Clarus Corp
NASDAQ:CLAR
Earnings Call Analysis
Q4-2023 Analysis
Clarus Corp
As we delve into the latest earnings call, it all begins with the strong performance highlighted by the Precision Sports division. Total fourth-quarter sales skyrocketed to $94.8 million, trumping the anticipated range of $83 million to $87 million. Full-year sales dazzled investors, hitting approximately $376 million, exceeding guidance of $364 million to $368 million. Precision Sports alone boasted a whopping $90 million in sales with an adjusted EBITDA margin of nearly 30% for the year and roughly $4.9 million in EBITDA for the fourth quarter on revenue of $18.3 million.
The Adventure business is sailing towards new horizons with acquisitions, product development, and a fresh leadership team poised to steer this division toward growth. Despite this, the Outdoor segment felt the sting of market challenges, clocking in at $50.1 million, a descent from the previous year's $55.3 million.
With the ink dry on the Precision Sports sale, the company waves goodbye to debt completely. Approximately $43 million now bulks up the balance sheet, with the added bonus of an expected gain from the sale in the next quarter. Investors will note the lean figure of free cash flow at $13.3 million for the fourth quarter, a significant drop from prior year's $30.3 million, still a culmination of both ongoing and discontinued operations.
Peering into 2024, the outlook is painted with a broad brush of optimism. Sales are projected to hover between $270 million to $280 million with an adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations at $16 million to $18 million, boasting an encouraging 6.2% EBITDA margin at the midpoint of projections. Capital expenditures are pinned between $4 million and $5 million, while free cash flow is expected to waft between $18 million and $20 million for the full year. The first quarter perch is set at $64 million to $66 million in sales with an adjusted EBITDA ranging from $1 million to $2 million.
Investors should brace for growth in the Adventure sector, though without specific guidance for now. The Outdoor segment is predicted to shrink, a strategic move influenced by simplification, SKU reduction, and a deep focus on top products. This pivot is a strategic maneuver aimed at revitalizing the Outdoor segment throughout 2024.
The company has prudently factored legal expenses into this year's guidance, covering ongoing litigation with HAP Trading and the initiation of complaints against Parallax and Caption. However, this forecast excludes potential income from cash balances, now bearing fruit at a rate exceeding 5%. On the risk radar is the potential $3 million to $5 million impact from PFAS-related products, which, while highlighted for its potential to affect sales, is not currently deemed a significant risk.
The provided guidance of $16 million to $18 million in full-year adjusted EBITDA carefully excludes significant legal costs, ensuring clarity for investors. The anticipated range for total SG&A is suggested to be just shy of $30 million, providing a reference for operational expenses moving forward.
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Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Clarus Corporation's financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023. Joining us today are Clarus Corporation's Executive Chairman, Warren Kanders; CFO, Mike Yates; and the company's External Director of Investor Relations, Matt Berkowitz. Following the remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Berkowitz as he reads the company's safe harbor statement within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that provides important cautions regarding forward-looking statements. Matt, please go ahead.
Thank you. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during today's call we will be making several forward-looking statements, and we make these statements under the safe harbor provisions of this Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements reflect our best estimates and assumptions based on our understanding of information known to us today. These forward-looking statements are subject to potential risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results of operations or financial conditions of Clarus Corporation to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. More information on potential factors that could affect the company's operating and financial results is included from time to time in the company's public reports filed with the SEC. I'd like to remind everyone this call will be available for replay through March 21, 2024, starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight. A webcast replay will also be available via the link provided in today's press release as well as on the company's website at claruscorp.com.Now I'd like to turn the call over to Clarus's Executive Chairman, Warren Kanders.
