NYSE:BARK BARK Q4 2025 Earnings Report $0.96 -0.39 (-28.81%) As of 02:56 PM Eastern This is a fair market value price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast BARK EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.01Consensus EPS $0.01Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPSN/ABARK Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$115.41 millionExpected Revenue$126.74 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$11.33 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/ABARK Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2025Date6/4/2025TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateWednesday, June 4, 2025Conference Call Time4:30PM ETUpcoming EarningsBARK's Q1 2026 earnings is scheduled for Wednesday, August 6, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 4:30 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)SEC FilingEarnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by BARK Q4 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJune 4, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Hello and thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Bardt Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Thank you. Operator00:00:28I will now turn the call over to Mike Muges, VP of IR and VPA. Mike, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:38Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Bark's fiscal fourth quarter and full year twenty twenty five earnings call. Joining me today are Matt Meeker, Co Founder and Chief Executive Officer and Zahir Ebrahim, Chief Financial Officer. Today's conference call will be webcast in its entirety on our website and a replay will be made available shortly after the call. Additionally, a press release covering the company's financial results was issued this afternoon and can be found in our Investor Relations website. Before I pass it over to Matt, I want to remind you of the following information regarding forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:08The statements made on today's call are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results and outcomes to differ. Please refer to our SEC filings for more information on some of the factors that could affect our future results and outcomes. We will also discuss certain non GAAP financial measures on today's call. Reconciliation of our non GAAP financial measures is contained in this afternoon's press release. And with that, let me now pass it over to Matt. Speaker 200:01:35Thanks, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. There are three big takeaways I want to share with you today. First, we delivered our first ever adjusted EBITDA positive year. Second, we intend to remain adjusted EBITDA positive this year and beyond. And third, we plan to accelerate the diversification of our revenue faster than previously planned. Speaker 200:02:00My remarks today will expand on each of these three takeaways. First, after fourteen years of working at it, we are adjusted EBITDA positive for the first year ever. This is huge. In Q4, we delivered $5,200,000 in positive adjusted EBITDA, our best quarterly result ever. And for the full year, we achieved $5,400,000 our first full year in the black. Speaker 200:02:27Just three years ago, we lost $58,000,000 and burned nearly $200,000,000 in cash. At the time, many questioned our long term viability. Now three years later, we're not only standing, we're in positive adjusted EBITDA territory. Tahir will discuss our fourth quarter and full year results in more detail. However, at a high level, revenue for the quarter was $115,400,000 lighter than expected as we pulled back on growth in response to tariff related uncertainty and potential downstream costs. Speaker 200:03:03Tariffs, along with softening consumer sentiment, gave us a strong push to accelerate diversification efforts. One area where we've made real progress is our commerce business. This segment grew 27% year over year to $68,300,000 We expanded our relationships with retail partners like Chewy, Amazon, PJ Maxx, Target, Costco, the Girl Scouts and others. Gross margins in commerce expanded by two twenty seven basis points over FY 'twenty four and nine sixty basis points over FY 'twenty three. All of this makes Spark stronger and more resilient. Speaker 200:03:49Speaking of gross margins, we delivered 63.6% in Q4, our highest level ever. For the full year, we achieved 62.4, a 73 basis point improvement over FY 'twenty four and a four eighty basis point improvement over FY 'twenty three. In a world shaped by tariffs and economic uncertainty, margin strength is a critical buffer and a competitive advantage. All of this and more contributed to our first ever adjusted EBITDA positive year. My second big takeaway is that we intend to stay adjusted EBITDA positive this year and for the foreseeable future. Speaker 200:04:35Tariffs and policy shifts under the current administration create a lot of uncertainty, but we have a plan and are committed to achieving this. Here are three ways we're making that happen. First, we're making some updates to the customer experience that save us money and we believe enhance that experience. One example is delivering the monthly BarkBox in a bag with a connected digital themed AI driven experience that's personalized for your dog. Another example is going into the archives and using popular themed products of the past in upcoming shipments as a way of using inventory that doesn't carry tariff costs and using products we know are loved by dogs and their parents. Speaker 200:05:23Second, we are fortunate to have a great supply chain team, and they've responded to each tariff escalation with smart mitigation plans. Some toy products in the near term, mainly the first half of the year, will carry the burden of tariffs of up to 80%, but that will decrease significantly in the back half of the year as we strive to deliver productivity improvements and diversify our sourcing footprint. By midyear, we expect to return to a margin profile similar to how we closed last year. And third, we're shifting our investment dollars more rapidly and aggressively in new product lines, distribution channels, and services than previously planned. And that brings me to my third big takeaway. Speaker 200:06:12We will be accelerating our efforts to diversify our product lines, our channels, and our revenue growth away from largely Park Box subscriptions. Those subscriptions still accounted for around 85% of all revenue last year. While that number is coming down from previous years, it's not moving fast enough. And now more than ever, we need for this to happen much faster. We've concentrated our marketing dollars almost exclusively on d to c subscription boxes, leaving little to nothing for new opportunities. Speaker 200:06:47So going forward, we'll pull back on such heavy investment in the subscription box business to invest elsewhere, such as our new consumables line coming in August, new services coming from the Bark Air team, further acceleration into the wholesale channel and Amazon and Chewy, and even AI driven apps for dogs and their people. Last year, we showed what we can do with a bit of focus and investment when we started Bark Air. We launched Bark Air one year ago, and it delivered nearly $6,000,000 in revenue in the first year. We flew roughly 1,000 passengers on over 100 flights. We're clearly meeting real demand from dog parents around the world. Speaker 200:07:32Many said this couldn't be done, but we're growing fast, opening new routes regularly, and solving a real problem for dogs and their people. Much has changed in the first half of this year, but so much has remained the same for us. The start of this year with tariffs and economic uncertainty have made consumers nervous, and they pulled back. And tariffs add to the cost of most goods. But that doesn't change the opportunity we still have to build the global brand for dogs, And now we've proven we can do that with a positive bottom line. Speaker 200:08:05We know how to do it, and we have a plan to remain EBITDA positive in the years ahead. So in conclusion, the three big takeaways from this call are we delivered our first year of positive adjusted EBITDA. We intend to be EBITDA positive again this year and going forward, and we intend to accelerate the diversification of our revenue faster than previously planned. Thank you. And now over to Zahir. Speaker 300:08:34Thanks, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll start by reviewing our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, then share how we're approaching fiscal twenty twenty six, particularly in light of the evolving tariff environment. Fiscal twenty twenty five was a significant year for bark. We delivered our first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA, driven by ongoing margin expansion and improvements in operating efficiency. These results reflect several years of focused execution and provide a strong financial foundation as we head into what we expect to be a more volatile macroeconomic environment. Speaker 300:09:16Starting at the top of the P and L, fourth quarter revenue was $115,400,000 bringing full year revenue to 4 and $84,200,000 down 1.2% year over year. The launch of Bark Air, coupled with strong growth in our commerce segment, were positive top line drivers. However, the DTC business faced headwinds, particularly in Q4, primarily due to a deliberate pullback in marketing and promotion spend in response to growing tariff uncertainty and signs of weakening consumer sentiment. In that environment, we did not believe incremental spend would generate a sound return. This decision also reflects a broader shift in our customer acquisition strategy. Speaker 300:10:02Rather than relying on discount heavy tactics that often attract lower retaining customers, we're focusing on driving higher quality, longer term relationships that support stronger lifetime value and profitability characteristics. Turning to commerce. Revenue was $15,400,000 in Q4 and $68,300,000 for the full year, both up 27% versus fiscal twenty twenty four. Despite outbound shipping timing delays and tariff related retailer pullback in the quarter, this segment performed well and will be a focus area for significant future growth as we continue to expand our retail footprint and broaden the SKU assortment across our partner network. Commerce represented 14% of total revenue in fiscal twenty twenty five, up from 11% last year, and we continue to expect it to grow approximately one third of the business over the next two to three years. Speaker 300:11:01Bark Air was another bright spot. The segment delivered $1,800,000 in revenue in Q4 and nearly $6,000,000 for the full year, a strong performance for a business launch less than a year ago. We're encouraged by early demand, and we see continued opportunity as we scale routes and grow our service offering. We also made meaningful progress on our margin profile. Consolidated gross margin improved 80 basis points year over year in Q4 to 63.6%. Speaker 300:11:33For the full year, gross margin was 62.4%, up 70 basis points, reflecting margin expansion in both our DTC and commerce segments, up one hundred and twenty and two thirty basis points, respectively, driven by continued focus on unit costs and supply chain optimization. Total marketing expense in Q4 was $17,300,000 down roughly $1,500,000 from the prior year. For the full year, spend was $83,800,000 up $4,500,000 As mentioned, we adopted a more cautious posture late in the year in response to macro uncertainty, and we expect to maintain this approach in the near term. Shipping and fulfillment expenses were 139,000,000 for the year, roughly flat year over year. G and A expenses were $114,000,000 down $14,000,000 from the prior year. Speaker 300:12:31In Q4, G and A totaled $28,700,000 a $1,600,000 decline. These reductions reflect lower headcount and ongoing tighter cost management. Altogether, these efforts support meaningful gains in profitability. Adjusted EBITDA was $5,200,000 in Q4, a $3,000,000 improvement year over year. For the full year, we delivered $5,400,000 in adjusted EBITDA, a $16,000,000 improvement over fiscal twenty twenty four. Speaker 300:13:01To reiterate Matt's comments, we've improved the business adjusted EBITDA by over $60,000,000 in the last three years, underscoring the leverage and underlying structural improvements we've built into the business. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the year with $94,000,000 in cash, down $21,000,000 in the quarter. This reflects the repurchase of 6,000,000 shares for $10,500,000 as well as working capital timing, including a $7,000,000 reduction in accounts payable. Inventory at year end was $88,000,000 down $2,000,000 from Q3. Speaker 300:13:38On share buybacks, it's worth noting that for the full year, we repurchased 11,400,000.0 shares for an outlay of $18,500,000 Looking ahead to fiscal twenty twenty six, the recent tariff increases, particularly those targeting Chinese imports, are prompting a broader reassessment of global supply chains. At Bark, we've accelerated several initiatives that were already under evaluation, including productivity programs and changes to sourcing and logistics. Productivity initiatives have played an important role over the past few years in delivering improved margins for bark. By collaborating with our supply partners, new productivity initiatives for fiscal twenty twenty six will help offset some of the tariff headwind. As Matt noted, our toys, representing roughly two thirds of our revenue, are currently sourced from China and subject to the new tariffs. Speaker 300:14:34In response, we will shift a portion of production to other geographies. Manufacturing in these regions will commence in the coming weeks, and we expect to start shipping products from these facilities in time for the holiday quarter. By the end of fiscal twenty twenty six, we anticipate a more diversified and balanced sourcing footprint for our toy production. Additionally, we're evaluating modest price increases to help offset some of the tariff headwinds and maintain our gross margins. Our goal is to absorb as much of the cost pressure as possible while minimizing the impact on our customers. Speaker 300:15:11The domestic market is experiencing meaningful headwinds relating to USPS rate changes. However, we are confident we can mitigate these as we progress through the year and come through the other side in an even stronger position. Overall, given the macro volatility and changing tariff landscape, we feel very good about our plan for fiscal twenty twenty six. At the same time, though, we also appreciate the uncertainty that lies ahead. Supplier transitions of magnitude carry risk and many key variables such as future tariff actions, trade policy, inflation and consumer response remain outside of our control. Speaker 300:15:51Given this backdrop, we are unable to provide full year guidance at this time. We will continue to monitor the environment closely and provide updates as conditions evolve and we gain more clarity. Let me now walk you through our outlook for the fiscal first quarter. Shortly after the 145% tariffs took effect in early April, we paused inbound shipping and asked suppliers to delay shipping any finished goods from China. Several of our retail partners also asked us to do the same, opting to defer imports as they assess the situation. Speaker 300:16:28While we avoided the steepest portion of tariff exposure, we have purchased inventory with approximately $4,000,000 in additional tariff related costs, and these will flow through our P and L in H1. Delaying inbound products has also weighed on commerce revenue as some retailers paused product intake for six to eight weeks. These commerce dynamics, along with our pullback in DTC marketing and promotion spend, will impact revenue in the quarter. As a result, we expect Q1 total revenue of between $99,000,000 to $101,000,000 down 14% at the midpoint versus last year. We anticipate a stronger performance in adjusted EBITDA with the first quarter coming in between minus $1,000,000 and positive $1,000,000 the midpoint reflecting a $1,800,000 improvement versus last year despite including higher tariff related costs. Speaker 300:17:27Following the government's temporary rollback of tariffs to 30%, we've resumed importing at an accelerated pace, and we expect a notable inventory build this quarter, which we anticipate will unwind through H2. Note, this Q1 inventory build will impact our ending cash balance and free cash flow for the quarter. In closing, we remain focused on what we can control, driving efficiency, staying agile and investing with discipline. Thanks to the structural improvements we've made over the past several years, Bach is in a much stronger position to navigate this period of uncertainty. While external pressures will persist, we're entering fiscal twenty twenty six with stronger fundamentals, a more flexible operating model and a focused strategy to manage through near term disruption. Speaker 300:18:16With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for Q and A. Operator00:18:21Your first question comes from Maria Ripps with Canaccord. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:18:29Great. Good afternoon and thanks so much for taking my questions. First, can you maybe give us a little bit more color on diversifying your supplier base outside of China? I guess, what are some countries that you're considering? And, are there any incremental expenses sort of to keep in mind as you sort of, as a result of this transition? Speaker 300:18:52Hi, Maria. I'll take Speaker 200:18:54Oh, go ahead, Zahir. Speaker 300:18:57Sorry. Hi, Maria. How are you doing? Yeah. We've, you know, for some time, we've been working on looking at alternative geographies in terms of diversifying our manufacturing. Speaker 300:19:08And so we're looking at a number of continents where we'll be moving manufacturing to. Obviously, the extent of that shift will depend on how the tariff rates move going forward. But we have the flexibility if we wanted to manufacture all of our toys outside of China by the end of this fiscal year. Speaker 400:19:32Got it. That's, that's helpful. And then can you maybe, update us on your progress migrating to the Shopify platform? Has it been, completed at this point? And and can you talk about sort of any recent changes in conversion rates and any other, core KPIs, sort of as a result? Speaker 400:19:49Thanks so much. Speaker 200:19:52Sure. It it it's for the most part, it has been complete. The only reason I say for the most part is we have if if you were to go to barkbox.com, you would see that site is still live, but we don't send any traffic there. We don't pick up new subscribers or anything there. So that will sunset as the year goes on. Speaker 200:20:16But all of our active subscribers and new subscribers are coming through spark.co. All of our products are listed there. The performance in terms of new customer acquisition and conversion and managing the cost of acquisition has been pretty decent through through the early part of this year or ever since we started to migrate last October and November in a meaningful way. Now there's there's a lot of experimentation going on, which is some of the benefit of the platform. We've stepped into a platform that is much more nimble and allows us to test and try things much quicker than we were before. Speaker 200:21:04So we're we're taking advantage of that, and that'll never be done. But, we're we're learning a lot really quickly. And then there's, as we as we knew and as we signaled in past calls, when you move over a million people plus onto a new platform, things won't work the same way they did in the past. And we've identified a lot of those holes or gaps, filled them in, and we've we've got our functionality back to par as to where it was before or maybe just a little bit ahead of par. So from a platform perspective, feeling really good about where we are with with Shopify and, and how we're operating on it. Speaker 200:21:54Still still a learning curve, but we're we're accelerating every day. Speaker 400:22:01Great. Thanks so much for the color, Matt. Operator00:22:04Your next question comes from Ryan Myers with Lake Street Capital Market. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:22:10Yeah. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one for me, I just wanna make sure I fully understand kind of the dynamic in the direct to consumer business. Because if I think back to last quarter, I believe we were seeing some positive signs out of, like, kind of subscriber growth there, and it looked like things were kind of pointing in the right direction. Speaker 500:22:27So, you know, one, curious what you guys kind of saw throughout the quarter, and then, you know, what really the big dynamic is as far as, you know, why not spend the marketing dollars there anymore, and why try to, you know, really diversify out of that business further? Speaker 200:22:44Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. It's and I think you captured it well. We had, a a very strong holiday quarter when it came to acquiring new customers. A lot of that on the strength of the the move to the Shopify platform. Speaker 200:23:01And we came into, calendar twenty twenty five pretty excited about that. And January was off to a really great start. And, you know, just about like, I I guess if you took, like, a consumer sentiment chart and overlaid that with, the rollout of tariffs and our business performance, they would all look pretty similar. There's a real tracking there. So as the consumer got more nervous and the tariff noise got louder and the consumer got more nervous and round and round, Our new customer acquisition and our retention was, feeling more and more pressure. Speaker 200:23:48And we were also looking at the cost side of the business saying, you know, ten, twenty, eighty, hundred and forty five % tariff is a meaningful and unsustainable headwind. And as as Zahir talked about, we've done our supply chain team, who's phenomenal, has done a great job in mitigation on that, and within the last mile delivery, effort. So they've done a fantastic job. But at the same time, we've known for for several years, and and you all asked the questions about, what what about the growth into new categories, into new channels? And I don't wanna say we haven't taken it seriously, and that's a big reason for the move to the Shopify platform. Speaker 200:24:43And now that we're there, we have that flexibility. But, there there's something about staring looking yourself in the mirror with a 45 tariffs affecting, a huge amount of your inbound products and saying, it's long overdue for us to really, really take this seriously and stop pouring every marketing dollar and 99% of our brainpower into a toy business that, has those dynamics and and really isn't we know isn't the growth engine of the future. So all of that said to us, let's start making that transition now. Let's make our plan for the future. Understand that that means in the short term, we're not pulling a lever of growth as hard as we once were or we could because we're gonna take those dollars and those people and refocus them on those growth engines of the future. Speaker 200:25:45So that's where we are, and and, the team and I feel really good about about where this goes. Speaker 500:25:53Got it. No. That's super helpful. And then, you know, lastly, thinking about the commerce segment, I know there was some stuff you talked about in the prepared remarks as far as the impact that that's gonna have on the first quarter. So I understand that. Speaker 500:26:06But just, you know, wanna make sure I understand from a demand perspective, have you guys seen any significant changes there? Or are the impacts you're expecting to see more just on the timing of orders? Really just to understand, you know, if the demand still remains strong for the ecommerce offering for you guys. Speaker 300:26:26Yeah. Hey, Ryan. This is Zahir. Yeah. Commerce demand has been pretty strong. Speaker 300:26:34You know, we grew 27% in fiscal twenty five. The one thing we did note as we got into q four and you have the tariff noise, a lot of customers slowed down the pace at which they placed their orders, and they adopted more of a wait and see approach in terms of placing orders. And so, you know, we experienced some pullback in q four continuing into q one. You know, the highest rates of tariffs kicked in in April. And so at that point, some of the key customers said, look, we'd like to just wait before we place our orders, especially for some of the upcoming seasonal type of items. Speaker 300:27:14But as as we've gone through and seen the tariff change, you know, a lot of those conversations have reverted back to getting product into the country and fulfilling some of the initial conversations that we have with them. As we think about the year as a whole, we expect commerce to grow you know, at a similar sort of level as what we saw in fiscal twenty five. And beyond fiscal twenty six, we'd expect that pace of growth to actually accelerate, and for commerce to be about, a third of our business over the next two to three years. Speaker 500:27:51Got it. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. Speaker 200:27:54Sure. Thanks. Operator00:27:55Your next question comes from Kamil Gajrawala with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:28:02Hey, everyone. I guess digging into the prior question a little more. I guess to understand the consumer sentiment obviously fell off, we saw a slowdown across a whole host of different categories, so it makes sense to sort of pull back marketing. But was any part of that decision or, any part of, the logic in that there's a certain amount of pricing that you would need to take or just each incremental new user was gonna be unprofitable anyways, and so you didn't want them? Like, is that also part of it, or was it just, hey. Speaker 600:28:36We were in this really tricky time where, you know, halfway through February till the March, the consumer just really fell off? Speaker 200:28:45I mean, certainly, the the consumer fell off, and then you you weigh the cost of the product and, and building a sustainable business. And, obviously, at a 45%, if if we're passing that through to a consumer who's already feeling a great deal of pressure, we're not fooling ourselves saying they were buying a $30 BarkBox, but now they'll pay $60 for it or 55. That's that's just not not tenable. We and and a bit of our vulnerability that we've been talking about for quite a few years of we have a a very discretionary product. And if there's if there's a headwind in terms of how the consumer is feeling or or how much disposable income they have, the discretionary products are the ones that are gonna take it first, and we're we're right there. Speaker 200:29:42We we've got way too much in that segment. So there's also a recognition of we're not going to actively acquire or or overpay or pay at all for for customers that could potentially have a long term unprofitable profile and put pressure on our bottom line. And, also, we've just gotta get away from being so discretionary in our product line, and we need to do that more urgently. So there there is obviously, that the the tariff con conversation has been dominating probably every company for the past three, four months. But we've been having a day to day, and, we like the plan that we we put together before, I'll say, February, we felt really good about it as a team, as a board. Speaker 200:30:43And then the world changed, and we've gotta change with it. So as I said on the call, we started from a place of being very happy and very proud that the bottom line was positive and and a whole lot of resolution that we're not going back. We are going to protect that bottom line, and we're going to make the business more robust, which which allowed us to diversification and making some of these shorter term decisions within the quarter. That's how we got there. Speaker 600:31:22Right. Okay. That makes sense. As it relates to, you know, what to do now, you know, from a cash perspective, we might be at the or may have even passed the point of high drama on tariffs. Does it make sense to be more aggressive on share buybacks? Speaker 600:31:40Or given the sort of shakiness of the environment and maybe your cost structure, is it better to conserve at the moment and just wait this out and and, yeah, keep as much cash on your balance sheet as possible? Speaker 200:31:56Yeah. We've been pretty aggressive about it through the through the quarter. And and like you said, now we're here, and wish I felt like everything was settled and predictable. I don't feel that way. And then we're also talking about making some some meaningful shifts into new categories. Speaker 200:32:22Certainly, there's some investment that's gone on internally where we've invested in a lot of new, brand development and packaging development and new product lines with consumables that we're we're looking forward to rolling out in August. So there's there's investment there. There's also the potential of of m and a being a tool. So we and and, of course, we we wanna manage the cash carefully. So we I I think we want that dry powder available to us as the year goes on. Speaker 200:32:58But if if those opportunities are there, I think we've shown we're we're not shy about jumping in when we think the stock is severely undervalued and buying back more. So we've got to weigh all those opportunities, but it's something we've been really aggressive about over the past year or two. Speaker 600:33:18Okay. Alright. Great. Thank you. Operator00:33:22Your final question comes from Yigal Araminan with Citigroup. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:33:28Hey, guys. This is Wayne Shen on for Yigal. I was hoping to dig into the commerce segment a little bit more. Was just wondering maybe how your conversations with retailers have trended since that tariff rate came down a bit. And if you could give us maybe any sense of the backlog there of the pullback in deals? Speaker 700:33:45And maybe if you could give us a sense of whether these pullbacks are more from your existing customers expanding versus new retail partnerships. Speaker 300:33:56Hey, How are doing? Just as I was saying to Ryan earlier on on the call, yeah, we had some pullback that we experienced in q four, and that that rolled into q one. Just retailers being cautious and trying to manage through just a heavy tariff environment. As we've started to see the tariffs come down, you know, to a more reasonable level, I mean, 30% is reasonable is but at a more reasonable level, you're seeing that demand and the order placement coming back in. A lot of the, seasonal demand that we have that drives that drives, q two and q three in the commerce segment, a lot of those orders have been placed and product is either here or will be here in q one of fiscal twenty twenty six. Speaker 300:34:52So, positive traction. I mean, I'd say there was just a temporary slowdown of placement of orders, but things are back on schedule. We expect to see that strong growth continuing across existing customers as well as starting to have conversations with retailers as we launch our consumables offering, Bark in the Belly, which we plan to launch later this year. So having a lot of positive conversations on that front as well. We expect our pace of growth to accelerate as we exit fiscal twenty six and going into fiscal twenty seven. Speaker 700:35:29Okay. Thank you. And I don't know if Speaker 100:35:31you guys have broken down before, Speaker 700:35:32but have you given the breakdown in commerce between toys and consumables? Should we assume similar to DTC? Speaker 300:35:40It's just more heavily skewed today towards toys. I would say it's at least 90% is toys. There's a small amount of consumables. We started with some of the treats launch, last year. With with the launch of Bark in the Belly, I think that's where you're gonna see a lot more traction. Speaker 300:36:02We're seeing some good traction pre the launch on Amazon and Chewy just about consumables, some strong performance there. So we expect Amazon and Chewy to continue to build performance and then get shelf placement and distribution at the back end of this year on the consumables overall launch. Ladies Operator00:36:26and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Key Takeaways We delivered our first full year of adjusted EBITDA positivity with $5.4 million for FY25 and $5.2 million in Q4—the best quarterly result ever. Revenue for Q4 was $115.4 million—lighter than expected after pulling back on growth due to tariff uncertainty and softening consumer sentiment, contributing to a 1.2% full-year decline to $484.2 million. The commerce segment grew 27% year-over-year to $68.3 million—now representing 14% of revenue—and its gross margin expanded meaningfully, highlighting successful diversification beyond subscriptions. For Q1 FY26, total revenue is expected to fall 14% year-over-year to $99 million–$101 million, with adjusted EBITDA projected between –$1 million and $1 million as tariff costs and marketing adjustments weigh on the business. Management plans to accelerate diversification away from DTC subscriptions by investing in consumables (launch Aug), wholesale channels, Bark Air services and AI-driven dog apps to drive future growth. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallBARK Q4 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) BARK Earnings HeadlinesBarkBox CEO apologizes after leaked memo exposes plan to axe ‘politically charged' Pride marketingJune 5 at 10:50 AM | nypost.comBARK shares fall as Q4 revenue misses estimates, outlook disappointsJune 5 at 12:01 AM | investing.comBanks aren’t ready for this altcoin—are you?I've never been more confident about a DeFi opportunity. This isn't about complex trading or risky bets. This is about being in the right place at the right time – and I believe that time is now.June 5, 2025 | Crypto 101 Media (Ad)BARK Act would incentivize pet supply companies to donate leftover food to animal sheltersJune 5 at 12:01 AM | msn.comBark Box CEO apologizes for employee's internal message comparing PRIDE collection to MAGA toysJune 5 at 12:01 AM | msn.comBARK signals accelerated revenue diversification and commerce growth to one-third of business amid tariff headwindsJune 5 at 12:01 AM | msn.comSee More BARK Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like BARK? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on BARK and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About BARKBARK Inc., a dog-centric company, provides products, services, and content for dogs. It operates in two segments, Direct to Consumer and Commerce. The company serves dogs through monthly subscription services. It is also involved in the design of playstyle-specific toys, satisfying treats, personal meal plans with supplements, and dog-first experiences designed to foster health and happiness of dogs everywhere. In addition, the company offers monthly themed box of toys and treats under the BarkBox and Super Chewer names; personalized meal plans under the BARK Food name; health and wellness products under the BARK Bright name; and dog beds, bowls, collars, harnesses, and leashes under the BARK Home brand. Further, the company sells BARK Home products through BarkShop.com. Additionally, it offers custom collections through online marketplaces, and brick and mortar retailers. The company was formerly known as The Original BARK Company and changed its name to BARK (NYSE:BARK) in November 2021. 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Hello and thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Bardt Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Thank you. Operator00:00:28I will now turn the call over to Mike Muges, VP of IR and VPA. Mike, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:38Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Bark's fiscal fourth quarter and full year twenty twenty five earnings call. Joining me today are Matt Meeker, Co Founder and Chief Executive Officer and Zahir Ebrahim, Chief Financial Officer. Today's conference call will be webcast in its entirety on our website and a replay will be made available shortly after the call. Additionally, a press release covering the company's financial results was issued this afternoon and can be found in our Investor Relations website. Before I pass it over to Matt, I want to remind you of the following information regarding forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:08The statements made on today's call are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results and outcomes to differ. Please refer to our SEC filings for more information on some of the factors that could affect our future results and outcomes. We will also discuss certain non GAAP financial measures on today's call. Reconciliation of our non GAAP financial measures is contained in this afternoon's press release. And with that, let me now pass it over to Matt. Speaker 200:01:35Thanks, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. There are three big takeaways I want to share with you today. First, we delivered our first ever adjusted EBITDA positive year. Second, we intend to remain adjusted EBITDA positive this year and beyond. And third, we plan to accelerate the diversification of our revenue faster than previously planned. Speaker 200:02:00My remarks today will expand on each of these three takeaways. First, after fourteen years of working at it, we are adjusted EBITDA positive for the first year ever. This is huge. In Q4, we delivered $5,200,000 in positive adjusted EBITDA, our best quarterly result ever. And for the full year, we achieved $5,400,000 our first full year in the black. Speaker 200:02:27Just three years ago, we lost $58,000,000 and burned nearly $200,000,000 in cash. At the time, many questioned our long term viability. Now three years later, we're not only standing, we're in positive adjusted EBITDA territory. Tahir will discuss our fourth quarter and full year results in more detail. However, at a high level, revenue for the quarter was $115,400,000 lighter than expected as we pulled back on growth in response to tariff related uncertainty and potential downstream costs. Speaker 200:03:03Tariffs, along with softening consumer sentiment, gave us a strong push to accelerate diversification efforts. One area where we've made real progress is our commerce business. This segment grew 27% year over year to $68,300,000 We expanded our relationships with retail partners like Chewy, Amazon, PJ Maxx, Target, Costco, the Girl Scouts and others. Gross margins in commerce expanded by two twenty seven basis points over FY 'twenty four and nine sixty basis points over FY 'twenty three. All of this makes Spark stronger and more resilient. Speaker 200:03:49Speaking of gross margins, we delivered 63.6% in Q4, our highest level ever. For the full year, we achieved 62.4, a 73 basis point improvement over FY 'twenty four and a four eighty basis point improvement over FY 'twenty three. In a world shaped by tariffs and economic uncertainty, margin strength is a critical buffer and a competitive advantage. All of this and more contributed to our first ever adjusted EBITDA positive year. My second big takeaway is that we intend to stay adjusted EBITDA positive this year and for the foreseeable future. Speaker 200:04:35Tariffs and policy shifts under the current administration create a lot of uncertainty, but we have a plan and are committed to achieving this. Here are three ways we're making that happen. First, we're making some updates to the customer experience that save us money and we believe enhance that experience. One example is delivering the monthly BarkBox in a bag with a connected digital themed AI driven experience that's personalized for your dog. Another example is going into the archives and using popular themed products of the past in upcoming shipments as a way of using inventory that doesn't carry tariff costs and using products we know are loved by dogs and their parents. Speaker 200:05:23Second, we are fortunate to have a great supply chain team, and they've responded to each tariff escalation with smart mitigation plans. Some toy products in the near term, mainly the first half of the year, will carry the burden of tariffs of up to 80%, but that will decrease significantly in the back half of the year as we strive to deliver productivity improvements and diversify our sourcing footprint. By midyear, we expect to return to a margin profile similar to how we closed last year. And third, we're shifting our investment dollars more rapidly and aggressively in new product lines, distribution channels, and services than previously planned. And that brings me to my third big takeaway. Speaker 200:06:12We will be accelerating our efforts to diversify our product lines, our channels, and our revenue growth away from largely Park Box subscriptions. Those subscriptions still accounted for around 85% of all revenue last year. While that number is coming down from previous years, it's not moving fast enough. And now more than ever, we need for this to happen much faster. We've concentrated our marketing dollars almost exclusively on d to c subscription boxes, leaving little to nothing for new opportunities. Speaker 200:06:47So going forward, we'll pull back on such heavy investment in the subscription box business to invest elsewhere, such as our new consumables line coming in August, new services coming from the Bark Air team, further acceleration into the wholesale channel and Amazon and Chewy, and even AI driven apps for dogs and their people. Last year, we showed what we can do with a bit of focus and investment when we started Bark Air. We launched Bark Air one year ago, and it delivered nearly $6,000,000 in revenue in the first year. We flew roughly 1,000 passengers on over 100 flights. We're clearly meeting real demand from dog parents around the world. Speaker 200:07:32Many said this couldn't be done, but we're growing fast, opening new routes regularly, and solving a real problem for dogs and their people. Much has changed in the first half of this year, but so much has remained the same for us. The start of this year with tariffs and economic uncertainty have made consumers nervous, and they pulled back. And tariffs add to the cost of most goods. But that doesn't change the opportunity we still have to build the global brand for dogs, And now we've proven we can do that with a positive bottom line. Speaker 200:08:05We know how to do it, and we have a plan to remain EBITDA positive in the years ahead. So in conclusion, the three big takeaways from this call are we delivered our first year of positive adjusted EBITDA. We intend to be EBITDA positive again this year and going forward, and we intend to accelerate the diversification of our revenue faster than previously planned. Thank you. And now over to Zahir. Speaker 300:08:34Thanks, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll start by reviewing our fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, then share how we're approaching fiscal twenty twenty six, particularly in light of the evolving tariff environment. Fiscal twenty twenty five was a significant year for bark. We delivered our first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA, driven by ongoing margin expansion and improvements in operating efficiency. These results reflect several years of focused execution and provide a strong financial foundation as we head into what we expect to be a more volatile macroeconomic environment. Speaker 300:09:16Starting at the top of the P and L, fourth quarter revenue was $115,400,000 bringing full year revenue to 4 and $84,200,000 down 1.2% year over year. The launch of Bark Air, coupled with strong growth in our commerce segment, were positive top line drivers. However, the DTC business faced headwinds, particularly in Q4, primarily due to a deliberate pullback in marketing and promotion spend in response to growing tariff uncertainty and signs of weakening consumer sentiment. In that environment, we did not believe incremental spend would generate a sound return. This decision also reflects a broader shift in our customer acquisition strategy. Speaker 300:10:02Rather than relying on discount heavy tactics that often attract lower retaining customers, we're focusing on driving higher quality, longer term relationships that support stronger lifetime value and profitability characteristics. Turning to commerce. Revenue was $15,400,000 in Q4 and $68,300,000 for the full year, both up 27% versus fiscal twenty twenty four. Despite outbound shipping timing delays and tariff related retailer pullback in the quarter, this segment performed well and will be a focus area for significant future growth as we continue to expand our retail footprint and broaden the SKU assortment across our partner network. Commerce represented 14% of total revenue in fiscal twenty twenty five, up from 11% last year, and we continue to expect it to grow approximately one third of the business over the next two to three years. Speaker 300:11:01Bark Air was another bright spot. The segment delivered $1,800,000 in revenue in Q4 and nearly $6,000,000 for the full year, a strong performance for a business launch less than a year ago. We're encouraged by early demand, and we see continued opportunity as we scale routes and grow our service offering. We also made meaningful progress on our margin profile. Consolidated gross margin improved 80 basis points year over year in Q4 to 63.6%. Speaker 300:11:33For the full year, gross margin was 62.4%, up 70 basis points, reflecting margin expansion in both our DTC and commerce segments, up one hundred and twenty and two thirty basis points, respectively, driven by continued focus on unit costs and supply chain optimization. Total marketing expense in Q4 was $17,300,000 down roughly $1,500,000 from the prior year. For the full year, spend was $83,800,000 up $4,500,000 As mentioned, we adopted a more cautious posture late in the year in response to macro uncertainty, and we expect to maintain this approach in the near term. Shipping and fulfillment expenses were 139,000,000 for the year, roughly flat year over year. G and A expenses were $114,000,000 down $14,000,000 from the prior year. Speaker 300:12:31In Q4, G and A totaled $28,700,000 a $1,600,000 decline. These reductions reflect lower headcount and ongoing tighter cost management. Altogether, these efforts support meaningful gains in profitability. Adjusted EBITDA was $5,200,000 in Q4, a $3,000,000 improvement year over year. For the full year, we delivered $5,400,000 in adjusted EBITDA, a $16,000,000 improvement over fiscal twenty twenty four. Speaker 300:13:01To reiterate Matt's comments, we've improved the business adjusted EBITDA by over $60,000,000 in the last three years, underscoring the leverage and underlying structural improvements we've built into the business. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the year with $94,000,000 in cash, down $21,000,000 in the quarter. This reflects the repurchase of 6,000,000 shares for $10,500,000 as well as working capital timing, including a $7,000,000 reduction in accounts payable. Inventory at year end was $88,000,000 down $2,000,000 from Q3. Speaker 300:13:38On share buybacks, it's worth noting that for the full year, we repurchased 11,400,000.0 shares for an outlay of $18,500,000 Looking ahead to fiscal twenty twenty six, the recent tariff increases, particularly those targeting Chinese imports, are prompting a broader reassessment of global supply chains. At Bark, we've accelerated several initiatives that were already under evaluation, including productivity programs and changes to sourcing and logistics. Productivity initiatives have played an important role over the past few years in delivering improved margins for bark. By collaborating with our supply partners, new productivity initiatives for fiscal twenty twenty six will help offset some of the tariff headwind. As Matt noted, our toys, representing roughly two thirds of our revenue, are currently sourced from China and subject to the new tariffs. Speaker 300:14:34In response, we will shift a portion of production to other geographies. Manufacturing in these regions will commence in the coming weeks, and we expect to start shipping products from these facilities in time for the holiday quarter. By the end of fiscal twenty twenty six, we anticipate a more diversified and balanced sourcing footprint for our toy production. Additionally, we're evaluating modest price increases to help offset some of the tariff headwinds and maintain our gross margins. Our goal is to absorb as much of the cost pressure as possible while minimizing the impact on our customers. Speaker 300:15:11The domestic market is experiencing meaningful headwinds relating to USPS rate changes. However, we are confident we can mitigate these as we progress through the year and come through the other side in an even stronger position. Overall, given the macro volatility and changing tariff landscape, we feel very good about our plan for fiscal twenty twenty six. At the same time, though, we also appreciate the uncertainty that lies ahead. Supplier transitions of magnitude carry risk and many key variables such as future tariff actions, trade policy, inflation and consumer response remain outside of our control. Speaker 300:15:51Given this backdrop, we are unable to provide full year guidance at this time. We will continue to monitor the environment closely and provide updates as conditions evolve and we gain more clarity. Let me now walk you through our outlook for the fiscal first quarter. Shortly after the 145% tariffs took effect in early April, we paused inbound shipping and asked suppliers to delay shipping any finished goods from China. Several of our retail partners also asked us to do the same, opting to defer imports as they assess the situation. Speaker 300:16:28While we avoided the steepest portion of tariff exposure, we have purchased inventory with approximately $4,000,000 in additional tariff related costs, and these will flow through our P and L in H1. Delaying inbound products has also weighed on commerce revenue as some retailers paused product intake for six to eight weeks. These commerce dynamics, along with our pullback in DTC marketing and promotion spend, will impact revenue in the quarter. As a result, we expect Q1 total revenue of between $99,000,000 to $101,000,000 down 14% at the midpoint versus last year. We anticipate a stronger performance in adjusted EBITDA with the first quarter coming in between minus $1,000,000 and positive $1,000,000 the midpoint reflecting a $1,800,000 improvement versus last year despite including higher tariff related costs. Speaker 300:17:27Following the government's temporary rollback of tariffs to 30%, we've resumed importing at an accelerated pace, and we expect a notable inventory build this quarter, which we anticipate will unwind through H2. Note, this Q1 inventory build will impact our ending cash balance and free cash flow for the quarter. In closing, we remain focused on what we can control, driving efficiency, staying agile and investing with discipline. Thanks to the structural improvements we've made over the past several years, Bach is in a much stronger position to navigate this period of uncertainty. While external pressures will persist, we're entering fiscal twenty twenty six with stronger fundamentals, a more flexible operating model and a focused strategy to manage through near term disruption. Speaker 300:18:16With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for Q and A. Operator00:18:21Your first question comes from Maria Ripps with Canaccord. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:18:29Great. Good afternoon and thanks so much for taking my questions. First, can you maybe give us a little bit more color on diversifying your supplier base outside of China? I guess, what are some countries that you're considering? And, are there any incremental expenses sort of to keep in mind as you sort of, as a result of this transition? Speaker 300:18:52Hi, Maria. I'll take Speaker 200:18:54Oh, go ahead, Zahir. Speaker 300:18:57Sorry. Hi, Maria. How are you doing? Yeah. We've, you know, for some time, we've been working on looking at alternative geographies in terms of diversifying our manufacturing. Speaker 300:19:08And so we're looking at a number of continents where we'll be moving manufacturing to. Obviously, the extent of that shift will depend on how the tariff rates move going forward. But we have the flexibility if we wanted to manufacture all of our toys outside of China by the end of this fiscal year. Speaker 400:19:32Got it. That's, that's helpful. And then can you maybe, update us on your progress migrating to the Shopify platform? Has it been, completed at this point? And and can you talk about sort of any recent changes in conversion rates and any other, core KPIs, sort of as a result? Speaker 400:19:49Thanks so much. Speaker 200:19:52Sure. It it it's for the most part, it has been complete. The only reason I say for the most part is we have if if you were to go to barkbox.com, you would see that site is still live, but we don't send any traffic there. We don't pick up new subscribers or anything there. So that will sunset as the year goes on. Speaker 200:20:16But all of our active subscribers and new subscribers are coming through spark.co. All of our products are listed there. The performance in terms of new customer acquisition and conversion and managing the cost of acquisition has been pretty decent through through the early part of this year or ever since we started to migrate last October and November in a meaningful way. Now there's there's a lot of experimentation going on, which is some of the benefit of the platform. We've stepped into a platform that is much more nimble and allows us to test and try things much quicker than we were before. Speaker 200:21:04So we're we're taking advantage of that, and that'll never be done. But, we're we're learning a lot really quickly. And then there's, as we as we knew and as we signaled in past calls, when you move over a million people plus onto a new platform, things won't work the same way they did in the past. And we've identified a lot of those holes or gaps, filled them in, and we've we've got our functionality back to par as to where it was before or maybe just a little bit ahead of par. So from a platform perspective, feeling really good about where we are with with Shopify and, and how we're operating on it. Speaker 200:21:54Still still a learning curve, but we're we're accelerating every day. Speaker 400:22:01Great. Thanks so much for the color, Matt. Operator00:22:04Your next question comes from Ryan Myers with Lake Street Capital Market. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:22:10Yeah. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First one for me, I just wanna make sure I fully understand kind of the dynamic in the direct to consumer business. Because if I think back to last quarter, I believe we were seeing some positive signs out of, like, kind of subscriber growth there, and it looked like things were kind of pointing in the right direction. Speaker 500:22:27So, you know, one, curious what you guys kind of saw throughout the quarter, and then, you know, what really the big dynamic is as far as, you know, why not spend the marketing dollars there anymore, and why try to, you know, really diversify out of that business further? Speaker 200:22:44Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. It's and I think you captured it well. We had, a a very strong holiday quarter when it came to acquiring new customers. A lot of that on the strength of the the move to the Shopify platform. Speaker 200:23:01And we came into, calendar twenty twenty five pretty excited about that. And January was off to a really great start. And, you know, just about like, I I guess if you took, like, a consumer sentiment chart and overlaid that with, the rollout of tariffs and our business performance, they would all look pretty similar. There's a real tracking there. So as the consumer got more nervous and the tariff noise got louder and the consumer got more nervous and round and round, Our new customer acquisition and our retention was, feeling more and more pressure. Speaker 200:23:48And we were also looking at the cost side of the business saying, you know, ten, twenty, eighty, hundred and forty five % tariff is a meaningful and unsustainable headwind. And as as Zahir talked about, we've done our supply chain team, who's phenomenal, has done a great job in mitigation on that, and within the last mile delivery, effort. So they've done a fantastic job. But at the same time, we've known for for several years, and and you all asked the questions about, what what about the growth into new categories, into new channels? And I don't wanna say we haven't taken it seriously, and that's a big reason for the move to the Shopify platform. Speaker 200:24:43And now that we're there, we have that flexibility. But, there there's something about staring looking yourself in the mirror with a 45 tariffs affecting, a huge amount of your inbound products and saying, it's long overdue for us to really, really take this seriously and stop pouring every marketing dollar and 99% of our brainpower into a toy business that, has those dynamics and and really isn't we know isn't the growth engine of the future. So all of that said to us, let's start making that transition now. Let's make our plan for the future. Understand that that means in the short term, we're not pulling a lever of growth as hard as we once were or we could because we're gonna take those dollars and those people and refocus them on those growth engines of the future. Speaker 200:25:45So that's where we are, and and, the team and I feel really good about about where this goes. Speaker 500:25:53Got it. No. That's super helpful. And then, you know, lastly, thinking about the commerce segment, I know there was some stuff you talked about in the prepared remarks as far as the impact that that's gonna have on the first quarter. So I understand that. Speaker 500:26:06But just, you know, wanna make sure I understand from a demand perspective, have you guys seen any significant changes there? Or are the impacts you're expecting to see more just on the timing of orders? Really just to understand, you know, if the demand still remains strong for the ecommerce offering for you guys. Speaker 300:26:26Yeah. Hey, Ryan. This is Zahir. Yeah. Commerce demand has been pretty strong. Speaker 300:26:34You know, we grew 27% in fiscal twenty five. The one thing we did note as we got into q four and you have the tariff noise, a lot of customers slowed down the pace at which they placed their orders, and they adopted more of a wait and see approach in terms of placing orders. And so, you know, we experienced some pullback in q four continuing into q one. You know, the highest rates of tariffs kicked in in April. And so at that point, some of the key customers said, look, we'd like to just wait before we place our orders, especially for some of the upcoming seasonal type of items. Speaker 300:27:14But as as we've gone through and seen the tariff change, you know, a lot of those conversations have reverted back to getting product into the country and fulfilling some of the initial conversations that we have with them. As we think about the year as a whole, we expect commerce to grow you know, at a similar sort of level as what we saw in fiscal twenty five. And beyond fiscal twenty six, we'd expect that pace of growth to actually accelerate, and for commerce to be about, a third of our business over the next two to three years. Speaker 500:27:51Got it. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. Speaker 200:27:54Sure. Thanks. Operator00:27:55Your next question comes from Kamil Gajrawala with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:28:02Hey, everyone. I guess digging into the prior question a little more. I guess to understand the consumer sentiment obviously fell off, we saw a slowdown across a whole host of different categories, so it makes sense to sort of pull back marketing. But was any part of that decision or, any part of, the logic in that there's a certain amount of pricing that you would need to take or just each incremental new user was gonna be unprofitable anyways, and so you didn't want them? Like, is that also part of it, or was it just, hey. Speaker 600:28:36We were in this really tricky time where, you know, halfway through February till the March, the consumer just really fell off? Speaker 200:28:45I mean, certainly, the the consumer fell off, and then you you weigh the cost of the product and, and building a sustainable business. And, obviously, at a 45%, if if we're passing that through to a consumer who's already feeling a great deal of pressure, we're not fooling ourselves saying they were buying a $30 BarkBox, but now they'll pay $60 for it or 55. That's that's just not not tenable. We and and a bit of our vulnerability that we've been talking about for quite a few years of we have a a very discretionary product. And if there's if there's a headwind in terms of how the consumer is feeling or or how much disposable income they have, the discretionary products are the ones that are gonna take it first, and we're we're right there. Speaker 200:29:42We we've got way too much in that segment. So there's also a recognition of we're not going to actively acquire or or overpay or pay at all for for customers that could potentially have a long term unprofitable profile and put pressure on our bottom line. And, also, we've just gotta get away from being so discretionary in our product line, and we need to do that more urgently. So there there is obviously, that the the tariff con conversation has been dominating probably every company for the past three, four months. But we've been having a day to day, and, we like the plan that we we put together before, I'll say, February, we felt really good about it as a team, as a board. Speaker 200:30:43And then the world changed, and we've gotta change with it. So as I said on the call, we started from a place of being very happy and very proud that the bottom line was positive and and a whole lot of resolution that we're not going back. We are going to protect that bottom line, and we're going to make the business more robust, which which allowed us to diversification and making some of these shorter term decisions within the quarter. That's how we got there. Speaker 600:31:22Right. Okay. That makes sense. As it relates to, you know, what to do now, you know, from a cash perspective, we might be at the or may have even passed the point of high drama on tariffs. Does it make sense to be more aggressive on share buybacks? Speaker 600:31:40Or given the sort of shakiness of the environment and maybe your cost structure, is it better to conserve at the moment and just wait this out and and, yeah, keep as much cash on your balance sheet as possible? Speaker 200:31:56Yeah. We've been pretty aggressive about it through the through the quarter. And and like you said, now we're here, and wish I felt like everything was settled and predictable. I don't feel that way. And then we're also talking about making some some meaningful shifts into new categories. Speaker 200:32:22Certainly, there's some investment that's gone on internally where we've invested in a lot of new, brand development and packaging development and new product lines with consumables that we're we're looking forward to rolling out in August. So there's there's investment there. There's also the potential of of m and a being a tool. So we and and, of course, we we wanna manage the cash carefully. So we I I think we want that dry powder available to us as the year goes on. Speaker 200:32:58But if if those opportunities are there, I think we've shown we're we're not shy about jumping in when we think the stock is severely undervalued and buying back more. So we've got to weigh all those opportunities, but it's something we've been really aggressive about over the past year or two. Speaker 600:33:18Okay. Alright. Great. Thank you. Operator00:33:22Your final question comes from Yigal Araminan with Citigroup. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:33:28Hey, guys. This is Wayne Shen on for Yigal. I was hoping to dig into the commerce segment a little bit more. Was just wondering maybe how your conversations with retailers have trended since that tariff rate came down a bit. And if you could give us maybe any sense of the backlog there of the pullback in deals? Speaker 700:33:45And maybe if you could give us a sense of whether these pullbacks are more from your existing customers expanding versus new retail partnerships. Speaker 300:33:56Hey, How are doing? Just as I was saying to Ryan earlier on on the call, yeah, we had some pullback that we experienced in q four, and that that rolled into q one. Just retailers being cautious and trying to manage through just a heavy tariff environment. As we've started to see the tariffs come down, you know, to a more reasonable level, I mean, 30% is reasonable is but at a more reasonable level, you're seeing that demand and the order placement coming back in. A lot of the, seasonal demand that we have that drives that drives, q two and q three in the commerce segment, a lot of those orders have been placed and product is either here or will be here in q one of fiscal twenty twenty six. Speaker 300:34:52So, positive traction. I mean, I'd say there was just a temporary slowdown of placement of orders, but things are back on schedule. We expect to see that strong growth continuing across existing customers as well as starting to have conversations with retailers as we launch our consumables offering, Bark in the Belly, which we plan to launch later this year. So having a lot of positive conversations on that front as well. We expect our pace of growth to accelerate as we exit fiscal twenty six and going into fiscal twenty seven. Speaker 700:35:29Okay. Thank you. And I don't know if Speaker 100:35:31you guys have broken down before, Speaker 700:35:32but have you given the breakdown in commerce between toys and consumables? Should we assume similar to DTC? Speaker 300:35:40It's just more heavily skewed today towards toys. I would say it's at least 90% is toys. There's a small amount of consumables. We started with some of the treats launch, last year. With with the launch of Bark in the Belly, I think that's where you're gonna see a lot more traction. Speaker 300:36:02We're seeing some good traction pre the launch on Amazon and Chewy just about consumables, some strong performance there. So we expect Amazon and Chewy to continue to build performance and then get shelf placement and distribution at the back end of this year on the consumables overall launch. Ladies Operator00:36:26and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by