Sharon Price John, CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, joined Cheddar News to discuss the company's record earnings and its outlook for the holiday season as traffic rose.

Build-A-Bear Workshop Sees Increased Traffic as Revenue Rises

the holiday season and getting off to a strong start for build a bear, the teddy bear maker posting a record third quarter results blowing past Wall Street's expectations has seen 1/7 straight quarter of increased sales compared to the previous year. Also raising its annual forecast. Well, the stock certainly the holiday mode today up sharply, take a look rising 22% and joining me now is the C. E. Ceo of build a bear Sharon price, john as Sharon. Congratulations and happy holidays. Happy holidays. Thanks for having me. Oh, it's so good to see you. We have the bears, the animals on set here. And the third quarter was very strong for your company. What has been working? It's very strong. We were up 10% on revenue 25% on pretax profit. Um, and I think that a lot of things are working for us. We saw increased traffic, a lot of consumers interest in build a bear coming into the stores. I think there's some post covid interest in reviving that trip to the mall and having family experiences. So we were quite pleased with a lot of the things that happened. We also had record sales with our Halloween products and a number of the different offerings that we have. So it was exciting for us this quarter. We also shared that we had a strong black friday as well as a cyber monday gave a lit bit inside into the early fourth quarter with continued momentum into that quarter, which was what gave us that confidence to raise guidance with that record setting first nine, uh, first nine months as well as the quarter to date information and clearly investors are rewarding the staff today on that boosted guidance Sharon. So yes, things are working and we've got some amazingly outfitted bears. I think that's a bunny. We've got a unicorn up here in san and santa. So what are some of these unique holiday offerings that are gonna be providing shoppers? Yeah. So we usually have the traditional holiday bears. This, that is glisten are reindeer. She's our snow deer. That's associated with mary mission. Mary mission has been in our line for eight years and it's often a best seller for the holiday season. And we actually announced today after the earnings release that we are in the process of creating an animal film from glisten and the merry mission that will be released in 2023. Wow, that factor into guidance. Do you anticipate that, that, that will be a big money maker for you? Well, that's not in the guidance because the guidance was for a full year 2022 the film won't be out until 2023. But what it speaks to is the evolution and transition of build a bear beyond the mall beyond the stuffed animals. You know, we're now a, uh, omnichannel organization that has this opportunity, which we've been building over the course of years to maximize and monetize the value of this brand. The brand has tremendous equity and we see that every day and the love and excitement that people come when they come to build a bear. They keep our bears, they enjoy them for life. It's really an amazing experience to watch that. But that multi generation, the reality of our product line and our brand and our experience, which we're now 25 years this year, it allows us to go to places that maybe younger brands cannot go and it gives us latitude to speak directly to that older consumer. 40% of our sales are now two teens and adults. Yes. And we have spaces on our website dedicated to teens and adults are that our age gated, where the bear cave or after dark. This is an example, one of our kind of sassy. Yeah, so she is making spirits bright little bit of play on words here with her bare teeny but people love this. It's a very unique gift. You know, you get to put the heart in the bear, you can also add a recording, which makes it an incredibly unique gift. I mean how fun is this to get something like this? Under the tree. Perfect under the tree, I think for secret santa, that could be a fun. That's a great idea. Yeah, I also want to talk Sharon um as a Ceo yourself about this book that you have out and and how your own story has inspired the work that you're doing and build a bear well build a bears are really special organization. Uh and and it does inspire many. Our founder Maxine Clark is also an inspiration to entrepreneurs and young women. Um but beyond that, I think that that there was an opportunity for me when Forbes actually approached me to do this, to talk about just stories and how those stories impacted my life, what I did, it's not just all the way back to childhood, just a bit of it is about build a bear, but it's called Stories and Heart and that is a play on the build a bear story with that's our build a bear heart and it's about unlocking the power personal stories to create a life you love, which is what we're all about it, build a bear is creating a life you love. And I think that that is what is unique about this company that you are helming right now is despite a pandemic. Despite higher prices, persistent pandemic, we should say, despite supply chain challenges, your businesses is doing better than ever. And heart seems to be at the very root of it. Heart is at the heart of it or the root of it, which every word you want to use. But I think what's super important here is that that we're often asked if this is a post pandemic bounce and I'm certain that there is a portion of what we're doing that is in the changes of the consumer shopping behavior, But we've been on this journey for a long time of recognizing that we could pivot this brand and that we could create a multidimensional multi channel business of diversified options that allow consumers to engage with us when they want the way they want executed digital transformation, create a robust loyalty program, get focused on revenue from all channels. Our goal is to drive profitable revenue and create lifetime value. And that creation of lifetime value is not just translated into profitable revenue streams for us, but it's also for the guest, there's a reciprocal concept here of lifetime value and I think that that does make a difference with consumers over time. Well certainly investors, many of whom I'm sure our consumers to rewarding back today. Sharon. Happy holidays to you. Always a pleasure to see you and thank you so much for bringing the items by in your presence. Thank you. We're delighted to be here and always happy to speak with you. Wonderful! Alright Sharon Price, john Ceo, build a bear. Thank you again to Sharon for joining