Acushnet Holdings Corp.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Acushnet Holdings Conference. My name is Chach, and I'll be your moderator today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with the opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I'd now like to pass the conference over to your host, Sandra Lennon, Vice President of FP&A and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Acushnet Holding Corp's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me this morning are David Marr, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shawn Sullivan, our Chief Financial Officer. Before turning the call over to David, I would like to remind everyone that we will make forward-looking statements on the call today. These forward-looking statements are based on a Cushnet's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations. for a list of factors that could cause actual results to differ, please see today's press release, the slides that accompany our presentation, and our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Throughout this discussion, we will make reference to non-GAAP financial metrics, including items such as net sales on a constant currency basis and adjusted EBITDA, explanations of how and why we use these metrics, and reconciliations of these items to the most directly comparable gap metric can be found in the schedules in today's press release, the slides that accompany this presentation, and in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Please also note that references throughout this presentation to year-on-year sales increases and decreases are on a constant currency basis unless otherwise stated, as we feel this measurement best provides context as to the performance and trends of our business, and when referring to year-to-date results or comparisons, we are referring to the three-month period ended March 31, 2024, and the comparable three-month period in 2023. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.

Thanks, Sandra, and good morning, everyone. As always, we appreciate your interest in Acushnet Holdings. I am pleased to report on a strong start to the year for Cushnet, led by our momentum in golf balls and clubs, supported by continued supply chain enhancements, and better than expected startup at our new North American distribution center. As is customary in Q1, we launched a wide range of new products across our portfolio, helping to deliver worldwide net sales of $708 million, a 4% constant currency increase over last year. This contributed to adjusted EBITDA of $154 million, a 5% gain for the quarter. Global interest in golf and rounds of play continue to be healthy. U.S. rounds were up 21% in March and 7% for the quarter. Positive trends, particularly given poor weather across the southeast. Conversely, rounds were off 9 and 12% in Korea and the UK, where elevated rainfall caused delayed starts to their seasons. These weather-related puts and takes are common for Q1 and in line with the widely held belief that the golf season, more often than not, starts with the Masters in early April. Getting to our segment results, you see golf ball sales increase 9% in the quarter. which is noteworthy given the steep comp against last year's sizable Pro V1 launch and 21% growth. This gain was led by double-digit growth in the U.S. We successfully launched new ADX, TorSoft, and TruFeel models in the quarter and also benefited from greater than expected demand and fulfillment in our Pro V1 Loyalty Rewarded Program in March. This golf ball success was supported by an especially fast start on the PGA Tour where Titleist golf balls were used by the winners of 16 of the first 18 events of the 2024 season. Titleist golf clubs also posted a strong quarter with sales up 14% led by solid gains in the U.S., Japan, and EMEA. Our new T-Series irons have been well received and we successfully launched new Vokey Design SM10 wedges and Scotty Cameron Phantom Putters in the period. Our wedge launch was especially well executed as our operations group completed our global launch in Q1 and a few weeks ahead of schedule. Titleist gear sales were up 2% in the quarter on double-digit growth in the U.S., and our foot joy business was off 6% in the quarter, in line with expectations as growth in the U.S. was more than offset by declines in international markets. We are pleased with the early response to new footwear and apparel lines and anticipate growing momentum for foot joy as the footwear market stabilizes in the back half of the year. Later this month fj will launch the new mobile fit lab performance fitting system to help golfers select the best performing best fitting and most comfortable golf footwear. This tech enabled golf footwear fitting experience will be in pilot mode in the US this summer. And longer term, we anticipate increasing our investment in FJ FitLab to support a global build-out of this value-added fitting service and golfer connection opportunity. Also in the quarter, net sales of products not allocated to a reportable segment were down, with continued momentum and growth from Schuss not enough to offset a decline in our Korean Titleist apparel business. Now looking at the quarter by region, you see the U.S. market was up 13% with gains coming from all segments and coinciding with a positive rounds of play story. EMEA was off 5%, reflecting an especially wet spring and slow start to their golf season. Japan was off 10% as gains in golf clubs were more than offset by declines in other product categories. And Korea was off 12%, mainly from Titleist apparel declines and poor weather, which delayed the start to their golf season as rounds were off 9%. In summary, we are pleased with our start to the year as the strength of golf balls and golf clubs and benefits from continued progress at our North American D.C. offset delayed starts in EMEA and Asia, where we anticipate improving results as their seasons open up. As Sean will address, the company is well-positioned as we enter Q2 with healthy inventory positions and a strong balance sheet to support our continued organic investment and shareholder return programs. The golf industry is on firm footing, and while Acushnet is not immune to macroeconomic or weather-related pressures, our business has over time proven to be resilient due to the avidity and favorable demographic profile of our core consumer, the sports-dedicated golfer. Our global teams have done nice work positioning Titleist, FootJoy, and Shoes products in golf shops, and we are confident in our ability to deliver compelling product, fitting, and service experiences to golfers throughout the upcoming season. Thanks for your attention this morning. I will now pass the call over to Sean.

