汽車地帶 (AZO) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to AutoZone's Fourth Quarter 2023 Fiscal Earnings Release Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加 AutoZone 2023 年第四季財政收益發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

We will now play our safe harbor statement.

我們現在將發表我們的安全港聲明。

Before we begin, please note that today's call includes forward-looking statements that are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Please refer to this morning's press release and the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and the company undertakes no obligations to update such statements.

在我們開始之前，請注意，今天的電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》安全港條款的約束。前瞻性陳述並不能保證未來業績。請參閱今天早上的新聞稿、公司最新的 10-K 表格年度報告以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件，以了解可能導致實際結果與預期存在重大差異的重要風險和不確定性的討論。前瞻性陳述僅代表截至做出之日的情況，本公司不承擔更新此類陳述的義務。

Today's call will also include certain non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures can be found in our press release.

今天的電話會議還將包括某些非公認會計準則措施。非公認會計原則與公認會計原則財務指標的調節可以在我們的新聞稿中找到。

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Mr. Bill Rhodes, CEO, Chairman and President. Sir, the floor is yours.

現在我很高興請東道主、執行長、董事長兼總裁比爾·羅茲先生發言。先生，地板是你的了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for AutoZone's 2023 Fourth Quarter Conference Call. With me today are Phil Daniele, our CEO-elect; Jamere Jackson, Chief Financial Officer; and Brian Campbell, Vice President, Treasurer, Investor Relations and Tax. Regarding the fourth quarter, hope you've had an opportunity to read our press release and learned about the quarter's results. If not, the press release, along with slides complementing our comments today, are available on our website, www.autozone.com under the Investor Relations link. Please click on quarterly earnings conference calls to see them.

早安，感謝您今天參加 AutoZone 2023 年第四季電話會議。今天與我在一起的有我們當選執行長菲爾丹尼爾 (Phil Daniele)；傑米爾·傑克遜，首席財務官；布萊恩·坎貝爾 (Brian Campbell)，副總裁兼財務主管，負責投資者關係和稅務。關於第四季度，希望您有機會閱讀我們的新聞稿並了解該季度的業績。如果沒有，您可以在我們的網站 www.autozone.com 的投資者關係連結下查看新聞稿以及補充我們今天評論的幻燈片。請點選季度財報電話會議查看。

As we begin, we want to thank our AutoZoners for their incredible contributions during fiscal 2023 that resulted in our solid performance. As our pledge states, they continued putting our customers first which resulted in total sales growth of 7.4% for the fiscal year, while earnings per share increased 12.9%. It's important to remember that these results built on the phenomenal 3-year performance from the pandemic years of 2020 to 2022.

首先，我們要感謝 AutoZoners 在 2023 財年做出的令人難以置信的貢獻，為我們帶來了穩健的表現。正如我們的承諾所述，他們繼續將客戶放在第一位，導致本財年總銷售額成長 7.4%，每股收益成長 12.9%。重要的是要記住，這些結果是建立在 2020 年至 2022 年大流行年的三年驚人表現的基礎上。

Candidly, Phil, Jamere, Tom Newbern and I felt at some point, we would see our sales per store migrate closer to pre-pandemic levels. That hasn't happened, and at this stage, we do not expect it will.

坦白說，菲爾、賈米爾、湯姆紐伯恩和我覺得在某個時候，我們會看到每家商店的銷售額接近疫情前的水平。這種情況還沒發生，在現階段，我們預期不會發生。

To put it in perspective, our domestic average weekly sales per store are 33% higher than in 2019, growing from $35,600 a week to $47,300 a week. This level of growth in sales also drove enormous growth in operating profit, where this year's $3.474 billion was 61% above 2019 when adjusted for the 2019 53rd week. That is remarkable growth, especially for a 44-year old enterprise. We could not have achieved this success without exceptional efforts across the entire organization.

客觀地說，我們國內每家商店的平均每週銷售額比 2019 年增長了 33%，從每週 35,600 美元增長到每週 47,300 美元。這種銷售水準的成長也帶動了營業利潤的大幅成長，以 2019 年第 53 週調整後，今年營業利潤為 34.74 億美元，比 2019 年成長 61%。這是一個顯著的成長，特別是對於一家擁有 44 年歷史的企業。如果沒有整個組織的非凡努力，我們不可能取得這項成功。

We have several updates for you this morning. First, I'm sure you've noticed a new table in our press release. We are now presenting same-store sales results for domestic, international and total company. We're also reporting our international same-store sales, which includes both Mexico and Brazil, on both an actual and constant currency basis.

今天早上我們為您提供了幾個最新消息。首先，我確信您已經注意到我們新聞稿中的一個新表格。我們現在提供國內、國際和整個公司的同店銷售結果。我們也以實際貨幣和固定貨幣為基礎報告了我們的國際同店銷售額，其中包括墨西哥和巴西。

Why the change? The answer is international is becoming a larger and larger part of our business, and we are investing a sizable amount of our growth capital in those countries. As we evaluate important growth metrics, we think it is important to assess it in total. As we know this is a change, we are committed to providing you with each component individually for at least 5 quarters as our objective is to enhance your visibility.

為什麼要改變？答案是國際業務正在成為我們業務中越來越大的一部分，我們正在這些國家投資大量的成長資本。當我們評估重要的成長指標時，我們認為對其進行整體評估很重要。據我們所知，這是一項變更，我們致力於在至少 5 個季度內為您單獨提供每個組件，因為我們的目標是提高您的知名度。

Next, our domestic same-store sales were 1.7% this quarter compared to 1.9% last quarter and about half of our fiscal 2023 growth of 3.1%. Our performance in retail was respectable and generally in line with our expectations. But as was well documented last quarter, our commercial sales performance in the second half of our fiscal year declined meaningfully and to us unacceptably. We ended with 3.9% growth in domestic commercial sales. Our performance in both retail and commercial in the first half of the quarter was disappointing. But during this period, we experienced very mild weather.

接下來，本季我們的國內同店銷售額為 1.7%，而上季為 1.9%，約為 2023 財年成長 3.1% 的一半。我們在零售方面的表現令人尊敬，整體符合我們的預期。但正如上個季度所記錄的那樣，我們財年下半年的商業銷售業績大幅下降，這對我們來說是不可接受的。最終國內商業銷售額成長 3.9%。本季上半年我們在零售和商業方面的表現都令人失望。但在此期間，我們經歷了非常溫和的天氣。

As we reach the second half of the quarter and temperature has escalated materially so did our sales. Specifically, for the first 8 weeks of the quarter, our retail comps were flat, but increased 3.4% in the second half. Commercial experienced a similar trajectory ending particularly strong in the last 4 weeks of the quarter, up over 7%.

隨著季度下半年的到來，氣溫大幅上升，我們的銷售額也大幅上升。具體來說，本季的前 8 週，我們的零售業績持平，但下半年成長了 3.4%。商業房地產也經歷了類似的軌跡，在本季最後 4 週表現尤為強勁，成長超過 7%。

Regarding regional results, we saw a material performance gap between the Northeast and Midwestern markets versus the rest of the country. The total comp difference was well over 300 basis points and over 450 basis points for commercial. We attribute this lack of winter -- attribute this to the lack of winter weather and snowfall in the latter part of last winter in that region. This has led to lower growth trends in undercar categories. Both those are things that could happen to us, not what we did to enhance and improve our performance. Last quarter, we highlighted that we were not executing at our peak levels. We have made many changes since then and are pleased with the improvements in execution we are seeing. We aren't there yet, but we're on a really good path.

就區域結果而言，我們發現東北和中西部市場與全國其他地區之間存在重大績效差距。總的補償差異遠超過 300 個基點，商業的則超過 450 個基點。我們將這種缺乏冬季的現象歸因於該地區去年冬季後期缺乏冬季天氣和降雪。這導致車底類別的成長趨勢較低。這兩件事都可能發生在我們身上，而不是我們為提高和改善績效所做的事情。上個季度，我們強調我們沒有達到最高水準。從那時起，我們做出了許多改變，並對我們所看到的執行方面的改進感到滿意。我們還沒有達到那個目標，但我們正走在一條非常好的道路上。

We also recently completed another strategic review of our commercial business. We have validated our direction and have some exciting new enhancements that we will be testing over the next few quarters.

我們最近也完成了對商業業務的另一項策略審查。我們已經驗證了我們的方向，並有一些令人興奮的新增強功能，我們將在接下來的幾個季度進行測試。

We also made significant improvements in the information technology that we use to operate our commercial business and we opened many more commercial programs, reaching 90% domestic penetration for the first time in our history. Even more encouraging is how strong those new openings are starting and how many weeks or they're just a few weeks old. Ultimately, we will operate in a favorable and unfavorable macro and weather environment. We want to share our perspectives with you so you can understand our performance, but ultimately, it is our actions that will determine our long-term success, and we are encouraged by the actions we're taking.

我們也對用於經營商業業務的資訊科技進行了重大改進，並開設了更多商業項目，歷史上首次達到了 90% 的國內滲透率。更令人鼓舞的是，這些新的空缺開始的力度有多大，以及它們已經存在了多少週或只有幾週。最終，我們將在有利和不利的宏觀和天氣環境中運作。我們希望與您分享我們的觀點，以便您了解我們的表現，但最終，我們的行動將決定我們的長期成功，我們對我們正在採取的行動感到鼓舞。

Finally, our strategy supporting our store operations and commercial teams includes several other key elements. Global new store growth, where we disappointingly didn't achieve our goals in FY '23, more on that later. Continued growth with our Hubs and in particular, Mega-Hubs, where we are nearing the halfway point of our ultimate goal of having 200 Mega-Hubs and 300 Hubs. It is important to reinforce the continued very strong performance of these stores, especially the Mega-hubs and particularly in commercial. Reconfiguring our global supply chain to efficiently process the enhanced sales we have achieved and expect to achieve over the next decade, while optimizing our processes for handling more direct import products from many countries and more challenging slow turning parts assortments that are critical to our success. And finally, continuing to lean in hard on technology improvements to make our AutoZoners more knowledgeable, efficient and effective.

最後，我們支援商店營運和商業團隊的策略包括其他幾個關鍵要素。全球新店成長，令人失望的是我們沒有實現 23 財年的目標，稍後會詳細介紹。我們的樞紐，特別是巨型樞紐持續成長，我們已接近擁有 200 個巨型樞紐和 300 個樞紐的最終目標的一半。重要的是要加強這些商店的持續強勁表現，特別是大型中心，尤其是商業商店。重新配置我們的全球供應鏈，以有效地處理我們已經實現並預計在未來十年實現的銷售成長，同時優化我們的流程，以處理來自許多國家的更多直接進口產品和更具挑戰性的慢速轉零件品種，這對我們的成功至關重要。最後，繼續大力依靠技術改進，使我們的 AutoZone 人員更加知識淵博、高效和有效。

I've given you the high-level soundbites on the quarter's results. Now I'd like to introduce Phil Daniele to give more in-depth color on the quarter. Phil?

我已經向您提供了有關本季度業績的高級摘要。現在我想介紹菲爾丹尼爾 (Phil Daniele)，為本季提供更深入的見解。菲爾？

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. I'm honored to be participating in my first earnings release conference call. I will start by reviewing our Q4 overall same-store sales, DIY versus DIFM trends, our sales cadence over the 16 weeks of the quarter, and merchandise categories that drove our performance as well as any regional disparities. We will also share how inflation is affecting our gross -- our costs and retails and how we think inflation will impact our business in FY '24.

