Tapestry (NYSE:TPR) reported fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company's fourth-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Tapestry Inc. reported strong financial performance for fiscal 2026, exceeding their three-year revenue, operating margin, and EPS commitments two years ahead of plan, with revenue reaching $8 billion, operating margin expanding by 340 basis points, and EPS increasing by 38%.
The company's growth was driven by customer acquisition, particularly Gen Z, with 11 million new customers added. Key regions like Greater China and Europe saw significant growth, and the Coach brand delivered constant currency revenue growth of 14% in Q4.
For fiscal 2027, Tapestry expects mid-single-digit revenue growth, continued operating margin expansion, and low double-digit EPS growth, with strategic investments in AI and marketing to enhance brand desirability and consumer engagement.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and welcome to this Tapestry conference call. Today's call is being recorded. If you would like to ask a question today, please press star one on your telephone keypad. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the Global Head of Investor Relations, Christina Colon.
Christina Colon, Global Head of Investor Relations
Good morning. Thank you for joining us. With me today to discuss our fourth quarter and full-year results, our strategies, and our outlook are Joanne Crevoiserat, Tapestry's Chief Executive Officer, and Scott Roe, Tapestry's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Before we begin, we must point out that this conference call will involve certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.
This includes projections for our business in the current or future quarters or fiscal years. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K, the press release we issued this morning, and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a complete list of risks and other important factors that could impact our future results and performance.
Non-GAAP financial measures are included in our comments today and in our presentation slides. For a full reconciliation to corresponding GAAP financial information, please visit our website, www.tapestry.com/investors, and then view the earnings release and the presentation posted today. Now let me outline the speakers and topics for this conference call. Joanne will begin with highlights for Tapestry and our brands. Scott will continue with our financial results, capital allocation priorities, and our outlook going forward.
Following that, we will hold a question-and-answer session where we will be joined by Todd Kahn, CEO and Brand President of Coach. After Q&A, Joanne will conclude with brief closing remarks. I'd now like to turn it over to Joanne Crevoiserat, Tapestry CEO.
Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO
Good morning. Thank you, Christina, and welcome, everyone. Fiscal 2026 was a defining year for Tapestry. We meaningfully exceeded expectations, achieving the three-year revenue, operating margin, and earnings per share commitments we established at our Investor Day — two years ahead of plan. We delivered strong growth and record results while continuing to invest in our brands, our people, and the capabilities that will shape our future. More important than what we accomplished is what we've built.
Through intentional choices, disciplined execution, and a deep understanding of the consumer, we have built a stronger, more focused organization who every day bring our AMPLIFI strategy to life, delivering creativity, value, and relevance at scale, strengthening our connections with consumers. These efforts continue to compound, extending our competitive advantage while driving durable growth and long-term shareholder value. In a world where consumer expectations, technology, and competitive dynamics continue to evolve, the combination of our direct consumer relationships, data-driven decision making, global scale, and agile operating model has become increasingly valuable and differentiated. With that, let me touch on some highlights. For the year, we achieved revenue of $8 billion, growing 17% on a pro forma constant currency basis, expanded operating margin by 340 basis points to over 23%, and increased earnings per share by 38% to $7.05. Growth was fueled by customer acquisition as we welcomed 11 million new customers to our brands, led by Gen Z. Importantly, we accelerated growth in our core leather goods category with AUR and unit growth.
Luxury leather goods remains one of the most attractive categories within the consumer space because of its enduring demand, compelling economics, and significant runway for growth. In addition, we delivered broad-based double-digit growth across key regions, gaining share and expanding the market. Our agile, direct-to-consumer-led operating model drove double-digit revenue growth and increasing profitability across both digital and stores. Further, Tapestry is committed to embracing AI to enhance the magic of our people and our brands.
To that end, we continue to build proprietary technology and AI capabilities that differentiate how we operate and empower our teams. During the year, we secured our first AI patent, building on our previously patented data fabric technology. Together, they reflect our culture of innovation and more than a decade of investment in data, decision, intelligence, and enterprise technology. Overall, our fiscal year 26 results demonstrate the power of our approach to brand building.
We continue to win with consumers at the point of market entry, welcoming younger customers who transact at higher AURs, have stronger retention, and influence purchasing behavior across generations. This reinforces our confidence that our greatest opportunities lie ahead. Now, moving to our results by brand, Coach delivered another strong quarter with constant currency revenue growth of 14% and increasing profitability. This capped an exceptional year and reinforced the enduring strength of our iconic 85-year-old brand.
Several factors underscore the durability of our growth. We drove new customer acquisition around the world, welcoming over 2 million new consumers in the quarter and nearly 9 million for the full year. Growth was led by Gen Z, whose influence extended across generations. At the same time, existing customers continued to drive strong sales. Underpinning these results is Coach's consumer-led approach, consistently translating deep consumer insights into action to build lasting emotional connections with the brand.
Our core leather goods assortment continued to lead in Q4, with handbag AUR increasing at a mid-teens rate and unit volumes roughly in line with the prior year, both consistent with expectations and our deliberate strategy to prioritize brand health and reduce promotions. For the year, handbag AUR rose mid-teens and units increased low double digits, demonstrating the multifaceted nature of our growth. Looking ahead, we continue to see opportunity to grow both AUR and units while staying true to the values and the value proposition that define Coach.
Further, our strong results continued across key geographies in the fourth quarter, including North America up 10%, Greater China rising 30%, and Europe increasing 25%, highlighting the global resonance of the brand. Coach is bringing new consumers into the category and growing the market. Given the strength of the brand and our large addressable market, we continue to see a clear path to Coach becoming a $10 billion. Now to cover our fourth quarter results in more detail.
