And we’ve got some awesome styles that we didn’t talk about in prepared remarks, whether it’s the Agility Peak 5 or the new Morphlite, those are phenomenal products getting great reviews right now online. And we’re seeing good sell throughs. And we have to extend into lifestyle specifically for her too [ph]. And that’s why we’re encouraged by the wrapped collection, which we sort of previewed to all of you back at ICR in January. We’ve continued to see really strong sell throughs. Really, every time we deliver it, it sells out extraordinary quickly with very little marketing support. So our ability to really embrace that franchise, begin to market that franchise and extend beyond just that core silhouette is going to be important.
So the wrap is a great shoe. It’s visually disruptive. It’s got a great fit and it’s amazingly versatile, which is where I think the sweet spot is for Merrell when I think about just beyond core hike. So I’m encouraged by what the team is doing. We’ve got a new Chief Marketing Officer in place. We sat through product meetings with them and demand creation meetings with them, and I like the plans. The good things await campaign just dropped a lot of impressions, a lot of really positive reaction to that as well. So certainly Merrell’s not out of the woods and there is pressure in outdoor, but I do think we’re doing the right things to get that brand stabilized and get that brand growing again.
Jonathan Komp: Great. Thanks again.
Chris Hufnagel: Thanks, Jon.
Mike Stornant: Thanks, Jon.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Mauricio Serna with UBS. Please…
Mauricio Serna: Hi. Yes, good morning and thanks for taking my questions. Maybe if you could provide more details about the DTC performance. I see in the release you mentioned the ongoing DTC revenue was down 6%. How does that compare to the previous quarter? And maybe on inventory, great progress that we’ve seen over the last couple of quarters. But it sounds like there’s still maybe like some work that you’re still very focused on that. So maybe could you talk about – are there like maybe pocket of inventory that you still need to work through or what is exactly the state and composition of the inventory? Thank you so much.
Chris Hufnagel: Thanks for the question. I’ll let Mike to take the last two. I’ll just talk about DTC inflection. And when we talk about proof points and we talk about what we’re trying to go do, certainly we look at the DTC business every hour as we get reads and how we’re performing day to day, week to week. I would say first and foremost, we’re trying to tell better stories online and trying to present our brands better and be less promotional. And we have seen us be less promotional [indiscernible] which is important for the health of our brands and how our brands are perceived and consumers perceptions of our brands and marketplace perceptions of our brand. So we’ve worked to be less promotional, which is paying off in the margin piece.
And then from an improvement standpoint, we were down mid-teens in the fourth quarter and down, I think, around 6% in the first quarter. And we’ve actually sort of inflected the growth turn to growth in March, and then that has continued into April. So we’re encouraged by that. Obviously, newness drives the business and then really compelling engagement with our consumers. And when we drop new products in Saucony, it’s the Endorphin 4, the Triumph 22, Merrell, it’s – either it’s work around the Moab Speed 2 or the Agility Peak 5, or the wrap collection, or even some of the one TRL stuff continues to have momentum. And then Sweaty Betty, which we haven’t talked about yet today, really good continued innovation out of that Sweaty Betty team and really telling amazing stories with the Wear the Damn Shorts campaign, which I personally love.
And it’s just so on brand for who Sweaty Betty is and the consumers that they talk to. So I would say we’re encouraged by the progress we’ve made in DTC. We’re encouraged by how we have sort of stemmed those – stem that contraction, and now we’re beginning to see growth. I’m also proud of how we’ve done it. Again, less promotional, telling better stories, but really dropping new and innovative products at a consistent drumbeat, which is what we know works in the marketplace. So again, not declaring victory by any stretch of the imagination. But I do think we are seeing early proof points that our strategy and execution are gaining traction.
Mauricio Serna: On the inventory…
Mike Stornant: Yes.
Mauricio Serna: Yes. Go ahead. Sorry.
Mike Stornant: Mauricio, on the inventory question, I would say just continued progress. We ended the quarter ahead of where we had hoped and kind of planned for combination of really strong selling on high quality product and just a better kind of more rigorous planning and management process there. And as we said in our guidance, expect to drive inventories down even further this year. Another $75 million year-over-year as a result of just being able to focus on some specific core areas and be rational about when we’re going to sell that off and the phasing of, but see line of sight to being able to accomplish that, obviously. And updated our guidance to actually improve on that number a little bit here since February. So we see the quality of the inventory improving across the board. It’s not where we need it to be, which is why we’re calling out the $75 million of opportunity. But overall, the progress being made so far is ahead of schedule.
Mauricio Serna: Understood. And then just a quick follow-up on SG&A. I think I just want to make sure I understood. I think you mentioned SG&A dollars second half should be like fairly similar to first half, is that right? And from a – like you said – should that be more like weighted to Q3 or Q4 if I think about that?
Mike Stornant: Well, we’re not giving quarterly guidance on the back half yet, but just thought it would be helpful to kind of give some perspective on both the margin expectations for the back half of the year. Pretty much in line with what we’ve experienced so far in the Q1, plus the guidance we gave for Q2 and then similar sort of directional guidance on the SG&A for the full half of the year. So again, we did call out, Mauricio, that we expect sequential improvement in revenue every quarter with growth in the fourth quarter. So that might help your model a little bit.
Mauricio Serna: Thank you. Super helpful.
Chris Hufnagel: Thanks, Mauricio.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Group. Please go ahead.
Dana Telsey: Good morning. Good morning, Chris and Mike. And Mike, best of luck in your next. Wanted to touch on, first of all, as you think about pricing and promotions, how are you thinking about the environment today? How has it changed and what are you expecting going forward on the wholesale order book and channels, the distribution there? Seeing anything different from different types of accounts by brand? And then lastly, Chris, with the transformation work that’s been underway, where are you on the progress organizationally in getting it to where you want it to be, whether like in headquarters or how you’re thinking about it with efficiencies? Thank you.
Chris Hufnagel: Yes, good question. All good questions. Dana, thank you very much. I’ll hit the last one first, and then we’ll come back to the earlier ones. Wolverine has gone through a lot in the last nine months. Obviously, we had a CEO transition last August, and we really focused very quickly to stabilize the business and restructure the business, which we needed to go do. We have completed a lot of those efforts, but a lot of those efforts are still, we’re still working our way through. I would say right now we’re in the middle of moving our distribution center, closing distribution center in Louisville and moving that product to our California distribution center. That takes a lot of work. We’re working on moving our [indiscernible] teammates, the Saucony team to Michigan, and having that team sort of reside here.
