Helen of Troy Limited ($HELE)

Greetings, and welcome to the Helen of Troy Fourth Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference call over to Anne Rakunas, Director of External Communications. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Helen of Troy's Fourth Quarter Fiscal '26 Earnings Conference Call. The agenda for the call this morning is as follows: I will begin with a brief discussion of forward-looking statements. Scott Uzzell, our CEO, will then share his thoughts and areas of focus; and Brian Grass, our CFO, provide an overview of our financial performance in the fourth quarter and fiscal year and outline our expectations for the full year fiscal '27. Following our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for Q&A. This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations with respect to future events or financial performance. Generally, the words anticipates, believes, expects and other similar words are words identifying forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause anticipated results to differ materially from the actual results. This conference call may also include information that may be considered non-GAAP financial information. These non-GAAP measures are not an alternative to GAAP financial information and may be calculated differently than the non-GAAP financial information disclosed by other parties. The company cautions listeners not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or non-GAAP information. Before I turn the call over to Scott, I would like to inform all interested parties that a copy of today's earnings release can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website by scrolling to the bottom of the homepage. The earnings release contains tables that reconcile non-GAAP financial measures to their corresponding GAAP-based measures. We've also posted an investor presentation to our website, which contains additional information and perspective on our results and outlook. And with that, I will now turn the conference call over to Scott.

