European Wax Center, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the European WAC Center's third quarter fiscal year 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. In order to facilitate as many participants as possible, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up during the Q&A session. If you have additional questions, you may rejoin the queue. If you have any further assistance, please press star then zero. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Amir Yeganaju, Vice President of Financial Planning and Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you and welcome to European WAC Center's third quarter fiscal year 21 earnings call. With me today are David Berg, Chief Executive Officer, David Willis, Chief Operating Officer, and Jennifer Vanderbilt, Chief Financial Officer. For today's call, David Berg will begin with a review of our third quarter performance and highlight the accomplishments toward our strategy. Then Jennifer will provide additional details regarding our financial performance and guidance. Following our prepared remarks, David Berg, David Willis, Jennifer Vanderbilt, and I will be available to take questions you have for us today. Before we start, I would like to remind you of our legal disclaimer. We will make certain statements today which are forward-looking within the meaning of the federal security laws, including statements about the outlook of our business and other matters referenced in our earnings release issued today. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our SEC filings as well as our earnings release issued today for a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results. Please also note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this call and we take no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to our forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Also during this call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which adjust our GAAP results to eliminate the impact of certain items. You will find additional information regarding these non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of these non-GAAP to GAAP measures in our earnings release. A live broadcast of this call is also available on the investor relations section of our website at investors.waxcenter.com. I will now turn the call over to David Berg.

