Destination XL (DXLG) 2026财年第二季度业绩电话会：随着销售额降幅收窄，EBITDA上升

核心要点

• 净销售额同比下降3.4%至1.116亿美元，可比销售额下降3.5%。月度可比销售额环比改善，从5月的-5.7%升至6月的-2.8%和7月的-1.9%。
• 调整后EBITDA从上年同期的470万美元增至770万美元（占销售额的6.9%）。调整后每股收益从0.01美元升至0.05美元。
• 毛利率上升270个基点至47.9%，主要得益于460万美元的IEPA关税退款。若扣除该笔退款，商品毛利率将同比下降约70个基点。
• 门店客流量仍是DXL最大的运营挑战。强劲的转化率和每笔交易金额抵消了部分压力，而直销渠道的转化率则得益于应用程序和网站的改进。
• 本季度末，DXL拥有2010万美元的现金和投资、零债务以及6170万美元的超额可用信贷额度。
• 董事会撤回了此前对拟议的Full Beauty合并案的支持，并一致建议股东对发股议案投反对票，理由是Full Beauty业绩恶化、债务上升以及潜在的股权稀释。

关键财务数据

业务与运营业绩

DXL报告称可比销售额趋势持续环比改善，但门店客流量依然疲软。管理层表示，转化率和单笔交易金额保持强劲，有助于抵消客流减少的影响。客户调查将客流量放缓归因于减重计划、消费优先级改变以及延迟购买服饰。

直销业务的表现好于实体门店。付费搜索、付费社交及程序化营销对需求形成了支撑，而更快的网站响应速度和应用程序改进提高了转化率。DXL正在平衡新客获取与召回老客/流失客户之间的支出，但管理层承认，新客获取和客户激活的速度仍低于预期目标。

公司的“Fit for Growth”（适合增长）战略围绕四个优先事项：巩固合身度权威地位、扩大自有品牌、提高品牌知名度以及获取新客户。FitMap已为超过15万名客户进行了体型扫描。管理层表示，与未扫描客户相比，经过扫描的客户表现出更高的转化率、更高的客单价、更多的到店次数以及更低的退货率。

自有品牌渗透率持续提高。今年迄今，ThermaChill产品的需求同比增长了56%。DXL还在将Harbor Bay打造为入门级价格品牌，并采用更有针对性、特定产品的促销手段，而非大规模打折。

在家庭年收入超过10万美元的35岁至64岁核心消费群体中，DXL的品牌知名度在七个月内从40%上升至49%。公司正在重新分配而非增加广告预算，构建更均衡的营销漏斗，包括YouTube和程序化广告测试。

管理层展望

管理层表示已看到销售额即将恢复增长的迹象，同时强调客流量和新客获取依然是核心挑战。

DXL正在审查其门店组合，以提高每平方英尺销售额和单店利润率。预计门店精简对2026财年的影响有限，但管理层预计从2027财年及以后开始将降低租金占地成本和门店运营成本。

公司还在保护营运资金并暂停非必要的现金支出。必要的技术和配送中心投资将继续进行，但某些软件升级可能会推迟，直至可比销售额趋势更加稳定。

风险与关注领域

• 尽管月度可比销售额趋势有所改善，但门店客流量仍是DXL最重要的运营挑战。
• 新客户获取和老客激活的速度仍低于管理层预期的节奏。
• GLP-1药物的使用可能会在客户身材尺寸过渡期间推迟服装购买。管理层表示，许多接受调查的用户打算在身材稳定后重返DXL消费。
• 若扣除关税退款，由于滞销季节性商品的降价幅度增大以及燃油附加费导致运输成本上升，商品毛利率本将下降约70个基点。
• 据DXL董事会称，在当前条款下，Full Beauty合并案带来了更高的财务和股权稀释风险。

分析师问答环节要点

管理层表示，预计将在2026财年关闭三家门店。接下来的下一财年将有几十份租约到期需要续签，但DXL强调这些门店将被逐一评估，并非都是关店候选对象。公司将专注于销售额有可能转移至附近DXL门店的市场。

在资本支出方面，管理层表示大部分投资投向技术升级和配送中心，分配给门店的金额较少。DXL可能会推迟非迫切需要的升级，以保留现金，直至可比销售额趋势趋于稳定。

业绩电话会议完整文字记录

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Thank you. Good day, everyone, and welcome to Destination XL Group, Inc.'s conference call to discuss our second quarter fiscal 2026 financial results. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Ms. Shelly Mokas, Vice President of Financial Reporting and SEC Compliance at DXL. Please go ahead, Shelly.