Our creative teams continue to execute with clarity and purpose, delivering product innovation that is resonating with consumers. Our icons continue to outperform, consistent with our strategy, with broad-based strength across the assortment. The New York family, including Brooklyn, Empire, and Chelsea, along with the Tabby and Terry families, drove strong Gen Z acquisition and reinforced Coach's leadership in its core category, with a robust innovation pipeline ahead.
Structurally, we concentrate product innovation behind core families that build over time while remaining disciplined in our pursuit of growth. More broadly, our results reflect the strategic choices we've made to strengthen the brand. Perhaps the most significant has been our One Coach strategy. By deliberately blurring the traditional industry lines between retail and outlet channels, bringing collection product at full price into outlet, and unifying our digital experience through a single Coach.com, we've aligned our approach with how consumers shop today, creating a stronger, more consistent global expression of the brand.
This has driven customer acquisition, higher AURs, and growth around the world. Next, turning to footwear, we delivered high-teens growth in the quarter with increasing demand from Gen Z. Sneakers continued to fuel the growth, driven by the success of the Soho family along with continued strength of Margo. Footwear remains a long-term growth opportunity for Coach given our brand strength, low share of the market, and the category's relevance to our target consumer.
Turning to marketing, our strategic investments continued to generate compounding benefits. This quarter, we increased marketing spend by approximately 20% versus the prior year, with a continued shift toward top-of-funnel brand building to support sustained customer acquisition. Coach's Explore Your Story campaign continued to resonate, supporting increased unaided awareness and reinforcing Coach's top-of presence among Gen Z. Building on this momentum, we launched And Coach, a campaign co-created with Gen Z that celebrates moments of becoming and the confidence a Coach bag can champion along the way.
Additionally, our partnerships extended Coach's reach into new communities and cultural conversations as we launched the second season of our WNBA partnership, strengthening the brand's connection at the intersection of fashion, sports, and culture. Collectively, these actions are reinforcing Coach's cultural relevance and driving customer acquisition. More importantly, they strengthen a competitive advantage — a deep understanding of the consumer — and an ability to consistently translate those insights into demand creation at scale.
And finally, we deepen consumer engagement through distinctive brand experiences. We continue to roll out our Expressive Luxury store concept globally. These stores are driving higher traffic and longer dwell times, particularly among Gen Z consumers, supporting our plan to expand the concept to impact approximately 80% of our traffic by fiscal year 30. In addition, Coach Play continues to serve as both a destination for consumers and a source of inspiration for our broader store strategy.
New Coach Play locations in Chicago, Atlanta, and Le Marais in Paris are helping build brand desire with our target consumers. Together, these investments reflect our conviction that physical retail remains one of our most powerful opportunities to express the brand, as consumers invite us into their world to share important moments in their life, extending the connection well beyond a transaction. In closing, my confidence in the future of Coach is grounded in the combination of an iconic brand, a deep understanding of today's consumer, and an organization that continues to thoughtfully steward and evolve the brand, preserving what makes it distinctive while ensuring it remains relevant for new generations of consumers. I believe that combination positions Coach for continued leadership and meaningful growth and long-term value creation. Turning to Kate Spade, our strategy for Kate Spade has been deliberate and phased — streamlining the business, solidifying the foundation, and positioning the brand to scale. At its core, that means building greater brand desire and relevance to drive sustainable, profitable growth.
In fiscal year 26, we remain disciplined in executing that strategy, making choices that improve the quality of the business. Although top-line progress was more gradual than we planned, our experience has given us greater clarity on where consumers are responding, where our investments are driving results, and where we need to focus going forward. Now, turning to our strategic pillars and fourth quarter results, first, we are committed to fueling brand desirability supported by marketing.
During the fourth quarter, we focused on increasing the reach and relevance of our full-funnel marketing activities, which resulted in higher brand consideration among Gen Z in our latest U.S. brand health tracker. In addition, our first creator-led YouTube campaign drove an increase in purchase intent well ahead of the platform benchmark, showing traction in our work. We also know that we need more consumers to engage with our content, as unaided brand awareness more broadly has not yet improved, and this is a key part of driving acquisition and ultimately growth.
As we enter fiscal year 27, we'll build on these learnings through creator partnerships and activations that drive brand awareness and desire. We're also pleased to welcome Allison Bedea as Chief Marketing Officer, who brings deep brand-building experience from the luxury and beauty industries. Next, we continued to build a more focused assortment grounded in consumer insights. Our handbag blockbusters, led by the Margo, 454, and Duo families, contributed to continued improvement in handbags and drove customer acquisition, particularly among Gen Z consumers.
We welcomed over 450,000 new customers during the quarter and approximately 2 million for the full year, with these consumers transacting at higher AURs than the balance of the customer base — a foundational element of our strategy. Finally, we continued to focus on creating compelling omnichannel experiences. Our light-touch renovation program, designed to bring more color and emotion to our stores, continued to drive a lift in sales through improvements in conversion and average transaction value, and we're expanding those learnings across additional locations.
Looking ahead, as we move from streamlining to solidifying our foundation and preparing to scale, we're focused on further strengthening our creative execution in product and storytelling. The appointment of Jonathan Saunders as Executive Creative Director, working alongside Ava, will advance our efforts to bring uplifting luxury to life for a new generation of consumers, with the distinctiveness of joy and femininity inherent in this iconic brand.
To close, Kate Spade has significant long-term potential, and our conviction in that opportunity remains unchanged. We'll continue focusing our efforts and investment behind the initiatives that are strengthening the brand and positioning it for sustainable, profitable growth over time. Before turning it over to Scott, I'd like to come back to Tapestry's vision to give more people the power to bring their own style and story into the world. Throughout fiscal 2026, we realized that vision by welcoming millions of new consumers to our brands, deepening our relationships with existing consumers, and delivering the creativity, value, and relevance that inspire self-expression across generations and geographies. Our success is by design. We will continue to stay curious, remain focused, and earn the trust of consumers every day. This is how we will continue to build advantages that compound, delivering durable growth and long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll now hand it to Scott.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Joanne, and good morning, everyone. As Joanne highlighted, we achieved the financial commitments we established at Investor Day two years ahead of plan, driving a step change in our earnings power and cash flow generation. From this stronger foundation, we enter fiscal 2027 confident in our ability to deliver mid-single-digit annual revenue growth, continued operating margin expansion, and low double-digit EPS growth consistent with our long-term commitments.
Importantly, our competitive advantages translate into a differentiated financial model. We operate in an attractive category with durable demand and compelling margin characteristics as we continue to welcome new customers to our brands and category, and we generate higher-quality growth and strong cash flow supported by disciplined capital allocation. That combination gives us the power and flexibility to consistently invest in the business while returning meaningful capital to shareholders.
With that, let me walk through our fourth quarter results in more detail, starting with revenue trends. On a pro forma constant-currency basis, sales increased 11% compared to the prior year, highlighted by strong global momentum. North America sales rose 7% compared to the prior year, driven by a 10% increase at Coach where we continue to drive healthy growth at expanding gross margins. In Europe, revenue grew 19% versus last year, fueled by continued strength in our direct business and robust new customer acquisition.
Particularly among Gen Z, local consumers continue to drive growth, contributing to meaningful market share gains in the region. Given our relatively low penetration, we believe Europe remains a compelling long-term growth opportunity. Now turning to Greater China, revenue rose 28% driven by broad-based growth across channels led by digital and strong customer acquisition. We are winning with Gen Z consumers through compelling creativity and relevant activations, contributing to significant market share gains.
Given the size of the opportunity and the momentum we're seeing in the business, we're continuing to make strategic investments in the region, positioning us for long-term growth in this important market. In other Asia, revenue increased 22% led by growth in South Korea and Australia, and in Japan sales declined 4% as expected, reflecting our intentional pullback in promotions. Now touching on revenue by channel for the quarter, our D2C-led model continued to drive strong results, with direct-to-consumer revenue increasing 11%.
Digital sales grew approximately mid-single digits, while global brick-and-mortar sales increased in the mid-teens. Importantly, all channels delivered strong and increasing profitability. Moving down the P&L, we continued to drive healthy gross margin expansion, delivering a fourth quarter gross margin of 78.1%, up 180 basis points versus last year. This was driven by an operational increase of 170 basis points, as well as a favorable 60-basis-point impact from the divestiture of Stuart Weitzman.
These benefits more than offset a tariff and duty headwind of approximately 60 basis points, including approximately 30 basis points at Coach and approximately 250 basis points at Kate Spade. Overall, our strong gross margin remains a core element of our value-creation model, supported by an agile supply chain that enables us to deliver craftsmanship at scale, one of Tapestry's key competitive advantages. Turning to SG&A, expenses increased 8% while leveraging 80 basis points versus last year.
This was inclusive of a 130-basis-point increase in marketing, which represented 14% of sales in the quarter. Together, this reflects strong operational discipline and our continued ability to invest behind growth while expanding profitability. Overall operating margin expanded 250 basis points in the quarter, driving a 25% increase in operating income and exceeding our expectations. Fourth quarter EPS of $1.32 increased 28% versus last year, also exceeding our guidance despite a headwind of more than $0.05 from a higher tax rate versus plan due to a number of discrete items.
Now turning to shareholder returns, in fiscal 26 we returned $1.7 billion to shareholders. This included $326 million in dividends and $1.35 billion in share repurchases, representing approximately 11.5 million shares at an average price of $1.18 per share. Turning to fiscal 27, we expect to return another $1.7 billion to shareholders. Our board approved a 16% increase in the dividend to an annualized rate of $1.85 per share, and we expect to repurchase approximately $1.35 billion of shares, underscoring our confidence in the future.
Our ability to return significant capital to shareholders while continuing to invest for growth reflects the strength of our business and the consistency of our free cash flow. And now, before turning to the details of our balance sheet and cash flows, I'd like to reiterate our capital allocation priorities, which are unchanged. We have two foundational commitments: first, to invest in our brands and business to support long-term sustainable growth, and to return capital to shareholders via our dividend with the goal over time to increase the dividend at least in line with earnings growth.
Beyond these two foundational commitments, our robust cash flow generation provides us with balance sheet flexibility for value creation. This includes the opportunity for share repurchase activity under our previously announced share repurchase authorization. And finally, utilizing our rigorous four-lens framework, we consistently evaluate opportunities for strategic portfolio management. Importantly, and as previously communicated, before moving forward with any acquisitions, we will ensure Coach remains strong and Kate Spade has returned to sustainable top-line growth.
These clear capital allocation priorities are underpinned by our firm commitment to a solid investment-grade rating and maintaining our long-term gross leverage target of below 2.5x. Now turning to the details of our balance sheet and cash flows, we ended the year with nearly $1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments and total borrowings of $2.4 billion, representing net debt of $1.2 billion. Our gross debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was 1.1 times, more than a full turn below our long-term target.
Adjusted free cash flow totaled $1.86 billion for the year, and CapEx and cloud computing costs were $217 million. Inventory levels at year end were 4% below prior year, slightly below expectations due to a shift in receipt timing into Q1. For fiscal 27, we expect inventory levels to increase year over year in support of our growth ambition. Now moving to our guidance for fiscal 27, which is provided on a non-GAAP and comparable 52-week versus 52-week basis.
