크라운 크래프츠(CRWS) 2027 회계연도 1분기 실적 발표 콘퍼런스 콜: 매출 8% 증가, 마진 확대

크라운 크래프츠(NASDAQ: CRWS)가 2027 회계연도 1분기 매출 증가, 조정 매출총이익률 확대, 흑자 전환을 기록했다고 발표했다. 재고 가용성 개선이 매출을 뒷받침한 가운데, 관세 환급금이 GAAP 순이익과 현금 창출에 실질적인 기여를 했다.

핵심 요약

• 순매출은 1,680만 달러로 전년 동기 대비 8% 증가했다. 소비 지출 둔화에도 불구하고 재고 수준이 개선되면서 크라운 크래프츠가 수요에 더 잘 대응할 수 있었다.
• 조정 매출총이익은 430만 달러를 기록했으며, 조정 매출총이익률은 가격 책정 정책과 고마진 제품 믹스 개선에 힘입어 전년 동기 대비 290베이시스포인트(bp) 상승한 25.6%를 나타냈다.
• GAAP 순이익은 210만 달러(주당 0.19달러)를 기록해 전년 동기 110만 달러의 순손실(주당 0.10달러)에서 흑자 전환했다.
• 이번 분기 관세 환급으로 제품 매출원가가 370만 달러 감소했다. 회사 측은 관세 관련 이익을 제외한 조정 기준에서도 흑자를 기록했다고 밝혔다.
• 영업활동 현금흐름은 총 550만 달러를 기록했으며, 부채는 회계연도 초 1,400만 달러 이상에서 분기 말 960만 달러로 감소했다.
• 경영진은 재출시된 그루비 걸스(Groovy Girls)의 매출이 캐나다 시장을 중심으로 기대치를 상회했으며, 가을에 유럽 및 아마존 출시를 계획하고 있다고 밝혔다.

주요 재무 데이터

사업 및 영업 실적

재고 수준 개선이 주요 매출 견인 요인이었다. 경영진은 전년도 관세 불안정 시기보다 수요를 충족하기에 더 유리한 위치에 있었다고 밝혔다.

수익성 개선은 관세 환급금을 제외하고도 지속되었다. 회사는 조정 매출총이익률 확대의 원인으로 전략적 가격 책정과 고마진 제품 믹스의 지속적인 개선을 꼽았다. 비용 통제 역시 매출 대비 정규화된 마케팅 및 관리비 비중을 낮추는 데 기여했다.

재출시된 맨해튼 토이 그루비 걸스(Manhattan Toy Groovy Girls) 라인은 캐나다에서 특히 뛰어난 실적을 거두었다. 수요가 워낙 강력하여 크라운 크래프츠는 당초 미국 시장용으로 배정했던 재고를 돌리기 시작했다. 경영진은 캐나다 유통업체 및 인디고 북스토어(Indigo Bookstores)의 마케팅과 출시 행사가 큰 도움이 되었다고 전했다.

해외 매출 또한 맨해튼 토이와 새시(Sassy) 제품 라인 전체 채널을 담당하는 크라운 크래프츠의 신규 캐나다 유통업체 덕을 보았다. 지난 가을 이후 추가된 신규 유럽 유통업체들도 추가적인 실적 개선에 기여했다.

회사는 운영 통합과 부채 감축을 추진하고 있다. 창고 통합에는 약 18개월이 소요될 것으로 예상되며, 완공 목표는 2028년 5월이다. 경영진은 관련 지출이 2027 회계연도에는 발생하지 않고 다음 회계연도에 시작될 가능성이 높다고 밝혔다.

크라운 크래프츠는 성장을 위한 투자와 부채 상환에 필요한 현금을 확보하기 위해 분기 배당금 수준도 적정화했다. 경영진은 조정된 배당금이 약 4%의 배당수익률을 제공한다고 설명했다.

경영진 전망 및 일정

경영진은 유럽 시장을 위해 9월 독일 K&J에서 그루비 걸스를 출시할 계획이다. 아마존 출시는 여전히 10월로 목표하고 있으나, 캐나다에서의 강력한 수요로 인해 초기 아마존 판매 품목이 전체 라인의 일부로 제한될 수 있다.

현재 자본적 지출(CapEx)은 IT, ERP 업그레이드, 플라스틱 완구용 금형 등 일반적인 항목에 지속 집중될 예정이다. 창고 관련 자본 지출은 빠르면 다음 회계연도부터 시작될 것으로 예상된다.