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone. As David highlighted, we had a strong start to 2024 with a first quarter net sales increase of 4% over prior year. The adjusted EBITDA was $153.7 million, a 4.7% increase from the first quarter of 2023. Net sales growth in the quarter was driven by continued momentum of our Titleist brand, with golf clubs, golf balls, and golf gear growing by 14%, 9%, and 2%, respectively. Foot joy net sales declined 6% in the quarter. Geographically, net sales were up in Q1 in the U.S., but declined in Korea, Japan, and EMEA, primarily due to lower net sales within our FootJoy golfwear segment and lower net sales of products that are not allocated to one of our four reportable segments. Gross profit in the first quarter of $378 million was up 3% or $12 million compared to 2023, primarily due to increased net sales partially offset by lower net sales and unfavorable manufacturing overhead absorption in foot joy golf wear. SG&A expense of $237 million in the quarter increased $14 million, or 6% from 2023, due in part to increases in advertising and promotional expense, information technology-related expenses, and employee-related selling expenses, which were partially offset by lower retail commission expense in Korea. SG&A expense in the first quarter also included $7 million of restructuring costs related to the closing of certain production lines in China as a portion of our footwear production transitions to Vietnam. Interest expense of $13 million in the quarter was up $3 million due to an increase in interest rates and borrowings. Our effective tax rate in Q1 was 21.7% up from 18.1% last year, primarily driven by a shift in our jurisdictional mix of earnings. Moving to our balance sheet and cash flow highlights, our balance sheet and cash flow positions continue to be very strong, allowing us to execute our capital allocation strategy with ongoing investments in the business and return of capital to shareholders being our highest priorities. Our net leverage ratio using average trailing net debt at the end of Q1 was 1.9 times. Inventories overall declined 13% from the fourth quarter of 2023, with decreases across all of our product segments. When comparing to last year's first quarter, inventories are down 16%, and at this point in the year, we are comfortable with our current inventory position. Cash use and operations increased from the first quarter of 2023, primarily due to changes in working capital. Capital expenditures were $7 million in the first quarter of 2024 and are still expected to reach approximately $85 million in fiscal year 24. Through March, we returned roughly $50 million to shareholders with $35 million in share repurchases and $15 million in cash dividends. During April, our board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of 21.5 cents per share payable on June 21st to shareholders of record on June 7, 2024. On March 14, 2024, we entered into a new agreement with Magnus to purchase an equal amount of stock as we purchase on the open market from April 1 to June 28, 2024, up to an aggregate of $37.5 million. As of March 31, 2024, we had $340 million remaining under the current share repurchase authorization. Turning to our full year 2024 outlook, we are maintaining our view for revenue to be between $2.45 billion and $2.5 billion, up 4.3% at the midpoint on a constant currency basis compared to 2023. We're also reaffirming our adjusted EBITDA outlook and still expect full year 2024 to be between $385 million and $405 million. As David mentioned, we had a solid start to the year behind our newly launched golf ball models and strong demand and fulfillment of our loyalty rewarded program during the quarter. In clubs, our operations team was successful in the launch of our Vokey SM10 wedges. Following these accomplishments, we still expect net sales in the first half to be up low single digits compared to the first half of 2023 and adjusted EBITDA to be flat with last year's first half. In closing, we are very pleased with our performance in the first quarter of the year and remain focused on executing on our strategic initiatives for the remainder of the year. With that, I will now turn the call over to Sandra for Q&A.

Thank you, Sean. Operator, could we now open up the lines for questions?

Thank you, Sandra. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by 2. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. We have our first question from Matthew Boss from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Great, thanks and congrats on a really nice quarter. So, David, you cited the golf industry as structurally healthy today. Could you elaborate on overall participation and engagement that you're seeing from your dedicated golfer Any change in U.S. momentum post-masters? And on a global basis, any call-outs on the international front, just with the divergence in top-line performance?

