AENT Q3 2026 Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Jeffrey Walker
• Chief Financial Officer — Amanda Gnecco
• Executive Chairman — Bruce Ogilvie

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TAKEAWAYS

• Net Revenue -- $258 million, up 21%, reflecting broad-based strength across categories.
• Net Income -- $2.3 million, a 25% increase, equating to $0.05 per diluted share.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $5.1 million, increasing 4% from $4.9 million year over year.
• Vinyl Revenue -- $99 million, up 15%, including both new and catalog releases.
• CD Revenue -- $39 million, surging 90% with record unit sales and growing market demand.
• Physical Movie Revenue -- $61 million, rising 5%, supported by demand for 4K, UltraHD, and collectible SteelBook editions.
• Collectibles Revenue -- Up 48%, driven by higher average selling prices and a shift toward premium licensed products.
• Gross Margin -- 12.8%, down from 13.6%, primarily due to product mix changes as revenue scaled.
• Year-to-Date Net Income -- $16.6 million, increasing 78%, with $0.32 per diluted share.
• Year-to-Date Adjusted EBITDA -- $35.7 million, up 47% from the prior period.
• Working Capital -- Approximately $60 million, reflecting disciplined management of inventory and payables.
• Liquidity -- $56 million available under the revolving credit facility, supporting inventory and growth investments.
• Premium Content Partnerships -- Expanded licensing agreements with Paramount (effective 2025) and MGM Studios (2026), increasing access to high-value releases.
• Alliance Authentic & Endstate Integration -- Launched the Alliance Authentic platform and advanced Endstate NFC-enabled authentication for numbered collectible releases.
• Record Store Day Impact -- Over 700,000 units shipped to independent retailers; limited Handmade by Robots exclusives sold out, with demand exceeding production threefold.
• Owned Brand Performance -- Handmade by Robots reported as a "margin driver" and a scalable model for further expansion.
• Capital Allocation Framework -- Focuses on inventory for exclusive partnerships and selective technology investments, maintaining strategic flexibility.

SUMMARY

Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:AENT) delivered 21% revenue growth and achieved 25% net income growth, demonstrating expansion across core businesses. Management emphasized structural category shifts and distribution partnerships, particularly through expanded licensing with major studios, as central to ongoing performance improvements. Consistent broad-based demand gains were observed in music, video, and collectibles, underscored by both physical ownership trends and new platform initiatives. The launch of Alliance Authentic and integration of Endstate authentication technology expand the company's participation in the collectible product life cycle beyond initial sale. Disciplined liquidity management, with $60 million in working capital and substantial credit availability, provides operational support for scaling inventory and exclusive releases.

• Walker stated that for Record Store Day, "So, we made 2,000 units of each of those," but received "orders come in for just over 6,000 units on each," confirming sellout status and robust retailer interest.
• Gnecco noted, "Gross margin was 12.8% compared to 13.6% last year," attributing the decrease to "category and product mix within the quarter, including the relative contribution of certain lower-margin categories as we scaled revenue."
• Management highlighted the strategic transition from distribution-only to a full life cycle platform, as the company "advanced the next phase of our strategy with the launch of Alliance Authentic and the continued integration of Endstate."
• Exclusive content releases and industry-wide music and video category strength are expected to drive continued growth, with specific mention of forthcoming high-volume launches such as "Project Hail Mary" and Grand Theft Auto VI products.
• The call revealed ongoing evaluations for acquisitions in diversified categories, with several non-disclosure agreements active, indicating potential inorganic expansion ahead.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• SteelBook: Collectible metal-case packaging for physical media releases, typically limited edition and highly sought after by collectors.
• NFC: Near Field Communication technology used for digital authentication and product tracking in physical collectibles.
• Exclusive Content: Products or releases available only through specific partnerships or channels, enhancing differentiation and pricing power.
• Record Store Day: Annual event promoting physical music sales with exclusive product launches, driving significant retail and collectible activity within the industry.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Jeff Walker, Chief Executive Officer; and Amanda Gnecco, Chief Financial Officer, will present the results of operations for the third quarter and nine months ended March 31, 2026. Bruce Ogilvie, Executive Chairman, is also on the line and will participate during the Q&A session. At this time, I will turn the call over to Alliance Entertainment's CEO, Jeff Walker.

