[Inaudible] with Jefferies. one reviewer says. Tilted about 30 degrees forward, this slippers offer additional arch support while giving your feet comforting pain relief. Now, hopefully that gives you confidence that we're going to achieve what we're about to outline for you in the future. That's helped a lot. So how are you repositioning the store and rethinking other categories within it?
So the customer changed. Versatile, super comfortable and easy to clean, there there's a lot to love, with most styles available in an array of neutral and neon shades for under $20 on Amazon, where enthusiastic reviewers say they feel like "walking on pillows" and are "so comfy and supportive.". We'll take a quick break at that point and then Ken will share more on our long-term vision and thoughts on fiscal year '22, which, as you may know, is a unique year for us. While it is still early days, our teams have started to deploy our new learnings into how we acquire and retain customers.
Think about it. And quite honestly it helps us just have better visibility and our sell through us and will only make us stronger both in our stores and online. As Judy mentioned, every decision we make begins and ends with our customers in mind. We had to get color style, size done, so that we could really deliver on that. I have to share with you a vision of our oncoming record growth. The store was brighter, the shelves were white. It takes people like this that have the right mindset to wake up every day committed to delivering our purpose, and quite frankly, making an impact in the communities we serve. Four-wall EBITDA margin of approximately 25%, with a net cash investment to open a new store of approximately $400,000. These statements reflect our knowledge, our current forecast based on our knowledge of our business today, and we under -- we are under no obligation to update these statements. We continue working with leading analytics firms to help define our future growth. Let go and have fun.
We try and create an environment for our customers, a place where they can let go and have fun in the most amazing experience where they can buy the newest, coolest stuff. It's true.
The bottom line, 30%. But the bigger question I had was just on the loyalty program, because that seems like a big unlock potential. But Felipe talked about it in detail [Inaudible] what what he said. Translation: They're best for wearing at the beach, post-workout at the gym or simply while puttering around the house. First, we expect mid-single digit lift for all our remodels to the Five Beyond prototype. Now having said that, we don't have blinders on. Excuse me. | . FEEL THE GROOVE. We are determined on having five below be the number one choice for teens and tweens. And if that wasn't enough, the design also freed up additional space on our sales floor to allow our merchants even more amazing product. Thank you, Judy. You know, it's interesting because -- there's older stores. At Five Below, we believe an amazing customer experience starts with our crew. "Still, I love to wear mine after a workout at the gym showers. But, I think what you're going to see today is relatively in line with the size of the box and where we're heading. Creating moments and memories like this for Henry are at the heart of our purpose. We saw the importance in controlling our destiny by building out our five node distribution center network, servicing most of our stores in 1 to 2 days. And in our proxy later this spring, you'll see a full report. Or a store, say, on Flowood, Mississippi, again, a pretty tight range in terms of EBITDA margins there, but that's what we expect going forward.
Michael Romanko -- Chief Merchandising Officer. Hi. In fact, it was in 2016, when we first reached the annual $1 billion in sales milestone. We had a really break it down so that if you ordered pink, we didn't send you white. Some of the things we're doing with our own fleet, the scale of the business. So they've been copying.
John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Partners -- Analyst. Boy, the people you see in line on our Sunday squish, it's big with college age girls. TikTok video from Kristen (@_kris10_): "#PepsiApplePieChallenge #fyp #zyxcba #college #fivebelow #fivebelowfinds #fivebelowdecor #fivebelowsquishmallows #DIYwithBlock". So we've done a lot of modeling on the potential downside to Five Below of some of this. But Michael, back to your pessimism. To Joel's point, we could very well reinvest some of that back into the product in gross margin. We're expanding into new geographical markets. We're going to capture that continue to be relevant, use the flexibility we have within our worlds. Our executives responsible for components of our growth strategy, including product, supply chain and experience. TikTok video from Kylie Bee (@kyliebee_): "ITS NOT TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. And you also heard us and we've talked about it before in terms of stock buybacks and repurchases that we'll look at that opportunistically and we call it out today that we actually took advantage of that in January. John Heinbockel from Guggenheim. Joel talked about going public in 2012. Scale and control are two major themes we think about our global supply chain. There are a few. | This is from five below but you can also get it from walmart, its around five dollars. I know it's not about margin, but is there scope for that to be better over time, gven some of the positive things happening on the top and the bottom and the margin? Felipe is a great example of the amazing talent we hired during the middle of the pandemic, and he leads all of our digital efforts. And we'll have it done by '25. And yes, there is a little bit of a dispersion in sales in that group, existing stores between densities, populations and different factors.