Yeah. Hey, Matt. Good morning. So first off, I think it's worth a minute to look at the U.S. market. Very strong rounds of play data, up 20-some-odd percent in March and up 6% or 7% for the quarter. Um, that, that I think needs to be taken with a grain of salt, uh, because you had some, some tough weather in the Southeast that affected play and affected the market. So we're very pleased with the overall, um, interest in demand and participation levels, uh, rounds of play in the North and Q1 are different than rounds of play in the South and Q1. I think that really just points to the weather differences we saw, but overall structurally very, very pleased. And again, in markets where you had tough weather, you saw rounds decline, you saw slower retail. And conversely, where you had favorable weather, you saw some nice upticks. Moving around the globe a bit, I called out, we had some particularly wet starts to the season. Very common in Q1. You're going to have some slow starts and some quicker starts. Wet weather, I think I called out Korea and the UK, slowed their starts to the season. But generally speaking, where you saw decent weather, you saw rounds play favorable. So to our golfer and the dedicated player, you know, not a lot's changed in the last months and quarters. The demand is strong. They're avid. They're resilient. Again, the biggest call out at this stage is really focused on weather. But in terms of early demand, I'll point to some of our new product launches, whether it's golf balls. I noted on the call that we're pleased, and it was a unique quarter in that we drove gains from all models, newly launched performance models, and also Pro V1, which comped against last year's launch. So we like the way that played out in the quarter. Some strong club launches led by Vokey Wedges and Phantom Putters. That's a mallet putter. Mallets are particularly strong these days, so our timing was fortuitous with a mallet launch in 2024. But the early days, Matt, in Q1, and we're always careful about deducing too much from what we see in Q1 because a lot of it is weather. A lot of what you see is simply shipments in. But in terms of consumer behavior, we like what we see in line with expectations. I won't call out any highs or lows other than in key markets where weather was down, you saw some softness. And again, in key markets where you had decent weather, you saw rounds of play upticks. You know, I do note that a lot of the increase, again, which is why I say it needs to be taken with a grain of salt, a lot of the increase we saw in participation in the U.S. came from the north. And in Q1, that just plays differently than gains in the Carolinas, Florida, Alabama, et cetera. So covered a lot of ground there, but hopefully give you a quick snapshot on how we think about demand, participation, and early state of the consumer.

It's great color. And then maybe just with inventory exiting the first quarter down mid-teen, could you just speak to your overall comfort with inventory on hand to support demand And on the footwear category, just the latest timeline as we think about this category returning to clean across the marketplace and the potential return to top line growth.

Yeah, Matt, maybe I'll start and David can jump in. So, you know, we feel very good about the inventory position. Obviously, we wanted to call out where we are sequentially, where we are year over year. um you know we've called out footwear for the last couple of quarters we feel uh very good about the inventory position so you know across the board in in all of our product segments uh whether it's current gen or prior gen uh we feel very good about uh uh you know the working capital investment there uh as we see here uh in q1 yeah man i'll just i'll just i'll just follow on that a bit um just to echo sean's comments um the

The channels are full, as they should be this time of year. So we don't see any outlying areas of inventory concern. And I'll reinforce, we really like our inventory position, both in terms of quantity and quality. If there's one area we'd like to have more, it's golf balls. And that's something we continue to work on. Maybe just a bit more color on footwear. The footwear market in the U.S., channel inventories all in. Total markets down about 12% from last year this time, and really right where we think it ought to be, not far off from, believe it or not, 2019. So the footwear category has grown nicely, but footwear inventories today are only up 2%, 3%, 4% from where they were in 2019. So after a year, 15 months of correction in footwear, we like where the U.S. footwear market is. A little different story around the world. I think that's trailing a quarter or two, which is not surprising. So we see rest of world inventories, and we'd call out Japan and EMEA principally. We see that correction probably taking another quarter or two.

Congrats. Best of luck.

Thanks, Matt.

Thanks, Matt. Operator, next question, please.