謝謝比爾，大家早安。我很榮幸能夠參加我的第一次收益發布電話會議。我將首先回顧我們第四季的整體同店銷售、DIY 與 DIFM 趨勢、本季 16 週的銷售節奏、推動我們業績的商品類別以及任何區域差異。我們還將分享通貨膨脹如何影響我們的毛利率——我們的成本和零售，以及我們認為通貨膨脹將如何影響我們 24 財年的業務。

Our domestic same-store sales were 1.7% this quarter on top of last year's exceptionally strong 6.2% growth. I do want to reiterate what Bill said a moment ago, our execution improved materially over the quarter, and that execution, which is a hallmark of our success, will ultimately deliver better results as we move forward.

本季我們的國內同店銷售額在去年異常強勁的 6.2% 成長基礎上成長了 1.7%。我確實想重申比爾剛才所說的話，我們的執行力在本季度得到了實質改善，而這種執行力是我們成功的標誌，隨著我們的前進，最終將帶來更好的結果。

Our domestic commercial business grew 3.9%. Despite lower-than-anticipated, we believe we grew share and set another fourth quarter record with $1.5 billion in sales. For the full year, we generated nearly $4.6 billion, up 8.7% from last year. Domestic commercial sales represented 30% of our domestic auto part sales, which is identical to last year. Our commercial sales growth continues to be driven by the key initiatives we have been working on for the last several years. Improved satellite store availability, material improvements in Hub and Mega-Hub coverage, in addition to aggressive growth in the number of those types of stores. We continue to strengthen the Duralast brand with an intense focus on high-quality products, and we continue to deliver technological enhancements to make us easier to do business with.

我們的國內商業業務成長了 3.9%。儘管低於預期，但我們相信我們的份額有所增長，並以 15 億美元的銷售額創下了第四季度的另一個紀錄。全年我們創造了近 46 億美元的收入，比去年成長 8.7%。國內商業銷量佔國內汽車零件銷量的30%，與去年持平。我們的商業銷售成長繼續受到過去幾年我們一直致力於的關鍵舉措的推動。除了此類商店數量的大幅增長外，衛星商店的可用性也得到了改善，樞紐和大型樞紐的覆蓋範圍也得到了實質改善。我們持續強化 Duralast 品牌，專注於高品質產品，並持續提供技術改進，使我們更容易開展業務。

We are also operating more efficiently with improvements in delivery time and enhanced sales force effectiveness. In Q4, we opened 156 net new commercial programs opening the majority of them late in the quarter, which had minimal impact on sales but positions us well for FY '24 and beyond. With these moves, we now have commercial in over 90% of our domestic stores. We continue to see tremendous opportunity for commercial sales growth in FY '24 and beyond.

我們也透過縮短交貨時間和提高銷售人員效率來提高營運效率。在第四季度，我們淨開設了 156 個新商業項目，其中大部分在本季度末開放，這對銷售的影響很小，但為我們 24 財年及以後的發展奠定了良好的基礎。透過這些舉措，我們現在國內90%以上的門市都有廣告。我們繼續看到 24 財年及以後商業銷售成長的巨大機會。

We're also very proud of our performance in domestic DIY. We had a positive 1.4% comp this quarter on top of last year's comp of 1.1%. Additionally, for the year, we delivered 1.8% DIY on top of a 2.9% DIY comp last fiscal year and an 11.2% comp in FY '21. These results are very solid, considering the outsized growth we saw during the pandemic. The fact that we continue to retain the vast majority of the share we built during the pandemic and our recent performance gives us continued conviction about the sustainability into FY '24. Now let's focus on the sales cadence.

我們也對我們在國內DIY的表現感到非常自豪。在去年 1.1% 的基礎上，本季我們的業績實現了 1.4% 的正成長。此外，今年我們也交付了 1.8% 的 DIY 收入，而上一財年的 DIY 收入為 2.9%，2021 財年的 DIY 收入為 11.2%。考慮到我們在大流行期間看到的巨大增長，這些結果非常可靠。事實上，我們繼續保留在大流行期間建立的絕大多數份額以及我們最近的表現使我們對 24 財年的可持續性繼續充滿信心。現在讓我們專注於銷售節奏。

Over the quarter, which spans 16 weeks, early May through the end of August, as Bill mentioned, our same-store sales were flat over the first weeks, but increased to 3.4% over the last 8 weeks. We were encouraged by the trends we saw as the quarter ended.

正如比爾所提到的，本季從 5 月初到 8 月底共 16 週，我們的同店銷售額在前幾週持平，但在過去 8 週增長至 3.4%。我們對本季結束時看到的趨勢感到鼓舞。

Regarding weather, in May and June, we experienced cooler and wetter weather trends across the country, which negatively impacted our sales trends. By July, however, it became very hot across much of the country and it remained very hot through August. The heat and the associated rebound in sales helped us partially overcome a relatively mild winter, particularly in the Midwest and the Northeast where weather-sensitive hard part categories underperformed our expectation. We anticipate that the summer heat will give us some positive momentum as we head into fall. As a reminder, historically, extreme weather, either hot or cold drives parts failures and accelerated maintenance.

天氣方面，五月和六月，我們經歷了全國各地涼爽濕潤的天氣趨勢，這對我們的銷售趨勢產生了負面影響。然而，到了七月，全國大部分地區變得非常炎熱，整個八月仍然非常炎熱。高溫和相關的銷售反彈幫助我們部分克服了相對溫和的冬季，特別是在中西部和東北部，對天氣敏感的硬零件類別的表現低於我們的預期。我們預計夏季的炎熱將為我們進入秋季帶來一些積極的動力。提醒一下，從歷史上看，極端天氣，無論是熱還是冷都會導致零件故障並加速維護。

Regarding the quarter's traffic versus ticket growth, in retail, our traffic was down 0.8%, while our ticket was up 2%. Our transaction count improved as the quarter went along and in fact, turned positive over the last 8 weeks of the quarter, However, the average ticket being up only 2% was the weakest quarterly increase we've seen since FY 2000 as we lap significantly higher inflation a year ago where the ticket was up 8%.

關於本季的客流量與門票成長情況，在零售業，我們的客流量下降了 0.8%，而門票成長了 2%。我們的交易數量隨著季度的推移而有所改善，事實上，在該季度的最後8 週內，交易數量轉為正值。然而，平均門票僅增長2%，這是我們自2000 財年以來看到的最弱的季度增長，因為我們大幅落後了一年前通貨膨脹率更高，票價上漲了 8%。

Regarding commercial trends, we continue to see traffic and ticket growth, but our commercial ticket growth, just like retail, has shown a marked deceleration compared to recent history as hyperinflation begins to abate. For perspective, our ticket growth was 11% in Q4 last year versus roughly 2% this year. As expected, some of our commercial customers are experiencing trade down and lower car counts as the consumer comes under economic pressure.

關於商業趨勢，我們繼續看到客流量和門票增長，但隨著惡性通貨膨脹開始減弱，我們的商業門票增長與零售業一樣，與近期歷史相比顯著減速。從長遠來看，去年第四季我們的門票成長率為 11%，而今年約為 2%。正如預期的那樣，由於消費者面臨經濟壓力，我們的一些商業客戶正在經歷交易減少和汽車數量減少。

In order to continue to grow our comps in '24, we will have to continue to increase share of wallet with our customers. The share data we see continues to encourage us that we are gaining share in the industry despite the macro trends, but recently, not in line with our aspirations, which we intend to change.

為了在 24 年繼續擴大我們的競爭力，我們必須繼續增加客戶的錢包份額。我們看到的份額數據繼續鼓勵我們，儘管宏觀趨勢如此，但我們在行業中的份額正在增加，但最近與我們的願望不符，我們打算改變這一願望。

During the quarter, there were some geographic regions that did perform differently than others as there always are. This quarter, we saw a material 315 basis point difference between the Northeast and the Midwest compared to the balance of the country, with the Northeast and the Midwest performing lower. As the Northeast and the Midwest experienced a very mild winter with below average snowfall, we've seen less weather-sensitive hard parts in this part of the country. Headed into the first quarter of the new fiscal year, we are not anticipating that weather will have a significant impact on sales.

在本季度，某些地理區域的表現確實與其他區域不同，一如既往。本季度，我們發現東北部和中西部地區與全國其他地區相比存在 315 個基點的重大差異，其中東北部和中西部地區的表現較低。由於東北部和中西部經歷了一個非常溫和的冬季，降雪量低於平均水平，我們在該地區看到了對天氣不太敏感的硬地。進入新財年第一季，我們預計天氣不會對銷售產生重大影響。

Regarding our merchandise categories in the retail business, our sales floor categories outperformed our hard part categories, and our hard part business was essentially flat for the quarter. As I said previously, weather-sensitive hard parts were clearly impacted by the milder winter weather, particularly in the Midwest and the Northeast.

就我們零售業務中的商品類別而言，我們的銷售大廳類別優於我們的硬零件類別，且我們的硬零件業務本季基本持平。正如我之前所說，對天氣敏感的硬質零件明顯受到較溫和的冬季天氣的影響，特別是在中西部和東北部。

Let me also address inflation and pricing. This quarter, we saw low single-digit inflation. And as a result, our ticket average was up roughly 2%. We believe inflation for the first quarter will be similar to the fourth quarter as the industry is migrating back to pre-pandemic inflation levels and lapping high inflation from a year ago. I want to reiterate that our industry has been very disciplined about pricing for decades, and we expect that to continue.

我還想談談通貨膨脹和定價問題。本季度，我們看到了低個位數的通膨。結果，我們的平均票價上漲了大約 2%。我們認為，第一季的通膨將與第四季度相似，因為該行業正在回到大流行前的通膨水平並超越一年前的高通膨。我想重申，幾十年來，我們的產業在定價方面一直非常嚴格，我們希望這種情況能持續下去。

Historically, as costs have increased, the industry has increased pricing commensurately to maintain margins. It is also notable that following periods of higher inflation our industry historically has not reduced pricing to reflect lower cost, and we believe we have entered one of those periods. For the first quarter of 2024, we expect our DIY sales to be resilient and our commercial trends to improve. We will, as always, be transparent about what we are seeing and provide color on our markets and outlook as trends emerge.

從歷史上看，隨著成本的增加，該行業相應地提高了定價以維持利潤。另外值得注意的是，在通膨較高的時期之後，我們的行業歷來沒有降低定價以反映較低的成本，我們相信我們已經進入了其中一個時期。 2024 年第一季度，我們預計 DIY 銷售將保持彈性，商業趨勢將有所改善。我們將一如既往地對我們所看到的情況保持透明，並隨著趨勢的出現提供我們的市場和前景的資訊。

Before handing the call to Jamere, I'd like to highlight and give some color on a few of our key business priorities for the new fiscal year. First, we continue to focus on our supply chain with two initiatives that are in flight to drive improved availability: One is our expanded Hub and Mega-Hub rollouts; and secondly, we are making good progress on transforming our supply chain. Our strategy is focused on leveraging the entire network to carry more inventory closer to the customer to drive sales growth with speed to customer and expanded availability.

在打電話給 Jamere 之前，我想強調並說明我們新財年的一些關鍵業務優先事項。首先，我們繼續關注我們的供應鏈，正在採取兩項措施來提高可用性：一是我們擴大的樞紐和巨型樞紐的推出；二是我們的供應鏈。其次，我們在供應鏈轉型方面取得了良好進展。我們的策略重點是利用整個網路將更多庫存運送到離客戶更近的地方，以更快的速度到達客戶並擴大可用性來推動銷售成長。

Additionally, we plan on continuing to grow our Mexican and Brazilian businesses. With 804 stores opened internationally or 12% of our store base, these businesses had impressive performance last fiscal year, and should continue to grow in 2024. We are leveraging many of the learnings we have in the U.S. to refine our offerings in Mexico and Brazil.

此外，我們計劃繼續發展我們的墨西哥和巴西業務。這些業務在國際上開設了804 家商店，占我們商店總數的12%，上一財年的業績令人印象深刻，並且應該會在2024 年繼續增長。我們正在利用在美國學到的許多知識來完善我們在墨西哥和巴西的產品和服務。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jamere Jackson.

