Sir, Paul Lejuez, Citigroup. Thanks, everybody, for being here. I'm here with the Signet management team, J.K. Symancyk, CEO, and Jackson Speake, Global Head of FP&A. Thank you guys for being here supporting the conference. You've released some preliminary results for the fourth quarter today. First, first time that we've heard from you about this past holiday season. Maybe start there. What can you tell us about the quarter and how it all played out? Yeah. No, I appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. I think the benefit honestly is, you know, we'll report final numbers next week on the 19th. I think the chance to be here and talk a little bit about the quarter, not only Q4 but also quarter- to- date, what we've seen the start of the year is nice which also sort of frees us up, you know, cliffhanger, to spend a little bit more time talking about fiscal year 2027 guide and strategic priorities next week when we get into the final numbers. Overall, feel good about the quarter, particularly given where it started. I mean, I think, you know, as we reported our Q3 numbers, we were, you know, pretty deep into November and, you know, had it behind us and, obviously consumer, you know, had a bit of a hiccup in November and I think like a lot of us, you know, we found ourselves in a spot where a little bit of a trend change from where we were and, you know, what we saw though was sequential improvement across the quarter, month by month on both a one and a two-year stack basis. You know, a reaction to what, you know, started with some of the pressures around government shutdown and the pressures that we saw with lower and middle income customers. A strong holiday selling, marked by the 10 peak days of Christmas are really critical for us, so having positive comps during that window were really important. We saw that continue to build through January. Actually, you know, like a lot, took a little bit of a hit at the end of the quarter with Winter Storm Heather. Actually, we're setting at a positive on the quarter actually heading into that. Strong build and then, you know, we've seen the business continue to perform as we've come through Valentine's Day quarter to date. Within the quarter itself, I think, you know, with a little bit more measured consumer environment, we did see a little bit more promotional activity and, I think, you know, that resulted, we called out a little bit of margin giveback or decline in part because we had called for a little bit of expansion. It was modest and, I think, you know, we shared it, Paul, more to give us permission to talk about it. But structurally not a significant thing. The nice thing is, you know, we pulled that through to the bottom line with expense management where we deliver, you know, operating income at the high end of guide. Feel good about that. Kay, Jared, Blue Nile, Peoples, U.K., and services, all real bright spots for us in the quarter, all positive comp. You know, some continued drag as you look at James Allen and weather. You know, on the whole, when you look at the full year, I think, you know, our ability to navigate that dynamic environment, particularly with tariffs changing right up till the end. I know you'll probably have a few questions about that, but, no way in the world we do that without the reorg that we did earlier in the year and the ability to really manage that and still perform at the high end of guide, actually raising our guide as we go. I think the other, you know, our focus on our core brands, Kay, Zales, Jared, really performed, you know, well for us over the course of the year. You know, we returned this business to positive comps for the full year for the first time since fiscal year 2022. I'm pleased with what the team did to deliver that, and it was really led by those core brands. We were up over 3% comp in those businesses. You know, probably one of the bigger highlights is when you look at the end of the year, we'll generate over $500 million of free cash flow. That is, you know, a 20% increase year-over-year on relatively flat inventory. In this kind of, you know, tariff plus commodity increase environment, I think it speaks volumes to some of the opportunities we've leveraged as it relates to scale across the organization. You know, slower start as a lot of people had, but good sequential improvement through and happy to see that momentum carry into the start of the year. It's a great starting point. Mentioned a lot of things that we'll probably- Yeah ...jump around and touch on a little bit. Sure. ...consumer behavior, you know, what did you see just in terms of, you know, their behavior leading up to the holiday? You mentioned those 10 days leading up to Christmas. I think last year that was a bit of a challenge for you guys, right? Yeah. Didn't have the right product this year. What'd you see in terms of the consumer as they kind of got closer to the holiday and even beyond? Yeah, I think, you know, I think one of the learnings or realizations for me and our team is a little clearer understanding of the fact that we really operate two businesses. We operate a fine jewelry business 12 months out of the year, and then we operate a gift giving business during the, during that time period. Certainly we talked a lot about our misses at key price points in the prior holiday. So it was a big focal point for us as we came into this year. Good news is it worked. I mean, that's part of what contributed to positive comps over those