Good morning. We would like to welcome you very cordially to the conference today about the discussion of our cooperation between CCC and the company Authentic Brands Group, our key licensor. We would like to welcome our guests very cordially. So Dariusz Miłek, the CEO of CCC, as well as Jamie Salter, who is the CEO of Authentic Brands Group. So I'll go ahead and give you the floor at this time, Mr. President. Thank you very much. I'd like to welcome everybody very cordially. Today is a little bit different because we're not reporting our quarterly results. We'd like to take advantage of the opportunity and brag a little bit about our cooperation with a very strong group, the Authentic Brands Group, which is an American group, and they supply a lot of value to us in terms of the licenses which we've signed with them.
Authentic is one of the biggest groups. They'll probably say a few words about that, and the business model is as follows: They're buying the best that's available in the marketplace, and then they grant licenses to the players who are capable of converting that into good products and robust sales. This is a very important link in our business. So we have a great team which really understands what we want to do. We have a large store network, we have a lot of good sourcing, we're producing a lot, and we were missing a little bit of that international flair in our products, and this is something that Authentic is able to deliver to us. So I'll take advantage of the opportunity, and I'd like to welcome once again or I'd like to introduce once again, Jamie Salter. I would...
Maybe you all don't know, maybe you don't have that awareness. This is an Elon Musk of our industry, maybe Steve Jobs of our industry. So this is a gentleman who... Just a second. Can you hear me now in the English version? Elon Musk. He probably heard what I said about Elon Musk, but maybe not the rest.
Good.
Glad to hear that. Thank you. Yesterday, he promised that he would start learning the Polish language. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is something more than just introducing Jamie, because I've got basically some information that—a piece of paper that Jamie has signed. This is... He would like to become a member of the Supervisory Board of our company. This is something that's exceptional. Jamie doesn't—isn't very active in this kind of way. He's rather focused on building value of companies. But we're talking about our licenses being for at least 10-year periods, with options to renew, provided that we deliver the proper amount of sales in these brands.
And so sales is going better than we had originally assumed, plus, we have that desire to develop and grow other sales channels, so there's no threat that, you know, Jamie would want to go ahead and terminate that agreement. Especially since he's in the Supervisory Board. Well, what's really important, that the role that Jamie's going to play, he's going to be the head of our Strategy and Development Committee, and I've asked him to direct this. I'm personally fascinated by American business, and you see the off-price, HalfPrice that we're offering. Americans are doing these things differently, straightforwardly and effectively, with great efficacy. And I'd like to embrace this formula in our organization. And so Jamie is going to on board the best professionals across the globe, and we're going to try to translate the best from another continent.
I've spent quite a bit of time with Jamie, and this is a gentleman who will not stop. These are not the last licenses that Jamie has acquired, purchased, and he'll have the opportunity to say a few words about himself in just a few minutes. Isn't that correct? Yes, that's more or less it. If I've forgotten to say something, then I'll go ahead and add that at the end. So I think we're going to follow an interactive approach today's meeting. So before we say more about Jamie and the company he represents, we wanna say a few words about, share some facts with you about our cooperation, so we could sort of recap what our cooperation, collaboration has entailed. We announced this more than one year ago.
These are the key figures that t he highlights. A t CCC, we've sold more than 2 million units of products that are from the ABG group, so they belong to Authentic. What's important to Reebok, which is the key license, is a very important component of the CCC portfolio. So in August of 2024, Reebok is responsible for nearly, well, 9%, nearly 10% of sales under CCC brand, and in the near future, it'll be the brand number 3 in our portfolio. And so all of the brands from Authentic, there's roughly 11% of the sales generated by the CCC brand. And so we have 12 licenses signed, and we're working on another 4.
What's important in our cooperation, this collaboration is mutually beneficial, and one of the things that's important for CCC as a group, as a brand, is we're offering to our customers globally recognized brands that generate a lot of high intake margin, which is some 74%. This is pre, of course, discounts and pre-license fees. But from the point of view of ABG, there's a lot of advantages coming from this cooperation. But thanks to this collaboration with the market leader, and CCC Group is the market leader, Authentic is getting exposure to a very important Central and Eastern European market with a lot of prospects. So we're the leader, and so this is half of the population in the United States, what we have here on the CEE market.
These are some of the parameters that basically recap our cooperation. The video got launched a little bit earlier than we had originally planned, but this is a video that really promotes the Authentic Brands Group, and it shows you what Authentic is actually dealing with. I'd like to come on to the second portion of our meeting, which is the internal Q&A session, because we'd like to introduce Jamie to you, his company to you. Of course, you will also have the opportunity, as a matter of our traditional approach, at the end of the session, to be able to pose your own questions. We'll also do that portion of the session in English for the comfort of all of the speakers.
Again, congratulations on your new role in the CCC Group. Before we move on, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself, about Authentic Brands Group? Could you also please explain to us how the licensing business model works from your perspective?
Thank you. I'm Jamie. I'm the Chairman and CEO of Authentic Brands Group. I'm the founder. We started the company fifteen years ago. And, you know, licensing really goes back to the animation world. You know, Think about Disney when you think about licensing. Think about characters that get licensed, like Mickey Mouse. And when you look at Michael Kors or you look at Gucci, they've been in the licensing business for multiple years, but what they didn't do is they never licensed the core product out. They licensed the fringe products, so they licensed sunglasses, and they licensed fragrance, but they never licensed their clothing or their handbags. So we said: Why can't you actually license everything as long as you focus on best-in-class partners by category, by territory? Now, that's very, very important. By category, by territory.
So if we were gonna go license a restaurant, my guess is we would not do that with CCC. That would not be a good idea. But when it comes to footwear, and if you're gonna license footwear, you would go to CCC in Poland because they are the best at footwear. And if you want to license handbags, you would go to CCC because they are the best at handbags. But if we're gonna build Reebok gyms, we're not gonna go to CCC. We're gonna go to one of the best operators that knows how to operate gyms in Poland. So stay focused on best-in-class by category, by territory. So fifteen years ago, we said, "That's how we're gonna run this business model all around the world," and we started. Today, Authentic Brands is the number two licensing company in the world behind Disney.
We will finish this year at $32 billion, and that is with a B, in sales on a global basis. We have over 50 brands in the portfolio, some of the biggest brands in the world. We just purchased Champion, which we close actually next month. And when you actually think about it, we have 1,700 partners today that are partners like CCC. Now, I must say, CCC is a very special partner and a very big partner and a very fast-forward partner, going much quicker than most, but 1,700 partners in the world. Now, what's very interesting is we take those partners, and we collaborate with all of the different companies that we have. So today we have over 600 million social media followers. Now, that is good, but it's not as good as the 220 million data files.
Two hundred and twenty million data files. We know where you live. We know what you buy, and we know when you buy, and taking that data and crunching it has made us incredibly successful, because we actually know what brands to buy now, because we know what our customers actually really do want, so it is a very laser-focused approach. We're generating almost seven hundred billion monthly PR impressions. That's a crazy, crazy number, but when you actually think about it, it's not so crazy when you go across all the different brands that we have today. What's also very, very, very important is think local and act global. Now, thinking local is important, and you can't think local by sitting at your computer on a Zoom call. That doesn't work. Yes, it helps, but you have to go.
Going to Poland, okay, was something that we said, "We're gonna go to Poland." And three years ago, we came to Poland, and we didn't come once, and we didn't come twice. We came multiple times with multiple executives, and we studied the market. And we met this gentleman, Dariusz, and we said, "We wanna be partners with Dariusz." And, you know, we looked at Dariusz's business, and we said, "Dariusz, you have a good business, but it's very private label. Private label is a good business, but times are changing, and you need to change, and you need to focus on brands." And he says, "Jamie, I love brands. The problem is, with brands, I cannot make enough money." And I said, "I agree with you.
When you sell brands, you make 35% margin, and when you sell your private label, you make much more," he says. "That's correct, and that's why I love private label." I said, "Well, can you imagine if you can actually make private label margins, but you'll have the velocity of the brands, and you will give a much better experience to the consumer? You'll share some of that margin with the consumer, so the consumer will get better value, and you will get higher velocity of sales, and your AUR, which would be your average unit retail, will go up." He said, "No, no, no. Not gonna work, not gonna work." "No, no, Dariusz, I'm telling you, it's gonna work, and we started. Here we are, and we're just getting started. Dariusz is now doing 11% of his total business with the Authentic portfolio.
The truth of the matter is, we should be 50% of the CCC portfolio. Because if we continue to do what we're doing, his margins are gonna continue to go up, and his AUR is going to go up, and his sales velocity is gonna go up. So I actually think we are in the early innings. I know some of you understand baseball, okay? I think we're in inning two, if it's a nine-inning game. So we are just getting started with CCC, and we are gonna continue to buy bigger brands than we've already bought, and Dariusz is going to be the choice of Authentic in this region.
Thank you, Jamie. So could you please tell us?
[audio distortion]
Everything you said is very good. It was, you know, two years ago. So there was just one little sort of correction, yeah?
It was two or three years. Actually, we were here three years. We weren't dealing with you yet.
Okay.
So, ladies and gentlemen, as we're showing you, we're only at the 11% watermark. What's gonna happen in the future? We're gonna have much greater sales, and as you surmise, we've signed some of those brands a few months ago, and so we're at the beginning stages in production. So this is something that's gonna grow, you know, very quickly, and our margins will actually transform, and my partner confirms that as well. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Question to you. Could you please tell us how you see your role in the CCC Group as the chair of the Strategy and Development Committee? What are your ambitions? What are your targets? What do you want to achieve?
So the good news about Authentic is I fly around the entire world. Sixteen hundred partners. We learn from these sixteen hundred partners what's working, what's not. And what we've seen is there's certain things that work and certain things that don't work. So what I learn when I'm in America or what I learn when I'm in Japan or what I learn when I'm in the Philippines or Korea, I will tell you that we take a little snippet of all those learnings. And I've sat down with Dariusz, and I say, "Look, let me tell you what TJ Maxx is really doing," or, "Let me tell you what Costco is really doing. Let me tell you why we are 30% of Costco's business," or, "Let me tell you why we are 5% of TJ Maxx's business."... These are great retailers, really great retailers.
And I believe that if Dariusz continues to sort of take some of my advice, I truly believe that he will be one of the greatest global retailers on the planet. He is someone that does not stop when you give him a good idea. But what I love about him is he tests. Now, test is a very good word. Test, make sure it works, but then when it works, roll it out, and roll it out as fast as you possibly can. And that's what Dariusz is so good at. There's a retailer, I won't mention their names, and I said to him, "You really should be doing what CCC is doing in America." And the retailer didn't listen to me, and that retailer is not doing so well right now.
I can honestly say, if that retailer took the approach that CCC is taking here in Poland, they would be much more successful. So learning what other retailers do around the world is critical, and when I learn those things and I pass them on, if he does them, there's a high probability he's gonna be successful. Because there is really successful retailers today, but there's lots of retailers that are unsuccessful, and the unsuccessful retailers are just not making change fast enough. And that's why there's companies like Shein and Temu that are coming on the market, and they are doing exponential sales. They are faster, they are better, they are better value. I could go on and on and on, and I believe that Dariusz is one of those retailers that actually will be a winner.
When you look at what's going on, the retail landscape is changing dramatically around the world. With technology, if you're not in AI, and you're in—like, you know, internet is something that, you know, we all talk about, but the internet is really just part of retailing, okay? Pick up in store, you know, buy online, you know, see it online, buy it in the store, see it in the store, buy it online. It's just another form of retail. So by learning those things and learning, you know, about Amazon, if you actually think about it, and you slow down for five minutes, and you pick up the good, and you get rid of the bad, you will become a much better retailer. That's what I think Dariusz is doing from this relationship between us and Dariusz.
We do have 450,000 points of distribution around the world. We have a good handle on what's going on in the retail market.
So you've partially answered my next question, but let's dig deeper. So it's been over a year of the cooperation between the CCC Group and Authentic Brands Group. How do you perceive the CCC Group? How do you understand its business model? Why was it specifically CCC who became your strategic partner for the region?
I think the most important part is they have an enormous amount of private label, which gives us a very large sandbox, because converting private label into brands is what's important to Authentic Brands, because we make money when you sell more of our brands. Now, the good news is that if you have 10% private label and 90% brand, that's a harder conversion. But if you have 90% private label and 10% brand, it's an easier conversion for us. So we are spending an enormous amount of time on CCC because it's becoming sort of the role model for us. So as much as we are learning, as much as Dariusz is learning from us about what to do, we're actually learning from Dariusz what to do with other folks around the globe, too.
So this is actually a win-win relationship, and we're taking really a page out of his book, at times. Now, we're being very respectful in the territory, meaning we are not going to one of his competitors and saying, "Well, we should do this with you." But we are going to other parts of the world and using his model to convert these other private label type of retailers over into our brands.
So you mentioned before that, the cooperation between us, between the two companies is not over yet, that, you know, we are just ramping up. So what lies ahead of, you know, CCC Group and Authentic Brands Group? What are the next steps in our cooperation moving on?
The next steps are for us to sign more licenses with CCC, and more importantly, in signing more licenses is really... CCC is very good at, at the sourcing side, too, right? We really didn't touch on that part. But understanding that part is also, you know, a huge opportunity for us, but a very big opportunity also for CCC to actually provide the know-how, okay? And the know-how is called a tech pack, a sourcing code, and a design. And that's what effectively we are licensing to our partners around the world. And when you can have supply chain, it's much easier to license the brand. Supply chain is, what is this Reebok shoe? You know, what does it look like? How much does it cost? And, you know, what is the design?
So by CCC, you know, helping in that area, that also allows us, okay, to supply to more customers around the world. And of course, you know, CCC makes a little bit of money when they provide the know-how to us. Just like CCC will buy that know-how from some of our other customers because it is a shared platform.
Could you please tell us a little bit about a few brands from your portfolio? Let's start with Reebok maybe, which is your flagship brand and which is quickly gaining share in CCC sales revenues.
So, look, Reebok is by far the biggest brand in our portfolio. We bought it last year. Well, we bought it two years ago. But this is really our first real year where we took over from Adidas because we had a transition services agreement for the first 12 months. And so, this year, our sales will be, you know, approximately $5.4 billion. So think about it. They were doing, I think, $3.7 billion, and here we are, our first year, and we're at $5.4 billion. So that came with great partners, obviously, like CCC, but more importantly, it came with really the business model, which is... It's very simple.
If you're making, you know, X margin on Adidas or Nike or Puma, and you're making Y margin on Reebok, you're going to obviously push Reebok. Now, it does two things: It gives, it gives the retailer more money to spend on marketing. It gives the retailer, you know, better margins to share some of those margins with their consumers. So the consumer is a big winner, and obviously, you know, CCC is a big winner, you know, from the margin enhancement. But what we're seeing is, you know, our brand strategy obviously is working. And, you know, when you really think about Reebok, we should just let Reebok be Reebok, right? I mean, if you, if you really look hard at Reebok, why did we buy it? Well, we bought it because it's one of the greatest sports brands in the world, right?
There's three great sports brands. One is Nike, one is Adidas, and one is Reebok. Reebok, at the end of the day, if you think really hard about Reebok, Reebok was in sport big time in this place called America. Adidas comes in. Adidas is a much smaller company, you know, back fifteen years ago, when they come to America, and they go, "We're gonna buy Reebok." And they did exactly what I would have done. I would have taken all the learnings and all of these, these relationships that Reebok had, and I would have turned those all into Adidas relationships, which is what they did. And of course, as we all know, Adidas is one of the biggest companies in America behind Nike. So actually letting Reebok be Reebok is exactly what we're doing. So we're back in basketball. We're back in running.
We're going back into soccer. We're going back into football. We're going back into all the sport that Reebok, once upon a time, was in.
So we can see a couple of slides introducing the Reebok brand to our today's guests, including those global partnerships that you have with various celebrities, with various sports stars. But we also have more local collaboration, which was well, actually introduced last night during the Shaq event. So we have a short video we want to display after this slide. So I'll just play the video. So that's the most recent collab with Ewa Chodakowska. And now we can move on to our discussion on Hunter brand, which is also gaining traction in the CCC's portfolio. Could you please tell us a few words about that brand as well?
I mean, Hunter is a brand that's been around for a very, very long time. It's a premium brand. And it's interesting because I brought this brand to Dariusz, and Henry and I said, "Dariusz, what do you think?" And he said, "Not so sure. You know, it's a premium brand. I don't know if, you know, I can sell premium brands." And we said, "Dariusz, you can sell premium brands. You have a great customer. You just have never offered them premium brands." And Hunter is obviously been known for their rain boots, but Hunter, okay, you can take this brand into the apparel business. You can take this brand into the accessory business, and you can take it into luggage. You can take it into handbags.
So look, we've done a great job at sort of finding the best-in-class partners, okay, to make the Hunter brand, and we are building this back. And this is a brand that will be similar to, you know, a Belstaff or a Moncler, and we're building this brand. Obviously, it's British heritage, and we're building this brand back, and it is gaining market share incredibly quickly all over the globe. So we're, you know, early days. We've only owned this brand for about a year, early days, but we are seeing incredible growth. We'll have 100% growth on this brand over the next twelve months.
You have to go into those with the- [crosstalk]
So I would just like to add that this is an ingenious idea with this brand. As you can see, the U.K., there's at least six very strong brands in rain shoes, and in Poland, there isn't one, and so rain boots. So I'd like when you go to take your dog for a walk, it would be very good for you to have a pair of Hunter shoes or boots, and so we're able to do that. That's something we can deliver. And so if we talk about the product, I'd like to say it's not so much the case that I'm doing the products myself. And so my son, Łukasz, is here, who's responsible for of course, the portion, the men, the male portion of the collection, and then we have Valerie, who's responsible for women's shoes. Footwear.
As you can surmise, Valerie is my partner, Łukasz is son, so everything's... He's my son, so everything's here in the family. We are a strong core of people, and to make sure that things are very strongly controlled, product is the most important thing in our business, and that's something that will accrue very strong margins. I'd also like to introduce our business angel between ABG and CCC, so this is Henry. So basically, everything got started with him. He's the person who identified us, who found us. He was the person who came first, and he established contact with us, and we started very, of course, modestly, with a license for backpacks, and now we're moving forward very strongly. And so, Jamie, I wanted to ask you, where's Shaq?
You sent him home after last night, right? You put him on the plane- [crosstalk]
Yeah. [crosstalk]
He went home. I mean- [crosstalk]
Yeah, that is full.
I'm not sure where he is. He is our partner now, but where is he? I mean, he was supposed to be here.
You told me- [crosstalk]
[audio distortion]
That he could go home, and he was tired. I mean, that's what he does after he does a DJ set. He goes to the plane, and he puts his-
[audio distortion]
Maybe, maybe you should check and call him. Can you give him a ring and see what's happening?
I can call him.
He got a Reebok meeting. Tell him to get up. [crosstalk]
Hold on. Hold on. [crosstalk]
There he is. There he is.
Reebok said, "Warsaw." People at Reebok, sorry, I didn't wake up in time.
Shaq.
I'll see you- [crosstalk]
Shaq, Shaq, Shaq. [crosstalk]
Next week. [crosstalk]
You need to get up. [crosstalk]
All right. Bye.
He cut.
Where's Shaq?
Shaquille O'Neal. I told him you'd be here.
Hello. Hello, Shaq.
How are you?
Please take a seat.
He's literally two feet taller than me.
Shaquille, that's an honor. Thank you for joining our today's conference. Could you please tell us a little bit about your brand, about your Shaq? What's the DNA of the brand? What are the values related to the brand? What's the target group? Please take your time.
The DNA is about family and affordability. I realized, second, third year in the league, that I was overcharging children for shoes. We all grew up in similar backgrounds where our parents didn't make a lot of money, so I thought it was, you know, crazy for me to charge kids a lot of money for shoes. So, again, affordability, fun, great designs. And it's not that people don't wanna pay less money for shoes. They don't wanna pay less money for less fashion, so we give them top-of-the-line leathers, top fashion, top everything, and it's been doing very well so far. And I'm honored to be partners with CCC and Dariusz and his lovely wife and his family. They do a great job. I've never been to Poland before.
The people here have been very, very hospitable, so we look forward to coming back every year.
Shaq, Shaq, you should really tell the story, you know, why you wanted to develop your Shaq shoes. Because I think that that story is why we're partners today, because, you know, your family values and the way you look at life, really, you know, it touched me, and I said, "This is someone I want to be partners with for the rest of my life." Because, you know, going partners with Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali, I promise you, they don't fly private, and they will show up on time all the time. But then you go partners with a live athlete, celebrity, somebody with that is bigger than life, no pun intended, it gets a little nerve-wracking. But you told me this story, and it really, you know, hit home.
So I think everyone needs to sort of hear that story of why we've developed the Shaq brand and who you are, 'cause I think that's gonna really get this audience to understand the Shaq brand.
So the story goes. I was leaving practice one day, and a lady was dragging her son, and I thought she wanted an autograph, but she was very upset with me and used some very bad words, and she basically said, "You guys are charging us all this money, and we can't afford it, and my baby wants nothing but your shoes." And it kinda hit me 'cause it kinda put me back to when I was a child, and I had to wear the same sneakers for three years 'cause one, we couldn't find my size, and two, my father couldn't afford them. So that day, I decided to drop my big contract and start the Shaq brand because she made really good sense, so I could. And I actually had some money to give her. I was like: "Ma'am, I don't make the prices.
I'm young in this business. Here's a couple of thousand. She smacked the money out my hand. She said, "I don't want your money. I want somebody like you to make some shoes that are affordable." So that day, I called the company that I was involved with, and I told them, I said, "You know what? Thank you, but I'm gonna start my own shoe brand." And ever since then, we've sold over two hundred and fifty million pairs. That's like in the nineteen hundred thousands.
Excellent. So thank you very much. I think we can proceed to the Q&A session. We know that Shaquille is very busy today. He's going to participate in an event in one of the CCC stores in Warsaw. So you know, if it's time, we understand, but we can start the Q&A session. So if you have questions you would like to ask to Shaquille, to Jamie, to Dariusz Miłek, you're good to go. Obviously, in Polish.
Can I hug, can I hug my favorite person in Poland?
Sure.
Where's my favorite guy in Poland? This is my guy right here. Love you, brother.
Shaq, is this one of your kids?
No, this isn't.
Are you sure, Shaq? Shaq.
Nope.
You're sure?
Yep.
You're telling me the truth?
He's my bodyguard.
Okay.
Great kid right there, that one. Great kid.
Uh
Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to invite you now to pose any questions you may have.
I know you work with your family. Do you wanna talk about the impact and the importance of family, your family, and how you view our partners and everyone at Authentic? Look, working with your family is not always easy. Your family will tell you the truth, and the truth sometimes hurts. I have all four of my boys in the business, and I guess that is probably the secret sauce of the business we have today, because my four boys always tell me what's going on, what brands to buy, and you know, they're the gut check for me. So I actually am having sort of the best experience of any father in the world, that I get to work with my four children.
I get to see my kids, you know, pretty much every day, whether it's in person or it's on a Zoom call, but it does have its challenges at times. Now, I will also tell you that that's one of the interests I have in CCC, because they do work with their family, and it's definitely a different dynamic, but I will tell you that any businesses that I've seen where the relationship with the family is involved, most of those businesses are really incredibly successful.
It's the reason why I signed with Authentic. We had a meeting, and Jamie and his oldest son had a very nice discussion, and I was like: Oh, I like these two guys. My guy's like, "No, let's go to the other guy." I was like: Nope, these guys right here, the family, him and his son, going back and forth, respectfully, of course. I loved it.
Not always. Sometimes they're not.
I liked it, and, you know, Jamie made a great point. Any company that has his family involved. Listen, he makes his boys work. I love that, I respect that, and I was like: You know what? This is a guy who I want to be in business with for the rest of my life.
One of my family members is actually here. Corey Salter, who started the business with me literally 15 years ago.
How old is Corey?
Corey is now 35 years old.
Corey- [crosstalk]
I have three grandchildren. He has three children.
Well, hold on, hold on. How is Corey 35 and your wife is 34? Stand up. Look at his wife. She's 34 years old. How is that possible?
No, she's actually 37, because we've been married for 37 years.
Got it. [crosstalk]
She's thirty-seven.
So we'd invite you to pose subsequent questions in Polish or in English, as you wish. We also have several questions from the chat function, so maybe to embolden you, I'll pose some of the questions from the chat function. I wanted to ask about marketing, about joint promotion of the brands from the portfolio of ABG. So does the CCC Group co-finance the ongoing marketing campaigns with Authentic Brands Group? And are we, as an organization, happy with the reception of the campaign, campaigns that we've done up until now? So of course, one of our duties or obligations is to assign a certain portion of the revenue top line to marketing. These aren't major amounts, but the scale of business, the magnitude of business that we're gonna be doing, that means that these campaigns are gonna be quite large size.
In segmentation, we're not gonna say that Reebok is in CCC. We're gonna say... We're gonna just talk about Reebok. We have Modivo, we have eobuwie, so eFootwear. We have Half Price, and we have a number of channels that we're going to want to utilize to sell Reebok shoes through. We're gonna be more accountable for the promotion of the brand, as opposed to talking about the company that's specifically doing the sales. Things are gonna be happening. There's gonna be buzz on the street. We can say that this is gonna be a very strong campaign. Maybe another question from the chat function. Having in mind the greater direct involvement of Jamie and the cooperation, collaboration between Authentic and CCC, are you considering joint ventures or a direct capital injection into CCC?
I'm not aware of anything of that sort, but I can't say everything. Realistically, this is just the beginning of a beautiful business relationship, and I think a lot of fortune has been afforded to us, that we have the ability to work so closely with Jamie. This was not so easy. Jamie had to be authorized by his board of directors in order for this to be possible. Basically, it's a partner of Jamie, because these are the You even mentioned the partners of Jamie, that these are the biggest investment funds around the world. We understand that Shaquille is gonna have to leave us shortly, so we wanted to ask the final question to Shaq. A participant, online participant, would ask you to compare the Shaq brand to the Jordan Brand.
Are there any major differences? Would you like to, you know, draw out some of those distinctions? Make a comment on that.
Ours are way better and way more affordable.
Excellent. Lovely.
Plain and simple. You know, he's been very successful at, you know, how he does his strategy, but I'm not always. I'm not okay with that strategy at all. You know, so I think people can be proud to wear a great-looking, affordable shoe with a name that they love and respect. There's only one person's name that's equal or maybe above mine, and that's his. So any other athlete, way below me, and you know, the business that I do at Authentic. So again, way more affordable, looks better, and we have more fun over here at Shaq and Reebok.
I think what you can say is, look, the Jordan B rand's a great brand. Nike, great brand. If you really look at Shaq's playbook, it is similar. Shaq owns Reebok. Shaq owns the Shaq brand. Shaq endorses the Reebok brand. He has Reebok shoes that sit at a higher level, and he has the Shaq brand that sits at the value level. So having obviously the know-how from the Reebok brand helps the Shaq brand, and obviously having the Shaq brand, when it comes to basketball, helps the Reebok brand. So I would say that the two brands are sort of synonymous together, working together, and I think you'll see that most of our partners around the world that have the Reebok brand also have the Shaq brand.
Now, for a number of years, the Shaq brand was focused a little bit differently, until we sort of came on the scene, and now we are laser, laser focused on merchandise, not just footwear, apparel, accessories, clothing, tailored clothing. We are really starting to focus on building the Shaq brand out more than just footwear, where that is very different than the Jordan Brand. The Jordan Brand is just Jordan footwear and a little bit of apparel, whereas the Shaq brand will be all commodities, because Shaq really, you know, plays in all of those areas. So it's definitely has the possibilities to be much bigger than the Jordan Brand, if we continue to do what we're doing on a global basis.
Thank you, thank you for your participation. I know that you are very busy, so we wish you a pleasant event in the CCC store. We'll continue with the Q&A session. We have some additional business questions, so...
Was that the translator in the box? Great job, brother.
Yeah. [crosstalk]
Great job. Thank you very much.
That's it? You get to go? You're leaving?
Gotta go to work.
He's gotta go. He's gotta go. He's gotta go. [audio distortion]
Shaq, thank you very much. We do appreciate you. We'll see you back on the other side of the pond. He's actually going to now go to visit stores, and we have him working to go visit all the different CCC stores, shake hands, take pictures, say hello to everyone, and make sure that Dariusz is actually selling a lot of shoes, 'cause that's really important to the brand.
Now, did you- [c
Thank you. We would like to thank Shaq very much. Are there some additional questions? Yes, we actually have a large number of questions. Having in mind the development of the licensing model, what's gonna happen with the private label? Will you forget about private label, then? We've had, you know, a number in the tens... teens and then tens, and well, basically, each one of them is responsible for something like, you know, children, women's, sporting goods. Well, I think we can distinguish things. We have six or seven strong brands. There's Lasocki, which is the leader, and then Gino Rossi. Gino Rossi, then Badura, DeeZee, which has been acquired, and then Sprandi and Jenny. Those are our own brands. So we have six, we could say there would be about six private labels, maybe 10 partners, probably business partners.
If we talk about third-party brands, and then we're counting on tens of brands licensed, especially from the Authentic Brands Group. We're talking about partnership. We're gonna really live the partnership. So I think the next question is more to Jamie. How does Authentic, you know, manage cannibalization of brands on its various markets? Are your partners, do they have a lot of, you know, independence in making decisions, which brands they will sell, which ones they will promote?
So that's an excellent question, which is the DNA of these brands. The DNA of these brands is critical. Disney will tell you, you cannot change Mickey Mouse's ears. You're just not allowed to, right? Mickey Mouse will always be Mickey Mouse. So it's very, very important that, yes, you think local and act global. So you may have different colors in the Japanese market for Reebok shoes than you have in Poland, but the logo is the logo. The box is the box. The tissue paper is the tissue paper. The marketing is the marketing. You will definitely have different categories in certain countries that are stronger than other countries, but the DNA of the brand sits at the Authentic level.
You know, they will get their style guides, their color palettes, their marketing campaigns, and we obviously will tailor those to each market. The DNA and the know-how comes from, you know, head office, you would say. Now, I will tell you that certain partners are better when it comes to sort of marketing and design and sourcing. When we find those particular partners that are really good at that, we sort of hook into them, and then they collaborate very closely with us in New York. So Dariusz is actually one of those partners, and sometimes those get to some heated arguments. You know, in the end, all the approval process and DNA still stays at the Authentic level.
[Foreign language]
Are there any other questions people in the room would like to pose at this time? I wanted to come back to what Jamie said a moment ago. It's not the case that everybody has all of the brands from ABG. It's not the case that everybody fits the ABG brand. Thanks to our segmentation, the fact that we're in multiple channels, I think we have a slightly better fit. I don't think anybody else has a higher number of licenses signed than we do today across the board. I don't think. That's what I'm thinking. Maybe I'm wrong.
The number one partner in the world as far as-
Oh, thank you. [crosstalk]
You're not the number one partner yet in dollars, just so we're clear. You still need some work on that, okay?
But I've not really gotten started yet in terms of sales.
I mean, there, there's no doubt about it, that this is a small country. You have, I believe, 37 or 38 million people that live in Poland. We are over-indexing, for sure, in this country. Now, people say, "Jamie, are you worried about that?" I say, "No," because we have multiple brands. So, you know, we are very careful on how hard we push a brand in a country, and I will tell you that there's a reason why we continue to buy brands. When we buy these brands, we look very careful. Is it gonna cannibalize our existing brand, right? Will Champion cannibalize Reebok? And the answer is no. Champion, you know, is predominantly an apparel business, whereas Reebok is predominantly a footwear business.
So when we're looking at these brands, we are careful from a cannibalization standpoint, but we also, when we're looking at these brands, we sort of look at distribution. We're constantly looking where are these brands successful, right? And where are the holes? Because that is the important, you know, part, which is, you know, can we take Champion around the world? The answer is yes, because it is a global brand. And you take something like Hunter. Hunter is a great European brand and a great American brand, but it's really nowhere else in the world. So can we expand Hunter globally? And, you know, the answer is yes, but it's a lot more work than something like a Champion that already has global distribution. So we're constantly looking at the brands, but we're also looking at our partners. Where are our partners strong?
So Hunter is a good example. We knew that we could actually do very well with CCC. We knew that it fits the CCC model. So when we're looking at these brands, we actually look at our partners on where we can plug our... these new brands, you know, into these 1,600 partners around the world. And obviously, Dariusz, because he has Half Price and he has CCC, it makes a lot of sense where we can do not just our sports brands, but we can also do our fashion brands. 'Cause today, about 70% of our business is rooted in sport, and 30% of our brands are rooted in fashion.
Then we have some questions from the... My name is Andrew [audio distortion]. I'm from the BDM Brokerage House. It's very nice to have the opportunity to pose a question. So I have a question to you, Mr. Chairman. What are the benefits in terms of being on the stock exchange without mentioning, you know, prestige?
If I'm correct, 2021 , you've postponed your IPO plans. And so what are your thoughts about listing an Authentic Brands Group today? Thank you.
It's an excellent question. If you asked me, I will give you the same answer that I traditionally give, which is, you know, we're a big company. You know, our company value, last valuation was about $21 billion, and we're a private company. We're a family. And, you know, being public is harder. So the question is, are we gonna go public? I mean, I think at some point we may have to go public because we're getting so big that that will be our only sort of exit strategy. But I'm in no hurry. I have four children. They're all in the business. My son, you know, I want him to take over the company at some point, and, you know, maybe he'll decide to take it public, you know, in the future.
But right now, we're a private company, and we, you know, we'll continue that at least for the next few years. And to add to that, you go public usually for two reasons. One is because you want to exit, or the second is because you need liquidity. We're not interested in exiting, and we don't need liquidity. You know, we're an incredibly profitable business.
So maybe I'll respond to the question as well. So being a listed company is not something that bothers us or disturbs us. We've been a public company for some twenty years. We've gone through a lot of different moments, weaker moments, stronger moments. We think that the stronger moments are in front of us. Our goal is to be a member of the index, the WIG20 index, in the near future. I'm hoping that this will happen shortly, and we're not thinking about withdrawing the company from the stock exchange at all.
You'll buy us.
I'm looking around. Well, there might be some ambitious plans, but I think that's something that, you know, dwarfs us at this point in time in terms of anything that we might dream about. So I'm looking around the room to see if there are any questions. I don't see any other questions. I wanted to come back to the chat, and one more question to Jamie about whether Authentic is currently working on acquiring some more brands into its portfolio, and do you think that any of these brands would have the potential to be as big of a brand as Reebok? Could you basically, you know, disclose some of the information of what you're working on right now?
Champion, we signed Champion, I guess it was about four months ago or five months ago. That will close at the end of this month. Champion is currently doing about $3 billion on a global footprint at retail. We do think Champion has the potential to be as big as Reebok. As far as other new brands... Look, we're going through an interesting time right now in the consumer space. You know, interest rates are incredibly high. Companies, you know, have to refinance their debt. And, you know, I do believe that there'll be some new, big opportunities over the next sort of 36 months, where we will be able to buy those brands. And yes, some of those brands I've discussed with Dariusz, and Dariusz likes them.
So yes, I think there's gonna be very big opportunities in the future with Dariusz on future brands that we will be buying. But these will be very big brands. Our sort of theory now is, go big or go home.
So we have a large number of questions that are quite similar. I'll basically consolidate them into one single question. To what extent is the company satisfied with sales performance in August, having in mind the back-to-school campaign? And this is a question to Jamie. Actually, I think this is a question to you, Mr. Chairman. Can I speak?
Of course.
Well, things are going very well, just as we had anticipated. So basically, we have a big offering. We have inventory, so we've launched very well in August. So we can say that August is drawing to an end, so things have fired off pretty well. And this is something we'll continue in September and October. We think that this quarter will be much better than recently, and that means we're gonna have pretty hefty margins as well.
This is due to better sourcing in factories, purchasing, of course, over, you know, getting past or eliminating agents, distributors, other entities and players in the supply chain. So we're basically buying directly from the factories, and we're selling directly through our channels, sales channels, and so that means we are able to extend and enhance those margins. If we add to that, the licensing model, where we can produce these products at a similar price as for a no-name product and then sell it as a Reebok, that means we can always charge a higher fee, and we can sell it more efficiently, more quickly. I don't want to talk about the results today, you know, the financial results. We should leave that until the next call. This is something. We don't want to be punished by the stock exchange for revealing information.
So we have one additional interesting, intriguing question, 'cause we've talked about implementing solutions from North America and you and CCC and your cooperation and collaboration. So is there something we could do in the opposite direction? Are there any sort of, you know, solutions that Jamie Authentic, that you've seen in Poland and CCC, things that you see that you could transplant successfully into North America?
Teach them how to be better retailers in North America. No joke, CCC is one of the best retailers I've seen, really around the world. I always run home and I say, "You guys, you really don't get it. You gotta go to Poland and see what these guys are doing." I'm gonna give you one little example, you know, why they're just such a good retailer and working so fast. So you go into a CCC store, you go into a HalfPrice store, and you see a TV screen, you know, above, you know, where there's shoes on a table, or there's clothing on the table. Well, if you go into a store in America, that's not the way it is.
The way it is, is there's a header, it's a, you know, picture of, you know, a Reebok action shot or a Hunter action shot. And what's going on in CCC is not only can they change that shot to, you know, whatever they want at a split second, they can also give you a message, 50% off. They, you know, buy one, get one free. They can tell that message, and they can change it inside their office on a split second. So they're just faster and better than, you know, the retailers that I've seen. You know, in the U.S., there is formats, obviously, like CCC. There is formats, and CCC is just doing so much more, you know, from a per sq ft. And I think that, you know, when I look at CCC, 'cause I've studied it.
CCC has invested tremendously in technology and distribution systems, so they were hurt, right? Their stock went way down. They spent a lot of money, you know, building these systems, and their stock got hurt. The truth of the matter is, they have spent the money, and they are ready, okay, and that's why you're seeing the increase in sort of everything that is going on at CCC, so I don't wanna take total credit, you know, that oh, let's stop, you know, selling private label and let's start selling, you know, licensed products. I think you gotta give credit to that, but you gotta look at the back of the house. The back of the house is state-of-the-art, and a lot of retail companies today, they're antiquated.
That's why, you know, you sort of look at what's going on with NVIDIA and AI and what's happening. CCC can change on a dime because their systems are brand new, and they can, you know, put that in. A lot of people don't understand that, "Oh, you know, can't you just, like, you know, pick up in store and deliver off the e-commerce site?" No, it doesn't work that way, right? Like, the cash registers don't necessarily work that way if you have an antiquated system. You have to have new systems to do that kind of stuff, and it's incredibly expensive to change your old system.
You know, we have investments in certain retailers around the globe, and the biggest question is: How much CapEx are you gonna spend to actually get your systems up to par? Because they are so antiquated. You know, these CEOs, they don't have a good answer because they have to spend an enormous amount of money, because, like, if you think about it, a lot of these retail companies are actually, you know, on analog phones. I want you to think that. I mean, how many of you in this audience have an analog phone? Put up your hand. How many in this audience have an Apple phone or a Samsung phone, and how many of you are gonna buy a new phone that actually has AI technology in it in the next 12 months?
I would say pretty much every single one of you is gonna get a new phone with AI technology in the next 12 months. So think about that. Now, you're gonna spend $1,000 to do that. It costs a lot more than that to actually upgrade your systems at the retail front. CCC has done that, and that's why CCC is really poised to jump the competition, because their systems are brand new.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much for those very nice words. So I think Jamie was mentioning, talking about a period when we were overinvested. We were in a COVID period. We had basically the business shut down for roughly half a year. Now, the business is up and running. It's open. Maybe it's a shame that Sundays aren't trading days, but we've been able to manage and navigate this path, and things are moving forward and doing better. So I think we've exhausted all of the questions from the room, and we don't have any more questions from the chat. Well, I guess there's one more question in the room. I see this.
CCC brands, do you imagine buying out them and manage them as Authentic Brands Group? In general, what do you think about those brands? And the second question is, I'm not-- my understanding is that you entered the market last year, the CEE region. We know, we all know that Poland and other countries here grow very fast for past twenty years. Have you had been here before, or it's your first business cooperation in the region? Thank you.
I think the question is, have I been to Poland before? The answer is yes, I've been to Poland before. Have I been doing a lot of business in Poland up until last year? The answer is no. And that's why we've, you know, we've come here, and we've got an unbelievable partner. You know, the eastern, you know, part of Europe, it's an interesting, you know, region, right? And I think that if we continue to invest in this region in a big way, I think we can take a lot of market share. Look, we've been incredibly strong, obviously, you know, in the western part of Europe. This is the, you know, sort of the eastern part of Europe.
You know, I truly believe that, you know, we should continue to overinvest in this region, and we will continue to prosper. Look, Poland's a great example. You know, we are doing, you know, an incredible job here, thanks to, you know, Henry and our EMEA team. I think that, you know, we're just getting started, you know, as well, because Poland is only one country, you know, in the eastern region. Did that answer your question correctly?
As far as the brands. As far as buying brands with our friend beside me? We've discussed it, and I don't, you know, know that we would necessarily buy, you know, a brand with CCC, but would CCC potentially buy a percentage of a brand that we buy? Yes. If CCC wanted to buy part of a brand with us, would we entertain that? The answer is yes. I mean, look, we have a very interesting model, right? I mean, we don't make anything. It's kinda crazy, right? We do $32 billion, and we don't make anything. We pick the best-in-class partners around the world, and, you know, we collect royalties. So we're effectively, you know, a landlord.
I can tell you, if CCC does do that, it's very beneficial for them because, yes, they're paying royalties, you know, into the IP, but they would own a percentage of that IP, so they're sort of paying themselves. And the interesting part about IP, IP trades at a very high multiple. Retail, you know, trades at a lower multiple than IP. And why does IP trade at such a high multiple? Because, you know, it, it's kinda guaranteed rent, right? You're a landlord collecting rent, and you got these long contracts, so you're collecting sorta 85% of your rent, you know, is kinda guaranteed, right? So if your budget is to do, you know, $1 billion in that brand and collect, you know, sorta 6%, right?
That's sort of the average, you know, rate on retail. 85% of that sixty million, you know, is guaranteed for the next ten years. And the renewals, if you sorta look at, you know, our history, most companies renew. So CCC, you know, investing in that model could definitely, you know, boost their margins, as well. And the good part about our business is there is no CapEx, right? So it's 99% cash conversion, so your EBITDA is really your EBIT, okay? So that's the difference between sort of our business model versus, you know, an operating model. So hopefully that answers your question.
That's a- [crosstalk]
So perhaps I can add some explanation. The brands that we have, like Lasocki, Gino Rossi, they're responsible for a certain portion of our sales in Poland, a little bit outside of Poland. When we talk about the recognition, brand awareness of these brands elsewhere, like in Germany, those brands don't mean anything. It's a little bit like German brands, they don't mean anything here in Poland, and especially Scandinavian brands don't mean anything. There's a lot of locality to these brands. But Jamie is an exceptional person because he's been capable of bringing together all of the global brands, which mean something everywhere. They mean something everywhere.
He has a large number of American brands, very strong brands, which I don't think here in Poland will have much of a career in front of them, but many of them are globally recognized brands. Basically, Jamie is an exceptional person because he's done something that nobody else has done at this level in the world. If there's anything that Jamie could take from us, this is maybe sales, segmentation. I don't think there's any other company in the world that would have nearly a 40% market share in the sales of footwear. I think Jamie would probably subscribe to what I said. It's usually the case that you have a few percentage points of market share, maybe 10, 12% of the footwear market, but somebody having 40% is unheard of.
Look, there's definitely a few brands in the CCC portfolio that I think have global. Not necessarily global reach today, but have the potential to have global reach. So could we, you know, potentially buy a brand from CCC and then effectively license it back to CCC? Potentially, potentially. There's one or two brands in his portfolio that I think are.
[Foreign language]
Is it not the case that we don't... don't we have better ideas than this one? I mean, I think we have many better ideas than that one, but...
Lasocki. [crosstalk]
As opposed to trying to sell the Lasocki brand in the United States, you know, I don't think that's-
I think the biggest opportunity that CCC has is expanding CCC on a global, on a global platform. CCC will move into other markets around the globe. CCC's business model is so good that it will transform into America, no problem at all. If you look at Deichmann, they bought Rack Room and they're doing okay with it. I think that, you know, CCC could move into USA and dominate in the category that they're in today from a, you know, family footwear. I also think HalfPrice is incredibly, you know, interesting, you know, retailer, because if you, you know, look, one of the most successful retailers today, TJ Maxx, Ross, and Burlington, all off-price retailers. I don't know if you saw, TJ Maxx just made an investment in Brands For Less in the Middle East.
They just invested 350 million, and HalfPrice stores are much bigger than Brands For Less in the Middle East. So I think that, you know, HalfPrice stores has the potential to be licensed all over the globe, which, you know, that, for me, is more interesting than taking sort of one of his brands, and you know, licensing. Not to say that those brands won't travel, with you know, obviously, CCC or HalfPrice by, you know, us signing a license for a HalfPrice store or a CCC store, in Japan or Korea or, you know, Saudi Arabia or Qatar. I think there's huge potential for that.
If you sort of look at some of the best retailers in the world, whether it's Foot Locker or JD, or even Sports Direct, they are all moving sort of around the globe. I think that that's really the biggest potential for CCC from a you know licensing standpoint on a global footprint. The nice thing about that is that's all royalty-driven, that's all high margin and, you know, there's virtually no CapEx in that business. I would count more on that than necessarily one of his brands going licensed around the world.
To recap, basically, to dispel any doubts, Jamie doesn't wanna buy our brands. But we're, if we're talking about global expansion, basically have to have global brands. We're not gonna do expansion in the United States using Lasocki. We made a mistake when we went into, did the expansion into the DACH countries, the German countries, where they had Salamander, Gabor, Görtz, some of these other German brands, Tamaris. These are brands that are totally unknown in Poland. But if we were to develop in the United States, we would probably take [audio distortion] , which is the owner, which is a very popular brand in the segment that's aligned to Lasocki or Gino Rossi. So he would like to license those brands into our region, but those brands don't have any traction in our region, so we have to have global brands.
But I can imagine that we would sell our products, you know, Lasocki, under a brand, you know, and then sell it in the United States. Perhaps it would be a franchise model, maybe it would be a wholesale model. There's some other ideas that we'll be fleshing out in the future, but having good licenses, high, thick margins, then we can think about a franchising model. We can think about wholesale, but I don't wanna talk too much about the subject at this time. 'Cause we can essentially do anything, you might say. Anything and everything, but you actually have to have everything, the timing put into place. It all has to be within the framework of a masterful plan. I think that should be, you know, basically the wrap-up statement for this, today's session.
I don't see any more questions here in the room or on the chat, so I'd like to thank the speakers today, Mr. Dariusz Miłek, as well as, Jamie Salter. Thank you very much, Jamie, for joining us today.
Thank you very much, and I think it's early days. CCC is just getting started. We're just getting started in the region. I've seen their business plan.
So we started today.
We've started.
Officially, we've kicked off today.
Today, for sure, but I, I've seen their business plan, and there, there's just so much opportunity in this region for CCC and obviously, their HalfPrice stores. They can double their business just by growing their store count, you know, you know, around this region. So I think we're gonna stay focused, and as we build that out, then, and we get this region under control, once this... We sort of, you know, have this entire region, then I think we'll start to move to other regions. But there's a lot of, as we say, a lot of low-hanging fruit just around here now.
So thank you very much for joining us. We'd invite you to join us for some refreshments, and we can continue the discussions behind the scenes. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.