Amer Sports, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Thanks for joining Amer Sports earnings call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. Earlier this morning, we announced our financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, and the release can be found on our IR website, investors.amersports.com. A quick reminder to everyone that today's call will contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations and beliefs only. They are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please see the safe harbor statement in our earnings release and SEC filings. We will also discuss certain non-IFRS financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release for important information regarding such non-IFRS financial measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable IFRS financial measures.

We will begin with prepared remarks from our CEO, James Zheng, and CFO, Andrew Page, followed by a Q&A session until 9:00 A.M. Eastern. James will cover key operational and brand highlights, then Andrew will provide a financial review at both the group and segment level, and also walk through our updated guidance. Arc'teryx CEO, Stuart Haselden, and Salomon CEO, Guillaume Meyzenq, will join for the Q&A session. With that, I will turn the call over to James.

Thanks, Omar. Our global momentum continued in the second quarter, with over 30% revenue growth and a strong operating margin expansion. All segments, geographies, and channels achieved strong double-digit growth, led by another exceptional quarter from Salomon Softgoods, a strong Arc'teryx omnichannel, and a Wilson Tennis 360 acceleration. We manage a portfolio of sports and outdoor brands that is very unique in the marketplace. All three of our primary growth engines, Arc'teryx, Salomon Softgoods, and Wilson Tennis 360 are still relatively small, with significant room to grow. First, I will recap key highlights from our three segments. Starting with technical apparel. Arc'teryx delivered another great quarter with broad-based strengths across regions, channels, and categories, including another exceptional performance in women's. Strong DTC momentum also continued, driven by a 17% technical apparel omnichannel.

We believe Arc'teryx is a truly global brand with significant runway in all major markets and are encouraged by the strong double-digit growth across all four regions in Q2. The brand also resonates strongly across categories and consumer segments. I want to highlight our momentum in women's, which grew faster than any other category for Arc'teryx. Our confidence in the size and the scale of our women's opportunity is very large. Brand awareness and affinity with women is rising significantly as we improve fit, style, and function, and also build expanded assortments. Redesigning our core ABCG models for her, plus expanding feminine color palettes, is driving higher female traffic and conversion. In Q2, newness and the seasonal colorways generate over 60% of women's sales. Standout new franchises include the Singiura and Oria lightweight hiking styles, and also the Sonii utility vest and jacket.

Our remarkable success in women's bottoms with franchises like the Krakja, Rutja, and Nia pants is helping us unlock the female consumer from head to toe, driving higher overall spend. Turning to footwear, which had another great quarter, including strong double-digit growth across regions, led by both existing and new styles. Popular existing styles included Norvan LD 4 trail shoe, which continues to be our biggest volume driver, followed by the Konseal trekking shoes. In March, we launched the latest version of our technical trail running shoe, the Sylan 2, performing very well so far. We are excited to have eight Arc'teryx trail run athletes competing in the UTMB race in Chamonix next week. Looking forward, we are confident that Arc'teryx has an exciting pipeline of shoe releases for the upcoming years. Turning to our Veilance sub-brand, which had a solid growth in Q2 on a small base.

We continue to focus on investing newness, further developing our collections, and expanding distributions. All of which is creating engagement and awareness in the marketplace. Turning to sustainability and the ReBird, which continue to be at the heart of Arc'teryx. In Q2, we added five new ReBird centers, bringing us to 47 total. Later this month, we will unveil an important new innovation, which combines our passion for sustainability with uncompromised technical performance. Unmountain, our renowned Chamonix alpine academy, was again a great success in July with over 15,000 visitors in the village over the weekend and more than 1,000 attendees in clinics. Our Mountain Academies are the world's premium mountain education events and the space for mountain enthusiasts of all levels to advance their skills and the knowledge through clinics on the mountain. We are especially proud that women now account for half of the academy participants.

Turning to Peak Performance, which delivered solid growth in Q2. The brand continues to reduce its Nordic dependency and is rationalizing its footprint in the region while seeing healthy growth in other parts of EMEA. For both Peak Performance and our winter sports equipment brands, we are excited that Freeride Ski will become an Olympic sport at the 2030 Games. Peak Performance sponsored the Freeride World Tour, and our ski equipment brand sponsor many of the professional freeride skiers. Now, turning to the Outdoor Performance segment, which was led by another outstanding quarter from Salomon Softgoods. The investments we are making to grow Salomon brand awareness and the distribution footprint are paying off, driving strong footwear momentum across regions, channels, and for both sport style and the performance products. I'd like to highlight a few factors that give us the confidence that Salomon is well-positioned to achieve its long-term potential.

