Company Announcements

Successful Execution of New Transformation Initiatives and Cost Reduction Actions Delivered Strong First Quarter

First quarter 2025 highlights compared to Q1 2024:

• Net revenue from continuing operations of $510.3 million, an increase of 5.7%
• Comparable store sales growth of 4.1% and Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth of 5.5% represented the 9th consecutive quarter of positive growth
• Income from continuing operations of $14.2 million, Diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.18
• Adjusted Operating Income from continuing operations of $41.3 million
• Adjusted Diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.34
• Raises fiscal 2025 outlook

DULUTH, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2025-- National Vision Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EYE) (“National Vision,” “we,” “our,” “us” or the “Company”) today reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 29, 2025.

“Our first quarter results are a testament to the entire team’s disciplined execution against the new strategic approach our leadership team began to implement last quarter,” said Reade Fahs, National Vision’s CEO. “We are seeing immediate impact from the initial wave of transformation actions with a return to mid-single digit comp performance and solid growth in bottom line results. The strength of these results reinforces our confidence in the long-term potential of our go-forward strategy and initiatives.”

Alex Wilkes, National Vision’s President added, “The intentional, strategic shift to broaden our exposure to existing higher value customer segments coupled with our roadmap of future initiatives reinforces our confidence in our operational and financial growth, even amidst an increasingly uncertain environment. Looking ahead, we plan to continue introducing new lifestyle selling techniques, enhancing our branded frame assortment, and improving our digital experience to delight our customers and deliver the value they expect from us both in-store and online. All of this work will remain underpinned by our prudent approach to expense management, tariff mitigation efforts, and operational excellence to deliver improved profitability and sustainable value for shareholders.”

This release includes certain Non-GAAP Financial Measures that are not recognized under generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). Please see “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP to GAAP Financial Measures” below for more information.

During fiscal 2024, the Company ceased its Walmart and AC Lens operations and, accordingly, the condensed consolidated financial statements reflect the results of our former Legacy segment and the substantial majority of AC Lens operations as discontinued operations for all periods presented. Unless otherwise noted, amounts and disclosures in this press release relate to the Company’s continuing operations.

First Quarter 2025 Summary

• Net revenue increased 5.7% to $510.3 million compared to the prior-year period and was primarily driven by Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth and growth from new store sales, partially offset by the effect of unearned revenue and the effect of closed stores. Net revenue includes a negative (1.5)% impact from the timing of unearned revenue in the current-year period compared with the prior-year period.
• Comparable store sales growth was 4.1% and Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth was 5.5%, primarily due to higher average ticket, a slight increase in customer traffic and continued strength in the Company’s managed care cohort.
• The Company opened nine new America’s Best stores, closed nine Fred Meyer stores and three America’s Best stores, and ended the period with 1,237 stores. Overall, store count grew 3.0% from March 30, 2024 to March 29, 2025.
• Costs applicable to revenue increased 4.9% to $205.2 million. As a percentage of net revenue, costs applicable to revenue decreased 30 basis points to 40.2%, mainly due to growth and improvement in product margins of eyeglass frames and lenses, and growth from other add-on sales, partially offset by a decrease in product margins of contact lenses and higher optometrist-related costs related to revenue growth.
• SG&A increased 6.4% to $255.5 million. As a percentage of net revenue, SG&A increased 40 basis points to 50.1% of revenue. The primary drivers of SG&A growth were increases in stock-based compensation and cash compensation expenses related to revenue and profitability growth, partially offset by a non-recurring litigation settlement from the prior year, lower advertising investments and other expenses. Adjusted SG&A increased 4.6% to $241.1 million and represented 47.2% of net revenue, a decrease of 50 basis points driven by lower advertising investments, partially offset by higher cash compensation expenses, as discussed above.
• Income from continuing operations increased to $14.2 million compared to $11.8 million in the same period in 2024. Income from continuing operations margin increased to 2.8% compared to 2.4% in the same period in 2024.
• Diluted EPS from continuing operations was $0.18 compared to $0.15 in the same period in 2024. Adjusted Diluted EPS increased to $0.34 compared to $0.29 in the same period in 2024. The net change in margin on unearned revenue negatively impacted both Diluted EPS and Adjusted Diluted EPS by $(0.05).
• Adjusted Operating Income increased 21.8% to $41.3 million compared with the same period of 2024. Adjusted Operating Margin increased to 8.1% compared with 7.0% for the same period in 2024. The net change in margin on unearned revenue negatively impacted income from continuing operations by $(4.1) million and Adjusted Operating Income by $(5.5) million.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Highlights as of March 29, 2025

