re just going to spend it more effectively in different channels and with more help.
