레슬리스(LESL) 2026 회계연도 3분기 실적 발표 콘퍼런스 콜: 매출 8.4% 감소로 가이던스 철회

핵심 요약

• 2026 회계연도 3분기 매출은 거래 건수 및 고객 방문 감소 영향으로 전년 동기 대비 8.4% 감소한 4억 5,850만 달러를 기록했으며, 동일 매장 매출은 6.2% 감소했습니다.
• 조정 EBITDA는 판매량 감소와 매출총이익률 압박을 반영해 전년 동기 8,160만 달러에서 5,570만 달러로 감소했습니다.
• 매출총이익률은 마진이 높은 제품의 판매 부진, 불리한 제품 믹스, 물류센터 및 제조 비용 증가로 인해 전년 동기 39.6%에서 36.5%로 축소되었습니다.
• 판매관리비(SG&A)는 신용카드 정산 수수료 합의에 따른 일회성 이익 1,750만 달러를 포함해 17.9% 감소한 1억 640만 달러를 기록했습니다. 당기순이익은 2,610만 달러 증가한 4,780만 달러로 개선되었습니다.
• 레슬리즈(Leslie’s)는 변화하는 거시경제 환경과 성수기 고객 방문이 기대에 미치지 못함에 따라 기존에 제시했던 2026 회계연도 전체 매출 및 조정 EBITDA 가이던스를 철회했습니다.
• 회사 측은 재무적 유연성을 확보하고 부채 비율을 낮추기 위해 일부 재무 이해관계자들과 전략적 대안을 검토하고 있습니다. 확정되거나 보장된 거래는 없습니다.

주요 재무 데이터

사업 및 영업 실적

기상 악화로 인해 매장 및 온라인 채널 전반의 수요가 줄어들면서, 고마진 특수 화학제품 구매를 유인하는 수영장 관련 문제가 감소했습니다. 경영진은 또한 이번 분기 동안 경쟁사들이 재고 처분을 위해 더 공격적인 가격 정책을 펼쳤다고 밝혔습니다.

Leslies.com은 플러스 동일 매장 매출을 기록했으며, 경영진은 이를 고객이 직접 가격을 비교할 수 있는 채널에서 개편된 가격 책정 전략이 효과를 거두고 있다는 증거로 보았습니다. 다만 회사 측은 가격 개편과 전환율 개선이 아직 매장 방문객 수의 지속적인 증가로 이어지지는 않았다고 덧붙였습니다.

레슬리즈는 지난해에 구매하지 않았으나 2021년에서 2024년 사이에 구매 이력이 있는 휴면 고객 재활성화에서 진전이 있었다고 발표했습니다. 경영진은 타겟 마케팅, 가격 개편, 고객 가치 제안의 쇄신을 이러한 성과의 요인으로 꼽았습니다.

회사는 전 매장 대상 교육을 완료하고 매장 운영을 개선했으며, 핵심 '상시 판매(never-out)' 제품의 안정적인 재고를 유지했습니다. 경영진은 전체 거래 건수와 고객 수 감소에도 불구하고 이러한 조치가 양호한 매장 내 전환율과 거래당 구매 수량 증가를 뒷받침했다고 설명했습니다.

핵심 제품의 재고가 안정적으로 유지된 가운데 전체 재고는 15% 감소했습니다. 2026년 7월 4일까지의 설비투자(CAPEX)는 전년 동기 1,910만 달러에서 1,050만 달러로 줄었습니다.

경영진 가이던스

레슬리즈는 기존의 2026 회계연도 전체 매출 및 조정 EBITDA 가이던스를 철회했으며 대체 전망치를 제시하지 않았습니다. 경영진은 변화하는 거시경제 환경과 성수기 동안 예상보다 저조했던 고객 방문을 이유로 들었습니다.

회사는 매장 및 물류센터 유지를 우선시하는 엄격한 자본 배분 방침에 따라 2026 회계연도 설비투자가 2,000만 달러를 크게 밑돌 것이라는 기존 전망을 유지했습니다.

