Advantage Solutions Inc (ADV) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Advantage Solutions second-quarter 2025 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加 Advantage Solutions 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

It is now my pleasure to introduce Ruben Mella, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, and Ruben, you may begin.

現在我很高興介紹投資者關係副總裁 Ruben Mella。謝謝你，魯本，你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Welcome to Advantage Solutions second-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Dave Peacock, Chief Executive Officer; and Chris Growe, Chief Financial Officer, are on the call today. Dave and Chris will provide the prepared remarks, after which, we will open the call for a question-and-answer session.

謝謝您，接線生。歡迎參加 Advantage Solutions 2025 年第二季財報電話會議。執行長戴夫·皮科克 (Dave Peacock) 和首席財務長克里斯·格羅 (Chris Growe) 今天出席了電話會議。Dave 和 Chris 將提供準備好的演講稿，之後我們將開始問答環節。

During this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Actual outcomes and results could differ materially due to several factors, including those described more fully in the company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by such factors.

在本次電話會議中，管理階層可能會做出聯邦證券法所定義的前瞻性陳述。由於多種因素，實際結果可能會有重大差異，包括公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 表年度報告中更詳細描述的因素。所有前瞻性陳述均完全受這些因素的影響。

Our remarks today includes certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to the most comparable GAAP measure in our earnings release. As a reminder, unless otherwise stated, the financial results discussed today will be from continuing operations and revenues will exclude pass-through costs.

我們今天的評論包括某些非 GAAP 財務指標，這些指標與我們收益報告中最具可比性的 GAAP 指標相協調。提醒一下，除非另有說明，今天討論的財務結果將來自持續經營，收入將不包括轉嫁成本。

And now I would like to turn the call over to Dave Peacock.

現在我想把電話轉給戴夫·皮科克。

Thanks, Ruben. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Before we get started, I want to thank our teammates for their continued commitment to successfully serving our clients who continue to navigate ongoing market uncertainty.

謝謝，魯本。大家早安。感謝您加入我們。在我們開始之前，我要感謝我們的隊友們一直以來致力於為我們的客戶提供成功的服務，幫助他們繼續應對持續的市場不確定性。

Our second quarter revenues of $736 million and adjusted EBITDA of $86 million, were down 2% and 4%, respectively from the prior year. Our performance was in line with our internal plan, and we are pleased with the sequential improvement in the business relative to the first quarter.

我們第二季的營收為 7.36 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 為 8,600 萬美元，分別比前一年下降 2% 和 4%。我們的業績符合我們的內部計劃，我們對業務相對於第一季的連續改善感到滿意。

We made solid progress toward resolving the first quarter staffing shortfall, enabling both our experiential and retailer services teams to increase execution volume. This operational improvement contributed to year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth across both segments. As of July, staffing has largely returned to desired levels for the second half of the year, and we are confident in our ability to continue to recruit and retain personnel to meet client demand.

我們在解決第一季人員短缺問題方面取得了堅實的進展，使我們的體驗式和零售服務團隊都能夠增加執行量。這項營運改善促進了兩個部門的調整後 EBITDA 年成長。截至 7 月，人員配置已基本恢復到下半年的理想水平，我們有信心繼續招募和留住人才以滿足客戶需求。

Our financial results continue to be impacted by a client loss in branded services last year, which accounted for the entirety of the company's EBITDA decline. Additionally, we continue to invest behind our transformation initiatives, which weighed on profitability in the quarter. Both of these items will be mostly lapped on a year-over-year basis starting in Q3.

我們的財務表現繼續受到去年品牌服務客戶流失的影響，這導致了該公司 EBITDA 的全部下降。此外，我們繼續投資於我們的轉型計劃，這對本季的獲利能力產生了影響。從第三季開始，這兩項業務的年增速將基本持平。

Given our scale, serving over 4,000 clients and retail stores operating in over 90% of ZIP codes, we have a unique perspective on the US consumer. In recent months, we surveyed thousands of shoppers alongside a broad cross-section of our CPG and retailer clients to gain a deeper understanding of the evolving macroeconomic environment. While consumer health remains pressured and value-seeking behaviors remaining prevalent, our findings revealed several actionable insights.

鑑於我們的規模，我們為超過 4,000 名客戶和覆蓋超過 90% 郵遞區號的零售店提供服務，因此我們對美國消費者有著獨特的見解。最近幾個月，我們對數千名購物者以及廣泛的快速消費品和零售商客戶進行了調查，以更深入地了解不斷變化的宏觀經濟環境。儘管消費者的健康仍然面臨壓力，追求價值的行為仍然普遍存在，但我們的研究結果揭示了一些可行的見解。

Specifically, our merchandising supply chain, product sampling and private brand development services are essential offerings to help clients in this environment and optimize their return on investment. Retailers tell us that they lose nearly 40% of potential sales when a product is not carried or is out of stock. Our merchandising teams deliver a strong ROI for CPGs and retailers by ensuring that products are properly placed and advertised at the right price points, in-store signage is optimized and that there is an ample supply of product on shelf and on display.

具體來說，我們的商品供應鏈、產品抽樣和自有品牌開發服務是幫助客戶在這種環境下優化投資回報的重要產品。零售商告訴我們，當某種產品缺貨或缺貨時，他們會損失近 40% 的潛在銷售。我們的行銷團隊確保產品得到正確擺放和以合適的價格進行宣傳、店內標牌得到優化以及貨架和展示區有充足的產品供應，從而為 CPG 和零售商帶來豐厚的投資回報率。

Nearly 65% of retailers told us that their supply chains are evolving in response to trade disruptions. As part of our end-to-end retail services, we provide a full suite of logistics services that help clients diversify their sourcing and deliver products to the store shelves consistently and efficiently.

近 65% 的零售商告訴我們，他們的供應鏈正在隨著貿易中斷而改變。作為我們端到端零售服務的一部分，我們提供全套物流服務，幫助客戶實現採購多樣化，並持續有效地將產品送達商店貨架。

Finally, 85% of retailers on our survey are prioritizing private brands to address channel shifting and shopper preferences. Our market-leading private brand advisory and execution business called Daymon, offers end-to-end capabilities with access to over 6,000 supplier partners and leading private brand design capabilities, having won over 30 awards this year for best-in-class work.