• National Vision’s cash balance was $80.0 million as of March 29, 2025. The Company had no borrowings under its $300.0 million first lien revolving credit facility, exclusive of letters of credit of $6.4 million.
• Total debt was $346.1 million as of March 29, 2025, consisting of outstanding first lien term loans, 2.50% convertible senior notes due on May 15, 2025 (“2025 Notes”) and finance lease obligations, net of unamortized discounts.

Fiscal 2025 Outlook

The Company is raising certain elements of its fiscal 2025 outlook for the 53 weeks ending January 3, 2026, as set forth below. The Company estimates the 53rd week of fiscal 2025 will contribute approximately $35 million to net revenue, and approximately $3 million to Adjusted Operating Income.

The fiscal 2025 outlook information provided in this release includes Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Diluted EPS guidance. The Company is not able to reconcile these forward-looking non-GAAP measures to GAAP without unreasonable efforts because it is not possible to predict with a reasonable degree of certainty the actual impact of certain items and unanticipated events, including taxes and non-recurring items, which would be included in GAAP results.

The fiscal 2025 outlook is forward-looking, subject to significant business, economic, regulatory and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of the Company and its management, and based upon assumptions with respect to future decisions, which are subject to change. These uncertainties include, but are not limited to, dynamic market conditions, unexpected disruptions including additional regulatory actions impacting international trade such as tariffs, and other macroeconomic risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary and those variations may be material. As such, the Company’s results may not fall within the ranges contained in its fiscal 2025 outlook. The Company uses these forward-looking measures internally to assess and benchmark its results and strategic plans. See “Forward-Looking Statements” below.

Conference Call Details

The Company will host a conference call to discuss the first quarter 2025 financial results and fiscal-year 2025 guidance today, May 7, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. To pre-register for the conference call and obtain a dial-in number and passcode please refer to the “Investors” section of the Company’s website at www.nationalvision.com/investors. A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available on the “Investors” section of the Company’s website at www.nationalvision.com/investors, where presentation materials will be posted prior to the conference call. A replay of the audio webcast will also be archived on the “Investors” section of the Company’s website.

About National Vision Holdings, Inc.