Thank you, Amir, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I'm excited to speak with you and share our strong third quarter performance. It is clear from our results both this quarter and year to date that our long-term business strategy is delivering. Our brand, which is synonymous with trust, accessibility, and best-in-class customer service resonates with our guests. Combined with our asset-light business model, which delivers capital-efficient growth and significant free cash flow, we have a powerful platform that enables ongoing sales growth and margin expansion, consistent with the long-term targets we shared with you at the time of our IPO a couple of months ago. As a result of the strong momentum we're seeing in our centers, we are very pleased to raise our top and bottom-line outlook for fiscal year 2021. which Jennifer will cover on the second half of today's call. Regarding the third quarter, Jennifer and I will both refer to certain growth rates versus the same period of 2019, as we believe this is a more accurate depiction for comparison purposes, given that a majority of our centers were temporarily closed for a portion of 2020 due to pandemic restrictions. Briefly touching on some of the highlights in the third quarter. Let me first remind you that our top-line growth is fueled by two priorities, sales at existing centers and continued new center openings. Our third quarter results demonstrate that we continue to deliver on both of these growth vectors. System-wide sales rose 21 percent in 2-3-2021 over 2019. Same-store sales increased 10.6 percent, which represents a significant and continued sequential acceleration. Since Q1 of this year, we have generated a 16.8 percentage point increase in same-store sales, from negative 6.2 percent in Q1 to positive 6.9 percent in Q2 and positive 10.6 percent in Q3. And as we look ahead to Q4, we expect another quarter of sequential improvement and double-digit same-store sales growth versus 2019. Turning to new center openings, We accelerated our pace sequentially with 18 net new centers opened in the quarter. We ended the period with 833 total centers, and we are raising our fiscal 2021 outlook for net openings to 57 from 52 due to favorable development timing. During the third quarter, we continue to build out our new center pipeline. Our franchise network has incredible brand loyalty. In fact, nearly all of our licenses for centers to be developed are with our existing franchise partners, and over half are associated with multi-unit development agreements. The depth of our multi-year pipeline, coupled with the overwhelming interest from existing franchisees, sophisticated multi-unit operators, and well-capitalized mid-market private equity firms gives us confidence in addressing our white space as we work towards our long-term goal of 3,000 centers across the United States. Finally, in Q3, we grew adjusted EBITDA by 39% versus 2019 to $16.5 million and generated strong operating cash flow. Let me spend a minute and turn to the drivers of our sales and profit performance. European WAC Center continues to benefit from increased loyalty and heightened awareness, which was fueled by more than a 30% increase in new guests versus the third quarter of 2019. These new guests are purchasing Wax Passes at a healthy rate. In fact, Q3 Wax Pass sales, less redemptions, more than doubled versus the third quarter of 2019. As a reminder, approximately 60% of our service transactions include a Wax Pass redemption. Therefore, we view Wax Pass sales as a leading indicator of the future strength of our business and are very encouraged about our current momentum. Retention rates accelerated in Q3 as well, which also speaks to the quality of guests we are acquiring. We believe strong acquisition and retention reflect the trust we have built with guests for providing a consistent, positive experience through our expertly trained wax specialists and the utilization of our proprietary comfort wax in a clean, safe environment across our 800-plus centers in the United States. Our same-store sales increase continued to be driven by higher transaction values, primarily due to service mix and an increase in service prices implemented earlier in 2021. We believe that pandemic-related mask mandates led to a mix shift, favoring higher-priced body services such as leg, bikini, and Brazilian waxes versus facial services. We see great loyalty from our guests who continue to come for their body services and And we believe there are still some sidelined guests who will return to their routines when the pandemic restrictions abate. Within our same-store sales base, we have seen transactions improve sequentially since Q1 of this year and are encouraged by these trends. We are monitoring the pandemic's impact, including variants and mask and vaccination mandates, while continuing to uphold rigorous safety and hygiene standards. Same-store sales of 10.6% were strong, even as California continues to lag other geographies due to the more stringent COVID-related mandates and associated labor tightening. As a result, our California centers were a 470 basis point drag on same-store sales in Q3, slightly better than the 500 basis point drag in Q2. Excluding California, our remaining 43 states generated 15.3% positive same-store sales in Q3 2021 relative to Q3 of 2019. And all of our cohorts performed well on a two-year basis, once again demonstrating the strength of our brand across the country. On the labor front, while we are not yet back to optimal staffing levels everywhere, we are starting to see some improvement in the availability of WAC specialists. As we shared during our Q2 earnings call, we launched several initiatives, including virtual job fairs and a recruitment campaign to drive awareness for European WAC Center as the preferred place to have a career as a WAC specialist. Most of our California-based franchisees have begun to see traction in their hiring efforts, and we will continue to monitor and report out until California's performance catches up with the balance of our network. Product sales were also strong for the quarter, rising 25% relative to the third quarter of 2019. You will recall that product sales are comprised of selling both our comfort wax and our proprietary retail products into our growing franchise base. Therefore, our product sales, like our royalty fees, are a recurring stream of revenue. We have enhanced our operational playbook to focus on consultative selling that makes it easier for our WAC specialists and guest service associates to attach retail products to our guest service visits. We remain pleased with the strong launch of our new retail product that launched in April of this year, and we recently released two new products at the beginning of this quarter, fourth quarter, that we are really excited about. These products treat some of our guests' biggest concerns, the appearance of discoloration and irritations. in an ingrown hair serum formula they know and love. On the marketing front, we are excited to have launched our new EWC loyalty program known as EWC Rewards in the latter half of October. The program enables guests to earn reward points for spending on European Wax Center's products and services, for referring a friend, for rebooking in person at a center, and then allows them to redeem those points for discounts on future visits. Compared to our previous program, Guests can earn reward points faster and enjoy an enhanced app and digital experience. EWC Rewards is a more aspirational program that will create a higher reward visibility and therefore guest engagement. Over time, we will develop a more robust guest profile which should, in turn, facilitate a more personalized guest experience and drive increased guest visits and transaction value. Finally, on the technology front, we remain focused on providing our franchise operators with the tools to connect more closely with guests and ensure a seamless experience. In October, we launched a new app that provides guests more visibility to reward points, convenience-added features like QuickBook for frequent services, self-check-in, and digitalization of primary guest forms that reduces the need for paper and creates a contactless environment. We expect these enhancements to allow our franchisees to more efficiently serve our guests and ultimately increase center productivity. In summary, we are pleased with the performance of our business and equally excited about the opportunities that lie ahead to capitalize on our leadership position in the out-of-home waxing category. We are monitoring the potential impacts created by the pandemic, especially as it relates to our centers in California. Higher freight costs and supply chain disruptions are also impacting much of the globe. However, our service-focused offering helps mitigate many of these challenges. We will continue to monitor and adjust our business as appropriate, proactively implementing our plans with a keen eye toward mitigation strategies. We are fortunate to operate a business that has proven strength in various economic environments. Our guests view waxing as non-discretionary. That translates to a recurring revenue stream for our network. We have a strong pipeline of centers to provide for our continued expansion and a team that is dedicated to delivering the superior guest experience for which we are known. And we continue to innovate our offering to increase guest loyalty and engagement, making it easier for our guests to find us and book services, increase product purchases, and drive repeat visits. Overall, we expect the continued implementation of our focused and proven strategy to to lead to increased value for all stakeholders. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Jennifer to review our third quarter performance and outlook in more detail. Jen, over to you.