Shelly Mokas

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your joining us on Destination XL Group's second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are Lionel Conacher, our Interim Chief Executive Officer, Peter Stratton, our Chief Financial Officer, and Jimmy Olsen, our new Chief Growth Officer. During today's call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe provide useful supplemental information regarding our performance. Please refer to our earnings release, which was filed this morning and is available on our investor relations website for additional information and reconciliation of those measures. Today's discussion will also include forward-looking statements regarding the company's strategic initiatives, marketing strategies, store rationalization work, expectations for comparable sales, the share, update regarding the merger, and other expectations for fiscal 2026. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.

Additional information regarding those risks and uncertainties is included in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I will turn the call over to our Interim CEO, Lionel Conacher. Lionel?

Lionel Conacher

Thank you, Shelly, and good morning, everyone. I'm honored to join today's call as DXL's Interim Chief Executive Officer at an important time for the company. I want to begin by recognizing Harvey Cantor for his leadership and contributions to DXL over more than 7 years as CEO. Harvey helped strengthen DXL's position as the leading specialty retailer in men's big and tall, and on behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire management team, I want to thank Harvey for his service and wish him well in retirement. Just a few words about myself. I've been involved with DXL as the director since 2018 and have served as Chairman since 2020. During my time with the DXL, I have developed a deep appreciation for the company, its people, and most importantly, the big and tall customer.

We have a strong brand, a loyal customer base, a clear understanding of our customers' priorities. The differentiated leadership position that we have established in this underserved market gives us a strong foundation on which to build, grounded in our commitment to serving the big and tall customer. Our priorities from here are straightforward. We are focused on increasing traffic and revenue, strengthening customer engagement, improving profitability, and advancing strategic initiatives that can support long-term growth. The second quarter earnings result we reported today are a testament to progress we are already making in these efforts. Our business continues to improve, and we see clear signs that a resumption in sales growth is imminent. Q2 sales performance was consistent with the progress we reported in the first quarter, which is a significant improvement over our prior year's results.

I'm incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead for DXL and proud to be speaking with you all about our momentum today. Before we dive into the quarter, I'd like to introduce Jimmy Olsen, who has worked with DXL in a consulting role for the past 12 months and recently joined us full-time as Chief Growth Officer. Jimmy comes to DXL with a deep background in retail strategy, brand elevation, and scaling omnichannel platforms through marketing, merchandising, and product development. This newly created role of Chief Growth Officer brings together the customer-facing levers of the business, and Jimmy's perspective will be instrumental as we execute against the traffic, assortment, promotional, and store experience opportunities in front of us. Jimmy has held leadership positions at a number of blue chip retailers, including Walmart, American Eagle, Tommy John, Todd Snyder, and The Gap. On behalf of the DXL Board of Directors, I am thrilled to welcome Jimmy to DXL. You will hear directly from Jimmy for a deeper dive into our growth priorities and initiatives.

To frame up the balance of today's remarks, in just a moment, I'm going to turn the call over to Peter to give you an update on our second quarter performance, sales trends, margin, and liquidity. After that, Jimmy's going to talk about our go-forward strategy and priorities before I come back to close things out. With that, I'm going to ask Peter to give you an update on our financial results. Peter?

Peter Stratton

Thank you, Lionel, and good morning, everyone. Our second quarter sales were generally in line with our expectations and remain consistent with the year-over-year improvement in trends that we saw in Q1. Net sales were $111.6 million, down 3.4% from last year. And our adjusted EBITDA was $7.7 million or 6.9% of sales compared with $4.7 million last year, while adjusted earnings per share was $0.05 compared with last year's $0.01 result. Comparable sales were down 3.5% for the quarter, with stores down 4.3%, and our direct business down 1.6%. Monthly comps increased sequentially from negative 5.7% in May to negative 2.8% in June and then negative 1.9% in July. Store traffic remains our most significant challenge, although we continue to be encouraged by strong conversion in dollars per transaction, which helped offset some of that traffic pressure.