As you can tell, 2022 has been a celebration of milestones. Stock Advisor list price is $199 per year. I'm going to ask Ken Bull to join me up here to look at these results. So -- as the vintage comes up on their ten year initial real estate lease, we have the option to either take some bigger space, keep them in that and remodel it. Ed Kelly -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst. But we're always relevant for way low prices, and we never sacrifice on quality. But look, we we will probably continue to evolve the size of the prototype. For those even those who have been following us for a while, know that our eight worlds haven't changed. The classic, which was our original store of 4,000 square feet, we only have we have eight left? Gross margin increased by about 10 basis points over last year, driven by efficiencies and leverage, which were partially offset by higher inbound freight costs and the shift in store freight we discussed on our third quarter call. And it's one of the groups that actually the reopening from the pandemic benefited pretty significantly. Achieve the impossible. 171 new stores and 45 remodels, and investments in systems and infrastructure. And then you have things like e-comm and the increase in the penetration of e-comm. Those are starting to come back to life with live events. He can't wait to go to the store called Five Below. And Matt, on the comp drivers, we spoke about it and you heard a lot about it today. You heard us talk about the number of remodels that we're going to do this year and then conversions, right. Not only is George excited, the entire team is excited about our future. Take a look at some of the different ways we partner with local charities to make a difference. And I think as Michael and the team, we stay focused on staying older, that's only going to bode well for us. Felipe's number is 975, and he'll experience a double during this triple-double vision. And it's pretty amazing how wide it continues to get. Scale is a huge benefit for us throughout the entire organization, whether it's talent, whether it's vendor relationships, whatever it is to really help drive down those costs. And when we look at it, again, we think we have huge opportunities from a top line perspective. If anything, we'll just continue to grow the size of our prototype so that that part stays part and parcel and true to Five Beyond and the front stays true to Five Below. Let me start with the second half of that, and Ken can give you specifics on rent. And Scott, as you can hear from Joel, we tend to be a little more positive in terms of our approach in our outlook. Not only have they not changed, it's one of the reasons that we're set apart from other retailers. First, just broadly, could you talk about the health of your core customer perhaps by income level? similar to the cloud ones | new cute sports bras! TikTok video from (@slime.acct.comp): "Do you have this slime? Look you can all back into our January was March is playing out pretty much we think the same way. Yeah. Well, thanks for all the questions, and I'm happy to answer them in the coming weeks as is Ken. But again, as you heard from Joel and we've seen in the past, that's where we do well, and the customer comes back to us because that's where the value really steps up. As consumer looks for value, that's a real opportunity for us. A champ, and he's only available at Five Below. And as I speak to conversions, recognize these conversions take less than two weeks and we don't close a store to execute them. He was here bright and early. George will take you through the experience during the store visit later. In her post, she said, Henry's really looking forward to getting out of here. Obviously, fixed cost, there's occupancy and cost of goods sold. Looking at profitability, gross margin was down about 30 basis points due to higher inbound and outbound freight costs, and SG&A expenses finished at 22.8%, which was 190 basis points lower than 2019, driven by leverage of store expenses and lower marketing spend. It isn't in our employee handbook or our training guide. So who better to share the vision of our growth than George Hill? We also expect operating margin of about 12.7% at the midpoint of guidance with a decline versus last year driven primarily by higher SG&A expenses from a more normalized marketing spend. That's how we do it at Five Below. And as an added benefit, which is going to save about $1 million per year in freight and packaging on just this one item. If we do nothing, the current network gets us easily to 2,000 stores. And it's taken much longer to get live gaming going back. TikTok video from Steph H. | UGC Creator (@stephy.always): "Cloud slides finally found one closest to the real thang found at @fivebelow shes squishy #fivebelowslides #fivebelowfinds #cloudslides#loveforcloudslides". And I want to remind you what our last vision was that we shared with you in 2016. We now believe we have the opportunity to triple our U.S. store base to 3,500 by 2030, and we'll double sales and will more than double earnings by 2025. It's hard to believe that we're being in person is amazing. For Q&A, we have Andrea and Elsie both with mics. 11 of those will be right inside New York City. CANT BELIEVE There we go. We see the stores starting off at a 2.2 million productivity in the about 25% EBITDA. And then second, just curious how you're thinking about e-com as you as you think about that long-term, big sales number that you put out there. Five Below's growth vision for the future. And secondly, you didn't mention e-gaming, which still seems like a huge opportunity long-term. Claiming to have massage acupoints incorporated in the foam design, these pillow slides may help stimulate blood circulation and relax muscles. And I'm going to provide you context, more context and what this really means. Christiane Pelz -- Vice President, Investor Relations. Don't just think e-commerce, but just think about the experience as it is as good in the stores from that perspective. I'll take this one. And like Flowood, some of our top performing stores are in these smaller, semi-rural markets, including towns like Ashland, Kentucky, Charleston, West Virginia, and Hammond, Louisiana. And our balance sheet [Video presentation] remains strong, with a cash position of $380 million and no debt. 3.4K Likes, 25 Comments. And then as part of that, how were you thinking about lapping some of the trends? It's going from a concept based on items on a shelf to the unveiling of a store within a store. We have not had [Inaudible]. The prototype is a measurement of all our success. And I want to share a fun fact. Crew members getting the first car. You're going to hear specific, meaningful examples of what we've done. Honestly, that's pretty impressive for what we've now achieved. And as I share these results, we will do that and then turn to our future growth vision. And fourth, we'll be cycling a very strong year of multiple trends. Like Joel spoke earlier with the restaurants, squishmallows, slime licker and sensory toys. And there's very few retailers that can go at that breadth of a trend. Right. If you ordered black, we didn't send you pink. Look, China is still the overwhelming majority of where the imports come from. And then in terms of allocating the capital, as you know, obviously, with the returns that we see on new stores, that's our best investment at this stage to continue to do that. They are a huge part of our winning formula and we're now 20,000 strong, and that number doubles during holiday. If anything, we're expanding it for for older age groups. So our teams got together and delivered a solution that is knocking it out of the park. But one area that really stands to benefit is marketing. We open the most stores ever, 171, to be exact. Five Below is still a unique concept. And this one from Anthony [Inaudible] loop. Allow me to tell you the story. It was introduced in 2008, and it was a racetrack layout. It's important you also look backwards. Customers told us that while they loved visiting our stores, waiting in line to pay was a hassle. And then a spinner came here, like having to do the spinner, we did it again. Ken? This truly represents the culture of innovation that we have here at Five Below. Yeah. All right. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool's premium services. The supply chain is truly becoming global. Continue to build and develop strong relationships with key vendors globally. They come in and they can choose pink or black or white for an online customer. I would, Michael just to add. Look, having worked at Toys R US for 12 years. That's approximately 1,000 new stores across 48 states. Stories like the one Judy shared happen every day at Five Below. I think Henry has become a customer for life. Blair Bodek, Pacifica Capital Investments. We see Five Beyond as a significant part of our growth strategy and an unlock to help us grow comp store sales. Yeah.
We carried it. The only area I'm really dogmatic about is, we're not going to allow it to go downward. Made with durable EVA that delivers excellent shock absorption, these slides are waterproof and washable. Ken, outline for you. He's taken Five Below from a great concept to what we are now creating is a great company. And during this triple-double vision, she's going to experience a triple. I was curious, Michael has brought a lot of energy and success on the merchandising side since this come to Five Below. Most of you know Michael. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Whether it's a new store or a comp store, whether the customer is new to the brand or has been with us for years, whether they're digitally native or brick and mortar centric. So we'll go to the online. And this has allowed us to capture more market share with key licenses with big companies and big brands like Disney, Marvel, Squish, and Bugha. Related to our sourcing strategy, we have plans to increase our direct import penetration to approximately 50%, providing a range of benefits, including product development and innovation, speed to market and logistics management. Give us that flexibility to give that constant growth and innovation. You mentioned distribution, that's not in the -- it's not the number, that's in the four-Wall EBITDA. The Ukraine war and stimulus really starts to hurt you guys. We also implemented scanning technology in all distribution centers, decreasing the time it takes our stores to move product from the back door to the floor, by eliminating approximately 50 million cartons scans annually. In fact, in 2022, we'll open 15 new stores in urban markets. Eric's been with us since 2014. We are here with our entire leadership team who are very excited to share with you insights about our business and to meet you. So I'm wondering why not move a little faster on that? We also plan to open approximately 550 to 600 stores in store in fiscal '24 and '25 combined. We should see, as you would guess, on a 3 to 5 comp, again, the investments that we've made in the distribution facilities and the network that we should see some leverage there. Listen, enough of the warm up. We're also going to do a little Q&A after the tour. So we're going to give you a quick sneak peek of what you're going to see this afternoon on the store tour. And if you look at some of the things we're talking about, right, the drivers, we got a 3% to 5% comp that we're looking at in those years, '23 through '25. All those teams help us improve our experience. It's about brand awareness. So we feel good about that. I'll go back to Michael, and the presentation on Five Beyond and just the excitement around that product. Encourage you to meet him as well at lunch. So for your 3% to 5% comp expectation, can you help us understand how much of a driver the Five Beyond program is supposed to be to that? And not just product but also age. Great.
I'll take that one. Allow me to take you through a quick journey of that prototype so you understand where we're going and you understand how fast change is continuing to happen at Five Below. These insights have broad applications across the entire business to drive sales. AT FIVE BELOW | CLOUD SLIDE It's our 10th anniversary since our IPO. George? The size of the prototype, it grew again to 8,500 and now represents about 40% of our chain. Cute. We've got a phenomenal real estate team. It's not for looks, it's for there for you to eat. We leverage our Five Below way to create a culture where they feel included and belong, and bring their unique personality to bring our purpose to life.
It it's proof that we actually know what our customer is looking for and we listen to them. And that's what's really helped us continue to grow this business. And it really takes a lot of the unknowns out of the equation. Sculpted and lower to the ground, its unisex design suits casual looks or a post-shower robe moment. But I said this when I came into the company, over seven years ago. Look, a lot of our products in the past came as assortments. The boroughs. "What you talk about Five Below, anywhere that's big." He leads our merchandising organization. I get a chance to talk about product. $5 | Summer Slides They are the ones that constantly unleash their power and passion so that we can achieve the impossible every day and wow our customer. So there might be some of -- that's continuing to move forward, but there is an opportunity to improve that down the road. And most of this team you have not met. His basketball number is 27. I think it's something we called out that started last year as just a really good example of controlling our destiny. Yeah. Just could you maybe talk to us about the cadence over the next few years about how you plan that? Because the name, up -- is it a cold weather store is what is Five Below. We've come a long ways from the beginning. And then, Ken, on comps, could you help bridge drivers of the 3% to 5% same store sales in this plan relative to low single digits in the past plan? If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. It was a place where they could spend their allowance and call Five Below the "yes store" because Mom always said yes. As as the success of our brand and our value offering continue to grow, in 2012, we are proud to say we opened our 30th store in the Philly market. This strategy leverages our new store buildout and our ability to convert about 750 of our existing store base into the new into this new format. I'll say that again. The Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles Lab regularly tests footwear for comfort, fit and support based on feedback from testers and expert sources. Hi. Our shared inventory model, where we have inventory for all channels under the same roof, gives us flexibility to manage inventory at stores and to support our omni channel initiatives, including e-commerce fulfillment, focus, and ship from store. In addition, during the year, we expect to complete about 45 remodels and about 200 conversions to the new Five Beyond prototype. Sure. Now, before I turn it over to Joel, we're excited to show you a short video, taking a look back at where we came from. And with a later Easter this year, the key holiday selling weeks are still ahead of us. So let me start with the meaning of culture of innovation, and then I'll turn it over to the team for the remaining four drivers. Thank you, Ken. It's the commitment he gets from [Inaudible], the finance team. Connected to our purpose to let go and have fun, our five values that we live by every day.
So, Five Below expects to double in the next four years, double in the next four years. Additionally, we experienced unfavorable weather in the back half of the month. And then Michael will join us up here to share the details. Just wondering what the potential headwinds can be, particularly since it seems like the DC rollout is complete, at least for the time being. All right. We believe Five Below anywhere. We are -- we have begun to implement engineered labor standards to drive additional productivity activity increases to help offset rising wages. Infants and preschool. Take note: The brand recommends not leaving these out in the sun to prevent aging and shrinkage.
What do you think differentiates the model to be well-positioned in today's dynamic macro backdrop? And we'll continue to invest in the foundation business to be able to grow it. We are taking our time with this because we simply do not want members in a database. We can play offense. You're going to have the opportunity today to interact with all of them. And it really, you saw the significant increase in four-Wall EBITDA from when we started ten years ago. "Unlike traditional flip flops, OOFOS' slides supported my arches without causing any toe pain, but they werent as stylish as other pairs I own," says our own Textiles Lab analyst, Emma Seymour. It's still amazing how consistent the performance is from store to store. And we look forward to continuing the dialog.
Michael has its commitment the merchants have. And this is just the beginning. Pair them with loungewear or an activewear set, and you've got an elevated but cozy look. But I think what you'll see in the store today will give you a pretty good sense that he hasn't run out of ideas. Second, we'll still be operating in an environment with residual pandemic impacts, primarily on supply chains and store openings. OK. Great. And guess what? We are accelerating. We're about cool stuff, an amazing product and all that innovation which keeps us going. As you've heard so far today, we will continue to be a high growth retailer. That means Five Below cares about the future of the planet. We believe in that deeply. Can you discuss the factors for why there's that much uncertainty contributing to that wider guide? The Five Beyond experiences here and the value distortion is clear. So where do we head next? Plus, it's water-resistant, so it's a great choice to take to the beach. Ken, you want to discuss margins, then I'll take on the loyalty. But based on our guidance, you can see how we feel about where we are so far, guiding to that flat to negative two, up against some pretty significant payments and impact that you all remember from last year's first quarter.
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