Thanks, David, and good afternoon, everyone. I am delighted to speak with you about our strong third quarter results. While discussing our financial performance, I will compare our third quarter fiscal 21 results to both fiscal year 20, which was significantly impacted by temporary pandemic-related central closures, and Fiscal 19, which represented a more normalized year of operations for us. My remarks will focus on our adjusted results, which exclude one-time costs related to our initial public offering. Finally, I will cover our updated Fiscal 21 outlook before opening the call for Q&A. You can find reconciliation tables to the most comparable gap figures in our press release and 8K filed with the SEC today. Let me start with a review of our third quarter results. We are pleased to report strong performance highlighted by significant growth in sales and adjusted EBITDA compared to the third quarters of both fiscal years 20 and 19. As I will discuss later in my remarks, we are raising our fiscal 21 outlook to reflect that momentum in the back half of this year. We successfully opened 18 net new centers during the third quarter of 21 and are now raising our fiscal 21 target to 57 net new center openings, up from our previous guidance of 52 net openings. Q3 system-wide sales were 219.1 million, increasing 60% from 136.9 million in 2020 and 21% from $180.6 million in 2019. System-wide sales growth accelerated from Q2 and was up 15% versus 2019. Our new center growth, coupled with a 10.6% same-store sales increase, drove the revenue increase relative to 2019. Our guests continue to favor higher-priced body waxing versus facial waxing, which is driving an increase in average transaction value. Additionally, we increased service prices earlier this year, which is also contributing to system-wide sales growth versus 2019. As David mentioned in his remarks, California negatively impacted Q3 21 same-store sales by 470 basis points, an improvement of 30 basis points versus the Q2 impact. We are working with our California franchisees to support the active recruitment of WAC specialists and are closely monitoring improvements in same-store sales performance in this region. In our other 43 states, excluding California, we generated positive same-store sales of 15.3% relative to Q3 2019. And from a cohort standpoint, we are also pleased with the performance outside of our California locations in the third quarter of 2021. Total EWC revenue in the third quarter rose 61% to $49 million from $30.5 million in 2020 and 20% from $40.7 million in 2019, driven by robust product sales. Product sales were driven by the sale of our proprietary comfort wax to franchisees and new launches of well-received retail products, both tied to our growing network of centers. That is why our increased guidance for new center openings for the full year also positions us well for total EWC revenue increases in the year ahead. We posted third quarter operating income of 0.2 million, a significant improvement versus last year's loss of 1.9 million, and 6.1 million below fiscal 2019's third quarter operating income of 6.3 million. It is important to note that GAAP operating income was constrained during the quarter, primarily due to $7.4 million of non-cash share-based compensation expense and $4.1 million of IPO-related charges, both of which are added back to our adjusted net income as we do not consider them in the evaluation of our core operating performance. Third quarter adjusted net income improved to $8.5 million from an adjusted net loss of $6.0 million in 2020 and adjusted net income of $3.7 million in 2019. We have not incurred income tax expense in Q3 year to date and do not expect to have income tax expense for the fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2021. Going forward and given our up-sea structure, we expect an annual effective rate of approximately 13% before discrete items. Adjusted EBITDA, which also excludes the impact of certain non-cash and other items, such as one-time costs related to our initial public offering that are not considered in the evaluation of ongoing operating performance, increased by $12.9 million year-over-year in the third quarter of fiscal 21 to $16.5 million Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 33.8% in this quarter, up 460 basis points versus 2019's adjusted EBITDA margin of 29.2%. Sequentially, adjusted EBITDA margins declined from the second quarter of 2021 due to the introduction of public company costs and the timing of advertising expense within the year. we continue to expect full-year 2021 adjusted EBITDA margins to be in the mid-30s, and over time, we expect to deliver mid- to high-30s adjusted EBITDA margins driven by continued top-line growth. Turning to the balance sheet, at the end of Q3, we had cash and cash equivalents of $25.4 million and $180 million in borrowings outstanding under our credit facilities. In conjunction with our initial public offering in August 2021, we entered into a new five-year credit agreement comprised of a $40 million undrawn revolver and a $180 million term loan. We were also able to secure better rates on our new credit agreement, and we expect interest expense to decrease by approximately $11 million on an annualized basis beginning in Q4. Proceeds from the new term loan and the company's initial public offering were used to repay and terminate our previous credit agreement. It's worth reiterating that through our IPO, the underwriters purchased 12.2 million shares of common stock at $17 per share. Shares sold included 2.4 million shares of Class A common stock sold by existing stockholders and 9.8 million shares issued and sold by the company in exchange for net proceeds of $155.4 million prior to offering expenses. Following our IPO, our capital structure consists of 63.7 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock. Shares of our Class B common stock, paired with an equivalent number of EWC Ventures common units, are exchangeable into shares of our Class A common stock on a one for one basis. Now, onto our outlook. Based on our strong third quarter performance and the continued momentum of our business, we are raising both our top and bottom line guidance for fiscal year 2021, in addition to raising this year's target for net new center openings to 57 net new centers from 52. Our expectations for 2021 full year results are as follows. system-wide sales between $795 million and $798 million, a high single-digit same-store sales increase, including a sequential increase in the fourth quarter from 10.6% in Q3, total revenue between $175.5 million and $178.5 million, adjusted EBITDA between $61 million and $63.5 million, and adjusted net income between 28 million and 29 million. We now expect to end the year with 853 European WAC centers, a 7.2% increase from the 796 centers opened at the end of fiscal 2020. The incremental five centers versus our previous guidance are expected to open late in the fourth quarter. And while not material contributors to Q4 results, We look forward to a full year of contributions from these centers in 2022. Over the next three to five years, our long-range growth algorithm remains intact and contemplates compounding annual growth of high single-digit new center growth, high single-digit same-store sales growth, low double-digit EWC revenue growth, and low to mid-teens adjusted EBITDA growth. As we close out fiscal 2021 and look beyond this year, we remain focused on mitigating the challenges in front of us, as we have demonstrated with strong and consistent results in a variety of environments. In the near term, we continue to uphold our impeccable cleanliness standards to provide a safe and welcoming environment for guests as pandemic restrictions ease. Long term, waxing is a repeatable, recurring service that we believe our loyal guests consider non-discretionary, which positions us well. Above all, we are the leader in a large and growing addressable market with an asset-light business model and a strong pipeline for growth. We look forward to continuing to serve guests and drive stakeholder value for years to come. I will now turn the call back over to the operator for questions. Operator?