In direct, we saw improvement in conversion driven by enhancements to the app and overall site experience, and we also benefited from solid performance and clearance product, primarily through the direct channel. More broadly, the direct business generated demand through paid search, paid social, and programmatic marketing, while ongoing improvements in app performance, site experience, and speed supported better conversion. We continue to evaluate our marketing allocation carefully to strike the right balance between attracting new customers, where we have seen acquisition rate increases since the fourth quarter, and reengaging repeat and lapsed customers where spending remains more cautious. Encouragingly, when new customers discover DXL, they continue to respond well to our assortment, fit, and value proposition. Based on customer surveys and related insights, the overall slowdown in customer traffic appears to reflect a combination of weight loss journeys, shifting spending priorities, and delayed purchasing decisions. Importantly, we believe the underlying affinity for the DXL experience remains strong. Although we still have meaningful work ahead, we are encouraged by the improvement in the quarter and confident that our turnaround efforts are beginning to gain traction.

Our merchandising efforts remain focused on sharpening value, strengthening private brands, and improving inventory flow to better align with current demand. We are leaning further into private brands, particularly Harbor Bay as an opening price point and value driver, while continuing to improve around storytelling, around quality, fit, and value across channels. Our creative and messaging have become more focused on essentials, cost per wear, and trusted fit, reinforcing our position with a more value-conscious customer. We are also rebalancing the promotional calendar toward higher margin and higher inventory risk categories so that promotions can help drive demand while protecting profitability and reducing future inventory exposure. Another topic that I'd like to touch on quickly is IEPA tariff refunds. Towards the end of the first quarter, we submitted a claim to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection online portal, and I'm pleased to report that we received a refund of $4.6 million during the second quarter. Which benefited merchandise margin and improved adjusted EBITDA versus plan.

Gross margin, inclusive of occupancy costs, was 47.9%, up 270 basis points to last year, primarily driven by this refund. Excluding the tariff refund, merchandise margin would have been approximately 70 basis points worse than last year, primarily due to a higher markdown rate to move through slower-moving seasonal product and increased shipping costs due to fuel surcharges. Occupancy costs were flat in dollars, but the leverage versus last year due to lower sales. Selling general and administrative expenses were 41% of sales with advertising expense coming in at 6.1% of sales, generally in line with last year. We continue to look very carefully at SG&A across the organization, reducing corporate expenses where appropriate, and rationalizing our store base over the next several years as leases expire or kick-out rates become available. The punchline here is we need to improve our return on assets. Targeting stores that have a high probability of transferring volume to another store allows us to make the total store portfolio more productive.

In certain markets, we believe there are opportunities to rationalize high occupancy stores and redirect customers to other stores in the market. The store rationalization work will have limited impact in 2026, but it is expected to reduce occupancy and store operating costs beginning in 2027 and beyond. This is a multi-year project that should improve sales per square foot and four-wall profit over time. I'll close with an update on the continued strength of our balance sheet. We ended Q2 with $20.1 million of cash and investments on hand, no debt, and excess availability of $61.7 million. Most importantly, our balance sheet gives us flexibility. Our inventory levels are clean and stable, inventory turnover is strong, and clearance levels are in line with our 10% targets.

Preserving working capital remains a priority, and we have paused all nonessential uses of cash while funding only the most important and required initiatives for the business. These targeted growth initiatives are already bearing fruit, as evidenced by this quarter's comparable sales result of negative 3.5%, the strongest we have delivered in the past 3 years. I'd now like to turn it over to Jimmy to talk more about those initiatives and elaborate on our marketing and merchandising strategies.

Unknown Speaker

Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everyone. I'm excited to join DXL and to be leading our growth agenda across merchandising, marketing, direct, and stores. The second quarter reinforced both the strength of the DXL proposition and the work still ahead to drive more traffic, sharpen product storytelling, and create stronger reasons for customers to shop with us. I want to organize my comments on today's call around the internal growth strategy we are calling Fit for Growth. In the simplest terms, this strategy consists of four strategic pillars. Supercharging our fit authority, fueling growth in our private brands, building our brand awareness and go-to-market strategy, and lastly, driving new customer acquisition. Our first priority is supercharging our fit authority. This is the foundation of what makes DXL different, and it starts with the initiative that has positioned DXL at the leading edge of fit centricity, FitMap.

We've now scanned more than 150,000 customers, and our most recent 12-month cohort shows scanned customers spending more than they did before. For scanning with stronger conversions, higher AOV, increased visits, and a meaningfully lower return rate than non-scan customers. Scan penetration, simply getting more of our customer file measured, remains our single largest lever inside this program. Fit authority is also the right lens for how we're addressing a genuine structural shift in our customer with GLP-1 medication adoption. Based on our customer surveys, a meaningful portion of our customer base is currently using GLP-1 medications, indicated while they are on their weight loss journey, they stopped buying apparel altogether for a period. But a majority tell us that they intend to come back to DXL once they reach a stable size. We believe being the authority on fit means staying with this customer through that transition, not just at a single point in time. And we're building a specific communication journey tied to FitMap scan segments to do exactly that.

Our second priority is fueling growth in our private brands. Private brand penetration continues to grow year over year. Our ThermaChill franchise, which is a new product development technology built into our tech pants, shorts, and button-down shirt, is one of our cleanest growth bets inside this priority. ThermaChill features dual temperature regulation to keep you cool when it's hot outside and warmer when it cools down. Our year-to-date demand for ThermaChill product grew 56% over last year. Proof that when we invest ad spend in marketing behind a private brand franchise that's genuinely working, it scales. We also continue to see that targeted product-specific promotions outperform broad discounting.

That discipline is protecting merchandise margin, even as we work through a softer traffic environment, and it's a direct extension of what fueling private brand growth actually means in practice, winning through product and value, not through the depth of the discount. Our third priority is building our brand awareness and evolving our go-to-market strategy. As we continue to evolve our marketing investment from lower funnel spend toward mid and upper funnel tactics, we're running tests in select markets to get in front of him where he consumes media. Our brand awareness remains below the category average, and the current marketing mix has been heavily weighted toward bottom of funnel conversion. We are reallocating, not adding to, the advertising budget over time to support a more balanced funnel, including incremental testing in YouTube and programmatic channels. We're already seeing early proof points. Awareness in our core demographic of 35- to 64-year-olds with household incomes above $100,000 has moved from 40% to 49% in 7 months. Priority is also where our AI discoverability work sets.

Through a focused effort on generative and answer engine optimization, we've moved our Trustpilot sentiment score from 1.5 to 4.4, a concrete, inexpensive proof point that the go-to-market investment behind a GenTech and AI-initiated search is paying off before the larger infrastructure is even fully built. Our fourth priority is driving new customer acquisition. I want to be direct and transparent with you that this is the priority most exposed by this quarter's traffic mess. We are behind the pace we'd like on both new customer acquisitions and reactivation right now. This is why priorities 1 through 3 matter so much. Fit authority and FitMap give customers a differentiated reason to choose us and stay. Expanding private label lets us deliver more value, helping attract new customers and grow our base. Brand awareness is what actually gets a new or lapsed customer to notice us in the first place. Acquisition doesn't happen in isolation. It's the output of the other three priorities working together, and it's the priority we're most focused on moving over the balance of the year.

Before I turn the call back over to Lionel, I want to leave you with this one thread. Traffic and customer acquisition is the challenge underlying essentially everything I just described, and this Fit for Growth strategy is our coordinated response. Not four separate initiatives, but one solution viewed through four distinct lenses. I'd like to thank Lionel and the Board of Directors for this opportunity. I'm so excited to be working on solutions that are going to move the needle for DXL and the big and tall customer we are proud to serve.

Lionel Conacher

Thanks, Jimmy. Before we open the line for questions, I want to provide a brief update on the status of our proposed merger with Full Beauty. September 2, DXL filed an updated preliminary proxy statement with respect to the merger. As detailed in this filing, conditions have changed since we first entered into the merger agreement in December. Causing Full Beauty's operating performance, financial results, and balance sheet positioning to deteriorate. Our board takes its fiduciary duties to our stockholders seriously and to that end has continued to evaluate the merger in light of these developments. Based on this evaluation, the board determined that the merger is no longer in the best interest of DXL and its stockholders. Accordingly, the board has withdrawn its prior recommendation in favor of the merger and now unanimously recommends that stockholders vote against the issuance proposal. There were several factors that contributed to this decision.