Our full year guidance remains consistent with the long-term financial algorithm we established at Investor Day. Now turning to the details for the fiscal year, we expect revenue of $8.4 billion to $8.5 billion, representing mid-single-digit growth on a nominal and constant-currency basis. FX is expected to be a 40-basis-point tailwind for the year. Touching on sales details by region on a constant-currency basis, as we've previously discussed, our long-term algorithm contemplates disciplined growth in North America and an increasing contribution from international markets where our brands remain underpenetrated and we see substantial opportunity over time. In North America, we expect revenue to increase low single digits. In both Europe and Greater China, we expect growth of mid-teens. In Japan, we're forecasting a return to growth, and in other Asia we anticipate high single-digit gains. By brand, this guidance incorporates high-single-digit growth at Coach and a high-single-digit decline at Kate Spade. In addition, our outlook assumes operating margin expansion of 50 basis points to nearly 24%, driven by both an increase in gross margin and SG&A leverage.
This reflects our continued ability to invest behind our brands while expanding profitability. We expect gross margin to increase by approximately 30 basis points, driven by operational improvements and favorable geographic and brand mix. Embedded in our outlook is the assumption for a mid-20s percent tariff rate on U.S. imports for fiscal 27, resulting in a roughly net-neutral P&L impact year over year, including mitigating actions. On SG&A, we expect approximately 20 basis points of leverage, reflecting disciplined expense management while continuing to invest behind brand growth.
For some texture on operating profit by brand, we expect Coach to maintain its best-in-class operating margin of nearly 36%. At Kate Spade, we expect a modest operating loss reflecting continued investment in the brand. Corporate expenses are expected to leverage for the year, a trend we expect to continue, moving to below-the-line expectations for the year. Net interest expense is expected to be approximately $55 million. The tax rate is expected to be approximately 18.5%, and our weighted average diluted share count for the year is expected to be approximately 203 million shares.
Taken together, we expect EPS of $7.80 to $7.90, representing low double-digit growth versus the prior year. As a reminder, our guidance is provided on a comparable 52-week basis. Fiscal 2027 includes a 53rd week, which is expected to contribute approximately 1 percentage point of annual revenue growth and have neutral impact on operating margin. Moving on, we anticipate adjusted free cash flow to approach $1.7 billion. And finally, we expect CapEx and cloud computing costs to be in the area of $300 million, or 3% to 4% of revenue.
This reflects a step-up in investment to support future growth, including incremental investment in Coach's store fleet through new openings and renovations. Approximately 70% of our spend will be related to growing and enhancing our fleet, with the balance primarily supporting our ongoing technology and digital investments. Before turning to the first quarter, let me briefly comment on our approach to guidance and the shape of the year. Our current quarter guidance reflects our latest thinking, while the balance of the year embeds, in aggregate, the long-term financial algorithm we've established.
On the phasing of the year, keep in mind that we continue to operate in an environment of macro uncertainty and evolving tariff dynamics, alongside shifts in the cadence of our marketing investments. As a result, quarterly profitability will be uneven, with tariffs providing a modest benefit in the first half of the year before becoming a headwind in the second half. Generally, revenue is forecasted to grow high single digits in the first half of the year and mid-single digits in the second half, with Q4 above Q3 given prior year compares.
From an EPS standpoint, we're incorporating low double-digit growth in both the first and second half. Touching on Q1 guidance specifically, we expect revenue growth of high single digits on both a nominal and constant-currency basis versus prior year pro forma revenue. This includes low-teens growth at Coach, which represents mid-30s growth on a two-year stack basis, and at Kate Spade we've embedded a low double-digit decline. Turning to margins, we expect gross margin to increase by 120 basis points in Q1, offset by higher SG&A due entirely to continued increases in marketing, resulting in operating margin in line with prior year.
Taken together, Q1 EPS is forecasted to be approximately $1.55, a low-teens increase. In closing, fiscal 2026 demonstrated both the quality and potential of our business. We achieved Tapestry's revenue, operating margin, and EPS commitments established at our Investor Day two years ahead of plan while continuing to invest in our brands, capabilities, and future growth, and returning $1.7 billion to shareholders. We enter fiscal 2027 with confidence.
Our outlook is consistent with the long-term financial algorithm we established at Investor Day, reflecting the durability of our model and the quality of our growth. The strength of our category, our brands, and our operating model gives us the power and flexibility to consistently invest for growth while returning meaningful capital to shareholders. These advantages continue to compound, driving durable growth and long-term shareholder value. I'd now like to open it up for your questions.
OPERATOR
If you would like to ask a question, please press star one now on your telephone keypad. To remove yourself from the queue, you may press star two once again. That is star one to ask a question. We'll take our first question from Matthew Boss with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Matthew Boss, Analyst at J.P. Morgan
Thanks and congrats on a nice quarter. So Joanne, you delivered a very strong fiscal 26 and are guiding the first quarter to continued strong growth, particularly at Coach. But the full-year outlook does embed some moderation as the year progresses. Could you just walk us through how you're thinking about the setup for fiscal 27, including current demand at the Coach brand relative to that low-teens guide for the first quarter, and what gives you confidence in the durability of growth in the back half and beyond from here?
Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO
Good morning, Matt. We're incredibly confident in the durability of our growth and as we think about the setup for fiscal 27, I'll just step back and provide a little context. As you mentioned, we had a strong fiscal 26 where we achieved our Investor Day commitments two years ahead of plan while strengthening the company for the long term. And this is a critical point because we see that our greatest opportunities are still ahead of us in fiscal 27 and beyond.
We're growing from a higher base while maintaining our algorithm—the algorithm that we rolled out at our Investor Day. We're maintaining that algorithm for durable growth into the future. And more important than the results we delivered last year, which are incredible, it's the business we built to deliver them. Over the last several years, we've strengthened our brands, we've deepened our direct consumer relationships, and we've expanded our global reach and built differentiated capabilities.
As I said in my prepared remarks in data, decision intelligence and AI, we also meaningfully improved profitability and cash generation, which increases our capacity to invest behind future growth. These are the capabilities that matter because they extend beyond a single quarter. They help us translate those consumer insights to action at scale and deliver that creativity, the value and the relevance to consumers around the world. So as we enter fiscal 27, we see that strength continuing, led by Coach, where our performance remains strong across new and existing customers and in our core category—our core leather goods category.
So the takeaway is that fiscal 26 demonstrated the power of our strategy and our Q1 and fiscal 27 outlook reinforces our confidence in the durability of what we've built into the future. But I'll turn it over to Scott to cover the details and the cadence of our guidance.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
You know, just building on what Joanne just said, we had a great 26, and we're a bigger business, we're more profitable, we're generating more cash, which really puts us in a position of strength as we think about our entry into 27 and the guide. And our outlook reflects that confidence, but also discipline in how we give guidance and how we plan. Q1 does capture our current estimates for the business. We expect low-teens revenue growth at Coach.
That's consistent with what we delivered in Q4, so the momentum continues. And importantly, our full-year guide doesn't require us to keep that same level of growth at Coach for the balance of the year. So we believe as we sit here today that's a prudent approach for fiscal 27. We expect mid-single-digit revenue growth, continued operating margin expansion and low double-digit EPS growth at Tapestry. That's consistent with the long-term framework we established at our Investor Day from a meaningfully higher base.
At Coach, we continue to expect growth above our brand's Investor Day framework at best-in-class margins. So we're comping the comp. So put simply, Q1 reinforces our confidence. We built the full-year outlook to reflect the breadth, flexibility and discipline of the model that we built.
Matthew Boss, Analyst at J.P. Morgan
Great color. Best of luck.
Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO
Thanks, Matt.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We'll move on now to Alex Stratton with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Alex Stratton, Analyst at Morgan Stanley
Thanks so much and congrats on a great quarter. I wanted to focus from a guidance perspective on what you're assuming from a unit vs. AUR perspective after such strong AUR growth in recent years. And can you also just dive into in the fourth quarter if units were flat and kind of what was driving that? Thanks so much.
Todd Kahn, CEO and Brand President of Coach
I'll start and Scott can participate. We love the mix on AUR and units that we delivered in the fourth quarter. And I think again what's important is the quality of our sales. We are very focused on durability and quality. And what you saw in the fourth quarter is a lot of our growth came from AUR and we were in line on units, which was by design. We had fewer promotion days in the fourth quarter. And one of our strategies that we talk a lot about—you heard it in Joanne's prepared remarks—is our One Coach strategy.
Remember what One Coach allows us to do: it recognizes the consumer sees brands and not channels. So that has allowed us to put our collection product in our outlet stores, obtaining higher AURs and full price. And you're going to continue to see that. So throughout the year ahead, we'll see AUR gains across the globe and you'll also see unit gains. But what we're not going to do—we have no need to do—is churn units to make our numbers, and you see that in this world-class gross margin that we're maintaining.
So I feel very good about our mix and ultimately, as we continue to bring new customers into the category—because remember, Coach is growing the category globally—that will over time increase our unit counts as well.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, and I'll just make a quick build on Todd's comment, Alex. First of all, Q4 came exactly like we expected as it relates to units. Remember, we had some shifting of timing of promotional events and also we had exceptional sell-through in Q3 which took some of those units from Q4 to Q3. So as it relates to the unit dynamic, it occurred exactly as we expected. Actually we beat the guide in total and actually did a little bit better on an overall basis for Coach.
And I just want to reiterate going forward: our expectation, what's embedded in our guidance, assumes both unit and AUR growth in 27 and beyond.
Alex Stratton, Analyst at Morgan Stanley
Thanks so much. Good luck.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We'll move on now to Ike Boruchow with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Ike Boruchow, Analyst at Wells Fargo
Hey, morning everyone. A couple questions—I'll fit into one—on North America. So basically, Coach North America, you guys have been moderating off of the big growth rates that you put up pretty smoothly. I think it was mid-20s in the first half, mid-teens in the back half. I'm just curious how you're thinking about the normalization of domestic growth at Coach and to that point, up 10% in the fourth quarter. How much of a headwind was there to North America growth on some of the shifts you had called out last quarter, and then what kind of North America growth underpins that first-quarter low-teens global Coach guide you guys gave?
Todd Kahn, CEO and Brand President of Coach
Yeah, we love the position we have at Coach in North America. And again, when Scott just indicated some of the North America foundational—we had an outstanding third quarter and took a lot of units. And then in the fourth quarter we intentionally reduced our promotion days. So we feel very good about our North America growth. You're going to see us grow. We grew beyond the category in the fourth quarter, so that's an important milestone. And what we love is what we said we were going to do.
We're two years ahead of our plan. We are delivering something on a much higher base. We took the global floor up from mid-single digits to high-single digits for this year. And remember what we told you we would do: 70% of our growth is coming internationally. That said, we love our North America position and you're going to continue to see us grow in North America, but we're growing on a very large base and we're going to grow very intentionally, not degrading the brand, not degrading our margin and continuing to focus on bringing new customers into the category.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
A quick build on the numbers. If you look at the Coach guide for North America, again, as Todd said, it's really above our Investor Day expectations for 27. And a little bit more on that: if you look at the two-year stack for Coach North America in both Q4, Q1 and the full-year guideline, it's about 30%. Right. So we're comping the comp. We're consolidating the exceptional growth from last year and compounding that as we look forward into 27. And that's embedded in our guide here.