Thank you, Ann. Good morning, everyone. It's great to be with you as we close FY '26, and I can begin to outline a look to our future. We finished quarter 4 with a sharp focus on execution. We're determined to be a better company on the road to being a bigger company. And we're going to do this through ruthless focus and disciplined execution. Focus, discipline and execution best characterize our exit out of FY '26 and quarter 4. Net sales exceeded expectations and adjusted EPS was in line. Margins reflect our strategic investment as we made deliberate choices to invest in our brands and our people to position our organization for the future. This progress caps a dynamic year, one in which we took action to address both internal and external challenges by implementing organizational changes necessary to move closer to the consumer, prioritize brand health and win in the marketplace. Internal ownership is driving our reset. We're committed to operating Helen of Troy more effectively by removing complexity, editing our priorities and amplifying our actions for impact. Operating rigor and supply chain and demand planning resulted in year-over-year inventory levels that were essentially flat even as we absorbed significant higher tariffs in our inventory. Tariff mitigation was paramount, utilizing supplier diversification, SKU streamlining and pricing actions to protect our margins. Debt reduction continues to be a priority, driven by strong free cash flow and a successful post-quarter divestment of our Southaven, Mississippi distribution facility. We drove operational clarity by moving decisions closer to the consumer, empowering brand level ownership and enabling our teams to move with the speed of the consumer. As I have stated, our current situation was not created overnight, and our recovery will not be instantaneous. However, we're taking a measured approach to building our future. Before we or I discuss our fiscal '27 plans, I want to be direct about the market we are navigating. We've made progress, but we are in tune with the macro environment. Overall sales trends reflect a volatile market. While our Home & Outdoor business held steady, our Beauty and Wellness business felt the pressure. The flu season didn't really happen. Respiratory and fever rates stayed well below average, which meant that fewer shoppers need to restock our wellness products. Retail inventory is finally stabilizing. Most retailers are back to healthy stock levels and are working through any residual pockets of excess. We can't control the macro challenges, but we will be intentional in our actions in service of brand and consumer. We are winning where it counts. Consumers are being selective on where they spend, but brands that deliver innovative products that make consumers' lives better through style, utility and personalization will continue to win in the marketplace. Our innovation is landing. We see sales trends improving as we launch new products that offer real solutions. And we're taking market share. Even in this environment, brands like Vicks, Braun, OXO, Osprey, Olive & June are standing out as leaders. The challenges we navigated in fiscal '26 were a catalyst for change, providing the necessary clarity of where we must invest and where we must simplify. To achieve this, we're executing a multiyear road map, a 3-phase evolution from stabilization to a portfolio of powerhouse brands. Fiscal '27 begins with Phase 1. This is about restoring brand momentum, driving our growing brands faster and rebuilding top line momentum for our declining scale brands. We will take the abstract concept of focusing on the consumer to action, making the consumer-centered offense real in FY '27. And we'll do that through the following critical actions: powering our portfolio. This is about editing and amplifying our brand-building efforts by using a framework to identify the highest return brand investment opportunities. Two, futures capabilities. We have to skate to where the puck will be by investing in capabilities to leverage our consumer insights to inform a trend forward innovation road map. Three, strategic investment remains a priority -- remains a priority as we put capital behind innovation in brands and people. Four, operationalizing consumer-centered decision-making by placing talent and decisions closer to the consumer and marketplace for speed and execution. Five, modernizing operations is a parallel priority, strengthening our digital foundation, building a baseline in AI, elevating our e-commerce presence and upgrading our advanced planning systems to drive greater supply chain visibility and responsiveness. And then sixth, platform level improvements to our operating engine will continue as we stabilize the enterprise for long-term growth. Three pillars will fortify our plan. Our first pillar, consumer-first innovation. This is centered on accelerating product development and modernizing our global reach through high-impact social and digital storytelling that resonates across our global footprint. In Home & Outdoor, we're expanding brand reach by entering product lines where our brands are resonating with consumers and have a clear right to win. At Hydro Flask, in response to strong consumer demand for a wider variety of use cases, we extended our successful Micro Hydro franchise with 2 additional sizes. We also recently launched a new carryout soft coolers and totes, redesigned for improved comfort, performance and longevity. Hydro Flask's legacy continues to be recognized by the industry with the wide mouth awarded Gear Junkie's overall pick for best insulated water bottle of 2026. OXO is expanding in adjacent categories in food storage and feeding in the second half of the year, bringing OXO's award-winning performance and ease of use in high-growth areas where we see significant opportunity. OXO's successful Rapid Brewer continues to achieve accolades, winning best new product release in 2025 during the 17th Annual Sprudgie Awards, which is considered the Oscars of Coffee among other recognition we've received. And Osprey continues to augment its technical pack offerings, providing outdoor enthusiasts with new pack solutions that excel in hiking, backpacking and travel environments. In Beauty & Wellness, innovation remains a primary driver for brand building and consumer relevance. Our new Revlon VersaStyler launched exclusively at Walmart in the first quarter with really early consumer demand exceeding expectations. Priced below $100, this is an all-in-one tool that delivers meaningful time-saving innovation by taking hair from wet to damp to dry and refreshed without the need for multiple attachments. Curlsmith expanded its portfolio with the new Curl Fit Reviving Mist, a unique alternative to a traditional dry shampoo. While Olive & June introduced new press-ons with hand-painted charms and fresh spring colors. I'm so proud to share that beauty brands continue to receive top industry recognition, including multiple Glamor 2026 Best of Beauty Awards for Olive & June, Revlon and Drybar. Vicks and PUR have several new introductions planned in the coming months as we continue to leverage these trusted brands to deepen our consumer relevance. In international, strategic global expansion is a critical priority. We're accelerating our global reach as a key investment in our operating model to lay the groundwork for durable and long-term growth. For online engagement, we're sharpening our execution. Social commerce is increasingly important connection point for