汽車地帶 (AZO) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to AutoZone's 2024 First Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Before we begin, the company would like to announce the following forward-looking statement.

大家好，歡迎參加 AutoZone 2024 年第一季財報發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）在我們開始之前，本公司謹宣布以下前瞻性聲明。

Certain statements contained herein constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements typically use words such as believe, anticipate, should, intend, plan, will, expect, estimate, project, position, strategy, seek, may, could and similar expressions. These are based on assumptions and assessments made by our management in light of experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors that we believe to be appropriate.

本文所包含的某些陳述構成前瞻性陳述，受 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》安全港條款的約束。前瞻性陳述通常使用諸如相信、預期、應該、打算、計劃、將、期望等詞語。估計、專案、立場、策略、尋求、可能、可以和類似的表達方式。這些是基於我們的管理層根據經驗和對歷史趨勢、當前狀況、預期未來發展以及我們認為適當的其他因素的看法而做出的假設和評估。

These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation: product demand due to changes in fuel prices, miles driven or otherwise; energy prices; weather, including extreme temperatures, natural disasters and general weather conditions; competition; credit market conditions; cash flows; access to available and feasible financing on favorable terms; future stock repurchases; the impact of recessionary conditions; consumer debt levels; changes in laws or regulations; risks associated with self-insurance; war and the prospect of war, including terrorist activity; the impact of public health issues; inflation, including wage inflation; the ability to hire, train and retain qualified employees, including members of management and other key personnel; construction delays; failure or interruption of our information services technology systems; issues relating to the confidentiality, integrity or availability of information, including due to cyberattacks; historic growth rate sustainability; downgrade of our credit ratings; damage to our reputation; challenges associated with doing business in and expanding into international markets; origin and raw material costs of suppliers; inventory availability; disruption in our supply chain; impact of tariffs; impact of new accounting standards; our ability to execute our growth initiatives; and other business interruptions.

這些前瞻性陳述受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，包括但不限於：由於燃油價格、行駛里程或其他因素的變化而導致的產品需求；能源價格；天氣，包括極端溫度、自然災害和一般天氣狀況；競賽;信貸市場狀況；現金流;以優惠條件獲得可用且可行的融資；未來的股票回購；經濟衰退的影響；消費者債務水平；法律或法規的變更；與自我保險相關的風險；戰爭和戰爭前景，包括恐怖活動；公共衛生問題的影響；通貨膨脹，包括薪資上漲；僱用、培訓和留住合格員工（包括管理層成員和其他關鍵人員）的能力；施工延誤；我們的資訊服務技術系統故障或中斷；與資訊的機密性、完整性或可用性相關的問題，包括因網路攻擊而導致的問題；歷史增長率的可持續性；下調我們的信用評級；損害我們的聲譽；與在國際市場開展業務和拓展國際市場相關的挑戰；供應商的原產地和原料成本；庫存可用性；我們的供應鏈中斷；關稅的影響；新會計準則的影響；我們執行成長計劃的能力；以及其他業務中斷。

Certain of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in more detail in the Risk Factors section contained in Item 1A under Part 1 of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 26, 2023. These risk factors should be read carefully. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results, developments and business is may differ from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Events described above and in the risk factors could materially adversely affect our business. However, it should be understood that it is not possible to identify or predict all such risks and other factors that could affect these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only towards the date made. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

其中某些風險和不確定性在我們截至 2023 年 8 月 26 日的年度報告 10-K 表第 1 部分第 1A 項中包含的風險因素部分進行了更詳細的討論。應仔細閱讀這些風險因素。前瞻性陳述並非對未來績效和實際結果、發展和業務的保證，可能與此類前瞻性陳述所設想的有所不同。上述事件和風險因素可能會對我們的業務產生重大不利影響。然而，應該理解的是，不可能識別或預測所有此類風險以及可能影響這些前瞻性陳述的其他因素。前瞻性陳述僅針對做出日期。除適用法律要求外，我們沒有義務公開更新任何前瞻性陳述，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因。

Thank you. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Bill Rhodes, Chairman and CEO of AutoZone. Sir, the floor is yours.

謝謝。現在我很高興將發言權交給主持人、AutoZone 董事長兼執行長 Bill Rhodes。先生，地板是你的了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for AutoZone's 2024 First Quarter Conference Call. With me today are Phil Daniele, CEO-elect; Jamere Jackson, Chief Financial Officer; and Brian Campbell, Vice President, Treasurer, Investor Relations and Tax.

早安，感謝您今天參加 AutoZone 2024 年第一季電話會議。今天和我在一起的是當選執行長菲爾·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。

Regarding the first quarter, I hope you had an opportunity to read our press release and learn 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.

關於第一季度，我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 this morning, we want to thank our AutoZoners for their contributions during the quarter that resulted in our solid performance. As our pledge states, we lead with putting customers first, which allowed us to grow our total sales by 5.1%, while both our operating profit and earnings per share grew by very impressive high teens rates.

在今天早上開始時，我們要感謝 AutoZoners 在本季度所做的貢獻，使我們取得了穩健的表現。正如我們的承諾所述，我們以客戶至上為主導，這使我們的總銷售額增長了 5.1%，而我們的營業利潤和每股收益均以令人印象深刻的高青少年增長率增長。

As we have previously said, we have been able to continually build on the phenomenal performance from the pandemic years of 2020 to 2023. Our leadership team and I continue to be impressed with our post-pandemic sales performance. To put this in perspective, our FY 2019 sales were $11.6 billion. And now, our trailing 4 quarter sales are [$17.7 billion], a 50%-plus increase over a 4-year time horizon. Congratulations to AutoZoners everywhere, who made that enormous success possible.

正如我們之前所說，從 2020 年到 2023 年的大流行期間，我們能夠不斷取得驚人的業績。我們的領導團隊和我對我們在大流行後的銷售業績仍然印象深刻。從這個角度來看，我們 2019 財年的銷售額為 116 億美元。現在，我們過去 4 個季度的銷售額為 [177 億美元]，比 4 年時間跨度增長了 50% 以上。恭喜世界各地的 AutoZoners，是他們讓這一巨大成功成為可能。

For the first quarter, our total sales -- our total company same-store sales were 3.4% and 2.1% on a constant currency basis. As international has become a more important part of our growth story and an area where we are increasingly deploying capital, last quarter, we began disclosing our global sales comp. We encourage you to focus on the constant currency number where international, again, had a strong quarter, up 10.9%.

第一季度，我們的總銷售額（以固定匯率計算）公司同店總銷售額分別為 3.4% 和 2.1%。隨著國際化已成為我們成長故事中更重要的一部分，也是我們越來越多部署資本的領域，上個季度，我們開始揭露我們的全球銷售情況。我們鼓勵您專注於固定貨幣數字，其中國際貨幣再次表現強勁，成長了 10.9%。

Both our Mexican and Brazilian same-store sales had double-digit growth. We are very excited about the short- and long-term growth prospects of international. Our expectations are we will continue to grow both mature store volumes, both in DIY and DIFM, and we plan to accelerate new store openings over the next several years, ultimately getting to a minimum of 200 international new stores by 2028.

我們的墨西哥和巴西同店銷售額均達到兩位數成長。我們對國際市場的短期和長期成長前景感到非常興奮。我們的期望是，我們將繼續增加 DIY 和 DIFM 成熟商店的數量，並且我們計劃在未來幾年加速新店開業，最終到 2028 年至少開設 200 家國際新店。

Next, our domestic same-store sales were up 1.2% this quarter, compared to 1.7% last quarter and 5.6% in Q1 of last year. Our performance in retail was slightly below our expectations, but still, still resilient in the current environment. Breaking our sales into 3, 4-week segment, our DIY same-store sales were roughly 1% for both the first and last 4-week segments, but were negative 2% in the middle 4 weeks or October.

其次，本季我們的國內同店銷售額成長了 1.2%，而上季為 1.7%，去年第一季為 5.6%。我們的零售業績略低於我們的預期，但在當前環境下仍然具有彈性。將我們的銷售額分為 3 週、4 週部分，我們的 DIY 同店銷售額在前 4 週和最後 4 週部分均約為 1%，但在中間 4 週或 10 月份為負 2%。

Commercial sales, on the other hand, accelerated for the quarter, but we started stronger than we finished. As you know, some of the comparisons over the last few years were distorted. And on a 3-year basis, the performance of each of the businesses this quarter was remarkably similar. Our commercial business grew 5.7% against exceptionally strong comps last year. Importantly, we continue to be encouraged by the new initiatives we have in place to accelerate top line growth in commercial, and those efforts are having a positive impact on our performance.

另一方面，本季商業銷售加速，但開局強於結束。如您所知，過去幾年的一些比較是扭曲的。以三年為基礎，本季每項業務的業績都非常相似。去年，我們的商業業務成長了 5.7%，對比異常強勁的業績。重要的是，我們為加速商業營收成長而採取的新舉措繼續受到鼓舞，這些努力對我們的業績產生了積極影響。

And as we further analyzed our DIY and DIFM results and specifically, our second period sales slowdown, our retail business was clearly impacted on a regional basis as we saw a 70 basis point performance gap between the Northeast and Midwestern markets versus the rest of the country. We continue to attribute this gap in performance to the lack of winter weather last year, and lack of snowfall. But enough about "what happened to us."

當我們進一步分析 DIY 和 DIFM 結果，特別是第二期銷售放緩時，我們的零售業務明顯受到區域影響，因為我們發現東北和中西部市場與全國其他地區之間存在 70 個基點的績效差距。我們仍然將這種表現差距歸因於去年冬季天氣的缺乏和降雪的缺乏。關於「我們發生的事情」就夠了。

While not satisfied with our sales performance, we are encouraged as we enjoyed both dollar and unit share gains in our domestic and retail businesses -- domestic retail and commercial businesses. We previously highlighted that we were not executing at peak levels, and we are encouraged to share that we are seeing steady progress. Our in-stock levels are nearing pre-pandemic levels.

雖然我們對我們的銷售業績不滿意，但我們感到鼓舞，因為我們在國內和零售業務（國內零售和商業業務）中獲得了美元和單位份額的成長。我們之前強調過，我們的執行並未達到最高水平，我們很高興分享我們正在看到的穩定進展。我們的庫存水準接近大流行前的水準。

Turnover, while still elevated, is beginning to decline. Productivity levels in our distribution centers have improved. The technology we deployed to improve service levels to commercial customers is seeing much higher adoption rates, leading to decreased delivery times, And we have opened a significant number of new commercial programs, reaching 92% domestic penetration for the first time in our history. Even more encouraging is the continued strength in sales we are seeing from those new program openings as many are only weeks old.

