Boot Barn (BOOT) TD Cowen 9th Annual Future of the Consumer Conference summary

Business performance and drivers

• Recent acceleration in results is broad-based across all merchandise categories and geographies, driven by consistent customer growth and transaction increases rather than macroeconomic factors.

• Execution in merchandising and store operations is credited for outperformance compared to other public companies in the Western retail space.

• No significant changes in customer frequency or basket size; growth is primarily transaction-driven.

• The company maintains a mid-single-digit comp growth history, with current performance slightly above that range.

• New stores in non-core regions perform as strongly as those in established markets, with Western product demand exceeding initial expectations.

Strategic initiatives and leadership focus

• Four strategic pillars remain: same-store sales growth, new stores, margin and exclusive brands, and omnichannel.

• Increased focus on exclusive brands, including launching separate websites and campaigns to enhance brand storytelling.

• Sourcing team expansion underway, with a new head of sourcing hired to optimize exclusive brand margin architecture.

• Exclusive brands reached 38.6% penetration last fiscal year, with a goal to reach 50% over the next five to six years.

• Margin improvement for exclusive brands is expected to come more from optimizing margin architecture than from further penetration increases.

Financial guidance and margin outlook

• Q1 guidance is a 6% same-store sales growth, but actual performance is tracking at +10%, making the guide appear conservative.

• Second half guidance is flat comp due to macroeconomic concerns, particularly consumer price sensitivity and tariff impacts.

• Merchandise margin is guided to be flat for the year, with 100 basis points of improvement in the first half and pressure from tariffs in the second half.

• Supply chain efficiencies and vendor negotiations have delivered nearly 100 basis points of margin improvement, expected to be permanent.

• Long-term EBIT margin target remains 15%, with a path to achieve it over the next five to six years as macro pressures ease.