6/24/2026

speaker
Operator

Good evening and welcome to MillerKnoll's quarterly earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Wendy Watson, Vice President of Investor Relations.

speaker
Wendy Watson
Vice President of Investor Relations

Good evening and welcome to our fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2026 conference call. On with me are Jeff Stutz, MillerKnoll's Chief Operating Officer and incoming interim CEO, and Kevin Veltman, Chief Financial Officer. Joining them for the Q&A session are John Michael, President of North America Contract and Debbie Propst, President of Global Retail. We issued our earnings press release for the quarter ended May 30th, 2026 after market closed today and it is available on our investor relations website at millernoll.com. A replay of this call will be available on our website within 24 hours. Before I turn the call over to Jeff, Please remember our safe harbor disclosure regarding forward-looking information. During the call, management may discuss information that is forward-looking and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results to be different than those expressed or implied. Please evaluate the forward-looking information in the context of these factors, which are detailed in today's press release. The forward-looking statements are made as of today's date and accept as may be required by law, we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We also refer to certain non-GAAP financial metrics, and our press release includes the relevant non-GAAP reconciliation. With that, I'll turn it over to Jeff.

speaker
Jeff Stutz
Chief Operating Officer and incoming interim CEO

Thank you, Wendy. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for joining our call. I'll start by sharing my initial observations and priorities as incoming interim CEO. From there, I'll discuss highlights from fiscal 2026, including a recap of our consolidated results and our current outlook. Let me begin by saying that I am honored to step into this role at an important time for Miller Knoll as we build on the exciting work and momentum underway across the business. After 25 years with this organization, I continue to be proud to stand alongside this tenured and committed leadership team who work tirelessly to drive our organization's success. I've been spending significant time with our teams, dealers, and customers reinforcing that my focus is enabling their success while driving improved performance and execution. I've also recently had the opportunity to engage with our partners and A&E community at three marquee events for the contract and design industry. Clark & Will Design Week in London, where our showrooms at the Sands were at the center of the show. Three Days of Design in Copenhagen, where Hay and Muto served as anchor brands and Design Days in Chicago's Fulton Market where Miller Knoll is the pioneering tenant in what has become a vibrant and design-oriented district that more than 75 furnishings providers now call home. I always leave events like these with pride knowing that Miller Knoll shines brightest in these settings. They serve as a good reminder of so many things we do well as an organization. At the same time, I want to be clear that our financial performance is not where we want it to be, and we're entering fiscal 2027 with three clear areas of focus. The first of these will be to elevate the level of operating discipline we bring to setting priorities. Second, we're focused on cost discipline across our businesses. And third, we remain committed to strengthening our balance sheet by reducing debt and improving cash flow. Turning to our fourth quarter results, Kevin will cover the details shortly, but let me highlight a few points. We delivered another quarter of steady top-line growth with revenue of just over a billion dollars, up 4.4% year-over-year and above our guidance, driven by growth in North America contract and global retail. Adjusted EPS of 55 cents was at the top end of our guidance range. And for the full fiscal year, net sales topped $3.8 billion with an adjusted earnings per share of $1.86. Moving on to some highlights and trends in our segments. In North America, contracts were pleased with another quarter of solid sales growth and year-over-year expansion in both gross margin and adjusted operating margin, driven by volume leverage and price capture. As expected, orders were down in the quarter compared to last year, primarily from lapping $55 to $60 million in prior year order pull-ahead as a result of customers placing orders ahead of tariff-related surcharges and price increase. Thank you for joining us. And Class A spaces continue to outperform, which reflects demand for the higher quality spaces that we are well positioned to serve. And finally, you may recall that we recently announced the consolidation of our manufacturing plant in Muskegon, Michigan into other facilities. We will continue to evaluate capacity utilization opportunities across our manufacturing operations with the aim of improving overall operational efficiencies. In the international contract segment, global geopolitical concerns impacted segment order activity in the quarter, but we remain encouraged by ongoing signs of strength in key Asian markets, as well as Central and Eastern Europe, where order growth has been strong. Over the past year, I've personally spent a great deal of time on the ground with our team members and many dealer partners across these regions of the world, and our potential for further profit growth is clear to me. Our international team is looking forward Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us. and delivering attractive economics. They require lower upfront capital, reach productivity more quickly and generate payback in well under three years. These stores further build brand awareness and are an excellent lead generator for our contract business, serving as a gateway to our broader ecosystem to support demand generation across both retail and contract channels. In fiscal 2026, we opened eight Herman Miller stores, and we expect to open 9 to 11 in fiscal 2027. At the same time, we remain enthusiastic for Design Within Reach, our channel to market in North America for our portfolio of brands that serve residential and hospitality environments. We will maintain a measured pace of new openings, incorporating learnings around location strategy, store productivity, cost structure and marketing effectiveness. In fiscal 2026, we opened seven DWR stores, and we expect to open five to seven in fiscal 2027. Another important priority within global retail is improving the performance of our Holly Hunt business. Holly Hunt remains a premier to the trade brand in the ultra-premium segment of residential furnishings. Lagging demand patterns and operational inefficiencies for this business proved challenging for us in fiscal 2026. In response, we've implemented a range of actions aimed at repositioning this storied brand for long-term success. These include restructuring to better align costs with demand and strengthening leadership to enhance commercial execution. We are confident that our repositioning efforts will help improve performance over time while preserving the brand's strong market position. And with those opening comments, I'll now turn the call over to Kevin, who will take us through the numbers.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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Investor presentation