營業額雖然仍較高，但已開始下降。我們配送中心的生產力水準有所提高。我們為提高商業客戶服務水準而部署的技術的採用率大大提高，從而縮短了交付時間。我們還開設了大量新的商業項目，歷史上首次達到 92% 的國內滲透率。更令人鼓舞的是，我們從這些新項目中看到的銷售持續強勁，因為許多新項目剛開業幾週。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Phil Daniele to give more in-depth quarter on the color -- on the quarter. Phil?

現在我想把電話轉給 Phil Daniele，讓他對顏色進行更深入的討論。菲爾？

Thank you, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Our domestic same-store sales were 1.2% this quarter on top of last year's 5.6% growth. While we were up against exceptionally strong same-store sales from a year ago, particularly in commercial, we believe we are making progress with more room for improvement. I want to reiterate what Bill said a moment ago that we've made many changes across the organization from reinstituting many of our long-term processes to placing share of voice in vitally important areas, ensuring we are hiring the right AutoZoners and execution is improving meaningfully.

謝謝你，比爾，大家早安。本季我們的國內同店銷售額在去年 5.6% 的基礎上成長了 1.2%。雖然我們面臨著一年前異常強勁的同店銷售，特別是在商業領域，但我們相信我們正在取得進步，還有更大的改進空間。我想重申比爾剛才所說的話，我們已經在整個組織範圍內做出了許多改變，從重新制定許多長期流程到在至關重要的領域分配發言權，確保我們僱用合適的 AutoZoners 並提高執行力有意義地。

Our domestic commercial business grew 5.7%. We still have work to do, but we were pleased with the improvements we saw in this business. As the business began improving, we believe we grew share and set another record for the quarter with $1.1 billion in commercial sales. Domestic commercial sales represented 30% of our domestic auto part sales for quarter 1.

我們的國內商業業務成長了 5.7%。我們還有工作要做，但我們對在這項業務中看到的改進感到滿意。隨著業務開始改善，我們相信我們的市場份額有所增長，並以 11 億美元的商業銷售額創下了本季度的另一個記錄。第一季國內商業銷售額占我們國內汽車零件銷售額的 30%。

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 inventory availability, material improvements in Hub and Mega-Hub coverage, adding new Hubs and Mega-Hubs, the strength of the Duralast brand with an intense focus on high-quality products and technological enhancements that make us easier to do business with. We are also operating more efficiently with improvements in delivery times and enhanced sales force effectiveness.

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。改善衛星商店庫存可用性、中心和大型中心覆蓋範圍的材料改進、增加新的中心和大型中心、Duralast 品牌的優勢，重點關注高品質產品和技術改進，使我們更容易與之開展業務。透過縮短交貨時間和提高銷售人員效率，我們的營運效率也更高。

In Q1, we opened 121 net new commercial programs, opening the majority of them in the back half of the quarter. 69 of those 121 programs opened in week 7 through 12 of the quarter. While programs that opened late in the quarter have minimal sales impact on the quarter, they do position us for sales growth for the remainder of FY '24 and beyond.

第一季度，我們淨開設了 121 個新商業項目，其中大部分是在本季後半段開設的。這 121 個項目中有 69 個是在本季第 7 週至第 12 週開放的。雖然本季末啟動的計劃對該季度的銷售影響很小，但它們確實為我們在 24 財年剩餘時間及以後的銷售成長做好了準備。

As Bill previously shared, I want to reiterate, we now have commercial in approximately 92% of our domestic stores. When I was SVP of Commercial, we didn't have line of sight to reaching that level of penetration. It really is a great sign of the progress that we've made over the last 5 years or so. We believe our commercial business will get stronger and growth rates should improve as we move through the year as comps get easier and our execution will continue to improve.

正如比爾之前分享的那樣，我想重申一下，我們現在大約 92% 的國內商店都有廣告。當我擔任商業高級副總裁時，我們沒有能力達到這種滲透程度。這確實是我們在過去 5 年左右所取得的進步的一個重要標誌。我們相信，隨著這一年的發展，我們的商業業務將變得更加強勁，成長率也將提高，因為競爭變得更加容易，我們的執行力將繼續提高。

Regarding domestic DIY, we had flat comps this quarter on top of last year's comp of 2.6%. While the data we have available to us indicates we continue to gain share in both dollars and units, our comp is below our expectations, but in line with what we are seeing across the industry.

關於國內 DIY，我們本季的比較與去年 2.6% 的比較持平。雖然我們掌握的數據表明我們在美元和單位方面的份額繼續增加，但我們的比較低於我們的預期，但與我們在整個行業中看到的情況一致。

Regarding weather, it was quite mild this quarter. It is this time of year when our sales will fade as the summer sales slow down into winter. This year, October was warmer than last year, and sales in weather-sensitive hard part categories in the Midwest and the Northeast underperformed the remainder of the country. While our retail comp was quite flat for the quarter, we saw the first 4 weeks comp up 1%, the second 4 weeks comp down 2% and the last 4 weeks comp up 0.7%.

天氣方面，本季天氣相當溫和。每年的這個時候，隨著夏季銷售放緩至冬季，我們的銷售量將會減弱。今年十月比去年溫暖，中西部和東北部對天氣敏感的硬質零件類別的銷售表現落後於全國其他地區。雖然我們本季的零售比較相當平穩，但我們看到前 4 週的比較成長了 1%，第二個 4 週的比較下降了 2%，最後 4 週的比較成長了 0.7%。

While our performance clearly improved over the last 4 weeks of the quarter, we fell short of our own expectations for retail for the full quarter. As a reminder, historically, extreme weather, either hot or cold, drives part failures and accelerated maintenance.

雖然我們的業績在本季最後 4 週明顯改善，但我們對整個季度零售業的預期並未達到預期。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 this quarter's traffic versus ticket growth, in retail, our traffic was down 1.6%, while our ticket was up similarly. We expect our ticket growth will return to more normalized levels in the 3% to 4% range as we get further removed from the large increases from last year due to significant inflation, particularly due to freight costs.

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 1.6%，而門票則類似地上漲。我們預計我們的機票成長將恢復到 3% 至 4% 範圍內的更正常水平，因為我們將進一步擺脫去年因通貨膨脹（特別是貨運成本）而導致的大幅成長。

Regarding our commercial trends, we continue to see higher growth rates for ticket -- for traffic relative to ticket. During the quarter, there were some geographic regions that did better than others as there always are. This quarter, we saw a 230 basis point worse performance between the Northeast and the Midwest compared to the balance of the country. As the Northeast and the Midwest experienced a very mild winter last year, with below-average snowfall, we sold less weather-sensitive hard parts in this part of the country.

關於我們的商業趨勢，我們繼續看到門票的成長率更高——相對於門票的流量。在本季度，一些地理區域的表現一如既往地好於其他地區。本季度，我們發現東北部和中西部地區的表現比全國其他地區差了 230 個基點。由於東北部和中西部地區去年經歷了一個非常溫和的冬季，降雪量低於平均水平，我們在該地區銷售了對天氣敏感的硬質零件。

Heading into the second quarter, we are planning for a more normal weather pattern. But as a reminder, that Q2 is always our most volatile quarter as weather fluctuations can be extreme, meaningfully impacting our short-term sales performance either positively or negatively.

進入第二季度，我們正在計劃迎接更正常的天氣模式。但提醒一下，第二季度始終是我們最不穩定的季度，因為天氣波動可能非常劇烈，對我們的短期銷售業績產生正面或負面的影響。

Regarding our merchandise categories in the retail business, our sales floor categories underperformed hard parts as we saw more discretionary pullback from customers. We do feel the low-end consumer started pulling back on discretionary purchases.

就我們零售業務中的商品類別而言，我們的銷售樓層類別表現不佳，因為我們看到客戶有更多的隨意撤退。我們確實感覺到低端消費者開始減少隨意購買。

Let me also address inflation and pricing. This quarter, we saw low single-digit inflation. And as a result, our ticket was up roughly 1.5%. We believe inflation for the second quarter will be similar as the industry is migrating back to pre-pandemic inflation levels, lapping very high inflation from a year ago.

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，我們的票價上漲了大約 1.5%。我們認為，第二季的通膨率將與去年相似，因為該行業正在恢復到疫情前的通膨水平，超過一年前的非常高的通膨率。

I want to reiterate that our industry has been very disciplined about pricing for decades, and we expect that to continue. 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 has historically not reduced pricing to reflect lower cost, and we believe we have entered into one of those periods.

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。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。

For the second quarter, we expect our DIY sales to remain more difficult and our commercial sales 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.

對於第二季度，我們預計 DIY 銷售仍將更加困難，而商業銷售趨勢將有所改善。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 other key business priorities for the new fiscal year. First, we continue to focus on our supply chain with 2 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 distribution network. Along with having 2 domestic distribution centers currently under construction, our strategy is focused on leveraging the entire network to carry more inventory closer to the customer to drive growth with speed and expanded availability and efficiency.

在打電話給 Jamere 之前，我想強調並說明我們新財年的其他一些關鍵業務優先事項。首先，我們繼續關注我們的供應鏈，正在實施兩項措施以提高可用性。一是我們擴展的中心和巨型中心的推出。其次，我們在分銷網絡轉型方面取得了良好進展。除了目前正在建造的 2 個國內配送中心外，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，以推動快速成長並擴大可用性和效率。

Additionally, we plan to continue to grow internationally. At 849 stores opened internationally or 12% of our total store base, these businesses had impressive performance last quarter and should continue to grow at a robust pace for the remainder of fiscal 2024. We are leveraging many of the learnings we have in the U.S. to refine our offerings in Mexico and Brazil.

