Amer Sports 1Q26 Immediate Call Postmortem
Best quarterly growth rate as a public company. Must admit, was expecting law of large numbers to eventually start catching up to them at some point but seems the opposite is occurring. They gave the best forward quarter growth rate since the IPO in guidance for 2Q26 (h/t Binetti). “We are meaningfully through the second quarter” and that’s given them confidence.
Boss followed up in Q&A in attempt to find any weakness in any part of their business at all QTD. James, Stuart, and Andrew gave him nothing. Trends continue to extend into the second quarter (including healthy traffic at Arc’teryx). Premium sports and outdoor market remains one of healthiest places in all of consumer.
Arc’teryx brand driving strong double-digit growth in all four regions including an acceleration in Americas. Veilance grew strong double digits – 2026 should be big year for brand as investing in units, developing collections, and expanding distribution. Women’s up over 40% – success in bottoms is helping to unlock female demographic. Footwear had another great quarter with strong growth across regions. Excited about pipeline of shoe releases for next few years.
Salomon connecting with younger and female consumers in a way other outdoor brands has not. Gaining credibility in run specialty retail. Strong demand for Salomon in the US but still very limited distribution for consumers to find product – gaining doors at Foot Locker and JD Sports. “Very strong performance” in Salomon softgoods.
Am a bit confused by Salomon store expansion in China. They blew out growth (~100 stores/year) with smaller stores (“compact” format) for past few years. Now they want large stores again so that they can sell apparel as well. Does that mean they are already hitting peak productivity levels in the brand-new small stores?
Making key investments to support Wilson softgoods growth, including signing new Wilson athletes. Explains the massive margin pressure we saw this quarter for the segment. Am still a bit more skeptical of Tennis 360 but maybe that’s partially because the Wilson store near me is almost always empty.
Have locked in freight and transportation costs for the next year. If oil stays elevated over time could have a longer-term effect but not seeing anything now or expecting any pressure to come any time soon.
*These are our unabridged quick thoughts and notes from the call. We get them out as soon as possible after the call ends. Management has given some topics to dig deeper into and will circle back afterwards with much more in depth work on what was mentioned. You can find that work (and more on Amer Sports and other retail/consumer research) at our website here: M Squared Capital
Originally posted on X and Substack.