our consumer. We will advance our work across platforms like TikTok Shop and Meta Shop to meet our consumers where they are, and digital experience is receiving significantly more rigor to ensure our online presence matches our premium nature of our brands. Our second pillar, commercial and operational excellence, prioritizing critical capabilities to grow our strategic retail partners. We're strengthening digital marketplace capabilities, including catalog and product page management and third-party seller mitigation. Our U.S. club business development efforts are focused on building long-term multi-brand partnerships. We're modernizing our technology and systems by prioritizing core platform upgrades, data and analytics, automation and AI-enabled solutions. We're investing in advanced planning capabilities to improve forecast accuracy and optimize inventory performance. And we're continuing to make targeted investments in Southeast Asia to strengthen our dual sourcing capabilities. Our final pillar, people and culture, is reenergizing our organization and ensuring we have the right capabilities to win. Like culture relaunch is establishing a brand-led model, reengaging our current teams as we transition toward a new era of ownership mindset and impactful execution. Talent infusion is a parallel priority we're thoughtfully investing in high potential talent internally and attracting new talent externally to provide fresh ideas and modern brand-building skills to drive our future. AI workflow evolution is augmenting our team's ingenuity. We're investing in hands-on training to automate routine tasks, allowing our people to focus on creative storytelling and innovation that wins with the consumer. Fiscal '27 will be a pivotal year of restoration as we align our organizational architecture and pivot back towards growth. Our outlook reflects our focus on restoring top line performance while operating with excellence across our enterprise. Our net sales outlook reflects growth in outdoor as we work to stabilize Beauty and Wellness. Adjusted EPS and profitability targets are grounded in disciplined investment framework, allocating capital to high ROI initiatives that strengthen long-term brand health. Free cash flow generation remains a priority, supported by ongoing work to drive working capital efficiencies and continued debt reduction. Phase 2. Phase 2 is about concentrating and catalyzing during year 2 and year 3. We're prioritizing high-velocity scale potential brands to ensure capital and resources behind the categories and regions where we have the biggest right to win. Active portfolio management is designed to ensure capital is deployed where it generates the highest return. But to that end, portfolio optimization is an ongoing process as we prioritize capital and resources toward high-growth categories where we have the greatest right to be successful. A fortified shared service platform empowers our brand teams to spend 100% of their time on what's visible against product, storytelling and consumer experience. Phase 3 is about building and scaling during year 4 and 5. We plan to shift our full weight behind a concentrated portfolio of leadership brands that demonstrate a clear positioning and shared capabilities, expanding on sourcing, governance, international reach to create a durable growth and sustainable value creation model. We plan to pursue strategic portfolio expansion through high-impact acquisitions of both brands and specialized capabilities that leverage our enterprise scale. We plan to prioritize expansion into high-growth adjacencies as we utilize our platform to become a global leader in consumer-first innovation. We plan to support $1 billion brand category leadership goals by deeper organizational alignment, internal engagement sessions scheduled for later this spring. More detailed long-term initiatives in our specific multi-year road map will be shared later this calendar year. To bring it all together, we believe fiscal '27 marks a turning point for Helen of Troy as we enter our first year goal of restoring our competitive edge. We want to be a better company on the road to being a bigger company. We're methodically deploying digital and data-driven capabilities that bring us closer to the consumer and accelerate our speed to market. Grounded in our do fewer things better mantra, I am confident our teams are aligned to deliver high-velocity execution required to restore long-term growth, and we will win. Now I want to pass it over to Brian to walk you through our results and outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. Our fourth quarter results are a step in the right direction with net sales, adjusted EPS and cash flow at the better end of our expectations, demonstrating the focus and resilience of our associates. Their stewardship is rebuilding the necessary momentum as we transition to a growth-first mindset in fiscal '27. Looking more broadly at the year, our performance reflects continued progress on a number of commercial and operational initiatives. While these actions did not fully offset external pressures in fiscal '26, they have built the foundation for product-driven growth that we are prioritizing in the year ahead. During the year, we made tangible progress on several fronts. One, portfolio focus. We leaned into innovation-led growth with multiple new launches, as Scott mentioned, and more to come in fiscal '27. Two, tariff management and dual sourcing. We've strengthened our supply chain, which is helping to mitigate the impact of continued geopolitical uncertainty. For the full fiscal year, gross unmitigated tariffs had a $51 million impact on gross profit. Through a disciplined combination of SKU prioritization, cost reductions, price increases and supplier diversification, we successfully reduced the net operating income impact to less than $30 million for the fiscal year and our diversified cost of goods sold subject to China tariffs to approximately 30% by year-end. We currently have the capacity to dual source approximately 45% of our annual product volume. We expect this figure to reach approximately 55% by the end of fiscal '27, further mitigating our supply chain risk. Three, operational fundamentals and go-to-market. Beyond supply footprint diversification, we focused on strengthening the fundamentals of our execution. This included improving our go-to-market effectiveness, sharpening our focus on our brands, putting them at the center of our commercial execution and strategy. By leaning into innovation for more product-driven growth, we are ensuring our supply chain and sales teams are aligned to support our strongest and highest margin brands. Four, pricing integrity. Last quarter, we chose to temporarily stop shipments in Beauty & Wellness to support consistent pricing adoption. I'm pleased to report we have resumed shipments in almost all of these instances, and I'm grateful for the collaborative partnerships we have with our retail customers. Turning to the financial highlights for the fourth quarter. Consolidated sales decreased 3.3%, favorable to our outlook. The impact of our pricing actions and the contribution of Olive & June partially offset the year-over-year decline from tariff-related revenue disruption and lower core business volume. Home & Outdoor segment sales declined 1.5%, ahead of our expectations. OXO and Hydro Flask were ahead of plan and Osprey contributed solid year-over-year growth. OXO benefited from good point of sale at value customers and replenishment at mass. Hydro Flask benefited from the success of recent product launches and also saw strength in the closeout channel as we improved our inventory composition. Osprey's growth was primarily driven by the e-commerce channel, their continuing stream of new products and expansion into adjacencies and the clearance of end-of-season goods through the outdoor channel. Beauty & Wellness sales decreased 4.7% with approximately 2.8 percentage points driven by tariff-related disruption. Revlon, Olive & June and Braun were the standouts in the quarter. Revlon outperformed our expectations, driven by continued strong point of sale at Walmart and Target and a solid contribution from international. Olive & June saw organic growth in its business of 18% and contributed 4.9 percentage points of growth to total segment sales, driven by effective digital grassroots marketing, new product introductions and strong brand loyalty and consumer engagement. Olive & June has been a great addition to the Helen of Troy portfolio, strengthening our profitability and outperforming valuation metrics. And Bronze saw solid performance in EMEA and APAC, driven by early flu incidents in those regions, order timing shifts and strong replenishment. International sales grew 5.4%, surpassing our expectations with strong point of sale, expanded distribution and new product innovation. Gross profit margin decreased 400 basis points to 44.6%, primarily due to the impact of higher tariffs, less favorable inventory obsolescence than in the prior year, higher retail trade and promotional expense and a less favorable channel mix within Home & Outdoor. These factors were partially offset by the favorable impact of the acquisition of Olive & June and lower commodity and product costs, exclusive of tariffs. SG&A ratio increased 270 basis points, primarily due to unfavorable operating leverage, higher annual incentive compensation expense year-over-year, EPA compliance costs and the acquisition of Olive & June. Adjusted operating margin decreased 710 basis points to 8.3%, primarily due to the net impact of tariffs, the increase in incentive compensation year-over-year, unfavorable operating leverage and the preservation of trade and brand spending to support future revenue growth. Moving on to balance sheet highlights. We continue to emphasize working capital efficiency and balance sheet productivity as an engine to fund our strategic investments, improve our operating flexibility and position the company for long-term growth. Regarding our year-end position, inventory ended at $456 million, were largely flat to the prior year despite $34 million of incremental tariff costs and inventory at the end of fiscal '26. We accelerated the turns of our more productive inventory while also clearing out slower moving inventory, which resulted in a net reduction of almost $50 million in the fourth quarter alone. Debt closed at $781 million. Our net leverage ratio was 3.87x compared to 3.77x at the end of the third quarter. The increase was primarily driven by lower trailing 12-month EBITDA, reflecting lower revenue and higher average tariff costs. This was partially offset by favorable free cash flow driven by the inventory reduction and the conversion of prior quarter peak season receivables, enabling $112 million of debt paydown in the quarter. Free cash flow for the fiscal year was $132 million despite $72 million of incremental cash outflows, specifically for tariff payments, transitory costs associated with diversifying our supplier base regions outside of China. And subsequent to the end of the fourth quarter, we further improved the productivity of our balance sheet with the sale of our distribution facility in Southaven, Mississippi. The sale generated proceeds of approximately $78 million, which we used to pay down our debt. We expect to continue to consider balance sheet productivity opportunities to further strengthen our financial flexibility, focus our resources on the core business as we pivot to growth. Turning now to our full year fiscal '27 outlook. We expect net sales in the range of $1.751 billion to $1.822 billion, with Home & Outdoor net sales of $854 million to $882 million, and Beauty & Wellness net sales of $897 million to $940 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $190 million to $197 million, which implies year-over-year growth of 2.1% to 6.3%. Adjusted EPS of $3.25 to $3.75 and free cash flow in the range of $85 million to $100 million. We expect our quarterly sales cadence to be uneven driven by lapping of prior year revenue dynamics. At the midpoint of our range, we expect first half year-over-year sales growth to be slightly positive with the second half of the year slightly negative. Due to the cadence of people and brand investments and higher average tariff costs cycling out of inventory and into cost of goods sold in the first half of fiscal '27, we expect roughly 15% of our total annual adjusted EPS outlook in the first half of the year with roughly breakeven adjusted EPS in the first quarter. To help with modeling, our fiscal '27 outlook includes tariffs in place as of April 2026 assumed to remain in effect for the balance of the year, not including the benefit from any potential tariff refunds, no significant fluctuation in commodity costs, freight or disruption in supply availability. Interest expense of $47 million to $49 million with cash flow prioritized for debt reduction and an expected net leverage ratio of approximately 3.2x or lower by the end of the year. A full year adjusted effective tax rate of 25% to 27%. Continued working capital efficiency during fiscal '27 with an emphasis on further inventory reduction. Capital expenditures are expected to be between $28 million to $32 million with an emphasis on product innovation and supply chain diversification. Finally, we are assuming April 2026 foreign currency exchange rates remain constant for the remainder of fiscal '27. In terms of our expectations regarding the operating environment, we continue to expect inflationary pressures, softness in discretionary categories, conservative retailer inventory management and an increasingly competitive and promotional landscape. Our outlook does not assume a significant or prolonged impact from the conflict in Iran or other similar macro disruption on the supply chain as it cannot be reasonably estimated. We expect continued diversification of our global manufacturing footprint, reducing the cost of goods sold exposed to China tariffs to less than 20% by the end of fiscal '27 and limiting the net operating income impact to less than $10 million for the full fiscal year. Our outlook reflects a deliberate choice to preserve investments in our brands and people and includes an increase in growth investments of approximately 40 basis points, prioritizing high-return marketing and innovation initiatives. As we transition back to growth mode, we have a clear bias toward revenue improvement over aggressive cost reduction. By focusing on revenue recovery now, we expect to recapture operating leverage and build long-term sustainable momentum. Finally, while we are not yet where we want to be in terms of financial performance, the midpoint of our outlook implies a forward free cash flow yield of 20% using Tuesday's market capitalization. We believe this is a compelling value metric that compares favorably with our peer set and the market overall. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] our first question comes from the line of Peter Grom with UBS.

So Scott, the commentary on the different phases and the path forward was incredibly helpful. But can you maybe frame or help us understand what success looks like on the other side of this? I'm not trying to get guidance on '28 or '29 today. But for a business that several years ago had significantly greater earnings power versus what's outlined in guidance today, I'm just curious how you would frame the opportunity and whether you think the business can get back to levels we saw several years ago, particularly as it sounds like you may be stepping up investment levels across a greater number of brands moving forward.

Peter, thank you for your question. Let me just give you a little bit of backdrop, myself and the leadership team to just kind of put a pin in quarter 4 and then get more into your question. When we think about quarter 4, there were 4 things we are really focused on. One is to get really sharp on our ambition so that the work that we set up for FY '27, we can begin to show markers of progress. Two, how do we begin to start that journey now in quarter 4 through trying to build against top line and begin to put things in place in our organization to set us up for the future. Three, how do we invest in our people and our culture for not only for quarter 4, but to start the journey as we get back to where we want to get to. And then four, balance sheet productivity and paying down debt. I would say that from our standpoint that we quietly feel like we made progress in all 4 of those areas. But as we look to the future, we think about that a healthy Helen of Troy is really about first being a better company before on our road to being a bigger company, and it's built on many pillars. First, putting the consumer at the center of everything we do that's then underpinned by brands that are healthy with the scoreboard around growth and market share and then investing in critical capabilities. First, making sure we get our organization and team and talent closer to the marketplace and closer to where decisions are made so they can rapidly innovate, tell relevant stories and commercially execute. Second, invest in commercial and brand-building capabilities that are going to enable our brands to have the right to win on the shelf or on the digital marketplace. Third, how do we invest in a make, move and hold with our supply chain so we can be agile and responsive of a dynamic marketplace. And then lastly, how do we continue to be thoughtful on our global execution because we know that our global business needs to play a bigger role than it plays today. And all of that should be underpinned by investing in our culture and people because they're going to have to help us drive it and then continue to be focused on a healthy balance sheet. So for us, for FY '27, it's really showing markers of progress by doing the things I just talked about, becoming a better Helen of Troy on the road to a faster-growing Helen of Troy.

That's super helpful. And then, Brian, just a question on the guidance. And I guess just it's more around the level of visibility or flexibility that you have today. And I just ask that more in the context pretty volatile external backdrop. And the guidance, I think you mentioned is more than 80% weighted to the back half of the year. So can you just walk through the level of confidence that you've embedded in that inflection? Have you embedded more conservative underlying assumptions to account for maybe some things that might not go your way? And I guess very specifically, there was a commentary in the release around commodity costs, freight and supply availability. I think it was mentioned no significant fluctuation. Is that just related to where things stand today? Or does guidance assume no major cost impacts related to these factors?

Yes. Just to cover the last part first, we've called out the fact that things have changed as a result of the Iran conflict pretty quickly. So it's only a few weeks old, but resin prices, commodity prices, fuel prices have all reacted pretty significantly, and that does impact our raw material costs. So we're calling it out. But I think almost anyone would say it's a little too new, a little too fresh to think that you can get your arms around it and embedded in your outlook. And so we have not attempted to do that. We are proactively working to minimize any impact such as we've bought some raw material to make sure that we have raw material that we're going to need in the short term. There could be scarcity issues that come up and to lock in pricing. We also attempt to lock in our inbound freight pricing and are in the process of securing favorable rates as compared to current spot pricing, which has also spiked. So I would say, look, we haven't adjusted our outlook up or down as a result of the conflict, we have taken actions to minimize the impact, and then we're just going to have to see how that plays out. Hopefully, from a modeling perspective, you appreciate that, us not trying to model something that's really difficult in an early stage to model. So that's how we've approached that. With respect to the cadence, it's really not about conservatism. It's really kind of about the comparison to the prior year and the lumpiness of the prior year and the cadence of our people and brand investment in the current year, which kind of -- and then how tariffs layer into all that and mixing that all together really results in the lower EPS in the first half of the year and the higher EPS in the second half of the year. And really, the biggest part of it is the higher average tariff costs that are cycling out of our inventory into our cost of goods sold in the first half of this year, whereas you really didn't have almost any tariff impact on COGS. We did have a tariff revenue impact in the first half of last year, but we really didn't have a COGS impact. So now we're getting the full blunt of that COGS impact in the first half of this year and then overlay that with the investments that we're making in our people and our brands, and that compresses the first half of the year. And then it also releases in the second half of the year and you get the benefit in the second half of the year. So I wouldn't say it's about conservatism or trying to make the numbers a certain way. It's really the dynamics of 3 or 4 different impacts prior year versus current year.

Our next question comes from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities.

So I just want to start with -- in terms of the revenue guidance, how much price is baked into the guidance for next year? And have retailers fully accepted that? Because we had the stop order and this. So kind of where do you stand in that? How much price is in the revenue guidance? Where are you getting it? And I guess I'll stop there for a second, and then I'll ask a follow-up.

Brian, do you want to go ahead and take it?

Yes. So if you bake it all in together, if you're looking for total revenue impact of price increases, Bob, it's about $50 million that were -- is impacting our revenue through price increase. Now that sounds like a big number. That doesn't even probably come close to covering all of our tariff costs as well as all kind of regulatory costs that are emerging related to packaging and things of that nature. So it makes a little bit of a dent in terms of a profit perspective, but it does influence kind of the revenue impact. And that impact that I'm giving you is kind of the year-over-year impact in terms of fiscal '27 versus '26. And I would say in '26, we only got partial realization of that. And in some cases, it was delayed and so on and so forth. With respect to where we are, we have almost or effectively 100% of our planned pricing increases in place. It did take us a period of time, the second half of fiscal '26 to get everything in place, but we now have the ones that we intend to pursue effectively all in place with a couple of minor exceptions. So that's where we are on that. It was just one of the levers that we pulled to try and offset tariffs along with a combination of price decreases, SKU evaluation, all the things we talked about in the past, price was one of them, and that's the impact.

Okay. Great. And then in the theme of invest to grow, I think, Brian, at the end of the prepared remarks, you mentioned a 40 basis point increase in growth investment. What are the steps? What's necessary, I guess, internally to be done before you increase it more? I imagine when you get to where you want to be, it will be more than 40 basis points more of investment spending to get to the right growth and to reignite growth. So kind of what are the next steps that you guys are taking so that you can lean harder into the growth engine?

I think you're right. I'm glad you asked the question. 40 -- we built the plan this year intentionally to lean into any over performance with additional growth investment. We have framed up and have kind of planned and sitting on the shelf a whole host of investments that we couldn't afford to make in the plan that we're providing today. And the idea is that with any over performance, we're going to continue to pursue those high ROI investments and lean in. And the hope is that by the end of the year, it's not 40 basis points, it's more because we've got better operating leverage and produce more profit as a result of the growth and then continue to feed the flywheel. So we've -- we've intentionally built a plan that allows us to do that and are giving you the base plan. And then when we have upside, which we're expecting and think we can drive that over performance will go into greater investment. Does that make sense?

Yes. Yes. No, absolutely. That's great.

Our next question comes from the line of Susan Anderson with Canaccord Genuity.

I guess, Brian, maybe just to drill down on the segments in the quarter a little bit. I guess within Beauty & Wellness, maybe if you can talk about kind of the brand performance. I guess, was beauty or wellness the bigger driver of the decline? And how did Drybar and then Curlsmith perform? And then you mentioned the cold cough season being weak. So was that the biggest driver? Or was it pretty equal between the 2? And then I guess, same thing in Home & Outdoor. I think you talked about Osprey doing well online. Just curious how it did in the stores? And are you still seeing that category decline? And is Osprey still gaining share?

Yes. So if I might break it down a little bit differently within Beauty & Wellness than you did. I would say Olive & June and Revlon had relative strength. And then the remainder of beauty, I would say, relatively compared to them was on the weaker side of things. And then in Wellness, yes, I would say, overall, that was a little weaker than we'd like it to be, both in terms of cough, cold, flu season and in some of the more competitive categories where Honeywell plays and some of the other brands, a little bit of relative softness. So hopefully, that gives you kind of the walk on Beauty and Wellness. With respect to Home & Outdoor, we're seeing very positive trends almost across the board in that business. And so we're excited about what we're beginning to see there. With respect to Osprey in particular, the category is generally trending down, but Osprey is generally trending up and taking share and performing well in that category. And then we continue to expand into adjacent categories. So we like that part of the business. And then I would say, overall, as a company, if you just kind of look at the trends, we're not where we want to be across all brands and all categories with respect to POS, but we are trending largely in the right direction. If you look across categories and brands and looked at the trend line, we are trending up across the majority of the brands in their respective categories. So we think that, that's a sign of progress.

Okay. Great. And then, Scott, maybe if you could talk about the new innovation. I think you mentioned that resonated maybe with consumers well in the quarter across the portfolio. And any color you can give on kind of newness coming out throughout this year? And then I think you also mentioned increased focus on e-comm investment. Maybe talk about what that will look like? Is that going to be in brand websites to drive DTC? Or is it more increase in tech investment and social selling?

Yes. So we -- of course, we've had a number of innovations across the portfolio, but I'll highlight a couple. So Osprey continues to have new innovation to expand its strength in technical packs to adjacent categories that we saw continued strength on. Olive & June, not only in their core business, they continue to bring new innovation and new reasons to bring consumers to the category. The VersaStyler, really bringing new news to the category and really early off to a very, very promising new start. So we've had multiple levels of innovation. What I can tell you what I've been focused on over the last several months that as I traveled around the company, it's really trying to pull innovation forward, innovation that had the right consumer insights and business cases, how do we put more investment against it. And if it makes sense, how do we pull it in the fourth quarter/first quarter on a faster track. And so those are connecting the 2, I don't know if that answers your question, but that's what I meant when I made that statement. As well as Hydro Flask, I could go on and on and on. sorry. The second part of your question is around digital capabilities. Yes. So depending on the brand, clearly trying to drive some web traffic, but that -- the bulk of my comments are really around digital capabilities on sensing and understanding where the consumer is going to be, digital capabilities on making sure that we're showing up on partner sites with the best advantage versus our competition and driving more agility for our brands to interact with social commerce, whether it be Meta Shop, TikTok Shop and other future ways of connecting with our consumers.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Olivia Tong with Raymond James.

I wanted to get a better sense of your expectation for category growth that you're embedding for next year and what it was this year. As we think -- also as we think about your cadence of stabilization, realize there's a big difference in year-over-year comps. But why do you not expect growth in the second half on sales? I think sort of alluding to Peter's earlier question, there's been a multiyear challenge. So as you think about your optimism around innovation and several other things, why shouldn't we expect a little bit more in the second half? And just following up on that, if you could talk about retailer discussions that support some of the enthusiasm that you have around innovation and then managing the tail of brands or the tail of exits that still need to be managed down?

Yes. So we're going to take this in a couple of parts. A great question. This is Scott. When we talk about stabilization for FY '27, first, I think about what do we control within kind of the 4 walls of Helen of Troy, and it's really around editing our agenda and amplifying the things that we think have the biggest growth potential and moving with the speed of the marketplace. That's kind of one. And we've been doing that work, and that's embedded in our plan. Then underneath that, we're very sharp and very -- with conviction, the critical capabilities necessary for each one of our brands to have the best chance to compete. And there are everything from what's the right operating model to drive decision-making and move with the speed of the consumer, taking it from abstract concept to making sure organizationally, we're set up for success. We're doing that work, consumer-led innovation by leveraging consumer insights to not only develop an innovation road map that's going to answer the question today, but to get ahead of the marketplace for the future we're doing that work as we speak. Investing in omnichannel capabilities, I talked about this in the last question, everything from sensing the consumer, engaging with the right capabilities against social commerce, making sure we're partnering with our biggest strategic retail partners in the right way and being really sharp on that against these critical opportunities that we've identified and then standing up work in our supply chain that helps us make, move and hold product in the way to make sure that the right products in the right place at the right time and doing it more effectively. And the combination of those 4 things, just the way we operate will drive us towards stabilization. The second piece is the part of your question of what's embedded in terms of the category assumptions and how does it play out? I'm going to flip it over to Brian.

Yes. So I mean, in terms of category, we haven't really changed any assumptions overall. It's kind of hard to talk about all our categories and boil it all down to one measure. I would say the categories are pressured by the same pressure on the consumer and price elasticity and all of those things. And so category, I would call it, is a little bit of a headwind as we look to next year. And if you kind of just want to understand why you're not seeing maybe more revenue, I think I can help you through that. We kind of assumed that current POS trends will continue and where they are today. So we have seen improvement, but we haven't assumed continued improvement. We've also assumed a continued pressure consumer and that price elasticity has an impact. Now that is a pretty big headwind. And then what we're doing is offsetting that. We're offsetting that several ways. We are lapping prior year tariff-related revenue headwinds, but we're not -- the $80 million or $90 million that we saw in fiscal '26, we're recovering about half of that at this point. Now direct imports in China market, that's all still a work in process, and we may recover more of that. But what we've assumed at this point is we recover about half. And then you have the other offsets, which are really the exciting parts, which is product innovation and commercial building blocks, international growth. We also have price increases in there. And so when you just put all those puts and takes together, it happens to result in flattish net sales year-over-year. But we are assuming current POS trends, which are not yet in the positive state, even though they are trending in the right direction. And I think any upside is our continued improvement in those POS trends, which we have not assumed.

Understood. And then if I could just follow up. I appreciate the color that you gave in terms of your outlook and on commodity costs and supply chain and what have you. And realize that it is, of course, a moving target. But as we look at oil still off its peaks, but still quite a bit above pre-Iran conflict and the discussions that you've had with some of your providers. You mentioned that you're paying below market. But can you talk about the change relative to the prior year that you're looking at and discussing with those providers?

Yes. Thanks, Olivia. The comment we made on being below spot price was relative specifically to freight. So just calling out the spot prices are increasing, but we feel like we've contracted at rates below that and we feel comfortable with that, assuming we can stay on contracted rates and there's no significant disruption that would push us outside of that. So that's the freight, and that's related to that one specific comment I made. As it relates to the impact from the conflict overall and its potential impact on our suppliers, raw material prices, it's obvious, are going up almost instantaneously as a result of the conflict and a lot of it is driven based on fuel. So we know that, that's out there, and we have had discussions with our suppliers on potential impacts. At this point in time, I can't give you any estimate of where that will go or end up. And typically, when we have these discussions, they evolve over a period of time, and there's not like this instantaneous kind of adjustment. Same thing played out with tariffs. We absorbed a direct tariff impact and then how we manage that with our suppliers evolved over time, and there were adjustments over time, but a lot of adjustments didn't occur overnight. So it's an ongoing discussion. It is happening live. We are aware of the potential impact, but it's such early days. I don't think it's possible to estimate anything, and we're going to work with our suppliers like we always have and get to a good outcome in terms of what our ultimate pricing is.

We have no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

Thank you for joining us today, and we look forward to speaking to many of you in the coming weeks. Have a wonderful day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.