Zumiez Inc. Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Margins Rebound as Full-Price Selling and Private Label Drive Profitability Despite European Headwinds

Unknown Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Zumiez fourth quarter fiscal 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question and answer session towards the end of this conference. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone of the company’s safe harbor language. Today’s conference call includes comments concerning Zumiez Inc.’s business outlook, and contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and all other statements that may be made on this call are not based on historical facts, are subject to risk and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information concerning a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the information that will be discussed is available in Zumiez’s filings with the SEC. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer.

You may begin.

Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Hello, and thank you everyone for joining us on today’s call. With me today is Chris Work, our Chief Financial Officer. I’ll begin with remarks about our fourth quarter performance and the successful holiday season we just completed, before reflecting on our strong full year 2025 results and discussing our strategic priorities. Chris will then take you through the financials and our outlook for fiscal 2026. After that, we’ll open the call to your questions. We’re pleased with our fourth quarter results, which capped off a second consecutive year of important progress for Zumiez. Q4 results were highlighted by robust full price selling in North America during the important holiday season, which fueled mid-single digit comparable sales growth in the region and meaningful gross margin expansion.

In addition, the work we’ve done focused on assortment and full price selling in our European business drove 660 basis points of year-over-year product margin improvement. This, coupled with disciplined expense management, resulted in 380 basis points of operating margin growth despite sales being down high single digits year-over-year in local currency for the quarter. Our performance in both regions reflects the continued effectiveness of our full price selling and cost savings strategies, even as we faced regional headwinds. From a category perspective, men’s led our positive comparable sales growth during the holiday period, followed by women’s, accessories, and hardgoods. This broad-based strength across multiple categories validates our merchandising approach and the investments we’ve made in product newness and private label expansion throughout the year.

Reflecting on fiscal 2025, we took important steps towards returning to historical levels of sales and earnings. Our merchandise assortments and customer experience initiatives generate positive comps every quarter, ranged from low single digits to high single digits in a 4.3% comparable sales gain for the year on top of a 4% increase in 2024. Our North American businesses demonstrate consistent momentum, registering eight consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth. Our strategic shift in Europe, implemented just one year ago, gained momentum as we moved through the year. This consists of bringing newness, strong inventory management, full price selling, and expense management that we believe will drive the business to better results in the near term. The combined impact of our initiatives helped to improve full-year earnings per share to $0.78 from a loss of $0.09 last year.

These results validate the strategic initiatives we’ve been executing and position us well for continued success in 2026. As we look ahead, we remain focused on the same three strategic priorities that have driven our success throughout 2025. First, driving revenue growth through consumer-focused strategic initiatives. Our commitment to refreshing our product mix with innovative, distinctive offerings has proven to be a cornerstone of our success. In 2025, we launched over 150 new and emerging brands across our banners, and this newness continues to generate exceptional customer response. Private label penetration reached its highest level in company history in 2025. At approximately 30% of sales, up from 12% five years ago, this sustained expansion demonstrates our organizational ability to identify emerging trends and create compelling products that resonate with our customers while simultaneously enhancing our margin profile.

Our investments in delivering exceptional customer experiences across both physical and digital touchpoints continue to yield strong results. Enhanced staff development programs and technological capabilities we’ve implemented allow us to engage with customers where they want, when they want, and in more personalized ways, strengthening the relationships we have that have long served as another cornerstone of our success. Second, sustaining our rigorous commitment to profitability optimization across our geographic footprint. Within North America, our premium pricing strategies continue to support both margin expansion and market share growth, while the operational improvements we’ve executed throughout 2025 are keeping sales growth well ahead of our expense growth. Our continued focus in this area has established a more efficient and profitable framework that positions the business for a strong flow throughout incremental sales to fuel operating margin gains.

Regarding international operations, while Europe continues to face challenging market conditions, our disciplined approach to new assortments, full price selling, and expense management is starting to show results. The significant product margin improvements we achieved in the fourth quarter and full year demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy, and we remain committed to our long-term vision for the countries in which we operate. We continue to see tremendous value in our ability to identify trends locally in each market before they expand internationally. Third, capitalize on our solid financial foundation to manage volatility while funding strategic expansion. Our financial position remains exceptionally strong, providing us with the flexibility to continue investing in our strategic objectives while delivering value to shareholders. This financial stability enables us to navigate ongoing uncertainties in the macro environment while simultaneously positioning the company for long-term growth and continued market share gains.

Despite operating environment characterized by economic volatility and evolving global dynamics, I’m increasingly confident in our ability to generate value for all of our stakeholders. The fundamental strategies that have powered our performance throughout 2025 continue to demonstrate their relevance and our team’s proven adaptability and execution capabilities fuel my optimism about our trajectory in the fiscal 2026. Our direction remains clear and consistent. Maintain our dedication to delivering distinctive fashion-forward merchandise through the customer connection strategies that have driven our growth while preserving the operational discipline that has strengthened our financial performance. We’ve demonstrated our resilience and ability to execute through various market cycles, and I’m confident we’re strategically positioned to continue building on this momentum. Before turning things over to Chris, I want to express my appreciation to our entire organization for their continued commitment and exceptional execution throughout 2025.

Their dedication to our values and our customers remains the foundation for all of our achievements and positions us well for continued success in the year ahead. For that, let me hand things over to Chris for our financial review.

Chris Work, Chief Financial Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Thanks, Rick, and good afternoon, everyone. I’m going to start with a review of our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. I’ll then provide an update on our first quarter to date sales trends before providing some perspective on the full year. Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2025 increased 4.4% to $291.3 million compared to $279.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Comparable sales were up 2.2% for the quarter. As Rick mentioned, the primary driver was our North America business, which showed outsized strength even as macroeconomic uncertainties spurred by global trade policy continues. For the fourth quarter, North America net sales were $224.4 million, an increase of 4.8% from 2024.

Other international net sales, which consist of Europe and Australia, were $66.9 million, up 3% from last year. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North American net sales increased 4.6% and other international net sales decreased 7.1% year-over-year. Comparable sales for North America were up 5.5%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of comparable sales growth in this region. Other international comparable sales declined 7.5% in the fourth quarter. From a category perspective, men’s was our largest positive comping category, followed by women’s, accessories and hardgoods. Footwear was our only negative comping category. The consolidated increase in comparable sales was driven by an increase in dollars per transaction, partially offset by a decrease in transactions.

Dollars per transaction were up for the quarter, driven by an increase in average unit retail and an increase in units per transaction. Fourth quarter gross profit was $111.4 million, compared to $101 million in the fourth quarter of last year. Gross margin was 38.2% of sales for the quarter, compared with 36.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024. The 200 basis point increase in gross margin was primarily driven by 180 basis points of improvement in product margin and 50 basis points of leverage in store occupancy costs on higher sales and the closure of underperforming stores. These benefits were partially offset by 20 basis points related to increased incentive costs on improved results.

SG&A expense in the fourth quarter of 2025 was $86.4 million, or 29.6% of net sales, compared to $80.9 million or 29% of net sales in 2024. The 60 basis point improvement in SG&A expenses as a percentage of net sales was driven by 100 basis points of increased incentive costs on improved results and 20 basis points related to corporate wage costs. These cost increases were partially offset by 50 basis points of leverage in store wages related to increased sales and hours management and 20 basis points of leverage in other store operating costs. Operating income in the fourth quarter was $25 million, or 8.6% of net sales, compared to prior year operating income of $20.1 million or 7.2% of net sales.

Net income for the fourth quarter was $19.6 million or $1.16 per share. In the year ago period, we reported net income of $14.8 million or $0.78 per share. Our effective tax rate for the current quarter was 26.3% versus 26.1% a year ago. Looking at our full year results, net sales for fiscal 2025 were $929.1 million, an increase of 4.5% from $889.2 million for 2024. Comparable sales for the full year were up 4.3%. The consolidated increase in comparable sales was driven by an increase in dollars per transaction, partially offset by a decrease in transactions.

Dollars per transaction were up for the quarter, driven by an increase in average unit retail and an increase in units per transaction. From a category perspective, for the full year, women’s was our largest positive comping category, followed by men’s, hardgoods and accessories. Footwear was our only negative comping category. From a regional perspective, North America net sales were $757 million, an increase of 5.1% from 2024. Other international net sales were $172 million, up 1.7% from last year.

Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North American net sales increased 5.2% and other international net sales decreased 4.2% compared to 2024. Comparable sales for North America were up 6.7%, and comparable sales for international were down 5.4% for the full year. 2025 gross margin was 35.8% of sales, compared to 34.1% in 2024. The 170 basis points increase was primarily driven by 90 basis points of the improvement of product margin and 70 basis points of leverage in store occupancy costs on higher sales and the closure of underperforming stores.

SG&A expense of $315.5 million, or 34% of net sales for fiscal 2025, compared with $301.1 million, or 33.9% of net sales in 2024. The 10 basis point increase as a percent of net sales was driven by 50 basis points of increased incentive costs on improved results and 40 basis points related to wage and hour litigation settlements in California. These benefits were partially offset by 60 basis points of leverage in non-wage store operating costs and 30 basis points of leverage in store wages on increased sales and hours management. Fiscal 2025 operating income was $17 million, or 1.8% of net sales, compared to operating income of $2 million, or 0.2% of net sales in the prior year.

Net income in fiscal 2025 was $13.4 million, or $0.78 per share, compared to a net loss of $1.7 million, or $0.09 per share in the prior year. Fiscal 2025 was negatively impacted by approximately $0.15 per diluted share related to a wage and hour litigation settlement in California. Turning to the balance sheet, the business ended the year in a strong financial position. We had cash and current marketable securities of $160.6 million as of January 31, 2026, up from $147.6 million as of February 1, 2025.

The increase in cash and current marketable securities over the last year was primarily driven by cash flow from operations of $53.5 million, a $2.9 million benefit from foreign currency fluctuation, and the release of $2.7 million in restricted cash, partially offset by common stock repurchases of $38.3 million and capital expenditures of $11.1 million. As of January 31, 2026, we have no debt on the balance sheet and continue to maintain our full unused credit facility. The company repurchased 2.7 million shares during fiscal 2025 at an average cost of $14.18 per share, and a total cost of $38.3 million.

On March 11, 2026, the board of directors approved the repurchase of up to an aggregate of $40 million of common stock. The repurchase program is expected to continue through January 29, 2028, unless the time period is extended or shortened by the board of directors. This repurchase program supersedes the prior authorized approval approved by the board of directors on June 4, 2025, that was set to expire on June 30, 2026. We ended the year with $147 million in inventory, compared to $146.6 million last year, growth of 0.2% year-over-year. On a constant currency basis, our inventory levels were down 3.8% from last year. We feel good about our current inventory position. Now to our first quarter to date results.

Total sales for the four-week fiscal period ended February 28, 2026, increased 9.8% compared to the four-week fiscal period ended March 1, 2025. Comparable sales over the same period increased 7.5%. From a regional perspective, North America net sales for the four-week period ended February 28, 2026, increased 5.6% over the four-week period ended March 1, 2025, while our other international business increased 27.6%. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, North America net sales increased 5.3% and other international net sales increased 12% compared with 2025. Comparable sales for our North America business increased 6% for the four-week period ended February 28, 2026, compared to the same weeks in the prior year, while comparable sales in our other international business increased 13.2%.

From a category perspective, quarter to date, hardgoods is our largest positive comping category, followed by men’s, women’s, and accessories. Footwear was our only negative comping category. The consolidated increase in comparable sales was driven by an increase in dollars per transaction, partially offset by a decrease in transactions. Dollars per transaction were up for the quarter, driven by an increase in average unit retail and an increase in units per transaction. With respect to our outlook for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, I want to remind everyone that formulating our guidance involves some inherent uncertainty and complexity in estimating sales, product margin, and earnings growth, given the variety of internal and external factors that impact our performance.

Our comparable sales results in early fiscal 2026 have maintained positive momentum, and we are cautiously optimistic that we’ll continue to deliver top and bottom-line improvements in the first quarter, assuming no significant economic impacts on the business from the current global conflicts or tariff changes. For the first quarter, we are anticipating total sales to be between $189 million and $193 million for the thirteen weeks ending May 2, 2026, representing growth of 3%-5%. Comparable sales for the same time period are expected to be between 2% and 4%. Consolidated operating loss for the first quarter is expected to be between -$15.6 million and -$17.8 million, compared to a loss of $19.9 million in the prior year.

Included in this reduction of our operating loss is continued product margin expansion in North America and Europe, as well as a benefit related to a $2.9 million one-time wage and hour litigation settlement incurred in the first quarter of 2025. This is an improvement of between 140-270 basis points as a percentage of sales. We expect this improvement to be driven by 130-200 basis points of gross margin expansion and 10-70 basis points of SG&A leverage. Before providing our first quarter EPS guidance, I’d like to point out that our loss per share comparisons of prior year is negatively impacted by favorable foreign exchange valuation and interest income items in the first quarter of 2025 that did not repeat in the first quarter of 2026.

Also, due to share buybacks in fiscal 2025, we have reduced our basic shares outstanding by approximately 10%, negatively impacting our loss per share guidance by an additional $0.07 per share. With that, we anticipate that our loss per share will be between -$0.77 and -$0.87 compared to a loss of -$0.79 in the prior year. As we consider the outlook for the full fiscal year 2026, with 7 consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales behind us and momentum into the new year, we are confident in our strategy and execution. However, caution is warranted given the ongoing volatility in the macro environment. We will refrain from giving specific annual guidance, but we’ll provide some context around how we see the business trending throughout the year.

Top line strength continues in North America, and we have lapped a promotional period in our European business last year that, along with a difficult snow season, contributed to the fourth quarter sales decline in the region. Both North America and Europe are trending positive in the first quarter to date. With relative stability in the macro environment, we believe we can grow total sales in the low single digits% for the year, inclusive of the negative impact of closed stores worth approximately $12 million in sales. From a product margin perspective, 2025 was at a high point, excluding the stimulus driven 2021 results. We believe that we will continue to grow product margin year-over-year in 2026 through steady improvements in North America and continued pricing discipline in our international entities.

We believe that our private label business will continue to grow, helping drive the overall results, including potential tariff benefits should the current situation hold throughout the year. In addition to product margin growth, we believe further leverage exists in our occupancy costs and other components that will drive gross margin expansion. With sales growth discussed, we would anticipate leverage of our SG&A costs further contributing to operating margin expansion. With the previously mentioned assumptions, we anticipate operating margin growth in the 50-100 basis points range in fiscal 2026. While effective tax rates will fluctuate by quarter, we anticipate that our full year effective tax rate will be roughly 35%-40% in fiscal 2026 compared to an effective tax rate of 44.4% in 2025. We are planning to open 5 new stores in 2026, all within the U.S.

This compares to 6 total stores opened in 2025 and 7 stores in 2024. We plan to close approximately 25 stores during fiscal 2026, including 20 in North America and 5 internationally, and we closed 17 stores during fiscal 2025. We expect our capital expenditures for 2026 to be between $14 million and $16 million compared to $11.1 million in fiscal 2025 and $15 million in 2024. We expect that depreciation and amortization, excluding non-cash lease expense, will be approximately $18.9 million, down from $21.3 million in 2025. We are currently projecting our diluted share count for the full year to be approximately 17.1 million shares. This share count does not include the impact of any future share repurchases, including those under the repurchase agreement announced today.

With that operator, we’d like to open the call up for questions.

Unknown Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask the question, please press star one one on your telephone, then wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Mitch Kummetz with Seaport. Your line is open.

Mitch Kummetz, Analyst, Seaport: Yes, thanks for taking my questions. Let me begin with Europe. I just want to better understand what’s going on there. You know, in the fourth quarter, other international was, I think, a negative 7.5% comp, and I know that you guys shifted your focus to more full price selling in the quarter. Now I think, Chris, you said you’re running up a 13.2% quarter to date for other international. So did something change in terms of the full price selling focus, or was it just Were you not lapping that issue in like quarter to date? You know, help me understand why we’re seeing such a big swing in the comp performance from fourth quarter to Q1 to date in other international. I assume it’s Europe that’s driving that.

Chris Work, Chief Financial Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Thanks, Mitch. You are right in your assumption. It is Europe just driving it. I think as you know, Mitch, following as closely as you have, I mean, we started this kind of change in strategy in late 2024, really trying to kind of reimagine what was happening in Europe as we were growing at quite a clip, but not getting to where we wanted to be from a profitability and cash flow perspective. Our determination at that time was really to slow growth and focus on growing the core business, you know, and driving to profitability and cash flow.

As you know, things don’t move as quickly as you like sometimes, but the team put a plan together, and included some, you know, change of people within the entity, and that took some time to kind of gain traction. As we moved across 2025, you know, we saw that business shrink from about $135 million to just under EUR 135 million, I should say. You know, this included. Across 2025, product margin growth of 250 basis points with Q4 up 660 basis points.

I think a big win for us, as we really reimagined the product portfolio and how we were buying inventory was even though, you know, sales were down pretty meaningfully in Q4, high single digits%, we still saw $1.8 million of operating profit growth on the back of, you know, really strong full price selling and an expense control. This is really despite a pretty soft winter overall for Q4. Also really focused on inventory management, you know, more relevant product. I think it put us in a spot to start 2026 just in a way better position than we were a year earlier. As you mentioned, you know, we have just under 90 stores now operating in nine countries. 2026 is off to a really strong start.

The 13.2% international comp is really all driven by Europe. You know, we’re not immune to the macro forces here, but we are just really laser focused on operating profit and cash flow. That, you know, includes really trying to drive a high concentration of sales out of our existing units and online where possible, rationalizing the business to its really most core tasks around just how do we bring great product into the business and serve the customer, improving product margin, you know, managing and reducing expenses where possible and just laser focused on inventory levels. I think all of that has really led to what we see now is really four months in a row of much better results, but we have a long way to go.

We’re encouraged by what we’ve seen over the last four months. Like I said, there still were a lot of work to be done, and hopefully we’ve laid a good framework for that to be done in 2026. I think, you know, at the end of the day, we continue to believe that, you know, this international growth is a positive thing for us, and it really is our best way to serve our customers, which exist all around the world and our brands. How we bring brands around the world and then, you know, just as importantly, how we identify trends. Because trends do emerge locally and grow globally, and if we are in more locations, it allows us to see those trends and help them move around the world.

We’re definitely encouraged with the last four months, in February for sure. We’re hoping to build some continued momentum into 2026.

Mitch Kummetz, Analyst, Seaport: As far as the comp guide for the quarter, I think you said a 2%-4% comp quarter to date, you’re running +7.5%. I know February is a fairly small month. Why are you anticipating, you know, worse comp performance over the balance of the quarter? You know, maybe as you address that question, can you also maybe speak to what you’re seeing in terms of like tax refunds so far? How are you thinking about, you know, higher gas prices potentially, you know, impacting your consumers?

Chris Work, Chief Financial Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Yeah. All good questions. Let me start with kind of the guide, but I think these are gonna sort of blend together. Obviously, we had a great February, really across the business. International we just spoke about. But North America was very strong too, up 6 comp across the four weeks of February. I’ll tell you as we started to see the global conflict unfold, we did see some softness in week five and have kinda guided the business into what we saw as a slowdown from where we were in February. While still positive, we just saw some softness in the business, and that’s how we planned the quarter to come out.

Now whether that’s tied to rising fuel prices, and a little bit of uncertainty in the macro environment, I think that’s to be determined, and we just need more time to figure it out. In relation to putting the guide together and how we saw our comp guide, this is really about kind of looking at what’s our current run rate, sort of post-February and drawing that out across the rest of the quarter.

Mitch Kummetz, Analyst, Seaport: All right. That’s helpful. Thanks.

Unknown Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Richard Magnusen with B. Riley. Your line is open.

Richard Magnusen, Analyst, B. Riley: Hi. Thank you for taking our call. First off, it looks like your private label penetration was strong in Q4 at probably around 30%. During the holiday season, did you notice any change in certain categories regarding the performance of private label versus, you know, the branded products? Was it pretty much the same trends in different categories that you saw throughout the year?

Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Zumiez Inc.: I’ll start, Richard, and then Chris can add in, but give you some context. I don’t think we saw any major changes. There are certain categories of business that are really dominated by our private label, our own brands. Sometimes it’s hard to compare the branded portfolio with our private label brands. I think you have to think of those as each of them are targeted a bit different segment of our business. I don’t think I would call out any significant trend direction changes from a private label perspective that I can think of, in terms of the category performance for the brands, and they performed well.

We also had some new brands that have performed really well too on the branded side. I think it’s a combination of both. The new brands tend to be more focused on the T-shirts and fleeces and hats and the more screenable portion of the business. I think your private label is more dominated by the pants departments within the business. They’re kind of a bit separated in that sense. Both have, I think, done well and continue positively Q4.

Richard Magnusen, Analyst, B. Riley: Okay. My last, second question is, Easter is looking just over three weeks away. What can you tell us about your expectations of timing regarding, you know, your spring assortments and any observed consumer preferences and the impact of, you know, recent weather in different parts of the U.S. and the cadence of promo around Easter weekend?

Chris Work, Chief Financial Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Sure. I’ll kind of take a crack at it. This kind of falls into our planning arena and let Rick talk. Obviously, Easter has pulled up, so we have kind of started our putting our product out in a way that will take advantage of that, obviously, and planning the business to have a little higher bump in the middle part of the quarter versus a little bit later in the quarter. We’re certainly planning on that. You know, Richard, from a promotional perspective, this is just not really our game. We try to stay really full price and full margin.

I think you see that within our product margin results here across 2025 and really the last few years as we’ve really been able to grow product margin, and that’s not just our private label business, that’s our branded business as well, really working with our partners to refine this. I don’t see anything specific there. We do have a variety of what I will call sort of, you know, spring season initiatives that, as you would imagine, would play into the gift giving that happens around Easter, but also just into what you would expect from a seasonal floor set. I’m not going to go into those in detail either. That’s kind of part of our product and secret sauce. You know, we’re always trying to bring new in.

I think that’s what the customer wants. That’s what we’re really happy we’ve been able to provide within private label. You know, to kind of add on to your last question, too, of what we’ve been able to do in our branded portfolio. I mean, our branded, our top 20 brands really continue to gain traction this year as a percent of the total business, which we view as a good thing. I mean, we go through these cycles where, you know, our biggest brands will kind of ebb and flow, and sometimes they disaggregate, and we bring on a lot of new brands, and other times they aggregate. Hopefully that leads to, you know, really strong results as they grow in breadth and depth. Right? I think all those things are playing into the business.

You see it really across all of our categories, whether we’re talking about Q4 or whether we’re talking about February, we’re up with the exception of footwear. Footwear continues to be the one area of challenge for us, but that’s our model. We’re really excited to be running a total comp and obviously running a big portion of the business positive.

Richard Magnusen, Analyst, B. Riley: Thank you.

Unknown Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that’s star one one to ask the question. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Dylan Carden with William Blair. Your line is open.

Unknown Analyst (on for Dylan Carden), Analyst, William Blair: Hi, you guys got me?

Chris Work, Chief Financial Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Got you.

Unknown Analyst (on for Dylan Carden), Analyst, William Blair: Awesome. I’m on for Dylan Carden. Just wanted to ask a follow-up to an earlier question about international. Obviously, you’ve seen a lot of volatility in that area. Can you tell me what you guys are doing to, you know, stabilize the area and have greater visibility into future growth? And then I have a follow-up.

Chris Work, Chief Financial Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Yeah, I’ll kind of add on to my earlier comment and let Rick jump in if he has anything to add. I mean, I think, like all of our business, it really does start with product. As we started to think about reimagining the business at the end of 2024, part of it was slowing growth just to make sure the focus was really laser focused. It was about looking at products and saying, how do we see trends, see where that customer is at, see who that customer is, and bring it to them in a way that they will adapt to and they’ll be excited about. Of course, we can sell it at full price.

This was really about rethinking that, really starting to look at our assortments and who we are carrying and how we are carrying them and what they were saying to the customer and starting to push that into the business in a different way than we’ve been doing. Obviously, as you can imagine, that takes time when you buy seasons ahead of time. You know, for us, we knew in the turnover at the end of late 2024 that it would be sort of a back to school holiday time period where we start to see this take shape. We were pretty encouraged by some of the early areas we reimagined and bet and what those meant going into Q4.

You know, some of those same items that we were dropping even late into Q4 that we’re, you know, driving into 2026. It’s really about product. I mean, there’s a huge part of execution beyond that of, you know, your store environment and the people in stores and how they bring the product to life. We continue to invest in that. We continue to invest in our teams there, just like we do here in North America. I mean, this is really about driving a human to human relationship, right? Of how you connect with your customer and how you talk with them. That’s been part of what we’ve driven as well.

We think, you know, when you have the right product and you can bring it to them in a way that you really connect with them, I think that drives a different experience and hopefully one that brings that customer back again and again.

Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Can I just add that, again, just for context, I think we have looked deeply at every area of our business in Europe. As Chris said earlier, that we’ve made some personnel changes in terms of some of the leadership in Europe and how we’re leading, particularly at some really key areas. You know, we’re just leaving no stone unturned as we revisit every aspect of what we’re doing. Again, I really encourage, as Chris has laid out with the Q4 reports, I just highlight again that was against a very one of our worst snow years ever in Europe, and we have a very dominant position in the snow retailing business in Europe. Despite the difficult snow year, we still were able to improve the bottom line results by a pretty good amount. We’re really encouraged.

I think we’re heading the right way. As Chris said, we have a long ways to go and a lot of work to do and more work to come. We’re very, very focused on making sure that we are continuing to improve the assortments, bring newness into the business, make sure that we’re really delivering great experience for customers and commercializing our offering as we think about delivering to customers across all channels.

Unknown Analyst (on for Dylan Carden), Analyst, William Blair: Thank you. For stores, where are you guys in terms of how many more years maybe do you guys think about closing stores? For the new stores that you are opening for this year, it looks like you’re gonna open up 5. You know, over the last couple of years, how have those new stores been performing? Are they at a higher, you know, Do you think that they’re gonna hit a higher, sales per store maturity curve than your other stores? Just any comments on basic productivity for the first year or two years for your new stores. Thank you.

Chris Work, Chief Financial Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Yeah, sure. Let me, you know, I’ll talk about new stores real quickly, and then we can talk about closures. I think, you know, this is really, I would say, post-pandemic, you’ve seen our store openings slow from historical levels, which we kind of knew was gonna be part of it. Obviously, with North America more built out, and International being our area of further growth. Over the last few years, as we’ve talked about here on the call today, you know, we have slowed the International just from a standpoint of really focusing on profitability and cash flow. So, the store opening cadence is much less. I think when you think about opening approximately five stores a year in North America, the last few classes of stores, it’s been really good.

We’ve been able to be selective in where we’re opening and really try to fill markets or fill opportunities we’ve wanted to get into for a long time. You know, there’s still a lot of or a fair amount of good assets in the country that we wanna get in. We just have to find that right fit, right? That right location within the mall at the right economics that makes sense for us to be able to invest. I’m quite happy with how the real estate team and our store operations team has performed here in the last few years in our openings and, you know, each class having, you know, more winners than tougher situations. That’s a really good thing.

From a closure perspective, you know, we started maybe more significantly in closing stores in 2023, and then in 2024, a few more, and last year was around 17. We are forecasting we’ll be ahead of that 17 number this year, although I’ll tell you these are forecasts. You’re never quite sure what’s gonna happen in those markets and how malls will move or, economics can change. We are expecting to close approximately 20 stores in North America and 5 internationally. Our closure process is, as you would expect, it’s a diligent process, right? It’s looking at each trade area we’re in, each market we’re in. Are there underperformers? Are there opportunities for consolidation? Trying to figure out where those opportunities are.

I mean, we look at everything from sales and profitability, what the store’s impact on that trade area is in regards to how it helps fulfill product and, you know, even kind of leverage with the A centers in the market. Obviously the conditions of the centers, who the landlords are, how they’re investing in the center. You know, we try to really manage to peak performance. You know, and if that peak performance was 10+ years ago, sometimes it speaks to where that center is headed, right? Then obviously, we try to do whatever we can around store economics before we walk away. You know, all those things combined, it’s about sales growth.

I think that’s why when we talk about 2026, we talk about growing sales in the low single digits% despite, you know, closing some stores that are about $12 million impact. At the end of the day, I mean, we’re really just trying to consolidate. We’ve given ourselves a challenge for quite some time, but, you know, we don’t wanna have one more store than we need in any given trade area, right? That’s just extra capital and inventory you’ve got tied up. We’re really trying to be intentional about it. Internationally, this will be a few more closures than we’ve had historically in 2026 as expected. That’s really just kind of, I’ll say trimming that portfolio as well, right? We’re trying to look at stores and say, "Okay, these ones are definitely working. They’re great locations.

There’s maybe a mid-class that we’re happy with, but we think we can still do better. There’s a third class that’s kind of the lower class of stores that we are like, "All right, we really have to make movement here or we will see consolidation." That’s where we’re kind of at this point is kinda going, "Okay, some of these are not making the traction we need, and they’re closures to make the overall business better.

Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Zumiez Inc.: Can I just add in that again, with a little bit larger context, as Chris said, 10, 15 years out, what we’re seeing in the U.S. is actually finally the end of a, I think, the final leg on a bunch of mall locations at the lower end C and D volume mall locations where we had traditionally been able to make some money, but now they’ve just got to the point where they’re just not working anymore. The important point in this is that as you saw the results in 2024 and 2025 where we closed units, total sales grew in North America. What we’re really talking about is how customer behavior has changed and moved to different centers within the trade areas. I think that’s.

This is kind of long-term tale of playing out of better malls are winning and the lesser malls are finally really losing to the point of closure. We’re often one of the last retailers to leave in some of these centers. It’s not about per se sales declining. It’s about how customers are moving to the better retail experiences in the stronger and better malls.

Unknown Analyst (on for Dylan Carden), Analyst, William Blair: Thank you.

Unknown Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m showing no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the call back to Rick for closing remarks.

Rick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Zumiez Inc.: All right. Thank you again all for all of your questions today, and we always appreciate your great interest in what we’re doing and the progress we’re making towards building back towards our historical profitability levels. As I said earlier, really wanna thank everyone on our team and our partners and our brand partners and the support as we really drive better results. Much appreciated from everybody, and we’ll talk to you again in June. Thank you.

Unknown Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.