此外，我們計劃繼續在國際上發展。這些業務在國際上開設了849 家商店，占我們商店總數的12%，上個季度的業績令人印象深刻，並且應該會在2024 財年剩餘時間內繼續以強勁的速度增長。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。

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 first quarter stacked on top of an impressive first quarter last year with 5.1% total company sales growth, 1.2% domestic comp growth, 10.9% international comp on a constant currency basis, a 17.4% increase in EBIT and an 18.6% increase in EPS. We continue to deliver solid results and the efforts of our AutoZoners in our stores and distribution centers have continued to enable us to drive earnings growth 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，我們在去年第一季令人印象深刻的基礎上實現了穩健的第一季度，公司總銷售額增長5.1%，國內公司增長1.2%，國際公司按固定匯率計算成長10.9%，息稅前利潤 (EBIT) 成長 17.4%，每股盈餘 (EPS) 成長 18.6%。我們繼續取得紮實的成果，我們的商店和配送中心的 AutoZoners 的努力繼續使我們能夠以有意義的方式推動收入成長。

To start this morning, let me make a take a few moments to elaborate on the specifics in our P&L for Q1. For the quarter, total sales were $4.2 billion, up 5.1%. And let me give a little more color on sales and our growth initiatives. Starting with our domestic commercial business. Our domestic DIFM sales increased 5.7% to $1.1 billion and were up 20.6% 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 $15,900, down 0.6%.

從今天早上開始，讓我花一些時間來詳細說明第一季損益表的具體細節。該季度總銷售額為 42 億美元，成長 5.1%。讓我對銷售和我們的成長計劃進行更多介紹。從我們國內的商業業務開始。我們的國內 DIFM 銷售額成長 5.7%，達到 11 億美元，以 2 年累積成長 20.6%。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為 15,900 美元，下降 0.6%。

It's important to point out that our sales per program productivity was again impacted by a large number of immature programs that have opened over the last 5 quarters. While these openings depressed the point-in-time productivity metric, we're encouraged by the gross prospects of these programs and their early contribution to our commercial business. We have intentionally opened more storage with commercial programs in response to the tremendous opportunity we see to grow our market share.

需要指出的是，我們的每個專案的銷售生產力再次受到過去 5 個季度開放的大量不成熟專案的影響。雖然這些職缺降低了時間點生產力指標，但這些計劃的整體前景及其對我們商業業務的早期貢獻令我們感到鼓舞。我們有意透過商業計劃開放更多存儲，以應對我們看到的擴大市場份額的巨大機會。

We now have our commercial program in approximately 92% 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 121 net new programs finishing with 5,803 total programs. Our commercial acceleration initiatives continue to make progress as we grow share by winning new business and increasing our share of wallet with existing customers.

現在，我們大約 92% 的國內商店都有我們的商業計劃，該計劃利用了我們的 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 121 個新項目，總計 5,803 個項目。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繼續取得進展。

Importantly, we continue to have a lot of runway in front of us, and we will continue to aggressively pursue growth opportunities in commercial, which we believe is our single largest growth opportunity. To support our commercial growth, we now have 100 Mega-Hub locations with 2 new Mega-Hubs opened in Q1. The 100 Mega-Hubs averaged significantly higher sales than the balance of the commercial programs and grew more than 2x the rate of our overall commercial business in Q1.

重要的是，我們面前仍然有很多跑道，我們將繼續積極尋求商業成長機會，我們認為這是我們最大的成長機會。為了支持我們的商業成長，我們現在擁有 100 個超級中心，其中 2 個新的超級中心於第一季開幕。 100 個大型中心的平均銷售額明顯高於其餘商業項目，第一季的成長率是我們整體商業業務的 2 倍以上。

As a reminder, our Mega-Hubs typically carry roughly 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 parks and lifting the entire network.

需要提醒的是，我們的大型中心通常包含約 100,000 個 SKU，可大幅提升商店內的銷售量，並為其他商店提供擴展的分類來源。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。這些資產各自表現良好，周圍 AutoZone 商店的履行能力使我們的客戶能夠訪問數千個額外的公園並提升整個網路。

We will continue to aggressively open Mega-Hubs for the foreseeable future, and we expect to have north of 200 Mega-Hubs at full build-out. And these are difficult to find boxes in the right locations, but we are keenly focused on rapid expansion and have 45 currently in the pipeline and growing.

在可預見的未來，我們將繼續積極開放巨型樞紐，預計全面擴建後將擁有超過 200 個巨型樞紐。這些盒子很難在合適的位置找到，但我們非常注重快速擴張，目前有 45 個盒子正在籌備中，而且還在增加。

On the domestic retail side of our business, our comp was essentially flat for the quarter. As mentioned, we saw traffic down 1.6%, offset by 1.5% ticket growth. As we move forward, we would expect to see slightly declining transaction 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，本季我們的業績基本上持平。如前所述，我們看到客流量下降了 1.6%，但被門票增加 1.5% 所抵消。隨著我們的前進，我們預計交易數量將略有下降，但被低至中個位數的門票增長所抵消，這與業務的長期歷史趨勢一致，受到技術變革和新產品耐久性的推動。部分。

While DIY discretionary purchases were challenged in Q1, we continue to see a growing and aging car park, a challenging new and used car sales market and a consumer that is likely to continue to invest in their existing vehicles. As such, we believe our DIY business will remain resilient for the balance of FY '24.

雖然 DIY 隨意購買在第一季受到挑戰，但我們仍然看到停車場不斷增長和老化，新車和二手車銷售市場充滿挑戰，消費者可能會繼續投資現有車輛。因此，我們相信我們的 DIY 業務將在 24 財年餘下時間保持彈性。

Now I'll say a few words regarding our international business. We continue to be pleased with the progress we're making internationally. Our same-store sales grew 25.1% on an actual basis and 10.9% on a constant currency basis. During the quarter, we opened 5 stores in Mexico to finish with 745 stores and 4 stores in Brazil, ending with 104 We remain committed to international and given our success, we're bullish on international being an attractive and meaningful contributor to AutoZone's future growth.

現在我就我們的國際業務說幾句話。我們仍然對我們在國際上的進展感到滿意。我們的同店銷售額實際成長 25.1%，以固定匯率計算成長 10.9%。本季度，我們在墨西哥開設了5 家商店，最終開設了745 家商店，在巴西開設了4 家商店，最終達到104 家。我們仍然致力於國際化，鑑於我們的成功，我們看好國際化對AutoZone未來成長具有吸引力和有意義的貢獻者。

Now let me spend a few minutes on the rest of the P&L and gross margins. For the quarter, our gross margin was 52.8%, up 279 basis points driven primarily by a noncash $81 million LIFO charge in last year's quarter versus a $2 million LIFO credit this year. Excluding LIFO from both years, we had a very strong 70 basis point improvement in gross margin, which increased from last quarter's 37 basis point improvement. We've had exceptional gross margin improvement. And in fact, we're at the highest gross margin rate we've had since FY 2021.

現在讓我花幾分鐘時間討論其餘的損益表和毛利率。本季度，我們的毛利率為 52.8%，成長了 279 個基點，這主要是由於去年季度 8,100 萬美元的非現金 LIFO 費用，而今年的 LIFO 信貸為 200 萬美元。排除這兩年的後進先出法，我們的毛利率大幅提高了 70 個基點，而上季的毛利率提高了 37 個基點。我們的毛利率得到了顯著改善。事實上，我們正​​處於 2021 財年以來的最高毛利率。

I will point out that we now have $57 million in cumulative LIFO charges yet to be reversed through our P&L, and we expect this credit balance to reverse over time. We're currently modeling $5 million in LIFO credits for Q2 based on the deflation experienced in Q1. And as I said previously, once we credit back the $57 million through the P&L, we will not take any more credits, and we will begin to rebuild an unrecorded LIFO reserve.

我要指出的是，我們現在有 5700 萬美元的累積後進先出費用尚未通過我們的損益表沖銷，我們預計這一貸方餘額會隨著時間的推移而沖銷。目前，我們根據第一季經歷的通貨緊縮情況，對第二季 500 萬美元的 LIFO 信貸進行建模。正如我之前所說，一旦我們透過損益表貸回了 5700 萬美元，我們將不再接受任何貸方，並且我們將開始重建未記錄的 LIFO 儲備。

Moving to operating expenses. Our expenses were up 7.4% versus last year's Q1 as SG&A as a percentage of sales deleveraged 68 basis points. The increase in SG&A has been purposeful as we continue to invest in store payroll and IT to underpin our growth initiatives. These investments are paying dividends and customer experience, speed and productivity. We're 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 68 個基點，我們的費用比去年第一季增加了 7.4%。 SG&A 的增加是有目的的，因為我們繼續投資商店薪資和 IT 以支持我們的成長計劃。這些投資正在帶來紅利、客戶體驗、速度和生產力。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，並且隨著時間的推移，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 $849 million, up 17.4% versus the prior year, driven by our positive same-store sales growth and gross margin improvements, including the LIFO year-over-year favorable comparison.

轉向損益表的其餘部分。本季息稅前利潤為 8.49 億美元，比上年增長 17.4%，這得益於我們的同店銷售增長和毛利率改善（包括後進先出法同比有利比較）。

Interest expense for the quarter was $91.4 million, up 58% from Q1 a year ago as our debt outstanding at the end of the quarter was $8.6 billion versus $6.3 billion at Q1 end last year. We're planning interest expense in the $98 million range for the second quarter of FY '24 versus $65.6 million last year. Higher debt levels and borrowing rates across the curve are driving this increase.

本季利息支出為 9,140 萬美元，比去年第一季成長 58%，因為本季末我們的未償債務為 86 億美元，而去年第一季末為 63 億美元。我們計劃 24 財年第二季的利息支出為 9,800 萬美元，而去年為 6,560 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 21.6% and up from last year's first quarter of 18.9%. This quarter's rate benefited 147 basis points from stock options exercised, while last year, it benefited 446 basis points. For the second 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 21.6%，高於去年第一季的 18.9%。本季利率因股票選擇權行使而受益 147 個基點，而去年則受益 446 個基點。對於 24 財年第二季度，我們建議投資者在對因股票選擇權行使而產生的信貸做出任何假設之前，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 $593 million, up 10% versus last year. Our diluted share count of 18.2 million was 7.2% lower than last year's first quarter. The combination of higher net income and lower share count drove earnings per share for the quarter to $32.55, up 18.6% for the quarter.

轉向淨利和每股收益。該季度淨利潤為 5.93 億美元，比去年同期成長 10%。我們的稀釋後股票數量為 1,820 萬股，比去年第一季減少了 7.2%。較高的淨利潤和較少的股票數量相結合，推動本季每股收益達到 32.55 美元，成長 18.6%。

Now let me talk about our free cash flow for Q1. For the first quarter, we generated $600 million in free cash flow. We expect to continue being in 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一季的自由現金流。第一季度，我們產生了 6 億美元的自由現金流。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 ratio finished Q1 at 2.5x EBITDAR, returning to our long-term target. Our inventory per store was up 0.3% versus last year, while total inventory increased 3%, driven by new store growth. Net inventory, defined as merchandise inventory less accounts payable on a per store basis, was a negative $197,000 versus negative $249,000 last year and negative $201,000 last quarter. As a result, accounts payable as a percent of inventory finished the quarter at 124.4% versus last year's 131%.

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，第一季末我們的槓桿率為 2.5 倍 EBITDAR，回到了我們的長期目標。在新店成長的推動下，我們每家商店的庫存比去年增加了 0.3%，而總庫存增加了 3%。淨庫存（定義為每家商店的商品庫存減去應付帳款）為負 197,000 美元，而去年為負 249,000 美元，上季度為負 201,000 美元。因此，本季末應付帳款佔庫存的百分比為 124.4%，而去年為 131%。

Lastly, I'll spend a moment on capital allocation and our share repurchase program. We repurchased $1.5 billion of AutoZone stock in the quarter and at quarter end, we had just over $300 million 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 3% of the shares outstanding in the quarter. 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 of 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 15 億美元的 AutoZone 股票，到季末，我們的股票回購授權還剩 3 億多美元。我們今年產生的強勁獲利、資產負債表和強大的自由現金使我們能夠回購本季已發行股票的 3%。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於業務並向股東返還大量現金。

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. We're growing our market share, expanding our margins and improving our competitive positioning in a disciplined way. And as we look forward to the remainder of 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 reaccelerating. I continue to have tremendous confidence in our strategy in our ability to drive significant and ongoing value for our shareholders.

總而言之，我們仍然致力於透過投資我們的成長計劃、推動強勁的盈利和現金以及向股東返還多餘現金來推動長期股東價值。我們正在以嚴格的方式擴大市場份額、擴大利潤並提高我們的競爭地位。當我們展望 24 財年剩下的時間時，我們對彈性 DIY 業務、快速成長的國際業務和重新加速的國內商業業務背後的成長前景持樂觀態度。我仍然對我們的策略充滿信心，相信我們有能力為股東帶來顯著且持續的價值。

And now I'll turn it back to Phil.

現在我會把它轉回給菲爾。

Thank you, Jamere. During the quarter, we launched our new fiscal year, and I'd like to take a moment to discuss the key takeaways from our national sales meeting in September. At the meeting, we launched our operating theme for the new year, Live the Pledge. While we have used this theme previously, it continues to deeply resonate with our AutoZoners. Simply put, it differentiates us from everyone else. The energy at the event has never been higher. The pledge is the core of our culture, and I, our board and our leadership team believe we can never overemphasize our culture.

謝謝你，傑米爾。在本季度，我們啟動了新的財政年度，我想花點時間討論我們 9 月的全國銷售會議的主要收穫。會上，我們推出了新一年的經營主題「實踐承諾」。雖然我們之前已經使用過這個主題，但它仍然與我們的 AutoZoners 產生了深刻的共鳴。簡而言之，它使我們與其他人不同。活動現場的能量從未如此高漲。這項承諾是我們文化的核心，我、我們的董事會和領導團隊相信我們永遠不會過度強調我們的文化。

It is defined by helping solve our customers' challenges and optimizing the performance of their vehicles. It is based on a team-based approach of recognizing everyone's contributions and performance, putting team goals ahead of personal goals. It sets the standard at exceptional performance, not mediocrity. And it's about caring about people, both our customers and our AutoZoners. It's about providing unparalleled career opportunities to a diverse population of AutoZoners, and it's about the AutoZone family. Calling yourself a family comes with great responsibility, and it's so much more. The pledge and our values summarize our operating strategy succinctly.

它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，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。這是關於關心人，包括我們的客戶和我們的 AutoZoners。這是為了向多元化的 AutoZoners 群體提供無與倫比的職業機會，也是為了 AutoZone 家族。稱自己為一個家庭意味著巨大的責任，而且責任遠不止於此。這項承諾和我們的價值觀簡潔地概括了我們的營運策略。

Fiscal 2024 top priority is enhanced execution. Additionally, we have many strategic projects in varying stages of completion. We will continue opening new Mega-Hubs and Hubs. Construction on our new distribution centers and the optimization of our new direct import facility are a focus, as we are also ramping up our domestic and international store growth to achieve 500 annual new store openings by 2028.

2024 財年的首要任務是增強執行力。此外，我們還有許多處於不同完成階段的策略項目。我們將繼續開設新的大型樞紐和樞紐。新配送中心的建設和新直接進口設施的最佳化是我們的重點，同時我們也在加速國內和國際商店的成長，以實現到 2028 年每年新開 500 家商店的目標。

As you noticed, our international teams posted same-store sales comps on a constant currency basis of 10.9%, much higher than our domestic comp. International has been strong for a few years now. While I mentioned all of these investments in FY '24, the #1 focus for the remainder of the year 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 additional sales growth. We are excited about what we can accomplish for the remainder of this year.

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 10.9%，遠高於我們的國內業績。國際化已經強勁幾年了。雖然我在 24 財年提到了所有這些投資，但今年剩餘時間的第一個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額外的銷售成長。我們對今年剩餘時間能夠取得的成就感到興奮。

Finally, I'd like to update you on our leadership transition plan. Next month, Bill will become Executive Chair, and I will become President and CEO. It will be one of the greatest honors of my life to move into that role. And while that role will come with new opportunities and challenges, I continue to be very bullish about the prospects, because I know we have an extraordinary culture in a terrific industry and as you have seen, an ever-evolving but exceptional team. As Bill and I both continue to say, and it may sound a little bit cliche, but we both believe it, AutoZone's best days lie ahead of us.

最後，我想向您介紹我們的領導層換屆計劃的最新情況。下個月，比爾將成為執行主席，我將成為總裁兼執行長。擔任這一職務將是我一生中最大的榮幸之一。雖然這個角色將帶來新的機會和挑戰，但我仍然對前景非常樂觀，因為我知道我們在一個出色的行業中擁有非凡的文化，正如您所看到的，我們有一個不斷發展但卓越的團隊。正如比爾和我繼續說的那樣，這聽起來可能有點陳詞濫調，但我們都相信這一點，AutoZone 最好的日子就在我們前面。

I want to thank Bill for his wonderful nearly 19-year tenure leading this company and thank him for his leadership. I'm excited about the opportunity to continue to leverage him and his experiences in this new role as Executive Chair. I also want to thank 3 other long-term senior leaders for their amazing contributions to our success: Grant McGee, Charlie Pleas and Al Saltiel, with their respective 34, 27 and 10 years of service to AutoZone. They have had an enormous contributions and their legacies will be evident in the teams they have built and the contributions those teams will make over the coming decades. I congratulate each of them and wish Grant and Bonnie, Charlie and Doris and Al and Sue, well-earned happiness in their next chapters.

我要感謝 Bill 在近 19 年的任期內領導這家公司，並感謝他的領導能力。我很高興有機會繼續利用他和他在執行主席這一新職位上的經驗。我還要感謝另外 3 位長期的高階領導者，他們為我們的成功做出了驚人的貢獻：Grant McGee、Charlie Pleas 和 Al Saltiel，他們分別為 AutoZone 服務了 34 年、27 年和 10 年。他們做出了巨大的貢獻，他們的遺產將在他們建立的團隊以及這些團隊在未來幾十年所做的貢獻中得到體現。我向他們每一個人表示祝賀，並祝福格蘭特和邦妮、查理和多麗絲、艾爾和蘇在他們的下一個篇章中獲得應有的幸福。

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

現在我們想開始提問。

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

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Bret Jordan。

Can we talk a bit more about the international margins since that's going to be more impactful how it compares to what you see in the U.S.? And I guess Brazil versus Mexico, is there much difference? And is there, I guess, an investment phase that is going to be required to ramp up?

我們能否多談談國際利潤率，因為與您在美國看到的相比，這會更具影響力？我想巴西和墨西哥有很大差別嗎？我想，是否需要一個投資階段來加速？

Yes. I mean, from a margin standpoint, we're very pleased with the progress that we're making on margins, both gross margins and total operating margins. In our business in Mexico, which is much more mature than obviously what we have in Brazil, we've been very pleased with the actions we've been able to take on the merchandising side of the business, and that's given us a very healthy gross margin in that business.

是的。我的意思是，從利潤率的角度來看，我們對毛利率和總營業利潤率的進展感到非常滿意。我們在墨西哥的業務顯然比我們在巴西的業務成熟得多，我們對我們在業務銷售方面採取的行動感到非常滿意，這給了我們一個非常健康的發展該業務的毛利率。

And then if you also think about the inherent advantages that you have from a cost structure standpoint, particularly with wage rates and labor, it's a very attractive operating margin structure in Mexico. And we believe as our business in Brazil matures and scales over time that we'll see similar advantages in Brazil. So net-net, what we're doing on the international side, while it's a fast-growing business, it's also going to have a lot of margin calories that come along with it.

然後，如果您也從成本結構的角度考慮您擁有的固有優勢，特別是工資率和勞動力，那麼墨西哥的營業利潤率結構非常有吸引力。我們相信，隨著我們在巴西的業務逐漸成熟和規模擴大，我們將在巴西看到類似的優勢。因此，淨淨，我們在國際方面所做的事情，雖然這是一項快速成長的業務，但它也將帶來大量的利潤熱量。

Yes. I think I would also add, we continue to say that in Brazil, we're still losing money there. So we're in an investment phase. We're ramping up our store count very aggressively. But with that comes some operating losses that are kind of consistent with what we've been seeing over the last 5 or 6 years.

是的。我想我還要補充一點，我們繼續說，在巴西，我們仍然在虧損。所以我們正處於投資階段。我們正在非常積極地增加商店數量。但隨之而來的是一些營運損失，這與我們過去五、六年所看到的情況是一致的。

I guess what kind of scale do you need to tip Brazil into profitability? I mean the incremental margin would seem to be very high in that case.

我想你需要多大的規模才能讓巴西獲利？我的意思是，在這種情況下，增量利潤似乎非常高。

I think that's right, Bret. But frankly, we have a lot of -- a whole lot of very new stores that are in very new markets as we're expanding. I mean, we've opened 40 stores or so in the last 18 months. And those stores are very immature. So we've got to see how those new stores and new markets mature. Right now, they're causing a pretty good headwind, but not unanticipated.

