UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-Q
(Mark One)
For the quarterly period ended April 28, 2024
or
For the transition period from ____ to ____
Commission File Number: 001-38936
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | |||||||
| (Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | |||||||
(786 ) 320-7111
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
N/A
(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||||||
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:
| ☒ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | |||||||||
| Non-accelerated filer | ☐ | Smaller reporting company | |||||||||
| Emerging growth company | |||||||||||
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
| Class | Outstanding as of May 22, 2024 | |||||||
| Class A Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share | ||||||||
| Class B Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share | ||||||||
CHEWY, INC.
FORM 10-Q
For the Quarterly Period Ended April 28, 2024
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| Page | ||||||||
| Item 1. | ||||||||
| Item 2. | ||||||||
| Item 3. | ||||||||
| Item 4. | ||||||||
| Item 1. | ||||||||
| Item 1A. | ||||||||
| Item 5. | ||||||||
| Item 6. | ||||||||
PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including statements regarding our share repurchase program, our future results of operations or financial condition, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will” or “would” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions.
Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, our ability to:
•sustain our recent growth rates and successfully manage challenges to our future growth, including introducing new products or services, improving existing products and services, and expanding into new jurisdictions and offerings;
•successfully respond to business disruptions;
•successfully manage risks related to the macroeconomic environment, including any adverse impacts on our business operations, financial performance, supply chain, workforce, facilities, customer services and operations;
•acquire and retain new customers in a cost-effective manner and increase our net sales, improve margins and maintain profitability;
•manage our growth effectively;
•maintain positive perceptions of the Company and preserve, grow and leverage the value of our reputation and our brand;
•limit operating losses as we continue to expand our business;
•forecast net sales and appropriately plan our expenses in the future;
•estimate the size of our addressable markets;
•strengthen our current supplier relationships, retain key suppliers and source additional suppliers;
•negotiate acceptable pricing and other terms with third-party service providers, suppliers and outsourcing partners and maintain our relationships with such parties;
•mitigate changes in, or disruptions to, our shipping arrangements and operations;
•optimize, operate and manage the expansion of the capacity of our fulfillment centers;
•provide our customers with a cost-effective platform that is able to respond and adapt to rapid changes in technology;
•limit our losses related to online payment methods;
•maintain and scale our technology, including the reliability of our websites, mobile applications, and network infrastructure;
•maintain adequate cybersecurity with respect to our systems and ensure that our third-party service providers do the same with respect to their systems;
•maintain consumer confidence in the safety, quality and health of our products;
•limit risks associated with our suppliers and our outsourcing partners;
•comply with existing or future laws and regulations in a cost-efficient manner;
•utilize net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards, and other tax attributes, and limit fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate;
•adequately protect our intellectual property rights;
•successfully defend ourselves against any allegations or claims that we may be subject to;
•attract, develop, motivate and retain highly-qualified and skilled employees;
•predict and respond to economic conditions, industry trends, and market conditions, and their impact on the pet products market;
•reduce merchandise returns or refunds;
•respond to severe weather and limit disruption to normal business operations;
•manage new acquisitions, investments or alliances, and integrate them into our existing business;
•successfully compete in new offerings;
•manage challenges presented by international markets;
•successfully compete in the pet products and services health and retail industry, especially in the e-commerce sector;
•comply with the terms of our credit facility;
•raise capital as needed; and
•maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures.
1
You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events, and you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results, and our actual results could differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q primarily on our current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2024, our subsequent quarterly reports, and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. While we believe that such information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, this information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.
The forward-looking statements made in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments.
Investors and others should note that we may announce material information to our investors using our investor relations website (https://investor.chewy.com/), filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), press releases, public conference calls and webcasts. We use these channels, as well as social media, to communicate with our investors and the public about our company, our business and other issues. It is possible that the information that we post on these channels could be deemed to be material information. We therefore encourage investors to visit these websites from time to time. The information contained on such websites and social media posts is not incorporated by reference into this filing. Further, our references to website URLs in this filing are intended to be inactive textual references only.
2
Item 1. Financial Statements (Unaudited)
CHEWY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands, except share and per share data)
| As of | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | January 28, 2024 | ||||||||||
| Assets | (Unaudited) | ||||||||||
| Current assets: | |||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Marketable securities | |||||||||||
| Accounts receivable | |||||||||||
| Inventories | |||||||||||
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | |||||||||||
| Total current assets | |||||||||||
| Property and equipment, net | |||||||||||
| Operating lease right-of-use assets | |||||||||||
| Goodwill | |||||||||||
| Other non-current assets | |||||||||||
| Total assets | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Liabilities and stockholders’ equity | |||||||||||
| Current liabilities: | |||||||||||
| Trade accounts payable | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Accrued expenses and other current liabilities | |||||||||||
| Total current liabilities | |||||||||||
| Operating lease liabilities | |||||||||||
| Other long-term liabilities | |||||||||||
| Total liabilities | |||||||||||
Commitments and contingencies (Note 5) | |||||||||||
| Stockholders’ equity: | |||||||||||
Preferred stock, $ | |||||||||||
Class A common stock, $ | |||||||||||
Class B common stock, $ | |||||||||||
| Additional paid-in capital | |||||||||||
| Accumulated deficit | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Accumulated other comprehensive loss | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Total stockholders’ equity | |||||||||||
| Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | $ | |||||||||
See accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
3
CHEWY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
(in thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Net sales | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Cost of goods sold | |||||||||||
| Gross profit | |||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | |||||||||||
| Selling, general and administrative | |||||||||||
| Advertising and marketing | |||||||||||
| Total operating expenses | |||||||||||
| Income from operations | |||||||||||
| Interest income, net | |||||||||||
| Other expense, net | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Income before income tax provision | |||||||||||
| Income tax provision | |||||||||||
| Net income | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Comprehensive income: | |||||||||||
| Net income | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Foreign currency translation adjustments | |||||||||||
| Comprehensive income | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Earnings per share attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders: | |||||||||||
| Basic | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Diluted | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Weighted-average common shares used in computing earnings per share: | |||||||||||
| Basic | |||||||||||
| Diluted | |||||||||||
See accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
4
CHEWY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
(in thousands)
(Unaudited)
| 13 Weeks Ended April 28, 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class A and Class B Common Stock | Additional Paid-in Capital | Accumulated Deficit | Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss) | Total Stockholders’ Equity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shares | Amount | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance as of January 28, 2024 | $ | $ | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Share-based compensation expense | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vesting of share-based compensation awards | ( | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tax withholdings for share-based compensation awards | — | — | ( | — | — | ( | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net income | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other comprehensive income | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance as of April 28, 2024 | $ | $ | $ | ( | $ | ( | $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 Weeks Ended April 30, 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class A and Class B Common Stock | Additional Paid-in Capital | Accumulated Deficit | Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss) | Total Stockholders’ Equity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shares | Amount | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance as of January 29, 2023 | $ | $ | $ | ( | $ | $ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Share-based compensation expense | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vesting of share-based compensation awards | ( | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tax sharing agreement with related parties | — | — | ( | — | — | ( | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net income | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Balance as of April 30, 2023 | $ | $ | $ | ( | $ | $ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
See accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
5
CHEWY, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(in thousands)
(Unaudited)
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Cash flows from operating activities | |||||||||||
| Net income | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: | |||||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | |||||||||||
| Share-based compensation expense | |||||||||||
| Non-cash lease expense | |||||||||||
| Change in fair value of equity warrants and investments | |||||||||||
| Unrealized foreign currency losses, net | |||||||||||
| Other | ( | ||||||||||
| Net change in operating assets and liabilities: | |||||||||||
| Accounts receivable | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Inventories | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Prepaid expenses and other current assets | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Other non-current assets | |||||||||||
| Trade accounts payable | |||||||||||
| Accrued expenses and other current liabilities | ( | ||||||||||
| Operating lease liabilities | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Other long-term liabilities | |||||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | |||||||||||
| Cash flows from investing activities | |||||||||||
| Capital expenditures | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Purchases of marketable securities | ( | ||||||||||
| Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities | |||||||||||
| Cash paid for acquisition of business, net of cash acquired | ( | ||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | ( | ||||||||||
| Cash flows from financing activities | |||||||||||
| Income taxes paid for, net of proceeds from, parent reorganization transaction | ( | ||||||||||
| Principal repayments of finance lease obligations | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Payments for tax withholdings related to vesting of share-based compensation awards | ( | ||||||||||
| Payments for tax sharing agreement with related parties | ( | ||||||||||
| Payment of debt modification costs | ( | ||||||||||
| Net cash used in financing activities | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents | ( | ||||||||||
| Net increase in cash and cash equivalents | |||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents, as of beginning of period | |||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents, as of end of period | $ | $ | |||||||||
See accompanying Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
6
CHEWY, INC.
NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(Unaudited)
1.Description of Business
Chewy, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries (collectively “Chewy” or the “Company”) is a pure play e-commerce business geared toward pet products and services for dogs, cats, fish, birds, small pets, horses, and reptiles. Chewy serves its customers through its websites and its mobile applications and focuses on delivering exceptional customer service, competitive prices, outstanding convenience (including Chewy’s Autoship subscription program, fast shipping, and hassle-free returns), and a large selection of high-quality pet food, treats and supplies, and pet healthcare products.
The Company is controlled by a consortium including private investment funds advised by BC Partners Advisors LP (“BC Partners”) and its affiliates, La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, affiliates of GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd, affiliates of StepStone Group LP and funds advised by Longview Asset Management, LLC (collectively, the “Sponsors”).
On October 30, 2023 (the “Closing Date”), the Company entered into certain transactions (the “Transactions”) with affiliates of BC Partners pursuant to an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”). The Transactions resulted in such affiliates restructuring their ownership interests in the Company and Chewy Pharmacy KY, LLC (“Chewy Pharmacy KY”) becoming an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.
On the Closing Date, affiliates of BC Partners transferred $1.9 billion to the Company to be used to fund: (i) tax obligations of its affiliates that were inherited by the Company as a result of the Transactions and (ii) expenses incurred by the Company in connection with the Transactions. The Merger Agreement requires affiliates of BC Partners to indemnify the Company for certain tax liabilities and includes customary indemnifications related to the Transactions.
2. Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation
The Company’s accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes include the accounts of Chewy, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto of Chewy, Inc. have been prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) for interim financial reporting and, therefore, omit or condense certain footnotes and other information normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) as set forth in the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (“FASB”) accounting standards codification (“ASC”). In the opinion of management, all adjustments necessary for a fair statement of the financial information, which are of a normal and recurring nature, have been made for the interim periods reported. Results of operations for the quarterly period ended April 28, 2024 are not necessarily indicative of the results for the entire fiscal year. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended April 28, 2024 (“10-Q Report”) should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2024 (“10-K Report”).
In connection with the Transactions described in Note 1 – Description of Business, the Company has provided recasted condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes for the historical comparative periods in this 10-Q Report reflecting the operations of Chewy Pharmacy KY as part of the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements. The recasted financial information was accounted for as a common control transaction, with Chewy Pharmacy KY’s net assets transferred at the previous parent company’s historical basis.
Fiscal Year
The Company has a 52- or 53-week fiscal year ending each year on the Sunday that is closest to January 31 of that year. The Company’s 2024 fiscal year ends on February 2, 2025 and is a 53-week year. The Company’s 2023 fiscal year ended January 28, 2024 and was a 52-week year.
7
Significant Accounting Policies
Other than policies noted herein, there have been no significant changes from the significant accounting policies disclosed in Note 2 of the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” included in the 10-K Report.
Use of Estimates
GAAP requires management to make certain estimates, judgments, and assumptions that affect reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. On an ongoing basis, management evaluates these estimates and judgments. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Key estimates relate primarily to determining the net realizable value for inventory, valuation allowances with respect to deferred tax assets, contingencies, self-insurance accruals, evaluation of sales tax positions, and the valuation and assumptions underlying share-based compensation and equity warrants. On an ongoing basis, management evaluates its estimates compared to historical experience and trends, which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities.
Accrued Expenses and Other Current Liabilities
The following table presents the components of accrued expenses and other current liabilities (in thousands):
| As of | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | January 28, 2024 | ||||||||||
| Outbound fulfillment | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Advertising and marketing | |||||||||||
| Payroll liabilities | |||||||||||
| Accrued expenses and other | |||||||||||
| Total accrued expenses and other current liabilities | $ | $ | |||||||||
Stockholders’ Equity
Conversion of Class B Common Stock
On May 8, 2020, Buddy Chester Sub LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sponsors, converted 17,584,098 17,584,098 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock at the exchange date, with the number of shares to be issued based on the trading price of the Company’s common stock during a 20 -day observation period. On each of May 15, 2023 and May 16, 2023, Buddy Chester Sub LLC settled its obligations under the Contract and delivered a total of 17,584,098 shares.
Interest Income (Expense), net
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Interest income | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Interest expense | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Interest income, net | $ | $ | |||||||||
8
Other Income (Expense), net
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Change in fair value of equity warrants | $ | ( | $ | ( | |||||||
| Foreign currency transaction (losses) gains | ( | ||||||||||
| Change in fair value of equity investments | ( | ( | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of tax indemnification receivables | |||||||||||
| Other expense, net | $ | ( | $ | ( | |||||||
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
ASU 2022-03, Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Fair Value Measurement of Equity Securities Subject to Contractual Sale Restrictions. In June 2022, the FASB issued this Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) to clarify the guidance when measuring the fair value of an equity security subject to contractual sale restrictions that prohibit the sale of an equity security. This update became effective at the beginning of the Company’s 2024 fiscal year. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures. In December 2023, the FASB issued this ASU to update income tax disclosure requirements, primarily related to the income tax rate reconciliation and income taxes paid information. This update is effective beginning with the Company’s 2025 fiscal year annual reporting period, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact that the adoption of this standard will have on its consolidated financial statements.
ASU 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures. In November 2023, the FASB issued this ASU to update reportable segment disclosure requirements, primarily through enhanced disclosures about significant segment expenses and information used to assess segment performance. This update is effective beginning with the Company’s 2024 fiscal year annual reporting period, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact that the adoption of this standard will have on its consolidated financial statements.
3. Financial Instruments
Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. To increase the comparability of fair value measures, the following hierarchy prioritizes the inputs to valuation methodologies used to measure fair value:
Level 1-Valuations based on quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
Level 2-Valuations based on inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly.
Level 3-Valuations based on unobservable inputs reflecting the Company’s assumptions, consistent with reasonably available assumptions made by other market participants. These valuations require significant judgment.
Cash equivalents are carried at cost, which approximates fair value and are classified within Level 1 of the fair value hierarchy because they are valued using quoted market prices.
9
Marketable securities are carried at fair value and are classified within Level 1 because they are valued using quoted market prices. Specific to marketable fixed income securities, the Company did no t record any gross unrealized gains and losses as fair value approximates amortized cost. The Company did no no t record an allowance for credit losses related to its fixed income securities.
Vested equity warrants and equity investments in public companies that have readily determinable fair values are carried at fair value and are classified as marketable securities within Level 1 because they are valued using quoted market prices.
Unvested equity warrants are classified within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy as they are valued based on observable and unobservable inputs reflecting the Company’s assumptions, consistent with reasonably available assumptions made by other market participants. The Company utilized certain valuation techniques, such as the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and the Monte Carlo simulation model, to determine the fair value of unvested equity warrants. The application of these models requires the use of a number of complex assumptions based on unobservable inputs, including the expected term, expected equity volatility, discounts for lack of marketability, cash flow projections, and probability with respect to vesting requirements. Equity warrants are transferred from Level 3 to Level 1 of the fair value hierarchy upon vesting as they are no longer valued based on unobservable inputs.
The following table includes a summary of financial instruments measured at fair value as of April 28, 2024 (in thousands):
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cash | $ | $ | $ | |||||||||||||||||
| U.S. Treasury securities | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vested equity warrants | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Equity investments | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marketable securities | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Unvested equity warrants | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Total financial instruments | $ | $ | $ | |||||||||||||||||
The following table includes a summary of financial instruments measured at fair value as of January 28, 2024 (in thousands):
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cash | $ | $ | $ | |||||||||||||||||
| Money market funds | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | ||||||||||||||||||||
| U.S. Treasury securities | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Equity investments | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marketable securities | ||||||||||||||||||||
Unvested equity warrants | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Total financial instruments | $ | $ | $ | |||||||||||||||||
As of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, the deferred credit subject to vesting and performance requirements recognized within other long-term liabilities in exchange for the equity warrants was $5.1 million and $1.9 million, respectively.
