LULU: Revisiting Lululemon

Lululemon Athletica, Q2 2022 Earnings

The last time I penned my thoughts about Lululemon LULU 0.00%↑ was December 2021 during a period when the core business shined and Lulu’s Mirror acquisition began to show the early signs of wilting in the face of declining demand. I was grateful that management’s commentary implied they would avoid throwing everything at an attempt to make Mirror, a business which comprised <3% of Lulu’s revenue at the time, work. They have since repurposed the business into a two-tiered subscription offering, branded under the parent’s more reputable name. The free tier (essential) is largely a loyalty program and the paid tier (Lululemon Studio) will replace the old Mirror membership, with the only remnants of Mirror being the hardware. A sensible decision to control a relatively contained ‘flop’ of an acquisition.

Elsewhere, the inflationary environment has continued to bleed into the financials via added expenditure across the supply chain and suppressed margins. Lulu’s average gross margin in the first hal…