UNITED STATES
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Washington, D.C. 20549
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(Mark One)
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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement relating to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the 2021 fiscal year, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Report.
Table of Contents
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References throughout this document to “Sportsman’s Warehouse,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries, and references to “Holdings” refer to Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings, Inc. excluding its subsidiaries.
STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “10-K”) contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements concern our business, operations and financial performance and condition as well as our plans, objectives and expectations for our business operations and financial performance and condition, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this 10-K are forward-looking statements. These statements may include words such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “can have,” “could,” “due,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “objective,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “predict,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events or trends. For example, all statements we make relating to our plans and objectives for future operations, growth or initiatives and strategies are forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and our management’s beliefs and assumptions. We derive many of our forward-looking statements from our own operating budgets and forecasts, which are based upon many detailed assumptions. While we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, we caution that predicting the impact of known factors is very difficult, and we cannot anticipate all factors that could affect our actual results.
All of our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include, but are not limited to:
| ● | current and future government regulations, in particular regulations relating to the sale of firearms and ammunition, which may impact the supply and demand for our products and our ability to conduct our business; |
| ● | our retail-based business model which is impacted by general economic and market conditions and economic, market and financial uncertainties that may cause a decline in consumer spending; |
| ● | our concentration of stores in the Western United States which makes us susceptible to adverse conditions in this region, and could affect our sales and cause our operating results to suffer; |
| ● | the highly fragmented and competitive industry in which we operate and the potential for increased competition; |
| ● | changes in consumer demands, including regional preferences, which we may not be able to identify and respond to in a timely manner; |
| ● | our entrance into new markets or operations in existing markets, which may not be successful; and |
| ● | the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on our operations. |
The above is not a complete list of factors or events that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations, and we cannot predict all of them. All written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us, or persons acting on our behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements disclosed under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this 10-K, as such disclosures may be amended, supplemented or superseded from time to time by other reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including subsequent Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and public communications. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made in this 10-K and otherwise in the context of these risks and uncertainties.
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Potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements we make. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this 10-K and are not guarantees of future performance or developments and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that in many cases are beyond our control. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements publicly, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
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PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
Sportsman’s Warehouse is an outdoor sporting goods retailer focused on meeting the everyday needs of the seasoned outdoor veteran, the first-time participant, and everyone in between. Our mission is to provide outstanding gear and exceptional service to inspire outdoor memories. We strive to accomplish this goal by tailoring our broad and deep merchandise assortment to meet local conditions and demand, offering everyday low prices, providing friendly support from our knowledgeable and highly trained staff, and offering a top-tier e-commerce experience, extensive in-store events and educational programming. These core strategies help position Sportsman’s Warehouse as the “local outdoor experts” and the preferred place to not only shop, but to also share outdoor-based experiences in the communities we serve. As a result, we are growing our loyal customer base in existing markets, expanding our footprint into new markets, and increasing our omni-channel presence in both new and existing markets, which we believe will further drive our growth and profitability.
Sportsman’s Warehouse was founded in 1986 as a single retail store in Midvale, Utah and has grown to 122 stores across 29 states. Today, we have the largest outdoor specialty store base in the Western United States and Alaska. Our stores range from 7,500 to 65,000 gross square feet, with an average size of approximately 38,000 gross square feet. Our store layout is adaptable to both standalone locations and strip centers. We believe it is less capital-intensive for us to open new stores compared to our principal competitors because our “no frills” store layout requires less initial cash investment to build out and our stores generally require less square footage than the stores of our competitors. We also have the largest offering of firearms available online for in-store purchase and buy-online-pickup-in-store when compared to the offerings of our major competitors. Together, these features and capabilities enable us to effectively serve markets of multiple sizes, from Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) with populations of less than 75,000 to major metropolitan areas with populations in excess of 1,000,000, while generating consistent four-wall adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“Adjusted EBITDA” see “—Non-GAAP Measures.”), margins and returns on invested capital across a range of store sales volumes.
On December 2, 2021, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Great Outdoors Group, LLC and Phoenix Merger Sub I, Inc (“Merger Subsidiary”) entered into a Termination Agreement (the “Termination Agreement”) under which the parties agreed to terminate the merger agreement, dated December 21, 2020, among the same parties (the “Merger Agreement”), effective immediately. Pursuant to the terms and conditions set forth in the Merger Agreement, Merger Subsidiary would have been merged with and into Sportsman’s Warehouse, with Sportsman’s Warehouse continuing as the surviving corporation in the Merger and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Great Outdoors Group (the “Merger”). The decision to terminate the Merger Agreement followed feedback from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) that led the parties to believe that they would not have obtained FTC clearance to consummate the Merger. Under the Termination Agreement, Great Outdoors Group agreed to pay us the Parent Termination Fee (as defined in the Merger Agreement) of $55.0 million by wire transfer of immediately available funds concurrently with the execution of the Termination Agreement. We received the $55.0 million payment on December 2, 2021.
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe the following competitive strengths allow us to capitalize on the growth opportunity within the outdoor activities and sporting goods market:
Differentiated Shopping Experience for the Seasoned Outdoor Veteran, the First-Time Participant and Everyone in Between. We place great emphasis on creating an inviting and engaging store experience for customers of all experience levels. For the seasoned outdoor veteran, we offer a one-stop, convenient store layout that promotes “easy-in, easy-out” access to replenish supplies, learn about local conditions and test products. We also serve first-time participants and casual users who are interested in enjoying the outdoors but enter our store without a clear sense for the equipment needed for their chosen activity. Our highly trained employees, who often are local outdoor enthusiasts and users of the products we sell, engage and interact with our customers in order to educate them and equip them with the right gear. Our sales associates draw upon formal vendor sales training as well as first-hand experiences from using our products in local conditions. This selling approach allows us to offer a broad range of products and to deliver a shopping
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experience centered on the customer’s needs, which we believe results in increased customer loyalty, repeat visits and frequent referrals to other potential customers.
A customer’s shopping experience in our stores is further enhanced by a variety of helpful in-store offerings and features, including access to hunting and fishing licenses, local fishing reports, the Braggin’ Board (where customers can post photos of their outdoor adventures), indoor test ranges for archery equipment and displays of customer-owned taxidermy. In addition, we host a variety of in-store programs (such as ladies’ night), contests (such as Bucks & Bulls, a free-to-enter big-game trophy contest) and a wide range of instructional seminars (such as turkey frying and firearm operation and safety). These programs are all designed to help our customers connect with the outdoors and build the skills necessary to maximize enjoyment of their chosen activities. As a result, we believe our stores often serve as gathering spots where local enthusiasts can share stories, product knowledge and advice on outdoor recreation activities, which drives traffic and fosters customer loyalty.
Our in-store experience is further complimented by our top-tier e-commerce experience available on our website, sportsmans.com. We also offer the ability for our customers to buy our product on-line and pick up their order in any of our stores.
Comprehensive Locally Relevant Merchandise Serving the Needs of Outdoor Enthusiasts at a Compelling Value. We offer our customers an extensive and carefully selected assortment of branded, high-quality outdoor products at competitive prices. We accomplish this primarily in three ways:
| ● | Locally Relevant Merchandise: We carry over 24,000 SKUs on average in a single store, out of Sportsman’s Warehouse’s total of approximately 120,000 SKUs. Each store’s merchandise is tailored to meet local conditions and consumer demand, which takes into account seasonal and weather requirements, regional game and fishing species and key demographic factors, so that our customers have access to the appropriate product at the right time for their geography. |
| ● | Breadth and Mix of Product Assortment: Our merchandise strategy is designed to serve a variety of purchasing occasions and user experience levels, from big-ticket items to consumables, and from first-time participants to seasoned outdoor veterans. We pride ourselves on carrying an extensive selection of branded good, better and best hard goods at everyday low prices. Approximately 39% of our unit sales and 19% of our dollar sales during fiscal year 2021 were consumables, such as ammunition, bait, cleaning supplies, food, certain lures, propane and reloading supplies. We believe our broad array of in-stock consumable goods appeals to a broad range of customers and drives repeat traffic as well as increased average ticket value. We also carry the largest omni-channel hunting and shooting sports offering of any retailer. |
| ● | Strong Vendor Relationships: We believe our vendors find our brand-centric, high-service store concept to be unique among national specialty outdoor retailers. Our attractive store locations, consistent presentation of merchandise and thorough product training present a compelling opportunity for our vendors to offer their brands to local markets. As a result, we believe we are able to negotiate favorable terms with our vendors that are similar to those offered to our principal competitors that are larger in size. We share the benefits of these strategic vendor relationships with our customers through everyday low prices, enhanced access to certain products that are limited in production and special make-up products sold exclusively at Sportsman’s Warehouse. |
Flexible and Adaptable Real Estate Strategy. We believe that our store model, combined with our rigorous site selection process, is a competitive advantage that enables us to better address the needs of markets of varying sizes and geographies. Our stores vary in size from approximately 7,500 to 65,000 gross square feet. We have had success with leasing existing sites, constructing new build-to-suit sites and purchasing existing stores and converting them to the Sportsman’s Warehouse brand. Our flexible store model permits us to serve both large metropolitan areas, like Phoenix, Arizona, and smaller MSAs, like Soldotna, Alaska, while generating consistent four-wall Adjusted EBITDA margins and returns on invested capital across a range of store sales volumes. In small- to medium-sized markets, we are often able to establish ourselves as a standalone destination for our customers; in larger markets, we have successfully leveraged existing infrastructure to open stores in shopping plazas near complementary retailers, drawing upon existing foot traffic. We believe our low-cost, flexible model allows us to access both large and small markets more economically than many of our peers.
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We maintain a disciplined approach to new store development and perform comprehensive market research before selecting a new site, including partnering with specialized, third-party local real estate firms. We select sites based on criteria such as local demographics, traffic patterns, density of hunting and fishing license holders in the area, abundance of hunting and fishing game and outdoor recreation activities, store visibility and accessibility, purchase data from our existing customer database and availability of attractive lease terms. We have established productive relationships with well-regarded commercial real estate firms and believe that we are a sought-after tenant, given the strength of the Sportsman’s Warehouse brand, the high volume of customers that visit our stores and our strong financial performance since becoming a public company. As a result, we continue to have access to desirable retail sites on attractive terms.
Low Cost Operating Structure with Attractive and Replicable Store Economics. We strive to maintain a lower operating cost structure than many of our key competitors, which allows us to serve small- to medium-sized markets as well as larger MSAs. We achieve this through discipline and financial rigor around store-level expenses, real estate costs and corporate overhead. In addition, we utilize efficient, localized marketing campaigns and our “no frills” warehouse store layout helps us maintain comparatively low operating costs and provides us with the opportunity to achieve four-wall Adjusted EBITDA margins of 10% or more for stores in most new markets after the first 18 to 24 month period after opening the new store. Our typical new store requires an average net investment of approximately $2.4 million, which includes store build-out (net of contributions from landlords) and pre-opening cash expenditures. In addition, we stock each new store with initial inventory at an average cost of approximately $2.4 million. We target a pre-tax return on invested capital after the first 18 to 24 month period after opening of over 50% excluding initial inventory cost (or over 20% including initial inventory cost), although our historical returns have often exceeded these thresholds. As of the end of fiscal year 2021, the majority of our stores that had been open for more than twelve months were profitable and those stores had an average four-wall Adjusted EBITDA margin of 17.2%. We believe this low-cost, capital-efficient approach also allows us to successfully serve markets that are not well-suited for the more capital-intensive store models of our key competitors. Approximately 61% of our markets currently lack another nationally recognized outdoor specialty retailer, which we believe is a result of these dynamics.
Significant New Store Growth Opportunity within Existing and New Markets. As of January 29, 2022, we operated 122 stores across 29 states, primarily in the Western United States and Alaska. We believe our leadership position in the Western United States and our continued expansion in other geographical regions of the United States, combined with our existing scalable infrastructure, provides a strong foundation for continued expansion within our core markets as well as expanding into new geographies. We believe that we are the largest, fastest growing public, pure-play outdoor specialty retailer in our space.
Passionate and Experienced Management Team with Proven Track Record. We are focused on delivering an unsurpassed shopping experience to anyone who enjoys the excitement of the outdoors. This passion and commitment is shared by team members throughout our entire organization, from senior management to the employees in our stores. Our senior management team has an average of over 20 years of retail experience, with extensive capabilities across a broad range of disciplines, including merchandising, real estate, finance, compliance, store operations, supply chain management and information technology. We also pride ourselves on the long tenure of our more than 300 store managers and corporate employees.
Our Growth Strategy
We are pursuing a number of strategies designed to continue our growth and strong financial performance, including the following:
Leveraging Our Omni-Channel Presence and Increasing Our Same Store Sales Growth. We are committed to leveraging our omni-channel presence and increasing same store sales through a number of ongoing and new initiatives, including (i) improving the user experience on our website through continuous category optimization and personalization and product recommendations for online shopping, (ii) expanding our product assortment and SKU count online (with the assistance of our vendor partners through drop ship and our Federal Firearms License (“FFL”) dealer partners), refining our buy online, pick-up in store capabilities, expanding our apparel, footwear, and camping offerings and private label program (such as our proprietary Rustic Ridge™ and Killik™ apparel lines) and (iii) expanding our online content and expertise through live Q&A and customer reviews and providing exclusive online content, including news, buyer’s guide and how to’s, accessory finders, and wild game recipes. Each of these ongoing and new initiatives is designed to foster additional shopping convenience, add deeper merchandise selection and provide
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more product information to the customer. We believe these initiatives have driven and will continue to drive additional traffic, improved conversion and increased average ticket value.
Continuing to Enhance Our Operating Margins. We believe that our expansion of our store base and growth in net sales will result in improved Adjusted EBITDA margins as we take advantage of economies of scale in product sourcing and leverage our existing infrastructure, supply chain, corporate overhead and other fixed costs. Furthermore, we expect to increase our gross profit margin by improving vendor terms with key suppliers, increasing sales of used firearms, selling more firearm service plans, expanding product offerings in our private label program, including our proprietary Rustic RidgeTM and KillikTM apparel lines, and continuing marketing initiatives in our higher-margin apparel and footwear departments. However, the gross profit margin gains will likely continue to be partially offset by a negative impact from our product mix. Specifically, firearms and ammunition are lower gross profit margin products as compared to other categories in our stores.
Growing the Sportsman’s Warehouse Brands. We are committed to supporting our stores, product offerings and brand through a variety of marketing programs, private label offerings and corporate partnerships. Our marketing and promotional strategy includes coordinated print, digital and social media platforms. In-store, we offer a wide range of outdoor-themed activities and seminars, from turkey frying to firearm operation and safety. In addition, we sponsor community outreach and charity programs to more broadly connect with our local communities with the aim of promoting our brand and educating consumers. Finally, we are committed to local chapters of national and regional wildlife federations and other outdoor-focused organizations, such as Ducks Unlimited and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Many of our store managers and employees serve in senior positions in these organizations, which further strengthens our place as leaders in the local outdoor community. We believe all of these programs promote our mission of engaging with our customers and serving outdoor enthusiasts.
Growing our Loyalty and Credit Card Programs. We offer both a loyalty program and co-branded credit card program to our customers. These programs allow our customers to earn points that can be redeemed for in-store credit through purchases at Sportsman’s Warehouse stores and through the use of the co-branded credit card for all daily purchases. We believe these benefits are key in helping us obtain and retain new customers. We plan to continue to invest in the marketing of these programs, in particular at the point-of-sale.
Expanding Our Store Base. We believe that our compelling new store economics and our track record of opening and acquiring successful new stores provide a strong foundation for continued growth through new store openings in existing, adjacent and new markets. Over the last three fiscal years, we have opened an average of 10 stores per year, including the twelve stores we acquired from Dick’s Sporting Goods in fiscal 2019 and 2020. We currently plan to open 10 new stores in fiscal year 2022. Our target is to grow our square footage at a rate of 5% to 10% percent annually. Our longer-term plans include expanding our store base to serve the outdoor needs of enthusiasts in markets across the United States. We believe our existing infrastructure, including distribution, omni-channel capabilities, information technology, loss prevention and employee training, is capable of sustaining our current growth plans without significant additional capital investment, although we may determine to invest in our existing infrastructure to prepare for future growth.
Strategic Acquisitions. While our primary strategy for expansion is through organic store opening, we believe we can use strategic acquisitions as an additional source of growth, as we did with the 12 stores we acquired from Dick’s Sporting Goods in fiscal 2019 and 2020. We target acquisitions that will be accretive to our margins and profitability, provide content, private label expansion, or capabilities that would deliver efficiencies in operations and customer acquisition retention. We have a proven track record of successfully executing around strategic acquisitions and will continue to look for complementary targets.
Our Stores
We operate 122 stores across 29 states as of January 29, 2022. Most of our stores are located in power, neighborhood and lifestyle centers. Power centers are large, unenclosed shopping centers that are usually anchored by three or more national supercenters, such as Target, Walmart and Costco. Neighborhood centers are shopping centers anchored by a supermarket or drugstore that provide convenience goods and services to a neighborhood. Lifestyle centers are shopping centers that combine the traditional functions of a shopping mall with leisure amenities such as pedestrian friendly areas, open air seating and inviting meeting spaces. We also operate several single-unit, stand-alone locations. Our stores average approximately 38,000 gross square feet.
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The following table lists the location by state of our 122 stores open as of January 29, 2022:
| Number of Stores |
|
| Number of Stores | ||
California | 14 | South Carolina | 3 | |||
Washington | 13 | Indiana | 2 | |||
Utah | 10 | Kentucky | 2 | |||
Arizona | 9 | New York | 2 | |||
Oregon | 8 | Tennessee | 2 | |||
Colorado | 7 | Florida | 1 | |||
Pennsylvania | 7 | Iowa | 1 | |||
Idaho | 6 | Louisiana | 1 | |||
Wyoming | 6 | Minnesota | 1 | |||
Alaska | 5 | Mississippi | 1 | |||
Michigan | 4 | Nebraska | 1 | |||
Nevada | 4 | North Dakota | 1 | |||
Montana | 3 | Virginia | 1 | |||
New Mexico | 3 | West Virginia | 1 | |||
North Carolina | 3 |
Store Design and Layout
We present our broad and deep array of products in a convenient and engaging atmosphere to meet the everyday needs of all outdoor enthusiasts, from the seasoned veteran to the first-time participant. We maintain a consistent floor layout across our store base that we believe promotes an “easy-in, easy-out” shopping experience. All of our stores feature wide aisles, high ceilings, visible signage and central checkouts with multiple registers. Sportsman’s Warehouse stores, true to their name, are designed in a “no frills” warehouse format that welcomes customers directly from or on the way to an outdoor activity. All of our stores also feature “store-within-a-store” concepts for certain popular brand partners, such as Leupold, Hornady and Huk, through which we dedicate a portion of our floor space to these brands to help increase visibility and drive additional sales.