最後，我們調查的 85% 的零售商優先考慮自有品牌來解決通路轉變和購物者偏好。我們市場領先的自有品牌諮詢和執行業務 Daymon 提供端到端功能，可接觸超過 6,000 個供應商合作夥伴並擁有領先的自有品牌設計能力，今年已憑藉一流的工作贏得了 30 多個獎項。

These are just a few examples of tailwinds and parts of our service portfolio that are driving a healthy new business pipeline. We are engaging with prospective clients and demonstrating our value proposition to generate attractive returns. We are encouraged by the success to date renewing existing relationships and securing new service wins as we continue to work through a longer-than-normal sales cycle. For example, we recently helped the client AGI, with their transition from exclusively direct-to-consumer to a national entry into retail.

這些只是順風的幾個例子以及我們服務組合的部分內容，它們正在推動健康的新業務管道。我們正在與潛在客戶接觸並展示我們的價值主張以產生可觀的回報。在我們繼續努力完成比正常情況更長的銷售週期的同時，我們對迄今為止在更新現有關係和贏得新服務方面取得的成功感到鼓舞。例如，我們最近幫助客戶 AGI 從專門的直接面向消費者的模式轉型為全國性的零售業。

We partnered with them for a retail [launch] earlier this summer through our branded services brokerage team while also supporting them with an aggressive sampling program through our experiential team. The results have exceeded expectations, positioning AGI for future success at retail. This shows how we can leverage the different parts of our business to drive sales for our clients.

今年夏初，我們透過品牌服務經紀團隊與他們合作開展零售業務，同時也透過我們的體驗團隊為他們提供積極的抽樣計畫支援。結果超出了預期，為 AGI 未來在零售業的成功奠定了基礎。這顯示了我們如何利用業務的不同部分來推動客戶的銷售。

Turning to our segments and beginning with branded services. Clients continue to prioritize cost optimization as they adapt their supply chains, manage elevated input costs and respond to evolving channel shifts. This has resulted in more in-sourcing of select services, a reduction in order volume and a pullback in sales and marketing investments.

轉向我們的細分市場並從品牌服務開始。客戶在調整供應鏈、管理增加的投入成本和應對不斷變化的通路變化時，繼續優先考慮成本優化。這導致選擇性服務更多地轉向內部採購，訂單量減少，銷售和行銷投資減少。

These headwinds have mostly impacted our brokerage and omnicommerce marketing offerings in the first half of the year, while demand for our merchandising and supply chain services has remained steady. As we enter the second half, we expect sequential improvement for our branded services as we lap client exits and losses realized in the first half, the materialization of new business wins and streamlined operations as our transformation enabled technology and analytics advancements are driving faster and more efficient processes in this area.

這些不利因素主要影響了我們上半年的經紀和全商務行銷服務，而對我們的商品銷售和供應鏈服務的需求保持穩定。隨著我們進入下半年，我們預計我們的品牌服務將持續改善，因為我們彌補了上半年實現的客戶退出和損失，實現了新業務的成功，並簡化了運營，因為我們的轉型技術和分析進步正在推動該領域更快、更高效的流程。

Within experiential services, the recovery from the staffing shortfall in Q1 led to a year-over-year increase in events executed in the quarter. Events per day grew approximately 1% and were up 5%, excluding the loss of a client last year who chose not to sample in store any longer.

在體驗式服務領域，第一季人員短缺的恢復導致本季執行的活動數量較去年同期成長。每日活動數量增加了約 1%，增幅為 5%，這還不包括去年失去的一位選擇不再在店內品嚐的客戶。

The demand for sampling and other experiential projects remain favorable for the second half of the year, particularly for our largest clients. This is typical seasonality favors the second half, and we are optimistic as some of our centralized labor management efforts are beginning to help us drive talent attraction and retention.

下半年，對採樣和其他體驗項目的需求依然旺盛，特別是對於我們最大的客戶而言。這是典型的季節性因素，有利於下半年，我們感到樂觀，因為我們的一些集中勞動力管理工作開始幫助我們吸引和留住人才。

In retailer services, recovery and staffing levels and improved project activity led to growth in the quarter. Retailers are continuing to seek our merchandising services at increasing levels due to their only shortages and the efficiency we bring in a more variable work environment. While staffing levels support our plan for the second half of the year, we will face a difficult prior year comparison and unfavorable project timing in Q3, but expect a more favorable comparison in the fourth quarter.

在零售商服務方面，復甦和人員配備水準以及專案活動的改善推動了本季的成長。由於零售商的短缺以及我們在更加多變的工作環境中帶來的效率，他們正在不斷尋求我們越來越多的商品銷售服務。雖然人員配備水準支持我們下半年的計劃，但我們在第三季將面臨與去年同期相比的困難和不利的項目時機，但預計第四季度的比較情況將更為有利。

We continue to invest in delivering a higher ROI and service level for our CPG clients and retail customers. We remain on track to complete the implementation of our data architecture and system foundation by 2026. These projects are helping us deliver value today to our clients. We are delivering category insights and intelligence at an accelerated rate to unlock growth opportunities through our data leaked powered dashboards deploying image recognition technology for more than 1,000 brokerage clients across 800-plus subcategories.

我們將繼續投資，為我們的 CPG 客戶和零售客戶提供更高的投資回報率和服務水準。我們仍有望在 2026 年之前完成資料架構和系統基礎的實作。這些項目正在幫助我們為客戶提供價值。我們正在以更快的速度提供類別洞察和情報，透過資料外洩驅動的儀表板釋放成長機會，為 800 多個子類別的 1,000 多個經紀客戶部署影像辨識技術。

This will help our in-stores and sales teams work faster and with more accuracy as they leverage better insights in distribution and product assortment decisions. Specifically, we are integrating retail point-of-sale, shopper panel, geodemographic data as well as advantages proprietary in-store execution data to help our teams identify distribution opportunities competitive gaps and monitor innovation performance in almost real time.