peak days. I think it was harder to be able to deliver that just given the dynamic nature of what was going on with supply chain and tariffs and, you know, frankly a set of baseline costs that were moving around a lot. It flowed through really well. I would say the one thing, you know, that we look at and can draw from as we move forward is it's harder to deliver meaningful price points below $150, you know? You know, at least with the assortment architecture that we've always had. You know, that disproportionately is where we felt any sort of unit velocity changes. The work in that $200-$500 price point and $500-$1,000 was healthy overall, and we really saw consumers respond to that. Interestingly, we also saw consumers willing to trade up in the right places, and I think that's also an opportunity for us as we look forward to this next year. You know, particularly with natural diamond at higher price points, we think there's opportunity for focus and some expansion there. You know, and on the whole, I think what we did see though was, you know, it did require a little bit more impetus around promo. And, you know, that I think is, you know, we're not alone in that. I think that was a little more of a hallmark of this holiday and particularly that consumer in the middle to lower end that felt a little more pressure. You know, we managed that well and thankfully did not have the drags on us that we had the prior quarter, so we were able to digest it. Yeah. Can we maybe dig into that a little bit? 'Cause I think coming in you thought merch margins were gonna be up. Mm-hmm. You said down. Was that any one particular brand or banner or price point where you had to really pull the promotional levers? Was it did you see it coming from independents, other chains or? Yeah. I think it's two things. I mean, when you look at, the way that tariffs played out over the course of the year, you know, typically when we set price for a category, you know, we'll take price once or twice a year, depending. Typically, we would do it. We're in one of those periods right now. We get on the backside of Valentine's Day and we really wanna set price for the spring. That becomes important because we have to have a rest period after we set prices before we can actually promote against those prices, right? Typically, we would set price somewhere, you know, we would wanna have prices set by the end of September, so that we're clean and clear to be able to drive promotional strategies for the holiday. I think this last year, or this prior, this last quarter, the challenge was You know, to do that you have to have goods landed, but you may not have 100% of your, of the receipts, right? You've got all the SKUs received, but you may not have all of your inventory in each of those SKUs received. In many cases, we had landed a particular mix, and then we had tariffs change yet again, or you had commodity costs change yet again. You're, you're stuck with, you know, the prices that you've set. We've typically aimed a little bit high, but you're planning on mix so that you can promote down. I think particularly for a brand like Kay that, you know, I mean, one, we work in an industry that runs on promotion during that time period. Mm-hmm. Two, you know, for a brand like Kay, which is really responsive but tends to live on broad% off promotions, it's kind of a blunt instrument. You know, you go from 40% to 50% off, or you go from 40% to 30% off. Like the ability to be precise if you're trying to massage what unit velocity looks like. There was a little bit of spill, right? I think that's a function of, you know, that's the best way to manage a really dynamic environment. To the degree that you're talking about, you know, a small number of basis points moving here or there, manageable. We certainly managed it on the operating income side. I wouldn't look at it as a structural shift in our business. I also think we learn from it and say, "Okay, how do we focus a little bit more on items at a price and really build a few more mechanisms for the holiday that allows us to be a little more surgical?" That's one thing. I think the other I mentioned, you know, sub $150. I mean, as much as we are focused on key price points, you might have had a little bit of movement across some thresholds in that time period. If you know, the item that you sold at $150 is now $199 and you're not moving the right unit velocity, you wanna move it. Right. You make those investments. The, you know, the runway to have a full year to manage assortment architecture, I think gives us a lot more flexibility. I do think, you know, rising commodity costs are one of those things we're gonna have to manage because it certainly you feel it a little bit more on the lower end where gold is more of a driver of the component cost. Got it. What are the winning categories for the holiday? you know, it's a more of a fashion-driven period, but, you know, maybe talk, you know, fashion versus bridal- Yeah If there was anything that really stood out in the assortment as being kind of the big winners. ...big winners, I mean, I, you know, believe it or not, I mean, I, you know, the timepieces are... I mean, you know, the world, you know, has tried to kill that trend a couple of times, but customers are coming back and particularly younger customers. you know, within within fashion, lab-grown diamonds still is an opportunity for growth, in large part because it's under-penetrated in the category, and so there's a