The next question is from Megan Alexander from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks. Good morning. I wanted to ask a little bit, you know, Sean, you gave some commentary on the guidance. You left it unchanged for the year. You kept your first half expectations unchanged despite, you know, a solid one QB, at least first what the street was expecting. And it seems like, you know, momentum over the quarter after a slower start. I know it's historically been your practice to wait until 2Q to make any changes, given 1Q is more of a selling quarter. So is that how we should think about, you know, the guidance being unchanged today? Maybe related to that, you did mention that you completed the global launch of some clubs a few weeks ahead of schedule. So was there any pull forward into 1Q? And how are you seeing kind of sell through in that golf club segment trend versus your expectations?

Yeah, Megan, so, you know, to the guidance in the first half, I think, as David said, it's really a first half, second half. So, you know, the expectation is to hold for the first half. We do think that all the vital signs are positive, with the exception of weather, what David has talked about. So we just think it's prudent at this stage of the year, um, to, to hold, uh, in terms of what our expectations are, um, for the first half and the full year. Um, you know, that being said, certainly as you look across the board, we're, we're pleased with, uh, the balls and, and the loyalty rewarded program. Uh, obviously clubs had a very strong, um, SM Ted, uh, 10, uh, Vokey launch, uh, in Q1. And we still feel good about Q2. Obviously, it still implies a low single-digit growth for the quarter. We'll continue to invest, as we've said, across the board to support our advertising, promotion, fitting network, some of the IT-related expenses. So we continue to invest appropriately in SG&A. You know, and the last thing I'll say is, you know, and David called it out in his comments, we really are pleased with our distribution center and, you know, probably we're more efficient in the month of March than we had anticipated. So certainly that exceeded our expectations a bit. But all in all, I think we still see the first half and the full year as we've articulated. And certainly when we're back together in July or early August, whenever the call is, we can certainly revisit. But all things positive, you know, again, you know, I'll leave it at that.

Yeah, Megan, I'll just maybe some historical color. In all my time with the company, I don't know that we've ever adjusted guidance after Q1. And it really speaks to a reality of the golf business that everybody's crystal ball gets a lot clearer in the second quarter as markets open up. I made the comment about the golf season in many respects today. truly begins with the Masters in April. That's true. So you need to see how mid-belt and snow-belt markets open up, how markets around the world open up. And again, it's always been our feeling that you can't really have a clear, clear sense of the industry and year until you get through Q2. And then maybe just another thought on distribution center progress, really related to staffing and training. And that's gone along quite a bit better than we anticipated some six, eight weeks ago. So we're very pleased with the progress being made at our new DC.

Great, that's really helpful. And then maybe just a follow up to that point. You know, the gross margin up again. Can you just talk a little bit about how that played out relative to your expectations and particularly how the promotional environment looks out there? You know, I think you talked about you know, perhaps margins and EBITDA growth being a bit more pressured in 1Q, just given the promotional environment. So just trying to understand how that played out relative to your expectations as we think about the second quarter.

Sure, Megan, maybe I'll take the margin question. I think it was in line with expectations and certainly given the margin profile of both balls and clubs and the performance of those two product segments, I guess we weren't surprised by the gross margin trajectory in the quarter.

As to the market, Megan, the promotional environment, again, the markets are full, retailers are full as they should be this time of year in anticipation of the peak Q2 and Q3 playing seasons. Um, there are two areas that we, that we would point to drivers simply because there were a whole lot of competitive launches. And with that, you get some degree of sell-off and discounting of prior generation. Same thing happened in golf balls. Um, I don't know that I would characterize any of those as out of the ordinary though. So I don't, I don't see promotional activity as being noteworthy as either high or low or too, too far off from the norms. Um, And just another reality, when you see promotional activity pick up, it tends to be late Q2, early Q3 after the season. So not a lot of new color to add other than what we're seeing is about what we expected for this time of year.

Great. Thank you so much. Best of luck.

Thank you.

Thanks, Megan. Operator, next question, please.

next question is from randy tonic from jeffries please go ahead yeah thanks a lot and uh good morning i i guess david first for you you've always been very balanced about your your view on the industry and you know never to get too euphoric yet the uh industry continues to power ahead uh is this surprising you uh or how much is it surprising you uh and then maybe you could give us some perspective on your drivers of long-term participation, anything you can share with us from a data point perspective with your partners in the Greengrass area as it relates to junior programming levels, female participation, and lesson levels, and then just country club, a waiting list would be very helpful to get your perspective on.