National Vision Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EYE) is one of the largest optical retail companies in the United States with over 1,200 stores in 38 states and Puerto Rico. With a mission of helping people by making quality eye care and eyewear more affordable and accessible, the company operates four retail brands: America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Eyeglass World, and Vista Opticals inside select Fred Meyer stores and on select military bases, and an e-commerce website DiscountContacts.com, offering a variety of products and services for customers’ eye care needs. For more information, please visit www.nationalvision.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements contained under “Fiscal 2025 Outlook” as well as other statements related to our current beliefs and expectations regarding the performance of our industry, the Company’s strategic direction, market position, prospects including remote medicine and optometrist recruiting and retention initiatives, and future results. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “outlook,” “guidance,” “believes,” “expects,” “potential,” “continues,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “seeks,” “projects,” “predicts,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates” or variations of these words or other comparable words. Caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement as such statements speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied in forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, market volatility, an overall decline in the health of the economy, global macroeconomic conditions and other factors that may affect consumer spending or behavior; our ability to successfully implement our transformation initiatives, or anticipate the impact of important strategic initiatives; our ability to recruit and retain vision care professionals for in-store roles or to provide remote care offerings; our ability to compete in the highly competitive optical retail industry; the success of our marketing, advertising and promotional efforts; our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance the value of our owned brands; our ability to open and operate new stores (including as a result of store conversions) in a timely and cost-effective manner or to successfully enter new markets; our ability to increase sales in existing stores and to successfully reinvest in existing stores; our ability to successfully implement our pricing strategies; changes in the cost of inputs, and factors such as wage rate increases, inflation, cost increases, increases in the price of raw materials and energy prices; significant capital requirements to fund our expanding business including updating our Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) and Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”), and other technological, systems and capabilities; the potential for our growth strategy to strain our existing resources and cause the performance of our existing stores to suffer; risks associated with leasing substantial amounts of space, including future increases in occupancy costs; our ability to successfully manage the distinct risks faced by our e-commerce and omni-channel business; our ability to retain our existing senior management team or attract qualified new personnel; seasonal fluctuations in our operating results and inventory levels fluctuate; the potential impacts of catastrophic events, including changing climate and weather patterns leading to severe weather and natural disasters; the potential for certain technological advances, greater availability of, or increased consumer preferences for, vision correction alternatives to prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses, or future drug development for the correction of vision-related problems to reduce the demand for our products; our ability to successfully manage our inventory balances and inventory shrinkage; the potential for the loss of, or disruption in the operations of, one or more of our distribution centers or optical laboratories, which would impact our ability to process and fulfill customer orders and deliver our products in a timely manner, or at all, or result in quality issues; the performance of our Host brands and our ability to maintain or extend our operating relationships with our Host partners; impacts resulting from the termination of our partnership with Walmart; our investments in technological innovators in the optical retail industry, including artificial intelligence; sustainability issues, including those related to climate change; our ability to develop, maintain and extend relationships with managed vision care companies, vision insurance providers and other third-party payors; risks associated with vendors from whom our products are sourced and our dependence on a limited number of suppliers; the impact of any significant failure, inadequacy, interruption or security breach affecting our information technology systems, or those of our vendors; our reliance on third-party coverage and reimbursement, including government programs, for an increasing portion of our revenues; our ability to comply with state, local and federal vision care and healthcare laws and regulations, as well as managed vision care laws and regulations; liability stemming from rapidly changing and increasingly stringent laws, regulations, contractual obligations, and industry standards relating to privacy, data security and data protection; product liability, product recall or personal injury issues; our ability to comply with laws, regulations and enforcement activities or changes in statutory, regulatory, accounting and other legal requirements; the outcome of legal proceedings relating to our business operations; the protection and validity of our intellectual property; risks related to our indebtedness; changes in interest rates; restrictions in our credit agreement that limit our flexibility in operating our business; risks related to conversion of the 2025 Notes; and risks related to owning our common stock. Additional information about these and other factors that could cause National Vision’s results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in filings by National Vision with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in our filings with the SEC.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement the Company’s financial information presented in accordance with GAAP and aid understanding of the Company’s business performance, the Company uses certain non-GAAP financial measures, namely “EBITDA,” “Adjusted Operating Income,” “Adjusted Operating Margin,” “Adjusted EBITDA,” “Adjusted EBITDA Margin,” “Adjusted Diluted EPS,” “Adjusted Comparable Stores Sales Growth,” “Adjusted SG&A,” and “Adjusted SG&A Percent of Net Revenue.” We believe EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Operating Margin, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Diluted EPS, Adjusted SG&A, and Adjusted SG&A Percent of Net Revenue assist investors and analysts in comparing our operating performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in highlighting trends in our operating performance, while other measures can differ significantly depending on long-term strategic decisions regarding capital structure, the tax jurisdictions in which we operate and capital investments. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to supplement GAAP measures of performance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, to establish discretionary annual incentive compensation and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. Management supplements GAAP results with non-GAAP financial measures to provide a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting the business than GAAP results alone.

To supplement the Company’s comparable store sales growth presented in accordance with GAAP, the Company provides “Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth,” which is a non-GAAP financial measure we believe is useful because it provides timely and accurate information relating to the two core metrics of retail sales: number of transactions and value of transactions. Management uses Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth as the basis for key operating decisions, such as allocation of advertising to particular markets and implementation of special marketing programs. Accordingly, we believe that Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth provides timely and accurate information relating to the operational health and overall performance of each brand. We also believe that, for the same reasons, investors find our calculation of Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth to be meaningful.

EBITDA: We define EBITDA from continuing operations as net income (loss), minus income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax, plus interest expense (income), net, income tax provision, and depreciation and amortization.

Adjusted Operating Income: We define Adjusted Operating Income from continuing operations as net income (loss), minus income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax, plus interest expense (income), net and income tax provision, further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, (gain) loss on extinguishment of debt, asset impairment, litigation settlement, secondary offering expenses, management realignment expenses, long-term incentive plan expenses, amortization of acquisition intangibles, Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) and Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) implementation expenses, shareholder activism costs, severance and employee-related costs associated with organizational restructuring and certain other expenses.