這將有助於我們的店內和銷售團隊更快、更準確地工作，因為他們可以在分銷和產品分類決策中利用更好的洞察力。具體來說，我們正在整合零售銷售點、購物者面板、地理人口統計數據以及優勢專有店內執行數據，以幫助我們的團隊識別分銷機會、競爭差距並幾乎即時監控創新績效。

This helps clients maximize outcomes and retailers meet shifts in shopper behavior. In addition, our account managers can now evaluate promotional performance at a highly granular level, helping CPG companies maximize their return on trade spend and drive higher ROI per dollar. As we look to the future, we're advancing the development of our new Pulse system, an AI-enabled end-to-end decision engine designed to elevate the speed, precision and impact of commercial decision-making across sales and merchandising.

這有助於客戶實現成果最大化，並幫助零售商滿足購物者行為的變化。此外，我們的客戶經理現在可以高度細緻地評估促銷效果，幫助 CPG 公司最大限度地提高貿易支出的回報並提高每美元的投資回報率。展望未來，我們正在推動新 Pulse 系統的開發，這是一個支援人工智慧的端到端決策引擎，旨在提高銷售和商品推銷過程中商業決策的速度、準確性和影響力。

This next-generation platform will seamlessly integrate advantages data intelligence, including unique retail data with dynamic real-time capabilities augmenting our team's ability to anticipate demand, prioritize actions and drive efficiency across client workflows.

這個新一代平台將無縫整合優勢數據智能，包括具有動態即時功能的獨特零售數據，增強我們團隊預測需求、確定行動優先順序和提高客戶工作流程效率的能力。

Shifting to our people and processes. We are continuing to invest behind implementation of a centralized labor management model that we expect will be operational starting in early 2026, and Workday's human capital management system that will be available in 2027. This new strategy for centralized labor management is designed to yield benefits in three areas. First is labor utilization. We remain committed to achieving at least a 30% lift in available hours for teammates.

轉向我們的人員和流程。我們將繼續投資實施集中勞動力管理模式，預計該模式將於 2026 年初開始運行，Workday 的人力資本管理系統將於 2027 年投入使用。這項新的集中勞動力管理策略旨在產生三個方面的效益。首先是勞動力利用率。我們仍然致力於讓隊友的可用時間增加至少 30%。

The number one concern our teammates have when I speak to them is the inability to get enough hours with us. More available hours will increase retention and productivity with a more tenured staff. The second is improving teammate experience, which we expect will create a win-win scenario for our teammates and clients as we drive retention even higher. This has manifested in the speed of our application to hire process all the way to route scheduling. Third is efficiency.

當我與隊友交談時，他們最擔心的就是無法與我們共度足夠的時間。更多的可用時間將提高長期員工的留任率和生產力。第二是改善隊友的體驗，我們希望這將為我們的隊友和客戶創造雙贏的局面，因為我們將進一步提高保留率。這體現在我們從申請到僱用流程直至路線安排的速度。三是效率。

We are investing in technology enablers to drive improved teammate and customer engagement. One example is the deployment of AI-assisted staffing across our retail customers. The pilot program underway is validating these objectives as teammate utilization and retention rates continue to outpace nonpilot market performance.

我們正在投資技術推動因素，以增強隊友和客戶的參與度。其中一個例子就是在我們的零售客戶中部署人工智慧輔助人員。隨著隊友利用率和保留率繼續超過非試點市場表現，正在進行的試點計劃正在驗證這些目標。

We remain on track to continue scaling and refining the pilot program to support the broad scale rollout of the centralized labor model throughout the second half of 2025 and early 2026. Taking current market conditions into account alongside our investment and operational execution plans, we are reaffirming our 2025 guidance, projecting revenue and adjusted EBITDA to be flat to down low single digits compared to the prior year.

我們將繼續擴大和完善試點計劃，以支持在 2025 年下半年和 2026 年初大規模推廣集中勞動力模式。結合當前的市場狀況以及我們的投資和營運執行計劃，我們重申 2025 年的指導方針，預計收入和調整後的 EBITDA 將與上一年持平或下降個位數。

The confidence in our outlook comes from favorable demand signals for experiential and retail merchandising services as well as expectations for sequentially improving trends in branded services. The majority of our business is well positioned to partner with clients as we deploy our enhanced capabilities to strengthen our value proposition in other areas.

我們對前景的信心來自於體驗式和零售商品服務的良好需求訊號，以及對品牌服務趨勢持續改善的預期。我們的大部分業務都已做好與客戶合作的準備，同時我們部署增強的能力來加強我們在其他領域的價值主張。

We also expect a reduction in the year-over-year shared service costs in the second half of the year, supported by savings derived from leveraging the IT system upgrades. As Chris will discuss in more detail, we expect cash generation in the back half of this year to be above normalized levels, excluding the unique year-end payroll timing shift from January to December, as we transition from the heavier part of the transformation investment to the acceleration phase and continuous improvement.

我們也預計，由於 IT 系統升級帶來的節省，下半年共享服務成本將年減。正如克里斯將更詳細地討論的那樣，我們預計今年下半年的現金產生量將高於正常水平，不包括從 1 月到 12 月的獨特年終工資發放時間轉變，因為我們正從轉型投資的較重部分過渡到加速階段和持續改進。

Our business is designed for efficient and consistent cash generation, and we expect to return to our typical net free cash flow conversion rate of at least 25% of adjusted EBITDA next year and beyond, as our transformation improves our services and modernize our processes for more consistent and efficient results.

我們的業務旨在高效、持續地產生現金，我們預計明年及以後我們的典型淨自由現金流轉換率將恢復到調整後 EBITDA 的至少 25%，因為我們的轉型改善了我們的服務並使我們的流程現代化，從而獲得更一致、更有效率的結果。

I'll now pass it over to Chris for more details on our performance and guidance.

現在我將把它交給克里斯，以了解有關我們的表現和指導的更多詳細資訊。

Thank you, Dave, and welcome to all of you joining the call today. I will review our second quarter 2025 performance by segment, discuss our cash flow and capital structure and expand on Dave's guidance commentary.

