Amer Sports - Q4 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

I would now like to turn the conference over to Omar Saad, and Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining Amer Sports earnings call for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025. Earlier this morning, we announced our financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31st, 2025, and the release can be found on our IR website, investors.amersports.com. A quick reminder to everyone that today's call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations and beliefs only, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please see the safe harbor statement in our earnings release and SEC filings. We will also discuss certain non-IFRS financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release for important information regarding such non-IFRS financial measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable IFRS financial measures.

We will begin with prepared remarks from our CEO, James Zheng, and CFO, Andrew Page, followed by a Q&A session until approximately 9:00 A.M. Eastern. James will cover key operational and brand highlights. Andrew will provide a financial review at both the group and segment level and also walk through our guidance for the first quarter and full year 2026. Arc'teryx CEO, Stuart Haselden, and Salomon CEO, Guillaume Meyzenq, will join for the Q&A session. With that, I'll turn the call over to James.

James Zheng (CEO)

Thanks, Omar. Fourth quarter was a great finish to a breakout year for Amer Sports. Our growth was led by our flagship Arc'teryx brand and the rising star, Salomon, which recently surpassed the $2 billion sales mark. In 2025, we generated 27% revenue growth to $6.6 billion and a 170 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion to 12.8%, with double-digit growth across all segments, regions, and channels. In the fourth quarter, we grew sales 28%. The strong momentum continues into Q1. Our performance was led by Technical Apparel and Outdoor Performance, with solid contribution from Winter Sport Equipment and the Ball & Racquet. All four regions achieved solid double-digit revenue growth. Although we generate solid growth margin expansion in Q4, adjusted operating margin declined 110 basis points.

This was entirely due to accelerated SG&A investment to support key growth opportunities, particularly for Salomon. Looking forward, we believe we are well positioned for strong and profitable growth within the premium sports and outdoor markets, which continues to be one of the healthiest segments in all of consumer. Several factors give me confidence in our outlook. First, we own a unique portfolio of premium, innovation-driven sports and outdoor brands. Second, Arc'teryx is a breakout brand with leading growth and profitability for the outdoor industry, driven by its disruptive direct-to-consumer model. Third, Salomon footwear has a comparing and a unique brand position, but is still only a small share of the global sneaker market. Fourth, our Wilson and winter sports equipment franchises already have leading market position, will deliver slower long-term growth, except for Wilson softgoods, which has significant growth potential.

Fifth, we have a strong, differentiated platform in Greater China, where we continue to deliver best-in-class performance across brands. Before I turn it over to Andrew, I will briefly recap key highlights from our three segments. Starting with Technical Apparel. Arc'teryx delivered another excellent quarter of broad-based trends across regions, channels, and categories, especially footwear and women's. Technical Apparel generated a very solid 16% omni-comp, driven by strong full price growth and also healthy segment margin expansion year-over-year. Technical Apparel sales, +34%, was our highest growth quarter of the year. We continue to envision Arc'teryx as a truly global brand with significant runway in all major markets, and we're encouraged that the brand is generating double-digit omni-comps across all four regions. Women's was Arc'teryx's fastest-growing category in Q4, over 40% growth.

We continue to enjoy rising brand awareness with women across regions as we improve fit, style, color, function, and newness. We created a significant amount of newness in women's this past fall, which drove notable incremental growth in key product categories. We saw especially strong momentum in ski and insulation with the Cerium Atom SL, and also the new Andessa Down Jacket, which is a warm, waterproof ski jacket at a pinnacle price point. Women's bottom also continued to be popular following the successful launch of the Clarke, Outeir, and the Neopant in 2025. Moving to footwear, which grew nearly 40%, driven by strong growth in all markets. Top-performing models were Norvan LD 4 trail shoes, our most successful launch to date, followed by the Kopec Gore-Tex hiking shoe.

Looking forward, Arc'teryx has an exciting pipeline of shoe launches for 2026, as we continue to believe footwear will be a large and profitable growth avenue for Arc'teryx. Our Veilance sub-brand is still small, but it grew strong double digits in Q4, and we are very excited for the future for this unique brand. Veilance stirred a lot of interest at the Paris Fashion Week, with showroom appointments tripling from last year. We expect strong double-digit growth from Veilance in 2026 as we further develop our collections and expand distribution. Circularity and rebirth continue to be at the heart of our brand. We opened 8 new rebirth centers in Q4, bringing the total to 43.

In Q4, we increased the credit that guests receive when they trade in used Arc'teryx product to 30% from 20% previously, which has driven a notable jump in trading activity. I would also like to highlight recent leadership announcement at Arc'teryx. First, we welcome Avery Baker, our first-ever Chief Brand Officer, who joins most recently from Tommy Hilfiger. Avery is stepping into a newly created enterprise-wide role that will bring together global marketing strategy as well as consumer experience, insight, and analytics team. We also welcome Tobias Peveraro, our new Head of EMEA. Tobias brings more than 20 years of international leadership experience across EMEA and APAC, most recently at Celine and Gucci. I would also like to mention Peak Performance, our other Technical Apparel brand, which delivered solid growth in Q4. 2025 marked the brand's return to growth, with sales increasing across all regions and channels.

The brand also continued to improve profitability, driven by our concentrated efforts to reduce promotions and increase full price selling. Moving to the Outdoor Performance segment, which was led by another outstanding quarter from Salomon footwear and apparel, and a solid performance from winter sports e``quipment. 2025 was a breakout year for the 79-year-old Salomon brand, which grew 35% to more than $2 billion of sales. Salomon footwear momentum continues across all regions, especially Asia, with a high demand for sport style and performance. There are several ongoing factors that give us confidence that Salomon footwear is well-positioned for significant profitable growth in the years ahead. Number one, global sport style momentum continues. One of Salomon's unique strengths as an outdoor brand is that we are connecting with women and a younger consumer in a way traditional outdoor brands haven't.

Sport style is critical to Salomon's position as a modern outdoor sneaker brand, and the success of XT-Whisper is the first example of how we can successfully expand sport style beyond the XT-6 franchise. Second, our performance and the running lines are also having great success. We continue to believe our new gravel franchise is helping to unlock the run category for Salomon like never before. Salomon is gaining traction in the run specialty channel in North America and EMEA, and even China, which has been a sport style-centric market, is seeing strong traction in performance products. Third, is Salomon amazing bracket in Greater China and Asia, where we believe we operate the most productive and profitable sneaker shops in the industry.

In 2025, Salomon growth sales very strong double digits in Greater China, driven by both sport style and performance, as well as strong growth in apparel. Beyond Greater China, Salomon is experiencing surging demand in Korea and Japan, both large sneaker markets. Fourth, our epicenter strategy is working. Our strategy to open a handful of brand stores alongside strategic elevated wholesale distribution in key metro markets is critical to elevate Salomon's presence and awareness globally. Epicenter cities include Paris, London, Shanghai, Beijing, New York, L.A., Milan, and more to come. Fifth is the strong pull demand we are seeing from consumers in Europe, Salomon's home market, driving strong reorders, preorders, and sales through. Sport styles continues to be the growth driver, We have also seen a real inflection in gravel in Europe, supported by marketing campaigns, in-store events, and the running event activations.

We are seeing especially strong performance in European epicenter like Paris and London, with strong double-digit omni-channel. Salomon opened its first-ever office and showroom in Paris, which is designed to elevate our brand presence in the city, strengthen our connection with buyers and the community, as well as support top talent acquisition. Sixth is North America, which is still a much smaller sneaker market for us compared to Europe or Asia. North America growth accelerated in Q4, driven by sport style. We remain focused on ramping up our North America direct-to-consumer footprint and the wholesale expansion with the key strategic partners. Early signs are positive as our North America Audible is experiencing strong growth. Salomon is also making key investment in leadership. In January, we appoint our first-ever creative director, Heikki Salonen.

Hecky arrives following tenure at Diesel and most recently, MM6, and will lead both product design and the brand creative direction. Lastly, I also want to mention our winter sports equipment franchise, which had a very strong Q4, despite challenging weather conditions. The market remains healthy despite the low snow in certain regions. Bookings, participations, and the enthusiasm for ski and snowboard are at the record levels at this winter. The recent Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Games were a big moment for Amer Sports, especially Salomon, who outfit all 27,000 official staff and the volunteers head to toe. Between Salomon, Arc'teryx, Peak Performance, Armada, and also Atomic, which is already one of the most successful alpine ski racing brands in history, our brands sponsored more than 200 athletes at the games, winning an incredible 59 medals, a dominant performance. Congratulations to our athletes and the teams.

Moving to Ball & Racquet, which had a strong Q4. Sales growth 14%, driven by continued strength in softgoods, a return to growth in baseball, and an acceleration in golf. Wilson softgoods continued its explosive growth, delivering in 2025, including very strong double-digit growth in Q4. Our Wilson softgoods offering is resonating with consumers in both wholesale and the direct-to-consumer channels, and across all major regions. Wilson is unique in its ability to outfit tennis athletes from head to toe, including racquets and accessories, and we are excited to have signed six new Wilson Tennis 360 athletes on tour, including world top 10 player, Alex de Minaur, bringing our total account to 16 players. Beyond tennis, we also saw our return to growth in baseball, driven by strong bat sales, led by the Louisville Slugger Supra and five other bats among the top 10 this season.

Lastly, before I turn over to Andrew Page, I'm pleased to announce Carrie Ask as the next President and CEO of Wilson brand, effective March 1st. Carrie is a proven brand CEO and a C-suite executive with great experience in the global softgoods, sports, and outdoor industries, including Helly Hansen, Levi's, and Nike. She began her career as an officer in the United States Navy, serving both in the U.S. and abroad. We are excited to welcome Carrie to the Wilson and Amer Sports team. With that, I will turn it over to Andrew Page.

Andrew Page (CFO)

Thanks, James. We had another strong performance in Q4 with healthy sales growth margin expansion, and EPS, despite our decision to accelerate investment behind Salomon. The strong sales and profitability of the Amer Sports portfolio allows us to accelerate resources behind the large Salomon sneaker opportunity, while still delivering great results at the group level. Let's first take a moment to reflect on the key highlights of 2025. Amer Sports Group delivered 27% growth in 2025, with broad-based strength across brand segments, regions, channels, and categories. Arc'teryx continued its very strong trajectory. Salomon softgoods entered rapid growth mode, and Wilson Tennis 360 moved the needle in our Ball & Racquet segment. We delivered meaningful adjusted operating margin expansion from 11.1% in 2024 to 12.8% in 2025.

We also continued to reduce our leverage ratio, effective tax rate, and annual interest expense, leading to strong operating and free cash flow generation. Turning to our Q4 results. Amer Sports Group sales 28% in Q4 on a reported basis and 26% in constant currency. The strong group sales performance was led by Technical Apparel and Outdoor Performance, while Ball & Racquet also delivered solid growth in the quarter. By channel, the group continued to be led by D2C, which grew 38%, led by Salomon softgoods. Wholesale grew 18% globally, which was led by Arc'teryx. Regional growth was led by Asia Pacific, which grew 53%, followed by Greater China, which increased 42%. EMEA grew 21%, the Americas generated 18% growth. Moving down the P&L.

Adjusted gross margin increased 140 basis points to 57.8% in Q4, primarily driven by positive segment, regional, and channel mix shift. Adjusted SG&A expense as a percentage of revenue, deleveraged by 220 basis points and represented 45.5% of revenues in Q4 versus 43.3% of revenues last year. The deleverage was primarily driven by Outdoor Performance, as Salomon made the decision in Q4 to accelerate investments to support healthy long-term growth. The strong growth of Wilson softgoods continues to drive elevated SG&A investment within Ball & Racquets. These factors were partially offset by Technical Apparel, which achieved SG&A leverage in Q4.

Driven by the higher SG&A investments as well as lower other operating income, our adjusted operating margin declined 110 basis points from 13.6% last year to 12.5% in Q4. Corporate expenses were $40 million, up from $12 million in Q4 last year, driven by higher share-based compensation. In addition, last year in Q4, corporate expenses benefited from certain one-time accounting reclassifications related to net finance costs. D&A was $106 million, which includes $48 million of ROU depreciation. Adjusted net finance cost in the quarter was $21 million, which comprised primarily of $20 million of interest expense. In the quarter, our adjusted income tax expense was $65 million, which equates to an adjusted effective tax rate of 27%.

Adjusted net income was $176 million in Q4, compared to $90 million in the prior year period. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.31, compared to $0.17 last year. Turning to segment results. Technical Apparel revenues increased 34% to $1 billion, led by Arc'teryx. Growth was fueled by both 37% wholesale growth and 34% D2C expansion. Technical Apparel generated a strong 16% omni-comp, led by full price selling, as we intentionally pulled back our participation in key promotional events, including Black Friday and Double Eleven. Regionally, the Technical Apparel growth rate was led by Asia Pacific, Greater China, the Americas and EMEA. All regions grew strong double digits. Q4 was the first full quarter post the career distributor acquisition, which contributed a low to mid-single-digit percent to Technical Apparel's growth rate in Q4.

In Q4, Arc'teryx opened 15 net new stores, with 21 openings, offset by the closure of 6 legacy locations as part of our ongoing strategy to optimize the quality and productivity of our store fleet. New store openings included the new Arc'teryx Alpha Store in Rockefeller Center in New York City and Mountain Town stores in Aspen and Park City. Arc'teryx also opened stores in Canada, Japan, Australia and China in the quarter. Looking back at full year 2025, we opened 24 net new stores, excluding the career acquisition, and we plan to open 25-30 net new Arc'teryx stores in 2026, with the largest number coming in North America and also China. Our store opening plan incorporates a similar level of gross new stores as in 2025, partially offset by the continued closure of certain outlets and other suboptimal locations.

In Greater China, as planned, we had slight net store closures in 2025, which includes partner stores. However, we still grew our own store count and overall square footage in China by opening larger format, higher quality, more productive locations. In North America, I want to highlight our second New York City Alpha store, which opened in October on Fifth Avenue at Rockefeller Center. The store is the most pinnacle expression of the brand in the U.S., and we are encouraged by the strong sales this winter. The newly opened Mountain Town stores in Aspen and Park City are also off to great starts. We were very pleased by Technical Apparel's strong operating margin expansion in Q4. Adjusted operating margin expanded 160 basis points to 25.9%, driven by strong flow-through of revenue upside in the form of SG&A leverage.

This is a great proof point behind our confidence in the scalability of Arc'teryx's highly productive store model as they comp positively over time. Moving to our Outdoor Performance segment, which saw revenues increase 29% to $764 million, driven by very strong performance in Salomon footwear, apparel, bags, and socks, and also supported by strong double-digit growth in winter sports equipment. By channel, Outdoor Performance D2C grew 55%, led by new doors and higher productivity across markets, especially in APAC and Greater China. Outdoor Performance generated a 28% omnicomp, with strength in both stores and online. Wholesale grew 17%, driven especially by strong results in Greater China and EMEA. Regionally, the Outdoor Performance growth rate was led by APAC and Greater China, followed by EMEA and the Americas.

The popularity of Salomon footwear continues to inflect globally, and we are doing everything we can to ensure we are well positioned to fully develop this large opportunity over time. Salomon is positioned for significant growth in all three major consumer regions, and we are working hard to build the right team, operational, go-to-market, and brand building functions to support our growth. In Asia, D2C continues to be the critical growth channel for Salomon, led by our highly productive Salomon compact shop format. We opened 33 net new Salomon shops in Greater China this quarter, including both owned stores and partner stores, bringing our total count a year in to 286 stores, adding nearly 100 new stores in 2025. In 2026, we expect to continue store expansion in Greater China, but at a more moderate rate, adding approximately 35 net stores to the fleet.

In December, we reopened the Salomon flagship store in Chengdu. The store design is inspired by local Sichuan mountain scenery, and it is the first flagship store combining winter sports and trail running. In APAC, we opened net eight new Salomon stores in Q4, including Japan, Australia and Korea. The region finished the year with 113 Salomon stores, including partner stores, with 44 net new openings in 2025. Overall brand awareness and demand for Salomon footwear is growing rapidly across Asia. In the Americas, Salomon softgoods growth further accelerated as we continued to lay the groundwork to support significant future growth. We are excited to see very strong order books for both spring/summer and fall/winter for 2026, with growing demand across a variety of high-quality retail partners, including REI, Nordstrom, JD Sports, Run Specialty Shops, and other specialty retailers.

We also have improved our inventory position to answer the growing demand. Our brand awareness continues to rise across the greater New York area as our shop in Soho continues to show great traction with consumers, and we opened our second New York store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in Q4. The Williamsburg location strengthens our presence in the core New York epicenter, performing very well out the gate. Globally and in North America, we will continue to focus on our epicenter strategy in 2026 and beyond, particularly New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. We currently plan to open 7-10 new Salomon shops in the U.S. this year. In EMEA, we continue to expand our store fleet and key epicenters, including a third brand store in Milan and a fourth in London.

We will further develop our Europe epicenters into Spain, Germany, and other key U.K. cities in 2026. For our winter sports equipment brands, Q4 was a strong quarter, with double-digit growth despite lower snow levels in the Alps and the Rockies. In addition to strong market share in our core ski, boot, and binding franchises, we continue to see incremental growth opportunities in areas such as snowboarding and protective equipment. Moving to Outdoor Performance P&L. Adjusted operating profit margin contracted 490 basis points to 6.2% as Salomon made the decision to accelerate SG&A investments to support its significant growth opportunity in the global softgoods market. Outdoor Performance growth margin continued to expand, driven by positive mix shift across product, region, and channel. This was more than offset by higher SG&A in Q4, driven by key investments to fuel Salomon's long-term global growth.

These investments include impactful marketing campaigns to drive long-term brand awareness, including XT-Whisper and Gravel, the MiCo Olympics-related marketing. We accelerated retail expansion, especially in China, where we opened 25 net new brand stores in Q4. We increased investment in talent and operations, including higher incentive compensation, given Salomon's performance versus plan, new talent acquisitions such as our new creative director and his team, and opening Salomon's new Paris hub. I want to emphasize that we're seeing tangible benefits and high returns from our accelerated investments, including meaningful uplifts in Salomon's brand awareness since 2023, which has increased 15 points globally, including +15 points in Paris and +10 points in London. Moving to Ball & Racquet. Revenue increased 14% to $337 million, driven by softgoods, baseball, and golf. We continue to see very strong momentum in Tennis 360 globally.

By category, the growth was led by softgoods, up very strong double digits with continued momentum in all regions. Softgoods now represents approximately 15% of segment revenue. Racquets had slower growth in the quarter due to timing of product launches and wholesale shipments, while underlining demand remained strong. With double-digit growth, 2025 was a great year for racquets, and we have exciting performance racquet launches in 2026. Baseball returned to growth, driven by strong performance in bats, driven by successful product launches in fall of 2025, and golf ended the year with improved margins and solid growth, especially in EMEA and APAC, driven by a strong product offering. In other categories, we saw inflatables stabilizing in Q4 and returning to slight growth following a challenging first nine months.

Regionally, the Ball & Racquet growth rate was led by China, followed by meaningfully accelerating growth in Americas, EMEA, and partially offset by slight decline in APAC. We had 10 new owned Wilson brand stores opening globally in Q4, split between Greater China and APAC. Wilson Tennis 360 shops are performing well in China. We opened 13 new shops in Q4, including partner doors. This brings the total owned and partner store count to 77. In 2026, we plan to open approximately 30 Wilson Tennis 360 shops in China between owned and partner doors. APAC also continues to drive meaningful Wilson softgoods growth. Our first store in Japan, in Tokyo's Marunouchi district and two stores in Melbourne, Australia, are off to great starts. In North America, improving Ball & Racquet growth was led by baseball and softgoods.

In softgoods, we saw strong e-commerce comp growth in the region. Our expansion into warmer southern markets is continuing to drive strong results. Our Dallas North Park Mall continues to perform very well, and we continue to expand our new Tennis 360 concept store into more southern and coastal locations, including our new shops in Beverly Hills and Miami. We also continue to expand our Tennis 360 offering into more Dick's Sporting Goods locations, including House of Sport. Ball & Racquet segment adjusted operating profit margin improved 110 basis points to -2.6%, driven by solid growth margin expansion related to less promotional activity and better regional and channel mix. This was partially offset by SG&A deleverage due to investments in softgoods. Now, turning to the group balance sheet.

Ending 2025 with $291 million of net debt and only 0.3 times net leverage, our financial foundation has never been stronger. We generated $730 million of operating cash flow in 2025, compared to $425 million last year, driven by strong profit growth and disciplined working capital management. Additionally, given our strong financial position, post-year-end in January, we announced a redemption of $80 million of our outstanding $800 million, 6.75% senior secured notes at a redemption price of $103 million. We ended 2025 with inventories up 33% year-over-year, slightly elevated compared to our 27% sales growth as expected. We remain very comfortable with the level and quality of our inventory. The higher inventory growth is primarily related to four factors.

One, earlier receipt of seasonal Arc'teryx merchandise to prepare for better in-stock position. Two, higher Arc'teryx goods in transit resulting from the greater use of ocean shipping versus air freight. Three, FX translations from the weaker U.S. dollar. Four, the addition of the Arc'teryx Korea inventory following the recent acquisition. We expect inventory growth rates to normalize beginning in the second half of 2026, when we start to cycle our improved in-stock positions and the higher use of ocean freight. A quick housekeeping item as we turn to guidance. Beginning in Q1 2026, we will discontinue allocating certain corporate expenses that are not directly attributable to the operating performance of our reportable segments. There will be no impact to our overall group adjusted operating profit margin. It is simply reallocating certain costs from segments to corporate.

For the full year of 2026, we expect group corporate expenses to increase by approximately 60 basis points or approximately $50 million related to costs reallocated from the segments. These cost reallocations to corporate will most benefit the Outdoor Performance and Ball & Racquet segment margins and have a much more muted benefit to Technical Apparel. Turning to guidance. Guidance assumes the latest tariff rates on all countries will stay in place for the remainder of 2026 and beyond. 2026 is off to a strong start, and given the continued momentum from our highest margin Arc'teryx franchise, accelerating Salomon softgoods, plus the solid foundation of our equipment franchises, we are confident in our ability to deliver another very strong financial performance in 2026.

For the full year, we expect reported group revenue growth between 16% and 18%, which assumes a 200 basis point benefit from favorable FX impact at current exchange rates. We expect group adjusted gross margin of approximately 59% for the full year, with the margin expansion continuing to be driven by mix shift benefits. As we've said in the past, we are confident in our position to manage through a variety of tariff scenarios, given our relatively low exposure to the U.S., strong brand portfolio with pricing power, and clean balance sheet. We continue to expect an immaterial impact on our group P&L from higher tariffs in 2026.

We expect adjusted operating margin of 13.1%-13.3%, towards the low end of our long-term guidance of 30-70 basis points of improvement, primarily due to the accelerating Salomon investment, opting for long-duration, profitable growth over near-term profit flow-through. We are committed to investing behind the large growth opportunities in front of Arc'teryx, Salomon, and Wilson Tennis 360, while still delivering against our long-term financial algorithms. Arc'teryx's size and profitability and our strong sales growth and gross margin expansion at the group level allow us the flexibility to invest behind Salomon and Wilson Tennis 360 in a way they could not as standalone entities. We believe this is a unique advantage of our portfolio. Corporate expense is expected to be approximately $225 million, which includes approximately $50 million of costs previously allocated to the segments that I mentioned above.

We assume full-year net finance costs of $105 million-$110 million, higher than 2025 due to a normalizing FX impact on the revaluation of certain non-monetary assets, as well as higher imputed interest expense on store leases as our retail network grows. The effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 28%. This is an increase from 2025 as we generate a higher percentage of our taxable income in higher tax jurisdictions, and also as we cycle a one-time discrete tax benefit in the second quarter of 2025. We expect adjusted diluted EPS of $1.10-$1.15, which is based on approximately 564 million fully diluted shares.

Also, we are assuming depreciation and amortization of approximately $400 million, including approximately $170 million of ROU depreciation. CapEx is expected to be approximately $400 million versus $310 million in 2025. The increase is mainly driven by increasing key investments in IT infrastructure and retail expansion. Turning to the segments, our full-year sales forecast incorporates 18%-20% growth in Technical Apparel, 18%-20% growth in Outdoor Performancee, and 7%-9% growth in Ball & Racquet. For Technical Apparel, we expect adjusted operating margin of approximately 22%. We expect Outdoor Performance segment margin of 14.5%-14.8%, and we expect Ball & Racquet margin of 4.7%-5%.

All three segments should generate gross margin expansion driven by mix shift, partially offset by higher SG&A reinvestment. While we don't usually provide quarterly segment guidance, given the Q4 2025 margin fluctuation in Outdoor Performance resulting from accelerated Salomon investments, I want to provide a little extra margin color for Q1 2026. We will continue to invest heavily to support Salomon's growth, we do expect Outdoor Performance to return to modest year-over-year margin expansion in Q1. Turning to first quarter guidance, we expect reported revenue growth for the group in the range of 22%-24%, which assumes a 500 basis point benefit from favorable FX impact at current exchange rates. We expect adjusted gross margin to be approximately 59% in 1Q 2026, and adjusted operating profit margin to be 14%-14.5%.

Our net finance cost for the quarter will be approximately $27 million, and the effective tax rate will be approximately 28%. We expect adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.28-$0.30. Lastly, I would note that should strong trends continue and better than anticipated demand materialize, we believe we are well positioned to deliver financial performance ahead of our expectations. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw a question, simply press star one again. If you are called upon to ask a question and are listening via loudspeaker on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. We do request for today's session that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Your first question comes from the line of Michael Binetti of Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Michael Binetti (Senior Managing Director)

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking our question here. Appreciate all the help. A couple of technical ones for the model here. The fourth quarter gross margin is usually a little bit above third quarter in the past. I'm just curious because there's a lot of moving parts here. Is there something structural that we should consider going forward in fourth quarter or with any one-timers in one of the segments that we should consider as we model going forward? I guess, Andrew, the Salomon investments in 4Q, it sounds like those are the reason for the margin, operating margin guidance in 2026 to be at the lower end of the long-term algorithm. Those investments from 4Q continue into first quarter.

Just curious if maybe you could walk us through what some of the investments are in the first quarter? Bigger picture, you know, as you think about the Salomon investments and the incremental growth to the algorithm you presented, are the investments incremental to the algorithm that you've talked about with us? Or it sounds like there is at least an element of it being pulled forward, and I'm wondering if you're stepping up these investments, if that means there's an element of gating the margin expansion today because you can imagine a bigger brand revenue level for Salomon than what you've kind of talked about with us in the past?

Andrew Page (CFO)

Yeah. A lot to unpack there, Michael. Happy to...

Michael Binetti (Senior Managing Director)

Thanks

Andrew Page (CFO)

... a bunch of these. Yeah, happy to address a bunch of these. As I think, as you think about the fourth quarter gross margin, one of the things that you talked about was the trend from third quarter to fourth quarter. You know, keep in mind that the fourth quarter, as you think about Outdoor Performance, is our largest quarter for winter sports equipment. Winter sports equipment actually outperformed as well in the fourth quarter, that is going to create a bit of a drag on gross margin. Obviously, strong business, but the fact is it's a, it's a lower gross margin business, and when it outperforms, it affects it.

The other thing that you also want to think about is on a comparative basis, recall that in 2023, we set up a cost optimization program. You started to see the impact of that cost optimization in Outdoor Performance in the back half of 2024. As you get through, and it anniversary this itself, you in the fourth quarter of 2025, you saw the anniversary of that cost optimization. If you think about, you know, all of 2025, you saw material margin expansion and Outdoor Performance and then it anniversary itself because now you know, you kind of reset the gross margin to its new going forward cycle.

As you think about your first question really around Salomon investments in the fourth quarter, given that we opportunistically made key investments behind strong momentum of Salomon. You know, over the recent years, we've had one big brand. Arc'teryx has been on fire, and we've made key investments behind that growth. Now we have multiple high return opportunities to invest in, especially as you think about the Salomon really inflecting right now. You know, also keep in mind, in Q1, you will see Salomon margins return to moderate growth. Again, Q4, we opportunistically made the right investments behind that accelerated momentum. The other thing is that this is the power of our portfolio.

You know, we run this, what we call our brand-direct operating model, and because of that, you know, we can get behind accelerating momentum in our brand, in our brands in ways that these brands can't do on an individual standalone basis. You know, we're, we continue to be committed to investing appropriately behind large growth opportunities in front of Arc'teryx, Salomon, Wilson Tennis 360, and we'll continue prioritizing long-duration opportunities over near-term profit flow-through. You know, the last thing I want to say about that is that the gross margin mix, including Outdoor Performance, that continues, that mix benefit continues. Q4, including Q4. Q4 had healthy growth margin mix shift and at the product region and the channel level.

Full year op margin for the portfolio, just recall, it was 160 basis points expansion for the full year, and this is after consideration of the key investments that we made in fourth quarter. To wrap it up before I turn it over to Guillaume to give you some real color on it, long term, we still expect to have SG&A leverage. I'll turn it over to Guillaume, he'll give you some real key points on some of the discrete investments we made.

Michael Binetti (Senior Managing Director)

Thanks, James.

Guillaume Meyzenq (President and CEO)

Good, good morning. Good morning, everybody. Yes, maybe if we can go a little bit more into details. We take this opportunistic decision to fuel Salomon long-term expansion in Q4. We had few, I have really few strong example, where we decide act proactively to accelerate our positioning in the market. The first one is we are driving few marketing campaign in some key areas, supporting XT-Whisper, which is, as James explained, we need to build a portfolio of key franchise products. And on the top of XT-6, we need to have a kind of variety of products, and XT-Whisper looks like really a very promising opportunity.

This is why we are pushing the same for Gravel Running, which is also our point of difference in the market. Finally, also, we are preparing the Milano Cortina Olympic Games. Now you see the results. Certainly, you have seen the momentum we have been able to create during the sort of big games, and of course, it was kind of preparation of it in Q4. On the top of that, we continue to have this retail expansion. We opened 30 store in China in the quarter. You certainly mentioned what was happening in Los Angeles, where we opened this store in Melrose, and at the same time, we were building a campaign. It's how much, you know, we are building this ecosystem in every city where we open a store.

We partner with our B2B partners, if think about Shoe Palace, for example, which are strong presence in Los Angeles, and then we are driving, you know, media and campaigns to attract this consumer, and it was really successful. This type of model require also some resources at the beginning just to have a kickstart in the epicenter. The last one is about talent and operation investments. You just hear that Salomon was growing by 35% in 2025, and of course, we need to structure the company for a new scale. We, we had to support, of course, incentive compensation, but also we were starting to acquire some new talent acquisition.

The example of Ski Salomon is a very good example of the level of ambition we put into Salomon. Another one was the opening of the Salomon Paris hub. We have a new office, you know that we are in a base in Annecy, which is a kind of small city in the middle of the Alps, a gorgeous one. But of course, you know, the scale of the company require also a little bit more facility in different places. Paris is a very obvious, we are a company, a French-based company, Paris was kind of obvious opportunity for us, and of course, it was requiring also this type of investment.

It's also a place where we can capture trend, we can capture also world-class talents in the future.

Michael Binetti (Senior Managing Director)

Okay. Thanks for a lot of detail.

Andrew Page (CFO)

Michael, I'll just wrap on the one point, because I think the last point we talked about was there something structurally different about our algo?

Michael Binetti (Senior Managing Director)

Yeah.

Andrew Page (CFO)

Like I said, we delivered 160 basis points to the bottom line after that investment. Our algo does and has consistently been, you know, 30 to 70 basis points plus on the bottom line. We opened this year with our guide at 30 bps. We believe that that's responsible. It does not reflect a structural change in our investment. Our investments as Guillaume just highlighted, we will opportunistically get behind growth momentum while still continuing to maintain our earnings algo. It's early in the year, should strong trends continue and greater demand materialize, you know, we see no reason why we can't outperform our guide as presented.

Michael Binetti (Senior Managing Director)

I just want to clarify: 30-50 basis points?

Andrew Page (CFO)

30-50.

Michael Binetti (Senior Managing Director)

The range. 30 to 50. Yep, heard it. Okay, thanks, everybody, for all the help. A lot of detail. Appreciate it.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Boss of JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Matthew Boss (Equity Research Analyst)

Great, thanks, and congrats on another nice quarter. James-

James Zheng (CEO)

Thanks, Matt.

Matthew Boss (Equity Research Analyst)

James, following the breakout year that you cited for the portfolio, could you elaborate on the current momentum entering the first quarter? Maybe what opportunities do you see for the Salomon brand to accelerate market share further in 2026? Stuart, have you seen any change in top-line momentum at Arc'teryx relative to the fourth quarter? Or what's embedded to moderate within the 18%-20% full year forecast relative to mid-30s that we just see here exiting 2025?

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Matt, we're gonna have Guillaume answer your question on Salomon. James will talk kind of global outlook for the space, including China, and then Stuart will finish. He's in remote on Arc'teryx.

Guillaume Meyzenq (President and CEO)

When we think about the Salomon momentum in sales, of course, yeah, we see a very strong outcome. 2025 was really the year we confirm that we are growing in all region. You see the traction in China and in Asia Pacific, our domestic market, which is Europe, was really coming back strongly. All the investment we have been doing in epicenter strategy with Paris, with London, and now we are looking for Milano, where started it, of course. We see that we have the right strategy in order to drive momentum in both sport style and performance. Lately, we see also that U.S. is becoming a new place of growth.

Of course, we are still quite small compared to the market, which is on one hand, a challenge, but also a great opportunity for us. We see that we have early momentum in the sport style category. You see that, this epicenter strategy in New York, L.A., we opened a store in Chicago as well, which is performing very well. We see also that through data, that there is also a good city where we start to pop up. The last one is we have also in U.S., early signal, a positive trend for running, thanks to Gravel Running. You can imagine that if we are able to combine sport style and running in U.S., then Salomon could have very promising growth.

James Zheng (CEO)

Yeah, good morning, Matt. Thank you for your questions. As I mentioned, okay, I still believe strong trends have continued each Q1 cross board. You already give out the guidance for our Q1, and top line will grow between 22%-24%. Our three segments, basically, they all have a very good forecast to achieve the target we set for them, okay? It's a pretty good trend for time being. Specifically, I just want to specifically mention about the performance in China during the Chinese New Year. We see a very positive consumer trends during the Chinese New Year in our brands.

Also, okay, not in our brands, and also for the whole sports market overall, okay. The consumption is very, very strong. I think later on, you also will get a certain color from the other brands and your report, okay. I think it's a quite good moment for us. However, I still want to say, okay, it's still a bit too early for us to say, "Okay, this is a very bullish situation in China market." Okay, but, at least we are off a good start in 2026.

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Okay, Stuart.

Stuart Haselden (CEO)

Yeah. Hey, Matt, it's Stuart. Off to a fast start in the first quarter. Really pleased with the trends that we're seeing across all our regions. We're seeing especially strong momentum in North America over the last few weeks. That's contemplated, you know, in the guidance that Andrew shared. Then your question versus the 18%-20% guide, you know, what I would say is, this is consistent with our prior practices. We view this as responsible in terms of the guidance we're offering investors. There's nothing structural that would prevent us from capturing higher sales, should demand materialize. We're well positioned. Strong inventory position, as Andrew noted, to really convert upside should it materialize.

We're happy with the trends we're seeing and confident for the outlook for 2026.

Matthew Boss (Equity Research Analyst)

Great color. Best of luck.

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Next question.

Stuart Haselden (CEO)

Great.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez of Citigroup. Your line is open.

Paul Lejuez (Managing Director)

Thanks, guys. Curious if you could talk a little bit more about the wholesale expansion opportunity in the U.S. within the Salomon business, what sort of growth should we expect with Salomon wholesale versus DTC this year? Stuart, also curious if you're thinking about adding any new wholesale partner doors for Arc'teryx this year, how should we think about growth there?

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Okay, first, Guillaume, then Stuart.

Guillaume Meyzenq (President and CEO)

Thanks, Paul, for asking. Clearly, our strategy is about omni-channel, so we know that if we want to become a large sneaker and footwear brand in the U.S., we absolutely need to partner with the key players. We speak a lot about our D2C, we speak a lot about e-com, because we think that this is where we can expand the best expression of Salomon. Of course, you know, the strategy is really becoming omni-channel and partner with the key player. We have a renew support with REI, which used to be our historical partner in the U.S. when we were very focused on winter sport equipment and outdoor, and now we see that we are back on track with them.

In parallel, we have Nordstrom, JD Sports, and most of the running specialists, which are today our current targets, in order to drive, to drive the growth. What we try to do so is not, you know, building, you know, a very big push, but things door by door, city by city, having close partnership, make sure that we have a very close partner, good foundation of business. We are driving demand with them, and then we think that this is the best way to, first of all, win the shelf share, battle in the market, but as well as, well, expansion in terms of number of doors. We have this type of very accurate strategy, in North America.

The key driver at the end is really the consumer demand and how we partner with them to drive this consumer demand.

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Stuart?

Stuart Haselden (CEO)

Yeah, thanks, Paul. From an Arc'teryx standpoint, you know, wholesale is emerging as an important channel for us across three of our key name strategies: footwear, Veilance, and women's. In footwear, you know, this is an important channel of distribution, different than apparel. We see the need to have a stronger strategy here. We've been building a sales team as part of our footwear business unit in Portland, and we're engaging with specialty run accounts, big box retailers as well, all on the premium high end, I would say very technical positioning, but that'll be an evolution within our footwear business. For Veilance, premium wholesale, Tier Zero, as we call it, will help create higher brand awareness for Veilance and just drive the business there.

For women's, you know, we see it as an interesting expansion of our distribution footprint, just to be relevant where she shops or a female guest shops. Across those three strategies we continue to evolve our wholesale strategy. Hope that helps. Thanks.

Paul Lejuez (Managing Director)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Brooke Roach of Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Brooke Roach (Managing Director, Equity Research)

Good morning, and thank you for taking the question. At Salomon, I was hoping that you could unpack the proportion of growth that you expect to realize by region for the brand in 2026, and then if there are any specific regions that will receive an outsized SG&A investment this year. As a follow-up, how much of the growth at Salomon do you expect to come from existing distribution partners versus new distribution partners in 2026? Thank you.

Guillaume Meyzenq (President and CEO)

We expect to have growth in all region in the world. Clearly, we the very good and positive sign today is Asia Pacific and Greater China continue to show very strong momentum, but now EMEA is really back on track, where I feel very proud. EMEA is also that we also qualify high quality sales. You know that sometimes in Europe, the price point is sometimes an issue, but we feel very good on what we have been able to build in the long run, so keeping quite premium positioning. The last one, which is a good news, is North America, where definitely small scale today, but very high growth and high demand, and especially from the last quarter, and we see that this momentum is really engaging for 2026. Well, the second one for?

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Yeah, existing version.

Guillaume Meyzenq (President and CEO)

Yeah, once again, it's there is two area where we can look at. The existing distribution is growing with the momentum. We have, of course, you know, a new kind of strategy in Europe and in the U.S. because we enter also the sneaker market with sport style, of course, it requires some new type of doors. I just can name, you know, in Europe, JD Sports, for example, which was not a customer of Salomon five years ago, now it's becoming one of the strategic partners. We have as well new distribution, in Europe, despite the fact that our new distribution is already very strong. Of course, in the U.S., I will replay the same, the same as I did for the previous. We are building distribution right now in U.S.

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Thanks, Brooke.

Brooke Roach (Managing Director, Equity Research)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes to the line of Ike Boruchow of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Ike Boruchow (Managing Director - Retailing and E-commerce)

Thanks. Congrats, everyone. Obviously, revenue's solid. Some questions this morning on the margin. Andrew, can we just dive in a little bit just on the cadence of the investment? You've got about 200 basis points plus of deleverage in Q1, but based on the full year, it does seem like you should start to be scaling the investments, especially in, you know, the ones you kinda talked to for 4Q. Can you just comment on that? Like, does it seem like the business should be scaling and leveraging the expense base in the back half of the year, specifically in Q4? Does that kinda give us some visibility to scale in the out years and beyond? Thanks.

Andrew Page (CFO)

One of the things that is probably embedded that is not easily seen, but Q1, as some of the deleverage is driven on a comparable basis, driven by the fact that Q1 last year in Ball & Racquet was a quarter with meaningful pull forward because of the threat of tariffs that was on the horizon. Q1 last year compared to Q1 this year, Q1 this year is more normal. Q1 last year was a lot more pull forward, so you saw a lot more profitability. It looks like a deleverage, but underneath that, you know, as we talked about, both our tariffs and outdoor performers are performing well.

You can see and I talked about just the margin expansion for Outdoor Performance. It's much more of a quarter one over quarter one comp issue related to fall and racquet in the prior year. Is that helpful, Ike?

Ike Boruchow (Managing Director - Retailing and E-commerce)

No, it is. I guess my bigger question is about the pacing of the expenses into the back half and are you planning to start scaling those as you exit the year? 'Cause that might give us some better visibility into the SG&A and leverage potential as you're kinda exiting into fiscal 2027.

Andrew Page (CFO)

Yeah, yeah. I mean, like I said, in Q4 of 2025, we invested a lot. We invested opportunistically a lot in Q4 of 2025. You know, inherently, it would suggest that the Q4 2026 comparative is going to be pretty easy.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Jay Sole of UBS. Your line is open.

Jay Sole (Managing Director)

Great. Thank you so much. My question is for Stuart. Stuart, just give us a little bit of update on how some of the initiatives around, say, the women's and footwear has gone for Arc'teryx, you know, in the fourth quarter, in which I look for this for this year. Also, just with all the news on tariffs over the last few weeks, how has the landscape changed, and how it might impact the company? Thank you.

Stuart Haselden (CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Jay. It's Stuart. On your second point there, tariffs, you know, it's more of a modest impact on Arc'teryx. It's not nothing, but it is not influencing in any way how we're pricing our products or operating the company, and we see it as an opportunity to take share from companies that might respond in that manner. Feel we're in a good spot from a managing the tariff situation. Your other question, women's and footwear, as James mentioned in the prepared remarks, saw really healthy growth across both of those categories. Both growing 40% in the fourth quarter. Women's, you know, continued strength across some of the new products that we introduced.

The women's-only products, the pant category in particular, has been really strong. The Clarke, the Leutia, and the Neopant all offering us a new sort of lever of growth within the women's business. Also saw strength in our ski and insulation, the Atom SV and the Andessa Down, two new products that we introduced in the quarter performed really well. We're just excited to see women's continuing to grow faster than the overall company. You know, expect to see it exceeding 30% of the total sales of the company by 2030. Footwear, you know, 40% growth in the fourth quarter as well. Top models included the Norvan LD 4, that's our top seller, and fast sales in our Kopec hike shoe.

You know, I'll also just mention we're gonna launch the new Sylan 2 on March 6th. This is our pinnacle trail running shoe. Really excited about the evolution and the feature set there and the performance of that shoe. A lot of great feedback from it already from our athletes. Then, you know, within footwear, the business unit, we've stood up in Portland. We're excited for how that's coming together, the sales team, the marketing capabilities we're building. Very bullish on footwear, and we see this as an important pillar of growth for us for some time. Hope that helps, Jay.

Jay Sole (Managing Director)

Hey, definitely.

Andrew Page (CFO)

Hey, Jay, how you doing? Jay, this is Andrew. Just to wrap up a little bit on tariffs, at the group level, you know, we're confident. As I said, we're confident in our position to manage through a variety of tariff scenarios. You know, given a couple of things, just remember, our low level of U.S. exposure, our strong brand portfolio and pricing power, and our clean balance sheet. Obviously, the two businesses that are most impacted would be, you know, Ball & Racquet and outdoor sports equipment. Yes, you know, while, I mean, we are aware of the recent Supreme Court decision and follow-up decision by the president to oppose the 15% tariff. You know, looking at high-level scenarios, our position does not change.

Jay Sole (Managing Director)

Okay.

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

We have time for one more question. I know it's the fourth quarter, so we're taking a little bit longer time, this call. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Your last question comes from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson of Bank of America. Your line is open.

Lorraine Hutchinson (Managing Director)

Thanks. Good morning. Andrew, now that the leverage is down to 0.3x, can you talk a little bit about your expectations for the capital structure and uses of cash going forward?

Andrew Page (CFO)

Yeah, I mean, you know, and you can see, you saw in 2025, you heard my guide, and we're talking about CapEx being approximately $400 million in 2026. We still believe a high and a high return use of our cash and allocation is to grow our business. From a, you know, to the point that we still believe that it is an efficient use of our cash to pay down the inefficient debt, as it does not provide the requisite tax shield. We are, you know, We'll, we'll continue to focus on that. We'll continue to focus on the growth of our business.

We'll continue to focus on paying down the inefficient debt, and we, you know, we like our leverage position as it stands right now, being, you know, close to 0.

Lorraine Hutchinson (Managing Director)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

That concludes our Q&A session. I'll now turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.

Omar Saad (SVP, Capital Markets and Investor Relations)

Thanks, everyone, for joining. We'll see you in three months. Have a great spring.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.