Boot Barn Holdings, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Boot Barn Holdings Inc. Fourth Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Now, I would like to turn the conference 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 Buparn's fourth quarter and fiscal 2026 earnings results. With me on today's call are John Hazen, 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 Buparn's website at buparn.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. For a more thorough discussion of the risks and uncertainties associated with the forward-looking statement to be made during this conference call and webcast, we refer you to the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements that is included in our fourth quarter and fiscal 2026 earnings release, as well as our filings with the SEC referenced in that disclaimer. We do not undertake any obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. I will now turn the call over to John Haven, Groupon's Chief Executive Officer. John?

Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. On this call, I will review our fourth quarter and fiscal 26 results, provide an update on current business, and discuss the progress we have made across each of our four strategic initiatives. Following my remarks, Jim Watkins will review our financial performance in more detail, and then we will open up the call for questions. Looking back on my first year as CEO, I'm extremely proud of our team's accomplishments. Over the past year, our team has not only executed on our core strategic initiatives, but also exceeded the expectations on the three additional priorities I introduced. Building a sourcing organization, marketing exclusive brands as standalone brands, and reinvigorating our work-week business. I would like to spend some time discussing each of these priorities. First, our sourcing organization ramped up throughout fiscal 26 and is now fully built out. While we expect the run rate benefits of this team to begin to be realized late in fiscal 27 and during fiscal 28, the timing of this investment proved especially advantageous. As the tariff landscape evolved, the team's mitigation efforts and factory negotiations helped drive margin expansion over the past year. Second, we refined our marketing approach to better position our exclusive brands as standalone brands, resulting in sales penetration and growth that exceeded our initial expectations. Over the past year, as part of these efforts, we have launched four dedicated brand websites for Cody James, Hawks, Cheyenne, and Theo & Wolf. These sites are in addition to the legacy Idlewind site we have had for many years. I am very pleased with the strength of our brand storytelling and the new customer acquisition these sites have generated. Finally, our work group business exited this year with four consecutive quarters of accelerating comp sales growth and has maintained the momentum since the start of fiscal 27. This performance reflects the impact of several initiatives, including enhancements to our in-store merchandising, increased marketing focus on the work category, and targeted investments in key third-party brands to ensure we offer the right assortment for our work customers. Now turning to full year results. I am very pleased with our fiscal 26 results, which reflect strong performance across key metrics, broad-based strength across the business, and unprecedented sales and earnings for the company. For the full year, revenue increased 18% to $2.25 billion, driven by continued momentum across the business. We opened a record 80 new stores and delivered same-store sales growth of 7.2%. Merchandise margin expanded by 80 basis points, contributing to a remarkable 660 basis point expansion over the past six years. Earnings for diluted share grew 25% to $7.35, an increase of $1.47 compared to the prior year. Turning to our fourth quarter results, total revenue increased 19% driven by the opening of 25 new stores during the period and consolidated same-store sales growth of 6.1%. While we had originally estimated 15 store openings in the fourth quarter, we were able to accelerate the opening of 10 stores that had initially been scheduled to open in early fiscal 27. Earnings for diluted share in the fourth quarter increased 19% compared to the prior year period to $1.45. I am extremely proud of the team's accomplishments over the past year, and I'm excited about the opportunities ahead as we continue to drive growth in the business. Now turning to current business. Through the first six weeks of the fiscal first quarter, we have continued to see broad-based strength in same-store sales across all channels. On a consolidated basis, quarter-to-date same-store sales are up 5%, cycling high single-digit growth in the prior year period, and we feel very good about the underlying momentum of the business in our start to the quarter. I will now spend some time discussing each of our four strategic initiatives.