謝謝你，戴夫，歡迎大家參加今天的電話會議。我將按部門回顧我們 2025 年第二季的業績，討論我們的現金流和資本結構，並擴展 Dave 的指導評論。

In Branded services, we generated $257 million of revenues and $34 million of adjusted EBITDA, down 10% and 21% on a year-over-year basis, respectively. This segment continues to experience challenges, namely within brokerage and omni-commerce marketing, which we are working expeditiously to address.

在品牌服務方面，我們的營收為 2.57 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 3,400 萬美元，分別年減 10% 和 21%。這一領域繼續面臨挑戰，特別是經紀和全商務行銷方面的挑戰，我們正在迅速努力解決這些問題。

While some of the declines are business specific, including the aforementioned client loss from last year, which account for more than one-third of the segment EBITDA decline. We also continue to combat a difficult macroeconomic backdrop. In experiential services, we generated $249 million of revenues and $26 million of adjusted EBITDA, up 6% and 14% on a year-over-year basis, respectively.

雖然有些下降是業務特定的，包括去年前面提到的客戶流失，這佔了部門 EBITDA 下降的三分之一以上。我們還在繼續應對困難的宏觀經濟背景。在體驗服務方面，我們創造了 2.49 億美元的營收和 2,600 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA，分別年增 6% 和 14%。

The recovery in staffing levels enabled our teams to execute more events in the quarter. Events per day increased by 1% versus the prior year and were up 5%, excluding the client loss last year. Execution rates were approximately 93% on greater volume.

人員配備水準的恢復使我們的團隊能夠在本季度舉辦更多活動。每日事件數比前一年增加了 1%，若不計去年的客戶流失，則增加了 5%。成交量較大時，執行率約 93%。

As a result, margins returned to expected levels, expanding by approximately 80 basis points year-over-year to 10.4%. In Retailer Services, on a year-over-year basis, revenues were down slightly to $231 million and adjusted EBITDA grew 8% to $26 million. Merchandising activity increased in the quarter due to improved staffing levels and uptick in project activity, including a pull forward from the third quarter and diligence in pricing to manage rising labor costs.

因此，利潤率恢復到預期水平，年增約 80 個基點，達到 10.4%。零售服務業務方面，與去年同期相比，營收略有下降至 2.31 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 成長 8% 至 2,600 萬美元。本季商品銷售活動有所增加，原因是人員配備水準提高和專案活動增加，包括第三季度的提前以及為管理不斷上升的勞動力成本而採取的定價措施。

Partially offsetting these items was softness in advisory and agency work, where we were impacted by the continued unfavorable channel mix. I would note that for both experiential and retailer services, higher shared service costs and a higher allocation of those dollars weighed on profit growth in the quarter.

部分抵銷這些項目影響的是諮詢和代理業務的疲軟，我們受到持續不利的通路組合的影響。我注意到，對於體驗式服務和零售服務而言，更高的共享服務成本和更高的資金分配都對本季的利潤成長產生了影響。

Moving to balance sheet and cash flow. We ended the quarter with $103 million of cash on hand, reflective of a heavier use of working capital in the first half of the year. As a result, we did not repurchase debt or shares in the quarter. We received $22.5 million in proceeds on July 31 related to the first of two deferred purchase price installments for June Group.

轉向資產負債表和現金流。本季末，我們手頭上有 1.03 億美元的現金，反映出上半年營運資金的使用量較大。因此，我們本季沒有回購債務或股票。7 月 31 日，我們收到了 2,250 萬美元的收益，這是 June Group 兩期延期購買價格分期付款中的第一期。

With cash on hand, these proceeds, expectations for stronger cash generation in the second half of the year and approximately $400 million available on the untapped revolving credit facility we have ample liquidity to operate the business in the current macroeconomic climate, while investing for growth and opportunistically paying down debt.

憑藉手頭現金、這些收益、對下半年更強勁現金產生的預期以及尚未開發的循環信貸額度中約 4 億美元的可用資金，我們擁有充足的流動資金來在當前宏觀經濟環境下運營業務，同時投資於增長並適時償還債務。

Our net leverage ratio was approximately 4.6 times of adjusted EBITDA, including discontinued operations. We expect this level to taper over the balance of the year. Turning to cash generation. We ended the quarter at approximately 70 days of sales outstanding, a one-day improvement from the first quarter as cash collections began to recover after the cutover to the new ERP system. The vast majority of the company is now on the new system, and we expect DSOs to decrease in the second half of the year.

我們的淨槓桿率約為調整後 EBITDA（包括已終止經營的業務）的 4.6 倍。我們預計這一水平將在今年餘下時間內逐漸下降。轉向現金產生。本季末，我們的未償銷售額約為 70 天，比第一季提高了一天，因為在轉換到新的 ERP 系統後，現金收款開始恢復。目前，公司絕大多數員工都已採用新系統，我們預計今年下半年的 DSO 將會減少。

CapEx in the quarter was $2 million due to the timing of transformation investments and a significant undercapitalization of labor. We now expect CapEx to end the year in the range of $50 million to $60 million below our original guidance.

由於轉型投資時機和勞動力資本嚴重不足，本季資本支出為 200 萬美元。我們現在預計，今年年底的資本支出將比我們最初的預期低 5,000 萬至 6,000 萬美元。

Adjusted unlevered free cash flow was $57 million and the conversion rate was 66%, driven by the lower-than-expected CapEx. As Dave highlighted, we are maintaining our full year guidance, we expect shared service costs to decline year-over-year in the second half of the year. Headcount has decreased by approximately 8% in Finance and IT since the end of last year due to the use of automation and technology to streamline back-office functions.

調整後的無槓桿自由現金流為 5,700 萬美元，轉換率為 66%，這得益於低於預期的資本支出。正如戴夫所強調的，我們維持全年指導，預計下半年共享服務成本將年減。由於使用自動化和技術來簡化後台職能，自去年年底以來，財務和 IT 部門的員工人數減少了約 8%。

We also expect restructuring and reorganization costs for the full year to decline by roughly 50% compared to 2024. Branded services will remain under pressure, but we anticipate that the top line will start moving towards stabilization by the end of this year and into early 2026. From a seasonality perspective, the second half of the year is the peak season for Experiential and Retailer Services. As Dave mentioned, Retailer Services faces a difficult third quarter due to project timing and year-over-year discrete comparison factors, but we do expect a favorable comparison in the fourth quarter.

