Inter Parfums - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 2

Greetings and welcome to the Inter Parfums, Inc.'s second quarter 2025 conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone wants to require operator assistance, please press *0 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Karin Daly, Vice President at The Equity Group and Inter Parfums Investor Relations Representative. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Joe. Joining us on the call today will be Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jean Madar, and Chief Financial Officer, Michel Atwood. As a reminder, this conference call may contain forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from projected results. These factors may be found in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the headings Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and Inter Parfums undertakes no obligation to update the information discussed. Inter Parfums' consolidated results include two business segments: European-based operations through Inter Parfums SAS, the company's 72% owned French subsidiary, and United States-based operations. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Jean Madar. Jean?

Speaker 0

Thank you, Karin, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. We began the year on a strong note, and that is continuing, but at a slower pace and with more speed bumps along the way than in recent years. Even so, the measures undertaken months ago, including price increases that will come into effect beginning this month and strategically shifting some of our sourcing and manufacturing, along with product innovation and effective advertising and promotional programs, have enabled us to maintain and fulfill demand for our fragrance products. There is no question that momentum eased in the second quarter for us and many others in our industry, and some of the challenges we faced will likely continue into the second half of the year.

That said, our lean, adaptable operating model, combined with the support from our distributor, retail, and manufacturing partners, as well as the proactive and timely actions we have taken, position us to fully resolve these challenges by 2026. As we reported last month, for the first six months, organic net sales, which exclude the impact of foreign exchange and the discontinuation of a Dunhill license, rose 3%, with first quarter shipments ahead of budget and second quarter below. European-based operations reported net sales grew 6% in the second quarter and 7% in the first half, with robust performance in the U.S. that outpaced the broader fragrance industry led by Jimmy Choo Fragrances. In our U.S.-based operations, reported second quarter net sales were down 20%, with 8% of that due to sell-out of the remaining Dunhill inventory last year, which concluded in August. On an organic basis, U.S.

operations sales were down 14% in the second quarter and down 6% in the first half. As I review regional performance, I will be focusing on the first half of the year rather than the second quarter, which was unusually volatile this year. We experienced solid growth in our two largest markets, North America and Western Europe. North America sales rose 7%, and Western Europe rose 3%. Central and South America sales increased 7% with the success of Lacoste Fragrances, and also nice growth in Coach Fragrances, and generally a healthy growing market. Sales in Eastern Europe were up 14% as compared to the first half of 2024, when we encountered sourcing constraints at the time. Asia-Pacific fragrance sales were down 12% in the first half.

We were against strong sales last year in Australia, but we have very high challenges in South Korea. A positive takeaway for the region is that overall trends in China and Japan become a little bit more favorable. Middle East/Africa declined 19%, and you know it's an important region for us, reflecting the exit of a Dunhill license. Excluding the impact of Dunhill, net sales declined 6%. We have a strong fragrance lineup in the works for the remainder of the year. For our European-based brands, we will be launching the latest edition of the Jimmy Choo I Want Choo franchise called I Want Choo with Love.

While Montblanc sales were broadly flat during the quarter, we are already encouraged by the promising response to the recent debut of Montblanc Explorer Extreme, and we'll continue to strengthen the brand with a new extension to the Montblanc Elixir line, alongside an exciting addition to the Karl Lagerfeld Iconic franchise. Since joining our portfolio, Lacoste fragrances has delivered outstanding results, and we are eager to build on that momentum with the upcoming introduction of Lacoste Original Femme. We are adding new members also to the Moncler Sommet collection as well. Additionally, we are nearing the debut of our first fragrance release for our own brand called Solférino. This collection of 10 fragrances crafted by master perfumers stays true to artisanal roots through carefully selected distribution and premium merchandising, ensuring a truly exceptional experience for our customers.

Next month, we'll open our flagship boutique in the heart of Paris, alongside the launch of our e-commerce platform and the products we have just introduced this week at Selfridges in London, allowing us to connect with customers both locally and globally. This marks a new chapter for Inter Parfums, filled with the promise of growth and discovery in the art of artisanal and luxury fragrance craftsmanship. The insights we gain will not only enrich this line, Solférino, but further empower us to elevate and better serve the entire family of brands within our portfolio. For our U.S.-based operations, we are set to introduce several scents, including the Just Cavalli blockbuster duo for Roberto Cavalli, plus several extensions for Guess, for DKNY, Ferragamo, and Abercrombie.

As announced last month, Inter Parfums has been selected as the exclusive fragrance licensee for Longchamp, a fashion and leather goods brand that was established in 1948 and now has approximately 400 stores across 80 countries. By combining Longchamp's rich heritage and creativity with our expertise in fragrance development, we plan to launch their first-ever women's fragrance in 2027, with a focus on Europe and Asia-Pacific. We are very happy to have signed this new fragrance license. Of note, there was no upfront fee to obtain this license. Before I hand it over to Michel to discuss the financial results, I want to touch on a few operational updates that have been front and center across the industry. We are seeing strong momentum in our e-commerce channels and expanding our presence, especially on Amazon. Platforms like Divabox and TikTok Shop are also gaining traction and showing promising growth.

In fact, we are developing special programs tailored for e-commerce, such as TikTok-specific SKUs, typically smaller size at lower price point, to better meet the expectations of these customers who are often looking for more affordable version options. Amazon continues also to be a key focus. The good news is that thanks to our success there, more brands are now willing to sell on Amazon after we demonstrated strong numbers. Their business on Amazon has been growing steadily. It's important to note that Amazon Beauty is very much a controlled platform, but we can't overlook the platform's sheer influence and reach. Divabox, currently the number two e-commerce platform for fragrance in France, is another exciting area for us. On the traditional retail side, there are no major changes. Big retailers and specialty stores like Macy's and Ulta continue to hold steady market share and maintain strong business.

As we discussed on our previous call, we are making strong progress and remain on track with the transition out of our own operated facility in Dayton, New Jersey. This move will likely happen just after the summer, with the target to be fully relocated to the new facility and working with a third-party logistics partner by the end of Q3. At that point, we expect to be fully utilizing third-party providers for packing, shipping, warehousing, and order fulfillment. As it relates to tariffs, and I'm sure if you have more questions, I will answer these during the session of Q&A, but we got some good news recently: the agreement to keep tariffs on goods from Europe at 15% and to eliminate tariffs on U.S. export to Europe. Earlier projections had us bracing for 30% to 50%, plus also reciprocal tariffs from Europe.

This is a meaningful improvement, even though the increase from 10% to 15% for imports to the U.S. is higher than we had initially planned. The recent agreements finalized with South Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines, as well as a preliminary deal with China, provide greater clarity on the global trade environment and confirm the immediate action and longer-term plans we put in place three months ago remain the right ones. On our sourcing strategy, first, just to clarify, we do not fill or finish any of our goods in China. That said, we do still source a lot of components from there, including plastic caps, certain pumps, some metal parts, and we have already started moving toward alternative sourcing options outside of China.

It's a transition, and there may be some short-term impact, but between this and other steps we are taking, we expect to absorb it without major disruption. Another key step is localizing production. Where it makes sense, we are shifting manufacturing closer to the end market. This is mostly valid for certain SKUs that are produced in the U.S., but where most of the business is in Europe or other regions. This shift will help us to minimize the U.S. import tariffs on components. As it relates to pricing, we have taken a very selective approach, meaning it hasn't been applied across the board. We implemented more aggressive mid-single-digit percentage price increase in the U.S., where the tariff on imported finished goods has had the biggest impact.

In other markets, we've generally held entry-level pricing steady on smaller sizes to maintain accessibility while applying more pricing adjustments to larger sizes or on brands that are less price-sensitive. Overall, we're looking at approximately a 2% average price increase at the total company level, which will progressively take effect between now and the end of the year. The next three months are going to be critical as we focus on the holiday selling. In the first half of the year, sales grew outpaced selling, and store inventory levels are still relatively low. It will be a key marker to see how retailers stock up for the holiday season. We've already started phase one gift sales and holiday orders, and how this phase performs will set the tone. One thing to keep in mind: the holiday seasons continue to shift later and later.

If retailers don't carry heavy inventory now, we will need to be ready to ship deeper into the season, potentially even into the beginning of December. That puts added pressure on logistics and manufacturing, so we are making sure we are ready to respond quickly. As we continue to navigate the current landscape, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our goals for the year by making progress across all areas of our business. With that, I will turn it over to Michel Atwood. Michel?

Speaker 3

Thank you, thank you, Jean, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with our overall results, and then I'll go through the details for our European and United States operations. As Jean shared and as previously reported, we delivered net sales of $334 million, a slight decline from the 2024 second quarter, due in part to the shift of some of the sales from the second quarter into the first quarter we had disclosed in the first quarter release. On an organic basis, our first half sales grew by 3%, and we remain on track to meet our guidance for the year, supported by a balanced mix of legacy scent sales, key brand extensions, the seasonal lift we typically see from gift set sales in the third and fourth quarter, and favorable foreign exchange impacts.

Gross margin expanded by 170 basis points to 66.2% and 150 basis points to 65% for the second quarter and first six months of the year. This was driven by favorable brand and channel mix, and namely the impact of the discontinuation of Dunhill, which drove a big part of the improvements on the U.S. operations during the quarter, which you've seen as well. SG&A expenses as a percentage of net sales were 48.5% and 45% for the second quarter and first half of 2025, as compared to 45.6% and 43.6% for the comparable periods in 2024, with A&P expenses of $69 million, or 20.6% in the second quarter, and $120 million, or 18% of first half net sales, respectively.

Our A&P investments grew 5% in the first half compared to 2024, as we continue to execute our successful strategy of investing in A&P slightly ahead of growth to fuel healthy sell-out. Overall, our consolidated operating income was $59 million for the quarter, a 9% decrease from the prior period, resulting in an operating margin of 17.7% or 120 basis points decline from the 2024 second quarter. Year to date, however, operating income increased by 1% to $134 million, with operating margin at 20%, a 10 basis points improvement from the prior year period. Below the operating line in the first half of the year, there was a loss of $6.7 million as compared to a loss of $1.5 million in the corresponding period last year. Two factors were behind this swing. The first is foreign exchange.

There was a loss of $2.4 million in the first half of 2025 compared to a gain of $0.3 million in the first half of 2024. As you know, the significant swings in the EUR/USD, which went from 1.03 in early February to 1.17 at the end of June, helped our top line, but resulted in larger than usual FX losses. The second factor was the impact on our marketable securities, where we recorded a loss of $3.4 million in the first half of 2025 compared to a loss of $0.6 million in the first half of 2024. We did not experience a significant change in our blended effective tax rate, which was at 24.3%, up 40 basis points from 23.9% over the prior year period.

Moving on to our two business segments, and given the volatility experienced in the second quarter, which is largely isolated and not reflective of ongoing trends, we will focus our discussion on the first half results. European-based operations net sales rose by 7% on a reported basis and 6% on an organic basis. Gross margin expanded by 60 basis points to 66.9%, driven by favorable brand and channel mix. While SG&A expenses increased 7% to $212 million, SG&A as a percentage of net sales remained flat at 43.4%, benefiting from economies of scale with higher sales. A&P expenses grew 8%, slightly ahead of sales, and totaled $89 million and represented 18% of European-based net sales for the first half. Overall net income attributable to European-based operations increased 3% to $81 million.

For United States-based operations, net sales declined by 12% on a reported basis as the bulk of the Dunhill impact was absorbed during this period, which accounted for approximately six percentage points of decline. As such, net sales declined 6% on an organic basis. Gross margin expanded by 220 basis points to 59.7%, largely due to the discontinuation of Dunhill in the prior year period. While SG&A expenses declined by 1% to $91 million, SG&A as a percentage of net sales increased to 47.8% from 42.5% of net sales in the prior year period, and that's largely driven due to the lower sales. A&P expenses, which remained broadly flat despite the sales drop and in order to protect sell-out, totaled $31 million and represented 17% of United States-based net sales for the first half.

Overall net income attributable to the United States-based operations decreased 26% to $18 million, again due in large part to the lower sell-in. At June 30, our balance sheet remains strong with $205 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and a working capital of $654 million. From a cash flow perspective, accounts receivable was down 1% from year-end 2024, and day sales outstanding remained consistent at 74 days, similar to the 72 days in the prior year period, driven by changes in channel mix. By effectively managing working capital relative to our sales, we continued to improve our operating cash flow by $31 million, shifting from a $26 million cash consumption in the first half of 2024 to a $5 million cash generation in the present six-month period. We expect to achieve similar productivity in the back half of 2025.

With a healthy sell-out in the first half, driven by the strength of our portfolio and disciplined execution, we look ahead with cautious optimism about achieving our full-year objectives and continue to maintain the guidance we outlined in November 2024. We believe that the continued resilience of the fragrance category, tariff-driven pricing actions in the second half, and ongoing foreign exchange tailwinds will support us in meeting our goals. As such, we are reaffirming our 2025 guidance, which calls for net sales of $1.51 billion and earnings per diluted share of $5.35. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press *1 on your telephone keypad, and a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press *2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your headset before pressing the * keys. The first question comes from the line of Ashley Helkins with Jefferies. Please proceed.

Hi. This is Sydney on for Ashley Helkins. Thanks for taking our question.

Hello.

First, wondering, can you just talk about what you saw in terms of promotional levels, maybe how that progressed vs. Q1 and then throughout the quarter? Any more color you can provide on what you're seeing from the destocking? It sounded like that wasn't a huge concern last quarter, so wondering if you do feel like that's kind of worsened in Q2 and maybe what you've seen from a trend perspective there. Any comments on end demand and more granularity around that? Thank you.

Michel?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Hi, Sydney. I'll probably take the question around your last two, and then Jean can address the promotional levels. Destocking is always a very difficult one to assess. As you know, we sell to distributors who sell to retailers. Think about it as like when you get to a toll booth and somebody hits the brake on the highway. Everything kind of starts to back up and things start to slow down. We've certainly seen a slowdown in the market, and as a result, the retailers have been more prudent, and the distributors have also been more prudent. I think that that little disconnect between sell-in and sell-out is largely, basically, factored in and triggered that. Now, related to that, your last question around the demand, actually, the end demand was pretty good this quarter. The market was up overall for the top seven markets that we tracked.

The market was up 5% in the second quarter and is up 3% on a year-to-date basis. It's actually quite healthy. If you look at how we did vs. the market, we actually did a little bit better. We grew share in the first quarter. We also grew share in the second quarter. Overall, we have performed slightly better than the market. When we look at our competitors, we're seeing a very similar situation, which is their sell-out typically is looking better than their sell-in. As you know, obviously, Coty and Estée Lauder haven't published yet, but we see that pretty clearly through the numbers from LVMH and L'Oréal that actually had flat to slightly declining numbers for the first three for this quarter. Overall, I think we're seeing pretty similar trends from our key competitors, which is sell-in is growing more slowly.

I think that really does show that it's a broad industry-wide situation that's kind of happening related to the slowdown. Right, Jean, on the promotional level?

Speaker 0

Before the promotional level, I would like to add something. As you know, we have been in this business for many years, more than 35. It's not the first time that we see gaps between sell-in and sell-out. What I remember is it's usually a response to a lack of visibility. The sell-out is good, but the distributors or the retailers do not want to buy as much and take this opportunity to reduce their inventory. When it happens at this time of the year, I told my team that we have to be very ready to answer a big surge of orders that could happen in September, in October, in November, even at a very late stage. We need to be agile.

That's why we kept our guidance at this level because we think that due to the fact that the products are selling, our distributors are going to need the merchandise very soon. Voilà for the destocking. Regarding the first quarter, can you remind me the first quarter?

Speaker 2

The promotional levels, Jean?

Speaker 0

Nothing in particular. Nothing different than before. It's not more or less. The business, as you know, is already very promotional. We are using a lot of tools like gift with purchase and sampling, etc., but very, very, I don't see any new things going on in the promotion.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Speaker 2

The next question comes from the line of Susan Anderson with Cowen and Company. Please proceed.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I think just to follow up really quick on the tariff-related impacts to second quarter, by that, I guess, did you just mean retailers pulling back on ordering because of the tariffs? I guess similar to the destocking?

Speaker 0

No, I would not. The retailers are not subject to tariffs. We give them a price, but distributors for sure. This is part of these uncertain times, lack of visibility that I was mentioning before. As of a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about a much higher tariff, and we were also talking about a reciprocal tariff, which thank God did not happen. No, we cannot say that the lack of purchasing or the lack of the level of purchasing is lower because of tariffs. Michel.

Got it. Okay.

Speaker 3

I think that just generally people are being, I think, a little bit more prudent. I think that is really what you're hearing from Jean, and that inevitably could drive a point or two.

I guess just looking out over the next couple of years, you've added quite a few brands, I guess, you know, to the lineup, especially now with Longchamp. They have Off-White, Solférino. I guess, do you think you'll still be looking to add, like, do you think you have capacity to take on more, or is this going to kind of be the lineup, you know, in terms of new brands coming on board in the next couple of years?

Speaker 0

Now, this is a very good question. We always look for diversifying the portfolio. I think the addition of the latest addition of Longchamp. Longchamp is a great company selling bags. We have a very, very good experience and results with a brand like Coach. It was very natural to capture the Longchamp brand. Between Longchamp, Lacoste, that are very, very well recognized, and also less known brands like Off-White or Annick Goutal, we think that these are good complements to the portfolio. What does it mean? We can take more? Definitely. We can absolutely take more brands. We will, of course, with time, edit the portfolio. There are some brands, smaller brands, that maybe in a year or two or three will not be part of the portfolio. It's a natural life of a company.

Okay. Great. Thanks so much for the details. Good luck with the rest of the year.

Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 2

The next question comes from the line of Hamed Korsant with BWS Financial. Please proceed.

Speaker 0

Hello, Hamed.

Speaker 3

Hi, I just want to ask you about your comment about the retailers and how they're waiting on purchasing. What kind of risk does that impose for you? Is there a chance where you get a big slug of your revenue gets pushed into Q4?

Speaker 2

Michel?

Speaker 3

Yeah, definitely, you know, when you have this kind of uncertainty, the September period, August-September period is generally a pretty big period for gift sets. It's very easy for things to kind of move from one week to another and could shift from September to October. It's very difficult to kind of plan. It's also one of the reasons why we typically don't guide by quarter, and we generally guide for the year. I think what Jean said is that what we're clearly seeing is that there is pent-up demand. We're seeing it through the market growth, through the consumption of our brands. It's not only the case for us, but it's also the case for our competitors. We believe that there's definitely some pent-up demand. If the market continues to be strong, I think we'll certainly see probably some orders picking up in the third and fourth quarter.

I think the other thing that people are going to wait and see, particularly in the U.S., is the impact of the pricing that is being taken to offset some of the costs of the tariffs. I think that's probably why also some of the retailers in the U.S. are being a little more prudent.

Speaker 2

Okay. To your comments about Amazon and TikTok, would you entertain a bigger portion of your manufacturing to smaller quantities, the smaller size packaging?

Speaker 0

We will do that not for every brand, but we noticed that there is some magic trick on the price point on TikTok that if you are above, your sales drop immediately. In order to do that, we have to create special programs. This was something that we started to work at the beginning of the year, and we'll have it ready for Christmas. It will be interesting. It's not right for all the brands, but some brands that are on TikTok need a lower price. Lower price means for us, we give them a smaller size. It's becoming more of a paid sampling. The margins are good. The margins are actually the same. I'm absolutely for these kinds of programs. Amazon is a different animal. We really start to have some very, very good business on Amazon. We advertise with them. We work with them.

It's growing at a double-digit pace. We are opening also Amazon in Europe. We start to work with them in Europe, in the UK. I'm quite happy with the business on Amazon. As you know, we own 25% of a very important website based in France called Divabox that is going to do over $100 million in sales. We don't consolidate the sales because it's an investment in the company, but we meet with them on a regular basis, and we learn from them what works, what doesn't work. This helps us a lot in our decision-making.

Speaker 2

Okay. Michel, sorry if you've answered this earlier, but what was the reason for the debt going up as much as it did Q1 to Q2?

Speaker 3

Yeah, great question. I mean, we essentially took out a loan. We made a few purchases at the end of last year, and particularly in the first quarter. We felt that it was a good time now to just kind of, you know, we like to manage our finances very conservatively. It's largely to fund that. Also, we've been buying some additional space around our head offices in Paris. It's really to buy, it was really to buy assets, particularly like Annick Goutal and extra space.

Speaker 2

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Speaker 3

All right.

Speaker 0

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Michel Atwood for closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Thank you all for joining our call today. Jean and I really want to thank our incredible team, partners, brands, and all of our stakeholders. Your dedication, trust, and collaboration continue to drive our success, especially as we navigate through these uncertain times together. I would also like to mention a couple of upcoming events. We will be hosting our annual meeting in person here in New York on September 10th. I will also be participating in the Wells Fargo Consumer Conference in Laguna Niguel, California, on September 16th and 17th. If you'd like to participate in these events, please reach out to your sales representative at Wells Fargo. If you have any additional questions, please contact Karin Daly from The Equity Group, our Investor Relations Representative. Her telephone number and email address can be found in most of our recent earnings releases.

We look forward to meeting with you all at these events or the next conference call. Thank you again, and have a great day.

Speaker 2

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.