10
The following table summarizes the change in fair value for financial instruments using unobservable Level 3 inputs (in thousands):
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Beginning balance | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of unvested equity warrants | ( | ||||||||||
| Equity warrants vested | ( | ||||||||||
| Ending balance | $ | $ | |||||||||
The following table presents quantitative information about Level 3 significant unobservable inputs used in the fair value measurement of the unvested equity warrants as of April 28, 2024 (in thousands):
| Range | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fair Value | Valuation Techniques | Unobservable Input | Min | Max | Weighted Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equity warrants | $ | Black-Scholes and Monte Carlo | Probability of vesting | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equity volatility | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4. Property and Equipment, net
The following is a summary of property and equipment, net (in thousands):
| As of | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | January 28, 2024 | ||||||||||
| Furniture, fixtures and equipment | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Computer equipment | |||||||||||
| Internal-use software | |||||||||||
| Leasehold improvements | |||||||||||
| Construction in progress | |||||||||||
| Less: accumulated depreciation and amortization | |||||||||||
| Property and equipment, net | $ | $ | |||||||||
Internal-use software includes labor and license costs associated with software development for internal use. As of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, the Company had accumulated amortization related to internal-use software of $96.4 million and $87.5 million, respectively.
Construction in progress is stated at cost, which includes the cost of construction and other directly attributable costs. No provision for depreciation is made on construction in progress until the relevant assets are completed and put into use.
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5. Commitments and Contingencies
Legal Matters
Various legal claims arise from time to time in the normal course of business. In assessing loss contingencies related to legal proceedings that are pending against the Company, or unasserted claims that may result in such proceedings, the Company evaluates the perceived merits of any legal proceedings or unasserted claims as well as the perceived merits of the amount of relief sought or expected to be sought therein.
The Company believes that it has adequately accrued for the potential impact of loss contingencies that are probable and reasonably estimable. The Company does not believe that the ultimate resolution of any matters to which it is presently a party will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. However, the results of these matters cannot be predicted with certainty, and an unfavorable resolution of one or more of these matters could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
International Business Machines Corporation (“IBM”) previously alleged that the Company is infringing four of its patents. On February 15, 2021, the Company filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “District Court”) against IBM seeking the District Court’s declaration that the Company is not infringing the four asserted IBM patents. On April 19, 2021, IBM filed an answer with counterclaims seeking unspecified damages, including a request that the amount of compensatory damages be trebled, injunctive relief and costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees. On May 24, 2021, IBM filed an amended complaint that included an additional assertion that the Company is infringing a fifth IBM patent. On October 8, 2021, the parties had a claim construction hearing and on November 9, 2021, the claim construction rulings resulted in one of the five patents (the “‘414 patent”) being eliminated from the case.
6. Debt
ABL Credit Facility
The Company has a senior secured asset-based credit facility (the “ABL Credit Facility”) which matures on August 27, 2026 and provides for non-amortizing revolving loans in an aggregate principal amount of up to $800 million, subject to a borrowing base comprised of, among other things, inventory and sales receivables (subject to certain reserves). The ABL Credit Facility provides the right to request incremental commitments and add incremental asset-based revolving loan facilities in an aggregate principal amount of up to $250 million, subject to customary conditions.
The Company is required to pay a commitment fee of 0.25 % per annum with respect to the undrawn portion of the commitments, which is generally based on average daily usage of the facility. Based on the Company’s borrowing base as of April 28, 2024, which is reduced by standby letters of credit, the Company had $759.4 million of borrowing capacity under the ABL Credit Facility. As of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, the Company had no
7. Leases
The Company leases all of its fulfillment and customer service centers and corporate offices under non-cancelable operating lease agreements. The terms of the Company’s real estate leases generally range from 5 to 15 years and typically allow for the leases to be renewed for up to three additional five-year terms. Fulfillment and customer service centers and corporate office leases expire at various dates through 2038, excluding renewal options. The Company also leases certain equipment under operating and finance leases. The terms of equipment leases generally range from 3 to 5 years and do not contain renewal options. These leases expire at various dates through 2025.
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The Company’s finance leases as of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024 were not material and were included in property and equipment, net, on the Company’s condensed consolidated balance sheets.
The table below presents the operating lease-related assets and liabilities recorded on the condensed consolidated balance sheets (in thousands):
| As of | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Leases | Balance Sheet Classification | April 28, 2024 | January 28, 2024 | |||||||||||||||||
| Assets | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating | Operating lease right-of-use assets | $ | $ | |||||||||||||||||
| Total operating lease assets | $ | $ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Liabilities | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Current | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating | $ | $ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Non-current | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating | Operating lease liabilities | |||||||||||||||||||
| Total operating lease liabilities | $ | $ | ||||||||||||||||||
For the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024, there were no assets acquired in exchange for new operating lease liabilities. For the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023, assets acquired in exchange for new operating lease liabilities were $33.7 million. Lease expense primarily relates to operating lease costs. Lease expense for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 and April 30, 2023 was $26.3 million and $26.1 million, respectively. The aforementioned lease expense was included within selling, general and administrative expenses in the condensed consolidated statements of operations.
Cash flows used in operating activities related to operating leases were approximately $25.6 million and $21.1 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 and April 30, 2023, respectively.
8. Share-Based Compensation
2022 Omnibus Incentive Plan
In July 2022, the Company’s stockholders approved the Chewy, Inc. 2022 Omnibus Incentive Plan (the “2022 Plan”) replacing the Chewy, Inc. 2019 Omnibus Incentive Plan (the “2019 Plan”). The 2022 Plan became effective on July 14, 2022 and allows for the issuance of up to 40.0 million shares of Class A common stock and 1.0 million shares for new grants rolled over from the 2019 Plan. No awards may be granted under the 2022 Plan after July 2032. The 2022 Plan provides for grants of: (i) options, including incentive stock options and non-qualified stock options, (ii) restricted stock units, (iii) other share-based awards, including share appreciation rights, phantom stock, restricted shares, performance shares, deferred share units, and share-denominated performance units, (iv) cash awards, (v) substitute awards, and (vi) dividend equivalents (collectively, the “awards”). The awards may be granted to (i) the Company’s employees, consultants, and non-employee directors, (ii) employees of the Company’s affiliates and subsidiaries, and (iii) consultants of the Company’s subsidiaries.
Service-Based Awards
The Company granted restricted stock units with service-based vesting conditions (“RSUs”) which vested subject to the employee’s continued employment with the Company through the applicable vesting date. The Company recorded share-based compensation expense for RSUs on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period and accounted for forfeitures as they occur.
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Service-Based Awards Activity
The following table summarizes the activity related to the Company’s RSUs for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 (in thousands, except for weighted-average grant date fair value):
| Number of RSUs | Weighted-Average Grant Date Fair Value | ||||||||||
| Unvested and outstanding as of January 28, 2024 | $ | ||||||||||
| Granted | $ | ||||||||||
| Vested | ( | $ | |||||||||
| Forfeited | ( | $ | |||||||||
| Unvested and outstanding as of April 28, 2024 | $ | ||||||||||
The following table summarizes the weighted average grant-date fair value of RSUs granted and total fair value of RSUs vested for the periods presented:
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Weighted average grant-date fair value of RSUs | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Total fair value of vested RSUs (in millions) | $ | $ | |||||||||
As of April 28, 2024, total unrecognized compensation expense related to unvested RSUs was $700.7 million and is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average expected performance period of 2.9 years.
The fair value for RSUs is established based on the market price of the Company’s Class A common stock on the date of grant.
Service and Performance-Based Awards
The Company granted restricted stock units which vested upon satisfaction of both service-based vesting conditions and company performance-based vesting conditions (“PRSUs”), subject to the employee’s continued employment with the Company through the applicable vesting date. The Company recorded share-based compensation expense for PRSUs over the requisite service period and accounted for forfeitures as they occur.
Service and Performance-Based Awards Activity
The following table summarizes the activity related to the Company’s PRSUs for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 (in thousands, except for weighted-average grant date fair value):
| Number of PRSUs | Weighted-Average Grant Date Fair Value | ||||||||||
| Unvested and outstanding as of January 28, 2024 | $ | ||||||||||
| Granted | $ | ||||||||||
| Vested | ( | $ | |||||||||
| Forfeited | ( | $ | |||||||||
| Unvested and outstanding as of April 28, 2024 | $ | ||||||||||
The following table summarizes the weighted average grant-date fair value of PRSUs granted and total fair value of PRSUs vested for the periods presented:
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Weighted average grant-date fair value of PRSUs | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Total fair value of vested PRSUs (in millions) | $ | $ | |||||||||
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As of April 28, 2024, total unrecognized compensation expense related to unvested PRSUs was $34.7 million and is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average expected performance period of 2.5 years.
The fair value for PRSUs with a Company performance-based vesting condition is established based on the market price of the Company’s Class A common stock on the date of grant.
As of April 28, 2024, there were 2.8 million additional shares of Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2022 Plan.
Share-Based Compensation Expense
Share-based compensation expense is included within selling, general and administrative expenses in the condensed consolidated statements of operations. The Company recognized share-based compensation expense as follows (in thousands):
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| RSUs | $ | $ | |||||||||
| PRSUs | ( | ||||||||||
| Total share-based compensation expense | $ | $ | |||||||||
9. Income Taxes
Chewy is subject to taxation in the U.S. and various state, local, and foreign jurisdictions. The Company had a current income tax provision during the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 and April 30, 2023 of $11.5 million and $1.0 million, respectively.
As of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, the Company maintained a full valuation allowance of $281.1 275.7
In connection with the Transactions, Chewy assumed $1.9 billion in income taxes which were fully indemnified by affiliates of BC Partners. During the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024, the Company paid $96.1 million in federal and state income taxes relating to the preceding and had an income tax payable of $12.8 million and $108.9 million as of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, respectively.
10. Earnings per Share
Basic and diluted earnings per share attributable to the Company’s common stockholders are presented using the two-class method required for participating securities. Under the two-class method, net income attributable to the Company’s common stockholders is determined by allocating undistributed earnings between common stock and participating securities. Undistributed earnings for the periods presented are calculated as net income less distributed earnings. Undistributed earnings are allocated proportionally to the Company’s common Class A and Class B stockholders as both classes are entitled to share equally, on a per share basis, in dividends and other distributions. Basic and diluted earnings per share are calculated by dividing net income attributable to the Company’s common stockholders by the weighted-average shares outstanding during the period.
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The following table sets forth basic and diluted earnings per share attributable to the Company’s common stockholders for the periods presented (in thousands, except per share data):
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||
| Basic and diluted earnings per share | |||||||||||
| Numerator | |||||||||||
| Earnings attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Denominator | |||||||||||
| Weighted-average common shares used in computing earnings per share: | |||||||||||
| Basic | |||||||||||
| Effect of dilutive share-based awards | |||||||||||
| Diluted | |||||||||||
| Anti-dilutive share-based awards excluded from diluted common shares | |||||||||||
| Earnings per share attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders: | |||||||||||
| Basic | $ | $ | |||||||||
| Diluted | $ | $ | |||||||||
11. Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions
As of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, the Company had a receivable from affiliates of BC Partners of $7.0 million and $48.3 million, respectively, with respect to future tax payments in connection with the Transactions, which was included in prepaid expenses and other current assets on the Company’s condensed consolidated balance sheets.
As of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, the Company had a receivable from affiliates of BC Partners of $20.2 million and $19.7 million, respectively, with respect to the indemnification for certain tax liabilities in connection with the Transactions, which was included in other non-current assets on the Company’s condensed consolidated balance sheets.
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Item 2. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes thereto included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended April 28, 2024 (“10-Q Report”) and our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2024 (“10-K Report”). This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, such as those set forth under the “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” sections herein and in our 10-K Report, our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this 10-Q Report to “Chewy,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us” refer to Chewy, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
Investors and others should note that we may announce material information to our investors using our investor relations website (https://investor.chewy.com/), filings with the SEC, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts. We use these channels, as well as social media, to communicate with our investors and the public about our company, our business and other issues. It is possible that the information that we post on these channels could be deemed to be material information. We therefore encourage investors to visit these websites from time to time. The information contained on such websites and social media posts is not incorporated by reference into this filing. Further, our references to website URLs in this filing are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Overview
We are the largest pure-play pet e-tailer in the United States, offering virtually every product a pet needs. We launched Chewy in 2011 to bring the best of the neighborhood pet store shopping experience to a larger audience, enhanced by the depth and wide selection of products and services, as well as the around-the-clock convenience, that only e-commerce can offer. We believe that we are the preeminent destination for pet parents as a result of our broad selection of high-quality products and expanded menu of service offerings, which we offer at great prices and deliver with an exceptional level of care and a personal touch. We are the trusted source for pet parents and partners and continually develop innovative ways for our customers to engage with us. We partner with approximately 3,500 of the best and most trusted brands in the pet industry, and we create and offer our own outstanding private brands. Through our website and mobile applications, we offer our customers approximately 115,000 products, compelling merchandising, an easy and enjoyable shopping experience, and exceptional customer service.
Macroeconomic Considerations
Evolving macroeconomic conditions, including rising inflation and interest rates, have affected, and continue to affect, our business and consumer shopping behavior. We continue to monitor conditions closely and adapt aspects of our logistics, transportation, supply chain, and purchasing processes accordingly to meet the needs of our growing community of pets, pet parents and partners. As our customers react to these economic conditions, we will adapt our business accordingly to meet their evolving needs.
We are unable to predict the duration and ultimate impact of evolving macroeconomic conditions on the broader economy or our operations and liquidity. As such, macroeconomic risks and uncertainties remain. Please refer to the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this 10-Q Report and in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of our 10-K Report.
Fiscal Year End
We have a 52- or 53-week fiscal year ending each year on the Sunday that is closest to January 31 of that year. Our 2024 fiscal year ends on February 2, 2025 and is a 53-week year. Our 2023 fiscal year ended January 28, 2024 and was a 52-week year.
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Key Financial and Operating Data
We measure our business using both financial and operating data and use the following metrics and measures to assess the near-term and long-term performance of our overall business, including identifying trends, formulating financial projections, making strategic decisions, assessing operational efficiencies, and monitoring our business.
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except net sales per active customer, per share data, and percentages) | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | % Change | ||||||||||||||
| Financial and Operating Data | |||||||||||||||||
| Net sales | $ | 2,877,725 | $ | 2,790,639 | 3.1 | % | |||||||||||
Net income (1) | $ | 66,897 | $ | 22,859 | 192.7 | % | |||||||||||
| Net margin | 2.3 | % | 0.8 | % | |||||||||||||
Adjusted EBITDA (2) | $ | 162,924 | $ | 110,873 | 46.9 | % | |||||||||||
Adjusted EBITDA margin (2) | 5.7 | % | 4.0 | % | |||||||||||||
Adjusted net income (2) | $ | 137,064 | $ | 87,927 | 55.9 | % | |||||||||||
Earnings per share, basic and diluted (1) | $ | 0.15 | $ | 0.05 | 200.0 | % | |||||||||||
Adjusted earnings per share, basic (2) | $ | 0.32 | $ | 0.21 | 52.4 | % | |||||||||||
Adjusted earnings per share, diluted (2) | $ | 0.31 | $ | 0.20 | 55.0 | % | |||||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 81,937 | $ | 148,712 | (44.9) | % | |||||||||||
Free cash flow (2) | $ | 52,638 | $ | 127,139 | (58.6) | % | |||||||||||
| Active customers | 19,988 | 20,419 | (2.1) | % | |||||||||||||
| Net sales per active customer | $ | 562 | $ | 513 | 9.6 | % | |||||||||||
| Autoship customer sales | $ | 2,232,886 | $ | 2,098,271 | 6.4 | % | |||||||||||
| Autoship customer sales as a percentage of net sales | 77.6 | % | 75.2 | % | |||||||||||||
(1) Includes share-based compensation expense and related taxes of $69.5 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024, compared to $53.8 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. | |||||||||||||||||
(2) Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income, adjusted basic and diluted earnings per share, and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures. | |||||||||||||||||
We define net margin as net income divided by net sales and adjusted EBITDA margin as adjusted EBITDA divided by net sales.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin
To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have disclosed here and elsewhere in this 10-Q Report adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure that we calculate as net income (loss) excluding depreciation and amortization; share-based compensation expense and related taxes; income tax provision; interest income (expense), net; transaction related costs; changes in the fair value of equity warrants; severance and exit costs; and litigation matters and other items that we do not consider representative of our underlying operations. We have provided a reconciliation below of adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.
We have included adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin in this 10-Q Report because each is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of capital. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin facilitates operating performance comparability across reporting periods by removing the effect of non-cash expenses and certain variable charges. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.
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We believe it is useful to exclude non-cash charges, such as depreciation and amortization and share-based compensation expense from our adjusted EBITDA because the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations. We believe it is useful to exclude income tax provision; interest income (expense), net; transaction related costs; changes in the fair value of equity warrants; and litigation matters and other items which are not components of our core business operations. We believe it is useful to exclude severance and exit costs because these expenses represent temporary initiatives to realign resources and enhance operational efficiency, which are not components of our core business operations. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as a financial measure and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
•although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future and adjusted EBITDA does not reflect capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditures;
•adjusted EBITDA does not reflect share-based compensation and related taxes. Share-based compensation has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a recurring expense in our business and an important part of our compensation strategy;
•adjusted EBITDA does not reflect interest income (expense), net; or changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital;
•adjusted EBITDA does not reflect transaction related costs and other items which are either not representative of our underlying operations or are incremental costs that result from an actual or planned transaction or initiative and include changes in the fair value of equity warrants, severance and exit costs, litigation matters, integration consulting fees, internal salaries and wages (to the extent the individuals are assigned full-time to integration and transformation activities) and certain costs related to integrating and converging IT systems; and
•other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate adjusted EBITDA differently, which reduces its usefulness as a comparative measure.
