Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Groupe Dynamite fourth quarter and fiscal 2024 results conference call. At this time, all lines are in the listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. I would like to turn the conference over to Alex Limosani, Manager Investor Relations and Corporate Finance at Groupe Dynamite. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on the call are Andrew Lutfy, Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board; Stacie Beaver, President and Chief Operating Officer; and JP Lachance, Chief Financial Officer. This morning, Groupe Dynamite released its financial results for the 13-week and full fiscal year ended February 1, 2025. The press release and related disclosure documents are available in the Investor section of our corporate website at groupedynamite.com and on SEDAR+. We will begin the call with short remarks by management, followed by a question-and-answer period with financial analysts only. A replay of this webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call.
Before we begin, I would like to refer you to Slide 2 of our Q4 2024 investor presentation, also available in the Investor section of our website, for a full statement on forward-looking information and to the presentation's appendix for a reconciliation of non-IFRS to IFRS financial measures. I'll now turn the call over to Andrew.
Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Groupe Dynamite's Q4 earnings call. To begin with, I'd like to call out how proud I am of our brands and how we showed up in 2024, gaining market share, deepening customer connection, and proving that agility isn't a tactic, but it's our mindset, and the results speak for themselves. We sell emotion. Each of our brands' touchpoints is designed to make customers feel something each time they interact with us. This year, we've elevated our communities and advocates to embed our brands more deeply into our customer lives and culture. We've partnered not only with our customers' favorite influencers across each of the brands, but we've also empowered our store associates to champion our brands in their own communities and on social media.
Our associates are our greatest and most authentic brand ambassadors, bringing the energy of our stores to life across platforms like TikTok and Instagram. These efforts are also serving as an important driver to our success in building strong brand equity and market leadership. In 2024, we leaned into what we do best: operating with agility. Over 50% of our buys were made in season, and today, over 30% of our receipts go from purchase order to distribution center in under eight weeks. This kind of agility keeps us fashion-relevant, minimizing risk, virtually eliminating markdowns, and contributing to an inventory turnover of over 8.5 times in fiscal 2024. 2024 was also the year we stepped into the public spotlight. Becoming a public company was a defining chapter. While the process came with its share of distractions, we stayed true to our commitments.
We delivered on what we said we would, and in many ways, in many areas, we outperformed with excellence across channels, categories, and markets. As we prepare to celebrate our 50th anniversary later this year, we're not just looking back; we're looking ahead with clarity and purpose. This milestone honors our creative DNA, our relentless pursuit of innovation, and most importantly, the loyalty and passion of the customers we serve every day, and those of tomorrow. Let's get into the Q4 performance highlights. We achieved total revenue growth of 13.1%, driven primarily by strong comps and new store openings. Excluding the 14th week of last year, total revenue grew by an impressive 18.8%. Gross profit increased by 13.3%, with gross margin expanding by 10 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of last year, reaching 59% of sales, mainly due to lower occupancy costs as a percentage of sales.
Adjusted EBITDA grew by 17% year over year, reaching $79 million, demonstrating strong operational leverage. Further down the P&L, adjusted net earnings increased by 23.6% compared to the same period last year, while adjusted diluted earnings per share rose by 18.3%. This morning, we also announced a board-approved normal course issuer bid, authorizing the repurchase of approximately 1.3 million subordinated voting shares. This is a clear signal of our belief in the long-term value we're building and our commitment to disciplined capital allocation. Finally, we're mindful of the macro uncertainty from consumer shifts to global volatility. We remain confident in our ability to deliver strong results. For the first nine weeks of our Q1, up to and including April 5th, comps are up approximately 6%. Importantly, this momentum isn't coming at the expense of IMU, which have remained strong. Bottom line, agility wins.
Our brands are resonating, and our teams are more energized than ever to deliver on strong growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Stacie to share more about how we're showing up and how we're standing out.
Thank you, Andrew, and good morning, everyone. This past year was all about impact. Our teams did not just execute; they raised the bar. What fueled our success was not just product or platform; it was culture. We showed up with relevance and, more importantly, with intention and authenticity. Let's start with performance. Comp store sales growth in Q4 reached 9.5%, above 9.8% from last year. This resulted in a two-year stack of 19.3% improvement. These results were anchored in the right product at the right time, powered by our premier store network in high-impact locations. Retail sales per sq ft for fiscal 2024 grew by approximately 19%, reaching $734, up from $619 in fiscal 2023. This reflects how our stores continue to serve as vibrant, profitable brand beacons.