리스크 및 주시 영역

• 고객 방문과 거래 건수가 지속적으로 압박을 받고 있으며, 경영진은 이를 회사의 핵심 영업 과제로 꼽았습니다.
• 소비자 수요 둔화, 악천후, 경쟁 심화에 따른 프로모션 확대가 매출과 제품 믹스에 부담을 주었습니다.
• 고마진 특수 화학제품의 판매 감소와 물류 및 제조 비용 증가가 매출총이익률을 압박했습니다.
• 레슬리즈는 분기 말 기준 7억 5,300만 달러의 순장기부채를 기록 중이며, 디레버리징 거래 및 하나 이상의 자금 조달 거래를 포함할 수 있는 전략적 대안을 검토하고 있습니다.
• 경영진은 재무제표 관련 거래와 관련해 어떤 결정도 내리지 않았으며, 실제 거래가 이루어질지 여부도 보장할 수 없음을 강조했습니다.

실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Fiscal Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call for Leslie's. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay later today on the company's website.

I would like to remind everyone that comments made today may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. These statements speak as of today and will not be updated in the future if circumstances change. Please review the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in the company's earnings press release and recent filings with the SEC.

During the call today, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures can be found in the company's earnings release, which was furnished to the SEC today and posted to the investor relations section of Leslie's website at ir.lesliespool.com.

On the call today is Jason McDonell, Chief Executive Officer; and Jeffrey White, Chief Financial Officer.

With that, I will turn the call over to Jason.

Jason McDonell

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our third quarter fiscal 2026 results. First, I want to take a moment to recognize our Leslie's team members across the country. Whether in our stores, our distribution centers, our field organization or our corporate offices, our people have continued to show up for our customers with care through this pool season. I also want to thank our vendor partners, many of whom have worked closely alongside us on training, product availability and promotional support this year. We appreciate your continued partnership.

During the third quarter, we continued to execute our comprehensive transformation plan in a challenging operating environment marked by softer consumer demand, heightened promotional activity and evolving customer purchase behaviors. While these dynamics continue to weigh on our financial performance this quarter, we remain focused on making progress on our strategic initiatives. By continuing to execute our pricing strategy, reactivate customers, enhance our store operations, optimize costs and improve our asset utilization, we aim to create a more efficient business model to help drive long-term value over time.

Before I get into our third quarter results, I want to provide a brief update on our financial position. As we discussed in May, we continue to evaluate opportunities to address our long-term debt obligations and strengthen our balance sheet. As part of that effort, we have begun exploring strategic alternatives with certain of our financial stakeholders to provide the incremental financial flexibility needed to continue delivering on our strategic priorities and drive sustainable growth.

Such strategic alternatives may include, but are not limited to, a deleveraging transaction, potentially combined with one or more financing transactions. No determinations have been made at this stage, and there is no assurance any such transaction will result. While this work is underway, we are committed to operating our business effectively and will continue to provide updates as appropriate.

Turning to the quarter, sales were $458.5 million and adjusted EBITDA was $55.7 million. Total sales declined 8.4% year-over-year, with comparable sales declining 6.2%, primarily reflecting lower transactions and customer traffic. Unfavorable weather patterns during the quarter had an effect on both demand and traffic in our stores and online, resulting in fewer prescribed pool problems that typically drive traffic and purchases for higher margin specialty chemical offerings.

While we saw modest improvements in mid-June, it was not sufficient to overcome the operating leverage headwinds we faced through the balance of the quarter, particularly as competitors reacted with more aggressive inventory-driven pricing actions. Despite these pressures, we maintain disciplined cost management while continuing to invest in the initiatives we believe should help strengthen the business over time.

Importantly, we saw operational proof points supporting the strategic actions we are taking, particularly with respect to our ability to redirect customers of our stores that we recently closed to nearby locations and our digital platforms. Our new pricing strategy continued to resonate with customers. And through our research and customer feedback, we believe that our targeted marketing campaigns are reaching our core audiences who are responding positively to our pricing improvements. Notably, we delivered positive comparable sales on leslies.com this quarter, where customers most often make direct price comparisons.

That said, translating this positive response into consistent store traffic improvement takes longer, and we remain focused on specific targeted marketing and promotional efforts to help drive sustained traffic gains across our physical locations. Despite declines in overall transaction count and overall customer count in the quarter, I am pleased to share that we saw momentum in reactivating customers this quarter, achieving strong growth with customers who did not shop with Leslie's last year but did shop with us in the period between 2021 and 2024.

