Thanks for joining the next session here. I'm John Comp, Baird Senior Analyst, covering the active lifestyle sector. Very pleased to be joined by Canada Goose. The company, as you may know, was founded in the 1950s, has created an iconic, authentic performance brand known for producing the warmest jackets in the coldest place on Earth, in Canada. The company has been successfully diversifying across product lines and, year to date, recently reported encouraging rebound in same-store sales and profitability. I'm joined here today by Neil Bowden, the CFO, and I'm going to turn it to you, Neil.
Great. Thanks, John. It's really good to be back at the Baird Conference again. Yeah, I'm here to talk about Canada Goose. Let me just get through the legal jargon. As John says, we just reported our fiscal 2025 year here for the year ended March 2025. About two weeks ago, we delivered revenue of CAD 1.3 billion, which was small growth, about 1% year over year. We've been a public company now since 2017, and on an eight-year basis, we've done 16% CAGR on the top line. Lots of expansion as we've moved from what was entirely a wholesale business and mainly concentrated in heavyweight down products, the sort of iconic part that John referred to, into a much broader set of products: lightweight down, apparel, footwear, etc.
We've also moved, as I said, from a wholesale business that was mainly concentrated in North America to a global D2C business. We ended the year of 2025 with 74 stores across 13 markets. Our key markets are China, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Europe, and then Japan, and we've got stores in Australia and a few other places. The mix of that is 75% or so D2C business, 20% or so wholesale, and the rest is our other channel. Gross margin 70% for the year that we just finished, 100 basis points of expansion, and EBIT margin at 13% for the year, just slightly down year over year. That's an area where we have spent a lot of time focusing on expanding operating margin and have been a little bit less successful over the last several years.
That is an area where we are focused on moving forward as we continue to build out our D2C network. The competitive advantages that we bring are: one, resilient business model. The store economics are very strong. We do nearly CAD 4,000 a sq ft, and there is plenty of opportunity for improvement in both same-store sales as well as as we expand the retail network. We are a brand that is recognized globally. The patch that I am wearing today is iconic. You see it in airports. You see it on the streets everywhere. I am sure if you went outside New York in the middle of January, we would certainly see a lot of Canada Goose patches as you would in Tokyo and Shanghai and Toronto. We own our manufacturing, so vertical integration, the majority of it makes a lot of sense. We make all our downfield products in Canada.
That gives us some gross margin leverage. We own a facility in Romania that makes knitwear, and we outsource the rest of it to Europe. The last thing, which is obviously critical to the mix, is having a really talented, dedicated team, cross-functional, headquartered in Toronto, but we've also got offices around the world. For the year that we just closed, John alluded to it. I won't cover the fiscal 2025 full year numbers, but the quarter that ended for the first time in a little while, we delivered some positive comp sales of 7%. Very strong performance as it relates to marketing driving brand heat, having D2C initiatives for conversion. Even in markets where we didn't necessarily see traffic arrive, we had D2C conversion improvement as we build out the store staff, and we'll talk a little bit about that, the labor investment.
The last thing is we have had a real significant increase in product categories, so outside of the main parka, into things like apparel, into lightweight down, rainwear. Rainwear was very successful in Q4, and that delivered obviously some expansion on gross margin and a solid operating margin in the fourth quarter. We ended the year on a good level of momentum, and as we said in the call a few weeks ago, we started fiscal 2026 in more or less the same boat. In spite of sort of what's a turbulent situation in the global trade world, we feel quite good about where we are and the fruits that we're seeing of all the things that we've put in place. Our plan for fiscal 2026 centers around those key initiatives and continuing to build on, first of all, brand heat through marketing initiatives.
We had a very significant moment in late November where Haider Ackermann launched the first capsule, and he is our first creative director. That generated a ton of brand heat, which translated into traffic improvements in stores and website sessions. We know that that type of activity, which ultimately does yield more resonance and starts to expand the consumer set, really delivers for us, and we saw that over the last several months. Second, as I have talked about, Haider is the creative director. He is bringing that really a different focus on the product, and he started with a handful of capsules. We had one in November. We have another one coming here in the next few months, next few weeks, rather, and again in the fall.