Our stores include locally relevant features such as a large fishing board at the entrance that displays current fishing conditions in local lakes and rivers with coordinating gear in end-cap displays in the fishing aisles. We actively engage our customers through in-store features (such as the “Braggin’ Board”), various contests (such as Bucks & Bulls and Fish Alaska), and customer-owned taxidermy displays on the walls. We also host in-store programs (such as ladies’ night) and a wide range of instructional seminars (such as Dutch oven cooking and choosing the right binocular). Annually, we organize thousands of programs across our stores for the benefit of our customers. We believe these programs help us to connect with the communities in which we operate and encourage new participants to build the skills necessary to become outdoor enthusiasts and loyal customers.
In 2021 we started making a serious commitment to refurbishing our stores, with 19 stores completed and seven additional planned for 2022. Our goal in these refreshes is to keep the stores fresh with updated lifestyle type graphics, improving the flow of our merchandise and store to our customer, enhance our technological capabilities within the stores to ensure we are meeting the needs of every customer, and make the stores more energy efficient.
In the last 18 months we have also completed a test concept of a very small format store in Laramie Wyoming. Based on the successful concept test, this year, we are slated to open two of our newest “spike camp” concept stores. These stores are approximately 10,000 square foot boxes that are ground up construction and value engineered. We will open both of these new stores in the first half of 2022 and they will be located in Riverton, Wyoming and Stansbury UT. We are excited about this new format allowing us to expand into smaller markets where there is an underserved consumer, tailoring our immense assortment to reflect local needs.
The retail stores and the distribution center have loss prevention employees who monitor an average of 55 cameras at each store and 250 cameras at the distribution center. These cameras are monitored locally and centrally at our headquarters in our dedicated surveillance room. Our sophisticated systems are a key factor in our shrink rates of approximately 1% and an important component of our comprehensive compliance program.
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Expansion Opportunities and Site Selection
We have developed a rigorous and flexible process for site selection. We select sites for new store openings or store acquisitions based on criteria such as local demographics, traffic patterns, density of hunting and fishing license holders in the area, abundance of hunting and fishing game and outdoor recreation activities, store visibility and accessibility, purchase data from our existing customer database and availability of attractive lease terms. Our store model is adaptable to markets of multiple sizes, from MSAs with populations of less than 75,000 to major metropolitan areas with populations in excess of 1,000,000. We have been successful both in remodeling existing buildings and in constructing new build-to-suit locations.
Our store model is designed to be profitable in a variety of real estate venues, including power, neighborhood and lifestyle centers as well as single-unit, stand-alone locations. In small- to medium-sized markets, we generally seek anchor locations within high-traffic, easily accessible shopping centers. In larger metropolitan areas, we generally seek locations in retail areas with major discount retailers (such as Walmart), wholesale retailers (such as Costco), other specialty hardline retailers (such as The Home Depot) or supermarkets. As we continue to expand our store base, we believe that small- to medium-sized markets offer a significant opportunity. In these markets, we believe our store size, which is smaller than many of our national competitors, but larger than many independent retailers, enables us to find convenient, easily accessible store locations while still offering the broad and deep selection of merchandise that our customers desire. In addition, our store format and size allow us to open multiple stores within major MSAs, which gives our customers convenient, easy access to our products without having to travel long distances.
Members of our real estate team spend considerable time and utilize sophisticated tools in evaluating prospective sites before bringing a proposal to our Real Estate Committee. Our Real Estate Committee, which is comprised of members of our senior management, including our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Real Estate, and Senior Vice President of Stores, approves all prospective locations before a lease is signed.
We opened 10 new stores in fiscal year 2021. We currently plan to open 10 new stores in fiscal year 2022. Over the long-term our target is to grow our square footage at a rate of 5% to 10% percent annually. Our new store openings are planned in existing, adjacent and new markets.
Our new store growth plan is supported by our target new unit economics, which we believe to be compelling. A typical store location ranges in size from 7,500 to 65,000 gross square feet. Our net investment to open a new store is approximately $2.4 million, consisting of pre-opening expenses and capital investments, net of tenant allowances. In addition, we stock each new store with initial inventory at an average cost of approximately $2.4 million. After the first 18 to 24 month period after opening a new store, we typically have a four-wall Adjusted EBITDA margin of more than 10% and a pre-tax return on invested capital of over 50% excluding initial inventory cost (or over 20% including initial inventory cost). Our new stores typically reach a mature sales growth rate within 18 to 24 months after opening, with net sales increasing approximately 25% in the aggregate during this time period.
Omni-Channel Strategy
We believe our website is an extension of our brand and our retail stores. Our website, www.sportsmans.com, serves as both a sales channel and a platform for marketing and product education, which allows us to engage more fully with the outdoor community across all of our localities. In addition to offering similar merchandise found in our retail stores, our website offers a substantial amount of additional assortment. Regulatory restrictions create certain structural barriers to the online sale of a portion of our revenue, such as firearms, ammunition, certain cutlery, propane and reloading powder. As a result, this portion of our business is currently more protected from competition from online-only retailers.
We also provide our online customers with convenient omni-channel services. To ensure that our customers have access to our entire assortment of products available on the e-commerce website, our retail stores feature kiosks that allow customers to place orders for items that are available only on our website, out of stock or not regularly stocked. We view our kiosk offering as an important complement to our larger format stores, as well as a key differentiator and extension of our smaller format stores. Our in-store pickup offering allows customers to order products through our e-commerce website and pick up the products in our retail stores without incurring shipping costs. We believe our ship-to-store is a valuable service offering to customers, as well as a means to generate additional foot traffic to our retail stores.
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We also have the ability to ship-from-store to fulfill customer orders. This feature has allowed us to turn all of our retail stores into distribution centers, decreasing the time it takes to fulfill orders, and increasing our ability to leverage our inventory across the Company.
In addition, our website features local-area content, including fishing reports and event schedules, as well as online educational resources, including buyer’s guides, how to’s, tips, advice and links to video demonstrations on our dedicated YouTube channel. We have also rolled out our social media strategy through our Facebook page and Instagram feed. These platforms allow us to reach our customers more directly with targeted postings of advertisements and in-store events. We leverage technology that aggregates customer location, browsing behavior and purchase history to present a personalized shopping experience. We believe our online educational resources and community outreach drive traffic to our website and retail stores, while improving user engagement as shoppers move from single-purchase users to loyal customers. We provide online customer service support and fulfill orders through our in-house distribution center and through select partner drop ship integration. In fiscal year 2021, our website received more than 100.8 million visits, which we believe demonstrates our position as a leading resource for outdoor products and product education.
Our Products and Services
Merchandise Strategy
We offer a broad range of products at a variety of price points and carry a deep selection of branded merchandise from well-known manufacturers, such as Browning, Carhartt, Coleman, Columbia Sportswear, Federal Premium Ammunition, Honda, Johnson Outdoors, Crispi, Camp Chef, Shakespeare, Shimano, Smith & Wesson and Ruger. To reinforce our convenient shopping experience, we offer our products at everyday low prices. We believe our competitive pricing strategy supports our strong value proposition, instills price confidence in both our customers and our sales associates, and is a critical element of our competitive position.
We believe we offer a wider selection of hard goods than many of our key competitors. We employ a good, better, best merchandise strategy, with an emphasis on “better” products that meet the needs of customers of all experience levels. We strive to keep our merchandise mix fresh and exciting by continuously searching for new, innovative products and introducing them to our customers. Our hunting and shooting department, which is strategically located at the back of the store, is a key driver of store traffic and one of the reasons for our high frequency of customer visits. We carry a large array of consumable goods, which includes ammunition, bait, cleaning supplies, food, certain lures, propane and reloading supplies. During fiscal year 2021, sales of consumable goods accounted for approximately 39.0% of our unit sales and 19.0% of our dollar sales. We believe the sale of consumables and replenishment items drive repeat traffic, with the majority of our customers visiting our stores multiple times per year (according to our internal surveys). During such visits, our customers frequently browse and purchase other items, including additional gear and accessories.
We also carry a variety of private label and special make-up offerings under the Rustic RidgeTM, KillikTM, Vital ImpactTM, Yukon Gold, Lost Creek and Sportsman’s Warehouse brands as well as special make-up items through vendors such as Tikka, Weatherby, Camp Chef and various others. These products are designed and priced to complement our branded assortment, by rounding out the offering and ensuring customer choices for good, better and best within key product categories. During fiscal year 2021, private label offerings accounted for approximately 3.0% of our total sales with special make-up offerings accounting for an additional 1.0% of our total sales. This combined total of 4.0% compares to more than 20% for many of our sporting goods retail peers. We believe our private label and special make-up products are an important opportunity to drive sales and increase margins alongside our branded merchandise.
In addition to outfitting our customers with the correct gear, we provide our customers with value-added, technical support services, such as gunsmithing and firearm service plans. Our stores offer full-service archery technician services, fishing-reel line winding, scope mounting and bore sighting, and cleaning services. We also help participants enjoy the outdoors responsibly by issuing hunting and fishing licenses. We believe the support services provided by our highly trained staff technicians differentiate us from our competitors, increase customer loyalty and drive repeat traffic to our stores.
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Products
Our stores are organized into six departments. The table below summarizes the key product lines by department:
Department |
| Product Offerings |
Camping |
| Backpacks, camp essentials, canoes and kayaks, coolers, outdoor cooking equipment, sleeping bags, tents and tools |
Apparel |
| Camouflage, jackets, hats, outerwear, sportswear, technical gear and work wear |
Fishing |
| Bait, electronics, fishing rods, flotation items, fly fishing, lines, lures, reels, tackle and small boats |
Footwear |
| Hiking boots, socks, sport sandals, technical footwear, trail shoes, casual shoes, waders and work boots |
Hunting and Shooting |
| Ammunition, archery items, ATV accessories, blinds and tree stands, decoys, firearms, firearms safety and storage, reloading equipment, and shooting gear |
Optics, Electronics, Accessories, and Other |
| Gift items, GPS devices, knives, lighting, optics (e.g. binoculars), two-way radios, and other license revenue, net of revenue discounts |
Each department has buying and planning teams that are responsible for monitoring product availability from vendors and sales volume within the department and across all stores. We actively monitor the profitability of each product category within each department and adjust our assortment and floor space accordingly. This flexibility enables us to provide customers with more preferred product choices and to enhance the profit potential of each store.
Hunting and shooting have historically been the largest contributor to our sales. Hunting and shooting department products are generally sold at significantly higher price points than other merchandise, but often have lower margin percentages. Camping is our second largest department, and family-oriented camping equipment in particular continues to be a high growth product category. Apparel sales have grown as we have introduced new brands and styles, including increasing selections for women and children. We view apparel sales as an important opportunity, given its high gross margins and appeal to a broad, growing demographic.
The following table shows our sales during the past three fiscal years presented by department:
Fiscal year Ended | |||||||||
| January 29, |
| January 30, | February 1, | |||||
Department |
| Product Offerings |
| 2022 |
| 2021 | 2020 | ||
Camping | Backpacks, camp essentials, canoes and kayaks, coolers, outdoor cooking equipment, sleeping bags, tents and tools | 13.1% | 12.7% | 14.4% | |||||
Apparel | Camouflage, jackets, hats, outerwear, sportswear, technical gear and work wear | 8.4% | 7.5% | 9.3% | |||||
Fishing | Bait, electronics, fishing rods, flotation items, fly fishing, lines, lures, reels, tackle and small boats | 10.0% | 9.9% | 11.1% | |||||
Footwear | Hiking boots, socks, sport sandals, technical footwear, trail shoes, casual shoes, waders and work boots | 6.8% | 5.6% | 7.5% | |||||
Hunting and Shooting | Ammunition, archery items, ATV accessories, blinds and tree stands, decoys, firearms, reloading equipment and shooting gear | 54.2% | 57.6% | 49.1% | |||||
Optics, Electronics, Accessories, and Other | Gift items, GPS devices, knives, lighting, optics, two-way radios, and other license revenue, net of revenue discounts | 7.5% | 6.7% | 8.6% | |||||
Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | ||||||
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Camping. Camping represented approximately 13.1% of our net sales during fiscal year 2021. Our camping assortment addresses both the technical requirements of the heavy-use camper, including gear for long-duration or deep-woods excursions, as well as the needs of the casual camper. We offer a broad selection of products for multi-day back country use and also for weekend outings, including tents and shelters, sleeping bags, backpacks and backpacking gear (including camouflaged styles for hunting), generators for home and camp use, cooking and food preparation equipment (including stoves and extended-use coolers), and dehydrated foods. Our camping department also includes canoes, kayaks and a selection of recreational camping equipment for the family, including basic automotive accessories, camp chairs and canopies. Our camping department includes brands such as Alps Mountaineering, Big Agnes, Camp Chef, Coleman, Honda, Teton Sports, Rustic Ridge Tents and Lost Creek Coolers.
Apparel. Apparel represented approximately 8.4% of our net sales during fiscal year 2021 and includes camouflage, outerwear, sportswear, technical gear, work-wear, jackets and hats. We primarily offer well-known brands in our apparel department, such as Carhartt, Columbia and Sitka. We also intend to grow our private label apparel lines, including Rustic RidgeTM and KillikTM. Our apparel selection offers technical performance capabilities for a variety of hunting activities, including upland game, waterfowl, archery, big game hunting, turkey hunting and shooting sports. Performance attributes include waterproofing, temperature control, scent control features and visual capabilities, such as blaze orange and camouflage in a wide range of patterns. Outerwear is an important product category for customers who are fishing, hiking, hunting or marine enthusiasts. We further complement our technical apparel with an assortment of casual apparel that fits our customers’ lifestyles, including a variety of branded graphic t-shirts, and private label t-shirts.
Fishing. Fishing represented approximately 10.0% of our net sales during fiscal year 2021 and includes products for fresh-water fishing, salt-water fishing, fly-fishing, ice-fishing and boating. Our broad assortment appeals to the beginning and weekend angler, as well as avid and tournament anglers. In addition to lures, rods and reels, our fishing assortment features a wide selection of products in tackle management and organization, electronics, fly-fishing, ice-fishing and marine accessories sub-categories. We also provide fishing-reel line winding services in all of our stores and live bait in most of our stores. We offer products for boat care and maintenance, as well as safety equipment and aquatic products such as float tubes and pontoons. All of our stores also sell fishing licenses. Our fishing department includes brands such as Johnson Outdoors, Normark, Plano, Pure Fishing, Rivers Wild Flies, Orvis and Shimano.
Footwear. Footwear represented approximately 6.8% of our net sales during fiscal year 2021 and includes work boots, technical footwear, hiking boots, trail shoes, socks, sport sandals and waders. As with apparel, our footwear selection offers a variety of technical performance features, such as different levels of support and types of tread, waterproofing, temperature control and visual attributes. Our footwear department includes brands such as Danner, Keen, Merrell, Red Wing and Hey Dude.
Hunting and Shooting. Hunting and shooting is our largest merchandise department, representing approximately 54.2% of our net sales during fiscal year 2021. Products such as ammunition, firearms cleaning supplies, firearms, firearms safety and storage and reloading products are typically key drivers of traffic in our stores. Our hunting and shooting merchandise assortment provides equipment, accessories and consumable supplies for virtually every type of hunting and shooting sport. Our expert technicians allow us to effectively support our hunting assortments for the avid hunter, shooter and archery enthusiast. Our merchandise selection includes a wide variety of firearms designed for hunting, shooting sports and home and personal defense, including air guns, black powder muzzle loaders, handguns, rifles and shotguns. We carry a wide selection of ammunition, archery equipment, dog training products, hunting equipment, reloading equipment and shooting accessories. Our hunting and shooting department includes brands such as Federal Premium Ammunition, Hornady, Browning, Ruger, Smith & Wesson and Winchester.
Optics, Electronics, Accessories and Other. Our optics, electronics, accessories and other department represented approximately 7.5% of our net sales during fiscal year 2021. This department supplements our other equipment departments with complementary products, such as optics (including binoculars, spotting scopes and rangefinders), GPS devices and other navigation gear, GoPro video cameras, two-way radios, specialized and basic cutlery and tools, including hunting knives, lighting, bear spray and other accessories. Our optics, electronics and accessories department includes brands such as Garmin, Leupold, Leica, Nikon, Swarovski Optik and Vortex Optics. Our other department includes miscellaneous products and services.
Loyalty and Co-Branded Credit Card Programs
We have a loyalty program through which our customers are able to earn “points” towards Sportsman’s Warehouse gift cards on most of their purchases. The program is free to join and accepted both online and in-stores for
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purchases and the use of redemption cards. As of January 29, 2022, we had approximately 3.2 million participants in our loyalty program and approximately 45% of our revenue is generated from our loyalty customers.
Customers may obtain a loyalty program card when making a purchase in-store or online. After obtaining a card, the customer must register on our website in order to redeem loyalty rewards. Customers earn one point for each dollar spent, with the exception of certain items, such as gift cards and fish and game licenses. For every 100 points accumulated, the customer is entitled to a $1.00 credit in loyalty rewards, which may be redeemed by logging into our website to request a redemption card for any whole dollar amount (subject to the customer’s available point balance). The redemption card is then mailed to the customer and operates as a gift card to be used for in-store and/or online purchasing. In addition, customers may choose to redeem loyalty rewards at the point-of-sale to be applied against in-store purchases. The rewards points expire after 12 months of dormancy.