So the strong momentum in Coach continues and we have a lot of confidence in our growth, not only in Coach overall, but in Coach North America specifically.
Ike Boruchow, Analyst at Wells Fargo
Okay, thanks.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We'll move on now to Michael Bonetti with Evercore. Your line is open.
Michael Bonetti, Analyst at Evercore ISI
Hi guys. First off, let me just say thanks for bringing us out to headquarters tomorrow. Look forward to seeing you guys and learning about AI. Can I just ask a little clarification on Ike's question? Should we think about a 30% two-year stack on the North America Coach business in the first quarter, and then we just kind of pencil that through the rest of the year—kind of hold that stability against those tough compares that continue through the year?
And then maybe just a little bit on the gross margin bridge. I think it implies almost no expansion after first quarter, despite I think a lot of the growth coming from the Coach brand, from China, from the high gross margin categories. Maybe just a bit of a bridge on the gross throughout the year. Thank you.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, so we can't wait for you guys to come—a couple dozen of our closest friends—going to see what we're doing in the AI world and really talk about how this is really a competitive advantage for Tapestry. Joanne mentioned it, and we're excited to talk about it because we think it's truly part of the moat of what makes Tapestry special. Yeah, so for gross margins, listen, it's going to be a little lumpy through the year. We also talked in my prepared remarks about the impacts of tariffs, which are, you know, and that benefit in the first half and that tailwind in the second half, kind of a push on a year-on-year basis.
I think the important thing to take away here is we are growing gross margin about 30 bps for the year—it's implied in our guidance. And the structural drivers of gross margin, which we talked about over and over—the strength of our brands, AUR, AUC, the fact that international margins are higher and we're growing more outside the U.S.—all those structural drivers are unchanged and remain just as true today as they have been as we sit here today.
We think the guidance we've given is prudent looking how much real estate we have. But so don't take away from that any change in terms of those structural growth drivers. They're still in place.
Michael Bonetti, Analyst at Evercore ISI
Okay. And then the North America,
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
In terms of North America, well, I think you reiterated what I said in terms of, you know, we see low-single-digit growth in North America. That overall, that's consistent with our long-term algorithm. But as I said earlier, Coach at mid-single digit in both Q1 and for the full year is really above our expectations and really continues the momentum that we've seen in North America specifically.
Michael Bonetti, Analyst at Evercore ISI
Okay, thank you guys.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Michael.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We'll move on now to Bob Durbal with BTIG. Your line is now open.
Bob Durbal, Analyst at BTIG
I was just wondering if we could shift a bit and spend some time just expanding on the international growth, I guess specifically in Europe and in China—sort of what you're seeing in both markets and just the expectations on how to drive those businesses forward in fiscal 27 and beyond.
Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO
Thanks, Bob. Maybe I'll start and then toss it to Todd for some color. You know, we just reported a strong fourth quarter and an amazing fiscal year. Our business was strong around the world and we're seeing broad-based strength. We just talked a lot about the The strength we're seeing in North America, and we see that continuing for Coach with further growth ahead. But as we look forward, international does become a larger contributor to our growth and we see continued opportunities. So in China, as an example, we delivered over 30% growth on the year in China. In China, we're driving that through new customer acquisition. That growth is broad-based across the market and we are well outpacing the industry in China.
And we see tremendous opportunity as we move forward in China to continue to drive growth just based on our relatively low brand awareness in the market and the opportunity that we see for further penetration, more new customer acquisition, and the traction that we have, particularly with this young consumer. And if I shift to Europe, the opportunity is the same. We have relatively low penetration in the market. We are gaining traction with a local and younger consumer and we have an opportunity to continue to drive growth in Europe as well.
But maybe, Todd, send it to you for a little bit more color on how you're thinking about that growth.
Todd Kahn, CEO and Brand President of Coach
Thanks, Joanne. I'll kick off where you left off, Europe. I mean, we've had multiple years of double-digit growth and truly early innings when we even talk about Europe. We're only penetrated in any material way into the UK and some wholesale and some marketplace. We now are taking France. We opened a new store in Le Marais, a Coach Play store, which is the heart of where young people shop. It's a good beacon for our brand. But the 35 to 40 countries that we can still tackle in Europe gives us a huge runway.
And what's important about the Coach brand positioning in Europe and in China is the value and value proposition, the absolute underlying value of our product. Our bags are cutting through and it's clear that's why we're winning and that's why we're competing, and we're supporting that by incredible storytelling and marketing. If I go to China now, we underinvested in China over the years. Today we're trying to bring our marketing in line with our overall marketing expense, and that is the fuel that creates demand in the market.
So our marketing is a driver of business. And what I love is our position in China. Again, I'll remind everybody, we've been there for 25 years. We have deep roots in China. We have rich teams in China who understand the culture. We make sure that our brand, our product offering, resonates with that customer. And we're also not limited, because of our expressive luxury position, to simply go where traditional European luxury goes. We go where the Gen Z customers want to shop.
That's a huge unlock for us. And you're going to see us grow materially in China, in Europe, and continue to grow in the rest of Asia as well.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We'll move on now to Jay Sole with UBS. Your line is now open.
Jay Sole, Analyst at UBS
Great. Thank you so much. You talked a lot about your confidence and maintaining the momentum at the Coach brand. Talk a little bit more about product. You know, say the Brooklyn family has been such a great product franchise for the brand. Can you talk about some of the ideas you have that you have confidence in in the future and what we're going to see from a product standpoint that give you that confidence that the momentum can continue? Thank you.