The increasingly challenging consumer environment since 2025 of December. Full Beauty's continuing decline in operating performance and financial results, including lower than expected net sales, earnings, EBITDA, and cash flow. The corresponding heightened risk that Full Beauty will not achieve its projections for the current fiscal year, their increased level of indebtedness, concerns regarding the potential negative equity value, and the substantial economic dilution that our stockholders would experience if the merger were consummated on its current terms. In terms of next steps in this process, we are currently awaiting SEC review of the amended preliminary proxy statement. Once we receive SEC clearance. We will file and mail definitive proxy materials to all stockholders eligible to vote at the special meeting, which will be held in a 20- to 25-day window following the definitive proxy filing. The proxy statement can be found on the landing page of our investor webpage at investor.dxl.com. We encourage stockholders to read the proxy statement carefully and in its entirety.

Beyond that, we are not commenting further on the merger at this time. We ask that you keep your questions on today's call focused on second quarter operational and financial performance. In closing, as you just heard, we're taking focused steps to advance the strategic priorities we believe can meaningfully strengthen the business over time. Three of the most important are FitMap, our application of AI, and our work to better understand GLP-1 related customer behavior. What connects these priorities is that each reflects a meaningful shift in how our customer shops, how he discovers product, and how we need to evolve to serve him more effectively. Together, these are strategic growth levers that we believe can improve customer engagement and sharpen our competitive position and create more durable long-term value. We have a differentiated position in an underserved market, a powerful relationship with a big and tall customer, and a team that understands how to serve him.

The actions we are taking to strengthen the business, drive growth, and improve profitability are beginning to translate into encouraging improvements in our performance, and our fortress balance sheet provides us with a strong underlying foundation for the growth engine we are building. And confident in our ability to capture the meaningful value creation opportunities ahead. With that, operator, we will now take questions.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Joseph Midkiff of 226B Capital Partners. Your line is open.

Unknown Speaker

Hey, good morning, guys, and thanks for the updates today. There was mention of reviewing store base as leases come due, particularly in markets with multiple locations. I was curious if we could clarify, um, how many leases would be coming up for renewal in total over the next 24 months and how many or what percentage of those might be potential candidates for closure or consolidation.

Peter Stratton

Sure, I'll take that one. This is Peter. So, you know, we've been spending a fair amount of time taking a look at the portfolio. And, you know, as I mentioned in my remarks, we need to make our assets more productive. So, in instances where we have more than one store in a market that we believe we can eliminate a store, drive that volume to the nearby sister store, it improves our return on assets, and that's really the big focus. For this year there's a handful of stores that are closing, I want to say 3 stores this year. Um, next year, the stores that are coming up for uh lease and renewal, Um, there's gonna be a few dozen that that are coming up. Now, those are not all closing.

We are going to be looking at those on a case-by-case basis. Um, and we'll be developing those plans really over the next 6 months to figure out how much more will be closing. But ultimately, it's about improving our sales per square foot in the existing portfolio and making sure that we can get the most return out of those assets.

Unknown Speaker

Fantastic. Thank you so much. Excited to hear about the return on asset focus there. If I could follow up, you mentioned as well the potential for the potential for pausing any cash investments that can be deferred. Is that something that you could quantify the impacts of or speak at all to what specifically – what areas specifically have been targeted for pausing or removing?

Peter Stratton

So the um, the majority of our capital spend this year is in our technology, um, upgrades and improvements, our distribution center, um, and and there's a a a small amount in in stores. Um, the majority of that is going to be in uh distribution and and in technology. So, you know, we are, we have a number of projects going on right now to make sure we're staying current with the latest releases of all of our software platforms. But in some cases, we're going to try to push those out a little further. You know, when our vendors start taking platforms to end of life and we're required to upgrade, well, those are the situations that we're going to have to deal with, but we're trying to avoid any upgrades that will burn cash until we see more stability in our comp trends in the near future.

Unknown Speaker

Well, awesome. Thanks, guys. I appreciate the tone of the call shifting to a realization of what's happening in the business, and I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks again, guys.

Operator

Thank you. I show no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn it back to Lionel Conacher for closing remarks.

Lionel Conacher

Thank you, Operator, and thank you, everybody, for listening in today, and we appreciate your interest in DXL. And with that, we'll close out the meeting. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

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