現在我想把電話轉給傑米爾傑克森。

Thanks, Phil, and good morning, everyone. As both Bill and Phil have previously discussed, we had a solid fourth quarter, stacked on top of an impressive fourth quarter last year, a 6.4% total company sales growth, a 1.7% domestic comp, a 14.9% international comp on a constant currency basis, a 10.8% increase in EBIT, and a 14.7% increase in EPS. In addition, our results for the entire fiscal year were very strong as total sales grew 7.4% and EPS grew 12.9%. We continue to deliver great results in the efforts of our AutoZoners in our stores and distribution centers have continued to enable us to grow our business and our earnings in a meaningful way.

謝謝菲爾，大家早安。正如比爾和菲爾之前討論的那樣，我們的第四季度表現強勁，加上去年第四季度令人印象深刻的表現，公司總銷售額增長6.4%，按固定匯率計算，國內銷售額增長1.7% ，國際銷售額成長14.9%息稅前利潤 (EBIT) 成長 10.8%，每股盈餘 (EPS) 成長 14.7%。此外，我們整個財年的業績非常強勁，總銷售額成長了 7.4%，每股收益成長了 12.9%。在我們商店和配送中心的 AutoZoners 的努力下，我們繼續取得巨大成果，使我們能夠以有意義的方式發展我們的業務和收入。

To start this morning, let me take a few minutes to elaborate on the specifics in our P&L for Q4. For the quarter, total sales were just under $5.7 billion, up 6.4%. For the year, our total sales were $17.5 billion, up 7.4% versus last fiscal year. I continue to marvel at the strength of our business in FY '19. Our sales are up an amazing 47% or nearly $5.6 billion since 2019. Let me give a little more color on sales and our growth initiatives, starting with our domestic commercial business.

從今天早上開始，讓我花幾分鐘時間詳細說明第四季損益表的具體細節。該季度總銷售額略低於 57 億美元，成長 6.4%。今年，我們的總銷售額為 175 億美元，比上一財年成長 7.4%。我繼續對我們 19 財年的業務實力感到驚訝。自 2019 年以來，我們的銷售額驚人地增長了 47%，即近 56 億美元。讓我從我們的國內商業業務開始，進一步介紹銷售和我們的成長計劃。

For the fourth quarter, our domestic DIFM sales increased 3.9% to $1.5 billion and up 25.9% on a 2-year stack basis. Sales to our domestic DIFM customers represented 26% of our total company sales and 30% of our domestic auto part sales. Our average weekly sales per program were approximately $16,700, down 1.8%. Now it's important to point out that our sales per program productivity was impacted materially by the late in quarter openings of approximately 120 new programs. While these openings depress the point-in-time productivity metric, we're encouraged by the growth prospects of these programs and their early contribution to our commercial business. These openings are part of our efforts to open more stores with commercial in response to the tremendous opportunity to grow our market share.

第四季度，我們的國內 DIFM 銷售額成長 3.9%，達到 15 億美元，以兩年計算成長 25.9%。國內 DIFM 客戶的銷售額占公司總銷售額的 26%，佔國內汽車零件銷售額的 30%。每個項目的平均每週銷售額約為 16,700 美元，下降 1.8%。現在需要指出的是，我們每個專案的銷售生產力受到季度末開設的約 120 個新專案的重大影響。雖然這些職缺降低了時間點生產力指標，但我們對這些計劃的成長前景及其對我們商業業務的早期貢獻感到鼓舞。這些新店的開幕是我們開設更多商業商店的努力的一部分，以應對擴大我們市場份額的巨大機會。

Our commercial acceleration initiatives are delivering the expected results as we grow share by winning new business and increasing our share of wallet with existing customers. We now have our commercial program in approximately 90% of our domestic stores which leverages our DIY infrastructure, and we're building our business with national, regional and local accounts. This quarter, we opened 156 net new programs finishing with 5,682 total programs.

隨著我們透過贏得新業務和增加現有客戶的錢包份額來增加份額，我們的商業加速計劃正在取得預期成果。現在，我們大約 90% 的國內商店都有我們的商業計劃，利用我們的 DIY 基礎設施，並且我們正在透過國家、地區和當地客戶來建立我們的業務。本季度，我們淨開設了 156 個新項目，總計 5,682 個項目。

As I've said since the outset of the year, commercial growth led the way in FY '23, and we feel good about our prospects heading into the new year. For FY '23, our commercial sales were $4.6 billion, up 8.7% versus last year and up 37% from 2 years ago. Importantly, we have a lot of runway in front of us, and we expect to deliver on our goal of becoming a faster-growing business. To support our commercial growth, we now have 98 Mega-Hub locations with 13 new stores opened in Q4. While I mentioned a moment ago, the commercial weekly sales per program average was $16,700 per program, the 98 Mega-Hubs averaged significantly higher sales and are growing much faster than the balance of the commercial footprint.

正如我自今年年初以來所說的那樣，商業成長在 23 財年引領了潮流，我們對進入新的一年的前景感到樂觀。 23 財年，我們的商業銷售額為 46 億美元，比去年增長 8.7%，比兩年前增長 37%。重要的是，我們面前有很多跑道，我們期望實現成為一家成長更快的企業的目標。為了支持我們的商業成長，我們現在擁有 98 個 Mega-Hub 地點，其中 13 家新店於第四季度開業。雖然我剛才提到，每個項目的商業每週銷售額平均為每個項目 16,700 美元，但 98 個巨型中心的平均銷售額明顯更高，而且增長速度遠遠快於商業足蹟的平衡。

In fact, our commercial Mega-Hub business grew twice as fast as our overall commercial business in Q4. As a reminder, our Mega-Hubs typically carry over 100,000 SKUs and drive tremendous sales lift inside the store box as well as serve as an expanded assortment source for other stores. The expansion of coverage and parts availability continues to deliver a meaningful sales lift to both our commercial and DIY business. These assets are performing well individually, and the fulfillment capability for the surrounding AutoZone stores is giving our customers access to thousands of additional parts and lifting the entire network. We have an objective to reach 200 Mega-Hubs supplemented by 300 regular Hubs in the near term. Our AutoZoners and our customers are excited, and we're determined to build on our strong momentum.

事實上，我們的商業超級樞紐業務在第四季的成長速度是我們整體商業業務的兩倍。提醒一下，我們的大型中心通常會攜帶超過 100,000 個 SKU，大大提升店內的銷售量，並為其他商店提供擴展的品類來源。覆蓋範圍和零件供應的擴大繼續為我們的商業和 DIY 業務帶來有意義的銷售提升。這些資產單獨表現良好，周圍 AutoZone 商店的履行能力使我們的客戶能夠獲得數千個額外零件並提升整個網路。我們的目標是在短期內達到 200 個超級中心，並輔以 300 個常規中心。我們的 AutoZoners 和客戶都很興奮，我們決心繼續保持強勁的勢頭。

On the domestic retail side of our business, our DIY comp was up 1.4% for the quarter. For FY '23, our DIY crop grew 1.8% and 4.7% on a 2-year stack basis. The business continues to be remarkably resilient as we've managed to deliver positive comp growth through this cycle. As Bill mentioned, we saw traffic down slightly and 2% ticket growth. As we move forward, we would expect to see slightly declining traffic counts, offset by low to mid-single-digit ticket growth, in line with the long-term historical trends for the business driven by changes in technology and the durability of new parts.

在我們業務的國內零售方面，我們的 DIY 比較本季成長了 1.4%。 23 財年，我們的 DIY 作物在兩年基礎上成長了 1.8% 和 4.7%。由於我們成功地在這個週期中實現了積極的複合成長，因此業務繼續保持顯著的彈性。正如 Bill 所提到的，我們看到流量略有下降，但門票增加了 2%。隨著我們的前進，我們預計客流量將略有下降，但被低至中個位數的門票增長所抵消，這與技術變革和新零件的耐用性推動的業務長期歷史趨勢一致。

Importantly, our DIY business has continued to strengthen competitively behind our growth initiatives. In addition, the market is experiencing a growing and aging car park in a challenging new and used car sales market for our customers, which continues to provide a tailwind for our business. These dynamics, ticket growth, growth initiatives and macro car park tailwinds have driven a positive comp. We're forecasting a consistent and resilient DIY business environment for FY '24.

重要的是，我們的 DIY 業務在我們的成長計劃背後不斷增強競爭力。此外，在對我們的客戶來說充滿挑戰的新車和二手車銷售市場中，市場正在經歷不斷增長和老化的停車場，這繼續為我們的業務提供動力。這些動態、門票增長、增長舉措和宏觀停車場的順風推動了積極的比較。我們預測 24 財年將出現一致且有彈性的 DIY 商業環境。

Now I'll say a few words regarding our international business. As you may have noted, we changed our disclosure on our international business, and we will continue to do so going forward. With 12% of our total store base outside of the U.S., the current revenue contribution and the growth prospects moving forward, we simply have to share more about international.

現在我就我們的國際業務說幾句話。正如您可能已經注意到的，我們改變了對國際業務的披露，並且我們將繼續這樣做。我們的門市總數中有 12% 位於美國境外，從目前的收入貢獻和未來的成長前景來看，我們必須分享更多有關國際市場的資訊。

We continue to be pleased with the progress we're making in Mexico and Brazil. During the quarter, we opened 27 new stores in Mexico to finish with 740 stores and 17 new stores in Brazil, ending with 100. Our same-store sales grew 34.1% on a reported basis and 14.9% on a constant currency basis. We remain committed to Mexico and Brazil, and given our success in these markets, we will accelerate the store opening pace going forward.

我們仍然對墨西哥和巴西的進展感到滿意。本季度，我們在墨西哥開設了27 家新店，最終開設了740 家商店；在巴西開設了17 家新店，最終達到100 家。我們的同店銷售額按報告增長34.1%，按固定匯率計算增長14.9% 。我們仍然致力於墨西哥和巴西，鑑於我們在這些市場的成功，我們將加快未來開店的步伐。

By 2028, after a robust strategic review of the market and ultimate store count potential, we've revised our strategy and anticipate opening as many as 200 stores annually in these markets in a disciplined fashion, making this an attractive and meaningful contributor to AutoZone's future growth. Now let me spend a few minutes on the rest of the P&L and gross margin. For the quarter, our gross margin was 52.7%, up 118 basis points, driven primarily by a noncash $30 million LIFO credit this quarter. For Q4 last year, we had a $15 million LIFO charge. Excluding LIFO from both years, we had a 37 basis point improvement in gross margin. I will point out that we now have $59 million in LIFO charges yet to be reversed through our P&L, and we expect these to largely reverse over FY '24. We're currently modeling $15 million in LIFO credits in Q1 as inflation continues to abate and we turn our inventory. And as I've said previously, once we credit back to $59 million through the P&L, we will not take any more credits, and we will begin to rebuild our unrecorded LIFO reserve.

到2028 年，在對市場和最終門市數量潛力進行強有力的策略審查後，我們修訂了策略，預計每年以嚴格的方式在這些市場開設多達200 家門市，使其成為AutoZone 未來的有吸引力且有意義的貢獻者生長。現在讓我花幾分鐘討論損益表和毛利率的其餘部分。本季度，我們的毛利率為 52.7%，成長 118 個基點，這主要得益於本季 3,000 萬美元的非現金 LIFO 信貸。去年第四季度，我們收取了 1500 萬美元的 LIFO 費用。排除後進先出法的影響，我們的毛利率提高了 37 個基點。我要指出的是，我們現在有 5900 萬美元的 LIFO 費用尚未透過我們的損益表逆轉，我們預計這些費用將在 24 財年基本逆轉。隨著通貨膨脹持續減弱，我們目前正在對第一季 1500 萬美元的 LIFO 信貸進行建模，並且我們將週轉庫存。正如我之前所說，一旦我們透過損益表貸記回 5,900 萬美元，我們將不再接受任何貸記，並且我們將開始重建我們未記錄的 LIFO 儲備。

Moving to operating expenses. Our expenses were up 7.6% versus last year's Q4 as SG&A as a percentage of sales deleveraged 34 basis points. The accelerated growth in SG&A has been purposeful as we continue to invest in an accelerated pace in IT and payroll to underpin our growth initiatives. These investments will pay dividends in customer experience, speed and productivity. We are committed to being disciplined on SG&A growth as we move forward, and we will manage expenses in line with sales growth over time.

轉向營運費用。由於 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比去槓桿化了 34 個基點，我們的費用比去年第四季成長了 7.6%。 SG&A 的加速成長是有目的的，因為我們繼續加快 IT 和薪資方面的投資，以支持我們的成長計畫。這些投資將在客戶體驗、速度和生產力方面帶來回報。我們致力於在前進的過程中嚴格控制銷售及行政管理 (SG&A) 的成長，並且我們將根據銷售成長來管理費用。

Moving to the rest of the P&L. EBIT for the quarter was $1.2 billion, up 10.8% versus the prior year driven by our positive same-store sales growth and gross margin improvements, including the LIFO year-over-year benefit. EBIT for FY '23 was just under $3.5 billion, up 6.2% versus the prior year, also driven by strong top line growth.

轉向損益表的其餘部分。本季息稅前利潤為 12 億美元，比上年同期增長 10.8%，這得益於同店銷售的積極增長和毛利率的提高（包括後進先出法的同比效益）。 23 財年的息稅前利潤略低於 35 億美元，比上年增長 6.2%，這也是受到強勁營收成長的推動。

Interest expense for the quarter was $108.7 million, up 70% from Q4 a year ago as our debt outstanding at the end of the quarter was $7.7 billion versus $6.1 billion at Q4 end last year. We're planning interest in the $88 million range for the first quarter of FY '24 versus $57.7 million in this past year's first quarter. Higher debt levels and borrowing rates across the curve are driving this increase.

本季利息支出為 1.087 億美元，比去年第四季成長 70%，因為本季末未償債務為 77 億美元，而去年第四季末為 61 億美元。我們計劃 24 財年第一季的興趣為 8,800 萬美元，而去年第一季的興趣為 5,770 萬美元。整個曲線上較高的債務水準和借款利率正在推動這一成長。

For the quarter, our tax rate was 22.4% and up from last year's fourth quarter of 22.1%. This quarter's rate benefited 22 basis points from stock options exercised, while last year, it benefited 70 basis points. For the first quarter of FY '24, we suggest investors model us at approximately 23.4% before any assumption on credits due to stock option exercises.

本季，我們的稅率為 22.4%，高於去年第四季的 22.1%。本季利率因股票選擇權行使而受益 22 個基點，而去年則受益 70 個基點。對於 24 財年第一季度，我們建議投資者在考慮因股票選擇權行使而產生的信用之前，將我們的利率模型定為約 23.4%。

Moving to net income and EPS. Net income for the quarter was $865 million, up 6.8% versus last year. Our diluted share count of 18.6 million was 6.9% lower than last year's fourth quarter. The combination of higher net income and lower share count grow earnings per share for the quarter to $46.46, up 14.7% for the quarter. For FY '23, net income was $2.5 million, up 4.1% and earnings per share was $132.36, up 12.9%.

轉向淨利和每股收益。該季度淨利潤為 8.65 億美元，比去年同期增長 6.8%。我們的稀釋後股票數量為 1,860 萬股，比去年第四季減少了 6.9%。較高的淨利潤和較少的股票數量相結合，使本季每股收益達到 46.46 美元，成長 14.7%。 23 財年，淨利為 250 萬美元，成長 4.1%，每股收益為 132.36 美元，成長 12.9%。

Now let me talk about our free cash flow for Q4. For the fourth quarter, we generated $1.1 billion of operating cash and $701 million in free cash flow. For the year, we generated $2.1 billion in free cash. We expect to continue being an incredibly strong cash flow generator going forward, and we remain committed to returning meaningful amounts of cash to our shareholders.

現在讓我談談我們第四季的自由現金流。第四季度，我們產生了 11 億美元的營運現金和 7.01 億美元的自由現金流。這一年，我們產生了 21 億美元的自由現金。我們預計未來將繼續成為一個極其強大的現金流發生器，並且我們仍然致力於向股東返還大量現金。

Regarding our balance sheet, our liquidity position remains very strong and our leverage ratios remain below our historic norms. Our inventory per store was down 0.6% versus Q4 last year, while total inventory increased 2.2% over the same period last year, driven by new store growth.

就我們的資產負債表而言，我們的流動性狀況仍然非常強勁，我們的槓桿率仍然低於歷史標準。在新店成長的推動下，我們每店庫存比去年第四季下降了 0.6%，而總庫存比去年同期成長了 2.2%。

Net inventory, defined as merchandise inventory less accounts payable on a per store basis was a negative $201,000 versus negative $240,000 last year and negative $215,000 last quarter. As a result, accounts payable as a percent of gross inventory finished the quarter at 124.9% versus last year's Q4 of 129.5%.

淨庫存（定義為每家商店的商品庫存減去應付帳款）為負 201,000 美元，而去年為負 240,000 美元，上季度為負 215,000 美元。因此，本季末應付帳款佔庫存總額的百分比為 124.9%，而去年第四季為 129.5%。

Lastly, I'll spend a moment on capital allocation and our share repurchase program. We repurchased $1 billion of AutoZone stock in the quarter. And at quarter end, we had just over $1.8 billion remaining under our share buyback authorization. The strong earnings balance sheet and powerful free cash we generated this year has allowed us to buy back 8% of the shares outstanding since the beginning of the fiscal year. We have bought back over 100% of the then outstanding shares of stock since our buyback inception in 1998, while investing in our existing assets and growing our business. We remain committed to this disciplined capital allocation approach that will enable us to invest in the business and return meaningful amounts to cash to shareholders.

最後，我將花一點時間討論資本配置和我們的股票回購計畫。我們在本季回購了價值 10 億美元的 AutoZone 股票。截至季末，我們的股票回購授權還剩 18 億多美元。強勁的獲利資產負債表和今年產生的大量自由現金使我們能夠回購本財年年初以來已發行股票的 8%。自 1998 年回購開始以來，我們已經回購了超過 100% 的當時已發行股票，同時投資於我們的現有資產並發展我們的業務。我們仍然致力於這種嚴格的資本分配方法，這將使我們能夠投資業務並向股東返還大量現金。

We finished Q4 at 2.3x EBITDA, which is below our historical objective of 2.5x EBITDA. However, we remain committed to our leverage objective, and we expect to return to the 2.5x target in FY '24. To wrap up, we remain committed to driving long-term shareholder value by investing in our growth initiatives, driving robust earnings and cash and returning excess cash to our shareholders.

我們第四季的 EBITDA 為 2.3 倍，低於我們 2.5 倍 EBITDA 的歷史目標。然而，我們仍然致力於我們的槓桿目標，我們預計將在 24 財年恢復到 2.5 倍的目標。總而言之，我們仍然致力於透過投資我們的成長計劃、推動強勁的利潤和現金並將多餘現金返還給股東，來推動長期股東價值。

Our strategy continues to work. We're growing our market share and improving our competitive positioning in a disciplined way. As we look forward to FY '24, we're bullish on our growth prospects behind a resilient DIY business, a fast-growing international business and a domestic commercial business that is continuing to grow share.

我們的策略繼續發揮作用。我們正在以嚴格的方式擴大市場份額並提高我們的競爭地位。展望 24 財年，我們對彈性 DIY 業務、快速成長的國際業務和持續成長份額的國內商業業務背後的成長前景持樂觀態度。

I continue to have tremendous confidence in our ability to drive significant and ongoing value for our shareholders driven by a high degree of confidence in our strategy and our exceptional team of AutoZoners.

我仍然對我們為股東帶來顯著且持續的價值的能力充滿信心，這得益於對我們的策略和卓越的 AutoZoners 團隊的高度信心。

One last housekeeping point. I'd like to remind you that in FY '24, we will have a 53rd week in our financial results. This extra week will be added to our Q4 results. As a result, our fiscal year will now end August 31, 2024. In order to model that extra week, I encourage you to look at our financial breakouts of both our fiscal 2019 and 2013 4th quarters, which for the last 2 years, we had the extra week, and we show breakouts of the full P&L accordingly.

最後一個管家重點。我想提醒您，24 財年，我們將迎來第 53 週的財務表現。這額外的一周將添加到我們第四季的結果中。因此，我們的財政年度將於 2024 年 8 月 31 日結束。為了模擬這額外的一周，我鼓勵您查看我們 2019 財年和 2013 年第四季度的財務明細表，在過去的兩年裡，我們多了一周，我們相應地顯示了完整損益表的突破。

And now I'll turn it back to Bill.

現在我會把它轉回給比爾。

Thank you, Jamere. As we start a new fiscal year, I'd like to take a moment to discuss our operating theme for the New Year, Live the Pledge. I know this sounds like a very consistent theme for AutoZone. In fact, it was the theme we used in my first full year as CEO in 2006.

謝謝你，傑米爾。在我們開始新的財政年度之際，我想花點時間討論我們新年的營運主題：實踐承諾。我知道這聽起來像是 AutoZone 的一個非常一致的主題。事實上，這是我們在 2006 年擔任執行長的第一年所使用的主題。

I'm asked frequently what differentiates AutoZone from others? My answer goes back to the same point over and over, the culture. I, our board and our leadership team believe we can never emphasize the culture enough. The culture is defined by helping solve our customers' challenges and optimizing the performance of their vehicles. It's based on a team-based approach, recognizing everyone's contributions and performance and putting team goals ahead of personal goals. It sets the standard at exceptional performance, not mediocrity. It's about the AutoZone family, calling yourself a family comes with great responsibility, and it is so much more. The pledge and our values summarize our operating strategy succinctly.

常常有人問我 AutoZone 與其他產品有何不同？我的回答一遍又一遍地回到同一點：文化。我、我們的董事會和領導團隊相信，我們對文化的重視永遠不夠。這種文化的定義是幫助客戶解決挑戰並優化其車輛的性能。它基於基於團隊的方法，認可每個人的貢獻和表現，並將團隊目標置於個人目標之上。它設定了卓越表現而非平庸的標準。這是關於 AutoZone 家庭的，稱自己為一個家庭意味著巨大的責任，而且遠不止於此。這項承諾和我們的價值觀簡潔地概括了我們的營運策略。

As we've accelerated our top line since the onset of the pandemic, our competitive positioning has also materially improved. Our efforts for 2024 will be focused on execution. We have a lot of projects in flight, and we need to get them completed. Supply chain improvements will remain a key focus in FY '24. We will continue with our additions of Mega-Hub and Hub stores, new distribution centers, and international store growth.

自疫情爆發以來，隨著我們加快營收成長，我們的競爭地位也得到了實質改善。我們2024年的努力將集中在執行上。我們有很多項目正在進行中，我們需要完成它們。供應鏈改進仍將是 24 財年的重點。我們將繼續增加 Mega-Hub 和 Hub 商店、新的配送中心以及國際商店的成長。

As you noticed, our international teams posted same-store sales comps on a constant currency basis of 14.9%, much higher than our domestic comp. International has been strong for a few years now.

正如您所注意到的，我們的國際團隊公佈的以固定匯率計算的同店銷售業績為 14.9%，遠高於我們的國內業績。國際化已經強勁幾年了。

This morning, I'm excited to share after an extensive strategic review of the ultimate number of locations we can have in the U.S., Mexico and Brazil, we are announcing our plans for a much more aggressive global store development plan. Over the last 5 years, we've averaged 140 domestic store openings and 50 international openings for a total of roughly 190 new stores a year in the Americas. We plan on accelerating this pace and aspire to open as many as 500 stores 5 years from now. So by FY '28, we are modeling 500 store openings with the split being 300 in the U.S., 200 internationally. FY '24 will remain around 200 but we will ramp from there.

