Sally Beauty Holdings Stock

Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (SBH) operates as an international specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies.

Segments

The company operates through the following two business segments that offer beauty products in key categories, including hair care, hair color, styling tools and nails.

Sally Beauty Supply (SBS) - An omni-channel retailer that offers professional-quality beauty supplies at attractive prices and provides education to retail consumers and salon professionals throughout North America, South America, and Europe. SBS operates primarily through retail stores (generally operating under the Sally Beauty banner) and digital platforms, including the company's www.sallybeauty.com website and a mobile commerce-based app.

Beauty Systems Group (BSG) - A leading full-service omni-channel distributor that offers professional beauty supplies exclusively to salons and salon professionals throughout the U.S. and Canada. These salon professionals primarily rely on just-in-time inventory due to capital constraints and limited warehouse and shelf space. BSG operates through company-operated stores (generally operating under the Cosmo Prof banner), franchised stores, distributor sales consultants (DSCs) and digital platforms, including the company's www.cosmoprofbeauty.com website, a mobile commerce-based app and chain portals.

Strategy

While at BSG, the company is the largest North American distributor of professional hair color and care, offering stylists and salons the most extensive portfolio of third-party brands in the market.

The key elements of the company's strategy are to build customer centricity through its value-added services and concepts, including Studio by Sally, Cosmo Prof Direct, Licensed Colorist on Demand (LCOD), Happy Beauty Co. and Walmart.com digital marketplace; grow its owned brands at SBS and innovating will help it attracts new customers and keep long-term relationships with existing customers; and complete its distribution center consolidation and store optimization plan (the Plan).

Store Design and Locations

Sally Beauty Supply

SBS has retail stores in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Chile. Stores are designed to highlight the company's extensive product offerings and differentiated position in hair color, hair care, styling tools, and nails. The company applies strong category management processes, including store specific planograms, to maintain consistent merchandise presentation across its store base. In the U.S. and Canada, the company's average store offers an average of 7,000 beauty products and is approximately 1,650 square feet in size. Stores are typically located in strip shopping centers, which are occupied by other high traffic retailers, such as grocery stores, mass merchants and home improvement centers. Store formats, including average size and product selection, vary by marketplace to meet the needs of the customer.

The company calibrates store renewals, remodels, and expansions between new and existing geographies. In existing marketplaces, the company adds stores to provide additional coverage and strategically close or relocate underperforming stores as necessary. In new marketplaces, SBS selects geographic areas and store sites on the basis of demographic information, the quality and nature of neighboring tenants, store visibility and location accessibility. SBS generally seeks to expand in geographically contiguous areas to leverage its expertise.

During the year ended September 30, 2023, the company began testing new store concepts, Happy Beauty Co. and Studio by Sally.

Happy Beauty Co. is a unique new retail store concept that brings to market an engaging beauty experience with thousands of quality products. Stores feature both third-party brands and the company's owned brands encompassing four key categories: cosmetics and facial care, bath and body, nails and hair.

Studio by Sally is a new pilot store concept that adds an in-person educational salon experience where licensed stylists trains and educates customers, empowering them to personally achieve their desired results.

Beauty Systems Group

BSG stores, including franchise-based Armstrong McCall stores, are designed to highlight the company's extensive product offerings to salons and salon professionals. The company's stores on average offer approximately 8,000 professional beauty products tailored to the territory and are segmented into distinctive areas arranged by product type, with certain areas dedicated to leading third-party brands. The company-operated stores average approximately 2,700 square feet and are located primarily in secondary strip shopping centers, being a destination exclusively for licensed cosmetologists.

Merchandise

Key products included within the company's sales categories are as follows:

Hair Color - Developer/lightener, semi-permanent/demi-permanent/permanent hair color, and toner.

Hair Care - Shampoo and conditioner, hair gels and creams, and hair spray.

Styling Tools - Hair Dryer, irons, curling rods/rollers/pins, brushes/combs, clippers/trimmers/accessories, shears, razors, and salon accessories.

Nails - Polish/gel/acrylics/dips, nail accessories and supplies.

Skin and Cosmetics - Cosmetics, cosmetic accessories, hair removal, skincare, and jewelry.

Other Beauty Products - Salon chairs/dryers/basics.

Sally Beauty Supply

SBS carries an extensive selection of leading third-party, owned and exclusive-labeled brand professional beauty supplies across a variety of product categories. As leaders in the beauty industry, the company is uniquely positioned to adapt and innovate within its brands, partnerships and product offerings to provide the looks customers want. This focus helps the company attract new customers and keep long-term relationships with existing customers. During the year ended September 30, 2023, the company had invested more into marketing of its owned brands and launched its new owned branded vegan product line - bondbar - that's SLS/SLES-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free and cruelty-free. Continuing the success of bondbar's initial launch of hair repair products, it expands the brand's product line to include a full shade range of permanent hair color with built-in bonding technology during the year ended September 30, 2023, and will be expanding its assortment for color and care lines in fiscal year 2024.

Beauty Systems Group

BSG carries an extensive selection of leading third-party branded products, many of which are under exclusive distributions rights. The company has exclusive and non-exclusive distribution rights with several key vendors for well-known brands in certain geographies and continues to pursue the acquisition of additional distribution rights. As the largest North American distributor of professional hair color and care, carrying an extensive selection of branded merchandise is critical to maintaining relationships with the company's professional customers.

Marketing and Advertising

Sally Beauty Supply

The company targets existing and potential customers through an integrated marketing approach designed to reach the customer through a variety of media channels, including digital advertising, e-mail, social media, text messaging, mobile app push notifications, direct mail and print advertising.

SBS's marketing initiatives are designed to drive customer traffic through added education, content, and community building. The company leverages a combination of internal and external influencers/content experts to educate and make customers feel confident about DIY hair color, hair care, nails and other beauty trends. The company's external influencers consist of content creators and/or professional stylists who are DIY experts in their areas of focus and aim to inspire, educate and empower beauty enthusiasts. Additionally, its internal Sally Beauty Associate Affiliate Program encourages the company's associates to share their unique expertise with customers on social media to curate a community of inspiring, diverse creators who are using SBS merchandise for their DIY beauty, nails, hair, and self-expression.

Beauty Systems Group

BSG's marketing programs are designed to promote its extensive selection of brand name products at competitive prices and to educate, motivate and empower existing and potential customers. The company distributes promotional material through multiple channels, including print mail, e-mail, SMS, mobile app push notifications, social media, trade shows, educational events, store personnel and DSCs. As of September 30, 2023, the company had a network of 670 DSCs, which personally consults, supports, and sells directly to salons and salon professionals. In addition, the company's digital platforms enhance other efforts intended to promote awareness of its products by salons and salon professionals.

Distribution

The company receives its merchandise through several distribution centers in the U.S. and various other countries. The company's distribution centers service its stores, orders from its DSCs and ship-to-customer orders through various freight carriers. The company procures its owned-branded merchandise through domestic and foreign vendors and work closely with its overseas vendors to fulfill production orders and schedule ocean and freight carriers to deliver to its distribution centers.

The company started testing a new shipping frequency from its distribution centers to a limited population of SBS and BSG stores by leveraging investments within its supply chain systems. The company is expanding this program to the majority of its remaining SBS and BSG store fleet throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Seasonality

The company's business typically has higher sales in its first quarter (year ended September 2023) related to the holiday sales period.

Suppliers

For the year ended September 30, 2023, the company's five largest suppliers - Henkel AG & Co. KGaA; Wella Company, the Professional Products Division of L'Oreal USA S/D, Inc., or L'Oreal; John Paul Mitchell Systems; and Kao Corporation - accounted for approximately 43% of its consolidated merchandise purchases.

Intellectual Property

In the U.S. and in other countries where the company operates, it has registered or legally protected trademarks, copyrights, internet domain names, service marks and tradenames that are used to promote and market its business, stores, digital platforms, and products. Many of these are well recognized and have significant value, including but not limited to: Sally, Sally Beauty, Cosmo Prof, Armstrong McCall, ION and Beyond the Zone.

Customer Base

The company's customers span the entire continuum of gender and ethnic diversity. The company sells beauty products to treat and style every kind of hair. It delivers a tailored assortment of beauty products that serve the local communities.

History

Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1964.