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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

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Form 10-K

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Commission File Number 001-36161

THE CONTAINER STORE GROUP, INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

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Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (972) 538-6000

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YES ◻ NO ☑

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. YES ◻ NO ☑

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. YES ☑ NO ◻

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files.) YES ☑ NO ◻

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ◻

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  ☑

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). YES ☐ NO ☑

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As of October 1, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second quarter, the approximate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates was $340,962,013. Solely for purposes of this disclosure, shares of common stock held by executive officers and directors of the registrant as of such date have been excluded because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates.

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As of May 27, 2022, the number of shares of common stock outstanding was 50,626,222.

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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

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Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for its 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K include, but are not limited to, statements related to: the COVID-19 pandemic and the anticipated impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition, anticipated financial performance and key metrics, expectations regarding the reduction of capital expenditures and anticipated benefits to free cash flow, anticipated tax rates, the sufficiency of our cash generated from operations and borrowings under our credit facilities, ability to increase our market share, expectations with respect to new store openings and other expansion opportunities, expectations regarding key growth initiatives and strategic priorities, expectations regarding the impact of, and potential charges related to, marketing and expense savings programs, environmental, social and governance goals and targets, and our ability to attract new customers and increase brand loyalty. These forward-looking statements are only predictions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the important factors described in the “Item 1A. Risk Factors” section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as accurate predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in our forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, whether as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise.

Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to The Container Store Group, Inc. and, where appropriate, its subsidiaries.

The following discussion contains references to fiscal 2022, fiscal 2021, fiscal 2020, fiscal 2019, and fiscal 2018, which represent our fiscal years ending or ended, as applicable, April 1, 2023, April 2, 2022, April 3, 2021, March 28, 2020, and March 30, 2019, respectively. All references herein to “fiscal 2022” represent the results of a 52-week fiscal year, “fiscal 2021” represent the results of a 52-week fiscal year, references to “fiscal 2020” represent the results of a 53-week fiscal year, references to “fiscal 2019” represent the results of the 52-week fiscal year, and references to “fiscal 2018” represent the results of the 52-week fiscal year.

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Summary of Risk Factors

The summary of risks below provides an overview of the principal risks we are exposed to in the normal course of our business activities:

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PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

General

The Container Store® is the original and leading specialty retailer of storage and organization products and solutions in the United States and the only national retailer solely devoted to the category. We provide a collection of creative, multifunctional and customizable storage and organization solutions that are sold in our stores and online through a high-service, differentiated shopping experience. We feature The Container Store Custom Closets consisting of our elfa® Classic, elfa® Décor, Avera® and Laren® closet lines. In fiscal 2021, the Company acquired Closet Parent Company, Inc. (“Closet Works”) which expanded our manufacturing capabilities to include wood-based spaces and enhanced our premium wood-based product offering. On April 2, 2022 we added the wood-based closet line Preston^TM closet to The Container Store Custom Closets. Our customers are highly educated, very busy and primarily homeowners with a higher than average household income. Our customers crave discovery, inspiration, and solutions that simplify their lives and maximize their spaces within their homes. Our vision is to deepen our relationship with our customers, expand our reach and strengthen our capabilities, all while transforming lives through the power of organization.

We were founded in 1978 in Dallas, Texas as The Container Store, Inc. In 2007, The Container Store, Inc. was sold to The Container Store Group, Inc. In November 2013, we completed the initial public offering of our common stock (the “IPO”). Our common stock trades on The New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “TCS.” In fiscal 2021, we generated consolidated net sales of $1.1 billion. Today our operations consist of two reportable segments:

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Strategic Priorities

The Container Store exists to transform lives through the power of organization. We plan to accomplish this singular vision by executing our three strategic priorities, which include: deepening our relationship with customers, expanding our reach and strengthening our capabilities. During fiscal 2021, we made significant strides against these initiatives and we delivered the best financial results in the Company’s history with net sales of over $1 billion dollars for the first time. We have also made progress toward our goal of achieving $2 billion in annual sales by fiscal 2027 (fiscal year ending April 1, 2028). While we are still in the early stages of our goals, we have much to be proud of.

Strategic Pillar One: Deepening Our Relationship with Customers

We believe our continued focus on deepening our customer relationship, while also driving profitability, demonstrates the appeal of our brand and the strength of our offering. We successfully reduced our promotional cadence throughout the year, which continued with our fourth quarter “Transform with Elfa” event. With less dependence on promotions in fiscal 2021, we focused on enhancing our in-store shopping experience by adding store greeters, front of store product spotlights and product demonstrations. Additionally, we have curated our product assortment to align with customer interests and values, including offering over 1,600 sustainable SKUs, an increase of 60% over last year.

During fiscal 2021, we launched our new branding campaign and fully reimagined company logo. The campaign, Welcome to The Organization, is an open invitation to all, to learn and discover the power of organization and to start their transformational journey. The campaign resonated with new and existing customers across our channels and resulted in a record-breaking single-day sales on 2/22/22. The new logo reflects a more modern and expressive era for the brand. The icon resembles three nested baskets in a subtle, uplifting smile, and represents our core differentiators–the largest assortment of organizing solutions; premium custom closets; and unmatched in-home services.

To further engage customers and attract new ones, we launched a new loyalty program, Organized Insider. Organized Insider is a tier-based loyalty program that rewards customer engagement and it incorporates customer favorite benefits from the past loyalty program. Both our website, containerstore.com, and The Container Store mobile app features an Organized Insider dashboard allowing customers to easily access their status, available offers, and exclusive benefits.

Strategic Pillar Two: Expanding Our Reach

We continue to be a market leader in the custom closets space and expanded our reach through the acquisition and integration of the Chicago-based home storage solutions and closet organization company, Closet Works. This strategic acquisition expanded our manufacturing capabilities to include wood-based spaces and enhanced our premium wood-based product offering. We are pleased that our modular metal-based manufacturing capability through Elfa, coupled with our new premium wood-based manufacturing capability, is expected to provide us the opportunity to not only benefit from improved margins, but allows us to deliver a custom and superior offering for every space of the home. Over the past year, we also increased the number of design specialists focused on designing and selling premium spaces from 64 to 96, with at least half of the designers selling more than $1 million in fiscal 2021. We are confident in our ability to deliver higher average tickets and improved sales productivity in our custom closet business.

We opened a new store in Annapolis, MD, in fiscal 2021 and are excited to open our two new smaller-format stores in Colorado Springs, Colorado, expected in the fall of calendar year 2022 and in Salem, New Hampshire, expected in the winter of calendar year 2022. We believe that we have attractive growth opportunities in key markets for potential expansion of an additional 74 new stores by the end of fiscal 2027.

Lastly, we made significant strides in fiscal 2021 to enhance our e-commerce. We maintained a healthy e-commerce penetration and made enhancements to our site including an improved browsing experience, smart filtering, sustainable product badging, enhanced site speed by 45% across our category and product pages, and added more compelling content. We will continue to identify ways to grow and improve our e-commerce experience.

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Strategic Pillar Three: Strengthening Our Capabilities

Technology advancements continue to be a core focus. We have added more payment options for customers, including Afterpay, PayPal and a mobile point of sale solution. Additionally, we successfully launched our first-ever mobile app to meet customers where they are already shopping. The app features a convenient biometric login, an Organized Insider dashboard, and makes it simple for customers to shop using their digital wallet. Customers can also use the app to check an order status, find organizing inspiration or use it in store to scan bar codes for more product information and options.

We are also pleased with the fiscal 2021 additions to our company leadership team including a Chief Information Officer, Vice President (“VP”) of Merchandising, VP of Real Estate, Senior Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and a Senior Director of Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”).

With regards to being an employer of choice, we conducted a third-party pay equity study to ensure we are being equitable and inclusive in how we compensate our employees, regardless of race, age, gender or ethnicity. Additionally, we launched a Supplier Diversity program to intentionally invest in diverse vendors and we increased our minimum wage to $15 per hour for all hourly employees.

For our ESG strategy, further discussed below, we performed an assessment to establish our key areas of focus and completed our first sustainability report. Additionally, we joined the U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership and ranked #14 of the top 30 participating retailers for our total annual green power usage.

As we look ahead, we accomplished much in fiscal 2021 and established a strong foundation to build upon in fiscal 2022. As we continue on our path to reach $2 billion in sales by the end of fiscal year 2027, we will focus on these same strategic priorities to drive our future growth and address the incredible opportunity we have to continue to gain market share.

Our Key Differentiators

The Container Store Custom Closets:

Our focus on The Container Store Custom Closets, full complementary space completion products, and in-home services, provides a unique opportunity to drive sales through higher average ticket while differentiating the Company from other brick and mortar and online, items-based retailers. Our highly trained and experienced sales force has been selling, custom-designed and other closet solutions for over 43 years. We believe there is no other comparable retailer executing this holistic approach to custom closets. We offer the complete custom closet solution—not just our full line custom closets, but the full array of closet organization products that accompany those closets, as well as a national footprint with millions of customers coming through the door and visiting our online site each year. We design and sell The Container Store Custom Closets in-store, in-home, online, and through our call center.

Our elfa® Classic, elfa® Décor and Avera® closet lines as well as other elfa® products continue to be an ever important, highly profitable and differentiating component in the growth of our Company and reflect our commitment to dominating the custom closet market. In fiscal 2021, all Elfa-produced products accounted for approximately 30% of our TCS retail sales. Due to our vertical integration with Elfa, we have control over the sourcing and availability of elfa® Classic, elfa® Décor, and Avera®, our best selling and highest margin products. We are the exclusive distributor of Elfa-manufactured products in the United States. Approximately 19% of our fiscal 2021 TCS segment purchases were attributed to intercompany purchases from our Elfa segment.

We are also excited that we have expanded our manufacturing capabilities and enhanced our premium wood-based product offering with the acquisition of Closet Works. On April 2, 2022 we added the Preston^TM collection to our custom closet offering. We expect this custom closet line to be margin accretive as we now own the manufacturing for this premium line.

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Our Shopping Experience:

We strive to create an Air of Excitement® in each of our stores across the country. You can experience the Air of Excitement® through our employees’ smiling faces and their genuine interest in a customer’s organizational projects and in the bright visual displays of products and solutions.

This is coupled with our highly personalized approach to customer service. Our employees are trained to ask questions to understand our customers’ needs. We believe that if we discover the underlying storage and organization challenges of our customers, we truly help them and hopefully improve the quality of their life. Service and selling are synonymous at The Container Store. We believe we can best serve our customers by astonishing them with personalized service and providing the solutions they most need to accomplish their organizational projects.

We are a multi-channel retailer, with a fully-integrated website, responsive mobile site and application and call center to complement our physical stores. Our website, containerstore.com, is intended to replicate the store experience offering virtually the same product assortment and providing real time inventory information for our stores, as well as certain products found exclusively online. We enhance the customer’s experience and deepen loyalty by creating consistent, relevant messages, regardless of which channel is being used. We offer free shipping on orders over $75 and our customers are able to purchase online and pick up at a store, with curbside pick-up in most markets, or request same-day home delivery in select markets. The website, mobile site, mobile application and call center sales channels combined accounted for approximately 24% of TCS net sales in fiscal 2021.

Our Stores:

We have adopted a disciplined expansion strategy designed to leverage the strength of our business model and nationally recognized brand name to successfully develop new stores in an array of markets that are primed for growth, including new, existing, small and large markets. Our current footprint of 94 stores extends to 33 states and the District of Columbia. We see the potential to add 76 new stores by the end of fiscal 2027. In fiscal 2021, we opened one new store in Annapolis, Maryland. We expect to open two new stores in fiscal 2022. While our current expansion focus is on domestic markets, we believe international expansion may provide additional growth opportunities for us in the future.

We have a strong base of profitable stores and believe that our expansion opportunities in the United States are significant. We plan to seek out strategic and profitable real estate expansion via a variety of store formats and sizes. In fiscal 2021, our new store in Annapolis, Maryland was designed as a reduced-sized footprint store and our anticipated two new stores in fiscal 2022 are also being designed as reduced-sized footprint stores. Our typical new store opening includes a strategic marketing plan inclusive of public relations and comprehensive training for our store employees that includes product education, solution-selling education, operational education and company culture understanding – all of which we believe enables our new stores to deliver strong sales volume more quickly.

