Brown-Forman Corp (BF.B) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Brown-Forman First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). I would now like to hand the conference over to Sue Perram, Vice President, Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

早上好，歡迎參加 Brown-Forman 2024 財年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）。現在我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁蘇·佩拉姆 (Sue Perram)。女士，您可以開始了。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I would like to thank each of you for joining us today for Brown-Forman's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Call. Joining me today are Lawson Whiting, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Leanne Cunningham, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝大家，大家早上好。我要感謝大家今天參加 Brown-Forman 2024 財年第一季度收益電話會議。今天與我一起出席的有總裁兼首席執行官勞森·懷廷 (Lawson Whiting)；以及執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Leanne Cunningham。

This morning's conference call contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. Numerous risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected in these statements. Many of the factors that will determine future results are beyond the company's ability to control or predict. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, and except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to update any of these statements, whether due to new information, future events or otherwise.

今天早上的電話會議包含基於我們當前預期的前瞻性陳述。許多風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與這些聲明中預期或預計的結果存在重大差異。許多決定未來結果的因素超出了公司的控製或預測能力。您不應過分依賴任何前瞻性陳述，除非法律要求，否則公司不承擔更新任何這些陳述的義務，無論是由於新信息、未來事件還是其他原因。

This morning, we issued a press release containing our results for the first quarter fiscal year 2024 in addition to posting presentation materials that Lawson and Leanne will walk through momentarily. Both the release and the presentation can be found on our website under the section titled Investors, Events and Presentations.

今天早上，我們發布了一份新聞稿，其中包含 2024 財年第一季度的業績，此外還發布了 Lawson 和 Leanne 將立即瀏覽的演示材料。新聞稿和演示文稿均可在我們網站的“投資者、活動和演示文稿”部分找到。

In the press release, we have listed a number of the risk factors you should consider in conjunction with our forward-looking statements. Other significant risk factors are described in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在新聞稿中，我們列出了您應結合我們的前瞻性陳述考慮的一些風險因素。我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 表格和 10-Q 表格報告中描述了其他重大風險因素。

During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and the reasons management believes they provide useful information to investors regarding the company's financial condition and results of operations, are contained in the press release and investor presentation.

在本次電話會議中，我們將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。這些衡量標準與最直接可比的公認會計原則財務衡量標准進行了協調，管理層認為這些衡量標準為投資者提供了有關公司財務狀況和經營業績的有用信息的原因，均包含在新聞稿和投資者介紹中。

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Lawson.

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給勞森。

Thank you, Sue, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be able to speak to you today about Brown-Forman's first quarter results for fiscal 2024. Before we get into the details of the quarter, there are a few key drivers of our first quarter results that you will hear about repeatedly throughout this call.

謝謝你，蘇，大家早上好。很高興今天能夠與您談論Brown-Forman 2024 財年第一季度的業績。在我們詳細介紹該季度之前，先介紹一下我們第一季度業績的幾個關鍵驅動因素，您將在整個過程中反复聽到這些因素這個電話。

First, the rebuilding of distributor inventories, primarily in the United States, in the prior year period had a significant impact on our first quarter results. As you will recall, this rebuilding in the prior year occurred as a result of supply chain disruptions. If you reference Schedule D in today's earnings release, it will provide you with additional information to put this quarter into better context.

首先，去年同期經銷商庫存的重建（主要是在美國）對我們第一季度的業績產生了重大影響。您可能還記得，去年的重建是由於供應鏈中斷而發生的。如果您在今天的收益發布中引用附表 D，它將為您提供更多信息，以便更好地了解本季度的情況。

Second, the timing and phasing of our operating expenses had an impact on our first quarter operating income as we launched and acquired new brands while also investing in our existing portfolio. As you can surmise from our full year guidance, we expect this to moderate as we continue throughout the rest of the fiscal year. And finally, and most importantly, we believe the health of our brands and our business remain strong as evidenced by consumer takeaway trends. We continue to be confident that we have the best portfolio and the best people in the market, and it's this confidence that allows us to reaffirm our full year outlook for fiscal 2024.

其次，我們的運營支出的時間和階段對我們第一季度的運營收入產生了影響，因為我們推出和收購了新品牌，同時也投資了我們現有的投資組合。正如您可以從我們的全年指導中推測的那樣，我們預計隨著我們在本財年剩餘時間的繼續，這種情況將會有所緩解。最後，也是最重要的是，我們相信我們的品牌和業務的健康狀況仍然強勁，消費者外賣趨勢就證明了這一點。我們仍然堅信，我們擁有市場上最好的投資組合和最優秀的人才，正是這種信心使我們能夠重申 2024 財年的全年展望。

With this backdrop, let me quickly walk you through our high-level results for the first quarter. From a top line perspective, our reported and organic top line results were below our longer-term historical trends. Much of this is being driven by the comparison to the strong double-digit top line growth in the first quarter of last year. You'll recall our glass supply significantly increased in the spring and summer of 2022 which allowed us to rebuild distributor inventories, which created a strong comparison for the first quarter of this fiscal year.

