Q3 2023 Advance Auto Parts Inc Earnings Call
Participants
Anthony A Iskander; Interim CFO & SVP of Finance and Treasurer; Advance Auto Parts, Inc.
Elisabeth Eisleben; SVP of Communications, IR, & Community Affairs; Advance Auto Parts, Inc.
Shane M. O’Kelly; President, CEO & Director; Advance Auto Parts, Inc.
Bret David Jordan; MD & Equity Analyst; Jefferies LLC, Research Division
Brian William Nagel; MD & Senior Analyst; Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division
Christian Justin Carlino; Research Analyst; JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Christopher James Bottiglieri; Research Analyst; BNP Paribas Exane, Research Division
Elizabeth Lane Suzuki; VP; BofA Securities, Research Division
Jacquelyn Renee Sussman; Research Associate; Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Michael Lasser; MD and Equity Research Analyst of Consumer Hardlines; UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Michael David Montani; MD; Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division
Scot Ciccarelli; MD; Truist Securities, Inc., Research Division
Seth Mckain Basham; MD of Equity Research; Wedbush Securities Inc., Research Division
Steven Emanuel Zaccone; Senior Research Analyst; Citigroup Inc., Research Division
Steven Paul Forbes; Analyst; Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Research Division
Unidentified Analyst
Zachary Robert Fadem; Senior Analyst; Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division
Presentation
Operator
Hello, and welcome to the Advance Auto Parts Third Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Before we begin Elisabeth Eisleben, Senior Vice President, Communications and Investor Relations, will make a brief statement concerning forward-looking statements that will be discussed on this call.
Elisabeth Eisleben
Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss our Q3 2023 results. I'm joined by Gene Lee, our Interim Executive Chair; Shane O’Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tony Iskander, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Following Shane and Tony's prepared remarks, we will turn our attention to answering your questions.
Before we begin, please be advised that remarks today will contain forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our ongoing strategic and operational review, initiative plans, projections and future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those projected or implied by the forward-looking statements.
Additional information about factors that could cause actual results to differ can be found under the captions, Forward-looking Statements and Risk Factors in our most recent Form 10-K and subsequent filings made with the commission. Now let me turn the call over to Shane.
Shane M. O’Kelly
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to be here for my first earnings call as the CEO of Advance. We have several topics to discuss with you this morning. But before I begin, I'd like to thank all of Advance's team members who I've come to know during my first 60 days with the company.
During that time, I visited our stores across multiple markets, met with numerous customers, spent time in our distribution centers, got to know our Carquest independents and attended our annual vendor summit where I had the chance to meet with many of our major suppliers. Through all of this, I came away impressed with the passion and dedication of our frontline team members and I remain optimistic about the future of the company.
In addition to spending time in the field, I have partnered closely with the Board and management team to make progress on our strategic and operational review. As the new CEO, I placed a premium on capabilities learned during my time in the military. This includes aligning the company around fewer measurable goals while ensuring discipline and accountability in the process to achieve those goals.
During my review of Advance, we identified the need to simplify our overall strategy while also improving execution, both of which will create value. Consistent with that, we are moving forward with a sense of urgency to help stabilize the company and return to profitable growth. Today, we are announcing decisive actions that we have initiated to achieve these objectives.
Those actions are: number one, the initiation of a sale process for Worldpac; number two, the initiation of a separate sales process for our Canadian business; number three, significant cost reductions; number four, reinvestment in the field; and number five, the appointment of a new CFO as well as other organizational updates.
These decisive actions are further reinforced with a renewed and vigorous commitment of selling auto parts. That is our core business. This includes eliminating numerous initiatives that were distracting us from a clear focus on the most fundamental aspects of our business. We believe our success will come from disciplined execution across the blended box model, where we service both professional installers and DIY customers from our Advance and Carquest locations.
Let's take a moment and further describe our 5 decisive actions beginning with the decision to initiate the sale process for Worldpac. Worldpac is a high-performing business and, as you know, is very different than our core blended box model. As we get back to the fundamentals of servicing our professional and DIY customers, we view now as the right time to simplify our model.
The Worldpac business still operates relatively independently from Advance and we believe that the sale process will not create a distraction. Next, let's talk about our business in Canada, which goes to market under the Carquest banner. Today, we are announcing a separate sales process for that business. Like Worldpac, our Canadian business also runs largely independently and predominantly serves professional customers. We do not believe this sales process will cause a distraction for our U.S. business.
Third, as part of our operational review, we have launched a new cost reduction program that we expect will generate a minimum of $150 million in savings on an annualized basis. These savings will be primarily driven by simplifying our organizational structure, minimizing duplicative efforts and eliminating investments that are not core to supporting our frontline team members and customers.
Fourth, while we expect to see the benefits of these cost reductions beginning next year, we recognize that we must take action to improve the retention of our frontline teams and ensure we have experienced team members to serve our customers. In line with this, we expect to reinvest approximately $50 million of our savings back into the business, inclusive of wages and training enhancements.
In fact, we began making changes to our frontline compensation structure in Q3 and are already seeing a reduction in turnover in targeted frontline roles. And fifth, following a robust search, I am pleased to announce that we have appointed a new CFO. We're thrilled that Ryan Grimsland will be joining the Advance family from Lowe's to lead our finance organization. Ryan has more than 20 years' experience leading high-performing teams in omnichannel retail businesses serving both Pro and DIY customers. He has a strong track record of driving organizational improvements while implementing best practices to resolve complex issues. I look forward to Ryan joining us later this month and partnering with him and the entire leadership team to drive the needed change for Advance.
In addition to our CFO announcement, we've taken action to streamline our management structure. We have reorganized parts of my leadership team and transition responsibilities for our marketing, merchandising and e-commerce functions to the appropriate leaders in our organization who will drive enhanced collaboration and accountability. We have made additional organizational adjustments in several other areas to help us operate more effectively.
I would also note, as part of our strategic review, we are taking a disciplined approach to the evaluation of all assets, including corporate stores, independently owned Carquest locations and our distribution network, all to enhance productivity. This may include the rationalization of unprofitable assets to better allocate resources focused on core fundamentals. We are early in this process and expect to share more as we progress in the thorough evaluation of our entire business.
As I emphasized earlier, we are sharpening our focus on the fundamentals. As an example, last month, we held our annual partner Growth Summit and our team spent a few days with hundreds of representatives from key suppliers who are critical to how we better serve our customers. This annual event is a valuable opportunity for us to collaborate and share updates on our strategy.
This year's summit was a great venue for us to articulate to our vendors how we are turning the page as an organization and we are excited to return to growth with their partnership. We recognize that having the right inventory availability is crucial for our team members' ability to serve customers, which would not be possible without the strong support of our vendor partners.
Finally, before I hand the call off to Tony, I'd like to thank him for his dedication and incredible work over the past few months serving as our interim CFO in addition to his role as Treasurer. His servant leadership has been instrumental across our finance organization. I look forward to continuing to partner with Tony as we build Advance and capture the immense opportunity ahead of us.
With that, I'd like to now turn the call over to Tony to discuss our Q3 results and provide an update on our outlook for the full year. Tony?
Anthony A Iskander
Thanks, Shane, and good morning. I would also like to thank all our team members for their continued dedication and focus on the customer. In Q3, our net sales of $2.7 billion increased 2.9% compared with Q3 2022 due to continued strength across our professional business.
Comparable store sales increased 1.2%. All of our regions were positive during the quarter with the West, Florida and Northeast regions posting mid-single-digit growth. From a category perspective, we saw strength in filters, engine management, motor oil and batteries.
Importantly, we've delivered meaningful growth in heating and cooling as we significantly improved our in-stock levels year-over-year.
In terms of the cadence of the quarter, both Pro and DIY omnichannel saw strength in the first 2 periods and softened the last 4 weeks of the quarter. Our Pro business was positive throughout Q3 and outperformed DIY omnichannel as transactions continued to improve and were up mid-single digits from the previous year on top of the improvement in Q2.
As expected, average ticket in Pro was down slightly as part of our ongoing efforts to maintain competitive price targets. However, units have increased slightly year-over-year. DIY omnichannel average ticket was up mid-single digits with transactions down low single digits in Q3.