Todd Kahn, CEO and Brand President of Coach
Sure. You know, I'll even open the aperture just a little bit about my confidence, because I want to remind everybody we're an 85-year-old brand. And even as an 85-year-old brand, this last year we recruited 9 million new customers. That's powerful. But we're not resting on our history or relying on our momentum. What gives me confidence overall is the clarity that we bring to all facets of our business: the clarity on our purpose, our customers, our product, our marketing, our people, and our culture.
And I will say that clarity is greater today than any time in my 19 years here at Coach and, quite honestly, greater than anything I've seen in 30 years in this industry. And it does start with our purpose. And I know sometimes with this crowd, the investment crowd, talking about purpose, your eyes sometimes glass over. But it matters. Our purpose and our courage to be real and our aspiration of being the most inclusive, authentic, and loved fashion brand matters to our people.
And it is a rallying cry and it drives outcomes that leads to our customers. We have clarity of who we are designing for. This point of market entry, what you heard Joanne and Scott talk about, which is a large TAM that we can go after: 25 million women turning 18 every year in the markets we play that can afford our bags. Which leads back to the essence of your question, which is our product. And what Stuart Vevers and our design teams and our merchant teams are doing is phenomenal.
We are building on diverse yet very clear platforms of product. We talk about our icon, Tabby. We have a lot of runway to continue to evolve Tabby and we have not seen any slowdown in Tabby. Similarly, our New York family, Brooklyn, is doing extraordinarily well. And again, it's a multi-channel concept that we sell at full price across many different, frankly, all of our different avenues of sale. And even under the New York family, we've expanded ideas like our Chelsea bag, which all of a sudden was only a year old and is now appearing on the top 10.
So these very large platforms, as well as Terry—we sometimes refer to them as TNT here—which has led to this explosive growth. We feel very good about our product offering and our assortment, backed by our marketing stories. So net-net, the product is strong, the clarity of our messaging is strong. And I think we have an incredible setup not just for the year ahead, but for our aspirations of $10 billion. And I'm starting to think about how much further we go beyond 10.
Jay Sole, Analyst at UBS
Got it. Very helpful. Thank you so much.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We'll move on now to Adrienne Yee with Barclays. Your line is open.
Adrienne Yee, Analyst at Barclays
Great. Thank you very much. Congrats. Very nicely done. Todd and/or Joanne, I'm probably going to stay on that topic. When I look at the metrics that you reported, I expected the ones on the P&L. The one that was really nicely surprising was the customer acquisition. To me that represents sort of future demand and kind of gives me some confidence about this flywheel. So that being said, can you talk about just the white space in pricing, entry-level pricing, the Gen Z that you're going after, and then geographies?
Because when I look at it, I can't come up with a really good competitor on any of those fronts. So can you talk about how you think? Who do you look over your shoulder and you're worried about? Just to talk about that. And then also for Scott, what's the implied advertising as a percent of sales for FY27? Because that's kind of also helping the flywheel. And then also on the guidance, is Coach North America mid-single digit for Q1 or is that for the year, or for both Q1 and the year?
Thank you very much.
Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO
You got a lot in there, Adrienne. I'm going to kick it off. I think this will be a three-part. I'll kick it off and I'll toss it to Todd for a little bit of color, if there's anything left after I talk. And then Scott will clean it up with some of your guidance questions. You're hitting on the kernel that is driving our growth, and that is new customer acquisition. We have become just obsessed with our customer. This customer obsession starts with understanding them and then delivering product and marketing and storytelling and experiences that are relevant to our target customer.
And that muscle, that brand-building muscle that we're building at Tapestry, it's part of a playbook that is repeatable. We continue to invest in the capabilities to deepen our understanding of the consumer and then move from insight to action. And that's where it matters for our customers—to deliver something that resonates with them, that they fall in love with. And these new customers who we're acquiring—we talked about 11 million new customers in the last fiscal year—are joining at higher than average AUR.
They're a younger consumer base. This point of market entry strategy that we have not only is an opportunity to retain these customers and drive lifetime value, but what we're finding, and what we know—I think we all know—is that the young consumer, the youngest generation, influences all generations. And we're seeing that play out in our business because our existing customer base is also growing. So this flywheel of driving new customer acquisition and then giving them such a terrific experience that they come back—we're seeing those retention rates among the highest retention rates in our customer file.
So they're loving our brands, they're staying with our brand, and they're influencing all generations. And we're continuing to invest behind those capabilities so that we can continue to drive that flywheel. It's happening in North America. We spent a lot of time talking about North America growth today, but we also see a tremendous opportunity in international markets to drive new customer acquisition. We're bringing more customers into the market, so we're growing the market and we're growing our share.
And that's a phenomenal place to be. Todd, I don't know if there's anything you want to add from a color perspective.
Todd Kahn, CEO and Brand President of Coach
You touched on so many good things. But I do want to tackle the one thing you didn't talk about, which is competition. And for me, there are no barriers of entry in our space. That's just a truism that we recognize every day. It almost doesn't matter. The moats we are building are about that connective tissue to our customer. When we spend 12% on advertising—I think my marketing team will be mad at me because I use the word advertising—it's not advertising, it's story building.
It's brand driving. It's not just "go buy our bag." It's a richness that makes it compelling. When we say we're going to invest in our store fleet and refurbish, we are going to tackle 80% by traffic of our store fleet between now and FY30. That's an investment into the future that makes us relevant and continues to attract that younger consumer globally. And that's why we're so excited about this rollout of expressive luxury. So couple that with the fact that we are an 85-year-old brand.
September, Stuart is going to show a fashion show celebrating our 85th anniversary. Those are things that are hard to replicate. And that's why, finally, I go back and talk a lot about our culture, our winning culture. A team that understands, a team that's been together. We have stability of leadership, we have stability of design. Those are important drivers of long-term profitability. So I love our setup. We are going to be very focused on that $200 to $500 space.
Yes, we have some amazing bags above that. But that clarity of brand positioning is what is driving our customer acquisition and retention. I don't know if I left you anything.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
All right, you left me a little bit. There was a spoiler alert he threw out. The 12% is indeed percent of demand creation. That's both in. We hit that in 26 and we're building upon that. It's the flywheel we talked about, right? We grow gross margins, we have discipline across the rest of the business so we can invest back in things like demand creation, which are the engine that drive our new customer acquisition. Doing all of that with 50 basis points of operating margin expansion.
So 12%, another data point there: it's about a billion dollars in advertising. So you think about where we were five years ago versus today in terms of demand creation. That's a big number because to Todd's point, while there's no barriers to entry, there are barriers to scale and those barriers are getting higher. And companies who have a business model that can reinvest and create demand in the way that we can, this is the moment we prepared for for a long time, really sets us apart and is a competitive advantage.
And I'm glad you asked for clarification on Coach. I want to try to be very clear here. So Coach, we expect in Q1 to grow mid single digits. We also expect full year Coach to grow at mid single digits. And the point I made earlier is we're comping the comp or compounding on the growth. So whether we look at North America Q4 last year, Q1 this year, or full year this year, that's about a 30% two-year comp for North America. So not only are we a much bigger business, we're growing significantly on top of that big business.
And when you think about Todd, you got a huge North American business, over $4 billion. We can talk about percentages. This is real growth and at our margins and at the flow-through that we have based on the efficiency of the model. It's a really important part of our financial story. And one of the reasons we have confidence is our North American Coach business.
Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO
And just to be abundantly clear because I want to make sure we're talking mid single digits in North America for the Coach brand. We're talking in the first quarter, low teens and for the full year for the Coach brand. Overall, we are talking high single digits. I didn't want any of my BU heads to think they got off the hook on this phone call. So those are the floors that we've set for this year. And I think our track record of beating out the floors are quite substantial.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We'll move on now to Mark Altschwager with Baird. Your line is open.
Mark Altschwager, Analyst at Baird
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. First on marketing. It did not delever as much as you had guided in the fourth quarter. Could you just clarify how much of that is a shift in timing versus realizing some greater efficiencies and how that then plays into fiscal 27 and then separately the capex step up, the reinvestment in the fleet. How should we be modeling or thinking about net door growth for Coach in fiscal 27 and how does that play out by region?
Thank you.
Scott Roe, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, so I'll take the first part of that, Mark. Yeah. You know, listen, with marketing, there's always a little bit of timing and we've created a model—I'll go back to the flywheel—that allows us the flexibility to be opportunistic and lean in when the data tells us we have opportunities. But we don't just spend to spend. Also, timing of things like production and whatnot can be a little bit different on a quarter-by-quarter basis. So you're right.
We came in with a little more leverage in marketing. We still spent a lot of money. And I'll remind you, we spent 12% of sales in 2026. I think the much bigger issue as you look going forward is we are and will continue to invest in marketing as a key part of our demand creation, and it's a key part of driving unaided brand awareness, which is a key to new customer acquisition. So the flywheel is intact and we will continue to invest in marketing.
And I think Todd's going to want to say something about the fleet, but just give you some numbers: between 40 and 50 doors is our expectation on a net basis at Coach. And you're right, we have stepped up a bit our capex. But still as we look at our overall guidance or our overall expectations from investor day, still very much in line as we look at our forward capex spending. And I'll remind you, we got a lot more cash too. So our free cash flow is significantly higher even with these investments.
But Todd, to you, maybe a little color on what you're doing.
Todd Kahn, CEO and Brand President of Coach
Yeah, I love that. This year we will go over the thousand door count for Coach globally and 75% of those 50 doors that Scott talked about will be international, 25% will be domestic. But remember what we're doing. We are elevating the fleet with our expressive luxury design. We started a design that we introduced in the first six months of last year. We paused, which was really smart. What we did was we listened to the consumer, we evolved our thinking and now, based on that data and that input, we're able to go roll it out—sometimes slow to smooth, smooth to fast.
We're going to be able to go much faster now that we have clarity of what the design looks like, how it operates and how the consumer responds. In addition, we're adding no more than one per MSA, what we call our play concepts. And you'll see the most recent version of that was in Paris. You have a new one that we did in Chicago, one in Atlanta. So again, these beacons of Coach, which allows the consumer to interact—some of those play ideas then evolve into expressive luxury.
So I feel very good about investing in the fleet. One of the things we know, Gen Z love being in the real world, and I want our stores to be as engaging as the product, and that's what the expressive luxury design is doing for us. So I'm very excited about the future growth of being a direct-to-retailer and seeing our stores, and I hope you get to visit many of them in the upcoming year.
OPERATOR
Thank you. That concludes our Q and A. I will now turn it over to Joanne Crevoiserat for some concluding remarks.
Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO
Thanks, Leo. I want to close by reiterating my confidence in the future. The strength of our results and more importantly the strength of our organization are driving durable growth and long-term shareholder value. Our advantages continue to compound and I believe our greatest opportunities are ahead of us. To our global teams, thank you for the creativity, focus and commitment you bring every day. Your work is reflected in everything we've accomplished and in the opportunities we're creating for the future.
And everyone who joined us today, thank you for your interest in Tapestry. Have a great day.
OPERATOR
This concludes Tapestry's earnings conference call. We thank you for your participation.
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.
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