在此背景下，讓我快速向您介紹我們第一季度的高水平業績。從營收角度來看，我們的報告和有機營收結果低於我們的長期歷史趨勢。這很大程度上是由於與去年第一季度強勁的兩位數收入增長相比推動的。您會記得我們的玻璃供應量在 2022 年春季和夏季顯著增加，這使我們能夠重建經銷商庫存，這與本財年第一季度形成了強有力的比較。

Our gross margin expanded with favorable price mix and the removal of the U.K. tariffs. These gains more than offset increased input costs, foreign exchange headwinds and the impact of our recent acquisitions.

由於有利的價格組合和英國關稅的取消，我們的毛利率有所擴大。這些收益足以抵消投入成本的增加、外匯不利因素以及我們最近收購的影響。

In the first quarter, we also made significant investments behind our brands and our people which resulted in a year-over-year decrease in reported and organic operating income.

在第一季度，我們還對我們的品牌和員工進行了大量投資，導致報告和有機營業收入同比下降。

Now let's go into each of the P&L items a little bit more. I'll briefly provide a few more details on the top line from a brand perspective, and then I'll turn it over to Leanne who will share additional insights on our geographic performance as well as other financial heights before closing with some comments on our fiscal 2024 outlook.

現在讓我們進一步了解每個損益項目。我將從品牌角度簡單地提供一些關於營收的更多細節，然後我將把它交給Leanne，她將分享關於我們的地理表現以及其他財務高度的更多見解，最後對我們的業務發表一些評論。 2024 財年展望。

Our reported net sales growth increased 3% with organic net sales growth increasing 2% after adjusting for the recent acquisitions and the negative effect of foreign exchange. Organic net sales growth in the quarter was driven by the continued growth for Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Apple and El Jimador. This growth was partially offset by declines related to the estimated net decrease in distributor inventories, particularly for brands such as Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Fire and Gentleman Jack as we cycled against the significant inventory rebuild in the first quarter of last year.

調整近期收購和外彙的負面影響後，我們報告的淨銷售額增長了 3%，有機淨銷售額增長了 2%。本季度的有機淨銷售額增長是由 Jack Daniel's 田納西威士忌、Jack Daniel's 田納西蘋果和 El Jimador 的持續增長推動的。這一增長被經銷商庫存估計淨減少相關的下降所部分抵消，尤其是 Woodford Reserve、Jack Daniel's Tennessee Fire 和 Gentleman Jack 等品牌，因為我們對去年第一季度的庫存大幅重建進行了循環。

In total, we estimate that the net change in distributor inventories had a 6% impact on our overall top line results. If you were to factor in the net change in distributor inventory, our net sales growth would have actually been above our long-term growth expectations. As I mentioned earlier, we believe our business is strong.

總的來說，我們估計經銷商庫存的淨變化對我們的整體營收結果產生了 6% 的影響。如果考慮到經銷商庫存的淨變化，我們的淨銷售額增長實際上會高於我們的長期增長預期。正如我之前提到的，我們相信我們的業務很強勁。

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey led our growth as organic net sales increased 2% after lapping organic net sales increase of 21% in the prior year period. We believe the consumer demand is normalizing and estimate that the growth rate on Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey in the first quarter was lower by approximately 2 percentage points due to the net change in distributor inventory. Growth continues to benefit from our pricing strategy as well as our revenue growth management initiatives.

傑克丹尼田納西威士忌引領了我們的增長，有機淨銷售額繼去年同期有機淨銷售額增長 21% 後增長了 2%。我們認為消費者需求正在正常化，並估計由於分銷商庫存的淨變化，傑克丹尼田納西威士忌第一季度的增長率下降了約2個百分點。增長繼續受益於我們的定價策略以及收入增長管理舉措。

Second, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Apple grew organic net sales more than 50% as we lap the impact of the glass supply constraints in the year ago period, and we're better able to meet consumer demand, particularly in markets such as Brazil. The brand also benefited from a strong launch in South Korea. Demand for Tequila, particularly in the U.S., remains strong. El Jimador was the third largest contributor to overall company organic growth, increasing organic net sales 26%.

其次，Jack Daniel 的田納西州蘋果公司的有機淨銷售額增長了 50% 以上，因為我們克服了去年玻璃供應限制的影響，並且我們能夠更好地滿足消費者需求，特別是在巴西等市場。該品牌還受益於在韓國的強勢推出。對龍舌蘭酒的需求，尤其是在美國，仍然強勁。 El Jimador 是公司整體有機增長的第三大貢獻者，有機淨銷售額增長了 26%。

We continue to see strong momentum in our ready-to-drink portfolio, which grew organic net sales 5%. This was led by the launch of Jack Daniel's in Coca-Cola and the continued growth of new mix which performed well as the RTD category in Mexico is growing and the brand is increasing share. The growth was partially offset by planned declines in Jack & Cola as the market's prepared for the Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola launch. I know there's been tremendous energy and curiosity around our new Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola RTD. So I thought I'd share a bit more detail on the continued launch.