Jeffrey Walker: Thank you, Paul, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. I want to begin by framing the third quarter in very clear terms because the most important takeaway this quarter is that we are now seeing both sides of our model working together, sustained revenue growth and continued earnings expansion driven by the structural shift in our business. During the third quarter, Alliance delivered a strong top line growth with net revenue increasing 21% year-over-year alongside continued profitability with net income increasing 25% and adjusted EBITDA reaching $5.1 million. For the year-to-date period, net income is up 78% and adjusted EBITDA has increased 47%.

These results are important not just because of the growth, but because of how that growth is being generated. What we're seeing is the continued execution of a strategy we've been building over the last several years, a shift toward higher-value products, stronger mix and a more scalable operating model. The revenue growth this quarter was broad-based across our core categories, including Music, Video, Gaming and Collectibles, and it reflects both underlying demand and our ability to align inventory, content and distribution with where the collectors are going. At the same time, we continue to operate with discipline, even as we scale the business, we're maintaining a cost structure that allows us to generate operating leverage and sustain profitability.

That balance, growth with discipline is what defines the earnings profile we're building. Stepping back, what's important is that the performance is not being driven by short-term factors. It reflects a structural shift in how collectors engage with physical products today. We've been very clear in how we think about this. We are not in a declining physical media business. We are in the Collectible business. And what we're seeing in the market continues to validate that. Collectors are buying vinyl, CDs and premium video formats, not because they need access to content, but because they want to own something tied to the artists, franchises and brands they care about.

That shift towards ownership, scarcity and premium formats is driving stronger demand, better pricing and more consistent sell-through across our portfolio. It is also reinforcing our position as a key partner to studios, labels and licensors who are increasingly looking to Alliance to manage the full life cycle of these products. At the same time, we are extending that model beyond traditional distribution, during the quarter, we advanced the next phase of our strategy with the launch of Alliance Authentic and the continued integration of Endstate. These initiatives begin to layer authentication, provenance and life cycle engagement into the products we already distribute at scale, moving us towards a platform that supports Collectibles from initial sale through resale.

Taken together, the third quarter reinforces that Alliance is evolving into a more scalable, high-quality business, one that combines growth, profitability and increasing participation across the full life cycle of Collectible products. With that context, I'd like to walk through the key drivers behind this performance, starting with how our content strategy and category focus are shaping results across the portfolio. During the third quarter, we saw strong growth in Music and Video. Vinyl revenue increased 15% year-over-year to $99 million. CD revenue increased a staggering 90% to $39 million and Physical Movie revenue grew 5% to $61 million. What's notable here is not just the growth itself, but the breadth of that performance.

We're seeing strength across multiple formats, price points and release types. In Music, demand continues to be driven by both new releases and ongoing catalog engagement with particularly strong performance in Collectible-oriented segments such as limited editions and international titles, including K-pop. At an industry level, this trend continues to build with U.S. Vinyl sales surpassing $1 billion last year, marking nearly two decades of consistent growth. And what's important is how consumers are engaging with that product. When you look at major releases, whether it's Taylor Swift or other top artists, millions of Vinyl records and CDs are being sold alongside streaming access that is readily available. Those purchases are not about access. They're about ownership.

People want something tangible, connected to the artist, and that's what continues to drive demand in the category. We also saw incremental demand tied to event-driven moments like Record Store Day, which continues to expand in both scale and participation. This year was the largest Record Store Day ever, and we shipped over 700,000 units to independent retailers, reflecting both the strength of the event and our role in enabling it at scale. In Video, while the category has gone through a long period of decline, what we're seeing now is a more stable demand environment, supported by a steady cadence of new releases and continued interest in premium formats such as 4K, UltraHD and Collectible additions such as SteelBooks.

Industry data shows that 4K UltraHD formats grew approximately 12% in 2025, reinforcing the shift towards higher-quality collector-focused home entertainment. Over the past year, we've significantly expanded our access to high-quality content through our license agreements with Paramount, which became effective at the beginning of calendar 2025 and MGM Studios, which we added at the start of calendar 2026. Together, these partnerships give us distribution rights to some of the most valuable franchises in the industry, strengthening our position with both retailers and collectors. Just as importantly, they allow us to consistently bring premium high-demand releases to the market, which supports stronger sell-through, better pricing and improved visibility across key retail channels.

