Warby Parker Announces Second Quarter 2023 Results

Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE: WRBY) (“Warby Parker” or the “Company”), a direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand focused on vision for all, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

“We delivered another quarter of double-digit revenue growth and strong adjusted EBITDA margin expansion,” said Co-Founder and Co-CEO Dave Gilboa. “The work we’ve done realigning our expense structure is enabling us to balance improving profitability with reinvesting in the business to drive sustained market share gains long term.”

“Our stores are playing an increasingly important role in attracting new consumers to our brand and extending the reach and availability of our holistic vision offering,” added Co-Founder and Co-CEO Neil Blumenthal. “Equally important, our stores continue to generate strong margins and high returns on capital even as the optical industry has recently experienced demand headwinds. We opened 13 new stores in the second quarter, remain on track to open 40 new stores this year, and believe we have the potential to reach at least 900 locations over time.”

Second Quarter 2023 Year Over Year Highlights

• Net revenue increased $16.5 million, or 11.0%, to $166.1 million.

• GAAP net loss improved $16.2 million to $15.9 million.

• Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ increased $8.2 million to $14.2 million and adjusted EBITDA margin⁽¹⁾ improved 4.5 points from 4.0% to 8.5%.

Second Quarter 2023 Year Over Year Financial Results

• Net revenue increased $16.5 million, or 11.0%, to $166.1 million.

• Average Revenue per Customer increased 9.2% to $277. Active Customers increased 1.2% to 2.28 million.

• Gross profit increased 5.0% to $90.6 million.

• Gross margin was 54.6% compared to 57.7% in the prior year period. The decline in gross margin was primarily driven by the increased penetration of contact lenses, which carry lower gross margins than eyeglasses; an increase in salary and benefit costs associated with optometrists as we scale our eye exam offering across our fleet, to 169 exam locations, up from 127 in the prior year period; and the impact of the growth in store count driving higher store occupancy and depreciation costs.

• Selling, general and administrative expenses (“SG&A”) was 65.5% of revenue, down from 79.2% of revenue in the prior year period, reflecting a decline of $9.6 million to $108.9 million, primarily driven by lower stock-based compensation and reduced marketing costs, partially offset by increased technology costs related to the implementation of our new ERP system. Adjusted SG&A⁽¹⁾ decreased to $86.8 million, or 52.2% of revenue, down from $88.5 million, or 59.2% of revenue in the prior year period.

• GAAP net loss decreased $16.2 million to $15.9 million, primarily as a result of the decrease in SG&A described above.

• Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ increased $8.2 million to $14.2 million and adjusted EBITDA margin⁽¹⁾ improved 4.5 points to 8.5%.

• Opened 13 new stores during the quarter, ending Q2 with 217 stores.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Warby Parker ended the second quarter of 2023 with $212.7 million in cash and cash equivalents.

2023 Outlook

For the full year 2023, Warby Parker is revising guidance to be as follows:

• Net revenue of $655 to $664 million, representing growth of 9.5% to 11.0% versus full year 2022.

• Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ of approximately $52 million, or adjusted EBITDA margin⁽¹⁾ of 7.9%.

• On track for 40 new store openings this year.

“We are pleased to build upon our early success this year and deliver another quarter of outperformance, both from a topline and adjusted EBITDA perspective,” said Chief Financial Officer Steve Miller. “Given our better than anticipated results in the first half of 2023, we are raising our full year guidance. While growth for the broader optical industry remains slow, our proven ability to capture market share despite these difficult operating conditions gives us confidence.”

The guidance and forward-looking statements made in this press release and on our conference call are based on management's expectations as of the date of this press release.

⁽¹⁾ Please see the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measure in the section titled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below.

Webcast and Conference Call

A conference call to discuss Warby Parker’s second quarter 2023 results, as well as third quarter and full year 2023 outlook, is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. ET today. To participate, please dial 833-470-1428 from the U.S. or 404-975-4839 from international locations. The conference passcode is 514708. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the investors section of the Company’s website at investors.warbyparker.com where presentation materials will also be posted prior to the conference call. A replay will be made available online approximately two hours following the live call for a period of 90 days.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and the related conference call, webcast and presentation contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements may relate to, but are not limited to, expectations of future operating results or financial performance, including expectations regarding achieving profitability and growth in our e-commerce channel, delivering stakeholder value, growing market share, and our guidance for the quarter ending September 30, 2023 and year ending December 31, 2023; expectations regarding the number of new store openings during the year ending December 31, 2023; management’s plans, priorities, initiatives and strategies; and expectations regarding growth of our business. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “toward,” “will,” or “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved, if at all.

Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management as of that time with respect to future events. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control, that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include our ability to manage our future growth effectively; our expectations regarding cost of goods sold, gross margin, channel mix, customer mix, and selling, general, and administrative expenses; increases in component and shipping costs and changes in supply chain; our reliance on our information technology systems and enterprise resource planning systems for our business to effectively operate and safeguard confidential information; our ability to engage our existing customers and obtain new customers; planned new retail stores in 2023 and going forward; an overall decline in the health of the economy and other factors impacting consumer spending, such as recessionary conditions, inflation and government instability; our ability to compete successfully; our ability to manage our inventory balances and shrinkage; the growth of our brand awareness; our ability to recruit and retain optometrists, opticians, and other vision care professionals; a resurgence of COVID-19 or the spread of new infectious diseases; the effects of seasonal trends on our results of operations; our ability to stay in compliance with extensive laws and regulations that apply to our business and operations; our ability to adequately maintain and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights; our reliance on third parties for our products, operation and infrastructure; our duties related to being a public benefit corporation; the ability of our Co-Founders and Co-CEOs to exercise significant influence over all matters submitted to stockholders for approval; the effect of our multi-class structure on the trading price of our Class A common stock; and the increased expenses associated with being a public company. Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations is included in our most recent reports filed with the SEC on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise.

Additional information regarding these and other factors that could affect the Company’s results is included in the Company’s SEC filings, which may be obtained by visiting the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Information contained on, or that is referenced or can be accessed through, our website does not constitute part of this document and inclusions of any website addresses herein are inactive textual references only.

Glossary

Active Customer is defined as a unique customer that has made at least one purchase of any product or service in the preceding 12-month period.

Average Revenue per Customer is defined as net revenue for a given period divided by the number of Active Customers as of the end of that same period.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We use adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, adjusted cost of goods sold (“adjusted COGS”), adjusted gross margin, adjusted gross profit, and adjusted selling, general, and administrative expenses (“adjusted SG&A”) as important indicators of our operating performance. Collectively, we refer to these non-GAAP financial measures as our “Non-GAAP Measures.” The Non-GAAP Measures, when taken collectively with our GAAP results, may be helpful to investors because they provide consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assist in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their GAAP results.

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) before interest and other income, taxes, and depreciation and amortization as further adjusted for asset impairment costs, stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes, amortization of cloud-based software implementation costs, non-cash charitable donations, and non-recurring costs such as major system implementation costs. Adjusted EBITDA margin is defined as adjusted EBITDA divided by net revenue.

Adjusted net income (loss) is defined as net income (loss) adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes, non-cash charitable donations, and non-recurring costs such as major system implementation costs, and as further adjusted for estimated income tax on such adjusted items.

Adjusted earnings (loss) per share is defined as adjusted net income (loss) divided by adjusted weighted average shares outstanding.

Adjusted COGS is defined as cost of goods sold adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes.

Adjusted gross profit is defined as net revenue minus adjusted COGS. Adjusted gross margin is defined as adjusted gross profit divided by net revenue.

Adjusted SG&A is defined as SG&A adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and related employer payroll taxes, non-cash charitable donations, and non-recurring costs such as major system implementation costs.

The Non-GAAP Measures are presented for supplemental informational purposes only. A reconciliation of historical GAAP to Non-GAAP financial information is included under “Selected Financial Information” below.

We have not reconciled our adjusted EBITDA margin guidance to GAAP net income (loss) margin, or net margin, or adjusted EBITDA guidance to GAAP net income (loss) because we do not provide guidance for GAAP net margin or GAAP net income (loss) due to the uncertainty and potential variability of stock-based compensation and taxes, which are reconciling items between GAAP net margin and adjusted EBITDA margin and GAAP net income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA, respectively. Because such items cannot be reasonably provided without unreasonable efforts, we are unable to provide a reconciliation of the adjusted EBITDA margin guidance to GAAP net margin and adjusted EBITDA guidance to GAAP net income (loss). However, such items could have a significant impact on GAAP net margin and GAAP net income (loss).

About Warby Parker

Warby Parker (NYSE: WRBY) was founded in 2010 with a mission to inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style–without charging a premium for it. Headquartered in New York City, the co-founder-led lifestyle brand pioneers ideas, designs products, and develops technologies that help people see, from designer-quality prescription glasses (starting at $95) and contacts, to eye exams and vision tests available online and in more than 200 retail stores across the U.S. and Canada.

Warby Parker aims to demonstrate that businesses can scale, do well, and do good in the world. Ultimately, the brand believes in vision for all, which is why for every pair of glasses or sunglasses sold, they distribute a pair to someone in need through their Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program. To date, Warby Parker has worked alongside its nonprofit partners to distribute more than 13 million glasses to people in need.