Before turning to the balance of our P&L, we've made strong progress towards remediating the material weakness and as part of our diligence in this process, we uncovered nonmaterial issues with our previously reported financial results. The balance of our financial results will compare our Q3 actual results to the corrected results for the prior year. The remediation of our material weakness remains a top priority.
Despite improving top line trends, our gross profit margin was negatively impacted by several factors and deleveraged 830 basis points compared with Q3 2022. First, in line with the decisive actions Shane highlighted earlier, and as part of our operational review of the business, we implemented a change in estimate regarding our excess inventory reserves and incurred a onetime impact of approximately $119 million.
Further, like previous quarters, we experienced approximately $80 million in higher product costs that were not fully covered by pricing actions as we sustain our CPI targets. In addition, wage inflation and increased volume resulted in elevated supply chain expenses. These headwinds were partially offset by a reduction in LIFO-related expenses as we recognized a $56 million benefit this quarter compared with $67 million of expense in the same period last year. While SG&A dollars in the quarter increased year-over-year as a percent of net sales, SG&A leveraged nearly 30 basis points.
Our Q3 operating income margin deleveraged approximately 810 basis points compared with the prior year quarter. As you saw in our release this morning and as Shane discussed, we are taking action to significantly reduce costs in the business that has increased faster than sales over the past few years.
We expect to see the full annualized savings of a minimum of $150 million in 2024 with approximately $50 million reinvested in our frontline team members. Diluted loss per share was $0.82 in Q3 compared with diluted earnings per share of $1.92 in the prior year quarter.
Free cash flow in the quarter was an inflow of $148 million and year-to-date was an outflow of nearly $157 million. As we continue to focus on our working capital metrics, our AP ratio expanded 470 basis points from Q2 2023 to 79.8%.
Before turning to guidance, let me touch on supply chain finance. We have maintained a similar level of capacity in our supply chain finance program thanks to the strong bank partners that continue to support us and our vendors. As you saw in our release this morning, we are updating our full year guidance. We are adjusting the top end of our net and comparable store sales ranges. However, as mentioned, there are several onetime factors impacting margins in the back half of the year. This includes the change in our excess inventory estimate in Q3 and costs we expect to incur related to our organizational restructuring in Q4.
Accordingly, we are reducing our operating income margin, diluted EPS and free cash flow guidance ranges. We are taking decisive actions to improve our cost structure now and we'll continue to evaluate further opportunities as we make additional progress on our strategic and operational review. As a result, we are updating our 2023 guidance ranges to include: net sales of $11.25 billion to $11.3 billion; comparable store sales of minus 0.5% to flat; GAAP operating income margin of 1.8% to 2%; income tax rate of 25%; diluted earnings per share of $1.40 to $1.80; capital expenditures of $200 million to $250 million; positive free cash flow of $50 million to $100 million; and 55 to 65 new store and branch openings.
With that, I'd like to turn the call back to Shane.
Shane M. O’Kelly
As I mentioned earlier, we recognized there is substantial work to be done and are focused on executing a strategy centered on our customers and our frontline team members while continuing to look at additional opportunities to simplify our operations. We are taking and will continue to take decisive action to stabilize the business and position Advance for long-term sustainable success.
All of us at Advance the Board and the entire management team are committed to returning to profitable growth and creating value for shareholders. I look forward to providing you with further updates on our next earnings call. I would now like to open it up to address your questions. Operator?
Question and Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question today goes to Michael Lasser of UBS.
Michael Lasser
Shane, I know it's been very early in your tenure at Advance Auto Parts, but there's so many moving pieces in the business right now. As you think about the long term, what's the realistic operating margin for the core business, excluding some of the businesses that you're looking to sell? And it seems like the implied gross margin is going to settle around the 41% range. Is that the correct run rate that we should think about for the long term?
Shane M. O’Kelly
Michael, thanks for the question. It's too early for me to set what the long-term OI looks like for this company other than to say that I'm optimistic about where it can go. And that if we do these 5 decisive actions as we implement them, they'll all help in boosting where we sit there. And then same for margin. Early days, but know that we are absolutely focused on where we can increase the margins, and we'll be looking to do that in '24.
Just one other small comment there, a way to help think about making that happen is with our org structure, where one dimension of that is having merchandising be a direct report to me. And they view that as a critical component for managing margin in a retail company.
Michael Lasser
Okay. And my follow-up question is, are you seeing any impact from the negative credit rating downgrade? And how are you thinking about capital needs of the business? And if anything, you could comment around the size of Worldpac or the Canadian business that will help that as you go through the process?
Shane M. O’Kelly
So a lot there. I'm going to ask Tony to comment, but we don't have liquidity issues or issues on supply chain financing. And then I'm not going to comment on the size of Worldpac or Canada. We've engaged Centerview to manage that process and interested parties can reach out to them. But Tony, can you tell us about the liquidity and financing?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes. Michael, good to talk to you again. We -- as you heard in my prepared remarks, we have continued to maintain the same level or very similar levels for our supply chain finance program, which really supports our vendors and our finance program. So we're not seeing any impact. And as you saw in our earnings release, we continue to grow cash flow. Our cash balance on the balance sheet grew, and we did not have any outstanding on the revolver as we have paid that down during the quarter as well.
Michael Lasser
And that last question...
Shane M. O’Kelly
There's no -- Michael, there's no urgency or requirements around the sale of Worldpac or Canada. They're both good businesses. This is really around our strategy and what we want to focus on as a company going forward, which is that domestic blended box model.
Operator
And our next question goes to Chris Horvers of JPMorgan.
Christian Justin Carlino
It's Christian Carlino now on for Chris. I guess stepping back, how would you characterize what went wrong with the supply chain? And any color on the path forward in terms of the time line or the cost to fix it? You laid out the time line for the cost saves, but it seems like you'll also be paring back maybe some of the smaller Carquest DCs. So will you then need to add more modern or better located facilities? Or is it more on the operational front fixing the inventory management process?
Shane M. O’Kelly
So a lot there. Thanks for the question. The first thing I'll say is you know that our supply chain stems from the 2 entities from Carquest and from Advance. That will be one of the next areas where I'll be putting focus is really around validating the design of our future supply chain. And as we do that, there'll be some rationalization. There may be some facility additions, but we're comfortable we'll develop that plan as we go forward.
In terms of availability, those efforts can be discrete of just what occurs on the actual supply chain design and there's been a lot of work going on there, which we've improved across a number of areas. Think about that as under car engine management, heating and cooling brakes. And that comes from the pick-and-shovel work going on with the merchandise and inventory teams.
Christian Justin Carlino
Got it. That's helpful. And then just one quick one on the guide. What are you including for the onetime reorganization costs in 4Q? And then I guess, also in terms of how you're managing the supply chain finance program, is the implication that you're maybe giving suppliers back some margin in exchange for holding the payable days somewhat constant? How should we think about the puts and takes there?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes. Chris. Two good questions. So first, let's address the supply chain financing. We are not seeing that kind of impact in our programs. We have very strong bank partners and we have a tremendous amount of support from our key vendors. So we are not seeing any of that at this time. So in terms of that, we feel good. In terms of the guide in the back half, we have not laid out the impact from the restructuring. It is included in our guide. We're really not commenting on that just due to the sensitivity around our team members as we kick this off.
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. Those reorganization dimensions are taking place this week, and we want to be sensitive to our associates, that's a difficult process for any company to go through.
Operator
The next question goes to Elizabeth Suzuki of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Elizabeth Lane Suzuki
Just a question on the decision to increase the new store opening piece. I mean, particularly in the context of simplifying the business and preserving cash flow. Just curious what you're seeing in terms of new store profitability and whether that's been exceeding your expectations?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes. So Liz, good to talk to you again. We increased that based on a couple of opportunities that we have had in terms of opening stores or accelerating some of those openings -- new store openings. So we believe that we will continue to be very prudent in our approach to new stores, and we will continue to focus on asset productivity that we've talked about the last 2 quarters, and that's an important part of our business.
Elizabeth Lane Suzuki
And just a question on the businesses that you're planning to sell and what was acquired back in 2014. Just thinking about how that -- how those assets have evolved? And whether -- because -- so you're selling the Canadian part of the Carquest business, but keeping the U.S. part and selling the Worldpac part of the GPI acquisition. So just trying to frame or size those businesses as much as possible just for our analysis.
