Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE:WWW) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And so they — as they see opportunities to open up some more stores in the U.K. market, that helps their overall profitability. A lot of their bottom line will depend on currency and how that moves. But we have a three year plan to get them to much more profitable than they are today. Part of that is just utilizing some of the Wolverine opportunities and synergies and some of it is just some of the new tactics they’re putting in place.

Mike Stornant: Last part of your question, Jon, was just on kind of criteria. We still, as we said, right, Sperry is in that turnaround mode and that recovery mode right now. And the focus is to get first to a more stable and healthy business from a contribution — profit contribution standpoint. And then the future is about the credibility, viability of the growth potential of the brand. So I think the moves we made with Keds and Hush Puppies were certainly the step in the right direction, as we were focusing on those types of improvements in the portfolio, and we’re going to continue to use a similar criteria for the future.

Jonathan Komp: Okay. Thanks again.

Operator: Our next question comes from Sam Poser with William Trading.

Sam Poser: Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a handful of — last.

Brendan Hoffman: Prioritize the top two, Sam.

Sam Poser: All right. So you mentioned that you would return to normal inventory levels in the third quarter. Can you define what you’re going to regard as normal? Number one.

Mike Stornant: Sure. No, I think that by Q3, we would expect inventories to improve by another $150 million in that regard. Obviously, part of that is from the end-of-life product that we’re moving through in the first half of the year. A big portion of that is a reduction in just intake of core franchises that we’ve reduced in the supply chain and the sourcing network this year. So I think good visibility to being able to achieve that, Sam. And get the inventories down to a level where we are supporting direct to consumer as that grows more prominently in the mix of our revenue in our channels and supporting the forward coverage growth of our brands. So — are we down to an optimal level by the end of Q3? Probably not, but I think normalized level. Certainly, as it relates to end-of-life product, we’ll be in a much healthier and more normal position by the end of Q3.

Brendan Hoffman: The other thing I just want to say, we talked about last time, one of the big goals of the 100-day action plan was to reduce the grid lock in our warehouses, given all this excess inventory. And team has done an unbelievable job putting in new processes and procedures that have allowed us to despite the inventory levels get close to a normal flow to service our customer. And I think that’s going to pay huge dividends when we do get the inventory down to be much more leaner and efficient in the way we’re able to service the customer. Go ahead, Sam, with next.

Sam Poser: Well, okay, just — well, I don’t know which one to do here. Would you consider — I mean, I think you alluded to the fact that ICR that — I think somebody asked you — if given an appropriate offer, would you sell Sperry? And two, you just — what forward weeks of supply would be optimum for you from an inventory perspective? Just as a follow-up to the other thing.