La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB) held its fourth-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.

This content is powered by Benzinga APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/.

View the webcast at https://www.webcaster5.com/Webcast/Page/1097/54076

Summary

La-Z-Boy Incorporated reported a 9% increase in retail segment sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, driven by acquisitions and new store openings, while wholesale sales decreased slightly but saw an improvement in operating margin.

For the full fiscal year, consolidated sales reached $2.1 billion, with a 6% increase in retail sales and the opening of 15 net new stores, marking a record high for the company.

The company maintained a strong balance sheet with $300 million in cash and no external debt, returning $85 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

La-Z-Boy continues to focus on retail growth, expanding its footprint with plans to open approximately 10 new stores annually, while also pursuing strategic partnerships to enhance the Joybird brand.

Management expressed optimism about future growth, emphasizing strategic initiatives under the Century Vision plan to expand market share and improve operating margins, despite acknowledging current choppy consumer behavior and economic uncertainties.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Greetings welcome to the La-Z-Boy fiscal 2026 fourth quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press Star 0 on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mark Beck, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development of La Z Boy Incorporated.

You may begin.

Mark Beck

Thank you, Holly. Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us to discuss our fiscal 2026 fourth quarter. Joining me on today's call are Melinda Whittington, La-Z-Boy Incorporated's Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Taylor Luebke, SVP and cfo. Melinda will open and close the call and Taylor will speak to segment performance in the financials. Midway through. After our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions.

Slides will accompany this presentation and you may view them through our webcast link which will be available for one year and a telephone replay of the call will be available for one week beginning this afternoon. I would like to remind you that some statements made in today's call include forward looking statements about La-Z-Boy's future performance and other matters. Although we believe these factors statements to be reasonable, our actual results could differ materially.

The most significant risk factors that could affect our future results are described in our annual report on Form 10-K. We encourage you to review those risk factors as well as other key information detailed in our SEC filings. Also, our earnings release is available under the News and Events tab on the Investor Relations page of our website and includes reconciliations of certain adjusted measures which are also included as an appendix at the end of our conference call slide deck.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Melinda.

Melinda Whittington (Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks Mark Good morning everyone. Yesterday, following the close of market, we reported our April ended fourth quarter and fiscal year results demonstrating strong execution and continued progress on our strategic initiatives. Highlights for our fourth quarter included our retail segment delivered sales increasing 9% led by acquisitions and new stores and we opened four new stores during the quarter bringing the total to 230 company owned on top.

Adjusted operating margin for our retail segment strengthened versus prior year coming in at almost 14% for the quarter and in our wholesale segment delivered sales decreased slightly but adjusted operating margin improved versus prior year. Highlights for our total fiscal year included total consolidated delivered sales of 2.1 billion up versus prior year with retail segment delivered sales increasing 6% versus prior year and during the year we opened A total of 15 net new stores the highest number of annual net new stores in our company history and we completed Our largest ever 15 store independent LA Z Boy acquisition.

In our wholesale segment, delivered sales were flat versus the prior year and adjusted operating margin Strengthened. We generated $204 million in operating cash flow up 9% versus prior year. We returned $85 million to shareholders through share repurchase and dividends, including our fifth consecutive year of increasing the quarterly dividend by 10%. And finally, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with just over $300 million in cash and no external debt.

I'm proud of the strong finish to this fiscal year as our performance delivered on expectations and even against an uneven backdrop. We are focused on driving our own momentum led by our retail business expansion through new stores, acquisitions and strong in store execution. Now turning towards consumer trends as reflected in our retail written sales during the fourth quarter, total written sales for our company owned retail segment increased 11% versus last year's fourth quarter driven by acquired and new stores.

