Kontoor Brands, Inc. (KTB) Earnings Call Transcript

Greetings. Welcome to the Kontoor Brands Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll now turn the conference over to Erinn Murphy, Vice President, Global Head of Finance and Operations, Helly Hansen and Corporate Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Kontoor Brands Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Participants on today's call will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ. These uncertainties are detailed in documents filed with the SEC. We urge you to read our risk factors, cautionary language and other disclosures contained in these reports. Amounts referred to on today's call will be on an adjusted dollar basis, which we clearly define in the news release that was issued earlier this morning and is available on our website at kontoorbrands.com. Reconciliations of GAAP measures to adjusted amounts can be found in the supplemental financial tables included in today's news release. These tables identify and quantify excluded items and provide management's view of why this information is useful to investors. Unless otherwise noted, revenue growth rates referred to on this call will be in constant currency, which exclude the translation impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates and reported results and our outlook are stated on a continuing operations basis, unless otherwise noted. Joining me on today's call are Kontoor Brands' Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Scott Baxter; and President and Chief Financial Officer, Joe Alkire. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. Scott?

Thanks, Erinn, and thank you all for joining us. I am pleased to share our second quarter results and the progress we have made advancing our strategic priorities. Through the first half of the year, we've elevated the portfolio, positioned the company to accelerate revenue and profit growth and increased our capital allocation optionality. Simply said, we've reached an inflection point in our value creation journey driven by our primary initiatives: build Wrangler momentum from a position of strength and sharper focus following the lead divestiture, integrate and accelerate Helly Hansen and finish Project Genius strong. To accelerate our ambitions, I am pleased to share that Joe has been appointed to an expanded role of President and CFO. He knows our business and has been instrumental in driving our transformation. Let's begin with Helly Hansen. In June, we celebrated our one year anniversary together. When we announced the transaction, the goal was clear: drive greater value for our shareholders and structurally increase our TSR potential. To ensure we deliver on our commitment, we established a value creation framework built on four pillars: accelerate revenue growth, achieve mid-teens operating margin, increase capital allocation optionality and establish Kontoor as an employer of choice. So how are we doing? First, revenue is tracking ahead of our acquisition plan with results exceeding our expectations in every quarter under our ownership. This has continued into the first half of '26 with pro forma reported revenue growing at a low double-digit rate compared to our high single-digit outlook. We've had opportunities to grow faster, but we are committed to doing this the right way by creating a healthy foundation that supports years of sustainable growth. We're making investments in talent and separating the sport and workwear commercial organization under Board's leadership. These are distinct businesses with their own set of opportunities. In North America, we are creating two GMs to drive increased focus. We will replicate this globally over time. This is something the Helly Hansen team has discussed for years, and under Kontoor, we are making it happen. Second, expand operating margin. Through the first half of '26, operating margin expanded approximately 600 basis points to 7%, driven by gross margin expansion and expense synergies. This is our multi-brand platform in action. We are leveraging our supply chain and technology platforms to provide greater scale advantages for both organizations while driving greater back-end efficiency. At the same time, better inventory management is increasing the mix of full price selling on our digital platform, resulting in higher AURs and reduced promotional activity. This is an area where we have great expertise and has been a meaningful contributor to improved profitability. We remain committed to expanding operating margin while increasing investment capacity. Over the last 12 months, we have done just that. As we move to the second half of the year, we will deploy these resources to drive accelerating growth. Third, increased capital allocation optionality. Last year, Helly Hansen generated $100 million in cash from operations, driven by improved profitability and net working capital. We are ahead of our planned deleverage path, allowing for greater optionality even earlier than expected. Year-to-date, we have returned more than $130 million to shareholders, including $75 million of share repurchases. And finally, establish Kontoor as the employer of choice in the industry. Attracting and retaining top talent will ensure long-term success. We continue to be impressed by the Helly Hansen organization. There is depth at all levels. At the same time, we are investing in both existing and new parts of the organization to support accelerating growth. We are very encouraged by the talent pipeline and recently hired a GM of North America to lead our sport business. We look forward to introducing him at our Investor Day next month in Norway. By every measure, our first year together exceeded our expectations. We are on track to complete the majority of integration activities by year-end, apart from the systems migration, but we know the most exciting days are still ahead of us. Turning to Wrangler. For the first half of '26, global revenue increased approximately 3% on a reported basis, in line with our expectations. It starts with building on the momentum we've created in our core bottoms business. We have incredible opportunities in female, direct-to-consumer and non-denim categories, but we will not lose sight of Wrangler's identity. In the second quarter, as measured by Circana, we drove over 100 basis points of share gains in our core bottoms business. With female, our success continues. First half revenue grew 20% with trends accelerating in the second quarter. Our investments in talent, product development, design and demand creation are working. Bespoke is the number one female style at select specialty retailers and new collaborations and brand activations are elevating the brand in the marketplace. And within Western, first half revenue grew low double digits. Western sits at the heart of Wrangler's DNA, and we have never been stronger. To support this momentum, we will continue to invest behind our product innovation and demand creation platforms to solidify our position as the authority in the category. Turning to Lee. The divestiture is progressing well. We have cleared a number of important milestones and are on track to complete the transaction in the fourth quarter. Our teams are working well together, and the process with AVG has been smooth and efficient. I want to thank the Lee organization and AVG for their professionalism and dedication to supporting the brand during this important transition. We intend to use the majority of net proceeds from the divestiture to fund a new $400 million ASR with the remainder to voluntarily pay down debt and further strengthen our balance sheet. This is a hallmark of our operating model and will further support strong returns for our shareholders. Finally, let me provide an update on Project Genius. While we could not have predicted the challenges the industry would face over the last few years, we push ourselves to take initiative from our front foot. We launched Project Genius to create investment capacity to accelerate growth while expanding profitability. We are in the final stretch and are firmly on track to exceed $100 million in gross savings. Genius has been essential to the operational agility we have demonstrated over the last few years. Importantly, it has solidified a continuous improvement mindset within our culture that will yield benefits for years to come. Before turning it over to Joe, let me underscore the confidence I have in this team and our ability to achieve our 2026 plan. We are entering the second half of the year focused on our largest priorities, build Wrangler momentum from a position of strength and sharper focus following the Lee divestiture, integrate and accelerate Helly Hansen and finish Project Genius strong. These are the initiatives that will generate results going forward and deliver strong returns for our shareholders. As we move beyond 2026, we have adopted an always-on cost excellence mindset that will enable us to continue to fund our growth initiatives as we continue to transform our business. We are off to a strong start in 2026, and I would like to thank our global teams for their continued dedication and steady execution. Joe?

Thanks, Scott, and thank you all for joining us today. Before I begin, let me say how honored I am to step into this expanded leadership role as the President and CFO of Kontoor. I am energized by the opportunity ahead and deeply grateful to the talented people across the organization whose commitment to excellence has positioned Kontoor to compete and win. I look forward to continuing to partner closely with Scott and the executive leadership team as we build on our strong foundation and pursue the next horizon of growth. Since late last year, our leadership team has been developing a comprehensive strategy centered around Kontoor's next chapter, one focused on accelerated, highly profitable growth, strong cash generation and an enhanced TSR algorithm. Our growth and transformation agenda is bold and builds on our strong foundation of operational discipline, execution excellence, financial rigor and capital stewardship. Our strategy will be enabled by a more robust set of enterprise capabilities, including consumer insights, DTC excellence, product innovation, demand creation and technology, which along with our talented team and winning culture will be key ingredients to drive the success of our growth ambitions. We plan to unveil more details about our strategy in a series of upcoming events, starting with the Helly Hansen Investor Day, September 2 in Norway. Building from the strong foundation that has been established since becoming a public company, we are increasing our investment on our largest growth opportunities and driving more clarity around the roles we expect each brand to play in our portfolio moving forward. Wrangler is our balanced grower. The mandate is clear: protect and build on the core business while accelerating growth in female, DTC and adjacent non-denim categories. To support accelerated growth, we are leaning into brand building and other growth-enhancing investments while maintaining strong profitability and durable cash generation. It is imperative we continue to protect and drive our core male bottoms business, which is foundational to the brand and our economic engine. Last month, we launched TufLite, our newest material innovation for our iconic Cowboy Cut jean. Wrangler TufLite jeans are up to 20% lighter without sacrificing performance and are positioned at a premium price point. Within female, our business stands at approximately 10% of total revenue today despite female comprising over 50% of the U.S. denim market. The growth opportunity in female is massive and seizing our share of the market requires new capabilities, investment and an evolved operating model. Going forward, we are choosing to operate the female business separately from men's to intentionally drive the focus, investment and growth opportunity we see in this aspect of our business. And we recently appointed a dedicated GM for the female business and are investing in and elevating our talent in the areas of product development, design, merchandising and marketing. Building on the success of our full-price store in the Stockyards of Fort Worth, Texas, we are beginning to develop a focused retail fleet in the heartland of Wrangler Country. During the quarter, we secured two additional locations in Texas, both slated to open in early 2027. We will test, learn and scale our full-price DTC opportunity as we establish a true omnichannel brand experience for the Wrangler consumer while also investing to supercharge our digital business through improved capabilities in AI, site experience and an expanded loyalty program. Turning to Helly Hansen. Helly is our growth engine, and we are accelerating growth in both the U.S. and the Alps region in Europe, while expanding into a four season brand by winning in outdoor and disrupting the workwear market, two categories with significant white space relative to where we are today. Within sport, we intend to accelerate investment in geographic, category and channel expansion. Under the highly capable Helly leadership team, we are bolstering the organization with more meaningful investments in the commercial and product teams. As Scott mentioned, we recently hired a GM for North America, a critical leadership role the Helly business has lacked for years. In the second half of 2026, we have also identified incremental opportunities to invest behind demand creation as we scale brand awareness, particularly in the U.S., where our aided awareness is around 30% and well below our peers. Winning in the outdoor category is about extending our authority beyond ski and sailing and competing year-round. Consumers already give Helly Hansen credit for high-performance gear and protection, and we believe we can extend this proposition into the technical outdoor category. We are building the product and innovation road map, thoughtfully expanding distribution and investing in storytelling to claim that territory. Workwear is one of the most compelling growth opportunities in the entire Helly Hansen portfolio. We have built a large and profitable European business, and there is significant runway to grow in the U.S. Structural tailwinds in workwear are fueled by higher participation in skilled trades, the rising cost of higher education and stricter workplace safety standards. As Scott mentioned, we are choosing to separate sport and workwear into distinct organizations to drive more focus and better align resources against this global opportunity. From a profitability perspective, we are committed to improving Helly's operating margin into the mid-teens through a combination of gross margin expansion, operating expense leverage and synergies. We are leveraging our multi-brand platform as well as Project Genius and seeing better-than-expected profitability as a result. In the second quarter, Helly's seasonally smallest quarter, we saw notable profit improvement and delivered positive operating profit, well ahead of both our expectations and what the brand has been able to deliver historically. As an enterprise, to fund our commitment to drive brand building and growth-enabling investments across our portfolio, we have established an always-on cost excellence program to create the capacity for these investment dollars in our P&L. This program builds on the success of Project Genius and provides another layer of investment capacity and earnings power moving forward. Simply stated, our strategy will deliver accelerated revenue growth, fund the investments required while expanding profitability and continuing to drive strong cash generation. Moving on to where we are in the Lee divestiture process. We are on track to close the transaction in the fourth quarter. All work streams are progressing well, and we have clear line of sight to offset the approximate $40 million of stranded costs over a 12-month to 18-month period. Upon the closing of the transaction, we expect to enter into a $400 million accelerated share repurchase agreement and expect to use the remainder of our proceeds for voluntary debt payments as we work to exit 2026 with a net leverage ratio below 1.5 times. These strong capital deployment tools will bolster our earnings power in 2027 and beyond and will help offset near-term dilution from the lost earnings contribution of Lee. Over a 12-month to 18-month period, we continue to expect the divestiture of Lee to be immaterial to earnings per share. We look forward to delivering what we believe is a great outcome for ABG, the Lee business and Kontoor. Before I review the specifics of our second quarter results, I want to take a moment to reflect on our performance for the first half of the year. Revenue of $1.2 billion was at the high end of our previously communicated first half outlook, reflecting an increase of 31% compared to prior year. Adjusted gross margin of 52.2% was well above the high end of our previously communicated outlook of 50.5%, reflecting an increase of 590 basis points compared to prior year. Adjusted EPS of $2.12 increased 36% compared to prior year. We delivered these results while also investing more into our brands and strategic priorities relative to what was initially contemplated in our plan. The divestiture of Lee is on track. The fundamentals of our business are strong, and we are raising our full-year outlook based on the strength we have seen in our business year-to-date and our confidence and visibility as we enter the second half of the year. Now let's review our second quarter results in more detail. Starting with Wrangler, Global revenue increased 1%, driven by 12% growth in DTC. In the U.S., revenue increased 1%, driven by 9% growth in DTC as wholesale was relatively flat. Growth was broad-based, driven by double-digit growth in female and Western. As measured by Circana, we gained market share in our men's and women's bottoms business, our 17th consecutive quarter of share gains. Notably, our bottoms business has remained resilient with POS up 3% year-to-date through July despite ongoing macro volatility and conservative inventory management among our largest retail partners. Our overall POS trend remains consistent with what we've seen over the past 12 months to 24 months. Wrangler International revenue increased 8%, driven by 27% growth in DTC and 4% growth in wholesale. Wrangler is well positioned to deliver another year of broad-based growth in 2026, including mid-single-digit growth in the second half of the year, adjusted for the 53rd week impact in 2025. Turning to Helly Hansen. Global revenue of $114 million increased 6% compared to prior year on a pro forma basis, exceeding our expectations. Through the first half, global revenue increased 12% on a reported pro forma basis with underlying constant currency growth in the mid-single-digit range. Sport was $70 million and growth was strongest in the U.S., the Nordics and the Alps region in Europe. Growth was led by healthy order book conversion, solid at-once demand and e-commerce. Workwear was $37 million with growth across the U.S. and the Alps region in Europe. While small today, our Workwear e-commerce business was particularly robust in the second quarter. Moving to China. As a reminder, Helly Hansen's revenue results exclude the direct contribution of the China joint venture with our partner, Youngor, as the results are not consolidated under the equity method of accounting. Second quarter results were strong with revenue increasing close to 70%, along with further improvement in profitability. Including the revenue of the China JV, Helly Hansen global revenue increased at a mid-teen rate on a pro forma basis. While still early, the acquisition of Helly is off to a great start. We're driving strong benefits as a more synergistic brand owner and expect the business to be a significant contributor to revenue and earnings growth in the years ahead. But more on that at our Investor Day in early September. Moving to the remainder of the P&L. Adjusted gross margin increased 710 basis points to 53.8% compared to prior year, driven by the benefits from Project Genius, a stronger gross margin contribution from Helly Hansen and the favorable impact of channel mix, product mix and pricing. SG&A expenses were $221 million or 37.8% of revenue. The increase in SG&A expenses was driven by the impact of a full quarter of Helly Hansen expenses compared to prior year, increased investment in direct-to-consumer demand creation and technology, partially offset by the benefits from Project Genius. And adjusted EPS was $1.06, an increase of 13% compared to prior year. This includes a $0.06 loss per share from Helly Hansen, well ahead of our expectations. Turning to the balance sheet. Inventory at the end of the second quarter was $526 million, down 3% compared to prior year, driven primarily by inventory reductions in Helly Hansen. We remain pleased with the quality and composition of our inventory. We finished the quarter with net debt of $1.1 billion and $58 million of cash on hand. Our $500 million revolver remains undrawn. During the quarter, we repurchased $50 million of common stock. Year-to-date, we repurchased $75 million of common stock at an average price of $75 per share. We ended the quarter with $700 million remaining under our existing share repurchase authorization. And as previously announced, our Board declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.53 per share. Moving to tariffs. The global trade environment remains dynamic. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs, the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection to refund IEPA duties previously paid. As a reminder, during the first quarter of 2026, we recognized a net receivable of $54 million for IEPA tariffs previously paid. In July of 2026, we started to receive IEPA refunds and thus far have received cash of approximately $23 million in the third quarter. We expect to receive the remaining IEPA refunds by the end of fiscal 2026. In May 2026, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that Section 122 tariffs were also invalid and these tariffs expired in July of 2026. Year-to-date, our financial results include the previously paid and expensed tariffs under Section 122. We have not recorded a receivable related to Section 122 tariffs and continue to monitor ongoing litigation related to the potential recovery of these tariffs. Effective July 2026, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative implemented new Section 301 tariff rates of between 10% and 12.5% on products imported from the majority of our current trading partners. The majority of the countries we source goods from remain at the 10% level with the exception of China and Vietnam, which are now at 12.5%. As a reminder, our imports from Mexico to the U.S. remain exempt under USMCA based on currently available information. Our 2026 outlook continues to assume a 15% reciprocal tariff rate for the second half of 2026. On an adjusted basis, the company has excluded any impacts of the 2025 related IEPA tariffs in its 2026 outlook. Now let's review our updated outlook. Revenue is expected to be in the range of $2.66 billion to $2.71 billion, consistent with our prior outlook. For the second half of 2026, we expect revenue to be in the range of $1.46 billion to $1.51 billion, reflecting mid-single-digit growth for both Wrangler and Helly Hansen, excluding the impact of the 53rd week in 2025. As a reminder, the 53rd week in 2025 impacted Wrangler's revenue growth by 8 percentage points in the fourth quarter. Full-year adjusted gross margin is expected to be in the range of 49.8% to 50%, representing an increase of 330 to 350 basis points compared to prior year. This compares to the prior outlook range of 48.3% to 48.5%. Our updated gross margin outlook reflects stronger-than-expected year-to-date results and a stronger contribution from Helly Hansen. Full-year adjusted SG&A expenses are expected to increase approximately 23% compared to prior year. This includes the impact of a full-year of Helly Hansen expenses. Our updated outlook also includes approximately $25 million of incremental brand building and other growth-enabling investments as compared to our prior outlook. Adjusted operating income is now expected to be in the range of $413 million to $420 million, including $25 million of incremental investment, representing an increase of 15% to 17% compared to prior year. This compares to our prior outlook range of $411 million to $418 million. Full-year adjusted EPS is now expected to be in the range of $5.25 to $5.35, reflecting growth of between 27% and 29% compared to prior year. Our updated outlook includes approximately $0.36 of incremental investments as compared to our prior outlook of $5.15 to $5.25. As a reminder, our outlook includes the impact of approximately $0.55 of unmitigated expenses that were previously allocated to the Lee business. For the full-year, we anticipate an effective tax rate of approximately 20%, reflecting tax synergy benefits as we integrate Helly Hansen into our global tax platform. We expect our diluted average share count to be approximately 55.5 million. Our outlook does not include the impact of any future share repurchases, including those from the expected proceeds of the planned divestiture of Lee. Finally, we continue to expect another year of strong cash generation. Total cash from operations is expected to approximate $450 million, including the expected contribution from the Lee business now reported in discontinued operations. Our outlook assumes voluntary term loan payments of $225 million, excluding additional voluntary debt payments with a portion of the expected proceeds from the planned divestiture of Lee. We're tracking ahead of our original deleverage plan and anticipate returning to less than 1.5 times net leverage by the end of 2026. For the full-year, including the use of proceeds from the divestiture of Lee, we expect to return more than $900 million of capital through a combination of share repurchases, dividends and voluntary debt payments. Before opening it up for questions, a few closing comments. As we look ahead, we are sharpening our portfolio focus and investment on our largest growth opportunities. The increase in our 2026 outlook reflects the strength we have delivered in our business year-to-date and our visibility as we enter the second half of the year. As we move beyond 2026, I am confident we are on a path to unlock the full potential of Kontoor Brands and create significant value for our shareholders in the years to come. This concludes our prepared remarks, and I will now turn the call back to the operator.

