Earnings Call Transcript - BBWI Q3 2022

Operator, Operator

Good morning. My name is Danielle, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Bath & Body Works Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Wendy Arlin, Chief Financial Officer at Bath & Body Works. Wendy, you may begin.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thank you, Danielle. Good morning, and welcome to Bath & Body Works Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call for the period ended October 29, 2022. As a matter of formality, any forward-looking statements we may make today are subject to our safe harbor statement found in our SEC filings and in our press releases. Joining me on the call today are Executive Chair of the Board and Interim CEO, Sarah Nash; and Brand President, Julie Rosen. All of the results we discuss today are adjusted and exclude the charges related to the early extinguishment of debt in 2021. Additionally, the results represent results from continuing operations and exclude the discontinued operations related to Victoria's Secret. I will now turn the call over to Sarah.

Sarah Nash, Interim CEO

Thanks, Wendy, and thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. Let's start with our third quarter results. We are pleased to have delivered EPS of $0.40, double the high end of our guidance range. Given the strong bottom line results, we are raising our full year EPS guidance to $3 to $3.20 from our prior guidance range of $2.70 to $3. Our sales for the quarter were at the high end of our expectations and reflected our team's closeness to our customer, our focus on innovation and newness, and our success in leveraging our vertically-integrated supply chain to chase key winners. Our nationwide launch of our loyalty program has been a great success. We achieved industry-leading speed in customer adoption in our program with over 21 million members enrolled to date. Loyalty members now make up more than 1/3 of our overall customer base and loyalty sales represent about 2/3 of our total U.S. sales since the launch. We are excited about the potential of this program as our loyalty customers spend more, visit us more, and have significantly higher retention rates than those not in the program. We continue to take rigorous actions to improve profitability, including proactively revisiting our promotions and pricing plans, as well as product costing to improve merchandise margins. Additionally, we are actively working with our vendor base to streamline operations to combat inflationary pressures and improve product cost without compromising our focus on quality. We have also implemented several expense reduction actions during the quarter, including optimization of corporate overhead and store selling expenses. We will continue our focus in this area given the challenging business environment. Before I turn it back to Wendy, I'd like to share my perspective on our recent CEO announcement and the company's overall positioning. Our Board was very thoughtful as we conducted the search for our next CEO. We were delighted that we found in Gina, the global omnichannel personal care company leader that we were looking for. Gina brings more than 30 years of experience, including leadership roles at global companies such as Unilever, Alberto-Culver Company, and the Estee Lauder Companies. She has deep expertise in sales, marketing, brand building, and business development and strategy, along with strong operational experience and a demonstrated track record of delivering successful business outcomes. The Board is confident Gina is the right leader to drive the company's next chapter of growth across our channels and categories globally while delivering enhanced value for shareholders. During my time as interim CEO, I have been impressed by the talent and dedication of the Bath & Body Works team. I'd like to thank the company's management team and all our associates for their commitment to driving innovation and agility and to enhancing our customers' experience. I am confident that Bath & Body Works will continue to capitalize on our tremendous potential to expand our brand globally. Wendy?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thank you, Sarah. I will be providing financial highlights, but I encourage you to review our slides, posted remarks, and press release, which each contain additional details. For the third quarter, as Sarah said, we reported EPS of $0.40. These better-than-expected results compared to our guidance of $0.10 to $0.20 per share were driven primarily by a better margin rate due principally to category mix and transportation expense favorability, together with SG&A expense favorability. In U.S. and Canada stores, third quarter sales were $1.18 billion, a decrease of $60 million or 5% compared to last year. Sales were up $306 million or 35% compared to 2019. Third quarter direct sales were $345 million, a decrease of $24 million or 6% compared to 2021. Customers continue to choose our omni-focused option of buy online, pick up in store or BOPIS. We ended the third quarter with BOPIS availability in more than 1,280 stores. Our international business sales for the third quarter were $81 million, an increase of 10% compared to last year. Our international business continues to perform consistent with expectations. Our third quarter recognized revenues were negatively impacted by timing shifts related to product shipments. Now to guidance for the remainder of the year. For the fourth quarter of 2022, we expect sales to decrease between mid-single digits to low double digits compared to 2021 sales of $3.027 billion. We are forecasting fourth quarter EPS to be between $1.45 and $1.65 per share. For the full year, we are forecasting sales to be down mid-single digits compared to $7.9 billion in 2021. Our full year guidance contemplates inflationary costs, totaling $220 million to $230 million and the estimated revenue deferral impact from the loyalty program rollout of approximately $40 million. Now on to the balance sheet. Total inventories ended the quarter up 10% compared to last year, better than expectations. Finished goods retail units were up 7% compared to last year, in line with expectations. The difference between dollar growth and unit growth is due primarily to inflationary pressures and product costs, partially offset by lower component inventory compared to last year. The finished goods unit increase relates to categories that were very lean last year, particularly soaps and body care. We are confident that our inventory is well positioned to support a strong holiday season. We believe our guidance reflects a disciplined expense and inventory management approach in light of the dynamic operating environment. At the same time, we continue to be strategic about the investments we make to support the growth of the business, including investments in products, technology, and omni capabilities. I will now turn the call over to Julie.

Julie Rosen, Brand President

Thank you, Wendy. For the third quarter, we saw customers responding well to our iconic fall scents in multiple forms of fragrances and packaging. Our top fragrances such as Leaves, Pumpkin Pecan Waffles, and Sweater Weather in multiple categories in forms continue to be a unique point of differentiation for the brand. Our men's business continued to significantly outpace the shop as we test new forms and merchandising ideas to further fuel this growing business, including through the launch of Leather and Brandy and Coffee and Whiskey. In the fourth quarter, we launched AfterDark, a new single fragrance for the men's business. Soap also continued to perform well, outpacing the shop as we continue to expand our new formulation that is made without parabens, sulfates, or dyes. Our relaunch of Gel soap has been performing very well, and we see opportunities for meaningful growth through this format. As expected, we continue to see a shift out of our sanitizer business, which accelerated during the pandemic. Body Care also outpaced the shop in the third quarter, and our fragrance kit had a strong quarter that was bolstered by our new fragrance Fall and Bloom that met the customer mindset during this time of year. As part of our effort to focus on customers and deliver on innovation and newness, we started aluminum vessels and soaps this past quarter and expect to begin testing cartons that will enable our customers to refill their soap containers in 2023. In men's, we introduced Antiperspirant Deodorant, which is already in 650 stores and will roll to the balance of the chain in spring of 2023. We also recently launched a test of Mask, our new line of face and hair care products and dietary supplements, online and in 11 stores. We're in the early stages of this launch, and we are listening and learning. This is always an exciting time of year; we have a mix of returning holiday favorites and new giftable offerings. As an affordable luxury brand, we have gifts at all price points. As we further expand our loyalty program and introduce compelling new product assortments, we are confident that we will continue to deepen our relationships with our existing customers and attract new customers to our brand. With that, I'll turn it back to you, Wendy.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thanks, Julie. That concludes our prepared comments. At this time, we'd be happy to take any questions you may have.

Operator, Operator

Today, we are going to go to about 9:45.

Jay Sole, Analyst

Great. Could you just talk about how the sales trended through the quarter? And what you're seeing here in November? A lot of other companies have talked about a big slowdown in traffic in the last 2 weeks of October and beginning of November. Can you just talk about what you've seen and sort of what's implied to the guidance for Q4?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Sure. Thanks, Jay. Yes, as we look back on Q3, what we saw during the course of the quarter was that the customer really did respond to promotions. On the days that we were incrementally promotional year-over-year, where we had sharp price points or compelling deals, those days outperformed. And on the days that we were flat last year or less promotional, those days underperformed. So for us, the story of the quarter was really promotion and meeting the customer where their mindset is. Clearly, the customer is very price sensitive. And we saw that. We had planned for it, and we're planning for that in Q4 as well. So in terms of November, our guidance incorporates what we're seeing month to date, and we are prepared to be very sharp and have deals that resonate with our customers during the all-important fourth quarter.

Korinne Wolfmeyer, Analyst

Congrats on the quarter. So I'd just like to ask a little bit on what you're seeing in terms of input costs? I mean that's been a pretty hot topic this quarter for a lot of players, especially within the fragrance category. Can you just talk about any kind of challenges or headwinds you're seeing and how you're combating that?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Sure. Thanks, Korinne, for your question. Yes, as we've talked about in the last several calls, input costs, in particular, in raw materials for us continue to be a challenge. The markets are volatile. They continue to be very elevated in pricing compared to pre-pandemic. And so it continues to be a pressure point for us. Just over 50% of our inflation pressures that we've quantified are raw materials. It continues to be a pressure point. We have seen a little bit of green shoots in candle wax, but I would describe it as modest, and our other input costs continue to be challenged. Now that being said, we're working with our suppliers to mitigate those price increases. We're looking at opportunities to be smart and how to manage product costs, and we're looking for value engineering opportunities as well to mitigate those prices, but the raw materials continue to be a pressure point for us in our business.

Olivia Tong Cheang, Analyst

I wanted to ask about the loyalty members who now make up one-third of your customer base. Could you provide some insight into whether you believe there are specific income levels associated with them or how much more they are purchasing? It seems like having one-third of your member base accounting for two-thirds of sales indicates a significant difference in their purchasing levels compared to the other two-thirds. Additionally, if I may ask one more question regarding SG&A performance this quarter, how does that affect your views on the pace of improvement for fiscal '23? You mentioned some expenses were higher in the second half last quarter, so I’m curious about what exceeded your expectations. I assume that wage inflation and some home-related expenses aligned with what you anticipated.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Great. Thanks, Olivia. We will go to Julie for loyalty, and then I'll take SG&A.

Julie Rosen, Brand President

Yes. So for our loyalty program, we are absolutely thrilled with the program. We're pleased with enrollment and engagement, evidenced by our 65% total company sales. I think it's important to remember, as Sarah mentioned, that our loyalty customers have a higher retention rate, higher spend, visit more often, and are more cross-category consumers than non-loyalty members. One thing that's very exciting about our loyalty program is that we have exceptional mass rates on member data collection. This will enable us to help identify trends and changes in customer behavior, and this data will help us enhance the effectiveness of our marketing. It will also help us create a more meaningful personalized experience that fosters brand connection and captures share of wallet. We have plans in the future to continue to evolve the program to further drive membership and spend.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thanks, Julie. On the SG&A, so a couple of comments on SG&A. Our SG&A rate has increased compared to last year, which, of course, I know you saw in the numbers. I break down the rate increase compared to last year. About 2/3 of it was home office and about 1/3 of it was in our store selling cost structure. Maybe to start with stores, we made a very planned and thoughtful investment in our store associates as we went into this time period. We did increase wage rates for our store associates, including a premium for the fall season. What we've discovered is that investment has been very successful. Our stores are fully staffed. We had success recruiting. So we're very confident that that investment will pay off as we go into Q4 because we have great store associates hired, and we are ready to go. In terms of the other increase year-over-year, it is home office. As I've talked about, we continue to make investments there as well. So we're in the process of investing in technology to separate from Victoria's Secret. We've also invested in our home office folks as well. In terms of the favorability to the beginning of the quarter, I would say two things are driving it. Number one, as we emphasized in our prepared remarks, we continue to try to manage expenses thoughtfully and frugally during this quarter. We are being very thoughtful about where we spend our money, just given the macro environment out there. So we did see some expense favorability across the board. The other thing that did come in favorable this quarter is our technology spend was favorable to plan. We're just seeing a little bit of a ramp-up; the ramp-up in terms of the work on separation occurred a little bit slower than what we expected, but that's going well, but it did result in some expense favorability compared to beginning of quarter expectations.

Jesse Sobelson, Analyst

This is Jesse Sobelson on for Ike. We were just curious for an update on the profitability algorithm with your business. Is it realistic to assume the company could return to its low to mid-20s margin goal next fiscal year?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thanks, Jess, for your question. So I would tell you a couple of things. Number one is you will definitely hear from us in terms of guidance for next year in February. We are thoughtfully considering our plans for next year. In terms of things that we're focused on that will impact how we think about our long-range planning, two major things come to mind, actually three. Number one, as I answered earlier, inflation and cost pressures still do exist in our business. We're working to mitigate those, but those still exist as we turn the calendar into 2023. Number two, we do want to be thoughtful on our promotional approach as we go into 2023. The customer is extremely price sensitive right now, and we want to be mindful of that and thoughtful about how we price our products in this tough environment. The third point is we are investing in technology. Right now, we're focused on separation. But as we look beyond separation, we see a lot of ways that we can improve our customer experience, and we're thinking about how we want to do that and what investments we make there. So more to come when we talk to you in February. And right now, we are focused on winning at Christmas. So we will work as hard as we can to deliver successful Q4.

Paul Lejuez, Analyst

I just want to go back to the loyalty program for a second. I'm curious if what you're seeing is when you have a customer, are you seeing that customer actually spend more than they did previously? Or is it more that the folks that are signing up just happen to be your higher-spending customers? I'm curious if you have any data that might show that once you get somebody kind of over that line that they increased their spending, anything you could provide there?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Sure. We've just launched nationwide in the U.S. in August, but we had conducted a meaningful test before that. The results of our test indicated that loyalty customers spend more and visit us more frequently when adjusted for deciles. This means it wasn't only looking at our most loyal customers but rather assessing spending behavior across different levels. The program proved effective during the testing phase in encouraging increased spending and more frequent visits. While we're still in the early stages of the nationwide rollout, we are very optimistic about the long-term benefits of this program. The levels of engagement we've observed are very encouraging, and we are excited about the potential impact of the loyalty program on our business in the future.

Paul Lejuez, Analyst

Any quantification of the lift?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Right, we have seen a lift. Like I said, it's very early. We just launched in August. So more to come, but we have seen positive results from the program.

Jonna Kim, Analyst

Congrats on the quarter. Just wanted to get a little bit more color around your newer categories. It seems like the men's category is doing well and you launched Moxy, which is focused on skin care and hair care. Curious on your strategies going forward and just would love more of your thoughts around some marketing initiatives you have around the holiday season around these categories.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Great. We will go to Julie.

Julie Rosen, Brand President

Yes. So as far as the men's business goes, I know we have said before on these calls that we believe we can more than double our men's business. Based on our market data, we continue to increase market share at an accelerated rate, and we are absolutely thrilled with those results. Men's continues to significantly outpace our shop. We launched Leather and Brandy and Coffee and Whiskey this quarter. They absolutely exceeded our expectations. The men's business also continues to be our fastest-growing category in total body care. We continue to test new forms and merchandising ideas to fuel the business. For instance, as we mentioned, we have been testing Antiperspirant Deodorant in about 650 stores, and we are thrilled to be rolling this out to all stores in spring. Just as a side note, Antiperspirant Deodorant is the #1 form in the men's market. We know to double this business and grow market share, we're going to have to own this form. We've also been doing a lot of tests in men's. We have some expanded shop-in-shop tests. We have some tests that are just marketing tests. We are testing not only in products but merchandising and placement. The goal of these tests is to raise awareness with our current customers as well as to gain new customers. So we are very bullish and excited about this business and think it's a great opportunity. As far as MOXY goes, I would say that the assortment is still flowing on site, and again, as we mentioned, it's only in 11 stores. So we are right now just learning and listening. So more to come on that.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

She asked us about marketing initiatives holiday, anything on holiday approach.

Julie Rosen, Brand President

Yes, you will see marketing initiatives around men's. It's an incredibly important business for us, particularly in the fourth quarter because we sell a lot of gifts. We sell gifts at multiple price points. We will have gift sets in men's. We also launched for the first time this Q4, our first single fragrance launch in men's After Dark. So we're very, very excited about that. You will see some MOXY marketing, but this is our most important quarter of the year, and we are really buckling down and focusing first and foremost on delivering our core business and learning and listening from MOXY.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Yes. And Jonna, the only other thing I would add as we go into Q4 is we are really excited about our gifting offerings for men. We know gifting is a huge part of Q4, and we have really been thoughtful about our price points on gifting and showing gifts for everybody at every price point. We think we're well-positioned to win in the gifting time of the year.

Julie Rosen, Brand President

Just to add on, gifting did outperform the shop in Q3 as well. So it really bodes well for Q4. We offer gifts at a range of price points and, quite frankly, we believe all of our products are gifts here at Bath & Body Works. So we are excited about that.

Lorraine Maikis, Analyst

I just wanted to follow up on Paul's question about the loyalty program. From the other end, the cost side. I know there was a margin impact this quarter as you deferred some revenue and profits. But as you think forward, does the cost of the loyalty program change the earnings algorithm or margin targets in any meaningful way?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Yes. Thanks for your question, Lorraine. So the program does have a cost, as you can imagine. The program design has a reward aspect to it, where when a customer hits a $100 threshold, they earn a reward. The program also has a birthday component to it and a welcome offer component to it. So those elements of the program do add cost. It is under a point, which is good, and we think it's margin accretive in terms of dollars because, as I said earlier, we know those customers spend more and visit us more often. We do see future opportunities to reduce CRM and direct mail in the future to partially offset the cost of this program. At the end of the day, we feel that although there is a cost, this program is definitely accretive to the business. The other thing I would say is, as we look in the future down the road, we know that we have great data in this program. As Julie mentioned earlier, we have full access to this data, and we know that once we have the data, we'll be able to deliver better personalized and individual marketing, which we believe will be much more effective as we really learn to use that data effectively.

Alexandra Straton, Analyst

Congrats on a great quarter. I think some of the script last night mentioned that you all adjusted the pricing architecture for the consumer being more price-sensitive. Perhaps you could just elaborate on what you did and how you're thinking about that heading into the holiday? And then just one other one for me is on inventory. You had a great deceleration this quarter from last quarter's levels, but it sounds like you expect that to tick up a little bit next quarter. Could you just talk to us about what's driving that uptick?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thank you, Alex, for your questions. I will address them in reverse order, starting with inventory and then touching on pricing before handing it over to Julie for more on pricing. Regarding inventory, we are very pleased with our current status and believe we are well-positioned for a strong fourth quarter. As we mentioned in the previous call, we entered the season with a clean slate, which is critical for us. We have confidence in our inventory position. As noted, our inventory consists of finished goods available for sale, as well as components that are yet to be produced, such as pumps and soap. The primary factor that impacted our third-quarter dollar figure was a significant decrease in our components, largely due to our elevated in-transit inventory from the previous year, which contributed to the lower percentage. Our guidance for the fourth quarter reflects a more normalized assumption regarding componentry, suggesting an increase to the mid-teens. This is not an issue of inventory levels rising; rather, it’s related to the components and our anniversary periods. As we look towards year-end, we are intensely focused on finishing the season clean. Our goal, as indicated in our prepared remarks, is to end with unit sales flat compared to last year. We will exert our efforts on maximizing sales during the crucial holiday period, utilizing our semiannual sale to achieve a clean end to the season. We recognize that starting 2023 on a strong footing relies on closing the season cleanly. In terms of pricing, as highlighted in our comments, we took a more promotional approach in the third quarter compared to last year and plan to continue this strategy into the fourth quarter. We observed that consumers are very price-sensitive at the moment, and our plans are aligned to cater to their preferences, both in the third and fourth quarters.

Julie Rosen, Brand President

So from a pricing and promotion-related question, as we enter this holiday season, we are absolutely confident in our strategy to read and react with agility and speed. Our operating model really enables us to effectively manage pricing and promotions to meet the customer mindset and drive profitability. So we are taking a very strategic lens to our pricing architecture currently. As we've all been saying, the customer is very price sensitive to higher prices. So we are slowly and methodically raising prices in a way that doesn't impact our customers very dramatically, such as reevaluating some of our everyday deals and also increasing prices in our better-for-you formulas. We continue to use our robust testing agenda to see where we can raise prices and help to build the basket.

Warren Cheng, Analyst

I wanted to ask about the Q4 seasonality of your business and whether that's changed since 2019. So if I run the Q4 sales guidance through my model, it's a slight deceleration on a one-year trend, but it's a pretty significant deceleration if I look at it on a three-year stack and assume that 2018 and 2019 are more representative of normal seasonality. So just wanted to ask if there's any change in that seasonality versus pre-pandemic or anything unusual about this year that you would call out?

Wendy Arlin, CFO

I wouldn't say there is anything unusual about this year. What is notable is that our growth during the pandemic was accelerated and quite strong. Over the past two years, that growth has varied significantly as stores reopened during certain periods and we navigated various restrictions. If you compare our business pre-pandemic to now, the seasonality tends to be generally consistent.

Matthew Boss, Analyst

Great. So Wendy, a number of moving parts in this year's P&L. I guess, is there a way to help quantify the costs that you see as more one-time or more contained to this year? If we think about CEO transition, separation costs versus maybe the IT investments in SG&A, and we have the elevated transportation and the loyalty deferral. Again, I'm just trying to see if there's any way you can help to provide maybe as it relates to how we think about opportunity into next year versus costs or investments that you see as ongoing? Any help would be great.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Sure. Well, I wish I had perfect visibility to next year, but I'll try to help you out as much as I can. You heard my conversation a few minutes ago on raw materials. I'm just kind of working my way down the P&L. Raw materials, like I said, continue to be challenging, and it's a volatile market. As I said, we will continue to try and mitigate those costs as best we can. Transportation, we are seeing some favorability in transportation. I'm optimistic that will continue into 2023. But TBD on that, we are seeing some signs that transportation is peaking and potentially will abate in 2023. You mentioned IT. So you have quantified the IT investments. The thing as we look forward to IT spend, we are currently focused on separation. That work will continue this year into next, with the separation being finalized in 2023. We are working on a roadmap beyond separation. Right now, we're spending money on separation, but we really want to be thoughtful about our technology spend. We see many areas of opportunity where we can make investments in the customer experience, omni capabilities, or in our loyalty program, or in POS at stores. We see areas in the business where we can use technology to improve our customer experience. So we're working on road maps and thinking about that currently. When we get to February, we'll give a little bit more color on how we're thinking about spending money in technology, but that will be an area we want to continue to invest because, at the end of the day, we want to continue to grow this company. You mentioned loyalty. I would say the loyalty program will peak its impact essentially in Q4 in terms of that deferred revenue impact that we've talked about. Once we lap the program in the summer of next year, you won't see that impact. A lot of our contract structures are people-driven. In SG&A, about 2/3 of our SG&A expenses are stores. We want to continue to pay the wages that are appropriate to attract great talent. That's been a dynamic space, and we continue to think about what wage rates are appropriate. That's not just true for stores but for home office as well, just given the current environment we're in. We'll continue to make the investments in our people as appropriate in the current environment. We have quantified in past calls that we do have some retention that will come off starting next year. We also have some CEO transition costs, which will go away in 2023. So lots of moving pieces, and it's a dynamic environment. We are committed to trying to manage expenses as frugally and smartly as we can. We will be back to you in February with a lot more information and guidance as we think about 2023.

Janet Kloppenburg, Analyst

And congratulations on the progress. A couple of quick questions. Last year in the fourth quarter, the semiannual sale, I believe, did not meet your expectations. Perhaps you could talk about what's embedded in guidance this year and what some of the opportunities might be year-over-year in terms of promotions and content, etc. And just on the men's business, nice rollout. I noticed that perhaps the Cologne ASP is higher on average versus women's. I wondered if you could talk about that opportunity.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thanks, Janet. Julie?

Julie Rosen, Brand President

Yes. As far as the sale goes this year, it will not be quite as long as last year. We have tightened that up. We know that our customer response to newness, so we have a different flow strategy this year to drop small amounts of newness throughout January to offset sales. We also are committed to having clean units at the end of the year. So we are highly cognizant of what we bought for sale and using our agile supply chain to ensure that we're not overbought and that we end clean. So I think we're very confident that our sale will be short, sweet, and get us with clean inventory. The men's cologne is slightly higher than the women's. It's definitely something that we're looking at. I would say that both of those forms have been performing incredibly well for us, and we do not promote them; they are so comfortable. The designs are just so beautiful that our customers come back season after season to get the new one and almost keep them. They're very counter-proud. We'll continue to look at that. But our single fragrance launches have just been such a great success for us over the last few quarters, which is why we launched After Dark for men in Q4.

Operator, Operator

I think we have time for one more question.

Marni Shapiro, Analyst

Congratulations on a great quarter and the launch of MOXY. I wanted to ask you about MOXY's development timeline and the associated costs. How should we think about its future? Specifically, what are your marketing plans for this brand? Will the marketing costs be allocated through BBW, or will it be treated as a separate entity? Is there potential for third-party sales? I'm interested in your broader perspective and the financial outlook for this product.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Okay. Yes, I'll take the question on the finances, and then I'll turn it over to Julie on the MOXY launch and rollout. So, Marni, this company has a long history of innovation and product development, not just in MOXY, but you've seen it in our ongoing assortment. Product development is always built into our margin structure. We spend money on it every quarter, not just in MOXY, but across the balance of the assortment as well. We know that the key to success is not just newness in something like MOXY, but you'll continue even in 2023 to see new and exciting things coming out of our core business. So all of that is embedded in our existing cost structure. Julie?

Julie Rosen, Brand President

Yes. Marni, one thing to say about MOXY is this is our first foray in a very long time into what we call 'above the neck.' Bath & Body Works has always been below the neck, so we are really learning a lot about face and hair and supplements. We will be delivering body care in MOXY in the new year. Right now, the strategy is to focus on our channels, stores, and website. That is not to say that won't change in the future. We are open to all different ways of growth. We just want to pace ourselves. I know I've said it three times now, but we really do want to be in a listening and learning mode so that we do this in a very thoughtful way. You will see more marketing of MOXY after Christmas. But it is too important this quarter; we don't want to take our eye off the ball and get distracted by the new thing. One other thing to say is we have our own Instagram account for MOXY, and we're trying some different things there. I think we will continue to learn and refine. So there are so many opportunities for these brands and ways to go out and attract new customers, and we will be really starting to focus on them come January.

Wendy Arlin, CFO

Thank you, Marni, and thank you, everybody, for your continuing interest in Bath & Body Works. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

That concludes today's conference. Thank you all for participating. You may disconnect at this time.