Written same store sales, which exclude the benefit of new and acquired stores decreased 2% for the quarter which is a sequential improvement versus the third quarter and same store sales trends were strongest late in the fourth quarter with April delivering positive comps versus prior year and this strength continued through May with positive comps and a solid Memorial Day holiday. We continue to drive our own momentum despite softness across the category with industry data reported by the U.S. census Bureau indicating the market declined in the low to mid single digits during the quarter. We remain focused on retail growth where we can control the entire end to end consumer experience and gain share in the large and heavily fragmented furniture and home furnishings industry regardless of market conditions. We are leveraging the strength of our iconic brand, our agile US centered supply chain, consumer led insights, quality products and excellent in store execution to delight and inspire consumers across our network and in our Joybird business.

Total written sales increased 2% in the quarter driven by new stores. We continued to expand Joybird distribution with new stores and compatible wholesale partners and opened our 16th dedicated Joybird store in Dallas, Texas last month. Focusing on our broader strategic ambitions, I'd like to recap the progress we have made in our Century Vision objectives over the course of fiscal 26, our 99th year recall. Century Vision is our strategy to grow sales and market share through our consumer brands at a rate double the industry over the long term and sustainably expand our operating margin well beyond our centennial anniversary in 2027.

We have significantly expanded La-Z-Boy's brand reach over the past year with the largest number of new store openings and the most independent La-Z-Boy store acquisitions in one year in our company's history. As I mentioned, during the year we added 15 new company owned stores, acquired 15 independent La-Z-Boy stores and ended the year with 230 company owned locations. The company owned footprint now represents 61% of our total network. Our total La-Z-Boy store network including company owned and independently owned stores now stands at nearly 380 stores across North America.

We see Runway to growing the La Z boy footprint to 450 locations driven primarily by expansion of company owned stores. We expect to open approximately 10 new stores each fiscal year going forward and we will also continue to pursue independent store acquisitions as they become available. As a reminder, these acquisitions are one of the best uses of our cash as they are immediately sales and profit accretive and provide ownership to new markets with potential white space opportunities.

We are delighted to have recently signed an agreement to acquire another three store network across Florida and Alabama which we expect to close at the end of June. We are committed to growing our direct to consumer business where we are able to offer best in class consumer experiences in wholesale. We continue to add new compatible distribution and grow existing distribution with partners that value the strength of the La-Z-Boy brand, our enduring quality and differentiated product functionality supported by our vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities.

During the year we added 30 new dealers and 100 new doors including our new partnership with Living Spaces. There remains a considerable opportunity in growing with our strategic partners and we will be particularly focused on driving organic growth within our existing base going forward. Additionally, we will continue to invest in our comfort studios and branded spaces that offer unique store within a store branding at our larger independent retailers.

We ended the fiscal year with nearly 1400 LA Z boy Comfort, Studio and branded space locations, each fully dedicated to our La-Z-Boy branded products. Relevant brand messaging is another core pillar of our Century Vision growth strategy and I'll spend a few moments highlighting some of the wins we achieved throughout the year and and how we are capitalizing on this momentum recall we launched a new brand identity last August rooted in comfort and quality to enable the brand to reach a broader audience.

The campaign has been positively received by our consumers, customers, media and analysts alike, noting that our new look and feel just seems more comfortable and this is recognized in the advertising industry as well as we were named by Ad Age as one of the top five rebrands of 2025 and recently by the Shorty Awards, an international award honoring outstanding work across social and digital media as a gold winner under the Brand Redesign category.

I would also note that during the fourth quarter La-Z-Boy was named to America's Best stores list for 2026 by USA Today. This award is based on independent survey data and underscores our brand relevance and strong in store execution. We are also building momentum in product innovation. This spring at High Point Furniture Market our introductions included audiolux and Comfort Essentials. Audiolux is our market leading premium audio furniture line that leverages La-Z-Boy's in house consumer led insights to drive relevant innovation.

The product line combines an integrated audio experience, partnering with Klipsch and offering the comfort and quality for which La-Z-Boy is known. Look for it in stores this fall we also introduced our Comfort Essentials, an opening price point offering within our stationary assortment designed to meet the needs of value focused consumers. We know that younger shoppers are looking for more accessible options to begin their journey with the La-Z-Boy brand and we are innovating to meet that need.