This is a proof point that our pricing strategy, targeted marketing efforts and renewed customer value proposition are successfully bringing former Leslie's customers back into our ecosystem.

In addition, we continue to strengthen the fundamentals of the business through investments in our people and our store operations. We completed full-scale training across our store organization, continued enhancing the customer experience through improvements in our store operations and maintained strong in-stock levels across our never-out SKUs, supporting healthy in-store conversion rates and units per transaction growth in the quarter. Taken together, these operational improvements reinforce our confidence in the strategic actions we are taking to reposition Leslie's as America's one stop for pool care.

At the same time, we are continuing to evaluate our cost structure and overall operating model in light of the evolving macro environment in order to realize the benefits of these initiatives and support our long-term growth objectives. While this work is underway, we are sharpening our focus on a number of fronts. We believe that traffic generation, not just pricing or conversion, is now the central challenge in front of us. And we are taking a hard look at how we drive new and retained customers into our stores and onto our digital channels.

For new customers, this includes a combination of competitive pricing solutions and clearer communication of our expertise and convenient offerings to help us show up and win when customers are actively looking for solutions. In addition, we intend to continue to focus on our core values, providing loyalty, unmatched service and deep expertise to keep new and existing customers coming back.

With that, I will turn the call over to Jeff for a detailed review of our third quarter financial results and additional context on our capital structure.

Jeffrey White

Thank you, Jason. I'll begin my remarks today with a review of our third quarter financial results, followed by an update on our liquidity and balance sheet and outlook for the remainder of 2026.

Sales for the third quarter decreased 8.4% to $458.5 million compared to $500.3 million a year ago, reflecting softer customer demand in our retail business during the quarter as well as the loss of sales from the closure of 80 underperforming stores as part of our ongoing efforts to improve our cost structure. Excluding those closures, comparable sales decreased 6.2% in the third quarter compared with the same time period in fiscal year 2025. Gross profit margin for the third quarter was 36.5% versus 39.6% in the prior year period, driven by lower sales of higher margin products, a shift in product mix, and higher distribution center and manufacturing costs.

We continue to tightly manage controllable expenses during the quarter. SG&A decreased $23.2 million or 17.9% to $106.4 million compared to $129.6 million a year ago, reflecting lower labor and store operating costs as well as a $17.5 million one-time gain related to a credit card interchange fee settlement, partially offset by investments in technology. As a percentage of sales, SG&A improved 270 basis points year-over-year to 23.2%.

Compared to the third quarter of the prior year, net income improved by $26.1 million to $47.8 million and adjusted net income improved by $12.6 million to $37.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $55.7 million compared with $81.6 million in the third quarter of 2025. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by lower sales volume and gross margin pressures during the quarter.

Inventory at the end of the quarter was $233.4 million, down 15% compared to $273.2 million at the end of the third quarter of 2025, reflecting continued progress on our inventory optimization initiatives, in part driven by the previous closures of unprofitable stores and continued cleanup of our non-go-forward inventory. Notably, even with these reductions in inventory, in-stocks on key products remain strong during the quarter.

Capital expenditures as of July 4, 2026, totaled $10.5 million compared to $19.1 million a year ago, primarily related to maintenance of our stores and distribution centers. We remain disciplined in our capital allocation and expect full-year fiscal 2026 capital expenditures to come in well below $20 million.

Turning to liquidity, we ended the quarter with $30 million outstanding under our revolving credit facility, compared to $20 million in the prior year. We also had $753 million of net long-term debt. As of quarter end, we had approximately $207 million (sic) [ $207.1 million ] of availability, including cash on hand and borrowing capacity under our credit facility. We continue to have meaningful liquidity to operate the business in the normal course as we evaluate opportunities to strengthen our balance sheet and address our long-term debt.

As Jason mentioned, we are engaged in constructive discussions with certain of our financial stakeholders as we explore strategic alternatives to provide incremental financial flexibility and delever our balance sheet. Throughout this process, we remain focused on maintaining financial discipline while continuing to execute on our comprehensive transformation.

Finally, turning to our fiscal 2026 outlook. Given the evolving macroeconomic environment and lower than anticipated customer traffic during our peak season, we are withdrawing our previously issued full-year sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance and are not providing an updated outlook at this time.

With that, I will turn the call back over to the operator.

Operator

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