我們也預計，全年重組和改組成本將比 2024 年下降約 50%。品牌服務仍將面臨壓力，但我們預計，到今年年底和 2026 年初，營收將開始趨於穩定。從季節性來看，下半年是體驗式和零售服務的旺季。正如戴夫所提到的，由於專案時間和同比離散比較因素，零售商服務在第三季度面臨困難，但我們確實預計第四季度的比較情況會比較有利。

Full year adjusted EBITDA margin should be mostly in line with the prior year during this period of transformation investment. We continue to expect 2025 adjusted unlevered free cash flow to be over 50% of adjusted EBITDA. Cash generation is expected to improve in Q3 and Q4 from an artificially low level in the first half of this year. Excluding the approximately $45 million year-end payroll timing shift into 2025, we anticipate adjusted unlevered free cash flow conversion of roughly 100%, and net free cash flow conversion exceeding 30% in the second half of the year.

在轉型投資期間，全年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率應與前一年基本持平。我們繼續預期 2025 年調整後的無槓桿自由現金流將超過調整後 EBITDA 的 50%。預計第三季和第四季的現金產生量將從今年上半年的人為低水準有所改善。不包括約 4,500 萬美元的年底工資發放時間延後到 2025 年，我們預計下半年調整後的無槓桿自由現金流轉換率將約為 100%，淨自由現金流轉換率將超過 30%。

We are targeting a net free cash flow conversion rate of at least 25% next year and beyond, turning more in line with the performance in 2023 before the strategic investment in the transformation. Interest expense remains in the range of $140 million to $150 million, assuming no additional debt repurchases.

我們的目標是明年及以後淨自由現金流轉換率至少達到25%，與轉型策略投資前的2023年業績更一致。假設不進行額外的債務回購，利息支出仍將在 1.4 億美元至 1.5 億美元之間。

Thank you for your time. I will now turn it back over to Dave.

感謝您抽出時間。現在我將把話題交還給戴夫。

Thanks, Chris. We believe our expertise and range of services positions us well to navigate the current macroeconomic environment with resilience and agility. At the same time, we will continue to make progress towards completing the strategic initiatives that will enable Advantage to reach its full potential as a technology-driven industry-leading service provider and generate meaningful cash flow for our shareholders.

謝謝，克里斯。我們相信，我們的專業知識和廣泛的服務使我們能夠以彈性和敏捷性應對當前的宏觀經濟環境。同時，我們將繼續推動策略舉措，使 Advantage 充分發揮其作為技術驅動的行業領先服務提供者的潛力，並為我們的股東創造有意義的現金流。

Operator, we are now ready for the Q&A session.

接線員，我們現在可以開始問答環節了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Faiza Alwy, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的 Faiza Alwy。

All right. Great. Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask about branded services and the investment reductions that you talked about that are impacting the brokerage and omnicommerce marketing services. I'm curious, is that -- are you seeing that across the board? Or is that specific to a particular type of customer, whether it's large versus small or a particular category?

好的。偉大的。謝謝。早安.我想問您提到的品牌服務和投資減少對經紀和全商務行銷服務的影響。我很好奇，您是否全面地看到了這一點？或者這是否針對特定類型的客戶，無論是大客戶、小型客戶或特定類別？

And then like, are there signs of that improving because you talked about stabilization by the end of the year. So just curious if that's driven by something else, whether it's new business or are you expecting these market headwinds to improve?

然後，有沒有改善的跡象，因為你談到了年底的穩定。所以我只是好奇這是否是由其他因素驅動的，無論是新業務還是您是否預計這些市場逆風會有所改善？

Hi, Faiza. This is Dave. I appreciate the question. So I'd say the reductions that we referenced really depends on the client and their situation within the marketplace. So it's not a pattern that we recognize across all our clients, nor is it even category specific. It's almost company specific, but you are seeing that.

嗨，法伊扎。這是戴夫。我很感謝你提出這個問題。所以我想說，我們提到的折扣實際上取決於客戶及其在市場中的情況。因此，這不是我們在所有客戶中都認識到的模式，甚至也不是特定於類別的模式。它幾乎是特定於公司的，但你看到了這一點。

I'd say a little more so on the marketing side, which is obviously a smaller piece of our business than on the sales agency side. It has been reported pretty broadly that you're seeing some pullback in marketing to consumers.

我想說的是，行銷方面的情況會稍微多一些，但顯然，行銷業務在我們業務中所佔的份額比銷售代理業務要小一些。據廣泛報道，你們發現針對消費者的行銷有所減少。

But -- and then as we get into the second half, one we were lapping the client loss we referenced in the first half that -- we largely are going to be passed as we get in the third quarter. There's a little bit of economics there in July. And then we've got wins that we've got plant wins that could be smaller.

但是，隨著我們進入下半年，我們正在彌補上半年提到的客戶損失，而隨著進入第三季度，我們基本上會彌補這一損失。七月有一些經濟方面的消息。然後我們獲得了勝利，我們獲得了可能更小的植物勝利。

But when you add them up, they're meaningful, that should help us with sequential growth as we get into the second half.

但當你把它們加起來時，它們是有意義的，這應該有助於我們在進入下半年時連續成長。

Understood. And then you talked about the new workforce system, and it sounds like that your -- it's basically going to be available in the second half. So talk a bit more about -- you mentioned more subjectively, some of the benefits that you're expecting. I guess what does that mean in terms of -- whether it's the EBITDA margin uplift.

明白了。然後您談到了新的勞動力系統，聽起來它基本上會在下半年推出。所以請再多談談——您更主觀地提到了您所期望的一些好處。我想這對 EBITDA 利潤率的提升意味著什麼？

And maybe more generally, as you think about the transformation costs, like are we towards the end of the transformation costs? And just help us as to where we are in the cycle of, one the costs and two, achieving -- starting to achieve some of the benefits of implementing these new systems?

也許更一般地說，當您考慮轉型成本時，我們是否已經接近轉型成本的終點了？能否幫助我們了解我們處於哪個週期，一是成本，二是實現──開始實現實施這些新系統的一些好處？

Sure. Absolutely. And that's kind of two questions, which is good because I can tackle them both. And I'll start with the latter first. So on transformation costs, we are -- we're seeing pretty significant reductions in restructuring costs and onetime costs that would be helped -- just against EBITDA. In fact, year-to-date, we're about half of the level that we were this time last year, and we're going to see continued decline as you go through the year.

當然。絕對地。這是兩個問題，這很好，因為我可以同時解決它們。我先從後者開始。因此，就轉型成本而言，我們看到重組成本和一次性成本的大幅減少，這將有助於降低 EBITDA。事實上，今年迄今為止，我們的水平大約只有去年同期的一半，隨著時間的推移，我們也將看到持續的下滑。

We also had lower shared service costs in the second half of this year than in the first half of this year. as we kind of lap the increases that we saw last year, and we're starting to see some ramp down as it relates to transformation costs.

今年下半年，我們的共享服務成本也低於上半年。隨著我們逐漸克服去年的成長，我們開始看到與轉型成本相關的成本下降。

It doesn't mean we're not investing in our business. There are still specific initiatives we're investing in and labor is one of them. Labor -- improving our labor utilization, improving the teammate experience has been a priority for us and lay out in the prepared remarks, what we're thinking about there. One example of where we're seeing benefit of an overall system improvement with our labor approach. And some of it is system-based, meaning technology and some of it is just improved process and workflow.

這並不意味著我們不對我們的業務進行投資。我們仍在投資一些具體舉措，勞動力就是其中之一。勞動力－提高我們的勞動力利用率，改善隊友體驗一直是我們的首要任務，並在準備好的評論中闡述了我們的想法。一個例子就是我們看到的透過勞動力方法來改善整個系統的好處。其中一些是基於系統的，即技術，而另一些只是改進的過程和工作流程。

But we had a net reduction in overall hires in the first quarter of about 1,500 people, and we had a net higher in the second quarter of 1,400. So it's almost 3,000 person swing, if you will, from first quarter to second quarter. And part of that is driven by shorter time from application to higher better S&OP or sales and operations demand signals so that we are hiring the appropriate amount of personnel for the work required.

但我們第一季的整體招募人數淨減少約 1,500 人，而第二季的整體招募人數淨增加 1,400 人。因此，從第一季到第二季度，人數波動幾乎達到 3,000 人。部分原因是從申請到獲得更好的 S&OP 或銷售和營運需求訊號的時間更短，因此我們可以為所需的工作僱用適當數量的人員。

And then we track really closely what we call, the application of higher funnel and where we may have gaps because along that path, you can lose potential teammates. And so we've been much more rigorous with our workforce operations team in tracking that funnel so that we have a higher percentage of folks that make it through it and then ultimately get onboarded into the company.

然後，我們密切追蹤所謂的更高漏斗的應用以及我們可能存在的差距，因為沿著這條路徑，你可能會失去潛在的隊友。因此，我們對我們的勞動力營運團隊進行了更嚴格的跟踪，以便有更高比例的員工能夠通過此管道並最終加入公司。

So we feel really good about both the pilot that's been going on, where we've been sharing labor across geographies versus being banner-specific, but also just in the improvement in workflows within their workforce operations.

因此，我們對正在進行的試點感到非常滿意，我們一直在跨地域共享勞動力，而不是專注於特定品牌，而且他們的勞動力營運工作流程也得到了改善。

If I could just add to that. Faiza, if we did get to a point where throughout the quarter, we improved on the hiring front. And I think we entered the second half in a good place. What I just want to know is that -- I think that manifests itself, especially in the retailer segment, where we get better staffing levels there overall, which puts us in a good place to be able to take on some incremental project work, which can be very beneficial for us, and then also stronger execution in experiential, not only execution of rate, but also the ability to handle more demos. We've seen really good demand signals there that they put us into good place to be able to accommodate those, and that should benefit our Experiential segment, particularly in the second half of the year.

如果我可以補充一點的話。法伊扎，如果我們確實在整個季度中達到了在招聘方面有所改善的程度。我認為我們以良好的狀態進入了下半場。我只想知道的是——我認為這體現在零售領域，我們在那裡獲得了更好的人員配備水平，這使我們能夠承擔一些增量項目工作，這對我們來說非常有益，然後在體驗方面也有更強的執行力，不僅是執行率，還有處理更多演示的能力。我們已經看到了非常好的需求訊號，他們讓我們處於有利地位，能夠滿足這些需求，這應該有利於我們的體驗部門，特別是在今年下半年。

All right. Great, thank you. And then just last one on cash flow, right? So you're talking about slightly better cash flow conversion. Is that primarily coming from lower CapEx? And whether -- I know you mentioned timing of projects. But is this -- are we shifting CapEx into next year? Or just give us a bit more color around what's driving the lower CapEx this year?

好的。太好了，謝謝。最後再問一下現金流，對嗎？所以您談論的是稍微好一點的現金流轉換。這主要源自於較低的資本支出嗎？以及—我知道您提到了專案的時間安排。但這是──我們要將資本支出轉移到明年嗎？還是只是向我們詳細介紹一下今年資本支出下降的原因？

Yes. So obviously, we did take the CapEx down a little bit, about $15 million at the midpoint. And that would, therefore, be a little bit of a benefit to the cash flow. But the real benefit is coming from the improved DSO, which we saw at the beginning of this quarter, we'll see really kind of take hold in Q3 and especially across Q4. And then also the lower restructuring costs year-over-year that some of the big factor for the second half of the year.