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or comment at this time, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press the pound key. Again, in order to facilitate as many participants as possible, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you have additional questions, you may rejoin the queue. Again, if you have a question or comment at this time, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Our first question or comment comes from the line of Randy Connick from Jefferies. Your line is open.

Yeah, thanks, guys. Good evening. I have two questions. My first question is that I wanted to kind of explore some of the comments midday on the wax test and how that's been growing. It seems like it's accelerating, actually. And just give us some more perspective on how that's contributing to future growth. Just give us some more details there. Thanks, guys.

Sure. Jen, you want to take that?

Sure. Hi, Randy. I'm a little out of the weather. Good question on the last pass. We're very pleased that we have attracted more new customers and have reengaged with our existing customers that continue to come back as pandemic restrictions ease in many geographies. You know, we see new guests purchasing last passes at the same rate as in previous years, which we consider to be a really great thing considering how many more new guests we have. As we said in our spoken remarks, up 30 plus percent in Q3. Based on research we've previously shared with everybody, we believe one out of every five new guests is coming to us from a competing location. And so we really believe we're driving a high quality brand fan based on the great experience and we should continue to see sustainable growth from them. There isn't necessarily a straight-line relationship between Wax Pass purchases and redemptions, but we do think that Wax Pass sales, which are strong again this quarter, are a harbinger of redemptions and sales to come. And so we feel this is real good news.

Great. And then, you know, in terms of there's a comment made around the The future growth is coming from, say, existing franchisees wanting to build more units, et cetera. So I just want to kind of get some perspective on how much more interest are they showing, and then in terms of driving new interest from potential franchisees that have not did this before, now that you're public and your brand is getting more awareness out there in the market, Just give us some perspective on the type of demand you're seeing from non-competitional types of partners as well. David?

Sure. Hey, Randy. David Willis. I'll take that question. We do continue to see significant interest from multi-unit developers and mid-sized private equity groups. We've got about a half a dozen... private equity groups that are active in the network today. I would also add that the pace with which these groups are signing multi-unit development agreements is accelerating. That really applies to the multi-unit developers and the self-funded franchisees and the private equity groups. More than half, as David had mentioned, more than half of our existing pipeline is comprised of MUDs, and nearly all of our licenses are held by existing franchisees. So This combination of interest and commitment to develop over multiple years is giving us great confidence in our future pipeline.

Randy, I think I just add, coming out of the pandemic, because of the pace with which we rebounded, folks that were in other concepts, we had operators that had other concepts that sort of doubled down and are committed to European WAC Center just because of the way we've rebounded. As we've always talked about, the non-discretionary nature of the services is And so we're incredibly excited. Clearly, as the leader in the industry, becoming a public company just, again, validates why you want to go with the European WAC Center. So the interest we're seeing from our current franchisee base, as well as folks wanting to partner with our franchisees, continues to be a real positive for us as we look to our future growth. Thanks for the questions.