Through continued investment in brand evolution, retail expansion, digital transformation, innovation and consumer insights, we are unlocking the powerful La-Z-Boy flywheel. Another core pillar of Century vision is to optimize the Joybird brand to growth and profitability. Joybird complements our broader core strategy of branded customized upholstery manufactured in North America and has a significant long term opportunity to grow share. Although Joybird's core consumer has been particularly volatile in the current economic environment, we remain committed to disciplined investments in the business to position the brand for sustainable long term success. We opened three new stores in fiscal 26 and plan to open three to four in fiscal 27. We also recently introduced a Joybird wholesale program with select strategic partners that has been very well received and helps expand Joybird's brand reach. We continue to monitor performance and are taking the appropriate steps to improve growth and profitability including redesigning our enterprise supply chain to more efficiently support Joybird. As I'll touch on shortly, the final pillar of Century vision strategy is strengthening our foundational capabilities and agility across our supply chain, technology and people.

Our vertically integrated model with approximately 90% of upholstered products manufactured in the US is a differentiated competitive advantage enabling personalized furniture delivered to consumers, homes in as little as four to six weeks and it is vital to our enterprise success and navigating the current geopolitical landscape. We are establishing an even more agile supply chain with our multi year distribution and home delivery transformation project.

During the past year we completed the western third of this project with our new Arizona Centralized hub and we are well on track with our Midwestern and Eastern phases. As a reminder, this multi year transformation will improve an already strong consumer experience and help drive stronger wholesale operating margins through operational efficiencies during the year, we also made meaningful advances in streamlining our operations and honing our focus on our core business.

We finalized our UK Supply chain restructuring in April and we completed the final step of our portfolio optimization in case goods with the sale of the American Drew and Kincaid wholesale case goods businesses in May and our strategic and agile adjustment to our supply chain continue as we look forward. We recently initiated projects to streamline our two smallest upholstery plants into our larger US Plant network. This will include fully consolidating Joybird Manufacturing into our long standing La-Z-Boy plants during fiscal 27 to more efficiently support this business.

We expect both of these small plant transitions to to be largely completed by the end of our fiscal year. Given the ongoing efficiency gains across our supply chain. We have ample capacity within our existing US Manufacturing operations to support future growth and view these changes as another key step in our Century Vision goal of building a more agile supply chain and continuing to improve operating margins and adjust to an ever changing macro environment.

As we begin fiscal 27, we are focused on controlling the controllables and confident in our ability to drive our own momentum and outperform the market. While the timing of a return to growth for our industry is uncertain, we have discrete levers to drive growth in our business and strengthen our foundation across our Century Vision pillars. And looking forward, we remain optimistic about an eventual rebound in housing fundamentals and in the furniture and home furnishings industry, which has historically grown at a healthy 3 to 4% growth rate.

And now let me turn the call over to Taylor to review our financial results in more detail.

Taylor Luebke (SVP and CFO)

Thank you Melinda and good morning everyone. As a reminder, we present our results on both a GAAP and adjusted basis. We believe the adjusted presentation better reflects underlying operating trends and performance of the business. Adjusted results exclude items which are detailed in our press release and in the Appendix section of our conference call slides. On a consolidated basis, fiscal 2026 fourth quarter sales were flat at $570 million versus last year as growth in our retail business was offset by lower delivered volume in our Joybird business.

Consolidated GAAP operating income was $41 million and adjusted operating income was $57 million. Consolidated GAAP operating margin improved to 7.2% and adjusted operating margin improved to 9.9% versus 9.4% last year, with the change primarily driven by 100 basis points from our case goods business due to favorable inventory adjustments and pricing leading up to the divestiture partially offset by expense deleverage on lower Joybird delivered sales.

Note the benefit from our case goods business is non repeatable given the recently announced sale of the wholesale case goods business. Diluted earnings per share totaled $0.81 on a GAAP basis and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.26. As I move to the segment discussion, my comments from here will focus on our adjusted reporting unless specifically stated otherwise. Starting with the retail segment for the fourth quarter, delivered sales increased 9% to 270 million driven by acquired and new stores and retail adjusted operating margin strengthened to 13.9% versus 13.1% driven by the positive impact of acquisitions.