是的。因此，顯然，我們確實將資本支出降低了一點，中間值約為 1500 萬美元。因此，這會為現金流帶來一點好處。但真正的好處來自於 DSO 的改善，我們在本季初就看到了這一點，我們將看到它在第三季度，尤其是在第四季度真正發揮作用。此外，重組成本年減也是下半年的重大因素。

So you've got a stronger EBITDA kind of top to bottom, stronger EBITDA contributor -- contribution, less CapEx much better working capital. Working capital then becomes a benefit to the company, working capital source in the second half of the year, and then you'll see the lower restructuring costs as well. So all those things contribute to the better cash flow performance for the second half of the year. And I will say it's in line what we expected with what we indicated last quarter. It's coming through as expect.

因此，您將獲得更強勁的 EBITDA，從上到下，EBITDA 貢獻者更強 - 貢獻，更少的資本支出，更好的營運資本。營運資本隨後會成為公司的福利，成為下半年的營運資本來源，然後您也會看到重組成本也會降低。所有這些因素都有助於下半年現金流表現較好。我想說的是，這與我們的預期以及上個季度的預測一致。一切正如預期的那樣。

Got it. Thank you very much, yes.

知道了。非常感謝，是的。

Greg Parrish, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的格雷格·帕里什。

Hey, thanks. Good morning, and congrats on the result. JI just want to unpack branded EBITDA heading into the second half. I mean I think to hit the guide, we had to see some improvement there, right? How you did that last year? I think in the quarter, you said one-third of the decline as client loss.

嘿，謝謝。早上好，恭喜你所取得的成果。JI 只是想了解下半年的品牌 EBITDA。我的意思是，我認為要達到指南的要求，我們必須看到一些改進，對嗎？去年你是怎麼做到的？我認為在本季度，您說的下降中有三分之一是客戶流失。

So I guess, backing that out, right, the other two-third, like maybe how does the other two-third improve in the second half? Maybe just kind of unpack the drivers there and what we should expect? Thanks.

所以我想，拋開這一點，對吧，另外三分之二，例如也許下半場另外三分之二會如何改善？也許只是解開那裡的驅動程式以及我們應該期待什麼？謝謝。

Yeah. This is Dave. We see a few things, Greg. We see -- we talked about it a minute ago, just wins in the business. Number one, we see a little bit of seasonality where you've got orders which is how we're obviously paid through a commission-based business from a revenue standpoint, increasing as you get into the back half of the year with things like holidays, especially the categories that most represent our client base when you think of things like food and personal care.

是的。這是戴夫。我們看到了一些事情，格雷格。我們看到——我們剛才談到了這一點，這只是業務上的勝利。首先，我們看到了一些季節性因素，例如訂單，從收入的角度來看，我們顯然是透過佣金業務獲得報酬的，隨著進入下半年，例如假期，收入會增加，尤其是那些最能代表我們客戶群的類別，例如食品和個人護理。

So those are two of the big drivers. We've also obviously been able to manage our cost to serve. We talked about our new Pulse program, which we're really excited about because it's giving us kind of greater fidelity in the decisioning that we have within the business because if you can think about a sales business, you're assessing information to take action to improve an outcome effectively.

所以這是兩個主要驅動因素。顯然，我們也能夠控制我們的服務成本。我們討論了我們的新 Pulse 計劃，我們對此感到非常興奮，因為它讓我們在業務決策中更加忠誠，因為如果你能考慮銷售業務，你就會評估資訊以採取行動來有效地改善結果。

And we are getting faster signals as it relates to brand performance and especially those things that are kind of the root cause drivers to market share growth or decline. So we're able to capitalize on those more quickly. But it also -- because it's leveraging expansive data and analytics, in an automated way, it's also a little bit more efficient as well. So that combination puts us in a position to see some growth as we get into the second half.

我們正在獲得與品牌表現相關的更快的訊號，特別是那些導致市場佔有率成長或下降的根本原因。因此我們能夠更快地利用這些優勢。但它也——因為它以自動化的方式利用廣泛的數據和分析，所以它也更有效率。因此，這種結合使我們在進入下半年時看到一些增長。

Great. That's very helpful. I'm starting to come back to the CapEx point, but I mean the $2 million was a little bit surprising. So I guess, I mean does that slow down like your completion of some of the technology investments that you're doing? I'm just trying to better understand here.

偉大的。這非常有幫助。我開始回到資本支出點，但我的意思是 200 萬美元有點令人驚訝。所以我想，我的意思是，這是否會減慢你完成一些技術投資的速度？我只是想在這裡更好地理解。

I think it looks -- honestly, there's been -- so it was lower than we expected in the quarter and truly a lot of it is timing. But we did bring the overall guidance down by $15 million at the midpoint. So there is less overall spending. And I would just say that we do expect the second half to be a heavier level of spend overall, largely all IT projects are the main driver of our spend for the year. We have give visibility to those.

我認為看起來——老實說，確實如此——所以它低於我們本季的預期，而且很大程度上是時間問題。但我們確實將整體指導金額中位數降低了 1500 萬美元。因此整體支出減少了。我想說的是，我們確實預計下半年的整體支出水準會更高，基本上所有 IT 專案都是我們今年支出的主要動力。我們已經讓這些變得可見。

And as I've said to you before, if we can push the timing out when we pay them, then we're going to take advantage of that, and there's been a little bit of that. We did also talk in the script about just underutilizing capitalizing labor, however I say that properly, but we capitalized labor at the proper rate, which it comes through more OpEx than CapEx.

正如我之前所說的那樣，如果我們可以推遲付款時間，那麼我們就會利用這一點，而且這種情況已經發生了一些。我們確實也在腳本中談到了未充分利用資本化勞動力的問題，但是我說得對，但我們以適當的速度資本化了勞動力，這是透過更多的營運支出而不是資本支出實現的。

And I think it's something we're working on very diligently. And a lot of it comes down to planning and planning around our projects to make sure that we're accomplishing those on time and starting with on time. If not, you can tend to see that bleed into OpEx. So there was an element of that as well. But with that said, I would say that maybe some of this shifted a bit into '26.

我認為這是我們正在努力做的事情。其中很大一部分歸結於圍繞我們專案的規劃和計劃，以確保我們按時完成專案並按時開始。如果不是，您就會看到營運支出的流失。所以也有這樣的因素。但話雖如此，我想說，也許其中一些在 26 年發生了一些變化。

But really, at the end of the day, there's just a more efficient delivery of the capital products we expect for the year now.

但實際上，歸根究底，我們今年所期望的資本產品交付效率更高。

Okay. Thanks. That's helpful too. And then maybe just lastly from me. On the wage front, maybe just kind of update. I mean, obviously, you kind of reverted some of the headwinds you had in the first quarter on labor availability, but then just on the wage front, just kind of mark us to market here on where we're at? And what you're seeing from the market in terms of wages?

好的。謝謝。這也很有幫助。最後，也許就輪到我了。在工資方面，也許只是一種更新。我的意思是，顯然，你們已經扭轉了第一季在勞動力供應方面遇到的一些不利因素，但就工資方面而言，你們是否能根據我們目前的市場情況來標記我們呢？您從薪資市場看到的情況如何？

Yes. We've actually seen pretty consistent wage inflation through the year. And about what we expected in that, call it, 3% range overall for the year, and we've been able to manage that quite well. I'd also say that in the quarter, our pricing nearly offset our labor inflation was very close.

是的。事實上，我們看到全年薪資上漲相當穩定。這與我們的預期相符，全年整體成長率在 3% 左右，而且我們能夠很好地實現這一目標。我還想說，在本季度，我們的定價幾乎抵消了勞動力通膨的影響。

So I felt good about that progress we made on getting some price increases through -- to help offset, was obviously still some higher labor costs that are coming through in the economy today in our business.

因此，我對我們在提高價格方面取得的進展感到很高興——這顯然有助於抵消當今經濟中我們業務中出現的一些更高的勞動力成本。

I think for the second half of the year, I expect that same consistency, we don't have a lot of incremental sort of regulatory type changes that are occurring there. So I feel like we're in a pretty good place to be able to mostly offset that -- the labor cost inflation with pricing.

我認為對於今年下半年，我預計會有同樣的一致性，我們不會有太多漸進式的監管類型的變化。所以我覺得我們處於一個相當好的位置，能夠透過定價來抵銷大部分勞動成本的上漲。

Great. I'll pass it off. Thank you.

偉大的。我會把它傳遞下去。謝謝。

Joseph Vafi, Canaccord Genuity.

Canaccord Genuity 的 Joseph Vafi。

Hey, guys. Will Johnston, I'm here for Joe. Thanks for taking my questions. So you can maybe drill down a bit on resolving that staffing shortfall in July? And anything you can share kind of about the demand signals there that have given me confidence in those levels being more sustainable through the rest of the year? And then maybe if you can drill down in the retail services, and how we should think about kind of that staffing uplift against maybe some more difficult Q3 comps in that project from a project timing perspective? Thanks.

嘿，大家好。威爾約翰斯頓，我是喬的記者。感謝您回答我的問題。那麼您可以詳細談談如何解決七月的人員短缺問題嗎？您能否分享一些有關需求訊號的訊息，讓我相信這些需求水準在今年剩餘時間內將更加永續？然後，也許您可以深入研究零售服務，從專案時間角度來看，我們應該如何考慮人員配備的提升與該專案中一些更困難的第三季的比較？謝謝。

Yeah, thanks. So we do have that staffing shortfall in July. In fact, the trajectory of our kind of workforce operations and talent acquisition continues apace even as we move into July. When we talk about the project timing, it's literally just that, and we referenced the fact that some of these projects. And this can happen on a year-over-year basis that may have occurred in Q3, maybe shifting more into Q4, and which is why you'll see a little bit in the retailer segment, especially a part of that business, a little bit of shortfall in Q3 versus prior year, but much better Q4 and we have visibility to that.

是的，謝謝。因此，我們七月確實存在人員短缺的情況。事實上，即使進入七月，我們的勞動力運作和人才招募軌跡仍在繼續快速發展。當我們談論專案時間安排時，實際上就是這樣，我們提到了其中一些專案的事實。這種情況可能會在第三季度發生，並可能在第四季度進一步加劇，這就是為什麼你會看到零售商領域，特別是該業務的一部分，第三季度與去年相比略有不足，但第四季度的情況會好得多，我們對此有清晰的認識。

On the demand signal front, we're seeing strong demand for demos and on the experiential space and such that we're better able to meet that demand and hit higher level of execution rates because of the strength of our hiring and talent acquisition and overall retention plans. And then we feel very good about the S&OP process with our retailer group and being able to kind of flex that force as needed based on project timing.

在需求訊號方面，我們看到對演示和體驗空間的強勁需求，因此，由於我們的招募和人才獲取以及整體保留計劃的強大，我們能夠更好地滿足這種需求並達到更高的執行率。我們對與零售商集團的 S&OP 流程感到非常滿意，並且能夠根據專案時間表根據需要靈活調整流程。

And a lot of these projects occur in the third quarter and going into the early fourth. Obviously, as you get into holiday periods, retailers look to have fewer -- less third-party labor in the stores, which is very common and normal and is in our normal seasonality. But in the retailer space is the one where just due to timing, you're going to have a little bit of less project work in the third quarter, but we know that gets kind of compensated for in the fourth quarter.

許多此類項目都發生在第三季和第四季初。顯然，隨著假期的到來，零售商希望店內第三方勞動力減少，這是非常常見且正常的，並且符合我們的正常季節性。但在零售領域，由於時間原因，第三季的專案工作量會稍微減少一些，但我們知道這會在第四季得到補償。

Got it. Thanks.

知道了。謝謝。

There are no further questions at this time. I want to turn the call back over to Dave Peacock for closing comments.

目前沒有其他問題。我想將電話轉回給戴夫·皮科克 (Dave Peacock) 來做最後發言。

Thank you, Janice. We will be attending the Canaccord Growth Conference on August 12 next week in Boston with a webcast of a fireside chat at noon Eastern Time. We hope to see you there. And again, thank you for joining us today.

謝謝你，珍妮絲。我們將參加下週 8 月 12 日在波士頓舉行的 Canaccord 增長會議，並於美國東部時間中午透過網路直播爐邊交談。我們希望在那裡見到您。再次感謝您今天加入我們。

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

今天的電話會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。