今天早上，我很高興與大家分享，在對我們在美國、墨西哥和巴西的最終門市數量進行了廣泛的策略審查之後，我們宣布了一項更積極的全球商店開發計劃。在過去 5 年裡，我們平均在美洲開設 140 家國內門市和 50 家國際門市，每年總共開設約 190 家新店。我們計劃加快這一步伐，並希望在 5 年後開設多達 500 家門市。因此，到 28 財年，我們將模擬 500 家新店開業，其中美國 300 家，國際 200 家。 24 財年將保持在 200 左右，但我們將從那裡開始增加。

You may be asking why this change of strategy and why now? The answer is our profitability per store is materially higher since the beginning of the pandemic. We continue to find new trade areas even in our more mature U.S. markets. Our growth in commercial has materially changed the economics on a per store basis. We believe this is just the beginning on commercial and our ROIC, one of the most important metrics we track is over 50%.

您可能會問為什麼要改變策略，為什麼是現在？答案是，自從疫情爆發以來，我們每家商店的獲利能力大幅提高。即使在更成熟的美國市場，我們也會繼續尋找新的貿易領域。我們商業領域的成長極大地改變了每家商店的經濟效益。我們相信這只是商業的開始，我們追蹤的最重要指標之一的投資報酬率超過 50%。

Also, our international markets are immature, so we continue to see expansion opportunities in Mexico and Brazil along with putting a toe hold at some point in other new markets. I want to stress that we will be diligent and disciplined. We have a long track record of performance with high returns and strong cash flow generation. We have no plans on changing that strategy and approach where we believe in evolution, over revolution, we believe in continuous improvement, and we believe in test and learn. We have been and remain anchored on our capital allocation strategy.

此外，我們的國際市場尚不成熟，因此我們繼續看到墨西哥和巴西的擴張機會，並在其他新市場的某個時候立足。我想強調的是，我們會勤勉、遵守紀律。我們擁有長期的業績記錄、高回報和強勁的現金流生成。我們沒有計劃改變我們相信進化而不是革命的策略和方法，我們相信持續改進，我們相信測試和學習。我們一直並將繼續堅持我們的資本配置策略。

While I spend time talking about our store development strategies for the future, that is not the key focus for us in FY '24. The #1 focus will be on growing share in our domestic commercial business. We believe we have a solid plan in place for growth over the next 12 months. We know our focus on parts availability and better customer service will lead to sales growth. We're excited as we start 2024.

雖然我花時間談論我們未來的商店發展策略，但這並不是我們 24 財年的重點。第一重點將是增加我們國內商業業務的份額。我們相信我們已經制定了未來 12 個月的可靠成長計劃。我們知道，我們對零件可用性和更好的客戶服務的關注將帶來銷售成長。 2024 年伊始，我們感到非常興奮。

This time of year, I always enjoy reflecting on the past. Our team achieved some impressive milestones this year. $17.5 billion in sales, racing past the $17 billion milestone. DIY comps are 1.8%, most impressively, 15.9% on a 3-year basis. Commercial sales are now $4.6 billion. I personally distinctly remember a goal of $1 billion not that long ago. Average weekly sales domestically of $47,600 equating to just under $2.5 million per store annually. Our Mexico and ALLDATA teams both broke multiple records and Brazil is poised for significant growth in store count and getting to profitability breakeven on the path to substantial profitability in the future. We bought back $3.7 billion in AutoZone stock, the second highest ever, only behind last year's $4.4 billion. And our team has grown our EBIT by 61% in 4 years, that's remarkable.

每年的這個時候，我總是喜歡反思過去。我們的團隊今年取得了一些令人印象深刻的里程碑。銷售額達 175 億美元，突破 170 億美元的里程碑。 DIY 對比為 1.8%，最令人印象深刻的是，以 3 年為基礎，為 15.9%。目前商業銷售額為 46 億美元。我個人清楚記得不久前的 10 億美元目標。國內每周平均銷售額為 47,600 美元，相當於每家商店每年略低於 250 萬美元。我們的墨西哥和 ALLDATA 團隊都打破了多項記錄，巴西的商店數量有望大幅增長，並在未來實現大幅盈利的道路上實現盈虧平衡。我們回購了 37 億美元的 AutoZone 股票，這是有史以​​來第二高的股票，僅次於去年的 44 億美元。我們團隊的 EBIT 在 4 年內成長了 61%，這非常了不起。

But we can't rest on our laws, and we aren't without our challenges, that's for sure. As I've said on several occasions, we have to exit pandemic mode. We had to get back to taking care of the customer, and this requires as close to flawless execution as possible. We have to make sure every store is staffed right every hour of every day. Our processes need to function correctly, always we have to meet our store opening goals and time lines. Simply put, we have to remain the execution machine that we have always been.

但我們不能依賴我們的法律，而且我們也並非沒有挑戰，這是肯定的。正如我多次說過的，我們必須退出大流行模式。我們必須重新開始照顧客戶，這需要盡可能接近完美的執行。我們必須確保每家商店每天每個小時都有充足的人員配備。我們的流程需要正確運行，我們必須始終滿足我們的開店目標和時間表。簡而言之，我們必須保持一貫的行刑機器。

On June 26, we announced a leadership transition plan and yesterday, we announced the next evolution of AutoZone's senior most leadership team. I've had the honor and privilege of being part of this team for nearly 29 years now, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. We, as part of that leadership transition plan announced that I would step away from the President and CEO roles, but remain Executive Chairman in January. As a Board, we've been contemplating this transition for many, many years and began a very robust, well-defined, disciplined process nearly 3 years ago. Our goal was to identify a successor and ensure that successor had a fabulous team with them. I think we've accomplished that goal. The company will be in fantastic hands with Phil Daniele leading it. He loves this business, he's a car fanatic, and has been here for 30 years and in the industry for nearly 40 years.

6 月 26 日，我們宣布了領導層過渡計劃，昨天，我們宣布了 AutoZone 最高領導團隊的下一步演變。近 29 年來，我很榮幸能成為這個團隊的一員，這是我一生中最有價值的經驗之一。作為領導層過渡計劃的一部分，我們宣布我將辭去總裁和執行長的職務，但在一月份仍然擔任執行董事長。作為董事會，我們多年來一直在考慮這一轉變，並在近三年前開始了一個非常穩健、定義明確、紀律嚴明的流程。我們的目標是確定繼任者並確保繼任者擁有一支出色的團隊。我認為我們已經實現了這個目標。該公司將由菲爾·丹尼爾 (Phil Daniele) 領導，掌握在出色的手中。他熱愛這個行業，他是一個汽車狂熱分子，已經在這裡工作了 30 年，在這個行業工作了近 40 年。

With Jamere Jackson leading the finance and store development teams and Tom Newbern, now serving as our Chief Operating Officer, in addition to the balance of our talented executive team, our company is in terrific hands.

Jamere Jackson 領導財務和商店開發團隊，Tom Newbern 現任我們的首席營運官，再加上我們才華橫溢的執行團隊的平衡，我們的公司處於出色的管理之下。

While it will be better sweet for me, I'm excited that Phil and the Board have asked me to continue to be very involved for the foreseeable future. Ultimately, I know Phil, Jamere, Tom and I all know this is a team sport. And ultimately, it's not about the senior most leaders in this organization. It's about, in our case, the pledge, our values and most importantly, our culture, which at its core is all about having the best, most passionate AutoZoners taking care of customers and the organization prioritizing AutoZoners and their development or as we say, caring about others.

雖然這對我來說會更好，但我很高興菲爾和董事會要求我在可預見的未來繼續積極參與。最終，我認識菲爾、賈米爾、湯姆，我都知道這是一項團隊運動。最終，這與組織中最高級的領導者無關。就我們而言，這關乎我們的承諾、我們的價值觀，最重要的是我們的文化，其核心是讓最優秀、最熱情的AutoZoners 照顧客戶，讓組織優先考慮AutoZoners 及其發展，或者正如我們所說，關心他人。

Yesterday, we announced that other organization changes with the promotion of Bill Hackney, to Executive Vice President, Merchandising, Marketing and Supply Chain. I congratulate Bill, a 38-year AutoZoner, who knows this business exceptionally well, and it's always been a top performer. We also announced that 3 terrific long-term leaders will be retiring around the end of the calendar year. I thank and congratulate Grant McGee, Charlie Pleas and Al Saltiel, for their partnership, leadership and friendship for all these years. They leave AutoZone, a massively better organization than they founded many years ago.

昨天，我們宣布其他組織發生變化，比爾哈克尼 (Bill Hackney) 晉升為銷售、行銷和供應鏈執行副總裁。我祝賀比爾，一位擁有 38 年 AutoZoner 經驗的人，他對這個行業非常了解，並且一直表現出色。我們也宣布，三位出色的長期領導者將於今年年底退休。我感謝並祝賀 Grant McGee、Charlie Pleas 和 Al Saltiel 多年來的合作、領導和友誼。他們離開了 AutoZone，這是一個比他們多年前創建的組織要好得多的組織。

So changes in the air. Frankly, it always is. It is amazing to me to see how much our leadership has changed over my near 30-year tenure at AutoZone. To me, that's why the culture -- it's why the culture is so important in this organization with a phenomenal culture. It's not about individuals, it's about the team, it's about the goals, and it's about performance. As we begin this transition, Phil and I both shared that not only do we both feel we embody the culture. Both of us believe we are products of this culture. We've learned extraordinary lessons from our three decades at AutoZone, most importantly, always put the customer first, execution wins. People want to play on winning teams and be recognized for their performance, details matter, listen to those closest to the customer and so much more. So on our -- both continue to say, and it may sound like a cliche, but we believe it, AutoZone's best days lie ahead of us.

所以空氣也發生了變化。坦白說，總是如此。我在 AutoZone 近 30 年的任期內看到我們的領導層發生瞭如此大的變化，這讓我感到驚訝。對我來說，這就是文化的原因——這就是為什麼文化在這個擁有非凡文化的組織中如此重要的原因。這與個人無關，與團隊有關，與目標有關，與績效有關。當我們開始這一轉變時，菲爾和我都同意，我們不僅都覺得自己體現了這種文化。我們都相信我們是這種文化的產物。我們從 AutoZone 的三十年中吸取了非凡的教訓，最重要的是，始終將客戶放在第一位，執行力勝。人們希望在獲勝的團隊中比賽並因其表現而受到認可，細節很重要，傾聽最接近客戶的人的意見等等。所以我們——兩人都在繼續說，這可能聽起來像陳詞濫調，但我們相信，AutoZone 最好的日子就在我們前面。

Now we'd like to open up the call for questions.

現在我們想開始提問。

(Operator Instructions)Our first question is coming from Bret Jordan with Jefferies.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自布雷特喬丹 (Bret Jordan) 和傑弗里斯 (Jefferies)。

You called out market share gain in the commercial space in the fourth quarter, but then you said not in line with your aspirations, but then also said that pricing is rational. What do you think is happening in the space? Are there peers that are showing relatively better in-stocks? Or really, was it just your regional footprint and exposure to some of those softer markets that made the difference?

您提到第四季度商業領域的市場份額有所增加，但隨後又表示不符合您的願望，但隨後又表示定價是理性的。你認為太空中正在發生什麼事？是否有同業的庫存表現相對較好？或者說，真的只是您的區域足跡和對一些較疲軟市場的接觸才產生了影響嗎？

It's a terrific question, Bret, and there's a lot of different elements, as you would expect. Again, we are not satisfied with our commercial growth at this level and we are going to change that. And we're encouraged about the direction that we're heading.

這是一個很棒的問題，布雷特，正如你所期望的，有很多不同的元素。再次強調，我們對目前的商業成長水準並不滿意，我們將改變這一現狀。我們對我們前進的方向感到鼓舞。

I think part of it, Bret, is a comparison versus last year, and you mentioned in-stocks. Last year, 18 months ago, we got very aggressive with some key categories and bought a lot of merchandise when, frankly, a lot of our less sophisticated competitors were not in great in-stock positions. As we're beginning to lap that significant outsized growth last year, that's certainly a challenge for us. And we're beginning to get past that point in time.

布雷特，我認為其中一部分是與去年的比較，你提到了庫存。去年，也就是 18 個月前，我們在一些關鍵類別上非常積極，併購買了大量商品，坦白說，當時我們的許多不太成熟的競爭對手都沒有充足的庫存。由於我們去年開始大幅成長，這對我們來說無疑是一個挑戰。我們已經開始跨越那個時間點了。

We also mentioned that we've had some challenges in the Midwest and Northeast particularly with undercar categories and particularly in commercial, where we just didn't have the winter that we so desperately want and need. And we've suffered in those undercar categories.

我們也提到，我們在中西部和東北部遇到了一些挑戰，特別是在車底類別和商業領域，我們只是沒有度過我們迫切想要和需要的冬天。我們在這些車底類別中遭受了損失。

Okay. Great. And a big picture question, I guess, on international. When you look at the -- obviously, different vehicle demographic and economy, but how do you see the underlying growth rates in the DIY and the DIFM segments in Brazil and Mexico? Sort of a longer-term basis?

好的。偉大的。我想，這是一個關於國際的大問題。當您觀察顯然不同的汽車人口和經濟時，您如何看待巴西和墨西哥 DIY 和 DIFM 細分市場的潛在成長率？某種更長期的基礎？

Yes, it's a great question. We've been in Mexico for nearly 25 years now. There's just not great data there, Bret. And so you don't have the terrific kind of information that we get from the Auto Care Association, so we don't have great data down there. We're working to try to see if we can get some better data. But what we know is we've been in Mexico now, as I said, almost 25 years, and we continue to grow significantly and think that we have a lot of growth left in front of us, not just in new stores but on same-store sales. There are still categories where we are massively underpenetrated, there are still categories we don't participate in at all. And as we learn more about that business, we're continuing to grow. Same things happened in Brazil, we're just much earlier in Brazil.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。我們在墨西哥已經快 25 年了。布雷特，那裡沒有很好的數據。因此，您沒有從汽車護理協會獲得的豐富信息，因此我們也沒有豐富的數據。我們正在努力看看是否可以獲得更好的數據。但我們知道的是，正如我所說，我們在墨西哥已經近 25 年了，我們繼續顯著增長，並認為我們面前還有很大的增長空間，不僅是在新店上，而且在同一家店上- 商店銷售。仍然有一些類別我們的滲透率嚴重不足，仍然有一些類別我們根本不參與。隨著我們對這項業務的了解越來越多，我們也不斷成長。同樣的事情也發生在巴西，只是我們在巴西發生得早得多。

But fair to think an older car base that drives a better underlying growth than U.S.?

但公平地認為，較舊的汽車基地能夠比美國帶來更好的潛在成長嗎？

I think in Mexico, clearly, the car basis is older, and there's a lot of U.S. cars, there's also a lot of Mexico manufactured vehicles. Brazil is very different in that the size of the vehicles and particularly the engine sizes in Brazil are massively smaller. I mean if you have a 2-liter engine in Brazil, that's a big car. Many of them are 1.4 liters and the like. So we still got a lot to learn in Brazil, but we're excited about where we are. We believe we see a path to great success, but we're still losing money there. We got to fix that over the next couple of years.

我認為在墨西哥，顯然，汽車基礎比較老舊，有很多美國汽車，也有很多墨西哥製造的汽車。巴西的情況非常不同，巴西的車輛尺寸，特別是引擎尺寸要小得多。我的意思是，如果在巴西有 2 升發動機，那就是一輛大車。很多都是1.4公升之類的。因此，我們在巴西還有很多東西需要學習，但我們對我們所處的位置感到興奮。我們相信我們看到了一條通往巨大成功的道路，但我們仍然在虧損。我們必須在接下來的幾年裡解決這個問題。

Our next question is coming from Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙·古特曼。

Congratulations to the retirees and the promotees. My first question is, I may have missed it, is double digits still the goal for commercial? And if so, what's the -- how should we think about the time frame to getting there?

恭喜退休人員和晉升人員。我的第一個問題是，我可能錯過了，兩位數仍然是商業目標嗎？如果是這樣，我們應該如何考慮實現這一目標的時間框架？

Absolutely, it's still the goal. Keep in mind, we still have pretty low share in that 4.5% range or so. So we're under share, and we think there's still tremendous opportunity for us to gain share. Like we said, we're not happy with our performance in the Q4 time frame. We do feel like we're exiting the quarter at a higher rate, and we believe will continue to improve from this point forward. But we're not back to where we want to be, but we do see line of sight to getting back to that double-digit growth over time.

當然，這仍然是目標。請記住，我們的份額仍然很低，在 4.5% 左右的範圍內。因此，我們的份額不足，但我們認為我們仍有巨大的機會獲得份額。正如我們所說，我們對第四季的表現並不滿意。我們確實覺得我們正在以更高的速度退出本季度，我們相信從現在開始將繼續改善。但我們還沒有回到我們想要的位置，但我們確實看到隨著時間的推移恢復兩位數增長的前景。

And then maybe the follow-up, the way you've built the business in commercial it's been methodical and you've had some periods of faster growth, but it's been cumulative. And my question is now that you're focused on it again, how do we get comfortable with timing that prescriptively your business reaccelerates, call it, in the next few quarters versus why not take the year to get some of the traction from one of the things that you're working on?

然後也許是後續行動，你在商業領域建立業務的方式是有條不紊的，並且你經歷了一些更快成長的時期，但它是累積的。我的問題是，現在您再次關注這個問題，我們如何適應在接下來的幾個季度中您的業務重新加速的時機，而不是為什麼不花一年的時間從其中一個獲得一些牽引力你正在做的事情？

Well, like I said, we talked in Q3 or Q4 that our execution in the commercial arena wasn't where we expected it to be. And we've been working on that, we saw that performance and the execution levels improve as we work through Q4.

嗯，就像我說的，我們在第三季或第四季談到，我們在商業領域的執行情況並沒有達到我們的預期。我們一直在努力做到這一點，我們看到隨著第四季度的工作，性能和執行水平有所提高。

We're not finished yet. Well, frankly, never be finished. Execution is a long-term strategy, but we continue to get better, and we think we continue to improve our business model. Like we said, we've opened up more Hubs, more Mega-Hubs. We continue to strengthen our store side assortments. And we're also continuing to leverage the technology enhancements that we've made over the last couple of years, and those will continue to mature. And we're not standing still. That technology enhancements will continue as we move through this next year.

我們還沒完成。好吧，坦白說，永遠不會完成。執行是一項長期策略，但我們不斷變得更好，我們認為我們不斷改進我們的業務模式。正如我們所說，我們開設了更多的樞紐、更多的巨型樞紐。我們繼續加強我們的店面品種。我們也將繼續利用我們在過去幾年中所做的技術增強，並且這些技術將繼續成熟。我們並沒有停滯不前。隨著我們明年的發展，這種技術的增強將持續下去。

Our next question is coming from Seth Sigman with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的塞思‧西格曼。

I'll add my congrats as well on all the new roles. I wanted to follow up on the commercial business. And that last point, if you can maybe just elaborate on the execution shortfalls that you've seen. What are we talking about here? Is that availability? Is it something more sales related? Just any more context on that and how you're fixing that and the response so far? And then I'll add a follow-up.

我也會對所有新角色表示祝賀。我想跟進商業業務。最後一點，如果您可以詳細說明您所看到的執行缺陷。我們在這裡談論什麼？那是可用性嗎？是與銷售更相關的事嗎？是否有更多關於此問題的背景資訊以及您如何解決該問題以及迄今為止的反應？然後我會新增一個後續內容。

On the execution, I think if you go back to the pandemic and some of the challenges of the pandemic, we obviously struggled with in-stock. We struggled with staffing, as everybody did, and we struggled with store level execution. Our primary objectives were to keep our AutoZoners safe, take care of the customers, keep our stores in stock.

在執行方面，我認為如果你回到大流行病和大流行病的一些挑戰，我們顯然在庫存方面遇到了困難。正如每個人一樣，我們在人員配備方面遇到了困難，在商店層面的執行方面也遇到了困難。我們的主要目標是確保 AutoZoners 的安全、照顧顧客、保持我們商店的庫存。

Nothing -- there wasn't any this big one area that got broken, it was a lot of little things, and at AutoZone, we expect to operate executionally solid every single day. We didn't achieve that, we're continuing to work on that and we're ticking off the execution marks to get back to flawless execution day in and day out that frankly takes time. And we'll continue to improve, we like the improvements we saw in Q4. I wouldn't say we're done. We think there's still opportunities to improve, and we'll continue down that path. It's just part of our culture, execute flawlessly.

沒有什麼——沒有任何一個大的領域被破壞了，而是有很多小事情，在 AutoZone，我們希望每天都能穩定地執行。我們沒有實現這一點，我們正在繼續努力，我們正在勾選執行標記，以日復一日地恢復完美的執行，坦率地說，這需要時間。我們將繼續改進，我們喜歡第四季度看到的改進。我不會說我們已經完成了。我們認為仍有改進的機會，我們將繼續沿著這條路走下去。這只是我們文化的一部分，完美執行。

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And then I wanted to follow up on another point made earlier about traffic and volume improving through the quarter. And I think that coincides with inflation moderating. Can you just give us a little bit more perspective on what you've seen historically as it relates to elasticity? And then just in general, how are you thinking about inflation for this coming fiscal year?

知道了。好的。這很有幫助。然後我想跟進之前提出的關於本季度流量和數量改善的另一點。我認為這與通膨放緩同時發生。您能否給我們更多關於您所看到的歷史上與彈性相關的觀點？總的來說，您如何看待下一財年的通膨？

Yes. So the first point I'll make on inflation is that we've been comping hyperinflation relative to our store industry trends for quite some time now. And so as inflation is sort of moderated and faded to sort of the normal rates. Those are the dynamics that we've been experiencing. As it relates to our business moving forward, we expect inflation to be in the low to mid-single-digit range that will impact our tickets.

是的。因此，關於通貨膨脹，我要說的第一點是，相當長一段時間以來，我們一直在將惡性通貨膨脹與我們的商店行業趨勢進行比較。因此，通貨膨脹率有所緩和並逐漸降至正常水準。這些都是我們一直在經歷的動態。由於這與我們未來業務的發展有關，我們預計通膨將在低至中個位數範圍內，這將影響我們的門票。

On the DIY side, as we've said, we've historically seen transaction counts decline kind of low single digits, if you will. And so we expect to be operating in our business closer to historic norms moving forward.

在 DIY 方面，正如我們所說，如果您願意的話，我們歷來都看到交易數量下降了較低的個位數。因此，我們預期未來的業務運作將更接近歷史規範。

In terms of the macro environment and how that's played out from an inflation standpoint, we haven't seen to this point sort of a wobble from the consumer. We think it's been a 2-speed world for a while where the low-end consumer has been under some pressure, but consumers that have higher incomes have been doing well. And the net result of that is our business on the DIY side has been very, very resilient.

就宏觀環境以及從通膨角度來看，我們尚未看到消費者出現任何動搖。我們認為，一段時間以來，世界一直處於二速世界，低端消費者承受著一定的壓力，但收入較高的消費者卻表現良好。最終結果是我們的 DIY 業務非常非常有彈性。

Our next question is coming from Elizabeth Suzuki with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的伊麗莎白鈴木。

Just a question on expansion and store growth. I mean, just given that the cost of construction and the cost of capital has gone up quite a bit in the last couple of years. How are you thinking about capital allocation, just -- it seems like store growth is a pretty big part of your long-term plans. But just thinking about where that capital can be best deployed in which areas, maybe rural areas or international, where you think you're going to get the best return?

只是關於擴張和商店增長的問題。我的意思是，考慮到過去幾年的建築成本和資本成本已經大幅上升。您如何考慮資本配置，只是 - 商店成長似乎是您長期計劃的重要組成部分。但只要想想這些資本可以最好地部署在哪些地區，也許是農村或國際，您認為您將在哪裡獲得最佳回報？

Yes. Thank you, Liz. We think we're going to get a great return basically in all three countries, whether it be urban environments or rural environments. And I go back to when you're running an ROIC at 50%, that shows that we can get really good returns. Yes, we're making this announcement when construction costs are higher, interest rates are higher and on and on, we're making decisions that are 40-year decisions.

是的。謝謝你，莉茲。我們認為，無論是城市環境還是農村環境，我們基本上都會在這三個國家獲得巨大的回報。我回想一下，當您的投資報酬率為 50% 時，這表明我們可以獲得非常好的回報。是的，當建築成本更高、利率更高等等時，我們會發布這項公告，我們正在做出 40 年的決定。

And we believe we've got a long runway for opening significant amounts of new stores. And once we finish that strategic review back in June, we made the decision that we're going to accelerate and get back to 500 stores a year. Now remember, that will be between 3% and 3.5% organic store growth. So it's not like we're talking about going to 10% growth. We think having something that's growing in that range makes a lot of sense for the long term.

我們相信，我們還有很長的路要走，可以開設大量新店。當我們在 6 月完成策略審查後，我們決定加快步伐，恢復到每年 500 家商店的規模。現在請記住，商店的有機成長將在 3% 到 3.5% 之間。所以我們不是在談論 10% 的成長。我們認為，從長遠來看，在這個範圍內成長的東西是很有意義的。

Yes. The only thing I'll add, Liz, is that to your point around capital allocation, this doesn't change our long-term capital allocation framework. Managing our leverage target at 2.5x EBITDA gives us a tremendous amount of financial firepower to invest in our existing assets to invest in this growth profile that Bill is talking about, but also to give meaningful amounts of cash back to shareholders. So it doesn't change our long-term capital allocation framework as we move forward.

是的。莉茲，我唯一要補充的是，就您對資本配置的觀點而言，這不會改變我們的長期資本配置框架。將我們的槓桿目標控制在 2.5 倍 EBITDA，為我們提供了巨大的財務火力來投資我們的現有資產，投資於比爾所說的這種增長狀況，同時也向股東返還大量現金。因此，隨著我們的前進，它不會改變我們的長期資本配置框架。

Great. And then you talked about Mexico and Brazil. Now in Brazil, you're still losing some money there. What does the profit profile look like in Mexico or just for the international operations in total? And how should we think about the impact on the total company margin profile as those stores grow as a percentage of AutoZone's total?

偉大的。然後你談到了墨西哥和巴西。現在在巴西，你仍然會損失一些錢。墨西哥或國際業務的整體利潤狀況如何？當這些商店佔 AutoZone 總利潤的百分比成長時，我們應該如何考慮對公司總利潤率的影響？

Well, it's certainly a tale of two countries. We are losing money in Brazil, we haven't disclosed specifics in Mexico, but I'll just say that we are very pleased with the profitability profile and particularly the return profile in Mexico.

嗯，這當然是兩個國家的故事。我們在巴西虧損，我們還沒有透露墨西哥的具體情況，但我只想說，我們對獲利狀況非常滿意，特別是墨西哥的回報狀況。

Our next question is coming from Chris Horvers with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的克里斯霍弗斯。

I also wanted to follow up on the commercial side. You talked about 7% in the last 4 weeks. So to clarify, was that comp? And as we look forward, clearly, August was hot and you got a weather bump there. So you talked about improving from what you've seen, I guess, what's the right trend line to think about of the 7% versus the 2.5% that you actually did for the quarter?

我還想在商業方面進行跟進。你談到了過去 4 週內的 7%。那麼澄清一下，這是補償嗎？當我們展望未來時，很明顯，八月很熱，天氣也很顛簸。所以你談到了從你所看到的情況來看有所改善，我想，考慮到本季度實際的 7% 與 2.5% 相比，正確的趨勢線是什麼？

Yes. The 7%, just to be clear, was a total growth in those last 4 weeks of the quarter. So it improved over the quarter time frame. I'd like to forecast that, that's -- that we're going to improve from there. It could be bumpy, nothing is a straight line.

是的。需要明確的是，7% 是本季最後 4 週的總成長。因此，它在本季度的時間範圍內有所改善。我想預測，我們將從那裡開始改進。它可能是崎嶇不平的，沒有什麼是直線。

I'll tell you, if you think about the weather performance over the quarter, like we said, the beginning part of the quarter, the first months of May and June were particularly cool and wet. And although that had probably a more material impact on the DIY side of the business, it impacts commercial as well. And as it got hot, you see those bigger ticket categories like per se, air conditioning, for example. Those are big categories and big jobs. And as you get those failures due to heat, it helps the comps and the total growth.

我會告訴你，如果你考慮本季的天氣表現，就像我們所說的那樣，本季的初期，五月和六月的前幾個月特別涼爽和潮濕。儘管這可能對 DIY 業務產生了更大的實質影響，但它也對商業產生了影響。隨著天氣變熱，您會看到更大的門票類別，例如空調本身。這些都是大類別和大工作。當你因熱量而失敗時，它有助於比較和整體增長。

So we think that weather story will help us a little bit. The hot summer will help us as we move through the beginning of Q4, and then we'll move into a normal weather pattern as we go through Q2 and the rest of the year.

所以我們認為天氣故事會對我們有一點幫助。當我們進入第四季度初時，炎熱的夏季將對我們有所幫助，然後當我們進入第二季度和今年剩餘時間時，我們將進入正常的天氣模式。

Got it. And then -- Okay. Got it. So the 7% was total, so the comps [on do it] for me was more like a 5%. I guess, is that right? And then as you think about '24, any other high-level comments, I know you don't guide, Jamere, you talked about some LIFO tailwinds that persist early and then probably turn to some year-over-year headwinds. Anything else to think about in the P&L in terms of SG&A per store or other comments on gross margin and so forth?

知道了。然後——好吧。知道了。所以 7% 是總計，所以對我來說 [on do it] 的補償更像是 5%。我想，是這樣嗎？然後，當你想到'24，任何其他高層評論時，我知道你沒有指導，Jamere，你談到了一些早期持續存在的後進先出的順風，然後可能會變成一些逐年逆風。在損益表中，關於每家商店的 SG&A 或毛利率的其他評論等方面還有什麼需要考慮的嗎？

Yes. So as we think about FY '24, I think there are a handful of dynamics that you need to sort of wrap your minds around as you're building your models. Number one, we're forecasting a very consistent and resilient DIY business. And Phil and Bill talked about some of those dynamics as part of their prepared comments.

是的。因此，當我們考慮 24 財年時，我認為在建立模型時需要考慮一些動態。第一，我們預測 DIY 業務將非常穩定且有彈性。菲爾和比爾在他們準備好的評論中談到了其中一些動態。

The second dynamic that we're focused on, as Phil alluded to, is an improving growth profile in our commercial business. Again, we were very pleased with where we exited the fourth quarter, I believe we got good momentum going into the first quarter and next year.

正如菲爾所提到的，我們關注的第二個動態是我們商業業務的成長狀況的改善。同樣，我們對第四季度的業績感到非常滿意，我相信我們在進入第一季和明年時取得了良好的勢頭。

I think the third dynamic that you mentioned is around LIFO. We've got $59 million of LIFO that we expect to largely get back through the P&L. So as you're working your way through your modeling, you can expect most, if not all of that, to come back to us this year.

我認為你提到的第三個動態是關於後進先出的。我們有 5900 萬美元的後進先出法，我們預計大部分可以透過損益表收回。因此，當您在建模過程中進行工作時，您可以預期今年大部分（如果不是全部）都會回到我們這裡。

And then from an expense profile standpoint, we said longer term SG&A will grow in line with sales. We are in investment mode, particularly in IT and some of the areas that are underpinning some of the growth initiatives that we're talking about, so that's how I'd focus.

然後從費用狀況的角度來看，我們表示長期銷售管理費用將隨著銷售額的成長而成長。我們正處於投資模式，特別是在 IT 和一些支撐我們正在談論的成長計劃的領域，所以這就是我關注的重點。

And then the last one I just mentioned is just from an international standpoint. You've seen us, post our international numbers this morning. We've got two years quite frankly, where the business has been on fire. And we're very excited about the growth profile in our international business. So as you think about where we are, we feel good about the growth prospects going forward. We think from a margin standpoint, we've made tremendous strides in gross margin, excluding LIFO, and we've got a consistent and resilient domestic DIY business, which still is the lion's share of our business as we move forward.

我剛才提到的最後一個只是從國際角度來看。您已經看到我們了，今天早上發布我們的國際電話號碼。坦白說，我們已經有兩年的時間了，業務一直很火爆。我們對國際業務的成長狀況感到非常興奮。因此，當您想到我們所處的位置時，我們對未來的成長前景感到樂觀。我們認為，從利潤率的角度來看，我們在毛利率方面取得了巨大進步（不包括後進先出法），並且我們擁有持續且有彈性的國內DIY 業務，隨著我們的發展，這仍然是我們業務的最大份額。

Our next question is coming from Michael Lasser with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Michael Lasser。

This is Henry Carr on behalf of Michael Lasser. We've been hearing about elevated levels of deferred maintenance and weak car counts in the industry. When thinking about returning to a sustainable high single-digit or low double-digit growth in commercial, how are you factoring in this occurrence into the reaffirmed goal? And is there any way to quantify it?

我是亨利·卡爾，代表麥可·拉瑟。我們一直聽說該行業的延期維護水平較高且汽車數量較少。在考慮恢復商業領域可持續的高個位數或低兩位數成長時，您如何將這種情況納入重申的目標？而且有什麼方法可以量化它嗎？

Yes. We don't have terrific data on that. Obviously, we're in our commercial customer shops all the time, and we're hearing the same things. Frankly, we've been hearing it since about February, the car counts are down, particularly for people that are in the tire business. And as you know, when a technician takes off a tire, provides a whole another opportunity for sales, you get a chance to see what's going on with the braking systems and chassis systems and the like.

是的。我們沒有這方面的可靠數據。顯然，我們一直在商業客戶商店中聽到同樣的事情。坦白說，我們從二月左右就聽說汽車數量下降了，特別是對於輪胎行業的人來說。如您所知，當技術人員取下輪胎時，提供了另一個銷售機會，您有機會看到煞車系統和底盤系統等的情況。

So we don't have a great history on what are the exact numbers, but we think it has been a softer environment. I think some of that has to do with the economic challenges that we're seeing. We haven't operated in the commercial business at this level for a long period of time. So we don't know the cycles like we do in the DIY business. But I think our belief is when economic pressures happen, we get trade down from DIY to DIFM -- sorry, from DIFM to DIY in certain categories. And I suspect that's what we're experiencing now. How long will that last? You tell me what the economic cycle is going to look like.

因此，我們沒有關於確切數字的詳細歷史記錄，但我們認為這是一個較為溫和的環境。我認為其中一些與我們所看到的經濟挑戰有關。我們已經很長一段時間沒有從事過這個級別的商業業務了。所以我們不像 DIY 產業那樣了解週期。但我認為我們的信念是，當經濟壓力發生時，我們會從 DIY 轉向 DIFM——抱歉，在某些類別中從 DIFM 轉向 DIY。我懷疑這就是我們現在正在經歷的。這會持續多久？你告訴我經濟週期會是什麼樣子。

And again, we have a lot of discussions about short-term sales performance. Our focus is not on the short-term sales performance. Our focus is on what are we doing in our business to make our business better competitively? And how are we going to grow sales and share profitably over the long term.

再次，我們對短期銷售業績進行了許多討論。我們的重點不是短期銷售業績。我們的重點是我們在業務中做什麼才能使我們的業務更具競爭力？從長遠來看，我們將如何增加銷售並分享利潤。

Thank you. And just as a quick follow-up. I believe that the Mega-Hubs came in at 13 in fourth quarter. And if I'm not mistaken, I might be a little bit short of where you were targeting for 22 to 25 for full year -- fiscal year '23. Are most of these openings just going to roll into 2023? Is there another way we should think about it?

謝謝。就像快速跟進。我相信大型樞紐在第四季的排名為 13。如果我沒記錯的話，我可能會比您設定的全年（23 財年）22 至 25 人的目標稍有差距。這些空缺職位中的大部分都會持續到 2023 年嗎？我們是否應該從其他角度來思考這個問題？

You want me to do Jamere's performance review in public?

你想讓我公開對 Jamere 進行績效評估嗎？

I was just getting ready to say, did he pay you to ask that question. So obviously, store development falls under my purview. We are short of where we need to be. And when Phil and Bill talked about things that we need to execute better on, certainly, what we're doing from a store development standpoint, fits squarely into that category, as I said, last quarter.

我正準備說，他付錢讓你問這個問題嗎？顯然，商店開發屬於我的職權範圍。我們還沒有達到我們需要達到的目標。當菲爾和比爾談論我們需要更好地執行的事情時，當然，從商店開發的角度來看，我們正在做的事情完全符合這個類別，正如我上季度所說的那樣。

We got 20 opened this past fiscal year. We would have liked that number to be closer to 25. But what I'll tell you is that our pipeline is very strong as we move into FY '24. And we're committed to getting to the 200 number, so you'll see us start to accelerate that Mega-Hub target. And it's important for our business. It's important not just for the commercial business, but also for the DIY business because of the outsized growth that we see in our Mega-Hub. So we're working our way through it, and we'll get better as we move forward.

上一財年我們開了 20 家。我們希望這個數字接近 25。但我要告訴您的是，隨著我們進入 24 財年，我們的管道非常強大。我們致力於達到 200 個數字，因此您將看到我們開始加速實現巨型樞紐目標。這對我們的業務很重要。這不僅對商業業務很重要，而且對 DIY 業務也很重要，因為我們看到超級中心的巨大成長。因此，我們正在努力解決這個問題，隨著我們的前進，我們會變得更好。

Our next question is coming from Seth Basham with Wedbush Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wedbush Securities 的 Seth Basham。

My question is also on the commercial business. Just in terms of where you're not gaining as much share as you expected? Is it more the national accounts versus up and down [security accounts]? Are there any sort of regions that are underperforming our expectations?

我的問題也是關於商業業務的。只是就您在哪些方面沒有獲得預期的份額而言？國民帳戶與上下[安全帳戶]相比更重要嗎？是否有某些地區的表現低於我們的預期？

Yes. I mean there's -- the national account versus the -- what we call the UDS account or account for the general repair shop down the street. The business growth between the two has been pretty consistent, frankly, I will say within some of those national accounts, I think it's been more around two segments that have not performed as well for us recently. One is the used car market, kind of the buyer payer growth has not been as good and the used car markets that are sold within new car dealerships, those markets haven't been as good for us.

是的。我的意思是，國民帳戶與我們所說的 UDS 帳戶或街上的普通維修店帳戶相對應。坦白說，兩者之間的業務成長非常一致，我會說，在其中一些國民帳戶中，我認為這更多地圍繞著最近對我們來說表現不佳的兩個細分市場。一是二手車市場，買方付款人的成長沒那麼好，而在新車經銷店內銷售的二手車市場，這些市場對我們來說也沒有那麼好。

And like Bill mentioned earlier, the groups that deal with tires have been softer. We didn't have a great winter those tire changes going from a summer tire to a winter tire and vice versa didn't happen like you would normally expect. And as Bill mentioned, when you pull that tire off and you get to see that the brakes are rusted and the caliper is frozen and the suspension parts aren't working as well as they should be or maybe something's broken, that opportunity to get the wheel off just generates a bigger repair.

正如比爾之前提到的，處理輪胎的團體一直都比較軟弱。我們沒有度過一個美好的冬天，從夏季輪胎到冬季輪胎的輪胎更換並沒有像您通常期望的那樣發生，反之亦然。正如比爾所提到的，當你把輪胎拉下來，你會發現剎車生鏽了，卡鉗被凍結了，懸吊部件沒有正常工作，或者可能有什麼東西壞了，這個機會得到車輪脫落只會產生更大的修復。

Now the other thing is, as people push maintenance off, there becomes more failures in the repair cycle. So longer term, pushing that deferred maintenance off is good for us. But those have been the pressure points over the last couple of months.

現在的另一件事是，隨著人們推遲維護，維修週期中會出現更多故障。因此從長遠來看，推遲推遲維護對我們來說是有好處的。但這些都是過去幾個月的壓力點。

Understand, [so is] being the pressure points, but would you assess those also the areas where you're not getting as much share as you expected?

理解，壓力點也是如此，但是您是否也會評估那些您沒有獲得預期份額的領域？

Yes. I don't know that we're not gaining share in those categories. I think over the last couple of years, we know we've grown significant share in some of those categories. I believe everybody would be down pretty commensurately and some of those categories aren't going to return to a more normal cycle until you go through another winter cycle of snow. So I think they'll be depressed. We'll see those categories be under a little bit of pressure until we get to another normal winter cycle.

是的。我不知道我們在這些類別中是否沒有獲得份額。我認為在過去的幾年裡，我們知道我們在其中一些類別中的份額已經增長了很大。我相信每個人都會相應地下降，並且在經歷另一個冬季降雪週期之前，其中一些類別不會恢復到更正常的周期。所以我認為他們會感到沮喪。在我們進入另一個正常的冬季週期之前，我們會看到這些類別面臨一些壓力。

Seth, I'll add if I may, I do think like we said earlier, we have -- we grew share exponentially over a couple of years. And part of that was because our in-stock position was massively better certainly than our WD competitors. I think we've ceded some of that share back to them as they've gotten back in stock.

塞斯，如果可以的話，我會補充一點，我確實認為就像我們之前所說的那樣，我們的份額在幾年內呈指數級增長。部分原因是我們的庫存狀況比我們的 WD 競爭對手好得多。我認為我們已經將部分份額返還給他們，因為他們已經恢復了庫存。

Yes, that's exactly my follow-up is going to be, Bill. Just thinking about that in-stock position when we start to cycle that improvement by your competitors. Is that hearing to the fiscal first quarter? Or is it going to take another couple of quarters?

是的，這正是我的後續行動，比爾。當我們開始循環您的競爭對手的改進時，只需考慮一下庫存狀況即可。這是第一財季的聽證會嗎？還是還需要幾個季度？

I think we're beginning to cycle it now. But as you said, it's going to take some time. Not every category was the same, not every competitor was the same. So it'll -- we'll probably be dealing with it for 6 more months, but we probably past the height of it.

我認為我們現在開始循環它。但正如你所說，這需要一些時間。並非每個類別都是相同的，並非每個競爭對手都是相同的。所以，我們可能還要再處理 6 個月的時間，但我們可能已經過了它的高峰期。

Our final question today will be coming from Scot Ciccarelli with Truist.

今天我們的最後一個問題將由 Scot Ciccarelli 和 Truist 提出。

So I guess I'm still confused, outside of weather, what have the main execution challenge has been on the commercial segment part one, and then part two kind of related to that is, what specific changes are you making to the business to help accelerate growth as we kind of roll here into -- further into '24?

所以我想我仍然很困惑，除了天氣之外，主要的執行挑戰是在商業部門的第一部分，然後是與之相關的第二部分，即你對業務做出了哪些具體的改變來幫助當我們進入－進一步進入「24」時，加速成長？

Yes. Thanks, Scot. I think the answer is there's not one single thing, I think we tried to make that clear. As we've said for the last two quarters, we were operating differently during the pandemic. Everybody had to operate differently because we were having to make decisions on the fly every day.

是的。謝謝，斯科特。我認為答案是沒有一件事，我想我們試著澄清這一點。正如我們在過去兩個季度所說的那樣，我們在大流行期間的運作方式有所不同。每個人都必須以不同的方式運作，因為我們每天都必須即時做出決定。

As we've come out of the pandemic, we lost a few of our disciplines. These are things like writing the right schedule. We've experienced exceptionally high turnover, we don't have the same level of experience in our stores that we have then. And we just got to get back to making sure that we're dotting the I's and crossing the T's and we're delivering parts on time that we've got the right in-stock levels and on and on and on.

隨著我們走出大流行，我們失去了一些紀律。這些就像編寫正確的時間表一樣。我們經歷了異常高的營業額，我們的商店沒有當時那樣的經驗水準。我們只需回頭確保我們做到了，我們按時交付零件，我們有正確的庫存水平，等等。

There is not one major thing, these are 1,000 paper cuts. Those -- that has been the hallmark of this organization. I put our execution up against anybody. And we weren't as sharp as we needed to be, and we're making those improvements today.

沒有什麼大事，就是1000張剪紙。這些——這一直是這個組織的標誌。我把我們的處決與任何人對抗。我們並沒有像我們需要的那樣敏銳，但我們今天正在做出這些改進。

And then specific changes you're making? Is it just better blocking and tackling for lack of a better term, both?

那麼您正在做出哪些具體改變呢？由於缺乏更好的術語，這只是更好的阻擋和搶斷嗎？

I think that, that is the biggest change that we're making, but that's not the sole thing that we're doing. Phil mentioned that we've got a lot of technology that we've deployed in the commercial business. Over the last 6 months, we've really refined that technology, and we're excited about what it means. We have 2 or 3 major technological enhancements that are coming in the first quarter or two this year, specifically in the commercial business, that are all focused on how do we execute better, how do we decreased delivery time, how do we make sure that we're delivering the right parts at the right time, and we're excited about that.

我認為，這是我們正在做出的最大改變，但這並不是我們正在做的唯一事情。菲爾提到我們已經在商業業務中部署了許多技術。在過去的 6 個月裡，我們確實改進了這項技術，我們對它的意義感到興奮。今年第一季或第二季度，我們將進行兩到三項重大技術改進，特別是在商業業務方面，這些技術改進都集中在如何更好地執行、如何減少交付時間、如何確保我們在正確的時間交付正確的零件，對此我們感到很興奮。

Thank you.

謝謝。

All right. Thank you. All right. Before we conclude the call, I want to take a moment to reiterate, we believe our industry is in a strong position, and our business model is solid. We're excited about our growth prospects for the year, but we will take nothing for granted as we understand our customers have alternatives.

好的。謝謝。好的。在結束電話會議之前，我想花點時間重申一下，我們相信我們的產業處於強勢地位，我們的商業模式也很穩固。我們對今年的成長前景感到興奮，但我們不會認為任何事情都是理所當然的，因為我們知道我們的客戶有其他選擇。

We have exciting plans that should help us succeed for the future, but I want to stress that this is a marathon and not a sprint. As we continue to focus on the basics and strive to optimize shareholder value for the future, we are confident AutoZone will continue to be very successful.

我們有令人興奮的計劃，應該有助於我們在未來取得成功，但我想強調，這是一場馬拉松，而不是短跑。隨著我們繼續專注於基礎並努力優化未來的股東價值，我們相信 AutoZone 將繼續取得巨大成功。

Thank you for participating in today's call. Have a great day.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，我們感謝您的參與。