Amer Sports (NYSE:AS) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Amer Sports First Quarter twenty twenty six Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand.

0:20 I will now hand the conference over to Omar Saad, SVP of Investor Relations and Capital Markets. Omar, please go ahead. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining Amer Sports earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal year twenty twenty six. Earlier this morning, we announced our financial results for the quarter ended 03/31/2026, and the release can be found on our IR website, investors.amersports.com. A quick reminder to everyone that today's call will contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward looking statements reflect our current expectations and beliefs only. They are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please see the safe harbor statement in our earnings release and SEC filings.

1:06 We will also discuss certain non IFRS financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release for important information regarding such non IFRS financial measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable IFRS financial measures.

1:19 We will begin with prepared remarks from our CEO, James Zhang and CFO, Andrew Page, followed by a Q and A session until nine a. M. Eastern. James will cover key operational and brand highlights, then Andrew will provide a financial review at both the group and segment level and will also walk through our updated guidance. Arcteric CEO, Stuart Hazelden and Solomon CEO, Guillaume Mezanc, will join for the Q and A session. With that, I'll turn the call over to James. Thanks, Omar. Our excellent momentum continued in Q1 as our unique portfolio of technical sports and outdoor brands are creating white space and taking share globally. All segments, geographies and the channels performed extremely well in the quarter led by exceptional Solomon's soft goods growth, a strong Arcterix Omnicod and solid Worsham Tennis three sixty growth.

2:11 And we delivered a strong result across the P and L, including 32% sales growth and 160 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion. All four regions achieved solid double digit revenue growth and that strong momentum has continued in Q2. Looking forward, given the continued broad based momentum across our portfolio and the talent and ambitious teams we have in place around the world, we are very confident in the future outlook for Amer Sports Group. Several factors give me less confidence. First, we own and operate a unique portfolio of premium innovation driven sports and outdoor brands.

2:58 These brands are still only small to medium size with significant room to grow globally. Second, Alteryx is a breakout outdoor brand with leading growth and profitability for the industry driven by its disruptive direct to consumer model. Third, demand for Solomon's unique outdoor SNC offering is infracting globally, but the brand still only has a small share of the very large global SNC market. Fourth, our Worsen and the winter sports equipment franchises have leading market positions which we believe will deliver slower long term growth except for Worsen soft goods which we believe is unique in the marketplace and has significant potential.

3:46 And fifth, we believe we have a strong and differentiated platform in Greater China and APAC, where we continue to deliver best in class performance across our portfolio. Before I turn to over to Andrew, I will briefly recap key highlights from our three segments, starting with technical apparel. Alteryx delivered another great quarter with broad based strength across regions, channels and the categories, including another exceptional performance from women's. Strong momentum in the direct to consumer channel continued, driven by a 19% Omnicom. We continue to envision Arcterus as a truly global brand with significant runway in all major markets.

4:35 And we are encouraged that the brand is generating strong double digit growth across all four regions including notable acceleration in North America. Webex momentum continued in Q1 growing faster than any other category for Acharyx. Our confidence in the women's opportunity is rising as we are both: one, attracting new female consumers to the brand and two, driving higher engagement and spend with existing female consumers. We really see brand affinity with women rising as we improve fit, style and function while building expanded assortments leveraging our unique design advantages.

5:23 Our decision to redesign core ABCG models for her while also expanding feminine qualities is working well. We also believe that success is bottoms with franchise like the Clark here, Lutier and the Nierpants is also helping us unlock the female consumers. On the men's side, we are excited to welcome a new Actelix men's designer. Paxton Madison joined us most recently from Mountain Hardware and the North Face prior to that. His leadership will be instrumental as we continue to push the boundaries of our men's offering when it comes to solving problems for the mountain athletes with technical performance and the beautiful design.

6:10 Footwear had another great quarter with strong growth across region led by both existing styles and the new launch. Popular existing styles include a Northern LD4 trail shoot, which has strong consumer affinity and is our biggest volume drivers followed by the Copic hiking shoe. And we launched the Silent two in Q1 which is a technical trail run racing shoe. Looking forward, we are confident ACTRAS has an exciting pipeline of shoe release for the upcoming years. We are investing in our design capabilities and the commercial teams on the ground in The U. S. And building a strong infrastructure for both direct to consumer and the wholesale channels.

6:59 Our Valens sub brand also had a strong double digit growth in Q1. We expect 2026 to be a year of impact for the brand as we invest in units, further develop our collections and expand distribution, all of which is creating excitement and engagement in the marketplace. Securality and the rebirth continue to be at the heart of Actaris. In Q4, we increased the credit guests received when they trade in use Actaris products and this continued to drive strong triple digit growth in trade in activities in North America, albeit off a small base. Our on mountain academics remain a critical role in community engagement and the Mammoth Mountain Academy we hosted in February was again a great success with 22,000 attendees over the weekend and the 42 clinics hosted by Actaris athletes.

8:04 Academies are becoming a key platform for Reber, generating consumer awareness, interest and the Reber sales. Peak Performance, our other technical apparel brand delivered solid growth in Q1. After the brand returned to growth in 2025, the turnaround remains on track so far in 2026 with sales increase across key channels and the regions.

8:32 The brand also continued to improve profitability driven by concentrate efforts to reduce promotionals and increase full price selling, especially in the Nordic market. Moving to the Outdoor Performance segment, which was led by another outstanding quarter from Solomon Soft goods. The investment we are making to grow Solomon brand awareness and the distribution footprint are paying up. As Solomon footwear momentum is expanding across regions channels and in both sports style and performance. We are also excited to share that we are seeing a clear acceleration in North America as we leverage rising brand awareness to expand distribution with both new and existing wholesale partners.

9:21 We also saw solid performance from our winter sports equipment franchise, which continued taking share despite challenging market conditions. As you know, Solomon footwear has become a very important growth engine, not just for Solomon, but for Amer Sports Group. We are excited to see a demand inflection for Solomon unique outdoor sneak offering, especially since the brand still only has a small share of the global sneak market. I'd like to highlight a few factors that give us the confidence that Solomon is well positioned to achieve its growth potential and do it in the right way. Number one, global sports style momentum continues.

10:07 We believe Salomon is connecting with younger consumers and the female consumers in a way traditional outdoor brands haven't. Sport style is critical to developing Salomon's position as the modern outdoor snake brand, including franchises such as XT6 and XT Whisper. Second, our performance and the running lines are also working well. We continue to believe our new GRYBOS franchise is helping to unlock the run category for Solomon like never before. Salomon gained traction in the run specialty channel in North America and EMEA. Recent running launches include SLAP Phantom three, which is an ultra lightweight racing shoe engineered for elite performance, as well as the AeroGlide four with Optic Form two.

11:00 Third is Solomon's amazing brand kit in Great China, Asia, where we believe we operate the most productive and profitable sneaker shops in this industry. Greater China was Solomon's fastest growing region in Q1, driven by both sports style and performance, as well as strong growth in apparel. Salomon is also experiencing surging demand in Korea and Japan, both large SNC markets. Fourth, our epicenter strategy is working. Our strategy to open a handful of brand stores alongside strategically elevate wholesale distribution in key metro markets around the world is critical to elevating Solomon's presence and awareness.

11:46 Our Tier one global epicenter cities include Paris, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, New York, LA. We have seen both rising brand awareness and accelerating revenue in our epicenter cities. Fifth is the strong pull demand we are seeing from consumers in Europe, Solomon's home market, driving strong reorder, preorders and sell through. Sports style continues to be the growth driver, but we have also seen a real inflection in gravel in Europe, supported by marketing campaigns, in store events and the running event activations. Also, are seeing high e comm demand growth in Europe, even as we expand our retail and wholesale footprint.

12:37 Sixth is North America, which is the largest SNC market in the world, but it is still a small business for us. In The U. S, we are seeing a clear growth inflection driven by sports style and the performance. Not only are we expanding our shelf space and the sell through existing wholesale partner doors, but we are also now starting to move Solomon footwear into key wholesale partners in The U. S. As you know, there is a strong demand for Solomon sneakers in The U. S, but still very limited distribution for consumers to find our products. Moving to board and the rackets highlights. Board and the rackets growth 13% in Q1 driven by continued strength in soft goods and the racket sports.

13:24 Our Tennis three sixty products continue to resonate very well with consumers from performance rackets to tennis, apparel and footwear. And the Wilson soft goods continue its exceptional trajectory with very strong growth across all three major regions. The Wurz brand is unique in its ability to outfit tennis athletes from head to toe, including rackets and accessories. We are pleased to see an increasing number of the world's top tennis players wearing head to toe Western kits at key events, including Martha Costa winning the Majority Open and the men's top 10 player, Alex Dameena at the India Awards. In Q1, we launched a version 10 of our iconic Brake Dragons.

14:15 The launch of Brake has been well received in the markets across all channels with the orders from key customers coming in already. We are also seeing strong validation of the break B10 on tool with world number one arena Sabrina who won in the awards and the Miami open playing with a bracket our version of the new break before it was launched publicly. With that, I will turn it over to Andrew. Thanks, James. Q1 was a great start to the year with strong sales, margin expansion, and EPS growth. The investments we have been making behind our biggest opportunities are paying off in terms of both sales growth and margin expansion.

15:03 Today, we are experiencing exceptional trends across each of our three biggest growth engines: Arcterix, Solomon's Softgoods, and Wilson Tennis three sixty, which are all still relatively small franchises with significant room to expand. Turning to our Q1 results. Amer Sports grew sales 32% in Q1 on a reported basis or 26% ex currency. The strong group sales performance was led by outdoor performance and technical apparel. Ball and racket also had impressive double digit sales growth. By channel, the group continues to be driven by D2C, which grew 45% led by Solomon and Arcterix. At the group level, D2C represented approximately 50% of revenue in Q1.

15:52 Wholesale grew 21% led by Solomon. Growth was also very strong across all geographies. Regional growth was led by Asia Pacific, which increased 53%, and China, which grew 45%. EMEA accelerated to 27%, and The Americas grew 18% in Q1.

16:15 As it relates to our EMEA region, I wanted to touch on the Middle East conflict, which thus far has had relatively low impact on our business. The region represents less than 1% of our global sales and the impact on both consumer demand as well as our supply chain and logistics operation has been immaterial thus far. We recently renegotiated our annual shipping contracts and this has also been incorporated in our latest guidance.

16:44 That said, we continue to closely monitor this rapidly evolving situation, which could create some logistical and cost headwinds should the price of oil remain elevated longer term. Turning to profitability. Adjusted gross margin increased 200 basis points to 60% in Q1, primarily driven by favorable channel, geographic, product and brand mix.

17:11 Adjusted SG and A expenses as a percentage of revenue increased 60 basis points and represented 43.2% of revenue in Q1. This is a better SG and A rate than what was implied in our previous guidance as we were able to leverage the higher sales growth against fixed costs. SG and A leverage in both technical apparel and outdoor performance was offset by deleverage in ball and racket due to ongoing investments in Wilson Tennis three sixty and higher corporate expenses.

17:43 Led by strong gross margin expansion, we generated a 160 basis point increase in our adjusted operating margin from 15.8% last year to 17.4% in Q1. Corporate expenses was $52,000,000 up from $27,000,000 in Q1 of last year, mostly related to higher IT, personnel and deferred compensation expenses. D and A was $103,000,000 which includes $50,000,000 of ROU depreciation.

18:16 Adjusted net finance costs in the quarter was $30,000,000 which comprised primarily of $25,000,000 from interest expense with the remaining $5,000,000 driven mostly by FX losses associated with the revaluation and settlement of monetary balances. In the quarter, our adjusted income tax expense was $86,000,000 which equates to an adjusted effective tax rate of 28%. Adjusted net income in Q1 was $218,000,000 compared to $148,000,000 in the prior year.

18:52 Adjusted diluted earnings per share was zero three eight dollars compared to adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.27 last year. Now, turning to segment results. Technical apparel revenues increased 33% to $885,000,000 led by Arteryx. Growth was fueled by 41% D2C expansion, including a 19% Omnicom. Technical apparel wholesale revenues grew 16%. Regionally, the technical apparel growth rate was led by Asia Pacific and Greater China, followed by accelerating growth in The Americas and EMEA. It gives us high confidence in the Arcteryx global growth trajectory that all regions continue to grow strong double digits.

19:40 Stores continue to be central to Arcterix's growth aspirations, and we plan to open 30 to 35 net new Arcterix stores in 2026 across all markets. Our store opening plan incorporates a similar level of gross new stores as in 2025, partially offset by the continued closure of certain outlets and other suboptimal locations.

20:06 We are planning 10 to 12 net new store openings in Greater China in 2026, with openings weighted toward H2 and Q4. After multiple years of optimizing the fleet, we are excited to resume new store expansion in this large and important consumer market.

20:26 In Q1, we had five openings in China, offset by five closures. Key new locations include the Grand Gateway sixty six store in Shanghai, a great example of the benefit when we relocate from a 3rd Floor location to the Ground Level with much higher traffic and more premium locations amongst the luxury brands.

20:49 In Q1, Arteryx's growth accelerated in North America and we delivered strong double digit omni comps in The U. S. We are seeing significant progress in brand awareness in The U. S. With unaided brand awareness growing to 12% from 8% last fall, led by our top of funnel marketing strategies. We believe brand experience and community are still untapped areas for Arcterix to unlock higher conversion rates in The U. S. Market, and we will be doubling down on these activities in 2026.

21:22 One new store worth highlighting is our latest San Francisco area location in Burlingame, which opened in March. It has performed very well so far and will play an important role in continuing to develop arcterics in warmer markets. I also want to highlight our Rockefeller Center store where we are encouraged by the building sales trajectory over the course of this past winter. Also, our Mountaintown strategy continues to resonate as our new stores in Aspen and Park City got off to great starts despite low snow in The Rockies this past winter.

21:59 Technical apparel adjusted operating margin expanded two fifty basis points to 26.4%, driven by both gross margin expansion due to positive region and channel mix, as well as modest SG and A leverage on strong sales. Moving to our Outdoor Performance segment, which saw revenues increase 42% to $714,000,000 driven by very strong performance in Solomon footwear, apparel, and bags and socks. By channel, Outdoor Performance DTC grew 57%, led by new doors and higher productivity across markets, especially Greater China, APAC and The Americas.

22:42 Outdoor Performance achieved a 29% omni comp with strength in both stores and e commerce. E commerce is continuing to grow across regions driven by higher traffic, especially in The Americas and APAC. Outdoor performance wholesale grew 34% driven by strong sell through and reorders in soft goods.

23:06 Regionally, the outdoor performance growth rate accelerated across all geographies, led by Greater China and APAC, followed by The Americas and EMEA. The popularity of Solomon footwear continues to inflect globally, and we are doing everything we can to ensure we are well positioned to fully develop this large opportunity in the right way over time.

23:29 Solomon is positioned for significant growth in all major consumer regions where we are working hard to build the right team, operational, go to market and brand building functions to support our growth. In Asia, D2C continues to be the critical growth channel for Solomon led by our highly productive Solomon's shops.

23:50 We opened nine net new Solomon's shops in Greater China this quarter, including both owned stores and partner stores, bringing our total count at quarter end to three zero two doors. For the full year of 2026, we now expect to open 45 net new stores in Greater China, a slight increase from the 35 we communicated last quarter as more high quality locations have become available to us and our partners.

24:18 Keep in mind, although our net new store openings are slower than nearly 100 new doors the last couple of years, we are focused on upgrading the fleet by opening larger format, highly productive doors in the highest traffic shopping centers with more space to incorporate apparel and accessories. This is a very similar playbook to what we followed for Arcterix the last few years in Greater China.

24:44 A great example of this is the new Solomon flagship flagship we've recently opened in Beijing's highest footfall shopping center, Chaoyang Hapson One, known for its premium trend driven retail. With over 8,000 square feet, the new flagship offers a full range of footwear and apparel and a highly elevated consumer experience. In APAC, another region where Solomon has experienced an explosive growth, we opened net five new Solomon stores in Q1. These were all in Japan and Korea, both very large and sophisticated sneaker markets. Solomon's overall brand awareness and desirability continues to grow very rapidly across Asia. In The Americas, as James mentioned, Solomon Footwear is seeing a material growth acceleration.

25:34 The brand is seeing great D2C demand in both stores and ecom, and we are also excited to share that we are beginning to expand U. S. Wholesale in a more meaningful way.

25:46 Not only are we improving sell through and expanding shelf space within existing wholesale partners such as Nordstrom and REI, We are also now starting to move Solomon footwear into key doors with new U. S. Retailers like Foot Locker and JD Sports. There is growing demand for Solomon sneakers in The U. S. And we are strategically sequencing our U. S. Wholesale rollout to align with our epicenter market strategy. Keep in mind, this expansion into new wholesale accounts will include a small number of doors initially. Accordingly, we are seeing very strong North America order books for fallwinter twenty twenty six with growing demand across a variety of high quality existing and new retail partners.

26:32 And we have improved our inventory position to respond to this growing demand. In terms of own retail in North America, we are further strengthening our presence in New York City and just recently opened a Solomon brand store in the Upper West Side Of Manhattan. And in Q3, we will open a Solomon store in the Flatiron District of New York. We also opened our first Solomon's shop in Mexico City as the brand is also enjoying accelerating awareness and desirability across Latin America markets. We will continue to focus on our epicenter strategy in 2026 and beyond, particularly New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. We currently plan to open seven to 10 new Solomon's shops in The Americas this year.

27:21 In EMEA, we continue to expand our store fleet in key epicenters, and we will further develop our Europe epicenters into Spain, Germany and other key UK cities in 2026. In Q1, we opened our first brand store in Copenhagen, Denmark, which has delivered a very strong positive start. Lastly, our winter sports equipment franchises had a solid Q1 despite challenging weather and market conditions. While the market for cross country and touring remains pressured versus the COVID highs, the core Alpine on piste market remains healthy despite low snow in certain regions. Outdoor Performance adjusted operating profit margin expanded four eighty basis points from last year to 20.4% in Q1.

28:08 The margin expansion was led by gross margin, thanks to positive channel, region and product mix, as well as SG and A leverage on strong growth. We are pleased to deliver strong margin expansion in Q1 after making the decision last quarter to accelerate investments to support Solomons' long term growth, including marketing, retail expansion and talent acquisition. We believe these types of investments are critical to deliver the kind of results we saw in Q1 as well as position the brand for high quality long term growth. I would add that we believe this is one of the advantages of our portfolio. The strong sales growth and margin expansion at the group level gives us the flexibility to invest behind early stage growth opportunities such as Solomon's sneakers and also Wilson Tennis three sixty in a way they could not as standalone entities.

29:06 Moving to ball and racket, where revenues increased 13% to $347,000,000 driven by soft goods and racket sports. We continue to see very strong momentum in Tennis three sixty globally. By category, the growth was led by soft goods up very strong double digits with continued momentum in all regions. Strong rackets growth was driven by China and EMEA. Beyond tennis, we saw solid growth in golf driven by commercial clubs and golf balls, while inflatables were slightly down. Baseball also declined, impacted by the timing of shipments in bats and gloves, partially offset by growth in baseball uniforms and apparel. Regionally, the ball and racket growth rate was led by Greater China, APAC and EMEA.

29:56 We opened one net new Wilson Brand store in Q1 in Korea. We have extensive store opening plans for China this year, given the performance of existing Wilson Tennis three sixty shops. For the full year, we now plan to open approximately 40 net new Wilson Tennis three sixty shops China between owned and partner doors. APAC also continues to drive meaningful Wilson soft goods growth. We are seeing strong growth in Korea retail as well as in Australia in racket, golf and apparel. In North America, we saw strong retail growth in Wilson Softgoods, offset by the timing of product launches in rackets and golf, as well as lapping some big selling programs and inflatables in baseball last year.

30:44 We also continue to expand our Tennis three sixty offering into more DICK'S Sporting Goods locations, including House of Sports. We are planning to expand our DICK'S footprint from two fifty doors to 400 doors by the end of twenty twenty six. Ball and Rackets segment adjusted operating profit margin decreased three seventy basis points to 3.6% as positive product, channel and region mix was more than offset by higher SG and A as we made the decision to make key investments to support Wilson Softgoods growth, including signing new Tennis three sixty athletes. Higher gross tariff and freight costs also negatively impacted margin year over year. Turning to the group balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $539,000,000 of net cash and exited the quarter with inventories up 33% year over year, slightly higher than our 32% sales growth. We are very comfortable with the level and quality of our inventory.

31:47 This high inventory growth is primarily related to the same factors we've previously disclosed. Number one, earlier receipt of seasonal Arcterix merchandise to prepare for the better in stock positions two, higher Arcterix goods in transit resulting from the greater use of ocean freight versus air freight three, FX translations from the weaker U. S. Dollar and 4, the addition of the Arcterix Korea inventory following the recent acquisition. We expect inventory growth rates to normalize in the second half of twenty twenty six when we start to cycle our improved in stock positions and the higher use of ocean freight. Driven by strong profit growth and disciplined working capital management, We generated $172,000,000 of operating cash flow in the first quarter compared to $164,000,000 last year.

32:36 And for the full year of 2026, we expect to generate solid operating cash flow growth versus 2025 levels. Now moving to guidance. A couple of housekeeping items before I walk through the details. First on tariffs. Our new updated guidance today assumes that the higher I. The tariff rates that were in place before the February Supreme Court ruling remain in place for Q2 and the remainder of 2026. Regarding tariff refunds, we have filed our submission and last week received a small portion of our total submission amount, which does not have an impact on our guidance as presented. Second, as we mentioned last quarter, beginning in Q1, we discontinued allocating certain corporate expenses to our reportable segments that are not directly attributable to the operating performance of the segments.

33:31 There is no impact to the overall group adjusted operating profit margin. It is simply reallocating certain costs from segments to corporate. Included in our press release and the earnings deck is an exhibit that details the cost reallocation from each segment to corporate for each quarter of 2025. Let's begin with our updated full year 2026 outlook. The second quarter is off to a strong start and given the continued momentum from our highest margin Arteryx franchise, accelerating Solomon's soft goods growth, plus the solid foundation of our equipment franchises, we have the confidence to raise our 2026 sales, margin, and EPS guidance. We are raising 2026 revenue growth guidance from 16% to 18% to 20% to 22%, which includes a 200 to two fifty basis point benefit from favorable FX impact at current exchange rates.

34:31 By segment, we are raising our Technical Apparel 2026 revenue growth guidance from approximately 18% to 20% to 22% to 24%. We are also increasing our outdoor performance sales growth expectations from 18% to 20% to 22% to 24%. Our ball and racket sales growth guidance goes from 7% to 9% to 10% to 12%. We are also raising our full year adjusted gross margin guidance from approximately 59% to a range of 59% to 59.5%. And we're also raising our adjusted operating profit margin guidance from 13.1% to 13.3 to 13.4% to 13.7%.

35:22 By segment, we continue to expect adjusted operating margin of approximately 22% for technical apparel. For outdoor performance, we are raising adjusted operating margin guidance from 14.5% to 14.8% to 15.0 to 15.5%. For ball and racket, we continue to expect an adjusted operating margin of 4.7% to 5%. We are assuming full year net finance costs of approximately $70,000,000 and an effective tax rate of 28%. Other operating income will be approximately $30,000,000 for the full year, with approximately $20,000,000 coming in Q2. Net income attributable to non controlling interests will be approximately $20,000,000 for the full year.

36:13 We now expect adjusted diluted EPS of $1.18 to $1.23 versus our prior guidance of $1.10 to $1.15 which is based on $586,000,000 fully diluted shares. We are also assuming D and A of $400,000,000 including approximately $200,000,000 of ROU depreciation. CapEx is still expected to be approximately $400,000,000 primarily to support our retail expansion and IT infrastructure investments. Turning to second quarter guidance. We expect reported revenue growth for the group in the range of 22% to 24%, which assumes a 200 to two fifty basis point benefit from favorable FX impact at current exchange rates.

37:03 We expect adjusted gross margin to be approximately 59.5% in Q2 of twenty twenty six and an adjusted operating profit margin of 6% to 7%. Other operating income for the quarter will be approximately $20,000,000 Net finance costs will be approximately $15,000,000 and our effective tax rate will be approximately 28%. We expect adjusted diluted EPS of $08 to $0.10 per share in Q2. Lastly, I would note that should strong trends continue and better than anticipated demand materialize, we believe we are well positioned to deliver financial performance ahead of our expectations. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for questions.

37:51 Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Michael Binetti from Evercore. Michael, we are just opening your line. It is now open. A great quarter. And thanks for all the detail today. So just on the guidance, the second quarter revenue guidance signal is really good here. I think 20% to 22% is the biggest forward quarter growth rate you've given us since the IPO.

38:51 Obviously, we're all staring at a difficult macro right now. So maybe just double click a little bit on what's driving your confidence. I know you said current trends are continuing, but maybe just double clicking on that a little bit. And then I guess on thinking about the product and the road map for for Solomon, maybe you can just help us think about the roadmap for distribution there as you look at the running specialty channel in The U. S. And how we should think about some of the channels willingness to adopt some of the key initiatives like Salomon, the gravel and road products that you guys have coming out anchoring the brand on the performance side? Hey, Michael. This is Andrew Page. It's a pleasure. Thanks for the question. Obviously, one of the things that you definitely want to keep in mind is that we believe that given current rates, second quarter is going to have about a 200 basis two fifty basis point tailwind on revenue.

39:46 The other thing is that, obviously, it's May 18, May 19, and so we are meaningfully through the second quarter. We're excited about the trends we see so far, and that's given us confidence to continue to believe in the momentum that we had exiting Q1. Again, remember, we have a differentiated set of products and portfolio. Our products continue to have premium innovation, a lot of technical elegance to them, performance, visible technology and functionality, and they're highly differentiated. So when you think about even the macro, as consumers continue to prioritize their health, the outdoor environment is accessible and we have products that provide them that with such quality, it provides them a high return on their investment.

40:37 And I take the second question, Guillaume Maisons. Good morning, everybody. So of course today the current momentum we see is on the sports style segment but we heavily invest in running and gravel running. So it's really one of the key areas where we will have a continuous pipeline of product innovation. Today in US, we are more than a third of the specialty distribution in the market. Once again, our playbook is very cautious saying, okay, door by door partnership, making sure that they get the full support from people training about Salomon, organizing events and make sure that we are driving sales through and the first signal of '26 looking very strong for for us. Of course small scale but very high level of confidence in this environment.

41:31 Thanks guys. Thank you for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Boss from JPMorgan. Matthew, your line is now open. Thanks and congrats on a great quarter. So two part question. James, first, could you elaborate on the strong momentum, which you cited as continued into the second quarter? Have you seen any moderation in any global region tied to this geopolitical backdrop? And if you could touch on real time trends that you're seeing in China? And then Stuart, at Arcterix, could you break down drivers of the omni champ the omni comp acceleration in the first quarter or any signs of softening at all that you've seen so far in the second quarter relative to that 19% in 1Q?

42:26 Hey Matt, thank you for your questions. Okay, first of all, I would say I from the global platform, I mean, we are in the middle of the Q2 and we continue to see strong momentum across global regions across for all our three brands And the momentum still carry on coming from the outstanding Q1 result. So I think the management has a very good level of confidence to deliver whatever guidance we give to you guys in Q2. I think it's a great momentum for group, okay, so far. And China, still on track, okay. So I think Q1, we benefited a lot from CNY.

43:16 And because you know the CNY date is pretty late this quarter, which give a good opportunity for our business to extend the kind of hot seasons in Q1. In Q2, we continue to see strong momentums, especially past Labor Day's May 1 and a long weekend. We also see a good momentum for our brands. So I think it's so far we especially in our segment, I see I still a bit bullish on the overall development for our business in China market. Great.

44:02 Matt, hey, it's Stuart Hazelden. So to respond to your question on the Arcterix omni comps, yeah, trends that we saw in the first quarter, I would just say sort of very directly, we continue to see those trends extend into the second quarter. We're really excited for what we're seeing across all our regions and that's reflected in the guidance that Andrew shared with you. In terms of the drivers, I would say we saw really healthy traffic driven comps in the first quarter and now extending into the second quarter. And I would attribute that to just the ongoing brand awareness efforts, top of funnel and just the community engagement that we have across all our regions really paying off. And I think James and Andrew mentioned some of the brand awareness improvements we saw early this year that continue.

45:04 The conversion trends are also quite healthy and positive. And I think that reflects the strength of the product offerings, the assortments that our guests are finding as they shop our websites and our stores. And we're also seeing really strong guest acquisition. Our guest file is growing at a healthy pace, strong acquisition and retention. Also really healthy and growing average spend per guest. So the guest metrics look quite good. And finally, our stores as they begin to comp, we're seeing really healthy continued growth in our store productivity as our stores mature in season. So across the board, we're seeing really strong drivers of that comp performance.

45:54 Hey, Matt, this is Andrew. Great color, Matt. Yeah. Matt, just to wrap up on the first point that you talked about around the macro. I mean, obviously, we don't live in a bubble, and we are aware of the risks and some of the decisions that consumers need to make associated with all the geopolitical factors out there. To that point, though, we're not seeing any signs yet with our consumer. We're continuing to you saw our results in Q1 up in all of our regions. We continue to see momentum as we exited Q1 into Q2. And the thing that we really appreciate is that the premium sports and outdoor market, it remains one of the healthiest segments in all of consumer, and we do benefit from that.

46:44 Next question. Great color. Best of luck. Your next question comes from the line of Laurent Vasilescu from BNP. Your line is now open. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. I have a question for Guillaume regarding the Americas wholesale expansion. Think it was called out that JD and Foot Locker are early innings. But curious to know, are there any limitations for the brand to go into Dick's Sporting Goods? And I think, Guillaume, you mentioned that you're in a third of run specialty stores currently. Is there an opportunity or is there a limitation for you to get to a third of the big box accounts in The U. S? And then, Andrew, a question really on input costs. I appreciate that you called out that you locked in freight for the year, which is great. But you did mention that if oil prices do maintain at these levels, you could see an impact potentially on freight or potentially raw materials. If that's the case, any chance you can quantify that for the audience? Thank you very much.

47:52 Let me take the first part first. Did mention the fact that as oil prices have continued to see pressure, it's important to note that the point that I wanted you to take away from is that it's almost had nominal impact, if at all, any on us right now. We believe, and I thought it was important to let you guys know that we have locked in our freight and logistics costs for the next year. That being said, wrapping it up with if oil prices persist for an elongated period of time, it undoubtedly will have some trickle down effect on the consumer and could possibly have impact on us. But there's nothing to quantify. I wasn't signaling that there's a quantification or a Mendoza line that could trip us. Right now, again, we see the increased cost and it's had nominal impact on us if at all any and that's what we see for the foreseeable future. But again, we are aware of the macro and and if there's a seismic shift in oil and cost over time, could have some longer term effect. But we're not seeing anything right now. And I wasn't saying, I mean, that's something that's to come at a particular time in the future.

49:07 So and if I come back to Salomon wholesale in North America, you know we have a clear playbook which is what is the consumer demand. So we are not looking at business opportunity outside of where we can get traction and having consumer demand. So when you speak about training specialty distribution, we have a pipeline of innovation. This is super supported by the store which is also selling performance product and understanding the settlement product. So with limited aided awareness, we can still have quite success in the running space. When we are coming back to a large partner and big boxes, then the challenge is we need to build this awareness in order to drive the sales through and have the consumer demand.

49:52 This is why we didn't want to deviate from our original strategy which is starting from epicenter, starting from large city and working together with these big boxes door by door and opening the door on a very cautious way in order to make sure that we are building success and from what we learned we are starting to develop. So being said, clearly we have kind of we will see an acceleration at GG and Foot Locker. So we are strong at REI and Nordstrom today and we are developing fast and for sure the next two biggest target is Foot Locker and GG Sport where for winter we start to think forward and we are looking at you know accelerating the playbook thanks to our brand momentum. But once again, demand, consumer demand first playbook with large cities where we are building aided awareness before we start thinking about kind of numeric development with a lot of doors in North America.

50:51 Great to hear. Thank you very much. Your next question comes from the line of Jay Sole from UBS. Jay, your line is now open. Great. Thank you so much. Maybe Stuart, I'd like to ask you about Arterix, especially the progress in The U. S. You talked about women's. Maybe just give us an idea of where you're at stores wise, what you see as the opportunity now, and how you see overall sales trending given some of the new categories you've penetrated and the progress you've made over the last ninety days. Hey, Jay, it's Stuart. So, yeah, thanks for that question. So first on The U. S, we're seeing really exciting acceleration in the comp business, in the underlying traffic and conversion that I mentioned earlier. We're definitely seeing those trends in The US and that's been a continuation of what we saw for 2025.

51:50 So we really saw this begin last year and it's exciting to see it continue. The brand awareness drivers, we believe, are an important part of this. The brand is still relatively unknown in The US and it's important to see those numbers begin to improve. And we believe that's the unlock as we continue to build into key epicenters like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco. So, trends there are in pursuit of the potential that we see. You know, during the IPO, we had shared, we saw the potential in North America to reach 200 stores. We still see that potential. We're still not even halfway. And as we continue to develop our view of the markets, I would expect that potential could even expand.

52:43 We're on track. We're seeing great traction and momentum in The US and in North America broadly. For women's, just to turn to that question, we saw really strong continued strength in women's. In the first quarter, our women's business was up over 40%. We saw a 200 basis point increase in penetration of our overall sales to almost 25% of the total revenue. We believe our women's business can be over 30% of our total revenue by 2030. So, we feel like we're ahead of schedule effectively towards that goal. And as James mentioned in his prepared remarks, we're seeing great momentum both in our core model redesigns, the beta SV in the first quarter was a fantastic selling product. And that's very much at the bull's eye of who we are as a brand.

53:44 And the other categories such as pants, and James mentioned the ongoing success we're seeing, the Clarkea, the Nia, the Lucia, this is giving us a lot of energy and excitement around the potential. We really see women's as offering us vehicle to transform the brand from not just being a men's brand or a men's bias brand, but we see the potential to really transform and become a dual gender, very balanced brand. So, yeah, thanks for the question. Great, thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Brooke Roche from Goldman Sachs. Brooke, your line is now open. Great. Good morning and thank you for taking our question.

54:34 Your guidance today indicates a nice step up in Solomon profitability for the year. However, it looks like you're planning for a little less improvement for the rest of the year despite some easy comparisons. Can you unpack how you're thinking about reinvestments in Solomons as you continue to expand the key Epicenter City strategy as well as profit improvement for the brand ahead? On a medium term basis, what do you think the right profit margin is for the Solomons brand that's achievable as you continue to fuel continued long term growth? Thank you. Thanks, Brooke. This is Andrew. Yes. On the sales, we were very methodical in selecting where and how we expand the Solomon footwear, especially our sports style offerings.

55:20 Also, there are some sourcing constraints when you try to we grew 42% in the first quarter. And so there are obviously some sourcing constraints, and you can't plan a business growing at that kind of rate for the rest of the year. So we believe that the guidance is responsible, it's prudent. And on the margin, we're leaving room for brand building and investments, in our global sports style campaigns, our gravel campaigns, our local activations. We're making key infrastructure investments in technology and people. We have an exciting pipeline of influencers and event partnerships that you'll hear more about later in the year. And we have more brand store openings globally and especially in Asia. And so we believe that with all of those qualitative points I just added, on top of 42 growth in Q1, we believe that the guidance is prudent, and it reflects the investments that we want to make. And it also it reflects some of the increased demand against some of the supply constraints that we would have to service that demand. So it's a really good problem to have.

56:28 Great. Thanks so much. Your next question comes from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson from Bank of America. Lorraine, your line is now open. Thank you, good morning. Speaking with Solomon, can you discuss the momentum of sports style versus performance and how you're working to ensure that that mix doesn't become too skewed toward one versus the other? Thanks for the question. It's of course, know, when you look at the current success of Salaman Esports style when this category was not existing like five, six years ago, of course, know, this is a legitimate question. One thing is one one thing we have to keep in mind on on this model.

57:14 The first one is why people are choosing Salomon's Sport style is because we have a core authentic brand. We are a good expression of modern mountain sport design. And why we are doing so is because we are leading in winter sport, are leading in outdoor footwear, we're leading in trail running, in core sports element and this is one of the reason of belief of people moving to sports type. This is one point. The second one is, and you hear about that, is today we are investing a lot in road running and gravel running which is our key story for road running and this is about how we can mitigate and having a right balance between the performance development and sports style. Sports style of course is developing much faster than performance today, but if you look at this niche today for Salomon, but if you look at gravel and running which is still small, this is the fastest growing category inside salmon on small scale but with a very big traction in terms of consumer demand still in the core distribution and so on. And this is what it make us believe that we have today, we will be able to manage our portfolio and our life cycle development of product in the future.

58:35 You for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez from Citi. Your line is now open. Hey, thanks guys. I wanted to understand your tariff assumption a little bit better for 2Q and the rest of the year. Just curious how you're treating the inventory that you already brought in at the 10% rate if you were attaching actually a higher tariff rate to that product? Or do you assume it just doesn't flow through in the second quarter? And then second, curious if you can talk about what did change within your second half guidance by region or brand? Thanks. Paul, hi, it's Andrew. Thanks for the question.

59:25 Let me just re anchor and orient on the tariffs. Our guide does not contemplate, any change in tariffs since the, since before the Supreme Court, ruling. And that being said, you know, obviously, the tariffs have come down a bit. And and to the extent that the tariffs come down, lower tariff rate runs through our gross margin. All right? And, but the delta is rather minimal. Remember, we have a small exposure to The US consumer. We believe that that delta between the IAPA rates and the current Section 122 rates on our small U. S. Base is relatively it's relatively small. It's not a big differential from a gross margin perspective, but it does run through our operations.

1:00:20 To the extent that we have applied for refunds and to the extent that we get refunds, We had we had we got a small amount, late last week. It was inconsequential as it relates to our guidance. It would not have impacted what we did about guidance. And that is the only visibility that we have to, future tariff refunds. We're not not booked a receivable for future tariff refunds. We've not booked an upside contingent gain because we just don't have enough visibility to understand the realizability of those refunds. So I hope that's helpful. And and to the extent that we get them, you know, we will deal with the any realization as it comes in. Thank you for your question. Changes.

1:01:08 Oh, Pardon me, please go ahead. With regard to the 2H guide, we are not necessarily going to get into that level of detail. I believe that the second quarter guide, the call up by operational segment and the full year guide was very robust and very detailed with regard to what we are seeing. The biggest driver is the visibility that we had into the first quarter and the visibility that we've had exiting the first quarter after right now. That's the biggest change in our full year guide. We have now reached the end of the Q and A session. I would like to turn the call back to management for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

1:01:56 Thanks everyone for joining. I look forward to seeing you in about ninety days on our second quarter call. Have a great rest of the week. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.