Roots Corporation

Good morning, my name is Elliot and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Roots fourth quarter earnings conference call for fiscal 2025. All lines are being placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there'll be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then the number two. On the call today, we have Megan Roach, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Leon Wood, Chief Financial Officer. Before the conference call begins, the company would like to remind listeners that the call, including the Q&A portion, may include forward-looking statements concerning its current and future plans, expectations and intentions, results, level of activities, performance, goals or achievements, or any other future events or developments. This information is based on management's reasonable assumptions and beliefs in light of information currently available to Roos, and listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The company refers listeners to its fourth quarter management discussion and analysis dated April 8, 2026. and or its annual information form for a summary of the significant assumptions underlying forward-looking statements and certain risks and factors that could affect the company's future performance and ability to deliver on these statements. Bruce undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements made on this call. The fourth quarter earnings release, the related financial statements, and the management's discussion analysis are available on CDAR. as well as on Roots Investor Relations website at www.investors.roots.com. A supplementary presentation for the Q4 2025 conference call is also available on the Roots Investor Relations site. Finally, please note that all figures discussed on this conference call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. Thank you. You may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining our Q4 2025 earnings call. On the call today, I will briefly review our fourth quarter and full year financial results, which our CFO, Lian Wu, will cover in more detail, and then discuss our operational highlights. Our strong momentum carried through the fourth quarter, our largest quarter of the year. Total Q4 sales reached 115.5 million, up 4.2% year over year. driven by direct-to-consumer comparable sales growth of 7.3% or 14.8% on a two-year stock basis. This growth was supported by strong customer reception to our core and seasonal product offerings, marketing initiatives that drove direct-to-consumer traffic, and operational improvements and store conversions. For the full year, we delivered revenue of $277.7 million, up 5.6%, with direct-to-consumer comparable sales growth of 9.5%. Full-year gross margin reached a record 61.3%, up 150 basis points. Adjusted EBITDA increased 9.5% to 23.3 million. Net income was 4.7 million, or 12 cents per share, compared to a net loss of 33.4 million in fiscal 2024. And net debt was reduced 42% year-over-year to 4.3 million. Fiscal 2025 was a year of strong growth and continued momentum, and these results reflect the effectiveness of our strategy and the discipline of our execution. I will now turn to the fourth quarter operational highlights that drove our positive year-over-year performance. The consumer environment continued to be dynamic throughout the first quarter. Against this backdrop, Ruth delivered strong quality results with our products offering resonating well with customers. These results underscore the differentiated position of the Roots brand and the value customers place on our heritage, quality, and comfort. Our merchandising strategy continues to gain momentum in the fourth quarter. Growth was led by our CloudSleeves collection, which more than doubled year over year and has become a meaningful component of our select business. Our active work category also delivered double-digit growth, continuing to become a more significant part of our product mix. Our weighted collaboration with Universal Studios which launched in November, generated significant grantees and a very positive customer response. Style productivity continues to improve, reflecting tighter assortments, more disciplined buys, and our ongoing investments in AI-driven allocation tools. We also continue to drive margin improvements through sourcing, which remain a meaningful opportunity as we scale the business. As we look to fiscal 2026, we see upset opportunities increasing the depth of certain collections where customer demand outpaced supply in the fourth quarter. Our marketing efforts in the fourth quarter were focused on driving brand awareness and customer engagement during our most important selling season. The quarter was highlighted by the launch of our Anything Ruth holiday campaign featuring Seth Rubin. The campaign ran across out-of-home placements, social media, Spotify, and streaming platforms, including Netflix and Prime Video. Seth Rubin's warmth, authenticity, an unmistakable Canadian charm aligned strongly with the brand and acted as a great addition to our diverse marketing during the holiday season. We also continued to build on Ruth's heritage and sports partnerships during the quarter. Our cooperation with the NFL on a limited edition capsule collection celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Super Bowl brought together football heritage with classic Canadian design and was well received. We also launched our Ruth's Toronto Blue Jays collection connecting the brand with one of the most exciting seasons in the franchise history. During the quarter, we expanded investments in paid media across the full marketing funnel. These efforts, compiled with learnings from our testing throughout fiscal 2025, are informing a more disciplined and data-driven approach to creative testing and media spend as we enter fiscal 2026. We are closely monitoring the impact of Agentech AI on customer product discovery and continuing to adapt to this evolving landscape. We see both opportunity and complexity and have consumers beginning to interact with brands through ASR platforms, and we are positioning routes to benefit from these shifts. Our brand ambassador program played a more significant role in our fourth quarter performance than in previous years, enabling us to reach more consumers across multiple geographies and varied interests. Consumers also responded positively to our curated offers on core franchises and gifting categories. And the witty life holiday approach helps reinforce roots as a destination for thoughtful gift giving. Now turning to our retail and e-commerce performance. Our omni-channel performance in the fourth quarter reflects strong contributions from both channels. The 7.3% increase in comparable sales in the quarter, which is 14.8% on a two-year stock basis, reflects the positive impact of this strategy on performance. In our retail channel, store conversion improved year-over-year. reflecting the continued benefits of our investments in visual merchandising, sales associate training, and store hour optimization. Our store productivity improvements continue to drive an increase in sales per foot across the network. In e-commerce, our paid media efforts drove substantial traffic to the channel. We continue to invest in personalization and search and product merchandising, and made improvements in the shockability of our landing pages and overall customer experience. These initiatives will carry forward and build upon each other as we enter fiscal 2026. During this quarter, we continue to advance key operational initiatives that will position the business for long-term scalability and efficiency. In January 2026, we announced a new 10-year strategic distribution partnership with Metro Supply Chain, Canada's leading privately owned third-party logistics provider. This partnership will result in reach distribution moving from our current company operating facility to Metro Supply Chain's technology-enabled facility in Ontario. This is a significant step in strengthening our supply chain infrastructure and enhancing our omnichannel capabilities. The transition is expected to be completed by July 2026, and we are pleased with the progress to date. As mentioned, we continue to advance our use of artificial intelligence across the business. On the operational side, our AI-driven inventory allocation and replenishment tools are contributing to improved cell productivity and more disciplined inventory management. We are also investing in our data infrastructure to unlock deeper customer insights and support more informed decision-making across the organization. More broadly, as AI-powered platforms increasingly mediate the shopping journey, we believe it is important for groups to be well positioned in this emerging landscape. We are actively working to ensure our product data, content, and digital infrastructure are optimized for AI discovery And we believe brands with strong heritage and authentic differentiation, like Ruth, are well positioned to benefit from this shift. Turning now to some leadership changes. I'm pleased to highlight the announcement of Rosie Posar as Chief Commercial Officer, which we announced in February 2026. Rosie joined Ruth following a successful tenure at Sephora Canada, where she held senior leadership roles, including Senior Vice President Retail and Chief Operating Officer. She's been with Roots for the last year as our head of omnichannel growth. In her role at Roots, Rosie will help sharpen our enterprise priorities and accelerate decision making to unlock new areas of growth. She has already made meaningful contributions in her time with us and I'm confident she will be instrumental in advancing our strategy. Now before passing the call over to Leon, I would like to briefly address the strategic review that the board of directors announced on March 3rd, 2026. As I look at the transformation that has occurred at the company since fiscal 2019, I'm incredibly proud of the team's accomplishments. Our balance sheet reflects a fundamentally different company. In fiscal 2019, the company carried approximately 96 million in net debt. Today, net debt stands at 4.3 million, with a leverage ratio of less than 0.2 times trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA. A gross margin trajectory reflects the successful repositioning of Ruth as a premium brand. In fiscal 2019, growth margin was 53.4%, and over 60% of our customers purchased something on sale. In fiscal 2025, we achieved a record growth margin of 61.3%, and over 70% of our customers purchased at full price. We've also delivered meaningful returns to shareholders. In fiscal 2019, adjusted net income per share was 10 cents, In fiscal 2025, adjusted net income per share was 22 cents, more than double. Undoubtedly, Bruce's strong fundamentals and replicable heritage makes it an attractive brand. As we disclose the time, the board initiated a review of strategic alternatives to identify opportunities to maximize value for all shareholders. As stated in the announcement, the company does not intend to disclose developments with respect to the strategic review unless and until the Board has approved a specific transaction or otherwise determines that disclosure is appropriate or required by law. There could be no assurances that the review will result in any specific action, transaction, or agreement, and we will not be providing further commentary or taking questions on this matter today. The management team remains dedicated to executing on our strategic priorities and to operating the business in the best interest of all stakeholders. Now moving to our strategic outlook. As our results highlighted, our strategy remains consistent and focused. We are strengthening our core franchises, expanding into complementary categories, and increasing the clarity and differentiation within our assortments. We are elevating the brand through collaboration, heritage storytelling, and more targeted marketing. We are enhancing our on-channel experience with a focus on convenience, speed, and personalization. We are driving operational excellence across the business. including through our new distribution partnership with Metro Supply Chain and the appointment of a Chief Commercial Officer. And we are taking a disciplined approach to capital allocation, as evidenced by our net debt reduction, share purchase activity under our normal course issuer bid, and prudent investment decisions. As we look to 2026, we are mindful of the evolving macro and trade environment. We are monitoring these developments closely and are focused on mitigating their impact while continuing to invest in the long-term growth of the brand. Before turning the call over to Leon, I'd like to thank our employees for their dedication and hard work for fiscal 2025. Their contributions have been instrumental in the progress we have made. I'd also like to thank our customers for their continuous loyalty to the brand. Bruce is a brand with deep heritage, a commitment to quality, and a genuine connection to community and nature that continues to set us apart. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Leon Wu, for a deeper review of our financial results.

Thank you megan and good morning everyone, I am pleased to share our fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2025 results. which marked the sixth consecutive quarter of growth and top line sales and gross margins, while we continue to reduce our year over year net debt. These results reflect the strength of our brand and the collective efforts of our product channel and marketing teams who continue to execute with discipline and consistency. Fiscal 2025 was a milestone year for Roots. We delivered record gross margins, robust free cash flow, and meaningful earnings improvement, all while continuing to invest in the long-term growth of the brand. I will now share some more details on the key elements of our results, beginning with our fourth quarter before summarizing our full-year performance. Q4 2025 sales were $115.5 million, increasing 4.2% as compared to 110.8 million in Q4 2024. Our DTC segment sales were 107 million in the quarter, growing 5.7% relative to 101.2 million last year. Our comparable same-store sales grew 7.3% in the quarter and 14.8% on a two-year stock basis, with positive momentum across both our store and e-commerce channels. The strong DTC sales performance during our largest quarter reflects a strong consumer reception to our core and seasonal product offerings, supported by marketing initiatives that drove traffic growth and operational initiatives that improved our store conversion. As Megan mentioned, the combination of compelling product curation and authentic storytelling continue to resonate with our customers. Our partner and other sales were 8.5 million in Q4 2025, down 11.5% compared to 9.6 million last year. The decline in this segment was primarily driven by lower wholesale sales to our international operating partner in Taiwan, which, consistent with what we flagged last quarter, was a result of earlier fulfillment of holiday and spring orders that took place in Q3 of this year. This decline was partially offset by continued positive momentum across our other lines of business within the second. On a full year basis, total sales were $277.7 million in fiscal 2025, an increase of 5.6% compared to $262.9 million in fiscal 2024. DTC sales were $239.5 million. a 7.3% increase from $223.3 million last year, with full-year comparable sales growth of 9.5% or 12.8% on a two-year stock basis. Partner and other sales amounted to $38.2 million, down 3.7%, driven entirely by the reduction in wholesale orders from our Taiwan operating partner, as we continue to support our partner in addressing their inventory optimization and operational opportunities. Excluding those sales, our partner and other segment would have grown 23% year over year, reflecting the strength in our other lines of business. Total gross profit was 71.4 million in Q4 2025, about 5.1% as compared to 68 million last year. Total gross margin was 61.8%, about 50 basis points compared to last year. Our Q4 2025 DTC gross margin was 62.5%, up 10 basis points from 62.4% last year. The DTC gross margin increase was driven by 30 basis points of product margin expansion from ongoing product cost improvements, partially offset by various factors, including unfavorable foreign exchange impacts on U.S. dollar inventory purchases and distribution center transition costs. For the whole year, gross profit reached 170.2 million, up 8.3% from 157.1 million in fiscal 2024. Roots achieved a record high gross margin of 61.3% in fiscal 2025, up 150 basis points compared to 59.8% last year, a result we are very proud of, and that reflects a sustained multi-year effort to improve our product, economics, through disciplined costing and promotional management. Full year DTC gross margin was 63.4%, up 80 basis points from 62.6% in fiscal 2024. SG&A expenses were 49.3 million in Q4 2025, up 9.1% from 45.2 million in Q4 2024. The increase was primarily driven by $2.8 million in incremental marketing costs, reflecting the elevated Q4 marketing investments we signaled last quarter, and $0.8 million in higher variable selling costs, resulting from our strong sales performance. SG&A also reflects $1.1 million in incremental US duties paid on e-commerce sales following the elimination of the duty-free de minimis exemption, 600,000 of higher costs associated with changes in personnel, and 154,000 of higher non-cash share-based compensation costs. These increases were partially offset by a 1.6 million reduction in store-related occupancy, capital depreciation, and impairment costs, reflecting the ongoing improvements in store productivity from our fleet optimization strategy. Full-year SG&A expenses were $155.5 million, up 8.3% from $143.5 million in fiscal 2024. The increase was primarily driven by our intentional incremental investments in marketing and personnel and higher variable costs from increased sales, partially offset by lower store costs related to improved productivity. In 2025, we executed on a wide range of exciting brand marketing moments. that contributed towards sustained momentum throughout the year. As Megan mentioned, we are constantly reflecting on the results of each initiative and will leverage the learnings from the past year to refine our go-forward marketing strategy with the goal of maintaining momentum while focusing on the most effective and efficient initiatives. In Q4 2025, net income totaled $14.7 million, or $0.37 per share. This compares to a net loss of $21.7 million or $0.54 per share in Q4 2024, which was impacted by a non-cash impairment charge on intangible assets. Excluding that impairment, Q4 2024 net income would have been $15 million or $0.37 per share. Adjusted EBITDA was $25.1 million in Q4 2025 as compared to $25.3 million in Q4 2024. Excluding the impacts from the revaluation of cash settled instruments under our share-based compensation plan, Q4 2025 adjusted EBITDA would have been 24.9 million as compared to 25.7 million in Q4 2024. On a full year basis, net income totaled 4.7 million or 12 cents per share as compared to a net loss of 33.4 million or 83 cents per share in fiscal 2024. including the non-cash impairment charge and associated tax impacts recorded last year, fiscal 2024 net income would have been $3.3 million or $0.08 per share. On that basis, full year net income improved 41.1% and net income per share improved 50% year over year. Full year adjusted EBITDA was $23.3 million, up 9.5% from $21.3 million in fiscal 2024. Excluding the impacts from cash settled instruments under our share based compensation plan fiscal 2025 adjusted EBITDA would have been 24.1 million an increase of 12.6% compared to 21.4 million in fiscal 2024. We are pleased with the continued year over year growth in our annual profitability metrics. The strong foundation set by consistent sales momentum and record gross margins allowed us to scale our full year net income and adjusted EBITDA margins, while investing in incremental marketing to build long-term brand equity. The growth in our earnings per share metrics also reflects the benefits of share buybacks made under our NCIB as part of our capital allocation strategy. Now turning over to our balance sheet and cash flow metrics, which also reflect the strong results from the quarter and full year. Ending inventory was $45.1 million, up 9.9% as compared to $41 million at the end of last year. Of the increase, $0.7 million was driven by the higher foreign exchange paid on our purchases. The remaining increase was driven by investments in certain core collections and higher in transit inventory to support DTC sales for the upcoming year, along with an increase in inventory to support our growing North American B2B wholesale business. Free cash flow was 40.8 million in Q4 2025, an increase of 3.5% as compared to 39.4 million in Q4 2024. The improvement in free cash flow was driven by higher sales and improvement in working capital during the quarter. For the full year, free cash flow was $7.5 million compared to $9.8 million last year, reflecting $3.1 million of higher corporate income taxes paid and $1.1 million in higher capital investments made throughout the year, partially offset by higher earnings and improvements in working capital. Under our normal course issuer bid, we repurchased just over 264,000 common shares for $0.9 million in Q4 2025. For the full year, we repurchased just over 1.28 million common shares for a total consideration of 4 million. The NCID allows us to repurchase 1.3 million shares. And as of the end of fiscal 2025, we have approximately 60,000 shares remaining under the current program, which is in effect until April 10th, 2026. Net debt was 4.3 million at the end of fiscal 2025, down 42.2% as compared to the end of last year, representing a continued improvement in our balance sheet. Our net leverage ratio measured as net debt over trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA was less than 0.2 times. We have $33.5 million outstanding under our credit facilities and total liquidity of $73.6 million, which includes $28.6 million of cash and $45 million of available borrowing capacity. With that, operator, you may now open the call for questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask a question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Brian Morrison with TD Cohen. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Morning, Megan. Morning, Leon.

Morning, Brian. Hey, maybe there's certainly been a lot of macro events the past six weeks. At a minimum, it's weighing upon consumer sentiment. Can you just provide some color on what you're seeing in terms of same-store sales, Q1 to date, and maybe also with respect to what you're seeing for freight costs and lead times, are you having any impact on that front?

I think undoubtedly we're operating in a dynamic environment, Brian. I think we won't comment specifically on Q1 trends at this point because we're just trying to focus on Q4 in the call. I think it needs to be a dynamic environment. I think it's no different than really what we've seen over the last few years. It seems like every year there's something new that happens, and our focus as a company really has been to maintain the good focus on product, on customers, and serving the customer in the best way we possibly can. Undoubtedly, if you look at long-term freight costs, there could be some pass-through from that perspective if oil prices continue to be high as they are today. We've obviously seen that in the past through different time periods and been able to manage through that. At this point, we're really focused on managing the business and the controllables that we have ourselves and really thinking about making sure we have the right product in front of the customers, in the right places, and really investing behind those things that we think are going to drive long-term growth.

Okay. Maybe just to turn to your marketing investment, sounds like things are going well, both top and bottom of the funnel. What can we expect or what are the key takeaways you saw in terms of You know, what's working, what didn't work in terms of partnerships, collaborations, your digital investments. And when I think of fiscal 26, should I think of a similar magnitude driving leverage or maintained as a percentage of sales?

Yeah, so from a marketing perspective, I think you can definitely look at 25 as a year where we invested across a number of different parts of the funnel from a marketing perspective to really get a better sense of, you know, with a brand like Roots where we have, you know, almost 100% awareness across the Canadian marketplace, the things that we think are going to have the best return on our investment. So, you know, you saw us doing everything from the Seth Rogen campaign to increasing influencer spending to paid media. And what we've now done into 26 is really looked at all those different aspects of marketing spending and determined, you know, where we're getting a great return on our investment, what we need to do to maintain, you know, good brand engagement and awareness from a customer perspective, and where we can drive more efficiency. So if you look to 26, we will be targeting a reduction in the overall marketing spend because we think there's more efficiency in terms of how we can dedicate our dollars. And there's definitely certain areas where we think putting more dollars behind it will generate us a better return on that investment and help overall sales. So I would say looking at 26, we'll continue to see us moving around the marketing spend into those pockets and areas that we can have the best return for us and continue to balance off the spending between your near-term sales and long-term brand growth and development from a business perspective.

Okay, that's helpful. The last question maybe. I think in retail, we're all interested in AI right now and its progress. You talked about inventory management and data-driven decisions. Maybe just the benefits you're seeing from your implementation, how material the costs are to implement, and the opportunity to expand further.

Yeah, I mean, I think when I look at AI from a mutual perspective. Oh, sorry. Maybe I'll add something, and then you can jump in on the broader pieces. From a high-level perspective, I think your last question in terms of, you know, what we see the potential benefits and the roadmap, I would say, you know, we really do see a lot of opportunity from an AI perspective. We're applying it across the company in a multitude of different areas, and Leon can jump into some things more specifically as it relates to that. But I think when you look at a business like ours, we think that we have opportunities to jump-step the productivity. We have an opportunity to kind of really get in front of the customers in different ways from an AI perspective. And so we're really actively looking across the business to invest behind those things that we think are going to drive the best return. whether that's on inventory management, whether that's in the e-commerce environment from a search perspective or email, whether that's customer service. There's a multitude of different places that we're investing our time. But holistically, we're really focusing on where do we see value add and then thinking about whether or not we can add AI to that as opposed to just looking for AI tools to address a multitude of things. Leandra, do you want to add a few things?

Yeah, and I think similar to what Megan's saying, we've come a long way in terms of AI implementation and how it's really benefiting the operations of the business, not just the efficiency, but also the efficacy of how we're operating. So Megan talked about early stages of how we manage our inventory allocations. So during the Q4 period, we saw great results from an improved stock out rate. We have things like how we automate our customer service responses, which is helping us reduce some of the call center costs. So there's various areas that we look at and that we continue to see opportunities coming ahead. And one of the areas we really invested in is building in a very solid data platform that supports all of these AI initiatives. So building out a data warehouse, better identification of customers. So I think we're very well set up to really leverage a lot of the new technologies coming out going forward.

Okay. Maybe one last one I'll squeeze in here too. Megan, you did mention that you will go into more depth in certain product lines for 2026. You had some, not stock, but what product lines? Is this cloud? Is this Roam? What can we expect in terms of more in-depth for next year?

Yes, absolutely. So we did actually have a few stock outs in a couple of categories in the fourth quarter. So when you look at that, we do see some more upside potential in terms of sales that we could have generated if we had more inventory. It actually crossed a multitude of categories. So it was everything from some of our lifestyle products to some of the products within our cloud collection, certain silhouettes and styles. So there was a few different pockets of areas that we saw it. I would say in addition to that, outside of things that were actually maybe stocked out, which was not a ton of things, but a few things, there was items where we realized that the demand associated with them could have a longer life cycle in the business. So we may invest behind something and assume it maybe lives only from a July to October time period. And what we're seeing is it maybe could live from a July to April time period. And so we've been doing a lot of testing around that, you know, in the first quarter and then, you know, into the fourth quarter where we extended the life of certain things or we brought a new collection that we would have otherwise only had for certain fall time periods to get a better understanding of the consumer's reaction to these types of product categories. So I would say it's across the most two things, out of work, lifestyle, you know, sweat. There's never a place where we see an opportunity for us to put more depth behind it and extend the life cycle of these products to be able to get more sales from our consumers.

Very helpful. Thanks very much.

As another reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad now. We have no further questions. I'll hand back to you, Megan Roach, for any final remarks.

Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We appreciate you coming to listen to our Q4 call. We look forward to speaking to you in the first quarter.

Ladies and gentlemen, today's call has now concluded. We'd like to thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.