Birkenstock Holding plc (BIRK) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Birkin Stock's first quarter and fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press start, want to raise your hand. The company allocated 45 minutes in total to this conference call. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded. I now turn the call over to Megan Kulik, Director of Investor Relations.

Hello, and thank you everyone for joining us today. On the call are Oliver Reichert, Director of Birkenstock Holding PLC and Chief Executive Officer of Birkenstock Group, and Evitza Krolos, Chief Financial Officer of Birkenstock Group. Alexander Hoff, VP of Global Finance, will join us for Q&A. As a reminder, we pre-announced certain first quarter results in conjunction with our Capital Markets Day on January 28th. On this occasion, we took a deep dive into our business model and our growth strategy for the next three years, combined with a Q&A session, which covered a wide variety of topics. For those of you who are not able to attend our Capital Markets Day or follow it via live stream, the presentation materials and replay are available on our investor relations website at Birkenstock-Volding.com. Today, we are reporting the financial results for our fiscal first quarter ended December 31st, 2025. You may find the press release and a supplemental presentation connected to today's discussion on our Investor Relations website at Birkenstock-Holding.com. Results have also been filed on Form 6K with the SEC. We would like to remind you that some of the information provided during this call is forward-looking and accordingly is subject to the safe harbor provisions of federal securities laws. These statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks, uncertainties, and assumptions are detailed in this morning's press release, as well as in our filings with the SEC, which can be found on our website. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. We will reference certain non-IFRS financial information. We use non-IFRS measures as we believe they represent the operational performance and underlying results of our business more accurately. The presentation of this non-IFRS financial information is not intended to be considered by itself or as a substitute for financial information prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS. Reconciliations of non-IFRS measures to IFRS measures can be found in this morning's press release and in our SEC filings. Now, I'll turn it over to Oliver.

Good morning, everybody. It was great seeing you in New York two weeks ago. Just to recap some key points from the day. We believe we are one of a kind, purpose-driven brand with a huge runway ahead. Our unique business model is designed to deliver resilience with sustained long-term top-line growth, industry-leading margins, and a strong free cash flow. over the next three years we expect to continue to deliver 13 to 15 percent top line growth in constant currency and 30 percent plus EBITDA margins in an environment that has substantially changed since our IPO why are we so confident in our growth potential our total addressable market includes every Homo sapiens sapiens. That provides a very long runway for global growth. The three-year growth algo of 13% to 15% in constant currency reflects our commitment to manage the business with discipline by geography, channel, and product. By being vertically integrated, we are capacity constrained by design. So to grow our business profitably, we are committed to maximize profitability per pair while protecting brand equity. The Americas, our largest segment, continues to grow double digit. Even in our most developed market, the U.S., we sell only 45,000 to 50,000 pairs per million people, or roughly 5% penetration. so there is still substantial room for more growth as you know our margins in the u.s face headwinds from additional tariffs and the weaker dollar however our resilient business model allows us to steer growth between geographies to optimize margins under this new reality. In EMEA, our highest margin segment, markets like Germany, Denmark and Austria have reached penetration levels similar to the US and still generate double-digit growth. But we are underpenetrated in other markets like France, Spain, UK and the GCC. So we see even stronger growth potential in these countries and very high margins finally the largest opportunity for long-term growth remains in apec countries such as china japan south korea and india where we are highly under penetrated but realize strong margins and some of our highest asps We will steer APEC growth at double the pace of the other segments over the next three years. This means we will double our APEC revenue by 2028. For the foreseeable future, we expect B2B growth will continue to outpace D2C growth. But we are working to balance channel growth and strengthen our D2C business. business. B2B growth is driven by the trend towards in-person shopping. We are investing in our own retail to capture more of this in-person demand and promote newness. In online, which accounted for 80% of our DTC revenue last year, we are not sitting on our hands. We are transforming our capabilities to convert more of the lifetime value of the brand fan to our e-com business. We do this all within the context of our vertically integrated supply chain and manufacturing capabilities. Our supply chain will deliver the unit growth required to achieve our three-year targets. Now on the quarterly results. We delivered again a strong quarter with revenues of 402 million euros up 11 on a reported basis and 18 in constant currency well above our 13 to 15 full year guidance we saw a strong demand and brand momentum during the important holiday shopping season as expected our b2b business outperformed d2c during the quarter b2b was up 24 in constant currency while d2c was up 12 as you know over 90 of the b2b growth comes from within existing doors we tightly manage our distribution as relative scarcity and channel health remain top priorities for us we will never compromise on our pull model the ultimate truth for the brand health is sell through at full price and that remains very high over 90 percent we continue to deliver as promised in our white space opportunities in APEC we grew revenues 37 percent in constant currency more than double the pace of growth of the Americas and INEA. In own retail we added nine new stores ending the quarter with 106 stores. We are well on the way to deliver the 40 stores we promised for this fiscal year. This will allow us to capture more in-person shopping demand and younger shoppers within our own DTC business. It also allows us to showcase the full range of our collection, newness and special editions not available in b2b the closed-toe share of revenue reached close to 60 percent of revenue during the first quarter which is seasonally the highest quarter for our closed-toe business we saw very strong sales in clocks including the boston a category defining hero silhouette celebrating its 50th birthday this year we also saw strength in other clock silhouettes such as naples and the lutri we are successfully developing the brand beyond sandals