We managed our footprint with discipline, opening two new tier-one Garage stores in the U.S. while closing three locations: one Dynamite store in the U.S. and two Garage stores in Canada. Additionally, we relocated our Roosevelt Field Garage store to a flagship caliber space, which now spans 6,000 sq ft and is already exceeding expectations. On digital, our e-com business outpaced brick-and-mortar growth, up 18.4% in Q4, excluding the 14th week from last year. This growth is fueled by our commitment to delivering an aspirational, seamless omnichannel experience that meets her wherever she is. Over the next 12 months, we will also double down on customer personalization, with a big focus on our long-term target of increasing e-commerce penetration to 25% and strengthening connections across all channels. Moving into our brand stories for 2024, Garage continued to own its space with consumers off-duty, active, and always relevant. The momentum in fleece has been exceptional, and our fashion-forward drops in knit tops and denim continue to deliver.
Our customer is building her wardrobe around us, and we're responding in real time with strategic in-season buys, minimal markdowns that protect margin and drive full-price sell-through. Dynamite leaned into its DNA, denim, and dresses, and won the holiday season with elevated styles that pushed price points and exceeded expectations. The success of our new Dynamite concept store here in Montreal at Royal Mount, which we call Dynamite 3.0, is clear, as demonstrated by our shoppers' engagement and store success. Customer user-generated content from this new concept store accounts for almost 90% of all store-generated content from customers. She's loving the brand's fresh and elevated new feel that was inspired with a luxury mindset. We are looking forward to gaining more momentum and opening three more reimagined Dynamite 3.0 locations in Canada this year. Marketing has also played a pivotal role in strengthening our customer connections in 2024.
As Andrew mentioned, we have accelerated activating our community through employee ambassadors and deepening real-life connections, which have been key to driving brand awareness and engagement. The reality is we're building more than brands; we're building communities. Looking ahead, 2025 will be a defining year for how we tell our brand stories. We're focused on creating moments that not only engage but stick, driving connection, conversation, and long-term loyalty. Our loyalty program will become a true experience platform, offering exclusive drops, early access, and curated events that reward our customers not just for what they spend, but for how they engage with our brands. Together, these elements will fuel brand heat and set us up to own a bigger share of the conversation in 2025. On the growth front, we're laying the groundwork for our U.K. expansion in 2026.
We're confident our proven model of trend-driven, emotionally resonant, and omnichannel by design will translate with our consumer in that market. We are also thrilled to be expanding our shipping capabilities and customer service. We've recently entered into a warehousing agreement with a third-party logistics provider. They will offer warehousing and distribution services within the U.S. with minimal capital expenditure required. The DC is set to go live in the second half of 2025, significantly improving operational efficiency, reducing lead times to stores and customers, and enhancing overall customer satisfaction. 2025 is already here, and we're already off and running. I am invigorated by the team's passion to continue to strive for innovation and push boundaries. We are focused on moving fast, showing up big, and staying true to ourselves and our customers. With that, I'll hand it over to JP for a detailed review of our financials.
Thank you, Stacie, and good morning, everyone. I will now walk you through our financial results. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 increased by $31.5 million, or 13.1%, to $271.8 million. Excluding the 14th week of Q4 2023, total revenue increased by 18.8%. Most of the increase is attributable to retail revenue, which grew by $24.1 million in Q4, or 12.9% over the equivalent quarter of last year. This increase was driven by comparable store sales growth of 9.5% for the quarter, as well as contribution from new stores. Online revenue grew by 13.6%, reaching $61.6 million for the quarter, despite one less week this year versus last year's Q4. Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2024 increased by $18.8 million, or 13.3%, reaching $160.3 million, which resulted in gross margin expanding by 10 basis points to 59% from 58.9% over the same period.
This improvement is mainly due to lower occupancy costs as a percentage of sales. Selling, general, and admin expenses for the fourth quarter of 2024 increased by $12.7 million, or 17%, to $87 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. This increase was primarily driven by the company's growing scale and activities, leading to a $5.2 million increase in wages, salaries, and employee benefits, along with a $3.2 million increase in selling and marketing expenses as both revenue and operations expanded. Additionally, in Q4 2024, admin costs were negatively affected by $3.7 million in professional fees associated with the IPO, as well as an incremental $1.9 million expense on stock-based compensation due to the revaluation of the fair value of the options following the change in expiry term.
Operating income increased by $2.2 million, or 4.6%, to reach $50.7 million in Q4 2024 compared to $48.5 million in Q4 2023. Similarly, adjusted EBITDA increased by $11.6 million, or 17%, to reach $79.5 million in Q4 2024 compared to $67.9 million in Q4 2023. The adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 29.2% in Q4 2024 compared to 28.3% in the same period last year. This 90 basis point improvement is primarily attributed to adjusted SG&A as a percentage of sales, which decreased to 29.6% from 30.5% last year, reflecting the benefits of operating leverage and effective cost control. Net earnings increased by $2.4 million, or 8.5%, to reach $31 million in Q4 2024 compared to $28.6 million in Q4 2023. This growth is mainly attributed to higher revenue, partially offset by higher SG&A.