What we're also seeing is that scale matters more in this environment. As the market shifts towards Premium and Collectible formats, retailers and licensors increasingly rely on partners who can manage complexity, whether that's broader SKU assortments, shorter production runs or more targeted release strategy. That plays directly into our strengths in distribution, fulfillment and inventory management. So when you look at the Physical Media category today, the takeaway is that it's becoming more focused, more premium and more execution driven. And within that environment, our role continues to expand, not just as a distributor, but as a partner that helps bring these products to market in a way that maximize value across the entire ecosystem. Turning to Collectibles.

This continues to be one of the most important areas of our growth and value creation in the business. During the third quarter, Collectibles revenue increased 48% year-over-year. That growth was driven by a combination of higher average selling prices, expanded sourcing activity and continued improvement in product mix towards more premium and differentiated offerings. What we're focused on in this category is very deliberate. We're not trying to scale Collectibles through volume alone. We're focused on building a portfolio that emphasize licensed higher-value products that resonate with collectors and carry stronger margin characteristics. This aligns with what we're seeing more broadly across the industry.

Large retailers like Target are increasing investment in pop culture and Collectibles categories, while specialty players such as GameStop are seeing Collectibles becoming a growing share of their overall business. What that tells us is that this is not isolated demand. It's a broader structural shift towards higher-value fan-driven products. And that reinforces our focus on building a more differentiated Premium Collectibles portfolio. That approach starts with sourcing, but it extends well beyond that. Over the past year, we've expanded our vendor base and added new relationships that are bringing incremental high-quality product into the portfolio.

At the same time, we've been refining the mix within existing brands, moving away from more commoditized items and towards products with stronger fan engagement, better pricing power and more consistent sell-through. The result is a Collectible business that is not only growing but improving in quality with higher average selling prices, stronger margins and better inventory efficiency. That positions us to scale the category in a way that drives both revenue and profitability over time. A key contributor to that progress is Handmade by Robots. Since transitioning to an owned brand, Handmade by Robots have given us a much greater control over product design, licensing and go-to-market strategy.

We've expanded the licensing pipeline, increased retail distribution and are continuing to invest in new product development. What's important here is that this is not just a revenue contributor, it's a margin driver, and it represents a scalable model that we can apply across additional owned and controlled brands over time. More broadly, what we are seeing in Collectibles is very consistent with what we are seeing across the rest of the business. Demand is being driven by fans who are looking for products that are unique, limited and connected to the content they care about. That creates an opportunity to introduce high-quality products, manage supply more intentionally and ultimately improve both margins and inventory efficiency.

As we continue to build out this category, we see Collectibles both complementary to our core distribution business and increasingly important to our overall earnings profile. It deepens our relationship with licensors, expands our presence with retailers and allows us to participate more directly in the value creation of the products we sell. Building on that foundation, the next phase of our strategy is extending beyond the product itself and into the full life cycle of Collectibles. During the quarter, we advanced that effort with the launch of Alliance Authentic and the integration of Endstate Authentic. Alliance Authentic represents the first commercial application of this strategy within our portfolio.

We began with premium vinyl Collectibles encapsulated individually numbered releases that are authenticated at the point of origin and designed specifically for collectors. These products are not just sold, but curated with scarcity, provenance and long-term value in mind. What Endstate Authentic enables is the infrastructure behind that. Through NFC-enabled authentication and digital product identity, we can verify each item, track it over time and connect it to a digital record that supports ownership, authenticity and resale. That allows us to extend our role beyond initial distribution and supporting the product throughout its entire life cycle. This matters because as Collectibles become more valuable, the importance of trust, verification and transparency increases.

Collectors want to know what they own, where it came from and that is authentic. Licensors want to protect their brands and marketplaces require a reliable way to validate transactions. What we're building addresses all three. Over time, this creates additional opportunities that did not previously exist in physical products, including authenticated resale, direct engagement with collectors and participation in secondary market activity. Importantly, this is more than near-term revenue contribution. It's about establishing the infrastructure and ecosystem that can support long-term value creation across a growing base of Collectible products. We are already moving forward to expand this model beyond Vinyl into other categories, and we're continuing to explore partnerships, both within and outside of our existing portfolio.

