Funko, Inc. (FNKO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Josh Simon: Hi, everyone. Welcome to our Third Quarter Earnings Webcast coming to you from the heart of Hollywood at the Funko store. I'm Josh Simon, Funko's CEO; joined with our CFO, Yves Le Pendeven; our Chief Product Officer, Husnal Shah and our Head of Marketing, Nik Rupp. Yves, let's get right into the results. We had another quarter delivering above expectations.

Yves Le Pendeven: Exactly, another strong quarter. So pleased to report net sales up 3% and some of the growth drivers there continue to be Core Collectibles, up 5% and Europe up 12%. We also delivered gross margin of 45%. That's a 5-point improvement over Q3 of last year. And then adjusted EBITDA, also above expectations at $32 million. That's a 12% margin. So we're approaching where we'd like to be. And then also, let me call out a few balance sheet highlights because we've also made great progress there. Cash of $42 million at quarter end, that's net debt of $155 million and that compares to just over $200 million in Q3 of last year. So lot of progress deleveraging our balance sheet.

Josh Simon: Yes, progress across the board. In the quarter, we see the core business continues to grow improving the quality and productivity of the portfolio overall and Make Culture Pop! becoming a more deliberate and disciplined growth engine for the company. Tell us about the full year guidance?

Yves Le Pendeven: So for the full year, we're reiterating our guidance, which was sales flat to up 3% and then adjusted EBITDA between $100 million and $110 million.

Josh Simon: Great. Great. Well, I think it's time for a new segment on the earnings call. I think we like to try and mix it up every quarter. This time, I thought we'd do a fun reveal of our top 10 IPs in the quarter. We're going to have a special guest joining us to, kind of, round out the top 10. Just worth noting top 10 represented about 34% of sales in the quarter. So still a pretty big breadth of other fandoms out there. I'll start with the top 10 and then we're going to bring in our special guests rounding out at 10 Avengers, a new entrant on to the list this quarter. Number nine, Star Wars, #8 Marvel, also a new entrant for the quarter. #7, Hello Kitty and #6 Demon Slayer. And now I think first time this has happened in any, sort of, earnings call history, we're excited to bring in one of my favorite celebrities, a big Funko fan himself to reveal the top 5, it's none other than the Rizzler. [Presentation]

Josh Simon: All right. Thank you Rizzler. I love having you as part of the Funko family and appreciate your help with that one. And again, a new #1 Pokemon, which has displaced One Piece, pushed that into the #2 spot, Pokemon #1. And that's my Casey Kasem for those of you old enough to remember who that is. So turning to the Make Culture POP! strategy. I think the whole idea that we've talked about is how do we sense demand earlier, turn those into compelling products and experiences. And then scale them through the right retail channels all over the world. Some really great highlights of seeing that strategy turn into execution this quarter. The first one for me that is top of mind, as a personal fan is WWE, Monday Night Raw presents extravaganza, whatever you want to call it.

Nik Rupp: Totally, super fun moment for the team. We were able to partner at his expense with JD McDonagh, where he wore a Funko Pop head. There's a little bit of a storyline going on with fellow wrestler, Cody Rhodes, nd he gets made fun of a little bit. So we were able to partner with him lean into that moment and have, sort of, like an on-TV moment for the brand.

Josh Simon: He has -- he already has the proportions of a Funko Pop and it was planned to kind of be part of that broadcast overall.

Husnal Shah: Yes. We also launched with Danhausen and Oba Femi this last few weeks where we presold the product. And it was in partnership with Fanatics and of course, WWE. The product is off to a great start and soon, will be available for mass.

Josh Simon: Well, I think we love WWE, love Fanatics from a cultural relevance standpoint. It's a great example of how pop has been coming to life. I'd also say from another side of the cultural relevance spectrum, ComplexCon's 30th anniversary, which happened in L.A. just a few weeks ago.