Okay, Randy. Well, I appreciate your questions from, from an industry standpoint. Um, you know, we're, we're, we're at a point in time where we've seen six years where the number of golfers has increased, right? So obviously a real positive and the industry is working hard to make good use of that interest in demand. Um, our focus is obviously on what happens on course, and certainly there's a whole nother world happening off course. that we don't participate in, but I would say is additive to the on-course experience. You look at NGF profile data, they'll point to women and juniors being some of the fastest growing segments. So what's the game doing about it? There was a line from, I think it was Seth Waugh at the PGA who said, let's make sure we don't just let this great parade go by without doing something about it. And the game and the industry are working hard to be responsive and welcoming and accommodating to new players. And I think a couple themes that stand out there would be number of lessons. And the game's hard, and one of the reasons people leave is because it's difficult. So one way you can make the game less difficult and more sticky, if you will, is to execute and provide more lessons. So Globally, we're seeing that. Teachers are as busy as they've been in a long time, both in the US and around the world. And in terms of how we think about drivers of long-term participation, I would call out the reality that what we've seen in the last handful of years, and it's sort of an unintended benefit of the game, as the game has done quite well as golf participants, golf clubs, golf retailers have done well in recent years. There's been an incredible amount of capital investment in facilities to position golf courses, golf clubs, family centers for the needs of tomorrow's consumer. And we hadn't seen that for a few decades prior. So I like the level of investment that the game is making to position itself to meet the needs of tomorrow's consumers. And then, Randy, your final thought on wait lists and such is – is a good one in the sense that, that I'm quick to point out that about three quarters of the rounds played are public, not private. Okay. So a little bit immune to the, the, the wait list reality, but nonetheless, we continually hear from golfers. It's just tough to get tee times and, and particularly on weekends and peak season in, in, in key markets. But, um, the general narrative is most clubs are, are, are at capacity. Um, and have wait lists, maybe not as long as they were two, three years ago during the peak of of covid demands. But I would say the industry is as healthy as it's been in quite some time. And again, that feeds itself because that allows facilities to reinvest in in their value proposition for tomorrow. So, yeah, here we are with with with a nice start to the year in some markets. I do call out a slower start in other markets. Demand is high, and a reality is it's still tough to get tee times in key markets, and it's tough to get to join clubs in key markets. Now, does that last forever? Probably not, but that's the current state today.

That's super helpful. And then I guess maybe last question just for Sean. When you look at the 10-year historical model for this company, you have EBITDA margins that were usually around 12% to 13%. know we're now around i don't know 15 16 somewhere in that ballpark uh you have lower comps there's a consolidated industry there's customization fittings etc you know have you got have you kind of put some thoughts to how you should be thinking about long-term margin potential in this business you know just just kind of put some takes that we should be thinking about over the long term thanks

Yeah, thanks, Randy. Yeah, so we talk about it quite often. You know, I guess before I get specifically into the margin, I think that what we're most excited about is the building blocks for growth here in terms of the portfolio of assets that we have and products to service the dedicated golfer. And certainly as that dedicated golfer grows, universe continues to expand to the extent that all of these investments that are occurring and the participation rates continue, we feel we've got real building blocks for long-term growth that we're excited about, number one. That's excluding any potential M&A. You know we've done a few things over the last five or six years that still have opportunities for growth. First and foremost, we're excited about what the growth outlook can be on the top line for the company over a five- to ten-year period. Number two, you know, we're making a lot of investments, as we've talked about, across the company to meet the needs of the dedicated golfer, you know, in terms of customization, in terms of fitting. So we believe we're well positioned there, and certainly we like the margin profile of, you know, customization and personalized fitting of our products. In addition, through technology, through direct-to-consumer channels, obviously managing all channels and all key on- and off-course partners, we think there's opportunity. Certainly, we talk about operating leverage in the business and the ability to continue to, through the use of technology and efficiency, deliver incremental EBITDA and long-term margin growth. Those are kind of the puts and the outlook that I see. I'm certainly not going to dimensionalize what I see the roadmap in five to ten years, certainly a long time from now. But we believe that, as I said, we've got the revenue trajectory and we're making the appropriate investments across the globe and portfolio that will drive long term growth and hopefully margin expansion.

Great. Thank you, guys.

Thanks, Randy. Thank you, Randy. Operator, next question, please.

The next question is from Joe Altabello from Robin James. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Hey, guys. Good morning. I guess, you know, first question, I wanted to get your thoughts on, you know, the growth in the quarter of Pro V1, Pro V1X against the launch period, which I think is sort of unusual. Maybe what did sell-through look like in the quarter? And did you guys experience any meaningful share gain in the quarter?