Good afternoon and thank you for joining Clarus's earnings call to review our results for the fourth quarter and the full year. I am joined today by our Chief Financial Officer, Mike Yates. I will start the call by addressing the overall business and corporate strategy. Mike will then provide specific comments on the performance of our segments and a more detailed financial review.While consumer demand remained constrained, adversely impacting our fourth quarter results, we have taken crucial steps to realign our overall platform and individual brands to position Clarus for long-term profitable growth as a pure-play ESG-friendly outdoor business. Specifically, we completed the sale of our Precision Sports segment, streamlining the company to focus on our Outdoor and Adventure segments.As we have communicated in prior quarters, we are establishing new baselines for our brands. During this transition period, our leadership teams of both Outdoor and Adventure spent much of 2023 identifying areas for structural change, business process improvement, and enhanced operational efficiencies. Incremental initiatives in the fourth quarter included taking sharp action on inventory and product categories that we view as noncore going forward while exiting unprofitable retail decisions from prior years. We entered 2024 with highly capable leadership teams committed to increasing profitability and unlocking new opportunities, while continuing to build the foundation to scale and achieve operating leverage in future years.Before discussing those segments in greater depth, let me first address the monetization of our Precision Sports segment. Last week, we completed the $175 million sale, which represents a highly successful outcome for Clarus. I'd like to highlight that we invested approximately $132 million in this segment since 2017, and during our ownership period, Precision Sports returned nearly $94 million of cash to Clarus. Inclusive of the gross proceeds from the sale, we generated nearly $270 million during our ownership period. Importantly, the proceeds from this sale allowed us to retire all of Clarus's outstanding debt. Our balance sheet is now debt free with approximately $43 million of cash on hand that provides flexibility in how we pursue our long-term value creation objectives and growth initiatives.From an operating perspective, Clarus has now simplified around 2 traditional outdoor brands without the overhang from the association with ammunition. We believe that our platform offers an attractive entry point into 2 consumer segments with broad appeal and tailwinds, supporting growth as we enter a more normalized post-COVID environment. In the near term, our capital allocation strategy will focus on strengthening our existing operating businesses, either through reinvestment in our high-margin categories or through bolt-on product acquisitions that enhance our brands.Turning to our 2 remaining segments, Outdoor and Adventure. We are confident that we have 2 leaders in place fully capable of driving Clarus's turnaround. We believe that we are at different points in the reset of both segments, but each segment is showing signs that the steps taken thus far are positive. These brands are leaders in their respective core categories, and we expect that they will rebound as the market stabilizes and reaches a new normal. We continue to believe that we are in the early stages of our action plan and recognize that our strategic initiatives require patience. You'll hear more from both Neil Fiske and Mat Hayward at our upcoming Investor Day where they will share details on the significant strides we've taken in our strategic review, including rebuilding top level leadership, reengaging with our customer base, and restarting the product development pipeline, with a focus on delivering enhanced product margins.While we're excited to share our longer-term vision next week, I would like to take a moment now to discuss Q4 developments. After turning the corner in Q3, Adventure had its best quarter of the year with 43% sales growth and gross margins of 38.1%. This reflected increasing sales in the Australian market and the benefit of the TRED Outdoors acquisition. For context, excluding the acquisition of TRED, our gross margins increased 700 basis points over the prior year period. We are pleased with the intermediate steps management has taken to improve overall profitability. Our revenue growth in the quarter was largely driven by the introduction of the new Pioneer 6 platform in Australia and the first deliveries to a new OEM customer for an upcoming product launch. With respect to Pioneer 6, this marks the first major new product launch in the last 15 months. The Pioneer range is the hallmark of the Rhino-Rack, and we are excited to bring to market the portfolio of accessories that complement it over the next 12 months along with other new product launches throughout 2024.With respect to Outdoor, sales for the quarter were down 9.4% over the prior year period. However, when zooming into the various selling channels, we began to see signs of stabilization, particularly in North American wholesale, which ticked up 2% over the prior comparable period. This was driven by increases at our national accounts, offset by continued challenges in certain key accounts, namely big box partners and the specialty channel.Our North American ecommerce sales were up 3% in the period, offset by lower Pro sales. Our European international businesses were challenged in the quarter, driven by warmer weather trends to open the winter season. At the business unit level, we saw gains across our footwear and mountain products with slowness in ski and apparel. Our core climbing business was [ off ] 4% for the period, but it's important to note that we are seeing repurchasing trends in the first quarter of 2024 to fill shelves back to normalized stock levels.I am excited about our potential to build long-term value in Outdoor. Neil has brought on an excellent team that is energized to bring the Black Diamond brand forward. While we believe we have identified the necessary changes, it takes time for those adjustments to manifest themselves in terms of performance. We continue to stress simplification throughout the organization. One of the core tenets of prior versions of Black Diamond was a focus on fast innovation and speed to market. Neil and team have taken a balanced approach to product, building a plan to reduce SKUs nearly 30% while focusing on fewer, better products. As part of that process, we took a critical view of necessary products and categories and the associated inventory levels. You will see that we have taken an inventory writedown of $4.2 million in the quarter, most of which is associated with these actions. Mike will cover this in greater detail in a moment.In summary, while 2023 was a transition year for Clarus, we are excited to begin 2024 with a solid foundation in place, driven by continued strong momentum in Adventure and operational progress in Outdoor. After completing the sale of our Precision Sports segment, we are now debt free with over $40 million of cash on our balance sheet and the financial strength and flexibility to create sustainable value for shareholders. Our priorities remain firmly set on the stabilization of sales and margins, additional organizational reshaping, and cost reduction initiatives to drive profitable growth in 2024 and beyond.With that, thank you for being with us today, and I will turn the call over to Mike now.
