Helen Of Troy Ltd Q1 FY2022 Earnings Call

Greetings, and welcome to the Helen of Troy First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Jack Jancin, Senior Vice President, Corporate Business Development. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning everyone, and welcome to Helen of Troy's first quarter fiscal '22 earnings conference call. The agenda for the call this morning is as follows. I'll begin with a brief discussion of forward-looking statements. Mr. Julien Mininberg, the company's CEO, will comment on financial performance of the quarter and specific progress on our strategic initiatives. Then Mr. Brian Grass, the company's CFO, and Matt Osberg, the company's Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance will review the financials in more detail and comment on the company's outlook for fiscal '22. Following this, Mr. Mininberg, Mr. Grass, and Mr. Osberg will take questions you have for us today. This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations with respect to future events or financial performance. Generally, the words anticipates, believes, expects, and other words similar are words identifying forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause anticipated results to differ materially from the actual results. This conference call may also include information that may be considered non-GAAP financial information. These non-GAAP measures are not an alternative to GAAP financial information, and may be calculated differently than the non-GAAP financial information disclosed by other companies. The company cautions listeners not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or non-GAAP information. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Mininberg, I would like to inform all interested parties that a copy of today's earnings release has been posted to the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.helenoftroy.com. The earnings release contains tables that reconcile non-GAAP financial measures to their corresponding GAAP-based measures. The release can be obtained by selecting the Investor Relations tab on the company's homepage and then the Press Releases tab. I will now turn the conference call over to Mr. Mininberg.

Thank you, Jack. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us. We have a lot of areas to cover this morning. Before talking about the excellent quarter, the many strengths across the business, and the outlook for the full fiscal year that we introduce today, I would like to update you on the EPA matter in our press release. I will finish my remarks with some important updates about our organization. The EPA raised concerns that packaging claims on certain products in our U.S. water and air filtration lines and a limited subset of our humidifier products are not in compliance with the EPA's strict interpretation of specific regulations. We have already addressed their concerns on the water filtration products by making modest changes to our packaging, and have resumed shipping our PUR products. We strongly believe we can likewise address the EPA's concern on air and humidification packaging, after which we will work as quickly as operationally possible to restart shipments on those as well. It is important to emphasize that the EPA has not raised any concerns on product quality, safety, or performance. These are outstanding products that have served consumers well over several decades with plenty of first-rate innovation along the way. Health & Home sales were not impacted in the first quarter, but we expect a significant headwind in the second quarter while we resolve the remaining concerns on the packaging for the Air products and the affected humidifiers. Since the stop ship, we have been working closely with the EPA and continue to emphasize speed. Our people are working around the clock to minimize the impact to consumers, to retailers, and to our business. Now turning to the first quarter business results, as we discussed when we last reported in April, we were seeing a very strong first quarter taking shape. The results reported today were even stronger than we expected with 28.6% sales growth and 37.5% growth in adjusted earnings per share. The sales growth was broad-based with Beauty and Housewares leading the way as reopenings drove store traffic and our brands continue to distinguish themselves with consumers. Health & Home also grew, surpassing the very large COVID-related first quarter base laid down a year ago. Our strategy to double down on international continues to bear fruit from prior flywheel investments, growing sales even faster than the fleet average in the quarter. The outstanding earnings per share growth was driven primarily by very strong sales, which was more than enough to offset a return to more normalized spending and the headwinds from widespread inflation affecting nearly all input costs including materials, labor, and transportation. Operating margins expanded in the quarter further benefiting from the resurgence of our two highest margin brands, Drybar and Hydro Flask. The quarter also demonstrated the importance of our leadership brands and our omnichannel capabilities. Leadership brand sales grew by approximately 23%; and Revlon, which is our largest up-and-coming non-leadership brand, grew even faster. Our ability to win across channels was once again on display as consumers coming out of lockdown rebalanced between brick-and-mortar and online. Fueled by pent-up demand and stimulus money, consumers are returning to stores as restrictions lift. Our brick-and-mortar sales increased significantly compared to the same period last year when the majority of stores and salons were closed. Brick-and-mortar's resurgence in the quarter made it a higher-than-usual percentage of our sales mix. Our online sales growth moderated as expected, increasing approximately 4%, representing approximately 22% of consolidated sales. By way of comparison, online sales in the first quarter of last year grew 33%, and represented approximately 28% of consolidated revenue, which notably was double the average for the total U.S. e-commerce industry. With the even greater comfort and convenience of online shopping many consumers experienced in the lockdown era likely to remain sticky for years to come, we continue to invest in online capability and in direct-to-consumer as important growth channels. On the capital side, we continue to take steps intended to drive long-term value for shareholders with four major actions so far this fiscal year. The first was divesting the majority of our mass market personal care business as announced in early June. The transaction was strategic as it sharpens our focus on stated objectives of growing our Leadership brands and expanding consolidated operating margin. We can now deploy resources that historically have gone towards our personal care business to opportunities that better fit our long-term growth objectives, have more attractive growth prospects, and are expected to have a better ROI. The divestiture also allows our sales and profit growth rates to accelerate by eliminating the drag of the personal care business. The second action was finalizing a land purchase in Gallaway, Tennessee, to build a state-of-the-art distribution center, which will have high levels of automation and scalable direct-to-consumer capability. This new 2-million-square-foot facility will support our Housewares portfolio, allow us to capture even higher levels of efficiency in the back-half of Phase 2 as we re-optimize how we use the rest of our distribution footprint across the company, and it will position us to better support future organic and inorganic growth. The third action was adding further value to shareholders by repurchasing just under 2% of our stock. The fourth action was securing more inventory ahead of the bulk of the cost increases currently seen in the market. This has multiple benefits. It is an important component of our cost mitigation plans in the face of higher supply chain costs. It also positions us well to continue to meet demand and better manage the current period of global supply chain disruption. Taking on more inventory ahead of our seasonal high volume periods helps provide more certainty in the face of container shortages, shipping delays, and COVID outbreaks at several key ports. It also makes good use of our pre-negotiated sea freight contracts at rates considerably lower than what would be paid in the current spot market. As you are no doubt aware from many other sources, the supply chain disruptions and higher cost for commodities and labor have caused substantial challenges to profitability in nearly all industries. I'm very proud of how our supply chain, our business units, and our finance teams work together to attack this surge in costs over the past several months and implement a set of mitigation plans that largely offset the estimated dollar impact. Beyond the inventory and the pre-negotiated sea freight container rates I mentioned, we have reduced or delayed our spending plans in several areas, and we're implementing price increases. Those price increases have been carefully designed to protect our market shares by managing key consumer price points. An additional mitigation measure has been to introduce new products at higher price points that elevate the benefits of our brands so they can deliver for consumers and can sweeten our mix. I'd now like to touch on our business segment results for the first quarter. Beauty led the way with exceptional sales growth at just under 79%. All four of our major beauty brands grew substantially. The key drivers were significant improvements in supply to meet continued high demand for current products such as volumizers and wavers, and the successful launch of new innovations such as the Drybar Reserve line. We also earned new distribution in the U.S. club channel and expanded distribution in Europe and Latin America, while stores and salon shutdowns and homebound consumers a year ago made the comparison easier this quarter. We note that our Beauty segment grew 5% in the year-ago comparison period. Beauty operating margin improved markedly behind mix improvements, operating leverage and the benefits of our amended Revlon trademark license. Our pioneering family of One-Step volumizers continues to grow across Revlon, Hot Tools, Bed Head and now also on Drybar. Communication across more and more social media platforms is helping expand popularity with consumers and help to build the franchise. One-Step has now accumulated more than 300,000 online reviews at an average of 4.6 stars on Amazon alone and 80% of them are five stars. We continue to see opportunities for further household penetration and market share upside in the U.S. We also see more upside as we further expand our presence in EMEA, in Canada and in Latin America. Drybar was a substantial contributor to the growth and margin improvement as stores and salons reopened and social gatherings resumed and as we launched more of the innovative new products we have invested in over the 18 months since acquisition. Combining our scale, distribution reach and strategic focus on beauty appliances with Drybar's prestige positioning is very powerful. Examples in recent months include the single-shot appliance on Drybar, the high-end Drybar Reserve Ultralight Dryer and the Liquid Glass product line. Now that we have a good better and best Beauty client's portfolio, we're leaning into our momentum through a robust pipeline of new consumer-centric innovation, new marketing programs, and even stronger organization and further new distribution. In our Housewares segment, first quarter sales surged by approximately 38%. Our Housewares segment is a diversified mix of OXO that excels indoors and Hydro Flask with its compelling indoor and outdoor lineup. Both brands grew in the quarter and both increased market share in their categories. OXO saw an upturn in key brick-and-mortar retailers and solid point-of-sale results, reflecting improved store traffic and new distribution both domestically and internationally. New product introductions contributed to growth and reach as retailers and consumers responded well to the new launches. OXO Good Grips, SoftWorks, OXO Tot, and OXO Steel all made healthy contributions to the quarterly growth. OXO's market share growth is broad based, gaining ground across all the categories we track. OXO share gains across the past three, six, and 12 months reinforce our belief that the trend seen with younger consumers and new households buying more OXO items is sticky. We also expect to capitalize on the expected surge in weddings that were postponed during COVID. Hydro Flask continues to be very strong growing both domestically and internationally in the quarter. We're focused on building it into a global brand with an industry-leading sustainability and environmentally forward profile that contributes to the authenticity consumers value. Domestically, we saw broad improvement in brick-and-mortar across the Outdoor, Grocery, and Sporting Goods segments. Internationally, Hydro grew even faster. Canada was a growth leader while EMEA, the Asia-Pacific and Latin America also experienced significant growth as we further build out Hydro Flask distribution footprint. We're seeing healthy domestic point-of-sale returns as well as inventory replenishment orders corresponding to the strong sell-through rate for those customers where we have visibility. Hydro Flask grew its market share considerably during the quarter. It continues to lead the U.S. insulated water bottle category by well more than double the share of its nearest competitor. New Hydro Flask items that go beyond the bottle began shipping and contributed to the quarter, including the outdoor kitchen collection, hydration kit pack and dry storage. The brand also fed the excitement on the bottle side to attract new consumers and encourage loyal Hydro Flask users to add just one or even two more to their collection by launching new colors and design in its Trail Series. Health & Home delivered sales growth of just over 2%, climbing over the especially strong 29% growth in the year-ago comparison period. The growth this quarter came from a continued high level demand for air purifiers. Thermometer sales were essentially flat despite the elevated year-over-year base. In Europe, our biggest thermometer market, sales in the quarter remained high as the vaccination rates are below that of the United States. And data suggests those rates will peak at lower levels. Current and new product introductions contributed to the growth as prior investments in innovation in fans, blood pressure monitors, in Honeywell's True HEPA air purifiers and in the new Vicks non-contact thermometers were favorably received by retailers and by consumers. Even though the tailwinds from COVID impacted Health & Home last year, we believe it is instructive to look at the first quarter and full fiscal year on a two-year stack. That would imply sales are up over 30% versus two years ago, and a clear indication of the higher installed base of products that use our high margin replacement filters, such as Vicks and Honeywell humidifiers, PUR faucet mounts and Honeywell air filtration devices. While the threat of COVID itself may be receding in much of the world, we believe the heightened levels of overall awareness regarding the need and the importance for cleaner air and water will remain sticky in homes, in workplaces, businesses, hotels, and institutions, which is also expected to be a significant factor for schools and universities as they reopen this fall. It's important to keep in mind that Health & Home operates across a diverse set of categories. As an example, the heatwave seen in some parts of the United States and Europe this summer has been accelerating recent fan sales. Demand has also been elevated for air filtration devices as severe drought conditions in much of the western United States increased the risk of wildfire. Our ability to serve that demand will depend on how quickly we can resume shipments of our air filtration products. Rounding out the business results, I would like to touch on international. Doubling down on international is an important strategic choice in our Phase II strategy. Despite stay-at-home orders in many markets, our international business grew faster than the company in the core. We did so in all three business segments with Housewares and Beauty leading the way. The international business continues to benefit from the stepped-up investments we made in the second half of fiscal '21 that supported new distribution in continental Europe, added further support to our U.K. businesses, and increased awareness of our brand no-touch thermometers in Asia. As we now start our third year of Phase II, we remain ahead of the glide path for international growth that we announced in our 2019 Investor Day to create at least $100 million of incremental organic sales outside of the United States by the end of Phase II. With the operating margin improvements we have made in the international market so far in Phase II, we can continue making new investments with attractive ROIs to accelerate growth outside of the U.S. Looking ahead, we are now in a position to provide our outlook for fiscal '22, which Matt will walk you through shortly. As expected, our Housewares and Beauty segments are each projecting healthy growth in revenue and profitability on top of the elevated base they laid down last year. We expect to use this revenue growth and the plans to mitigate the cost inflation discussed earlier to seed the reinvestment flywheel for these segments, to help sustain their momentum and to expand their margins for the full fiscal year. Our projection in Health & Home includes the estimated impact related to the EPA matter. As mentioned earlier, we are working with all speed on that front. I do want to emphasize that excluding the impact of the EPA matter, we were on track to achieve growth in both core net sales and core adjusted earnings per share this fiscal year in line with the thinking we communicated in April. I would also like to note that we have faced tough times before in the past three years alone: terrorism, COVID-19, and the current environment of cost inflation and supply chain disruption have been major challenges. In each case, our high-performance organization has stayed relentlessly focused on problem solving. We have worked together to protect our business and brands and we have stayed the course to deliver compelling multi-year results. Looking at the longer term, we remain committed to our Phase II transformation plan. It has delivered excellent results, and we believe it still has considerable opportunity to drive the sales and profitability growth that can create significant additional long-term shareholder value. We expect to return to our Phase II average annual organic revenue and adjusted EPS growth targets in fiscal '23 and in fiscal '24. And we remain actively focused on acquisition opportunities as a major part of the transformation plan that can further accelerate long-term value creation. Turning now to other matters, many of you have told us you are highly interested in hearing more about ESG at Helen of Troy. I am pleased to announce that last month we published our first ever ESG report. It is available on our corporate website. As discussed in the past, we see ESG as a strategic priority for our company's sustained success. In fiscal 2019, we began to embed it into the broader Phase II strategic transformation plan that drives all we do at Helen of Troy. We believe this approach best allows us to make a difference in our business, brands, and organization, and closely reflects our purpose to elevate lives and soar together. We also believe that an integrated approach to ESG within our overall transformation plan best serves all our key stakeholders. We are pleased that our ESG efforts and the new disclosures in the report are being acknowledged externally. Just one example is Institutional Shareholder Services. Our ISS environmental score improved significantly over the past year, now placing us in the top 30% of firms they compare us to. Our social score is now in the top 20%, and our governance score has consistently remained in the top 10% for the past several years. While we still have many miles to go, we are very proud of the progress we have made so far. Before finishing up my remarks, I would like to update you on a few key areas including how we are handling back-to-office, how we are further rewarding and motivating our people, and on CFO succession. Starting with back-to-office, the many Helen of Troy associates who have been working from home since last April will begin operating under a new hybrid model beginning in September. Our goal is to utilize the learnings from the past year that have had a positive impact on productivity and wellness for some associates and also address gaps seen during the 100% work-from-home era. We will continue to focus on safety, on honoring the principles that make our culture so powerful and on advancing our strategy, which is to attract, retain, unify, include, and train the best people. With the safety of our people as our first priority, early last quarter Helen of Troy rolled out cash payments and additional vacation time to incentivize vaccination. So far over 70% of our worldwide associates are now fully vaccinated. In the United States that percentage is higher and several of our largest sites are approaching 90%. Main features of the two-three hybrid model are optional work from home on Mondays and Tuesdays, and mandatory work from office Wednesdays through Fridays. Having all associates scheduled for the same work-from-home and office days worldwide avoids the productivity drag from mismatched individual remote days and ensures collaboration which is so important to how we work. Frontline essential workers will continue to work in sites such as distribution centers and test labs in-person all five days. With regard to further rewarding and motivating our people, I am very pleased to announce that in May we awarded associates worldwide with a grant of 30 shares of Helen of Troy stock that vest over the remaining three years of Phase II. We call these awards transformation shares as they are designed to recognize the tremendous success so far in Phase II, and provide motivation to execute the initiatives that will drive the back half of Phase II with excellence. The Phase II transformation share grant was made to associates at all levels and all tenures. We made a similar grant toward the end of Phase I and saw its power to help unify our people, to further recognize their hard work and to provide a currency that aligns them even further with the interest of our long-term shareholders. On CFO succession, I would like to share some news on our progress since Brian's previous announcement that he plans to retire on November 1st. I am very pleased to announce that effective November 1st, Matt Osberg will be appointed CFO of Helen of Troy. Most of you have had exposure to Matt over the past year. He has done an outstanding job over five years in his role as Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance and has distinguished himself as an important contributor to many of the results during both Phase I and Phase II. He has been the primary architect of the transformation of the finance department into an even more capable global shared services team. He has upgraded the team and bolstered them together under our strategic plan. He was central to the culture work we undertook several years ago and has earned a reputation as a constructive collaborator. Matt has also been a central driver of system and process improvements as we standardized and simplified to drive efficiency through the transformation into a much larger, much more profitable, and much more global company as we are today. Over the past year or so, he has been working extremely closely with me and our global leadership team as we build and execute Phase II. He has been battle tested many times as we work through major challenges, such as tariffs, the recent input cost inflation, structuring the build-out of our DTC business, and developing better reporting for international. He has led the budget, forecasting and strategic review processes that are now part of the basic fabric of the company. He brings significant public accounting and international experience at major firms, such as Ernst & Young and Best Buy before joining Helen of Troy. He is ready to take on the CFO role with my strong support and with the unanimous backing of our board. Brian will remain CFO until November and will be instrumental in the rest of the transition. We will celebrate him and much more when his retirement gets closer. Meanwhile, I hope you will join me in congratulating Matt, and thanking Brian for his excellent work across all aspects of Helen of Troy for over 15 years. With that, I will now turn the call over to both of them starting with Brian.