This is a natural extension of the business we built. We already source, distribute and fulfill these products at scale. What we're now adding is the ability to track, authenticate and engage with those products over time. That evolution moves us from a transactional model towards a platform that participates more fully in the value of products we bring to market. With that, I'll turn it over to Amanda to walk through the financial results in more detail.

Amanda Gnecco: Thanks, Jeff. I'll start with our financial performance for the third quarter. Net revenue for the quarter was $258 million, an increase of 21% compared to $213 million in the prior year period. This growth reflects broad-based strength across our core categories, as Jeff discussed, and continued alignment of our product mix with areas of higher consumer demand. Cost of revenue increased 22% year-over-year to $225 million, generally in line with the revenue growth, reflecting the higher volume of products flowing through the business. Gross profit for the quarter was $33 million compared to $29.1 million in the prior year period. Gross margin was 12.8% compared to 13.6% last year.

The year-over-year change primarily reflects category and product mix within the quarter, including the relative contribution of certain lower-margin categories as we scaled revenue. Importantly, we continue to see the benefits of mix improvement and pricing discipline across higher-value categories, which support the overall earnings profile of the business over time. Net income for the quarter increased 25% to $2.3 million or $0.05 per diluted share compared to $1.9 million or $0.04 per share in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $5.1 million, up from $4.9 million last year, representing a 4% increase.

While EBITDA growth was more modest than revenue growth in the quarter, it reflects the continued scaling of the business alongside targeted investments in growth initiatives, including technology and platform capabilities. Overall, the third quarter reflects a business that is growing, generating consistent profitability and continuing to operate with discipline as we invest in areas that support long-term expansion. Turning now to our year-to-date results, which provides a broader view of the underlying momentum in the business. For the nine months ended March 31, 2026, net revenue was $881 million, an increase of 5% compared to $836 million in the prior year period.

While overall revenue growth was more modest on a year-to-date basis, it reflects continued strength in higher-value categories and the impact of mix improvements across the portfolio. That mix shift is clearly reflected in profitability. Gross profit for the nine-month period increased to $117.3 million compared to $96.9 million in the prior year, and gross margin expanded by 170 basis points to 13.3%. This improvement was driven by increased contribution from Premium Physical Media, Collectibles and Exclusive Content as well as continued discipline in pricing and inventory management. Net income for the 9-month period increased 78% to $16.6 million or $0.32 per diluted share compared to $9.3 million or $0.18 per share in the prior year period.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 47% to $35.7 million, up from $24.4 million last year. What these results demonstrate is the operating leverage inherent in our model. As we continue to shift the business towards higher-value products and more efficient execution, we are seeing a disproportionate improvement in earnings relative to revenue. Importantly, this performance reflects consistency across multiple quarters. The margin expansion and earnings growth we are delivering are not isolated to a single period, but the result of deliberate changes in mix, cost structure and operating discipline that are compounding over time. Overall, our year-to-date results reinforce that we are building a structurally stronger business with improving profitability and increasing scalability as we continue to grow.

Before I turn it back to Jeff, I'll touch on our balance sheet and liquidity position. We ended the quarter with approximately $60 million in working capital, reflecting continued discipline in managing both inventory and payables as we support growth across the business. Inventory increased during the quarter, consistent with higher revenue and the timing of inbound product. Importantly, our inventory levels remain aligned with current demand and reflect our focus on higher value, faster-moving categories where we have strong visibility into sell-through. From a liquidity standpoint, we ended the quarter with approximately $56 million of availability under our revolving credit facility.

This provides us with ample flexibility to support working capital needs, invest in inventory tied to exclusive partnerships and fund strategic initiatives across the business. More broadly, our balance sheet remains well positioned to support both near-term operating requirements and longer-term growth. We continue to take a measured approach to capital management with a focus on maintaining liquidity, managing risk and preserving flexibility as we scale the business. I'll close with a brief comment on our approach to capital allocation. Our framework remains consistent and disciplined. We prioritize investments that directly support the strategy Jeff outlined and that enhance the quality and durability of our earnings.