Our Unique Product Collection:

Our merchandising philosophy is to provide a carefully curated, one-of-a-kind collection of storage and organization solutions for every area of the home, at a variety of price points. We offer over 11,000 products designed to provide customers solutions that simplify their lives and maximize their spaces within their homes. Each year, we introduce approximately 2,000 new SKUs. Our solutions-based selling approach (versus items-based) is delivered by our highly trained salespeople. We believe helping customers accomplish their organizational projects by selling solutions primarily consisting of exclusive, proprietary products differentiates us from other retailers. In fact, in fiscal 2021, over half of our annual sales came from exclusive or proprietary products, inclusive of 26% of private label products.

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Currently, our stores are typically organized into 14 distinct lifestyle departments. The types of products sold in each department are as follows:

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In order to offer our unique collection of products and to execute a competitive merchandising and business strategy, we work to form meaningful, long-lasting relationships with vendors from around the world. We believe these relationships benefit us in a number of ways, including providing us with an increased number of exclusive products and competitive pricing. We believe that by creatively crafting mutually beneficial vendor relationships, we foster a unique sense of loyalty among our more than 600 product vendors. In fact, 16 of our top 20 vendors have been with us for at least 10 years and several of those vendors have been with us since our inception in 1978. For the TCS segment, our top 10 vendors, excluding Elfa, accounted for 40% of our total purchases in fiscal 2021. In order to maximize our purchasing flexibility, we generally do not enter into long-term contracts with our vendors.

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Environmental, Social and Governance

At The Container Store, we recognize the importance of our impact on people, the planet and the communities where we operate. It is imperative to the success of our business that we continue to learn, improve, and advance our vision in those key areas by implementing a strong and thoughtful ESG strategy.

Sustainability

The Board’s role includes overseeing the Company’s corporate strategy and enterprise risk management, including sustainability efforts. Our Board and its committees play a critical role in the oversight of our corporate culture and hold management accountable for its maintenance of high ethical standards, governance practices and compliance programs to protect our business, employees, and reputation. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors oversees our ESG efforts. Our Chief Financial Officer, a member of the executive committee, leads the ESG function. The Senior Director of ESG manages corporate sustainability activities and strategy, and reports to the Chief Financial Officer. This year, we formed a Sustainability Committee to oversee sustainable product development and materials selection. The Committee is led by the VP of Merchandising and includes members from various functions of the organization.

Our top priorities are to develop policies and programs that focus on the environment, social responsibility and our employees, respect for human rights and ethics. Our contribution to a sustainable society is to reduce environmental impact and improve our sustainable business practices to meet stakeholder demand and address growing environmental concerns and risks. In fiscal 2021, we conducted our first assessment to identify and prioritize the ESG topics most important to our business and our stakeholders. Additionally, we onboarded tools to help us measure baseline Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions and energy intensity data according to the Green House Gas (“GHG”) Protocol. We continue to offset power usage in our stores, distribution centers, and support center with 100% renewable energy.

Our Elfa-manufactured products, which contributed approximately 30% of our fiscal year 2021 retail sales, are largely made from recycled materials and Elfa has a robust sustainability program in place.

We continue our progress towards a fair, healthy, and safe workplace, while creating work environment policies that promote diversity, equality, and inclusion. We believe that when we create a workplace where our colleagues are engaged, committed and empowered for the long-term, we are better positioned to create value for our company, as well as for our shareholders. We are proud of our focus on promoting human rights across our operations – from our supply chain to our products – and are committed to build our business on a foundation of ethics.

You can learn more about our commitment to sustainability and our environmental policy at investor.containerstore.com/corporate-social-responsibility. The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Human Capital Management

The Container Store was founded on basic and fundamental business philosophies about treating employees, customers, vendors, shareholders and the community with respect and dignity. It’s a culture that is driven by our seven Foundation Principles® and results in an environment where the lives of everyone connected to our business are enriched and brimming with opportunity.

Our customers consider us their happy place; and we recognize the importance of taking care of the employees who are responsible for creating this environment in our stores. That’s why we are committed to providing a robust and ongoing training and development program. Through training, we equip our team to meet the needs of our customers, whether they work in our Stores, Distribution Centers or the Support Center. Training also helps our employees become knowledgeable and trusted experts armed with intuition and trained for success.

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In terms of business productivity, one of our Foundation Principles, 1 Great Person = 3 Good People® is the belief that one great person with passion, perspective and a range of experiences has the energy and drive to achieve more than three good people without those traits. Our philosophy attracts other great people, making it easy to build a dedicated team who will exceed goals and create a successful work environment. Our culture shows why we hire great people from diverse backgrounds and foster an equitable, inclusive and safe environment where everyone can thrive.

As of April 2, 2022, we had approximately 5,200 employees, of which approximately 4,800 were TCS segment employees and approximately 400 were Elfa segment employees. Of the 4,800 TCS segment employees, approximately 2,900 were part time employees. We are committed to doing everything we can, as individuals and as a company, to ensure that all of us, regardless of ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, ability, or religious affiliation have EQUAL opportunity to grow, develop and achieve our dreams.

We also know that the commitment for a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture, starts from the top, and our Chief Executive Officer, Satish Malhotra, has demonstrated his commitment by signing the CEO Action Pledge for Diversity & Inclusion (www.ceoaction.com). By taking this pledge, The Container Store has committed to actions that cultivate a trusting environment where all ideas are welcomed, and employees feel comfortable and empowered to have discussions about diversity and inclusion. These commitments include unconscious bias education, working with other companies to develop best practices, sharing our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DE&I”) plans with our board of directors, as well as implementing accountability systems to track our progress.

Our commitment to equity and inclusion extends beyond our employees. We know supporting the local communities where we have stores and distribution centers makes the communities stronger. Therefore, we are proud to offer opportunities within our supply chain to small and diverse-owned businesses and through our philanthropy efforts focus on causes that are important to our employees and customers and align with our commitment to making a lasting social and economic impact in those communities.

You can read more learn more about our DE&I efforts at www.containerstore.com/inclusion. The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Human Rights

The Container Store recognizes the importance of protecting and advocating for human rights as our employees are our most valued asset. We are committed to ethical business practices including fair and impartial treatment of all persons regarding wages and benefits, working conditions, global labor and anti-corruption laws, and the preservation of applicable environmental standards. We strive to provide a safe, secure, and healthy environment for our employees, vendors, and customers and align our policies with guidance provided by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

TCS has a zero-tolerance philosophy against modern slavery and the deprivation of a person’s liberties for personal or commercial gain. Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights that takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labor, and human trafficking. TCS is committed to eliminating acts of modern slavery from occurring within our business and will take the necessary measures to assess the effectiveness of our approach. This includes training employees who have direct responsibility for supply chain management to raise awareness and help to identify victims of modern slavery.

The Container Store will not knowingly do business with any company that engages in modern slavery or human trafficking. Our merchandise suppliers contractually agree that the finished products they sell to us, and the materials used to create them, were not produced from child or forced labor and comply with the local laws in which they operate. We conduct announced audits of select merchandise suppliers with whom we acquire goods directly from.

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Health & Safety

The health and safety of The Container Store employees and customers are vital to the health of our business. We strive to minimize injury or illness, in addition to property loss or business interruption caused by accidents, fire, or other hazards. The safer our workplace is, the more efficient and profitable our company will be.

TCS is committed to providing quality equipment, access to clean water, safe tools, and necessary protective equipment to keep employees safe. This includes providing ongoing training and the necessary resources and time required to maintain a safe place to work.

Additionally, we expect all employees to cooperate fully with our safety measures and actively participate in helping keep each other safe. All TCS employees must recognize hazards, anticipate exposures and risks, and act to eliminate or control them. Our employees are expected to communicate with each other and our management team when unsafe acts are observed or if there is potential for an unsafe working environment. Through personal commitment and excellent communication, we strive to maintain a safe and productive place to work.

Distribution

In the TCS segment, the majority of our merchandise flows through one of our two distribution centers prior to transport to our retail stores and/or online customers. Our first distribution center is co-located with our corporate office in Coppell, Texas. The approximately 1.1 million square foot facility was designed and constructed specifically for The Container Store and is comprised of approximately 100,000 square feet of corporate office space and approximately 1 million square feet of warehouse space. Our second distribution center located in Aberdeen, Maryland is approximately 600,000 square feet and is comprised primarily of warehouse space. On December 30, 2021, as a part of the Closet Works acquisition, we added a domestic manufacturing facility in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Our distribution centers are utilized for retail store replenishment and direct-to-customer order fulfillment. We utilize third party truckload carriers to transport all of our products to our stores and major parcel carriers for direct-to-customer order deliveries. We utilize best in class logistics technology to optimize operations and current processes for receiving, picking, packing and shipping while providing a strong foundation for future growth. We continue to strengthen our distribution centers with ongoing process and material handling improvements, as well as automation, in order to achieve even greater efficiencies in service levels and inventory management.

Within our distribution operations, we have a culture of safety and efficiency, with a robust metric program and a commitment to continuous improvement. All processes, teams and individuals are held to high efficiency and performance standards. Our second distribution center improved service levels to our customers while at the same time increasing our network capacity. We also continue to invest in supply chain system enhancements for increased logistics network support.

Elfa utilizes a broad network of third-party carriers to deliver products from its manufacturing facilities to customers worldwide.

With employee safety as our top priority, our distribution centers follow all recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes sanitizing supplies throughout both facilities and continuous communication around safety expectations. We will continue to follow local, state and federal guidelines to ensure the safety of our employees.

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Intellectual Property

Our “The Container Store®,” “Welcome to the Organization^SM,” “Foundation Principles®,” “Organized Insider^SM,” “Preston^TM”, “Laren®,” “Avera®,” “Contained Home®,” and “elfa®” trademarks and certain variations thereon, such as our “The Container Store” logo and many trademarks used for our product lines and sales campaigns are registered or are the subject of pending trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and with the trademark registries of many foreign countries. In addition, we own many domain names, including “www.containerstore.com,” “www. closets.com” and others that include our trademarks. We own several elfa® utility and design patents protecting Elfa’s closet and shelving systems, and a utility patent for TCS’s proprietary retail shopping computer systems, design patents on select private label products, along with copyrights in our catalogs, websites, and other marketing material. We believe that our trademarks, product designs and copyrighted works have significant value and we vigorously protect them against infringement.

Competition

We operate within the storage and organization category which extends across many retail segments including custom closets, housewares, and office supplies, among others. However, we are the only national retailer solely devoted to it. Storage and organization products are sold by a variety of retailers, including mass merchants, specialty retail chains, and internet-based retailers, but they devote a smaller portion of their overall merchandise assortment to storage and organization. We also compete within a highly fragmented custom closets market with national, regional and local custom closet competitors, as well as local homebuilders and contractors. One of our biggest differentiators is that we sell solutions, not items. Some of our competitors are larger and may have greater financial, marketing and other resources than The Container Store. However, we compete based on our customer service, product selection and quality, price, convenience, consumer marketing and promotional activities, and our ability to identify and satisfy emerging consumer preferences, vendor relationships, and brand recognition, among other things. In addition, we believe that the strength of our solutions-based selling with highly trained employees, exclusive offerings and vendor relationships, our passionate and loyal customer base and the quality, differentiation and breadth of our product assortment compare favorably to those of our competitors.

Seasonality

Our storage and organization product and services offering makes us less susceptible to holiday season shopping patterns than many retailers. Prior to fiscal 2021, our business realized a higher portion of net sales, operating income and cash flows from operations in the fourth fiscal quarter. However, in fiscal 2021, sales and profitability did not follow historical patterns due to various factors, including changes in promotional strategy and cadence. For fiscal 2022, we expect that our sales and profitability patterns will be largely consistent with fiscal 2021.

Regulation and Legislation

We are subject to labor and employment laws, laws governing truth-in-advertising, privacy laws, safety regulations, environmental and other laws, including tax and trade policies and consumer protection regulations that regulate retailers and govern the promotion and sale of merchandise and the operation of stores and warehouse facilities. We monitor changes in these laws and believe that we are in material compliance with applicable laws. Any legal or regulatory changes that impose additional restrictions or requirements on us or on our potential customers, such as the imposition of potential additional tariffs or retaliatory trade restrictions in connection with U.S. trade actions, could adversely affect us by increasing our operating costs or decreasing demand for our products or services, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We source a significant portion of our products from outside the United States. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other similar anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Our policies and our vendor compliance agreements mandate compliance with applicable law, including these laws and regulations.

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The Company has been monitoring guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local, state, and federal health officials, as well as local, state and federal mandates, and intends to continue to follow recommended mandates and protocols while operating its business.

Where You Can Find More Information

We maintain a website at http://investor.containerstore.com and make available, free of charge, through this site our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements and Forms 3, 4 and 5 filed on behalf of directors and executive officers and holders of more than 10% of our common stock, as well as any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We also put on our website our Corporate Responsibility Report, the charters for our Board of Directors’ Audit Committee, Culture and Compensation Committee, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, as well as our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which applies to all of our directors, officers, and employees, including our principal executive officer and our principal financial and accounting officers, our Corporate Governance Guidelines and other related materials. The information on our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our Investor Relations Department can be contacted at The Container Store Group, Inc., 500 Freeport Parkway, Coppell, TX 75019-3863, Attention: Investor Relations; telephone: 972-538-6504; email:InvestorRelations@containerstore.com

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Risk Factors

Our business faces significant risks and uncertainties. Certain important factors may have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations, and you should carefully consider them. Accordingly, in evaluating our business, we encourage you to consider the following discussion of risk factors, in its entirety, in addition to other information contained in or incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other public filings with the SEC.

Operations and Infrastructure Risks

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and may continue to impact our results of operations, financial position and cash flows.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the U.S. and world. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business remains uncertain due to evolving factors, such as the resurgence of the COVID-19 virus and the emergence of new variants, the development, availability, and administration of effective treatments and vaccines, global economic conditions, and changes in consumer behavior in response to the pandemic. Governments have taken and may in the future take various measures in response to COVID-19, including mandating the closure of certain businesses and limiting in-store traffic.

Our stores and distribution centers are open and operational, however, any future governmental mandates or illness or absence of a substantial number of employees could require that we temporarily close one or more of our stores and/or distribution centers. We have experienced and may experience in the future, disruptions in store operations, including the temporary closure of certain stores to in-store traffic and the shift to contactless curbside click and pick-up service and limited in-store appointments at select stores. Additionally, the temporary closure of a distribution center would complicate or prevent our fulfilling of online orders, and disrupt the operations of our stores by preventing our ability to supply merchandise to our stores. We will continue to review local, state and federal mandates related to COVID-19, which may require us to adjust our operations in response to revised governmental mandates. There can be no assurance that the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic will not materially impact our future business operations.

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There can be no assurance that we will not be required by landlords or authorities at the local, state or federal level to close some or all of our stores again in the future, or as to how long any such closure would last. In general, during any such closure, we would still be obligated to make payments to landlords and for routine operating costs, such as utilities and insurance. Should there be further widespread store disruptions in the future due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there can be no assurance that we will have sufficient cash flows from operations or other sources of liquidity to continue making such payments when due, or that efforts to reduce, offset or defer such obligations, such as entering into deferral agreements with landlords or other creditors, will be successful. During fiscal 2020, the Company renegotiated terms with landlords as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the deferral of approximately $11.9 million of certain cash lease payments, which was repaid as of April 2, 2022.

Our business requires that we lease substantial amounts of space and there can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to lease space on terms as favorable as the leases negotiated in the past.

We do not own any real estate at our TCS segment. Instead, we lease all of our store locations, as well as our corporate headquarters and distribution center in Coppell, Texas, our second distribution center in Aberdeen, Maryland, and the Closet Works manufacturing facility in Elmhurst, Illinois. Our stores are leased from third parties and generally have an initial term of 10 to 15 years. Many of our lease agreements also have additional five-year renewal options and certain leases have early cancellation clauses, which permit the lease to be terminated by us or the landlord if certain sales levels are not met in specific periods or if the shopping venue does not meet specified occupancy standards. In addition to fixed minimum lease payments, most of our store leases provide for additional lease payments based on a percentage of sales, or “percentage rent,” if sales at the respective stores exceed specified levels, as well as the payment of common area maintenance charges, real property insurance and real estate taxes. Many of our lease agreements have

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defined escalating lease payment provisions over the initial term and any extensions. Increases in our already substantial occupancy costs and difficulty in identifying economically suitable new store locations could have significant negative consequences, which include:

Additional sites that we lease may be subject to long-term non-cancelable leases if we are unable to negotiate our current standard lease terms. If an existing or future store is not profitable, and we decide to close it, we may nonetheless be committed to perform our obligations under the applicable lease including, among other things, paying the base rent for the balance of the lease term. Moreover, even if a lease has an early cancellation clause, we may not satisfy the contractual requirements for early cancellation under that lease. In addition, if we are not able to enter into new leases or renew existing leases on terms acceptable to us, this could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

Costs and risks relating to new store openings could severely limit our growth opportunities.

Part of our growth strategy depends on opening stores in new and existing markets. We must successfully choose store sites, execute favorable real estate transactions on terms that are acceptable to us, hire competent personnel and effectively open and operate these new stores. Our plans to increase our number of retail stores will depend in part on the availability of existing retail stores or store sites. A lack of available financing on terms acceptable to real estate developers, or a tightening credit market, may adversely affect the number or quality of retail sites available to us. We cannot assure you that stores or sites will be available to us, or that they will be available on terms acceptable to us. If additional retail store sites are unavailable on acceptable terms, we may not be able to carry out a significant part of our growth strategy.

Our operating results are subject to quarterly and seasonal fluctuations, and results for any quarter may not necessarily be indicative of the results that may be achieved for the full fiscal year.

Our quarterly results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate significantly in the future, depending upon a variety of factors, including our product offerings, promotional events, store openings, the weather, remodeling or relocations, shifts in the timing of holidays, timing of catalog releases or sales, timing of delivery of orders, competitive factors and general economic conditions, including economic downturns as a result of unforeseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and supply chain disruptions, among other things, and may fluctuate significantly in the future. As a result of these factors, the demands on our product distribution and delivery network may fluctuate during the fiscal year. Accordingly, our results of operations may fluctuate on a seasonal and quarterly basis and relative to corresponding periods in prior years. In fiscal 2021, sales and profitability did not follow historical patterns due to various factors, including changes in promotional strategy and cadence. In addition, we may take certain pricing or marketing actions that could have a disproportionate effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations in a particular quarter or selling season. These initiatives may disproportionately impact results in a particular quarter and we believe that comparisons of our operating results from period to period are not necessarily meaningful and cannot be relied upon as indicators of future performance.

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We have acquired Closet Works, and may in the future acquire other businesses, which can divert management’s attention and create integration risks and other risks for our business.

In December 2021, we completed the acquisition of Closet Works, and we expect that we may continue to pursue future acquisitions. Such acquisitions involve numerous risks, including:

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If we fail to integrate Closet Works or any other newly acquired business effectively, we might not achieve the growth, service enhancement or operational efficiency objectives of the acquisitions, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.

Our costs may increase due to factors that may or may not be controllable by us, which may negatively affect our financial results.

Increases in our costs that are beyond our control, including items such as increases in commodity prices for raw materials that are directly or indirectly related to the production and distribution of our products, such as the prices of steel, oil, resin and pulp, increases in fuel and transportation costs, including shipping surcharges, higher interest rates, increases in losses from damaged merchandise, inflation, fluctuations in foreign currency rates, higher costs of labor, labor disputes around the world, increases in the costs of insurance and healthcare, including the potential for increased insurance premiums, medical claim costs and worker’s compensation claim costs and increased incremental costs of doing business as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, increases in postage and media costs, higher tax rates, and the cost of compliance with changes in laws and regulations, including accounting standards, may negatively impact our financial results. In addition to general levels of inflation that we have experienced, we are also subject to risk of specific inflationary pressures on product prices due to, for example, the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, related global supply chain disruptions, and the uncertain economic and geopolitical environment. If inflation continues to increase, we may not be able to adjust prices sufficiently to offset the effect without negatively impacting consumer demand or our gross margin.

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Information Technology Risks

If we are unable to effectively manage our online sales, our reputation and operating results may be harmed.

We sell merchandise over the Internet through our website, containerstore.com, and through mobile applications for smart phones and tablets. In fiscal 2021, our website and mobile applications accounted for approximately 21% of TCS net sales.

We are vulnerable to certain risks and uncertainties associated with our e-commerce websites, including: changes in required technology interfaces, website downtime and other technical failures, costs and technical issues for upgrades of our website software, computer viruses, changes in applicable federal and state regulations, security breaches, and consumer privacy concerns. The failure of our website or mobile applications to perform as expected could result in disruptions and additional costs to our operations and make it more difficult for customers to purchase merchandise online, which could adversely affect our results of operations and reputation.

A cyber-attack or security incident impacting our or our third-party providers’ information technology systems or confidential information could damage our reputation and our relationships with our customers or employees, expose us to regulatory or litigation risk and materially affect our business, financial results, results of operations, as well as the trading price of our common stock.

In conducting our business, including our e-commerce business, we rely heavily on computer systems, hardware, software, technology infrastructure and online websites and networks (collectively, “IT Systems”) for both internal and external operations. We manage some of these IT Systems, but also rely on third-parties for a range of IT Systems and related products and services. In addition, we and certain of our third-party providers collect, transmit and maintain data about our customers, employees, contractors, suppliers, vendors and others, including credit card information and personal information, as well as proprietary and other confidential information (collectively, “Confidential Information”).

We have committed financial and personnel resources to implement and maintain security policies, procedures and measures that are designed to protect our IT Systems and Confidential Information. As a result, we currently incur significant costs in connection with efforts such as network security, disaster recovery, and employee training, and may incur significant costs to change our business practices or modify our service offerings in connection with the protection of Confidential Information. However, there are no guarantees that these measures will be adequate to safeguard against all cyberattacks or system disruptions. We, like many companies, have experienced cyberattacks, system vulnerabilities and security incidents in the past. While we are not aware of any material disruptions or incidents to date, we cannot assure that any breaches, attacks or unauthorized disclosures will not occur in the future, including attacks or incidents that may materially impact our business. Cyberattacks are expected to accelerate on a global basis and threat actors are increasingly sophisticated in using techniques that are designed to circumvent security controls, evade detection, and remove forensic evidence. As a result, we and our third-party providers may be unable to anticipate, prevent, detect, investigate, contain or recover from future attacks and incidents in a timely or effective manner.

Despite the security measures that we and many of our third-party providers have implemented, our IT Systems may be disrupted or damaged and Confidential Information may be compromised, corrupted, lost or stolen. This may occur as a result of targeted attacks by state-sponsored actors or due to an array of tools and techniques utilized by cybercriminals, for example, the deployment of viruses or malware (such as ransomware), denial-of-service attacks, break-ins, and social engineering attacks (such as phishing exploits), as well as inadvertent errors committed by employees, contractors or other parties, and hardware or software bugs, misconfigurations or similar vulnerabilities. Cyberattacks, security incidents, and similar events could result in any or all of the following: unauthorized access to or disruption to our IT Systems and operations; unauthorized modification or disclosure of Confidential Information; governmental and regulatory inquiries, investigations, fines and penalties; litigation, including but not limited to class actions, pursuant to enacted and developing laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which provides for a private rights of action and statutory damages in connection with certain types of data breaches; loss of confidence in our Company, negative media coverage, and brand and reputational harm; loss of customers and business opportunities; increased costs to investigate, contain, restore or remediate IT Systems; and a range of other costs and

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liabilities. Any or all of the foregoing may have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations, as well as the trading price of our stock.

While we maintain insurance related to cybersecurity and privacy risk, there is no guarantee that all costs and liabilities would be recovered or reimbursed, or that insurance will continue to be available to us at all or on economically reasonable terms.

Failure to comply with laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and consumer protection, or the expansion of current, or the enactment of new, laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and consumer protection, could adversely affect our business and our financial condition.

We collect, use, store, share and otherwise process different types of personal information that relates to a range of individuals, including our customers, website visitors, employees, job applicants, alumni and employees of other companies that we do business with (such as our vendors, suppliers and business partners). We are subject to a variety of international, federal and state and local laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, consumer protection, and our handling of this information. There is no harmonized approach to data privacy or protection laws and regulations. Consequently, we increase our risk of non-compliance with applicable data privacy and protection laws and regulations as we continue to expand our business. We may need to change and limit the way we use personal information in operating our business and may have difficulty maintaining a single operating model that is compliant. Further, many of these laws may require consent from consumers for the use of data for various purposes, including marketing, which may reduce our ability to market our products. Compliance with such laws and regulations will result in additional costs and may necessitate changes to our business practices and divergent operating models, which may adversely affect our business and financial condition.