Thank you, Julien. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to make some high-level comments before handing it over to Matt Osberg, who will review the first quarter's results and our outlook for the full fiscal year '22 in more detail. It was an excellent quarter with consolidated sales growth of almost 29%, on a base we are almost 12% in the same period last year. Our first quarter growth benefited from robust consumer demand for our products, brick-and-mortar strength, international expansion, healthy levels of supply, the shift and timing of Amazon Prime Day and shipments that spilled into the first quarter due to Winter Storm Uri at the end of the fourth quarter. First quarter sales growth also benefited from incremental investments made in the fourth quarter of fiscal '21. By accelerating investments into the prior year, we were also able to drive greater profitability in the first quarter of this year. We expanded adjusted operating margin by 60 basis points and increased adjusted diluted EPS by over 37% on a base that grew almost 23% in the same period last year and included significant temporary cost reductions due to COVID-19. The first quarter was not without its challenges, especially the unprecedented global supply chain disruption and inflationary cost pressures. Although the EPA matter presents another challenge to overcome, we've made considerable progress towards this being a transitory event and resuming our Phase II growth trajectory. We are pleased to initiate our fiscal '22 full-year outlook after conferring last quarter to allow supply chain and cost inflation trends to more fully develop. Prior to the EPA stop shipment action we initiated on May 27th, we were in a position to provide a fiscal '22 outlook with core net sales and adjusted diluted EPS growth off of the highly elevated base of fiscal '21, despite approximately $55 million to $60 million of estimated inflationary cost increases. Quite an accomplishment in light of the circumstances with only the estimated impact of the EPA matter holding us back from core net sales and adjusted EPS growth. We believe this is an indication of the underlying strength of our business and the power of our diversified portfolio. Finally, Julien's announcement today regarding Matt's succession into the CFO role upon my retirement on November 1st, I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Matt and express my gratitude for all that he has done to support me and the company over the last five years. His promotion into the CFO position is well deserved, and the company couldn't be in better hands. Matt, I'm really proud of you and I'm thrilled for you and your family. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to you to take us through the first quarter and fiscal '22 outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Brian. I appreciate the kind words and the tremendous support that you and many others in the organization have given me along the way. You're leaving very big shoes to fill in November, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to continue to build on your success. I also want to thank Julien and the Board of Directors for entrusting me with this leadership role and the financial stewardship of the company and I'm excited to be part of the global leadership team that will help the company continue its successful progress to Phase II and beyond. Before reviewing our results and outlook, I'd like to give a little more color on the EPA matter that impacted our GAAP gross profit, operating income and diluted EPS during the quarter. The stop shipment actions did not have a material impact on our first quarter sales. However, we recorded a $13.1 million charge to write-off the obsolete packaging for the impacted products and inventory on hand and in transit as of the end of the first quarter of fiscal '22. The charge was recognized in cost of goods sold and it's referred to in the earnings release as EPA compliance cost. We are implementing a number of cost control measures in the Health & Home segment to offset a portion of the impact from the anticipated revenue decline. Later in my remarks regarding our fiscal '22 outlook, I will expand on how we estimate this matter will impact the rest of the fiscal year. Now, turning to our first quarter results, consolidated organic sales growth of 2.3% was driven by our Beauty and Housewares segments. Our sales benefited from higher consolidated brick-and-mortar sales due to the favorable comparative impact of store closures and reduced store traffic in the prior year period, an increase in international sales, higher sales in club and closeout channels, growth in online sales and the favorable impact of approximately $15 million from orders that were not able to be shipped at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal '21 during Winter Storm Uri. The impact of these orders was roughly spread evenly across each of the segments. Gross profit margins declined 1.8 percentage points in the first quarter, primarily due to higher inbound freight expense and EPA compliance costs. These items were partially offset by a more favorable product mix within the Beauty segment. Our SG&A ratio decreased 0.2 percentage points to 28.8%, because we benefited from operating leverage on higher sales, reduced royalty expense, lower amortization, and a decrease in bad debt expense. These items were partially offset by the unfavorable impact of more normalized levels of personnel and advertising expenses compared to the first quarter of fiscal '21, when levels of spending in these areas were restricted due to temporary COVID-related cost reduction initiatives. GAAP operating income was $64.8 million, or 12% of net sales. On an adjusted basis, operating margin improved 60 basis points to 17.5%. This increase primarily reflects more favorable product mix in the Beauty segment, operating leverage, reduced royalty spend and a decrease in bad debt expense. These factors were partially offset by higher inbound freight expense and less favorable channel mix in the Housewares segment and higher personnel and advertising expenses. Income tax expense as a percentage of income before tax was 8%, compared to an income tax benefit of 13% for the same period last year, primarily due to the benefit of the CARES Act in fiscal '21. Net income was $57.0 million or $2.31 per diluted share. Non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS increased 37.5% to $3.48. This includes the positive impact from Winter Storm Uri of approximately $0.20 per share. Now moving on to our financial position and liquidity, net cash used by operating activities was $63.4 million, compared to cash provided by operations of $92.8 million in the prior year. The change in cash flow was primarily due to continued investment in inventory to help mitigate supply chain disruption, and the timing of working capital changes. We received proceeds related to the sale of our Personal Care business of $44.7 million at the beginning of the second quarter with the intent to use the net cash proceeds to pay down debt and fund capital expenditures. Total short and long-term debt was $511 million, compared to $324.9 million. This is a sequential increase from the $343.6 million at the end of the fourth quarter. Our leverage ratio as defined in our debt agreement was 1.4 times, compared to 1.1 times at the same time last year, and 1.0 times at the end of the fourth quarter. Our net leverage ratio, which nets our cash and cash equivalents with our outstanding debt was 1.3 times at the end of the first quarter, compared to 0.9 times at the end of the fourth quarter. Now turning to our full-year outlook for fiscal '22, due to the sale of the majority of the Personal Care business during the second quarter of fiscal '22, and the expected continued classification of the remaining Latin America and Caribbean Personal Care business as non-core for fiscal '22, the outlook we are providing is on both a consolidated and core business basis. We believe the core outlook provides the best comparability between historical and future periods and I will therefore focus on core in my following remarks. Looking through the current estimated impact and duration of the EPA-related stop shipment action, which is based on the estimated timing of approval and implementation of our compliance plan, our outlook includes an estimated unfavorable sales revenue impact of $110 million to $135 million and an unfavorable adjusted diluted EPS impact of $0.70 to $1.00 related to the expected lost sales volume and earnings due to the EPA matter. The adjusted diluted EPS impact is net of the favorable impact of cost reduction actions being taken in the Health & Home segment, which includes reductions in personnel, marketing, and selected product development costs with a goal of preserving key long-term growth initiatives. It is important to note that the vast majority of our cost reduction actions will be within the Health & Home segment, so that we can continue to support the expected growth in both the Beauty and Housewares segments. We incurred $13.1 million of EPA compliance costs in the first quarter of fiscal '22 in conjunction with the implementation of our compliance plans. These costs are included in our GAAP operating results and are excluded from our non-GAAP adjusted operating results. We expect to incur additional EPA compliance costs, which may include costs to re-package existing inventory as well as incremental freight and storage costs, among other things. We expect to continue to exclude these costs from our non-GAAP adjusted operating results, and they have been excluded from the annual outlook for non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS. We expect consolidated net sales revenue in the range of $1.93 billion to $1.98 billion, which implies a decline of 8% to 5.5%. We expect core net sales revenue in the range of $1.9 billion to $1.95 billion, which implies a decline of 6% to 3.5% and includes a 6.7% to 5.4% unfavorable impact related to the EPA matter. Our net sales outlook reflects the following expectations by segment: Housewares net sales growth of 7% to 9%; Health & Home net sales decline of 27% to 24% including 15.2% to 12.4% of decline related to the EPA matter; Beauty consolidated net sales growth of 4.2% to 6.3% and beauty core net sales growth of 17% to 19%. We expect consolidated GAAP diluted EPS of $6.80 to $7.49 and core diluted EPS of $6.60 to $7.28. We expect consolidated non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $10.46 to $10.97 and core adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $10.25 to $10.75, which excludes any EPA compliance costs, asset impairment charges, restructuring charges, certain one-time items, share-based compensation expense, and intangible asset amortization expense. Our core adjusted diluted EPS outlook implies a decline of 7% to 2.5%, which includes 9.1% to 6.3% of impact due to the EPA matter. Not including the EPA matter, our outlook implies year-over-year adjusted EPS growth of 2.1% to 3.8%. Our outlook also includes year-over-year inflationary cost pressures of approximately $55 million to $60 million, or approximately $2.25 to $2.45 of adjusted diluted EPS, much of which we believe we have mitigated through a combination of improved product mix, price increases, forward buying of inventory to delay cost impacts, utilizing previously negotiated shipping contracts at rates below current market prices, and implementing other cost reduction initiatives. Our consolidated and core net sales and EPS outlook reflect the assumption that the severity of the cough/cold/flu season will be in line with pre-COVID historical averages, the assumption that foreign currency exchange rates will remain relatively constant for the remainder of the fiscal year and an estimated weighted average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 24.4 million. We expect a reported core GAAP effective tax rate range of 12.8% to 13.8% and core adjusted effective tax rate range of 9.9% to 10.9%. This range incorporates the previously disclosed adverse impact of 1.5 to 2 percentage points due to changes in tax law impacting our Macau sourcing operation. Although there is a proposed increase to the U.S. corporate tax rate, we are less impacted by these changes due to our lower amount of income subject to tax in the U.S., which is generally 20% to 25% of our worldwide income before tax. We do not expect any of the proposed changes related to Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income, often referred to as GILTI, to have a meaningful impact on our consolidated tax expense. As many of our foreign subsidiaries are not directly or indirectly owned by a U.S. parent, and are not subject to GILTI or U.S. taxation, the G7 recently announced a commitment to pursue a 15% global minimum tax. Last week the OECD gave further support for these changes and their proposals will be brought into G20 this week. If the OECD successfully gains consensus on a global minimum tax, they have discussed potential implementation of changes as early as 2023. In the event any changes become law that are meaningful to us that cannot be mitigated, we would expect any impacts beginning in our fiscal '24. At this stage, it is still unclear what tax liabilities would arise and in what form as well as when they would take effect. Nevertheless, we are not expecting a meaningful impact from tax legislation changes in fiscal '22. We will continue to assess the impacts as proposed legislation is considered and provide updates in the future. We expect capital asset expenditures of $100 million to $125 million for fiscal '22, which include expected initial expenditures related to a new 2 million square foot distribution facility with state-of-the-art automation for the Housewares segment. Preliminary estimates of the total cost of the new distribution center and equipment are in the range of $200 million to $225 million spread over fiscal years '22 and '23 assuming construction and equipment costs remain at current levels. Due to the strong growth comparison and COVID-related events in fiscal '21 and the timing of the estimated impacts of the shipping restrictions related to the EPA matter, we expect consolidated core net sales growth for fiscal '22 to be concentrated entirely in the first quarter of the fiscal year. We also expect core adjusted EPS growth for fiscal '22 to be concentrated in the first and fourth quarters of the fiscal year, with the second quarter being the most impacted by the shipping restrictions, as well as having the most challenging close comparison to the prior fiscal year. Although our outlook calls for an overall net sales decline, we are proud of the results we were able to deliver in the first quarter in all three segments and are excited about the expected growth within Beauty and Housewares segments in fiscal '22. For perspective, excluding the forecasted unfavorable impact of the EPA stop shipment action, our outlook would imply 0.7% to 1.9% of core sales growth in line with our initial goal of growing from our elevated fiscal '21 base. From a core adjusted diluted EPS perspective, although we are forecasting a decline in fiscal '22, our outlook includes unfavorable impacts of $2.95 to $3.45 related to inflationary cost pressures and the EPA matter. We expect our mitigation plans to offset much of the cost inflation. However, we do not expect to fully mitigate the estimated sales volume impact of the EPA matter through cost reductions in Health & Home, or other segments, as doing so will significantly impact the attractive longer-term growth prospects of the company. Excluding the estimated impact of the EPA matter, our outlook implies core adjusted diluted EPS growth of 2.1% to 3.8%. As Brian mentioned, we believe that this outlook is quite an accomplishment in light of the circumstances, with only the estimated impact of the EPA matter holding us back from core net sales and adjusted EPS growth. We believe we can return to our average annual long-term growth rate targets of 2.5% to 3.5% organic sales growth and adjusted EPS growth of at least 8% in fiscal '23 and fiscal '24. If we're able to deliver our fiscal '22 outlook and return to our long-term growth rates for fiscal '23 and '24, that would equate to Phase II compound annual growth rates for sales of approximately 6% and adjusted EPS of approximately 10%, which are well ahead of the Phase II targets we first presented during our Investor Day in May 2019. In closing, despite the challenges we've seen, we believe we have a set of strategies, capabilities and competitive advantages that have allowed Helen of Troy to perform in tough times. I believe we're well positioned to return to our stated long-term targets, and deliver continued value for our consumers, associates, customers, communities and shareholders during the remainder of Phase II. The foundation of our business is strong, and with our diversified portfolio, scalable operating platform and strong balance sheet, we believe we can continue to be successful, even in the most challenging external environment. And with that, I'd like to turn it back to the operator for questions.

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. Our first question is coming from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your questions.

Good morning. And first I'd just like to start with my congratulations to Matt on the announcement of his new role starting in November, and to Brian again on his announced retirement.

Thanks, Bob.

Thanks, Bob. I appreciate it.

Absolutely. So, maybe hopefully you can expand a little bit, can you tell us what claims are in question? And are these claims and the labeling issues specific to Helen of Troy or are other companies having similar issues with similar products?

Yes. Hi, Bob. Good morning. On your question there, it's our understanding that the EPA in recent years has had a broad inquiry on some areas of claims in their rules and then only recently, I think in the COVID era, they have been investigating even further. We have anecdotal evidence from various sources that there are multiple companies affected, but we don't have specifics and certainly wouldn't name them. In our case, on the subject of claims, it depends by product. They're actually quite minor. And the reason I say this is because our products are well-labeled. In water as an example, the EPA nonetheless asked us to clarify that the PUR products don't filter microbes. That clarity was never our claim and that has already been corrected. Nonetheless, we're going to be stickering those boxes, and those are the ones that have already resumed shipping. In the case of air purifiers, there's a combination of claims which are accurate, but nonetheless the combination of them is by the EPA's strict interpretation of their rules not in compliance, and we expect feedback from them shortly on that, and we'll begin the rework as well as resume shipping plans. And in the case of humidifiers, there's really just one specific group of humidifiers that's affected, and it's again a strict interpretation of a rule that they've asked us to clarify. We have a submission into them, and we hope they'll approve it shortly.

Okay, great. That's helpful. Thanks. And then, do you view this as an isolated fiscal '22 event? Do you expect this to have an impact on '23 and beyond, or how should we think about this event over medium or longer-term?

Yes, it's a great question, and I know one or two of the other analysts have it as well. We're focused on fiscal '22. As I mentioned, we've already resumed shipping on the water purifiers, and we believe that will be isolated. It's a little too soon to say still how quickly all the recovery will be on air just as we don't have the final clearance yet. The humidifier issue is small. In the case of the air one, we hope to be able to contain it within fiscal '22 as well, and therefore be able to grow from the product recovered basis as opposed to from the reduced base. We'll see how that turns out on air, but it is our hope and it's also our plan. And just for absolute clarity, the EPA has given no indication of concern regarding product safety or performance. These are labeling matters only.

Okay, great. And then, kind of shifting gears a little bit, you've been very clear before last quarter, in this last quarter et cetera that you've been strategically using your balance sheet to increase your inventory. Obviously, you did again this quarter and mentioned it. Can you just give us a sense of how this is going to play out going forward, how much inventory would you expect at year end, where do you see working capital going forward?

Yes, a couple of things here, and Matt may have some color on this as well. We're glad to be in a position to use our balance sheet to take advantage of the environment that we're in. So, we have increased our inventory. We did it last quarter. We did it again this quarter. It was a strategic move, and what it gets us is a couple of really big things. One is, it gets us the ability to have product on hand when demand is high. It's not the case for all our competitors. And as a result, we're in a good position. It also gives us a chance to buy ahead of some of the inflationary peaks that we're seeing put down on the record books now. I don't think anyone knows what the word 'transitory' is really going to turn out to mean, so owning the stuff at lower costs and what's available to buy today is helpful to us, and it's good for our customers. In terms of cash flow, it's a short-term drag, but remember all that inventory turns into cash when it sells and we own it already. So, it's a net positive going forward. In terms of ending inventory, it gives us an opportunity to have a lower position than where we are today, which puts us back to healthy levels. Some people on the call may have the question, 'Oh boy, more inventory means bad for ROIC, and it also means risk of excess or obsolete.' These are not fashion products. These are not shoes or bathing suits. These are things that don't go out of style. They don't have expiration dates. And so, temporary use of the balance sheet for this inventory should come down by the end of the year, which is certainly our expectation. That said, I don't think anyone on the call is in a position to predict how long some of the supply chain disruptions will last.

Yes, and I might just add to that, Julien, I agree with everything you said. I think we'd see inventory potentially increasing in Q2, but getting down by the end of the year like Julien talked about and maybe even getting close to where we ended in FY '21, but there's still a lot of moving parts with what's happening from global supply chain. So, definitely we view it as an asset and we expect to be able to decrease our inventory from where we are now to the end of the year.

Okay, great. And then last one for me, and I'll jump back in queue. On the Houseware side, you've obviously shown tremendous growth, you've been reinvesting behind the strength, investing for growth. There's a lot of moving parts in addition with the pandemic, but using round numbers and math, over the last six quarters, due to this reinvestment for growth, margins have been in the 15% range versus the prior six quarters before that in the 21% range. And so, my question is what's the right margin over the medium to long term, and why, and how are you contemplating reinvesting for incremental growth in the balance of fiscal '22 and the margin profile expected for the balance of the year?

Matt, it would be great for you to handle that, especially on the run rate and on the investment part.

Sure, Bob. So, you'll remember if you're looking over the past six quarters or so is the time where we had less mix of Hydro Flask and more mix of OXO. As we look forward one of the things that we look at from an operating margin perspective, and we think even with the impacts that we're seeing, we can keep operating margins roughly flat year-over-year in fiscal '22 and we expect we can grow in the Housewares segment and a lot of that's being driven by mix improvements and getting back more mix of Hydro Flask as well as being able to offset a lot of the inflationary costs we're seeing. So, to your point, we've also been making a lot of strategic investments there. I think that we'll be able to get closer to where we used to run, closer to the 20% than the 15%. But there are some things that we want to continue to invest in that segment, a lot of DTC opportunities there, a lot more continued growth and a competitive environment, especially with Hydro Flask that we want to make sure we can protect and grow what we have. I think that there'll be continued investment but opportunities to improve margins from the six-quarter run rate that you're quoting.

Got it. Super. All right, thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your questions.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question, and also congrats on the promotion.

Thanks, Rupesh.

