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spk09: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Callaway Golf Company Q1 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. During the Q&A session, we ask that you please limit your questions to one and a follow-up to allow as many participants as possible to ask a question. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lauren Scott, Director of Investor Relations.
spk01: Thank you. Please go ahead. Thank you, Ashley, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Callaway's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. I'm Lauren Scott, the company's Director of Investor Relations. Joining me as speakers on today's call are Chip Brewer, our President and CEO, and Brian Lynch, our Chief Financial Officer. Patrick Burke, Calloway's SVP of Global Finance, and Jennifer Thomas, our Chief Accounting Officer, are also in the room today for Q&A. Earlier today, the company issued a press release announcing its first quarter 2022 financial results. In addition, there's a presentation that accompanies today's prepared remarks and may make it easier for you to follow the call. This earnings presentation, as well as the earnings press release, are both available on the company's investor relations website under the financial results tab. Most of the financial numbers reported and discussed on today's call are based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. In the instances where we report non-GAAP measures, we have reconciled the non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures at the back of the presentation in accordance with Regulation G. Please note that this call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. We encourage you to review the safe harbor statements contained in the presentation and the press release for a more complete description. And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Chip Brewer.
spk15: Thank you, Lauren. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. To start, I want to thank all of the analysts and investors who joined us in person or online for our Investor Day on April 26th. I speak for our whole leadership team when I say that we enjoyed having the opportunity to interact with you and hope you walked away with a better understanding and appreciation of our business strategy and vision for the future. If you missed our event, I encourage you to review the materials on our IR website as you'll continue to hear us reference our growth framework as we track towards our long-term goals. Shifting to Q1, I'm pleased to report a very strong start to the year with all three of our business segments contributing to our success. Total net revenue was just over $1 billion, up 60% year over year on a reported basis, or up 31% on a pro forma basis, which includes top golf revenue for the full quarter of last year. Flow through to the bottom line was strong as well. with adjusted EBITDA of $170 million, up 33% on a reported basis or up 31% on a pro forma basis. These results clearly show the continued momentum in our business and give us increasing confidence as we look out over the full year and the long term. Shifting to our segment overview, I'll first start with Topgolf's Q1 results. The Topgolf team put up another outstanding quarter. At the time of our last earnings report in February, Topgolf's venue business had been impacted by the reduced traffic and a lighter events business due to Omicron. However, as the quarter progressed, this early softness was replaced by a strong resurgence in demand. In March alone, same venue sales versus 2019 were up approximately 10%, which drove full quarter same venue sales up 2%. thus beating our February earnings call forecast of down slightly. New venue openings remained on track in Q1 and continued to open extremely well. During the quarter, we opened one new owned and operated venue in Ontario, California, and one new franchise venue in Germany. Additionally, in mid-April, we opened our new El Segundo location in Los Angeles, California. I'm happy to report that all of these locations are exceeding expectations as the venues team continues to impress and our brand appears to be building momentum. As a result of these terrific results, we're increasing our same venue sales projections for Q2 and the balance of the year to up high single digits versus 2019. This would put our full year same venue sales up an impressive mid to high single digits. Operating margins also remain healthy, as Artie and the team have been able to take price as well as drive both increased event business and overall venue efficiencies. This combination is allowing our overall margins to outpace any inflationary pressures, all while maintaining a superior guest experience. Turning to the top tracer business, we installed 1,159 new bays in Q1, and believe we are on track for 8,000 or more bays this year. Feedback on the product and demand remains strong. Plus, we're building resources to ramp our installations. Taking a step back, I hope we can all agree that this is quickly becoming a proven business and that it has a track record of success across any size, geography, climate, you name it. Our ability to continue to put up quarter after quarter of successful results makes us increasingly confident in this unique business's long-term outlook as presented at the Investor Day. As we look out over the next few years, we believe Topgolf will be a significant source of long-term value creation. Already in 2022, it is forecast to be our largest segment by revenue this And even with the strong growth forecast across our other business segments, this segment alone is expected to account for more than half of our total adjusted EBITDA by 2025. Topgolf is the keystone of our modern golf thesis. It already is the dominant leader in the dynamic off-course golf industry, and we believe it will maintain this position given its significant growth prospects ahead. Moving to golf equipment. This business had another excellent quarter with revenue up 24% year over year. And as we mentioned at the investor conference, we expect this segment to be up 10% for the full year. We continue to see strong demand globally for golf equipment, especially from avid golfers. According to data tech in the US, despite comparatively poor weather conditions this year, Q1 hard goods sell-through was down just 2.8% versus 2021 and remained up 44.5% over 2019. Outside the U.S. and key markets such as Japan, Korea, and Europe, we saw Q1 hard goods sell-through up nicely year over year. Also, as the fitting portion of the season opens up, we are seeing market share gains for our 2022 products. especially our Rogue ST Drivers and Fairywoods, as well as our Chrome Soft golf balls. For Q1, we finished as the number one hard goods brand in the U.S., and in March, we delivered a new record U.S. golf ball market share of 22%. On the manufacturing side, our supply chain is continuing to perform well, and although supply has not yet caught up to demand, we believe our strong partnerships and Scale and regional diversification have provided and will continue to provide a competitive advantage in being able to deliver products to our customers. Lastly, the apparel, gear, and other segment had a strong quarter with positive momentum across all of our brands. Callaway's business has remained strong globally with our apparel business in Asia performing well and our gear business, namely golf bags and gloves, delivering both market share and revenue increases. As you may recall from Glenn Hickey's presentation during the investor day, increasing our market share in the soft goods category will be a key opportunity within the segment. So we're very pleased with these results. Meanwhile, Travis Matthew had another outstanding quarter, continuing the strong brand momentum across all channels. Our own retail comp store growth was up a stunning 50% in Q1. In addition, Travis Matthew announced last week that it's launching its first dedicated women's apparel collection. While this first rollout is more of a preliminary collection and not a major source of revenue yet, with women accounting for over 25% of the purchases made through Travis Matthew's direct-to-consumer channels, we are both confident in and excited about the opportunity here. Throughout this year, we plan to continue to test and expand the offering, and we have a more robust launch plan for 2023. As communicated at our investor relations day, we see the Travis Matthew brand eclipsing $300 million in revenue and $50 million in adjusted EBITDA by the end of this year. They have impressive momentum, and we see a clear path to continued growth ahead. Lastly, the Jack Wolfskin business continues to make good progress. Being a European-based brand, they are dealing with a number of macro headwinds, but I'm pleased to report that their new branding campaign and products are being very well received, both based on sell-through of the current products and pre-books for the future. We believe this brand is on strong footing and positioned for growth ahead. We outlined what we believe is compelling long-term vision for the brand and its financial objectives at our investor day. When looking at the segment on the whole, we expect the apparel, gear, and other segment to deliver approximately $1 billion in net sales for this full year. In closing, in light of the strong start to the year and our confidence in the key business drivers by segment, we are raising our financial outlook for the balance of the year We also want to take this moment to reiterate our belief that Callaway is a unique and compelling investment opportunity that will create long-term shareholder value. Our brands have momentum, and they operate in business segments that are attractively positioned in today's world. We are advantaged by scale within the modern golf industry with unmatched global reach to both the traditional golf consumer and the growing off-course player. Our High Barriers to Entry Act is a layer of protection against new competition, and our diversification allows us to mitigate the effects of any potential downturns in any one segment while also presenting attractive synergy opportunities. We are confident in our ability to deliver the growth projections laid out at the Investor Day and believe our 2025 target of surpassing $800 million in adjusted EBITDA will be achieved by continuing to execute our proven strategy for growth. As stated at the Investor Day, we don't have to do anything fundamentally different. We just have to continue to do the things that we've consistently shown that we can and are doing. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Brian to discuss our financials and outlook in more detail.
spk07: Thank you, Chip, and good afternoon, everyone. As Chip mentioned, 2022 is off to a strong start, and we are very pleased with our first quarter financial results. We've been saying that we believe there has been a structural shift in the market that will benefit each of our businesses, including increased interest in golf, momentum behind active lifestyle apparel brands, and an increased desire for leisure and entertainment, such as top golf, hiking, and other outdoor activities. And we believe our first quarter results reflect this shift. Now turning to our financial results in more detail. For the first quarter, consolidated net revenue was $1.04 billion, an increase of 60% compared to our reported Q1 2021 results. As a reminder, we acquired Topgolf on March 8th, 2021, and therefore our 2020 first quarter results, our 2021 first quarter results include only one month of Topgolf. If the full three-month Topgolf results are included, our revenue increased 31% on a pro forma basis. Changes in foreign currency rates had a negative $21.2 million impact on reported first quarter 2022 net revenue compared to the same period in 2021. Looking at our segment performance, golf equipment had another excellent year, generating $468 million in revenue, driven by continued high demand and improved supply in our golf clubs and balls business. Topgolf contributed $322 million in revenue and reported same venue sales growth of 2.3% compared to 2019, as guest turnout in the latter part of the quarter, especially in our events business, outpaced some slowness in January and February due to Omicron. Lastly, gear and other revenue of $250 million resulted from a 45% increase in apparel sales and a 29% increase in gear and other. Total cost and expenses were $934 million on a non-GAAP basis in the first quarter of 2022 compared to $555 million in the first quarter of 2021. Of the $379 million increase, Topgolf added an incremental $227 million of total costs and expenses, with the majority of that increase caused by the additional two months of Topgolf costs and expenses versus last year. The balance was driven by variable expenses in the golf equipment and apparel gear and other businesses, increased support at corporate, and the impact of increased freight costs and other inflationary pressures. First quarter 2022 non-GAAP operating income was $106 million, up $9.5 million year-over-year. Including January and February for Topgolf, pro forma non-GAAP operating income would have increased $27.6 million or 35% year-over-year, and operating margins would have increased slightly to 10.2% compared to 9.9% for the first quarter of 2021. despite the negative impact of foreign currency, freight expense, and other inflationary pressures previously mentioned. Diving a bit deeper into some of the inflationary pressures we are seeing, at Topcoff, we are