First, we continue to allocate capital towards inventory and exclusive content partnerships where we have strong demand visibility and attractive returns. These investments support higher-value products, improve overall mix and reinforce our relationships with key licensors and retail partners. Second, we invest selectively in technology and infrastructure that improve scalability and efficiency. This includes automation, systems that support our exclusive partnerships and capabilities tied to initiatives like Alliance Authentic and Endstate Authentic. These investments are targeted and are evaluated based on clear operational and financial returns. Throughout all of this, maintaining flexibility remains a priority.

We are not pursuing growth for growth's sake, and we remain focused on deploying capital in a way that balances near-term performance with long-term value creation. That discipline has been an important contributor to the earnings growth and operating leverage we've delivered, and it will continue to guide our decision-making going forward. With that, I'll turn it back to Jeff.

Jeffrey Walker: Thanks, Amanda. Before we open the call for questions, I want to spend a few minutes on how we're thinking about the business from here. As we look at the third quarter and year-to-date performance, what's most important is the consistency we're seeing across the model. We've now demonstrated the ability to grow revenue, expand earnings and maintain discipline all at the same time. That's a meaningful shift from where the business was even a few years ago. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the trajectory we're building. From an execution standpoint, our priorities are clear.

We're focused on continuing to scale our core categories, particularly in areas where we're seeing strong demand and favorable mix, including Premium Physical Media and higher-value Collectibles. The pipeline of new releases, exclusive content and licensed products remains strong, and we believe that supports continued growth and earnings quality as we move forward. We are also continuing to expand our owned and controlled brands. Handmade by Robots is a good example of how we can create additional value by controlling design, licensing and distribution, and we see opportunities to extend that model across new categories and partnerships over time.

We are also expanding the Platform side of the business, which is becoming an increasingly important part of how we create value across the ecosystem. That includes Alliance Authentic, where we are bringing premium authenticated Collectibles directly to market through curated limited releases designed specifically for collectors. This allows us to participate more directly in product design, scarcity and pricing and deliver higher value offerings to our consumer base. Alongside that, Endstate Authentic provides the underlying infrastructure that enables authentication, providence and lifestyle tracking through NFC-enabled technology. Our focus there is on building out that foundation, deepening integrations and expanding use cases across additional products and partners.

And most recently, we relaunched Moviesunlimited website as a curated destination for collectors, supporting high-value purchasing behaviors like preorders and limited editions and strengthening the collector lifetime value. Taken together, these platforms extend our role beyond traditional distribution. We will continue to manage the business with a focus on profitability, operating leverage and return on capital while investing selectively in areas that support long-term growth. Stepping back, what we're building is a more scalable and more differentiated business. We're moving beyond a traditional distribution model and towards a platform that connects content owners, retailers and collectors across the full life cycle of the products we bring to market.

That evolution is already reflected in the quality of our earnings and the strength of our performance, and we believe it positions Alliance to create durable long-term value for our shareholders. Before we turn to questions, I want to thank our employees across the organization for their continued execution and commitment. I'd also like to thank our partners, customers and shareholders for their ongoing support. Operator, we're ready to open the line for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Thomas Forte with Maxim Group.

Thomas Forte: Great. So first off, Bruce, Jeff and Amanda, I apologize in advance if you touched on these in your prepared remarks. I'm juggling multiple calls right now. And then I'm going to ask both questions at once, and thank you in advance for your answers. So the first question is, this past Record Store Day, you offered Handmade by Robots, a limited release of Ozzy Osbourne and a Hello Kitty SKU. How would you characterize the success of the initiative, including to drive brand awareness for Handmade by Robots? And then my second question is, you added Amazon MGM Studios just ahead of its breakout box office hit, Project Hail Mary, which was an amazing movie.

Can one title be a needle mover for your DVD business?

Jeffrey Walker: Thank you, Tom. This is Jeff. I'll start with the Handmade and the Record Store Day there. It's really the first time that Record Store Day had approved a Collectible, their focus on vinyl records there. And we have a huge business with the Record Stores and Record Store Day. On those two titles, one of the things that's important for Record Store Day is to make sure that there's not an oversupply of the product. So, we made 2,000 units of each of those. We actually had orders come in for just over 6,000 units on each of them. So, the stores were allocated down on their orders. And then on top of that, we added another little wrinkle.