So, I guess first question I want to start out with is the longer-term guidance. So, the commentary for 3% organic sales growth and 8% EPS growth on average in FY '23 and FY '24. What is the earnings base we should be thinking about the growth off of, is it off the $10.25 to $10.75 core EPS numbers, so maybe just some more clarity there in terms of how to think about the base?

Yes, Rupesh, good question. Right now like Julien spoke, we want to make this EPA impact as transitory as possible and spoke to the more short-term nature of the humidification and water. But air is a little bit more uncertain at this point in terms of how we're going to resolve it and recover it. So we've done our calculation, you've heard me in the prepared remarks quote a long-term CAGR of 6% on the top line, and 10% on the bottom that was based off of the $10.25 to $10.75. But we really want to focus on FY '22 and we want to make the impacts that we're assuming now in a very dynamic situation, we're working really hard to try and make our outcome better than that. We've got another group we're working with, and we're going to try and do the best we can to decrease the impact on that. And then once we get '22 to a place where we feel like we've got our arms around it, we definitely will look for '23 to figure out how we can build that back and make it transitory. Right now, the calculations we've done are on the $10.25 to $10.75, but we're trying to make that better, and be able to build on it.

Yes, there's some indications already in the positive direction on this, because of the water purification as we said a couple of times, we've started to ship already. And we're looking to accelerate the rework plan and recover there as quickly as possible. The trade inventories are quite healthy in both of these categories. So consumers won't be harmed. That's our intention. And it gives us a chance to preserve distribution. In the case of water, we're less concerned; in the case of air, once we get the clarity from the EPA we will work just as fast. Air may take a little bit longer on the rework because the boxes are bigger and have more material and information. So we'll see how that goes. But it's our intent to do right by customers and not to harm consumers, and that should help the recovery.

Okay, great. That's helpful color. And then just I guess a little more clarity on the guidance, so what does the guidance in terms of the timeline for shipping, the impact of air filtration and humidifiers? Does any more clarity there just in terms of how we should think about the timing?

Good question, Rupesh. So, what we've assumed as we've given the high-end and low-end of the guidance: on the high-end of the guidance there is no expected shipping during the second quarter for the affected products in air, water, and humidification, and then no expected shipping in the third quarter for the air products that are affected. On the low-end, the same situations except air shipments extend into the fourth quarter. That's really how we've drawn up the high and the low-end. And like we said, we're working in a dynamic situation with the EPA to try and make it better than all of those assumptions, but there's a lot of moving parts here.

Okay, great. Thank you. I'll pass it along.

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, good morning and thank you for taking the question. Congratulations, as well, on your promotion here. So just wanted to ask about inventory, so obviously, you touched on this a little bit, but just wanted to get a little bit more clarity. So it is up versus the year-end and versus last year? Do you think you have adequate amount of inventory for Housewares and Beauty? And also just wanted to just get maybe a little bit more specifics as to your inventory situation for the Health & Home segment? And how much of that would need to be labeled or repackaged?

Let's go through the segments. In Beauty, you might remember a year ago, we were hamstrung by lack of inventory. We were pleasantly surprised by the extreme demand for the volumizer franchise, and so much so that we were going as fast as we could. In those days, there was a lot of shutdown of supply coming out of China. We ramped up production and satisfied demand last year and had a strong year in Beauty. This year with less COVID, we have much better supply because of that work. And now we've added the inventory, you've seen the result of it in the first quarter—Beauty grew 79% in the first quarter. Having the product available gives us an unconstrained ability to meet market demand. It also allows us to have inventory for other products like wavers, and some of our new innovations on Drybar that are doing well. In Housewares, we've also increased inventory, because we believe we can grow from the elevated base last year. A lot of that growth has already occurred in the first quarter for both Beauty and Housewares. We believe we have the right amount of inventory to satisfy the elevated base as we go through the back nine months of our fiscal year. That should allow total inventory to end lower than where we started, as Matt mentioned earlier. In Health & Home, we also ramped up production because of coronavirus and the demand surges. We now have that inventory. I mentioned that in the first quarter, our thermometer sales were basically flat versus year ago, which is notable given the high prior-year base. In air purifiers, demand is strong. That said, we're constrained at the moment because of the EPA matter. As it is resolved, we'll shift into that demand. For water purifiers, as I said, we have already resumed shipping. International, which is growing even faster, does not face these constraints and we have inventory to meet demand there.

Got it. So, thank you very much for that, Julien. So, on your last conference call in April, you talked about having three attractive acquisition targets that you were looking at. Just wanted to see if you have an update on that, and whether this EPA issue slows down your M&A activity or is that an issue?

Zero correlation between the EPA matter and M&A. It's two completely different areas and have nothing to do with each other and we are eager on the M&A front to do the right deal for the business. In the case of the three specific ones, two of them actually had slowdowns in their own processes. They've now restarted and we are engaged. In the case of the other one that we're pursuing, we're still in talks and yet another opportunity has surfaced.

I would say overall what we're seeing is a reactive market out there. As Julien mentioned, several processes restarted. We've been in touch with several businesses, and while there was a slowdown, we're encouraged by the opportunities we continue to see. The diligence is predominantly underway and we'll continue probably through the summer and sometimes these processes take into the fall. If they look good from our perspective, we'll be active; if not, we'll continue to look at the rest of the market. But note that we're very active out there right now.

To add, with regard to the EPA matter and our balance sheet, the inventory we have is saleable and it turns into cash when it sells, which reduces our debt and gives us flexibility to pursue attractive uses of shareholder capital. Our leverage level in the absolute is still low, even now. So if you're worried about firepower, we're not worried about that.

Okay, yes. Thank you for that and just a couple of quick questions here. So in terms of the overall supply chain issues that are out there for you and anybody else seems like have you seen any improvements since the quarter ended or is it just more of the same, just dealing with the container issues and everything else out there?

Largely more of the same and it's general market uncertainty rather than something specific to us. There are container shortages, COVID outbreaks at certain ports—some of which have been in Southeast China—and we have rerouted shipments to less congested ports. We bring them into U.S. ports with the least congestion and leverage contracted rates versus the spot market, which is much higher. The mitigation measures we've taken—forward buys, contracted freight, and price increases—have helped. We've come a long way since April. While I can't predict when the disruptions will fully resolve, we believe our mitigation plans are effective and we are navigating the environment well.