For our wholesale segment, delivered sales decreased 2% to $393 million versus last year driven by modest declines across most of the businesses with continued softer industry trends. Adjusted operating margin for the wholesale Segment increased to 10.1% in the fourth quarter versus 8.5% last year driven by 150 basis points improvement in our case goods business primarily due to favorable inventory adjustments and pricing leading up to the divestiture for Joybird reported in corporate and Other delivered sales were $32 million, down 10% on lower delivered sales volume.

Corporate and other adjusted operating losses increased versus the prior year primarily due to expense deleverage on lower Joybird delivered sales on a GAAP basis we recorded a 20 million non cash impairment charge to reduce the carrying value of Joybird's goodwill reflecting near term impacts of the current macro backdrop which have disproportionately impacted the Joybird consumer. As noted, we continue to manage prudently and are taking steps to improve Joybird growth and profitability. Moving on to our consolidated adjusted gross margin and SGA performance for fiscal 2026 fourth quarter, consolidated adjusted gross margin for the entire company increased 230 basis points versus the prior year fourth quarter the increase in gross margin was primarily driven by the shift in consolidated mix towards our retail segment which has a higher gross margin rate than our wholesale segment and casegoods primarily due to favorable inventory adjustments and pricing before the divestiture, adjusted SGA as a percent of sales for the quarter increased by 180 basis points compared with last year.

Also due to the shift in consolidated mix towards our retail segment which carries a higher fixed cost structure relative to wholesale as well as fixed cost deleverage on lower delivered volume. In our Joybird business, our effective income tax rate on a GAAP basis for the fiscal year was 25.9% versus 31.4% for the prior year. The decrease in the effective tax rate in fiscal year 2026 compared with the prior year was primarily the result of the favorable tax impact of closing the UK manufacturing business this year versus the unfavorable impact from foreign discrete tax item in last year's rate.

We expect a more normalized effective income tax rate looking forward in the range of 26 to 27%. Turning to liquidity we ended the year with a Strong balance sheet, $303 million in cash and no externally funded debt. We generated a strong $204 million in cash from operating activities, an increase of 9% versus prior year. In fiscal year 2026 2026, we had a strong and disciplined deployment of capital with $248 million reinvested back into the business or returned to shareholders. We paid $86 million for acquisitions primarily related to the 15 store acquisition of the retail business in the Southeast U.S. and also invested 76 million in capital expenditures during the year primarily related to investment in new La Z Boy stores and remodels, manufacturing related investments and spending related to our distribution and home delivery transformation.

We continue to believe that the best use of our cash and highest return on investment is reinvesting back into the business and as such we remain committed to disciplined investments in new stores and remodels, acquisitions and in our distribution and home delivery transformation project to profitably grow our core business. During the fiscal year we returned 85 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, including 47 million in share repurchases and 38 million in dividends, which was our fifth consecutive year of increasing the quarterly dividend by 10% in the quarter.

We continued more normalized pace of share buybacks of $20 million in April, reflecting continued confidence in the Company's ability to sustainably grow the business, the Board of Directors approved a new share repurchase program of $300 million replacing the prior program. This represents approximately 20% of shares outstanding and underscores our commitment to maximize shareholder value and deliver returns to our shareholders. The Company expects normalized share repurchases looking forward, subject to market conditions and business performance.

We continue to view share repurchases in our dividend as an attractive use of our cash and positive return to shareholders. Over the last five years, we have returned over $430 million to shareholders through dividends and share purchases, while capital allocation in fiscal year 2026 was tilted more toward the business looking forward, our capital allocation target remains consistent to reinvest 50% of operating cash flow back into the business and return 50% to shareholders in share repurchases and dividends.

Before turning the call back to Melinda, let me highlight several important Items for fiscal 2027 and our first quarter for our first quarter, while we continue to have a measured view of the current macro environment, we expect first quarter sales to be in the range of 490 to 510 million, reflecting organic growth of up to 4% which excludes acquisitions and divestitures. Adjusted operating margin in the range of 4 to 5.5%. Lastly, as a reminder, our first quarter is generally the lowest sales and margin quarter in the fiscal year due to seasonally lower industry sales and our annual week long plant shutdown.

Also to note for our fiscal 2027 full year comparability to prior year will be affected by two items the full year impact of our exit of the wholesale case goods business which was completed last month and which delivered approximately $60 million in annual sales in fiscal 2026, and the half year impact of our 15 store retail acquisition which was completed at the end of October last year. We expect to open approximately 10 new LA Z Boy stores during the coming of the year, of which the majority will be company owned as well as three to four new Joybird stores. We continue to monitor the evolving tariff and trade policy environment and adjust accordingly. We are in the process of applying for refunds for IEPA tariffs through the standard CVP system and will determine next steps as we monitor our progress.

As a reminder, 90% of our upholstery production is based in the U.S. which continues to be a competitive advantage as we're able to deliver customized upholstery with speed to market and limits the impact of tariffs on our business relative to some in our industry. We expect capital expenditures to be in the range of 90 million to 110 million for the year with continued investment in our distribution and home delivery transformation, manufacturing related investments and investments in our La Z Boy retail stores including new stores and remodels.

And lastly, we expect capital allocation to be balanced between investments back into the business and return to shareholders and with that I will turn the call back to Melinda.

Melinda Whittington (Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks Taylor. We ended fiscal 26 on a strong note and we're creating our own momentum and investing for long term success. We're adapting our business with key strategic initiatives to even better position La Z Boy incorporated for our next hundred years and while the timing of a strengthening in our industry remains unclear, we are well positioned to continue to gain share now and disproportionately benefit when the industry does resume to a more normalized growth trajectory.

Before I conclude the call, I want to thank the entire La-Z-Boy Incorporated team and our many partners for their hard work and commitment to navigating the current environment, delivering strong results and strengthening for the future. We are focused on continuing to drive value for all of our stakeholders and I'm excited for the year ahead. And now we'll turn the call back to Mark.

Mark Beck

Thank you, Melinda. We will begin the question and answer period now. Holly Please review the instructions for getting into the queue to ask questions.

Holly

Certainly at this time we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we poll for questions.

Your first question for today is from Brad Thomas with KeyBank Capital Markets.

Taylor Zikon

Hey, good morning. This is Taylor Zikon for Brad. Thanks for taking our question. Maybe first, Melinda, you had a pretty good quarter here. You called out the strength in April and then continuing those positive trends here in May. So just kind of curious first, kind of what you think is kind of helping to drive some of that strength here towards the end of the quarter and into, I guess fiscal one. Q and I'm curious if you want to comment at all on maybe what you're seeing so far here in June.

Melinda Whittington (Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)

Sure. Good morning. I would say overall, I'll step back and say we know that consumer behavior overall remains choppy. There's a lot going on in both continued housing trends as well as just overall consumer sentiment. But everything that we are doing is around driving our own momentum in that environment. And when I look at the strong results in the last couple of months, you know, April into May, it's around that execution, right? It's around having the right product, the right messaging and then outstanding in store execution and you know, speaking to the consumer, meeting to them, you know, where they're ready to buy. As we've talked in the past and even in some of our our ongoing innovation work, we have to meet some of the consumers that are aspirationally trying to get into the brand and have some sharpened price points, particularly on these big tentpole events.

And at the same time we still have a really strong design business and some incredible in store execution that's driving some larger tickets. So it's really, it's that flywheel of all those pieces that I think is delivering the results that we've seen recently as we kind of continue on. We're still early into June as an industry, we know we have some of these bigger tent poles. So our focus is around the July 4th holiday is the next big one coming up and we're looking to continue that momentum even up against a backdrop that will remain choppy.

Taylor Luebke (SVP and CFO)

And then maybe if I can squeeze one in for Taylor as well. Your operating margins here for this, you know, first quarter kind of came in you know, near 10% which is, you know, significantly above kind of where you had guided for the quarter. So maybe just if you can comment on, you know, what you saw that kind of went right during the quarter that really pushed you above that guidance range. And then as we head into your fiscal first quarter guidance, maybe can you kind of help us kind of understand some of the puts and takes here Given the outperformance in fiscal 4Q how does that help you kind of inform the guide for fiscal 1Q as well?

Yes, thanks and good morning Taylor. So Let me hit Q4 first one incredibly pleased with the strong results for the quarter against an uneven backdrop, particularly on the strength of our retail business, both written delivered sales as well as margin expansion. But even solid a solid quarter on wholesale segment with expanded operating margin expansion versus the prior year. So you know we continue to operate with excellence across our enterprise and really drive our own momentum as Melinda said. So delivering to consumer every day obviously helps with the results but also just an everyday cost discipline as well as optimization helps deliver strong margins.

You know you mentioned over delivery. You know the big, you know the real reason for the over delivery versus our range was the benefit of kind of the inventory trends as well as pricing on our case goods business prior to us, you know completing that sale in May, which I'd mentioned is non repeatable, kind of strip that out. We are at the high end of our guidance range for the quarter which again incredibly pleased with especially with, you know, where the world is right now as we pivot into Q1 I think let me level up and then I'll come back down. So as we approach our fiscal year 27, our objective as we go in any year is to grow our organic sales behind our core business and expand our operating margin again towards our long term objectives of the outperform the industry by 2x and to get to double digit margins over the long term. So that's our objective for the year as we enter the year. You know, really proud of where our retail business is and their performance, as Melinda had mentioned, I think we are, we are seeing some near term pressure on our wholesale business largely as well as Joybird 1.

Is demand still choppy, particularly on the B2B side, although we have plans to mitigate. We think it's short term, but also as you can see in the news or PPI or other measures, inflation has ticked up a bit and we're absorbing some of that in the short term, which is manageable, but it's there. And I would just say that's intentional for us as we're really looking to

Taylor Zikon

maximize demand over the summer selling periods. But it's short term and while we may have waited for other kind of peers out there, we have taken action to address kind of the inflationary input costs called post Q1. So those are kind of the kind of near term kind of headwinds on the, on the wholesale side which are, which will mitigate ongoing as well as the strength of our retail. And then I would say lastly Melinda mentioned outside of, you know, the end of year two of our distribution and home delivery transformation project we have announced, which I'm proud to a continued optimization of our supply supply chain where we'll consolidate two of our smallest plants into our broader US network over the course of the year. So that adds some friction costs. Again, manageable, but additional initiatives that we have underway. Gotcha. Understood. That's helpful. Thanks Taylor. I'll turn it over to others.

Thanks so much.

Holly

Your next question for today is from Bobby Griffin with Raymond James.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst)

Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions. Hey Taylor, I want to go back to I guess some of the margin commentary and kind of better understand the core performance. So if, if I back out the wholesale dynamics with the inventory and the pricing, as you note, I think you guys still come towards the top end of your guidance which is very healthy. But that would imply some margin pressure. I think verse last year call it like, you know, EBIT would have been closer to like an 8.8% margin versus the 94 of last year. So that year over year pressure, what drove that? Is that the supply chain investments around the home delivery optimization or is that deleverage or what else could potentially be driving that as I try to look at this quarter on a more normal versus normal basis.

Hey Bobby, good morning. Thanks for the question. So one again, you know, proud of the where we came in on your kind of peeling back onion on the core, you know, I would say, you know, it's, it's some continuation of what we've been talking for the last three quarters, which is when we have some

Taylor Luebke (SVP and CFO)

friction costs with our delivery or distribution and home delivery transformation. But also while proud of sequential improvement on our same store sales, it's still negative, which does have deleverage impact underneath as well. As we've mentioned kind of the results for the Joybird business, deleverage impacts on the lower delivery quarter. So those are really the reasons. It's not anything new, it's what we've been managing through the year. We've seen incremental improvements across most of them.

And again, as we approach this year, again our intent is to grow our core business behind sequential improvement, turn deposit same store sales and improve our profitability.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst)

Okay, that's helpful. And then Taylor. Yeah.

Taylor Luebke (SVP and CFO)

The 10K actually called out some of the distribution costs from the work you guys are doing on the supply chain. I think it was a 70 basis point headwind to gross margin for wholesale. As you look at fiscal year 27, does that stay the same or does that actually now start to decrease as we get further into the project? How does that headwind appear as you continue to work through that multiyear project? So let me back up and just talk where we're at in the entire multi year project and I think it will answer the question.

So this is a four year multi year transformation of what started with 15 distribution centers that will transition down to three centralized hubs which the benefits are enormous across our enterprise, both consumer as well as internal performance, profitability as we want to meet consumers with broader delivery radius. Two, it reduces our square footage by 30% and three, it reduces our mileage traveled of heavy furniture by 20%. All while having better call more productive inventory storage, et cetera.

So year one, we just completed. Very pleased we completed the western phase. We're now in year two which is another similarly big year where we will get close to completion of our midwest in eastern hubs. So I would call year one and year two is roughly equivalent where we noted there are some friction costs which we still intend to grow margin despite of we're turning more to courts break even positive year theory with the full benefit of call it that 50 to 75 basis points benefit in year four as we complete the project.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst)

Okay, and I got, I got two more and I promised one of them is for Melinda. So I might just pick on you, Taylor, but there's a lot going on. I'm feeling hurt, Bobby. Yeah, I'M coming Melissa. But no, it's encouraging what's taking place on you kind of, I don't want to call it rebuilding but you're kind of, you know, flexing organization. But so when we stack up that change, the new supply chain optimization that you called out today, minor but still consolidating plants plus the sale of case goods and the margin benefit there, you know, understanding this is down the road and there's a lot that can change from the industry. But like what does all that add up to be on a potential margin list and what is the base case for us to kind of grade it against?

Taylor Luebke (SVP and CFO)

So I, you know one I would say, Bobby, I am as pleased as I've been with the transformation and the agility across the enterprise whether it's the distribution home delivery, whether it's the continued plant optimization, whether it's just honing the portfolio. So you'll appreciate the words. You know, we've sized some of these which we intend to realize over the coming years. Others is just in the background as part of the everyday cost improvement improvement, continuous improvement to drive towards our double digit sustainable margin over the long term. And we've talked before like we see our way absent any kind of market normalized market growth to bridging where we've been to about halfway to that double digit where you know, frankly the other half we do need some just general healthy housing fundamentals and industry growth to leverage our fixed cost basis across both our store called store fleet and our supply chain operations.

So these two new the two new announced today on the smaller upholstery plants when be kind of also what we're working on to bridge that half to our double digit over the long term. Okay, that's helpful. And then Melinda just I thought you know the joy bur comments were interesting with the supply chain slash the new stores. I mean written sales still negative but you guys opening up new stores I think probably implies you're seeing something there.

So just curious kind of what you see out of the new stores when you do open it. You know, is there a lift to the dma? Is that part of the path to help turn the written. Just curious kind of the strategic aspect there's.

Melinda Whittington (Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, certainly. I'm glad I finally got a question. Bobby. Sorry. Poor Taylor. I picked on pretty good here today. My fault. Taylor. No, thanks for highlighting Joybird. I mean stepping back. Joybird fits very well into our portfolio as being a direct to consumer brand, vertically integrated fits very well with expanding kind of our offerings as La Z Boy Incorporated strategically and Enjoybread has an outsized consumer awareness already that, you know, that we're proud of. And we see the, you know, the path to really grow.

It's been challenged certainly against sort of the current economic backdrop and with a particularly sensitive consumer to all the uncertainty out there. And so we continue to sort of hone that. What we see, though, is that the brand is very strong, that every time we open a store and because that consumer is so digitally native and that brand started online, we know where to open those stores. And so when we do open a store, they're almost immediately accretive to the overall Joybird portfolio.

What we need to continue to do though, is in this time and at the size is make sure that all of the support behind Joybird is, is right sized and structured in an agile way for sort of this choppy consumer environment. So you may remember, Bobby, probably in the middle of the pandemic, we had done some work. We were going to start to fully synthesize Joybird manufacturing into our La Z Boy plants. And we actually backed off of that in the middle of just the pandemic and the backlog and everything and just decided not to distract all the operations.

But this is sort of retooling and bringing back to life that project, which will give us a new level of agility on being able to support Joybird from behind the scenes and then to the front. We'll continue on that pace of expanding the brand reach of Joybird carefully with the store positioning. And even over the last year, we opened up with some of our best strategic plans, partners across our other brands opening up just a small wholesale presence so that we can keep expanding that reach of Joybird in a really efficient way to some markets that aren't likely going to make sense for a store at sort of the size and scale of the business today.

But we watch it closely because it is definitely in an investment phase for us and has continued to be very good.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst)

I appreciate all the details. Congrats on the work with inside the organization, the supply chain. Understand it's going to take a little while, but it does look like we're making real progress and it's showing up. So thank you for taking my questions.

Holly

Thanks, Bobby.

Anthony Lebadinski (Analyst)

Your next question for today is from Anthony lebadinski with Sidoti. Thank you and good morning everyone, and certainly nice to see the strong finish to fiscal 26. Just a quick follow up on Joybird. So you talked about wholesale strategic partnerships. What have you seen, though far and what do you think is the opportunity there, if you could expand on that.

Melinda Whittington (Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, it's complementary to our core business. And so what we're looking at is similar to our La Z Boy brand. We want to make sure that we're only expanding with partners that are going to appreciate and treat the brand for what it is. One of the few true consumer brands supported by, you know, our own marketing and brand support. One of the few true consumer brands manufactured still in our industry. And so we're working with those partners. It's a metered rollout to make sure that we're learning as we go along the way.

And as I mentioned in some of my previous comments, it's focused on getting the brand out to some areas that probably don't make sense, sense to support with their own stores. And so we're in a learning phase. But so far demand has exceeded maybe our willingness to expand because we want to make sure that we're learning as we go there. But we're very pleased with what that's done so far and our strategic partners are very pleased with what they've seen as well in bringing some new news into their stores, frankly, as they're offering a variety of brands.

Anthony Lebadinski (Analyst)

Yeah, thanks for that, Melinda. And then Taylor, I know you touched on this a little bit, but as far as, you know, phone costs and transportation costs, can you just comment on that and are you looking to do any pricing actions to try to offset this or how should we think about that?

Taylor Luebke (SVP and CFO)

Thanks, Anthony. Yeah, so I think first and foremost there have been some news and you know, supply particular suppliers and issues over the past couple months. I'd say most, most importantly, we have no supply risk. We fully meet the demand in front of us, which is positive. We do see particularly on poly, but also just broader based inflation a lot linked to kind of petroleum crude inflationary pressure in the near term, which I had mentioned, I think in my, in my earlier comments, at least on the quarter one kind of, kind of outlook.

So we see it. We've, we've intentionally chose to just, you know, Barrett, in quarter one, which is manageable as we're trying to really drive consumer demand, particularly over the summer selling periods. But we have taken actions to mitigate ongoing. So we have announced very nominal pricing across our businesses to be largely effective for kind of quarter two onward to mitigate the pressure.

Anthony Lebadinski (Analyst)

Gotcha. Okay. And then lastly, as far as timing of new store openings for both La Z Boy and Joybird, will those be kind of evenly spaced out during the year or will there be any significant variation quarter to quarter?

Taylor Luebke (SVP and CFO)

No. No significant variation. Obviously, everything in real estate is subject to, you know, permits and timing and weather, but generally speaking, no significant changes for prior years. Got it. Well, thank you very much and best of luck.

Anthony Lebadinski (Analyst)

Thank you. Thank you, Anthony.

Holly

We have reached the end of the question and answer session and I will now turn the call over to Mark for closing remarks.

Mark Beck

Thanks, Holly. Melinda Taylor and I will be in our offices to take any follow up calls. Thanks and have a great day.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.