lot of newness that is driven there. I think, you know, essentials. You know, in a time period where people are a little more uncertain, those jewelry box essentials, whether it's tennis bracelets, studs, I mean, there is a return to basics during that time period that I think is probably not a surprise to people. I mean, the same is true in apparel, footwear, a lot of, you know, a lot of our fashion categories. Then, Within categories like bridal, engagement, even fashion, there was, you know, there was growth, all AUR driven, but trade-up. You know, those people who have affluency or have the means or just care enough around that emotional category, they showed a willingness to trade up and spend more for quality during that time period. You know, less so a category too, but our services business continued positive- Yeah ...kind of across all. Yeah. Both on the warranty and repair. Yeah, I mean, services contributed half a point of comp on the quarter, so, I mean, it continues to be a source of strength for us and attachment rates are higher. The more you see AUR expansion, the more you see attachment rates go up, but repair actually outpacing warranties as a growth driver. Strong. Got it. I think you mentioned earlier the different banners all performed well, maybe with the exception of James Allen. Can you talk about maybe banner performance and even, like, Blue Nile specifically? 'Cause I think that was a kind of a point of pressure- Yeah ... at time last year. Blue Nile moved positive. James Allen continued to perform as a drag. you know, we'll spend a little bit more time talking about strategies by brand as we get to next week's readout. you know, the only other one, I mean, I think we, you know, we had seen greater strength out of Zales the first three quarters and saw a little bit of a pullback in our Zales business this quarter. certainly that, you know, a lot of moving parts there. I think one of the lessons or one of the takeaways for us there is, we really drove a business through self-purchase through the first three quarters and maybe we're a little too focused on self-purchase in Q4 and the opportunity to broaden the aperture and think about gift giving, I think, you know, an opportunity for upside for that business. Good news is made the adjustment, saw the same build and sequential improvement, and really returned to what that run rate was before as we got into Valentine's Day. I think it is a little more of a blip. Also, a little bit more exposure on the lower end with that customer compared to some of our brands, so probably felt a little more of that hit in November, and then we didn't recover it at probably the same rate there. Feel great about, you know, the potential as we move into this year and also about the momentum that we're building there. And you know, February isn't a super important month for most retailers. It is for you. You did mention a good Valentine's Day. Maybe just talk about what you saw during that important period for you guys. You know, what we saw was just more balanced strength across the business. I think, you know, I do think we're in a period where AUR is gonna continue to be important. You know, expanding average unit retail and, you know, both as a function of how we're managing the cost environment that we're operating in, but also, you know, covering really where the natural momentum of the category is. You know, timepieces continued to be strong. You know, all in all, I think we, you know, we saw a little better balance across all the categories and the time periods without, you know, some of the peaks and valleys that we saw in Q4. A little more brand balance too- Yeah ...to start the year, which is good. Yeah, I think that's a good add. Is there typically a good correlation between Valentine's Day and Mother's Day? Anything that you saw, during the Valentine's Day period, key selling period, that influences how you think about or plan for Mother's Day? You know, I mean, they're different. I think in particular, while there's not a direct correlation in performance from one to the other, they're great periods for us to drive trial, right? If you're thinking about, you know, you're thinking about a gold market that's pretty dynamic and you're trying to get a sense of what's the impact of, you know, where do I pass along price, how do I balance margin and unit velocity, I mean, that's really where we get a good read on how's a consumer gonna respond whenever we get to a bigger peak. Same is true, excuse me, when you think about, you know, sort of key price point introductions. Will a customer value vermeil over, say, a 10- karat gold program? If I want to do something, you know, different with colored gemstones and introduce a different design aesthetic or if I'm launching a new brand, those are great windows for us to drive trial on some of those new programs, both to gauge acceptance, but also to help figure out, okay, what depth should we buy this at whenever we get to a more peak, you know, a bigger peak, selling window? That's probably the biggest driver. Anything you'd add? Nothing, I think that's clear. Yeah, I think that's probably the lion's share of it. Yeah. Hot topic is tariffs. Obviously some changes there over the last couple weeks. Yeah. For you guys in particular, India is an important country of origin- Mm-hmm. ...certainly some changes there. Maybe talk about what your outlook is on that front. talk about, you know, potential refunds. Yeah. If you