Adjusted net earnings for Q4 2024 increased by $7 million, or 23.6%, to reach $36.6 million compared to $29.6 million in Q4 2023. Moving to free cash flow generated for the quarter, it was $55.3 million, up from $41.9 million in Q4 2023. While operational cash flow remained strong, the company mainly benefited from lower CapEx, which decreased from $28.9 million in Q4 2023 to $12.6 million in Q4 2024. The company's net leverage ratio was reduced in half to 0.98x compared to 1.96x last year. This improvement is due to the increase in adjusted EBITDA, coupled with the repayment of all of our outstanding borrowings under the credit facilities, which has more than offset the increase in lease liabilities.
At the end of fiscal 2024, the company had over $74 million in cash and $312 million available under credit facilities, providing flexibility to drive growth, invest in strategic initiatives, and manage market volatility. For the last 12 months, ending February 1, 2025, our return on assets ratio expanded to 26% versus 17.9% for the same period last year, and our return on capital employed ratio reached an impressive 47.4%, marking a significant improvement from 35.3% for the same period last year, highlighting the effectiveness of our recent strategies and investments. As we look toward fiscal year 2025, we acknowledge the current market uncertainties, particularly with the consumer space. However, we remain confident in our ability to capitalize on these conditions to expand our market share. We offer affordable options that deliver great value, making us a compelling choice within the consumer sector.
Based on this, here is our guidance for fiscal 2025. We are reaffirming our plan to open 18-20 new stores, all under the Garage banner and all in the U.S., tier-one, two, or three locations. Additionally, we anticipate strategically closing 9-10 locations, mostly in tier-4 and tier-5 locations across Canada. Lastly, we expect 10-15 relocations and renovations during the year. We continue to aim for 350 total locations by the end of fiscal 2028, up from 298 at the end of fiscal 2024. Comparable store sales growth is projected to be between 5%-6.5% for the year, mainly driven by our AUR strategy, while continuing to provide compelling value to our customers. Adjusted EBITDA margin is projected to be between 30.3%-32.3%, driven primarily by operating leverage, despite the inclusion of $45 million of incremental public company costs compared to fiscal 2024.
Our top priority continues to be reinvesting in the business to drive long-term growth. CapEx for the year are projected to range between $95 million and $105 million, reflecting our strategic investments in store openings, store relocations and renovations, and technology. With the remaining cash after these investments, we will seek to repurchase shares through our new board-approved share buyback program, subject to TSX approval when appropriate, in a manner consistent with maintaining a disciplined capital structure. We believe this program sends a clear signal of our confidence in the company's fundamentals and our commitment to creating long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll pass it over to Andrew for his closing remarks.
Thank you, JP and Stacie. In conclusion, the world is moving fast, but at the end of the day, all that matters is our customers. Our ability to empathize with her, her community, and the markets allows us to take market share. This past year has proven just how resilient, loyal, and energized our customer base is, and just how agile and focused our teams are in delivering for her, no matter the backdrop. As I reflect on this first year of what I call Groupe Dynamite Season 3, one thing is clear: we're just getting started. We've laid the foundation, the vision is sharp, and the engine is humming. With bold, creative, sharp execution, and a relentless commitment to innovation and cultural relevance, we are uniquely positioned to grow with intention, with purpose, and with impact. Thank you for joining us today.
This concludes our formal remarks, and I'll now pass it over to the operator for the Q&A with financial analysts.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions at this time, please press star, followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star, followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, we ask that you please lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. First, we will hear from Martin Landry at Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everyone, and congrats on your results. My first question pertains to your guidance. You're guiding for an EBITDA margin of 30.3%-32.3%, which at the midpoint is essentially stable year over year. That's despite significant tariffs imposed on China by the U.S. I was wondering if you could discuss a little bit how you expect to keep your EBITDA margin more or less stable year over year despite these large tariffs.
Hey, Martin, thanks for the question. And good morning. Good morning, everyone. Yeah, so you know how it's so funny, you know, needless to say, I think this was probably one of the bigger questions: tariffs, you know, how do we prep for this, and so on and so forth. Listen, what I would say is this: it's, you know, let me start with leadership, right? And I'll take a step back. You know, we've only been public for about a little over four months, right? And we were one of the few companies, I think we were the only notable company to go public in the last two years. At the end of the day, I would say, yes, maybe you like the brands and the business and so on and so forth, and they're compelling numbers. But, you know, the investors invested in leadership and management, right?
We said all along that we have a very agile model. We are agile as leaders. Our business model is agile. It shows up in the inventory terms. It shows up in a lot of other places. Ultimately, how do we actually get there and how do we deliver on the performance? Listen, we have the ability to shift production, for which we have. That is not even the full answer. Without getting really into the very specifics as to how we are going to do it, and by the way, that playbook does seem to change these days on the daily, certainly on the weekly. I will just come back to some of the key notable things. Again, agile, you know, strong, strategic, agile leadership. Same leaders, nothing has changed. Number two, really strong brands that our customers love, right? That has not changed. We sell emotion.
We have pricing power, right? And we, you know, it has not been a secret through the roadshow. We basically disclosed that we had raised our prices over, you know, successively through the years at a rate much faster than the rate of inflation. I don't think that's going—not that I don't think; I know that's not going to change anytime soon. Our, you know, intention is to raise prices at least at twice the rate of inflation. That's not changing. We have a premier, premier, premier high-quality real estate portfolio that we've invested dearly in over the last six years. Really, really, really strong, ambitious, and aggressive growth, you know, which we plan on continuing. These assets that we invest in, these locations that we invest in, these are like tier-one, two, three, what I call, what we call investment-grade real estate opportunities.
What does it mean by that? Often enough, these are flanked by either luxury, aspirational luxury. They have massive footfall. There is a flight to quality. These assets are gaining market share, great proxies for future growth. An amazing opportunity even for, you know, as you think about, let's say, you know, our brands operating in these environments. Often enough, we are probably the lower-priced brands in those environments. It is an amazing opportunity for us to, you know, deliver greater value and consequently increase prices, right? Even an amazing opportunity, you know, in these more turbulent times for, you know, for customers who might be a bit more impacted financially to trade down, right?
Listen, it's, it's, it's again, I come back to this agile leadership, a long answer, short question, but ultimately, our absolute commitment is to deliver on top-line growth, on taking of market share, and delivering on bottom-line performance, and that we will do.
Okay. Maybe just a follow-up to that. You know, would it be possible to do a bridge from last year to your EBITDA margin guidance this year so that we can get maybe a better—we can maybe better quantify all the moving parts?
Yeah, I'm going to hand that one to JP.
Yeah, good morning, and Martin, good morning, everyone. Thank you for the question. Obviously, in these volatile times where the rules of the game seem to change on a daily basis, I don't think it would be right or responsible to provide more granularity because, again, the rules of the game continue to change. What we are comfortable saying, however, is, you know, we have some initiatives that are part of adjusted EBITDA margin that actually do help us on a year-over-year basis. One of those, and we've talked about that in the past, is the introduction of the U.S. DC later this year. We have talked in the past about the fact that this will be gross margin accretive. That is something that definitely does help us.
Of course, with the level of same-store sales and with the growth that we're expecting, there will also be this year some leveraging benefits in the business, just like you've noticed in fiscal year 2024. That is also helpful. There was a disclosure also in the press release where we said that there will be an incremental $4-$5 million headwind in fiscal year 2025 as we became a public company, which we did not have to incur in fiscal year 2024 because we were private for three quarters of the year. We have to offset that. That is included in our guidance. At this point in time, I think that the fact that we're comfortable giving guidance on which we are confident as a management team already goes a long way.
When it comes to providing clarity between GM and adjusted SG&A as an example, I think this is something that we should consider doing in due course, but it would be premature today. Ultimately, what we're comfortable saying is that we will get there. We simply don't know fully just yet what we're solving for. This is the prudent approach that we've chosen to take.
That much being said, I'm just going to add, I mean, we do know what we're solving for. I think what JP is inferring to is, listen, you don't know what's happening in terms of, let's say, duties and tariffs and so on and so forth. God knows how it all escalates and, you know, who knows where we are in a month from now. That much being said, every single order that we have written, we have 100% confidence on that we will be respecting our own internal targets, which ultimately manifest and lead to, you know, the guidance that we've provided for. Yeah, I just want to clarify that.
Okay. Thank you for the color and best of luck.
Thank you.
Next question will be from Irene Nattel at RBC. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Just continuing with what I suspect will be a theme on the call. You used the word agile, and clearly, as we went through the IPO process, the agility of your supply chain, of your business model, is something that seemed to be a competitive strength. Most of your relationships, as we understand it, have been in China. Obviously, China is now the most impacted. Can you walk us through how you are continuing to be agile here and, you know, where you are right now in terms of your—do you think that you can continue to use this sort of, let's call it, just-in-time or very rapid turnaround formula in an environment where things are changing so quickly and there's so much pivoting involved?