Shane M. O’Kelly
We don't do segment reporting, so not prepared to break those out now. But just reiterating they're both good businesses. and that sales process is -- we're just starting that now. So we'll do price discovery with potential suitors. No requirement to sell the business if we're not satisfied with what we see in the market. And so we're just starting that now.
Operator
The next question goes to Steven Zaccone of Citigroup.
Steven Emanuel Zaccone
To follow up on the prior question, could you at least talk about the Worldpac business is it much higher than the reported operating margin that you have today? And then help us think about the priorities for the cash proceeds from these sales, how would you rank using that cash?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes. So good question. Unfortunately, back on the segment reporting, I'm not going to talk about the business other than to say it's a great business. We don't have a requirement to sell it. Selling it lets us simplify our approach going forward, which is to that blended box model. Your question on the proceeds is a good one. And first and always in a business if you have the economic dollars from an event like this. We're going to deploy it to initiatives that clear our internal rates for what we want to do with the business. So there's an investment for our business, the growth of the remaining business. We're excited about that.
Secondly, always prudent to deploy funds to strengthen the balance sheet. So that becomes an option for the proceeds. And then third, we can look at shareholders and where excess capital might be returned to that. Those would be the 3 major efforts of how we think about that.
Steven Emanuel Zaccone
Okay. Understood. My follow-up question is just on the DIFM side. So with your fresh perspective on the business, why do you think the core Advance business has been losing share in DIFM? And I guess, specifically there, average ticket has been a bit of a drag. How long do you expect that to be a drag to the Pro side of the business?
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. So I'm going to ask Tony to break out a bit of flavor on our DIY versus DIFM performance. But know that my focus coming into the organization is to take those decisive actions that help us simplify the business and then provide the focus at that store level for both the DIY and DIFM customer. And as we do that, I think that's where we gain success. But Tony, can you just characterize what you're seeing on DIFM right now?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes, correct. So as you've heard us talk about the last 2 to 3 quarters, we continue to focus on a very targeted CPI number. And as part of that, that will bring down our average ticket. And as a result, though, our transactions continue to increase.
Operator
The next question goes to Greg Melich of Evercore ISI.
The next question goes to Bret Jordan of Jefferies.
Bret David Jordan
I guess coming into this -- coming into this sort of -- looking at the business with fresh eyes. And obviously, the perception has always been this sort of a mash-up of various supply chain systems. How close do you see this to being sort of consolidated to being a common supply chain across all of the stores ex-Worldpac. We had real progress been made from a system standpoint.
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. So the supply chain team is diligently on tasked for that. And for me, that you think about the 5 decisive actions we covered, that's where my immediate focus is, a pivot to supply chain shortly after that. And my sense is we'll come back to you on future calls on what the time line looks like, but we're working on it. It's not something that will be done overnight. But confident that we can get to a unified supply chain for the company.
Bret David Jordan
Okay. And then I guess on Worldpac, what do you see, I guess, a dis-synergy in the sale? Were there common customers or sales to advance that were a result of your having the Worldpac business that you might lose? Or is it relatively separate?
Shane M. O’Kelly
So it is a different business, and it runs as a separate business. So I really don't see dis-synergies there, but what I see for us as we sell that business, is a simplification of our focus. And going back to the fundamentals of we're going to sell auto parts out of a blended box model. We think that's a good recipe for success. And as we do that, Worldpac doesn't fit in that future model. So we'll explore the sales process, which we're kicking off today.
Bret David Jordan
Okay. And a quick housekeeping for Tom (sic) [Tony], what was the price contribution to comp? What was inflation versus traffic?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes. I think that's for Tony. In terms of price inflation, we priced just enough to cover portion of cost. So it was very minimal to our comp in the third quarter.
Operator
The next question goes to Scot Ciccarelli of Truist.
Scot Ciccarelli
Scot Ciccarelli. I wanted to ask about the restatements under the -- where there's smoke, there's fire concept. What gives you guys confidence there aren't bigger issues in your historical financials because it seems like what you disclosed today was uncovered after a pretty short stint for the new finance team. So could we end up in a situation where more digging reveals more issues?
Anthony A Iskander
Scot, Tony here. We're meeting the material weakness is our top priority in finance, and we continue to dig in and we are committed to getting this material weakness remediated and behind this as quick as possible. It is possible, but it is possible to not either. So we'll continue to share as we find more information, but we will keep you abreast of that material weakness remediation as well.
Scot Ciccarelli
Got it. And then can you repeat the comments you made on LIFO? Did your numbers this quarter actually include a sizable year-over-year benefit from LIFO? Is that what I heard?
Anthony A Iskander
That's correct, Scot.
Operator
The next question goes to Simeon Gutman of Morgan Stanley.
Jacquelyn Renee Sussman
This is Jackie Sussman on for Simeon. You guys mentioned in your prepared remarks that some of the cost savings will go towards reinvesting to improve employee retention. In your view, has advanced kind of done enough to retain its best people and what are some areas of improvement that you see or conversely areas where you feel like you're executing pretty well.
Shane M. O’Kelly
So as I've been in the field, I'm impressed with our frontline associates. We've got energized team members engaging every day, doing their level best to take care of customers. What we found is in certain key positions in the company where we were from a wage perspective was below where we wanted to be.
So we've started to make some of those investments and we see correspondingly where we make the investment, the turnover is reduced. And so we think taking some of the monies from the cost reduction and putting that into wage will help further reduce turnover for key positions. But the initiative will extend beyond wage. And as our team, our field team and our HR teams work together, we also think that training, career pathing, showing folks how they can develop over time with advance, that's all part of it as well. And the idea is that for our frontline associates that they come in, they're energized to be here and then they feel that they can have their career with the company and they can see where they can go. So that's all part of the program that we're putting together and the early read from early investments is that it's doing exactly what we want it to do.
Jacquelyn Renee Sussman
Got you. That's super helpful. And just one more kind of housekeeping question regarding to the cost savings that you mentioned. Where will that kind of fit in across the P&L? Is that mostly on the SG&A side or mostly on gross as well? I mean if you can give some color on that.
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. It's predominantly in SG&A. You'll see most of that savings come through there.
Operator
The next question goes to Chris Bottiglieri of BNP Paribas.
Christopher James Bottiglieri
I was hoping you could elaborate more on this inventory write-down. Like I appreciate you guys are cleaning counting up. I think it's really great to see it's someone like concerns for a while now. But is this at all related to like the capitalized supply chain costs that have been growing for years and beyond kind of like the onetime write-down. Was there some overearning in prior periods because of this adjustment. I just want to kind of understand what the impact is going forward.
Anthony A Iskander
Chris, it's Tony. Good to talk to you. We changed the way we estimate excess inventory. And as a result, we took a onetime change or charge to our P&L of $119 million. It's not relevant to say that it's part of the -- capitalized supply chain costs. The capitalized supply chain costs continue. Those are in and out as a result of how much inventory we buy or sell. So this is just a pure result of our change in estimate.
Christopher James Bottiglieri
Got you. Okay. That's really helpful. And then just second, what do you think like the right SG&A growth rate of this business is moving forward? It seems like peers are kind of ramping up their investment in terms of an SG&A per store. I think it's great that you're reinvesting $50 million of the $150 million, but what are all $150 million? Like how do you think about reinvestment? It seems like if you're cutting costs and your peers are accelerating investments. I think it's been one of the challenges the business has faced in the last 5 years.
Shane M. O’Kelly
So I'll start -- yes, it's a good question. I'll start and ask Tony to comment we're not suggesting through this cost cutting that we're not going to reinvest in the business or we're not going to invest in the business going forward. This was really around looking at the current state of the business and where we're spending money and where we were heavy or where we weren't getting productivity, but we'll absolutely be investing for growth in the future. I think that's a key part of it. And then on SG&A, the way I think about just retail businesses in general, we want to be creating leverage as we go forward. But Tony, if you have any character on how we think about that, that would be great.
Anthony A Iskander
Yes, Chris. So the way to think about it is over the last few years, our SG&A or our cost structure has outpaced -- has outgrown our top line. So we -- the actions we took and we're announcing today are not to stop investing in our stores or in the business. This is to stop doing certain projects or focus on what's really the fundamental of the business. So -- and that's how we approach this cost reduction program.
Operator
The next question, goes to Steven Forbes of Guggenheim Partners.
Steven Paul Forbes
Shane, I wanted to revisit the decision to sell Worldpac. Really, if we could just take a step back, Shane, so early on into the 100-day review process, why such urgency in the message and the decision to sell the Worldpac asset? What is the urgency really stemming from?
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. So first, I don't want you to think that these are knee-jerk decisions at the benefit of counsel and continuity from our Executive Chair, Gene also talking with stature leaders in the company in terms of assessing what the right direction is. So that perspective doesn't just come from me being in the business for 60 days. What I do bring in terms of fresh eyes is a validation of that perspective and then a bias for action. And I think that's really important. One of the things that this company needed to do to reset is to make the decisions that will set us on the trajectory for success going forward, doesn't mean I have all the answers, readily admit it. Doesn't mean that in some of these initiatives that we won't make mistakes and where we do will correct course. But clearly, as you looked at the performance of the company over time, which I did before and came in, it's clear that where we were with our status quo activities wasn't working. And so that's where that comes from. And we think strategically going forward, that blended box model is a tenant for our success.
Steven Paul Forbes
And then I appreciate that, Shane, and just a quick follow-up. I realize you're not providing financial color on the assets for sale, but I'm not sure if you can maybe help reframe what the remaining assets would be free cash flowing this year, right, as we sort of think through the $50 million to $100 million guidance for the full year. What is the -- is the core asset free cash flow positive this year?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes. Since we don't segment report, we can't break that out for you. We don't anticipate any of the sale to happen this year, so the $50 million to $100 million is inclusive of our consolidated financial operations.
Operator
The next question go to Seth Basham of Wedbush.
Seth Mckain Basham
My question is around gross margin. If you could please give us some more color on the step down gross margin from last quarter, this quarter, even excluding the inventory charge, we saw a step down. I'm just trying to understand what's the right -- is your gross margin?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes, I'll take that. So when you look at -- when you look at the -- you exclude the inventory, there's a couple of key factors. One is we continue to not cover cost with price, cost is what we called out. And that's predominantly the bigger chunk, excluding the inventory. We've also seen some additional deleverage in our supply chain costs, but the predominant cost structure is really coming from not covering costs. And then the other that I'd add to that is really the channel mix. As we continue to see our Pro rebound, that does have lower margins than our DIY business.
Seth Mckain Basham
So on a per unit basis, are you seeing your costs continue to rise? And is that partly due to higher financing costs for your vendors under the supply chain financing program?
Anthony A Iskander
No, we're not -- it's not that there's inflationary costs that are already built in, but we are not building an additional price to cover that cost.
Operator
The next question goes to Zack Fadem of Wells Fargo.
Zachary Robert Fadem
So first of all, Shane, congrats on the first earnings call. So the question, could you talk a bit about the game plan for growing your do-it-for-me business today? And whether you think the current 60-40-ish do-it-for-me DIY mix is optimal. And then as you think about balancing growth and profitability, should we expect a culling of the business to remove less profitable customers for? Is there a plan to prioritize the top line over profitability? Any color there?
Shane M. O’Kelly
It's great. So let's talk about those each in turn. First, on growing the Pro, we certainly want to have the Pro be a prominent part of our growth. And the way you do that is engagement in the market. It starts with the CPPs in the stores. Those are store-based Pro representatives. Also our field-based representatives are CAMs. And so we've done some moves in terms of how we're organizing that Pro part of our business under Junior award. And so we've made some streamlined moves, and in particular, as we get ready to divest Worldpac. So that will help us on the Pro side of the house, and we'll have that focus there. Obviously, it also means we got to have the right parts on hand for the Pros. In this business, you want to be first call. And that's where we're aligning our efforts so that as our pro customers need product, they call us and we go ahead and get it.
As it relates to how we think about less profitable customers, I'm going to just put this broadly under just an effort around asset assessment and utilization across the company. We just need to look at how we operate and where we operate and make rational decisions around where we can grow and grow profitably. And I don't want to just do top line without the expense of contributing operating income. I think that's important. So that's what we're looking to do. We're looking to get advanced back on a trajectory of consistent profitable growth. And as we look at all of our assets, inclusive of our stores, our supply chain, how we merchandise. And then who we sell to, I think it's appropriate to make logical decisions about -- with each of those about getting to that profitable growth.
Zachary Robert Fadem
Got it. I appreciate the color there. And then I think you suggested that your operating margin is expected to grow in 2024. So just curious if you could talk a little bit about the makeup there in more detail with respect to top line growth versus margin recovery versus structural change like taking Worldpac and other costs out of the business.
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. I think it's too soon to start talking about 2024 in terms of margin. We'll come back to you in February and provide you a lot of additional color what we have said so far is the cost reduction program that we have announced today, that will benefit full run rate in 2024. So -- but more to come in February as we continue down the strategic and operational review of our business.
Operator
The next question goes to Priya Ohri-Gupta of Barclays.
Unidentified Analyst
This is [Argus] in for Priya. We have a question in terms of the credit ratings. Are you considering soliciting a Fitch rating at this moment?
Anthony A Iskander
Yes. As we continue to assess our overall capital structure, we will always consider what makes the most sense for the business. If we decide to solicit Fitch rating for public, we will announce that in the future. At this time, we are maintaining -- what we have today, we are focused on turning our business and we continue to improve our cash flow and working capital metrics that you've seen us announce this quarter.
Operator
The next question goes to Michael Montani of Evercore ISI.
Michael David Montani
This is Mike Montani on for Greg Melich. I just wanted to ask, first off, on the cash flow side, if you could discuss the plans to inflect that positive for the full year. I think you're running about $150 million negative through the first 3 quarters. So is probably something simple, but how do you get that inflected positive in the fourth quarter?
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. As you've seen over the last 2 quarters, we continue to generate positive cash flow in each of those quarters as we continue to focus on the business, focus on sales and our working capital metrics continue to improve. We expect that to continue into Q4 at this time based on what we know. And that's what we are looking at based on the recovery of all of our working capital as well as higher sales that you've seen in Q2 and Q3.
Michael David Montani
Got it. And then if I could just follow up on the sales line. You did mention some deterioration in the final period. Was curious if you could discuss if that's continued into the fourth quarter? And also if there's any color in terms of was it DIY that slowed versus Pro? Or what would have driven the slowdown?
Shane M. O’Kelly
Yes. We're very conscious of the DIY consumer and the pressures that they are facing. But as we started the fourth quarter, we're actually tracking slightly better in the first 4 weeks. But we know that we have a challenging December ahead of us given the lap of last year where we had a significantly colder period than we are expecting this year, but we continue to be very conscious of the DIY consumer, and we expect Pro to continue to remain positive as well.
Operator
Our final question is you Andrew (inaudible) of Oppenheimer.
Brian William Nagel
It's Brian Nagel from Oppenheimer here. We appreciate it. So a couple of questions. First off, just with respect to the competitive environment, given this transition -- transformation, if you will, Advance now is pretty well documented. Are you seeing anything change competitively or whether either from your larger competitors or some of your smaller competitors, particularly on the professional side.
And then my second question Shane, you've laid out a welcome first off, and maybe you've laid out some initial steps here in the transformation of Advance. Should we be expecting as analysts and investors watching the company, should we be expecting at some point or not too distant future kind of a longer-term operating plan from you and your team kind of indicating where this business can ultimately head.
Shane M. O’Kelly
So let's -- thanks, Brian. On the competitive environment, we obviously compete in a market with a number of competent larger players and smaller players but what I see notably in my early days is internal excitement with our team. And we've got great frontline team members who I think we're waiting for the unlock around simplifying our focus. And as we do these decisive actions that's what's going to occur. We're enabling our frontline to be successful with our customers, which I think helps in that competitive environment. So early days to talk about where there might be progress economically. But certainly, from a philosophy perspective and an engagement perspective, having that field first mentality, I think, is going to create momentum for us.
On the longer-term plan, we're still mapping out my first 60 days and we certainly will be in the future, looking at what the long-term trajectory for the business is, inclusive of the initiatives that we're currently undertaking and then the future areas where I'll be [digging] in.
Elisabeth Eisleben
That is all the questions we have today. Thank you all for joining us. We're grateful for your continued support. Wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving next week and look forward to sharing more in February. Have a nice day.
Operator
Thank you. This now concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.