Number one, global sportstyle momentum continues. Sportstyle is critical to developing Salomon's position as the modern outdoor sneaker brand. The XT-6 and the XT-Whisper franchises are resonating with a younger and a more diverse audience from technical sports in the mountains to culture and the community in the cities. We were excited to announce that Jisoo, the global superstar singer and actress, will be Salomon's new global ambassador. The news had amazing global coverage, reaching nearly 1 billion consumers across social platforms. Second, our performance lines are also working well. We continue to believe our new gravel franchise is helping to unlock the run category for Salomon like never before. Salomon is gaining traction in the run specialty channels in North America and EMEA. In July, we launched the Aero Glide 4 with a re-engineering upper using new mesh technology.

We also recently launched the second generation of Genesis, a highly technical trail shoe. Salomon athletes were winning races in Q2, including Courtney Dauwalter earning her fourth Hardrock 100 title, validating Salomon's technical merit on the hardest trails. Third, Salomon continued to have excellent brand heat in Greater China and Asia, where we believe we operate the most productive and profitable sneaker shops in the industry. Greater China continued to deliver very strong double-digit growth in Q2, driven by strength across sportstyles, performance, and apparel. Our local for local apparel and accessories lines in China with technical products inspired by outdoor and trail running has also been gained traction the past few quarters. Beyond China, Salomon is also experiencing surging demands in Korea and Japan, very important markets, given their influence on global sneaker culture. Fourth, our epicenter strategy is working.

Focusing on key global metro markets is allowing us to build up Salomon's reach and presence in the right way. Our Tier 1 global epicenter, Paris, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, New York, and Los Angeles, are all driving very strong sales momentum as well as rising brand awareness. We approach these markets by opening a handful of impactful brand stores in the most relevant locations alongside handpicked elevated wholesale doors. In these markets, we also invest in event partnerships, community activations, and the local media to build a strong and lasting connection with our consumers. We plan to adopt and expand this approach to several new major cities in the future, including Berlin, Seoul, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. Fifth is the strong demand we are experiencing in our home market, Europe, driving strong reorders, pre-orders, and sales through.

Sportstyle continues to be the biggest growth driver, but gravel is also impacting in Europe, supported by marketing campaigns, in-store events, and the running event activations. We are seeing high e-com growth in Europe, even as we expand our premium DTC and wholesale footprint. In markets, we have been very active hosting a gravel-focused running event called the Gravelander, sponsoring music festivals and artist collaborations. Most recently, we began a unique partnership with the Opéra national de Paris to outfit their dancers. Lastly, I will mention the U.S., which is the largest single sneaker market in the world, but still a small business for us. We know there's a strong demand for Salomon here, but still very limited distribution for consumers to find us.

Today, we are seeing a clear acceleration in North America as we leverage the rising brand awareness to expand its distribution with both new and existing wholesale partners, as well as our own stores and e-com. In Q2, we opened our first North America flagship stores on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District of New York City, offering both footwear and apparel. We continue to carefully expand our footprint and shelf space in existing wholesale partners, including Nordstrom, JD Sports, and Foot Locker. Lastly, before I switch to ball and racket, although Q2 is a very small quarter for our winter sports equipment franchise, Salomon, Atomic, and Armada, we are pleased that our brands continuing taking share despite challenging conditions in certain markets. Moving to ball and racket highlights.

Ball and racket sales grew 24% in Q2, driven by continued strength in Tennis 360, both softgoods and rackets, as well as improved growth in baseball, golf, and inflatables. Our Tennis 360 strategy continues to resonate very well with consumers, from unique lines of tennis apparel and footwear to high-performance rackets. Wilson had a couple very big racket launches this spring, including a Q1 rollout of our iconic Blade franchise, version 10. This has been one of the strongest launches in our history and also the rackets for world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka. We also recently launched a completely new racket line called the Defy. This is our first ever power spin racket, which has been a growing segment of the racket market. Early results from the Defy are even exceeding the Blade v10 launch I just mentioned.