Clarus Corporation

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Claris Corporation's financial results for the third quarter ended September 30th, 2024. Joining us today are Claris Corporation's Executive Chairman, Oren Kanders, CFO, Mike Yates, President of Black Diamond Equipment, Neil Fisk, Management Director of Claris Adventure Segment, Matthew Hayward, and the company's External Director of Investor Relations, Matt Berkowitz. Following the remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Berkowitz as he reads the company's safe harbor statement within the meaning of the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. That provides important cautions regarding forward-looking statements. Matt, please go ahead.

Thank you. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during today's call, we will be making several forward-looking statements, and we will be making these statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Security Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements reflect our best estimates and assumptions based on our understanding of information known to us today. These forward-looking statements are subject to potential risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results of operations or financial conditions of Claire's Corporation to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. More information on potential factors that could affect the company's operating and financial results is included from time to time in the company's public reports filed with the SEC. I would like to remind everyone this call will be available for replay starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time tonight. A webcast replay will also be available via the link provided in today's press release, as well as on the company's website at clariscorp.com. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Claris' Executive Chairman, Warren Kanders.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Claris' earnings call to review our results for the third quarter. I am joined today by our Chief Financial Officer, Mike Yates, as well as Neil Fisk and Matt Hayward, who will discuss our outdoor and adventure segments, respectively. While our businesses continue to deal with significant headwinds in the near term, operating against a backdrop of constrained consumers in the outdoor space, our focus in the third quarter was on advancing Clarissa's strategic plan, position the company for long-term profitable growth, 2024 was expected to be a year of simplification for our outdoor segment and one of investment to scale our adventure segment. There remains significant work outstanding to execute on our multi-year growth initiatives. Yet we believe the steps we have taken and investments we have made to date will deliver significant long-term benefit. And Neil and Matt will provide more specific comments about the incremental progress made in each segment during the third quarter. At Outdoor, we've been pleased with the team's steady progress, executing initiatives focused on further simplification, strengthening the core, and improving the quality and composition of our inventory to focus on the best and most profitable styles. As Neil will detail in greater depth, our goal has been to build a smaller, more profitable business, and today's results are evidence that the strategies that we have implemented are working. While Outdoor revenue declined year over year, Consistent with market softness and our expectations, adjusted EBITDA was up 25%. I'd also like to highlight that the challenging market conditions we are experiencing represent an opportunity, as it is our view that consumers tend to favor the highest quality options in this type of retail environment. We have seen Black Diamond grow share in its core categories in recent quarters, and we expect to continue to take share in our most important categories moving forward. Turning to our venture businesses, our objective to scale the segment to a global footprint has not yet come to fruition. Performance was in line with expectations for the first two months of the quarter, but results were ultimately affected by market softness in September in both North America and Australia. We believe we have taken appropriate corrective actions to right-size our cost-based venture without impacting the growth investments we made in the first half of 2024. The team has undergone significant changes this year as we work towards an organizational structure that is expected to allow us to effectively scale at brands in Australia, the US and international markets. Overall, while we are in different places on the turnaround curve for each segment, we are encouraged by the steps Neil and Matt have taken. And we believe that we have laid the foundation to drive increased profitability and unlock new growth opportunities moving forward. With that, thank you for being with us today, and I will turn the call over to Mike.