Torrid Holdings Inc. (NYSE:CURV) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Tim Martin: Yes. I think we look at sort of the biggest – the best bank for our buck and that’s always going to be managing inventory and how we buy, rank and sell through the product. That’s always going to be the biggest contribution to profitability and growth of this business. I think overall, we’re also going to dig into every aspect within SG&A. We’re going to look at how we staff our stores, how we’re compensating our store associates. How efficient we can be in the distribution center and how we can drive efficiencies to leverage SG&A – the lowest possible sales volume as possible. So, we’re taking a look at pretty much everything, how we buy bags in stores, how we’re doing distribution of store supplies. Basically, everything and anything that is driving cost in the organization or causing inflationary cost pressure we’re going to take a look at.

Corey Tarlowe: Great that’s very helpful. Thank you very much and best of luck.

Tim Martin: Sure.

Lisa Harper: Thanks.

Operator: Our next question is from Jonna Kim with TD Cowen. Please proceed.

Jonna Kim: Thank you for taking my question. Just curious what you’re assuming in terms of the promotional environment in your guidance? And also, as you continue to open new stores, have you noticed any difference in the store ramp and performance of your new stores versus historical levels? And how do you think about store productivity as you continue to open stores? Thank you.

Lisa Harper: Right, so as we considered this year, we realized we were coming off of a very aggressive promotional environment due to the inventory scenario that we had at the company. So, we’re taking a measured approach. We don’t think we can just pull the rug out from under the customer that we have to be compelling from a promotional story, but we’re also focused on mitigating that over time with smaller events and more margin-rich events as we move forward. And then again, of course, inventory management will help control that promotional environment as well. So we’re focused on all of those, things. We don’t have – we haven’t opened a lot of stores in the last four years. So COVID to now, we really haven’t been opening a lot of stores.

The stores that we are opening and the performance that we’re seeing for new stores are very, very healthy. Our ramps, we basically don’t have a ramp. Our ramp is very, very fast on stores. And our new – of the limited number of new stores that we’ve opened, they are hitting or beating their pro forma. So we’re happy with that.

Jonna Kim: Got it, thank you.

Lisa Harper: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Don Carden with William Blair. Please proceed.

Dylan Carden: Thanks. I guess a sign-up on that one on the promo, I mean, I kind of understand that, but there’s a lot of margin to put back into the business for just stabilizing gross margin from a promotional standpoint? I mean what’s the risk that you kind of after two years, did that customer fully used to a more promotional business like you?

Lisa Harper: So we’re pulling back this year, to be clear. What I said is we’re pulling back and being more, I would say, surgical amounted and that because we don’t have an inventory issue that we are not, having to be highly promotional. The other thing that’s going to make a difference for us as we move forward is really fundamentally how we by product, by channel, how we rank product and using all the analytics that we have at our disposal to make better inventory investment choices based on customer behavior. So the quality of the inventory and the channel assortment of the inventory, the overall investment, combined with much more surgical promotional cadence is a combination of how we see moving forward. So we think we’ll have a level of recovery this year, and then we should be back next year in due time to some historical merch margins.