Victoria's Secret & Co. Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Victoria's Secret & Co. EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.33
• Consensus EPS: $0.13
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.20
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.40

Victoria's Secret & Co. Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.46 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.40 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$55.94 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +2.90%

Victoria's Secret & Co. Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/28/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, August 28, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Victoria's Secret & Co. (NYSE:VSCO) operates as a lingerie, clothing and beauty retailer. It offers bras, panties, lingerie, pajamas, sleep, sport and swim apparel, and beauty products. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Reynoldsburg, OH.

Victoria's Secret & Co. Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: We continued our momentum in Q2 by beating top and bottom line guidance with net sales up 3% and comparable sales growing 4% despite a digital outage.
• Positive Sentiment: Gross margin rate rose to 35.6%, 20 bps above last year and 60 bps above guidance, driven by disciplined promotions and increased regular‐price selling.
• Negative Sentiment: The company faces an estimated net tariff impact of $100 million in fiscal 2025, up $50 million from prior guidance, though $70 million of mitigation efforts are in place.
• Positive Sentiment: International net sales soared 22% year-over-year, with high-single-digit retail comps across stores and digital channels, led by strength in China.
• Neutral Sentiment: Full-year net sales guidance was raised to $6.33 billion–$6.41 billion and adjusted operating income guidance of $270 million–$320 million was maintained despite tariff headwinds.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning. My name is Amanda and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Victoria's Secret and Company's Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Wink, Head of Investor Relations at Victoria's Secret and Company. Kevin, you may begin.

[Kevin Wynk, VP - External Financial Reporting & IR at Victoria's Secret]

Thanks, Amanda. Good morning and welcome to Victoria's Secret and Company's second quarter earnings conference call for the period ended 08/02/2025. As a matter of formality, I would like to remind you that any forward looking statements we may make today are subject to our Safe Harbor statements found in our SEC filings and in our press releases. Joining me on the call today is Chief Executive Officer, Hilary Stueper and Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Scott Bakela. We are available today for approximately thirty minutes to answer any questions.

[Kevin Wynk, VP - External Financial Reporting & IR at Victoria's Secret]

Certain results we discuss on the call today are adjusted results and exclude the impact of certain items described in our press release and our SEC filings. Reconciliations of these and other non GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in our press release, our SEC filings and the investor presentation posted on the Investors section of our website. Thanks. And now I'll turn the call over to Hillary.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Thanks, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I'm excited to share that we continued our momentum in the second quarter, once again delivering results that beat our top and bottom line guidance. This growth reflects disciplined execution, the power of the evolving Victoria's Secret and PINK brands and the early impact of our path to potential strategy.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Before we walk through the detailed results for the quarter, I want to take a moment to reflect on our progress during the past year since I joined. We have taken meaningful steps to reposition the business for sustained growth, led by our Path to Potential strategy. A refreshed leadership team is in place, including a new Chief Marketing and Customer Officer and a new Brand President model. We are executing with greater discipline and focus, moving faster with shorter production cycles and bringing more innovation to market. Q1 demonstrated early progress, and today, we will discuss how this progress is continuing to unfold.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

I'm particularly encouraged to see how our efforts are starting to translate into higher quality product, a more engaging store experience, increased traffic and more regular price selling. This would not be possible without the dedication and passion of our global team working in our stores, distribution centers, offices and partner organizations. Together, we are operating with more energy, collaboration and focus on delivering for our customers. While we have a lot more work to do, I'm now more confident than ever in opportunity for this company and our ability execute our strategy to grow shareholder value. We're still in the early days, but the direction is clear, the energy is real and the progress is promising.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Now let's walk through the highlights from the second quarter. We grew net sales 3% despite the digital outage in May and grew comp sales 4%, both sequential improvements over the prior quarter and above our expectations. We delivered comp growth in both Victoria's Secret and PINK across our digital and in store channels and all geographies. In Q2, we relied less on our semiannual sale than prior years as we had less inventory to markdown and a more compelling regular price offering. This drove lower discounts and higher AURs compared to last year.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Going forward, we see an opportunity to further optimize unit inventory levels and continue to drive higher AURs. International remains a standout and helped drive the quarter's growth. Q2 net sales grew 22% year over year, while retail comps were up high single digits, reflecting the strength of our global partnership and growing brand relevance. A good example of how the team delivering with sharper execution and more high emotion storytelling is last month's launch of our Body by Victoria collection's new Flex Factor bra, which connected deeply with women and how they view wearing bras. The launch was a success, and we saw double digit new customer growth at Victoria's Secret in the last week of the month when the campaign began.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Momentum in the second quarter grew steadily as the quarter progressed, culminating in July, which was our strongest month of the quarter in terms of sales and new customer growth. We're pleased to share that this momentum continues into August. Importantly, growth in the second quarter was accompanied by improving gross margins, which were up year over year even with the headwind from the evolving tariffs. We delivered gross margins of 35.6% for the quarter, 20 basis points above last year and 60 basis points above our guidance. This reflects our evolving approach to promotions and more thoughtful discounting cadence, which together drove increased regular price selling.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Adjusted operating income of $55,000,000 exceeded the high end of our second quarter guidance by $20,000,000 During the quarter, store traffic significantly outpaced overall mall traffic, providing an additional lift to our performance that has continued into August. This strong foot traffic was driven by a combination of innovative products as well as improved marketing and enhanced visual merchandising. In the quarter, we made continued progress against the four pillars of our Path to Potential strategy: supercharging our bra authority, recommitting to PINK, fueling growth in beauty and evolving our brand projection and go to market strategy. First and foremost, we are supercharging our bra authority by focusing on reinforcing and building upon our leadership in bras. We're leaning on our unparalleled bra experience to drive innovation first product development, ensuring we lead the industry in fit, function and fashion.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We are also expanding our bra assortment to serve a wider range of customer needs. Our efforts are beginning to deliver results. During the quarter, while North America bra sales were down low single digits, Q2 showed sequential improvement over Q1. And in Q2, according to third party data, we grew market share by approximately zero five point in total bras, including almost a full point of share in traditional bras. Importantly, bras also saw growth in regular price selling.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

While we're encouraged by this progress, we still see meaningful upside as we continue to innovate and refresh the assortment with a focus on comfort. We're excited about upcoming product launches in bras. In September, we're debuting the world's best sports bras featuring the starting five as well as the Dream Sheer Wicked Bra, a sexy online balcony bra that we anticipate will be a top performer. We saw a strong response to our Body by Victoria's launch on July 23. This is the first time in years that a bra launch has driven growth in other bra franchises, driving growth in bras overall.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

This was a breakthrough and a testament to our ability to meet customer needs across core performance and lifestyle categories, driving deeper connections and sustained growth. We're also seeing very strong results in the broader intimates category, notably for the eighteen to forty four year old segment, a key demographic for us. Versus and Co gained market share in Q2 in intimates across the total industry and across the specialty market compared to last year with total intimate dollar share growth coming from total bra sales. Our next pillar is recommitting to PINK and winning the next generation of consumers. While PINK has long been a brand with deep emotional connections to young women, we recognize it lost some of its spark.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

The assortment shifted to intimates, and its offerings saw too much overlap with Victoria's Secret. Pink strayed from its roots as a lifestyle brand grounded in apparel, designed to meet the needs of customers aged 18 to 24. We believe PINK is more than just a product line, and we're committed to putting it back into focus with a digital and social first approach designed to meet the next generation where they are. From product design to brand storytelling, we're redefining how PINK shows up, and we're excited about the momentum already starting to build. Today, we are focused on reestablishing the brand's magic and market position.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We will deepen our relationship with the PINK customer, understanding her like never before and meeting her where she is in the way she wants. We're feeling the buzz build, and nowhere is it clearer than in our new Love Shack Fancy collaboration launched this quarter. Earlier this month, we dropped the limited edition pink Love Shack Fancy collection, a joyful collision of pastel romance and playful edge. Our customers didn't just shop it, they lit up our social channels, shared their looks and turned it into a full on moment. Engagement soared and energy is still going strong.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

This was a record breaking collaboration for both Pink and Love Shack Fancy. Our best sellers were Pink icons, including logo styles, our signature dog and our top performing item, the $200 Letterman jacket. Strong traffic and exceptionally large basket sizes drove outsized results, all achieved with zero discounting. These factors underscore the brand's pricing power, product desirability and the effectiveness of our assortment strategy. This collaboration came about as an idea at last year's fashion show and was executed on our new twenty six week production lead time calendar.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

This speaks to our team's disciplined approach in a dynamic environment and our ability to make agile business decisions when we see an opportunity. Our momentum was also evident by the strong response to our Pink Friday event, which launched at the end of the second quarter. The in store activation drove a significant increase in new customers the week it ran. Since most of the digital activation associated with the event falls in Q3, the second quarter results only reflect a partial benefit from the event. Pink was up low single digits in the second quarter, a clear improvement from Q1.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Growth was led by double digit increases in apparel with margin expansion driven by regular price sales. We also saw a healthier quality of sales with regular price sales up 5% in the PINK brand, brand, including up 18% specifically in apparel, reflecting our focus on rebalancing our assortment. We are pleased to see significant improvement in new customer acquisition at PINK with double digit improvement in new customer accounts during the quarter, showing that our efforts are resonating with customers. Turning to the next pillar of our strategy, fueling growth in beauty. We have a powerhouse beauty business, representing approximately 1,000,000,000 of sales domestically and approaching $2,000,000,000 at retail globally.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Our customers love Victoria's Secret Beauty, and we are accelerating beauty categories by leaning into our product authority, building on our industry leading fragrance business, expanding into new opportunities and helping drive traffic into our two brands. In the second quarter, beauty remained a standout as we delivered our eighth consecutive quarter of growth. Sales in our beauty business were up mid single digits with growth across all major categories led by body care, seasonal fragrance and our Mist collection, which delivered low teens growth. We see a significant opportunity in beauty, which is a much larger market than intimates, about four times the size of the intimates market in The U. S, according to third party data and offers a clear runway for growth.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We already have gained real traction. And with a newly hired brand president in place along with expanded marketing resources, we are poised to continue to build on our momentum. Looking ahead, we have a strong pipeline of newness and franchise amplification. This includes our very sexy restage that set this week, expansion, the Bombshell seasonal launch and category expansion through the launch of Home Fragrance. We're also focused on sustaining growth in Mist and Body.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