Thanks, Warren, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll start with our performance in the fourth quarter. But before I dive into our reported results, I'd like to share a summary of our performance, inclusive of both continuing and discontinuing operations. As Warren mentioned, we announced the sale of Precision Sport on December 29, 2023, and completed and closed on the sale of the segment for approximately $175 million on February 29, 2024. Accordingly, under U.S. GAAP, the financial statements have been presented on continuing operations and discontinued operations presentation. The financials and results of the Precision Sports segment have been segregated and reported as assets and liabilities held for sale on the December 31, 2023 balance sheet, and the income statement has been reported under discontinued operations for all periods presented in today's earnings release and in our Form 10-K filed earlier today.In the fourth quarter, sales of Precision Sport were $18.3 million, which exceeded our expectation compared to the guidance we gave when reporting our third quarter 2023 results. Including Precision Sport, total fourth quarter sales were $94.8 million. This compares favorably to the $83 million to $87 million we guided for the fourth quarter. For the full year sales, including the contributions of Precision Sports, we delivered sales of approximately $376 million, which again reflects outperformance versus our guidance range of $364 million to $368 million of revenue. From an adjusted EBITDA perspective, Precision Sports generated $26.8 million for the full year 2023 on sales of nearly $90 million, or 29.8% EBITDA margin, and $4.9 million of adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter, or 26.7% on the $18.3 million of revenue.Beginning today and going forward, our U.S. GAAP results will be comprised of our Outdoor and Adventure segments and results will be referred to as continuing operations. Fourth quarter sales from continuing operations were $76.5 million compared to $73.8 million in the prior year fourth quarter, driven largely by the strength at our Adventure segment. The strength at Adventure was partially offset by softness in the European region at Outdoor, consistent with the softness we discussed during our last call. On a reported basis, sales were up 3.6%. On a constant currency basis, sales were up 3.8%. FX was not material in the fourth quarter, as you can see.Our Adventure segment saw its best quarter of the year. Sales increased 43% to $26.4 million or $26.6 million on a constant currency basis, compared to $18.5 million in the year ago quarter. This increase reflects increased sales in the Australian market and the benefit of the TRED Outdoors acquisition announced during the fourth quarter. TRED contributed approximately $1.7 million of revenue in the fourth quarter. The Adventure business has started to benefit from various initiatives, including the TRED acquisition, new product development, new customers, and a new global leadership team under the direction of Mat Hayward. New channels, new products, and new customers will be critical as we grow Adventure in 2024, and we are excited to introduce Mat Hayward at our Investor Day, as Warren mentioned, on Monday, March 11, to share our vision for Adventure in more detail.Sales in the Outdoor segment was $50.1 million or $50 million on a constant currency basis, compared to $55.3 million in the year ago quarter. The decline primarily reflected continued challenging market conditions in both North America and the European wholesale market, as well as the unseasonably warm winter weather. Notably, however, we are beginning to see the wholesale market stabilize both in North America and Europe. Our business simplification initiatives are beginning to take hold as we operate in the first quarter of 2024. This process and the benefit from our simplification journey will be ongoing throughout 2024. The good news is the North American wholesale market is stabilizing. However, our direct-to-consumer channels still are very highly promotional as the market continues to work through excess inventory levels.During the fourth quarter, we made some adjustments to our retail strategy, which is part of our DTC business. As Warren alluded to, we closed 4 retail locations. However, we also opened a new outlet location, Seattle, Washington area, and are committed to open a flagship retail store in the Seattle area as well. The Seattle metro area has proven to be a highly-attractive market based on strong DTC and ecommerce sales based on the demographics we've reviewed.Moving to consolidated gross margins. In the fourth quarter, gross margin was 28.9% compared to 37.2% in the year ago quarter. The decrease in gross margin was primarily due to a $4.2 million inventory reserve writeoff at the Outdoor segment during the fourth quarter. The bulk of this reserve resulted from our category review and product simplification process that will reduce SKUs from around 14,000 to under 10,000. Another material contributor to the reserve was the recently announced PFAS regulation change. PFAS is an evolving industry issue that we'll be dealing with throughout 2024. PFAS is a chemical used in many products to create the