Yeah, Joe, I'll take that one. So it is, we had a significant launch last year, and it's unusual when you comp favorably against a launch in the following year given our two-year product life cycles. I think the key differential we saw, we saw a really nice demand for our Loyalty Rewarded Program, which is our buy three, get one free to start the season. and our ops team did a nice job fulfilling that demand in March. So we like the demand, the message that sends around demand for our product. So that was theme one. In terms of market share, again, we're coming off a big comp last year. We launched a whole new range of new products this year. We feel very strong about our market position. It's always a little different in the first quarter of an even year as we comp against last year when we sold off some prior generation inventory. And conversely, our competitors sell off some of their prior generation inventory this year. So net-net, we like the way our ball business is moving along. And I would add, we continue to see nice demands in the corporate space for corporate logo products. So that's just another dimension of the golf ball business. That's driving our success. You know, to demand, I hate to keep drilling on the regional piece and the weather piece, but said simply where people are playing, we like demand. Where they're not playing due to weather or slow starts, obviously demand is slower. But, again, that's life in the golf business in Q1. But, overall, we're real pleased with our first quarter performance. and the overall state and readiness of our golf ball business and our ball-fitting teams around the globe to do what they're going to do here in the next couple of months.

Very helpful. And just maybe a couple of follow-ups for Sean. I guess first, the yen has weakened a little bit this year. Is there any impact on your business, or is it too insignificant to really call out? And maybe secondly, how are we thinking about free cash flow conversion in terms of your EBITDA outlook for this year? Thanks.

Sorry, I'm not sure I got the second one. But, you know, the end, we're certainly watching it. Obviously, it's historic levels. We definitely had a impact in the first quarter, you know, which, you know, was probably five plus million dollars in terms of impact year over year. So we're keeping an eye on it. Overall, we continue to like the overall international businesses for 2024 in the aggregate. Certainly, we're keeping our eye on Japan. And sorry, Joe, your second question?

Yeah, free cash flow conversion relative to EBITDA this year.

Yeah, I don't know that we guide to that, but again, we should, I would expect us to convert at not a dissimilar rate that we have historically. Okay. Thank you, guys.

Thanks, Joe. Operator, next question, please.

The next question is from Casey Alexander from Compass Point. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. He just stole my Japan question, but I'll move on to my next one. There seemed to be sort of a hat tip towards travel-related products in the press release. Is this a nod towards Club Glove, which you basically took control of this year? Has there been sort of an uptick in demand for that new company that you brought on? You know, did you kind of walk into, you know, a nice little uptick in demand at Club Glove?

Yeah, Casey, I wouldn't make that assumption. I think it's more commentary on the total of our gear business. We were looking last year, we were up some 50% in the quarter and felt we had a nice comp this year, even while we added Club Glove and also pulled back on some Titleist branded travel products that were maybe a bit redundant to Club Glove. But I wouldn't point to that simply because while we're pleased with the early start to Club Glove, it's a rather small piece of the gear story. And again, while we're bullish and enthused about Club Glove both today and longer term, Um, again, I wouldn't, I wouldn't read too much into that, into that piece of the story.

All right. Thank you for that. And secondly, my second question is, you know, historically the repurchase from Magnus has been in a hundred million dollar increments and this most recent one, you know, pulled down to 37 and a half million. Why the change in the cadence of when you repurchase? Is it to try to keep the stock closer to. You know what the repurchase price is, or I'm just curious why, why change that cadence after several that we're at a hundred million.

Yeah. Casey is Sean. That's a good question. Um, you know, at the end of the day, as I I've said a few times, uh, we're really guided by the leverage, right. And in terms of maintaining, uh, leverage below two and a quarter times. Um, so, you know, often given the cadence of the year with the sell on the first quarter, the investment in working capital. We've kind of, we look at the share repurchase and the Magnus agreements in the context of overall leverage. So I don't know that I would read a whole lot into past practice or current practice, but I really point you to we're trying to manage the business and maintain a very strong balance sheet with that leverage target. All right, thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Casey. Operator, next question, please.

The next question is from Mike Sports from Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everyone. I just wanted to start with the ball business and maybe following up on Joe's question, but taking a little higher level view of, you know, in a typical even numbered year, you know, lapping a Pro B1 launch, it's been very rare that the ball business has grown. And I think even back in February, You had said you expected the ball business to grow year over year. I think you've had a loyalty program before, understanding you've gotten some new product launches this year, but I guess something structurally changed relative to maybe the pre-pandemic level where you can now grow in even number of years in that business, or is this more of a factor of inventory levels are just still too low and you're still rebuilding some of that this year?

Yeah, Mike, I would say it's a good question. What's different today versus a handful of years ago? You know, I've said this before. Annually, there are about 150 or so million more rounds of golf being played today than were played in 2019, right? So you do the math on that, what it means to a golf ball company. I would also say that we've been producing golf balls – at near full capacity for quite some time to keep pace with demand and to put enough product in the market to represent the brand the way we want it to be represented. So without pointing to one singular event, I would say overall demand is up. We think our shares are up. We think our manufacturing capabilities and output, certainly this year versus last year, are in better shape. And I would point to global channel inventories as being healthy and where they ought to be. So not one singular answer, but rather health across the board. I mentioned a moment or two ago we're seeing a nice return of the corporate business and have for the last couple of years. A lot of positives there, and particular to the quarter, we were a bit constrained last year from a supply standpoint, and lead times were longer than we would have liked. That is no longer the case. So I think you're seeing the business perform sort of without limitations right now, whereas the last couple of years, We've had limitations due to raw materials. We've had limitations due to strong demand, et cetera, et cetera. So we like where we are. I will say longer term, we'd like to normalize our production schedules so we're not operating at peak capacity for as long as we are. And we do expect that at some point that will happen. But for the time being, we like the way the business is running. And, again, I think I've given you three or four examples ideas as to why we saw what we saw in Q1 of 24 where, again, a Pro V1 launch was comped favorably. So obviously we feel real good about the ball business and, you know, our most pressing, not threat, but our most pressing area of interest right now is really weather because when weather's decent, people are out playing golf and purchasing Titleist golf balls. So hopefully that gives you some color.

Yeah, no, that was great. Thanks, David. And then just second question, just to put a finer point on the first quarter, because I think when you gave kind of the guidance and the cadence of the year back in February, I think it implied EBITDA dollars down year over year. Obviously, you came in ahead of that. So is that simply the product of better performance at your distribution center and maybe a little bit of the Vokey launch slipping into the first quarter versus I guess your assumption that some of that would have been in the second quarter when we talked in February?

Yeah, that's fair. That's a fair portrayal of the first half in terms of where we sit here today versus the end of February.

Okay, great. Thanks, John. Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Mike. Operator, next question, please.

The next question is from Noah Zetkin from KeyBank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Justin Capposian, All right, thanks for taking my questions i'm just wondering if there's any early reads on your sense of sell through across categories exiting the quarter in terms of trajectory from March into and through April has demand in April remain strong any color there would be great, particularly as it relates to put joy thanks.

Yeah, I would say the common theme in Q1 was, you know, where weather was decent, demand was good. You know, where weather was less than decent, demand was affected. So the southeast in particular was slower than we would have liked. Again, not surprising given the rounds profile. I would say, and we hear this every year, as weather turned and as March turned to April, we did begin to hear some more positives from our retail partners as their seasons opened up. So I think the narrative is more about delayed start to season versus strong demand, weak demand. Within our product lines, we've been especially pleased with our wedge launch and early demand there. Team did a great job, as I've said, and early demand has been strong. You know, so much of our products are custom fit, and a lot of that activity is going to start here in April, May, June, July. So we'll have just a much better read on our custom fitting activity, whether it's golf clubs, golf balls. I called out some new footwear fitting opportunities that we're going to embark on here later this month. And now to your final comment about foot joy. Again, we really like the product story. We like what's happening in our footwear business and our apparel business and our glove business. I think we've pointed to back half growth in that business after what was obviously a slow start, although we did call out growth in the U.S., which we were pleased with, more than offset by some declines outside the U.S. So FootJoy is working its way through a correction period. And again, we're optimistic for growth in the back three quarters of the year, really built around a product portfolio that we feel really good about.

Great. Maybe just one other question, just on your comments around the North America Distribution Center startup exceeding expectations. Just wondering if you could provide a bit of color there in terms of how we should be thinking about the potential P&L benefits both near-term and long-term.

Thanks. Yeah, no, so again, as David said, it's really about hiring, it's about training, and it's about getting the throughput and the efficiency up to where we want it to be. So, you know, the primary products there are FootJoy and Titleist gear. You know, when we think longer term, you know, I think it's much about efficiency. It is ownership and control and customization. So a big part of the strategic benefit of this distribution center, it's also a customization center of excellence. It's as much about quality product and serving our customers well as it is about doing it efficiently. So we're still in the early stages of ramp up. We feel very good about where we're at. Certainly hope that there's more opportunity to further leverage that facility across the portfolio. So that's a little bit of the color of what transpired in Q1. Again, we went live on January 1. from that location. So we're pleased where we are after four months of operation.

I just had some historical context on that. Noah, we felt some pressure points with customization and distribution for foot joy and gear throughout the COVID years. And that led to the decision that Sean outlined to take greater control of golf bag, embroidery, apparel, embroidery, and distribution of those products. So Really, the origins were some pressure points of a few years back, and the team's done a nice job mobilizing, and we like the control we have because we, again, I'll echo Sean's comments. We just think it allows us to deliver better service to our trade partners and to golfers.

Great. Thank you.

Thanks, Noah. Operator, next question, please.

We have a question from JP Wallin from Ross MKM, please. Go ahead.

Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Maybe first in terms of kind of the investments in IT and infrastructure and understanding kind of usual protocol about forward guidance, but putting together kind of Q1 EBITDA and just the investments that have been made so far, I'm curious if there's anything to read through in terms of maybe more than expected investment costs going forward, particularly in the back half of the year. And then you alluded to kind of maybe some investments for that FJ fitting lab. Are those new or have that always been contemplated? And will that be impacting kind of SG&A in the back half of the year?

Yeah, JP, I'll start. Yeah, so I think that at the end of the year, we did talk about growth in OPEX in 24, right, outpacing sales, if I recall correctly. So, you know, this is expected. I think we're still in the early stages of this, and you'll see this flow through throughout the year. But again, important to recognize that some of this are, some of these things are enterprise investments. Some of these are specific investments. to product segments around fitting networks, about fitting apps and technology. So, you know, we do intend to continue to invest and you'll see that flow through in SG&A in 2024 and it's embedded in our full year guidance. So we think these are all certainly appropriate, necessary to better serve and create the operating leverage that we expect to deliver here in outer years.

And JP, just a quick follow-on to your question about Foot Choice FitLab. Yeah, that has been contemplated and planned for in our out-year plans. I think more of it to follow in 2025 than late 2024, but we're enthused about getting that program running.

Okay, understood. Thanks for the color. Maybe just on foot joy, in thinking about kind of international markets, you know, I think you maybe touched on being optimistic about the product portfolio. But could you maybe just give a little bit more color in your prepared remarks? You said that you were kind of optimistic about things stabilizing in the back half of the year. So what gives you confidence there? And then just maybe anything you've seen with kind of broader customer behavior, specifically on the international side?

Yeah, so to part one of your question, what gives us comfort is the correcting footwear inventory landscape. As I noted, it's all but corrected and normalized in the U.S. We think that process takes another quarter or two outside the U.S., And when that happens, we just feel confident that our products will be better positioned to succeed. I will call out, you know, as you think about markets around the world, and we've spoke of this before, Korea has a very unique super premium golf apparel market, and we pursue that with both the Foot Joy brand and a Korea-specific Titleist apparel brand. That region has seen some outsized growth in the last couple of years, and more recently we're seeing a bit of a correction. Strong demand followed by a whole lot of new entrants resulted in excess inventory and promotional activities. So we feel as though we're in the midst of a correction within the Korea apparel, golf apparel market space. We've planned for it, and while we like our positioning, over the long term, and we like our ability to withstand the effects of this correction in 2024. We have factored in market softness. That's the only real unique call-out that I think is worth noting. The others I think I hit on, particularly EMEA, which is just a slow start, but one area we're seeing it does affect. It shows up in our other segment on the Titleist side. It shows up in Foot Joy. on the foot choice side is just a softness after a period of outsized growth in Korea, and we think that market's going to correct throughout the year. And we'll probably correct for the full year, and we anticipate again. We like our positioning over the long term, and we think we're in a good shape to withstand the effects of the correction. But that's the only market that I think warrants a unique call out at this stage.

Great, I appreciate the color. Best of luck moving forward.

JP, thanks and thanks to all for your questions and interest. Hopefully you take advantage of some nice weather here in the few months and go play some golf and we look forward to speaking with you on our next call. Thanks again.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.