On to our final pillar. We're evolving our brand projection and go to market

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

strategy to reflect shifts in culture, technology and shopping behaviors.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Brand By staying true to our brand DNA while adapting to how we engage, inspire and serve, we are deepening connections with existing customers and attracting new ones while strengthening loyalty and driving long term growth. We are starting to see positive momentum in rebalancing our marketing funnel and driving incremental traffic across both our digital and store channels. During the quarter, according to third party data, one of the strongest customer growth segments at BS and Co. Was the eighteen to twenty four age group. And these efforts drove improved customer acquisition and growth in our customer file, which positions us well as we move into the back half of the year.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We saw sequential improvement during the quarter and in July, growing our total customer file, which was up 5% with growth across new, existing and reactivated customers. Going forward, we are laser focused on continuing to grow our customer file with a focus on new customers between 18 to 44. It's clear that our new Chief Marketing and Customer Officer, Elizabeth Price, is leading a compelling shift in how we show up, more purposeful, more provocative and more aligned with who our customer is today. This is just the beginning, and there's much more to come. I'd now like to take a moment to give more details on key initiatives for the second half of the year and share why we are excited.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

There is real momentum in our business. We are focused on executing and delivering results in our core businesses. We continue to navigate a complex macro environment, and we are taking several steps to mitigate tariff impacts by operating more efficiently, which Scott will address later, while continuing to invest in our brands, our products and the customer experience. Fundamentally, we believe that the investments we're making in brand building and innovative marketing are even more impactful during uncertain times. In a business driven by emotion, our ability to spark connection with our customer enables our brands to stand out and remain a top choice.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We remain focused on growth in intimates with bras as the center of our universe. We are committed to leading in both everyday comfort and bold feminine style, ensuring we can meet her wide range of needs for her multifaceted life. Our July Body by Victoria launch was a step forward and will continue to bring newness, comfort and innovation in wireless, sports and core bras while also leaning into the sexier side of our assortment with collections like Very Sexy and the upcoming Wicked Refresh. We're excited about the return of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on October 15. The event will build on last year's success, serve as a key brand moment that both honors our heritage and solidifies our position as a brand that shapes, not just follows, the future of fashion.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Looking ahead to the holiday season, we're committed to being the destination for gifting. Last year, we saw how much our customers value accessible luxury that feels personal and truly special. Over the past year, our teams have poured their creativity and passion into expanding our covetable gifting assortment, offering a thoughtfully tiered good, better, best selection across key categories, including beauty, sleep and pink apparel. This holiday, we're ready to help our customers celebrate the moments and people that matter the most. Beyond holiday, we see Valentine's Day as another significant growth opportunity and a key moment to deepen our customer engagement.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We look forward to sharing more about our Valentine's Day plans in the months to come. Before concluding, I want to take a moment to reflect on what this business and the Victoria's Secret brand have the potential to represent to our consumer. At its core, we're in the business of feelings, of sparking connection and confidence. Our opportunity goes far beyond product. It's about helping our customers feel seen, celebrated and comfortable in their own skin.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We believe deeply in this promise, and we're committed to doing it better moving forward. That promise, celebrating how our customer feels, is central to how we're evolving the brand. We know there's no single definition of sexy. Beauty standards are different for every person, and so does what makes her heart race. Sexy isn't a singular look, it's a feeling.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

You know it when you feel it. You respond to it. Our future brand expression will honor that. It won't be confined to one image or ideal. It will be a creative platform that embraces the many ways women embody confidence, sensuality and strength.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

You're already seeing the first expression of this with our recently launched Very Sexy campaign. The message is clear: we continue to embrace sexiness, but we're evolving to serve our customer more holistically and provide the full spectrum of what she wants and needs from us. And we are seeing this show up with an acceleration in Victoria's Secret sales trends through this week. You'll see our vision further take shape as we continue to set the steady drumbeat of brand moments in the coming months, including our fashion show this fall and then more significantly in our spring line. We are firmly in growth mode.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We achieved growth last year, and we are continuing to improve our performance this year. When product, brand emotion and marketing come together, it creates a powerful cycle that deepens customer engagement and drives strong sustained results. While we have more work to do, we're building momentum, and we intend to keep going. I'll now turn it over to Scott.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Thanks, Hillary, and thank you everyone for joining today's call. Our second quarter results exceeded expectations building on our strong first quarter beat. The business showed broad based strength that built steadily throughout the quarter demonstrating that our early progress against our path to potential strategy is translating into results. This outperformance reflects strength in our core business and the team's focus on the fundamentals while continuing to prioritize investments in product innovation, brand strength and customer experience. These investments are positioning us for long term differentiation and growth.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