Regarding Amazon Prime Day, we called out that timing as a contributor to first-quarter results. It was one of the drivers but not the main driver. Growth was broad-based across segments.

I'll just add, it was isolated mostly in Beauty. So it was a Beauty driver, not the whole company.

It was a couple of million dollars. Even if you took that off the 79% you'd still be in the 70s for Beauty growth.

Got it, all right. Thank you, and best of luck.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Linda Bolton-Weiser with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, hi. Thank you.

Hi, Linda.

So with regard to these stopping of shipments of these products, I'm just wondering, what are retailer reactions to this because they have to fulfill their demand from their orders from some supplier so the business is shifting to somebody else? So I'm just wondering how you intend to handle getting back in with the retailers once you are able to reship and then how do you kind of combine that with the need to take price increases? Is that going to inhibit you in those categories from taking price and then my second question on the pricing too is with the tariffs, you had some pushback from retailers in some categories, and the price increases. Can you remind us what categories those were and are you anticipating similar issues as we tried pricing now or do you think the pricing is going to go a little bit smoother than it did with the tariffs? Thanks.

All good questions. First, we're not out with retailers. Retailers generally have about two months of inventory on average and shelf-level out-of-stocks are in the mid-single-digits on average. Our top five customers, who make up more than 70% of the volume, have about two months of inventory on hand now. Given that we have resumed shipping water products and expect to resume air products as we complete compliance, we don't expect a widespread crisis of out-of-stocks. Retailers are concerned, and some are strongly concerned, but we've been working quickly with the EPA and that has reduced those concerns. We have long trusting relationships with these retailers and they are generally sympathetic and working with us. On price increases, so far so good. Our customers realize we're in an inflationary environment and consumers have some purchasing power in many categories. We've taken mitigation actions and communicated clearly with customers about the steps we've taken before seeking price increases. In the case of tariffs earlier, there was some resistance in specific instances, but we worked through it and those increases were accepted. For now, we're being cautious on Health & Home increases to work through the EPA matters before implementing additional price moves so as not to complicate discussions with retailers.

Okay, thanks, Julien. And then can I just ask because we got some questions from investors about the valuation of the sale of the personal care business? It did seem rather low. I think it was 0.6 times the revenue, something like that, even for declining business that seems sort of low. What's your view on valuation there and why not just hang on to the business and allow it to generate cash for you to fund some of these other initiatives that you have going?

Let me address that and then Matt and Brian can add color. We conducted a broad market process and are confident we sold it for the price the market would pay. The multiple equated to roughly three times EBITDA. Over the last five to six years we've harvested more than a quarter of a billion dollars of EBITDA from that business. The business was in secular decline and as it declines the value to us declines as well. Some of the earnings in the base year were at harvest levels, and normalization would have required reinvestment. If we reinvested that money there instead of redeploying it to higher-ROI opportunities, it would be a worse use of capital for shareholders. Finally, focus matters: divesting a declining non-core business helps us focus resources and management attention on leadership brands and higher-growth opportunities.

To add a bit of color, the declines we were seeing in the personal care business were accelerating. When you have brands in decline, especially in that market, you see cost pressures and less ability to take pricing. That creates a drag on margins, which then requires us to reinvest or to find other areas to offset that drag. Selling the business removes that drag and allows us to reinvest in areas with better ROI.

Yes, and on that drag we've published the numbers so you can do the math—removing that decline removes roughly a half-point of drag on our consolidated numbers.

Great, thanks. And then finally, can I just ask you, I know that you guys don't really look too much at the IRI POS data, because it's not really representative of your whole business. But nevertheless, when we look at that, it actually shows in recent weeks, quite a big decline year-over-year in most of your categories versus very strong growth in the prior year during the COVID surge. So, how does that align with the strong sales growth that you reported in the quarter? Why is there such a difference? Is it just Hydro Flask making the difference and that's not in the IRI? Or is it replenishment of inventory at retail that really drove your sales or can you just kind of explain that a little bit?

Sure. The big factor is that IRI captures only a portion of our business—about 30% or less, meaning approximately 70% of our sales are not captured in IRI. We rely on other sources: Nielsen for broad brick-and-mortar, NPD for categories like sporting goods and outdoor that capture Hydro Flask retail, and Profitero for Amazon tracking. International is also not captured in IRI, and international is about 20% of our sales and growing faster than the rest of the company. In Beauty, large customers like Ulta and Sephora and salon sales are not fully captured in IRI. In Housewares, IRI coverage is even lower. So the mismatch you see between IRI and our reported results is largely due to coverage differences and the fact that many of our strong channels are not included in IRI. We do look at IRI data, but we square it with the other data sets to form our view of performance.

Yes, thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Marotta with CL King. Please proceed with your question.

Good morning, Julien and Brian, Matt and Jack. Julien, two quick questions, I know we're running a little late. The first is, regarding the EPA products, can domestic packaging be repurposed for international considering that this is a domestic issue? Is that a potential solution to minimize inventory obsolescence?

It's possible, but not preferred, because voltage, plugs and certain safety standards differ internationally. It's better to stop at the manufacturer level and repurpose internal components or subcomponents toward international products, and that is something we've done. For example, air purifiers are doing well in Europe, and we've diverted some production there to help while we resolve U.S. packaging. For the packaging itself, no products will be scrapped. For water purifiers the changes are minor—stickering boxes was sufficient and shipping resumed. For air purifiers some packaging will need rework or sticker application. We have also been able to move some inventory, with the EPA's agreement, from one warehouse to another to help with space and to perform the rework safely and efficiently.

Excellent, thank you. And my final question, has there been a comprehensive review of other packaging across categories in an effort to minimize the risk of this occurring in the future for your current product line?

Yes, absolutely. We've taken a hard look across all the areas that this type of agency oversees to make sure everything is compliant. So far the changes required have been modest, but we're applying the learnings broadly to avoid recurrence.

Thank you. There are no further questions. At this time, I would like to turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you, Operator, and thank you everyone for joining us today and for your continued interest in Helen of Troy. We had nothing short of a spectacular first quarter. We really look forward to speaking with many of you in the coming days and over the next couple of weeks, and we will share further progress. If something material comes out in between, we'll tell you, otherwise we'll report our second quarter results in October. Thank you very much, and have a great day.

Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a great day.