我認為這是對的，布雷特。但坦白說，隨著我們的擴張，我們在非常新的市場中有很多非常新的商店。我的意思是，我們在過去 18 個月裡開設了 40 家左右商店。而且那些商店還很不成熟。因此，我們必須看看這些新商店和新市場如何成熟。目前，它們正在造成相當大的阻力，但並非出乎意料。

Okay. Quick follow-up. The U.S. Do-It-For-Me, any channel dispersion, national account, tire service chains versus independents performance?

好的。快速跟進。美國的 Do-It-For-Me、任何通路分散、國民帳、輪胎服務鏈與獨立績效？

Yes, there is. If you kind of looked at the business and talking about the big traditional nationals and the up and down the street or the local shop, those folks have performed pretty well. The national accounts, particularly the ones that are focused on tires, have been where we've struggled the most. And this really goes back to a lot of the weather conversations we had from last year, those tire organizations just aren't getting the tires off at the same rate. They take the tire off, they see the calipers frozen or lots of rust on those parts in there and they get the job. That's just not happening at the same rate it has previously.

就在這裡。如果你觀察這個產業，談論大型傳統國民以及街上和當地的商店，這些人的表現都相當不錯。國民帳戶，特別是關注輪胎的國民帳戶，是我們最困難的地方。這確實可以追溯到去年我們進行的許多天氣對話，這些輪胎組織只是沒有以相同的速度更換輪胎。他們把輪胎拆下來，看到卡鉗被凍住了，或者那些零件上有很多生鏽，然後他們就得到了這份工作。只是這種情況發生的速度不及以前了。

Your next question is coming from Michael Lasser from UBS.

你們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的麥可·拉塞爾。

Given the performance of the domestic commercial business this quarter, while there was an acceleration, it did fall short of that double-digit level that you had anticipated over the long run. Do you still think this is an achievable goal eventually? And is it more dependent on the performance of the industry to be stronger in order for AutoZone to achieve that goal?

從本季國內商業業務的表現來看，雖然有加速，但確實沒有達到大家長期預期的兩位數水準。您仍然認為這是一個最終可以實現的目標嗎？ AutoZone要實現這個目標，是否更依賴產業表現的增強？

Yes. Thanks. Great question. I think as we said, we're slightly disappointed with our commercial growth for this particular quarter. We're happy to accelerate it, but we frankly thought it would accelerate a little bit faster. We're happy with the progress that we're making.

是的。謝謝。很好的問題。我認為正如我們所說，我們對本季的商業成長有點失望。我們很高興加速它，但坦白說，我們認為它會加速得更快一點。我們對所取得的進展感到高興。

And to your question about double-digit long term, yes, we think we can get back to those types of growth numbers over time, particularly because we have such low share percent on the commercial side of the business in that 4% to 5% range. So over a long time, we believe we will be able to continue to expand our market share. And as we continue to have these newer stores that we've opened over the last 5 quarters continue to mature and we continue to improve our execution, we believe we will continue to grow our comps in the DIFM space.

對於你關於兩位數長期成長的問題，是的，我們認為我們可以隨著時間的推移回到這些類型的成長數字，特別是因為我們在業務的商業方面的份額如此之低，只有4% 到5%範圍。因此，在很長一段時間內，我們相信我們將能夠繼續擴大我們的市場份額。隨著我們在過去 5 個季度開設的這些新店繼續成熟，並且我們繼續提高我們的執行力，我們相信我們將繼續發展我們在 DIFM 領域的競爭。

Got you. My follow-up question is on the gross margin. It seems like there is a benefit right now from costs coming down, retail is remaining stable. How long is that sustainable? And is there a case where it might make sense to roll back some prices in certain areas in order to drive the retail business to grow a bit faster in the coming quarters?

明白你了。我的後續問題是關於毛利率。目前看來成本下降帶來了好處，零售業保持穩定。這種情況能持續多久？在某些情況下，是否有必要降低某些地區的部分價格，以推動零售業務在未來幾季更快成長？

Yes. We're pleased with the progress that we've made on gross margins, and it's really comprised of 2 pieces. Number one, from a merchandising margin standpoint, we've done a great job inside our merchandising organization of finding cost opportunities and pricing opportunities that have given us accretive gross margins, and we're doing a tremendous job there.

是的。我們對毛利率方面取得的進展感到滿意，它實際上由兩部分組成。第一，從銷售利潤的角度來看，我們在銷售組織內部做得很好，找到了成本機會和定價機會，這為我們帶來了毛利率的增加，而且我們在這方面做得非常出色。

Second element of that, quite frankly, has been the work that we've done inside the supply chain. If you recall, our supply chain was under tremendous pressure over the last couple of years or so from a cost standpoint, and we're now starting to see some benefits as some of those pressures have abated. But if you look at this business over the long term, I mean, we have historically been able to churn out positive gross margin improvements in a very disciplined fashion over time. And that has enabled us to grow our earnings very predictably as we move forward.

坦白說，第二個要素是我們在供應鏈內部所做的工作。如果你還記得，從成本的角度來看，我們的供應鏈在過去幾年左右承受著巨大的壓力，而隨著其中一些壓力的減輕，我們現在開始看到一些好處。但如果你從長遠來看這個業務，我的意思是，隨著時間的推移，我們一直能夠以非常嚴格的方式實現積極的毛利率改善。這使我們能夠在前進的過程中非常可預測地成長我們的收入。

And when we think about the pricing environment, as we've said and we continue to reiterate, pricing is a pretty dynamic environment, we don't feel like we need to make any pricing investments at this point to be able to operate the business and grow share. But if we do have to make those moves, we'll certainly do those if it results in us improving units and ultimately growing EBIT. But at this point, we're in pretty good shape in terms of where we are from a pricing standpoint and feel that we're very competitive in the marketplace.

當我們考慮定價環境時，正如我們所說並繼續重申的那樣，定價是一個非常動態的環境，我們認為此時我們不需要進行任何定價投資才能經營業務並增加份額。但如果我們確實必須採取這些舉措，如果這能導致我們改進單位並最終增加息稅前利潤，我們肯定會這樣做。但目前，從定價的角度來看，我們處於相當好的狀態，並且感覺我們在市場上非常有競爭力。

Your next question is coming from Max Rakhlenko from TD Cowen.

您的下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Max Rakhlenko。

So first, can you speak to the competitive environment? And if you're seeing any changes there? And then how would you frame the level of competition today from the WDs compared to both a couple of quarters ago as well as pre-pandemic?

首先，您能談談競爭環境嗎？如果您看到那裡有任何變化？那麼，與幾個季度前以及大流行前相比，您如何看待當今西部地區的競爭水平？

Yes. I'll break that up into 2 parts. If you think about the DIY competition, we've had a very stable base of competitors there for a very long period of time. That business is pretty stable, and there's not a whole lot of new or changing strategies that appears from the competition. On the DIFM side, if you kind of think about our, what we call our close-in competitors or the public folks, not a lot of changes there other than what O'Reilly did 1.5 years ago or so on their pricing strategy.

是的。我將把它分成兩部分。如果您考慮 DIY 競賽，您會發現我們在很長一段時間內擁有非常穩定的競爭對手基礎。該業務相當穩定，並且競爭中沒有大量新的或變化的策略。在 DIFM 方面，如果你想想我們所謂的緊密競爭對手或公眾，除了 1.5 年前 O'Reilly 在定價策略上所做的之外，沒有太多變化。

On the WD side, I think you kind of have to look at pandemic time versus today, one of the things that we believe is they really struggled with some in-stock in some key categories over the pandemic. Over the last, say, a year or so, it appears that they have become more in-stock on those key categories, like everybody has, but they were probably more acutely impacted than a lot of the public players, and they've returned to more normal levels. As a reminder, we are still not back to our pre-pandemic levels of in-stock, but we're pretty darn close.

在西部數據方面，我認為你必須將大流行時期與今天進行比較，我們認為其中一件事是，在大流行期間，他們確實在某些關鍵類別的庫存方面遇到了困難。在過去一年左右的時間裡，他們似乎在這些關鍵類別上的庫存變得更多，就像每個人一樣，但他們可能比許多公共參與者受到的影響更嚴重，而且他們已經回來了更正常的水平。提醒一下，我們的庫存水平仍然沒有回到大流行前的水平，但我們已經非常接近了。

Got it. That's helpful. And then you guys touched on delivery times improving a few times throughout the prepared remarks. So can you speak to what your average delivery times are now in the markets where you've got the Megas? And then how much more room do you have to improve? And then just the cadence we should think about in order to get there?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後你們在準備好的發言中談到了交貨時間的改善。那麼您能談談您現在擁有 Megas 的市場的平均交貨時間是多少嗎？那你還有多少進步的空間呢？然後我們應該考慮什麼節奏才能實現這一目標？

Yes. Yes, just delivery times can be wildly different depending on proximity of the part and how close that shop may be to a given store or a Hub or Mega-Hub. And the delivery times on Mega-Hub inventory or what we call expanded parts can differ wildly if it has to be relayed through a store or deliver directly. Our average delivery times, you're kind of thinking in that 30-minute range. So a 10% improvement in delivery times is pretty meaningful, but it may be 3 to 5 minutes. And that matters when a customer is sitting there trying to turn their bay.

是的。是的，只是交貨時間可能會有很大不同，具體取決於零件的接近程度以及該商店與給定商店或中心或大型中心的距離。如果必須透過商店轉發或直接交付，Mega-Hub 庫存或我們所說的擴展零件的交付時間可能會有很大差異。我們的平均交貨時間，您可能會認為在 30 分鐘範圍內。因此，交付時間提高 10% 是相當有意義的，但可能只有 3 到 5 分鐘。當顧客坐在那裡試圖轉身時，這一點就很重要。

So we believe we'll continue to leverage and improve our delivery times, and that's a key strategy for us, because it's a measure of customer service.

因此，我們相信我們將繼續利用和改善我們的交貨時間，這對我們來說是一個關鍵策略，因為它是衡量客戶服務的一個指標。

Your next question is coming from Chris Horvers from JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的克里斯霍弗斯。

Congratulations to everybody. So I wanted to follow up on the question more broadly about the consumer. You talked about some of the tire businesses remaining weak. You talked about some discretionary front-room pressure in DIY. I guess, how much of this do you think is just a deferral that's building that you typically see as a category and as you start to see the slowdown in the consumer front, consumer starts to defer? Are you seeing evidence of that? And do you think we're still in the point of that sort of getting worse before ultimately that demand potentially releases?

恭喜大家。所以我想更廣泛地跟進有關消費者的問題。您談到了一些輪胎業務仍然疲軟。您談到了 DIY 中一些可自由支配的前室壓力。我想，您認為其中有多少只是您通常將其視為一個類別的推遲，當您開始看到消費者方面的放緩時，消費者開始推遲？你看到這方面的證據了嗎？您認為在最終需求可能釋放之前，我們是否仍然處於這種情況變得更糟的境地？

That's a terrific question, Chris. Let's step back and talk about this on a long-term basis first. If you think about the retail business, which we have much more experience in the retail business and you think about it over long periods of time, we don't spend a lot of time talking about the strength of the consumer. Much more so when tough times happen, i.e., recessions, those have been the periods where we've outperformed more so than any other periods of time. So we don't spend a whole lot of time on the consumer. We certainly see in the retail business, there's some trading down going down the good, better, best product assortments.

這是一個很棒的問題，克里斯。我們先退一步，從長遠的角度來談談這個問題。如果你考慮零售業務，我們在零售業務方面擁有更多的經驗，經過很長一段時間的思考，我們不會花很多時間談論消費者的力量。更重要的是，當困難時期發生時，即經濟衰退，我們在這些時期的表現比其他時期都要好。因此，我們不會在消費者身上花費大量時間。我們當然看到，在零售業務中，好的、更好的、最好的產品種類出現了一些下降。

I think in the commercial side, we have sub-positions that we haven't yet proven, because we haven't been in that business at this level for an extended period of time. I believe we think that there may be some consumers that are trading from DIFM into DIY in certain jobs as they're trying to save money. The thing I would encourage us all to focus on more so than minor fluctuations in consumer sentiment. As we enter the second quarter, the one thing I always worry about is the weather patterns in the second quarter are extremely volatile, and they can have big impacts on our performance, both positive and negative.

我認為在商業方面，我們還有尚未證明的子地位，因為我們在這個級別上從事該業務已經很長時間了。我相信我們認為可能有一些消費者為了省錢而在某些工作中從 DIFM 轉向 DIY。我鼓勵我們所有人更專注於消費者情緒的微小波動。當我們進入第二季時，我一直擔心的一件事是第二季的天氣模式極不穩定，它們可能對我們的業績產生重大影響，無論是正面還是負面。

And as we've said, those impacts of the weather, particularly in the Rust Belt, can have ongoing implications as we get into the spring and summer and even the fall months. If we get significant snow and ice, particularly in the Rust Belt in the Northeast, that bodes well for us. If we don't, then we're going to have a little bit of a challenge. To me, that is the more impactful thing that's going to happen in the near term than consumer sentiment.

正如我們所說，當我們進入春季、夏季甚至秋季時，天氣的影響，特別是在鐵鏽地帶，可能會產生持續的影響。如果我們遇到大量的冰雪，特別是在東北部的鐵鏽地帶，這對我們來說是個好兆頭。如果我們不這樣做，那麼我們將面臨一些挑戰。對我來說，這是短期內將發生的比消費者情緒更具影響力的事情。

And so as a follow-up to that, I think last year, December was pretty good in terms of the weather impact, right? So it would seem like as you look past today, the comparison gets tough, but it was a record warm winter last year. So I guess, as you look into your crystal ball, do you think there's sort of ends up being a bit of a weaker start and stronger finish to the second quarter?

因此，作為後續行動，我認為去年 12 月的天氣影響相當不錯，對吧？所以，當你今天回顧過去時，這種比較似乎變得很困難，但去年是創紀錄的暖冬。所以我想，當你觀察你的水晶球時，你是否認為第二節的開局會稍微變弱，結尾會稍強？

Yes. It's interesting, Chris, because the beginning of the quarter last year, there was no weather. We had significant weather around the holidays for a couple of weeks and thought, okay, here we go on, our business responded really, really well. And then the January, February, into March, particularly in the Rust Belt, it was lack of snow and ice and fairly moderate temperatures. Unfortunately, we don't have a meteorologist on staff either. And at the end of the day, we're running this business for not quarters, not years, but for decades. And the weather implications they're going to even out.

是的。克里斯，這很有趣，因為去年季度初沒有天氣。在假期前後的幾周里，我們遇到了惡劣的天氣，我們想，好吧，我們繼續，我們的業務反應非常非常好。然後一月、二月、三月，特別是在鐵鏽地帶，沒有冰雪，氣溫也相當適中。不幸的是，我們也沒有氣象學家。歸根究底，我們經營這項業務的時間不是幾個季度，也不是幾年，而是幾十年。他們將消除天氣影響。

I just always try to make sure and caution everybody at the beginning of the second quarter that we could have really strong performance, or we can have really weak performances driven by weather, and that doesn't need to change how we approach our strategy over the long term.

我總是試圖在第二季度初確保並警告每個人，我們可能會取得非常強勁的表現，或者我們可能會因天氣原因而表現非常疲軟，但這不需要改變我們的策略方式長期來看。

Your next question is coming from Seth Sigman from Barclays.

您的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的塞思·西格曼。

I wanted to follow up on commercial. It seems like you've really accelerated the rollout of new programs over the last few quarters. Obviously, at a time when sales growth on a comp basis has been lower. So can you just help us better understand what driving that decision right now, particularly as we think about your comment around in-stock levels improving, but not necessarily where you want it to be? So how do we think about that thought process around accelerating right now?

我想跟進廣告。在過去的幾個季度中，您似乎確實加快了新計劃的推出。顯然，當時的銷售成長率較低。那麼，您能否幫助我們更了解目前推動這項決定的因素，特別是當我們考慮您對庫存水準改善的評論時，但不一定是您希望的水平？那我們現在該如何看待加速的思考過程呢？

Yes, that's a great question. If you -- and I even mentioned it in the prepared remarks, if we go back to when I was SVP of Commercial, the facts are, our per store performance has improved on a per store basis, the productivity of those individual stores. Looking back over a decade's worth of time, we went through this phase where we had less than 50% of our stores or around 50% of our stores had commercial. And we slowly -- not slowly, we ramped up to roughly 70 -- high 70s, low 80% of our stores in commercial. Then we had a period of time where we really focused on per store productivity, and that's been going on for the last several years, say, 5 to 7 years.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。如果你——我甚至在準備好的發言中提到過這一點，如果我們回到我擔任商業高級副總裁時，事實是，我們每家商店的業績以及這些單獨商店的生產力都得到了提高。回顧十多年的時間，我們經歷了這個階段，我們的商店只有不到 50%，或大約 50% 的商店有商業。我們慢慢地——不是慢慢地，把我們的商店數量增加到大約 70%——高 70%，低 80% 的商店處於商業狀態。然後，我們有一段時間真正關注每家商店的生產力，這種情況在過去幾年中一直持續，比如說 5 到 7 年。

Today, we're at a spot where we've had stores that previously didn't have commercial in them, and we've looked at the market differently with a much different share ownership, where we believe those stores are now productive and we're opening them. If you kind of forecasted that out into the future, we think we've probably opened the vast majority of those stores that previously didn't have commercial. There'll probably be some, but I don't think you'll see this large opening of previously opened stores that didn't have commercial programs that do today. But we think those stores over time will be as productive as the stores we have that have been open for a long period of time, and we like that productivity model going into the future.

今天，我們的商店以前沒有商業廣告，我們以不同的方式看待市場，股權也大不相同，我們相信這些商店現在富有成效，我們正在打開它們。如果你對未來有所預測，我們認為我們可能已經開設了絕大多數以前沒有商業廣告的商店。可能會有一些，但我認為你不會看到以前開過的商店大規模開業，而這些商店沒有今天的商業計劃。但我們認為，隨著時間的推移，這些商店將與我們已經開業很長時間的商店一樣高效，我們喜歡未來的生產力模式。

Okay. And then just a follow-up would be around thinking about the investments that may be required to drive that improvement in commercial. And I think this was talked about in a few different ways, including around pricing, but I'm thinking more from an OpEx, from an SG&A perspective. It's been growing at a relatively steady 4% rate per store. That seems reasonable. But I'm curious how you're thinking about that? How you're planning for that throughout this year? And whether you need to start to see a pickup in your SG&A growth?

好的。然後，下一步就是考慮推動商業改善可能需要的投資。我認為這個問題可以透過幾種不同的方式進行討論，包括圍繞定價，但我更多是從營運支出、SG&A 角度來思​​考。每家商店的成長率相對穩定，為 4%。這似乎很合理。但我很好奇你怎麼想的？今年你對此有何計畫？您是否需要開始看到 SG&A 成長的回升？

We like the investment profile that we have today. And we have been very, very clear that we're investing in SG&A at a pretty accelerated pace and have done so over the last couple of years or so, and that's come in the form of store payroll, particularly around our commercial program, but also IT. And these are the kinds of things that are enabling us to drive the growth initiative in commercial.

我們喜歡今天的投資狀況。我們非常非常清楚，我們正在以相當快的速度投資SG&A，並且在過去幾年左右的時間裡一直這樣做，而且是以商店工資的形式出現的，特別是圍繞我們的商業項目，但是還有IT 。這些都是使我們能夠推動商業成長計劃的因素。

For example, Phil mentioned what we're doing on delivery times. The work that we're doing to improve our delivery times is all underpinned by investments that we've made in technology that make it easier for us to deploy drivers and, quite frankly, give us a better opportunity to tell our customers exactly where our drivers are in the route and how fast they're going to get the parts. So those are some of the examples of things that we've invested in, and we're going to continue to do that. And that investment profile is going to pay dividends for us in terms of speed, in terms of productivity and in terms of better results, in terms of customer service.

例如，菲爾提到了我們在交貨時間所做的事情。我們為改善交貨時間所做的工作都是以我們在技術方面的投資為基礎的，這些投資使我們更容易部署司機，而且坦率地說，讓我們有更好的機會告訴我們的客戶我們的確切位置司機在路線上以及他們獲得零件的速度。這些是我們已經投資的一些例子，我們將繼續這樣做。這種投資狀況將為我們帶來速度、生產力、更好的結果和客戶服務的紅利。

You also -- you mentioned price, specifically on the DIFM side. And although we made a price investment several years ago. Today, we like our pricing strategy. Now the pricing is always a pretty dynamic point of our business, and we'll continue to monitor that. But we like where we are from a pricing strategy today. So we don't see any major or deviation from our current pricing strategy.

您也提到了價格，特別是 DIFM 方面的價格。儘管我們幾年前就進行了價格投資。今天，我們喜歡我們的定價策略。現在，定價始終是我們業務的一個非常動態的點，我們將繼續監控這一點。但我們喜歡目前的定價策略。因此，我們沒有看到與我們目前的定價策略有任何重大或偏差。

Your next question is coming from Zack Fadem from Wells Fargo.

你們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Zack Fadem。

So when you look at the sequential uptick in your commercial business, but also a sequential downtick in DIY, can you help us parse out the impact of broader industry trends versus your own idiosyncratic factors? And as you put these together, is it fair to say that you expect Q2 and fiscal '24 as a whole to look a lot like Q1? Or are there factors that give you confidence in both DIY and commercial acceleration as we move through the year, even if the industry is slowing?

因此，當您看到商業業務的連續成長，但 DIY 的持續下降時，您能否幫助我們分析更廣泛的行業趨勢與您自己的特殊因素的影響？當您將這些放在一起時，可以公平地說您預計第二季和 24 財年整體看起來很像第一季嗎？還是有一些因素讓您對今年的 DIY 和商業加速充滿信心，即使該行業正在放緩？

Yes, I'll separate the two. First of all, we've been in the retail business for a very long time. We've had lots of periods of time where we grow in the 0% to 2% kind of range. We're coming off a period of time in the pandemic where our retail volumes went up 25% to 30%. And we are, frankly, tickled to death to still be holding on to those retail volumes, and we believe we've retained about 85% of the share that we gained during that 3-year period of time.

是的，我會把兩者分開。首先，我們從事零售業務很久了。我們曾經有過很多時期的成長幅度在 0% 到 2% 之間。疫情期間，我們的零售量成長了 25% 至 30%。坦白說，我們對仍然保持這些零售量感到高興極了，我們相信我們已經保留了這 3 年期間獲得的約 85% 的份額。

So we're very pleased with that. We always want to grow faster. We're basically flat this quarter. We're trying new things, but we're pleased with where we are in the retail business. We aren't pleased with where we are in the commercial business. But let's don't forget, this quarter's comp of 5.7% is comping against about a 15% comp last year. So while we didn't meet our goals or aspirations in the quarter, 5% or 2%, we're not disappointed. We're not discouraged.

所以我們對此非常滿意。我們總是希望成長得更快。本季我們基本持平。我們正在嘗試新事物，但我們對零售業務的現狀感到滿意。我們對商業業務的現狀並不滿意。但我們不要忘記，本季的綜合成長率為 5.7%，而去年的綜合成長率約為 15%。因此，雖然我們在本季沒有實現 5% 或 2% 的目標或願望，但我們並不失望。我們並不氣餒。

We know we have a long runway to go in the commercial business. Again, we're going to play this in decades, not quarters and years. We feel like that depending on the weather in the second quarter, it's probably going to look similar to plus or minus 1% or 2%, similar to what we've seen in the first quarter. Our hope and our plan is to accelerate, particularly on the commercial side of the business as we enter the second half of the year and we continue to improve our execution.

我們知道，在商業領域我們還有很長的路要走。再說一遍，我們將在幾十年內玩這個遊戲，而不是幾個季度或幾年。我們認為，根據第二季的天氣狀況，可能會出現正負 1% 或 2% 的情況，與我們在第一季看到的情況類似。我們的希望和計劃是加速發展，特別是在進入下半年的商業方面，我們將繼續提高我們的執行力。

Got it. And then for Jamere, I just wanted to follow up on the gross margin up about 280 basis points. I think you said about 208 basis points of that was LIFO. So first question is, how do you expect the LIFO impact to trend in Q2 and going forward? And then if we look at the other 70 basis points of benefit from the supply chain and merge margins, is it possible to talk a little more about the impact of these 2 individually going forward as well as the impact of mix?

知道了。然後對於 Jamere，我只想跟進毛利率上漲約 280 個基點。我想你說過大約 208 個基點是 LIFO。所以第一個問題是，您預期後進先出法對第二季和未來趨勢的影響如何？然後，如果我們看看供應鏈和合併利潤率帶來的其他 70 個基點的好處，是否有可能更多地討論這兩個單獨的未來影響以及混合的影響？

Yes. So if you think about LIFO, we've got about $57 million or so that we still need to get back through the P&L before we sort of wrap up that piece of our discussions, hopefully. We expect this quarter to be in the 5 to -- call it, 5 to 10-ish ZIP code depending on what we see in terms of deflation. And the cadence going forward is likely going to be in that ZIP code. If it changes, as we've done in the last few quarters or so, we'll give you our latest update and our latest guidance.

是的。因此，如果你考慮一下後進先出法，我們大約有 5700 萬美元左右，因此我們仍然需要在結束我們的討論之前回顧一下損益表。我們預計本季的郵遞區號將在 5 至 10 左右，具體取決於我們對通貨緊縮的看法。未來的節奏很可能會出現在該郵遞區號中。如果情況發生變化，就像我們在過去幾個季度左右所做的那樣，我們將為您提供最新的更新和最新的指導。

And then if you think about what we're doing from a gross margin standpoint, again, if you look at our business over the long term, we've typically have driven gross margin improvement from a merchandising standpoint in that, call it, 30 to 35 bps range. And what we said after we came out of the pricing changes that we made a couple of years or so ago that we would continue to run that play with discipline and intensity and be able to drive that.

然後，如果你從毛利率的角度考慮我們正在做的事情，那麼，如果你從長遠來看我們的業務，我們通常會從銷售的角度推動毛利率的提高，稱之為，30至35 bps 範圍。在我們完成幾年前的定價調整後，我們表示，我們將繼續以紀律和強度開展這項業務，並能夠推動這項業務。

From a supply chain standpoint, again, we are improving in supply chain, but it is largely because our supply chain was under tremendous suppression for a couple of years or so. So I wouldn't expect that portion to be 40 bps every single quarter, but we're making steady improvements there. And last quarter, in particular, it was a tough quarter from a supply chain standpoint, and our teams have done a great job of turning that around.

從供應鏈的角度來看，我們的供應鏈正在改善，但這很大程度上是因為我們的供應鏈在幾年左右的時間裡受到了巨大的壓制。因此，我預計該部分不會每季達到 40 個基點，但我們正在穩步改進。尤其是上個季度，從供應鏈的角度來看，這是一個艱難的季度，我們的團隊在扭轉這一局面方面做得很好。

Your next question is coming from Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley.

你們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙古特曼。

Simeon, are you there? Hello, Simeon.

西蒙，你在嗎？你好，西蒙。

Can you hear me now?

你聽得到我嗎？

Yes, we can.

我們可以。

Okay. Sorry about that. I guess the AirPods don't work. I wanted to ask about gross margin and get your temperature on this that the input cost environment is somewhat unique, forward pricing is coming in a little bit, freight costs are coming down. Is it a unique moment? You mentioned you're not going to -- you don't see a need to reinvest in price. What happens to any excess, because this industry has pretty good pricing power, the prices come down? Or is that potential benefit to the gross margin?

好的。對於那個很抱歉。我猜 AirPods 不起作用。我想問毛利率，並了解您對此的看法，即投入成本環境有些獨特，遠期定價會有所提高，貨運成本正在下降。這是一個獨特的時刻嗎？您提到您不會—您認為沒有必要對價格進行再投資。過剩會怎樣，因為這個行業有很好的定價能力，價格會降下來嗎？或者這對毛利率有潛在的好處嗎？

Well, I think what we've said historically, and you've seen us certainly behave this way is that as we saw inflation in the business, we took pricing accordingly. And as we come out of that, particularly with things like freight starting to come down, that is an opportunity for us to improve the gross margin profile of the business. The pricing environment has been incredibly rational, has been for decades, and it's certainly behaving rationally today. And so we don't see a need to go deliberately invest gross margin improvements and the pricing to drive demand.

嗯，我認為我們歷史上所說的，你肯定已經看到我們的這種行為方式是，當我們看到業務通膨時，我們會相應地定價。當我們走出困境時，特別是隨著運費等因素開始下降，這對我們來說是一個改善業務毛利率的機會。幾十年來，定價環境一直非常理性，而且今天的表現也確實很理性。因此，我們認為沒有必要刻意投資於毛利率的提高和定價來推動需求。

But if the case was that we thought that the pricing bands, which we've established that have helped us grow our market share sort of got out of line, then we would not hesitate to go invest gross margin and be able to go do that to drive units and to drive market share growth. But the environment that we're operating in today is very, very rational, and we believe that the gross margin improvements that we're seeing today are an opportunity for us to expand margins and ultimately add more calories to the bottom line.

但如果情況是我們認為我們已經建立的幫助我們增加市場份額的定價範圍有點不合時宜，那麼我們會毫不猶豫地去投資毛利率並能夠做到這一點推動單位並推動市場份額增長。但我們今天所處的經營環境非常非常理性，我們相信今天看到的毛利率改善是我們擴大利潤並最終增加更多卡路里的機會。

Yes. And then my follow-up, just on the health of the business. In any way do you think that the DIY softness is a lead or could preclude the progress that you'd like to make on commercial? I heard Bill Rhodes comment regarding it could take a little bit longer, but how do you think about the connectivity of both of these businesses?

是的。然後我的後續行動是關於業務的健康狀況。您是否認為 DIY 的軟性是一種領先，或會阻礙您在商業上的進展？我聽到比爾·羅茲 (Bill Rhodes) 評論說這可能需要更長的時間，但您如何看待這兩項業務的連結性？

I think I'll go back to what I said, Simeon. I think we understand the retail business very well. As we've ramped so significantly in the commercial business, I don't think we know what the cyclical nature of that business is. We have, as I said, a sub-position that there are certain people that in difficult recessionary periods of time will trade down into DIY to do a brake job or a battery job where they might have taken it to a shop before.

我想我會回到我所說的，西蒙。我認為我們非常了解零售業務。由於我們在商業業務方面的發展如此之大，我認為我們不知道該業務的周期性本質是什麼。正如我所說，我們有一個子立場，即在困難的經濟衰退時期，某些人會轉而進行 DIY 工作，從事剎車工作或電池工作，而他們以前可能會將其帶到商店。

But remember, the last time we saw a real recession, our commercial business was $1 billion. We should surpass $5 billion this year. So I just don't think we have the deep insights that we do in the retail business.

但請記住，上次我們看到真正的經濟衰退時，我們的商業業務是 10 億美元。今年我們的投資金額應該會超過 50 億美元。所以我認為我們沒有零售業務那樣的深刻見解。

Your next question is coming from Daniel Imbro from Stephens Inc.

您的下一個問題來自 Stephens Inc. 的 Daniel Imbro。

I want to start on the domestic DIFM growth. I guess, you mentioned, Jamere, in your comments, the recent openings are creating an optical headwind just with more immature programs. What is the expected maturity curve or normal maturity curve for a new commercial program? And is it different in a new build versus when you're retrofitting and adding commercial to an existing store?

我想從國內 DIFM 的成長開始。我想，Jamere，您在評論中提到，最近的空缺正在透過更多不成熟的項目造成光學逆風。新商業專案的預期成熟度曲線或正常成熟度曲線是多少？新建商店與對現有商店進行改造和添加商業廣告時有什麼不同嗎？

That's a great question. Yes, it's not necessarily different between a net new store and one that's -- a store that's been open for some number of years and then you add the program later. But those maturity curves, as you would probably imagine, they ramp pretty quick on the very front end, and then it has a hockey stick over those first couple of years, and then they tend to grow consistently after that.

這是一個很好的問題。是的，淨新商店和已經開業多年後然後稍後添加該計劃的商店之間不一定有什麼不同。但正如你可能想像的那樣，這些成熟度曲線在最前端的增長速度相當快，然後在最初的幾年裡有一個曲棍球棒，然後它們往往會在之後持續增長。

Keep in mind, and I'll go back to one of the things we said earlier, we think an individual store should grow for a pretty long period of time based on the fact that we continue to improve execution and oh, by the way, we only have 4% to 5% market share. And that market share, although it may be slightly different depending on the size of the city or the market that we're competing in, we're still at a pretty low share, specifically relative to the WD space, who owns the vast majority of that share.

請記住，我將回到我們之前所說的一件事，我們認為基於我們不斷提高執行力的事實，單一商店應該在相當長的一段時間內增長，哦，順便說一下，我們只有4%到5%的市佔率。儘管市場份額可能會因城市規模或我們所競爭的市場的大小而略有不同，但我們的份額仍然相當低，特別是相對於擁有絕大多數市場的 WD 領域而言該份額。

I think I'd just add also, you can't think about these new stores as if they're in isolation. Many of those customers were servicing already from another store and will take 40% of the projected volume from another store, because we can service them so much better because we're in a much closer proximity. So every one of them is a little bit different. If they're in a rural area, we really don't service those customers, so they start from the ground zero. But many of the urban and suburban markets, we have a little bit of a head start already.

我想我還要補充一點，你不能認為這些新商店是孤立的。其中許多客戶已經從另一家商店獲得服務，並將從另一家商店獲得預計數量的 40%，因為我們可以更好地為他們提供服務，因為我們距離更近。所以他們每個人都有點不同。如果他們在農村地區，我們真的不為這些客戶提供服務，所以他們從零開始。但在許多城市和郊區市場，我們已經有了一些領先優勢。

That's true. So net opportunity to help service them better, therefore, you get more share of wallet.

這是真的。因此，淨機會可以幫助他們更好地服務，因此，您可以獲得更多的錢包份額。

Understood. Helpful color. And then my follow-up, just question on the private label. How is the Duralast penetration trended in recent quarters? If I'm remembering right, you invested a lot in parts quality in the last couple of years. I would think as the consumer becomes more price sensitive or just earning the value of private label should go up? So I'm curious how that penetration is trending? And are we seeing that trade into that either on the DIFM or the DIY side?

明白了。有用的顏色。然後我的後續行動，只是關於自有品牌的問題。 Duralast 最近幾季的滲透率趨勢如何？如果我沒記錯的話，過去幾年你們在零件品質方面投入了大量資金。我認為隨著消費者對價格變得更加敏感或只是賺取自有品牌的價值應該會上升？所以我很好奇滲透率的趨勢如何？我們是否在 DIFM 或 DIY 方面看到了這種交易？

Yes. Keep in mind, so the Duralast investment in product quality and brand perception has been going on for decades, frankly. But I think we really accelerated that probably 10 years ago, maybe a little more. As we think about our family of brands, Duralast has essentially a couple of tiers, Duralast, Duralast Gold, Platinum. And we have some other private labels. But for the most part, we are, generally speaking, we go for coverage first over choice.

是的。請記住，坦白說，Duralast 對產品品質和品牌認知度的投資已經持續了數十年。但我認為我們確實在 10 年前就加速了這一速度，也許更快一點。當我們考慮我們的品牌系列時，Duralast 本質上有幾個等級：Duralast、Duralast Gold、Platinum。我們還有一些其他自有品牌。但在大多數情況下，一般來說，我們首先選擇承保而不是選擇。

So we don't have a whole lot of good, better, best up and down. We do in some categories like batteries and brakes and things of that nature. But for the most part, we may have a Duralast brand, and that's what we have. In some cases, we have a total Pro brand, which would be an opening price point. But we don't have a whole lot of choice in our stores. We're generally speaking, coverage first, except in key categories, brakes, batteries being the best example.

所以我們沒有太多好的、更好的、最好的上下。我們在某些​​類別中做一些工作，例如電池和煞車以及類似性質的東西。但在大多數情況下，我們可能擁有 Duralast 品牌，這就是我們所擁有的。在某些情況下，我們有一個完整的專業品牌，這將是一個開放的價格點。但我們的商店沒有太多選擇。一般來說，我們首先考慮的是覆蓋範圍，但關鍵類別除外，煞車、電池就是最好的例子。

Your next question is coming from Seth Basham from Wedbush Securities.

您的下一個問題來自 Wedbush 證券公司的 Seth Basham。

Just wanted to follow up on the DIY business. Weather aside, it seems like you expect the DIY business to not only remain resilient, but also potentially improve a little bit if you're anticipating a slight decline in transactions and low to mid-single digit to ticket growth. Is that an accurate read?

只是想跟進DIY業務。拋開天氣不談，您似乎預計 DIY 業務不僅會保持彈性，而且如果您預計交易量將略有下降並且門票增長將出現低至中個位數的增長，那麼還可能會有所改善。這樣的讀法準確嗎？

I think that's absolutely accurate, Seth. As we've said for many years, the "I've said the dirty little secret about the retail side of this business is that the transactions have been challenged, and they've been challenged for over 25 years." They're challenged for a lot of reasons, because the OE manufacturers are making vehicles and their components much better.

我認為這絕對正確，賽斯。正如我們多年來所說的那樣，“我已經說過，有關該業務零售方面的一個骯髒的小秘密是，交易受到了挑戰，而且它們已經受到挑戰超過 25 年了。”他們面臨著多種原因的挑戰，因為原始設備製造商正在使車輛及其零件變得更好。

Used to, you'd had a lot more frequency of failures on those components. Today, they're not. They don't fail as much, because they have a lot of technology involved in those components. So what has happened over a very long periods of time as you have this 2% to 4% drag on transactions, but you have an equivalent amount on the average price per piece, because the cost of the technology that's going into those parts. We didn't see -- we eliminated that transaction drag during the pandemic and, frankly, grew upper single digits in transactions. Today, our transaction count is starting to look a lot more similar to the way it has been in the past.

過去，這些組件發生故障的頻率要高得多。今天，他們不是。他們不會失敗太多，因為他們在這些組件中涉及很多技術。那麼，在很長一段時間內發生了什麼，交易受到 2% 到 4% 的拖累，但每件平均價格卻有同等數量的拖累，因為這些部件的技術成本。我們沒有看到——我們消除了大流行期間的交易拖累，坦白說，交易量增長了個位數。今天，我們的交易計數開始看起來與過去更加相似。

One of the challenges that we're still dealing with in the retail business is, last year, we had hyperinflation, double-digit inflation. And so our ticket isn't up as much as it normally would be. And I think that's because we're normalizing, getting past that super high inflation from last year. As we think about the DIY business thinking out 3 or 4 or 5 years, first of all, we're going to have to continue to improve it, and we have efforts underway to do that. But we believe it's a 3% kind of ticket drag and hopefully more than -- or sorry, transaction drag on a same-store basis and more than offset that from the average unit retail.

我們零售業務仍然面臨的挑戰之一是，去年我們出現了惡性通貨膨脹，兩位數的通貨膨脹。所以我們的票價沒有平常那麼高。我認為這是因為我們正在走向正常化，克服了去年的超高通膨。當我們考慮 DIY 業務的未來 3、4 或 5 年時，首先，我們必須繼續改進它，我們正在努力做到這一點。但我們認為，這會帶來 3% 的門票拖累，並且希望超過——或者抱歉，同店交易拖累，並且足以抵消平均單位零售量的拖累。

That's helpful. And just thinking about calendar 2024, if you look at the growth rate expectations for DIY versus DIFM on an industry basis, which one would you expect to accelerate more from '23?

這很有幫助。想想 2024 年，如果您在行業基礎上查看 DIY 與 DIFM 的增長率預期，您預計哪一個比 23 年加速更快？

I think everybody thinks that DIFM is going to grow at these very rapid rates and DIY is going to decline. What we've seen over a very significant periods of time is DIY usually grows 3% to 4%, and commercial grows 0.5 point to 1 point faster. I think if you rolled out the next 3 years, unless there's some big economic shock or something like COVID, that will probably continue to be the case.

我認為每個人都認為 DIFM 將以非常快的速度成長，而 DIY 將會下降。我們在很長一段時間內看到的是，DIY 通常成長 3% 到 4%，商業成長快 0.5 個百分點到 1 個百分點。我認為，如果你在未來三年推出，除非有重大經濟衝擊或新冠疫情之類的情況，否則情況可能會持續下去。

Seems appropriate, Seth, that you got to ask Bill, the last question that he probably gets to answer on these calls. So before we conclude the call, I'd like to take a moment to reiterate we believe that our industry is in a strong position and our business model is solid. We are excited about our growth prospects for the year, but we will take nothing for granted as we understand that our customers have alternatives.

塞思，你必須問比爾，這似乎是合適的，這是他在這些電話中可能回答的最後一個問題。因此，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 be successful. Lastly, I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and thank you for participating in today's call.

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，我們對 AutoZone 將取得成功充滿信心。最後，我祝福大家節日快樂、身體健康，並感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。

Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝大家。今天的活動到此結束。此時您可能會斷開連接，並度過美好的一天。感謝您的參與。