미네소타주에 위치한 맨해튼 토이 사무실 임대 계약은 내년 3월 말 만료되며 연장되지 않을 예정이다. 경영진은 소수의 현지 직원을 위한 재택근무나 사진 스튜디오를 포함할 수 있는 소규모 공간 마련을 검토하고 있다.

리스크 및 주시 항목

• 경영진은 고금리, 인플레이션, 지정학적 불확실성 속에서 소비자 지출이 둔화되었다고 평가했다.
• 1분기 GAAP 순이익은 관세 환급금으로부터 실질적인 수혜를 입었으나, 경영진은 회사가 조정 기준에서도 흑자 기조를 유지했다고 언급했다.
• 크라운 크래프츠는 560만 달러에서 570만 달러 규모의 관세 환급을 신청했으며, 약 470만 달러를 수령하여 장부에 반영했다. 약 90만 달러는 아직 미수령 및 미계상 상태로 남아 있다.
• 그루비 걸스에 대한 캐나다의 강력한 수요로 인해 미국용 재고를 돌려써야 했으며, 이에 따라 초기 아마존 출시 제품 라인업의 폭이 제한될 수 있다.
• 창고 통합에는 초기 투자 비용과 약 18개월의 실행 기간이 소요될 예정이다.

애널리스트 Q&A 주요 내용

경영진은 그루비 걸스의 캐나다 실적이 기대치를 뛰어넘었다고 말했다. 유통업체와 인디고 북스토어의 관계 및 뒷받침된 마케팅 활동이 출시에 도움이 되었을 것으로 보이나, 캐나다 시장에서 유독 이 브랜드가 강세를 보인 구체적인 광범위한 원인까지 지목하지는 않았다.

장부에 계상된 약 470만 달러의 관세 환급금 대부분은 7월에 수령되었다. 분기 말 기준 이 금액은 매출채권이 아닌 기타유동자산으로 기록되었다.

경영진은 창고 통합 프로젝트가 늦가을이나 초겨울에 시작되어 2028년 5월 완공을 목표로 할 것으로 예상하고 있다. 당해 회계연도 자본적 지출은 일반적인 IT, ERP, 제품 금형 관련 지출이 대부분을 차지할 전망이다.

신규 마더후드(Motherhood) 기저귀 가방이 아마존에서 판매를 시작했으나 초기 출시 속도는 완만했다. 크라운 크래프츠는 월마트를 통해 판매되는 1종을 포함해 노조(NoJo) 브랜드 가방 2종도 보유하고 있으며, 해당 카테고리를 지속적으로 확장하고 있다.

실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone. everyone and welcome to the Crown Crafts Fiscal Year 2027 First Quarter Conference Call. During today's call, the company may make certain forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may be beyond Crowncraft's control, and the company is under no obligation to update these statements. For more information about the company's risk factors and other uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to President and Chief Executive Officer Olivia Elliott. Please go ahead.

Olivia Elliott

Thank you, Operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining this afternoon's call. Today, after the close, Crown Crafts reported very solid quarterly results, given the still-solved demand environment. We accomplished this by focusing on what we can control, and our team did a terrific job executing on our strategy. We were able to grow our net sales 8% despite the uncertainty that consumers continue to feel around high interest rates, inflation, and global geopolitical events. Improved inventory levels account for most of the growth, as we were able to better meet demand than during last year's tariff instability. Just as important, we were able to drive a higher gross margin, both on a GAAP basis and also when adjusting for tariff refunds, as Claire will walk us through in a moment. On an adjusted basis, our growth margin for the quarter climbed nearly three full percentage points year over year to 25.6%.

As a result, we were able to produce positive net income versus the loss reported in the prior year period, and we once again generated positive operating cash flow of nearly $5 million, similar to the March quarter. Combined with a significant reduction in our debt balance during the quarter, our balance sheet is significantly strengthened. As we mentioned on our last call, during the June quarter, we relaunched Manhattan Toy Brands Groupie Girl. pleased to say that so far, sales of this iconic line of fashion dolls has exceeded our expectations, largely driven by the Canadian market. And we believe this bodes well for continued success of this retro-inspired beloved brand. Next, I'll provide an update on our strategic initiatives to grow both our top and bottom line. Our priority is our ongoing innovative internal product development to expand our product offering. Another initiative is to build on our recent margin expansion to further drive profitability.

We're moving towards a favorable mix of higher margin products and, of course, our relentless spending disciplines. We're also striving to consolidate certain internal operations for greater efficiency, reduce our debt levels, and over the next two years, we'll be working on warehouse consolidation to further enhance our operating structure. These initiatives to create long-term value can often require upfront investment, and to that end, our Board has elected to right-size our quarterly dividend, which will provide us strategic access to a greater portion of our cash flow. That will also allow us to pay down debt and build the balance sheet strength that will support Crowncraft's growth well into the future. In essence, our new quarterly dividend allows for a well-balanced capital allocation approach that includes investing in growth initiatives and maintaining a solid balance sheet, while still rewarding our valued shareholders with what is now approximately a 4% attractive dividend yield. In closing, we had a solid quarter as we continued to execute on our business plan. While leveraging our inherent strengths, including our brands, our licenses, and our valued retail and licensing partners, our multi-pronged strategy that covers internal development of new products, reinvigorated marketing efforts, tight cost controls, and the strategic allocation of capital, positions as well for the creation of long-term shareholder value.

And now I'll turn it over to Claire to provide additional details around our quarterly results before we take your questions.

Unknown Speaker

Thank you, Olivia, and welcome everyone once again to the call. Our first quarter net sales of $16.8 million were up 8% over the prior quarter as improved inventory levels helped us capitalize on still soft consumer spending. As Olivia mentioned, we had strong growth margin performance. During the quarter, tariff refunds reduced our cost of products sold by $3.7 million. Even adjusting for this benefit, our gross profit of $4.3 million was above the prior year's $3.5 million and equates to a gross profit margin of 25.6%, which was up 290 basis points year-over-year. This section of our adjusted growth margin reflects both our strategic pricing initiatives and an increasingly favorable mix of higher margin products. We recorded marketing and administrative expense of $5.2 million for the first quarter as compared to $4.7 million a year earlier, although this quarter's figure includes just over half a million dollars of accrued incentive and compensation associated with tariff refunds.

On a normalized basis, we reduced marketing and administrative expense as a percent of net sales to 28% versus 30.5% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which speaks to our sharp focus on cost efficiencies, as Olivia mentioned. Moving down the income statement, we also successfully reduced net interest expense to only $190,000, well below the year ago $283,000 as a result of our efforts to reduce debt over the past year. From a GAAP perspective, we reported net income of $2.1 million, or $0.19 per share, well above the prior year loss of $1.1 million, or $0.10 per share. While first quarter net income benefited from the tariff-related adjustments described, I'll again note that on an adjusted basis, we still generated the first quarter profit versus the prior year quarter's net. loss. Turning to our balance sheet, as of June 28, we had total liquidity of $12.1 million, including cash and equivalents and availability on our revolving line of credit. During the first quarter, we significantly reduced our debt from more than 14 million at the start of the fiscal year to just 9.6 million at the end of the quarter. Not only do we reduce outstanding debt, but our net cash from operating activities of $5.5 million served to further support our balance sheet strength, putting us in a strong position to capitalize on future growth opportunities in a disciplined manner.

In summary, this was another quarter of strong execution in which we focused on what we can control while economic conditions remained soft. Even adjusted for tariff refunds, we grew revenues, expanded our growth margin, and generated stronger earnings per share than in the year-ago quarter. further strengthen our balance sheet and are well positioned to make progress against our strategic initiatives as we move through the new fiscal year. And now And now, operator, if you could please open the lines, Olivia and I would be happy to take questions. Thank you.

Operator

We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. and again that is star 1 if you would like to ask a question and our first question will come from Doug Ruth with Lenox Financial Services.

Unknown Speaker

Olivia and Claire, congratulations, fabulous report. I have several questions, so if you like I'm asking too many and I'll mind getting back in the queue. Could you give us a...

Olivia Elliott

offer some commentary of what you think is happening with Groovy Girls? So Groovy Girls has done phenomenally well in Canada. And as we look back on history, even when, you know, before we acquired Manhattan Toy, the first time they launched Groovy Girls, it appears that it took off in Canada first then as well. So, yes. We have actually sold so much in Canada at this point in time that we're having to divert inventory that should be coming to the US to go to Canada. So we're really excited about the opportunity there. And then we'll be launching Groovy Girls at K&J in Germany for the European markets in September.

Unknown Speaker

Okay. Is there a theory of why the Canadians like Groovy Girls so much?.

Olivia Elliott

We don't know. I can tell you that our distributor, they are partnered with Indigo Bookstores who really put some marketing efforts behind it and they hosted an event so that probably helped with it to.

Unknown Speaker

have such a large partner to launch with. Okay. What about, you had previously mentioned that ultimately the Groovy Girls will be on Amazon. Is there like a date that that might happen?.

Olivia Elliott

We are still hoping to launch early fall the inventory having it take off faster than we expected, it may not be the full line, but we're still targeting October sometime with at least part of the line.