Nik Rupp: Totally. For those that don't know, ComplexCon is essentially an annual festival meets convention, where sneakers, streetwear, art and fashion and music come together. We are partnered with Ken Carson, the headliner of the festival, one of the leading voices in a new generation of rap music to ultimately create a Hyperstrike with them. So we dropped the product in his booth alongside some other of this collaboration product, but funny enough. A lot of the kids who were in line were in line for the Funko pop. So some great demand, great energy and great momentum for the brand.

Josh Simon: So I think the magic to ComplexCon is the speed at which we were able to operate, we found out from the record company, he was headlining it. We only had a few weeks to react. And then Husnal you and the team jumped into action.

Husnal Shah: Yes, yes. And you mentioned Hyperstrike. So that's an engine we use to bring product to life, capture cultural moments at incredible speed. It's really about the design teams working in a nonlinear fashion and parallel path in each and every process such that we can put product out there much sooner, obviously, using all the techniques and the -- obsessing over the details as a designer would while creating the sculpt or the packaging, but then also bringing it to market for -- with our onshore production process, which is much faster than getting it from overseas. So it really shortening the window between creativity, concept and delivery become much tighter.

Josh Simon: Yes. And I think the team's -- design team, sculpt teams based up in Everett, Washington, using some of the most cutting-edge technology to, sort of, exercise their creativity, make those sculps and then see these products pops come to life in a couple of weeks' time. So also speaking of speed, I think sports moments are always like a fun thing to lean into. And probably one of the biggest sports moment, if not the biggest sports moment of the year over the summer, the NBA World Championship.

Nik Rupp: Depends on which team you root for, but it was hard to miss, kind of, the energy that the Knicks were generating during their playoff run had some beautiful moments. And even in L.A., you saw people wearing Knicks Jerseys which is a little strange. But we went with it. And as a marketing team, we were able to lean into that moment while the playoff run was happening, working with our animation team to create some content, but then also the moment the team won the championship we were able to launch a 5-pack championship celebration pack that turned into the best-selling item of the year for us.

Josh Simon: And came to life at Ring Night a couple of weeks ago as well.

Nik Rupp: And we followed it up with another pop to turn Statue of Liberty, the first lady of New York City into a Pop! wearing the -- Knicks jersey holding the ring, which also we launched right at the beginning of the Ring Night moment at Madison Square Garden?

Josh Simon: It's awesome. Well, the other big cultural moment during the quarter was Americas 250th we decided to put our own spin on it, calling it POP!250. And I think really from product creation all the way through to how we sold it, kind of, a first of its kind activation for Funko overall?

Nik Rupp: Definitely. We picked ultimately an icon from each decade through the lens of Funko and then partnered with the King of Collectibles, Ken Goldin, to host an eBay live auction. We had presence on the eBay website on the social channels and created a lot of viewership to, sort of, match this content and commerce moment at the first time. Super interesting for us because it's quite the road map for the future as we go deeper into this live auction selling space.

Yves Le Pendeven: I have to say I was really curious to see how much some of these would go for? Some of these one-of-ones, and I think the Babe Ruth went for $26,000, which was really mind-blowing to me.

Nik Rupp: I thought you were the one that bought it.

Josh Simon: Yes. But -- and fun to see, I mean, from a more modern era top 5, we had Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Britney Spears, I think the most -- the modern era represented by MrBeast, one of the most amazing popular creators in the world today. So I think an awesome program overall, and like you said, first time we really have started to dip our toe into the live commerce space, which we think will be definitely developing retail channel for us. Now the other newness from the quarter is I'm staring at it right here, the Pop! Mystery products. We talked about it last quarter. We, kind of, announced it in a teaser at Comic-Con but it's out in the market officially and off to a good start.

Husnal Shah: Yes, it's off to a great start in the market. As you all know, we launched with the Plants Flora line and then the WB Horror line as well as our One Piece line. And results are outstanding. We sold 3x faster than we thought we would. 100% sell-through. We are supplying more product into the market now. And what's coming up is Hello Kitty as well as Harry Potter. And we are very excited because there's a little bit of newness when the chase elements and the rarity elements in each and every one of them. So we're really excited to see the results coming up next.

Josh Simon: I think if I recall on the Flora line because some of them have -- they all have, sort of, a one-of-one chase and that one of one was actually discovered in Australia, which is cool. Some of the other ones still floating around in the world waiting to be discovered. And then the last thing from the Make Culture POP! lens is commerce and how we're coming to life in new ways at retail channels. And I'd say, one of the most creative executions and paying off from, sort of, a revenue and impact standpoint is a new shop-in-shop we launched with the iconic retailer FAO Schwarz in the New York City .

Nik Rupp: Definitely. Obviously, it doesn't get more iconic than FAO in New York, but we were able to bring a super-immersive brand-right and hyper-local experience to life, working with some local artists to truly create a, sort of, New York version of a Funko store in FAO Schwarz. Also have some very limited product that is only available at that store there, both in the in-line Pop version but also as part of the Pop! Yourself offering.

Josh Simon: Yes. I think we have a -- an incredible Swarovski-encrusted -- jewel-encrusted Statue of Liberty collab that we did I think retails for about $2,500, and we're about 50%, sort of, sold through on those, which is incredible and then a really awesome Pop! Yourself experience, some items you can only get there, but you can get your customized pop made right there in the store, it's really turning out to be a fun one so far. Okay, so of course, we need one more new segment for this earnings call. I figured it would be fun to go around the table and ask everyone what your favorite pops were from the quarter. So Yves, we'll start with you.

Yves Le Pendeven: I went with Horror, Art the Clown. I'm in honor of Halloween recently, and my daughters are big fans of Halloween and horror films. So this was a exclusive we did with Hot Topic and event called Scare Fair.

Josh Simon: A darker side to our CFO. Nice to know. Husnal, what about you?

Husnal Shah: I went with Zenitsu. He's a character from Demon Slayer, the movie Infinity Castle. And I just love the rendition of how the design team brought this character to life in the most dynamic and fluid form, where the pivotal moment at which he turns from a comic coward person to this courageous and confident human being is what really captured this well in this format.

Josh Simon: Yes. I think it's awesome to see the, sort of, those dynamic moments in a, sort of, entire scene captured in a singular product and anime continues to be one of our top selling genres overall.

Husnal Shah: This one sold 100,000 units already since its launch in September.

Josh Simon: Wow. Amazing. I think I can guess.

Nik Rupp: No surprise -- but had to go with Ken Carson not only for the execution and, sort of, utilizing the Hyperstrike product engine to turn that cultural relevance into demand, but also how the packaging came to life and, sort of, opening up our packaging template working with the collaborator and having them put their own spin on it was super beautiful to see.

Josh Simon: And I'll sort of follow in your ComplexCon footsteps because another product that we dropped there is the Bugs Bunny collab with an incredible artist, Joshua Vides, really amazing to see both the size, the scale, the detail and just, kind of, his artistic point of view, overlay on an iconic Space Jam character at this size for reference, he did a really amazing job executing with this one, and I was really proud that we were able to do a collab with him and fans loved it as well. So I put this as my favorite for the quarter. Well, now we have some questions.

Josh Simon: So our first question is from Stephen Laszczyk at Goldman Sachs. Yves, I'll direct this one to you regarding POS trends. Stephen says, Global POS trends have remained strong, including mid-single-digit percent growth in the U.S. and more than 20% growth in Europe through the first half of '26. How does management think about the sustainability of those trends as you move through the back-to-school and holiday season?

Yves Le Pendeven: All right. So let me give you some stats. First, for Q3 POS. So globally, as a reminder, roughly half of our retailers report this information to us. So in units, down 4% year-over-year. By territory that was down 10% in the U.S., up 16% in EMEA. I would, kind of, remind everyone that the dynamics of shipping being disrupted last year post tariff announcement in Q2. So we had a lot of inventory, kind of, reaching the shelves in Q3 of last year, which made it a bit more of a tougher comp in the U.S. market. The other thing I'd point out is that D2C was down 13%, again, in units, and that's largely a reflection of less promotional activity and discounting on our site. So although units are down, we've seen profitability in that channel increase. So that's Q3. And then year-to-date through the end of Q3, we were up 3% globally still. So second part of that question, how we expect to see that trend continue through the holidays. And it's always tough to predict. I mean, we're certainly hopeful that, that, kind of, like, positive comp continues during the holidays.