Appreciate it. Thanks, guys.

All right, Randy, thank you.

Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson from Bank of America. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good afternoon, everybody. I just wanted to ask you about the change, the increase in your center openings this quarter. Is that a pull forward for next year, or do you think you'll still be able to maintain that high single-digit new center opening growth next year?

Lorraine, no, it's not a pull forward. We still feel confident in our ability to deliver the new centers, the 7% to 10% of the existing asset base on an annualized basis. Our internal development team is really hitting its stride, and we've implemented some changes in the development process itself. I think we've got better communications and dialogue with franchisees to help navigate this post-COVID situation. development process. So I think our franchisees are just being a bit more planful, and that's resonating with a bit faster pace. So it's not a pull forward.

Great. And then my second question is around the supply chain. It's gotten a lot of press lately. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the availability of both the wax and other products that you sell, and if we should think about any increased cost to getting either of those.

No, great question. So we have been fortunate in that we've not really seen material shifts in our costs across supply chain with the exception of ocean freight. We did put in place a small surcharge on our proprietary wax that our franchisees purchased from us to mitigate this freight expense. Given kind of the high cash flow position that we're in as a safety measure, we've also brought across some incremental lacks in our safety stocks. So We continue to monitor this closely, Lorraine, but today has primarily been limited to ocean freight.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Hi, and this is actually Hannah to talk on for Cindy and Gutman. Thanks for the time, guys. My first question is on the incremental five centers for Q4. I'm wondering if you can tell us anything about how the AUV ramp of the new centers has been trending. Are you seeing any acceleration there and kind of related of the five to seven million incremental system-wide sales in the new guide, how we should think about the contribution from the extra five centers versus kind of carrying forward the current conference you're seeing versus California starting to ramp back up. Thanks.

And I'll start and maybe ask Jennifer to weigh in on anything that I missed. So if you think about the five centers coming online in the fourth quarter, I think Jennifer touched on this. This won't be anything material to fiscal year 2021, but we will get the full year benefit of these new centers in 2022. That's kind of the first observation. With respect to how new center openings have performed in fiscal year 2021, we're very encouraged with the rate and pace of revenue build in their first few months. So hopefully that addresses, Jen, I don't know if there's other comments you would make relative to the impact on 21 or 22.

Sure, Hannah. David Willis is exactly right. In terms of just the timing of when those additional five will hit, we do look at that as being a really great thing for 22. I would also say, as we've consistently called out, though, in terms of the updated guide for full year 21, we have talked about the last past purchases. and have certainly seen similar mix shifts. If you think about the mix shift playing out in our comp, it's also playing out in the types of wax passes being purchased. And that contribution has been a real good guide for us and is part of the guide upward for balance of year. We feel good about that at this point in time.

That's very helpful. Thank you. Maybe one last quick one. You mentioned your ticket has come up in the quarter, and some of that is mixed shift. Obviously, we're in an inflationary environment. Have you taken any price during the quarter, and are there any plans to kind of above and beyond your typical annual level?

Yeah, Hannah, we took price earlier in 2021 and do not have plans to take price in the quarter.

Got it. Thanks.

Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Jonathan Komp from Bayard. Your line is open.

Yeah. Hi. Thank you. I want to ask first, could you maybe share a little bit more color what you saw throughout the quarter, thinking through consumer behavior and sort of the ebb and flow of some of the Delta and other headlines? And as you sort of sit today in sort of a lower seasonal period, how do you think about sustaining the momentum both with existing and existing potential guests that you could re-engage? I know you mentioned expecting sequential acceleration in the fourth quarter, but any more color behind that would be helpful.

Hey, Jonathan, thanks for the question. Listen, we continue to be very, very pleased with the demand side of our business. Our guests certainly came back as we reopened centers after getting out of the pandemic restrictions, and we continue to see that. And our guests are back into that non-discretionary nature of of their visits, making this part of their regular beauty and skin care regimen. And that's one of the strongest aspects of our business model. As we talked about, we were really pleased with the amount of new guests we had into the system during the quarter. One in five coming from a competitor. We think that's just a positive attribution to our brand that the leader folks are either going away from other brands, brands that weren't able to reopen but are gravitating towards European WAC Center. So equally important is the retention aspect of that. While we don't share specific numbers on that, we're very pleased with both the attraction and retention numbers that we're seeing, and we expect that to continue as we go forward. November and December are promotional months for us. So we, again, part of the reason that the guidance upward is that we feel really positive about the momentum that we have going into the quarter and that we will close here in the last seven weeks of the quarter.