Beyond that, expanding into year-round relevance, lots more knitwear and apparel, everyday wear, things where our consumers have really signaled that they want to see Canada Goose playing. Third, excellence inside the D2C channel, particularly in stores. How do we put in place a number of retail initiatives that deliver comp store sales? That is the ultimate measure here. We have seen over the last six months a lot of success in that area, matching labor to traffic, having inventory in the right place, compensating our store staff for delivering on the initiatives that are critical to top-line growth. Last, operating with pace and accountability. That is all about cost discipline. Over the last several years, we have put a great deal of focus around corporate cost containment on an ultimate path to margin expansion.
Those are the highlights here. John, I imagine you have a number of questions, and happy to get into it.
Yeah, thanks for that overview, Neil. First, just you mentioned the turnaround in same-store sales happened last calendar late in the year. Last calendar year, it's continued into 2025 here. Just how do you think about the factors you mentioned, the biggest contributors to that turnaround, and what should investors take away about sustaining some of the momentum going forward here?
Yeah, so I mean, I'm going to probably sound like a broken record on the three levers that we've been pulling. Driving a real interest in the brand and brand heat is resonating with consumers, and we see that showing up in traffic in most of our markets. Not all markets are seeing positive traffic, and we can absolutely see some pressure on the Chinese consumer. The U.K. seems to be a spot where things are still a little bit touch and go, but in markets like the U.S., in Canada, and in continental Europe, it's been very strong. That's no good if you don't have those retailing basics in place.
Over the last 12 months, we've spent a ton of time as a team ensuring that we have the right level of training in place, that our brand ambassadors, our BAs are aligned to the outcomes that we want, that we're monitoring the performance, that we have inventory available and replenished on the right cadence. I mean, these sound like retail basics, and they are. As we've expanded, we didn't necessarily have that infrastructure in place. As we've gotten that labor lined up with traffic, it has borne some fruit.
Clearly having a product that's resonating, whether that's Snow Goose, where people have seen some interest and have converted on something that's more core, or whether it's rainwear where you see a new color launched late in Q4 and people are buying like a bright orange piece of rainwear, those things seem to have resonated and consumers are converting. It has been a real good controllable playbook that we believe we need to continue to lean into.
You mentioned a couple of times now the Snow Goose and the new capsule. Just what are your takeaways from that first initial launch? You mentioned more coming up in terms of additional capsules, but how is the initial performance impacting how you're viewing that as an opportunity?
Yeah, so I'm going to focus mainly on the brand heat component of that because the commercial aspirations for that set of products are not strong. It is not intended to be a real commercial driver in terms of revenue, but it is intended to capture a consumer that may have been a Canada Goose consumer in the past or one that maybe has stayed away from the brand thinking that we make black parkas and we're long past that. Our plan for fiscal 2025 was centered on big moments. We focused on when the Snow Goose launch occurred, which was end of November, we're going to put some real marketing heft behind that. That translated directly into interest among key opinion leaders. We got some really good press around Haider's affiliation with our brand.
It meant that a different type of fashion press, for instance, was starting to talk about the brand again. That made a big difference. Consumers, we could see, go to the website, follow the Snow Goose through, and ultimately convert at something else. We know that a different type of performance occurred directly as a sort of a halo result of Snow Goose. The other learning was we were too quiet on marketing during the year. Between sort of the summer period of time when we had a commercial moment almost all the way through November, we did not do enough marketing at the top of the funnel to drive awareness. Lots of bottom of the funnel sort of paid media and search, which are easier to measure, and that is effective, but not as effective as that top of the funnel awareness growing behavior.
Our plan for fiscal 2026 took both learnings, the good from the halo driven by Snow Goose and the learning around we need to be always on, married those two, and we have a full plan to invest throughout the year and drive commercial outcomes.
As you think about planning the business as the CFO, I know we were talking earlier about from a strategic perspective, finding the right balance of marketing and investments versus protecting the profitability. Maybe just expand a little bit more on the investments you're making and why you see them as a good investment.