seeing some inflationary pressures on food and beverage and associate wages, which we are more than covering through a combination of sales leverage, operating efficiencies, and pricing. We have made relatively modest use of price so far this year, And while our margins are all trending positively, we believe there is an opportunity for additional price increase should we need to offset costs further in the future. In the non-Topgolf business, we are fully covering the negative impacts of inflationary pressure on raw materials or components via price increases or positive volume variances. Gross margins in the non-Topgolf business, however, were impacted by changes in foreign currency rates as our hedging gains are included in other income. Gross margins were also affected by increased freight costs as freight cost increases ramped throughout 2021, and we also shipped more by airing the first quarter of 2022 to compensate for supply chain disruptions at the end of last year. Year-over-year comparisons of freight costs should improve as the year progresses. Overall, we are very pleased with the increase in our consolidated pro forma operating margins and how our businesses are absorbing these various macroeconomic pressures. Moving back down the income statement, non-GAAP other expense was $22 million in the first quarter, compared to $6 million in Q1 2021, primarily due to a $16 million increase in interest expense related to Topgolf. Non-GAAP earnings per share was 36 cents on approximately 201 million shares, compared to 62 cents per share on approximately 125 million shares in the first quarter of 2021. The increased share count is primarily related to the issuance of additional shares in connection with the Topgolf merger, along with an accounting change that took effect on January 1st, 2022, which requires that we include 14.7 million shares related to the assumed conversion of the company's convertible notes. I want to remind you that applicable accounting rules do not give any effect to our capped call in calculating EPS, but upon settlement, they should reduce the number of shares we are required to deliver. When calculating our earnings per share under this new accounting method, you would need to add back approximately $1.6 million of after-tax convertible debt interest expense to net income before dividing by the share count. If you are calculating our enterprise value with a convertible note on an if-converted basis, you should exclude the $259 million convertible debt from your calculation and use approximately $200 million as the diluted share count. Lastly, Q1 adjusted EBITDA was $170 million, up $42 million, or 33%, over Q1 2021 on an as-reported basis, or up $40 million, or 31%, on a pro forma basis, when including Topgolf results for the full three-month period. For Q1 2022, Topgolf contributed $42 million of adjusted EBITDA. Turning to certain balance sheet items, we remain in a strong financial position with ample liquidity. As of March 31, 2022, available liquidity, which is comprised of cash on hand and availability under our credit facilities, was $576 million, compared to $713 million at March 31st, 2021. The decrease was driven by planned working capital increases in the golf equipment and our soft goods businesses to support growth, as well as continued investment in Topgolf. As a reminder, we expect Topgolf to be self-funding in 2023 and cash generating in 2024. At quarter end, we had total net debt of $1.710 billion, including venue financing obligations of approximately $625 million related to the development of Topgolf venues. Our net debt leverage ratio was approximately 3.5 times at March 31st, 2022, compared to 5.0 times at March 31st, 2021. Our leverage ratio on a funded debt basis was even lower. Consolidated net sales receivable is $413 million as of March 31st, 2022, compared to $329 million at the end of the first quarter of 2021. The increase was primarily driven by the increase in revenue. Our inventory balance increased to $552 million at the end of the first quarter of 2022 compared to $534 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021 as we increased supply to meet forecasted demand. The quality of our inventory is good. Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2022 were $74 million net of REIT reimbursements. This includes $58 million related to Topgolf. For the full year, we expect total capex of approximately $315 million net of REIT reimbursements, including approximately $230 million for Topgolf and $85 million for the non-Topgolf business. Now turning to our full year and second quarter 2022 outlook. Given our strong Q1 results and confidence in the opportunity for growth throughout the year, we are increasing our full-year 2022 revenue expectations to $3.935 billion to $3.970 billion. This estimate assumes approximately $1.56 billion in revenue for Topgolf for the year, approximately $1 billion in revenue from the apparel, gear, and other segment, and an increase of approximately 10% in our golf equipment segment revenue as compared to full year 2021. Our full year adjusted EBITDA also increased and is now projected to be $535 to $555 million, which assumes approximately $225 to $240 million from TopGov. To help understand the guidance update, we beat the midpoint of our Q1 guidance range by approximately $32 million. This amount included approximately $10 million in foreign currency benefits including hedge gains. Excluding these benefits, we beat Q1 by approximately $22 million on an operational basis. We are increasing our full year adjusted EBITDA guidance by $42.5 million, including an additional estimated $7 million of negative foreign currency impact based upon recent rates. In other words, excluding this additional foreign currency impact, we are increasing full year adjusted EBITDA guidance by approximately $49.5 million from the midpoint on an operational basis. This represents the $22 million non-currency impacted Q1B, plus an additional non-currency increase of $27.5 million for Q2 to Q4. For the second quarter, we plan to deliver between $1.085 billion and $1.105 billion of net revenue and $185 to $200 million in adjusted EBITDA. We are not immune to foreign currency and inflationary pressures this year, but we believe we can outrun them. The most substantial factor for the year, which we have quantified in our press release today, relates to foreign currency impacts. For the full year, compared to 2021, we expect FX to have a negative revenue impact of approximately $115 million. In Q2, we expect the revenue impact to be approximately $39 million. Overall, we are pleased with the strong start to the year and are excited about the balance of the year. That concludes our prepared remarks today, and we will now open the call for questions. Operator, over to you.
spk09: Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw a question, press the bell icon. Your first question comes from the line of Randy Kulnick with Jesse.
spk11: Hey, guys. Good evening, and thanks for the update. I guess, Brian, I wanted to ask about the rise. You put it well on the changes to the annual guidance. I guess I want to go back to the analyst day. You gave us some really good color on some expected revenue and cost synergies you were going to expect going forward. So can we go over those, quantify those again one more time for those who may not have heard that, but also give some qualitative things that you're working on that you see to be helping those synergies come through the P&L over the next few years? Thanks.
spk07: Sure, sure, Randy. With the synergies, we had quantified it would be approximately $225 million in revenue and $100 million of EBITDA synergies, which includes $15 million of cost synergies. And you're starting to see them already. In fact, you would have started to see some synergies even before we closed the transaction. You might have noticed between the signing of the transaction and the closing, you saw John Rahm sporting the Topgolf logo. And that's just one example of some cross-marketing synergies. But the other ones are also we've accelerated the venue expansion faster than Topgolf would have as a standalone. We are increasing the ability to enter into contracts for new Top Tracer bays. I mean, all the places that Top Tracer wants to get into, our – GOF equipment group already have strong relationships. So that's something we consider to be a competitive advantage. And then there's others. There's a lower cost of debt for them. We're sourcing their clubs and balls and managing their top tracer inventory. We have incremental revenue at the top GOF retail stores. And that's just things you're starting to see develop, and they'll continue to develop. But then there's even longer-term initiatives. You remember at Investor Day, Glenn talked about we're in the process of hiring a consumer data expert to leverage all the consumer data we have access to. You know, ultimately a lot of that and having that access gives us a competitive advantage and, you know, using our digital abilities there. And then we'll be able to sell more equipment, drive business to the venues.
spk11: Really helpful. And then I guess one other question I wanted to kind of almost repeat from the analyst there that I asked. You know, given the strong results this evening and then, again, that rise or the rate – EBITDA outlook or guidance for the year, you know, you're well on your way to that $800 million at least number for, I believe, 2025. So, you know, when we kind of talked about that at Analyst Day, you kind of made the comment that even if there was some golf equipment pullback that you're not seeing, you could still kind of hit those numbers. So, you know, at that time, I kind of asked about any types of areas of conservatism or opportunity you saw in in the financial model that kind of gave you that extra comfort or confidence in hitting that $800 million EBITDA goal. So just kind of expand upon that a little bit and give me some perspective there.
spk07: Sure, Randy. We did feel comfortable that even if you had that pullback in golf, you could hit it. So if we didn't have that pullback, then obviously we would be able to do better and be either toward the high end or possibly above that range. If everything goes well, sure, there would always be upside, but Not everything always goes well, so we're comfortable with where we're guiding to at this point. But with your premise starting with if everything went well, yes, then there could be upside.
spk15: Yeah, and Randy, this is Chip, but the building momentum across all of the segments obviously gives us confidence, but especially so at Topgolf given the scale of that opportunity, which is even more significant than what we foresaw last when we entered into the merger. But you can see them really building momentum now on same venue sales, on profitability, proving out their thesis of being able to open and operate successfully the venues. That is just a wonderful business with really strong momentum now. And just to get to the $800 million, we said $450 million would come from Topgolf We have strength across all the segments, but a really attractive opportunity at Topgolf that's building momentum.
spk11: Super helpful. Thanks, guys.
spk04: Thank you.
spk09: Your next question comes from Daniel Imbrow with Stevens.
spk04: Yeah, thanks. Good evening, guys, and thanks for taking our questions. I want to start on the golf equipment side of the house. I mean, obviously, golf balls and golf clubs continue to kind of outperform street expectations. I'd be curious, you know, can you talk about how much is an increase in unit sales versus maybe pricing you've taken this year? And then just a modeling question, are there any more launches planned for the back half of this year, either on the club or the golf ball side, or was this a kind of launch everything in one queue type year? I think, and can you remind us what last year was as well in terms of launch timing?
spk15: Sure. Daniel's chip. So, uh, You know, we are seeing great, you know, results in the golf equipment segment driven by, you know, strong market conditions and market share gains here at Callaway. So very pleased with the results. You know, we're driving some of our results by price and some by volume. So it's a little bit of both and it varies a little bit by category. In the golf ball category, you know, It's a little bit of price and significant volume increases, and in the golf club category, it's a little bit the opposite, so a little bit more price but also some volume gains as well. We are planning to launch some product in the second half of this year. I'd call it modest, not a heavy cadence for the second half, but there will be product launches in the second half, as there usually are, And that's roughly consistent with what it was last year.
spk04: Helpful. Thanks, Chip. And then moving to the soft goods side of the business, I mean, what Ryan and the team at Travis Matthew have done, it seems really impressive. And I guess as we march towards, I think you said, a $1 billion sales opportunity at the analyst day, you know, what's the right long-term margin structure for that business? I mean, can we continue to see margin leverage from the targets you've given this year? And kind of what are we marching towards in terms of profitability within that business? within that soft goods and apparel side.