Yeah, great. That's really helpful. And then can I ask one more question as you look at your senior team? Are there any positions that you expect to fill? And I noticed Gene Grossman may have recently left. So just any perspective on sort of the state of the team and any positions you expect to fill going forward?

Well, this is probably an easy one for me to answer. Maybe I should let the others answer on this topic. We've got a great team. Gene Grossman did a phenomenal job in helping us get to where we were in terms of our franchise operations. Very, very... mindful that we have an opportunity to lean out and restructure and align our development and our operations under David Willis, the COO. But this senior leadership team is one that I continue to be incredibly proud of and absolutely have tremendous faith in as we think about the chapters ahead for us.

Okay, great. Thanks again. All right, Jonathan, thank you.

Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Bill Chappelle from Truist Securities. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good afternoon. I mean, obviously with the reopening with California and with everything, this is not the most easy quarter to model. So just maybe you can talk where there's some upside versus your internal expectations, what maybe surprised you or up for the good or the bad, and then how that can translate into what you're looking at for fourth quarter.

Sure, hey Bill, it's Jen Vanderbilt. I think it's a fair question and I think my sense is John's comp is trying to get at a few on the seasonality business. We have been consistent in talking about thoughtful, prudent growth as we look to model this business. We internally talk at the company about having our saves and dues match. I think our forecasting process is equally kind of rigorous and robust on a monthly basis. to kind of make sure we're keeping ahead of all of the signals and trends we see in the business. I certainly say we look for balance of year. It's consistent with what I've said in the performance of the brand with the new guest counts that we're seeing on an LLY basis. It has been strong. We continue to see that guest purchasing those WAC passes, and we feel like that is going to continue to carry us through the balance of the year and the quarter. And my hope would be, you know, that there could be, you know, a bit of upside. But I think as we see things today, we feel like we've been real thoughtful and prudent and are excited about our full year outlook and happy to have raised that outlook this quarter.

So things were fairly in line with what you expected three, four months ago? No real changes there?

I would say, yeah. You know, I mean, I think what we did try, and certainly, you know, particularly when we met with you all last time, was that we do not have any type of demand issue. When we look at the business, we talked in our last quarter about some of the trends we were seeing in California. I would say California behaved differentially, and that was a bit of something we wanted to make sure it disclosed. to the investor community. I would think since then, it's been a pretty steady state as we look at the business and how we think it's going to take shape for the balance of the year.

Got it. And just to follow up on that, you know, as you look at the labor market for 22, is there any pause in ability to grow or exceed, you know, the expansion targets? Just didn't know. I know you have a different, you know, subsect that's looking for it, but certainly wages all the way around are going up, and it's an extremely tight market. So I just didn't know if it would give you some pause or some of your franchisees pause from expanding in the first half of the year with what we're seeing in labor.

Bill, this is David Willis. Let me take it first out of this. So a couple of things here. Specific to California, franchisees are reporting an increase in both applications and an improved candidate flow. So we're encouraged it's heading in the right direction. We're clearly calling out California because it is lagging the rest of the country. With respect to rates, we continue to see our franchise need to offer in certain markets sign-on bonuses and retention bonuses, but it's no higher than what it was the last couple of quarters. So I think on a broad scale, we're fairly encouraged that if I was going to Given these sort of cautionary tales, California as a state is not performing as well as the rest of the country. And to Jennifer's point, we think that it's much driven by some labor constraints and less so by consumer demands.

Yeah, and Bill, I would just add, I mean, we've been real clear about our guidance on new unit growth of 70% to 10% of our base. We still feel very comfortable with that. We probably get some challenge that can't we accelerate that. And we think we're being thoughtful and true about that. Again, we just reemphasize that it's so incredibly important for us to have that same brand experience, that delighting of the guests across all of our centers in the United States. And we are hiring licensed and professionally trained estheticians And so we're very comfortable, notwithstanding sort of the labor constraints we see, in still being comfortable with that kind of guidance for unit growth in 2022 and beyond.

One last thing, Bill. I don't think I touched on our franchisees' confidence. I should note that of the 47 net centers we've added over the last 12 months, 23% have been added in California. So I think that signals our franchisees are confident and continuing to invest in the brand in the state of California.

No, that's great, Keller. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Bill.

Thank you. Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or comment at this time, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Kelly Crago from Citi. Your line is open.

Hi. Thank you for taking our question. Can you throw the color on the wax passes? Can you just remind us what the lifetime value of that wax pass customer is versus a non-wax pass customer and what you're doing to drive higher adoption of the wax pass and how does the new loyalty program play into your existing wax pass program? Thanks.