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In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and many state Attorneys General are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the online collection, use, dissemination, and security of personal information, including statements that we make in our privacy policies. There are also federal laws covering our marketing activities, such as the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (known as the “CAN-SPAM” Act) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (as implemented by the Telemarketing Sales Rule) (“TCPA”). In addition, we are subject to various state privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), which came into effect in January of 2020, and the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), which will expand upon the CCPA and go into effect in January 2023 (with a lookback period until January 2022). The CCPA requires (and the CPRA will require) covered companies to, among other things, provide new disclosures to California consumers and affords such consumers certain privacy rights. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for certain security breaches that may increase security breach litigation. The CPRA imposes additional data protection obligations on covered businesses, including additional consumer rights processes, limitations on data uses, new audit requirements for higher risk data, and opt outs for certain uses and disclosure of sensitive personal information. It also creates a new California data protection agency authorized to issue substantive regulations and could result in increased privacy, cybersecurity, and data protection enforcement. The majority of the CPRA provisions will go into effect on January 1, 2023 (with a lookback to January 2022), and additional compliance investment and potential business process changes may be required. The CCPA and CPRA have encouraged “copycat” laws in other states across the United States. For example, Virginia enacted the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”) in 2021, another comprehensive state privacy law, which will also be effective on January 1, 2023. Also in 2021, Colorado enacted the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”), which goes into effect July 1, 2023. Most recently, Utah enacted the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (“UCPA”) in March 2022, which goes into effect on December 31, 2023. Similar laws have been proposed, and likely will be proposed, in other states and at the federal level, and if passed, such laws may have potentially conflicting requirements that would make compliance challenging.

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We cannot predict the impact of these laws, or subsequent guidance, but these laws and regulations are complex and rapidly evolving, subject to potentially differing interpretations and likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. These requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another or may conflict with other rules or our practices. As a result, our practices may not comply, or may not comply in the future, with all such laws, regulations, requirements, and obligations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our posted privacy policies or with any federal, state, or international privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, industry self-regulatory principles, industry standards or codes of conduct, regulatory guidance, orders to which we may be subject or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection could have a

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materially adverse impact to our reputation, brand, and business, and may result in claims, proceedings, or actions against us by governmental entities or others or other liabilities or require us to change our operations, incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply, modify our data processing practices and policies, or cease using certain data sets. Any such claim, proceeding, or action, including a complaint by an activist to a regulatory authority or other public statement criticizing our practices, could hurt our reputation, brand, and business, force us to incur significant expenses in defense of such proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, result in a loss of customers and vendors, result in the imposition of monetary penalties, and otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We may also be contractually required to indemnify and hold harmless certain third parties from the costs or consequences of non-compliance with any laws, regulations, or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection or any inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure of data that we store or handle as part of operating our business.

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Finally, there can be no assurance that in the future we will be able to operate our business in accordance with the Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) Data Security Standards or other industry recommended practices that relate to payment processing, including in relation to our ecommerce operations. We intend to maintain compliance with PCI Data Security Standards and will incur additional expenses to maintain PCI compliance. Even if we are compliant with such standards, we still may be vulnerable and unable to prevent security breaches involving customer transaction data.

We rely upon third-party service providers to operate many critical aspects of our internal and external business operations and any disruption of or interference with such operations, or material non-compliance with laws and regulations by such third parties, could materially and adversely impact our business.

We rely on many third-parties for critical internal and external operations. For example, third-party web service providers provide a distributed computing infrastructure platform for business operations, or what is commonly referred to as a “cloud” computing service. We have architected our software and computer systems so as to utilize data processing, storage capabilities, and other services provided by these third-party providers. Any disruption of or interference with our use of third-party service providers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, other third-party providers assist us with employee benefits processing, payment processing and security monitoring, among many other activities, on behalf of the company. Material non-compliance with privacy, security or consumer protection laws by these third parties may jeopardize our ability to obtain or offer core products and services, expose us to regulatory investigations and litigation, and materially impact our business and financial results.

Material damage to, or interruptions in, our information systems as a result of external factors, working from home arrangements, staffing shortages and difficulties in updating our existing software or developing or implementing new software could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.

We are highly dependent upon IT Systems in the conduct of all aspects of our operations. Such IT Systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, slowness due to strain on internet connectivity due to employees working from home, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, security breaches, fire and natural disasters. Damage or interruption to our IT Systems may require a significant investment to fix or replace them, and we may suffer interruptions in our operations in the interim. In addition, costs and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems could also disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased cybersecurity risk as a result of global remote working dynamics that present additional opportunities for threat actors to engage in social engineering (for example, phishing) and to exploit vulnerabilities in non-corporate networks used by many of our employees as well as those of critical third-party providers. Any material interruptions or failures in our IT systems may have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.

We also rely on our information technology staff. If we cannot meet our staffing needs in this area, we may not be able to fulfill our technology initiatives while continuing to provide maintenance on existing systems.

We rely on certain software vendors to maintain and periodically upgrade many IT Systems so that they can continue to support our business. The software programs supporting many of our IT Systems were licensed to us by independent software developers. The inability of these developers or us to continue to maintain and upgrade these IT

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Systems and software programs would disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations if we were unable to convert to alternate systems in an efficient and timely manner.

We are vulnerable to various risks and uncertainties associated with our website, including changes in required technology interfaces, website downtime and other technical failures, costs and technical issues as we upgrade our website software, computer viruses, changes in applicable federal and state regulation, security breaches, legal claims related to our website operations and e-commerce fulfillment and other consumer privacy concerns. Our failure to successfully respond to these risks and uncertainties could reduce website sales and have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.

Supply Chain Risks

Our facilities and systems, as well as those of our vendors, are vulnerable to natural disasters and other unexpected events, and as a result we may lose merchandise, incur unexpected costs or be unable to effectively service our stores and online customers.

Our retail stores, corporate office, distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, infrastructure projects and direct-to-customer operations, as well as the operations of our vendors from which we receive goods and services, are vulnerable to damage from various natural disasters including earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, floods, as well as other unexpected events, such as pandemics, climate change, geopolitical and civil unrest, power losses, telecommunications failures, hardware and software failures, computer viruses and similar events. If any of these events results in damage to our facilities or systems, or those of our vendors, we may experience interruptions in our business until the damage is repaired, resulting in the potential loss of customers and revenues. In addition, we may incur costs in deductibles and repairing any damage beyond our applicable insurance coverage.

Material disruptions at one of our manufacturing facilities could negatively impact production, customer deliveries and overall financial results.

Elfa operates three manufacturing facilities: two in Sweden and one in Poland. As a part of the December 2021 acquisition of Closet Works, we added a manufacturing facility in Elmhurst, Illinois to supply our custom closets. A material operational disruption in one of our manufacturing facilities could occur as a result of any number of events including, but not limited to, major equipment failures, labor stoppages, temporary or permanent factory closings, transportation failures affecting the supply and shipment of materials and finished goods, severe weather conditions, climate change, health epidemics or pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which could result in limitations on the ability to travel and return to work, geopolitical and civil unrest and disruptions in utility services. Such a disruption could negatively impact production, customer deliveries and financial results.

Our ability to obtain merchandise on a timely basis at competitive prices could suffer as a result of any deterioration or change in our vendor relationships or events that adversely affect our vendors or their ability to obtain financing for their operations, including COVID-19.

We believe our vendor relationships are critical to our success. We do not have long-term contracts with any of our vendors and we generally transact business on an order-by-order basis, operating without any contractual assurances of continued supply, pricing or access to new products. Any of our vendors could discontinue supplying us with desired products in sufficient quantities for a variety of reasons. If we are unable to acquire suitable merchandise in sufficient quantities, at acceptable prices with adequate delivery times due to the loss of or a deterioration or change in our relationship with one or more of our key vendors or events harmful to our vendors occur, it may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

The benefits we currently experience from our vendor relationships could be adversely affected if our vendors:

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We historically have established excellent working relationships with many small- to mid-size vendors that generally have more limited resources, production capacities and operating histories. Adverse market and economic events, such as the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical and civil unrest, and climate change, could impair our ability to obtain merchandise in sufficient quantities from these vendors. Such events include difficulties or problems associated with our vendors' business, finances, labor, ability to export or import, production, insurance and reputation, which our vendors are currently facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There can be no assurance that we will be able to acquire desired merchandise in sufficient quantities on acceptable terms or at all in the future, especially if we need significantly greater amounts of inventory in connection with the growth of our business. We may need to develop new relationships with larger vendors, and we may not be able to find similar merchandise with the same terms from larger vendors. The receipt of products sourced from areas impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic has been and may continue to be slowed or disrupted, which could further impact our ability to merchandise in sufficient quantities.

Product recalls and/or product liability, as well as changes in product safety and other consumer protection laws, may adversely impact our merchandise offerings, reputation, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition.

We are subject to regulations by a variety of federal, state and international regulatory authorities, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission. During fiscal 2021, we purchased merchandise from approximately 630 vendors. If our vendors fail to manufacture or import merchandise that adheres to product safety requirements or our quality control standards, our reputation and brands could be damaged, potentially leading to increases in customer litigation against us. It is possible that one or more of our vendors might not adhere to product safety requirements or our quality control standards, and we might not identify the deficiency before merchandise is sold. Any issues of product safety could cause us to recall some of those products. If our vendors are unable or unwilling to recall products failing to meet product safety requirements or our quality standards, we may be required to recall those products at a substantial cost to us. Furthermore, to the extent we are unable to replace any recalled products, we may have to reduce our merchandise offerings, resulting in a decrease in sales, especially if a recall occurs near a seasonal period.

Moreover, changes in product safety or other consumer protection laws could lead to increased costs to us for certain merchandise, and additional labor costs associated with readying merchandise for sale. Our vendors may require long lead times on merchandise ordering cycles, which could increase the difficulty for us to plan and prepare for potential changes to applicable consumer protection laws. In particular, The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 imposes significant requirements on manufacturing, importing, testing and labeling requirements for some of our products. In the event that we are unable to timely comply with regulatory changes, significant fines or penalties could result, and could adversely affect our merchandise offerings, reputation, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition.

We face risks related to operating two distribution centers and our manufacturing facilities.

Our business depends upon the successful operation of our distribution centers and manufacturing facilities, as well as our ability to fulfill orders and to deliver our merchandise to our customers in a timely manner. We currently handle merchandise distribution for all of our stores from two facilities, one in Coppell, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, Texas,

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and the second in Aberdeen, Maryland. We also supply custom closets from the Closet Works manufacturing facility in Elmhurst, Illinois. We use independent third-party transportation companies as well as leased trucks to deliver our merchandise to our stores and our customers. Any significant interruption in the operation of our distribution centers or the domestic transportation infrastructure due to natural disasters, accidents, inclement weather, system failures, work stoppages, slowdowns or strikes by employees of the transportation companies, temporary or government-mandated closures, or other causes, including health epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, could delay or impair our ability to distribute merchandise to our stores, which could result in lower sales, a loss of loyalty to our brands and excess inventory and would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to duties, tariffs and quotas associated with our dependence on foreign imports for our merchandise.

During fiscal 2021, including purchases for Elfa which represented approximately 19% of our purchases, we purchased approximately 57% of our merchandise from vendors located outside the United States (including approximately 34% from vendors located in China) and approximately 43% of our merchandise from vendors located in the United States. In addition, some of the merchandise we purchase from vendors in the United States also depends, in whole or in part, on manufacturers located outside the United States. As a result, our business depends on global trade, as well as trade and cost factors that impact the specific countries where our vendors are located, including Asia. Our future success will depend in part upon our ability to maintain our existing foreign vendor relationships and to develop new ones. While we rely on our long-term relationships with our foreign vendors, we have no long-term contracts with them and transact business on an order by order basis.

Many of our imported products are subject to existing duties, tariffs and quotas that may limit the quantity of some types of goods that we may import into the United States. Because a large portion of our merchandise is sourced, directly or indirectly, from outside the United States, major changes in tax policy or trade relations, such as the disallowance of income tax deductions for imported merchandise or the imposition of additional tariffs or duties on imported products, could adversely affect our business, results of operations, effective income tax rate, liquidity and net income. For example, in recent years, tariffs were imposed on many items sourced to the U.S. from China, including products and raw materials imported into the U.S., and the Chinese government has imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. manufactured goods. As a result, we continually evaluate the impact of enacted tariffs, along with any potential additional tariffs or retaliatory trade restrictions implemented by other countries. These tariffs could adversely affect our customer sales by causing potential delays in product received from our vendors, cost of goods sold and results of operations. We may not be able to fully or substantially mitigate the impact of such tariffs, pass price increases on to our customers, or secure adequate alternative sources of products or materials.

