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People Not Buying Stuff: Helen of Troy Earnings

“Moving on to the quarter, our Q1 results were well below our expectations. Tariff-related disruption on our shipments was greater than we originally expected in April. There are three tariff-related impacts making up approximately 8 percentage points of the 10.8% consolidated revenue decline. One, cancellation of direct import orders from China in response to higher tariffs. Two, tariff-related pull forward of orders into the fourth quarter of fiscal ’25, leading to elevated inventory and lower replenishment in the first quarter of fiscal ’26, which we expect to continue into the second quarter as demand continues to soften. And three, China softness driven by a shift from cross-border e-commerce, the localized distribution models, and increased competition from domestic sellers driven by government subsidies. In addition to tariff-related impacts, we also saw weeks of supply adjustment at certain key retailers as shifting consumer demand curves are being reflected in retailers inventory management practices. Finally, we are seeing clear evidence of the consumer trading down with average price compression of 3% to 4% in our US business, which impacted first quarter revenue and profitability. You may have seen other companies recently calling out trade down behavior, including the Dollar stores, which are a beneficiary of this trend.”

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