Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week Carol Masser in our interactive broker studio.
Speaker 1: Shares of Academy Sports and Outdoors they rose about five percent.
Speaker 1: This is after the company reported earnings, raising its financial
Speaker 1: forecast for its fiscal year, including comp sales net income,
Speaker 1: despite some ongoing issues tied to COVID nineteen. Remember we
Speaker 1: talked with the head of the company back in October
Speaker 1: right after it went public. Let's bring back Ken Hicks.
Speaker 1: He is chairman Presidency of Academy Sports and Outdoors. He's
Speaker 1: with us once again from Katie Texas. Ken, how are
Speaker 1: you doing terrific care? How are you today? Doing well?
Speaker 1: Doing well, working our way through as the world reopens
Speaker 1: and it feels good. Um, tell us about you. We
Speaker 1: talked with you just after the I p O. Your
Speaker 1: stock has been on a tear this year. It's up
Speaker 1: more than eighty five percent. Tell us about how it's
Speaker 1: been since the I p O and and what business
Speaker 1: looks like in the consumer trends that you're seeing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we're actually seen some very strong business uh you know,
Speaker 1: reported sales up almost thirty nine percent and and very
Speaker 1: strong profits. And we've up to our estimate for the
Speaker 1: year to between UH six and nine UH. And what
Speaker 1: we're seeing is the customer who found the new hobby,
Speaker 1: found fishing or camping, were riding bikes, built their home gym,
Speaker 1: is coming back and buying more. And so people who
Speaker 1: got into the outdoors uh or into a sport are
Speaker 1: really continuing with that. Well, that's interesting. And your supply chain,
Speaker 1: you guys have had no problem meeting everything that you
Speaker 1: needed to, well know, the supply chain. The supply chain
Speaker 1: is a challenge, but you know, we never closed during
Speaker 1: COVID and we were able to stay open and that
Speaker 1: allowed us to be able to order goods and see
Speaker 1: what was happening. And so I'd say we're little bit
Speaker 1: ahead of some of the others and and our team
Speaker 1: is just doing a terrific job getting the merchandise through.
Speaker 1: But it is not easy. So we still don't have
Speaker 1: some inventory issues in some areas, but overall it's at
Speaker 1: an acceptable level. Is it getting easier? Are you seeing
Speaker 1: things you know kind of like loosen up, like light
Speaker 1: up in terms of the supply chain getting more you
Speaker 1: know normal, if I can, I think we're going to
Speaker 1: see this through the remainder of the year. How does
Speaker 1: that make you change? You're thinking about how you want
Speaker 1: your supply chain to work going forward. Well, we actually
Speaker 1: have a major study underway right now. We're going to
Speaker 1: take some significant actions to improve our supply chain going
Speaker 1: forward to really make it more flexible and more up
Speaker 1: to date. We you know, it works okay, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna need as we grow, a much stronger supply chain.
Speaker 1: Does that mean, though, Ken, Does that mean more stuff
Speaker 1: in your backyard to where you're selling? What does it mean?
Speaker 1: Because I'm assuming most of your your sales are helped
Speaker 1: me out here, remind me, is it mostly North America? US?
Speaker 1: All of our sales are US. We're in the south
Speaker 1: central part of the United States. And you know the thing,
Speaker 1: better systems, better processes. Uh. You know, we've got the
Speaker 1: infrastructure in terms of buildings, but what we need now
Speaker 1: our better processes and systems to be able to track
Speaker 1: and flow the goods through the system faster and more accurately,
Speaker 1: and keep a better eye on it. So it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily manufacturing bringing manufacturing back home to the U S.
Speaker 1: You just need systems that can track it. I think
Speaker 1: I've always the Apple model where I could buy a
Speaker 1: phone and I could tell where it was at every
Speaker 1: step of the stages. That's what you're looking to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: carry you right on. Hey, listen in the ken in
Speaker 1: the corporate earnings release, you guys noted there here's a
Speaker 1: direct quote. There is still like an know the concertainty
Speaker 1: from the impact of COVID, Nitteen and other external factors,
Speaker 1: is that the supply chain or something else. I would say,
Speaker 1: just it's the supply chain is part of it. But
Speaker 1: also you know, people are still trying to find their
Speaker 1: way in what they do in our markets. A lot
Speaker 1: of people have been out for a while, but you know,
Speaker 1: how will people spend their money? Uh? And how long
Speaker 1: people will continue with some of the hobbies and habits
Speaker 1: that they've got. We're seeing that they're continuing. But as
Speaker 1: people go out to eat more, go on vacations and things,
Speaker 1: you know that there's a there's always a risk of
Speaker 1: of how much money they have to spend on other adventures.
Speaker 1: Right the wallet is just so wide and so you
Speaker 1: make choices. And most people would say so thin exactly exactly,
Speaker 1: specially you've got a kid in college. Hey, listen when
Speaker 1: they I want to ask you, your stock is nearly
Speaker 1: shorted the float as a percentage excuse me of the flow.
Speaker 1: I know CEOs don't like to talk about their stock price,
Speaker 1: But in the world of meme stocks, where high short
Speaker 1: positions get the attention of the retail reddit investor crowd,
Speaker 1: are you a little concerned about getting caught up in that?
Speaker 1: Not really, because the I think the lift we we
Speaker 1: saw it today and we've seen so far is based
Speaker 1: on the performance that we had. And unlike some of
Speaker 1: the other stocks that you you're referring to, they don't
Speaker 1: have the underlying foundation of a good, solid business. We do.
Speaker 1: We've got sales growth, we've got profit growth, and we
Speaker 1: have opportunities for uh you know, expansion online and in
Speaker 1: other markets that a lot of other people don't have.
Speaker 1: So we've got that solid foundation to continue to grow,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what will allow us to whether
Speaker 1: through some of the challenges that other other stocks have seen.
Speaker 1: Can really quickly twenty seconds. One item that's just flying
Speaker 1: off the shelves right now, uh tense ten people people
Speaker 1: are camping like crazy, and so it's that's good for
Speaker 1: us all right. Good to know um, and always good
Speaker 1: to check in with you. Ken Hicks. He's a chairman,
Speaker 1: president and CEO of Academy Sports and Outdoors, Turning us
Speaker 1: from Katie, Texas