Because of these limitations, you should consider adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin alongside other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss), net margin, and our other GAAP results.
The following table presents a reconciliation of net income to adjusted EBITDA, as well as the calculation of net margin and adjusted EBITDA margin, for each of the periods indicated:
| (in thousands, except percentages) | 13 Weeks Ended | ||||||||||
Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | |||||||||
Net income | $ | 66,897 | $ | 22,859 | |||||||
Add (deduct): | |||||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 28,000 | 28,898 | |||||||||
| Share-based compensation expense and related taxes | 69,484 | 53,777 | |||||||||
| Interest income, net | (14,523) | (8,016) | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of equity warrants | 683 | 8,934 | |||||||||
| Income tax provision | 11,483 | 1,003 | |||||||||
| Exit costs | — | 2,357 | |||||||||
| Transaction related costs | (10) | — | |||||||||
| Other | 910 | 1,061 | |||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 162,924 | $ | 110,873 | |||||||
| Net sales | $ | 2,877,725 | $ | 2,790,639 | |||||||
| Net margin | 2.3 | % | 0.8 | % | |||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA margin | 5.7 | % | 4.0 | % | |||||||
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Adjusted Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted Basic and Diluted Earnings (Loss) per Share
To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have disclosed here and elsewhere in this 10-Q Report adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share, which represent non-GAAP financial measures. We calculate adjusted net income (loss) as net income (loss) excluding share-based compensation expense and related taxes, changes in the fair value of equity warrants, and severance and exit costs. We calculate adjusted basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share by dividing adjusted net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average shares outstanding during the period. We have provided a reconciliation below of adjusted net income to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.
We have included adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share in this 10-Q Report because each is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of capital. In particular, the exclusion of certain expenses in calculating adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share facilitates operating performance comparability across reporting periods by removing the effect of non-cash expenses and certain variable gains and losses that do not represent a component of our core business operations. We believe it is useful to exclude non-cash share-based compensation expense because the amount of such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations. We believe it is useful to exclude changes in the fair value of equity warrants because the variability of equity warrant gains and losses is not representative of our underlying operations. We believe it is useful to exclude severance and exit costs because these expenses represent temporary initiatives to realign resources and enhance operational efficiency, which are not components of our core business operations. Accordingly, we believe that these measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.
Adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share have limitations as financial measures and you should not consider them in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Other companies may calculate adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share differently, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures. Because of these limitations, you should consider adjusted net income (loss) and adjusted basic and diluted earnings (loss) alongside other financial performance measures, including various cash flow metrics, net income (loss), basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share, and our other GAAP results.
The following table presents a reconciliation of net income to adjusted net income, as well as the calculation of adjusted basic and diluted earnings per share, for each of the periods indicated:
| (in thousands, except per share data) | 13 Weeks Ended | ||||||||||
Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted Net Income | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | |||||||||
Net income | $ | 66,897 | $ | 22,859 | |||||||
Add: | |||||||||||
| Share-based compensation expense and related taxes | 69,484 | 53,777 | |||||||||
| Change in fair value of equity warrants | 683 | 8,934 | |||||||||
| Exit costs | — | 2,357 | |||||||||
| Adjusted net income | $ | 137,064 | $ | 87,927 | |||||||
Weighted-average common shares used in computing earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share: | |||||||||||
| Basic | 434,873 | 426,852 | |||||||||
Effect of dilutive share-based awards | 1,551 | 3,619 | |||||||||
Diluted | 436,424 | 430,471 | |||||||||
Earnings per share attributable to common Class A and Class B stockholders | |||||||||||
| Basic | $ | 0.15 | $ | 0.05 | |||||||
Diluted | $ | 0.15 | $ | 0.05 | |||||||
| Adjusted basic | $ | 0.32 | $ | 0.21 | |||||||
Adjusted diluted | $ | 0.31 | $ | 0.20 | |||||||
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Free Cash Flow
To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have also disclosed here and elsewhere in this 10-Q Report free cash flow, a non-GAAP financial measure that we calculate as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less capital expenditures (which consist of purchases of property and equipment, capitalization of labor related to our websites, mobile applications, software development, and leasehold improvements). We have provided a reconciliation below of free cash flow to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.
We have included free cash flow in this 10-Q Report because it is used by our management and board of directors as an important indicator of our liquidity as it measures the amount of cash we generate. Accordingly, we believe that free cash flow provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management and board of directors.
Free cash flow has limitations as a financial measure and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. There are limitations to using non-GAAP financial measures, including that other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate free cash flow differently. Because of these limitations, you should consider free cash flow alongside other financial performance measures, including net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, capital expenditures and our other GAAP results.
The following table presents a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities to free cash flow for each of the periods indicated:
| (in thousands) | 13 Weeks Ended | ||||||||||
| Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | |||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 81,937 | $ | 148,712 | |||||||
| Deduct: | |||||||||||
| Capital expenditures | (29,299) | (21,573) | |||||||||
| Free Cash Flow | $ | 52,638 | $ | 127,139 | |||||||
Free cash flow may be affected in the near to medium term by the timing of capital investments (such as the launch of new fulfillment centers, pharmacy facilities, veterinary clinics, customer service infrastructure, and corporate offices and purchases of IT and other equipment), fluctuations in our growth and the effect of such fluctuations on working capital, and changes in our cash conversion cycle due to increases or decreases of vendor payment terms as well as inventory turnover.
Key Operating Metrics
Active Customers
As of the last date of each reporting period, we determine our number of active customers by counting the total number of individual customers who have ordered a product or service, and for whom a product has shipped or for whom a service has been provided, at least once during the preceding 364-day period. The change in active customers in a reporting period captures both the inflow of new customers and the outflow of customers who have not made a purchase in the last 364 days. We view the number of active customers as a key indicator of our growth—acquisition and retention of customers—as a result of our marketing efforts and the value we provide to our customers. The number of active customers has grown over time as we acquired new customers and retained previously acquired customers.
Net Sales Per Active Customer
We define net sales per active customer as the aggregate net sales for the preceding four fiscal quarters, divided by the total number of active customers at the end of that period. We view net sales per active customer as a key indicator of our customers’ purchasing patterns, including their initial and repeat purchase behavior.
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Autoship and Autoship Customer Sales
We define Autoship customers as customers in a given fiscal quarter that had an order shipped through our Autoship subscription program during the preceding 364-day period. We define Autoship as our subscription program, which provides automatic ordering, payment, and delivery of products to our customers. We view our Autoship subscription program as a key driver of recurring net sales and customer retention. For a given fiscal quarter, Autoship customer sales consist of sales and shipping revenues from all Autoship subscription program purchases and purchases outside of the Autoship subscription program by Autoship customers, excluding taxes collected from customers, excluding any refund allowance, and net of any promotional offers (such as percentage discounts off current purchases and other similar offers) for that quarter. For a given fiscal year, Autoship customer sales equal the sum of the Autoship customer sales for each of the fiscal quarters in that fiscal year.
Autoship Customer Sales as a Percentage of Net Sales
We define Autoship customer sales as a percentage of net sales as the Autoship customer sales in a given reporting period divided by the net sales from all orders in that period. We view Autoship customer sales as a percentage of net sales as a key indicator of our recurring sales and customer retention.
Components of Results of Consolidated Operations
Net Sales
We derive net sales primarily from sales of both third-party brand and private brand pet food, pet products, pet medications and other pet health products, and related shipping fees. Sales of third-party brand and private brand pet food, pet products and shipping revenues are recorded when products are shipped, net of promotional discounts and refund allowances. Taxes collected from customers are excluded from net sales. Net sales is primarily driven by growth of new customers and active customers, and the frequency with which customers purchase and subscribe to our Autoship subscription program.
We also periodically provide promotional offers, including discount offers, such as percentage discounts off current purchases and other similar offers. These offers are treated as a reduction to the purchase price of the related transaction and are reflected as a net amount in net sales.
Cost of Goods Sold
Cost of goods sold consists of the cost of third-party brand and private brand products sold to customers, inventory freight, shipping supply costs, inventory shrinkage costs, and inventory valuation adjustments, offset by reductions for promotions and percentage or volume rebates offered by our vendors, which may depend on reaching minimum purchase thresholds. Generally, amounts received from vendors are considered a reduction of the carrying value of inventory and are ultimately reflected as a reduction of cost of goods sold.
Selling, General and Administrative
Selling, general and administrative expenses consist of payroll and related expenses for employees involved in general corporate functions, including accounting, finance, tax, legal and human resources; costs associated with use by these functions, such as depreciation expense and rent relating to facilities and equipment; professional fees and other general corporate costs; share-based compensation; and fulfillment costs.
Fulfillment costs represent costs incurred in operating and staffing fulfillment and customer service centers, including costs attributable to buying, receiving, inspecting and warehousing inventories, picking, packaging and preparing customer orders for shipment, payment processing and related transaction costs, and responding to inquiries from customers. Included within fulfillment costs are merchant processing fees charged by third parties that provide merchant processing services for credit cards.
Advertising and Marketing
Advertising and marketing expenses consist of advertising and payroll related expenses for personnel engaged in marketing, business development and selling activities.
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Interest Income (Expense), net
We generate interest income from our cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities. We incur interest expense in relation to our borrowing facilities, finance leases, and uncertain tax positions.
Other Income (Expense), net
Our other income (expense), net consists of changes in the fair value of equity warrants, investments, and tax indemnification receivables, foreign currency transaction gains and losses, and allowances for credit losses.
Results of Consolidated Operations
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods presented and express the relationship of certain line items as a percentage of net sales for those periods. The period-to-period comparison of financial results is not necessarily indicative of future results:
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| % of net sales | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except percentages) | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | % Change | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consolidated Statements of Operations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net sales | $ | 2,877,725 | $ | 2,790,639 | 3.1 | % | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | |||||||||||||||||||
| Cost of goods sold | 2,023,733 | 1,997,783 | 1.3 | % | 70.3 | % | 71.6 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Gross profit | 853,992 | 792,856 | 7.7 | % | 29.7 | % | 28.4 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Selling, general and administrative | 602,561 | 584,389 | 3.1 | % | 20.9 | % | 20.9 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Advertising and marketing | 186,815 | 183,733 | 1.7 | % | 6.5 | % | 6.6 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Total operating expenses | 789,376 | 768,122 | 2.8 | % | 27.4 | % | 27.5 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Income from operations | 64,616 | 24,734 | 161.2 | % | 2.2 | % | 0.9 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest income, net | 14,523 | 8,016 | 81.2 | % | 0.5 | % | 0.3 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Other expense, net | (759) | (8,888) | 91.5 | % | (0.0) | % | (0.3) | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Income before income tax provision | 78,380 | 23,862 | 228.5 | % | 2.7 | % | 0.9 | % | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Income tax provision | 11,483 | 1,003 | n/m | 0.4 | % | 0.0 | % | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Net income | $ | 66,897 | $ | 22,859 | 192.7 | % | 2.3 | % | 0.8 | % | |||||||||||||||||||
| n/m - not meaningful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thirteen Weeks Ended April 28, 2024 Compared to Thirteen Weeks Ended April 30, 2023
Net Sales
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| (in thousands, except percentages) | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | $ Change | % Change | |||||||||||||||||||
| Consumables | $ | 2,046,912 | $ | 2,004,384 | $ | 42,528 | 2.1 | % | |||||||||||||||
| Hardgoods | 304,725 | 311,115 | (6,390) | (2.1) | % | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other | 526,088 | 475,140 | 50,948 | 10.7 | % | ||||||||||||||||||
| Net sales | $ | 2,877,725 | $ | 2,790,639 | $ | 87,086 | 3.1 | % | |||||||||||||||
Net sales for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 increased by $87.1 million, or 3.1%, to $2.9 billion compared to $2.8 billion for the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. This increase was primarily driven by growth in customer spending from both new and existing customers, and the frequency with which customers purchase and subscribe to our Autoship subscription program. Net sales per active customer increased $49, or 9.6%, in the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 compared to the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023, driven by growth across our healthcare and specialty businesses.
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Cost of Goods Sold and Gross Profit
Cost of goods sold for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 increased by $26.0 million, or 1.3%, to $2.0 billion compared to $2.0 billion in the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. This increase was primarily due to an increase in associated product, outbound freight, and shipping supply costs. The increase in cost of goods sold was lower than the increase in net sales on a percentage basis, reflecting supply chain efficiency gains across our fulfillment network.
Gross profit for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 increased by $61.1 million, or 7.7%, to $854.0 million compared to $792.9 million in the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. This increase was primarily due to the year-over-year increase in net sales as described above. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 increased by 130 basis points compared to the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023, primarily due to margin expansion across our consumables, healthcare and private brands businesses.
Selling, General and Administrative
Selling, general and administrative expenses for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 increased by $18.2 million, or 3.1%, to $602.6 million compared to $584.4 million in the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. This was primarily due to an increase of $15.7 million in non-cash share-based compensation expense and related taxes as well as an increase of $5.0 million in facilities expenses and other general and administrative expenses, principally due to business growth and new initiatives at our corporate offices in Seattle, Washington, Boston, Massachusetts, and Plantation, Florida, as well as costs associated with the launch of operations in Canada, partially offset by a decrease of $2.5 million in fulfillment costs attributable to automation and supply chain efficiencies within our fulfillment network.
Advertising and Marketing
Advertising and marketing expenses for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 increased by $3.1 million, or 1.7%, to $186.8 million compared to $183.7 million in the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. Our marketing expenses increased due to additional investment in our lower and upper funnel marketing channels as well as expansion into Canada, contributing to new customer acquisition, customer retention, and an increase in wallet share from our large and stable customer base.
Interest Income (Expense), net
Interest income for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 increased by $6.5 million, to $14.5 million compared to interest income of $8.0 million in the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. This increase was due to interest income generated by cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities exceeding interest expenses incurred.
Other Income (Expense), net
Other expense for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 decreased by $8.1 million, to $0.8 million compared to other expense of $8.9 million in the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023. This decrease was primarily due to changes in the fair value of equity warrants and tax indemnification receivables, partially offset by foreign currency transaction losses.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
We finance our operations and capital expenditures primarily through cash flows generated by operations. Our principal sources of liquidity are expected to be our cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, and our revolving credit facility. Cash and cash equivalents consist primarily of cash on deposit with banks and investments in money market funds, U.S. Treasury securities, certificates of deposit, and commercial paper. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.1 billion as of April 28, 2024, an increase of $532.4 million from January 28, 2024. Marketable securities consist primarily of vested equity warrants, equity investments, U.S. treasury securities, certificates of deposit, and commercial paper and totaled $3.5 million as of April 28, 2024, a decrease of $528.3 million from January 28, 2024.
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We believe that our cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, and availability under our revolving credit facility will be sufficient to fund our working capital, capital expenditure requirements, and contractual obligations for at least the next twelve months. In addition, we may choose to raise additional funds at any time through equity or debt financing arrangements, which may or may not be needed for additional working capital, capital expenditures or other strategic investments. Our opinions concerning liquidity are based on currently available information. To the extent this information proves to be inaccurate, or if circumstances change, future availability of trade credit or other sources of financing may be reduced and our liquidity could be adversely affected. Our future capital requirements and the adequacy of available funds will depend on many factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of our 10-K Report. Depending on the severity and direct impact of these factors on us, we may be unable to secure additional financing to meet our operating requirements on terms favorable to us, or at all.
Cash Flows
| 13 Weeks Ended | |||||||||||
| ($ in thousands) | April 28, 2024 | April 30, 2023 | |||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 81,937 | $ | 148,712 | |||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | $ | 505,701 | $ | (66,038) | |||||||
| Net cash used in financing activities | $ | (55,067) | $ | (4,111) | |||||||
Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities was $81.9 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024, which primarily consisted of $66.9 million of net income, non-cash adjustments such as depreciation and amortization expense of $28.0 million and share-based compensation expense of $65.4 million, partially offset by a cash decrease of $79.3 million from working capital. Cash decreases from working capital were primarily driven by a decrease in other current liabilities and an increase in inventories, receivables, and other current assets, partially offset by an increase in payables.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $148.7 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023, which primarily consisted of $22.9 million of net income, non-cash adjustments such as depreciation and amortization expense of $28.9 million and share-based compensation expense of $48.6 million, and a cash increase of $30.0 million from working capital. Cash increases from working capital were primarily driven by an increase in payables and other current liabilities, partially offset by an increase in inventories, receivables, and other current assets.
Investing Activities
Net cash provided by investing activities was $505.7 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024, primarily consisting of $535.0 million for the maturities of marketable securities, partially offset by $29.3 million for capital expenditures related to the launch of new and future pharmacy facilities, veterinary clinics, and fulfillment centers as well as additional investments in IT hardware and software.
Net cash used in investing activities was $66.0 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023, primarily consisting of $44.1 million for the purchase of marketable securities, net of maturities and $21.6 million for capital expenditures related to the launch of new and future fulfillment centers and additional investments in IT hardware and software.
Financing Activities
Net cash used in financing activities was $55.1 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024 primarily consisting of $54.8 million for income taxes paid for, net of proceeds from, the parent reorganization transaction as well as principal repayments of finance lease obligations.
Net cash used in financing activities was $4.1 million for the thirteen weeks ended April 30, 2023, and consisted of payments made pursuant to the tax sharing agreement with related parties, payment of debt modification costs, and principal repayments of finance lease obligations.
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Other Liquidity Measures
ABL Credit Facility
We have a senior secured asset-based credit facility (the “ABL Credit Facility”) which matures on August 27, 2026 and provides for non-amortizing revolving loans in the aggregate principal amount of up to $800 million, subject to a borrowing base comprised of, among other things, inventory and sales receivables (subject to certain reserves). The ABL Credit Facility provides the right to request incremental commitments and add incremental asset-based revolving loan facilities up to $250 million, subject to customary conditions. We are required to pay a 0.25% per annum commitment fee with respect to the undrawn portion of the commitments, which is generally based on average daily usage of the facility. Based on our borrowing base as of April 28, 2024, which is reduced by standby letters of credit, we had $759.4 million of borrowing capacity under the ABL Credit Facility. As of April 28, 2024 and January 28, 2024, we had no outstanding borrowings under the ABL Credit Facility, respectively.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Information regarding recent accounting pronouncements is included in Note 2 in the “Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements” of this 10-Q Report.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
There have been no material changes to the quantitative and qualitative disclosures about market risk disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2024.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures
Management’s Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required financial disclosure.
As of the end of the period covered by this 10-Q Report, our management, under the supervision and with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e). Based upon this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at a reasonable assurance level as of April 28, 2024.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting during the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024.
Limitations on the Effectiveness of Controls
Our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are designed to provide reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives as specified above. Management does not expect, however, that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent or detect all error and fraud. Any control system, no matter how well designed and operated, is based on certain assumptions and can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that its objectives will be met. Further, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the Company have been detected.
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PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 1. Legal Proceedings
Information concerning legal proceedings is provided in Item 1 of Part I, “Financial Statements (Unaudited)–Note 5– Commitments and Contingencies–Legal Matters” and is incorporated by reference herein.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
The following are important factors that could affect our business, financial condition or results of operations and could cause actual results for future periods to differ materially from our anticipated results or other expectations, including those expressed in any forward-looking statements made in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, our other filings with the SEC or in presentations such as telephone conferences and webcasts open to the public. The following updates and supersedes the risks and uncertainties previously provided in Part I, Item 1A of our 2023 Annual Report on Form 10-K. You should carefully consider the following factors in conjunction with this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 2 and our consolidated financial statements and related notes in Item 1. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. If any of the following risks actually occur, or other risks that we are not aware of become material, our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Summary Risk Factors
Our business faces significant risks. The risk factors described below are only a summary of the principal risk factors associated with an investment in us. These risks are more fully described in this “Risk Factors” section, including the following:
Risks Related to Our Business and Operations
•Our recent growth rates may not be sustainable or indicative of our future growth and we may not be able to successfully manage challenges to our future growth.
•Business disruptions and responsive actions may adversely affect our business operations, financial performance, liquidity and cash flow for an unknown period of time.
•If we fail to acquire and retain new customers, or fail to do so in a cost-effective manner, we may be unable to increase net sales, improve margins, and maintain profitability.
•If we fail to manage our growth effectively, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
•Our continued success is largely dependent on positive perceptions of the Company.
•We have a history of losses and may generate operating losses as we continue to expand our business.
•We may be unable to accurately forecast net sales and appropriately plan our expenses in the future.
•Our estimate of the size of our addressable markets may prove to be inaccurate.
•We may be unable to source additional suppliers or strengthen our existing relationships with suppliers. In addition, the loss of any of our key suppliers would negatively impact our business.
•Shipping is a critical part of our business and any changes in, or disruptions to, our shipping arrangements could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
•If we do not successfully optimize, operate, and manage the expansion of the capacity of our fulfillment centers, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed.
•Our business may be adversely affected if we are unable to provide our customers with a cost-effective platform that is able to respond and adapt to rapid changes in technology.
•We are subject to risks related to online payment methods.
•Our business depends on network and mobile infrastructure, our third-party data center hosting facilities (including cloud-service providers), other third-party providers, and our ability to maintain and scale our technology. Any significant interruptions or delays in service on our websites or mobile applications or any undetected errors or design faults could result in limited capacity, reduced demand, processing delays, and loss of customers or suppliers.
•Disruptions to software-as-a-service technologies from third parties may adversely affect our business and results of operations.
•Our failure or the failure of third-party service providers to protect our websites, networks, and systems against cybersecurity incidents, or to otherwise protect our confidential information, could damage our reputation and brand and harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
•Safety, quality, and health concerns regarding our products could affect our business.
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•Risks associated with our suppliers and our outsourcing partners, many of which are located outside of the United States (“U.S.”), could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
•We are subject to extensive laws and regulations and we may incur material liabilities or costs related to complying with existing or future laws and regulations, and our failure to comply may result in enforcements, penalties, recalls, and other adverse actions.
•We may inadvertently not comply with various state or federal laws and regulations covering our pet health business, which may subject us to reprimands, sanctions, probations, fines, suspensions, or the loss of one or more of our licenses.
•Resistance from veterinarians to authorize prescriptions, or their efforts to discourage pet owners from purchasing from us, could cause our sales to decrease and could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
•Failure to comply with laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, marketing and advertising and consumer protection, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
•Our ability to utilize net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards, and other tax attributes may be subject to certain limitations.
•We may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights. Additionally, we may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in substantial damages and diversion of management’s efforts and attention.
•We may be subject to personal injury, workers’ compensation, product liability, labor and employment, and other claims in the ordinary course of business.
•We rely on the performance of members of management and highly skilled personnel and our business could be harmed if we are unable to attract, develop, motivate, and retain highly-qualified and skilled employees.
•Uncertainties in economic conditions, industry trends, and market conditions, and their impact on the pet market, could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
•Significant merchandise returns or refunds could harm our business.
•We may seek to grow our business through acquisitions or investments in new or complementary businesses, technologies, or offerings, or through other strategic transactions, and the failure to manage these acquisitions, investments, or strategic transactions, or to integrate them with our existing business, could have a material adverse effect on us.
•Our business results could be adversely affected if our new offerings are unsuccessful.
•Regulation of the sale of insurance for pets is subject to change, and future regulations could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
•If we cannot successfully manage the unique challenges presented by international markets, we may not be successful in expanding our operations outside the U.S. and Canada.
Risks Related to Our Industry
•Competition in the pet products and services health and retail industries, especially Internet-based competition, is strong and presents an ongoing threat to the success of our business.
•Government regulation of the Internet and e-commerce is evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by us to comply with these regulations could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
•Changes in tax treatment of companies engaged in e-commerce may adversely affect the commercial use of our websites and mobile applications and our financial results.
Risks Related to Our Controlling Stockholders
•Substantial future sales by affiliates of BC Partners (the “BCP Stockholder Parties”) or others of our common stock, or the perception that such sales may occur, could depress the price of our Class A common stock.
•There could be potential conflicts of interests between us and affiliates of the BCP Stockholder Parties. In addition, our directors may encounter conflicts of interest involving us and the other entities with which they may be affiliated, including matters that involve corporate opportunities.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
•Our stock price has been, and may continue to be, volatile and may decline regardless of our operating performance.
•The dual class structure of our common stock may adversely affect the trading market for our Class A common stock.
•Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of the Company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management, and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.
•Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation includes exclusive forum provisions, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
•The BCP Stockholder Parties control the direction of our business and the concentrated ownership of our common stock will prevent other stockholders from influencing significant decisions.
•We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the rules of NYSE and rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.
•Restrictions in our revolving credit facility could adversely affect our operating flexibility.
•The terms of our revolving credit facility may restrict our ability to pay dividends.
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•We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. Share repurchases could also increase the volatility of the trading price of our stock and could diminish our cash reserves.
General Risk Factors
•Future litigation could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
•Our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited and our failure to raise capital when needed could prevent us from growing.
•We may experience fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
•If our internal control over financial reporting or our disclosure controls and procedures are not effective, we may be unable to accurately report our financial results, prevent fraud or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in our stock price.
•The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members.
Risks Related to Our Business and Operations
Our recent growth rates may not be sustainable or indicative of our future growth and we may not be able to successfully manage challenges to our future growth.
We have experienced significant growth in recent periods. This rate of growth may not be sustainable or indicative of our future rate of growth. We believe that our continued growth in net sales will depend upon, among other factors, our ability to:
•acquire new customers and retain existing customers;
•increase sales from our new and existing customers;
•increase the number of customers and the amount of sales in our Autoship subscription program;
•attract new vendors to supply quality products that we can offer to our customers at attractive prices;
•retain our existing vendors and have them supply additional quality products that we can offer to our customers at attractive prices;
•provide our customers and vendors with a superior and differentiated experience;
•expand our private brand product offering, including, through the launch of new brands and expansion into new offerings;
•increase the scale of existing private brands;
•expand into new territories;
•increase the awareness of our brand;
•protect our reputation and maintain our positive brand perception;
•develop new features to enhance the consumer experience on our websites and our mobile and tablet applications;
•compete effectively and respond to challenges from existing and new competitors;
•develop a scalable, high-performance technology and fulfillment infrastructure that can efficiently and reliably handle increased demand, as well as the deployment of new features and the sale of new products and services;
•fulfill and deliver orders in a timely way and in accordance with customer expectations, which may change over time;
•anticipate and respond timely to macroeconomic trends and changes to consumer preferences;
•hire, integrate and retain talented personnel;
•leverage our technological and operational efficiencies;
•invest in the infrastructure underlying our websites and other operational systems; and
•expand into new offerings or new lines of business in which we do not have prior, or sufficient, operating experience.
Our ability to improve margins and maintain profitability will also depend on the factors described above. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to successfully manage any of the foregoing challenges to our future growth. Any of these factors and others not listed could cause our net sales growth to decline and may adversely affect our margins and profitability. We have also benefited from increasing pet ownership and discretionary spending on pets. To the extent these trends slow or reverse, our net sales, margins and profitability could be adversely affected. Failure to continue our net sales growth or improve margins could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. You should not rely on our historical rate of net sales growth as an indication of our future performance.
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Business disruptions and responsive actions may adversely affect our business operations, financial performance, liquidity and cash flow for an unknown period of time.
Our operations and supply chain could be disrupted by natural or man-made disasters including severe weather, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires, power or water shortages, telecommunications failures, materials scarcity and price volatility, terrorism, civil unrest, conflicts or wars, and health epidemics or pandemics.
Several of our fulfillment centers, customer service centers, and corporate offices are located in Florida, Texas, and other areas that are susceptible to hurricanes, sea-level rise, earthquakes, and other natural disasters and severe weather events (including those resulting from climate change). We recognize that the frequency and intensity of natural disasters and severe weather events may continue to increase, and as a result, our exposure to these events may increase. A potential result of climate change is more frequent or severe natural disasters or weather events. To the extent such natural disasters or weather events do become more frequent or severe, disruptions to our business and costs to repair facilities or maintain or resume operations could increase. The long-term impacts of climate change may be widespread and unpredictable. These changes over time could also affect, for example, the availability and cost of our products, insurance, commodities and energy (including utilities), which in turn may impact our ability to procure those certain goods or services required for the operation of our business. Therefore, we may experience certain risks, including higher costs, such as uninsured property losses and higher insurance premiums, as well as unexpected disruptions to our business and operations, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Public health crises and the measures taken in response to such events have negatively impacted and may negatively impact our business operations in the future as well. The extent to which any public health crisis may impact our business will depend on future developments that are uncertain and unpredictable, including the duration and severity of such events, their impact on capital and financial markets, the availability and use of vaccines, virus mutations and variants, the length of time for economic and operating conditions to return to prior levels, together with resulting consumer and government behaviors, and numerous other uncertainties. Any of these events could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and ability to execute and capitalize on our strategies for a period of time that is currently unknown.
If any of our fulfillment centers were to shut down, suffer substantial labor shortages, or lose significant capacity for any reason, our operations would likely be significantly disrupted. Our business relies on an efficient and effective supply chain, including the transportation of our products, as well as the effective functioning of our fulfillment centers. Any interruption or malfunction in our fulfillment operations that could negatively affect the flow or availability of our products and result in difficulties in timely obtaining product from vendors and transportation of those products to our fulfillment centers could adversely affect our sales and results of operations.
If we fail to acquire and retain new customers, or fail to do so in a cost-effective manner, we may be unable to increase net sales, improve margins, and maintain profitability.
Our success depends on our ability to acquire and retain new customers and to do so in a cost-effective manner. In order to expand our customer base, we must, in part, acquire customers who have historically purchased their pet products and services from other retailers, such as traditional brick and mortar retailers, the websites of our competitors, or our suppliers’ own websites. We have made significant investments related to customer acquisition and expect to continue to spend significant amounts to acquire additional customers. We cannot assure you that the net sales from the new customers we acquire will ultimately exceed the cost of acquiring those customers. There are many factors that may result in our inability to acquire or retain customers. If we are unable to acquire or retain customers who purchase products in volumes sufficient to grow our business, we may be unable to generate the scale necessary to achieve operational efficiency and drive beneficial network effects with our suppliers. Additionally, we may be required to incur significantly higher marketing expenses in order to acquire new customers. Consequently, our prices may increase (or may not decrease to levels sufficient to generate customer interest), our net sales may decrease and our margins and profitability may decline or not improve. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
If our efforts to satisfy our customers are not successful, we may be unable to acquire new customers in sufficient numbers to continue to grow our business, and we may be required to incur significantly higher marketing expenses in order to acquire new customers.
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We also use paid and non-paid advertising. Our paid advertising includes search engine marketing, direct mail, display, television, radio and magazine advertising, paid social media and product placement. Our non-paid advertising efforts include search engine optimization, non-paid social media and e-mail marketing. We have relied on and may continue relying on search engines to drive a significant amount of traffic to our websites. Search engines frequently update and change the logic that determines the placement and display of results of a user’s search, such that the purchased or algorithmic placement of links to our websites can be negatively affected. Moreover, a search engine could, for competitive or other purposes, alter its search algorithms or results, causing our websites to place lower in search query results.
We also drive a significant amount of traffic to our websites via social networking or other e-commerce channels used by our current and prospective customers. As social networking and e-commerce channels continue to rapidly evolve, we may be unable to develop or maintain a presence within these channels. If we are unable to cost-effectively drive traffic to our websites, our ability to acquire new customers and our financial condition would be materially and adversely affected. Additionally, if we fail to increase our net sales per active customer, generate repeat purchases or maintain high levels of customer engagement, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
If we fail to manage our growth effectively, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
To manage our growth effectively, we must continue to, among other things, implement our operational plans and strategies, improve and expand our infrastructure of people and information systems and expand, train and manage our employee base. To support our continued growth, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate our employees. We face significant competition for personnel in the areas where our corporate offices are located, and certain other areas in which we have operations. Failure to manage our hiring needs effectively or successfully integrate our new hires may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Additionally, the growth of our business places significant demands on our management and other employees. We are required to manage relationships with a growing number of suppliers, customers and other third parties. Our information technology systems, supply chain operations, and our internal controls and procedures may not be adequate to support future growth of our customer or supplier base. If we are unable to manage the growth of our organization effectively, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
The growth of our business depends on our ability to accurately predict and timely respond to consumer trends, successfully introduce new products and services, improve existing products and services, and expand into new offerings. Our growth also depends on our ability to meet the requirements of our customers and the needs of their pets by successfully introducing new products and services, improving and repositioning our existing products and services and expanding into new offerings. These factors contribute to our ability to predict and respond to evolving consumer trends, demands and preferences. The development and introduction of innovative new products and services and expansion into new offerings involves considerable costs. In addition, it may be difficult to establish new supplier or partner relationships and determine appropriate product selection when developing a new product, service or offering. Any new product, service or offering may not generate sufficient customer interest and sales to become profitable or to cover the costs of its development and promotion and may reduce our operating income. In addition, any such unsuccessful effort may adversely affect our brand and reputation. If we are unable to anticipate, identify, develop or market products, services or new offerings that respond to changes in consumer requirements and preferences, or if our new product or service introductions, repositioned products or services, or new offerings fail to gain consumer acceptance, we may be unable to grow our business as anticipated, our sales may decline and our margins and profitability may decline or not improve. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
In addition, while we plan to continue to invest in the expansion of our current offerings and new offerings, we may be unable to maintain or expand our sales, respond timely to changes in regulations or enter into strategic relationships with market-leading suppliers and other market participants. We may encounter certain challenges in manufacturing our products, including the loss of key suppliers and product recalls. Maintaining consistent product quality, competitive pricing, and availability of our products and services for our customers is essential to developing and maintaining customer loyalty and brand awareness. Our inability to sustain the growth and sales of our current and future offerings may materially and adversely affect our projected growth rates, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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Our continued success is largely dependent on positive perceptions of the Company.