spk15: Well, we're just thrilled with that business. We're really excited about the entire segment, but the Travis Matthew business in itself has been a home run and building great profitability and great momentum. And that's why we carved out some numbers to give you a good indication of how successful that business is and the scale that it's already achieved, right? So, We expect it to be over $300 million in revenue this year, over $50 million in EBITDA. And absolutely, we would expect operating leverage as it continues to scale from there. And every indication is that it's going to continue to do that. Again, just citing a couple metrics, the comp store growth in Q1 of 50%. I never expected to be reporting a 50% comp store sales growth. And that's off of last year, which was up significantly. So very, very pleased with that business and the opportunity going forward.
spk04: And just to clarify, when you report comp store, is that just the owned stores or does that include the wholesale side of like organic growth and the wholesale side of the business at Travis?
spk15: That is just our own stores because it's cleanest data that we have. and only those that we've owned and operated over a consecutive year so that it's directly comparable.
spk04: And how much of the Travis revenue is same store versus other, I guess, today?
spk15: It's a minority, but we think it gives you the cleanest representation or a very clean representation of the momentum of the brand. So we're not breaking out what is retail versus wholesale versus e-commerce. the three primary channels at this stage. Wholesale is the largest channel, and we have strong momentum across all of the channels.
spk04: Great. Thanks so much for the color guide, and best of luck. Thank you.
spk09: Your next question comes from Kevin Heenan with J.B. Morgan.
spk06: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on a strong result.
spk15: Thank you, Kevin.
spk06: I guess. I just wanted to ask on the, um, supply side, I guess, how much of a headwind was that to your one, two results and how are you thinking about product supply and inventory as you move through the balance of the year?
spk15: Sure. Kevin, it was definitely, you know, it continues to be a challenge on the supply side, but our team has done a wonderful job. So, um, you know, we're managing through that and, uh, we think it's actually a competitive advantage. Walking by category golf equipment continues to be chasing demand. There were shutdowns in Asia last year in the fall and early winter. Those had forced us into a position of accelerating production schedules and airing more product in Q1 than we would have normally done. in order to hit what we think are very, you know, attractive and nice results. But air freight is more expensive than ocean freight. And as you know, freight in general has gone up. So there are some headwinds associated with that. But the team's working through it very well. And we're not, you know, anticipating it being a significant drag on us going forward. In fact, we see it as a comparative advantage and able to drive nice growth off it.
spk06: Great. And just as a quick follow-up, within your up 10% outlook for the golf equipment business, can you just parse out maybe how you expect balls versus clubs to look for the full year? Thanks.
spk15: Sure. We're not going to break out forecasts individually, but the golf ball business is growing faster for us than the club business, but we're gaining market share in both of them. I mentioned in the U.S. being number one hard goods brand in the Uh, but we're also starting to hear really great and, you know, record market share in golf ball in March. So we have our high water market, you know, we seem to have a new high water mark every year, which is obviously a nice trend, but in golf ball, uh, March of this year in the U S was our, our latest new high water mark. Um, and we're also gaining share in the road, you know, drivers and fairy woods really globally now. So, uh, Great result on that. We see both of them being up for the year, probably ball even a little stronger than clubs. Great. Thanks very much, guys. Thank you.
spk09: Your next question comes from Michael Swartz with Truist.
spk03: Hey, everyone. Good afternoon. Just maybe a question for Bob. Brian, I think you talked about your pricing is offsetting and I guess volume is offsetting some of the inflationary pressures this year. Is there any way to just quantify for us what inflation has meant to you this year, either absolute or maybe just the increment versus last year?
spk07: It's definitely a factor. I'd say while we're covering all that without the pricing, I'd say the biggest factor for Q1 was probably FX and then a little bit of the freight expense as well. As Chip mentioned, we had our air freight more in. So I think those are probably the two biggest factors we weren't covering and having some impact. We do think that abates as the year goes on. So I would expect for the full year you would see operating margin and EBITDA margins to be flat up slightly.
spk15: Yeah, and, Michael, it's very difficult to answer the question because of the segments of our business, right? So, you know, we'd have to give you – you can't really blend – Inflation on nachos with inflation on golf clubs and raw materials and golf ball and apparel. We're seeing inflation like others are in various aspects of our business, but we're able to offset it through efficiency gains, pricing. We're very pleased with our ability to manage in all areas and happy to get into more specifics. in the after call or if you'd like, but it's, we're not trying to avoid the question on a quantitative basis. It just doesn't make sense across the entire business to try to quantify it.
spk03: Understood. That's fair enough. And then just a second question on, on the, on the pop golf same venue sales guidance. You've increased it from low single digit to up mid to high for the full year. Just maybe walk through some of the moving pieces that I'm just, I guess just, in a simplistic fashion, I mean, how much of that would you ascribe to, you know, volume versus maybe pricing?
