Boot Barn Holdings, Inc.

Over to your host, Mr. Mark Dadovish, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Finance. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Boot Barn's third quarter fiscal 2025 earnings results. With me on today's caller, John Hazen, Interim Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Watkins, Chief Financial Officer. A copy of today's press release, along with a supplemental financial presentation, is available on the Investor Relations section of Boot Barn's website at bootbarn.com. Shortly after we end this call, a recording of the call will be available as a replay for 30 days on the Investor Relations section of the company's website. I would like to remind you that certain statements we will make during this call are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect Boot Barn's judgment and analysis only as of today, and actual results may differ materially from current expectations based on a number of factors affecting Boot Barn's business. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. John? John?

Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. On this call, I will review our third quarter fiscal 2025 results, discuss the progress we have made across each of our four strategic initiatives, and provide an update on current business. Following my remarks, Jim Watkins will review our financial performance in more detail, and then we will open the call up for questions. We are very pleased with our third quarter results, which reflect broad-based growth across all major merchandise categories in stores and online. and across all geographies. During the quarter, revenue increased by 17%, including consolidated same-store sales growth of 8.6%. Same-store sales in both the stores and e-commerce channels were positive, with stores increasing 8.2% and e-commerce increasing 11.1%. We also opened 13 new stores in the quarter, bringing our year-to-date total to 39 new units. From a margin perspective, third quarter merchandise margin expanded 130 basis driven by supply chain efficiencies, better buying economies of scale, and growth in exclusive brand penetration. The strength in sales and margin combined with solid expense control resulted in earnings per diluted share of $2.43 during the quarter, which was $0.36 above the high end of our guidance range and compares to $1.81 of earnings per diluted share in the prior year period. Included in our third quarter earnings per diluted share is an approximately 22 cent benefit related to the CEO transition. I am extremely pleased with our third quarter results and I am very proud of the entire team's execution and dedicated effort during the critical holiday season. I will now spend some time discussing each of our four strategic initiatives. Let's begin with expanding our store base. We opened 13 stores in the third quarter, ending the period with 438 stores in 46 states. Our new store engine continues to meet our sales, earnings, and payback expectations throughout all regions of the country. As a reminder, we model new store performance at $3 million of revenue with a cash-on-cash return on capital of approximately 60% in the first year of operation. We have 21 planned store openings in the fourth quarter, which would bring the fiscal year total to 60 new stores open meeting our commitment of 15% new store growth annually. We continue to expand our store footprint across the country as we expect to open stores this quarter in Alaska, Vermont, and Rhode Island, which would bring our total store presence to 49 states. Given the consistent success of our new store openings across all geographies, we believe that we have the market potential to double our store count in the U.S. alone over the next several years. Moving to our second initiative, driving same-store sales, Third quarter consolidated same-store sales grew 8.6%, with brick-and-mortar same-store sales increasing 8.2%. Store comp growth was driven by a 6% increase in transactions, plus a 2% increase in UPT, which drove a larger average transaction. From a merchandise category perspective, the third quarter comp sales were positive across all major merchandise categories, led by the combined ladies' western boots and apparel businesses, which comp positive low double digits. This was followed by the combined men's western boots and apparel business, which comp positive high single digits. Our denim business, which is included in the figures just mentioned, comped low double-digit positive, and our combined work boots and apparel business comped low single-digit positive in the quarter. From a store operations perspective, I am very proud of our field organization across the country for contributing to another successful holiday season. They continue to provide best-in-class customer service while driving record sales volume and hiring over 5,000 seasonal store associates. From both a supply chain and merchandising perspective, we were extremely pleased with the smooth flow of inventory through our distribution centers and stores and our overall preparation for the holiday season, which we believe contributed to the strength of our third quarter results. During store visits leading up to Black Friday and throughout the entire holiday season, we consistently received positive feedback from our store associates. Many of them highlighted how the earlier preparation, particularly advanced floor sets and inventory availability, enabled them to better prepare for the anticipated holiday shopping surge. ultimately enhancing their ability to meet customer demand and maximize sales. From a marketing perspective, the team continues to expand our brand awareness and carefully tailor communication to each of our customer segments. We believe the use of radio, direct mail, artist collaborations, digital advertising, and connected television has expanded our customer reach and driven increased traffic to our stores. These efforts have also increased the number of active customers in our loyalty program to 9.4 million. a 15% increase over the prior year period. Moving to our third initiative, strengthening our omnichannel leadership. E-commerce con sales grew 11.1% in the third quarter. We are very pleased with the consistent strength of our online business and the team's partnership with the field organization. During the critical weeks between Black Friday and Christmas, we were able to ship approximately half of our online orders from our stores, a result of our in-store inventory being accessible to online customers. From an organizational perspective, we are happy to announce that John Kosoff has been hired as our new chief digital officer. John was previously the chief digital officer at Tilly's, and prior to that was the vice president of e-commerce and marketing at Taco Bell. John brings a wealth of experience to our team, and his leadership will allow me to focus on my efforts on my current role. Now to our fourth strategic initiative, merchandise margin expansion and exclusive brands. During the third quarter, merchandise margin increased by 130 basis points compared to the prior year period, driven by supply chain efficiencies and better buying economies of scale. Exclusive brand penetration increased by 180 basis points, which was on top of 310 basis points of expansion in the prior year period. We continue to believe we can achieve merchandise margin expansion through a combination of supply chain efficiencies, better buying economies of scale, and growth in exclusive brand penetration. Turning to current business, through the four weeks of our fiscal January, we have continued to see broad-based growth in same-store sales. On a consolidated basis, fiscal January same-store sales have increased 8.3%, with our store comp increasing 7.2% and our e-commerce business increasing 17.1%. We feel very good about the current tone of the business and the start to our fourth quarter. I'd like now to turn the call over to Jim Watkins. Thank you, John.