This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

Zozo Inc Ord
7/31/2024
It is time to start the first quarter financial results announcement of FY24 ending in March 2025. We will only be offering live streaming this time. We plan to have a session until 5.30 p.m. And after that, we will have a Q&A session with institutional investors on a separate Zoom channel from 5.40 p.m. I'd like to introduce our presenter, director, executive vice president, and CFO, Koji Yanagisawa. Hello. Now, CFO Yanagisawa will take us through the business results. All right. I'd like to explain that. And before that, I'd like to talk a little bit about the background here. So this is where this has just been renovated. And then there's a new feature on it. This is an analysis of what will look good on you. And then this is a result of that analysis. So it says slightly elegant and smart style. So that's why I look slightly elegant and smart today. So I hope that you check out where and try this feature out. I'd like to walk you through the first quarter financial results for the fiscal year ending in March 2025. And by the way, the presentation document we will use today has already been uploaded to our website's investor relations page. So please take a look. And the design of this year's material follows last year's, which was quite well received from you. And we hope to continue providing you with information intelligible and easy to understand financial result information throughout this year. If you are looking for a new design, I'm really sorry. But it was just so well received. So we're not continuing this design because I wanted to show up on the screen so much. That's not the reason. So let's jump right in. Here are the highlights. of this quarter. As for the first quarter of FY24, our gross merchandise value, GMV, increased by 7.6% year-over-year, totaling 141.8 billion yen. Our GMV, excluding other GMV, rose by 7.5% year-over-year, reaching 132.6 billion yen. Our operating profit rose by 0.2% year-over-year, reaching 15.8 billion yen, our operating profit margin, OPM, was 12.0%, decreasing by 0.9% over a year. In terms of the achievement rate against the company plan, GMV, excluding other GMV, achievement rate was 23.2%, and OPA achievement rate was 24.8%. Demand for spring and summer items has been growing since mid-April, as the temperatures have aligned with the previous years, and all businesses are generally progressing according to plan, with the OP also exceeding the plan, although by a small margin, and as a result, both GMV and OP have reached record highs. And here are the quarterly consolidated financial results on page seven. In the first quarter of this accounting period, GMV excluding other GMV grew by 7.5% year over year. The increase in gross profit due to higher GMV, growth in the advertising business and changes to the shipping policy. And these factors outweighed higher costs associated with a new logistic basis and higher shipping costs due to the changes in economic conditions. And as a result, there was a 0.2% increase in OPM. And as I have explained, our OPM was 12.0%. Next, I'd like to share the details of our results, our business results. And by the way, Kobayasan's style is kind of playful. and casual. Okay, so let's go to page eight and look at the increase-decrease analysis of the operating profit for the first quarter. The previous FY's OP was 15.86 billion. And in FY24, it amounted to $15.89 billion, up by approximately $30 million. Factors attributable to the growth of the OP were the following three factors, plus $2.42 billion from the gross profit growth resulting from Zozotown and Line Yahoo Commerce GMV expansions, plus $417 million from the sales increase generated by the advertising business, And thirdly, plus $1.11 billion from the growth of shipping income and others coming from shipping policy change. On the other hand, factors that drove down the O.P., are the four factors. Minus 1.6 billion from the increase in fixed costs impacted by the rise in the number of employees and logistic bases and others. Minus 1.65 billion from the increase in variable costs that rose in correlation to the GMV and shipping expenses. Thirdly, minus $310 million from the increase of the actual promotion-related expenses associated mainly with expenses to attract customers and point-based sales promotions. And fourthly, minus $410 million from other expenses, such as the purchase of consumables, including materials and equipment, and increase in cloud server costs. Let's go to page 20 of the handout. This is the breakdown of our SG&A. The SG&A to GMV ratio was 23.4%, an increase of 1.4 points from the same period of last year. The main factors that drove up the SG&A ratio are the three factors, One, shipping expenses increased by 0.5 points as we accepted Yamato Transport's shipping fee increases from April 1, 2024. Secondly, depreciation rose by 0.4 points as the depreciation of the material handling equipment related to the logistic-based And so that was Ibaraki 4. And then there's the rent expenses increased by 0.3 points following the commencement of the lease of Zozo Base Ibaraki 4 and 5. Next, let's go to page 23 of the handout. Here is the actual promotion-related expenses trend. In the first quarter, we used... 3.3% worth of GMV as our actual promotion-related expenses, which are the sum of advertising expenses and point-related costs. Next, this is page 19, OP and OPM trends. Due to the increased costs related to the new logistics spaces and increased shipping costs due to the changes in economic conditions, our OPM for the current fiscal year was 0.9 points lower than in the same period of the previous year, landing at 12.0%. And moving on to the main KPIs of Zozotown, This is page 24 of the handout, the number of total buyers. And by the way, the KPIs hereafter do not include the results of our Line Yahoo Commerce or B2B business. The number of total buyers was up by 110,000 from the previous quarter, amounting to 11.79 million, of which active members was 10.91 million, increasing by 130,000. Guest buyers decreased by 20,000, finishing at 870,000. In the fourth quarter of last year, the effects of the warm winter slowed down the demand, as I have informed you before, which resulted in a decrease in the number of annual buyers. However, in the first quarter, we saw a recovery in the new buyer acquisition as the temperatures picked up from mid-April. And thanks to it, we were able to increase the number of total buyers solidly. Next, this is page 27 of the handout, number of shops on Zozotown. As of the end of the first quarter, the number of shops was 1,605, a net increase of 10 shops from the end of the previous quarter. We welcomed 30 new shops to our platform this quarter, to name a few. We now have an apparel brand produced by a renowned female celebrity, HerLips2, and an American luxury brand, Tory Burch, and Cosme Boutique called Cosme Remake that carries popular cosmetic brands from Korea like ROM&T. Let's now go to page 29 of the handout. With respect to the average retail price, it turned out to be 3,698 yen, down by 0.7% year over year. The brands continued to increase their list prices for the spring and summer season, while But the temperatures continued to be higher than usual years, and this resulted in an increase in the sales mix of relatively lower-priced merchandise, such as T-shirts. And then the ARP turned out to be slightly below that of the same quarter of the previous year. Let's now go to page 30, which is average order value. The AOV was 8,343 yen up 2.0% year over year. Although the average retail price was slightly lower, the number of items purchased per order increased, bringing the average order value higher than that of last year. The number of items per order increased because we gave more days to free shipping on purchases over 12,000 yen or more promotions than last year. And then, therefore, the ratio of combined purchases rose thanks to it. Okay, and lastly, let's go to page 32. Here are the full year consolidated earnings forecast and dividends for the ongoing fiscal year. There is no change to the business performance forecast. That's all from me. That concludes Zozo's first quarter financial results announcement for FY24 ending in March 2025. Thank you for your time and attention.