In addition, we offer our customers the multi-use Explorewards VISA Credit Card and the Explorewards Credit Card issued by Comenity Bank. Comenity Bank extends credit directly to cardholders and provides all servicing for the credit card accounts, funds the rewards and bears all credit and fraud losses. The Explorewards Visa Card allows customers to earn points whenever and wherever they use their card while the Explorewards Credit Card can be used only in Sportsman’s Warehouse stores and at Sportsman.com. Customers may redeem earned points for products and services just as they would redeem loyalty card points.
Sourcing and Distribution
Sourcing
We maintain central purchasing, replenishment and distribution functions to manage inventory planning, allocate merchandise to stores and oversee the replenishment of basic merchandise to the distribution center. We have no long-term purchase commitments. During fiscal year 2021, we purchased merchandise from approximately 1,200 vendors with no vendor accounting for more than 10% of total merchandise purchased. We have established long-standing, continuous relationships with our largest vendors.
Our sourcing organization is currently managed by our merchant team in our corporate headquarters. We also have field merchants that coordinate certain merchandising functions at the store level to provide a more localized merchandising model. To ensure that our product offerings are tailored to local market conditions and demand, our merchant teams regularly meet one-on-one with our vendors, and attend trade shows, review trade periodicals and evaluate merchandise offered by other retail and online merchants. We also frequently gather feedback and new product reviews from our store management and employees, as well as from reviews submitted by our customers. We believe this feedback is valuable to our vendor-partners and improves our access to new models and technologies.
Distribution and Fulfillment
We currently distribute all of our merchandise from our 507,000 square foot distribution center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The distribution center supports replenishment for all stores. We use preferred carriers for replenishment to our retail stores. Direct-to-consumer e-commerce orders are fulfilled by the majority our 122 retail stores, in addition to the distribution center. We ship merchandise to our e-commerce customers via courier service. Our experienced distribution management team leads a staff of approximately 700 employees at peak inventory levels heading into the fourth quarter.
The distribution center has dynamic systems and processes that we believe can accommodate continued new store growth. We use the HighJump Warehouse Management System (“WMS”) to manage all activities. The system is highly adaptable and can be easily changed to accommodate new business requirements. For example, our WMS enabled us to support full omni-channel distribution under one roof by allowing us to comingle inventory to optimize space requirements and labor. Additionally, we have developed customized radio frequency and voice-directed processes to handle the specific requirements of our operations. We have the capability to both case pick and item pick, which is designed to ensure that our stores have sufficient quantities of product while also allowing us to maintain appropriate in-stock levels. This balance allows us to effectively manage inventory and maximize sales in stores.
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Marketing and Advertising
We believe, based on internal surveys, that the majority of our customers are male, between the ages of 35 and 65, and have an annual household income between $40,000 and $100,000. We also actively market to women and have expanded our product offerings of women’s and children’s outerwear, apparel and footwear to address rising participation rates in hunting and shooting sports, as well as overall outdoor activity.
Our primary marketing efforts are focused on driving additional consumers to the stores and increasing the frequency and profitability of visits by customers of all types. We employ a two-pronged marketing approach:
| ● | regional advertising programs; and |
| ● | local grassroots efforts to build brand awareness and customer loyalty. |
Our regional advertising programs emphasize seasonal requirements for hunting, fishing and camping in our various store geographies. Our advertising medium is typically newspaper inserts (primarily multi-page color inserts during key shopping periods such as the Christmas season and Father’s Day), supplemented with modest amounts of digital advertising, email, radio and national television ads. We proactively modify the timing and content of our message to match local and regional preferences, changing seasons, weather patterns and topography of a given region. Additionally, we sponsor several regional television and radio programs. Our total marketing expense for fiscal year 2021 was approximately $20.5 million.
The second prong of our marketing effort involves fostering grassroots relationships in the local community. Each Sportsman’s Warehouse store employs a variety of outreach tools to build local awareness. One key component to our local marketing strategy is hosting events throughout the year, targeting a variety of end-user customer profiles (such as hunters, campers, anglers and women). Our store base hosts or facilitates thousands of in-store and offsite seminars and events per year, such as ladies’ night, Waterfowl Weekend, Maintain the Terrain, and loyalty member events. We are also active in supporting a variety of conservation groups, such as Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation and the National Wild Turkey Federation, both at the corporate level and through store employee local memberships and participation. Company representatives attend more than 600 events annually to provide support for these organizations and to solidify ties between their members and the Sportsman’s Warehouse brand. Such grass roots marketing campaigns and local outreach enable us to reduce our initial marketing spend in connection with new store openings. We believe that these initiatives are highly cost-effective tools to create brand awareness and engender a loyal community of local customers, as well as differentiate Sportsman’s Warehouse from its national competitors.
Information Technology
Business-critical information technology (“IT”) systems include the following: supply chain, merchandise, point-of-sale (“POS”), WMS, e-commerce, loss prevention and financial and payroll. Our IT infrastructure is robustly designed to be able to access real-time data from any store or channel. The network infrastructure allows us to quickly and cost effectively add new stores to the wide area network (“WAN”). The private WAN is built on a CenturyLink backbone with all of its resources and support. Additionally, we have implemented a redundant wireless WAN on Verizon’s infrastructure. All key systems will continue to run in the event of a power or network outage. All data is backed up daily from one storage array to another storage array.
We have implemented what we believe to be best-in-class software for all of our major business-critical systems. Key operating systems include Oracle Applications for ERP, SAP Commerce for our e-commerce channel, Retail.net and JPOS for in-store functionality, and HighJump for WMS. Our physical infrastructure is also built on products from premier vendors Cisco, Dell, Oracle Sun and VMWare. Originally designed with the goal of being able to run a significantly larger retail business, our IT systems are scalable to support our growth.
Furthermore, we have incorporated enhanced reporting tools that allow for more comprehensive and granular monitoring of business performance, which has been critical to management’s ability to drive financial results. Management has access to a reporting dashboard that shows key performance indicators (“KPIs”) on a company, store, department and category level. KPIs include multiple variables and are all available on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. All KPIs are compared to comparable prior year periods. District, store and department managers have
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access to the data relevant to their area of responsibility. Real-time sales data is available on demand. The system allows for custom-created reports as required.
Intellectual Property
Sportsman’s Warehouse®, Sportsman’s Warehouse America’s Premier Outfitter®, Lost Creek®, LC Lost Creek Fishing Gear and Accessories®, Rustic RidgeTM, KillikTM, K Killik & DesignTM, LC & DesignTM, and Vital ImpactTM are among our service marks or trademarks registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition, we own several other registered and unregistered trademarks and service marks involving advertising slogans and other names and phrases used in our business. We also own numerous domain names, including www.sportsmans.com, among others. The information on, or that can be accessed through, our websites is not a part of this filing.
We believe that our trademarks are valid and valuable and intend to maintain our trademarks and any related registrations. We do not know of any material pending claims of infringement or other challenges to our right to use our marks in the United States or elsewhere. We have no franchises or other concessions that are material to our operations.
Our Market and Competition
Our Market
We compete in the large, growing and fragmented outdoor activities and sporting goods market, which we believe is currently underserved by full-line multi-activity retailers. We believe, based on 2021 National Sporting Goods Association data, that U.S. outdoor activities and sporting goods retail sales total over $70 billion annually. The U.S. outdoor activities and sporting goods sector is comprised of three primary categories—equipment, apparel and footwear—with each category containing distinct product sets to support a variety of activities, including hunting, fishing, camping and shooting, as well as other sporting goods activities.
We believe growth in the U.S. outdoor activities and sporting goods market is driven by several key trends, centered around enhancing performance and enjoyment while participating in sporting and outdoor activities, including new product introductions, and the resilience of consumer demand for purchases in these categories versus other discretionary categories. We believe these factors will continue to foster growth in the outdoor activities and sporting goods market in the future.
Within the retail sporting goods sector, we operate primarily in the outdoor equipment, apparel and footwear segment, which includes hunting and shooting, fishing, camping and boating. This segment is growing at a faster rate than the sporting goods industry at large. The 2016 U.S. Fish and Wildlife national survey, published once every five years, found that fishing participation increased 9% and participation in wildlife relation recreation increased 6%, for Americans aged 16 and older from 2011 to 2016. We believe that in response to COVID-19, the growth rate of the outdoor industry accelerated in 2020 and 2021 due to people searching for different ways to safely recreate while social distancing. In addition, first-time firearm buyers, particularly amongst diverse groups, increased in both 2020 and 2021. We believe this diversification of participant provides us with opportunity to engage a broader group of customers.
Furthermore, we believe that specialty retailers have generated incremental sales volume by expanding their presence, especially in smaller communities, which has increased customers’ access to products that formerly were less available. The nature of the outdoor activities to which we cater requires recurring purchases throughout the year, resulting in high rates of conversion among customers. For example, active anglers typically purchase various fishing tackle throughout the year based on seasons and changing conditions. Hunting with firearms typically is accompanied by recurring purchases of ammunition and cleaning supplies throughout the year and multiple firearm styles for different hunted game.
Competition
We believe that the principal competitive factors in our industry are product selection, including locally relevant offerings, value pricing, convenient locations, technical services and customer service. Some of our competitors have a larger number of stores, and some of them have a greater market presence, name recognition and financial, distribution, marketing and other resources than we have. We believe that we compete effectively with our competitors with our distinctive branded selection and superior customer service, as well as our commitment to understanding and providing merchandise that is relevant to our targeted customer base. We cater to the outdoor enthusiast and believe that we have both an in-depth knowledge of the technical outdoor customer and a “grab and go” store environment that is uniquely
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conducive to their need for value and convenience. We believe that our flexible box size, combined with our low-cost, high-service model, also allows us to enter into and serve smaller markets that our larger competitors cannot penetrate as effectively. Finally, certain barriers, including legal restrictions, exist on the sale of our product offerings that comprise a portion of our revenue, such as firearms, ammunition, certain cutlery, propane and reloading powder, create a structural barrier to competition from many online retailers.
Our principal competitors include the following:
| ● | independent, local specialty stores with locally relevant product offerings; |
| ● | other specialty retailers that compete with us across a significant portion of our merchandising categories through retail store, catalog or e-commerce businesses; |
| ● | large-format sporting goods stores and chains; |
| ● | mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs, discount stores, department stores and online retailers; and |
| ● | online retailers with deep offerings in the product categories in which we compete. |
Independent, Local Specialty Stores. These stores generally range in size from approximately 2,000 to 10,000 square feet, and typically focus on more than one specific product categories, such as hunting, fishing or camping.
Other Specialty Retailers. Some of the other specialty retailers that compete with us across a significant portion of our merchandising categories are large-format retailers that generally range in size from 40,000 to 250,000 square feet. These retailers seek to offer a broad selection of merchandise focused on hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor product categories. Some of these stores combine the characteristics of an outdoor retailer with outdoor entertainment and theme attractions. We believe that the number of these stores that can be supported in any single market area is limited because of their large size and significant per-store buildout cost.
Other specialty retailers are smaller chains that typically focus on offering a broad selection of merchandise in one or more of the following product categories—hunting, fishing, camping or other outdoor product categories. We believe we can offer a broader and deeper selection of merchandise or specialized services than these other outdoor-focused chains.
Large-Format Sporting Goods Stores and Chains. These stores generally range from 20,000 to 80,000 square feet and offer a broad selection of sporting goods merchandise covering a variety of sporting goods categories, including baseball, basketball, football and home gyms, as well as hunting, fishing and camping. However, we believe that the amount of space at these stores devoted to our outdoor product categories limits the extent of their offerings in these areas.
Mass Merchandisers, Warehouse Clubs, Discount Stores, Department Stores. With respect to retailers in this category with physical locations, these stores generally range in size from approximately 50,000 to over 200,000 square feet and are primarily located in shopping centers, free-standing sites or regional malls. Hunting, fishing and camping merchandise and apparel represent a small portion of the stores’ assortment and their total sales.
Online Retailers. E-commerce is a growing sales channel. We face competition from a diverse set of online retailers that sell a wide range of products in categories in which we participate. Online retailers include competitors with e-commerce only sales channels, in addition to many of the retailers mentioned above that also have an online presence.
We believe the small independent retailers (or “mom & pop” shops) comprise approximately 65% of the market for outdoor specialty retail products. In addition, while there are over 50,000 Type 01 Federal Firearms Licenses, or FFLs, in the United States today, only approximately 4,400 are currently held by national or regional specialty stores. Since FFLs are issued at the store level, these statistics imply that the remaining 91% of the market is fragmented among mom & pop shops. We believe this fragmentation within the total addressable market presents an attractive opportunity for us to continue to expand our market share, as customers increasingly prefer a broad and appealing selection of merchandise, competitive prices, high levels of service and one-stop shopping convenience.
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Seasonality
We experience moderate seasonal fluctuations in our net sales and operating results as a result of holiday spending and the opening of hunting seasons. While our sales are more balanced throughout the year than many retailers, historically, our sales are moderately higher in the third and fourth fiscal quarters than in the other quarterly periods. On average, over the last three fiscal years, we have generated approximately 26.8% and 28.9% of our net sales in the third and fourth fiscal quarters, respectively, which includes the holiday selling season as well as the opening of the Fall hunting season. However, Spring hunting, Father’s Day and the availability of hunting and fishing throughout the year in many of our markets counterbalance this seasonality to a certain degree. For additional information, see Part II, Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation."
Regulation and Compliance
Regulation and Legislation
We operate in a highly regulated industry. There are a number of federal, state and local laws and regulations that affect our business. In every state in which we operate, we must obtain various licenses and/or permits in order to operate our business.
Because we sell firearms at all of our retail stores, we are subject to regulation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (the “ATF”). Each store has an FFL permitting the sale of firearms, and our distribution center has obtained an FFL to store and distribute firearms. Certain states require a state license to sell firearms and/or ammunition and we have obtained these licenses for the states in which we operate that have such a requirement.
We must comply with federal, state and local laws and regulations, including the National Firearms Act of 1934 (the “NFA”), the Gun Control Act of 1968 (the “GCA”), the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and Internal Revenue Code provisions applicable to the Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax, all of which have been amended from time to time. The NFA and GCA require our business to, among other things, maintain Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs”) for our locations and perform a pre-transfer background check in connection with firearms purchases. We perform this background check using either the FBI-managed National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”), or a comparable state government-managed system that relies on NICS and any additional information collected by the state. These background check systems either confirm that a transfer can be made, deny the transfer or require that the transfer be delayed for further review, and provide us with a transaction number for the proposed transfer. We are required to record the transaction number on an ATF Form 4473 and retain this form in our records for auditing purposes for 20 years for each approved transfer and five years for each denied or delayed transaction. The federal government is currently proposing that all FFL holders maintain these records indefinitely, which would increase our possible exposure if the proposal is finalized. Additionally, these newly proposed federal regulations, if finalized in their present form, may impact the ability of manufacturers who hold FFL’s to provide certain products to us, which in turn could negatively affect consumer demand.
The federal categories of prohibited purchasers are the prevailing minimum for all states. States (and, in some cases, local governments) on occasion enact laws that further restrict permissible purchases of firearms. We are also subject to numerous other federal, state and local laws and regulations regarding firearm sale procedures, record keeping, inspection and reporting, including adhering to minimum age restrictions regarding the purchase or possession of firearms or ammunition, residency requirements, applicable waiting periods, importation regulations and regulations pertaining to the shipment and transportation of firearms.
In September 2004, Congress declined to renew the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 (the “AWB”), which prohibited the manufacture of certain firearms defined as “assault weapons,” restricted the sale or possession of “assault weapons,” except those that were manufactured prior to the law’s enactment, and placed restrictions on the sale of new high-capacity ammunition feeding devices. Various states and local jurisdictions, including California, Colorado, New York and Washington (states in which we operate), have adopted their own versions of the AWB or high capacity ammunition feeding device restrictions, some of which restrictions apply to the products we sell in other states. If a statute similar to the AWB were to be enacted or re-enacted at the federal level, it would impact our ability to sell certain products. Additionally, state and local governments have proposed laws and regulations that, if enacted, would place additional restrictions on the manufacture, transfer, sale, purchase, possession and use of firearms, ammunition and shooting-
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related products. For example, several states, such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Washington have enacted laws and regulations that are more restrictive than federal laws and regulations that limit access to and sale of certain firearms and ammunition. California, Connecticut and New York impose mandatory screening of ammunition purchases; California has requirements for microstamping (that is, engraving the handgun’s serial number on each cartridge) of new handguns; Washington recently passed legislation that, among other things, raises the minimum age to purchase certain firearms to 21 from 18 and imposes a multi-day waiting period on gun purchases. California also raised the minimum age to purchase certain firearms to 21 and enacted several restrictions, including background checks on ammunition sales. Some states prohibit the sale of guns without internal or external locking mechanisms. Other state or local governmental entities may also explore similar legislative or regulatory initiatives that may further restrict the manufacture, sale, purchase, possession or use of firearms, ammunition and shooting-related products.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (“PLCAA”), which became effective in October 2005, prohibits civil liability actions from being brought or continued in any federal or state court against federally licensed manufacturers, distributors, dealers or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages, punitive damages, injunctive or declaratory relief, abatement, restitution, fines, penalties or other relief resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of a qualified product by third parties. The legislation does not preclude traditional product liability actions.
Several states have immunity statues in place similar to the PLCAA. However, New York recently enacted state legislation that could allow firearm dealers, manufacturers, or importers to be held liable for improper marketing or sales as defined in the legislation.
We are also subject to a variety of federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to, among other things, protection of the environment, human health and safety, advertising, pricing, weights and measures, product safety and other matters. Some of these laws affect or restrict the manner in which we can sell certain items, such as archery equipment, handguns, smokeless powder, black powder substitutes, ammunition, pepper spray, bows, knives and other products. State and local laws and regulations governing hunting, fishing, boating, all-terrain vehicles and other outdoor activities and equipment can also affect our business. We believe that we are in substantial compliance with the terms of such laws and that we have no liabilities under such laws that we expect could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
In addition, many of our imported products are subject to existing or potential duties, tariffs or quotas that may limit the quantity of products that we may import into the United States from other countries or impact the cost of such products. To date, quotas in the operation of our business have not restricted us, and customs duties have not comprised a material portion of the total cost of our products.
Our e-commerce business is subject to the Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule and related regulations promulgated by the FTC, which affect our catalog mail order operations. FTC regulations, in general, govern the solicitation of orders, the information provided to prospective customers and the timeliness of shipments and refunds. In addition, the FTC has established guidelines for advertising and labeling many of the products we sell.
Compliance
We are routinely inspected by the ATF and various state agencies to ensure compliance with federal and local regulations. While we view such inspections as a starting point, we employ more thorough internal compliance inspections to help ensure we are in compliance with all applicable laws. With the IT infrastructure systems we have in place, certain components of inspections can be done remotely.
We dedicate significant resources to ensure compliance with applicable federal, state and local regulations. Since we began operations in 1986, we have never had a license revoked.
We are also subject to a variety of state laws and regulations relating to, among other things, advertising and product restrictions. Some of these laws prohibit or limit the sale, in certain states and locations, of certain items, such as black powder firearms, ammunition, bows, knives and similar products. Our compliance department administers various restriction codes and other software tools to prevent the sale of such jurisdictionally-restricted items.
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We have particular expertise in the California market and have passed several California Department of Justice (“CA DOJ”) firearm audits with zero or only minor violations. The CA DOJ communicates with us for policy discussion, recognizing the strength of our compliance infrastructure.
Compliance with government regulations, including environmental regulations, has not had, and based upon current information and the applicable laws and regulation currently in effect, is not expected to have a material effect on our capital expenditures, results of operations or competitive position. However, laws and regulations may be changed, accelerated or adopted that impose significant operational restrictions and compliance requirements upon us and which could negatively impact our operating results and financial condition. See Item 1A, “Risk Factors—Risks Related to the Firearms Business”.
Human Capital
We appreciate the importance of retention, growth and development of our employees. We strive to provide competitive compensation and benefits packages, opportunities for advancement, and extensive training programs and learning opportunities for our employees.
As of January 29, 2022, we had approximately 7,700 total employees. Of our total employees, approximately 320 were based at our corporate headquarters in West Jordan, Utah, approximately 520 employees were located at our distribution center and approximately 6,800 were store employees. We had approximately 3,300 full-time employees and approximately 4,400 part-time employees, who are primarily store employees. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or are party to a collective bargaining agreement and we have had no labor-related work stoppages. We pride ourselves on the long tenure of our more than 300 store managers and corporate employees.
We believe we offer competitive compensation and benefits packages. We strive to ensure pay equity between our female employees and male employees performing equal or substantially similar work. We are also focused on understanding our diversity and inclusion strengths and opportunities and executing on a strategy to support further progress. As our employees are often outdoor enthusiasts, we offer an industry best in-class discount program to our employees. We believe our level of employee store patronage and employee expertise are unique among our competitors in this industry and enhances our differentiated shopping experience.
We took early action regarding employee well-being in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing comprehensive protocols to protect the health and safety of our employees and guests.
We believe that the recruitment, training and knowledge of our employees and the consistency and quality of the service they deliver are central to our success. We emphasize deep product knowledge for store managers and sales associates during both the hiring and training stages. We hire most of our sales associates for a specific department or product category. All of our managers and sales associates undergo focused sales training, consisting of both sales techniques and specialized product instruction, both immediately upon hiring (approximately 20 hours) and continuing throughout their career (approximately 16 hours annually). In addition, our sales associates receive loss prevention instruction and departmental training upon hiring. For example, in our hunting department, all employees receive an additional nine hours of training on ATF and company policies initially upon hire, with continuing education throughout the year. Our store managers complete two to six months of on-the-job training at another store with a Sportsman’s Warehouse district manager, as part of which they receive approximately 80 hours of dedicated managerial training and instruction. Our department heads receive extensive online training as well as on-site instruction, totaling approximately 40 hours. As a result of these programs, our employees are highly trained to provide friendly and non-intimidating education, guidance and support to address our customers’ needs.
One of our unique assets is a designated training room located at our headquarters. Our training room is used frequently for firm-wide training programs and by vendors to stage training demonstrations for new products. Training room sessions are broadcast real-time in high definition to each store location and are recorded for future viewing. Vendor training is particularly interactive, permitting vendor representatives to present a uniform message simultaneously to all employees, while allowing managers and sales staff in individual stores to ask questions and provide real-time feedback on products. This system increases vendors’ product knowledge reach and provides more effective training to our employees. Training room sessions are especially important for technical products, with numerous design features and a high unit price, because they enable our sales associates to better educate customers and provide additional assurance that a given product fits the customer’s needs.
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Available Information
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, are available on our web site at www.sportsmans.com, free of charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after the electronic filing of these reports with, or furnishing of these reports to, the SEC. In addition, the SEC maintains a web site at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including us. We may post information that is important to investors on our website from time to time. The information provided on our website is not part of this report and is, therefore, not incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Our business faces significant risks and uncertainties. Certain important factors may have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations, and you should carefully consider them. Accordingly, in evaluating our business, we encourage you to consider the following discussion of risk factors, in its entirety, in addition to other information contained in or incorporated by reference into this 10-K and our other public filings with the SEC. Other events that we do not currently anticipate or that we currently deem immaterial may also affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to the Firearms Business
Current and future government regulations, in particular regulations relating to the sale of firearms and ammunition, may negatively impact the demand for our products and our ability to conduct our business.
We operate in a complex regulatory and legal environment that could negatively impact the demand for our products and expose us to compliance and litigation risks, which could materially affect our operations and financial results. These laws may change, sometimes significantly, as a result of political, economic or social events. For instance, Washington passed legislation that, among other things, raises the minimum age to purchase certain firearms to 21 from 18 and imposes a five to 10 day waiting period on gun purchases. In addition, Florida has also raised the minimum age for firearms purchases to 21 with some exceptions. Some of the federal, state or local laws and regulations that affect our business and demand for our products include:
| ● | federal, state or local laws and regulations or executive orders that prohibit or limit the sale of certain items we offer, such as firearms, black powder firearms, ammunition, bows, knives and similar products; |
| ● | the ATF, regulations, audit and regulatory policies that impact the process by which we sell firearms and ammunition and similar policies of state agencies that have concurrent jurisdiction, such as the CA DOJ; |
| ● | laws and regulations governing hunting and fishing; |
| ● | laws and regulations relating to the collecting and sharing of non-public customer information; |
| ● | laws and regulations relating to consumer products, product liability or consumer protection, including regulation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and similar state regulatory agencies; |
| ● | laws and regulations relating to the manner in which we advertise, market or sell our products; |
| ● | labor and employment laws, including wage and hour laws; |
| ● | U.S. customs laws and regulations pertaining to proper item classification, quotas and the payment of duties and tariffs; and |
| ● | FTC regulations governing the manner in which orders may be solicited and prescribing other obligations in fulfilling orders and consummating sales. |
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Over the past several years, bills have been introduced in the United States Congress that would restrict or prohibit the manufacture, transfer, importation or sale of certain calibers of handgun ammunition, impose a tax and import controls on bullets designed to penetrate bullet-proof vests, impose a special occupational tax and registration requirements on manufacturers of handgun ammunition and increase the tax on handgun ammunition in certain calibers. Because we carry these products, such legislation could, depending on its scope, materially harm our sales.
Additionally, state and local governments have proposed laws and regulations that, if enacted, would place additional restrictions on the manufacture, transfer, sale, purchase, possession and use of firearms, ammunition and shooting-related products. For example, in response to mass shootings and other incidents in the United States, several states, such as Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York, have enacted laws and regulations that limit access to and sale of certain firearms in ways more restrictive than federal laws. Other state or local governmental entities may continue to explore similar legislative or regulatory restrictions that could prohibit the manufacture, sale, purchase, possession or use of firearms and ammunition. In New York and Connecticut, mandatory screening of ammunition purchases is now required. In addition, California has adopted requirements for micro-stamping (that is, engraving the handgun’s serial number on the firing pin of new handguns), and at least seven other states and the United States Congress have introduced microstamping legislation for certain firearms. Lastly, some states prohibit the sale of firearms without internal or external locking mechanisms, and several states are considering mandating certain design features on safety grounds, most of which would be applicable only to handguns. Other state or local governmental entities may also explore similar legislative or regulatory initiatives that may further restrict the manufacture, sale, purchase, possession or use of firearms, ammunition and shooting-related products.
The regulation of firearms, ammunition and shooting-related products may become more restrictive in the future. Changes in these laws and regulations or additional regulation, particularly new laws or increased regulations regarding sales and ownership of firearms and ammunition, could cause the demand for and sales of our products to decrease and could materially adversely impact our net sales and profitability. Sales of firearms represent a significant percentage of our net sales and are critical in drawing customers to our stores. A substantial reduction in our sales or margins on sales of firearms and firearm related products due to the establishment of new regulations could harm our operating results. Moreover, complying with increased or changed regulations could cause our operating expenses to increase.
We may incur costs from litigation relating to products that we sell, particularly firearms and ammunition, which could adversely affect our net sales and profitability.
We may incur damages due to lawsuits relating to products we sell, including lawsuits relating to firearms, ammunition, tree stands and archery equipment. We may incur losses due to lawsuits, including potential class actions, relating to our performance of background checks on firearms purchases and compliance with other sales laws as mandated by state and federal law. We may also incur losses from lawsuits relating to the improper use of firearms or ammunition sold by us, including lawsuits by municipalities or other organizations attempting to recover costs from manufacturers and retailers of firearms and ammunition. For instance, in July 2019, the estate and family of a victim of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting filed litigation against 16 defendants, including us, for wrongful death and negligence. This litigation was dismissed in March of 2022, with a finding of no liability for the Company. See Note 16 to our Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the resolution of this litigation. Our insurance coverage and the insurance provided by our vendors for certain products they sell to us may be inadequate to cover claims and liabilities related to products that we sell. In addition, claims or lawsuits related to products that we sell, or the unavailability of insurance for product liability claims, could result in the elimination of these products from our product line, thereby reducing net sales. If one or more successful claims against us are not covered by or exceed our insurance coverage, or if insurance coverage is no longer available, our available working capital may be impaired and our operating results could be materially adversely affected. Even unsuccessful claims could result in the expenditure of funds and management time and could have a negative impact on our profitability and on future premiums we would be required to pay on our insurance policies.
Our net sales and profitability could be impacted if the strength of our brand is not maintained, and our sales of firearm-related products could present reputational risks and negative publicity.
Our success depends on the value and strength of the Sportsman’s Warehouse brand. The Sportsman’s Warehouse name is integral to our business as well as to the implementation of our strategies for expanding our business. Maintaining, promoting and positioning our brand will depend largely on the success of our marketing and merchandising efforts and our ability to provide high quality merchandise and a consistent, high quality customer
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experience both in-store and online. Our brand could be adversely affected if we fail to achieve these objectives or if our public image or reputation were to be tarnished by negative publicity, any of which could result in decreases in net sales. In addition, the sale of firearm-related products also may present reputational risks and negative publicity that could affect consumers’ perception of us or willingness to shop with us, which could harm our results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Retail Operations
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could have a negative impact on our business in future periods, which, could result in a material adverse effect on our operations, liquidity, financial condition and financial results.
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the global economy, disrupted consumer spending and global supply chains, and created significant volatility and disruption of financial markets, all of which may continue, and any of which may adversely affect our business. With respect to our supply chain, we continue to see some interruption with various vendors as a result of restrictions or limitations on their operations due to the pandemic. We experienced an increase in sales in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021 due to the pandemic and related events and the interruption in our supply chain has strained our inventory levels at times. Current demand for ammunition is outpacing supply and this trend is expected to continue during the first half of fiscal 2022. We have also seen shifts in consumer behaviors and preferences, which have impacted demand for some of our products. Our ability to predict and meet any future changes in the demand for our products due to the impacts of the pandemic remains uncertain.
We cannot predict the future impact on us of the COVID-19 outbreak. For instance, our financial results and operations would be significantly impacted if we are required or we deemed it appropriate to temporarily suspend or restrict the operations of a significant number of our stores. In addition, if we are required to close a large portion of our stores or we experience an acceleration of reduced store traffic, we may need additional liquidity to maintain our operations depending on how long these events impact our operations. The future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will depend on a number of future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including, not limited to the duration, spread and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, any resurgence of COVID-19, the effects of the outbreak on our customers and vendors, including any labor shortages experienced by any of our vendors, and the remedial actions and stimulus measures adopted by local and federal governments.
Our retail-based business model is impacted by general economic and market conditions, and ongoing economic, market and financial uncertainties, including uncertainties surrounding the impact of COVID-19, may cause a decline in consumer spending that may adversely affect our business, operations, liquidity, financial results and stock price.
As a retail business that depends on consumer discretionary spending, we may be adversely affected if our customers reduce, delay or forego their purchases of our products as a result of job losses, bankruptcies, higher consumer debt and interest rates, increases in inflation, higher energy and fuel costs, reduced access to credit, fluctuations in home prices and other adverse conditions in the mortgage and housing markets, lower consumer confidence, uncertainty or changes in tax policies and tax rates, uncertainty due to potential national or international security concerns and adverse or unseasonal weather conditions. Such events could adversely impact our sales and/or cause the temporary closure of our stores. Decreases in same store sales, customer traffic to our stores and e-commerce site or average ticket sales negatively affect our financial performance, and a prolonged period of depressed consumer spending could have a material adverse effect on our business. Promotional activities, vendor incentives, and decreased demand for consumer products could affect profitability and margins. In addition, adverse economic conditions may result in an increase in our operating expenses due to, among other things, higher costs of labor, energy, equipment and facilities. Due to fluctuations in the U.S. economy, our sales, operating and financial results for a particular period are difficult to predict, making it difficult to forecast results to be expected in future periods. Any of the foregoing factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition and could adversely affect our stock price.
Our concentration of stores in the Western United States makes us susceptible to adverse conditions in this region.
The majority of our stores are currently located in the Western United States, comprising Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. As a result, our
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operations are more susceptible to regional factors than the operations of more geographically diversified competitors. These factors include regional economic and weather conditions, natural disasters, demographic and population changes and governmental regulations in the states in which we operate. Environmental changes and disease epidemics affecting fish or game populations in any concentrated region may also affect our sales. In addition, adverse weather conditions and the impacts of climate change in any concentrated region may temporarily reduce the demand for some of our products and could have a negative effect on our sales, earnings or cash flows. If a region with a concentration of our stores were to suffer an economic downturn or other adverse event, our operating results could suffer.
Competition in the outdoor activities and sporting goods market could reduce our net sales and profitability.
The outdoor activities and sporting goods market is highly fragmented and competitive. Some of our competitors have a larger number of stores, and greater market presence (both brick and mortar and online), name recognition and financial, distribution, marketing and other resources than we have. As a result of this competition, we may need to spend more on advertising and promotion than we anticipate. In addition, the ability of consumers to compare prices on a real-time basis through the use of smartphones and digital technology puts additional pressure on us to maintain competitive pricing. If our competitors reduce their prices, we may have to reduce our prices in order to compete, which could harm our margins. Furthermore, some of our competitors may build new stores in or near our existing locations or in locations with high concentrations of our e-commerce business customers. As a result of this competition, we may need to spend more on advertising and promotion. Some of our mass merchandising competitors, such as Walmart, do not currently compete in many of the product lines we offer. However, if these competitors were to begin offering a broader array of competing products, or if any of the other factors listed above occurred, our net sales could be reduced or our costs could be increased, resulting in reduced profitability.
If we fail to anticipate changes in consumer demands, including regional preferences, in a timely manner, our operating results could suffer.
Our products appeal to consumers who regularly hunt, camp, fish and participate in various shooting sports. The preferences of these consumers cannot be predicted with certainty and are subject to change. In addition, due to different game and fishing species and varied weather conditions found in different markets, it is critical that our stores stock products appropriate for their markets. Our success depends on our ability to identify product trends in a variety of markets as well as to anticipate, gauge and quickly react to changing consumer demands in these markets. We usually must order merchandise well in advance of the applicable selling season. The extended lead times for many of our purchases may make it difficult for us to respond rapidly to new or changing product trends or changes in prices. If we misjudge either the market for our products or our customers’ purchasing habits, our net sales may decline significantly and we may not have sufficient quantities of merchandise to satisfy customer demand or we may be required to mark down excess inventory, either of which would result in lower profit margins and harm our operating results.
Our same store sales may fluctuate and may not be a meaningful indicator of future performance.
Our same store sales may vary from quarter to quarter, and an unanticipated decline in net sales or same store sales may cause the price of our common stock to fluctuate significantly. A number of factors have historically affected, and will continue to affect, our same store sales results, including:
| ● | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; |
| ● | changes or anticipated changes to regulations related to some of the products we sell; |
| ● | consumer preferences, buying trends, and overall political and economic trends; |
| ● | our ability to identify and respond effectively to local and regional trends and customer preferences; |
| ● | our ability to provide quality customer service that will increase our conversion of shoppers into paying customers; |
| ● | the success of our omni-channel strategy and our e-commerce platform; |
| ● | competition in the regional market of a store; |
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| ● | atypical weather; |
| ● | new product introductions and changes in our product mix; and |
| ● | changes in pricing and average ticket sales. |
Our operating results are subject to seasonal fluctuations.
We experience moderate seasonal fluctuations in our net sales and operating results. On average over the last three fiscal years, we have generated 26.8% and 28.9% of our annual net sales in the third and fourth fiscal quarters, respectively, which includes the holiday selling season as well as the opening of the fall hunting season. We incur additional expenses in the third and fourth fiscal quarters due to higher purchase volumes and increased staffing in our stores. If, for any reason, we miscalculate the demand for our products or our product mix during the third or fourth fiscal quarters, our sales in these quarters could decline, resulting in higher labor costs as a percentage of sales, lower margins and excess inventory, which could cause our annual operating results to suffer and our stock price to decline. Due to our seasonality, the possible adverse impact from other risks associated with our business, including atypical weather, consumer spending levels and general economic and business conditions, is potentially greater if any such risks occur during our peak sales seasons.
We currently rely on a single distribution center for our business, and if there is a natural disaster or other serious disruption at such facility, we may be unable to deliver merchandise effectively to our stores or customers.
We currently rely on a single distribution center in Salt Lake City, Utah for our business. Any natural disaster or other serious disruption at such facility due to fire, tornado, earthquake, flood or any other cause could damage our on-site inventory or impair our ability to use such distribution center. While we maintain business interruption insurance, as well as general property insurance, the amount of insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover our losses in such an event. Any of these occurrences could impair our ability to adequately stock our stores or fulfill customer orders and harm our operating results.
Increased freight costs could continue to adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Freight costs currently represent a significant portion of the cost of our products. We have experienced increased transportation and logistics costs over the last two years. We believe these increased costs will continue into fiscal year 2022 and beyond and could continue to put pressure on our gross profit and gross margin. Freight rates on our products are affected by a myriad of factors, including COVID-19 related impacts on the global economy, petroleum prices, congestion at U.S. ports and ocean freight carrier capacity. We have experienced significant increases in freight charges over the past year. Although we may be able to partially offset these increases through strategic purchasing, efficiency gains and pursuing various supply chain alternatives, such increases have adversely affected, and could continue to adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have been experiencing supply chain disruptions and delays of the supply of products from our vendors, which have had an adverse impact on our net sales and profitability.
Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global supply chain has experienced delays, including delays in the outdoor sporting goods industry. We continue to work diligently with our partners to mitigate the impact these delays have on our business. While we have begun to see improvement in the supply chain we anticipate that delays are likely to continue throughout the first half of fiscal 2022. Any continuing delay or disruption in our supply chain could negatively impact our ability to market and sell our products and serve our customers, which could adversely impact our net sales and profitability. In addition, some our key vendors have been negatively impacted by supply chain disruptions, which have affected their ability to maintain delivery schedules. Further, if any of our significant vendors were to become subject to bankruptcy, receivership or similar proceedings, we may be unable to arrange for alternate or replacement products, transactions or business relationships on favorable terms, or at all, which could adversely affect our sales and operating results.
We depend on merchandise purchased from our vendors to obtain products for our stores. We have no contractual arrangements providing for continued supply from our key vendors, and our vendors may discontinue selling to us at any
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time. Changes in commercial practices of our key vendors or manufacturers, such as changes in vendor support and incentives or changes in credit or payment terms, could also negatively impact our results. If we lose one or more key vendors or are unable to promptly replace a vendor that is unwilling or unable to satisfy our requirements with a vendor providing equally appealing products at comparable prices, we may not be able to offer products that are important to our merchandise assortment.
We also are subject to risks, such as the price and availability of raw materials and fabrics, labor disputes, union organizing activity, strikes, inclement weather, natural disasters, war and terrorism and adverse general economic and political conditions, that might limit our vendors’ ability to provide us with quality merchandise on a timely and cost-efficient basis. We may not be able to develop relationships with new vendors, and products from alternative sources, if any, may be of a lesser quality and more expensive than those we currently purchase. Any delay or failure in offering products to our customers could have a material adverse impact on our net sales and profitability.
Political and economic uncertainty and unrest in foreign countries where our merchandise vendors are located and trade restrictions upon imports from these foreign countries could adversely affect our ability to source merchandise and operating results.
In fiscal year 2021, approximately 2.4% of our merchandise was imported directly from vendors located in foreign countries, with a substantial portion of the imported merchandise being obtained directly from vendors in China and El Salvador. In addition, we believe that a significant portion of our domestic vendors obtain their products from foreign countries that may also be subject to political and economic uncertainty. We are subject to risks and uncertainties associated with changing economic, political, market and other conditions in foreign countries where our vendors are located, such as, increased import duties, tariffs, border-adjusted taxes, trade restrictions and quotas, adverse fluctuations of foreign currencies and geopolitical turmoil, such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and any resulting disruption, instability or volatility in the global markets and industries resulting from such conflict. Any event causing a disruption or delay of imports from foreign locations would likely increase the cost or reduce the supply of merchandise available to us and would adversely affect our operating results.
Finally, potential changes in federal restrictions on the importation of firearms and ammunition products could affect our ability to acquire certain popular brands of firearms and ammunition products from importers and wholesalers, which could negatively impact our net sales until replacements in the United States can be obtained, if at all.
Unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential customer information could harm our business and standing with our customers.
The protection of our customer, employee and company data is critical to us. We rely on commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring to provide security for processing, transmission and storage of confidential customer information, such as payment card and personally identifiable information. Despite the security measures we have in place, our facilities and systems, and those of our third-party service providers, may be vulnerable to security breaches, acts of vandalism, computer viruses, misplaced or lost data, programming or human errors or other similar cyber events. Any cyber incident involving the misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, whether by us or our third-party service providers, could damage our reputation, expose us to risk of litigation and liability, disrupt our operations and harm our business.
In addition, privacy laws, rules, and regulations are constantly evolving in the United States. For example, in June 2018, the State of California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which became effective on January 1, 2020, and will create new individual privacy rights for California consumers and place increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling certain personal data. Complying with these evolving obligations is costly, and any failure to comply could give rise to unwanted media attention and other negative publicity, damage our customer and consumer relationships and reputation, and result in lost sales, fines, or lawsuits, and may harm our business and results of operations.
Our business depends on our ability to meet our labor needs.
Our success depends in part upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of qualified employees, including district managers, store managers, department managers and sales associates, who understand and appreciate our outdoor culture and are able to adequately represent this culture to our customers. We continually expand
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our employee base to manage our anticipated growth. Competition for non-entry level personnel, particularly for employees with retail experience, is highly competitive. Additionally, our ability to maintain consistency in the quality of customer service in our stores is critical to our success. Many of our store employees are in entry-level or part-time positions that historically have high rates of turnover. We are also dependent on the employees who staff our distribution center, many of whom are skilled. Qualified individuals of the requisite caliber and number needed to fill these positions are currently in short supply, which may continue throughout fiscal 2022 given the current low unemployment rates we are experiencing. We may be unable to meet our labor needs and control our costs due to external factors such as the availability of a sufficient number of qualified persons in the work force of the markets in which we operate, competition, unemployment levels, demand for certain labor expertise, prevailing wage rates, wage inflation, changing demographics, health and other insurance costs and adoption of new or revised employment and labor laws and regulations. If we are unable to hire and retain sales associates capable of consistently providing a high level of customer service, as demonstrated by their enthusiasm for our culture and knowledge of our merchandise, our business could be materially adversely affected. Although none of our employees are currently covered by collective bargaining agreements, our employees may elect to be represented by labor unions in the future, which could increase our labor costs. Additionally, competition for qualified employees could require us to pay higher wages to attract a sufficient number of employees. An inability to recruit and retain a sufficient number of qualified individuals in the future may delay the planned openings of new stores. Any such delays, any material increases in employee turnover rates at existing stores or any increases in labor costs could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results.
Increases in the minimum wage have recently adversely affected our financial results.
Recently, several states in which we operate have enacted minimum wage increases and it is possible that other states or the federal government could also enact minimum wage increases. In fiscal year 2020 and 2021, 62 and 53 of our stores, respectively, were impacted by minimum wage increases, which increased our selling, general and administrative expenses. Base wage rates for some of our employees are at or slightly above the minimum wage. As more state minimum wage rates increase or if the federal government enacts a minimum wage increase, we may need to increase not only the wage rates of our minimum wage employees, but also the wages paid to our other hourly employees as well. Further, should we fail to increase our wages competitively in response to increasing wage rates, the quality of our workforce could decline, causing our customer service to suffer. Any increase in the cost of our labor could have an adverse effect on our operating costs, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Business Strategy
Our expansion into new, unfamiliar markets presents increased risks that may prevent us from being profitable in these new markets.
We intend to continue to expand by opening or acquiring stores in new markets, which may include small- to medium-sized markets and which may not have existing national outdoor sports retailers. As a result, we may have less familiarity with local customer preferences and encounter difficulties in attracting customers due to a reduced level of customer familiarity with our brand. Other factors that may impact our ability to open or acquire stores in new markets and operate them profitably, many of which are beyond our control, include:
| ● | our ability to identify suitable locations, including our ability to gather and assess demographic and marketing data to determine consumer demand for our products in the locations we select; |
| ● | our ability to obtain financing on favorable terms or negotiate favorable lease agreements; |
| ● | our ability to properly assess the profitability of potential new retail store locations; |
| ● | our ability to successfully rebrand any new stores we acquire and integrate such stores into our existing operations; |
| ● | our ability to secure required governmental permits and approvals; |
| ● | our ability to attract, hire and train skilled store operating personnel, especially management personnel; |
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| ● | the availability of construction materials and labor and the absence of significant construction delays or cost overruns; |
| ● | our ability to provide a satisfactory mix of merchandise that is responsive to the needs of our customers living in the areas where new retail stores are built; |
| ● | our ability to supply new retail stores with inventory in a timely manner; |
| ● | our competitors building or leasing stores near our retail stores or in locations we have identified as targets for a new retail store; |
| ● | consumer demand for our products, particularly firearms and ammunition, which drives traffic to our retail stores; |
| ● | regional economic and other factors in the geographies in which we expand; and |
| ● | general economic, political, and business conditions affecting consumer confidence and spending and the overall strength of our business. |
Once we decide on a new market and find a suitable location, any delays in opening or acquiring new stores could impact our financial results. It is possible that events, such as delays in the entitlements process or construction delays caused by permitting or licensing issues, material shortages, labor issues, weather delays or other acts of god, discovery of contaminants, accidents, deaths or injunctions, could delay planned new store openings beyond their expected dates or force us to abandon planned openings altogether. In addition, new retail stores typically generate lower operating margins because pre-opening expenses are expensed as they are incurred and because fixed costs, as a percentage of net sales, are higher. Furthermore, the substantial management time and resources which our retail store expansion strategy requires may result in disruption to our existing business operations, which may decrease our profitability.
As a result of the above factors, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in operating our stores in new markets on a profitable basis.
If we are unable to successfully develop and maintain our omni-channel strategy, we may not be able to compete effectively and our sales and profitability may be adversely affected.
Our e-commerce business is an important element of our brand and relationship with our customers, and we expect it to continue to grow. In 2021, we migrated our website to a new cloud platform with autoscaling capability, significantly increasing capacity and efficiency. E-commerce continues to be a rapidly growing sales channel for our business and an increasing source of competition in our industry. If we are unable to continue to successfully develop and maintain our omni-channel platform, we may not be able to compete effectively and our sales and profitability may be adversely affected. Our future success could also be adversely affected if we are unable to identify and capitalize on retail trends, including technology, e-commerce and other process efficiencies to gain market share and better service our customers.
In addition, many of our competitors already have e-commerce businesses that are substantially larger and more developed than ours, which places us at a competitive disadvantage. There are also regulatory restrictions on the online sale of a portion of our product offerings, such as ammunition, certain cutlery, firearms, propane and reloading powder. If we are unable to expand our e-commerce business, our growth plans will suffer and the price of our common stock could decline.
We are also vulnerable to additional risks and uncertainties associated with e-commerce sales, including rapid changes in technology, website downtime and other technical failures, security breaches, cyber-attacks, consumer privacy concerns, changes in state tax regimes and government regulation of internet activities. Our failure to successfully respond to these risks and uncertainties could reduce our e-commerce same store sales, increase our costs, diminish our growth prospects and damage our brand, which could negatively impact our results of operations and stock price.
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Our planned growth may strain our business infrastructure, which could adversely affect our operations and financial condition.
Over time, we expect to expand the size of our retail store network in new and existing markets. As we grow, we will face the risk that our existing resources and systems, including management resources, accounting and finance personnel and operating systems, may be inadequate to support our growth. We cannot assure you that we will be able to retain the personnel or make the changes in our systems that may be required to support our growth. Failure to secure these resources and implement these systems on a timely basis could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. In addition, hiring additional personnel and implementing changes and enhancements to our systems will require capital expenditures and other increased costs that could also have a material adverse impact on our operating results.
Our expansion in new markets may also create new distribution and merchandising challenges, including strain on our distribution facility, an increase in information to be processed by our management information systems and diversion of management attention from existing operations towards the opening of new stores and markets. To the extent that we are not able to meet these additional challenges, our sales could decrease and our operating expenses could increase.
Our private label brand offerings expose us to various risks.
We expect to continue to grow our exclusive private label brand offerings through a combination of brands that we own and brands that we license from third parties. We have invested in our development and procurement resources and marketing efforts relating to these private brand offerings. Although we believe that our private brand products offer value to our customers at each price point and provide us with higher gross margins than comparable third-party branded products we sell, the expansion of our private brand offerings also subjects us to certain specific risks in addition to those discussed elsewhere in this section, such as:
| ● | potential mandatory or voluntary product recalls; |
| ● | our ability to successfully protect our proprietary rights (including defending against counterfeit, knock offs, grey-market, infringing or otherwise unauthorized goods); |
| ● | our ability to successfully navigate and avoid claims related to the proprietary rights of third parties; |
| ● | our ability to successfully administer and comply with obligations under license agreements that we have with the licensors of brands, including, in some instances, certain minimum sales requirements that, if not met, could cause us to lose the licensing rights or pay damages; and |
| ● | other risks generally encountered by entities that source, sell and market exclusive branded offerings for retail. |
An increase in sales of our private brands may also adversely affect sales of our vendors’ products, which may, in turn, adversely affect our relationship with our vendors. Our failure to adequately address some or all of these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We may pursue strategic acquisitions or investments, and the failure of an acquisition or investment to produce the anticipated results or the inability to fully integrate the acquired companies could have an adverse impact on our business.
We may from time to time acquire or invest in complementary companies, businesses or assets. The success of such acquisitions or investments will be based on our ability to make accurate assumptions regarding the valuation, operations, growth potential, integration and other factors relating to the respective business or assets. Our acquisitions or investments may not produce the results that we expect at the time we enter into or complete the transaction. For example, we may not be able to capitalize on previously anticipated synergies. Furthermore, acquisitions may result in dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses or write-offs of goodwill or other intangibles, any of which could harm our financial condition or results of operations. We also may not be able to successfully integrate operations that we acquire, including their personnel, financial systems, supply chain and other operations, which could adversely affect our business. Acquisitions may also result in the diversion of our capital and our management’s attention from other business issues and opportunities.
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Risks Related to Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our ability to operate and expand our business and to respond to changing business and economic conditions will depend on the availability of adequate capital.
The operation of our business, the rate of our expansion and our ability to respond to changing business and economic conditions depend on the availability of adequate capital, which in turn depends on cash flow generated by our business and, if necessary, the availability of equity or debt capital. We will also need sufficient cash flow to meet our obligations under our existing debt agreements.
The amount that we are able to borrow and have outstanding under our revolving credit facility at any given time is subject to a borrowing base calculation. As a result, our ability to borrow is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as a deterioration in the quality of our inventory (which is the largest asset in our borrowing base), a decline in sales activity and the collection of our receivables, which could reduce the funds available to us under our revolving credit facility.
We cannot assure you that our cash flow from operations or cash available under our revolving credit facility will be sufficient to meet our needs. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flows from operations in the future, and if availability under our revolving credit facility is not sufficient, we may have to obtain additional financing. If we obtain additional capital by issuing equity, the interests of our existing stockholders will be diluted. If we incur additional indebtedness, that indebtedness may contain significant financial and other covenants that may significantly restrict our operations, and our ability to fund expansion or take advantage of future opportunities. We cannot assure you that we could obtain refinancing or additional financing on favorable terms or at all.
Our revolving credit facility contains restrictive covenants that may impair our ability to access sufficient capital and operate our business.
Our revolving credit facility contains various provisions that limit our ability to, among other things, incur, create or assume certain indebtedness; create, incur or assume certain liens; make certain investments; make sales, transfers and dispositions of certain property; undergo certain fundamental changes, including certain mergers, liquidations and consolidations; purchase, hold or acquire certain investments; and declare or make certain dividends and distributions. These covenants may affect our ability to operate and finance our business as we deem appropriate. If we are unable to meet our obligations as they become due or to comply with various financial covenants contained in the instruments governing our current or future indebtedness, this could constitute an event of default under the instruments governing our indebtedness.
If there were an event of default under the instruments governing our indebtedness, the holders of the affected indebtedness could declare all of that indebtedness immediately due and payable, which, in turn, could cause the acceleration of the maturity of all of our other indebtedness. We may not have sufficient funds available, or we may not have access to sufficient capital from other sources, to repay any accelerated debt. Even if we could obtain additional financing, the terms of the financing may not be favorable to us. In addition, substantially all of our assets are subject to liens securing our revolving credit facility and term loan. If amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility or term loans were accelerated, our lenders could foreclose on these liens and we could lose substantially all of our assets. Any event of default under the instruments governing our indebtedness could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
An increase in market interest rates, including from any impact of the discontinuation of LIBOR, could increase our interest costs on existing and future debt and could adversely affect our stock price.
Our existing debt obligations are variable rate obligations with interest and related payments that vary with the movement of certain indices, and in the future, we may incur additional indebtedness in connection with the entry into new credit facilities or the financing of any acquisition. If interest rates increase, so could our interest costs for any new debt and our variable rate debt obligations under our revolving credit facility and term loan. This increased cost could make the financing of any acquisition more costly, as well as lower our current period earnings. Rising interest rates could limit our ability to refinance existing debt when it matures or cause us to pay higher interest rates upon refinancing.
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All of our debt outstanding under our credit agreement as of January 29, 2022 bears interest at a floating rate that uses LIBOR as the applicable reference rate to calculate the interest. In July 2017, the U. K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, announced that it intends to phase out LIBOR, with certain tenors phased out after December 31, 2021 and all other tenors (including overnight and one, three, six and 12 months) to be phased out after June 30, 2023. After June 30, 2023, the LIBOR administrator has indicated that it intends to cease publication of U.S. dollar LIBOR and in, the interim, the LIBOR administrator has advised that no new contracts using U.S. dollar LIBOR should be entered into after December 31, 2021. The U.S. Federal Reserve has begun publishing a Secured Overnight Funding Rate (“SOFR”), which is intended to replace U.S. dollar LIBOR, and has proposed a paced market transition plan to SOFR from LIBOR. Organizations are currently working on industry wide and company specific transition plans as it relates to financial and other derivative contracts exposed to LIBOR. Additionally, plans for alternative reference rates for other currencies have also been announced. At this time, we cannot predict how markets will respond to these proposed alternative rates or the effect of any changes to LIBOR or the discontinuation of LIBOR. If LIBOR is no longer available, our credit agreement provides that, if the administrative agent has determined that adequate means do not exist for ascertaining LIBOR or that LIBOR does not adequately and fairly reflect the cost to lenders for making, funding or maintaining their loans, then all of our outstanding loans under the credit agreement will be converted into loans that accrue interest at the alternative base rate on the last day of such interest period that determination is made. Further, the lenders under our credit agreement will no longer be obligated to make loans using LIBOR as the applicable reference rate. If future rates based upon a successor reference rate such as SOFR (or a new method of calculating LIBOR) are higher than LIBOR rates as currently determined or if our lenders have increased costs due to changes in LIBOR, we may experience potential increases in interest rates on our variable rate debt, which could adversely impact our interest expense, results of operations and cash flows.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
Our bylaws, our certificate of incorporation and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage another company from acquiring us and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Provisions of our bylaws, our certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may discourage, delay or prevent a merger or acquisition that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which our stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. In addition, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace or remove our board of directors. These provisions include:
| ● | establishing a classified board of directors; |
| ● | providing that directors may be removed only for cause; |
| ● | not providing for cumulative voting in the election of directors; |
| ● | requiring at least a supermajority vote of our stockholders to amend our bylaws or certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation; |
| ● | eliminating the ability of stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders; |
| ● | establishing advance notice requirements for nominations for election to the board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted on by stockholders at stockholder meetings; |
| ● | authorizing the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock without any need for action by stockholders. |
In addition, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. In general, subject to some exceptions, Section 203 prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any “business combination” with any “interested stockholder” (which is generally defined as an entity or person who, together with the person’s affiliates and associates, beneficially owns, or within three years prior to the time of determination of interested stockholder status did
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own, 15% or more of the outstanding voting stock of the corporation), for a three-year period following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder. Section 203 could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control that our stockholders might consider to be in their best interests.
Further, our certificate of incorporation provides that, subject to limited exceptions, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This exclusive forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees and agents, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, employees and agents.
Together, these charter and statutory provisions could make the removal of management more difficult and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our common stock. The existence of the foregoing provisions and anti-takeover measures could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. They could also deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby potentially reducing the likelihood that our stockholders could receive a premium for their common stock in an acquisition.
We expect that the price of our common stock will fluctuate.
The price of our common stock is volatile and may fluctuate significantly. During our fiscal year ended January 29, 2022, the closing price of our stock ranged from a high of $17.95 per share to a low of $9.98 per share. Volatility in the market price of our common stock may prevent our stockholders from being able to sell their common stock at or above the prices they paid for their common stock. The market price for our common stock could fluctuate significantly for various reasons, including, among other things, our operating and financial performance; conditions that impact demand for our products; the public’s reaction to our press releases or other public announcements; changes in earnings estimates or recommendations by securities analysts; market and industry perception of our success, or lack thereof, in pursuing our growth strategy; strategic actions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions, store closures, or restructurings; actual or anticipated changes in federal and state government regulation, including regulations related to the sale of firearms and ammunition; sales of common stock by us or members of our management team; and changes in general market, economic and political conditions in the United States, including those resulting from natural disasters, health crises or pandemics (including COVID-19), terrorist attacks, acts of war and responses to such events.
In addition, if the market for stocks in our industry, or the stock market in general, experiences a loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, financial condition or results of operations. If any of the foregoing occurs, it could cause our stock price to fall and may expose us to lawsuits that, even if unsuccessful, could be costly to defend and distract our management.
General Risks
Any material disruption or breach of our information technology systems or those of third-party partners could materially damage our customer and business partner relationships and subject us to significant reputational, financial, legal, and operational consequences.
We rely on commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring to provide security for the processing, transmission and storage of confidential tenant and customer data, including individually identifiable information relating to financial accounts. We have taken steps to protect the security of our information systems and the data maintained in those systems. Our safety and security measures have failed in the past, and may fail in the future, to prevent the systems’ improper functioning or damage, or the improper access or disclosure of personally identifiable information such as in the event of cyber incidents. Security incidents, including those caused by physical or electronic break-ins, computer viruses, malware, worms, attacks by hackers or foreign governments, disruptions from unauthorized access and tampering (including through social engineering such as phishing attacks), coordinated denial-of-service attacks and similar breaches, could create system disruptions, shutdowns or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. The risk of security incidents has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. In some cases, it may be difficult to anticipate or immediately detect such incidents and the damage they cause. In addition, due to the fast pace and unpredictability of cyber threats,
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long-term implementation plans designed to address cybersecurity risks become obsolete quickly. Any failure to maintain proper function, security and availability of our information systems and the data maintained in those systems could interrupt our operations, damage our reputation, subject us to liability claims or regulatory penalties and could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our inability or failure to protect our intellectual property could have a negative impact on our operating results.
Our trademarks, service marks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, domain names and other intellectual property are valuable assets that are critical to our success. The unauthorized reproduction or other misappropriation of our intellectual property could diminish the value of our brands or goodwill and cause a decline in our net sales. Any infringement or other intellectual property claim made against us, whether or not it has merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause product delays or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements. As a result, any such claim could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.
Our computer hardware and software systems are vulnerable to damage that could harm our business.
Our success, in particular our ability to successfully manage inventory levels, largely depends upon the efficient operation of our computer hardware and software systems. We use management information systems to track inventory information at the store level, communicate customer information and aggregate daily sales, margin and promotional information. These systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, power loss, computer system failures, telecommunications failures, security breaches, misappropriation, hacking by third parties and computer viruses, and similar events.
Any failure that causes an interruption in our systems processing could disrupt our operations and result in reduced sales. We have centralized the majority of our computer systems in our corporate office. It is possible that an event or disaster at our corporate office could materially and adversely affect the performance of our company and the ability of each of our stores to operate efficiently.
Corporate responsibility, specifically related to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters, may impose additional costs and expose us to new risks.
Public ESG and sustainability reporting is becoming more broadly expected by investors, shareholders and other third parties. Certain organizations that provide corporate governance and other corporate risk information to investors and shareholders have developed, and others may in the future develop, scores and ratings to evaluate companies and investment funds based upon ESG or “sustainability” metrics. Many investment funds focus on positive ESG business practices and sustainability scores when making investments and may consider a company’s ESG or sustainability scores as a reputational or other factor in making an investment decision. In addition, investors, particularly institutional investors, use these scores to benchmark companies against their peers and if a company is perceived as lagging, these investors may engage with such company to improve ESG disclosure or performance and may also make voting decisions, or take other actions, to hold these companies and their boards of directors accountable. Board diversity is an ESG topic that is, in particular, receiving heightened attention by investors, shareholders, lawmakers and listing exchanges. Certain states have passed laws requiring companies to meet certain gender and ethnic diversity requirements on their boards of directors. We may face reputational damage in the event our corporate responsibility initiatives or objectives, including with respect to board diversity, do not meet the standards set by our investors, shareholders, lawmakers, listing exchanges or other constituencies, or if we are unable to achieve an acceptable ESG or sustainability rating from third party rating services. A low ESG or sustainability rating by a third-party rating service could also result in the exclusion of our common stock from consideration by certain investors who may elect to invest with our competition instead. Ongoing focus on corporate responsibility matters by investors and other parties as described above may impose additional costs or expose us to new risks.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We do not own any material real property nor do we plan to do so. Instead, we lease all of our store locations and expect to lease our future store locations. From time to time we will self-develop one of our properties with the intention to enter into a sale-leaseback transaction with a third party. Depending upon where we are in the process of completing the sale-leaseback transaction, we may legally own real property at any particular balance sheet date. Our corporate headquarters is located in an approximately 70,000 square foot building in West Jordan, Utah. The building is leased under an agreement expiring on March 31, 2035.
Our distribution center is located in a 507,000 square foot facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. The building is leased under an agreement expiring on December 31, 2023, with three options that each allow us to extend for an additional five years. We believe that our distribution center is of sufficient scale to support a network of 135 or more stores.
We currently operate 122 retail stores in 29 states. See above under “Business – Our Stores” for a breakdown of our stores by state. In total we have approximately 4.7 million gross square feet across all of our stores. All of our stores are leased from third parties with lease terms typically ranging from five to fifteen years, and many of our lease agreements have additional five-year renewal options. All of our leases provide for additional payments associated with common area maintenance, real estate, taxes and insurance. In addition, many of our lease agreements have defined escalating rent provisions over the initial term and extensions.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
See the “Legal Matters” section of Note 16, “Commitments and Contingencies” to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding our material legal proceedings, which information is incorporated by reference in this Item 3.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not Applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol “SPWH.” As of March 8, 2022, there were 165 holders of record of our common stock. This number does not include persons who hold our common stock in nominee or “street name” accounts through brokers or banks.
Dividend Policy
We did not pay any dividends in fiscal year 2021 or fiscal year 2020. We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to compliance with applicable law and any applicable contractual provisions.
Stock Performance Graph
The stock price performance graph below shall not be deemed soliciting material or to be filed with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C under the Exchange Act or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, nor shall it be incorporated by reference into any past or future filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, except to the extent we specifically request that it be treated as soliciting material or specifically incorporate it by reference into a filing under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.
The following graph shows the cumulative total stockholder return of an investment of $100 in cash at market close on January 28, 2017 through January 29, 2022 for (i) our Common Stock (“SPWH”), (ii) the S&P 500 Retailing
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Industry Group Index (“S&P Retail”) and (iii) the Russell 2000 Index (“Russell 2000”). Pursuant to applicable SEC rules, all values assume reinvestment of the full amount of all dividends. The stockholder return shown on the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future performance, and we do not make or endorse any predictions as to future stockholder returns.
Fiscal Years Ended | |||||||||||
January 28, 2017 | February 3, 2018 | February 2, 2019 | February 1, 2020 | January 30, 2021 | January 29, 2022 | ||||||
SPWH | $ 100.00 | $ 62.23 | $ 64.89 | $ 82.13 | $ 222.05 | $ 134.85 | |||||
S&P Retail | 100.00 | 139.89 | 150.18 | 179.48 | 252.16 | 265.45 | |||||
Russell 2000 | 100.00 | 112.88 | 109.58 | 117.75 | 151.28 | 143.61 | |||||
ITEM 6. RESERVED
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The discussion below contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those which are discussed in the “Risk Factors” section in Part I, Item 1A of this 10-K. Also see “Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” preceding Part I.
The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included in this 10-K.
Overview
We are an outdoor sporting goods retailer focused on meeting the everyday needs of the seasoned outdoor veteran, the first-time participant and everyone in between. Our mission is to provide outstanding gear and exceptional service to inspire outdoor memories.
Our business was founded in 1986 as a single retail store in Midvale, Utah. Today, we operate 122 stores in 29 states, totaling approximately 4.7 million gross square feet. During fiscal year 2021, we increased our gross square footage by 6.5% through the opening of 10 store locations.
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Our stores and our e-commerce platform are aggregated into one operating and reportable segment.
On December 2, 2021, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Great Outdoors Group, LLC and Phoenix Merger Sub I, Inc. (“Merger Subsidiary”) entered into a Termination Agreement (the “Termination Agreement”) under which the parties agreed to terminate the merger agreement, dated December 21, 2020, among the same parties (the “Merger Agreement”), effective immediately. Pursuant to the terms and conditions set forth in the Merger Agreement, Merger Subsidiary would have been merged with and into Sportsman’s Warehouse, with Sportsman’s Warehouse continuing as the surviving corporation in the Merger and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Great Outdoors Group (the “Merger”). The decision to terminate the Merger Agreement followed feedback from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) that led the parties to believe that they would not have obtained FTC clearance to consummate the Merger. Under the Termination Agreement, Great Outdoors Group agreed to pay us the Parent Termination Fee (as defined in the Merger Agreement) of $55.0 million by wire transfer of immediately available funds concurrently with the execution of the Termination Agreement. We received the $55.0 million payment on December 2, 2021.
COVID-19 Pandemic
Since mid-March 2020 and continuing through fiscal year 2021, we experienced a significant increase in sales. A larger than normal portion of those sales came from certain product categories, particularly firearms and ammunition. As a result of the higher proportion of firearms and ammunition sales, our product mix during fiscal year 2020 and fiscal 2021 was impacted, which had a negative effect on our gross margin.
The increased demand we experienced during fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021 resulted in our net sales increasing by 63.8% to $1,451.8 million from fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2020 and by 3.7% to $1,506.1 million from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2021. Overall, our net sales have increased 69.9% from fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2021. While our net sales for our hunting and shooting category decreased by $19.0 million, or 2.3%, to $813.6 million from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2021 due to the strong demand experienced in 2020, net sales of our hunting and shooting category for fiscal year 2021 were still 86.6% higher than hunting and shooting category net sales for fiscal year 2019. Further, our same store sales had a similar decrease of 2.2% during fiscal 2021 compared to fiscal 2020, but were still up compared to same store sales for fiscal 2019. Our hunting and shooting same store sales decreased 8.7% during fiscal 2021 compared to fiscal 2020 due to strong demand in fiscal 2020, but same store sales for fiscal 2021 remained strong and increased 42.5% compared to fiscal 2019. Gross profit increased to $490.3 million during fiscal year 2021 compared to $476.5 million for fiscal year 2020, which increased from $296.6 million for fiscal year 2019. As a percentage of net sales, gross profit decreased to 32.6% and 32.8% for fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2020, respectively, compared to 33.5% for fiscal year 2019 due in part to an increase in lower margin products, such as firearms and ammunition, in our product mix.
In addition, with respect to our supply chain, we continue to see some interruption with various vendors as a result of restrictions or limitations on their operations due to the pandemic. While our increase in sales shows significant demand for ammunition during the pandemic that we believe is outpacing supply, we do not believe supply chain disruptions resulting from restrictions and limitations on supplier operations caused by the pandemic are resulting in significantly less supply and we are working closely with our vendors to limit such disruption. Moreover, the pandemic and current economic conditions have resulted in a short supply of qualified employees. If we are unable to hire and retain sales associates capable of consistently providing a high level of customer service, our business could be materially adversely affected.
While we experienced increased sales during fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021, especially in our hunting and shooting category, we cannot predict the future impact on us of the COVID-19 outbreak. The future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will depend on a number of future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including, but not limited to the duration, spread and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, any resurgence of COVID-19, the effects of the outbreak on our customers and vendors and the remedial actions and stimulus measures adopted by local and federal governments. Further, we may experience a decrease in sales if the increased demand we experienced during the pandemic subsides with the pandemic.
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Fiscal Year
We operate using a 52/53-week fiscal year ending on the Saturday closest to January 31. Fiscal years 2021, 2020 and 2019 ended on January 29, 2022, January 30, 2021 and February 1, 2020, respectively. Each of fiscal year 2021, 2020, and 2019 contained 52 weeks of operations.
How We Assess the Performance of Our Business
In assessing the performance of our business, we consider a variety of performance and financial measures. The key measures for determining how our business is performing are net sales, same store sales, gross margin, selling, general and administrative expenses, income from operations and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“Adjusted EBITDA”).
Net Sales and Same Store Sales
Our net sales are primarily received from revenue generated in our stores and also include sales generated through our e-commerce platform. When measuring revenue generated from our stores, we review our same store sales as well as the performance of our stores that have not operated for a sufficient amount of time to be included in same store sales. We include net sales from a store in same store sales on the first day of the 13th full fiscal month following the store’s opening or acquisition by us. We exclude sales from stores that were closed during the period from our same store sales calculation. We include net sales from e-commerce in our calculation of same store sales. For fiscal years consisting of 53 weeks, we exclude net sales during the 53rd week from our calculation of same store sales. Some of our competitors and other retailers may calculate same store sales differently than we do. As a result, data regarding our same store sales may not be comparable to similar data made available by other retailers.
Measuring the change in year-over-year same store sales allows us to evaluate how our retail store base is performing. Various factors affect same store sales, including:
| ● | the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; |
| ● | changes or anticipated changes to regulations related to some of the products we sell; |
| ● | consumer preferences, buying trends and overall political and economic trends; |
| ● | our ability to identify and respond effectively to local and regional trends and customer preferences; |
| ● | our ability to provide quality customer service that will increase our conversion of shoppers into paying customers; |
| ● | the success of our omni-channel strategy and our e-commerce platform; |
| ● | competition in the regional market of a store; |
| ● | atypical weather; |
| ● | new product introductions and changes in our product mix; and |
| ● | changes in pricing and average ticket sales. |
Opening new stores and acquiring store locations is also an important part of our growth strategy. For fiscal year 2021 we opened 10 stores and plan to open 10 locations in fiscal year 2022. While our target is to grow square footage at a rate of 5% to 10% annually, we may deviate from this target if attractive opportunities are presented to open stores or acquire new store locations outside of our target growth rate.
We also have been scaling our e-commerce platform and increasing sales through our website, www.sportsmans.com.
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We believe the key drivers to increasing our total net sales include:
| ● | increasing our total gross square footage by opening new stores and through strategic acquisitions; |
| ● | continuing to increase and improve same store sales in our existing markets; |
| ● | increasing customer visits to our stores and improving our conversion rate through focused marketing efforts and continually high standards of customer service; |
| ● | growing our loyalty and credit card programs; and |
| ● | expanding our omni channel capabilities through larger assortment and inventory, expanded content and expertise and better user experience. |
Gross Margin
Gross profit is our net sales less cost of goods sold. Gross margin measures our gross profit as a percentage of net sales. Our cost of goods sold primarily consists of merchandise acquisition costs, including freight-in costs, shipping costs, payment term discounts received from the vendor and vendor allowances and rebates associated directly with merchandise and shipping costs related to e-commerce sales.
We believe the key drivers to improving our gross margin are increasing the product mix to higher margin products, particularly apparel and footwear, increasing foot traffic within our stores and traffic to our website, improving buying opportunities with our vendor partners and coordinating pricing strategies among our stores and our merchandise group. Our ability to properly manage our inventory can also impact our gross margin. Successful inventory management ensures we have sufficient high margin products in stock at all times to meet customer demand, while overstocking of items could lead to markdowns in order to help a product sell. We believe that the overall growth of our business can also help improve our gross margins, because increased merchandise volumes will enable us to maintain our strong relationships with our vendors. We have, however, experienced increased transportation and logistics costs over the last two years. We believe these increased costs will continue into fiscal year 2022 and beyond and could continue to put pressure on our gross profit and gross margin.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
We closely manage our selling, general and administrative expenses. Our selling, general and administrative expenses are comprised of payroll, rent and occupancy, depreciation and amortization, acquisition expenses, pre-opening expenses and other operating expenses, including stock-based compensation expense. Pre-opening expenses include expenses incurred in the preparation and opening of a new store location, such as payroll, travel and supplies, but do not include the cost of the initial inventory or capital expenditures required to open a location.
Our selling, general and administrative expenses are primarily influenced by the volume of net sales of our locations, except for our corporate payroll, rent and occupancy and depreciation and amortization, which are generally fixed in nature. We control our selling, general and administrative expenses through a budgeting and reporting process that allows our personnel to adjust our expenses as trends in net sales activity are identified.
We expect that our selling, general and administrative expenses will increase in future periods due to our continuing growth. We also have experienced increased payroll expenses due to increased minimum wages and generally increasing salaries and wages due to a competitive labor market over the last year, including payments of retention and increased merit bonuses, and we expect for payroll expense to increase in fiscal year 2022. Fifty-three of our current stores were impacted by minimum wage increases in fiscal year 2021 that have and will continue to increase our selling, general and administrative expenses during fiscal year 2022.
Income from Operations
Income from operations is gross profit less selling, general and administrative expenses. We use income from operations as an indicator of the productivity of our business and our ability to manage selling, general and administrative expenses.
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Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income plus interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, pre-opening expenses, and other gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing expenses. In evaluating our business, we use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin as an additional measurement tool for purposes of business decision-making, including evaluating store performance, developing budgets and managing expenditures. See “Non-GAAP Measures.”
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Results of Operations
The following table summarizes key components of our results of operations as a percentage of net sales for the periods indicated:
Fiscal Year Ended | |||||||
January 29, | January 30, | February 1, | |||||
| 2022 |
| 2021 |
| 2020 | ||
Percentage of net sales: | |||||||
Net sales | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | ||||
Cost of goods sold | 67.4 | 67.2 | 66.5 | ||||
Gross profit | 32.6 | 32.8 | 33.5 | ||||
Selling, general, and administrative expenses | 26.6 | 24.3 | 29.7 | ||||
Income from operations | 6.0 | 8.5 | 3.8 | ||||
Gain on bargain purchase | - | (0.2) | - | ||||
Merger termination payment | (3.7) | - | - | ||||
Interest expense | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.9 | ||||
Income before income taxes | 9.6 | 8.4 | 2.9 | ||||
Income tax expense | 2.4 | 2.1 | 0.6 | ||||
Net income | 7.2% | 6.3% | 2.3% | ||||
Adjusted EBITDA | 9.1% | 11.3% | 6.7% | ||||
The following table shows our sales during the periods presented by department:
Fiscal year Ended | |||||||||
| January 29, |
| January 30, | February 1, | |||||
Department |
| Product Offerings |
| 2022 |
| 2021 | 2020 | ||
Camping | Backpacks, camp essentials, canoes and kayaks, coolers, outdoor cooking equipment, sleeping bags, tents and tools | 13.1% | 12.7% | 14.4% | |||||
Apparel | Camouflage, jackets, hats, outerwear, sportswear, technical gear and work wear | 8.4% | 7.5% | 9.3% | |||||
Fishing | Bait, electronics, fishing rods, flotation items, fly fishing, lines, lures, reels, tackle and small boats | 10.0% | 9.9% | 11.1% | |||||
Footwear | Hiking boots, socks, sport sandals, technical footwear, trail shoes, casual shoes, waders and work boots | 6.8% | 5.6% | 7.5% | |||||
Hunting and Shooting | Ammunition, archery items, ATV accessories, blinds and tree stands, decoys, firearms, reloading equipment and shooting gear | 54.2% | 57.6% | 49.1% | |||||
Optics, Electronics, Accessories, and Other | Gift items, GPS devices, knives, lighting, optics, two-way radios, and other license revenue, net of revenue discounts | 7.5% | 6.7% | 8.6% | |||||
Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | ||||||
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Fiscal Year 2021 Compared to Fiscal Year 2020
Net Sales. Net sales increased by $54.3 million, or 3.7%, to $1,506.1 million in fiscal year 2021 compared to $1,451.8 million in fiscal year 2020. Our net sales increased largely due to the opening of 10 new stores since January 30, 2021 and strong growth in our e-commerce platform, partially offset by lower demand during the second, third, and fourth quarters of fiscal 2021 compared to the same periods in fiscal 2020 in certain categories as we anniversaried the demand driven in the prior year by the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest and the pending presidential election. Stores that were opened in fiscal year 2021 and stores that have been open for less than 12 months and were, therefore, not included in our same store sales, contributed $92.6 million to net sales. Same store sales decreased by 2.2% for fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020, primarily driven by a decrease in our hunting and shooting department. The decrease in our hunting and shooting department was driven by a decline in demand for firearms compared to fiscal year 2020 as we anniversaried the increased demafnd due to the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest and pending presidential election of the prior year and supply chain constraints in ammunition. As of January 29, 2022, we had 112 stores included in our same store calculation.
All of our departments had increases in net sales for fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020, with the exception of our hunting and shooting department. Our footwear, apparel, camping, optics, electronics, and accessories, and fishing departments saw increases in net sales of $21.8 million, $18.6 million, $13.2 million, $11.6 million and $7.7 million, respectively, for fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020 due to increased demand and higher online sales. Our hunting and shooting department decreased by 2.3% or $19.0 million for fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020 as we anniversaried the demand driven in the prior year by the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest and pending presidential election. Within hunting, our firearm and ammunition categories saw decreases of $20.5 million, or 5.6%, and $18.6 million, or 7.3%, respectively, for fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020, which decreases resulted from the drivers of decreased demand and supply chain constraints discussed above.
With respect to same store sales, our footwear, apparel, optics, electronics and accessories, and camping departments saw increased same store sales of 21.2%, 12.7%, 7.0%, and 2.6%, respectively. Our hunting and shooting and fishing departments incurred decreases in same store sales of 8.7% and 0.6% respectively. Firearms same store sales decreased by 12.5% and ammunition same store sales decreased by 13.7% during fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020.
Gross Profit. Gross profit increased by $13.8 million, or 2.9%, to $490.3 million for fiscal year 2021 from $476.5 million for fiscal year 2020. As a percentage of net sales, gross profit decreased to 32.6% for fiscal year 2021 compared to 32.8% for fiscal year 2020 due to higher freight costs. The higher freight costs were partially offset by higher product margins and increased vendor incentives, which positively impacted gross margin. We expect higher transportation costs to continue to impact our business during fiscal 2022 and beyond.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $46.0 million, or 13.0%, to $399.7 million for fiscal year 2021 from $353.7 million for fiscal year 2020. This increase was primarily due to an increase in our payroll expense of $22.8 million, which mostly resulted from the opening of 10 new store locations during fiscal year 2021, minimum wage increases impacting 53 of our stores in fiscal year 2021 and the payment of $2.5 million in retention pay to certain senior employees. We also had increases in rent, other selling, general, and administration expenses, depreciation and preopening expenses of $6.9 million, $4.5 million, $3.6 million and $2.2 million respectively, each primarily related to the opening of 10 new store locations during fiscal year 2021. The increase in other selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily due to increased efforts in marketing. Additionally, acquisitions costs increased to $9.7 million with respect to the terminated Merger Agreement with the Great Outdoors Group, which was terminated on December 2, 2021. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased to 26.5% of net sales in fiscal year 2021 compared to 24.4% of net sales in fiscal year 2020, primarily due to the normalization of our business after the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest and pending presidential election experienced in the prior year.
Interest Expense. Interest expense decreased by $2.1 million, or 60.6%, to $1.4 million in fiscal year 2021 from $3.5 million for fiscal year 2020. Interest expense decreased primarily as a result of our lower debt balances during fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020, including our repayment of our term loan and borrowings outstanding under our revolving credit facility in fiscal year 2020.
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Other Income. Other income increased by $55.0 million in fiscal year 2021 from $2.2 million for fiscal year 2020 due to the receipt of a $55.0 million payment in connection with the termination of the Merger Agreement with Great Outdoors Group.
Income Taxes. We recorded an income tax expense of $35.8 million for fiscal year 2021 compared to income tax expense of $30.1 million for fiscal year 2020. Our effective tax rate remained flat from fiscal year 2020 at 24.8% in 2021.
Fiscal Year 2020 Compared to Fiscal Year 2019
Net Sales. Net sales increased by $565.4 million, or 63.8%, to $1,451.8 million in fiscal year 2020 compared to $886.4 million in fiscal year 2019. Our net sales increased due to a variety of reasons including; increased outdoor activity participation, demand driven by the change in consumer behavior associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, increased demand due to the presidential election and social unrest, increased demand driven by the exit of competitors and market share gains due to increased participation in outdoor activities, and strong growth in our e-commerce platform. Stores that were opened in fiscal year 2020 and stores that have been open for less than 12 months and were, therefore, not included in our same store sales, contributed $155.3 million to net sales. Same store sales increased by 48.3% for fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019, primarily driven by increases in our hunting and shooting department due to the drivers of increased demand discussed above. Existing stores that were included in same store sales generated $408.6 million in additional net sales in fiscal year 2020 over fiscal year 2019.
All of our departments had increases in net sales for fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019, led by our hunting and shooting department with an increase in net sales of $397.1 million, or 91.1%. Our camping, fishing, apparel, footwear, and optics, electronics, and accessories departments also had increases in net sales of $57.4 million, $44.8 million, $25.7 million, $14.6 million and $27.7 million, respectively, for fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019 due to increased traffic within our stores and higher online sales. Within hunting, our firearm and ammunition categories saw increases of $194.8 million, or 115.5%, and $122.6 million, or 93.7%, respectively, for fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019, which increases resulted from the drivers of increased demand discussed above.
Each of our departments had increases in same store sales for fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019, led by our hunting and shooting department with an increase in same store sales of 70.0%. Our camping, fishing, optics, electronics and accessories, footwear, and apparel departments had increases in same store sales of 34.0%, 30.8%, 28.9%, 18.5%, and 13.0% respectively, for fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019. As of January 30, 2021, we had 102 stores included in our same store sales calculation.
Gross Profit. Gross profit increased by $179.8 million, or 60.6%, to $476.4 million for fiscal year 2020 from $296.6 million for fiscal year 2019. As a percentage of net sales, gross profit decreased to 32.8% for fiscal year 2020 compared to 33.5% for fiscal year 2019 due to the change in product mix as a result of the majority of revenue being generated from lower margin categories such as firearms and ammunition and a channel mix shift to higher e-commerce driven sales causing increased freight costs. The gross margin decline was partially offset by higher product margins, volume incentives, and other adjustments, which positively impacted gross margin.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $90.5 million, or 34.4%, to $353.7 million for fiscal year 2020 from $263.2 million for fiscal year 2019. This increase was primarily due to an increase in our payroll expense of $51.9 million, which mostly resulted from the opening of 10 new or acquired store locations during fiscal year 2020, minimum wage increases impacting 62 of our stores in fiscal year 2020 and the payment of $6.5 million in hazard pay. We also had increases in other selling, general, and administration expenses, rent, and depreciation of $24.8 million, $8.2 million, and $3.3 million, respectively, each primarily related to the opening or acquiring of 10 new store locations during fiscal year 2020. The increase in other selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily due to increased credit card fees. Additionally, we incurred increased acquisitions costs of $3.0 million with respect to our proposed merger with the Great Outdoors Group, which was announced on December 21, 2020. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased to 24.3% of net sales in fiscal year 2020 compared to 29.7% of net sales in fiscal year 2019, primarily because of the significant increase in net sales we experienced in fiscal year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019.
Interest Expense. Interest expense decreased by $4.5 million, or 56.2%, to $3.5 million in fiscal year 2020 from $8.0 million for fiscal year 2019. Interest expense decreased primarily as a result of our lower debt balances during fiscal
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year 2020 compared to fiscal year 2019, including our repayment of our term loan and all outstanding amounts under our revolving credit facility during fiscal year 2020.
Income Taxes. We recorded an income tax expense of $30.1 million for fiscal year 2020 compared to income tax expense of $5.3 million for fiscal year 2019. Our effective tax rate changed from fiscal year 2019 of 20.6% to 24.8% in 2020 primarily due to discrete items recognized in 2019 relating to prior year tax credits and changes in our estimated deferred state tax rate which did not repeat in 2020.
Seasonality
Due to the openings of hunting season across the country and consumer holiday buying patterns, net sales are typically higher in the third and fourth fiscal quarters than in the first and second fiscal quarters. We also incur additional expenses in the third and fourth fiscal quarters due to higher sales volume and increased staffing in our stores. We anticipate our net sales will continue to reflect this seasonal pattern.
The timing of our new retail store openings also may have an impact on our quarterly results. First, we incur certain non-recurring expenses related to opening each new retail store, which are expensed as they are incurred. Second, most store expenses generally vary proportionately with net sales, but there is also a fixed cost component, which includes occupancy costs. These fixed costs typically result in lower store profitability during the initial period after a new retail store opens. Due to both of these factors, new retail store openings may result in a temporary decline in operating profit, in dollars and/or as a percentage of net sales.
Weather conditions affect outdoor activities and the demand for related apparel and equipment. Customers’ demand for our products, and, therefore, our net sales, can be significantly impacted by weather patterns on a local, regional and national basis.
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Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview; Sources and Uses of Cash
Our primary cash requirements are for seasonal working capital needs and capital expenditures related to opening and acquiring new store locations. For both the short term and the long term, our sources of liquidity to meet these needs have primarily been borrowings under our revolving credit facility, operating cash flows and short and long-term debt financings from banks and financial institutions. We believe that our cash on hand, cash generated by operating activities and funds available under our revolving credit facility will be sufficient to finance our operating activities for at least the next twelve months and beyond. In addition, on December 2, 2021, we received a $55.0 million cash payment from Great Outdoors Group in connection with the termination of the Merger Agreement. See above under “Overview” for additional information.
Material Cash Requirements
Our material cash requirements are primarily for opening and acquiring new store locations, along with our general operating expenses and other expenses discussed below.
Capital Expenditures. For fiscal year 2021, we incurred approximately $53.5 million in capital expenditures primarily related to the construction of new stores and the refurbishment of existing stores during the period. We expect capital expenditures between $48 million and $55 million for fiscal year 2022 primarily to refurbish some of our existing stores and to open 10 new stores in fiscal year 2022. We intend to fund these capital expenditures with our operating cash flows, cash on hand and funds available under our revolving credit facility. Other investment opportunities, such as potential strategic acquisitions or store expansion rates in excess of those presently planned, may require additional funding.
Principal and Interest Payments. We maintain a $250.0 million revolving credit facility. As of January 29, 2022, $77.0 million was outstanding under the revolving credit facility. Assuming no additional repayments or borrowings on our revolving credit facility after January 29, 2022 our interest payments would be approximately $1.1 million for fiscal year 2022 based on the interest rate at January 29, 2022. See below under “Indebtedness” for additional information regarding our revolving credit facility, including the interest rate applicable to any borrowing under such facility.
Operating Lease Obligations. Lease commitments consist principally of leases for our retail stores, corporate office and distribution center. Our leases often include options which allow us to extend the terms beyond the initial lease term. For 2022, our expected operating lease payments will be $63.1 million and our total committed lease payments are $384.3 million as of January 29, 2022. Other operating lease obligations consist of distribution center equipment. Additional information regarding our operating leases is available in Note 6, Leases, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K
Purchase Obligations. In the ordinary course of business, we enter into arrangements with vendors to purchase merchandise in advance of expected delivery. We or the vendor can generally terminate the purchase orders at any time. These purchase orders do not contain any termination payments or other penalties if cancelled.
Share Repurchase Authorization. In addition, our board recently authorized a share repurchase program to allow for the repurchase of up to $75.0 million of outstanding shares of our common stock for the period from March 31, 2022 to March 31, 2023. We may repurchase shares of our common stock at any time or from time to time, without prior notice, subject to market conditions and other considerations. Our repurchases may be made through Rule 10b5-1 plans, accelerated share repurchase transactions, open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, tender offers, block purchases or other transactions. We intend to fund repurchases under the repurchase program using cash on hand or available borrowings under its revolving credit facility. We have no obligation to repurchase any shares of our common stock under the share repurchase program and we may modify, suspend or discontinue it at any time.
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Cash Flows
Cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities are shown in the following table:
Fifty-Two Weeks Ended | |||||||
January 29, | January 30, | ||||||
| 2022 |
| 2021 |
| |||
(in thousands) |
| ||||||
Cash flows (used in) provided by operating activities | $ | (21,626) |
| $ | 238,816 | ||
Cash flows used in investing activities | (53,452) | (26,227) | |||||
Cash provided by (used in) financing activities | 66,571 | (148,749) | |||||
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period | 57,018 | 65,525 | |||||
Net cash used in operating activities was $21.6 million for fiscal year 2021, compared to cash provided by operating activities of $238.8 million for fiscal year 2020, a change of approximately $260.4 million. The decrease in our cash flows from operating activities was primarily the result of our buildup of inventory during fiscal year 2021 and a reduction in accounts payable. We focused on rebuilding our inventory during fiscal year 2021 and consider our inventory position to be a strength heading into 2022.
Net cash used in investing activities was $53.5 million for fiscal year 2021 compared to $26.2 million for fiscal year 2020. For fiscal year 2021, we incurred capital expenditures related to the construction of new stores and the refurbishment of existing stores. Our cash flows used in investing activities in fiscal year 2020 primarily related to costs incurred in connection with opening and acquiring new stores.
Net cash provided in financing activities was $66.6 million for fiscal year 2021 compared to net cash used in financing activities of $148.7 million for fiscal year 2020. During fiscal year 2021, we had an increase in borrowings under our revolving line of credit, primarily to pay for the increased capital expenditures associated with the opening of new stores and refurbishing of existing stores and the buildup of our inventory.
