Ethan Allen Interiors - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 FY25 net sales were $157.3M, gross margin 60.3%, operating margin 11.5%, and diluted EPS $0.59; cash and investments ended at $184.2M with no debt.
• Written orders inflected higher: Retail +15.8% and Wholesale +14.3% driven by increased promotions, financing, and rising home interest post U.S. elections; December was notably strong.
• Sequentially better demand versus Q1 FY25 ($154.3M sales, GM 60.8%, EPS $0.57) while YoY sales declined (-6%) and EPS fell (from $0.68).
• Board approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share payable Feb 26, 2025; management is “cautiously optimistic” as operations normalized after prior disruptions.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Strong demand momentum: “Retail segment written orders increased 15.8%; Wholesale… rose 14.3%,” aided by promotions and financing programs.
• Margin resilience: consolidated gross margin held at 60.3% driven by mix, lower input costs, selective price increases, and higher average ticket, despite promotional activity.
• Operational recovery and efficiency: North Carolina distribution center resumed operations post Hurricane Helene; headcount down 6.9% YoY as technology streamlines workflows.
• Quote: “We are positioned well as a vertically integrated enterprise… [manufacturing] approximately 75%… in our own North American facilities”.

What Went Wrong

• Delivered sales and earnings down YoY: net sales $157.3M vs $167.3M (-6%); diluted EPS $0.59 vs $0.68; adjusted operating margin 11.5% vs 12.8%.
• Higher advertising ratio: 2.5% of sales vs 2.0% prior year; promotions (extra 5% savings) were required to catalyze demand, potentially pressuring margin cadence.
• Contract and delivered unit volume softness: lower backlog and fewer contract sales noted; wholesale backlog declined over the quarter as State Department deliveries outpaced orders.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good afternoon and welcome to the Ethan Allen Fiscal 2025 Q2 Analyst Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce our host, Matt McNulty, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. Thank you. You may begin.

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Ethan Allen's Fiscal 2025 Q2 results. With me today is Farooq Kathwari, our Chairman, President, and CEO. Mr. Kathwari will open and close our prepared remarks while I will speak to our financial performance midway through. After our prepared remarks, we will then open the call for your questions.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind the audience that this call is being webcast live under the News and Events tab within our Investor Relations website. A replay of today's call will also be made available on our Investor Relations website. There you will find a copy of our press release, which contains reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures referred to on this call and in the press release. We believe the non-GAAP presentation better reflects underlying operating trends and performance of the business.

Our comments today may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. The most significant risk factors that could affect our future results are described in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Please refer to our SEC filings for a complete review of those risks. The company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking matters discussed during this call. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Mr. Kathwari.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

Thank you, Matt, and thanks for participating in our Q2 results ended December 31, 2024. I would like to start with the devastating effects of wildfires in Southern California, which have resulted in loss of life and devastated many communities. Our team members and our clients have been impacted, and we pray for their safety. Fortunately, our Design Center in Pasadena, closest to the fires, escaped the fire and is back in operations along with all of our six Design Centers and a major retail service center in the area.

As we mentioned in our press release, despite a challenging political and economic environment, we had strong financial results in our Q2, especially in our book orders. We reported consolidated net sales of $157.3 million, gross margin of 60.3%, operating income of $18.2 million, operating margin of 11.5%, and diluted EPS of $0.59.

We had strong operating cash flow and ended with $184.2 million, an increase of $16.4 million from a year ago. We paid $10 million in cash dividends and are pleased that yesterday our board approved a regular cash dividend of $0.39 per share payable on February 26, 2025. After Matt presents more detailed financial information, I will review our ongoing initiatives to continue our progress. Matt.

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Thank you, Mr. Kathwari. Our financial results in the just-completed Q2 were highlighted by strong demand, margins, and operating cash flow. Our consolidated net sales were $157.3 million, compared with $167.3 million a year ago, as a higher average retail ticket price and lower sales helped to offset lower backlog, fewer contract sales, and a lower delivered unit volume.

Demand levels improved sequentially throughout the quarter and concluded with a strong December aided by our special promotion. Retail segment orders grew by 15.8%, while wholesale segment orders were up 14.3%. Written order improvement was driven by increased promotional activity, strong financing programs, and elevated interest in the home post the U.S. elections held in early November. We ended the quarter with 172 Ethan Allen Retail Design Centers in North America, including 141 company-operated and 31 independently owned and operated locations.

Wholesale backlog at December 31st totaled $57.7 million, up 5% from a year ago. As expected, our wholesale backlog declined in the past three months as our U.S. Department of State delivered sales outpaced incoming orders. Our distribution center in North Carolina that previously sustained flooding from Hurricane Helene in September resumed operations, and we are thankful to those who helped us recover. Strong consolidated gross margin of 60.3% was driven by a favorable change in the sales mix, lower headcount, selective price increases, lower raw material input costs, and a higher retail average ticket price.

Our consolidated headcount totaled 3,318 associates at December 31, 2024, a decrease of 6.9% from a year ago as we continue to identify operational efficiencies and leverage the use of technology to streamline workflows throughout our vertically integrated enterprise. Adjusted operating margin was 11.5%, compared with 12.8% a year ago.

Our double-digit operating margin reflects our ability to tightly manage expenses. Compared to our pre-pandemic quarter ended December 31, 2019, our adjusted operating margin has improved 610 basis points due to streamlining our vertically integrated enterprise. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.59, compared with $0.68 a year ago. For historical context, adjusted diluted EPS for the three months ended December 31, 2019, was $0.27.

Our effective tax rate was 25.4% for the quarter, which varies from the 21% federal statutory rate primarily due to state taxes. Now turning to our liquidity. We ended the quarter with a robust balance sheet, including cash and investments of $184.2 million and no outstanding debt. We generated $11.6 million of cash from operating activities and kept inventory levels consistent with a year ago.

Capital expenditures were $3.8 million and included additional investments in technology, retail design center relocations and improvements, and remodeling costs associated with our hotel. New and relocated state-of-the-art design centers in Watchung, New Jersey, and Peoria, Arizona, were opened during Fiscal 2025 that showcase our unique style while combining complementary interior design services with technology. We also continued our practice of returning capital to shareholders in the form of cash dividends and have a current yield of 5.5%.

In October, our board declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.39 per share, which was paid on November 27th. Also, as just announced in our earnings release, our board declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.39 per share, which will be paid this February. In summary, we are pleased with our performance that saw incremental consumer interest return back to the home.

Disciplined investments and solid execution throughout our vertically integrated business produce strong written demand, positive operating cash flow, and a double-digit operating margin. Our robust balance sheet has us well positioned as we continue to move through the calendar year. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Kathwari.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

Well, thank you, Matt. We are positioned well as a vertically integrated enterprise, which includes a very strong and dedicated team, the ability to provide interior design services with state-of-the-art technology, offering relevant, high-quality products that offer both a modern design with a classic perspective and a classic design with a modern perspective. This is very important, these two attitudes.

75% of our furniture is made in our North American facilities. Our national and retail logistics is unique and a great competitive advantage, enabling us to deliver our products with what we say, "white glove delivery" at one cost in North America to our clients. Our retail network of 172 design centers in North America and additional design centers internationally are well positioned.

During the last two years, we have continued to strengthen our network with new and relocated design centers and especially with freshening the interiors of all with our products and attitudes. We continue to relocate to stronger locations and add new design centers. After the pause due to COVID, we have been introducing new products to strengthen our offerings.

Our marketing initiatives continue to get our message across. This includes direct mail magazines, digital magazines, our website, local and regional advertising. During the last few years, while strengthening our offerings, our retail network, our manufacturing, our logistics, marketing, and technologies, we have been able to also reduce our headcount. Technology has played a very important role in that. At December 31, 2024, was 3,318, down 7% from a year ago and 27% less than December 2019.

During this period, we also repositioned our manufacturing, our national logistics, and our retail network. In summary, we continue to strengthen the various areas of our vertically integrated enterprise and are well positioned to meet the opportunities and challenges ahead. With this, I would like to open it up for any questions or comments.

Operator (participant)

Great. Thank you so much. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star 2 to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the Star key. One moment, please, while we pull up our questions. First question is from Brad Thomas from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yes. Hello, Brad.

Brad Thomas (Managing Director)

Hi. Good afternoon, Farooq. Good afternoon, Matt, and first and foremost, congratulations on the very strong end of the quarter, I should say, end of the calendar year on the order front.

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yes. Thank you. It is very encouraging to see that.

Brad Thomas (Managing Director)

It really is. We've all been waiting for a turn in the industry, and I think we're hopeful that that is what's coming to fruition here. I guess that was going to be my first question, was what's the degree of confidence that you have, Farooq, that this is the turning point here for the company and for the industry?

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

I should also mention that there are factors that led to this as well. Certainly, obviously, it reflected our enterprise, our strong product programs, our network, but it also reflected the fact that we did give a special savings during this quarter, which helped. But it would not have happened without all the other factors. So I think that all of those factors helped make this quarter, especially on the written business, very, very strong.

Now, your next question about as we move forward, we are positioned very, very well. January did start mostly because of the weather. We had very tough weather in many parts of the country for the first three weeks. But as the weather improved in the last week or so, we can see more robust activity. We feel good about it. To answer your question, we have strong programs.

Our retail network has been repositioned. We have strong manufacturing, logistics, and as I said, we have been able to do all of this while making it extremely efficient, so I think the opportunity of having strong product programs, the opportunity of the efficiencies that we have brought in, and really a strong designer network, and combined with technology. As I mentioned, this major decrease in our headcount is mostly due to the fact of combining good talent with technology, and I think as we do that, we feel confident that we'll continue with the progress.

Brad Thomas (Managing Director)

That's great, and clearly, the incremental promotions seem to be a positive for you here. Do you intend on keeping up these incremental promotions, or will you be more normalized going forward?

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

We'll use both. It depends on the opportunities take place, as there are certain opportunities of timing, certain special timing of holidays, events that give us an opportunity to do that, so we'll combine both as we go forward.

Brad Thomas (Managing Director)

Great. And maybe just one more last one for me here, Farooq. It was such a, again, impressive acceleration from your September quarter to your December quarter in terms of orders. Any other nuances that you might highlight? Is this all new customers or incremental customers coming in, or is there anything different happening in terms of the average ticket or the types of customers or the types of products? Just any other detail would be really interesting.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

I would say that in the last year or so, we have also been introducing new products. We will continue to do that because, again, prior to that, we were cautious. We were cautious because we had very high backlogs, and we didn't want to introduce new products because of service. Our service position is very good right now, so that we are now being more aggressive introducing new products.

The other one is that we are also increasing our marketing. In fact, in this last quarter, we increased our marketing spend, and in terms of, and a lot of that we are doing is in terms of marketing, in terms of getting more new customers in and the new forms of marketing utilizing technology to bring people in. So we increased our marketing by, what, about $500,000?

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Correct.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

We increased our marketing. Think of this. In the last quarter, by $500,000, which was what, about 0.5%?

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

15% higher.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

Yeah, but 2.5%.

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yes.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

From 2% to 2.5%, 15% higher, Brad. So we will continue to do that also, but continuing to utilize more innovative ways of marketing than the old traditional ways we used to do.

Brad Thomas (Managing Director)

That's great. Well, we've certainly heard some good data points out of the industry, but this really exceeded anything that we'd heard out of anybody else here of late. So congratulations, and I'll turn it over to others.

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Yeah. Thanks very much.

Operator (participant)

Next question is from Cristina Fernández from Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead.

Matt McNulty (SVP, CFO and Treasurer)

Hello, Christina. How are you?

Cristina Fernández (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

How are you? And good afternoon, Farooq and Matt. I wanted to follow up on Brad's questions about the demand trends. You talked about progression through the quarter. How were trends in October and November? I guess what I'm trying to get through was how much did that special promotion in December help, or have you already started to see an improvement in the prior months?

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

Cristina, I think that there was improvement, but a major improvement did take place in December because of the special. And look, it was not that a major promotion. It was a 5% more savings. And so it was the combination of all factors that made it happen.

Cristina Fernández (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

And then, I guess, what was the impetus for increasing the promotions? I feel like you've been pretty steady over the past couple of years, usually like 20% off. Was it a response to competition that you saw out there just wanting to accelerate the order intake? Maybe walk us through, I guess, that decision that you haven't done too much of that before.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

It's a combination of a number of factors. It is the fact that we felt that because we were in a much better service position, that we would be able to deliver the products. That was a very important factor because I didn't want to spend a lot of money, and we had delays of service because of the backlogs. That was an important factor. We felt we were ready, and that's why that was a major factor in investing in marketing.

Cristina Fernández (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

With the higher promotions, should we expect an impact to the gross margin, which has been very high the past couple of quarters going forward?

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

Yeah. Keep in mind that if you take a look at historically, it was not that many years back, we used to spend close to 5% of sales on our marketing. Now, with all the technology and other elements, we took it to half of that. So keep in mind, we have reduced our total marketing by almost 50% as a percentage of sales than what we used to do. We increased this time by about 0.5%, and so we'll continue with that kind of a rate.

Cristina Fernández (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Another topic I wanted to talk about was your exposure to Mexico. You've always talked about 75% of manufacturing in North America. Obviously, we are all aware of potential tariffs. How much of that 75% is manufactured in Mexico? And if there were to be tariffs on imports from that country, would you look to move it to the U.S. or Honduras? Or I guess, how are you planning for the different outcomes?

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

Yeah. Mexico is an important issue. And in fact, we were having a discussion with our team on that today, that Mexico is our upholstery products that are made in Mexico. We have two major operations, one in Mexico and one in North Carolina. And the Mexico operation makes and cuts fabrics for our operation in North Carolina. And then it also makes full products in Mexico. So it is approximately at this stage, I would say that close to our total manufacturing in Mexico represents approximately 25% of our total manufacturing. So we have some flexibility as we go forward. There's a possibility we could consider raising prices. There's a possibility that more of that product could be made in North Carolina because we have manufacturing in both places.

Cristina Fernández (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. And best of luck here this quarter.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

All right. Well, thank you very much, and we look forward. We got our team members. They're really motivated. They're working hard. We are looking at all these uncertainties, but the good news is, Cristina, as I said, we are well positioned based upon our manufacturing in North America, which includes the United States, Mexico, Honduras, and we do have some manufacturing that comes out of countries like Indonesia and Vietnam. That's for furniture. We do make some accessories and other products in many other places from Italy to China, but most of it is right here in North America.

Operator (participant)

As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, it is Star one. If there are no further questions, I'd like to turn the floor back to Mr. Kathwari for any closing comments.

Farooq Kathwari (CEO and President)

All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you for attending. Our teams are working very, very hard. We are looking at all the events in the world, and the good news is we are well positioned, and we are also positioned to take steps based upon whatever happens, whether it's a question about duties and anything else. We are watching it very carefully, but I think at this stage, our main focus is to continue to grow our business and to continue to strengthen the various elements of our vertically integrated structure. Thanks very much for participating.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you again for your participation.