Yeah, I think first of all, it helps to have really highly capable colleagues around the table who bring forward what are pretty great ideas about what we ultimately need to do. It also helps that we've got some data points that say that that is working. As the CFO, sometimes, yeah, you have to make a call or maybe bring a bit of skepticism to some of those investments, but ultimately we have seen the data and we know that this is working and we believe it's the right thing to do. The right thing to do really for us means does it drive long-term value? We know that brand heat drives long-term value. We know what it was like at times when we've had and seen that heat.
Putting some top-of-the-funnel activity to either bring people back to the brand or to bring in a new type of consumer into the brand, whether that is through Snow Goose or through something else that we have in our mainline, is critical. I think for now, absolutely we are on board with doing that and we expect it to return. Whether that profitability happens in this year or whether it happens over time, I think we are going to have to have a bit of a wait-and-see approach on that.
You mentioned looking more shorter-term China and the U.K. having some traffic challenges. How is the brand reacting? What are you seeing in the market? Just maybe expand a little further.
Yeah, I think I'll focus on China maybe specifically. Out of the gate here in fiscal 2026 for us, one of the things that we have done is started to do a little more out-of-home activity, and we have seen that translate to some traffic improvement in our stores. I can't speak to whether that is yet, because it's just a little bit too early, whether that is over and above what's happening in the rest of the market, but we're certainly encouraged by what seems to be a little bit of a rebound there. Again, I'm talking about the last few weeks. If I sort of zoom out on what can we do in environments where the traffic is depressed aside from attempt to generate some more demand, it's all about what are we doing once you're in the store.
Do we have the right level of training? Do we have the labor that matches that expected traffic when you arrive? When you're there, are you getting that Canadian warmth experience? Do you feel like it's a luxury experience? Do we have the product that you want in your size? If we don't, can we lean into our omnichannel capabilities and have that product delivered? The optimization is all about the things that we can control once you're there. We have seen conversion improvement in both the U.K. and in China over the last quarter, helping mitigate some of that impact to traffic. I think we're satisfied with that, which we can control, albeit there's much more opportunity.
That's where I wanted to go next. The adjustments you made to the retail model, you made progress, but what are you looking at in terms of further opportunity to continue to improve the retail operations?
Yeah, I'm going to sort of go back to some of the same things here. It's mainly about probably getting a little bit more calibrated on matching labor and traffic. Sophistication around that traffic forecast matters and following that through with how are we training our folks around the consumer journey and what happens when they're in the store? Are we delivering the product knowledge that helps get the consumer comfortable with what they're buying? Are we getting them to the stage where they're trying on? That's a data point where if you're trying on a coat, you are more likely to convert. Starting to measure that type of behavior and really on the ground coaching from the management team in the stores matters and ensuring that that is as consistent as possible around the world.
In some ways, having 75 stores is a lot of stores, and in some ways, it's not a lot of stores. We think that we're sort of at the right balance where we can implement some of those changes consistently. We've seen that data come through here in the last several months.
In terms of future store growth, why does it make sense to modestly ramp the pace of openings, including some of the relocations that you've been doing?
Yeah, it's a question we've been getting today a lot and over the last few weeks as we've talked about our plans for 2026. We have said in the last 12 months, maybe I'll zoom back even further. In fiscal 2024, we opened something like 15 stores. In fiscal 2025, we opened four. We were very intentional about ensuring that we needed to have clear progress around some of that retail excellence that I'm describing. The first half of the year was challenged. Some of that challenge was about not having the traffic in place. Some of it was it just takes a longer period of time to change the behavior inside the stores and get some of the benefits from those investments, whether that's around labor or training or what have you. Back half of the year looked better.
As a result, we felt like investments in stores at a level that is not at the level of fiscal 2024, but probably a little bit ahead of where we were in 2025, was an appropriate change. We will monitor that. The data point that will be absolutely critical here is, are we continuing to deliver comp sales on a regular basis? If we are not, that is going to be a real checkpoint around what changes that we need to make. If we are, then perhaps that will give us more confidence to open more stores. We think that there is a ton of opportunity to drive productivity out of the existing store base. While we are pretty satisfied with what has, we are pretty happy with what progress we have made. We have got lots of opportunity to move that forward.
Is there your regional split? They're sort of rough way to think about some of the markets you see have the highest potential yet?
Yeah, I mean, I think China continues to be an area of significant opportunity for us. There's a 1.4 billion there. It's still a growing luxury market, even in what is currently a little bit more of a challenge space. We've got 25 or so stores in mainland China and maybe a few more than that. There are a number of spots where either we don't have a store in a key market or we think there's opportunity to go into another location, another location in a market where we know. We feel like there's still opportunity in terms of white space. There's also a lot of white space around product.
Demand signals for us in China for things like polos and t-shirts and products that we're less known for that are a little more seasonless and that certainly fill out the roster of all season wear have a lot of incremental benefit in terms of profit because today we do obviously a vast majority of the business in one particular period of time, sort of the October through January or February timeframe, adding products like knitwear or polos. This is a spot where we've got lots of data from the Chinese consumer that they want this product. Getting that in the store adds to the profitability. That's an area of white space that we will continue to exploit.
In terms of product development and diversification, in terms of place in the journey in terms of diversifying the categories you think the brand should be in, where are you at today?
I think in terms of the diversification of categories, the last few years we've introduced, just going back now several years, but footwear, we had eyewear just in the last few months. There are some categories where I can look and see accessories, for instance, bags where maybe there's a chance for us to play. Trying to cover lots of different product categories and cover them really well, I think maybe has been a bit of a stress for us and perhaps created a little bit of headwind around profitability. We've had clearly a lot of success around the parka. We've had lots of success around lightweight down. Apparel is a very fast-growing category, and that includes knitwear that I've got on now. It includes fleece.
There are, I think, depth and creating newness in the categories where we have clear right to play to maybe fill out a different occasion in your closet or take an occasion that you're adding to a warmer or colder weather occasion is still an opportunity for us. I think our approach here is going to be more about building out the existing categories than, say, getting into something new where it's harder to qualify.
When you think about the merchandising capabilities of the company, talk about some of the personnel appointments you've made and how the merchandising function is developed at the brand.
I mean, I'm not sure how exciting people think merchandising is, but I think it's really exciting. It's bringing that science with a little bit of art to the design. It's a spot where for a while we haven't necessarily had a level of merchandising that's necessary for a business that is expanding categories, moving into D2C, etc. Judith Bankus arrived as our Head of Merchandising on the 1st of January this year. She's based in London, which is very close to where Haider is, based, and not all, but a good critical mass of the design team is based in Paris. That gives a close connectivity between those two key roles. She is absolutely going to bring a degree of science and data to building out the assortment, translating demand into what we need, shortening up the design cycle.
There is a lot of excitement for me because this is a spot where our maturity probably has not kept up with our expansion. Store economics hinge on our ability to drive traffic, to build out product, and merchandising is a real key part of that and the D2C excellence. This merchandising team is going to have a lot to say about productivity in the stores, in my opinion.
Thinking more near term, you have not guided the current fiscal year. How do you think about the interplay between some of the investments you're talking about, but also the opportunity to drive growth?
Yeah, the key areas of investment for us this year are primarily going to be in three areas. One of them is going to be in delivering more marketing dollars at the top of the funnel. That is a spot where, as I have said here now a few times, the effect of the dollars spent around Haider's launch and what we have also learned about not being on allows us, we think, to really drive some top line. Whether that top of the funnel activity returns in the year or not, I think we have kind of left that open. Creating long-term value via brand heat is critical to us. The second area of investment is around sort of merchandising and product creation, so design and product development talent.
Not huge level of investment, but enough as we start to build out some of these categories that we've got the right mixture of design and merch capabilities alongside product development and sourcing. An area around product development that again probably pays off over the longer term rather than in the short term. Then some level of investment on new stores. I'd say a more focused set of activities in each of those cases, but necessary for long-term value growth, which we absolutely think is going to come.
When you think about current profitability levels compared to long-term aspirations or where you were historically, just how do you think about the gaps of where you are today versus where you want to be and the roadmap to get there?
Yeah, to me, there's probably two big levers to pull in outcomes. One is we need revenue scale. That means growing revenue. There's two primary ways to do that. One, drive comp store growth. Talked a lot about the things that have worked over the past several months and where we are going to be focused on driving the value that will lead to comp store growth on an ongoing basis. The second is ultimately adding some new stores, but that is going to be dependent on our ability to drive comp traffic or comp growth, rather. Those two things with control around the sort of corporate costs, specifically headcount, but mainly just being disciplined around the level of cost lead to margin expansion. We've talked our high watermark is 25% operating margin. We're not near that today.
We absolutely believe that is a reasonable set of expectations, but the time to get there is going to take a while. We are focused on the things that we need to do today that will deliver that long-term value.
In calendar 2025, your fiscal 2026, how do you think about navigating the cost environment? Other brands are starting to communicate higher levels of pricing. How have you planned the year?
I thought for sure you were going to ask a tariff question there, but the pricing question. For us, we tend to change prices once a year on our carryover styles and our fall winter styles. When we bring spring in, we also have prices associated with those products. That happened. Our main pricing change just happened a few weeks ago. Our target this year was just to be modest on pricing. What that means is on carryover styles, we had very little change around the world. This is a generally applicable statement. In some markets, it was a little different, but for the most part, very modest change on carryover styles. We are going to introduce some new styles this year, including Snow Goose at some level of pricing premium. We are also looking at what the assortment is and whether there are some gaps.
There will be some product that maybe fills those gaps up. Our sort of net-net is modest price increase. Given the environment around trade and around sort of inflation, I think we'll be a little more diligent about monitoring what might happen. Our typical MO has been sort of once-a-year pricing.
Going back to your e-commerce business, are there opportunities to improve the conversion? Any initiatives there?
Yeah, some of the initiatives around marketing and around product are absolutely applicable to the digital channel. Obviously, sort of in-store experience is not quite as applicable. We spent a little bit of time in fiscal 2025 on just some basic technical capabilities, making the site faster, refreshes a little different. We're doing a lot of A/B testing under our new digital leader, Alfredo Tan, to check consumer behavior. I think the data orientation on the consumer journey when they're on the site, how long are they dwelling, what's the engagement look like. It's a little more data-focused. Digital conversion is not nearly the opportunity, although we know it's an opportunity as store improvement. Our main focus is on store, not to say that we're leaving digital on its own, but it just hasn't been quite the same level of investment.
Where we have seen some non-organic growth in that area is Douyin in China. It is live streaming, totally different product for a totally different channel for us, launched in September. For those of you sort of, it is kind of equivalent to TikTok. It is an absolutely massive number of sessions. The growth of those sessions is really interesting. It is just a different channel for us. You need to have talent there all the time. You have to be able to convert. We are really happy with the sort of green shoots that we have seen there. Perhaps that is an area where, even though it is not necessarily comp growth and D2C channel, it is an area where we are going to put a little bit more investment.
Maybe to wrap up, what gets you and the senior leadership team the most excited when you look at the growth opportunities ahead?
I mean, I think passion for the brand inside the business and outside the business is very similar. There are a lot of us who absolutely see what the potential can be and are sort of working night and day in order to deliver that. I think the product is really exciting. It's so fun to see what was a kind of a single product business. People love these parkas, and they're starting to buy and wear things. It makes me excited to see somebody wearing a hoodie in an airport in Munich or seeing a picture of a celebrity wearing something in Japan or what have you. It's just so interesting to see the product development well beyond sort of what our calling card is. As the consumers come along with that, I just think that's such a fun opportunity and something that we create.
I think that's what really excites people.
Great. I know, Neil, this is one step on a journey you have abroad. I thank you for taking the time to attend today and walk through the business. Thank you.
Great. Yeah, thanks, John. Really appreciate it.
Thank you, everyone.