waterproof benefit found in many Outdoor goods, including our apparel. Certain states in the USA have banned the sale of products containing PFAS beginning in 2025 and some large retailers would no longer accept or purchase any products with PFAS beginning this summer. We are actively managing the end of life of our products containing PFAS during 2024. But depending on our execution and the market reaction to these regulatory changes, we may have further exposure to PFAS inventory during 2024. This exposure is both inventory on hand and commitments to buy inventory containing PFAS from our vendors. Other than the PFAS risk, we believe we have right-sized and properly valued our inventory at Outdoor based on this fourth quarter action. Inventory ended the year at Outdoor of $64.8 million. Total inventory for continuing operations was $91 million.Gross margin at the Adventure segment improved to 38.1% from 31.7% in the year ago quarter. This increase was due to cost-out initiatives to right size the business earlier in the year as well as lower freight cost. The adjusted gross margin in the fourth quarter was 29.0% compared to 37.2% in the year-ago quarter related to inventory step up due to the TRED Outdoors acquisition.Selling, general, and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter were $30.7 million compared to $29.9 million in the same year ago quarter. The increase was attributable to the Outdoor segment with higher legal and marketing expenses compared to the prior year. Loss from continuing operations in the fourth quarter of 2023 was $7.2 million or a loss of $0.19 diluted share compared to a net loss from continuing operations of $83.3 million, or $2.25 per diluted share, in the year ago quarter. Net loss in the fourth quarter included $1.5 million of one-off charges related to restructuring and transaction costs, as well as the $4.2 million inventory reserve. The net loss in the fourth quarter of 2022 included a noncash impairment charge of $92.3 million in the Adventure segment.Adjusted loss from continuing operations was a net loss of $2.8 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, compared to adjusted income from continuing operations of $4.4 million or $0.11 diluted share in the year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was negative $3.5 million, or an adjusted EBITDA margin of negative 4.5%. This compares to $3.6 million or an adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.9% in the same year ago quarter. The decline in adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by continuing challenging market conditions at Outdoor, an increase in the inventory reserves at Outdoor, and higher legal and marketing expenses. By segment, adjusted EBITDA was negative $4.6 million at Outdoor, primarily due to the inventory reserve of $4.2 million in the fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA at Adventure for the fourth quarter was $3.9 million, or 14.8%.Let me shift now over to liquidity. At December 31, 2023, cash and cash equivalents were $11.3 million compared to $12 million at December 31, 2022. Total debt on December 31, 2023, was $119.8 million compared to $139 million at the end of 2022. After the closing of the sale of Precision Sports last week, our total debt today is 0. The credit agreement was terminated and repaid in full at closing and cash of approximately $43 million is on our balance sheet as of today. We expect to realize a gain on the sale Precision Sports in the first quarter of 2024. The gain will be recognized through discontinued operations. The expected cash tax expense is only expected to be $2 million to $3 million, allowing us to maintain most of the net cash realized from the sale of Precision Sports.Free cash flow, defined as net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures, for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $13.3 million compared to $30.3 million in the prior year quarter. These free cash flow results include both continuing and discontinued operating results. As a reminder, we had NOL carry forwards for U.S. federal income tax purposes of approximately $7.7 million at December 31, 2023. The company expects to utilize all of the remaining NOLs in their entirety in 2024. Clarus utilized $103 million of NOLs during the ownership period of Precision Sports from 2017 to 2023.Let me share a few additional thoughts regarding capital allocation adding to Warren's comments. Our near-term capital allocation strategy will prioritize organic growth through reinvestment in our existing 2 businesses. Beyond organic growth, we will pay our quarterly dividends and selectively look at smaller bolt-on M&A opportunities to add to our Adventure business, just like we did in the fourth quarter with the purchase of TRED. Otherwise, throughout 2024, we will continue to focus on cash generation through our continued right-sizing of inventory and growth of our businesses with the intent of letting cash grow on our balance sheet as we work on growing improving the profitability of our existing businesses.Before looking forward to our financial guidance, I would like to highlight that we continue to proceed in our lawsuit against HAP Trading, LLC, and Mr. Harsh A. Padia. The parties conducted expert debt positions on February 29, March 1, and March 6 of 2024. At this time, there is no further discovery to be conducted. The parties must submit a joint letter to the court on March 13 stating, among other things, whether or not they plan to file a motion for summary judgment. Counsel for the parties are required to meet in person to discuss settlement within 14 days of the closing of discovery. The parties are required to submit a joint pretrial order within 30 days of the closing of discovery, or if a summary judgment motion has been filed within 30 days of a decision on such motion. Included in our earnings for the year was approximately $1.4 million of legal and related costs associated with this lawsuit. The company also intends to file similar complaints against Parallax Volatility Advisers, L.P. and Caption Management, LLC.Moving on to our outlook for 2024. We expect 2024 sales to range between $270 million to $280 million and adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations of approximately $16 million to $18 million, or an adjusted EBITDA margin of 6.2% at the midpoint of revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We expect capital expenditures to range between $4 million and $5 million, and free cash flow to range between $18 million and $20 million for the full year 2024. First quarter sales are expected to be between $64 million and $66 million and adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $1 million and $2 million. Our outlook does not include any expense or ongoing litigation specifically relating to the HAP matter or further increases in PFAS related inventories or reserves, but it does reflect the early results of our effort to achieve less complexity, better margins, and a streamlined business as we grow our Outdoor and Adventure segment.As we look forward to 2024, I'd like to reinforce what Warren said about the monetization of Precision Sports segment. During our ownership of Precision Sport, the segment returned nearly $270 million of cash to Clarus. We believe this was a very successful outcome that is emblematic of the value creation potential of our businesses and the teams who lead them. We're excited about our new positioning as a pure-play Outdoor business and believe we have a strategy in place today to deliver growth and profitability in 2024 and beyond.At this point, operator, we're ready to take questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Laurent Vasilescu with BNP Paribas.
I wanted to ask about the Investor Day for next week. I don't know if you can share any highlights ahead of the meeting, but should we anticipate 3-to-5-year targets next week?
Yes, that's a good question. So we'll be going through all the segments next week, and we'll be providing you with a 3-year outlooks for our businesses for each one of them.
Super helpful. And then on the TRED business, I don't think you quantified the size of it, whether it was in the announcement or in today's press release. Just so that we can understand the organic revenues, how much did it contribute in the fourth quarter? I think it's de minimis. But more importantly, how do we think about TRED in this context of FY '24 revenues of $270 million to $280 million.
I think you'll hear more about that from Mat Hayward next week. We're not going to break out specifically the various brands, but he'll take you through the automotive as a single segment.
Okay, fair enough.
And he'll be able to speak to the margin complexion of the various businesses and how it all rolls up.
And then maybe just on the guidance for the midpoint of the adjusted EBITDA margins of 6.2%. I think that's roughly 600 basis points improvement over last year. Is that driven by gross margin or SG&A efficiencies? And then second part of this multipart question is the magnitude of PFAS. I recall, tell me if I'm wrong here, but I thought apparel was like 15% of Outdoor. So it seems like it's a small business. But if you could clarify just how big the apparel business is as we think about this PFAS situation.
Sure, Laurent. We'll work backwards. You're right. Apparel is about 15% of our business. So it's historically been about $30 million to $40 million of Outdoor. As I mentioned, the risk here in '24 is both the inventory we have on hand and commitments we have to purchase inventory. It really comes down to our execution of how well we execute here selling and how well the market absorbs what essentially is the waterproof product.
Yes, I just want to say, just before we talk to the first part of your question. So everybody has this PFAS issue right now. The technology for PFAS is a very good technology. These are superb products. And in some cases -- in many cases, actually, the alternative approaches for waterproofing aren't as good. So at this point, we believe that we will be able to move our inventory that we have that's PFAS related. But given the fact that everybody in the market has the same issue, there could be a supply of it. So we are being cautious about it. The numbers aren't large, but it's a minor risk. We do think actually prospectively, in a year's time, these products will be desired by consumers just because of how well they perform. Mike, do you want to answer the first question?
Yes. And with regards to guidance next year, almost all of that improvement that you referenced is all at the gross profit level, right. As you recall, during 2023, there was so much promotional pricing in place, margins were hit pretty significantly as a result of the promotional pricing. We see a recovery both from a price stability in '24 and from some margin enhancements at the gross profit level that both the Outdoor and, more importantly, the Adventure business are focused on.
Our next question comes from Matt Koranda with ROTH MKM.
I guess a few for me. Wanted to focus on the 2024 outlook that you provided. For the roughly $275 million in revenue, are you willing to just roughly split out the assumptions between Outdoor and Adventure? It just looks like Adventure has been growing nicely even if you strip out TRED. Looks like some really healthy organic growth in the fourth quarter. I would assume we can probably, maybe not pull forward that rate of growth, but we can probably pull forward some growth which would suggest that Outdoor is declining. So why the decline after a down year in '23? Are we shedding some unprofitable revenue? That sounded like that was what you were alluding to. So maybe just the split there and just a little bit more around the puts and takes of growth at Outdoor and Adventure.
Matt, good question. You pretty much nailed that, though. Yes, I expect Adventure to grow. We're not going to give specific guidance today by segment. You'll see on Monday, we'll talk a little bit more in detail about where we see the businesses going. But Adventure will grow -- should grow and Outdoor will actually shrink. But that's a direct result of some of the simplification and the SKU reduction and leaning into our best products. And it's a journey that we're going through here in '24 to turn the Outdoor business around. But your view and your assumptions are spot on.
Matt, Neil will take from start to finish what he found, how we're processing that, and what the future looks like. But one of the things I had him do was really to look at SKU rationalization, and you'll see that in quite a bit of detail. And by virtue of that, we will shrink the revenue somewhat, but margins will improve quite considerably. And I think when he goes through the plan and you look at the EBITDA margin progression over the next couple of years, I think it'll all come into focus.
Okay, that's helpful. And then just I guess the bigger, broader question that I know we're going to get here is basically the guidance has revenue down at the midpoint year over year, but EBITDA up pretty healthily. And I guess that implies we're doing away with some unprofitable business and/or removing structural costs. I know you mentioned most of the improvement is going to come from gross margin, but maybe just help us square all of that. And are there corporate costs that can come out now that precision is no longer part of the portfolio here?
Yes. So we'll get into all of that on Monday to provide all of the detail that you're going to need to put together the accurate models. The corporate overheads will be coming down during the course of the year. That's our expectation. Some of the things that we've had in place, we're able to reset. The other thing that, as you know, we've given some guidance to what our legal expense has been for the 16(b) trading issue, and we have baked in to our guidance for this year the appropriate amount of legal expense to continue to pursue not just the 16(b) issue against HAP Trading, but also, as Mike said, we will be filing complaints against both Parallax and Caption. So that's built into the numbers for now. Obviously, what's not built into the numbers is obviously any interest income that we'll get on our cash balances, which is now earning at a 5 plus% rate.
Okay, that makes sense. And then I guess the PFAS commentary, can we just nail down, and maybe I missed it, but did you guys quantify the exposure there? Obviously, there's some exposure to inventory, which sounds minimal, but then the more interesting, or maybe the thing I'm more interested in understanding is the vendor question. You mentioned maybe there's some commitments for minimum purchases and stuff like that. Maybe just any way to think about.
I think -- go ahead, Mike.
I was going to say we didn't quantify it. It all depends. It could be $3 million to $4 million, $5 million, but it depends how we execute, Matt. That's why we're bringing it up, how the market absorbs this product. But as long as we work through this, as Laurent alluded to, the waterproof product...
It's all great product. We're just highlighting it because it is conceivably a risk to our numbers. At this point, we don't think it's material risk, but we're just highlighting it again, because every other company in the world also has a PFAS issue. And so depending upon how that all processes through may be a little more challenging for us to sell the product. But again, we believe that product people may buy this now because they won't be able to get it in the future. And it is better. The waterproofing with PFAS is better than the other technologies that are out there that we'd have to use.
And Matt, the charge that we took, we did take a charge in the fourth quarter related to PFAS, and that was for commitments to take product that we said, no, we don't want any more of this, so we didn't want to compound our problem. So that's key to understand, I think, is what you're trying to get to. The inventory on hand or the inventory being built already is where the exposure is. And as long as we execute and move that inventory through our channels, as Warren said, we don't think it'll be material. But in the same breath, if for some reason we're not able to move that inventory, we wanted to be upfront with the situation because we do believe we've adjusted our inventory to the appropriate level. And if we do have an issue in '24, we didn't want to have you asking questions or the Street asking questions like, hey, I thought you wrote down your inventory to the right levels at the end of last year. So this is the one thing that's out there that could potentially be a risk. But as we said, we think it's very good inventory, it's a very good product, it should move. And we did take a charge here in the fourth quarter for the stuff that we were committed to buy that we haven't bought yet, and we put a line in the sand from that perspective. So the risk is just inventory on hand and inventory that's being built that we have to take still.
Okay, that's clear. Just timing on potential risk there. It sounds like you got to sell it into retail by summer, roughly.
I would think so. By third quarter.
Max. Most of it will go through the second quarter.
Our next question comes from Anna Glaessgen with B. Riley.
I guess, encouraging to hear that you're starting to see some stabilization at wholesale in North America. I guess would you characterize their inventory levels now as having been mostly appropriately normalized? And to what extent does the 2024...
No.
Okay. So I guess, when would you expect that to normalize and what's being assumed in the 2024 guide?
Well, I'll answer that. It's normalizing. It's normalizing. So we're working on, things are getting better, but we don't believe that our retail partners are fully stocked at a normalized level yet.
So, I guess, when would you expect sell in and sell through to become more balanced?
We're actually seeing sell-in improve on a year-over-year basis, week-over-week basis here in the first quarter compared to first quarter last year. And as Warren just mentioned, I think, that's starting to take hold here in the first half of the year, and typically it normalizes in the back half.
You'll hear from Neil, and I don't want to steal his thunder, about changes that he's made, but what I can say is that our people are on it now, and we are actively pointing out to our retail partners where they're short, and we're pushing them to fill out the assortments in their shelves. And that seems to be working. But everybody is cautious right now. And I think that's part of it. But our view is that we're looking forward to a great summer, and we think that the fill-in will accelerate. We have the right inventory to achieve those goals. I think you'll hear about that.
And turning to some of the commentary around promotionality and DTC specifically. Is that a function of mix? I know that skews more toward apparel and footwear than the wholesale exposure, or is that a function of closing some of those retail locations and just clearing that inventory or something else?
It's more [Technical Difficulty].
Mike, did we lose you?
Did you hear my answer, I'm sorry?
No, no, we lost you, Mike? Can you just...
Oh, I'm sorry. I said it's the former, Anna. It's the apparel, the promotional pricing in the marketplace for apparel right now all throughout Q3, Q4 was extremely strong, and that's really the main driver.
Our next question comes from Mark Smith with Lake Street.
First question, I just want to confirm, the EBITDA guidance that you guys gave for '24 here, that is stripping out and excluding all of your onetime items, including the legal expense expected in some of these lawsuits. Is that correct?
The $16 million to $18 million full year guidance does not include significant cost associated with the legal cost. That's what I said in my statements, in my prepared remarks.
Okay. And then it sounds like on Monday you guys will walk through a little bit some of the corporate overhead as well as total SG&A outlook. But does it seem like in the near-term here, this $30 million range on total SG&A seems like about the right range here in the near term?
Yes. That's a little high. It's a little less than that, but you're in the ballpark.
Okay. And then the last question for me was just, if you can call out, I haven't seen it yet, or maybe I missed it, impact from FX and currency here in the quarter, and then your outlook, if you will, for '24.
Well, the comments I made in the prepared remarks that FX was completely immaterial during the quarter, during the fourth quarter. Our forecast for this year is based on exchange rates here from a few weeks ago. So not significantly different than what the business has been functioning at throughout the third and fourth quarter of this past year.
Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mike Yates for any closing remarks.
Thank you for your interest in Clarus, and we appreciate everyone's questions. And we look forward to spending more time with you next week in New York City for our Investor Day where both Warren and I are excited to have Mat Hayward speak in depth about the Adventure business and Neil Fiske to spend equal time walking through his plans and vision for the Outdoor business. So we thank you for your continued interest in Clarus and look forward to speaking and seeing many of you next week in New York.
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