They all did sell out in the stores. The stores were extremely happy with them. They were hit. We actually started a new Record Store series on them. So you will see on the outside of the packaging, it says Record Store Day exclusive, and it's a 001 and 002. So, as we move forward, there will be additional ones. We do have titles presented to them for November Record Store Day and next April that we're working on with licensors right now. Then the other part that was a huge home run in that with those Handmade was that we encapsulated 30 units of each of the characters.

In the encapsulation through Alliance Authentic, we added an NFC chip to those. And it was, those were the hot tickets. A store got, some of the top stores got one of those. And what you see a lot after Record Store Day is there's some resellers that sell them on eBay and things. We were seeing the Ozzy and the Hello Kitty in that $75 range on eBay. The encapsulated ones, we saw ones in the $400 to $500 range. When you look at it, people really wanted those characters. There's 2,000 of them, but there's only 30 of them that are encapsulated, uncirculated with an NFC chip.

The people that have those 30 are going to have a fantastic investment over time because you can imagine we continue to drive this over the next 10 to 20 years. That's going to be a very famous two pieces that we created with Handmade. On Project Hail Mary, yes, that's going to be a home run title for us. Its release date is in August. And yes, it's one of the, I think it's the biggest theatrical release we've had last, in calendar '25 and here into '26. So, we're doing a lot of different planning and preparation for that right now.

And we expect that to be a very good release and high volume on DVD in all formats.

Operator: Next question comes from the line of Michael Kupinski with NOBLE Capital Markets.

Unknown Analyst: It is Jacob Muchler on for Michael today. So, my first question is also regarding Alliance Authentic. I was just curious if you could talk about some of the products that might hit Alliance Authentic next. I understand that it could be multiple different kinds of Collectibles could be put on to the platform. But I am just curious if there's some additional Collectible categories that seem most likely to reach a platform next.

Jeffrey Walker: Yes. We're, we have vinyl in there right now. Those are numbered Collectibles. And then we have launched Funko Pops encapsulated as well as our Handmade by Robots. In the future, we do have cases right now for DVD SteelBook, and we have cases for video games, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. There is the aspect within all of this that it's, we're really looking at preserving uncirculated copies of all these types of products and put an NFC digital chip with it, encapsulate it and it has become a piece of history.

When you think about going backwards and think about products that came out years ago, the idea here is that these get encapsulated at the beginning and over time, 5, 10, 20 years down the road, even 50 years down the road, it's really a substantial piece of history, and we know it's authentic, and we know it's encapsulated. That's the intention with this product. I think we're on to something really big in this category here.

Unknown Analyst: Got you. And would you be able to talk about some of the favorable undercurrents in the music industry this year and also the video game industry. It looks like there's a number of high-profile album releases and then also Grand Theft Auto VI in the back half of the year. Just curious what your expectations are this year with a big release schedule.

Jeffrey Walker: Yes. We're all pretty excited on the release schedule. On the Music side, we just keep getting significant great artist releases. This last quarter that we're reporting here, we had a big Bruno Mars release, big release from Harry Styles, and then we topped it off with the BTS release. Those were huge titles for us. They're continuing to come hot and heavy. And then with that, we're also seeing some crazy numbers on vinyl sales and CD sales were off the chart. There's a lot of social media conversation about building your own collection and music, having your own collection of CDs and vinyl. That conversation is bleeding over into video and DVDs right now.

People want to own stuff and collect it and have their collections. And it's a big push on social media right now we're seeing. With respect to Grand Theft Auto, it's going to be a home run for Q4, there's huge numbers being projected in the industry for it. We will be selling the game. We do buy direct from Take-Two. So it will be a huge release for us. We even, on top of that, we just came back from Music Biz this week, and we got like a home run coming out of Music Biz because there's a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack that is coming. Same thing in November.

It's got, I think, 20-plus songs on it. all the A-list artists each have a song on it. It's a compilation of artists. Some of the songs are in the game. Some of the songs are additional songs. It's going to be a home run vinyl release for us also revolving around that Grand Theft Auto. So we're pretty excited about that one coming in fourth quarter.

Operator: Next question comes from the line of Linda Bolton Weiser with Water Tower Research.

Unknown Analyst: With regard to your adding Handmade by Robots to your portfolio, do you envision looking for more similar acquisitions? And do you think you'll stick mostly in the Collectible figure category? Or do you see opportunity in some other product categories as well?

Jeffrey Walker: Thank you, Linda. From an acquisition standpoint, we're heavily engaged in lots of potential acquisition opportunities. And we've got several NDAs out right now in conversations that we're in. We do like licensed products. And so there could be other collectible stuff. It could be in a lot of other categories. With the wide range of products that we carry and that aspect, it does widen the net for what we can look at for acquisitions that become accretive to Alliance. So that's a good thing. If we're only in one really tight category, it makes it hard for acquisitions. But for us, we're pretty diversified in a lot of different areas.

And if we have an opportunity to pick up a company that really can be accretive through Alliance and create new sales opportunities for us, maybe new vendor opportunities. That's a home run, and we're actively looking at those right now.

Operator: We have no questions at this point of time. Over to you, Paul. Thank you.

Paul Kuntz: We do have several webcast questions. We had a couple around CDs. So I'm just going to combine these two. One was, can you provide a bit more color on the strong CD sales? And then a related question was the growth in vinyl and CDs this quarter related primarily to Record Store Day? Or was it more of a structural shift toward collecting?

Jeffrey Walker: Before I answer that one, I'm going to go back to Linda's question real quick. If anybody knows of any possible acquisitions that you think would be a good fit for Alliance, definitely reach out to me on that. I'm always looking for new leads and new opportunities there. So that's a request from the community out there. If there's anything you think you have an insight to or anything you think would be a good fit for us, definitely reach out to me, and we'd be, I'd be definitely interested in looking at that. Paul, on the question with CDs, I mean I've been selling CDs since I started in 1990 with the music store.

And it was hotter than hot in 1990 when everybody was buying CDs. And we are honestly shocked right now is the growth we're seeing on the CD side. It definitely is a trend, and we saw the trend on the vinyl side. If you look back in our business 7 or 8 years ago, we were doing $5 million a year in vinyl, and we stayed in it. We never were out of it, and we've organically seen that business now. We just finished the quarter at $99 million in vinyl for a quarter. So with fourth quarter sales and stuff, I mean, that's more than $400 million run rate.

On the CD, that's a significant growth over last year. And I will go back one second to 2025. On the vinyl side, we sold 16.8 million units of vinyl. On the CD side, it was 13.5 million. It wasn't a small number. And now we're looking at this type of growth here on the CD side, we're continuing to see it go here. I think the other piece on CD is kind of happened in the vinyl as vinyl was coming back and seeing a resurgence. You're starting to see the record labels refocusing on CD as far as marketing it and also making sure that they have stock on hand, their stock available on CD.

We had a little stretch a few years ago where people kind of had an eye off the ball on the CD, and we were not getting our fill percentages and stuff from our vendors as good, but people are improving that right now because of the demand. When an artist is bringing out a new release, we're seeing vinyl and CD. And it's, that music side is extremely strong right now. And last thing I want to say is we've seen a lot of DVD decline over the last 10 years. The rate of decline on DVD has been shrinking over the last two years.

And there's definitely a real possibility that we're going to be at a bottom out on the DVD, and we could see DVD start to move similar to what we're seeing on the CD side right now because as it bottoms out and these conversations continue with collectors and people want their fans and they want to have a DVD collection on their wall, that's what's driving this.

Paul Kuntz: And our next question, can you comment on how you're developing the direction of Endstate authentic? Will they ultimately authenticate in all sports and music, for example?

Jeffrey Walker: So we acquired Endstate Authentic, Bennett and Stephanie, who lead that division. I've been working super closely with them over the last four months here. And we're in a lot of very interesting conversations. They do work with accounts outside of Alliance Authentic with companies that do watch authentication and there are several other different categories that we're in. We are in very active conversations with new customers on that Endstate Authentic side. And I think over this next fiscal year, you're going to see some pretty good inroads with the Endstate aspect there and what we can do. I really can't disclose too much as to a lot of those conversations under NDAs right now.

Paul Kuntz: Thank you. And our next question, are you seeing overlap between customers that are buying media and those that are buying Collectibles or electronics? Or are those all still fairly distinct customer groups?

Jeffrey Walker: Well, there's, yes, they're definitely all intermixed for sure. And, and there is a crossover between music and video and the Collectibles. I will say, in a lot of cases, there's a lot of ways to kind of divide up the fans and what they collect. There's also collectors that are in different genres, so you have collectors that are huge fans and followers of horror. So they like horror movies. They like horror Collectibles. You have fans of anime and they like everything related around anime. Then you have your music fans that are all around everything music, not only the music itself, but anything they can collect of their favorite movie music artists.

Then you have fans that are revolving around movies and their movie bus and anything they can get their hands on with respect to all types of movies. So we work across all those different channels and really try to put all the pieces together. There's a lot of synergies between our different departments. So, and I just even an example there on Grand Theft Auto. So we got a big video game. So our gaming team, and now we got a music vinyl record with it. There's, we're probably going to be seeing some other products that are relating to that franchise.

Across all of our purchasing teams and sales teams, there's a lot of cohesive work happening here at Alliance to cross-sell those. And so somebody who has a store that's a gaming store and doesn't really sell vinyl, they might come in and say, "Hey, I can sell 60 units of that vinyl record because I'm going to have this huge amount of customers coming in to pick up the video game and so forth there. So that's where we're seeing a lot of this win that we talk about to everybody. We're seeing that cross being very robust for us right now.

Paul Kuntz: Thanks, Jeff. Our next question, with Alliance Authentic and Endstate Authentic, how should we think about the pacing of that opportunity? What are the key milestones that would signal it's becoming a meaningful contributor?

Jeffrey Walker: Well, both of those are in extreme start-up phase. I call it concentration right now. We are, we have a lot of resources on it. We got a lot of people on it. We got a lot of focus from me and other leaders to really develop both of those, the Alliance Authentic and the Endstate Authentic. I think here in fiscal '27, we're going to start to see some aspects where, on the Alliance Authentic, we started getting some more key titles encapsulated and seeing some solid demand on those. stuff like the Ozzy and Hello Kitty start to make people think about it. Now all of a sudden, the music stores saw those.

They saw what happened to it. It's a training. We got to educate people on what those products are and so forth. And we're making good progress with that. Record labels are starting to really understand what the product is and the importance of that product in the history and life cycle of vinyl records. We're trying to encapsulate a limited quantity of those that become the ultimate vinyl Collectible of that album. And on the Endstate side, there's a lot of different types of businesses that could really use an NFC chip in what they're doing. And we're in a lot of conversations on that side.

So I think in this next fiscal year, you're going to see quite a few announcements of deals that we've been able to make for both of those areas. And I can't communicate any of the details until we have those deals in place, and we'll have press releases and things revolving around those.

Paul Kuntz: It looks like we have one more question at this point. You called out strength across multiple categories this quarter. Are you seeing any meaningful differences in how demand is trending across those categories? Or is it fairly broad-based right now?

Jeffrey Walker: I would say it's fairly broad-based. I mean, even our gaming side has been pretty solid. We are cautiously optimistic even on gaming right now with the change over there at Microsoft on the Xbox side with new leadership there. So we're, as I said, cautiously optimistic about maybe a little more push towards consoles and physical product compared to where Microsoft was kind of leaning in the last couple of years. Our Collectible business is super strong and that side of it. It's a combination on, in Collectibles of expanding sales and adding new stores and customers and adding even more Collectibles in the music stores and things like that.

But it's also, we brought on quite a few Collectible suppliers into our distribution side. I'll give you a quick example. If we bring on a supplier and their product line through our sales channels, we can generate $3 million a year on that supplier's product. That's as valuable as bringing on a customer that can buy $3 million a year. So we're working on both sides of those, right? So when we're at toy fair or a convention like that.

We have our whole sales team there working on selling to customers that are there, but we have our whole purchasing team talking with our current vendors and working on opportunities to bring in product from vendors that we aren't currently supplying. That's why you're seeing some really strong numbers on the Collectible side right now because it's not only adding new accounts and expanding the product that we have into more accounts. And so we're adding significant amount of vendors on the Collectible side. And that's, so we're getting that doubling of the growth in that space.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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