We believe that one of the reasons our customers prefer to shop at Chewy is the reputation we have built for providing an exceptional customer experience. To be successful in the future, we must continue to preserve, grow and leverage the value of our reputation and our brand. Reputational value is based in large part on perceptions of subjective qualities, and even isolated incidents may erode trust and confidence and have adverse effects on our business and financial results, particularly if they result in adverse publicity or widespread reaction on social media, governmental investigations, or litigation. Our brand could be adversely affected if our public image or reputation were to be tarnished by negative publicity. Failure to comply or accusations of failure to comply with ethical, social, product, labor, data privacy, and environmental standards could also jeopardize our reputation and potentially lead to various adverse consumer actions. Any of these events could adversely affect our business. Additionally, there is an increasing focus from regulators, investors, and other stakeholders on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) matters. To the extent our products and services create ESG-related concerns, our reputation may be harmed.
We have a history of losses and may generate operating losses as we continue to expand our business.
We have a history of losses and may again generate operating losses in the future as we continue investment in our business. Furthermore, it is difficult for us to predict our future results of operations. Our operating expenses may increase over the next several years as we increase our advertising and marketing, launch and expand our offerings and geographical presence, hire additional personnel and continue to develop and enhance features on our websites and mobile applications. Our operating expenses have been affected and may again be affected by increased costs as a result of macroeconomic impacts. If our future growth and operating performance fail to meet investor or analyst expectations, or if we have future negative cash flow or losses resulting from our investment in our business, our financial condition and stock price could be materially and adversely affected.
We may be unable to accurately forecast net sales and appropriately plan our expenses in the future.
Net sales and results of operations are difficult to forecast because they generally depend on the volume, timing and type of orders we receive, all of which are uncertain. We base our expense levels and investment plans on our estimates of net sales and gross margins. We cannot be sure the same growth rates, trends, and other key performance metrics are meaningful predictors of future growth. If our assumptions prove to be wrong, we may spend more than we anticipate acquiring and retaining customers or may generate lower net sales per active customer than anticipated, either of which could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our estimate of the size of our addressable markets may prove to be inaccurate.
Data for sales of pet products and services is collected for most, but not all channels, and as a result, it is difficult to estimate the size of the markets that we operate in and predict the rate at which the markets for our products and services will grow, if at all. While our market size estimates are made in good faith and are based on assumptions and estimates we believe to be reasonable, these estimates may not be accurate. If our estimates of the size of our addressable markets are not accurate, our potential for future growth may be less than we currently anticipate, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may be unable to source additional suppliers or strengthen our existing relationships with suppliers. In addition, the loss of any of our key suppliers would negatively impact our business.
If we are unable to attract and retain suppliers, we may be unable to maintain and/or expand our supplier network, which would negatively impact our business.
We also purchase significant amounts of products from a number of suppliers with limited supply capabilities. There can be no assurance that our current suppliers will be able to accommodate our anticipated growth or continue to supply current quantities at preferential prices. An inability of our existing suppliers to provide products in a timely or cost-effective manner could impair our growth and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. For instance, we have experienced disruptions by existing suppliers being unable to supply us with products in a timely or cost-effective manner. While we believe these disruptions were temporary, they may occur again and a continued inability of our existing suppliers to provide products or other product supply disruptions that may occur in the future could impair our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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If any of our significant pet product suppliers discontinue selling to us at any time or discontinue offering us any preferential pricing or exclusive incentives, we could experience a negative impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, in our experience, it is challenging to persuade pet food buyers to switch to a different product, which could make it difficult to retain certain customers if we lose a pet food supplier, thereby exacerbating the negative impact of such loss on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We continually seek to expand our base of suppliers and to identify new pet products. If we are unable to identify or enter into distribution relationships with new suppliers or to replace the loss of any of our existing suppliers, we may experience a competitive disadvantage, our business may be disrupted and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.
Most of the premium pet food brands that we purchase are not widely carried in supermarkets, warehouse clubs or mass merchants. If any premium pet food manufacturers were to make premium pet food products widely available in supermarkets or through mass merchants, or if the premium brands currently available to supermarkets and mass merchants were to increase their market share at the expense of the premium brands sold only through specialty pet food and supplies retailers, our ability to attract and retain customers and our competitive position may suffer. Furthermore, if supermarkets, warehouse clubs or mass merchants begin offering any of these premium pet food brands at lower prices, our sales and gross margin could be adversely affected.
Certain of our principal suppliers currently provide us with incentives related to various trade allowances, cooperative advertising and market development funds. A reduction or discontinuance of these incentives could reduce our overall profitability. Similarly, if one or more of our suppliers were to offer certain incentives, including preferential pricing, to our competitors, our competitive advantage could be reduced, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Shipping is a critical part of our business and any changes in, or disruptions to, our shipping arrangements could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We have relied on and will continue to rely on third-party national, regional and local logistics providers to ship and deliver our products. If we are not able to negotiate acceptable pricing and other terms with these providers, or if these providers experience performance problems or other difficulties in processing our orders or delivering our products to customers, it could negatively impact our results of operations and our customers’ experience. In addition, our ability to receive inbound inventory efficiently and ship merchandise to customers may be negatively affected by factors beyond our and these providers’ control, including inclement weather, fire, flood, power loss, earthquakes, acts of war or terrorism or other events, such as labor disputes, financial difficulties, volatility in the prices of fuel, gasoline and commodities such as paper and packing supplies, system failures and other disruptions to the operations of the shipping companies on which we rely. We are also subject to risks of damage or loss during delivery by our shipping vendors. If the products ordered by our customers are not delivered in a timely fashion or are damaged or lost during the delivery process, our customers could become dissatisfied and cease buying our products, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Further, due to conditions beyond our control, we have experienced and may continue to experience disruptions and delays in national, regional and local shipping, which may negatively impact our customers’ experience and our results or operations. These conditions may disrupt our suppliers and logistics providers and other third- party delivery agents, as their workers may be unable to report to work and transporting products within regions or countries may be limited due to extended holidays, factory closures, port closures and increased border controls and closures, among other things. We have incurred and may continue to incur higher shipping costs due to various surcharges by third-party delivery agents. If we are unable to recover these additional costs, our margins and profitability may be adversely affected.
If we do not successfully optimize, operate, and manage the expansion of the capacity of our fulfillment centers, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed.
If we do not optimize and operate our fulfillment centers successfully and efficiently, it could result in excess or insufficient fulfillment capacity, an increase in costs or impairment charges or harm to our business in other ways. In addition, if we do not have sufficient fulfillment capacity or experience problems fulfilling orders in a timely manner, including as a result of unforeseen disruptions, our customers may experience delays in receiving their purchases, which could harm our reputation, our relationship with our customers and our results of operations. In addition, we have had to, and may again have to, pause operations at a fulfillment center, which resulted in, and could again result in, delayed or canceled orders. These actions or other actions that we may take in response to unforeseen circumstances that have the effect of delaying or canceling orders could negatively impact our ability to maintain, protect or enhance our brand. We have also experienced and may continue to
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experience disruptions to our supply chain operations and labor workforce availability due to factors beyond our control. If we are unable to successfully optimize our fulfillment centers, it could increase costs and adversely affect our business.
We have designed and built our own fulfillment center infrastructure which is tailored to meet the specific needs of our business, including customizing third-party inventory and package handling software systems and automated fulfillment capabilities. If we continue to add fulfillment and warehouse capabilities, add new businesses or categories with different fulfillment requirements or change the mix in products that we sell, our fulfillment network could become increasingly complex and operating it may become more challenging. Failure to successfully address such challenges in a cost-effective and timely manner could impair our ability to timely deliver our customers’ purchases and could harm our reputation and ultimately, our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may add additional fulfillment center capacity as our business continues to grow and our offerings expand. We cannot assure you that we will be able to locate suitable facilities on commercially acceptable terms, nor can we assure you that we will be able to recruit qualified managerial and operational personnel to support our expansion plans. If we are unable to secure new facilities for the expansion of our fulfillment operations, recruit qualified personnel to support any such facilities, or effectively control expansion-related expenses, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. If we grow faster than we anticipate, we may exceed our fulfillment center capacity sooner than we anticipate, we may experience problems fulfilling orders in a timely manner or our customers may experience delays in receiving their purchases, which could harm our reputation and our relationship with our customers, and we would need to increase our capital expenditures more than anticipated and in a shorter time frame than we currently anticipate. Our ability to operate and potentially expand our fulfillment center capacity, including our ability to secure suitable facilities and recruit qualified employees, may be affected by unforeseen circumstances and macroeconomic impacts. Many of the expenses and investments with respect to our fulfillment centers are fixed, and any expansion of such fulfillment centers will require additional investment of capital. We have incurred and may again incur increased capital expenditures for our fulfillment center operations as our business continues to grow. We would typically incur such expenses and make such investments in advance of expected sales, and such expected sales may not occur. Any of these factors could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our business may be adversely affected if we are unable to provide our customers with a cost-effective platform that is able to respond and adapt to rapid changes in technology.
Our customers generally access the Internet through devices other than personal computers, including mobile phones, handheld computers such as notebooks and tablets, video game consoles and television set-top devices. The versions of our websites and mobile applications developed for these devices may not be compelling to consumers. Adapting our services and/or infrastructure to these devices, as well as other new Internet, networking or telecommunications technologies, could be time-consuming and could require us to incur substantial expenditures, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Additionally, as new mobile devices and platforms are released, it is difficult to predict the problems we may encounter in developing applications for alternative devices and platforms and we may need to devote significant resources to the creation, support and maintenance of such applications. If we are unable to attract consumers to our websites or mobile applications through these devices or are slow to develop a version of our websites or mobile applications that is more compatible with alternative devices, we may fail to capture a significant share of consumers in the pet food and accessory market and could also lose customers, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our technology platform may also use open-source software. The use of such open-source software may subject us to certain conditions, including the obligation to offer, distribute, or disclose our technology platform for no or reduced cost, make the proprietary source code subject to open-source software licenses available to the public, license our software and systems that use open-source software for the purpose of making derivative works, or allow reverse assembly, disassembly, or reverse engineering. We monitor our use of open-source software to avoid subjecting our technology platform to conditions we do not intend. However, if our technology platform becomes subject to such unintended conditions, it could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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Further, we continually consider whether to upgrade existing technologies and business applications and we may be required to implement new technologies or business applications in the future. The implementation of upgrades and changes may require significant investments. Our results of operations may be affected by the timing, effectiveness and costs associated with the implementation of any upgrades or changes to our systems and infrastructure. In the event that it is more difficult for our customers to buy products from us on their mobile devices, or if our customers choose not to buy products from us on their mobile devices or to use mobile products that do not offer access to our websites, we could lose customers and fail to attract new customers. As a result, our customer growth could be harmed and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We are subject to risks related to online payment methods.
We currently accept payments using a variety of methods, including credit card, debit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, and gift cards and may offer new payment options over time. These payment options subject us to additional regulations and compliance requirements and may also increase our exposure to fraud, criminal activity and other risks. For certain payment methods, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and lower profitability. We are also subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (“PCI DSS”) and rules governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. Failure to comply with PCI DSS or to meet other payment card standards may result in the imposition of financial penalties or the allocation by the card brands of the costs of fraudulent charges to us.
Furthermore, as our business changes, we may be subject to different rules under existing standards, which may require new assessments that involve additional costs for compliance. In the future, as we offer new payment options to consumers, including by way of integrating emerging mobile and other payment methods, we may be subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements and fraud. If we fail to comply with the rules or requirements of any provider of a payment method we accept, if the volume of fraud in our transactions limits or terminates our rights to use payment methods we currently accept, or if a data breach occurs relating to our payment systems, we may, among other things, be subject to fines or higher transaction fees and may lose, or face restrictions placed upon, our ability to accept credit card payments from consumers or facilitate other types of online payments. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
We have previously received and could continue to receive orders placed with fraudulent data. Bad actors have exploited and may continue to exploit stolen data from data breaches unrelated to us, which may increase the number of orders placed with fraudulent data. If we are unable to detect or control fraud, our liability for these transactions could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our business depends on network and mobile infrastructure, our third-party data center hosting facilities (including cloud- service providers), other third-party providers, and our ability to maintain and scale our technology. Any significant interruptions or delays in service on our websites or mobile applications or any undetected errors or design faults could result in limited capacity, reduced demand, processing delays, and loss of customers or suppliers.
An element of our strategy is to generate a high volume of traffic on, and use of, our websites and mobile applications. Our reputation and ability to acquire, retain and serve our customers are dependent upon the reliable performance of our websites, mobile applications, on-premises systems and the underlying network infrastructure. As our customer base and the amount of information shared on our websites and mobile applications continue to grow, we are likely to need an increasing amount of network capacity and computing power. We have spent and expect to continue to spend substantial amounts on data centers, including cloud providers, and equipment and related network infrastructure to handle the traffic on our websites and mobile applications. The operation of these systems is complex and we have experienced minor interruptions, which could increase in severity and result in operational failures. In some cases, we access platforms ran by third-party cloud providers, which makes us vulnerable to their service interruptions. In the event that the volume of traffic of our customers exceeds the capacity of our current network infrastructure or in the event that our customer base or the amount of traffic on our websites and mobile applications grows more quickly than anticipated, we may be required to incur significant additional costs to enhance the underlying network infrastructure. Significant interruptions or delays in these systems, whether due to system failures, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, undetected errors, design faults or other unexpected events or causes, could affect the security or availability of our websites and mobile applications and prevent our customers from accessing our websites and mobile applications. If sustained or repeated, these performance issues could reduce the attractiveness of our products and services. In addition, the costs and complexities involved in expanding and upgrading our systems may prevent us from doing so in a timely manner and may prevent us from adequately meeting the demand placed on our systems. Any web or mobile platform interruption or inadequacy that causes performance issues or interruptions in the availability of our websites or mobile
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applications could reduce consumer satisfaction and result in a reduction in the number of consumers using our products and services.
We depend on the development and maintenance of the Internet and mobile infrastructure. This includes maintenance of reliable Internet and mobile infrastructure with the necessary speed, data capacity and security, as well as timely development of complementary products, for providing reliable Internet and mobile access. We also use and rely on services from other third parties, such as our telecommunications services and credit card processors, and those services may be subject to outages and interruptions that are not within our control. We have experienced telecommunication issues and increased failures by our telecommunications providers may interrupt our ability to provide phone support to our customers and distributed denial-of-service (“DDoS”) attacks directed at our telecommunication service providers could prevent customers from accessing our websites. In addition, we have and may continue to experience down periods where our third-party credit card processors are unable to process the online payments of our customers and our ability to receive customer orders is disrupted. Our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if for any reason the reliability of our Internet, telecommunications, payment systems and mobile infrastructure is compromised.
We currently rely upon third-party service providers, including cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (“AWS”). Nearly all of our data storage and analytics are conducted on, and the data and content we create associated with sales on our websites and mobile applications are processed through servers hosted by these providers. We also rely on e-mail service providers, bandwidth providers, Internet service providers and mobile networks to deliver e-mail and “push” communications to customers and to allow customers to access our websites. We have experienced and may again experience cybersecurity incidents due to disruptions to systems maintained by third-party service providers.
Any significant damage to, or failure of, our systems or the systems of our third-party data centers, or our other service providers could result in prolonged interruptions to the availability or functionality of our websites and mobile applications. As a result, we could lose customer data and miss order fulfillment deadlines, which could result in decreased sales, increased overhead costs, excess inventory and product shortages. If for any reason our arrangements with our data centers, cloud service providers or other third-party providers are terminated or interrupted, such termination or interruption could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. We have designed certain of our software and computer systems to also utilize data processing, storage capabilities and other services provided by AWS. Given this, along with the fact that we cannot rapidly switch our AWS operations to another cloud provider, any disruption of or interference with our use of AWS would impact our operations and our business would be adversely impacted. We could experience additional expense in arranging for new facilities, technology, services and support. In addition, the failure of our third-party data centers, including cloud service providers, or any other third-party providers to meet our capacity requirements could result in interruption in the availability or functionality of our websites and mobile applications.
The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our websites, mobile applications, transaction processing systems and technology infrastructure are critical to our reputation and our ability to acquire and retain customers, as well as to maintain adequate customer service levels. We have experienced unavailability of our websites and mobile applications, primarily due to DDoS events, and increased unavailability of our websites or of our mobile applications or reduced order fulfillment performance would reduce the volume of goods sold and could also materially and adversely affect consumer perception of our brand. Any slowdown or failure of our websites, mobile applications or the underlying technology infrastructure could harm our business, reputation and our ability to acquire, retain and serve our customers.
