“We continue to expect marketing and digital to come in at 15% to 17% of net sales for the year.”

In context

“ically from consumers switching away from holiday kits into higher margin core products. We also benefited from the price increases we implemented on a subset of our skews in May. These gross margin benefits were partially offset by FX and elevated transportation costs, which flow through the P&L at a lesser rate than previously expected. Given the rate of flow-through on these freight costs and overall favorable mix, we now expect gross margin for the back half to come in flat to last year. On an adjusted basis, SG&A as a percentage of sales was 50%, up approximately 70 basis points versus prior year. The increase was mainly driven by investments in marketing and digital. Marketing and digital investment for the quarter was approximately 15% of net sales, slightly ahead of Q3 last year. We continue to expect marketing and digital to come in at 15% to 17% of net sales for the year. Q3 adjusted EBITDA was $22 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was approximately 22% of net sales. Adjusted net income was $13 million or $0.24 per diluted share compared to $12 million or $0.22 per diluted share a year ago. Our liquidity remains strong with the combination of our cash balance and access to our revolving credit facility, sitting at approximately $130 million. We ended the quarter with $33 million in cash on hand compared to a cash balance of $35 million a year ago. Our current cash balance reflects a complete pay down of our revolving credit facility, reducing our overall debt by $13 million in the quarter. Our ending inventory balance was $85 million in line with our expectations as compared to $69 million a year ago. As a reminder, last quarter, we spoke about carrying”