Unknown Speaker

Okay, very good. And then could you explain to us what the status is of the I think you had told us there was maybe around 5 million, maybe 5 and 1 half million.

Olivia Elliott

expecting more money or do you think that's it or we're hoping to get more money so we had Requested reimbursement for 5.6 to 5.7 million in tariffs. And so far we've received about 4.7 million. And that is the portion that we booked. Most of that was received in July. A very, very small portion had been received in the first quarter. There's about 900,000.

Unknown Speaker

we still haven't received and we have not booked okay and then how is the balance sheet changed from or are you able to tell us anything about you know where the balance sheet is now versus where it was you know based on maybe tariff money.

Olivia Elliott

You mean as of today versus the quarter end? Yes. It's certainly improved by getting $4-plus million in cash in in the month of July, but that's about all we can really tell you. Oh, okay. I didn't realize the $4 million came in in July. Okay, very good. Yes. So it was booked as other current assets as opposed to a trade receivable at quarter end and quarter end.

Unknown Speaker

I see. So that's the other current asset that's on the balance sheet. Yes, and I think there's more information Claire just pointed out in – Footnote four. Footnote four. Okay, good. Okay, and then what can you tell us about the warehouse?.

Olivia Elliott

We'll be starting that project sometime in late fall or early winter. It's about an 18-month process and the plan is to get it consolidate sometime in May of 2028. So that process is not quite started yet.

Unknown Speaker

Okay and can you provide any additional details about capital expenditures and what you're thinking and how much you might be spending?.

Olivia Elliott

As of right now, our capital expenditures should just be the normal capital expenditures, which is mainly IT, so it would be any ERP upgrades that we're going through right now. molds for plastic toys, anything for the warehouse is unlikely to be spent in this fiscal year. It'll probably start sometime in the next fiscal year.

Unknown Speaker

Okay. All right. And then how about the international sales are doing so well. Can you share anything that's happening and why they're doing so well or what you're doing and the kind of.

Olivia Elliott

stuff. A lot of that's Groovy Girls in Canada, but it's more than that in Canada as well. We had two different distributors in Canada previously and starting in this calendar year, maybe a little bit in December of 25. we got a new distributor that is handling both the Manhattan Toy and Sassy product lines and taking that to all channels. So we've seen a pretty good improvement there across the board. Groovy Girls certainly added to it. And then we did starting when we went to K&J last fall, we did pick up some new distributors that started buying product maybe later in the fall, early winter. So a little bit in Europe, a little improvement as well.

Unknown Speaker

Okay. And then what can you tell us about Legoland? And we know we got that big new facility or I guess it's a year old now in Shanghai. What's happening with Legoland?.

Olivia Elliott

I don't think there's been any changes with Legoland. That was the last new park of any size and a little A lot of the parks for Legoland actually start winding down and closing for the winter. So there are some that are open, I know like Florida and California stay open year round, but a lot of them close maybe sometime in October. So those are more seasonal sales than year round.

Unknown Speaker

Okay. And then how about the Manhattan Toy Office in Minnesota? Is there any thoughts or updates on that at all?.

Olivia Elliott

That lease expires at the end of March next year. So we'll obviously not renew that lease. We're still kind of thinking about what we need, if anything at all, in Minneapolis. If we do get a lease, I mean there's two trains of thought there, we can either let, it's very small staff so they can either work from home full-time or we may need some small lease that can just hold a few people and some like a photography studio but but we will not be renewing the.

Unknown Speaker

very expensive lease that we're in right now. Okay. And my last question, is there Any new thoughts or ideas on diaper bags and how the company might proceed with that business?.

Olivia Elliott

We're still working on that product line. We did just start selling the new motherhood diaper bags. Very slow start at this point in time. It's only on Amazon. We're working on that. We have a couple of No-Joe bags, No-Joe branded, one of which is in Walmart. That's really it right now but we haven't given up on diaper bags we're just still working on it.

Unknown Speaker

Okay. You just did a fabulous job and thank you for what you did on behalf of the shareholders.

Operator

Thank you. And this now concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Olivia Elliott for closing comments.

Olivia Elliott

Thank you, Operator, and again, we appreciate everyone being on the call. We look forward to building on the early success of Groovy Girl and our other innovative products on the way. We appreciate your continued interest in Crown Crafts and will keep you posted on our progress as we move through the new fiscal year. Please feel free to reach out with any additional questions, and thanks again for your time.

Operator

for being with us. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.

This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review.

[Call has ended.]