might build that in, if you might assume that that comes to you. Just a lot of moving pieces, I know. We're importer of record on a small percentage of what we buy, so refunds are a little less of a focus in the near term for us. I mean, it's largely just on direct import gold, which is less than 20%- Oh, yeah. ...of our inventory, so. But what we did do is reset supplier agreements and terms in this past year to more clearly define, hey, as this environment changes, how do we manage that together? What are we sharing? What are we? You know, what do we claw back, or how do we pass that along, either to the business or to the customer? I think when the rules of the road are determined and you know that, I mean, I haven't checked my phone, but lab- Right I don't know that we know yet. Once we settle what that game plan is, and I think we know how to work it, I think, you know, for us. You know, everybody's a little bit different, and I realize, you know, I mean, this is, you know, everybody wants to build a model on it or to think about, you know, how to, you know, how to dimensionalize it. So much of mitigation efforts in our world were about, you know, moving country of origin or thinking about supply chain flexibility to help mitigate what the impact of tariff would've been. You know, if I moved product from a country like India that literally went from 5% to 15% to 25% to 50% tariffs over successive weeks, a move might not have made sense at 15% or at 25%, but could be brilliant at 50%. I mean, our first priority is let's make sure we've got the right cost inventory to be competitive with the market and responsive to the consumer. Then let's make sure we flow it through, you know, to create value. I think that drove our decisions around mitigation. It'll drive, you know, what our responses are, whether it's about refund or how do we flex the supply chain to move back and, you know, where might things move. A lot of moving parts right now, but I think you know, the good news is we've developed flexibility around sourcing and supply chain that not only enabled us to manage it without calling out a bogey or, you know, lowering our guide, which is, you know, hats off to our team and our partners in the supply chain for being able to deliver that. That same flexibility will serve us well as we figure out how to navigate this. To your point, I think it's more good news than not, at least if the rules of the road, you know, get laid out the way we believe they're gonna be right now. You know, the more we know that and the sooner we know that, then I think the better it positions us to be able to plan for the rest of the year and figure out how to pass that along best. Yeah, it definitely seems like you've navigated the tariff situation well, and maybe another area that needs navigation, commodities, gold and silver prices- Sure ... obviously up a bunch. How have you managed through that? What are you assuming for 2026 in terms of pricing of some of those very key inputs to you guys? You want... On, on gold we're assuming you're more or less where we're at today going in. We're, as J.K. mentioned, still exploring what consumers will accept in terms of other product alternatives, either 18K vermeil or 10K, other types of gold. You know, we'll get into guide next week. We have some gold hedges in place. Those on the P&L will hit a little more backloaded over Q3 and Q4. Broadly our cost, we do weighted average cost, so it'll start to bleed into the P&L through the rest of the year. That gives us time also to balance the assortment with new receipts. Yeah, I think the other, the other thing from assortment standpoint is, you know, we along with a lot in the industry are really thinking about what are some of the alternative material choices that we think will come in. I mean, you know, I think it's less exposure on the finished jewelry standpoint where there's stone involved because you've got more parts to play with, right? It's not just design and metal weight, but, you know, the number of stones, what other materials am I using? I think, you know, when you look at a pure, you know, historic gold commodity business like chain, the question of, you know, not just what price... I mean, historically, consumers know there's a gold market. You're able to pass along price. I think we are entering into new territory there. You know, that is gonna, I think, create a little bit more exploration around alternative metals, plated, bonded, vermeil, you know, different gold purity weights. You know, I was talking to a customer, a week and a half ago in a store that was trying to understand why gold would be that expensive, and she was explaining to me, "You know, I've got this platinum ring and, you know, gold's higher than platinum." I'm like, "Well, let me show you the market." You know? I mean, it's. You know? I do think there is a little bit of consumer education, and there's also opportunities for us to think about, you know, design, fabrication, and material a little bit differently. Particularly, I think we're particularly focused on it in that 150 and below, you know, when you think about gift giving. That becomes a little more important as we get to Q4, but we've got the benefit of time to solve for that. Yeah, totally. I guess maybe sticking with the navigation- Mm-hmm ... theme, we've got a $100 oil. Yeah. If I asked you last week, you know, what your view was of the consumer, what would you have said? Now that I'm asking you today with what we've had occur over the past week... Mm-hmm ... how does that maybe change your view of, quote-unquote, "the consumer"? You know, I mean, we talked about this a little bit, you know, last year at different points of volatility. Short-term volatility is less impactful to our consumer. I think they tend to be a little more resilient, in part because it's a highly emotional purchase and it's a planned purchase. I mean, very few people are stumbling through the mall and decide, "Okay, today is the day I'm gonna buy an engagement ring." Like, there's research, there's process that goes through it, and frankly, the people who stumble through and decide today's the day, they're less plussed by these economic, you know, short-term conditions. So structurally, you know, it doesn't change our thoughts. I mean, we'll talk about outlook this next year. I mean, I do think, you know, over time, right, I mean, we monitor these things because anything that starts to reset how people plan their budgets over time can have an impact on us. In the short term that, you know, a blip like where we are, and when I say short term, I mean even over the course of a year, less impactful if you look back historically. A little bit more correlation on things like interest rates and home cost and we're probably a little more focused there, honestly, because I think there's that tends to align with some of the life decisions that go into engagement and some of those other things. Even there, you know, we've been through, you know, this cycle for a bit, and we've seen stabilization there. I think we would describe the consumer as resilient, but we also recognize there's always a breaking point, and, you know, it's part of why we try to be responsive in Q4 when we saw some signals in November. Yeah. Well said. I think that for us it's the broader consumer health measures rather than oil. Yeah. Understood. Just thinking, as we think out to 2026- Mm-hmm ... you know, you've had a pretty, you know, big focus on the three kind of big brands in the portfolio. They've performed generally well. You've had some underperformers. Is there anything that you're thinking about in terms of, I don't know, maybe cutting ties or pulling back on investment with any of the brands or segments that have been a little bit more of a underperformers and distractions, I don't know if you would characterize them that way? You know, as we came into Q4, you know, I've successfully and successively punted this question to the start of the year. You know, we'll talk a little bit more about it next week. I think we've spent some time reviewing. I think, you know, on the whole, you know, safe to say that, you know, we are focused on those things that have been drags and feel, you know... You know, there's still gonna be outsized focus on core brands because they are so fundamentally tied to the overall health of the portfolio. That said, to remove those drags from, you know, from being a footnote, that's a negative. I mean, you can remove them one of two ways. You can think about how do they fit in the portfolio, which may be part of what we talk about in some cases. In other cases, it's what opportunities do they represent with, you know, strategic turnaround plans and how we think they can contribute differently. We're focused on both. I would say, you know, to give you a little something, you know, as it relates to James Allen, which has been a really, you know, a pretty visible, you know, part of that drag when you look at digital brands. You know, there's two parts to that business, and one is the site and the business that operates under that brand name. The other is the set of capabilities that feed the other parts of our business. I mean, there is a, you know, diamond marketplace that runs within that engine. There's customization that runs within that engine. You know, as we think about, you know, how do these pieces and parts fit together, we're also mindful of what are the benefits that may confer from a business like that show up in other parts of the P&L, and how might we leverage them strategically a little bit differently to create better value overall. Yeah. Makes sense, and yeah, sounds like more to come. Maybe we'll get more detail. Yeah. The ultimate cliffhanger, right? Yeah. Like we'll drop the other episodes next week. All right. That. Got it. Well, I guess, along those lines. Yeah ... in terms of cliffhanger, you know, when you do give guidance, what are the things that we should be thinking about next year outside of that conversation? What are the things we should be thinking about in terms of puts and takes as we look out to 2026? Seems like a lot of moving parts. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we've talked about most of them, and I think this question of the puts and takes around tariffs and commodity costs and how we're gonna manage them, I won't belabor those 'cause we've talked about the levers that we'll pull there. I do think there is... You know, there's clearly, I think, an opportunity for us to talk about, you know, what do we do to address the first part of Q4 where we saw some softness and what might that look like. Then, you know, I think it's safe to say that, you know, the... I'm extremely proud of how our team managed all of the curveballs that came in the course of this year and, you know, took those things that weren't in our control and then converted them to things that we could control to affect the outcome. That's great. It also takes a lot of energy and a lot of mind share. While I don't necessarily think the landscape is gonna be, you know, any more, I don't think everything's gonna all of a sudden turn easy. I mean, I still think there's probably a, you know, more dynamic environment in front of us. I do think having developed that muscle and having, you know, you know, line of sight to some of it and knowing what we can anticipate, it does free up, you know, energy and resource for us to focus more on brand differentiation. I think as we came into the back half of the year, we made a conscious choice to slow some of the more accelerated brand differentiation efforts to manage risk, candidly. I mean, there's only so many moving parts you wanna have at one point in time. As we move into this next week and drop those episodes, I think, you know, focusing a little more on how do we lean into each of these brands and really create sharper identities for each and what are the opportunities for growth that come out of them is a big part of where we're focused. Is marketing, a big area of focus for 2026? Yeah. Should we expect an acceleration? Yeah. I would say, you know, if you're looking for headings of, you know, what domains we'll be talking about, whether they're next week or venturing into successive quarters, marketing's part of it, customer experience is part of it, for sure. Yeah. I'd add on the puts and takes going into next year. This year we'll have some deleverage on SG&A. It's almost entirely from incentive comp, both at the corporate and store level. We're not quite at 100%, but reasonably close. For next year that's going in pretty clean. Yeah. We expect, inclusive of advertising, we'd expect to be able to leverage SG&A on a low single- digit comp. Yeah, I do think it is probably a little cleaner set of compares overall. Yes. I mean, there's probably fewer moving parts, which will allow us to actually focus on the core, you know, drivers of our business a little bit more. Yeah. Tariffs will work their way through, you know, in the first couple of quarters, 'cause Liberation Day was in the back half of last year. Otherwise,- Yeah ...it's pretty clean. Got it. Got it. I mean, based on your performance in holiday of 2024, was the issue, I guess, was those 10 days- Mm-hmm ... leading up to Christmas. Seems like you've corrected that this year. Yeah Had some good performance. You mentioned your performance in November this holiday period. Mm-hmm. Was that something more than just external factors that were going against you, and is that sort of the key learning from this holiday that you can improve on in 2026? I mean, it was largely macro, but what I would also say is, you know, I think if you knew then what you know now, there's always choices you can make in the macro to leverage it. I think the learning or really the area of increased focus for us is that recognition that, you know, A, there's two businesses, fine jewelry business and gift giving business. When you break down gift giving business, it's a little bit like, you know, like a hockey game, right? I mean, you got kinda three periods within that quarter. There is an early selling period that, you know, the drivers, the promotions are less broad. They're more focused on key items. It's just a different consumer that shops during that earlier window. And the leverage points are, you know, to serve them are different. As you get closer, broad probably works in our favor because you can leverage the breadth of inventory that you have and still offer a value proposition, but it allows you to pick what works best for you, particularly as you get a little more last minute. Post-holiday, there's... Which is actually something our team's been pretty good at it, you know, for the last couple of years, is leveraging that, you know, sorta gift card, cash, let me treat myself. I mean, that has been a source of strength for the last couple of years. We don't wanna give that ground up. I think we've, you know, we've focused well there, but I think the breakdown of each three of those parts of the season represent an opportunity for us to attack it a little bit differently. You know, if we're doing our jobs right, then I think it adds up to some opportunity. Sounds good. Yeah. $500 million free cash flow. Mm-hmm. Is that number correct? Yeah ... pretty big, pretty big number. Mm-hmm. Maybe talk capital priorities at this stage. Talk about share repo. Is there anything you can say about what happened this quarter? I think we'll provide that next week, we'll finish the year above our total liquidity threshold, we'll have excess cash available for return. From a priority standpoint, we've said the top priority is organic investment. I'd say, you know, there's probably a little more opportunity to invest deeper into our stores, particularly in the Kay's, Zales, and Jared, so in the core focus areas, you know, invest in the balance sheet. We've don't have any debt. Balance sheets are all very clean, there's not a lot of cleanup that's needed there, it would be returns to shareholders. We haven't called out M&A as a major priority. Got it. Yeah. Last year, I think, you know, you talked a bit about some real estate actions. Maybe just talk about how you're thinking about this upcoming year. What should we expect on that front? Not different. I mean, I think healthy fleet overall. Mm-hmm. You know, as part of the Grow Brand Love reset, we highlighted up to 200 stores that we felt like