Our dependence on foreign imports also makes us vulnerable to risks associated with products manufactured abroad, including, among other things, risks of damage, destruction or confiscation of products while in transit to our distribution centers located in the United States, charges on or assessment of additional import duties, surcharges, tariffs and quotas, loss of “most favored nation” trading status by the United States in relation to a particular foreign country, work stoppages, including without limitation as a result of events such as longshoremen strikes, transportation and other delays in shipments, including without limitation as a result of heightened security screening and inspection processes or other port-of-entry limitations or restrictions in the United States, freight cost increases, health epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, and economic uncertainties, including inflation, foreign government regulations, trade restrictions, including the United States retaliating against protectionist foreign trade practices and geopolitical unrest, increased labor costs and other similar factors that might affect the operations of our manufacturers in specific countries such as China.

An interruption or delay in supply from our foreign sources, or the imposition of additional duties, surcharges, taxes or other charges on these imports, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations unless and until alternative supply arrangements are secured.

In addition, there is a risk that compliance lapses by our manufacturers could occur, which could lead to investigations by U.S. government agencies responsible for international trade compliance. Resulting penalties or enforcement actions could delay future imports/exports or otherwise negatively impact our business. In addition, there remains a risk that one or more of our foreign manufacturers will not adhere to applicable legal requirements or our

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global compliance standards such as fair labor standards, the prohibition on child labor and other product safety or manufacturing safety standards. The violation of applicable legal requirements, including labor, manufacturing and safety laws, by any of our manufacturers, the failure of any of our manufacturers to adhere to our global compliance standards or the divergence of the labor practices followed by any of our manufacturers from those generally accepted in the United States, could disrupt our supply of products from our manufacturers or the shipment of products to us, result in potential liability to us and harm our reputation and brand, any of which could negatively affect our business and operating results.

We rely upon independent third-party transportation providers for substantially all of our product shipments and are subject to increased shipping costs as well as the potential inability of our third-party transportation providers to deliver on a timely basis.

We rely upon independent third-party transportation providers for substantially all of our product shipments, including shipments to and from all of our stores. Our utilization of these delivery services for shipments is subject to risks, including increases in fuel prices, which has in the past, and could continue to increase our shipping costs, and employee strikes and inclement weather, health epidemics or pandemics, such as COVID-19, which has impacted and may continue to impact a shipping company’s ability to provide delivery services that adequately meet our shipping needs. In fiscal 2021, gross margin was negatively affected by increased freight costs, and we could continue to see a negative impact on gross margin in fiscal 2022. Our reputation for providing a high level of customer service is dependent on such third-party transportation providers to timely deliver our products. If we change the shipping companies we use, we could face logistical difficulties that could adversely affect deliveries and we would incur costs and expend resources in connection with such change. Moreover, we may not be able to obtain terms as favorable as those received from our current independent third-party transportation providers, which in turn would increase our costs.

Consumer Behavior Risks

An overall decline in the health of the economy and consumer spending may affect consumer purchases of discretionary items, which could reduce demand for our products and materially harm our sales, profitability and financial condition.

Our business depends on consumer demand for our products and, consequently, is sensitive to a number of factors that influence general consumer spending on discretionary items in particular. Factors influencing consumer spending include general economic conditions, consumer disposable income, fuel prices, recession and fears of recession, unemployment, war and fears of war, inclement weather, availability of consumer credit, consumer debt levels, conditions in the housing market, interest rates, sales tax rates and rate increases, inflation, consumer confidence in future economic and political conditions, and consumer perceptions of personal well-being and security, including health epidemics or pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Prolonged or pervasive economic downturns could slow the pace of new store openings or cause current stores to temporarily or permanently close. Adverse changes in factors affecting discretionary consumer spending have reduced and may continue to further reduce consumer demand for our products, thus reducing our sales and harming our business and operating results.

If we are unable to source and market new products to meet our high standards and customer preferences or are unable to offer our customers an aesthetically pleasing and convenient shopping environment, our results of operations may be adversely affected.

Our success depends on our ability to source and market new products that both meet our standards for quality and appeal to customers’ preferences. Our buying team is primarily responsible for both sourcing products that meet our high specifications and identifying and responding to changing customer preferences. Failure to source and market such products, or to accurately forecast changing customer preferences, could lead to a decrease in the number of customer transactions at our stores and a decrease in the amount customers spend when they visit our stores. In addition, the sourcing of our products is dependent, in part, on our relationships with our vendors. If we are unable to maintain these relationships, we may not be able to continue to source products at competitive prices that both meet our standards and appeal to our customers.

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We also attempt to create an aesthetically pleasing and convenient shopping experience, including on our website. If we are not successful in creating an aesthetically pleasing and convenient shopping experience, we may lose customers or fail to obtain new customers.

If we do not succeed in introducing and sourcing new products that consumers want to buy or maintaining good relationships with our vendors, or are unable to provide an aesthetically pleasing and convenient shopping environment or maintain our level of customer service, our sales, operating margins and market share may decrease, which would adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to anticipate consumer preferences and demand, or to manage inventory commensurate with demand, our results of operations may be adversely affected.

Our success depends in large part on our ability to identify, originate and define storage and organization product trends, as well as to anticipate, gauge and react to changing consumer demands in a timely manner. Our products must appeal to a range of consumers whose preferences cannot always be predicted with certainty. We cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to develop products that customers respond to positively or that we will successfully meet consumer demands in the future. Any failure on our part to anticipate, identify or respond effectively to consumer preferences and demand could adversely affect sales of our products. If this occurs, our sales may decline, and we may be required to mark down certain products to sell the resulting excess inventory, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, we must manage our merchandise in stock and inventory levels to track consumer demand. Much of our merchandise requires that we provide vendors with significant ordering lead time, frequently before market factors are known. In addition, the nature of our products requires us to carry a significant amount of inventory prior to peak selling seasons. If we are not able to anticipate consumer demand for our different product offerings, or successfully manage inventory levels for products that are in demand, we may experience and have experienced:

As a result of these and other factors, we are vulnerable to demand and pricing shifts and to misjudgments in the selection and timing of merchandise purchases.

New stores in new markets, where we are less familiar with the target customer and less well-known, may face different or additional risks and increased costs compared to stores operated in existing markets or new stores in existing markets.

Competition Risks

Competition, including internet-based competition, could negatively impact our business, adversely affecting our ability to generate higher net sales.

The retail industry is highly competitive, with few barriers to entry. Competition is characterized by many factors, including level of service, merchandise assortment, product quality, price, location, reputation, credit availability, and customer loyalty. A variety of retailers offer products that are similar to the products we offer in our stores and through our website. Competitive products can be found in mass merchants, as well as specialty retail chains. Some of our competitors, particularly the mass merchants, are larger and have greater financial resources than we do.

We also face competition from other internet-based retailers, and traditional store-based retailers. This results in increased price competition and customer selection of similar products.

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In addition, we must successfully respond to changing consumer preferences and buying trends relating to e-commerce usage. We may need to purchase new or improved technology, creative user interfaces and other e-commerce marketing tools such as paid search and mobile applications, among others. This may result in increased costs and may not succeed in increasing sales or attracting customers. Our competitors, some of whom have greater resources than we do, may also be able to benefit from changes in e-commerce technologies, which could harm our competitive position. Our failure to successfully respond to these risks and uncertainties might adversely affect the sales in our e-commerce business, as well as damage our reputation and brands.

Our vendors may sell similar or identical products to our competitors, which could harm our business.

Although we have negotiated North-American exclusivity on many of the products we sell in our stores, a majority of our non-elfa^® product sales are not exclusive. These vendors could sell similar or identical products to our competitors, some of whom purchase products in significantly greater volume, or enter into exclusive arrangements with other retailers that could limit our access to their products. Our vendors could also initiate or expand sales of their products through their own stores or through the Internet to the retail market and therefore compete with us directly or sell their products through outlet centers or discount stores, increasing the competitive pricing pressure we face.

Brand Reputation Risks

Our business depends in part on a strong brand image. If we are not able to protect our brand, we may be unable to attract a sufficient number of customers or sell sufficient quantities of our products.

We believe that the brand image we have developed has contributed significantly to the success of our business to date. We also believe that protecting The Container Store brand is integral to our business and to the implementation of our strategies for expanding our business. Our brand image may be diminished if we do not continue to make investments in areas such as marketing and advertising, as well as the day-to-day investments required for store operations, catalog mailings, online sales and employee training. Our brand image may be further diminished if new products fail to maintain or enhance our distinctive brand image. Furthermore, our reputation could be jeopardized if we fail to maintain high standards for merchandise quality, if we fail to maintain high ethical, social and environmental standards for all of our operations and activities, if we fail to comply with local laws and regulations or if we experience negative publicity or other negative events that affect our image or reputation, some of which may be beyond our ability to control. While we work with a third-party audit vendor to ensure a responsible and ethical supply chain, if any of our vendors engage in environmental, workplace or human rights violations that we are unable to identify or remediate, our business could be negatively affected and our brand could be harmed. In addition, our actual or perceived position or lack of position on social, environmental, political, public policy, or other sensitive issues, and any perceived lack of transparency about those matters, could harm our reputation. Any failure to maintain a strong brand image could have an adverse effect on our sales and results of operations.

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Our failure or inability to protect our intellectual property rights could diminish the value of our brand and weaken our competitive position.

We attempt to protect our intellectual property rights, both in the United States and in foreign countries, through a combination of copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, trade dress and unfair competition laws, as well as confidentiality procedures, and assignment and licensing arrangements. Our failure to obtain or maintain adequate protection of our intellectual property rights for any reason could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, we cannot assure you that competitors or other third parties will not infringe upon our intellectual property rights, or that we will have adequate resources to enforce our intellectual property rights.

In addition, intellectual property protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries where laws or law enforcement practices may not protect our intellectual property rights as fully as in the United States, and it may be more difficult for us to successfully challenge the use of our intellectual property rights by other parties in such countries and our competitive position may suffer.

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Liquidity Risks

We face risks related to our indebtedness, that could result in a high degree of leverage on cash flow from operations to pay back debt.

As of April 2, 2022, we had total outstanding debt of $169.5 million and an additional $106.8 million of availability under our asset-based revolving credit agreement (the “Revolving Credit Facility”) and the 2019 Elfa revolving credit facilities (the “2019 Elfa Revolving Facilities”). Our senior secured term loan facility with JPMorgan Chase bank, N.A. (the “Senior Secured Term Loan Facility”), which matures January 31, 2026, represented $167.5 million of the total outstanding debt.

We may incur additional indebtedness in the future. Our leverage could have important consequences to us, including:

Consequences of this indebtedness may require a substantial portion of cash flow from operations to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on our debt, thereby reducing our ability to use our cash flow to fund operations, capital expenditures, and future business opportunities; if we cannot generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt, we may need to refinance our debt, dispose of assets or issue equity to obtain necessary funds. We do not know whether we would be able to take any of these actions on a timely basis, on terms satisfactory to us, or at all. A failure by us or our subsidiaries to comply with the agreements governing our indebtedness could result in an event of default under such indebtedness, which could adversely affect our ability to respond to changes in our business and manage our operations. Upon the occurrence of an event of default under any of the agreements governing our indebtedness, the lenders could elect to declare all amounts outstanding to be due and payable and exercise other remedies as set forth in the agreements. If any of our indebtedness were to be accelerated, there can be no assurance that

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our assets would be sufficient to repay this indebtedness in full, which could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue to operate as a going concern.

Our costs and financial results may change as a result of currency exchange rate fluctuations.

During fiscal 2021, approximately 79% of our merchandise, based on cost of merchandise purchased, was manufactured abroad. The prices charged by foreign manufacturers may be affected by the fluctuation of their local currency against the U.S. dollar. We source goods from various countries, including China, and thus changes in the value of the U.S. dollar compared to other currencies may affect the costs of goods that we purchase.