The occurrence of a natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, data loss, computer virus, ransomware attack, an act of terrorism, cyberattack, vandalism or sabotage, act of war or any similar event, or a decision to close our third-party data centers on which we normally operate or the facilities of any other third-party provider without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our websites and mobile applications. Cloud computing, in particular, is dependent upon having access to an Internet connection in order to retrieve data. If a natural disaster, pandemic, blackout or other unforeseen event were to occur that disrupted the ability to obtain an Internet connection, we may experience a slowdown or delay in our operations. While we have some limited business continuity arrangements in place, our preparations may not be adequate to account for disasters or similar events that may occur in the future and may not effectively permit us to continue operating in the event of any problems with respect to our systems or those of our third-party data centers or any other third-party facilities. Our business continuity and data redundancy plans may be inadequate, and our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur. If any such event were to occur to our business, our operations could be impaired and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
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Disruptions to software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) technologies from third parties may adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We use SaaS technologies from third-parties in order to operate critical functions of our business, including financial management services, customer relationship management services, supply chain services and data storage services. If these services become unavailable due to extended outages or interruptions or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms or prices, or for any other reason, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage our finances could be interrupted, our processes for managing sales of our offerings and supporting our customers could be impaired, our ability to communicate with our suppliers could be weakened and our ability to access or save data stored to the cloud may be impaired until equivalent services, if available, are identified, obtained and implemented, all of which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our failure or the failure of third-party service providers to protect our websites, networks, and systems against cybersecurity incidents, or to otherwise protect our confidential information, could damage our reputation and brand and harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
As a result of our services being primarily web-based, we collect, process, transmit and store large amounts of data about our customers, employees, suppliers and others, including credit card information (which we don’t store) and personally identifiable information, as well as other confidential and proprietary information. We also employ third-party service providers for a variety of reasons, including storing, processing and transmitting proprietary, personal and confidential information on our behalf. While we rely on tokenization solutions licensed from third-parties in an effort to securely transmit confidential and sensitive information, including credit card numbers, advances in computer capabilities, new technological discoveries or other developments may result in the whole or partial failure of these solutions to protect confidential and sensitive information from being breached or compromised. Similarly, our security measures and those of our third-party service providers may not detect or prevent all attempts to hack our systems or those of our third-party service providers. DDoS attacks, viruses, malicious software, break-ins, phishing attacks, ransomware, social engineering, cyber-attacks, security breaches or other cybersecurity incidents and similar disruptions that may jeopardize the security of information stored in or transmitted by our websites, networks and systems or that we or our third-party service providers otherwise maintain, including payment card systems, may subject us to fines or higher transaction fees or limit or terminate our access to certain payment methods. We and our service providers may not anticipate or prevent all types of attacks until after they have already been launched, and techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to or sabotage systems change frequently and may not be known until launched against us or our third-party service providers. In addition, cybersecurity incidents can also occur as a result of non-technical issues, including intentional or inadvertent breaches by our employees or by persons with whom we have commercial relationships.
Breaches of our security measures or those of our third-party service providers or any cybersecurity incident could result in unauthorized access to our websites, networks and systems; unauthorized access to and misappropriation of consumer and/or employee information, including personally identifiable information, or other sensitive, confidential or proprietary information of ourselves or third parties; viruses, worms, spyware or other malware being served from our websites, networks or systems; deletion or modification of content or the display of unauthorized content on our websites; interruption, disruption or malfunction of operations; costs relating to cybersecurity incident remediation, deployment of additional personnel and protection technologies, response to governmental investigations and media inquiries and coverage; engagement of third party experts and consultants; litigation, regulatory action and other potential liabilities. If any of these cybersecurity incidents occur, or there is a public perception that we, or our third-party service providers, have suffered such a breach, our reputation and brand could also be damaged and we could be required to expend significant capital and other resources to alleviate problems caused by such cybersecurity incidents. As a consequence, our business could be materially and adversely affected and we could also be exposed to litigation and regulatory action and possible liability. In addition, any party who is able to illicitly obtain a customer’s password could access the customer’s transaction data or personal information. Any compromise or breach of our security measures, or those of our third-party service providers, could violate applicable privacy, data security and other laws, and cause significant legal and financial exposure, adverse publicity and a loss of confidence in our security measures, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. This is more so since governmental authorities throughout the U.S. and around the world are devoting more attention to data privacy and security issues.
While we maintain privacy, data breach and network security liability insurance, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all. Additionally, even though we continue to devote significant resources to monitor and update our systems and implement information security measures to protect our systems, there can be no assurance that any controls and procedures we have in place will be sufficient to protect us from future cybersecurity incidents. Failure by us or our vendors to comply with data security requirements or rectify a security issue may result in class action litigation, fines and the imposition of restrictions on our ability to accept payment cards, which could adversely affect our operations. As cyber threats are continually evolving, our
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controls and procedures may become inadequate and we may be required to devote additional resources to modify or enhance our systems in the future. As a result, we may face interruptions to our systems, reputational damage, claims under privacy, cybersecurity and data protection laws and regulations, customer dissatisfaction, legal liability, enforcement actions or additional costs, any and all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Safety, quality, and health concerns regarding our products could affect our business.
We could be adversely affected if consumers lose confidence in the safety and quality of our food or other products. All of our suppliers are required to comply with applicable product safety laws and we are dependent upon them to ensure such compliance. One or more of our suppliers, including manufacturers of our private brand products, might not adhere to product safety requirements or our quality control standards. Any issues of product safety or allegations that our products are in violation of governmental regulations, including, but not limited to, issues involving products manufactured in foreign countries, could cause those products to be recalled. Adverse publicity about these types of concerns, whether valid or not, may discourage consumers from buying the products we offer, or cause supplier production and delivery disruptions. The real or perceived sale of contaminated food products by us could result in product liability claims against our suppliers or us, expose us or our suppliers to governmental enforcement action or private litigation, or lead to costly recalls and a loss of consumer confidence, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our products may be exposed to product recalls, and we may be subject to litigation, if they are alleged to cause or pose a risk of injury or illness or if they are alleged to have been mislabeled, misbranded or adulterated or to otherwise be in violation of governmental regulations. We may also voluntarily recall or withdraw products that we consider do not meet our standards, whether for palatability, appearance or otherwise, in order to protect our brand and reputation. While we carry product liability insurance, our insurance may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur in connection with product liability claims. For example, punitive damages are generally not covered by insurance. In addition, we may be unable to continue to maintain our existing insurance, obtain comparable insurance at a reasonable cost, if at all, or secure additional coverage, which may result in future product liability claims being uninsured. Any of these factors could negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks associated with our suppliers and our outsourcing partners, many of which are located outside of the U.S., could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We depend on a number of suppliers and outsourcing partners to provide our customers with a wide range of products in a timely and efficient manner. A significant portion of our suppliers for our private brand business and our non-consumable business are located in China and if we are unable to maintain our relationships with our existing outsourcing partners or cannot enter into relationships with new outsourcing partners to meet the manufacturing and assembly needs of our private brand business, our private brand business may be disrupted and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. In addition, political and economic instability, the financial stability of our suppliers and outsourcing partners and their ability to meet our standards, conflict and hostilities, labor problems, the availability and prices of raw materials, merchandise quality issues, currency exchange rates, transport availability and cost, transport security, inflation, natural disasters and epidemics, tariffs, taxes, export controls, trade restrictions and sanctions, among other factors, are beyond our control and may materially and adversely affect our suppliers and outsourcing partners and, in turn, our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our business has been affected by, and may continue to be affected by, disruptions or restrictions on our employees’ and other service providers’ ability to travel, temporary closures of our facilities, including one or more of our fulfillment centers or customer service centers, or the facilities of our suppliers and other vendors in our supply chain. In addition to the potential direct effects on us of any events beyond our control such as a public health crisis, we could be materially adversely impacted, including from any disruption to critical vendor services or losses of business, if any of our suppliers face significant business disruptions.
In addition, continued and ongoing international conflict has led to disruption, instability and volatility in the global markets and industries that could negatively impact our operations. The U.S. government and other governments have imposed severe sanctions and export controls against Russia and Russian interests in connection with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and threatened additional sanctions and controls. The impact of the conflict and any sanctions or other measures implemented as a result is currently unknown and could adversely affect our business, supply chain, partners or customers.
Moreover, there is uncertainty regarding the future of international trade agreements and the U.S.’ position on international trade. For example, the U.S. government has previously threatened to undertake a number of actions relating to trade with certain countries, including the imposition of escalating tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. and sanctions on certain countries due to violations of product safety, labor, human rights, or other laws. In addition, the U.S. government has previously raised tariffs, and imposed new tariffs, on a wide range of imports of Chinese products. The U.S. federal government may also withdraw from or materially modify international trade agreements.
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Additional trade restrictions, including tariffs, quotas, embargoes, safeguards and customs restrictions, could increase the cost or reduce the supply of products available to us and to our suppliers and may require us to modify our supply chain organization or other current business practices, any of which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are subject to extensive laws and regulations and we may incur material liabilities or costs related to complying with existing or future laws and regulations, and our failure to comply may result in enforcements, penalties, recalls, and other adverse actions.
We are subject to a broad range of federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations including those intended to protect public and worker health and safety, natural resources and the environment. Our operations are subject to regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), the Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”), the Department of Agriculture (the “USDA”) and other federal, state, local and foreign authorities regarding the processing, packaging, storage, distribution, advertising, labeling and export of our products, including food safety standards. In addition, we and our partners are subject to additional regulatory requirements, including environmental, health and safety laws and regulations administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state, local and foreign environmental, health and safety legislative and regulatory authorities and the National Labor Relations Board, covering such areas as discharges and emissions to air and water, the use, management, disposal and remediation of, and human exposure to, hazardous materials and wastes, and public and worker health and safety. These laws and regulations also govern our relationships with employees, including minimum wage requirements, overtime, terms and conditions of employment, working conditions and citizenship requirements. Violations of or liability under any of these laws and regulations may result in administrative, civil or criminal fines, penalties or sanctions against us, revocation or modification of applicable permits, licenses or authorizations, environmental, health and safety investigations or remedial activities, voluntary or involuntary product recalls, warning or untitled letters or cease and desist orders against operations that are not in compliance, among other things. Such laws and regulations generally have become more stringent over time and may become more so in the future, and we may incur (directly or indirectly) material costs to comply with current or future laws and regulations or in any required product recalls. Liabilities or costs of compliance with any such laws and regulations could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, changes in these laws and regulations could impose significant limitations and require changes to our business, which may increase our compliance expenses, make our business more costly and less efficient to conduct, and compromise our growth strategy.
Among other regulatory requirements, the FDA reviews the inclusion of certain claims in pet food labeling. For example, pet food products that are labeled or marketed with claims that may suggest that they are intended to treat or prevent disease in pets would potentially meet the statutory definitions of both a food and a drug. The FDA has issued guidance containing a list of specific factors it will consider in determining whether to initiate enforcement action against such products if they do not comply with the regulatory requirements applicable to drugs. These factors include, among other things, whether the product is only made available through or under the direction of a veterinarian and does not present a known safety risk when used as labeled. While we believe that we market our products in compliance with the policy articulated in the FDA’s guidance and in other claim-specific guidance, the FDA may disagree or may classify some of our products differently than we do and may impose more stringent regulations which could lead to alleged regulatory violations, enforcement actions and product recalls. In addition, we may produce new products in the future that may be subject to FDA pre-market review before we can market and sell such products.
From time-to-time the FDA, the Association of American Feed Control Officials, or state regulatory authorities may enact a regulation, requirement or other guidance that impacts pet food packaging, labeling, or marketing materials. As a result, we may need to incur material costs to change our packaging, labeling, or marketing to comply with such regulation or requirement and could be subject to liabilities if we fail to timely comply with such requirements, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition to enforcement actions initiated by government agencies, there has been an increasing tendency in the U.S. among pharmaceutical companies to resort to the courts and industry and self-regulatory bodies to challenge comparative prescription drug advertising on the grounds that the advertising is false and deceptive. Through the years, there has been a continuing expansion of specific rules, prohibitions, media restrictions, labeling disclosures, and warning requirements with respect to the advertising for certain products.
These developments and others related to government regulation could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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We may inadvertently not comply with various state or federal laws and regulations covering our pet health business, which may subject us to reprimands, sanctions, probations, fines, suspensions, or the loss of one or more of our licenses.
The sale and delivery of prescription pet medications and the provision of pharmacy, veterinary, and telehealth services are generally governed by federal and state laws and regulations and are subject to extensive oversight by state and federal governmental authorities. Governmental authorities that regulate our business have broad latitude to make, interpret, and enforce the applicable laws and regulations and they continue to interpret and enforce those laws and regulations more strictly and more aggressively each year. We are currently and may in the future continue to be subject to routine administrative inquiries related to our pharmacy, veterinary, and telehealth services businesses. We cannot assure you that we will not be subject to reprimands, sanctions, probations or fines, or that one or more of our licenses will not be suspended or revoked, or that our ability to offer pharmacy and telehealth services will not be challenged, in connection with these complaints or otherwise.
Our insurance, pharmacy, and veterinary businesses also involve the provision of professional services that could expose us to professional liability claims. Our pharmacy business is subject to risks inherent in the dispensing, packaging and distribution of drugs and other health care products and services, including claims related to purported dispensing and other operational errors. Our veterinary business is subject to risks inherent in the administration of veterinary services, including claims relating to veterinary malpractice. Any failure to adhere to the laws and regulations applicable to the dispensing of drugs or provision of veterinary services could subject our businesses to administrative, civil and criminal penalties.
If we are unable to maintain the licenses granted by relevant state authorities in connection with our insurance, pharmacy, and veterinary businesses, or if we become subject to actions by the FDA or other regulators, our dispensing of prescription medications to pet parents could cease and we may be subject to reprimands, sanctions, probations or fines, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Resistance from veterinarians to authorize prescriptions, or their efforts to discourage pet owners from purchasing from us, could cause our sales to decrease and could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
The laws and regulations relating to the sale and delivery of prescription pet medications vary from state to state, but generally require that prescription pet medications be dispensed with authorization from a prescribing veterinarian. Some veterinarians resist providing customers with a copy of their pet’s prescription or authorizing the prescription to our pharmacy staff, thereby effectively preventing us from filling such prescriptions under applicable law. Certain veterinarians have also tried to discourage pet owners from purchasing prescription medication from Internet mail order pharmacies. If the number of veterinarians who refuse to authorize prescriptions to our pharmacy staff increases, or if veterinarians are successful in discouraging pet owners from purchasing from us, our sales could decrease and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.
Failure to comply with laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, marketing and advertising and consumer protection could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We rely on a variety of advertising and marketing techniques, including email and social media marketing and postal mailings and we are subject to various laws and regulations that govern such practices. A variety of applicable laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of consumer data, particularly in the context of online advertising which we rely upon to attract new customers. In addition, we also collect, store, and transmit employees’ health information for certain reasons, such as administering employee benefits; accommodating disabilities and injuries; complying with public health requirements; and maintaining employee safety in the workplace.
Laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, advertising and marketing, and consumer protection are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. These requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another or may conflict with other rules or our practices. As a result, our practices may not have complied or may not comply in the future with all such laws, regulations, requirements and obligations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, industry self-regulatory principles, industry standards or codes of conduct, regulatory guidance, orders to which we may be subject or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection could adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, liabilities, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, customers, suppliers or others, or may require us to change our operations and/or cease using certain data sets. Any such claims, proceedings or actions could hurt our reputation, brand and business, force us to incur significant expenses in defense of such proceedings or actions, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, result in a loss of customers and suppliers and result in the imposition of monetary penalties. We may also be contractually required to indemnify and hold harmless third parties from the costs or consequences of non-compliance with any laws, regulations or other legal obligations relating to privacy, data
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protection, cybersecurity or consumer protection or any inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure of data that we store or handle as part of operating our business.
Governmental authorities continue to evaluate the privacy implications inherent in the use of third-party “cookies” and other methods of online tracking for behavioral advertising and other purposes. The U.S. government and state governments have enacted, have considered or are considering enacting, legislation or regulations that could significantly restrict the ability of companies and individuals to engage in these activities, such as by regulating the level of consumer notice and consent required before a company can employ cookies or other electronic tracking tools or the use of data gathered with such tools. Additionally, some providers of consumer devices and web browsers have implemented, or announced plans to implement, means to make it easier for Internet users to prevent the placement of cookies or to block other tracking technologies, which could result in the use of third-party cookies and other methods of online tracking becoming significantly less effective. The regulation of the use of these cookies and other current online tracking and advertising practices or a loss in our ability to make effective use of services that employ such technologies could increase our costs of operations and limit our ability to acquire new customers on cost-effective terms and consequently, materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition, various legislative and regulatory bodies, or self-regulatory organizations, may expand current laws or regulations, enact new laws or regulations or issue revised rules or guidance regarding privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, consumer protection, and advertising. For example, in June 2018, the State of California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”), which became effective on January 1, 2020. The CCPA requires companies that process information of California residents to make new disclosures to consumers about their data collection, use and sharing practices, and allows consumers to opt out of selling their data to third parties and provides a new cause of action for data breaches. Further, the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CPRA”) became effective on January 1, 2023 and significantly amends the CCPA by imposing additional data protection obligations on companies doing business in California, including additional consumer rights processes and opt outs for certain uses of sensitive data. It also creates a new California data protection agency specifically tasked to enforce the law, which could result in increased regulatory scrutiny of businesses conducting activities in California in the areas of data protection and security. Other states in which we operate have also enacted laws similar to CPRA and similar laws have been proposed in other states and at the federal level in the U.S., and if passed, such laws may have potentially conflicting requirements that would make compliance challenging. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) and many state attorneys general are interpreting consumer protection laws to impose standards for the online collection, use, dissemination and security of data. Consumer protection laws require us to publish statements that describe how we handle personal data and choices individuals may have about the way we handle their personal data. If such information that we publish is considered untrue, we may be subject to government claims of unfair or deceptive trade practices, which could lead to significant liabilities and consequences. Further, according to the FTC, violating consumers’ privacy rights or failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal data secure may constitute unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Additionally, government entities in Canada have enacted and continue to enact laws that may restrict our ability to attract new customers through our certain advertising and marketing technologies. Each of these privacy, security, and data protection laws and regulations, and any other such changes or new laws or regulations, could impose significant limitations, require changes to our business, impose fines and other penalties or restrict our use or storage of personal information, which may increase our compliance expenses and make our business more costly or less efficient to conduct. Any such changes could compromise our ability to develop an adequate marketing strategy and pursue our growth strategy effectively, which, in turn, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our ability to utilize net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards, and other tax attributes may be subject to certain limitations.
Our ability to use our federal and state net operating losses and tax credits, and other tax attributes to offset potential future taxable income and related income taxes that would otherwise be due is dependent upon our generation of future taxable income, and we cannot predict with certainty when, or whether, we will generate sufficient taxable income to use all of our accumulated tax benefits. In addition, Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), contain rules that impose an annual limitation on the ability of a company with net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards that undergoes an ownership change, which is generally any change in ownership of more than 50% of its stock (by value) over a three-year period, to utilize its net operating loss carryforwards in years after the ownership change. These rules generally operate by focusing on ownership changes among holders owning directly or indirectly 5% or more of the shares of stock of a company or any change in ownership arising from a new issuance of shares of stock by such company. If a company’s income in any year is less than the annual limitation prescribed by Sections 382 and 383 of the Code, the unused portion of such limitation amount may be carried forward to increase the limitation (and net operating loss and tax credit carryforward utilization) in subsequent tax years.
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In addition to the aforementioned federal income tax implications pursuant to Sections 382 and 383 of the Code, most states follow the general provisions of Sections 382 and 383 of the Code, either explicitly or implicitly resulting in separate state net operating loss and tax credit limitations.
We may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights. Additionally, we may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in substantial damages and diversion of management’s efforts and attention.
We regard our brand, customer lists, trademarks, trade dress, domain names, trade secrets, patents, proprietary technology and similar intellectual property as critical to our success. We rely on trademark, copyright and patent law, trade secret protection, agreements and other methods with our employees and others to protect our proprietary rights. Effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we operate. The protection of our intellectual property rights may require the expenditure of significant financial, managerial and operational resources. Moreover, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may not adequately protect our rights or prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our proprietary rights, and we may be unable to broadly enforce all of our intellectual property rights. Any of our intellectual property rights may be challenged or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Our patent and trademark applications may never be granted. Additionally, the process of obtaining patent protection is expensive and time-consuming, and we may be unable to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. Even if issued, there can be no assurance that these patents will adequately protect our intellectual property, as the legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of patent and other intellectual property rights are uncertain. We also cannot be certain that others will not independently develop or otherwise acquire equivalent or superior technology or intellectual property rights. Furthermore, our confidentiality agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our proprietary information, technologies and processes and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of such information.
We might be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. For example, we have initiated and may again initiate claims or litigation against others for infringement, misappropriation or violation of our intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights or to establish the validity of such rights. However, we may be unable to discover or determine the extent of any infringement, misappropriation or other violation of our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights. Despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights. Any litigation, whether or not it is resolved in our favor, could result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Third parties have from time to time claimed, and may claim in the future, that we have infringed their intellectual property rights. These claims, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in considerable litigation costs, require significant amounts of management time or result in the diversion of significant operational resources and expensive changes to our business model, result in the payment of substantial damages or injunctions against us, or require us to enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements, if available. In addition, we may be unable to obtain or use licenses or other rights with respect to intellectual property we do not own. These risks have been amplified by the increase in third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims. Any payments we are required to make and any injunctions we are required to comply with as a result of these claims could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may be subject to personal injury, workers’ compensation, product liability, labor and employment, and other claims in the ordinary course of business.
Our business involves risks of personal injury, workers’ compensation, product liability, labor and employment, and other claims in the ordinary course of business. Product liability claims from customers and product recalls for merchandise alleged to be defective or harmful could lead to the disposal or write-off of merchandise inventories, the incurrence of fines or penalties, the provision of customer credits, increased labor costs, and damage to our reputation. We maintain general liability insurance with a self-insured retention and workers’ compensation insurance with a deductible for each occurrence. We also maintain umbrella insurance above the primary general liability and product liability coverage. In many cases, we have indemnification rights against the manufacturers of our products and are entitled to coverage under their products liability and product recall insurance. Our ability to recover costs and damages under such insurance or indemnification arrangements is subject to the financial viability of the insurers and manufacturers, the terms of the policy, and the specific allegations of a claim. No assurance can be given that any insurance coverage or the manufacturers’ indemnity will be available or sufficient in any claims brought against or losses incurred by us.
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Additionally, we are subject to federal, state, and local employment laws that expose us to potential liability if we are determined to have violated such employment laws. This includes, but is not limited to, laws related to wages, hours worked and other terms and conditions of employment; unlawful discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or failure to accommodate; and wrongful termination. Compliance with these laws, including the remediation of any alleged violation, may have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.
We rely on the performance of members of management and highly skilled personnel and our business could be harmed if we are unable to attract, develop, motivate, and retain highly qualified and skilled employees.
Our ability to maintain our competitive position is largely dependent on the services of our senior management and other key personnel. In addition, our future success depends on our continuing ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified and skilled employees. The market for such positions has been and may continue to be highly competitive and we may incur significant costs to attract and retain qualified individuals. In addition, the loss of any of our senior management or other key employees or our inability to recruit and develop mid-level managers could materially and adversely affect our ability to execute our business plan and we may be unable to find adequate replacements. Other than our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and certain other senior executives, all of our employees are at-will employees, meaning that they may terminate their employment relationship with us at any time, and their knowledge of our business and industry would be difficult to replace. If we fail to retain talented senior management and other key personnel, or if we do not succeed in attracting highly-qualified employees or motivating and retaining existing employees, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We compete with other companies for employees, some of whom are larger than us and have access to greater capital resources than we do. If we are unable to successfully recruit and retain personnel, we may face labor shortages or be forced to increase wages and enhance benefits for such personnel, which may have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
Employee availability may be affected if a significant number of employees are limited in their ability to work at, or travel to, our locations due to disruptions to our business. Future actions in response to certain events by federal, state or local authorities, including those that order the shutdown of non-essential businesses or limit the ability of our employees to travel to work, could impact our ability to take or fulfill our customers’ orders and operate our business and we may be unable to fully meet our customers’ demands for our products and services.
Uncertainties in economic conditions, industry trends, and market conditions, and their impact on the pet market, could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our results of operations are sensitive to changes in certain macroeconomic conditions that impact the pet market, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Factors such as inflation and rising interest rates have affected us and can adversely affect us by increasing costs of materials and labor. In a highly inflationary environment, we may be unable to raise the price of our products and services at or above the rate of inflation, which could reduce our profitability. In addition, our costs of capital, labor and materials can materially increase, which could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Deflation could cause an overall decrease in spending and borrowing capacity, which could lead to deterioration in economic conditions and employment levels. Deflation could also cause the value of our inventories to decline. Other uncertainties in economic conditions that impact the pet products market and its participants, such as our vendors, suppliers, and investors, may also adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Some of the factors that may affect consumer spending on pet products and services include consumer confidence, levels of unemployment, inflation, interest rates, tax rates and general uncertainty regarding the overall future economic environment. We may experience declines in sales or changes in the types of products sold during economic downturns. Any material decline in the amount of consumer spending or other adverse economic changes could reduce our sales, and a decrease in the sales of higher-margin products could reduce profitability and, in each case, harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Significant merchandise returns or refunds could harm our business.
We allow our customers to return products or offer refunds, subject to our return and refunds policy. If merchandise returns or refunds are significant or higher than anticipated and forecasted, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, we modify our policies relating to returns or refunds from time to time, and may do so in the future, which may result in customer dissatisfaction and harm to our reputation or brand, or an increase in the number of product returns or the amount of refunds we make.
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We may seek to grow our business through acquisitions or investments in new or complementary businesses, technologies, or offerings, or through other strategic transactions, and the failure to manage these acquisitions, investments, or strategic transactions, or to integrate them with our existing business, could have a material adverse effect on us.
We have acquired and invested in a number of businesses, and we may in the future consider opportunities to acquire or make investments in new or complementary businesses, facilities, technologies, offerings, or products, or enter into strategic alliances, that may enhance our capabilities, expand our outsourcing and supplier network, complement our current products and services or expand the breadth of our markets. Acquisitions, investments and other strategic alliances involve numerous risks, including:
•problems integrating the acquired business, facilities, technologies or products, including issues maintaining uniform standards, procedures, controls and policies;
•unanticipated costs associated with acquisitions, investments or strategic alliances;
•losses we may incur as a result of declines in the value of an investment or as a result of incorporating an investee’s financial performance into our financial results;
•diversion of management’s attention from our existing business;
•adverse effects on existing business relationships with suppliers, outsourced private brand manufacturing partners, retail partners and distribution customers;
•risks associated with entering new markets in which we may have limited or no experience;
•potential loss of key employees of acquired businesses;
•the risks associated with businesses we acquire or invest in, which may differ from or be more significant than the risks our other businesses face;
•potential unknown liabilities associated with a business we acquire or in which we invest; and
•increased legal and accounting compliance costs.
Our ability to successfully grow through strategic transactions depends upon our ability to identify, negotiate, complete and integrate suitable target businesses, facilities, technologies and products and to obtain any necessary financing. These efforts could be expensive and time-consuming and may disrupt our ongoing business and prevent management from focusing on our operations. As a result of future strategic transactions, we might need to issue additional equity securities, spend our cash, or incur debt (which may only be available on unfavorable terms, if at all), contingent liabilities, impairment charges, or amortization expenses related to intangible assets, any of which could reduce our profitability and harm our business. If we are unable to identify suitable acquisitions, investments or strategic relationships, or if we are unable to integrate any acquired businesses, facilities, technologies, offerings and products effectively, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Also, while we employ several different methodologies to assess potential business opportunities, the new businesses or investments may not meet or exceed our expectations or desired objectives.
Our business results could be adversely affected if our new offerings are unsuccessful.
We have expanded our business into new markets and into new product and service categories and we may continue such expansion. As a new entrant, we expect to face many competitive challenges including competing successfully with incumbent providers who may have longer operating histories, large customer bases, high brand recognition and greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we do. To compete effectively, we may need to invest significant resources to create brand awareness and build our reputation in these markets and categories, and our efforts at building, maintaining and enhancing our reputation could fail. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain or enhance our reputation, and failure to do so could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. If we are unable to maintain or enhance consumer awareness of our brand cost-effectively, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Regulation of the sale of insurance for pets is subject to change and future regulations could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
The laws and regulations governing the offer, sale and purchase of insurance for pets are subject to change and future changes may be adverse to our business. For example, if a jurisdiction were to alter the requirements for obtaining or maintaining an agent's license in connection with the enrollment of a member, it could have an adverse effect on our operations. Some states in the U.S. have adopted, and others are expected to adopt, new laws and regulations related to the pet insurance industry. Although model laws are available to guide individual states and business, it is difficult to predict how these or any other new laws and regulations will impact our business, but, in some cases, changes in insurance laws, regulations and guidelines may be incompatible with various aspects of our business and require that we make significant modifications to our existing technology or practices, which may be costly and time-consuming to implement and could also harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
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If we cannot successfully manage the unique challenges presented by international markets, we may not be successful in expanding our operations outside the U.S. and Canada.
Our strategy may include the continued expansion of our operations to international markets. Although some of our executive officers have experience in international business from prior positions, we have minimal experience with operations outside the U.S. Our ability to successfully execute this strategy is affected by many of the same operational risks we face in expanding our operations. In addition, our international expansion may be adversely affected by: our ability to identify and gain access to local suppliers; our ability to staff, develop, and manage foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences; our ability to obtain and protect relevant trademarks, domain names, and other intellectual property; and local laws and customs, legal and regulatory constraints, political and economic conditions and currency regulations of the countries or regions in which we operate or intend to operate in the future, including limitations on the repatriation and investment of funds and foreign currency exchange restrictions. Risks inherent in expanding our operations internationally also include, among others, the costs and difficulties of managing international operations, adverse tax consequences, domestic and international tariffs and other barriers to trade. Further, the extent and impact of any sanctions imposed in connection with the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, or other geopolitical events, may cause additional financial market volatility and impact the global economy and also impact our strategy of expansion into international markets.
Risks Related to Our Industry
Competition in the pet products and services health and retail industries, especially Internet-based competition, is strong and presents an ongoing threat to the success of our business.
The pet products and services health and retail industries are very competitive. We compete with pet product retail stores, supermarkets, warehouse clubs and other mass and general retail and online merchandisers, including e-tailers, many of which are larger than us and have significantly greater capital resources than we do. We also compete with a number of specialty pet supply stores and independent pet stores, catalog retailers and other specialty e-tailers.
Many of our current competitors have, and potential competitors may have, longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, larger fulfillment infrastructures, greater technical capabilities, significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources and larger customer bases than we do. These factors may allow our competitors to derive greater net sales and profits from their existing customer base, acquire customers at lower costs or respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies and changes in consumer preferences or habits. These competitors may engage in more extensive research and development efforts, undertake more far-reaching marketing campaigns and adopt more aggressive pricing policies (including but not limited to predatory pricing policies and the provision of substantial discounts), which may allow them to build larger customer bases or generate net sales from their customer bases more effectively than we do.
We have been able to compete successfully by differentiating ourselves from our competitors by providing a large selection of high-quality pet food, treats and supplies, competitive pricing, convenience and exceptional customer service. If changes in consumer preferences decrease the competitive advantage attributable to these factors, or if we fail to otherwise positively differentiate our product offering or customer experience from our competitors, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. In particular, a key component of our business strategy is to rely on our reputation for exceptional customer service. This is done, in part, by recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining employees who share our core values of delivering superior service to our customers and caring about the needs of pet parents and partners. If our reputation is negatively affected by the actions of our employees, by our inability to conduct our operations in a manner that is appealing to current or prospective customers, or otherwise, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if we are unable to maintain our current levels of customer service and our reputation for customer service as we grow or otherwise, our net sales may not continue to grow or may decline, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We compete directly and indirectly with veterinarians for the sale of pet medications and other pet health products and services. Veterinarians hold a competitive advantage over us because many pet parents may find it more convenient or preferable to purchase these products directly from their veterinarians at the time of an office visit. We also compete directly and indirectly with both online and traditional pet pharmacies. Both online and traditional pet pharmacies may hold a competitive advantage over us because of longer operating histories, established brand names, greater resources, and/or an established customer base. Online pet pharmacies may have a competitive advantage over us because of established affiliate relationships that drive traffic to their website. Traditional pet pharmacies may hold a competitive advantage over us because pet parents may prefer to purchase these products from a store instead of online. In addition, we face growing competition from online and multichannel pet pharmacies, some of whom may have a lower cost structure than ours, as customers now routinely use computers, tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices and mobile applications to shop online and compare prices and products in real time. In
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order to effectively compete in the future, we may be required to offer promotions and other incentives, which may result in lower operating margins and in turn adversely affect our results of operations. We also face a significant challenge from our competitors forming alliances with each other, such as those between online and traditional pet pharmacies. These relationships may enable both their retail and online stores to negotiate better pricing and better terms from suppliers by aggregating the demand for products and negotiating volume discounts, which could be a competitive disadvantage to us.
We expect competition in the pet products and services health and retail industries, in particular Internet-based competition, generally to continue to increase. If we fail to compete successfully, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Government regulation of the Internet and e-commerce is evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by us to comply with these regulations could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are subject to general business regulations and laws as well as regulations and laws specifically governing the Internet and e-commerce. Existing and future regulations and laws could impede the growth of the Internet, e-commerce or mobile commerce, which could adversely affect our growth. As we grow our business outside of the U.S., we may be exposed to different and more comprehensive regulations and laws that apply to our business. These regulations and laws may involve taxes, tariffs, privacy and data security, anti-spam, content protection, electronic contracts and communications, consumer protection and Internet neutrality. It is not clear how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, sales and other taxes and consumer privacy apply to the Internet as the vast majority of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet and do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised by the Internet or e-commerce. It is possible that general business regulations and laws, or those specifically governing the Internet or e-commerce, may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. We cannot be sure that our practices have complied, comply or will comply fully with all such laws and regulations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any of these laws or regulations could result in damage to our reputation, a loss in business and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, customers, suppliers or others. Any such proceeding or action could hurt our reputation, force us to spend significant amounts in defense of these proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, decrease the use of our websites and mobile applications by consumers and suppliers and may result in the imposition of monetary liabilities. We may also be contractually liable to indemnify and hold harmless third parties from the costs or consequences of non-compliance with any such laws or regulations. As a result, adverse developments with respect to these laws and regulations could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Changes in tax treatment of companies engaged in e-commerce may adversely affect the commercial use of our websites and mobile applications and our financial results.
On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States (the “Supreme Court”) overturned a prior decision under which e-tailers had not been required to collect sales tax unless they had a physical presence in the buyer’s state. As a result, a state may now enforce or adopt laws requiring e-tailers to collect and remit sales tax even if the e-tailer has no physical presence within the taxing state provided certain conditions are met. In response, an increasing number of states have adopted or are considering adopting laws or administrative practices, with or without notice, that impose sales or similar value added or consumption taxes on e-commerce activity, as well as taxes on all or a portion of gross revenue or other similar amounts earned by an e-tailer from sales to customers in the state. Since October 28, 2018, we have collected sales tax on sales and remitted such tax to the extent required in the states to which we ship. If any state were to assert that we have any liability for sales tax for prior periods and seek to collect such tax in arrears and/or impose penalties for past non-payment of taxes, it could have an adverse effect on us.
New laws or regulations, the application of laws and regulations from jurisdictions, including other countries whose laws do not currently apply to our business, or the application of existing laws and regulations to the Internet and commercial online services could similarly result in significant additional taxes on our business. These taxes or tax collection obligations could have an adverse effect on us, including by way of creating additional administrative burdens on us. For instance, the Supreme Court’s decision and the enactment and enforcement of laws resulting therefrom could also impact where we are required to file state income taxes. As a result, our effective income tax rate as well as the cost and growth of our business could be materially and adversely affected, which could in turn have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. New or revised taxes would likely increase the cost of doing business online and decrease the attractiveness of selling products over the Internet. New taxes could also create significant increases in internal costs necessary to capture data and collect and remit taxes. Furthermore, there is a possibility that we may be subject to significant fines or other payments for any past failures to comply with these requirements.
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We are also subject to federal and state laws, regulations, and administrative practices that require us to collect information from our customers, vendors, merchants, and other third parties for tax reporting purposes and report such information to various government agencies. The scope of such requirements continues to expand, requiring us to develop and implement new compliance systems. Failure to comply with such laws and regulations could result in significant penalties. We cannot predict the effect of current attempts to impose sales, income or other taxes or fees on e-commerce. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Controlling Stockholders
Substantial future sales by affiliates of the BCP Stockholder Parties or others of our common stock, or the perception that such sales may occur, could depress the price of our Class A common stock.
The BCP Stockholder Parties have the ability, should they choose to do so, to sell some or all of their shares of our common stock in a privately negotiated transaction or otherwise. The sale by the BCP Stockholder Parties of a substantial number of shares of our common stock, or the perception that such sales could occur, could significantly reduce the market price of our Class A common stock. If the BCP Stockholder Parties sell their significant equity interest in the Company, we may in the future become subject to the control of a presently unknown third party. Such third party may have conflicts of interest with those of our other stockholders. Further, if the BCP Stockholder Parties sell a controlling interest in the Company to a third party, any outstanding indebtedness may be subject to acceleration and our commercial agreement and relationships could be impacted, all of which may adversely affect our ability to run our business and may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
In addition, we have granted certain registration rights to the BCP Stockholder Parties, pursuant to which they have the right to demand that we register shares of Class A common stock beneficially owned by them under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), as well as the right to demand that we include any such shares in any registration statement that we file with the SEC, subject to certain exceptions.
We are unable to predict with certainty whether or when the BCP Stockholder Parties will exercise their registration rights and/or sell a substantial number of shares of our common stock.
There could be potential conflicts of interests between us and affiliates of the BCP Stockholder Parties. In addition, our directors may encounter conflicts of interest involving us and the other entities with which they may be affiliated, including matters that involve corporate opportunities.
The BCP Stockholder Parties and their affiliates may, from time to time, acquire and hold interests in businesses that are engaged in the same or similar business activities as us. Affiliates of the BCP Stockholder Parties may also engage in transactions with us. The BCP Stockholder Parties could pursue business interests or exercise their voting power as stockholders in ways that are detrimental to us, but beneficial to other companies in which they invest or have a relationship with. In addition, our directors may encounter conflicts of interest involving us and the other entities with which they may be affiliated. The presence or appearance of conflicts of interests could have material implications for us.
Additionally, our directors and the BCP Stockholder Parties, in the course of their other business activities, may become aware of, or involved in, investments, business opportunities, or information which may be appropriate for presentation to us as well as to other entities with which they are affiliated. Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, the BCP Stockholder Parties and non-employee directors have no duty, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to refrain from engaging in the same or similar business activities or lines of business in which we are now engaged in or from otherwise competing with us. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation also provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the BCP Stockholder Parties and our non-employee directors will not be liable to us or our stockholders for breach of any fiduciary duty solely by reason of the fact of their engagement in such activities. Moreover, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we may be unable to take advantage of corporate opportunities presented to the BCP Stockholder Parties and our non-employee directors. As a result, we may be precluded from pursuing certain advantageous transactions or growth initiatives.
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Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
Our stock price has been, and may continue to be, volatile and may decline regardless of our operating performance.
The market price of our Class A common stock has fluctuated significantly in response to numerous factors and may continue to fluctuate for these and other reasons, many of which are beyond our control, including:
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and results of operations;
•the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;
•failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of the Company, changes in financial estimates or ratings by any securities analysts who follow the Company or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•repurchases of our common stock pursuant to our share repurchase program and any announcement of a termination of the program;
•announcements by us or our competitors of significant technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, results of operations or capital commitments;
•changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other retail or technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular, including as a result of uncertainties in economic conditions, industry trends, and market conditions;
•price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
•trading volume of our Class A common stock;
•the inclusion, exclusion or removal of our Class A common stock from any indices;
•changes in our board of directors or management;
•transactions in our Class A common stock by directors, officers, affiliates and other major investors;
•lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
•changes in laws or regulations applicable to our business;
•changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of debt or equity securities;
•short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions involving our capital stock;
•general economic conditions, industry trends, and market conditions in the U.S.;
•other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism or responses to these events; and
•the other factors described in the sections of this report titled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
The stock market has recently experienced and may again experience extreme price and volume fluctuations. The market prices of securities of companies have experienced fluctuations that often have been unrelated or disproportionate to their operating results. In the past, stockholders have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their securities. Any similar litigation against us could result in substantial costs, divert management’s attention and resources, and harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The dual class structure of our common stock may adversely affect the trading market for our Class A common stock.
Since our dual class capital structure limits the voting power of our publicly held shares of Class A common stock, we are currently ineligible for inclusion in all FTSE Russell indices, such as the Russell 2000. As a result, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment vehicles that attempt to passively track these indices will not be investing in our stock. Furthermore, we cannot assure you that other stock indices will not take a similar approach FTSE Russell in the future. Exclusion from indices could make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of the Company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management, and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions that:
•permit the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly created directorships;
•provide that a director may be removed only for cause and only by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of the votes that all of our stockholders would be entitled to cast in an annual election of directors after the date on which the outstanding shares of Class B common stock represent less than 50% of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock;
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•require the affirmative vote of at least 75% of the voting power of the Company’s outstanding shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock in order to amend (i) certain provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and (ii) our amended and restated bylaws, in each case, after the date on which the outstanding shares of Class B common stock represent less than 50% of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock;
•eliminate the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders after the date on which the outstanding shares of Class B common stock represent less than 50% of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock;
•prohibit stockholder action by written consent, instead requiring stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders, when the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than 50% of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock;
•permit our board of directors, without further action by our stockholders, to fix the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of preferred stock, the rights of which may be greater than the rights of our Class A common stock;
•restrict the forum for certain litigation against us;
•establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings; and
•provide for a staggered board.
These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. As a result, these provisions may adversely affect the market price and market for our Class A common stock if they are viewed as limiting the liquidity of our stock or as discouraging takeover attempts in the future.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation includes exclusive forum provisions, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, subject to certain exceptions, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of the Company; (ii) any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer, or other employee or stockholder of the Company to the Company or the Company’s stockholders, creditors or other constituents; (iii) any action asserting a claim against the Company or any director or officer of the Company arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; or (iv) any action asserting a claim against the Company or any director or officer of the Company that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. However, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. Due to the concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts created by Section 22 of the Securities Act over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce this exclusive forum provision. These exclusive forum provision also may not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, such as those created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction.
These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits and make our securities less attractive for investors. Alternatively, if a court were to find the exclusive forum provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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The BCP Stockholder Parties control the direction of our business and the concentrated ownership of our common stock will prevent other stockholders from influencing significant decisions.
As of May 22, 2024, the BCP Stockholder Parties beneficially owned more than 50% of our outstanding shares of common stock and, together with its affiliates, exercised control over more than 95% of the voting power of our outstanding common stock. So long as the BCP Stockholder Parties remain our controlling stockholder they will be able to control, directly or indirectly, and subject to applicable law, all matters affecting us, including:
•any determination with respect to our business direction and policies, including the appointment and removal of officers and directors;
•any determinations with respect to mergers, business combinations or disposition of assets;
•compensation and benefit programs and other human resources policy decisions;
•the payment of dividends on our common stock; and
•determinations with respect to tax matters.
Because the BCP Stockholder Parties’ interests may differ from ours or from those of our other stockholders, actions that the BCP Stockholder Parties take with respect to us, as our controlling stockholders, may not be favorable to us or our other stockholders, including holders of our Class A common stock. In addition, even if the BCP Stockholder Parties were to control less than a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock, they may be able to influence the outcome of such matters so long as they own a significant portion of our common stock.
We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the rules of NYSE and rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.
As of May 22, 2024, the BCP Stockholder Parties control a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock. As a result, we are considered a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of the NYSE. Under these rules, a listed company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including:
•the requirement that a majority of the board of directors consist of independent directors;
•the requirement that our nominating and corporate governance committee be composed entirely of independent directors;
•the requirement that our compensation committee be composed entirely of independent directors; and
•the requirement for an annual performance evaluation of our corporate governance and compensation committees.
While the BCP Stockholder Parties control a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock, we intend to rely on these exemptions and, as a result, will not have a majority of independent directors on our board of directors, and our nominating and corporate governance and compensation committees will also not consist entirely of independent directors. Accordingly, holders of our Class A common stock do not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE.
Restrictions in our revolving credit facility could adversely affect our operating flexibility.
Our revolving credit facility limits our ability to, among other things:
•incur or guarantee additional debt;
•make certain investments and acquisitions;
•pay dividends or make distributions;
•repurchase or redeem stock;
•incur certain liens or permit them to exist;
•enter into certain types of transactions with affiliates;
•merge or consolidate with another company; and
•transfer, sell or otherwise dispose of assets.
Our revolving credit facility also contains covenants requiring us to maintain certain financial ratios. The provisions of our revolving credit facility may affect our ability to obtain future financing and to pursue attractive business opportunities and our flexibility in planning for, and reacting to, changes in business conditions. As a result, restrictions in our revolving credit facility could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with the provisions of our revolving credit facility could result in a default or an event of default that could enable our lenders to declare the outstanding principal of that debt, together with accrued and unpaid interest, to be immediately due and payable. If the payment of outstanding amounts under our revolving credit facility is accelerated, our assets may be insufficient to repay such amounts in full, and our stockholders could experience a partial or total loss of their investment.
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The terms of our revolving credit facility may restrict our ability to pay dividends.
We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, as well as fund our share repurchase program, and we do not expect to declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Moreover, the terms of our revolving credit facility may restrict our ability to pay dividends, and any additional debt we may incur in the future may include similar restrictions. As a result, and for the foreseeable future, stockholders must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. Share repurchases could also increase the volatility of the trading price of our stock and could diminish our cash reserves.
Although our board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program, the program does not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares of common stock. The actual timing and amount of any share repurchases remains subject to a variety of factors, including stock price, trading volume, market conditions, compliance with applicable legal requirements, and other general business considerations. In addition, the terms of our credit facility impose certain limitations on our ability to repurchase shares of common stock. The share repurchase program has no expiration date but it may be modified, suspended or terminated at any time, and we cannot guarantee that the share purchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. The failure to repurchase common stock after we have announced our intention to do so may negatively impact our reputation and investor confidence in us and may negatively affect our stock price. Furthermore, our execution of the share repurchase program could affect the trading price of our common stock and increase volatility, and any announcement of a termination of the share repurchase program may result in a decrease in the trading price of our common stock. In addition, the share repurchase program could diminish our cash reserves.
General Risk Factors
Future litigation could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Lawsuits and other administrative or legal proceedings that may arise in the course of our operations can involve substantial costs, including the costs associated with investigation, litigation and possible settlement, judgment, penalty or fine. In addition, lawsuits and other legal proceedings may be time consuming and may require a commitment of management and personnel resources that will be diverted from our normal business operations. Although we generally maintain insurance to mitigate certain costs, there can be no assurance that costs associated with lawsuits or other legal proceedings will not exceed the limits of insurance policies. Moreover, we may be unable to continue to maintain our existing insurance at a reasonable cost, if at all, or to secure additional coverage, which may result in costs associated with lawsuits and other legal proceedings being uninsured. Our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected if a judgment, penalty or fine is not fully covered by insurance.
Our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited and our failure to raise capital when needed could prevent us from growing.
In the future, we could be required to raise capital through public or private financing or other arrangements. Such financing may not be acceptable or available due to factors beyond our control, such as rising interest rates, uncertainty in financial markets, or economic instability, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. We may sell Class A common stock, convertible securities and other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, investors in our Class A common stock may be materially diluted. New investors in such subsequent transactions could gain rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. Debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants and could reduce our operational flexibility or profitability. If we cannot raise funds on acceptable terms, we may be forced to raise funds on undesirable terms, or our business may contract or we may be unable to grow our business or respond to competitive pressures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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We may experience fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
We are subject to federal, U.S. state income taxes, Canadian federal and provincial income tax, Chinese income taxes, and may be subject to additional income tax depending on our operations. Tax laws, regulations and administrative practices in various jurisdictions may be subject to significant change, with or without advance notice, due to economic, political and other conditions, and significant judgment is required in evaluating and estimating our provision and accruals for these taxes. Such changes may have a material impact on us.
On August 16, 2022, legislation commonly known as the Inflation Reduction Act (the “IRA”) was signed into law. Among other things, the IRA includes a 1% excise tax on corporate stock repurchases, applicable to repurchases after December 31, 2022, and also a new minimum tax based on book income. Any change in current federal, state, local or non-U.S. tax law, facts or any significant variance of our current interpretation of current legislation or future legislation from any future regulations or interpretive guidance could result in a change to the presentation of our financial condition and results of operations and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We entered into certain transactions (the “Transactions”) with affiliates of BC Partners pursuant to an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”), which closed on October 30, 2023. The Transactions were entered into for valid business purposes and it is anticipated that the Transactions will not have a material impact on our financial condition. As a part of the Merger Agreement, we assumed certain filing responsibilities and tax obligations from the Transactions. We have been paid for the cost of the assumed filings and all taxes payable on those filings. We are also indemnified for any future tax exposure up to $196 million. Any tax exposure in excess of $196 million would be our responsibility.
There are many transactions that occur during the ordinary course of business for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Our effective tax rates could be affected by numerous factors, such as changes in tax, accounting and other laws, regulations, administrative practices, principles and interpretations, the mix and level of earnings in a given taxing jurisdiction or our ownership or capital structures.
If our internal control over financial reporting or our disclosure controls and procedures are not effective, we may be unable to accurately report our financial results, prevent fraud or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in our stock price.
We are subject to the internal control and financial reporting requirements that are required of a publicly-traded company, including the requirements of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. In particular, we must perform system and process evaluation, document our controls and perform testing of our key controls over financial reporting to allow management and our independent public accounting firm to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our testing, or the subsequent testing by our independent public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, or if we or our accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock would likely decline and we could be subject to lawsuits, sanctions or investigations by regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.
The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and any rules promulgated thereunder, as well as the rules of NYSE. The requirements of these rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increase demand on our systems and resources. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls for financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight are required, and, as a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns. These rules and regulations can also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified independent members of our board of directors and make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance. We may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur higher costs to obtain coverage. The increased costs of compliance with public company reporting requirements and our potential failure to satisfy these requirements can have a material adverse effect on our operations, business, financial condition or results of operations.
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Item 5. Other Information
Rule 10b5-1 Plan Elections
During the thirteen weeks ended April 28, 2024, none of the Company’s directors or officers adopted terminated
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Item 6. Exhibits
| Exhibit No. | Exhibit Description | ||||
10.1 | |||||
10.2 | |||||
| 31.1 | |||||
| 31.2 | |||||
| 32.1 | |||||
| 101.INS | XBRL Instance Document - the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document | ||||
| 101.SCH | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document | ||||
| 101.CAL | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document | ||||
| 101.DEF | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document | ||||
| 101.LAB | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document | ||||
| 101.PRE | XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document | ||||
| 104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101) | ||||
| * Denotes management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement required to be filed as an exhibit hereto | |||||
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
| CHEWY, INC. | |||||||||||
| Date: | May 29, 2024 | By: | /s/ David Reeder | ||||||||
| David Reeder | |||||||||||
| Chief Financial Officer | |||||||||||
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