making it a true four season brand i will now turn it over to ibiza to discuss our financial results and outlook in more detail thanks oliver i am happy to share with you details of bippenstock's performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 which exceeded our targets even in the face of a significant headwind from FX on our reported numbers. We generated first quarter revenues of 402 million, growth of 18% in constant currency. Reported revenue growth was 11% due to the historically strong depreciation of the US dollar and Asian currencies compared to the first quarter of 2025. This caused a 670 basis point headwind to revenue growth in the quarter. We saw strong growth across all segments in the quarter. The America segment was up 14% in constant currency. EMEA was up 17% and APEC up 37% in constant currency. By channel for the year, B2B was up 24% in constant currency on the back of strong holiday demand at our key partners and D2C sustained double-digit growth up 12% in constant currency. Gross profit margin for the first quarter was 55.7 percent down 460 basis points year over year adjusted gross profit margin including the reversal of distributor markup associated with the acquisition of our australian distribution partner was 57.4 down 290 basis points as we discussed at the cmd adjusted gross profit margin, excluding 220 basis points of pressure from FX and 130 basis points of pressure from incremental U.S. tariffs, was up 60 basis points year over year. Selling and distribution expenses were 126 million in the first quarter, representing 31.2% of revenue. This was down 150 basis points from the prior year, mainly due to a higher B2B share year-over-year. Adjusted general and administration expenses were 29 million, or 7.2% of revenue in the quarter, up 50 basis points versus prior year. Adjusted EBDA in the first quarter of 106 million was up 4% year-over-year. Adjusted EBTA margin of 26.5% was down 170 basis points year-over-year Excluding FX and tariff impacts, adjusted EBTA margin was up 190 basis points to 30.1% Adjusted net profit of 49 million in the first quarter was up 47% year-over-year Adjusted EPS for Q1 was $0.27, up 50% from $0.18 a year ago, driven by strong operational performance, lower interest expenses, $10 million of income from the change in valuation of the embedded derivative, a lower effective tax rate, and lower share count following the $200 million share repurchase we executed in May 2025. As is usual in the first quarter, we used $28 million in operating cash compared to a use of $12 million in Q125. This is due to working capital seasonality and income taxes paid of $48 million. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $229 million. Our inventory-to-sales ratio was 39% in the quarter, flat with a year ago. Our DSO for the quarter were a healthy 20, up from 15 a year ago, primarily due to the higher B2B mix. During the quarter, we spent approximately $38 million in capex, adding to our production capacity in Aruka, Gerlitz, and Pazewalk, and continuing our investments in retail and IT. This also included the $18 million purchase price of the Wittichenau facility we announced last year. Our net leverage was 1.7 times as of December 31st, 2025, up from 1.5 times at September 30th, 2025, due to a normal cash seasonality. Turning to our outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2026. We expect second quarter revenue growth in constant currency within our annual guidance of 13 to 15%. We will experience significant headwinds from FX and tariffs in the second quarter. Regarding FX, we will see an especially strong headwind in the second quarter. As a reminder, the second quarter of 2025 represented the strongest quarter for the U.S. dollar with an average Euro-to-dollar exchange rate of 1.05 prior to Liberation Day. At today's Euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate, we expect approximately 700 basis points of headwind to revenue growth in the second quarter. The margin impact to gross profit and adjusted EBTA from FX will be 200 to 250 basis points in the second quarter. As a reminder, nearly all of our COCs are in euro and the majority of SG&A as well. As such, the absolute euro impact of movements in FX to revenue flows through by about 90% to gross profit and about two-thirds to adjusted EBTA. Regarding tariffs, we expect similar margin pressure as we saw in Q1, or roughly 100 to 150 basis points. At our Capital Markets Day, we iterated our guidance for 2026 for constant revenue growth of 13 to 15%. While we clearly came in ahead of that at 18% in the first quarter, I remind you that the first quarter is our smallest quarter in terms of revenue. So it just does not carry the way that the remaining three quarters have on the annual growth rate. The FX headwind should be about 350 basis points for the full year, resulting in revenue growth of 10 to 12 percent to 2.3 to 2.35 billion euros. This assumes an average euro to US dollar exchange rate of 170. We expect adjusted gross margin of 57 to 57.5% in fiscal 2026, inclusive of the 100 basis points pressure from FX and 100 basis points from incremental US tariffs. We expect adjusted EBDA of at least 700 million euros for the year, implying an adjusted EBDA margin of 30 to 30.5 percent, inclusive of the pressure from ethics and tariffs, totaling 200 basis points. Excluding the impact of these external factors, forecasted adjusted EBDA margin would be 32 to 32.5 percent. Our expected tax rate should be in the range of 26 to 28 percent. Adjusted EPS is expected to be 190 to 2 euro and 5 cents, including approximately 50 to 20 cents of pressure from FX. This is not including the impact of any additional share repurchases. We intend to repurchase shares for total consideration of $200 million during fiscal 2026, subject to market conditions. CapEx should be in the range of 110 to 130 million euros. Net leverage target for the end of fiscal 2026 of 1.3 to 1.4 times, excluding the impact of additional share repurchases. With that, I'll turn it back to Oliver to close.

Thanks, Ibiza. We are confident in our business model and its resilience. Demand for our beloved brand remains strong. The runway for growth is huge. At the midpoint of our growth target, we expect to add 1 billion euros to our top line by fiscal 2028. We will do this while maintaining 30% plus adjusted EBITDA, given our ability to steer the business between channels and geographies. And now I ask the operator to open the call for questions. Thank you.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question only. If you would like to ask a question, please press Start 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press Start 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Matthew Boss with J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open. Please, Matthew, go ahead.

Great, thanks. So, Oliver, could you break down the drivers supporting your confidence in durable demand momentum for the brand globally. Maybe if you could touch on current sell-through rates, full-price demand indications from wholesale partners and new customer acquisition. And then near term, have you seen any change in brand momentum so far in the second quarter?

Hi, Matthew. Thanks for your question. As we shared in New York, we see a very long runway for growth for the brand. As you know, the total addressable market of this brand includes every human being on the planet. So even in our most established markets, like the Americas as an example, the market penetration is below 5%. So we continue to grow there and in other territories, double digits, and all this with a 90% plus full price realization across all channels. I think that's really something to mention because that's really outstanding. and our other book for 26 and the in the next years remains very strong we strictly allocate our partners to maintain scarcity and fulfilling roughly 70 to 80 percent of the wholesale demand so 20 to 30 percent are unfulfilled out there and and we have seen no pushback from partners on any price increases or any kind of adjustments we did so far. You asked about the customer acquisition. I would say the new customer acquisition comes primarily from our B2B channels where partners benefit most from the strength of our brand and use us to drive traffic to their stores. You know the attraction especially to Gen Z in this channel is very, very strong. within our own d2c the strongest indicator of new customer growth is our membership program which is up over 20 percent year over year you all have seen the the queuing in front of our own retail stores but we only have 106 at the moment so our own retail is definitely in the future a very very important pillar to talk about Brent Heat on top of that. But asking about second quarter, you know, can't deliver any outlook here. We see the momentum continue in line with our guidance of 13 to 15 percent revenue growth in a constant currency. So I think we're good on track.

Great color. Best of luck.

Your next question comes from the line of Simeon Siegel with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Hey, good morning, everyone, or good afternoon. Nice to see you recently. So just, Oliver, recognizing you guys are in this enviable position where you do supply less than demand, how are you deciding where to allocate your inventory across channels and geographies just to optimize the brand strength, reaching new customers, and then where your EBITDA dollars per pair come in. And then, Evita, just recognizing tariffs and inflation, what we're inventory up in units rather than in dollars.

Hey, Simeon. It's Oliver. Thank you for your question. As you know, we will see our product in the most profitable channels and regions to make sure our brand is well-balanced in terms of revenue, unit needs or unit consumption, and the maximum resilience. um just to be clear channel drives the margin geography is less relevant so it's not really a shift from geography to other geographies it's really like very detailed very precise shifting from this channel and this geography to another channel in another geography so um and that's what we're doing mindfully and i think the second part of the question um will be answered by ibiza Can you repeat the question, Simeon?

We didn't quite hear it.

Just look at your balance sheet, inventory and dollars. Curious if you could tell us what is up in units over here.

Hey, Simeon, it's Sivitzar speaking. So we're not disclosing that in detail as we haven't disclosed in the past, and we're not intending to do that in future as well.

Sounds good, guys. Best of luck for the year ahead.

Your next question comes from the line of Erna Andreva with Piper Sandler. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you so much for taking our question. And it's nice to see you guys the other week. So your first quarter growth came in at 18% in constant currency. That's nicely ahead of the 13% to 15% guide for the year. Can you talk about where's that slowdown for the rest of the year coming from? And are you just being conservative? Just some more color on that would be great. And just as a follow-up to Ivica, can you help us with the seasonal progression of how we should think about margins across the quarters for the rest of the year? Just considering the outlook for FX, the tariff timing, capacity absorption, and some other items. Thank you so much, Dave.

Thank you for your question. Yes, the 18% constant currency growth in Q126 is indeed well above the 13% to 15% guidance for the year. In general, we are always conservative this early in the year. There is a lot ahead of us in fiscal 2026, and the second half is naturally more difficult to predict, as you know, given the heavier mix of D2C, which is why we remain conservative. So while we're off to a great start and demand remains strong, as Oliver already mentioned, we think it's just prudent to stick with the current guidance for the year. And as a reminder, Q1 is our smallest quarter for the year. Last year, it was only 17% of the annual revenue. So it just doesn't carry the same weight for the reminder of the year. And with regards to your second question on the seasonal progression and margin development. So, as you know, we do not guide in detail on a quarterly basis. However, we've pointed out a couple of points and important factors. So, on top line first, FX impact will be the heaviest in Q1 and Q2. Q1 headwind was 670 basis points. Q2, at current FX, even around 700 basis points. So the margin impact to gross profit and adjusted EBDA from FX will be 200 to 250 basis points in Q2. Incremental tariff impact will have more pronounced impacts in Q1 to Q3, but less so in Q4 26, given that the tariffs began to hit us in Q4 25, where we already showed a 100 basis points impact for that quarter. For Q2-26, expect a similar margin pressure as we saw it in Q1, so roughly 100 to 150 basis points. And finally, with regards to absorption, we will be completing the absorption, especially with regards to our Passervalk facility by Q3-26. As you know, Q2 is an important quarter for our B2B business with significant shipments to our partners for the spring-summer season. The mix in Q2 is more heavily weighted to B2B, so expect the usual seasonal decline in gross margin and increased EBTA margin. Compared to Q1, but all within the context of our full year margin guidance.