Our largest exposure to currency exchange rate fluctuations is between the U.S. dollar and Swedish krona. All purchases from the Elfa segment by the TCS segment are in Swedish krona. Approximately 16% of our U.S. dollar merchandise purchases in the TCS segment in fiscal 2021 were originally made in Swedish krona from our Elfa segment. Additionally, all assets and liabilities of our Elfa segment are translated at year end rates of exchange, with the exception of certain assets and liabilities that are translated at historical rates of exchange. Revenues, expenses, and cash flows of our Elfa segment are translated at average rates of exchange for the year. As a result, our financial results may be adversely affected by fluctuations in the Swedish krona as compared to the U.S. dollar. Based on the average exchange rate from Swedish krona to U.S. dollar during fiscal 2021, and results of operations in functional currency, we believe that a 10% increase or decrease in the exchange rate of the Swedish krona would increase or decrease net income by approximately $0.6 million.

We will require significant capital to fund our expanding business, which may not be available to us on satisfactory terms or at all. If we are unable to maintain sufficient levels of operating cash flows, we may require additional financing which could adversely affect our financial health and impose covenants that limit our business activities.

We primarily depend on cash flow from operations, the Revolving Credit Facility (as defined above), and the 2019 Elfa Revolving Facilities (as defined above), to fund our business and growth plans. If our business does not generate sufficient cash flow from operations to fund these activities, we may need additional equity or debt financing. If such financing is not available to us, or is not available on satisfactory terms, our ability to operate and expand our business or respond to competitive pressures would be curtailed and we may need to delay, limit or eliminate planned store openings or operations or other elements of our growth strategy. If we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities or securities convertible into equity securities, your ownership would be diluted.

Our fixed lease obligations could adversely affect our financial performance.

Our fixed lease obligations will require us to use a significant portion of cash generated by our operations to satisfy these obligations, and could adversely impact our ability to obtain future financing to support our growth or other operational investments. We will require substantial cash flows from operations to make our payments under our operating leases, many of which provide for periodic increases in operating lease expense. If we are not able to make the required payments under the leases, the lenders or owners of the stores may, among other things, repossess those assets, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct our operations. In addition, our failure to make payments under our operating leases could trigger defaults under other leases or under agreements governing our indebtedness, which could cause the counterparties under those agreements to accelerate the obligations due thereunder.

Disruptions in the global financial markets and rising interest rates may make it difficult for us to borrow a sufficient amount of capital to finance the carrying costs of inventory and to pay for capital expenditures and operating costs, which could negatively affect our business.

Disruptions in the global financial markets and rising interest rates and banking systems have made credit and capital markets more difficult for companies to access, even for some companies with established revolving or other credit facilities. Under the Revolving Credit Facility, each member of the syndicate for the Revolving Credit Facility is responsible for providing a portion of the loans to be made under the facility. Factors that have previously affected our borrowing ability under the Revolving Credit Facility have included the borrowing base formula limitations, adjustments in the appraised value of our inventory used to calculate the borrowing base and the availability of each of the lenders to

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advance its portion of requested borrowing drawdowns under the facility. If, in connection with a disruption in the global financial markets or otherwise, any participant, or group of participants, with a significant portion of the commitments in the Revolving Credit Facility fails to satisfy its obligations to extend credit under the facility and we are unable to find a replacement for such participant or group of participants on a timely basis (if at all), our liquidity and our business may be materially adversely affected.

Changes to global financial markets, including the use of benchmark interest rates, may make it difficult for us to predict our future interest expenses.

In March 2021, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority announced that it will no longer require panel banks to submit quotes for LIBOR settings other than overnight and 12-month U.S. dollar LIBOR after December 31, 2021, and will no longer require panel banks to submit quotes for any U.S. dollar LIBOR settings after June 30, 2023. The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large U.S. financial institutions, is considering replacing LIBOR with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or “SOFR”, a new index calculated by short-term repurchase agreements, backed by Treasury securities, and U.S. regulators have issued supervisory guidance encouraging banks to cease entering into new contracts that use USD LIBOR as a reference rate. Working groups formed by financial regulators in other jurisdictions, including the U.K., the European Union, Japan and Switzerland, have also recommended alternatives to LIBOR denominated in their local currencies. Although SOFR appears to be the preferred replacement rate for USD LIBOR, it is unclear if other benchmarks may emerge or if other rates will be adopted outside of the United States. At this time, it is not possible to definitively predict the effect of any changes to LIBOR or any establishment of alternative benchmark rates, including SOFR. Our Senior Secured Term Loan Facility and Revolving Credit Facility provide that in the event LIBOR rates are no longer available, we and our lenders will negotiate in good faith to adopt a replacement benchmark rate and an applicable margin for borrowings based on such replacement benchmark rate. We may incur increased interest expense using any such replacement benchmark rates, which could have an adverse effect on us, including our costs of funds, access to capital markets and financial results.

Human Resources Risks

We depend on key executive management.

We depend on the leadership and experience of our key executive management. The loss of the services of any of our executive management members, whether in a planned transition or otherwise, could also disrupt our business. As there is a high level of competition for experienced, successful personnel in the retail industry, we may not be able to find suitable individuals to replace departing personnel on a timely basis or without incurring increased costs, or at all. We do not maintain key-man life insurance policies on any of our executive officers. We believe that our future success will depend on our continued ability to attract and retain highly skilled and qualified personnel. Our inability to meet our staffing requirements in the future could impair our growth and harm our business.

If we are unable to find, train and retain key personnel, including new employees that reflect our brand image and embody our culture, we may not be able to grow or sustain our operations.

Our success depends in part upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of store employees, including general managers and store managers, who understand and appreciate our customers, products, brand and corporate culture, and are able to adequately and effectively represent our culture and establish credibility with our customers. If we are unable to attract, train and retain employees in the future, we may not be able to serve our customers effectively, thus reducing our ability to continue our growth and to operate our existing stores as profitably as we have in the past. We hire personnel capable of consistently providing a high level of customer service, as demonstrated by their enthusiasm for our culture, understanding of our customers and knowledge of the merchandise we offer. There is a high level of competition for experienced, qualified personnel in the retail industry and we compete for personnel with a variety of companies looking to hire for retail positions. Our growth plans could strain our ability to staff our new stores, particularly at the store manager level, which could have an adverse effect on our ability to maintain a cohesive and consistently strong team, which in turn could have an adverse impact on our business performance and brand image.

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Organized labor activities could cause labor relation issues and higher labor costs.

As of April 2, 2022, approximately 60% of Elfa’s employees (approximately 5% of our total employees) were covered by collective bargaining agreements. A dispute with a union or employees represented by a union, including a failure to extend or renew our collective bargaining agreements, could result in production interruptions caused by work stoppages. If a strike or work stoppage were to occur, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

None of our U.S.-based employees are currently subject to a collective bargaining agreement. As we continue to grow and enter different regions, unions may attempt to organize all or part of our employee base at certain stores or within certain regions. Responding to such organization attempts may distract management and employees and may have a negative financial impact on individual stores, or on our business as a whole.

Regulatory, Legal and Accounting Risks

We could be adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar worldwide anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws.

We source a significant portion of our products from outside the United States. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other similar anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to non-U.S. officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. While our vendor compliance agreements mandate compliance with applicable law, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in preventing our employees or other agents from taking actions in violation of these laws or regulations. Such violations, or allegations of such violations, could disrupt our business and result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

There are claims made against us from time to time that may distract management from our business activities and result in significant liability or damage to our brand.

Periodically, we are involved in litigation, claims and other proceedings relating to the conduct of our business and employee relations. Claims may result in litigation and may result in regulatory proceedings being brought against us by federal and state agencies. Often these cases raise complex factual and legal issues, which are subject to risks and uncertainties and may require significant resources. Ultimately, litigation, claims, and regulatory proceedings result in unexpected expenses and liability and could also materially adversely affect our operations and our reputation.

Changes in statutory, regulatory, accounting, and other legal requirements could potentially impact our operating and financial results.

We are subject to numerous statutory, regulatory and legal requirements, domestically and abroad. Changes in the regulatory environment could potentially increase the costs of compliance and subject us to possible government penalties and litigation in the event of deemed noncompliance.

Specifically, significant or rapid increases to federal, state and local minimum wage rates could adversely affect our earnings if we are not able to otherwise offset these increased labor costs elsewhere in our business. Moreover, the adoption of new environmental laws and regulations in connection with climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy, including any federal or state laws enacted to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, could significantly increase our costs or reduce the demand for our products. If carbon pricing or carbon taxes are adopted, the cost of products from our suppliers could increase and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

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Our total assets include intangible assets with an indefinite life, including goodwill and trade names, and substantial amounts of long-lived assets. Changes in estimates or projections used to assess the fair value of these assets, or operating results that are lower than our current estimates, may cause us to incur impairment charges that could adversely affect our results of operation.

We make certain estimates and projections in connection with impairment analyses for these long-lived assets, in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 360, “Property, Plant and Equipment” (“ASC 360”), and ASC 350, “Intangibles—Goodwill and Other” (“ASC 350”). We also review these assets for impairment on an annual basis and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset may not be recoverable in accordance with ASC 360 or ASC 350. We will record an impairment loss when the carrying amount of the underlying asset, asset group or reporting unit exceeds its fair value. These calculations require us to make a number of estimates and projections of future results. If these estimates or projections change, we may be required to record additional impairment charges on certain of these assets. If these impairment charges are significant, our results of operations would be adversely affected.

As of our annual impairment testing date of January 2, 2022, we determined that there was no impairment of goodwill or trade names. Future impairment charges could be required if we do not achieve our current net sales and profitability projections or if our weighted average cost of capital increases. Moreover, changes in our market capitalization may impact certain assumptions used in our income approach calculations.

We may be subject to fluctuations in our tax obligations, and effective tax rates and realization of our deferred tax assets, including net operating loss carryforwards, may result in volatility of our operating results.

We are subject to income taxes in various U.S. and certain foreign jurisdictions. We record tax expense based on our estimates of future payments, which may include reserves for uncertain tax positions in multiple tax jurisdictions, and valuation allowances related to certain net deferred tax assets, including net operating loss carryforwards. At any one time, many tax years are subject to audit by various taxing jurisdictions. The results of these audits and negotiations with taxing authorities may affect the ultimate settlement of these issues. We expect to have ongoing variability in our quarterly tax rates as events occur and exposures are evaluated.

In addition, our effective tax rate in a given financial statement period may be materially impacted by a variety of factors including but not limited to changes in the mix and level of earnings, varying tax rates in the different jurisdictions in which we operate, fluctuations in the valuation allowance, timing of the utilization of net operating loss carryforwards, or by changes to existing accounting rules or regulations.

Further, tax legislation may be enacted in the future which could negatively impact our current or future tax structure and effective tax rates, such as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, which was signed into law on March 27, 2020. The CARES Act was enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and contains numerous income tax provisions, such as relaxing limitations on the deductibility of interest, technical corrections to tax depreciation methods for qualified improvement property and net operating loss carryback periods. During fiscal 2020, we implemented applicable benefits of the CARES Act, which included the deferral of approximately $5.2 million of employer payroll taxes and the recording of an employee retention credit of approximately $1.0 million. As of fiscal 2021, the remaining employer payroll taxes deferral is approximately $2.6 million payable in December 2022, and the Company still expects to receive approximately $1.0 million of tax credits.

If third parties claim that we infringe upon their intellectual property rights, our operating results could be adversely affected.

We face the risk of claims that we have infringed upon third parties’ intellectual property rights. Any claims of intellectual property infringement, even those without merit, could (i) be expensive and time consuming to defend; (ii) cause us to cease making, licensing or using products or methods that allegedly infringe; (iii) require us to redesign, reengineer, or rebrand our products or packaging, if feasible; (iv) divert management’s attention and resources; or (v) require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements in order to obtain the right to use a third party’s intellectual property. Any royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. A

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successful claim of infringement against us could result in our being required to pay significant damages, enter into costly license or royalty agreements, or stop the sale of certain products, any of which could have a negative impact on our operating results and harm our future prospects.

Organization and Common Stock Risks

If our operating and financial performance in any given period does not meet the guidance that we provide to the public, our stock price may decline.

We may provide public guidance on our expected operating and financial results for future periods, including sales and earnings per share. Such guidance is comprised of forward-looking statements subject to the risks and uncertainties described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other public filings and public statements. Our actual results have not always been and may not always be in line with or exceed the guidance we have provided, especially in times of economic uncertainty or when there are periods of severe weather. If, in the future, our operating or financial results for a particular period do not meet our guidance or the expectations of investment analysts or if we reduce our guidance for future periods, the market price of our common stock may decline as well.

Substantial future sales of our common stock, or the perception in the public markets that these sales may occur, may depress our stock price.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional shares. All outstanding shares of our common stock are freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”), except for any shares of our common stock that may be held or acquired by our directors, executive officers and other affiliates, as that term is defined in the Securities Act, which are subject to restrictions under the Securities Act. Certain existing holders of a majority of our common stock have rights, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other shareholders. In fiscal 2018, we filed a registration statement on Form S-3 under which certain of our shareholders may sell, from time to time, up to 32,492,421 shares of our common stock that, if sold, will be freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act. In the event a large number of shares of common stock are sold in the public market, such sales could reduce the trading price of our common stock. For example, in fiscal 2020, Leonard Green and Partners, L.P. sold 12,172,538 shares.

In the future, we may also issue our securities if we need to raise capital in connection with a capital raise or acquisitions. The amount of shares of our common stock issued in connection with a capital raise or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock.

Failure to maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.

We are required to comply with the rules of the SEC implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Section 404”) and our management is therefore required to provide an annual report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for that purpose. Our independent registered public accounting firm is required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. As such, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our controls are documented, designed or operating.

Testing and maintaining internal control can divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to the operation of our business. In addition, when evaluating our internal control over financial reporting, we may identify material weaknesses that we may not be able to remediate in time to meet the applicable deadline imposed upon us for compliance with the requirements of Section 404. If we identify a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting or are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner or assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose

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confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our common stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by The New York Stock Exchange, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

We do not currently expect to pay any cash dividends.

The continued operation and expansion of our business will require substantial funding. Accordingly, we do not currently expect to pay any cash dividends on shares of our common stock. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant. Additionally, the obligors under the Senior Secured Term Loan Facility, the Revolving Credit Facility and the 2019 Elfa Senior Secured Credit Facilities are currently restricted from paying cash dividends, and we expect these restrictions to continue in the future.

Our anti-takeover provisions could prevent or delay a change in control of our Company, even if such change in control would be beneficial to our shareholders.

Provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws as well as provisions of Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control of our Company, even if such change in control would be beneficial to our shareholders. These include:

In addition, the Delaware General Corporation Law, to which we are subject, prohibits us, except under specified circumstances, from engaging in any mergers, significant sales of stock or assets or business combinations with any shareholder or group of shareholders who owns at least 15% of our common stock.

The provision of our certificate of incorporation requiring exclusive venue in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware for certain types of lawsuits may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

Our certificate of incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our shareholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to any provision of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware or our certificate of incorporation or the bylaws or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us governed by the internal affairs doctrine will have to be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware. In addition, our bylaws provide that the federal district courts of

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the United States are the exclusive forum for any complaint raising a cause of action arising under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. These provisions may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

General Risks

Our common stock price may be volatile or may decline.

The market price for our common stock has been and may be volatile in the future. As a retailer, our results are significantly affected by various factors which can significantly affect our stock price, many of which are outside of our control, including the following:

In addition, stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many retail companies. In the past, shareholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were involved in securities litigation, we could incur substantial costs and our resources and the attention of management could be diverted from our business.

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We incur costs as a public company and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance matters.

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting, insurance and other expenses, including costs resulting from public company reporting obligations under the Exchange Act and rules and regulations regarding corporate governance practices, including those under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the listing requirements of The New York Stock Exchange. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these reporting requirements, rules and regulations, and such requirements, rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make certain activities more time-consuming and costly. In addition, these laws, rules and regulations also make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board of Directors, the committees of our Board of Directors or as our executive officers. Furthermore, if we are unable to satisfy our obligations as a public company, we could be subject to delisting of our common stock, fines, sanctions and other regulatory action and potentially civil litigation.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

We lease all of our 94 retail stores. Our leases generally have a term of 10 to 15 years, with renewal options that generally range from 5 to 15 years. Most leases for our retail stores provide for minimum operating lease payments, typically including escalating lease payments. Further, certain leases also include lease payments that are based on a percentage of sales. The leases generally require us to pay insurance, utilities, real estate taxes and repair and maintenance expenses. A summary of our store locations by state as of April 2, 2022 is below:

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We lease approximately 1.1 million square feet of space in Coppell, Texas for our corporate offices and distribution center for our TCS segment. The term for this lease expires in April 2025, and we retain three five-year renewal options. We also lease approximately 600,000 square feet of space in Aberdeen, Maryland for our second distribution center for our TCS segment. The term for this lease expires in November 2029. We lease approximately 58,000 square feet of space in Elmhurst, Illinois for Closet Works’ manufacturing facility for our TCS segment. The term for this lease expires in September 2024. We lease approximately 2,800 square feet of space in Chicago, Illinois for Closet Works’ show room for our TCS segment. The term for this lease expires in May 2026.

Elfa leases its approximately 9,000 square foot group headquarters in Malmö, Sweden. In addition, Elfa owns three manufacturing facilities, located in Västervik, Sweden (approximately 200,000 square feet), Mullsjö, Sweden (approximately 100,000 square feet), and Koszalin, Poland (approximately 100,000 square feet).

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

We are subject to various legal proceedings and claims, including employment claims, wage and hour claims, intellectual property claims, contractual and commercial disputes and other matters that arise in the ordinary course of business. While the outcome of these and other claims cannot be predicted with certainty, management does not believe that the outcome of these matters will have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition on an individual basis or in the aggregate.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

None.

Information about our Executive Officers

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Satish Malhotra has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since February 2021. For the previous 21 years, Mr. Malhotra held various leadership roles at prestige beauty retailer Sephora Americas, most recently as Chief Retail Officer and Chief Operating Officer from 2019 until his departure. Prior to that role, Mr. Malhotra served as Chief Operating Officer from 2016 to 2019 and was responsible for Technology, Supply Chain, Store Development, Legal, Strategy and Partnerships, including the Sephora inside JCPenney (SiJCP) business. He also spent several years overseeing Sephora’s expansion into Canada and Latin America. Before joining Sephora, Mr. Malhotra was a Transaction Services Senior Associate at PwC. Mr. Malhotra received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Malhotra also holds an inactive Certified Public Accountant’s license from the State of California.

Jeffrey A. Miller has been with The Container Store since August 2013 and has served as our Chief Financial Officer since August 2020. Mr. Miller is responsible for the business areas of Finance, Accounting, Real Estate, Information Security, Procurement, Internal Audit, and ESG. Previously, Mr. Miller served as our Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Prior to joining The Container Store, Mr. Miller was at FedEx Office for over 10 years and served in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility, progressing to Vice President and Controller from 2008 until his departure. Mr. Miller began his career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. He brings over 25 years of accounting and finance experience to the Chief Financial Officer role. Mr. Miller is a graduate of The University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting. Mr. Miller is a Certified Public Accountant.

Melissa Collins has been with The Container Store for 23 years and has served as our Chief Marketing Officer since July 2016. Ms. Collins serves as the Company’s primary marketing strategist, and oversees such key functional areas as brand positioning, advertising, public relations, digital marketing, visual merchandising, social media and Organized Insider (loyalty program) and CRM. Previously, from August 2008 to July 2016, Ms. Collins served as Vice President of Creative and Online. Prior to that, she served in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility, beginning as Art Director and progressing to Senior Director of Creative and Online Services.

John Gehre has served as our Chief Merchandising Officer since August 2019 and, prior to that, as Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Planning since May 2018, with responsibility for product assortment, inventory allocation, global sourcing initiatives and private label strategy. Prior to joining The Container Store, Mr. Gehre served as the Vice President of General Merchandise, Global Sourcing, and Front End from February 2007 to January 2018 at H-E-B, an American supermarket chain. Mr. Gehre previously gained experience in merchandise planning, product

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development, omnichannel marketing, and supply chain with BJ’s Wholesale, Linens ‘n Things, Saks Fifth Avenue and Federated.

Dhritiman Saha joined The Container Store as our Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer in May 2021, bringing more than 27 years of expertise in P&L, leading and managing multi-billion dollar ecommerce transformation & growth, digital marketing, subscription business, omnichannel customer experience, technology and global operations. Prior to joining The Container Store, Mr. Saha served as the Chief Digital Officer at GameStop from February 2021 to April 2021 and led e-commerce business, digital marketing & customer experience, online assortment expansion, digital and omnichannel technology & product management. Prior to GameStop, Mr. Saha served as Global Chief Customer and Digital Officer at Bodybuilding.com from December 2018 to February 2020 and as Senior Vice President of Digital for JCPenney from April 2014 to December 2018. Throughout Mr. Saha’s extensive career, he has also served in a variety of leadership roles driving technology and omnichannel business transformation at other chain retailers such as Target and Kohls. Mr. Saha received his MBA from Johns Hopkins University and completed his bachelors degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering in Jalandhar, India.

PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Information and Dividend Policy

Our common stock trades on The New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”), under the symbol “TCS.”

The number of stockholders of record of our common stock as of May 27, 2022 was 51. This number excludes stockholders whose stock is held in nominee or street name by brokers. No dividends have been declared or paid on our common stock. We do not currently anticipate that we will pay any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.

The continued operation and expansion of our business will require substantial funding. Accordingly, we do not currently expect to pay any cash dividends on shares of our common stock. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant.

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ITEM 6. [Reserved]

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this report, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. You should review the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” sections of this report for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

For a discussion of the Company’s results of operations and liquidity and capital resources for Fiscal 2019, including a year-to-year comparison between Fiscal 2019 and Fiscal 2020, refer to “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in Part II of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for Fiscal 2020, filed with the SEC on June 03, 2021.

Note on Dollar Amounts

All dollar amounts in this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations are in thousands, except per share amounts, unless otherwise stated.

Overview

The Container Store® is the original and leading specialty retailer of storage and organization products and solutions in the United States and the only national retailer solely devoted to the category. We provide a collection of creative, multifunctional and customizable storage and organization solutions that are sold in our stores and online through a high-service, differentiated shopping experience. We feature The Container Store Custom Closets consisting of our elfa® Classic, elfa® Décor, Avera® and Laren® closet lines. In fiscal 2021, the Company acquired Closet Parent Company, Inc. (“Closet Works”) which expanded our manufacturing capabilities to include wood-based spaces and enhanced our premium wood-based product offering. On April 2, 2022 we added the wood-based closet line Preston^TM closet to The Container Store Custom Closets. Our customers are highly educated, very busy and primarily homeowners with a higher than average household income. Our customers crave discovery, inspiration, and solutions that simplify their lives and maximize their spaces within their homes. Our vision is to deepen our relationship with our customers, expand our reach and strengthen our capabilities, all while transforming lives through the power of organization.

Our operations consist of two reportable segments:

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How we assess the performance of our business

We consider a variety of financial and operating measures in assessing the performance of our business. The key measures we use to determine how our business is performing are net sales, gross profit, gross margin, selling, general and administrative expenses, pre-opening costs, comparable store sales, and free cash flow. In addition, we also review other important operating metrics including non-GAAP measures such as EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net income.

Net sales

Net sales reflect our sales of merchandise plus other services provided, such as installation, shipping, delivery, and organization services, less returns and discounts. Net sales also include wholesale sales by Elfa. Revenue from our TCS segment is recognized upon receipt of the product by our customers or upon completion of the service to our customers. Revenue from our Elfa segment is recognized upon shipment to customers.

The retail and wholesale businesses in which we operate are cyclical, and consequently our sales are affected by general economic conditions. Purchases of our products are sensitive to trends in the levels of consumer spending, which are affected by a number of factors such as consumer disposable income, housing market conditions, stock market performance, consumer debt, interest rates, tax rates, health epidemics or pandemics, such as COVID-19, and overall consumer confidence. Our sales are also impacted by changes in promotional cadence and by changes in the depth and breadth of promotions.

Our net sales are moderately seasonal. As a result, our revenues fluctuate from quarter to quarter, which often affects the comparability of our interim results. Prior to fiscal 2021, our business realized a higher portion of net sales, operating income and cash flows from operations in the fourth fiscal quarter. However, in fiscal 2021, sales and profitability did not follow historical patterns due to various factors, including changes in promotional strategy and cadence. For fiscal 2022, we expect that our sales and profitability patterns will be largely consistent with fiscal 2021.

Gross profit and gross margin

Gross profit is equal to our net sales less cost of sales. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales is referred to as gross margin. Cost of sales in our TCS segment includes the purchase cost of inventory less vendor rebates, in-bound freight, as well as inventory shrinkage. Direct installation and organization costs, as well as costs incurred to ship or deliver merchandise to customers, are also included in cost of sales in our TCS segment. Elfa segment cost of sales from manufacturing operations includes costs associated with production, primarily material, wages, freight and other variable costs, and applicable manufacturing overhead. The components of our cost of sales may not be comparable to the components of cost of sales or similar measures by other retailers. As a result, data in this report regarding our gross profit and gross margin may not be comparable to similar data made available by other retailers.

Our gross profit is variable in nature and generally follows changes in net sales. Our gross margin can be impacted by fluctuations in commodity and freight costs. Our gross margin can also be impacted by changes in the mix of products and services sold. For example, sales from our TCS segment typically provide a higher gross margin than sales to third parties from our Elfa segment. Additionally, sales of products typically provide a higher gross margin than sales of services. Furthermore, sales generated through our website typically have a lower gross margin than sales generated through our stores. Gross margin for our TCS segment is also susceptible to foreign currency risk as certain purchases of elfa^® products from our Elfa segment are in Swedish krona, while sales of these products are in U.S. dollars. We mitigate this risk through the use of forward contracts, whereby we hedge purchases of inventory by locking

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in foreign currency exchange rates in advance. Similarly, gross margin for our Elfa segment is susceptible to foreign currency risk as certain purchases of raw materials are transacted in currencies other than Swedish krona, which is the functional currency of Elfa.

Selling, general and administrative expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses include all operating costs not included in cost of sales, stock-based compensation, and pre-opening costs. For our TCS segment, these include payroll and payroll-related expenses, marketing expenses, occupancy expenses (which include operating lease expense, real estate taxes, common area maintenance, utilities, telephone, property insurance, and repairs and maintenance), costs to ship product from the distribution center to our stores, and supplies expenses. We also incur costs for our distribution center and corporate office operations. For our Elfa segment, these include sales and marketing expenses, product development costs, and all expenses related to operations at headquarters. Depreciation and amortization are excluded from both gross profit and selling, general and administrative expenses.

Selling, general and administrative expenses include both fixed and variable components and, therefore, are not directly correlated with net sales. The components of our selling, general and administrative expenses may not be comparable to the components of similar measures of other retailers. We expect that our selling, general and administrative expenses will increase in future periods with expected future store growth.

Pre-opening costs

Non-capital expenditures associated with opening new stores, relocating stores, and net costs associated with opening the second distribution center, including lease expenses, marketing expenses, travel and relocation costs, training costs, and certain corporate overhead costs, are expensed as incurred and are included in pre-opening costs in the consolidated statement of operations. We expect that our pre-opening costs will increase in future periods with expected future store growth.

Comparable store sales

Due to the significant business disruption from COVID-19 that led to the temporary closure of all of our stores to in-store traffic in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, we did not evaluate comparable store sales as a key metric in fiscal 2020 or fiscal 2021 and focused on net sales comparisons when evaluating the Company’s topline performance. We expect to present comparable store sales in fiscal 2022.

Comparable store sales includes all net sales from our TCS segment, except for sales from stores open less than sixteen months, stores that have been closed permanently, and stores that have been closed temporarily for more than seven days. A store is included in the comparable store sales calculation on the first day of the sixteenth full fiscal month following the store’s opening. When a store is relocated, we continue to consider sales from that store to be comparable store sales. A store permanently closed is not considered comparable in the fiscal month that it closes. A store temporarily closed for more than seven days is not considered comparable in the fiscal month it is closed. The store then becomes comparable on the first day of the following fiscal month in which it reopens.

Comparable store sales allow us to evaluate how our retail store base is performing by measuring the change in period over period net sales in stores that have been open for fifteen months or more. The comparable store sales growth metric is an operating measure intended only as supplemental information and is not a substitute for net sales presented in accordance with GAAP. Various factors affect comparable store sales, including:

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Opening new stores is part of our long-term growth strategy. As we continue to pursue our growth strategy, we anticipate that a portion of our net sales will come from stores not included in our comparable store sales calculation. Accordingly, comparable store sales is only one measure we use to assess the success of our growth strategy.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are key metrics used by management, our Board of Directors and Leonard Green and Partners, L.P. (“LGP”) to assess our financial performance. In addition, we use Adjusted EBITDA in connection with covenant compliance, incentive compensation performance evaluations, and to supplement GAAP measures of performance to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. We believe it is useful for investors to see the measures that management uses to evaluate the Company, its executives and our covenant compliance, as applicable. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are also frequently used by analysts, investors and other interested parties to evaluate companies in our industry.

We define EBITDA as net income before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated in accordance with the Senior Secured Term Loan Facility and the Revolving Credit Facility (defined below) and is one of the components for performance evaluation under our executive compensation programs. Adjusted EBITDA reflects further adjustments to EBITDA to eliminate the impact of certain items, including certain non-cash and other items, that we do not consider representative of our ongoing operating performance. For reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

Adjusted net income and adjusted net income per common share—diluted

We use adjusted net income and adjusted net income per common share—diluted to supplement GAAP measures of performance to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. We present adjusted net income and adjusted net income per common share—diluted because we believe they assist investors in comparing our performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance and because we believe it is useful for investors to see the measures that management uses to evaluate the Company. Adjusted net income is a supplemental measure of financial performance that is not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP.

We define adjusted net income as net income before restructuring charges, charges related to the impact of COVID-19 on business operations, credits pursuant to the CARES Act, severance charges associated with COVID-19, acquisition-related costs, impairment charges related to intangible assets, losses on extinguishment of debt, certain gains on disposal of assets, certain management transition costs incurred, charges related to the closure of Elfa France operations, and the tax impact of these adjustments and unusual or infrequent tax items. We define adjusted net income per common share—diluted as adjusted net income divided by the diluted weighted average common shares outstanding. For a reconciliation of adjusted net income to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

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Free cash flow

The Company presents free cash flow, which the Company defines as net cash provided by operating activities in a period minus payments for property and equipment made in that period, because it believes it is a useful indicator of the Company’s overall liquidity, as the amount of free cash flow generated in any period is representative of cash that is available for debt repayment, investment, and other discretionary and non-discretionary cash uses. Accordingly, we believe that free cash flow provides useful information to investors in understanding and evaluating our liquidity in the same manner as management. Our definition of free cash flow is limited in that it does not solely represent residual cash flows available for discretionary expenditures due to the fact that the measure does not deduct the payments required for debt service and other contractual obligations. Therefore, we believe it is important to view free cash flow as a measure that provides supplemental information to our Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. Although other companies report their free cash flow, numerous methods may exist for calculating a company’s free cash flow. As a result, the method used by our management to calculate our free cash flow may differ from the methods used by other companies to calculate their free cash flow.

Adjustment for currency exchange rate fluctuations

Additionally, this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations also refers to the change in Elfa third party net sales after the conversion of Elfa’s net sales from Swedish krona to U.S. dollars using the prior year’s conversion rate, which is a financial measure not calculated in accordance with GAAP. The Company believes the disclosure of the change in Elfa third party net sales without the effects of currency exchange rate fluctuations helps investors understand the Company’s underlying performance.

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Results of Operations

The following data represents the amounts shown in our audited consolidated statements of operations for the fiscal years ended April 2, 2022 and April 3, 2021 expressed in dollars and as a percentage of net sales and certain operating data and non-GAAP financial information. For segment data, see Note 15 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Fiscal 2021 compared to Fiscal 2020

Net sales

The following table summarizes our net sales for fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2020:

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Net sales in fiscal 2021 increased by $104,031, or 10.5%, compared to fiscal 2020 net sales of $990,088, which is inclusive of $17,734 in net sales attributable to the 53^rd week. This increase is comprised of the following components:

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TCS net sales increased $100,110, or 10.8%, with other product categories up 6.4%, contributing 340 basis points of the increase, and Custom Closets up 16.0%, contributing 740 basis points. Custom Closets includes metal-based and wood-based custom space products and in-home services, as well as closet lifestyle department products sold by the TCS segment. Elfa third-party net sales increased $3,921, or 5.9%, in fiscal 2021. After converting Elfa’s third party net sales from Swedish krona to U.S. dollars using the prior year’s conversion rate for both fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2020, Elfa third party net sales increased $3,317, or 5.0%.

As a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our Company stores in fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2020 and the Company’s policy of excluding extended store closures from its comparable sales calculation, the Company does not believe that comparable store sales is a meaningful metric to present for fiscal 2021, however we do expect to present this metric in fiscal 2022.

Gross profit and gross margin

Gross profit in fiscal 2021 increased by $65,760 or 11.5%, compared to fiscal 2020. The increase in gross profit was primarily the result of increased consolidated net sales combined with increased consolidated gross margin. The following table summarizes gross margin for fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2020 by segment and in total. The segment margins include the impact of intersegment sales from the Elfa segment to the TCS segment:

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TCS gross margin increased 150 basis points during fiscal 2021, primarily due to less promotional activity and decreased shipping costs as a result of a lower mix of online sales, partially offset by increased freight and commodity costs in fiscal 2021. Elfa segment gross margin decreased 900 basis points, primarily due to higher direct material costs. On a consolidated basis, gross margin increased 60 basis points, primarily due to the improvement in TCS gross margin during fiscal 2021.

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Selling, general and administrative expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses in fiscal 2021 increased by $44,821, or 10.5%, compared to fiscal 2020. As a percentage of consolidated net sales, selling, general and administrative expenses remained consistent at 43.1%. The following table summarizes selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of consolidated net sales for fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2020 by segment and in total:

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During fiscal 2021, leverage of occupancy costs on higher sales was partially offset by increased compensation and benefit costs. Additionally, fiscal 2020 benefited from fixed cost leverage of approximately 30 basis points associated with $17,734 of incremental sales in the 53^rd week.

Stock-based compensation

Stock-based compensation decreased to $4,263 in fiscal 2021 from $7,823 in fiscal 2020. Fiscal 2020 stock-based compensation was higher than fiscal 2021 due to liability accounting for a portion of performance awards that were significantly impacted by increases in our stock price during fiscal 2020 combined with the acceleration of expense for awards made to certain executives under employment agreements whose service periods expired in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020.

Other expenses

Other expenses of $1,112 in fiscal 2020, were primarily due to severance costs associated with the reduction in workforce as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related temporary store closures in fiscal 2020.

Interest expense and loss on extinguishment of debt

Interest expense decreased by $4,508, or 26.1%, in fiscal 2021 to $12,760. The decrease is primarily due to a lower principal balance on the Senior Secured Term Loan Facility (as defined below) combined with lower interest rates and decreased borrowings on the Revolving Credit Facility (as defined below). On November 25, 2020, the Company entered into a seventh amendment (the “Seventh Amendment”) to the Senior Secured Term Loan Facility. The Seventh Amendment amended the Senior Secured Term Loan Facility to, among other things, allow the applicable interest rate margin to remain at 4.75% for LIBOR loans and 3.75% for base rate loans. The Company paid down $47,172 on the Senior Secured Term Loan Facility in conjunction with the Seventh Amendment.

Additionally, as a result of the Seventh Amendment, the Company recorded $893 of loss on extinguishment of debt in fiscal 2020.

Taxes

The provision for income taxes in fiscal 2021 was $30,976 as compared to $22,560 in fiscal 2020. The effective tax rate for fiscal 2021 was 27.5%, as compared to 27.9% in fiscal 2020. The decrease in the effective tax rate is primarily due to the impact of discrete items on higher pre-tax income in fiscal 2021.

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Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted net income, adjusted net income per diluted share, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are supplemental non-GAAP financial measures that are used by management and external users of our financial statements, such as industry analysts, investors, lenders and rating agencies. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered as alternatives to net income as a measure of financial performance or cash flows from operations as a measure of liquidity, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP and they should not be construed as an inference that the Company’s future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items. These non-GAAP measures are key metrics used by management and the Company’s board of directors, to assess its financial performance. See “How we assess the performance of our business” above for further information. For a reconciliation of free cash flow to net cash provided by operating activities, see “Liquidity and Capital Resources – Free cash flow (Non-GAAP)” below.

A reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is set forth below: