Birkenstock Holding plc Ordinary Shares

Good morning and welcome to the Birkenstock fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 earnings call. Please note that all participants are in a listen-only mode and the call is being recorded. Following the presentation, we will conduct a Q&A session. The company has allocated 60 minutes in total to this conference call. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Alexander Hoff, Vice President of Global Finance. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Bookstock's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 earnings call, which is our first earnings call as a public company. Earlier this morning, we announced our latest fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 results. As a reminder, our fiscal year ends in September. You may find a supplemental presentation connected to today's discussion on our IR website. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that some of the information provided during this call is forward-looking and, accordingly, is subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Federal Securities Force. These statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties, assumptions, which could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks, uncertainties, and assumptions are detailed in the morning press release, as well as our SSC filings, which can be found on our website at goodstock-holding.com. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. During our call today, all revenue growth rates were decided on a constant currency basis, unless otherwise stated. We will also reference certain non-IFRS financial information. We use non-IFRS measures as we believe they represent the operational performance and underlying results of the business more accurately. The presentation of this non-IFRS financial information is not intended to be considered by itself or as a substitute for financial information prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS. Reconciliations of IFRS to non-IFRS measures can be found in the MonExpress Police and in our SFC Hub. Joining us on the call today are Oliver Reichert, Chief Executive Officer, Eric Machmann, Chief Financial Officer, David Carr, President America, Nico Goya, President Euro, and Klaus Baumer, Chief Sales Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. With that, I'm very happy to hand over the call to Oliver.

I would like to welcome everyone to the call today, and I'm happy to discuss fiscal 23 and fourth quarter results. On today's call, I will share a quick recap of the building stock equity story we presented during the IPO and some highlights regarding our fiscal 2023 performance. Next, David, Nico, and Klaus will give you an overview about their respective regions. Then you will hear from Eric and Alexander with a review of the financials and our initial outlook for fiscal 2024. So let me begin with a brief overview of our equity story. We are aware that it's not easy to compare Birkenstock to any other listed company. Our business model is unique in many ways. We are the inventor of the footbed. We are in the footbed business, offering a functional benefit to consumers that never goes out of style. We are guided by a simple, yet fundamental insight. Human beings are intended to walk barefoot on natural yielding ground, a concept we refer to as Naturgewolltes Gehen. Our purpose is to empower all people to walk as intended by nature. We are a brand backed by a family tradition of a quarter of a millennium with the resilience timeless relevance and credibility of a multi-generational business which supports a strong heritage and drives the premium feeling of the brand. For us, 2024 is a very special year in which we celebrate our 250th tradition anniversary. We are a universal brand. catering to all people regardless of age, gender, and geography. We have a growing global following, exhibiting high engagement and brand loyalty. For instance, U.S. consumers own 3.6 pairs on average today, and 90% of our buyers come to us through unpaid channels. Our total addressable market is the global population. Our products cover a broad range of price points. We have a significant addressable wide space across geography, category extension, and user occasion. Additionally, we also have wide space with our own store openings and expansion of our DTC penetration. We are made in Germany. Over 95% of our products and 100% of our footbeds are produced in one of our six owned factories in Germany. 100% of our footwear is produced in the EU, one of the safest and most regulated markets in the world. Most raw materials are sourced from Europe, which ensures supply chain reliability And the materials also adhere to strict quality and social and environmental standards. We are committed to uncompromising premium quality. Our products are made to last. We are a unique business. We are neither luxury nor fashion or footwear. But our business model has elements that are typical of the luxury industry. That is a premium quality product. Market capacity and the high desirability of the brand, which all together translate into a premium margin. Other than the luxury industry, which is primarily built on price and social status, BILTENstock is a true purpose and zeitgeist brand. As such, we are beyond fashion. Our disciplined, engineered distribution model drives consistent and predictable revenue growth by strategically allocating products across channels and segments to maximize profitability and to balance demand and supply to create scarcity in the market. We deliver a strong financial profile, 20% revenue CAGR over a decade, 60% plus gross profit margin, 30% plus adjusted EBITDA marks. And our fiscal 23 figures underscore this once again. Eric and Alexander will review our financial performance in more detail shortly. But here are a few highlights from fiscal 23. We are very pleased to announce that we delivered extraordinary revenue growth of 20% in fiscal 23. marking the best year in building stock history with revenues of 1.49 billion euros. Our fourth quarter contributed to that development with 22% growth. These numbers tie in with our great performance in the last decade with a revenue CAGR of 20% and demonstrate the sustainability of our growth. We are delivering all that in uncertain times and macroeconomic backdrops, which reflects our optimism in the future growth trajectory of the business. Our revenue development in fiscal 23 is driven by both unit growth of 6% and ASP increase of 14%. Compared to fiscal 22, our unit growth doubled from 3% to 6%. Our ASP growth was primarily driven by steering consumers to premium products with higher price points. This effect accounts for 50% of the ASP growth. The ASP is further driven by a favorable channel mix towards B2C and RSP increase. Both effects accounted for 25% of the ASP growth. We achieved strong full price realization, which demonstrates our unique outlier position and brand strength. Within each of our geographies, we saw a high consumer demand for Birkenstock, resulting in a double-digit revenue growth in all three segments in fiscal 23. Our two channels, B2B and D2C, grew double digits, with DTC especially outperforming and achieving a penetration of 14%. This demonstrates how broad-based our revenue growth is. The same applies to the product perspective, where most of our categories grew double digits. Fiscal 23 marked another year with industry-leading margins. We achieved a gross profit margin of 62.1%, and an adjusted EBITDR margin of 32.4%. At this time, I will hand the call over to David and his team for reviewing America's performance.