Adjusted Operating Margin: We define Adjusted Operating Margin from continuing operations as Adjusted Operating Income from continuing operations as a percentage of total net revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA: We define Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as net income (loss), minus income (loss) from discontinued operations, net of tax, plus interest expense (income), net, income tax provision and depreciation and amortization, further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, (gain) loss on extinguishment of debt, asset impairment, litigation settlement, secondary offering expenses, management realignment expenses, long-term incentive plan expenses, ERP and CRM implementation expenses, shareholder activism, severance and employee-related costs associated with restructuring and certain other expenses.

Adjusted EBITDA Margin: We define Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations as Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as a percentage of total net revenue.

Adjusted Diluted EPS: We define Adjusted Diluted EPS from continuing operations as diluted earnings (loss) per share, minus diluted earnings (loss) per share from discontinued operations, adjusted for the per share impact of stock-based compensation expense, (gain) loss on extinguishment of debt, asset impairment, litigation settlement, secondary offering expenses, management realignment expenses, long-term incentive plan expenses, amortization of acquisition intangibles, amortization of debt discounts and deferred financing costs of our term loan borrowings, amortization of the conversion feature and deferred financing costs related to our 2025 Notes when not required under U.S. GAAP to be added back for diluted earnings (loss) per share, derivative fair value adjustments, ERP and CRM implementation expenses, shareholder activism, severance and employee-related costs associated with restructuring and certain other expenses, and related tax effects.

Adjusted SG&A: We define Adjusted SG&A from continuing operations as SG&A from continuing operations adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense, litigation settlement, secondary offering expenses, management realignment expenses, long-term incentive plan expense, ERP and CRM implementation expenses, shareholder activism, severance and employee-related costs associated with restructuring and certain other expenses.

Adjusted SG&A Percent of Net Revenue: We define Adjusted SG&A Percent of Net Revenue from continuing operations as Adjusted SG&A from continuing operations as a percentage of total net revenue.

Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth: We measure Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth as the increase or decrease in sales recorded by the comparable store base in any reporting period, compared to sales recorded by the comparable store base in the prior reporting period, which we calculate as follows: (i) sales are recorded on a cash basis (i.e. when the order is placed and paid for or submitted to a managed care payor, compared to when the order is delivered), utilizing cash basis point of sale information from stores; (ii) stores are added to the calculation during the 13th full fiscal month following the store’s opening; (iii) closed stores are removed from the calculation for time periods that are not comparable; (iv) sales from partial months of operation are excluded when stores do not open or close on the first day of the month; and (v) when applicable, we adjust for the effect of the 53rd week. Quarterly, year-to-date and annual adjusted comparable store sales are aggregated using only sales from all whole months of operation included in both the current reporting period and the prior reporting period. When a partial month is excluded from the calculation, the corresponding month in the subsequent period is also excluded from the calculation. There may be variations in the way in which some of our competitors and other retailers calculate comparable store sales. As a result, our adjusted comparable store sales may not be comparable to similar data made available by other retailers.

EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Income, Adjusted Operating Margin, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Diluted EPS, Adjusted SG&A, Adjusted SG&A Percent of Net Revenue and Adjusted Comparable Store Sales Growth are not recognized terms under U.S. GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income or the ratio of net income to net revenue as a measure of financial performance, SG&A, the ratio of SG&A to net revenue as a measure of financial performance, cash flows provided by operating activities as a measure of liquidity, comparable store sales growth as a measure of operating performance, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Additionally, these measures are not intended to be a measure of free cash flow available for management’s discretionary use as they do not consider certain cash requirements such as interest payments, tax payments and debt service requirements. The presentations of these measures have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under U.S. GAAP. Because not all companies use identical calculations, the presentations of these measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies and can differ significantly from company to company.

Please see “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP to GAAP Financial Measures” below for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures used in this release to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

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Investor contact:
investor.relations@nationalvision.com

National Vision Holdings, Inc.
Tamara Gonzalez

ICR, Inc.
Caitlin Churchill

Media contact:
media@nationalvision.com

Source: National Vision Holdings, Inc.