Josh Simon: Yes and still expecting Q4 collectibles to grow in Q4 as well. Okay. Also from Stephen about new formats and form factors, to what extent does management expect new formats, Bitty Pop! and Pop! Mystery, sports-related launches to be revenue contributors in 2026 and '27? And how should investors think about the opportunity to diversify revenue beyond core POP products? I mean I'll take the first part of that question, which is to say, I still think there's a lot of existing and new dimensions of Pop itself that will contribute to more growth in this year and beyond. I mean I'll remind everyone, Pop has sold more than 1 billion units to date. It's definitely this iconic form figure in the world of pop culture. I think certainly, you mentioned it earlier, Husnal, but in the world of Pop! Mystery, we're just getting started. We have a dozen IPs that we'll be launching with that throughout the next year. You mentioned Hello Kitty. You mentioned Harry Potter. Shrek is another one. So you'll start to see continued IPs on Pop! Mystery. We will be rolling out next year a version of Pop! Plush in a few different formats, which I think is very much on trend and will continue to do well. And then we continue to have, I think, some exciting plans to develop Bitty and certainly, even in the sports space, we're working on something that we think will appeal more to the sports collector and so more to come there. I guess, though, related to new products, because there's a lot in the pipeline too.

Husnal Shah: There's a lot in the pipeline, and we're really excited. We are going to be teasing a couple of new product lines at the Nuremberg and New York Toy Fairs, so stay tuned.

Josh Simon: So Nuremberg in February and New York as well in February. So yes, a lot new product lines that are launching next year, and we'll start to roll those out, sort of, with our retail partners at those Toy Fairs, which we're excited about. Okay. Next question is from Eric Wold at Texas Capital Securities. Nik, this one I'll direct to you. Given the higher prices seen in the secondary market for some of your limited run and special SKUs, what are the opportunities to increase prices to improve gross margins further? And why don't we start there?

Nik Rupp: Yes. No, it's a great question. But -- look, our primary focus is to serve our fans and our consumers and ultimately make products that they fall in love with. What happens after the purchase and after the transaction, that's up to the consumer. I take that more as a testament to us having a job that we did well rather than seeing that as an opportunity.

Josh Simon: Yes. And I think on the -- on that -- those limited edition products, I think the goal is, like, let's grow the market or fans who are interested in limited edition. We're expanding the genres, the IP, the entry points. And I think that was what will grow the market more than, sort of, looking at extracting pricing from our, sort of, core collector there.

Nik Rupp: Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Josh Simon: And then one more question from Eric. Could you take advantage of those higher prices, although we just talked about that, but the continued collectible demand by leaning into live selling events or online auctions?

Nik Rupp: I'm glad that question came through as well. Certainly, I think that was the opportunity that we tested with the partnership with Goldin and eBay Live, and it provided amazing learnings and we are gearing up to lean heavily into that as a new retail stream, but also as a new revenue stream. So...

Josh Simon: Yes, I think we just finished in the Hollywood store, actually, earlier today, our third test of live selling on TikTok. We just met earlier this week with the head of Collectibles for TikTok Commerce. I was in China last week -- 2 weeks ago, and some really great lessons there where I'd say the ecosystem for live selling and live shopping is well more developed as much as it's growing here. It's been there for a few years longer and I think some really great learnings that you'll start to see us continue to grow and scale it, frankly, in Q4 and then beyond into next year as well. Yes. Well, thank you all for being here. I'd say another quarter, the team did a great job delivering above expectations. I think our core business continues to demonstrate healthy demand. At the start of the year, we promised everyone growing Core Collectibles, which is happening. That will continue into Q4. And improving our profit and margins and strengthening the balance sheet. So great to see the progress this quarter. And thank you all for joining, and thanks everyone out there for joining, and we will see you in a few months for our Q4 earnings forecast. Until then, thanks for joining us.