spk15: Yeah, it's, uh, so in a definition of volume versus pricing, um, geez, it's a little bit of both, uh, to be honest with you. So we're, you know, but what the other color I would give you is that we've seen good walk-in traffic there for a while. Um, really since, uh, mid last year, if not even potentially earlier. You're seeing building momentum in the events business. Events business has been what we'll call, and we'll break that down into social events and corporate events. Social events has been strong for some time. They really surged even more this last quarter. We have certain plans and strategies to further unlock that. And then corporate events has been the only category that has been down since pre-COVID. And corporate events is now starting to show some real positive signs. And in March, we saw corporate events comp positively on a year-over-year basis. So seeing really good signs across all of the – or different sources of what you'd call traffic, also with the ability to drive efficiency gains and pricing.
spk03: Okay, great. Thanks for the call, Chip.
spk09: Your next question comes from Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs.
spk08: Hi, this is Patrick Hollander on for Kate. There obviously seems to be a bit of heightened concern right now around the economy, just given higher inflation, lower consumer confidence. Given that these concerns are kind of coming up as we enter the warmer months and golf season, we just wanted to ask how you guys are kind of equipped to manage inventory levels this season. If there is a further eroding of consumer confidence and a drop-off in demand for more discretionary categories, whether that's golf balls, golf clubs, apparel, things like that. And then when we look at the inventory increase year over year, it's pretty significant and just wanted to ask about how we should think about that increase from a price versus volume perspective. Thanks.
spk15: Sure. Patrick, I'll take the first part. First of all, Patrick, I want to reiterate that we are not seeing any slowdown in consumer demand. So I understand the angst, but at some point we should look at the facts, and the facts are that we're not seeing it on a global basis. And if there was a change in that, we would be able to react. We have a very strong process for managing inventory. We're still chasing, right now, demand. But if that was able to turn on us, we feel like we've been able to manage that inventory process efficiently. One of the things that if you, and you were at the investor day, as you heard Mark say, you know, I make it a point with the team that, you know, we don't like to have excess inventory. That's one of the things that is absolutely non-negotiable with us. So we're very attentive to that. And then in terms of the quantity of the inventory, Brian, do you want to
spk07: There's a couple things going on there. One, there's actually $80 million of inventory in transit as of the end of the quarter, so that's a big piece of the up. The other parts are, there's going to be some price in there because there have been some cost increases, and there's also units as well. So I think it's just a combination of all three.
spk15: Yeah. Even just raw materials, you know, we're building raw material supply in some of the, you know, because of the longer lead times. Yeah.
spk12: Thank you.
spk09: Anything else? Your next question comes from Susan Anderson with B. Riley.
spk10: Hi. Nice to see another strong quarter. I'm curious for the golf equipment business, how much of the growth was due to restocking, I guess, versus just regular sell-throughs? And then also, can you give some color on how you expect the quarters to flow through this year to get to your 10%? Are you expecting any nuances we should think about or compares from last year?
spk15: Yeah. So, yeah, on the golf equipment side, you know, some portions. So we were up 24% in our golf equipment segment in Q1. Some of that was... restocking inventory and establishing position in the field for sure. We saw significant growth in the market internationally in Q1, and the market was down 2.8% according to data tech or essentially flat in Q1, but we also gained a little bit of share. In Q1, a good portion of that was a restocking but we're seeing all the right signals and we're obviously have reiterated the 10% up for the full year. We're not providing a further breakdown of the 10% by quarter at this point. So we can't add any more color on that, but hopefully answered the first part of the question.
spk10: Yeah. And I guess just on the restocking, it sounds like you mentioned you're still chasing. So I guess, is there more restocking to be had as we look into second quarter?
spk15: A little bit, Susan. So we're starting to get closer to normalized inventories out there, but they're still low. We're still chasing demand. We've said that we expect sometime at the end of Q2, maybe Q3, to be more caught up, if you would. But that's all based on our expectations of demand, and obviously expectations could be high or low. But the pinch points that we would have are steel shafts and some of the raw materials on golf ball, but we're obviously managing it very well and not at this point concerned on the supply side or the inventory side.
spk10: Okay, great. And then if I could just add one follow-up on Topgolf. The 10% that you said you were running at the end of first quarter, I guess I'm curious if that continued into second. I know you raised your annual guide to high single digits, but I guess, you know, what would keep it from, you know, continuing to be at the 10% demand rate as we look forward, or do you think some of that was maybe also pent-up demand after, you know, people were more locked down from Omicron? Thanks.
spk15: Well, Susan, the difference between high single digits and 10% is a mighty fine cut, first of all, for the level of guidance in the movement in the macro environment out there. But we certainly saw continued strength through April, enough so that we could call the rest of the year up high single digits, which is obviously... you know, a significant move shows the momentum of that business, and we're starting to see a business where we're, you know, guiding to high single digits, same venue sales growth. That's new ground and obviously a really positive signal and source of value for the investment community.
spk10: Okay, great. Yes, that's fantastic. Thanks so much. Good luck the rest of the year.
spk15: Thank you, Susan.
spk09: Your next question comes from Rudy Yang of Barenburg.
spk12: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just on the price increases, when you mentioned you have kind of room to factor more in, is that kind of just preserved ammunition for now as you kind of watch for changes in the macro environment, or are there kind of set plans already to kind of layer that in, you know, in kind of Q3, Q4?