Your next question comes in the line of Michael Binetti with Avercorp ISI. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thanks for all the information here, guys. I just want to ask a little bit on maybe on the OPEX or the SG&A. I think the guidance for the rest of the year flattens out from some nice leverage in the first quarter a little bit. Maybe you could just talk about why there's – I'm curious if we're going to be going through the rest of the year with double-digit growth. Is there a chance to find some more leverage on SG&A, or how should we think about SG&A at a double-digit growth pace, even if it slows from first quarter? And then I also just wanted to ask, as we head into the spring and summer, Ollie, Oliver, maybe just a quick thought on some of the products that are the ones that are the retailers are the most excited about. Maybe something that we can Google or watch your social media trends. What are the big products that we're going to see for the summertime here as we get into the main season?

Hey, Michael. Thank you for your question. I will take the first part with regards to your question on margin improvement and SG&A. So, as you know, the tariff and FX drag is very real for us and impacting our margin by 200 basis points for fiscal 2026. Without that pressure, EBTA margin would have been up nicely year over year. And this is also what we pointed out at our capital markets day, that we are getting operationally better. Could that be more? Yes, always. But we need to balance expanding margin with reinvesting that margin upside back into the business to support sustainable revenue growth. And this is particularly in our D2C business, which brings lower margin, but higher absolute profitability prepare. But our D2C business is still 80% online, which has little operating leverage, given the high variable cost structure. So we are accelerating our store growth to drive more retail as part of our D2C mix, which should allow for some four-wall operating leverage over time. We are accelerating our investments in manufacturing, in retail, in e-com and logistics, and that will constrain EBTA margin expansion in the near term. And referring to what Oliver has said earlier, in a capacity-constrained situation, which we are in and which we are in by design, we are steering the business and allocating product in a way to optimize margin, mindfully and gradually, but this will pay off over time. And with regards to your question on product and spring-summer, handing back to Oliver.

Hi, Michael. It's Oliver. What we see globally, especially in our own retail spaces and also in the other book of our big wholesale doors we're delivering, they're looking for much more elevated styles in both ways, in closed-toe and in open-toe sandal. What we see is a very strong momentum in open toe, in elevated styles, you know, in every price segment. So from, you know, Big Buck EVA up to Naples Wrap, which is a closed toe silhouette, open toe Florida in a very elevated execution. The Gizeh is coming back, so the Tong Sandal. So it's going, as always, in the same direction. They go into more expensive price groups, more elevated executions. That's super interesting for our partners, and it's super interesting for our own retail stores. That's a big trend we see also coming from APEC, where 7074, you know our Paris office delivering open-toe silhouettes north of 250 US dollar in the APEC region this is already 30 40 percent of our own retail so this is a very strong momentum in this high price level and it's more elevated styles.

Okay thanks a lot appreciate it.

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Lewis with Citi. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Tracy Cogan is going in for Paul. I was hoping we could touch on the balance sheet and your uses of cash. With the stock trading where it is, I was wondering if you were thinking about being more aggressive in the open market with your 200 million buyback rather than waiting for private equity, and then also wondering if you could talk about your willingness or the insider's willingness to buy stock at current levels. Thanks.

Hey, Tracy. Thank you for your question. It's Iwitsa. I 100% agree the stock is too cheap. It does not reflect the fundamental value of the underlying business. Not at all. As you know, we announced our intention to repurchase 200 million dollars in shares in fiscal 2026 so we will be executing this subject to market conditions if you remember last year we executed a repurchase in may in conjunction with a secondary offering given the limited free float already in the market a similar structure for this buyback is an option but so are open market repurchases as well Then covering the second part of your question with regards to insider buying, well, we have been in a blockout period for most of the year. Our standard blockout period runs from two weeks before the end of our fiscal quarter to the day after we report that quarter. So in the case of Q1, the blackout started on December 15th and ends tomorrow. Additionally, we have had transaction-related blackouts due to the Wittichenau acquisition and the Australia distributor acquisition. Finally, we get blacked out around any secondary transaction, potentially by Alketaten, altogether that hasn't left any window in the year I've been in at Birkenstock. And I assure you, it's not the lack of desire to buy shares at this price.

Thank you. Good luck.

Your next question comes from the line of Lohan Vazilescu with BNP Paribas. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. Oliver Avica, I wanted to ask about your own stores, which are becoming increasingly important into your DTC business. I think, Oliver, you mentioned that last year e-commerce was 80% of the mix, 20% stores. We could do some rough math with regards to revenue per store. Can you provide us some store profitability metrics? What is your same-store sales growth, and how are the new doors performing? And how long are they taking to ramp up to full profitability?

Thank you very much.

Hello. Thank you for your question. It's Iwitsa again, and you are 100% correct. Our own retail is becoming increasingly more important by design. We want to create more high-quality touchpoints with the brand, capture more of the in-person demand within our own retail channel, and balance D2C better between online and in-store. Generally, this channel also allows us to showcase the full range of our offering, including exclusive styles that you won't see in the B2B channel. As you know, our store fleet is still small and young, only 106 stores by the end of Q1 globally, and around 60 of those have opened in the past two and a half years. As a result, we see a significant variation within the base, so the average are skewed and not a particular useful predictive tool. And also be reminded, there is no store that looks like the other. So the conception of the stores is very diverse all over the globe. But a few metrics we can share to help you think about the potential of this channel. In fiscal 2025, retail share of D2C revenue was up about 400 basis points year over year. And this is something we saw similar in Q126. Retail is our fastest growing segment. In the quarter, it was up over 50% year-over-year in constant currency. Same-store sales growth was high single-digit in Q126. And this is also very similar to what we saw in fiscal 2025. So we see consistent and very stable demand patterns in our own retail. And finally, capex per store is typically in the range of 400,000 to 800,000 euro. and we expect the store to return that cash within 12 to 18 months. So we are applying our very disciplined approach while expanding D2C further and accelerating it. Again, as the fleet grows and matures, the averages will become more meaningful and useful in forecasting. But for now, there is too much variation to make it a very useful tool for you.

Thank you very much for the detailed response.

Much appreciated. Your next question comes from the line of Peter McGoldrick with Stifle. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for taking my question. A full price brand representation is really standing out here across the footwear environment.

So as we look through fiscal 26, can you share some embedded demand elasticity metrics in the revenue outlook and then talk about the factors supporting your confidence that higher prices will continue to resonate? as they have in the past thank you for your question peter is oliver um as you know um we're in the middle of uh 26 so first quarter is over in the second quarter uh the pricings are already set uh and and um transmitted so there's no surprise as i said we have a very strong order book i think the ultimate or the strongest proof point is the 90 plus full price selling across all our channels and again we take a very mindful approach to pricing covering the full range of products and the wide range of our assortment and the newness that we create even within certain silhouettes allows us to make precise adjustments on an item by item base and this is like you know It is not just a single thing on a very well-performing product. It's a broad and very, hard to say, democratic base, but it is a way moving forward in terms of pricing. And over the years, I mean, we nearly constantly increase our pricing year over year, season by season, but always mindful and always in a very close connection with the outside realities. So, prices are targeted by product group, price levels in general and by region. So, in some areas, you know, in a global pricing architecture, you have adjustments that are regional driven or channel driven. In other parts of the world they might be a bit different, but in global it is in a pricing architecture embedded and that's the most important thing to prevent gray market and all this ugliness so in total as i said before we are seeing customers moving up in terms of price points to more elevated styles and not downwards so this goes fully aligned with our procedure to move on and And as you know, roughly, you know, it's always like a mid single digit price increase we're taking. And that's a very good measurement to move on, at least for us.

Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Ed Auburn with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question. So, Oliver, at the CMD, you indicated, right, that you expect to grow volume about 10% per annum over the next three years, which obviously is close to doubling on acceleration versus, you know, pre-IPO. Sorry to come back on the wholesale and so on, but I know you've provided over the years qualitative comments. But can you share with us, we don't need the exact figure, but the rough indication of the number of doors and the number of accounts in the US and Europe, kind of since IPO, how it has trended? And then related to that, you know, if you could give us a rough breakdown or at least some indication of, you know, your distribution, maybe just in the U.S. by channel between, let's say, you know, department store, mass merchant, family channels, whatever, that would be helpful to understand your wholesale strategy. Thank you so much.

Hi, Eduard. It's Ivica speaking. The first part, covering the second part of your question first, with regards to U.S. and channels specifically. So what we see, and this is a trend that we've observed now for more than a year, and also that has accelerated with back to school, that the demand is going to in-physical, in-person shopping. shopping and this naturally favors our b2b channel we have 15 stores in us so very small footprint to cover that in-person demand and we see strong sell-throughs in us with our top 10 strategic partners so the sell-throughs are above 30 percent and this growth is broad-based so it It includes department stores, it includes sports specialty, and this is the largest driver of the growth that we see here in the U.S. and specifically the B2B channel.

And just to follow up real quick on the question. So during the Capital Markets Day, we did talk about the number of B2B doors in both EMEA and Americas. Americas is about 10,000 currently, and EMEA is about 9,000. That's total. So I think we also cited within the U.S. about 600 doors of potential and in EMEA around 1,400 that we've identified as being potential new doors. Again, those are going to be highly targeted to some of our expansionary categories like youth and sports specialty.

Got it. But how does this number of doors today compare to, you know, the numbers of doors at the time of the IPO? Sorry.

We said that it's been about 90 to 95 percent of the growth has come from existing doors, so it's been low single-digit door growth overall since the IPO.

Okay, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. Just following up on that point, as your customer base shifts more toward the newly acquired Gen Z customers, is there any deeper pruning you need to do, adding and subtracting to make sure your B2B partner portfolio can successfully target this cohort?

This is Oliver. Thank you for the question, Lorraine. I don't know if I really understood your question right um you know the thing at the moment especially in this gen set is that they are they are burning for the boston silhouette which is a silhouette that is 50 years old this year so we don't really have you know a specific product uh units for this target group I think they are attracted by the heritage, the purpose of the brand and this unique easy on and easy off. That's the biggest argument for them. And for some of these Gen Z customers, this is the first pair of Fussbetten they ever tried. And as we know, we will build a long term relationship with these customers. and they come back in average they they end up having four seven eleven pairs so this is just the beginning of the journey and the touch point with the brand for these people and and we try to continue to to be in contact with them and make them other varying occasions or usage occasions for the FUSPED.

And just quickly follow up on that. David, unfortunately, we did not have all the regional leaders here today to take Q&A, but I can answer real quickly on behalf of David. Our view is from a Gen Z standpoint and the youth standpoint, we are in a lot of the right doors. We are in some of the youth specialty sporting goods stores where a lot of these shop. Our goal is obviously, to harvest more of them online. We think we're in the right doors from a B2B standpoint, and we're seeing the breadth and depth of our offering within those doors expanding as the demand from Gen Z grows. We're going to wrap it up there. I know we only allocated 45 minutes to today's call. We'll be back to the full length next quarter, but we are on a tight schedule today. So thank you all for joining us.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending.