Thanks very much. It's great to be here. It's just not sunny Florida today, but it's still Florida. As you said, I'm Neil Bowden, the CFO here at Canada Goose. I'll just give a quick overview of the company for those who are not familiar with us. Then we'll get into some detail with Rick. We're a public company based in Canada. We've been a public company since March 2017. Over that time frame, we've had a very significant amount of growth on the top line.
We started as basically a one product or one category heavyweight down parka brand and have evolved materially beyond that into a number of other categories: lightweight down, knitwear, which I happen to be wearing today. We've got footwear, accessories, et cetera. We are very much a luxury brand. Today, in the year that we just finished a year ago, we inched across CAD 1.3 billion. Really resilient business model in terms of gross margin in the high 60s. Pretty phenomenal channel mix between direct-to-consumer and our wholesale business. In the year that we're just finishing now, at the end of March, we'll be at about 80 stores worldwide.
Those stores tend to be distributed across North America, which is the region that we're in obviously today, in Europe and in Asia. In Asia is mainly, mainly in China and Japan. We will get into a little bit of what that looks like, I'm sure, in the conversation with Rick. Over the time period as we moved into the direct-to-consumer channel, what we've really seen is growth in consumer base, significant growth in categories. We have had pretty significant margin compression. We are not happy really about where our SG&A is as a percentage of revenue. We see that as a major opportunity going forward to get back to where our peak margins are.
Our operating margin in the year that we closed was 13%. That is off of our high of 25%. The competitive advantages that we see beyond the business model is that we have a deep heritage. This brand is loved around the world. It is highly recognized for what it is. I have got the familiar patch on today. You see those patches in places like Munich and Tokyo and Shanghai and Los Angeles and all kinds of places around the world. It is really awesome to see. We are a vertically integrated brand as well. Part of that gross margin resilience is about having owned manufacturing.
We manufacture in Canada all of our down products. In Europe, we have a good manufacturing network, most of which is outsourced for things like knitwear, rainwear, et cetera. The talent in the team across all of our disciplines is second to none. That obviously underpins the strength of the organization. For 2025, we were very focused on a few key things. First of all, set the foundation for the next phase of brand and product evolution. Just about a year ago in the early part of our Q1, we announced Haider Ackermann as our first creative director.
He launched a capsule of Snow Goose products, which was our heritage name prior to Canada Goose, a select set of products that were released to the market in November of this year. Created a lot of brand heat. We expect that over time, Haider's influence will extend beyond just the Snow Goose products and into the core mainline products. The second is a tremendous focus on best-in-class retail execution. As you heard, we are at 80 stores today or just about 80 stores today. We have added those stores over a fairly short period of time. Learning to be a really good luxury retailer has taken some time.
We get into some of the nitty-gritty. We focus very much on things like labor optimization and productivity in the stores. The economics in the stores today are CAD 4,000 a square foot . Really, really high, very high productivity on a per-store basis. There is opportunity for a greater number given that the concentration is mainly in the third quarter or at least in our peak season. Let's say from October until January. Expanding product categories can really help drive some productivity through the store. Over the last 12 months, we've been laser-focused on how do we continue to get the most out of stores in what we can all acknowledge has been still a bit of a choppy macro environment.
The last point is really around simplification. How do we do things a little bit simpler? Entrepreneurship is very much a core value at Canada Goose. Being fast and operating with pace and sense of urgency and doing things in a leaner way has been a key focus in this fiscal year. I'll just quickly touch on the Q3 year-to-date results. For the year or the nine months ended at the end of December, numbers are up here on the screen, but we've got CAD 964 million of sales.
A 1% decline year- over- year. That is really a function of two things. One, we had a planned decline in wholesale. We have been editing the wholesale door count and order book over the last several years in order to sort of right-size what both the partner set is as well as inventory in the channel. We feel like we are towards the end of that journey. The other part of it is comp store sales. A key measure of any retailer is going to be, how are you operating in your comp doors? I would say that we are not as satisfied with how we performed this year as we would like, although we certainly saw a ton of green shoots towards the end of the quarter.
December was a very strong month. January has continued to be good. While we're satisfied with a number that in a pretty tough operating environment is good, we know that there's more to grow. Gross margin in a great spot. SG&A as a percentage of revenue. Again, not quite as happy with where that is. Mainly that is about revenue scale and not necessarily around cost control. We've done a good job over the last 24 months in being disciplined on cost. Revenue scale matters. That delivers operating leverage. Adjusted EBIT sort of in the mid-11s for the year. A number that is, I'd say, fine, but still far away from what we believe our potential is.
With that, Rick, we can get into some more details.
Great.
I'll just go back to this one here.
Thanks a lot, Neil, for the overview. I'd like to start by digging into the direct-to-consumer strategy. For years, the company's been in an evolution with its focus more into the DTC channel, a shift away from wholesale. Can you just talk to us about why you're doing this, where you are in the journey, and how you see it being financially accretive?
We opened our first store in 2016. Our view at the time was, even with a very robust wholesale business, getting as close to the consumer as possible mattered a lot. Delivering a luxury consumer experience continues to be something that we believe matters in terms of growing the consumer base as well as keeping the repeat consumers or keeping the consumers engaged for repeat purchases. We've had some pretty cool innovation in the stores on Snow Room as an example, which is you can go in, put a coat on, and go into the Snow Room if you haven't been to a store.
That level of conversion is something that can't be offered at a wholesale business. I think it also gives us the opportunity to showcase the full line of products. It gives people an opportunity to storytell. You own the narrative when you operate your own stores. We're approaching 80 stores. We'll be close to 80 stores by the end of this year. I think our view is probably that's maybe half of where we think the potential is. There are lots of markets where we are, I'd say, under-penetrated.
There are particular cities where we've got a good foothold, but maybe not all the way there. We know that in a business model that can operate at $4,000 a square foot , the profit opportunity here is pretty significant. We think that both from a business model standpoint as well as reaching consumers directly, it's exactly where we need to be going.
Let's talk about China. Obviously, very important market for luxury brands. I believe it's about a quarter of your business. We're seeing a lot of headwinds, obviously, in the marketplace right now. Can you just talk to us about what you're seeing in the business? When you zoom out and think about the bigger picture, where do you see the most opportunity for growth in China?
Yeah. I mean, when we talk about markets, I always like to start with brands. The brand health in China is very strong. We've spent a lot of time, without surprise, on consumer data, on evaluating how our brand health is moving. It has been high and stable for a long time, which tells us that there continues to be appetite for Canada Goose products. In the current operating environment, as you've probably seen elsewhere, it has been a challenge. I think that challenge has affected luxury businesses.
We feel like we're holding our own. The data that we've got suggests that whether that's how we're performing in individual malls or how traffic patterns have moved relative to others, we feel like we're holding our own. Our view is in a market that is that big that eventually will be in maybe a more stable place, we'll continue to invest because we know that the brand is loved there. It's loved beyond just the core products. We see lots of opportunity in China.
How about the U.S.? In the U.S., we've seen some luxury companies show green shoots, recovery in demand. Is that something that Canada Goose is seeing in its business? Same question, when you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, what do you see as the strongest levers for growth in North America?
Yeah. I would agree with that. It has not been the best operating environment in the U.S. over the last, I would say, 24 months for sure. I would say coming through the sort of October time frame this year was a challenge for us. We see that in the numbers. December was an absolutely stellar month for us in the U.S. Comps were well in excess of, well into the double digits. That has continued into January. That suggests to me, and we are not alone in that performance, that the consumer is feeling a little bit better, a little more robust about where they are at for whatever reason.
Obviously, there are some challenges in the operating environment here as we are navigating. I am sure we are going to get into it that may put some pressure on the U.S. consumer. At least for the time being, there appears to be some good health. It has persisted for now several months.
On the product side of things, you touched on the hiring of Haider Ackermann, your first ever creative director about a year ago. Can you just double-click on the commentary that you touched on? How should we think about the collections that he's working on? When you think about the time that it takes to bring products actually to market, when do we really start to see that scale and build momentum?
Really exciting, actually, for us. First time we've had a creative director. Up until this point, it's been really high, very talented folks, but a little less brand recognition, obviously. Haider came to the business about a year ago, started working on the collection that was the capsule that was launched in November of this past 2024, rather, just this past calendar year. That was intentionally limited. It covered a number of categories, but it was a very small set of products and overall a small volume, but totally different colors, patterns. The creative energy was infused in who we selected to participate in the campaign.
Ethan Hawke was sort of the hero, but there were some other well-known models which were handpicked really by Haider. That influence has continued in the way that the art looks and will continue from this point forward. That creative energy is felt across the business just beyond just the product itself. I think what's really critical is our time to market is typically longer than that. From the design to when product got in the market, many of those products were made in our own facilities in Canada was much shorter. We learned a ton about how do you be nimble in a situation where you want to be faster to market.
We used some of that knowledge to respond to consumer demand in season, make some products as a particular fleece style that we make in Winnipeg that we were able to quickly move to. The nimbleness on demand is higher than we expected. Can we make this product? Can we get it into market in the season? It was something that we was a learning from Haider. And we could apply to some of the mainline. To get to the question about, OK, well, when does that influence start to happen? It's already felt sort of indirectly.
As we get into our 2026 season, so the season that we're just starting to enter, this will be Fall/ Winter 2025, but a year from now, his influence into the mainline will start in a little more pronounced way.
As we think about the evolution that's going on in product, can you help us think about the heavyweight down and parka business in particular? That's where the company's roots are, as we are all known for. Obviously, with Haider as part of the equation, there's going to be a lot of diversity going on with innovation. What does that mix of heavyweight down product look like in the future versus where it's at right now?
I think there's no question that the mix decreases. That's by design. It's been by design for a while as we have added other categories. For instance, we sold our first lightweight down product in 2012. Now it's a quarter of the business. We've sold the first piece of knitwear in 2016. The apparel business is beginning to be a significant part of the business. I think we had something like 40% growth year over year. The category growth beyond the parka or downfilled outerwear, because from the consumer's perspective, if you live in Los Angeles, maybe you're not necessarily buying a parka, but maybe you want to buy a piece of lightweight down, that size of that downfilled outerwear business is likely going to be a smaller percentage of our overall business.
We still see major opportunity to grow, particularly as we expand into other categories and other geographies, and particularly as you get some more influence from Haider to sort of reinfuse, whether that's color or whether that's pattern or whether that's just entirely new styles. We know that we can reach more consumers. The growth opportunities for us are beyond that. If I connect that to the way the business model works, selling things in our first quarter or our second quarter starts to drive some pretty interesting comp benefits.
I'd love to shift gears and focus more on margins. There's a lot of structural changes going on within the company as we think about performance by geography, by channel, even within the product area. As we think about all of this in aggregate, how do we think about the performance of gross margins for this year? You're about to wrap up your year. How do we think about the just bigger picture puts and takes?
Yeah. I mean, gross margin is really one of—I mean, I'm a finance guy. So it's one of my favorite things to talk about here because it's such a powerful indication of the strength of this business. If you start with where we were 10 or so years ago, we were sort of gross margin in the low 60s. We had a very small e-commerce business and mainly wholesale business. Now, the wholesale business operates in kind of the high 40s as a gross margin business. Today, that gross margin is approaching 70%. We expect to be sort of in the 69% range or maybe 68% range this year. That's about where we were last year.
That has come with, as we just talked about, a lot of change to the product mix where we were making one product that was a very high margin, our highest margin in the case of heavyweight down. We have evolved that product mix materially from nearly 100% of the business to about 50% of the business and maintained the level of gross margins in both the wholesale channel, again, sort of upper 40s. Last year, we were a little bit north of 50%. In the DTC channel, we are 75% plus. We have had some pricing opportunity, which we have taken. We are a vertically integrated business.
We have the ability to control costs in our own manufacturing facility. That has come as we have changed demand cycles and managed supply. I continue to see opportunity in gross margin. I think the ability to stay in that same zone while, at least at the channel level, while we have changed the product mix is just a powerful indication of how we have managed all of those puts and takes and whether those are supply chain issues or whether those are cost inflation on the inbound or navigating through COVID. All of those things are rolled into that. We have expanded gross margin materially over that time.
As we think about the near-term swing factors of gross margins, hard not to talk about tariffs. I know it's a very fluid situation. It seems to change by the day or week. Can you help us understand your exposure to the countries that are going to be impacted by tariffs? How do we think about mitigation strategies?
Yeah. I mean, tariffs are an interesting part of operating in a global business. Today, prior to yesterday, literally, we have—so we manufacture in Canada. We manufacture in Europe. There's a small amount of Asian manufacturing, but it's de minimis for these purposes. We're importing to all of our markets: China, Europe, U.S., Canada, et cetera. There are tariffs. There were tariffs. There are tariffs on lots of that business. Inbound to China as a, for instance, or inbound from Europe into the U.S. or to Canada in some cases or Canada into the U.K. The point is, operating a global business means you have to deal with that regime.
We've accommodated that over time. I think the tariffs that went into effect yesterday, which obviously, proud Canadian, I'm clearly disappointed by that situation. We're going to have to navigate it. This is not obviously a surprise. To the extent that we were able to pre-position inventory in the U.S., we did that. That gives us some temporary relief for a period of time. In the sort of short term, we are not today looking at any material changes in price. I think we'll evaluate that on a much more rigorous basis. We tend to increase prices only once a year on about the 1st of April. We've already made those decisions. That process is not going to change today.
We are going to evaluate that on a more frequent basis in the event that we need to do something there. I think the consumer will speak as to whether that can be accommodated. Raising prices, in my view, does not mean trying to cover 100% of the impact. That's just not practical, at least not in the very short term. Over the medium term, there's other medium to long term. There's potential mitigation where could we—are there ways to deal with where the value is created and that sort of thing? We're taking a look at that, which is not surprising to you. To what extent can we influence government relations?
Those are the things that we're having to look at. I think we're not currently contemplating any movement of manufacturing. That's a much longer-term play. We believe that making in Canada is the best place for us to make, or to the extent we make in Europe, that's the best place for us to make. We're not considering that. To the extent that there is best-in-class manufacturing of categories that we would be involved in based in the U.S., we'd certainly explore that. We would have explored that regardless of whether the tariffs are in place.
Can you double-click on the point of taking higher prices? I know historically, I believe it's been a part of your growth algorithm to take prices every spring. In the past, I think we've seen mid-single-digit price increases. Can you contextualize the opportunity going forward? Is this something that happens on a global basis, or are you surgical by market?
Yeah. We're very surgical by market. I think in luxury businesses, you've got traveling consumers who have exposure to pricing in all different markets. Sometimes they shop advantageously. Sometimes they're sort of price agnostic. We want to know what are the currency movements. To the extent that there are tariffs or taxes or what have you in a particular market, we might focus on what the relative arbitrage might be between certain markets that are maybe in close proximity. That's the sort of scientific piece of it. I think the more relevant question is, what kind of product are we creating?
How is that product resulting in the consumer desiring what it is that we make? How are we creating really interesting stories around what that product is? Price sort of follows that. Yeah, sort of the math says that historically we've done about mid-single digits. We've had the luxury of a very strong carryover business. We take lots of data from consumers on how they feel about those price increases. For the year that's upcoming, we're looking at a fairly muted price increase, which was by design. As I said, not planning on necessarily revisiting that, at least in the very kind of near term.
I'd love to better understand the puts and takes around SG&A as well. As you invest in innovation, your go-to-market strategies, how do we think about the investments that are needed to fuel growth in the future versus I think you've made more efficient decisions with new store openings, with the organization? Just how do we think about the opportunity there?
Yeah. I think outside of sort of the corporate cost base, which is mainly people and office kind of related stuff, which is an area that we've talked about a lot, has probably grown at a faster rate than we would have liked. We've made some tough decisions around people and headcount over the last 24 months that has helped in that regard. When I think about operating leverage, I think a lot about how do we scale revenue quickly because that's really the secret here and scaling that through some new stores, but also through comp performance improvement. To look at what we have in that SG&A base, certainly marketing investment is critical for us. It's a significant part of being a luxury brand.
It might be an area where we've got opportunity to maybe mix a little differently between sort of upper funnel and brand building versus lower funnel and performance marketing. Getting that balance right at the right time is critical to driving operating performance in our view. Other area of investment, this is a year where we've put some considerable dollars in building up the Paris design studio. Haider is based in Paris. We have a physical place there. As the year's gone on, we've added some talent underneath him to start to build out some of the future collections, as we talked about.
That's an area where we know there's lots of future opportunity and a good level of investment. The other areas of SG&A investment, sometimes there's IT enablement, certainly into the channels, having stores.` T his is a year where we've paused or been much slower on store growth entirely because our focus has been how do we drive improvement in the stores that we have.
Can you put it all together for us as we think about just the total operating margin picture, where things are likely to shake out in the near term versus what you see as the opportunity longer term?
Yeah. Our high- water mark for operating margin was 24.9%, which was our fiscal 2019 year, so now a little bit in the rearview mirror. We closed the year out last year at 12.9%. We are expecting to be maybe a little bit short of that this year. For sure, we believe that those sort of mid-20s are the potential of the business. Our pathway to get there has been, quite frankly, slower than we expected and slower than we want it to be. I think in the near term, the pathway to get there and really the long term is still how do we scale revenue and revenue growth because it is so critical to driving operating leverage in the channels and therefore operating leverage on the cost base. That is going to take longer than we had originally anticipated. There is no question about that.
In terms of putting some precision around when that is, we're not really ready to make that commitment.
Lastly, can you just touch on capital allocation?
Sure.
What are the primary uses of cash as you look ahead?
No surprise, just connected to the last answer, it's really revenue growth. Whether that is specifically opening new stores or adding new stores to the base or whether that is helping with things like building out a Paris design studio or that sort of thing, the number one area is how do we drive growth. Second is how do we generate good returns for shareholders. Probably third is some debt reduction. That has not been an area of focus. It's mainly been about driving growth.
Great. Thank you for the insights, Neil. Thank you all for your interest.
Very good. Thanks, Rick. Good to be here. Thanks, everyone.