spk15: We absolutely have set plans to manage inflation, which includes price increases throughout our various segments. So that is part of our business planning and baked into all of our projections now and into next year. And we've been We're fortunate that the segments we're in have strong consumers and high disposable incomes, avid, passionate about the segments that we participate in. We have not seen any pushback or negative repercussion associated with any of the moves that we've made at this point in time. Not sure if that answers your question directly, but, again, given we have three segments, you know, talking about price increases and specifics gets a little challenging unless the question gets more specific.
spk12: Got it. I appreciate the commentary there. And then on top of with kind of the corporate events business, Do you guys kind of see that coming back to less than where it was as a percentage of total Topgolf sales, just given the weakness, and especially kind of considering the growth of all the other aspects of Topgolf's business? I know you kind of mentioned social, kind of searched more throughout social events, kind of searched more this last quarter. So just curious on where you're thinking in terms of in terms of the recovery for corporate events as a percentage of Topgolf's total business as it kind of recovers in the future?
spk15: I think as it recovers in the future, it has the opportunity to be a similar percentage as it has been in the past, and that ability to manage channel mix will be one of the levers and opportunities for Topgolf to manage its overall performance.
spk12: Perfect. Thanks so much, guys. Thank you.
spk09: Your next question comes from John Kernan with Cowen.
spk13: Good afternoon. This is Krista. We're on for John. Just two questions for us. Most have been answered. Just on sort of the gross margin, I was wondering if you could directionally walk us through some of the puts and takes on the outlook for gross margins in Q2 and second half for sort of the golf product margins versus top golf side of your business.
spk15: Gross margins, Q2, if you want to. Yeah, I don't know whether we're going to provide granularity by quarter, by segment.
spk07: But freight, for the soft goods business and the golf equipment business, freight will moderate as the year goes on. There's probably a $25 million impact in Q1, and it won't be that for the full year. It'll be $40 million for the full year. So that'll moderate and help margins as we go along.
spk15: And then, you know, our Topgolf margins have been excellent, so we expect them to stay excellent. The gross margins in all the business have been, you know, quite good, to be honest with you, and the operating margins and EBITDA margins have been even better. Some of what we saw in Q1, we had the freight was an acute pinch point for us in Q1 because of air freight. And then some of what you see in gross margins are also some – it's a little bit of geography because – and what I mean by geography, it's on the P&L. When we hedge, we show the gain in other income, right? And because – but it'll look like decreased gross margin, but we've covered it with the hedges, which shows up elsewhere on the P&L.
spk13: Okay, got it. Thank you. And then just finally, just in terms of the promotional environment, with your confidence in the sustained demand for both golf equipment and the soft goods side of your business, along with Topgolf, just curious to know what you're seeing really in any terms of promotional environment across your channels and kind of what's embedded in your expectations for the back half along this line. Thank you.
spk15: Yeah, we're not seeing any, you know, meaningful promotion, you know, So it's not a promotional environment. It might be a little bit more promotional in the second half of the year than it was last year, but it's not going to be. I would be shocked if it was highly promotional. And those expectations consistent with that have been baked into our forecast.
spk13: Thank you. Thank you.
spk14: Thank you.
spk09: Your next question comes from Joe Altobello with Raymond James.
spk14: Thanks. Hey, guys. Good afternoon. I guess first a couple questions, points of clarification, if I could, on the data tech data. I think you mentioned it was down 2.8%. First, is that a U.S. or global number? And second, is that a dollar or unit number?
spk15: That is a U.S. hard goods dollars. And then the rest of the world was up, in fact, up. double digits.
spk14: Okay. Okay. So if I compare that to your equipment revenue, obviously it's a little bit of apples and oranges and it sounds like you guys did gain some share, but where do we stand in terms of refilling the channel from an inventory standpoint? And is that something you think that could extend it to 23 or do you think you can fully refill the channel here in 22?
spk15: I think that we've, uh, we've gotten closer to more normalized, uh, inventory levels in the golf equipment channel now, but we're still chasing in certain areas. We're still chasing overall demand. And, you know, sometime in Q2 or Q3, we'll probably get to low but more normalized inventory levels in the channel.
spk14: Okay. Okay. Just one last one for you on Topgolf. I apologize if I missed this. Are we thinking 10 or 11? venues this year and remind us what the cadence is. I know it's very back-end-weighted, in fact, very quarter-weighted, but how should we model that out for the rest of the year from an opening standpoint?
spk15: Yeah, we're thinking 11 is our expectation for this year. And as well, we think we can hit 11 going forward at this stage. So that is one of our upticks in expectations that we revealed at the investor day. Back half-weighted for sure. Yeah, back half-weighted. So if I remember correctly, it's five in Q4, which is so very back half-weighted. We have opened now three, two in Q1. Actually, only one. One owned and operated in Q1. Another one, El Segundo, opened in April. And then there'll be five in Q4.
spk14: Okay, 5, 8, 11, and 2, 4. Okay, thank you, guys.
spk09: Your next question comes from Casey Alexander with CompassPoint.
spk02: Hi, good afternoon. I'm sure it's happened before, but I can't remember a time where every product category was up year over year and every geography was up year over year. I mean, that type of – I just don't remember.
spk15: I agree with you. I usually look for something to poke at there, and it's not as evident as it – we're really seeing strength across all geographies and all business segments, which, you know, we did – in fairness, we did say, you know, during our initial guide that we expected to grow every – every category or every business segment and every geography. So far, we're on track.
spk02: It's pretty remarkable. And I would say after two years of sleepless nights, I would love to know what keeps you up now. And secondly, you just completed a $50 million share repurchase program. I mean, never have we seen the fundamental performance of the company so strong at the same time that the stock has performed so poorly before. um so you could obviously you know authorize another one and buy all you want how does the board feel about another share repurchase program and taking advantage of the weakness of the stock because i i do think there's a time period where obviously all of this changes but uh so what keeps you up at night and what are the thoughts about an additional share repurchase program the uh plenty to still keep me up at night casey um but you know the
spk15: The fundamental difference, I agree with you. I've never in my 20-plus years now of running a public company seen as big a fundamental difference between the performance of the company and the share price. So this is new ground for me. I've seen it to some degree, but nowhere near where it is right now. So to a degree, that keeps me up at night. but obviously overall extremely pleased with the direction of the business and the operating results. And in terms of the share buyback, you know, we do look at buying back stock opportunistically, and we've shown that. But as a matter of policy, we can't comment on a future capital allocation plan. So I've got to pass on that one for right now and appreciate your comments.
spk02: Secondly, the growth of the ball business has been steady and sort of one step at a time. how do you get it sort of next level? I mean, that's, that's, it's, it's, if you know what I mean, there's a next level out there and, and it's one where, you know, it's not one and the rest, it's one and two and no one else matters. And that's the next level. And how do you get there?
spk15: Casey, you know, that's a, it, all good, fair comments. And my only answer to you, well, I think it is doing what we've been doing. You know, we've reinvested to the point now where we have an ability to make a better golf ball than the rest of the world, we believe. And I'm sure, I know for a fact that there are others who would vehemently disagree with that. But, you know, you're seeing some signal from the market, and you're seeing it over time. And, you know, if those trends continue, and boy, they've continued now for a couple years, then the outcome that you just mentioned will be the logical outcome, where you'll have a number one and such a strong number two that it'll differentiate itself. And we're certainly... plowing forward on that with that as a goal.
spk02: All right, great. Well, thank you for taking my questions. I appreciate it.
spk15: Thanks, Casey.
spk09: Your last question comes from JP Willem of Roth Capital.
spk05: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just one for you here tonight. On the women's collection for Travis Matthew, just kind of curious to know what you guys are looking for as you kind of roll out some of the first collections here. just kind of how you're thinking about it. And then on top of that, as we kind of think about the long-term opportunity with Travis Matthew, I know at Investor Day you said, you know, maybe net sales of $500 million, even up to a billion. Just kind of curious to know, does that long-term thinking incorporate what you could be doing in women's, or would women's be an incremental opportunity to that? Thanks.
spk15: Sure, JP. So it does include women's. So we're very optimistic there. But what you're seeing us do is a methodical and logical, hopefully well-organized approach to what could be a very significant category expansion for the brand. And so we're We hired resources to dedicate to this well over a year ago. They have been working with the team to design and develop this new collection. We think it looks fantastic. More importantly, the women that have purchased it, seen it, given feedback on it, are raving about it. The initial sell-through was outstanding. But it gives us a chance to test. It gives us a chance to test what Different styles, what different cuts, what different fits and fabrics and approaches are going to resonate most with that very important consumer, which already frequents the Travis Matthew brand, because even though it was 100% a men's brand, again, through our direct-to-consumer channels, which is all of our e-commerce, and own stores, which is the ones we can obviously measure this the most in, 25% of the purchases were women, I assume, buying it for their men, at least some men. And that's a pretty good sign for a brand to start with, but also gives you access to the category. And you're going to see us really learning, testing, evaluating, creating excitement among the women, and then, you know, a more organized and significant launch in 2023.
spk05: Great. Thank you. And then just one more real quick follow-up. Investor Day, you guys touched on kind of the strength of some of your golf partners and some of the smaller companies. And I was just curious, is there any kind of seasonality in when some of these smaller range partners are thinking about possibly investing in Top Tracer? Any seasonality around, you know, maybe in the winter seasons they're looking to make that investment, or is it kind of constant throughout the entire year? Thank you.
spk15: Yeah, it's more or less constant, JP, but there does – it is easier to shut down a range and do installations during the off season. So, um, there's a little bit of a, uh, provided that there's not snow and ice on the ground. So it's like in a mild climate, if there is an off season, they would take a chance to get a shoulder season to put it in often as opposed to, uh, when they're busiest. Uh, if it's a, you know, a, deep cold climate, you're going to have to use it when the ground is not frozen and when there's access. Because you generally have to bring data and they have to provide data lines and power to the range.
spk05: Got it. Thank you very much. Thank you.
spk09: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Chip Brewer for closing remarks.
spk15: Well, I just want to thank everybody for joining us today. We're obviously delighted with the results across our business, and we look forward to joining you in a couple months for the Q2 call. Thank you so much for dialing in.
spk09: This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
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