Indebtedness
We maintain a $250.0 million revolving credit facility. As of January 29, 2022, $77.0 million was outstanding under the revolving credit facility. Borrowings under our revolving credit facility are subject to a borrowing base calculation. Our revolving credit facility is governed by an amended and restated credit agreement with a consortium of banks led by Wells Fargo Bank, National Association (“Wells Fargo”). The revolving credit facility matures on May 23, 2023. As of January 29, 2022, we had $146.1 million available for borrowing, subject to certain borrowing base restrictions, and $2.0 million in stand-by commercial letters of credit.
Borrowings under our revolving credit facility bear interest based on either, at our option, the base rate or LIBOR, in each case plus an applicable margin. The base rate is the higher of (1) Wells Fargo’s prime rate, (2) the federal funds rate (as defined in the credit agreement) plus 0.50% and (3) the one-month LIBOR (as defined in the credit agreement) plus 1.00%. The applicable margin for loans under the revolving credit facility, which varies based on the average daily availability, ranges from 0.25% to 0.75% per year for base rate loans and from 1.25% to 1.75% per year for LIBOR loans.
Interest on base rate loans is payable monthly in arrears and interest on LIBOR loans is payable based on the LIBOR interest period selected by us, which can be 7, 30, 60 or 90 days. All amounts that are not paid when due under our revolving credit facility will accrue interest at the rate otherwise applicable plus 2.00% until such amounts are paid in full.
Each of the subsidiaries of Holdings is a borrower under the revolving credit facility and Holdings guarantees all obligations under the revolving credit facility. All obligations under the revolving credit facility are secured by a lien on substantially all of Holdings’ tangible and intangible assets and the tangible and intangible assets of all of Holdings’ subsidiaries, including a pledge of all capital stock of each of the Holdings’ subsidiaries. The lien securing the obligations under the revolving credit facility is a first priority lien as to certain liquid assets, including cash, accounts receivable, deposit accounts and inventory. In addition, our credit agreement contains provisions that enable Wells Fargo to require us to maintain a lock-box, or similar arrangement, for the collection of all receipts.
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We may be required to make mandatory prepayments under the revolving credit facility in the event of a disposition of certain property or assets, in the event of receipt of certain insurance or condemnation proceeds, upon the issuance of certain debt or equity securities, upon the incurrence of certain indebtedness for borrowed money or upon the receipt of certain payments not received in the ordinary course of business.
Our revolving credit facility requires us to maintain a minimum availability at all times of not less than 10% of the gross borrowing base. In addition, the credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility contains customary affirmative and negative covenants, including covenants that limit our ability to incur, create or assume certain indebtedness, to create, incur or assume certain liens, to make certain investments, to make sales, transfers and dispositions of certain property and to undergo certain fundamental changes, including certain mergers, liquidations and consolidations. The credit agreement also contains customary events of default. As of January 29, 2022, we were in compliance with all covenants under the revolving credit facility.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our financial statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). In connection with the preparation of the financial statements, we are required to make assumptions, make estimates and apply judgment that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and the related disclosures. We base our assumptions, estimates and judgments on historical experience, current trends and other factors that we believe to be relevant at the time the consolidated financial statements are prepared. On a regular basis, we review the accounting policies, assumptions, estimates and judgments to ensure that our financial statements are presented fairly and in accordance with GAAP. However, because future events and their effects cannot be determined with certainty, actual results could differ from our assumptions and estimates, and such differences could be material.
Our significant accounting policies are discussed in Note 2 to our Consolidated Financial Statements elsewhere in this 10-K. We believe that the following accounting policies are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our reported financial results.
Revenue Recognition
We operate solely as an outdoor retailer, which includes both retail stores and an e-commerce platform, that offers a broad range of products in the United States and online. Generally, all revenues are recognized when control of the promised goods is transferred to customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration in exchange for those goods. Accordingly, we implicitly enter into a contract with customers to deliver merchandise inventory at the point of sale. Collectability is reasonably assured since we only extend immaterial credit purchases to certain municipalities.
Substantially all of our revenue is for single performance obligations for the following distinct items:
● | Retail store sales |
● | e-commerce sales |
● | Gift cards and loyalty reward program |
For performance obligations related to retail store and e-commerce sales contracts, we typically transfer control, for retail stores, upon consummation of the sale when the product is paid for and taken by the customer and, for e-commerce sales, when the products are tendered for delivery to the common carrier.
The transaction price for each contract is the stated price on the product, reduced by any stated discounts at that point in time. We do not engage in sales of products that attach a future material right which could result in a separate performance obligation for the purchase of goods in the future at a material discount. The implicit point-of-sale contract with the customer, as reflected in the transaction receipt, states the final terms of the sale, including the description, quantity, and price of each product purchased. Payment for our contracts is due in full upon delivery. The customer agrees to a stated price implicit in the contract that does not vary over the contract.
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The transaction price relative to sales subject to a right of return reflects the amount of estimated consideration to which we expect to be entitled. This amount of variable consideration included in the transaction price, and measurement of net sales, is included in net sales only to the extent that it is probable that there will be no significant reversal in a future period. Actual amounts of consideration ultimately received may differ from our estimates. The allowance for sales returns is estimated based upon historical experience and a provision for estimated returns is recorded as a reduction in sales in the relevant period. The estimated merchandise inventory cost related to the sales returns is recorded in prepaid expenses and other. If actual results in the future vary from our estimates, we adjust these estimates, which would affect net sales and earnings in the period such variances become known.
Contract liabilities are recognized primarily for gift card sales and our loyalty reward program. Cash received from the sale of gift cards is recorded as a contract liability in accrued expenses, and we recognize revenue upon the customer’s redemption of the gift card. Gift card breakage is recognized as revenue in proportion to the pattern of customer redemptions by applying a historical breakage rate of 4.0% when no escheat liability to relevant jurisdictions exists. We do not sell or provide gift cards that carry expiration dates. We recognized revenue for the breakage of loyalty reward points as revenue in proportion to the pattern of customer redemption of the points by applying a historical breakage rate of 54%.
As it relates to e-commerce sales, we account for shipping and handling as fulfillment activities, and not a separate performance obligation. Accordingly, we recognize revenue for only one performance obligation, the sale of the product, at the shipping point (when the customer gains control). Revenue associated with shipping and handling is not material. The costs associated with fulfillment are recorded in costs of goods sold.
We offer promotional financing and credit cards issued by a third-party bank that manages and directly extends credit to our customers. We provide a license to our brand and marketing services, and we facilitate credit applications in our stores and online. The banks are the sole owners of the accounts receivable generated under the program and, accordingly, we do not hold any customer receivables related to these programs and act as an agent in the financing transactions with customers. We are eligible to receive a profit share from certain of our banking partners based on the annual performance of their corresponding portfolio, and we receive monthly payments based on forecasts of full-year performance. This is a form of variable consideration. We record such profit share as revenue over time using the most likely amount method, which reflects the amount earned each month when it is determined that the likelihood of a significant revenue reversal is not probable, which is typically monthly. Profit-share payments occur monthly, shortly after the end of each program month.
Taxes assessed by a governmental authority that are both imposed on and concurrent with a specific revenue-producing transaction, that are collected by us from a customer, are excluded from revenue.
Sales returns
We estimate a reserve for sales returns and record the respective reserve amounts, including a right to return asset when a product is expected to be returned and resold. Historical experience of actual returns, and customer return rights are the key factors used in determining the estimated sales returns.
Inventory Valuation
Inventory is measured at the lower of cost or net realizable value. Cost is determined using the weighted average cost method. We estimate a provision for inventory shrinkage based on our historical inventory accuracy rates as determined by periodic cycle counts. The allowance for damaged goods from returns is based upon our historical experience. We also adjust inventory for obsolete or slow-moving inventory based on inventory productivity reports and by specific identification of obsolete or slow-moving inventory. Had our estimated inventory reserves been lower or higher by 10% as of January 29, 2022, our cost of sales would have been correspondingly lower or higher by approximately $0.5 million.
Valuation of Long-Lived Assets
We review our long-lived assets with definite lives for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances may indicate that the carrying value of an asset may not be recoverable. We use an estimate of the future undiscounted net cash flows of the related asset or group of assets over their remaining useful lives in measuring whether the assets are
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recoverable. If the carrying amount of an asset exceeds its estimated future cash flows, an impairment charge is recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the estimated fair value of the asset. Impairment of long-lived assets is assessed at the lowest levels for which there are identifiable cash flows that are independent of other groups of assets. Assets to be disposed of are reported at the lower of the carrying amount or fair value, less the estimated costs to sell. No impairment charge to long-lived assets was recorded during the fiscal year ended January 29, 2022. During the year ended January 30, 2021, the Company recorded an impairment charge of $1.0 million relating to the closure of one store.
Leases
We have operating leases for the Company’s retail stores facilities, distribution center, and corporate office. In accordance with ASC 842, which we adopted on February 3, 2019, we determine if an arrangement is a lease at inception. Operating lease liabilities are calculated using the present value of future payments and recognized at the commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the reasonably certain lease term. As our leases generally do not provide an implicit rate, we used an estimated incremental borrowing rate (“IBR”) to determine the present value of lease payments. The IBR is determined by using our credit rating to develop a yield curve that approximates our market risk profile.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
For a description of recent accounting pronouncements, see Note 2 to our Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this report.
Non-GAAP Measures
In evaluating our business, we use Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin as supplemental measures of our operating performance. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income plus interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, pre-opening expenses, and other gains/losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing expenses. Adjusted EBITDA excludes pre-opening expenses because we do not believe these expenses are indicative of the underlying operating performance of our stores. The amount and timing of pre-opening expenses are dependent on, among other things, the size of new stores opened and the number of new stores opened during any given period. Adjusted EBITDA margin means, for any period, the Adjusted EBITDA for that period divided by the net sales for that period. We consider Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin important supplemental measures of our operating performance and believe they are frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. Other companies in our industry, however, may calculate Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin differently than we do. Management also uses Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin as additional measurement tools for purposes of business decision-making, including evaluating store performance, developing budgets and managing expenditures. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin allow investors to evaluate our operating performance and compare our results of operations from period to period on a consistent basis by excluding items that management does not believe are indicative of our core operating performance.
Adjusted EBITDA is not defined under GAAP and is not a measure of operating income, operating performance or liquidity presented in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and when assessing our operating performance, you should not consider Adjusted EBITDA in isolation or as a substitute for net income or other consolidated income statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Some of these limitations include, but are not limited to:
| ● | Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect our cash expenditures or future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments; |
| ● | Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; |
| ● | Adjusted EBITDA may be defined differently by other companies, and, therefore, it may not be directly comparable to the results of other companies in our industry; |
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| ● | Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments, on our debt; and |
| ● | Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect income taxes or the cash requirements for any tax payments. |
A reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA is set forth below.
Fifty-Two Weeks Ended | ||||||||||
January 29, | January 30, | February 1, | ||||||||
| 2022 | 2021 |
| 2020 | ||||||
Net income | $ | 108,470 | $ | 91,380 | $ | 20,215 | ||||
Interest expense | 1,379 | 3,506 | 7,995 | |||||||
Income tax expense (benefit) | 35,769 | 30,080 | 5,254 | |||||||
Depreciation and amortization | 26,226 | 21,830 | 19,321 | |||||||
Stock-based compensation expense (1) | 3,328 | 3,302 | 2,104 | |||||||
Pre-opening expenses (2) | 4,098 | 1,942 | 2,695 | |||||||
Hazard pay (3) | — | 6,526 | — | |||||||
Acquisition costs (4) | 9,733 | 3,710 | 662 | |||||||
Bargain purchase (5) | — | (2,218) | — | |||||||
Legal accrual (6) | — | 2,125 | — | |||||||
Store closing write-off (7) | — | 1,039 | — | |||||||
Executive transition costs (8) | — | — | 770 | |||||||
Retention pay (9) | 2,549 | — | — | |||||||
Merger termination payment (10) | (55,000) | — | — | |||||||
Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 136,552 | $ | 163,222 | $ | 59,016 | ||||
Net sales | 1,506,072 | 1,451,767 | 886,401 | |||||||
Net income margin (11) | 7.2% | 6.3% | 2.3% | |||||||
Adjusted EBITDA margin (11) | 9.1% | 11.2% | 6.7% | |||||||
| (1) | Stock-based compensation expense represents non-cash expenses related to equity instruments granted to employees under our 2019 Performance Incentive Plan and Employee Stock Purchase Plan. |
| (2) | Pre-opening expenses include expenses incurred in the preparation and opening of a new store location, such as payroll, travel and supplies, but do not include the cost of the initial inventory or capital expenditures required to open a location. |
| (3) | Expense relating to bonuses and increased wages paid to front-line and back office associates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| (4) | Includes $237 of expenses incurred relating to the acquisition of cash, inventory, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, and certain other assets related to Field & Stream stores operated by DICK’S in fiscal year 2020. Also includes $3,473 and $9,733 of expenses incurred relating to the proposed merger with Great Outdoors Group on December 21, 2020, respectively, for fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021. |
| (5) | Excess of the fair value over the purchase price of tangible assets acquired in connection with the Field & Stream stores acquired during fiscal year 2020. See Note 3 to the financial statements for additional information. |
| (6) | Accrual relating to pending labor litigation in the state of California. |
| (7) | Costs and impairments recorded relating to the closure of one store during the first quarter of 2020. These costs were recorded as a component of selling, general, and administration expenses on the condensed consolidated statement of operations. |
| (8) | Costs incurred for the recruitment and hiring of various key members of our senior management team. |
| (9) | Expense relating to retention bonuses paid to certain senior employees in response to the terminated merger with Great Outdoors Group. |
| (10) | Represents a one-time $55 million termination payment received in connection with the terminated merger with Great Outdoors Group. |
| (11) | We calculate net income margin as net income divided by net sales and we define adjusted EBITDA margin as adjusted EBITDA divided by net sales |
49
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Our principal exposure to market risk relates to changes in interest rates. Our revolving credit facility and term loan carry floating interest rates that are tied to LIBOR, the federal funds rate and the prime rate, and, therefore, our income and cash flows will be exposed to changes in interest rates to the extent that we do not have effective hedging arrangements in place. We historically have not used interest rate swap agreements to hedge the variable cash flows associated with the interest on our credit facilities. Based on a sensitivity analysis at January 29, 2022, assuming the amount outstanding under our revolving credit facility would be outstanding for a full year, a 100 basis point increase in interest rates would have increased our interest expense by $0.8 million. We do not use derivative financial instruments for speculative or trading purposes. However, this does not preclude our adoption of specific hedging strategies in the future.
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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM – GRANT THORNTON LLP (PCAOB ID Number | 52 |
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM – KPMG LLP (PCAOB ID Number | 53 |
CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS: | |
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55 | |
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51
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Board of Directors and Stockholders
Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings, Inc.:
Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings, Inc. (a Delaware corporation) and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of January 29, 2022 and January 30, 2021, the related consolidated statements of income, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the two fiscal years in the period ended January 29, 2022, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of January 29, 2022 and January 30, 2021, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the two fiscal years in the period ended January 29, 2022, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of January 29, 2022, based on criteria established in the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”), and our report dated March 30, 2022 expressed an unqualified opinion.
Basis for opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical audit matter
Critical audit matters are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. We determined that there are no critical audit matters.
/s/
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2020.
March 30, 2022
52
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors
Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings, Inc.:
Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated statement of income, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows of Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings, Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) for the year ended February 1, 2020 and the related notes (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the results of operations of the Company and its cash flows for the year ended February 1, 2020, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Basis for Opinion
These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/
We served as the Company’s auditor from 2002 to 2020.
April 9, 2020
53
SPORTSMAN’S WAREHOUSE HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
Amounts in Thousands, Except Per Share Data
January 29, | January 30, | ||||||
| 2022 |
| 2021 |
| |||
Assets | |||||||
Current assets: | |||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | | $ | | |||
Accounts receivable, net | | | |||||
Merchandise inventories | | | |||||
Prepaid expenses and other | | | |||||
Total current assets | | | |||||
Operating lease right of use asset | | | |||||
Property and equipment, net | | | |||||
Goodwill | | | |||||
Definite lived intangibles, net | | | |||||
Total assets | $ | | $ | | |||
Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity | |||||||
Current liabilities: | |||||||
Accounts payable | $ | | $ | | |||
Accrued expenses | | | |||||
Income taxes payable | | | |||||
Operating lease liability, current | | | |||||
Revolving line of credit | | — | |||||
Total current liabilities | | | |||||
Long-term liabilities: | |||||||
Deferred income taxes | | | |||||
Operating lease liability, noncurrent | | | |||||
Total long-term liabilities | | | |||||
Total liabilities | | | |||||
Commitments and contingencies | |||||||
Stockholders' equity: | |||||||
Preferred stock, $ | |||||||
Common stock, $ | | | |||||
Additional paid-in capital | | | |||||
Retained earnings | | | |||||
Total stockholders' equity | | | |||||
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity | $ | | $ | | |||
See accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements
54
SPORTSMAN’S WAREHOUSE HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
Amounts in Thousands, Except Per Share Data
Fiscal Year Ended | |||||||||
January 29, | January 30, | February 1, | |||||||
2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||
Net sales | $ | | $ | | $ | | |||
Cost of goods sold | | | | ||||||
Gross profit | | | | ||||||
Selling, general, and administrative expenses | | | | ||||||
Income from operations | | | | ||||||
Other (income) expense: | |||||||||
Bargain purchase gain | — | ( | — | ||||||
Merger termination payment | ( | — | — | ||||||
Interest expense | | | | ||||||
Income before income taxes | | | | ||||||
Income tax expense | | | | ||||||
Net income | $ | | $ | | $ | | |||
Income per share: | |||||||||
Basic | $ | | $ | | $ | | |||
Diluted | $ | | $ | | $ | | |||
Weighted average shares outstanding: | |||||||||
Basic | | | | ||||||
Diluted | | | | ||||||
See accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements
55
SPORTSMAN’S WAREHOUSE HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Amounts in Thousands
Common Stock | Restricted nonvoting | Additional | Accumulated | Total | |||||||||||||||
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Shares |
| Amount |
| Amount |
| Amount |
| Amount | ||||||
Balance at February 2, 2019 | | $ | | — | $ | — | $ | | $ | ( | $ | | |||||||
Impact of change for ASC 842 adoption | — | — | — | — | — | | | ||||||||||||
Vesting of restricted stock units | | | — | — | ( | ||||||||||||||