CarParts.com, Inc. (PRTS) Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this call is being recorded. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Mark DiSiena, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the CarParts.com Fourth Quarter of 2025 Conference Call. Joining me today is David Meniane, Chief Executive Officer. Before I turn it over to David to start the call, I have some important disclosures. Our remarks on this call could contain certain forward-looking statements related to our company and our strategic initiatives under the federal securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contained herein or implied by these forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of material risks and other important factors that could affect results, please refer to CarParts.com annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, each as filed with the SEC, all of which can be found on our Investor Relations website. On the call, both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in the press release that we issued today. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to David.

In 2025, we closed the $35.7 million strategic investment, completed a full cost structure reset and built an operating model that is now delivering results every quarter. Our A-Premium partnership is already at a $35 million annual revenue run rate with a clear path to $50 million in the short term, and we believe it will eventually exceed $100 million at attractive contribution margin. All without requiring us to carry the inventory or the working capital. That's the headline. Now I'd like to talk to you about our current trajectory. Q4, which is historically our weakest quarter seasonally, was stronger than Q3 and showed significant year-over-year improvement. Q3 improved over Q2, Q2 improved over Q1. That marks 4 consecutive quarters of improvement in the metrics that matter most: contribution margin, fixed operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA. We now have clear evidence that our new operating model is working, and we're progressing toward our profitability goals. Let me give you more context on why the A-Premium partnership is so important. Historically, CarParts.com has been a collision-focused business, roughly 2/3 of revenue, while we turn inventory up to 3x annually. This is where we have real scale and operational expertise, efficiently managing large, bulky nonconveyable inventory at speed and at volume. It's where we have a clear right to win. Mechanical parts are fundamentally different. Slower turns, typically 1 to 1.5x annually, higher minimum order quantities and significant working capital when owned directly. Now the A-Premium partnership addresses all of these issues rather than sourcing and carrying that inventory ourselves, we have access to a world-class mechanical catalog through a capital-efficient model with lower minimum order quantities. We expand assortment, improve coverage and preserve contribution margin without assuming the working capital burden. The A-Premium catalog is 5x larger than our prior mechanical offering and growing. In the world of fitment specific parts, coverage is a durable competitive advantage. In addition to the A-Premium partnership, we set decisive operational action in 2025 to materially change our cost structure and margin profile. 2025 was a demanding year that required deliberate choices across the organization. Our price cost structure and advertising spend were designed for revenue levels that no longer existed. And we chose to rebuild the business around profitability and cash generation rather than pursue unprofitable volume. We adjusted advertising spend, rightsized the organization and reduced our fixed cost base. Those actions are complete, and the company we are today is leaner, more focused and built to operate at our current revenue scale. On the cost side, we consolidated operations and reduced our fixed overhead. In the fourth quarter, we completed the consolidation of our Virginia warehouse operations, centralized logistics into our 4 other warehouses and leveraged our partnership with ZongTeng. This eliminates redundant overhead and allows for improved variable economics while maintaining service levels. We also completed the transition of our Manila-based captive operations, the Lean Solutions Group, a third-party BPO company in January of this year. Now this simplifies and reduces our cost structure and it shifts to a more flexible variable operating model while allowing us to focus internal resources on our core U.S. distribution, supply chain, technology and customer experience. Both of these consolidations are a meaningful driver of our operating expense reduction and our path towards free cash flow. On advertising, we significantly improved efficiency. Between Q1 and Q4, overall marketing efficiency improved by close to 300 basis points. We stopped chasing unprofitable one-and-done transactions, and we refocused on high-intent customers. As a result, revenue from retention channels such as e-mail and SMS increased from 6.7% of e-commerce revenue in Q4 of 2024 to over 10% in Q4 of 2025. We're retaining more of the customers we acquire, which lowers our long-term cost of revenue and improve lifetime value. We also doubled down on mobile app adoption, which in Q4 of 2025 represented over 13% of e-commerce revenue, up from 7.8% in Q4 of 2024 and 0% at launch in Q3 of 2023. And app customers convert at higher rates, purchase more frequently, carry larger basket sizes and come with lower customer acquisition costs. In addition, our ads, services and paid membership offerings now generate nearly $4 million in annual high-margin fee income with virtually no capital required, raising our margin profile over time. Turning to overall business performance. The fourth quarter results reinforce this progress. Despite being our seasonally weakest quarter, we delivered meaningful year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA with the loss narrowing to $2.2 million compared to $6.8 million in the prior year period. Gross margin expanded 70 basis points year-over-year to 33.2%, reflecting improved pricing discipline and mix including higher-margin fee income. Operating expenses also declined as the organization became more efficient. Our strategy is built on operational resilience, diversified sourcing pricing discipline and asset-light partnerships. As we look ahead, our path to free cash flow is not dependent on a sharp rebound in demand. It's driven by higher contribution margins, a materially lower fixed OpEx base and improved capital efficiency as we scale through our partnerships. Our focus is execution, turning operational progress into consistent cash generation quarter by quarter. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mark to walk through the financial results and details.

Thank you, David. Before getting into numbers, just a quick point of reference. The fourth quarter included 14 weeks and fiscal 2025 was a 53-week year which has a modest impact on year-over-year comparisons. In the fourth quarter, we reported net sales of $120.4 million, down 10% from $133.5 million last year. For the full year, we generated $547.5 million in net sales, down 7% from $588.8 million in 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by the company's efforts to improve returns by optimizing our advertising spend. Gross profit for the quarter was $39.9 million, down 8% compared to the prior year. Gross margin was 33.2%, up 70 basis points from 32.5% in the prior year period. For the full year, gross profit was $179.3 million, down 9% compared to the prior year. Gross margin was 32.8% down 60 basis points from 33.4% in 2024. The decrease in the margin is primarily driven by the product mix and the impact of tariffs, partially offset by pricing increases. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $11.6 million compared to a loss of $15.4 million in the prior year period. For the year, GAAP net loss was $50.4 million compared to a loss of $40.6 million in 2024, primarily driven by lower net sales and impairment loss on long-lived assets partially offset by lower operating costs, including payroll costs and marketing spend. For the fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA loss was $2.2 million, including approximately $200,000 of noncash impact for the reversal of previously recorded severance expense compared to a loss of $6.8 million in the prior year period. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA loss was $14 million compared to a loss of $7.1 million in 2024. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $51.2 million compared to $58.9 million in the prior year period. For the full year, total operating expenses were $228.2 million, down from $237.4 million in 2024. During the fourth quarter and as required under GAAP, our market capitalization relative to book value triggered an impairment test resulting in a $3.7 million noncash charge to long-lived assets. This accounting adjustment has no impact on business operations or cash flow. Excluding a $3.7 million impairment charge recorded in 2025, underlying operating expenses decreased by approximately $12.8 million year-over-year, primarily driven by lower warehouse spend, lower stock-based compensation and reduced payroll and consulting costs from headcount actions. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the year with $25.8 million of cash and no revolver debt. We had $25.2 million and convertible notes payable balance at the end of the year. Our inventory balance was $95.2 million at year-end versus $90.4 million at the end of 2024. Our cash position and untapped revolver continue to provide necessary liquidity to support our business. As of February 28, 2026, we had approximately 70.5 million shares of common stock outstanding which includes 10.3 million shares issued in connection with the September 2025 strategic investment at $1.04 per share. Our convertible notes carry a conversion price of $1.20 per share. As David noted, in September, we closed a $35.7 million strategic investment from A-Premium, ZongTeng Group and CDH Investments. We are targeting free cash flow positive results in 2026 driven by contribution margin expansion, partnership scale and the full year benefit of our cost actions. On tariffs, we continue to operate in an evolving environment. While the Supreme Court's recent decision in validated tariffs imposed under IEEPA, other tariffs specifically around auto parts remain in effect, and the administration has introduced temporary measures under Section 122. We are monitoring developments closely and evaluating mitigation action while continuing to execute on our plan. For context, approximately 20% of our sourcing is from China, with the remainder from Taiwan and other countries. Tariffs repaid last year quantified under IEEPA totaled approximately $3.6 million. While there may be a path to recovering some previously paid duties, we are not building our plan around regulatory relief. Before I wrap up, some context on product and channel mix trends, starting with product mix. For the fourth quarter, private label products represented approximately 83% of revenue while third-party branded products represented 17%. For the full year, private label mix was approximately 82% compared to 83% in the prior year. With that, our collision and replacement business accounted for approximately 68% of revenue in the fourth quarter and approximately 65% for the full year, also flat year-over-year. The remainder of our revenue came from other product categories. Turning to channel mix. Our own channels which include our e-commerce, mobile app and commercial channels represent approximately 68% of revenue in the fourth quarter with marketplaces accounting for 32%. Over the full year, owned channels represent approximately 67% and marketplaces approximately 33%. By comparison in 2024, owned channels represented approximately 63% of revenue. Over time, we expect mix to continue shifting towards higher contribution margin revenue streams with lower working capital requirements. I'll now take it back to David for final remarks.

Thank you, Mark. In 2025, we took decisive action to reposition the company for profitability. We pulled back on advertising spend that wasn't delivering returns. We rightsized the organization and we closed on strategic partnerships that bring real operational capabilities, not just capital. The evidence is in the results. In the fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA improved by nearly $5 million year-over-year. Gross margins expanded, operating expenses remained under control. This is an execution story, not a turnaround narrative. I want to end our call by recognizing our team. The progress we are seeing reflects consistent execution across the organization. Our people stay focused on serving customers and delivering against the plan, and the foundation they built positions CarParts.com to generate consistent profitability. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator.

Thank you. And this concludes our conference. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.