[Operator Instructions]. First question is from the line of Matthew Boss with JPMorgan.

Congrats on a nice quarter. Scott, Wrangler accelerated this quarter on a two year basis and the inflection to mid-single-digit growth in the back half of the year, as you cited. Helly exceeded expectations in the first half of the year. I think lead times you've cited point to second half opportunity for you to control or greater control of that brand. Could you just elaborate on the brand-building investments and the opportunity you see to accelerate the total portfolio top and bottom line growth into the back half of this year and multiyear?

No problem. First, though, I would like to acknowledge Joe's promotion and congratulations to Joe. It's wonderful for our company, wonderful for our shareholders and so well deserved. And congratulations, Joe. Outstanding.

Thank you, Scott. Thank you.

So Matt, we're really pleased with the progress we're making on both brands, and we did accelerate. Thanks for the comments. A lot of the confidence from a back half standpoint, I'm going to share with you. I also want to point out that we have a lot of confidence in '27 in our long-range plan. We've got a lot of actions that we've taken. And some of the things that are happening, for instance, in the back half and into next year are for Wrangler, they have got strong new customers, one of those being Lowe's Home Improvement. So really excited about that. Helly Hansen will be showing up this year at Dick's Sporting Goods in the House of Sport for the first time. And as you know, Dick's is a significant outdoor retailer. So really great for the Helly brand here in North America because as everyone remembers, that was one of the reasons why we bought the brand to expand in North America. So a great start there. But I'm really pleased with our continued progress in Western with TufLite as a new example of some innovation in Western. The business is strong there. We continue to have great relationships and continue to lead in both men's and women's in Western. So very exciting. D2C is doing well. And then our women's business has been growing very significantly, and we've got a great product -- new product introduction with Bespoke that's been around for a little while now, but continues to accelerate. Great product innovation from the team. And then with Helly, we've got Crew and Life of Marino, two big platforms that we're reinvigorating going into next year. But Matt, I will tell you, the single most important thing for me, which I think is going to be incremental to our business, and I am really excited about this is that we, in Q4 are going to be focused on denim brand only. So after the spin-off of Lee, we are going to turn all of our attention. We have an excellent team that's going to be focused on growing, investing and making sure that Wrangler continues to grow to its full potential. I think that's incredibly exciting, and that is right around the corner, and we're investing in that right now to make sure that really accelerates going forward. Joe, anything to add?

No, I think you covered it, Scott.

That's great color. Then, Joe, so first, I'll add my congrats on your promotion. Then second, just as we think about visibility, what's your visibility today to mid-single-digit back half revenues at Helly based on order books and real-time sell-throughs? What have you embedded in the back half relative to the front half, if any improvement? Then can you just walk through drivers of further profit improvement in the back half of the year at Helly Hansen?

Yes, sure. Thanks, Matt, and I appreciate the comments. Look, based on the confidence and the visibility we have into the second half of the year really for both brands, we raised the outlook, right? We raised the outlook on the back of stronger gross margin just as we continue to execute really well on that front. And we took the opportunity to invest at least a portion of that upside back into both brands to accelerate growth into '27 and beyond as we continue to build momentum in both brands, as Scott mentioned. In terms of where those dollars are going, again, in both brands, and it's into the areas that you would expect, data and analytics, consumer insights, demand creation and talent. talent on the product side in Wrangler, for example, in the female area, we said we hired a GM of North America for Helly. And these key hires will begin to have an impact as we move into '27. In terms of the profitability improvement, our visibility is pretty high. We're now bought from an inventory standpoint into the back half of the year. We've got good visibility into the forecast for both brands and our investment dollars are committed. So from here, it's really about execution. We have not embedded an improvement in the overall environment in the back half. So the growth that we have planned is really where we have good visibility into, for example, expanded distribution at Wrangler and what we can see on the Helly side in terms of order book and the distribution expansion.

The next question is from the line of Irwin Boruchow with Wells Fargo.

Congrats to Joe. Congrats to everyone on the quarter. I guess two for me. First, I wanted to dive into Helly a little bit more -- in a more detailed way for the second quarter. Maybe this is for Joe. The profit of $2 million, it seems pretty impressive given the seasonality of the business. Can you just give more context how notable that is to you? Basically, what was that on a pro forma basis, maybe the last time the brand made a profit in the second quarter? Just curious because it seems like a notable change from a seasonality perspective.

Yes. Thanks, Ike. And again, thanks for the comment. Look, while small, it's a pretty big deal. We -- I don't know when the last time, if ever, the Helly business generated positive operating profit in its seasonally smallest quarter. Certainly, a combination of factors drove that, most notably on the gross margin side, the business is really beginning to benefit from our platform, sourcing, logistics, planning, procurement. We've got a lot more operational discipline in the business right now in terms of inventory quality and composition. That's greatly improved. We're selling through more full price. We're being less promotional. There's been a lot of work done in that area as well as pricing. And then you've got synergies. So a lot of the work that we've done with the team over the past year. The synergies are starting to manifest in the P&L, which is also giving us the opportunity to invest more back in the business. The profitability improvement is meaningful. It was meaningful for the first half. It will be meaningful for the second half. So the mid-teen operating margin target that we put out there, fair to say we've got more confidence in that, and you'll see the specifics of how we see that evolving over the next few years in a few weeks at the Investor Day.

Then a bigger picture question. A lot of moving parts have occurred this year, while the core business is clearly outperforming. That said, I kind of want to address the go-forward plans because I think there's some confusion with the investor base. I think several months ago when the lease sale was announced, you guys said there really wasn't any reason why 2027 Street EPS needed to change. At the time, the Street was a little above $7. Today, they're a little below $6.50. I honestly just want to ask you to address the discrepancy and how you're viewing 2027 EPS power at a high level, given all the changes in the model taking place?

Sure. Thanks, Ike. Look, we're not updating the long-term algorithm today or providing specific '27 guidance, but I appreciate the significance of the moving parts to the story, and let me try to give you a high-level framework as to how to think about '27 and into '28. You've got baseline continuing operations EPS that now is in the range of $5.25 to $5.35 for 2026. That's burdened by about $0.55 of expenses that were previously allocated to the Lee business. We've said we expect to offset those costs over a 12-month to 18-month period. The planning for those actions is already well underway. That started before we even announced transaction. So that takes you to about $580 million to $590 million. From there, through strong capital deployment, we believe we can offset the $0.90 of operating earnings that Lee is contributing today. The $400 million ASR will be a part of that. That will start immediately upon closing, and then we talked about the debt repayment. So that bridges you back to $670 million to $680 million pro forma kind of run rate EPS. Then from there, we can drive more accelerated growth in the Wrangler and the Helly brands. So all that to say, this is why we keep highlighting we expect the divestiture of Lee to be immaterial to EPS on a 12-month to 18-month basis.

The next question is from the line of Jonathan Komp with Baird.

I want to follow up on gross margin. Could you maybe highlight some of the areas you're seeing success driving stronger gross margin inflection year-over-year and contributing to the raised guidance? Then just on the full-year guidance range, it looks like second half consolidated is implied quite a bit below the first half. That's maybe a little bit different than the historical seasonality. Could you maybe just share some of the factors you're embedding in the second half implied gross margin?

Sure. I'll take that, John. For 2026, we now have a gross margin outlook of over 300 basis points in the 49.8% to 50% range. That's about 150 basis points above our prior outlook. Relative to the prior outlook, the stronger gross margin is really driven by Helly. That's probably the single largest driver of the increase, along with increased visibility into the second half of the year. From a year-over-year perspective, on a full-year basis, there's some pretty meaningful puts and takes within our gross margin evolution. We expect Helly to be accretive by more than 100 basis points. We've got Project Genius and the benefits of mix, both channel mix, product mix to drive more than 200 basis points of expansion combined. From a product cost standpoint, we expect the product cost environment to be fairly muted. The impact of tariffs, some of the inflation we've seen more recently is largely offset by some of the pricing actions that we've taken along with other mitigating actions. As you look to the back half, we now have about 140 basis points of gross margin expansion embedded in the outlook. That's really driven by accretion from Helly and mix. The moderation relative to the first half is really driven by the fact that we're now starting to lap the full benefits of Project Genius and the impact of tariffs. But longer term, the overall gross margin algorithm is unchanged. So structural mix, Helly, cost excellence initiatives, which we alluded to, that will drive the expansion while we neutralize any other inflationary impacts through price and other efficiency initiatives.

Joe, just a quick comment in there. Jonathan, I would be remiss if I didn't call out our product and design teams at both Helly and Wrangler. The product that they're making, what they're doing, how they're listening to the consumer, the consumer team, it's just outstanding. So congratulations to that group because it doesn't work without great product, and we are producing great product.

That's great. Then I'm sure we'll hear a lot more in a few weeks. But just from a conceptual standpoint, as we think about Helly Hansen and growth beyond 2026, do you think there's still a meaningful period that's needed to drive acceleration on the top line? Should we expect to see those drivers start to line up in 2027? Just any kind of directional color to help shape our expectations. Thanks again.

Yes. I think we haven't really pivoted from the reasons why we bought the company where we saw opportunity from the categories that we can enter and of course, the geographic areas that we can enter. But what we do see is that we're going to manage the business appropriately. And there was a comment in our -- I guess, our release today, we talked about the fact that we could have driven more business, but we've been really smart about where and how we're driving that business. I think that's really important because we've learned a lot of lessons from the past. What I would tell you is that we've got this set up for a long-term growth algorithm going forward, and we continue to see opportunities in all those markets that we enter in all those categories that we enter going forward and also much stronger distribution with key winners in those categories. We really like how this looks going forward, not just on an end of '26, '27, but on a nice five year algorithm going forward.

Yes. John, look, we're confident we're in the early innings of a multiyear growth acceleration for this brand as it continues on its path to becoming the next $1 billion-plus brand. You're going to see the specifics of how we see that evolving in the next couple of weeks, growth will accelerate in 2027. We're starting to see the order book come together for the first half of '27 and the indications are pretty solid. It's important to remember that when we bought the business, given the lead time, 2026 was largely set. So the growth that you're seeing now is really what the team has been able to drive on their own. With the benefit of a year plus of working with that team, we now have the ability to impact more of the future trajectory of the brand, and you'll start to get a better sense for what that means.

Our next question is from the line of Adrienne Yih with Barclays.

Congratulations, Joe, on the promotion or the additional responsibilities well deserved. Staying on the topic of Helly Hansen, I'm wondering if you can give us kind of a little sneak peek or a little bit of kind of what we're going to see in a couple of weeks. exceeded expectations again, you're talking about sort of more legacy innovation that's driving that. It's doing it across sport, workwear in all geographies. So can you sort of unpack the biggest upside drivers of kind of how you see category geo and also more detail on the timing of wholesale, how many doors? What's the opportunity on the kind of three year horizon for that?