I'll start with a few highlights from the quarter. As Hillary mentioned, net sales were up $42,000,000 or 3% year over year, while comps grew 4%, which excludes the digital outage, both reflecting sequential improvements over the prior quarter and significantly above our expectations with growth across both Victoria's Secret and PINK. Our total net sales performance was noteworthy given the security incident in May, which negatively impacted net sales during the quarter by approximately $20,000,000 Adjusted gross margin dollars were up $18,000,000 compared to last year, while our adjusted gross margin rate was up 20 basis points versus last year and was 60 basis points better than our guidance. We delivered adjusted operating income of $55,000,000 exceeding the high end of our guidance by $20,000,000 Adjusted operating income would have exceeded last second quarter result of $62,000,000 absent the impact of the security incident that occurred in May, which we estimate resulted in an operating income impact of approximately $14,000,000 in the quarter. And our adjusted net income per diluted share came in at $0.33 significantly above the high end of our guidance.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Now let's turn to second quarter results in more detail. Net sales of $1,459,000,000 were up 3% versus last year. Performance accelerated through the quarter and we are encouraged that this momentum has continued so far in the third quarter. Both Pink and BS saw sales up low single digits during the quarter compared to last year with growth in North America and across the globe. While we were also pleased with our performance in intimates where we saw major trend improvements from Q1 to Q2 across both panties and bras.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Contributing to this improvement was strong regular price selling and as Hillary mentioned, an example of this was our successful Body by Victoria launch on July 23, which along with a new marketing approach around the event drove notable increases in customer engagement and acquisition. Beauty again delivered strong top line growth with sales up mid single digits year over year. This marks our Beauty business' eighth consecutive quarter of growth. As Hillary also noted, Versus and Pink had broad based strength in North America where we grew comp sales in both stores and digital channels. Performance in the region improved sequentially throughout the quarter with July delivering exceptional results in part driven by the Body by Victoria bra launch and associated marketing activities.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

This was the first time in years that a bra launch has driven growth in other bra franchises. Traffic during the quarter significantly outpaced the broader mall reflecting both our enhanced product offerings and expanded marketing reach and effectiveness. Our international business continued to perform exceptionally well during the quarter. Reported second quarter sales grew 22% to $228,000,000 reflecting an improvement over a strong first quarter. System wide retail sales were up low double digits again in the second quarter.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

International growth was fueled by healthy high single digit retail comparable sales gains across our store and digital channels on a combined basis as well as continued new store openings. We again saw particular strength in our China business primarily driven by the digital channel. AURs were up 1% in the quarter. When you exclude panties, which is a low AUR category, AURs were up 8% driven by increases in bras and beauty. Second quarter adjusted gross margin dollars were $519,000,000 and our adjusted gross margin rate was 35.6%, 20 basis points above last year and 60 basis points above our guidance.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Favorable gross margin rate drivers in the quarter versus last year included a continued pullback in traditional promotions resulting in lower discounting throughout the quarter coupled with strong regular price selling both during the semiannual sale and the weeks outside of the event. Our healthier inventory position during the semiannual sale period along with the stronger regular price product offering enabled margin expansion this year. We continue to use GWPs in the quarter, which while slightly impacting margin rate drove higher basket size and acted as a brand building marketing vehicle. Importantly, overall our promotional strategy in the quarter drove margin rate and margin dollar expansion compared to last year. Our focus on driving stronger regular price selling continues to gain traction.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

We also achieved leverage on buying and occupancy expenses in the quarter driven by rent savings and our robust comp growth. Meanwhile, as expected, higher air freight rates and tariffs resulted in approximately 80 basis points of pressure in total in the quarter versus last year evenly split between the two. Adjusted SG and A dollars were $464,000,000 in the second quarter and our adjusted SG and A rate was 31.8% better than our guidance of approximately 33% and deleveraging versus the prior year rate of 31%. Our better than expected adjusted SG and A rate in the quarter was driven by the sales beat along with continued disciplined expense management across all aspects of the business. Our rate deleverage from last year as a result of a strategic shift in marketing spend from Q1 into Q2 along with higher incentive compensation expense in the quarter tied to our outperformance.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Adjusted non operating expenses consisting principally of interest expense were $17,000,000 in the quarter in line with our guidance and down from last year driven by a lower level of weighted average borrowings and interest rates. Our second quarter adjusted tax rate was 25%. Turning to the balance sheet. Total inventories ended the second quarter up 4% compared to last year and in line with our guidance. From a liquidity standpoint, we ended the second quarter with a cash balance of $188,000,000 which is $19,000,000 above last year and our outstanding balance under our $750,000,000 ABL credit facility was $75,000,000 which is down $70,000,000 from last year.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

We successfully renewed our ABL credit facility in May and secured a five year term extension with favorable enhancements and lower interest rates that will generate annual savings. Our liquidity position is strong and provides us financial flexibility for continued execution of our strategic growth pillars. Turning to our updated outlook for fiscal year twenty twenty five and our outlook for the third quarter. We are raising our full year outlook for net sales and are now forecasting net sales in the range of $6,330,000,000 to $6,410,000,000 compared to our prior guidance calling for net sales in the range of $6,200,000,000 to $6,300,000,000 While we faced tough year over year sales comparisons in the back half of the year, we are pleased with the momentum we saw in Q2 with notable acceleration in July. We expect to drive performance through elevated product assortments and planned initiatives designed to sustain momentum between major traffic driving events.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

We are winning with big moments like Pink Friday, which performed exceptionally well this year. As Hillary mentioned, the fashion show this fall represents a defining brand moment both commercially and culturally. Last year, the event helped drive incremental traffic, customer acquisition and sustained sales momentum into January. This year we are building on those learnings to further amplify its impact while continuing with the steady cadence of brand moments through the holiday and Valentine's Day seasons to engage both new and returning customers. In addition to our brand moments, we are well positioned to capture demand in holiday periods such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday with an expanded and more tiered gifting assortment across key categories like beauty, sleep and pink.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Given the outperformance during the second quarter was offset by incremental tariff exposure, we are maintaining our adjusted operating income range for fiscal year twenty twenty five of $270,000,000 to $320,000,000 Our full year 2025 guidance now reflects tariff levels of 30% for China and 20% for non China imports as compared to our previous guidance which assumed 30% for China and 10% for non China. Our guidance for the full year 2025 now assumes net tariff impact of approximately $100,000,000 which reflects tariff mitigation of approximately 70,000,000 Our projected net tariff impact of $100,000,000 in 2025 is up $50,000,000 versus our assumption embedded in our previous guidance. With approximately $10,000,000 of net tariff impact already recognized in the first half of the year, our guidance assumes approximately $20,000,000 of net tariff pressure in the third quarter with $70,000,000 impacting Q4. Importantly, given the strength and momentum we are seeing in the business, we are maintaining our adjusted operating income guidance for the year despite estimated incremental net tariff pressure of $50,000,000 Our impact mitigation efforts include optimizing cost with vendors, further diversifying our sourcing, ensuring we have the most efficient air versus ocean freight mix possible and implementing a combination of select pricing adjustments through more targeted promotions modifications where we see a value proposition gap in the marketplace.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Adjusted non operating expenses consisting principally of interest expense are projected to be about $70,000,000 for fiscal year twenty twenty five, down from $84,000,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty four and in line with previous guidance, driven by expected lower levels of weighted average borrowings along with lower interest rates. We estimate our adjusted tax rate will be approximately 24% to 25% for fiscal year twenty twenty five in line with guidance last quarter. We estimate weighted average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 83,000,000 for fiscal year twenty twenty five. Given these inputs, we are maintaining our fiscal year twenty twenty five adjusted net income per diluted share to be in the range of 1.8 to $2.2 compared to adjusted net income per diluted share of $2.69 in fiscal year twenty twenty four. We continue to be prudent with planning capital expenditures, which are now expected to be approximately $200,000,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty five, down from our previous expectation of $220,000,000 Capital investments will primarily focus on our store capital program along with investments in technology and logistics related to our strategic initiatives to drive growth and support productivity.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Depreciation expense is estimated to be approximately $220,000,000 this year. We are maintaining our forecast of adjusted free cash flow approximately $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty five. Store counts and renovation plans in North America in 2025 continue to be similar to what we discussed on our first quarter call. Square footage in our North American stores this year is still expected to decrease approximately 2% compared to 2024. By the end of the year, we estimate our Store of the Future presence in North America will be approximately 190 stores or approximately 25% of the fleet.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Internationally, we estimate our Store of the Future presence at the 2025 will be approximately two forty to two sixty stores or approximately 40% of the international fleet. Turning to our outlook for the third quarter. We are forecasting net sales in the range of $1,390,000,000 to $1,420,000,000 compared to net sales of $1,347,000,000 in the 2024. Our forecast assumes low single digit top line performance in our North America business based on the continued momentum we're seeing quarter to date. Our forecast also assumes continued strength in the international business with system wide retail sales planned up low teens in the third quarter.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

At this forecasted level of sales, we expect third quarter twenty twenty five adjusted operating loss to be in the range of 35,000,000 to $55,000,000 compared to an adjusted operating loss of $28,000,000 in the 2024. We expect third quarter twenty twenty five adjusted gross margin rate of approximately 34%, down compared to an adjusted rate of 34.8% last year, which includes estimated net tariff pressure of approximately 140 basis points partially offset by continued focus on our promotional strategy and buying an occupancy expense leverage on the sales growth. The adjusted SG and A rate in the 2025 is expected to be flat to up approximately 100 basis points compared to the third quarter twenty twenty four's adjusted rate of 36.8%. The forecasted increase in SG and A dollars is driven by normal wage rate increases along with strategic investments in marketing and store labor to enhance the customer experience and to drive top line growth. We anticipate net adjusted non operating expense again consisting principally of interest expense of approximately $19,000,000 in the third quarter twenty twenty five, down from $21,000,000 in the 2024, driven by expected lower levels of weighted average borrowings along with lower interest rates.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

We estimate our adjusted tax rate will be approximately 22% for the third quarter. We estimate weighted average shares outstanding of approximately $80,000,000 for the third quarter. We expect total inventories to be up high single digits compared to last year driven by the impact of tariffs. Given these inputs, we are forecasting third quarter adjusted net loss per share to be in the range of $0.55 to $0.75 compared to adjusted net loss per share of $0.50 in the 2024. In closing, I want to reiterate a few key points.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Despite the uncertain macro environment, our fundamentals remain strong and resilient and our path to potential strategy is gaining momentum. We are maintaining our disciplined approach, focusing on operational excellence, strategic capital allocation and continued investment in the capabilities that differentiate us in the marketplace. We remain committed to delivering value for our shareholders while building the foundation for sustained long term profitable growth. Operator?

[Operator]

Thank For our first question, we will go to the line of Alex from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

[Lauren Levine, Equity Research Associate at Victoria's Secret]

Hi, this is Lauren Levine on for Alex Strayton. Thank you for taking our question. We were wondering how you were thinking about the implication of the end of the de minimis exemption on the industry. Do you think that's a tailwind or do you rely on that benefit at all? Thank you.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Hey Lauren, it's Scott. Hey, the de minimis exemption isn't a big part of how we go to market. Our largely our e comm distribution centers are located in Columbus. So it's not really a material impact on the business.

[Lauren Levine, Equity Research Associate at Victoria's Secret]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Marni Shapiro with Retail Tracker. Your line is open.

[Marni Shapiro, Managing Partner at The Retail Tracker]

Hey, guys. Congratulations. I got to just say the stores have been so much fun to shop every week because the energy is unbelievable. And it feels like we finally, Hillary, have somebody in place who understands the importance of this brand globally. I feel like it's been undervalued.

[Marni Shapiro, Managing Partner at The Retail Tracker]

So with that, I have a question about your innovation. There's been so much from the FlexRaw, that shiny active set, Loveshaq, some of it is fashion innovation, some of it is like technical innovation. How should we think about this over the back half of the year and into 2026, even with tariffs involved? And will you take that kind of thinking into beauty? Because it feels to me watching all the girls in other places that there's a lot of opportunity for you guys even innovating within beauty for you guys.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Hi, Marni, and thanks for the support. I'm excited that you're as excited as we are. And I feel like once again, maybe you're reading my mind or spying on me, but I really agree with everything you say. It is absolutely about fashion innovation and then technical innovation. I'll start with Versus In Versus, we have a very deep pipeline of innovation, primarily focused on bras, but also in sport as you referenced.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

It's geared towards customer insights and particularly around the technology of bras, but also I would say the shine that you're talking about is a great example of fashion innovation. And I think what's different, what we're really unpacking in Versus is that we used to have a formula where we sort of set a quarter and let it roll. And we stand behind big ideas for an extended amount of time. And we started really pacing a more frequent drumbeat of fashion and innovation and messaging and really addressing much more wider variety of her wants and needs, and it is working. And so you will see a more constant drumbeat from us in both innovation and in fashion as we move through the back half of this year and into next year.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

And I would just say the shine speaks to it speaks to fun, it speaks to joy, it speaks to And I think, as I've stated in previous calls, we got a little serious. And this brand should be joyful and it should be fun and it should be useful. And so you'll start seeing more of that as we move into especially as we move into 2026. On the PINK side, it's really more about cultural connection and fashion drops and collaborations and this Wednesday drop phenomenon that we have in PINK is doing really well, and we want to build on that. But also what we have unlocked not only first and foremost with Frankie's and our collaboration and partnership with Frankie's, but now with Love Shack Fancy is that when we hit the right cultural moment, it is explosive for us in this business.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

So both will have a drumbeat of newness that is more frequent than the past, but serves each individual customer segment appropriately. So we're very excited about what's to come.

[Marni Shapiro, Managing Partner at The Retail Tracker]

Congrats and best of luck for the rest of back to school.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Group. Your line is open.

[Dana Telsey, CEO & Chief Research Officer at Telsey Advisory Group]

Hi, Hillary. And Scott, congratulations on the nice progress. We'd love to hear a little bit more about on the gross margin side, how you're thinking about pricing and promotions going forward? And then also when you think about Store of the Future and the technology you've implemented there, what are you seeing traffic wise? And also are you seeing an expanded customer, maybe a trade down customer also? Thank you.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Dana, it's Scott. On the gross margin front, as we discussed, we've really made a conscious effort to pull back on promos in the traditional discount. We expect that to continue into the back half. That is one of our mitigation levers on tariffs, but it's coupled with our product newness that Hillary was just talking about and really driving more regular price sales. So we're really encouraged with what we're seeing and how the customers are responding to that.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

In terms of sort of strategic pricing, we're looking where we see opportunities that can still create that value, but we're being mindful of entry price points and sort of not to exceed price points. So first and foremost is promos and then select strategic price modifications where it makes sense. In terms of Store of the Future, I mean we continue to get good results where we do either a full Store of the Future remodel or partial. We see some of our more recent ones sort of a double digit lift in sales from pre to post where that's driven by traffic and better assorted within the store. So, we're going to continue to drive that as an improvement to customer experience as we go forward.

[Dana Telsey, CEO & Chief Research Officer at Telsey Advisory Group]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Adrian Yee with Barclays. Your line is open.

[Michael Vu, VP - Equity Research at Barclays Investment Bank]

Good morning. This is Michael Zhu on for Adrian Yee. And I just wanted to ask, so your international business was up nicely during the quarter and it continued to grow. Is there any particular category other than beauty or maybe a consumer core that's outperforming in an international market versus the domestic one?

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

I'll take that one. No, not really. I mean they definitely have smaller square footage stores, generally speaking, internationally. So we don't have the same breadth of assortment in international. But the intimates business is very strong there.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

We have less of a presence in pink internationally. And we have less of a presence in some markets in things like sport and swim. So it's really the two core categories of beauty as well as intimates both doing very well globally.

[Michael Vu, VP - Equity Research at Barclays Investment Bank]

Thank you. And as a follow-up, is there any difference between the go to market strategy in the international market versus the domestic?

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

No, it's Scott, Michael. No real difference. I mean, we're thinking about the customer globally as we look at our marketing and messaging. So it follows very much the same pattern that we drive here in North America.

[Michael Vu, VP - Equity Research at Barclays Investment Bank]

Sounds great. Thank you so much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mauricio Serna with UBS. Your line is open.

[Mauricio Serna, Executive Director at UBS Group]

Great. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to ask about the fashion show that you're doing this year. Just wanted to make sure like is this year also mainly focused on the Victoria's Secret brand?

[Mauricio Serna, Executive Director at UBS Group]

Or will there be something that will also include PINK? Because maybe I think I recall that you mentioned that you wanted to do something for PINK, but maybe that's like a completely separate event. And maybe could you provide some details about like the SG and A investments behind the Fashion Show and how those does compare to last year? Thank you.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Hi. I'll start and then I'll and then Scott will finish up on your second So we as you know, we announced yesterday the date of the fashion show. Beginning next week, we will start to slowly unveil some of the details around talent and content of the fashion show through our social channels. So you have to stay tuned. We're not ready to talk about it quite yet.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

But rest assured, we will have activations in the back half of the year that talk about all of our businesses in some way, shape or form.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

And to the second part of the question, we're actively working on how do we amplify the fashion show in a better and even more impactful way than what it was previously. But our marketing dollars for the full year will be basically flat year over year. We'll have some movements between quarters, but largely the marketing spend is flat year over year.

[Mauricio Serna, Executive Director at UBS Group]

Very helpful. Thank you so much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ike Boruchow with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

[Juliana Duque, Equity Research Associate at Wells Fargo]

Hi, good morning everyone. This is Juliana on for Ike. I was wondering if you could give us any more detail on the categories, specifically if intimate still remains pressured from panties and how that's continued throughout the quarter? Thank you.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Hi. Yes, I'd be happy to. Actually, so let me just start and talk about what really sort of changed between Q1 and Q2 at a total. So after Q1, I talked about strength in beauty, strength in pink apparel and strength in sport. All three of those categories continued and actually accelerated into Q2, but the big game changer was the core intimates business in Victoria's Secret and to a lesser degree pink both improved.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

And panties across the board was very, very strong in both brands. So we're extremely pleased about that. And bras improved. We saw full price selling positive in the quarter, but because we had less in semi annual sale, we didn't see a total comp positive comp in bras for the quarter, but big, big improvement in the core of the intimates business in Q2, which we're very, very excited about.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

And we saw that for Versus and Co, we gained share in the 18% to 44% sort of consumer in Q2 versus Q2 last year.

[Juliana Duque, Equity Research Associate at Wells Fargo]

Got it. Great. Thank you so much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jonah Kim with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

[Julia Shelanski, Equity Research - Consumer, Luxury & Specialty Retail at TD Securities]

Good morning. This is Julia Schlansky on for Jonah Kim. I was wondering what your plans are for this holiday season and what's different for fashion this year versus last year and key learnings from last year? Thank you.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

The plans for Q4 and I didn't catch the last for fashion, is that what you said?

[Kevin Wynk, VP - External Financial Reporting & IR at Victoria's Secret]

Fashion for holiday?

[Julia Shelanski, Equity Research - Consumer, Luxury & Specialty Retail at TD Securities]

Yes, yes, and fashion and key learnings from last year into this year.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Okay. Great. So I'm not going to tell you all of our plans for holiday quite yet. But what I can say is that probably the number one thing that we learned was the importance of this drumbeat of newness and drumbeat of content, creative content. We incredible success and momentum last year coming out of the fashion show, and that carried us sort of into middle of the quarter.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

And then we had a very clear opportunity sort of mid December through January to really not only deliver newness and excitement to talk about it and market it in a loud way. And so that is the big change that you will see this year is that the front half of the quarter will be focused on holiday and fashion show and really building up that incredible gifting destination that we're known for. And then we will shift our messaging and we will we have a huge opportunity around both sport and Valentine's Day later in the quarter that we plan to capitalize on. And in pink, it's just really about those cultural moments and making sure we're tapping into the cultural moments exactly at the time that they're happening and being much more nimble. So we're actually still working on that because we want to stay as close to the customer as possible.

[Julia Shelanski, Equity Research - Consumer, Luxury & Specialty Retail at TD Securities]

That's great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Janet Kloppenburg with JJK Research Associates. Your line is open. Janet, your line is open. You may need to unmute your line.

[Janet Kloppenburg, President at JJK Research Associates]

Hi, everyone. I'm sorry about that. I wanted to say congratulations and to Hillary that the newness and innovation that you've introduced has been pretty darn compelling. I wanted to ask you, Hillary, about the inventory planning, which has been sort of out of balance for a while. And if you have more conviction that it's going to be where it should be by product and flow as we go forward and if there's any operational kinks in there that are preventing it from being as solid as it should be.

[Janet Kloppenburg, President at JJK Research Associates]

I need to gain confidence in that. And then on pricing, I wondered what kind of pricing power you think you have if you'll use it and particularly on panties, where I think you it was being used as a loss leader and to drive traffic, but also to meet competitive headwinds? Thanks so much.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Hi, Janet. So let me get at this. So inventory, I mean, I think we always have opportunity to optimize our inventory. I think what we are learning is that we should be we should turn faster, particularly in the pink apparel side. We need to be in and out of ideas, and we need to create that sense of urgency with the consumer.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

And that's going to help us pull back on the promotions and the markdowns that we're so laser focused on doing and are starting to have some good success with. So I would say that's step number one. Shortening our production lead times helps us with managing that inventory, and that's something that we have made incredible traction on. Love Shack Fantasy collaboration, we brought to market in twenty six weeks. That is a wild improvement from where we were a year ago.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

I think in pink in particular, we have actually in pink in particular, but also in Versus, we have an opportunity to really scrutinize our size breakdowns and make sure we have enough inventory in the right sizes and that's something that's actively in process. So we're looking at everything. I also think we have an opportunity to look at how we allocate the stores assortments go to what stores and really utilize data science to drive more customized assortment. So there's a lot particularly in the stores channel we can do to optimize and that is in progress right now. Pricing power.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

This is something we've been looking at before tariffs were even a topic. Last Q4, we made some strategic price increases in the area of gifting and beauty as well as sleep, saw no resistance to that. I think when the emotion and the quality and the marketing behind it is there working in a singular ecosystem, we are seeing that she will pay. So we believe that we always need an opening price point and we believe that price ceilings in our business are also something that we need to look at, but there's room to play in between. And so we'll be strategically looking at that.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

As it relates to panties, I think panties are absolutely a traffic driver. They are an acquisition tool. They are a basket starter. And across the industry, everyone is priced in multiples. Now what that multiple price point is, is something we're definitely looking at.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

And actually we have one running this weekend that is at a lower actually it's at a higher ticket than last year. So we are pulling back where we can, but we're testing into that, because we don't want to take our foot off the gas of acquisition, and we don't want to take our foot off the gas of our total basket size. So hopefully, that answers your question.

[Janet Kloppenburg, President at JJK Research Associates]

You did. Thank you very much. And I have one last, which is just on the twenty six week lead time for Love Shack, which was really well done. Is that about as good as it gets, Hillary? I mean, you get that to twenty weeks?

[Janet Kloppenburg, President at JJK Research Associates]

Or is twenty six weeks where it's going to be?

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

I think it's just a fantastic first step from a company that a year ago was running everything on a bra timing cycle. So to move within a year from a 52 to a 26 is a big jump forward. And then of course, we're always looking for opportunities and depends on the category. I mean, are some things that we should be faster and we are like we can get into panties in two or three weeks. We can get into some bras that we own raw materials in, in about eight to twelve weeks.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

So we do have places where we have flexibility and that's something we'll continue to work on. But to get an entirely new collection that had never been thought of in twenty six weeks to market, I think is an incredible win for this company and a proof point that we can move quickly and with agility.

[Janet Kloppenburg, President at JJK Research Associates]

Okay. Thank you. And I wasn't being critical. Just wanted to understand what it

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

actually am glad you asked. Absolutely. And we'll be working to be as fast as possible.

[Janet Kloppenburg, President at JJK Research Associates]

Okay. Thanks so much.

[Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. We have time for one more question. Brook Roach with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

[Evan Dorschner, Equity Research Associate at Goldman Sachs]

Good morning. This is Evan Dorschner on for Brook. Thank you for taking our question. I was hoping you could just dive a little bit deeper on the tariff impact you expect for this year. How should we be thinking about that into next year as you also start to action your mitigation strategies? Thank you.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

Hey, Evan, it's Scott. So as we said, the tariff assumption right now is 30% for China and 20 non China, which is up from 30% China and 10% non China in our last call. That increase is about a $50,000,000 impact versus our prior guidance. So our net tariff impact in fiscal twenty twenty five is $100,000,000 total. There is $70,000,000 of mitigation in that.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

So you think about the gross impact is really north of $100,000,000 The mitigation we've got in place is largely locked down for fiscal twenty twenty five just given our orders are already bought into and whatnot. But as we go forward into 2026, we are attacking and we'll have additional mitigation particularly on less air, more ocean. That's going to be a big lever that we pull. We are actively looking at resourcing out of different countries to further mitigate in 2026. But as you know that takes time and so that we need to work through all of that.

[Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret]

And we will continue to thoughtfully pull back on promos to help offset this and then continue our sort of expense management. So mitigation will definitely increase in 2026. It just takes a little bit while and some of these levers to play out.

[Evan Dorschner, Equity Research Associate at Goldman Sachs]

Helpful. Thank you very much. Okay.

[Kevin Wynk, VP - External Financial Reporting & IR at Victoria's Secret]

Thanks everyone. That concludes our call this morning. We appreciate your time this morning and your interest in BS and Co. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you all for participating in the Victoria's Secret and Company's second quarter twenty twenty five earnings conference call. That concludes today's conference. Please disconnect at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.

Participants

Analysts

• Kevin Wynk, VP - External Financial Reporting & IR at Victoria's Secret
• Hillary Super, CEO at Victoria's Secret
• Scott Sekella, Chief Financial & Operating Officer at Victoria's Secret
• Lauren Levine, Equity Research Associate at Victoria's Secret
• Marni Shapiro, Managing Partner at The Retail Tracker
• Dana Telsey, CEO & Chief Research Officer at Telsey Advisory Group
• Michael Vu, VP - Equity Research at Barclays Investment Bank
• Mauricio Serna, Executive Director at UBS Group
• Juliana Duque, Equity Research Associate at Wells Fargo
• Julia Shelanski, Equity Research - Consumer, Luxury & Specialty Retail at TD Securities
• Janet Kloppenburg, President at JJK Research Associates
• Evan Dorschner, Equity Research Associate at Goldman Sachs