Sure. Hi, Kelly. It's Jen Vanderbilt. Really good question. We certainly look at the wax pass program as a real differentiator for the brand because of the commitment of that our guests are making to us. And again, approximately 60% of all of our services that are delivered are off of that last past purchase. And so as we kind of think about ways to move the guests down that path, it's a big area of focus for us. And so when we think about lifetime value, which we are not disclosing publicly, but we're certainly looking to kind of make sure our guests understand the value of coming to GWC, the frequency, optimal frequency with which to come. We certainly know that there's a very high correlation between our top quintile of guests as we look at, you know, an RFM-type segmentation and a WACPAC folder, and those guests come, you know, darn near once a month. And so a loyalty program that just, you know, launched for us, you know, coupled with the enhancements made to our app that David Byrne called out, really gives better visibility from a guest perspective, to reward points. You can earn those points faster than before. Our survey work certainly shows that under the previous loyalty program, guests were not aware of that program. Many were not even aware that they had accumulated points. And so we think with the launch of this program, the marketing effort we're putting behind it, we're going to expect that guests are going to be motivated to both spend more and visit more over time. Both of those things correlate really well with why wouldn't you buy a Wax Pass? And so that's part of this. collective kind of guest experience, and then that digital enablement that we're invested in and continue to invest in makes that just a frictionless experience for the guests. So while not a direct answer on all aspects of your question as it relates to CLTB, I certainly think we have a playbook that we are continuing to operationalize to expand CLTB with the guests, and that's what this brand is all about at the end of the day.

Great, thanks. And just a question on the guidance for the fourth quarter and the comp acceleration. Is that due to continued improvement in California? I mean, you said you're seeing some improvement, but it's still a pretty significant drag. I'm just curious if that is what's driving the improvement or if it's sort of what's going on in your existing markets or any other call you can provide there. And then when should we expect to see material improvement in California? in California, is that something that you would expect it to get better in 22, or is it gonna be sort of a longer-term drug? Thanks.

Yeah, hey Kelly, those are great questions. And honestly, those are questions we continue to watch and monitor with great interest. California, while we say it's kind of like a tale of two cities, California is not an alien state and so we fully expect California to fall back in line. Right now it is anywhere between the 500-bit to 475-bit quarter delta and we believe that that provides upside. I think you've also heard from both David Berg and David Willis that we're working in close partnership with our franchisees to kind of make sure that California continues to look at opportunities to drive that supply of wax estheticians, and I think we feel like we're off to a good start. That being said, I cannot pull out my crystal ball and tell you when that will be, but we would expect continuing convergence, I would say, as we look at the fiscal year 22, as it relates to California specifically. On our guidance, especially around comp, I'll continue to emphasize, things just go to the metric we absolutely watch. It's a great marker for our business, but it's really an output of this great business. As we said last quarter, and we're not changing our guidance in terms of where we'll be on the low end of the comp store range, our longer term high single digit range is something that we believe, again, with California falling in line, we'd be well above a high single digit range. And so that impact of California slowing in the last quarter or so, which we called out, and continuing to fall back in line, we see as opportunities. So I would say, you know, we're very pleased with our top line momentum in the business. We're very pleased with the fact that black passes, less redemptions, you know, are up more than doubled. And so we think that all of these are great signs and that it should set us up pretty well for a great momentum in 22. Great.

Thank you. Thanks, Kelly.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Dana Telsey from Telsey Advisory Group. Your line is open.

Good afternoon, everyone, and congratulations on the results. Just triangulating back to Waxcap for a second, when you think about the new customer acquisition and the increased visits, Is there any differential in terms of where you're seeing Wax Pass adoption? Is it by region? Is it by franchisee? Is it by service? Anything to call out in terms of how you're looking at the data from it?

Listen, Dana, as we talked about it, when we were on the roadshow. The great thing about this brand is that it plays across the coast in middle America, so there isn't a particular geography that's driving sort of wax past sales over another geography. We think that's a very encouraging sign, and we continue to make sure that we've got that offering to all of our guests. We have seen, as we've talked about for the last couple of quarters, that there is a mix shift primarily, we believe, because of the mask mandates, that there are more wax passes and more services that are being driven in full-body services, so things like leg, bikini, or Brazilian. We see that potentially as upside as mask mandates abate, that those guests that may be sidelined for facial services will come back in once those mask mandates abate. But we feel really, really good about the consistency with the Wax Pass purchases across the country.

And, Dana, I might add one other thing. When we talk about our long-range growth algorithm and what gets us really excited about this business with so much new center growth in front of it and all the work that we're doing to go achieve that growth, and then the mature centers that we operate and the ongoing efforts we are going to have to drive that great, strong guest behavior. I would tell you for mature centers, from a cohort standpoint, they skew higher in terms of the percentage of their services performed on a WAC path, which again convinces me that our operating playbooks are intact. We continue to, when we acquire either new guests into a mature center or those retained guests, continue to be able to kind of discuss the economic benefits of the WaxCraft program, and it's good for the guests and good for the brand, quite frankly.

It's one quick thing on products. What is the next new product introduction? How are you thinking about products?

Yeah, Dana, so we just introduced two new products here a couple of weeks ago. We're really thoughtful about our innovation pipeline. I think as the franchisor, it's certainly our obligation to make sure that we keep things fresh. But we've talked with you all about our products are really an enhancement and a completion of the service. So we're not going to get into shampoo and body washes. We will always provide products for our franchisees and our guest service associates to sell that help enhance the efficacy of the waxing service. And we've got a regular rhythm with our product development folks under Chris Kovas' leadership that are really thoughtful about kind of bringing out new products that make sense for our guests. So that... continue to look for us to innovate and bring new products out in a fashion that makes sense for our network and for our guests. Thank you. Okay, thanks, Dana.

Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of John Heinbockel from Guggenheim. Your line is open.

Hey, John. Hey, guys. How are you? I want to start with the rewards. When you think about the initial impact Is that likely to be greater with the higher spending cohort, right, just in terms of they can probably get three or four free services on redemptions? Do you think that's the case, you know, in the near to intermediate term? I mean, you basically gave a 5% discount. Was the thought on that that, you know, a lot of people give a 2% cash back, this isn't cash back, so, you know, five kind of works economically given, you know, what you're giving back to them?

Yeah, John, we're really comfortable with the economic model for our guests. We think it's rewarding enough. We think it's going to drive the right kind of behavior for us. We launched the program a couple weeks ago, so obviously it's still early days, but I think your premise is accurate that certainly we hope that the folks that buy more are going to get rewarded more and get rewarded faster. We're excited about the opportunity really to improve visibility for both our guests and our associates. And again, early days have gotten great, great response both from our associates in terms of the simplicity of the program and from our guests about, boy, this really does feel like a reward and I'm treated in a special manner. So we think that we've That helps attract new and last guests who are seeing this loyalty program and the app that goes along with it for the first time. We're really, really excited about the early days and really excited about talking to you about it more in the future as we get more data on it.

The other thing I'd say, John, is... Certainly, a high-frequency user is going to be able to generate a lot of value from this program. The other thing it will help us do is develop more robust guest profiles through that program. We talked about on the road with you, it's very important for us from a guest behavior standpoint to offer that personalized experience. And so we think this is also going to drive a lot of opt-ins into the program and an ability for us to have just another lever when we think about how to make this a great guest experience around this brand. And so it's the next logical thing we felt like we needed to do. I love the fact that it's paired with a great interface and kind of guest experience in our mobile app. And I think it allows us to kind of think about what future innovation around that program looks like down the road.

And then maybe secondly, right, when you think about the tightness in the labor market, you know, are there ways to sort of benchmark, you know, you don't want to impact service, but if you think about labor productivity, right, in the centers, ways to benchmark best practices or engineer more productivity so maybe you need a little less institution labor. Is there a way to do that without impacting service?

Yeah, John, listen, we continually look at how to, if you think about a revenue optimization lens, right? So how do we maximize the revenue that can be driven out of the WAC suite by individual WAC specialists? What's the gross margin return on labor? We're opening a new center here in North Dallas where we're going to have a little bit smaller footprint. We're going to experiment with a four to five WAC suite new center. We're going to see how that does. Certainly as we came out of COVID with restrictions where there were capacity restrictions, we saw that some centers produced incredibly well with a smaller footprint. So those are things that we continue to look at. We obviously look at our ability to make sure that we've got labor scheduling optimized. You know that we've got, through our POS system, the ability to double book And by that, we mean that if a WAC specialist can perform two services in 15 minutes, those are allowed to be booked over on top of each other so that they are, A, make sure that we get a great guest experience, but drive that efficiency from the WAC specialist output. So continue to look at how do we optimize that and help our franchisees get to break even faster and get to a higher profitability from a four-wall standpoint as well.

Okay. Thank you.

All right, John. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm sure no additional questions or comments in the queue at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Howard, thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you all for joining us today. We certainly look forward to speaking with you when we report our fourth quarter results in March of next year. Thank you all very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day.