were opportunities to, you know, to maybe prune the fleet disproportionately. I mean, you know, while it may sound like a lot relative square footage, much lower% when you look at revenue because it's disproportionately weighted to some of the kiosks where we had multiple locations, same mall, et cetera. No real change to that. Actually, if anything, you know, a little more focused on where. You know, we recognize we've got some investment opportunities in stores that tie to customer experience. As we talk about strategic priorities, we'll get into that a little bit more. Obviously a lot of test and learn, but, you know, relatively high threshold on return, and we're exceeding that, and so we wanna think about how we accelerate that as an opportunity to create more growth. We also called out a reposition strategy last year- Yeah ... which we'll continue through next year. It's, as J.K. mentioned, the fleet and those locations right now are pretty healthy. It's more getting out in front of where we see venues that'll decline over the next, you know, two to four years and getting out in front of that. Got it. You mentioned, Jackson, earlier you would expect to achieve SG&A leverage on a low single- digit positive comp. Mm-hmm. Is that the right framework that we should be thinking about? Generally, yeah. Once you've gotten rid of the incentive comp noise, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, we're probably better I mean, the team's done a great job every year of strengthening that position, but actually I think we're better positioned to do that coming into this year than even before. Agreed. What does the gross margin look like in that same sort of low single digit comp scenario if we think about it in terms of an algorithm? I don't think we're quite ready to put the margin construct out. Okay. I'd say we feel good about the where we sit today, on overall expansion from last year. I think there will be a little bit of lumpiness with some of the quarters with tariff and gold wrapping a little more at the first half of the year. As I mentioned before, we've got gold hedges in the back half that should help offset some of that. I think it'll balance, but maybe a little bit up and down over the quarters. Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, we're obviously not giving guide yet. I would say no change in our thought process around where the opportunities are with margin. If anything, you know, timing may be a little bit different as we navigate some of the environment. Generally, I think you'll see some consistency in approach there. Got it. Can you talk about maybe just, what you're seeing on the natural side versus the lab-grown in terms of costs on the cost side for one, but also, you know, at retail, what's sort of been happening? Sure. you know, it's interesting. I probably got asked this question more, in the last year, you know, particularly at the start of the year... I saved it till the end. Well, no, it's inappropriately, right? It's tailing off. I mean, it was the first one, and now it's like, okay, I think things have stabilized, but can you validate for me? I would say that's stable is probably the best word. I mean, it's, you know, we even sort of reluctantly... I mean, we don't really lead with penetration numbers or any of those things because I think what we would tell you is it's, you know, they both are a part of our mix, right? Even with, you know, often in the same customer's jewelry box. So the fact that there is a clear role for each, and frankly, we want both to grow is where we're focused. You know, penetration will still grow for lab-grown on the fashion side, in large part because it's very under-penetrated and it's not a replacement. It's not either/or. I mean, this is a category extender that still holds true and, you know, no change to that. I think on the cost side, the, you know, lab has largely stabilized. I think the, you know, the cost and profit margin side are tight enough now that there's just not as much volatility on the supplier side and to the degree that there's, you know, any sort of give there one way or the other, it probably doesn't make it through to retail construct because we're low enough now that I think there's good stability there. We're still seeing average unit retail expansion as people trade up. We're still seeing margins hold. No fundamental change to what that model looks like. On the natural side, we've actually seen a little bit of strength. I mean, I would also say, you know, if I'm completely honest, you know, it's buoyed by the high side, right? I think where the growth opportunity there is on AUR, higher quality natural diamonds, and as we look at our assortment, we see the opportunity to pull natural up and create, you know, interest there. We actually believe there's consumer demand for it. We see it and, you know, we see even some evidence of that in independent. You know, feel good and, you know, to the degree that there's sort of this bear versus bull argument there, I mean, the bear case is really not in play. I think it just becomes, you know, at some point it's almost like gold and silver, right? I mean, it's just a part of our mix and it's, you know, how do we plan and solve for that to meet customer demand because there's growth opportunity for both. It's great. We are at time. J.K. Jackson, thank you for being with us. All right. I appreciate everybody listening in. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys.