Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings Inc Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Matthew Boss - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : Great. Congrats on a really nice quarter and you killed the chance this morning. So Eric, could you elaborate on the improving cadence of comp as the second quarter progressed and maybe speak to trends that you've seen in August? And then with the wind in your sales, as you cited, what are you seeing from deal flow given the tariff disruption? Or maybe how would you characterize the state of the closeout industry today?

Question: Peter Keith - Piper Jaffray Inc - Analyst : Great results, guys. I wanted to dig into the Ollie's Army night from Q2? And maybe comparing it to the traditional December, Ollie's Army night, Were there any differences or call outs as it related to the sales lift or new member adds -- and then just any general learnings from that event and how you might think about future events.

Question: Chuck Grom Grom - Gordon Haskett - Analyst : Congrats guys love the energy this morning. Hoping we peak ahead to 2026 a bit and how you're thinking about store growth and I guess, more broadly, earnings power. Seems to me that $4.50 to $5 is certainly an achievable number. And maybe, Rob, can you talk about the opportunities for gross margins over the next couple of years and how you see it flowing.

Question: Bradley Thomas - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc - Analyst : Great quarter here. Wanted to follow up maybe a little bit off of the last question from Chuck in just asking about the SG&A side of things? And could you help us think a little bit about SG&A leverage both in the back half and how that may feed into the long-term algorithm? And then perhaps, Eric, I could sneak in kind of a high-level one for you. The quarter was really interesting with you changing some kind of long-standing practices from Ollie's that seem to work very well. And I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about maybe some cultural changes and the willingness to maybe look for new opportunities like that.

Question: Steven Zaccone - Citibank Cameroon SA - Analyst : Our question was on new store economics. Can you just talk about how some of the new stores are performing, how these new stores compared to prior cohorts since you've accelerated the unit growth? And then just given the acceleration in store growth, at what point will you need a new distribution center?

Question: Kate McShane - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : We just wondered how did the customer acquisition look from the Ollie's Army night, just you've indicated you were reaching a broader consumer with a younger cohort over the last couple of quarters. Did the Ollie's Army night reflect this at all?

Question: Kate McShane - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : If we could just ask a second question, and this kind of nears an earlier question about culture. Eric, you spent a lot of time working and refining the supply chain at Ollie's before you became CEO. I was wondering if you could talk through how some of that work is resulting in the strength and what you're seeing with the business today.

Question: Scot Ciccarelli - Truist Securities - Analyst : Two questions. First, can you provide us an update on what you're seeing at your Ollie's stores that were in a similar market to bigot stores that have been closed? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 28, 2025 / 12:30PM, OLLI.OQ - Q2 2025 Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings Inc Earnings Call And then secondly, historically, you guys had a bit of a reverse new store waterfall process where new stores would open really strong with your grand openings and then you'd incur a comp drag as that store moved into the comp base. Just given this year's unit acceleration, is that something we should be thoughtful of as we roll into '26

Question: Steve Shemesh - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Great. nice results. Just wanted to circle back on the comp -- so strong results and with May being flat and improving throughout the quarter, it sounds like the exit rate was in the high single-digit, low double-digit range. So as we just try to kind of like triangulate being in the 3% range off of an easier compare. I'm just curious, have you seen anything different quarter-to-date? Is there anything to keep in mind from a compare perspective? Or is there just a lot of quarter left?

Question: Steve Shemesh - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Got it. Okay. That's very helpful. And then just a bigger picture question on gross margin and understand that the baseline is 40%. But as we think about what's changed over the last handful of years. Supply chain costs picked up during the pandemic, and they've since been coming down, still running above pre-pandemic levels. But you are running above that 40% gross margin now. So I guess on the quarter and then just bigger picture, like what has changed from a merchandising margin perspective that's allowed you to overdeliver despite the higher supply chain costs. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 28, 2025 / 12:30PM, OLLI.OQ - Q2 2025 Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings Inc Earnings Call

Question: Mark Carden - UBS AG - Analyst : I wanted to ask another one on Big Lots. Just how meaningful were the differences in sales capture between warm boxes and your existing footprint? So said another way, how should we think about the Big Lots contribution go into your same-store sales versus your new store productivity? And then what are you seeing with respect to the Ollie's Army sign-ups from some of these former Big Lots customers?