La-Z-Boy Incorporated (LZB) Q4 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings. Welcome to the La-Z-Boy Fiscal 2026 Fourth Quarter Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mark Becks, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development of La-Z-Boy Inc. You may begin.

Thank you, Holly. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us to discuss our fiscal 2026 fourth quarter. Joining me on today's call are Melinda Whittington, La-Z-Boy Incorporated Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Taylor Luebke, SVP and CFO. Melinda will open and close the call, and Taylor will speak to segment performance and the financials midway through. After our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. Slides will accompany this presentation, and you may view them through our webcast link, which will be available for 1 year. And a telephone replay of the call will be available for 1 week beginning this afternoon. I would like to remind you that some statements made in today's call include forward-looking statements about La-Z-Boy's future performance and other matters. Although we believe these factors, statements to be reasonable, our actual results could differ materially. The most significant risk factors that could affect our future results are described in our annual report on Form 10-K. We encourage to review those risk factors as well as other key information detailed in our SEC filings. Also, our earnings release is available under the News and Events tab on the Investor Relations page of our website and includes reconciliations of certain adjusted measures, which are also included in the appendix at the end of our conference call slide deck. With that, I will now turn the call over to Melinda.

Thanks, Mark. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, following the close of market, we reported our April ended fourth quarter and fiscal year results, demonstrating strong execution and continued progress on our strategic initiatives. Highlights for our fourth quarter included our Retail segment delivered sales increasing 9% by acquisitions and new stores and we opened 4 new stores during the quarter, bringing the total to 230 company-owned. On top, adjusted operating margin for our retail segment strengthened versus prior year coming in at almost 14% for the quarter. And in our Wholesale segment, delivered sales decreased slightly, but adjusted operating margin improved versus prior year. Highlights for our total fiscal year included total consolidated delivered sales of $2.1 billion up versus prior year, with Retail segment delivered sales increasing 6% versus prior year. And during the year, we opened a total of 15 net new stores the highest number of annual net new stores in our company history, and we completed our largest ever 15-store independent La-Z-Boy acquisition. In our Wholesale segment, delivered sales were flat versus the prior year, and adjusted operating margin strengthened. We generated $204 million in operating cash flow, up 9% versus prior year, returned $85 million to shareholders through share repurchase and dividends, including our fifth consecutive year of increasing the quarterly dividend by 10%, and finally, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with just over $300 million in cash and no external debt. I'm proud of the strong finish to this fiscal year, as our performance delivered on expectations even against an uneven backdrop. We are focused on driving our own momentum, led by our retail business expansion through new stores, acquisitions and strong in-store execution. Now turning towards consumer trends as reflected in our retail written sales. During the fourth quarter, total written sales for our company-owned retail segment increased 11% versus last year's fourth quarter, driven by acquired and new stores. written same-store sales, which exclude the benefit of new and acquired stores, decreased 2% for the quarter, which is a sequential improvement versus the third quarter, and same-store sales trends are strongest late in the fourth quarter, with April delivering positive comps versus prior year, and this strength continued through May with positive comps and a solid Memorial Day holiday. We continue to drive our own momentum despite softness across the category, with industry data reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, indicating the market declined in the low to mid-single digits during the quarter. We remain focused on retail growth. where we can control the entire end-to-end consumer experience and gain share in the large and heavily fragmented furniture and home furnishings industry, regardless of market conditions. We are leveraging the strength of our iconic brand, our agile U.S.-centered supply chain, consumer-led insights, quality products, and excellent in-store execution to delight and inspire consumers across our network. And in our Joybird business, total written sales increased 2% in the quarter, driven by new stores. We continue to expand Joybird distribution with new stores and compatible wholesale partners and opened our 16th dedicated Joybird store in Dallas, Texas last month. Focusing on our broader strategic ambitions, I'd like to recap the progress we have made in our Century Vision objectives over the course of fiscal '26 or 99th year. Recall, Century Vision is our strategy to grow sales and market share through our consumer brands at a rate double the industry over the long term and sustainably expand our operating margin well beyond our centennial anniversary in 2027. We have significantly expanded La-Z-Boy's brand reach over the past year, with the largest number of new store openings and the most independent La-Z-Boy store acquisitions in 1 year in our company's history. As I mentioned, during the year, we added 15 new company-owned stores, ,acquired 15 independent La-Z-Boy stores and ended the year with 230 company-owned locations. The company-owned footprint now represents 61% of our total network. Our total La-Z-Boy store network, including company-owned and independently owned stores, now stands at nearly 380 stores across North America. We see runway to growing the La-Z-Boy footprint to 450 locations, driven primarily by expansion of company-owned stores. We expect to open approximately 10 new stores each fiscal year going forward. And we will also continue to pursue independent store acquisitions as they become available. As a reminder, these acquisitions are one of the best uses of our cash as they are immediately sales and profit accretive, and provide ownership to new markets with potential white space opportunities. We are delighted to have recently signed an agreement to acquire another 3 store network across Florida and Alabama which we expect to close at the end of June. We are committed to growing our direct-to-consumer business, where we are able to offer best-in-class consumer experiences. In wholesale, we continue to add new compatible distribution and grow existing distribution with partners that value the strength of the La-Z-Boy brand, our enduring quality and differentiated product functionality, supported by our vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities. During the year, we added 30 new dealers and 100 new doors including our new partnership with living spaces. There remains a considerable opportunity in growing with our strategic partners, and we will be particularly focused on driving organic growth within our existing base going forward. Additionally, we will continue to invest in our Comfort Studios and branded spaces that offer unique store within a store branding at our larger independent retailers. We ended the fiscal year with nearly 1,400 La-Z-Boy Comfort Studio and branded space locations, each fully dedicated to our La-Z-Boy branded products. Relevant brand messaging is another core pillar of our Century Vision growth strategy, and I'll spend a few moments highlighting some of the wins we achieved throughout the year and how we are capitalizing on this momentum. Recall, we launched a new brand identity last August, rooted in comfort and quality to enable the brand to reach a broader audience. The campaign has been positively received by our consumers, customers media and analysts alike, noting that our new look and feel just seems more comfortable, and this is recognized in the advertising industry as well. as we were named by Ad Age as 1 of the top 5 rebrands of 2025 and recently by the [ Shorty ] Awards, an international award honoring outstanding work across social and digital media as a gold winner under the brand redesign category. I would also note that during the fourth quarter, La-Z-Boy was named to America's Best stores list for 2026 by USA Today. This award is based on independent survey data and underscores our brand relevance and strong in-store execution. We are also building momentum in product innovation. This spring at High Point Furniture Market, our introductions included Audiolux and Comfort Essentials. Audiolux is our market-leading premium audio furniture line that leverages La-Z-Boy's in-house consumer-led insights to drive relevant innovation. The product line combines an integrated audio experience partnering with [indiscernible] and offering the comfort and quality for which La-Z-Boy is known. Look for written stores this fall. We're also -- we also introduced our Comfort Essentials an opening price point offering within our stationary assortment designed to meet the needs of value-focused consumers. We know that younger shoppers are looking for more accessible options to begin their journey with the La-Z-Boy brand, and we are innovating to meet that need. Through continued investment in brand evolution, retail expansion, digital transformation, innovation and consumer insights, we are unlocking the powerful La-Z-Boy flywheel. Another core pillar of Century Vision is to optimize the Joybird brand to growth and profitability. Joybird complements our broader core strategy of branded customized upholstery manufactured in North America and has a significant long-term opportunity to grow share. Although Joybird's core consumer has been particularly volatile in the current economic environment, -- we remain committed to disciplined investments in the business to position the brand for sustainable long-term success. We opened 3 new stores in fiscal '26 and plan to open 3 to 4 in fiscal '27. We also recently introduced a Joybird wholesale program with select strategic partners that has been very well received and helps expand Joybird's brand reach. We continue to monitor performance and are taking the appropriate steps to improve growth and profitability, including redesigning our enterprise supply chain to more efficiently support drivers, as I'll touch on shortly. The final pillar of Century Vision's strategy is strengthening our foundational capabilities and agility across our supply chain technology and people. Our vertically integrated model with approximately 90% of upholstered products manufactured in the U.S. is a differentiated competitive advantage, enablizing personalized furniture delivered to consumers' homes in as little as 4 to 6 weeks. And it is vital to our enterprise success and navigating the current geopolitical landscape. We are establishing an even more agile supply chain with our multiyear distribution and home delivery transformation project. During the past year, we completed the Western [indiscernible] project with our new Arizona centralized hub, and we are well on track with our Midwestern and Eastern phases. As a reminder, this multiyear transformation will improve an already strong consumer experience and help drive stronger wholesale operating margins through operational efficiencies. During the year, we also made meaningful advances in streamlining our operations and honing our focus on our core business. We finalized our U.K. supply chain restructuring in April and we completed the final step of our portfolio optimization in case goods with the sale of the American Drew and Kincade wholesale casegoods businesses in May. And our strategic and agile adjustment to our supply chain continue as we look forward. We recently initiated projects to stream in our 2 smallest upholstery plants into our larger U.S. plant network. This will include fully consolidating Joybird manufacturing into our long-standing La-Z-Boy plants during fiscal '27 to more efficiently support this business. We expect both of these small plant transitions to be largely completed by the end of our fiscal year. Given the ongoing efficiency gains across our supply chain, we have ample capacity within our existing U.S. manufacturing operations to support future growth and view these changes as another key step in our Century Vision goal of building a more agile supply chain and continuing to improve operating margins and adjust to an ever-changing macro environment. As we begin fiscal '27, we are focused on controlling the controllables and confident in our ability to drive our own momentum and outperform the market. While the timing of a return to growth for our industry is uncertain, we have discrete leverage to drive growth in our business and strengthen our foundation across our Century Vision pillars. And looking forward, we remain optimistic about an eventual rebound in housing fundamentals and in the furniture and home furnishings industry, which has historically grown at a healthy 3% to 4% growth rate. And now let me turn the call over to Taylor to review our financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Melinda, and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, we present our results on both a GAAP and adjusted basis. We believe the adjusted presentation better reflects underlying operating trends and performance of the business. Adjusted results exclude items, which are detailed in our press release and in the appendix section of our conference call slides. On a consolidated basis, fiscal 2026 fourth quarter sales were flat at $570 million versus last year as growth in our retail business was offset by lower delivered volume in our Joybird business. Consolidated GAAP operating income was $41 million and adjusted operating income was $57 million. Consolidated GAAP operating margin improved to 7.2% and adjusted operating margin improved to 9.9% versus 9.4% last year, with the change primarily driven by 100 basis points from our case goods business due to favorable inventory adjustments and pricing leading up to the divestiture partially offset by expense deleverage on lower Joybird delivered sales. Note, the benefit from our casegoods business is nonrepeatable given the recently announced sale of the wholesale casegoods business. Diluted earnings per share totaled $0.81 on a GAAP basis and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.26. As I move to the segment discussion, my comments from here will focus on our adjusted reporting, unless specifically stated otherwise. Starting with the retail segment. For the fourth quarter, delivered sales increased 9% to $270 million driven by acquired and new stores and retail adjusted operating margin strengthened to 13.9% versus 13.1%, driven by the positive impact of acquisitions. For our wholesale segment, delivery sales increased 2% -- decreased 2% to $393 million versus last year, driven by modest declines across most of the businesses with continued softer industry trends. Adjusted operating margin for the wholesale segment increased to 10.1% in the fourth quarter versus 8.5% last year, driven by 150 basis points improvement in our casegoods business. primarily due to favorable inventory adjustments and pricing leading up to the divestiture. For Joybird, reported in Corporate and Other delivered sales were $32 million, down 10% on lower delivered sales volume. Corporate and other adjusted operating loss increased versus the prior year, primarily due to expense deleverage on lower Driver delivered sales. On a GAAP basis, we recorded a $20 million noncash impairment charge to reduce the carrying value of Joybird's goodwill, reflecting near-term impacts of the current macro backdrop, which have disproportionately impacted the Joybird consumer. As noted, we continue to manage prudently and are taking steps to improve Joybird growth and profitability. Moving on to our consolidated adjusted gross margin and SG&A performance for fiscal 2026 fourth quarter. Consolidated adjusted gross margin for the entire company increased 230 basis points versus the prior year fourth quarter. The increase in gross margin was primarily driven by the shift in consolidated mix towards our retail segment, which has a higher gross margin rate than our wholesale segment and casegoods, primarily due to favorable inventory adjustments and pricing before the divestiture. Adjusted SG&A as a percent of sales for the quarter increased by 180 basis points compared with last year, also due to the shift in consolidated mix towards our retail segment, which carries a higher fixed cost structure relative to wholesale as well as fixed cost deleverage on lower delivered volume in our Joybird business. Our effective income tax rate on a GAAP basis for the fiscal year was 25.9% versus 31.4% for the prior year. The decrease in the effective tax rate in fiscal year 2026 compared with the prior year was primarily the result of the favorable tax impact of closing the U.K. manufacturing business this year versus the unfavorable impact from foreign discrete tax item in last year's rate. We expect a more normalized effective income tax rate looking forward in the range of 26% to 27%. Turning to liquidity. We ended the year with a strong balance sheet, $303 million in cash and no externally funded debt. We generated a strong $204 million in cash from operating activities, an increase of 9% versus prior year. In fiscal year 2026, we have a strong and disciplined deployment of capital with $248 million reinvested back into the business or returned to shareholders. We paid $86 million for acquisitions, primarily related to the 15 store acquisition of the retail business in the Southeast U.S. and also invested $76 million in capital expenditures during the year, primarily related to investment in new La-Z-Boy stores and remodels, manufacturing-related investments and spending related to our distribution and home delivery transformation. We continue to believe that the best use of our cash and highest return on investment is reinvesting back into the business. And as such, we remain committed to disciplined investments in new stores and remodels, acquisitions in our distribution and home delivery transformation project to profitably grow our core business. During the fiscal year, we returned $85 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, including $47 million in share repurchases and $38 million in dividends, which was our fifth consecutive year of increasing the quarterly dividend by 10%. In the quarter, we continued more normalized pace of share buybacks of $20 million. In April, reflecting continued confidence in the company's ability to sustainably grow the business, the Board of Directors approved a new share repurchase program of $300 million, replacing the prior program. This represents approximately 20% of shares outstanding and underscores our commitment to maximize shareholder value and deliver returns to our shareholders. The company expects normalized share repurchases looking forward, subject to market conditions and business performance. We continue to view share repurchases in our dividend as an attractive use of our cash and positive return to shareholders. Over the last 5 years, we have returned over $430 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. While capital allocation in fiscal year 2026 was tilted more towards the business, looking forward, our capital allocation target remains consistent, during invest 50% of operating cash flow back to the business and return 50% to shareholders and share repurchases and dividends. Before turning the call back to Melinda, let me highlight several important items for fiscal 2027 and our first quarter. For our first quarter, while we continue to have a measured view of the current macro environment, we expect first quarter sales to be in the range of $490 million to $510 million, reflecting organic growth of up to 4%, which excludes acquisitions and divestitures, an adjusted operating margin in the range of 4% to 5.5%. Lastly, as a reminder, our first quarter is generally the lowest sales and margin quarter in the fiscal year due to seasonally lower industry sales in our annual week-long plant shutdown. Also to note, for our fiscal 2027 full year, comparability to prior year will be affected by 2 items. The full year impact of our exit of the wholesale casegoods business, which was completed last month, and which delivered approximately $60 million in annual sales in fiscal 2026 and the half year impact of our 15 store retail acquisition, which was completed at the end of October last year. We expect to open approximately 10 new La-Z-Boy stores during the coming of the year, of which the majority will lead company own as well as 3 to 4 new [indiscernible] stores. We continue to monitor the evolving tariff and trade policy environment and adjust accordingly. We are in the process of applying for refunds for IEEPA tariffs through the standard CDP system and will determine next steps as we monitor our progress. As a reminder, 90% of our upholstery production is based in the U.S. which continues to be a competitive advantage as we are able to deliver customized upholstery with speed to market and limits the impact of tariffs on our business relative to some in our industry. We expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $90 million to $110 million for the year with continued investment in our distribution and home delivery transformation, manufacturing-related investments and investments in our La-Z-Boy retail stores, including new stores and remodels. And lastly, we expect capital allocation to be balanced between investments back into the business and return to shareholders. And with that, I will turn the call back to Melinda.

Thanks, Taylor. We ended fiscal '26 on a strong note, and we're creating our own momentum and investing for long-term success. We're adapting our business with key strategic initiatives to even better position La-Z-Boy Incorporated for our next 100 years. And while the timing of a strengthening in our industry remains unclear, we are well positioned to continue to gain share now and disproportionately benefit when the industry does resume to a more normalized growth trajectory. Before I conclude the call, I want to thank the entire La-Z-Boy Incorporated team and our many partners for their hard work and commitment to navigating the current environment, delivering strong results and strengthening for the future. We are focused on continuing to drive value for all of our stakeholders, and I'm excited for the year ahead. And now I'll turn the call back to Mark.

Thank you, Melinda. We will begin the question-and-answer period now. Holly, please review the instructions for getting into the queue to ask questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question for today is from Brad Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

This is Taylor Zick on for Brad. But maybe first, Melinda, you had a pretty good quarter here. You called out the strength in April and then continuing those positive trends here in May. So just kind of curious, first, kind of what you think is kind of helping to drive some of that strength here towards the end of the quarter and into, I guess, fiscal 1Q. I'm curious if you want to comment at all on maybe what you're seeing so far here in June.

Sure. I would say, overall, I'll step back and say we know that consumer behavior overall remains choppy. There's a lot going on, right, in both continued housing trends as well as just overall consumer sentiment. But everything that we are doing is around driving our own momentum in that environment. And when I look at the strong results in the last couple of months, April into May. It's around that execution, right? It's around having the right product, the right messaging and then outstanding in-store execution. And speaking to the consumer meeting to them, where they're ready to buy, as we've talked in the past and even in some of our ongoing innovation work. We have to meet some of the consumers that are aspirationally trying to get into the brand and have some sharpened price points, particularly on these big tentpole events. And at the same time, we still have a really strong design business and some incredible in-store execution that's driving larger tickets. So it's really it's that flywheel of all those pieces that I think is delivering the results that we've seen recently. As we kind of continue on, we're still early into June as an industry. We know we have some of these bigger tent poles. So our focus is around the July 4 holiday is the next big one coming up. and we're looking to continue that momentum even up against a backdrop that will remain choppy.

Great. And then maybe if I can squeeze one in for Taylor as well. Your operating margins here for this first quarter kind of came in near 10%, which is significantly above kind of where you had guided for the quarter. So maybe just if you can comment on what you saw that kind of went right during the quarter that really pushed you above that guidance range. And then as we head into your fiscal first quarter guidance, maybe can you kind of help us kind of understand some of the puts and takes here given the outperformance in fiscal 4Q, how does that help you kind of inform the guide for fiscal 1Q as well?

Yes. Thanks, and good morning, Taylor. So let me hit Q4 first. One, incredibly pleased with the strong results for the quarter against and back the strength of our retail business, but written delivered sales as well as margin expansion. But even a solid -- a solid quarter on wholesale segment with expanded operating margin versus the prior year. So we continue to operate with excellence across our enterprise and really drive our momentum, as what a said, so delivering to consumer every day. Obviously, it helps with the results, but also just an [indiscernible] cost discipline as well as optimization helps deliver strong margins. You mentioned over delivery. The big -- the real reason for the over delivery versus our range was the benefit of kind of inventory trends as well as pricing on our casegoods business prior to us completing that sale in May, which I'd mentioned is nonrepeatable, kind of strip that out, we are at the high end of our guidance range for the quarter, which, again, incredibly pleased with especially with where the world is right now. As we pivot into Q1, I think let me level off and then I'll come back down. So as we approach our fiscal year '27, our objective as we go into a year is to grow our organic sales behind our core business and expand our operating margin, again, towards our long-term objectives of the outperform the industry by 2x and to get to double-digit margins over the long term. So that's our objective for the year. As we enter the year, really proud of where our retail business is and their performance, as Melinda mentioned. I think we are seeing some near-term pressure on our wholesale business largely as well as [indiscernible]. One is demand is still choppy, particularly on the B2B side, although we have plans to mitigate, we think it's short term. But also, as you can see in the news or PPI or other measures, there's -- inflation has ticked up a bit, and we're absorbing some of that in the short term, which is manageable but it's there. And I would just say that's intentional for us is we're really looking to maximize demand over the summer selling periods, but short term. And while we may have waited versus other kind of peers out there, we have taken action to address kind of the inflationary input cost called post Q1. So those are kind of near-term kind of headwinds on the wholesale side, which are -- which will mitigate ongoing as well as the strength of our retail. And then I would say, lastly, Melinda had mentioned, outside of the end of year 2 of our distribution and home delivery transformation project, we have announced, which I'm proud to continued optimization of our supply chain, where we'll consolidate 2 of our smallest plants into our broader U.S. network over the course of the year. So that adds some friction cost again, manageable with additional initiatives that we have underway.

Your next question for today is from Bobby Griffin with Raymond James.

Taylor, I wanted to go back to, I guess, some of the margin commentary and kind of better understand the core performance. So if I back out the wholesale dynamics with the inventory and the pricing as you note, I think you guys still come towards the top end of your guidance, which is very healthy, but that would imply some margin pressure, I think, versus last year. call it like EBIT would have been closer to like an 8.8% margin versus the 9.4% last year. So that year-over-year pressure, what drove that? Is that the supply chain investments around home delivery optimization or is that deleverage? Or what else could potentially be driving that as I try to look at this quarter on a more normal basis?

Bob, thanks for the question. So one, again, proud of the -- where we came in on your kind of peeling back on the quarter, I would say it's some continuation of what we've been talking for the last 3 quarters, which is where we have some friction costs with our delivery our distribution and home delivery transformation, but also while proud of sequential improvement in our same-store sales, it's still negative, which does have to leverage impact underneath as well as we've mentioned, kind of results for the driver business, deleverage impacts on the lower delivered quarter. So those are really the reasons it's not anything new. It's what we were managing through the year. We've seen incremental improvements across most of them. And again, as we approach this year, our intent is to grow our core business behind sequential improvement turned to positive same-store sales and improve our profitability.

Okay. That's helpful. And then, Taylor, yes, the 10-K actually called out some of the distribution costs from the work you guys are doing on the supply chain. I think it was a 70 basis point headwind to gross margin for wholesale. As you look at fiscal year '27, does that stay the same? Or does that actually now start to decrease as we get further into the project? How does that headwind appear as you continue to work through that multiyear project?

So let me back up and just talk where we're at in the entire multiyear project, and I think I'll answer the question. So this is a 4-year multiyear transformation of what started with 15 distribution centers that will transition down to 3 centralized hubs, which the benefits are enormous across our enterprise, both consumer as well as internal from profitability as we want to meet consumers with broader delivery radius. Two, it reduces our square footage by 30%; and three, reduces our mileage travel of heavy furniture by 20%, all while having better call it more productive inventory stores. So year 1, we just completed, very pleased. We completed the Western phase. We're now in year 2, which is another similarly big year where we will get close to completion of our Midwest in Eastern hubs. So I would call it year 1 and year 2 is roughly equivalent, where we had noted there are some friction costs, which we still intend to grow margin despite of. We're turning more to towards breakeven positive year though with the full benefit of, call it, that 50 to 75 basis points benefit in year 4 as we complete the project.

Okay. And I got 2 more, and I promised 1 of them is for Melinda. I might just pick on tail, but there's a lot going on...

[indiscernible].

But it's encouraging what's taking place and you kind of -- I don't want to call it rebuilding, but you're kind of flexing the organization, but -- so when we stack up that change, the new supply chain optimization that you've called out today, minor, but still consolidating plants, plus the sale of casegoods and the margin benefit there. understanding this is down the road and there's a lot that can change from the industry but what does all that add up to be on a potential margin lift? And what is the base case for us to kind of grade it against?

So one, I would say, Bobby, I am as pleased as I've been with the transformation and agility across the enterprise, whether it's the distribution and home delivery, whether it's the continued plant optimization, whether it's just on the portfolio. So I appreciate the words. We've sized some of these, which we intend to realize over the coming years. Others is just in the background as part of the everyday cost improvement, continuous improvement to drive towards our double-digit sustainable margin over the long term. And we've talked before, like we see our way absent any kind of market normalized market growth to bridging where we've been, it's about halfway to that double digit, where, frankly, the other half, we do need some just general healthy housing fundamentals and industry growth to leverage our fixed cost basis across both our store called store fleet and our supply chain operations. So these 2 new -- the 2 new announced today on the smaller upholstery plants will be kind of also what we're working on to bridge that half to our double-digit [indiscernible].

Okay. That's helpful. And then Melinda, just I thought the Joybird comments were interesting with the supply chain in new stores. I mean written sales is still negative, but you guys opened up new stores I think probably implies you're seeing something there. So just curious kind of what you see out of the new stores when you do open it? Is there a list of the DMA? Is that part of the path to help turn the written? Just curious kind of the strategic aspect there.

Yes, certainly. I'm glad I finally got a question, Bobby.

[indiscernible].

No. I -- thanks for highlighting Joybird. I mean, stepping back, Joybird fits very well into our portfolio as being a direct-to-consumer brand, vertically integrated fits very well with expanding kind of our offerings as La-Z-Boy incorporated strategically. And Joybird has an outsized [indiscernible] started online. We know where to open those stores. And so when we do open a store, they're almost immediately accretive to the overall Joybird portfolio. What we need to continue to do though is in this time and at the size is make sure that all of the support behind Joybird is rightsized and structured in an agile way for sort of this choppy consumer environment. So you may remember, Bobby, probably in the middle of the pandemic, we had done some work. We were going to start to fully synthesized Joybird manufacturing into our La-Z-Boy plants. And we actually backed off of that in the middle of just the pandemic and the backlog and everything and decided not to distract all the operations. But this is a sort of retooling and bringing back to life that project, which will give us a new level of agility on being able to support Joybird from behind the scenes, right? And then to the front, we'll continue on that pace of expanding the brand reach of Joybird carefully, right, with the store positioning. And even over the last year, we opened up with some of our best strategic partners across our other brands, opening up just a small wholesale presence so that we can keep expanding that reach at Joybird in a really efficient way to some markets that aren't likely going to make sense for a store at sort of the size and scale of the business today. But we watch it closely because it is definitely an investment phase for us and has continued to be.

Very good. I appreciate all the details. Congrats on the work with inside the organization, the supply chain. I understand it's going to take a little while, but it does look like we're making real progress, and it's shown up.

Your next question for today is from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti.

Really nice to see the strong finish to fiscal '26. Just a quick on Joybird. So you talked about wholesale strategic partnerships. What have you seen thus far? And what do you think is the opportunity there? If you could expand on that.

Yes. It's complementary to our core business. And so what we're looking at is similar to our La-Z-Boy brand we want to make sure that we're only expanding with partners that are going to appreciate and treat the brand for what it is at one of the few true consumer brands, supported by our own marketing and brand support. One of the few true consumer brands manufactured still in our industry. And so we're working with those partners. It's a metered rollout to make sure that we're learning as we go along the way. And as I mentioned in some of my previous comments, it's focused on getting the brand out to some areas that probably don't make sense to support with their own stores. And so we're in a learning phase. But so far, demand has exceeded -- our -- maybe our willingness to expand because we want to make sure that we're learning as we go there. But we're very pleased with what that's done so far and our strategic partners are very pleased with what they've seen as well in bringing some new news into their stores, frankly, as they're offering a variety of brands.

Got it. Yes. and then Taylor, I know you touched on this a little bit, but as far as form costs and transportation costs, can you just comment on that? And are you looking to do any pricing actions to try to offset this? Or how should we think about that?

Thanks, Anthony. Yes. So I think first and foremost, there have been some news and supply, particularly in the poly suppliers and issues over the past couple one, I'd say, most importantly, we have no supply risk. We fully meet the demand in front of us, which positive, we do see, particularly on poly, but also just broader base inflation, a lot of weight to kind of petroleum inflationary pressure in the near term, which I'd mentioned, I think, in my earlier comments, at least on a quarter 1 kind of an outlook. So we see it. We've intentionally chose to just [indiscernible] they're generally speaking, no significant changes for prior years.

We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and I will now turn the call over to Mark for closing remarks.

Thanks [indiscernible]. Melinda, Taylor and I will be in our offices to take any follow-up calls. Thanks, and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.