Sure, I'll take that. Good morning, Irene. Thank you for the question. Yes, the answer is yes. Agility wins, agility wins, agility wins. I think that's going to be the theme of today's insofar as, yeah, for sure, you know, the majority of our sourcing was out of China. I will say that in very, very, very short order, it'll be the minority of our sourcing. That much being said, every single order that we place, every single order, you know, we're almost starting from scratch, right? Ultimately, it's about delivering the right value, right? Even, believe it or not, even with tariffs where they are right here, right now, as at today, there are many items where the best value still is out of China, right? You know, we have flexibility with suppliers.
We have flexibility through the supply chain. You could still end up underwriting a Chinese-sourced order at this point. That much being said, what probably has me more concerned than the actual tariff regime that we are in right here, right now, is more the geopolitical uncertainty and what escalation may happen, which is not a GRGD problem. I think it's just, it's a global problem. You know, being well-diversified, being able to pivot as quickly as we are, which we'd always said, we deal with, let's say, suppliers that have these distributed networks. It's not that they have a given factory. They actually have distributed networks that also mitigate country risk. We are taking advantage of that. You know, as a leader, I'm almost a little more concerned as to what, you know, how does this escalation play out?
Let's plan for the worst and hope for the best, and we feel very comfortable as to where we're going. You know, in broad strokes, yes, the agility, the speed to market, all that good stuff, we don't see any material impact whatsoever. You know, that's kind of good news. Stacie, you want to add to that?
Yeah. Hi, Irene. Good morning. I would just add again the agility, but also our speed to market. As we spoke to in the past, delivering almost 80% of our goods in under 15 weeks. To Andrew's point, we're presenting or pitching new complete orders for June right now. We're not trying to take what we have and move it because of a tariff situation. We are going into it headstrong with all confidence. I will say the product and sourcing team have been amazing over the last three weeks of volatility. That agility will continue. I think we will, you know, make our way through this unchartered times coming out on the positive end.
I think we'll actually be, you know, I think here's an opportunity for us to actually take market share because, you know, with this uncertainty and uncertainty in the market and, you know, consumer sentiment being, you know, what it is, it actually impacts fashion, believe it or not. It actually plays out in fashion. You know, our ability to actually respond, you know, from a fashion perspective, you know, I think is going to work out very, very well.
That's really helpful. Thank you. Just switching a little bit to that demand side of the equation, certainly your commentary around same-store sales growth quarter to date indicates that you haven't seen much, if any, change in demand. Can you speak to whether just nature product categories, anything that we can hang our hats on around the consumer response to the spring-summer offering, such as spring-summer is in Canada at this time of year?
Yeah, I'll take that, Irene. Again, thanks for the question. I would say yes, we typically set spring just like this year in December. We have gotten very strong reads as to what is performing and what is not. Categories that are really excelling right now continue to be fleece in the Garage brand. Their knit business is also very strong as well as denim. We always like the second quarter because we get a lot of small test reads in Q1 so that we can double down in Q2. Very positive reaction to the fashion that teams put out there. Very excited for the quarter to come. On the Dynamite front, again, very strong Q4 in the holiday season, comping positive above last year. That dress momentum that we won, again, we are thinking we are taking market share there, has continued into Q1.
Very strong performance in dresses and in denim.
Thanks so much.
I would also add to that, Irene. You know, what's interesting is, you know, and I saw some notes and many analysts are talking about, you know, consumer discretionary taking a hit. You know, consumers are under pressure. There's anxiety out there and so on and so forth, which I agree with, I agree with, and I agree with. As we think about this consumer discretionary, right, think of it as two bookends, right? At one end, you know, on your left bookend is a jet ski, a car, you know, your furniture, your, I don't know, whatever call it, you know, big ticket items that often require risk, maybe at times require debt financing and so on and so forth. At the complete other end of consumer discretionary is apparel.
Apparel is maybe a single digit as a % contribution to consumer discretionary, a single digit, maybe 6%, 7%, right? In these recessionary times, often enough, you know, a cute $30 top, you know, that puts a big smile on your face is sometimes just what it takes to get you through the week, you know? That is the area we trade in in consumer discretionary. Consequently, I got to tell you, I actually do like these times. I do not have an issue with it. As a matter of fact, you know, we see it as an opportunity to take market share, right? The red lipstick phenomenon.
I totally get it. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we ask out of consideration to other callers on the line today to please limit yourself to one question at a time. Thank you. Next question will be from Vishal Shreedhar at National Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. With respect to the same-store sales guidance that you provided and your comments that pricing will be one of the tools and you anticipate it being twice the level of the industry inflation, with the tariffs that are currently known, do not you anticipate that to be higher than? Do not you anticipate the pricing requirements to be higher than the level of the same-store sales growth guidance that you have given at this point? If so, is the implication that units will and traffic will decline in the year ahead?
Yeah. Hi, good question. Listen, again, you know, for sure, I mean, listen, for sure, there's no ifs, ands, or buts, right? These tariffs, should they prove to be sticky, you know, in the U.S., you know, and I'm going to say, but it's actually even more than the U.S. It's actually globally. These end up, you know, they really disrupt supply chains, right? Consequently, you know, they are inflationary. You know, I believe that there will be broad-based inflation. If we raise twice the rate of inflation, you know, who knows where that ultimately goes? This is, listen, I'm not sure, but I could tell you right here, right now, we have been raising our prices as we have historically. We're still seeing growth in traffic. I think that you can accomplish both.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I mean, it's about taking market share ultimately.
Next question will be from Brian Morrison at TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. I echo my congratulations on the result. Andrew, maybe you can square up a couple of things here. How quickly can you shift your production and maybe square up how you said it could become the minority coming from China? Where would you shift this to as it's fluid with tariffs, whether it be Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh? I guess how many weeks of inventory have you in the U.S. that are currently not subject to tariffs?
That's a lot of questions in one.
One question with three parts.
Yeah, one question with three parts. Okay. Okay. Okay. So what was the first one?
I just want to know how quickly, yeah, how quickly can you shift it?
Yeah. So look, everyday, we're writing orders. Every day we're writing, you know, I would say probably, you know, Stacie spoke about the majority being under 15 weeks, but I'll say, you know, around these times, I would say that it could be, you know, at least a third of our orders are sub eight weeks, right? We're putting out orders today, right? Again, we're dealing with distributed networks. You know, we are, it's happening real time, real time where we're moving from one country to another. It's very, very fluid and it's very immediate. You know, insofar as, you know, the tariffs are just part of the equation, right? You know, there's a lot that goes into figuring out value beyond tariffs, right? Including the actual costs, right? What does the vendor want to do or not do, right?
There's a lot of variables that kind of go into getting to a landed, you know, a landed U.S. price, right? Yeah. Sorry, what was the second part?
[audio distortion]
Where are we going? The countries? Yeah. Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, in that order.
Okay. The final part of that question, sorry to split it into parts, but how many weeks of inventory do you have that are not subject to tariffs for the U.S. right now?
Yeah. I don't, I mean, I don't think we're going to get into that. Listen, I mean, not much, not that much at the end of the day. I mean, you know, in that we turn our inventory as stated 8.5 times a year, you can work the math backwards. We don't have that much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Next question will be from Stephen MacLeod at BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for all the great color. I'll shift gears just a little bit away from tariffs, but not totally. Just wondering if you can give a little bit of color just around the incremental news on your U.S. DC and sort of how you see that unfolding in terms of it going live and then how that is expected to impact, you know, your distribution efficiencies going forward.
Okay. Good morning. Yeah, I'll take that really quickly. We are working, as we've spoke in the past, to open a U.S. DC towards the end of July of this year. We know it will help us with speed to consumer and then also just our ability to have inventory in the U.S. where we can leverage the differences sailing between one country to another.
I'd also add to that, you know, like there's just, listen, part of it is, listen, part of it is just also mitigating risk, right? As most of you probably know, we only have one distribution center for Groupe Dynamite that's located here in Montreal. Having a distribution center in the U.S. allows for, call it redundancy, no different than you would have computer redundancy. We would have distribution redundancy. We would be able to, you know, ship from either DC across the border. The U.S. DC would be able to ship to Canada and the Canadian DC, obviously, as it currently does, would ship into the U.S. That is really nice in the spirit of mitigating risk, geopolitical things that might be going on or that might happen. Of course, there are advantages.
There's even advantages, again, even in terms of efficiency on the sourcing of inventory, right? It's just all what it is. It's a lot more efficient, and I'll say fiscally efficient, if you will, to import directly into the U.S. versus how we currently do it through Canada, right? That also is, so there's some opportunities, if you will, that we will end up taking advantage of that we're not going to, like, you know, kind of articulate line item by line item by line item, but ultimately all together giving us the confidence in the guidance, right?
Okay. That's great. Thanks so much.
Thank you.
Next question will be from Luke Hannan at Canaccord. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning and congratulations on your results. One question, I promise, but it is two parts, two quick parts. The first part is on the CapEx, I just want to confirm, is it still roughly $2 million or less per store that you're targeting as far as average investments? And then secondly, can you help frame up for us what's your rough sense of the square footage growth that you'll get for the year ahead when we include the net new openings as well as some of the relocations?
Yeah, that's a very good question. Thank you for the question. The first question, the answer is yes. There is no meaningful change to the average CapEx requirement per new store opening. Given that all fiscal 2025 store openings will be Garage locations in the U.S., if you were to use approximately $1 million per store for each new store opening, I think you would be in the right zip code. On the second part of the question, as we think about the 18-20 gross new openings this year, they should all be in terms of square footage aligned with the average of the chain, so somewhere between, say, 3,500 and 4,000 sq ft on average. The 9-10 closures that we're actually guiding to would be around the same thing in terms of square footage, talking generally, of course.
The 10-15 relocations or renovations, most of those will not have a meaningful impact on square footage. The only exception will be the three new Dynamite 3.0 locations, which will have a bigger square footage than what they have today. A small impact, but nothing meaningful from a full GDI consolidated standpoint. I hope that answers your question properly.
It does. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Next question will be from Brooke Roach at Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning and thank you for taking our question. I was hoping you could speak to your playbook that you would utilize should the macro environment worsen. Andrew, what levers can you pull to drive stronger sales? Would you consider a more muted pricing strategy if traffic should worsen? For JP, how should we be thinking about the fixed versus variable component to your margin structure? What levers could you pull to maintain margins if top line traffic were to worsen, particularly in the United States?
Yes. So what levers can we pull? I mean, listen, there's lots of levers in terms of mitigating of costs, right? Like we've set the business up to grow. Consequently, you know, we're running a pretty expensive business in terms of cost structure as G&A. Of course, there's always opportunity on the cost side. Lots of opportunity there as a matter of fact, but honestly, that's, you know, we're focused on the mid and the long term. Ultimately, we're going to grow this puppy. Insofar as, listen, I would say, you know, we have way more, you know, we're trading in the best assets, right? 90% of our earnings are coming from what I call investment-grade shopping centers that have been opened, whatever, including those that have been opened over the last five years. We're so well positioned from a real estate standpoint.
You know, there's this continued flight to quality. This is not going to abate anytime soon. Like, there's some people, you know, often enough, we're compared to, I don't know, some other players that have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of stores and kind of like legacy retailers. You know, they don't operate in our environments. They're operating in what we call tier five environments that are losing market share, right? We're in these environments that are taking market share where footfall is growing. Maybe it'll slow down, you know, arguably maybe these consumers are not going to be spending on the bigger ticket discretionary items.
Honestly, they may not go on that trip and they may just go to the mall, I don't know, or go, you know, do a little retail therapy and buy a cute red top and so on and so forth. Listen, I just really, as far as I'm concerned, is, you know, what we can control is our product, our product development. We need to respond to the consumer where she is today, make her happy, surprise and delight her, and that's where our opportunity is, you know? With that, we take market share, you know? We see it. We could drop in a collection that's super emotional and it'll sell four times what we thought, and we could drop in a collection that's not so emotional and sells half of what we thought.
Our lever is doubling down on innovation, design, and agility, you know, kind of what we've been doing, just double down on it.
To answer the second part of your question, as we think about our cost base, a very large majority of our costs, particularly in the post-IFRS world, if you look at EBITDA, which is obviously a very key metric, the very vast majority of costs are variable and we control them in a very tight manner. I'll give you a couple of examples. Store labor. Obviously, store labor is driven by sales. We are very agile in the way we work with our associates and stores to make sure that we have the right amount of hours with the projected sales. Very agile, and that's obviously a key component of SG&A.
The same goes with our product cost, which is obviously another significant element. It's directly driven to revenue. You have items like freight or marketing, which we typically work as a percentage of sales with very small variances allowed. Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is we have a very high degree of comfort and confidence in terms of how we manage our variable costs, which are definitely the lion's share of our costs above EBITDA in this post-IFRS world.
Great. Thanks so much. I'll pass it on.
Thank you.
Next question will be from Adrienne Yih at Barclays. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Let me add my congratulations. What a great way to come out of the box for the holiday. Andrew, I wanted to ask you sort of more on a philosophical standpoint. Your model is so inventory advantage to taste, right? To taste kind of demand. I guess my question is twofold. A clarification on when would you raise prices? Would you want to be a follower to see what other people do and therefore still maintain that value, therefore gaining market share? Or are you kind of preemptively kind of moving toward this, you know, price increase? Just to clarify, what does two times inflation mean? Is that core inflation in the U.S. or is that kind of what you see in the apparel sector? Thank you very much.
For JP, a quick question on, are you actually buying right now with that 10% China in place? We've seen other companies, I mean, rapidly move, you know, out of China within like a quarter and move, you know, double digit into other places because they're using Lian Fang or whomever. Is that within your grasp as well? Thank you.
Yeah, timing. Okay. Regarding, and thanks for the question. I like that these one questions with like so many parts.
Sorry. Sorry about that.
Yeah. No worries. All good. All good. All good. So listen, with regard to pricing, I'm like quite frankly, I don't want to sound cocky or anything like that or unempathetic or whatnot, but ultimately, listen, we kind of beat by our own drummers. You know, we've kind of always done our own thing, you know? You'll remember in the prospectus, we had, we rose our prices increased by 12% CAGR, I think over a four-year, you know, shrink. That was way, way above inflation. I don't even know what the multiple was over inflation or apparel inflation. We kind of like just do our own thing. That's because, listen, we really do drive this luxury, this luxury-inspired business model. When I think about this business, I'm really thinking about, you know, I'm thinking about like the best in class. I'm thinking about INDITEX.
I'm thinking about, you know, the luxury players and, you know, call it that artful balance between art and science, right? You know, INDITEX are fantastic engineers. They've de-risked fashion. That's what we do. Listen, from a marketing playbook, you listen, you've got to admire what the luxury players do. We play at that intersection. Consequently, yes, that gives us currency to keep raising prices at a rate that's faster than inflation. If I had to say, if I had to pick a target, I'd probably say our subset, call it apparel inflation. So twice the rate of the apparel inflation, right? Not necessarily core. The second part was, sorry, what was the second part? Just address the second part.
Oh, sorry.
Just address the second part. Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. Good. Good. Good. Does that answer your question? Does that make sense?
Yeah. Yeah. Totally makes sense. The second part was just, actually you've encompassed it in your answer.
Okay.
The second part was for JP It was the ability to shift sourcing in real time.
Yeah. I'll take that. Yes, we are ability to move. As Andrew said, we're writing orders daily. We're looking at the best case scenario with what's handed to us as far as the current status of tariffs, what that might be. We're still writing today for June.
I would just add to that, you know, this idea of inflation and like what's going to be, you know? Listen, I mean, these are all like, you think about, let's say, global logistics, supply chains and all that kind of stuff. If you recall, like, you know, in COVID, like what happened, right? There was like all these disruptions, right, to supply chain because countries shut down, they reopened, this one was this, that one that, you know? You know, what was the ramification? As a result of like just imbalance to supply demand, prices went up. We had inflation. It took a long time to work that inflation through.
I got to tell you, I think that's going to be again, so this idea of systemic inflation that's going to like last for a minute or for a year or it's like a little short-term bump, like I don't see it, you know? I mean, you think about like, I don't know, you think about 90% of like toys at Christmas, Barbie, think Barbie and Ken, you know, are manufactured in China. Like how do you, you know, how do you, you know, move that amount of production to other countries? They need to have capacity to be able to handle it. And even if they did handle it, supply demand imbalance being what it is, no different than in our world, I don't know if the price is going to be the same.
Invariably, as a result of all this supply chain disruption, right, you know, you will see broad-based inflation, at least in merchandise that is produced offshore, regardless of the country. I mean, and quite frankly, I do not mind inflation. Often enough, I say inflation is your friend, you know, especially if you are sitting with hard assets. I think, you know, I think public equities are hard assets. I actually do not mind, you know, these volatile times. I do not mind inflation and, you know, being agile and it creates opportunity. You know, we outclass all our, you know, we follow our certain peer group, what we call our best, our, you know, these higher growth peers that operate in the U.S. and Canada. There are like three of them that we track and we outperform all three.
You know, I think it's an amazing opportunity to continue our leadership role even against these peers. Hopefully the multiple will show up one day.
Very helpful. Best of luck. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question will be from John Zamparo at Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to follow up on the supply chain comments from earlier. When you talk about shifting supply, is that referring to finding new suppliers in those different countries or having your existing suppliers move their operations? Just broadly, given how fluid this situation is, what's the willingness or desire from the suppliers you're speaking to to re-domicile or invest outside of China?
Yeah. Low risk. We would say 80% is existing suppliers, 20% we may have to find new. If you guys recall in our prior conversations, we have long-standing tenured relationships with our vendors. They have been very supportive over this time period, renegotiating, also shifting out of China into Bangladesh, out of China into Cambodia, wherever it may make the most sense for the garment. No, I think, again, that is why I say I think we are solving a different problem than most because one, our vendors can shift for us. This was not like a new project we started this month. It was always on the path to de-risk our penetration into China. It just got escalated, but the path was underway.
As we're placing orders so close in, we can, you know, go to a new vendor with a brand new order and renegotiate or negotiate from scratch versus trying to resource fabric, trims, and materials to make the garment.
Thank you very much.
At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we have no further questions registered, which brings us to the end of today's conference. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a good day.