我們的即飲產品組合繼續保持強勁勢頭，有機淨銷售額增長了 5%。這是由可口可樂中傑克丹尼的推出以及新產品的持續增長帶動的，隨著墨西哥即飲飲料類別的增長和該品牌份額的增加，新產品的表現良好。由於市場正在為傑克丹尼和可口可樂的推出做好準備，傑克可樂計劃的下降部分抵消了這一增長。我知道人們對我們的新傑克丹尼和可口可樂 RTD 充滿了巨大的活力和好奇心。所以我想我應該分享更多有關持續發布的細節。

Impressively, the global volume has already grown to 1.8 million cases across 11 markets, led by the U.S. and Japan. As we've shared before, some markets are being led by Brown-Forman, whereas others are being led by the Coca-Cola Company. Therefore, this total case volume is not reflected in our 9-liter depletion results.

令人印象深刻的是，全球 11 個市場的感染量已增至 180 萬例，其中以美國和日本為首。正如我們之前分享的，一些市場由布朗福曼公司領導，而另一些市場則由可口可樂公司領導。因此，這個總箱體積並未反映在我們的 9 升消耗結果中。

We expect that this total volume will continue to grow as we plan to expand from 11 to 30 markets by the end of calendar 2024. In the U.S., the Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola RTD launch has been the most successful launch in Brown-Forman history, having achieved the second highest level of off-premise distribution across the portfolio only behind Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.

我們預計這一總銷量將繼續增長，因為我們計劃到 2024 年年底將市場從 11 個擴大到 30 個。在美國，傑克丹尼和可口可樂 RTD 的推出是 Brown-Forman 最成功的推出歷史上，在整個產品組合中實現了第二高的場外分銷水平，僅次於傑克丹尼田納西威士忌。

Today, it has reached over 2% of the RTD categories value share. And overall, we're pleased with the initial launch of this iconic product and believe our success is driven in part by the strong investment behind the launch including significant investments in broad-reach media, events and trade execution. As the launch evolves, we would naturally expect this investment to normalize.

如今，它已達到 RTD 類別價值份額的 2% 以上。總的來說，我們對這款標誌性產品的首次推出感到高興，並相信我們的成功部分歸功於推出背後的大力投資，包括對廣泛媒體、活動和交易執行的大量投資。隨著產品發布的進展，我們自然會期望這項投資能夠正常化。

We're also excited by the brand visibility, the market share gains and the positive feedback from distributors, retailers and most importantly, consumers. I must say, you know you're doing something right when consumers start wearing your spirit brands. And I just saw a picture of the first reported Jack & Coke RTD Tattoo. The loyalty of our Jack Daniel's fans is strong and impressive.

我們還對品牌知名度、市場份額的增長以及分銷商、零售商以及最重要的消費者的積極反饋感到興奮。我必須說，當消費者開始佩戴您的烈酒品牌時，您就知道您正在做正確的事情。我剛剛看到了第一個報導的 Jack & Coke RTD Tattoo 的照片。我們傑克丹尼粉絲的忠誠度非常高，令人印象深刻。

The Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola RTD has been a strong addition to the portfolio, which as you know we have been very strategically reshaping over the last couple of decades to focus on premium and super premium brands. We continue to believe this premiumization provides us with the best opportunity for long-term growth and value creation.

傑克丹尼和可口可樂 RTD 是該產品組合的有力補充，如您所知，我們在過去幾十年中一直在戰略性地重塑該產品組合，以專注於高端和超高端品牌。我們仍然相信這種高端化為我們提供了長期增長和價值創造的最佳機會。

The integration of our newest brands, Gin Mare and Diplomático continues to go well. The brands increased reported net sales in the first quarter by 2%, and we continue to expect these brands will be meaningful contributors to our long-term growth.

我們最新品牌 Gin Mare 和 Diplomático 的整合繼續順利進行。這些品牌第一季度報告的淨銷售額增長了 2%，我們仍然預計這些品牌將為我們的長期增長做出有意義的貢獻。

Also as a part of this portfolio evolution, we announced the sale of Finlandia Vodka earlier in the quarter. Finlandia has played an important role in the global growth of Brown-Forman since it joined our portfolio fully in 2004, and we appreciate the many talented employees who worked hard over the 2 decades to build the brand. We know this brand will continue to evolve in the capable hands of Coca-Cola HBC when the sale closes in the second half of the 2023 calendar year.

作為該產品組合演變的一部分，我們在本季度早些時候宣佈出售芬蘭伏特加。自 2004 年完全加入我們的投資組合以來，Finlandia 在 Brown-Forman 的全球發展中發揮了重要作用，我們感謝許多才華橫溢的員工在 20 年來努力打造該品牌。我們知道，當 2023 年下半年銷售結束時，這個品牌將在可口可樂 HBC 的有力手中繼續發展。

Before turning the call over to Leanne, I'd also like to add some additional perspective on our gross margins and operating expenses. In the first quarter of 2024, our reported and organic gross profit increased 5%, both ahead of the respected top line growth rates. While we experienced some headwinds in the form of higher input costs and the negative effect of foreign exchange, they were more than offset by the tailwinds of favorable price/mix, lower supply chain disruption related costs and lower tariff-related costs due to the removal of the U.K. tariffs on American whiskey. This resulted in 90 basis points of gross margin expansion in the quarter.

在將電話轉給 Leanne 之前，我還想補充一些關於我們的毛利率和運營費用的額外觀點。 2024 年第一季度，我們的報告毛利潤和有機毛利潤增長了 5%，均高於備受推崇的營收增長率。雖然我們遇到了一些阻力，例如投入成本上升和外彙的負面影響，但這些阻力被有利的價格/組合、供應鏈中斷相關成本降低以及由於取消關稅而降低的關稅相關成本所抵消。英國對美國威士忌徵收關稅。這導致本季度毛利率增長 90 個基點。

We continue to be focused on the execution of our long-term pricing strategy and believe the health and relevance of our brands, supported by our continued brand-building investments will allow us to continue to achieve our strategic priorities.

我們繼續專注於長期定價策略的執行，並相信我們品牌的健康和相關性，在我們持續的品牌建設投資的支持下，將使我們能夠繼續實現我們的戰略重點。

Our brand-building investments were evident in our first quarter as organic advertising expenses grew 14%. This was largely due to the timing of our increased spend to support the launch of the Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola RTD, which, as I mentioned earlier, is significantly skewed to first few months of our fiscal year as well as increased investment for Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.

我們的品牌建設投資在第一季度表現明顯，有機廣告費用增長了 14%。這主要是由於我們增加支出以支持 Jack Daniel's 和可口可樂 RTD 的推出，正如我之前提到的，這明顯偏向於我們財政年度的前幾個月，以及 Jack Daniel's 和可口可樂 RTD 的投資增加丹尼爾田納西威士忌。

We also continue to invest behind our people. Organic SG&A investment increased 12%, driven primarily by higher compensation-related expenses related to organizational changes including our route to consumer expansions, which we believe will support Brown-Forman's long-term success.

我們還繼續投資於我們的員工。有機 SG&A 投資增長了 12%，主要是由於與組織變革相關的薪酬相關費用增加，包括我們的消費者擴張路線，我們相信這將支持 Brown-Forman 的長期成功。

In summary, we're off to a good start in fiscal 2024 and remain optimistic that we can achieve our full year goals. While consumer demand for our brands begins to reflect a normalization back to our more historical trends, we expect to continue to benefit from our long-term pricing and revenue growth management strategies as well as a more normalized cost environment. We're still operating in a highly dynamic world. Yet we have remained agile, focused and committed to the long-term growth of our people, our brands and our business. We take pride in our ability to deliver consistent and reliable growth year after year, decade after decade, and we believe this tradition of excellence will continue in fiscal 2024.

總之，我們在 2024 財年有了一個良好的開端，並對實現全年目標保持樂觀。雖然消費者對我們品牌的需求開始反映出我們更歷史趨勢的正常化，但我們預計將繼續受益於我們的長期定價和收入增長管理策略以及更加標準化的成本環境。我們仍然在一個高度動態的世界中運作。然而，我們仍然保持敏捷、專注並致力於我們的員工、我們的品牌和我們的業務的長期發展。我們為能夠年復一年、十年又十年地實現持續可靠的增長而感到自豪，我們相信這種卓越傳統將在 2024 財年繼續下去。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Leanne and she'll provide more details on our first quarter results.

這樣，我會將電話轉給 Leanne，她將提供有關我們第一季度業績的更多詳細信息。

Thank you, Lawson, and good morning, everyone. As Lawson mentioned, I will provide additional details on our geographic performance, other financial highlights as well as our fiscal 2024 outlook.

謝謝勞森，大家早上好。正如 Lawson 提到的，我將提供有關我們的地理業績、其他財務亮點以及 2024 財年展望的更多詳細信息。

From a geographic perspective, collectively, our emerging international markets continued to deliver very strong double-digit organic net sales growth, driven by Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, particularly in the United Arab Emirates due to increased distribution and strong consumer demand in Türkiye, where the premium whiskey category is accelerating.

從地理角度來看，總體而言，在傑克丹尼田納西威士忌的推動下，我們的新興國際市場繼續實現非常強勁的兩位數有機淨銷售額增長，特別是在阿拉伯聯合酋長國，這是由於土耳其的分銷增加和強勁的消費者需求。優質威士忌品類正在加速發展。

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey led by Türkiye as well as Brazil, where the brand is returning to normal levels of supply and new mix, which continues to grow strong double digits in Mexico, where the RTD category is accelerated, and we are gaining share. As the international airline travel and cruise business continued to return to more normalized growth levels, the travel retail channel grew organic net sales 9%, led by higher volumes of Woodford Reserve. Our business in this channel continues to remain above pre-pandemic levels.

傑克丹尼的田納西州蜂蜜以 Türkiye 和巴西為首，該品牌正在恢復正常的供應水平和新的組合，在墨西哥繼續以兩位數的速度強勁增長，RTD 類別加速增長，我們正在獲得份額。隨著國際航空旅行和郵輪業務繼續恢復到更正常的增長水平，在 Woodford Reserve 銷量增加的帶動下，旅遊零售渠道的有機淨銷售額增長了 9%。我們在該渠道的業務繼續保持在大流行前的水平之上。

Organic net sales for our developed international markets collectively were flat for the first quarter as growth in the United Kingdom, South Korea and Germany was offset by declines in Australia and Japan. Jack Daniel's Tennessee Apple was the largest contributor to growth driven by the successful launch of the brand in South Korea.

第一季度我們發達國際市場的有機淨銷售額總體持平，英國、韓國和德國的增長被澳大利亞和日本的下降所抵消。 Jack Daniel 旗下的田納西蘋果公司 (Tennessee Apple) 是該品牌在韓國成功推出所推動增長的最大貢獻者。

This growth was offset by year-over-year declines for Jack Daniel's RTDs, driven by Australia, where macroeconomic pressures negatively impacted volume growth and the United Kingdom, where we are transitioning from Jack Daniel's and Cola to Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola partially offset the growth in Germany and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, which had strong growth in the United Kingdom, but was negatively impacted by Japan due to an estimated net decrease in distributor inventory where we remain on track for our transition to own distribution on April 1st of this fiscal year.

這一增長被傑克丹尼即飲飲料的同比下降所抵消，澳大利亞的宏觀經濟壓力對銷量增長產生了負面影響，而英國則從傑克丹尼和可樂轉向杰克丹尼和可口可樂，部分抵消了這一增長。德國和傑克丹尼田納西威士忌的增長，後者在英國增長強勁，但由於經銷商庫存估計淨減少而受到日本的負面影響，我們仍有望在今年 4 月 1 日過渡到自己的分銷財政年度。

And for the United States, organic net sales decreased 9% as a result of lower volumes due to an estimated net decrease in distributor inventories of 11%, partially offset by higher prices across our portfolio. As Lawson highlighted, in the first quarter, we cycled against the significant inventory rebuild during the same period last year, which was particularly impactful to the United States market as we focused on rebuilding distributor inventory for brands with substantial volume in the U.S., including Woodford Reserve, Gentleman Jack, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Fire.

在美國，由於分銷商庫存估計淨減少 11%，銷量減少，有機淨銷售額下降 9%，部分被我們產品組合的價格上漲所抵消。正如勞森強調的那樣，第一季度，我們與去年同期的重大庫存重建進行了循環，這對美國市場的影響尤其大，因為我們專注於重建在美國銷量較大的品牌的經銷商庫存，包括伍德福德儲備、傑克紳士、傑克丹尼田納西蜂蜜和傑克丹尼田納西火。

With the rebuilding of finished goods inventory across the 3-tiered system, we accomplished in fiscal 2023, we believe that distributor inventories have returned to more normal levels. The consumer premiumization trend continued to drive demand for our super premium Jack Daniel's products and partially offset the decline.

隨著我們在 2023 財年完成了三級系統成品庫存的重建，我們相信經銷商庫存已恢復到更正常的水平。消費者高端化趨勢繼續推動對我們超高端傑克丹尼產品的需求，並部分抵消了下降的影響。

This included growth from Jack Daniel's Sinatra, our specialty launches such as Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Rye, Barrel Proof and the newest member of our Bonded series, Jack Daniel's Bonded Rye. These products highlight our whiskey credentials and give consumers the opportunity to explore and discover within the Jack Daniel's family while premiumizing the Jack Daniel's family of brands.

其中包括傑克丹尼西納特拉(Jack Daniel's Sinatra) 的增長、我們推出的特色產品，如傑克丹尼單桶黑麥(Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Rye)、桶裝精釀(Barrel Proof) 以及保稅系列的最新成員傑克丹尼保稅黑麥(Jack Daniel's Bonded Rye)。這些產品凸顯了我們的威士忌資質，讓消費者有機會探索和發現傑克丹尼家族，同時提升傑克丹尼家族品牌的品質。

The Tequila category also continued to experience growth in the United States with El Jimador leading the growth of our Tequila portfolio, delivering double-digit organic net sales growth and the launch of Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola RTD drove a high single-digit organic net sales increase for the Jack Daniel's ready-to-drink portfolio.

龍舌蘭酒類別在美國也繼續增長，El Jimador 引領了龍舌蘭酒產品組合的增長，實現了兩位數的有機淨銷售額增長，而Jack Daniel's 和可口可樂RTD 的推出推動了高個位數的有機淨銷售額傑克丹尼即飲產品組合的銷量增長。

From a takeaway perspective, the data reflects a normalization as total distilled spirits as well as Brown-Forman delivered value growth in the mid-single digits, driven by growth in RTDs, Tequila and U.S. whiskey. As Lawson shared, the details of our gross margin expansion and operating expenses for the quarter, I will now turn to our operating income. In total, reported and organic operating income decreased 4% and 6%, respectively, in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, largely driven by the phasing of our operating expense growth, partially offset by our gross margin expansion. These results, combined with a decrease in our effective tax rate and an increase in interest expense resulted in a 7% diluted EPS decrease to $0.48 per share.

從外賣的角度來看，該數據反映了正常化，在即飲飲料、龍舌蘭酒和美國威士忌增長的推動下，全蒸餾酒和 Brown-Forman 的價值實現了中個位數增長。正如勞森所分享的，我們本季度毛利率擴張和運營費用的詳細信息，我現在將轉向我們的運營收入。總體而言，2024 財年第一季度的報告運營收入和有機運營收入分別下降了4% 和6%，這主要是由於我們的運營費用增長階段性推動的，但部分被我們的毛利率擴張所抵消。這些結果，加上我們有效稅率的下降和利息支出的增加，導致攤薄後每股收益下降 7%，至每股 0.48 美元。

And finally, to our fiscal 2024 outlook which we are reaffirming. In what has been a highly dynamic operating environment, we continue to be optimistic. We continue to believe global trends will normalize after 2 years of very strong growth. And while consumer demand for our brands is also starting to reflect more historical trends, we expect to continue to grow on this elevated base as a result of our long-term pricing and revenue growth management strategies as well as the addition of 2 super premium brands, Gin Mare and Diplomático to our portfolio, partially offset by a portfolio mix shift to RTDs.

最後，我們重申了 2024 財年的展望。在高度動態的經營環境中，我們繼續保持樂觀態度。我們仍然相信，經過兩年的強勁增長後，全球趨勢將會正常化。雖然消費者對我們品牌的需求也開始反映更多的歷史趨勢，但由於我們的長期定價和收入增長管理策略以及兩個超高端品牌的增加，我們預計將在這個較高的基礎上繼續增長、 Gin Mare 和Diplomático 加入我們的投資組合，部分被投資組合組合轉向RTD 所抵消。

We'll also note that due to the timing of the Gin Mare and Diplomático acquisitions, which were in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, the contribution of these brands in the first half of fiscal 2024 will only appear in our reported results as the operating activity in this period will be noncomparable year-over-year. Once we lap the acquisitions, the results will then be included in our organic results. While we remain cautious due to the current macroeconomic volatility and the potential impact of inflation on consumer spending, we maintain our belief that the collective strength of our U.S. and international markets, along with the travel retail channel should reflect our longer-term growth algorithm and therefore, reiterate our organic net sales growth expectation for fiscal 2024 in the 5% to 7% range.

我們還要注意到，由於 Gin Mare 和 Diplomático 的收購時間是在 2023 財年第三季度，這些品牌在 2024 財年上半年的貢獻將僅出現在我們報告的業績中：這一時期的經營活動將無法與去年同期相比。一旦我們完成收購，結果將包含在我們的有機結果中。儘管由於當前宏觀經濟波動以及通脹對消費者支出的潛在影響，我們仍然保持謹慎態度，但我們仍然相信，美國和國際市場以及旅遊零售渠道的集體實力應反映我們的長期增長算法和因此，重申我們對2024 財年有機淨銷售額增長的預期為5% 至7%。

Today, we have intentionally highlighted the impact of our results from the strong shipments in the year ago period related to the rebuilding of distributor inventories. As a reminder, we began rebuilding distributor inventories in the second half of fiscal 2022 through the first half of fiscal 2023. I also want to remind you of the stronger shipments associated with the launch of Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola RTD in the United States in the back half of fiscal 2023 will have to be lapped in the second half of fiscal 2024. Both are reflected in our guidance. We believe inflation will continue to negatively impact our input cost which will partially be offset by lower year-over-year costs associated with the supply chain disruption we incurred in fiscal 2023.

今天，我們特意強調了去年同期強勁出貨量與經銷商庫存重建對我們業績的影響。謹此提醒，我們從 2022 財年下半年到 2023 財年上半年開始重建分銷商庫存。我還想提醒您，傑克丹尼和可口可樂 RTD 在美國的推出帶來了強勁的出貨量2023 財年下半年的計劃必須在2024 財年下半年完成。兩者都反映在我們的指導中。我們認為，通脹將繼續對我們的投入成本產生負面影響，但 2023 財年供應鏈中斷導致的同比成本下降將部分抵消這一影響。

On the topic of input cost I'd like to take a moment here to share some thoughts on the recent changes in the (inaudible) pricing. As we have discussed with you over the last few quarters, given the increase in tequila demand, there was a significant increase in the number of planting several years ago. We have long believed that this would lead to an eventual increase in supply and subsequent decrease in cost, assuming the tequila category remained strong.

關於投入成本的話題，我想花點時間分享一些關於最近（聽不清）定價變化的想法。正如我們在過去幾個季度與您討論的那樣，鑑於龍舌蘭酒需求的增加，幾年前的種植數量大幅增加。我們長期以來一直相信，假設龍舌蘭酒類別保持強勁，這將最終導致供應增加和隨後成本下降。

In the last 3 months, we have seen a significant decrease in agave cost from MXN 28 to MXN 30 per kilo to MXN 16 to MXN 18 per kilo depending on the quality of the agave. While we are very encouraged that prices are finally coming down the benefits to our cost of goods sold will not be immediate for 3 reasons.

在過去 3 個月中，我們看到龍舌蘭成本顯著下降，從每公斤 28 墨西哥比索 30 墨西哥比索到每公斤 16 墨西哥比索 18 墨西哥比索，具體取決於龍舌蘭的質量。雖然我們對價格最終下降感到非常鼓舞，但由於 3 個原因，我們的銷售成本不會立即得到改善。

First, we have finished goods inventory produced prior to the reduction in agave prices that need to be sold. Secondly, more than half of our tequila is aged liquid for expressions such as Reposado and Anejo, which will require some time before it is bottled and sold. For our Blanco expression, we will begin to see a benefit more quickly, in addition and as we have shared, we both grow agave internally and source it externally, and this mix can vary based up our needs and the volume growth by expression. So while the overall agave pricing trend is increasingly favorable, we still believe that inflation will be a headwind for our overall input cost in fiscal 2024.

首先，我們在龍舌蘭價格下降之前生產了需要出售的成品庫存。其次，我們一半以上的龍舌蘭酒是陳釀液體，用於Reposado和Anejo等表達方式，需要一段時間才能裝瓶和銷售。對於我們的Blanco 表達，我們將開始更快地看到好處，此外，正如我們所分享的，我們既在內部種植龍舌蘭，又從外部採購，這種組合可以根據我們的需求和表達量的增長而變化。因此，儘管總體龍舌蘭定價趨勢越來越有利，但我們仍然認為通脹將成為我們 2024 財年總體投入成本的阻力。

Turning our attention to the full year operating expenses. Our outlook continues to reflect a normalization of incremental advertising spend aligned with our long-term philosophy for advertising spend to be aligned with our top line growth.

將我們的注意力轉向全年運營支出。我們的前景繼續反映出廣告支出增量的正常化，這符合我們廣告支出與收入增長保持一致的長期理念。

And SG&A growth is still likely to remain higher than historical averages as we continue to expect higher compensation-related expenses and expenses related to the transition to own distribution in Japan. Based on these expectations, we continue to anticipate organic operating income growth in the 6% to 8% range for the full fiscal year. We also expect our fiscal 2024 effective tax rate to be in the range of approximately 21% to 23% and our capital expenditures to be in the range of $250 million to $270 million for the full year.

由於我們繼續預計與薪酬相關的費用以及與在日本向自有分銷過渡相關的費用將會增加，因此銷售管理費用增長仍可能高於歷史平均水平。基於這些預期，我們繼續預計整個財年的有機營業收入增長在 6% 至 8% 範圍內。我們還預計 2024 財年的有效稅率約為 21% 至 23%，全年資本支出將在 2.5 億美元至 2.7 億美元之間。

In summary, we have had a good start to fiscal 2024. The results reflect the continued normalization of consumer demand as well as the comparison against the very strong shipments related to the rebuilding of distributor inventories in the year ago period. They also include the benefit of our pricing strategy and the phasing of our brand investments. While our short-term organic results in the quarter were below our historical trends, we believe our brand and our business are healthy. We remain optimistic as we look ahead to the full fiscal year and are confident in our ability to deliver our near-term goals and our long-term strategy.

總之，我們在 2024 財年有了一個良好的開端。結果反映了消費者需求的持續正常化，以及與去年同期與經銷商庫存重建相關的非常強勁的出貨量的比較。它們還包括我們的定價策略和分階段品牌投資的好處。雖然我們本季度的短期有機業績低於歷史趨勢，但我們相信我們的品牌和業務是健康的。展望整個財年，我們保持樂觀態度，並對我們實現近期目標和長期戰略的能力充滿信心。

This concludes our prepared remarks. Please open the line for questions.

我們準備好的發言到此結束。請打開提問熱線。

(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from the line of Nadine Sarwat with Bernstein.

（操作員說明）。我們的第一個問題來自納丁·薩爾瓦特 (Nadine Sarwat) 與伯恩斯坦 (Bernstein) 的對話。

I'd like to zoom in on the distributor inventory in 2 parts. So the first, could you just quantify how much of the change in distributor inventory was due to the tough comp you highlighted versus how much is due to actual distributor destocking? And if there is a fair amount of actual destocking, what is driving this? And then secondly, are you happy with current distributor stock levels? Or should we be expecting some destocking in the next quarter?

我想分兩部分放大經銷商庫存。因此，首先，您能否量化一下經銷商庫存的變化有多少是由於您強調的​​艱難競爭造成的，有多少是由於經銷商實際去庫存造成的？如果實際去庫存量相當大，那麼是什麼推動了這種情況呢？其次，您對當前經銷商庫存水平滿意嗎？或者我們應該期待下個季度會去庫存嗎？

I'll start with the first part of your question, which is we have talked about the comp that we had in the first quarter compared to the comp that we had in the last -- the first quarter of last year, when we had very strong shipments. And if you go back to our -- what is that point in time with the Schedule C, you would have seen the impact that we had there. So it is partially that we are comping the very strong comp. It's also -- we don't see it as destocking. We have finally gotten our inventory levels back up to what we believe is normal. We've been working on that for a year and bringing you along in that story along the way.

我將從你問題的第一部分開始，我們已經討論了第一季度的薪酬與去年第一季度的薪酬相比，去年第一季度我們的薪酬非常高。出貨量強勁。如果你回顧一下附表 C 的那個時間點，你就會看到我們在那裡產生的影響。因此，部分原因是我們正在打造非常強大的陣容。我們也不認為這是去庫存。我們終於將庫存水平恢復到我們認為的正常水平。我們已經為此努力了一年，並一路帶您參與這個故事。

What we see now is a change in distributor buying patterns in that other part that you're asking about. And it really comes back to, we continue that with lapped everything related to the pandemic. We now have to comp the things related to supply chain disruption. And as we got into supply chain disruption, before that, we had a very consistent cadence and seasonality of our shipments.

我們現在看到的是您所詢問的其他部分的經銷商購買模式發生了變化。真正回到了我們繼續這一點，重複了與大流行有關的一切。我們現在必須比較與供應鏈中斷相關的事情。在此之前，當我們陷入供應鏈中斷時，我們的發貨節奏和季節性非常一致。

But due to the various ways that we determined that we needed to rebuild our distributor inventories, first, prioritizing Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, which would have started in the second half of 2020 and then moving into the first half of 2023, where we were able to prioritize Woodford Reserve, Gentleman Jack and Jack Daniel's flavors, we also prioritized markets for the U.S. first and then Europe and emerging international as we worked our way through the rebuilding of the inventory.

但由於我們確定需要重建分銷商庫存的方式多種多樣，首先，優先考慮傑克丹尼田納西威士忌，該業務將於 2020 年下半年開始，然後進入 2023 年上半年，我們能夠為了優先考慮伍德福德珍藏、紳士傑克和傑克丹尼的口味，我們在重建庫存的過程中還優先考慮了美國市場，然後是歐洲和新興國際市場。

So the cadence and timing of our shipments are abnormal from what we would -- our historic norms. So once we're back into a stable inventory position for long enough, we believe that it will become less volatile and would be kind of backed to our historic norms. But again, for us, we have been working for a year to get back up to that normal level of inventory across the world, and we now believe that we're there. So I hope that helps.

因此，我們的發貨節奏和時間安排與我們的歷史標準不同。因此，一旦我們在足夠長的時間內恢復穩定的庫存狀況，我們相信它的波動性將會降低，並且會在一定程度上支持我們的歷史標準。但對我們來說，我們已經花了一年的時間努力讓全球庫存恢復到正常水平，現在我們相信我們已經做到了。所以我希望這會有所幫助。

Let me try to add on to that, Nadine, a little bit, too, because I do want to make sure everybody sort of -- I get that this is really confusing. And I do make sure reiterate really what Leanne said, that this is a comparison issue though, it is not a destocking, (inaudible) why it's not a destocking because I know that would sort of feel normal at this point.

納丁，讓我試著補充一點，因為我確實想確保每個人都——我知道這真的很令人困惑。我確實重申了 Leanne 所說的，雖然這是一個比較問題，但它不是去庫存，（聽不清）為什麼它不是去庫存，因為我知道在這一點上這感覺有點正常。

So but if you go -- literally, you can go back 3 years, the summer of 2020 into the fall really into the spring of -- I'm talking calendar years here, not fiscals. We -- it was kind of the boom years. It was the post-COVID, Nielsen numbers were up at like 30% for everyone, and there was just an enormous uplift in the entire industry. You get to the summer of '21, it begins to show up in terms of glass shortages. Really for Brown-Forman, it's seemingly worse than everyone else. But we really began to have those challenges in the summer of '21, and it was a challenge for about 8 months, where we ran global inventories down so low, and that would be going so far as to say the consumer inventory, the retail inventories, layers of distributors have got very low and we had out of stocks all over the place.

所以，但是如果你往前走——從字面上看，你可以回到3年前，從2020年的夏天到秋天，真的到春天——我這裡說的是日曆年，而不是財政年度。我們——那是繁榮時期。在新冠疫情之後，尼爾森的數字增長了 30% 左右，整個行業也有了巨大的提升。到了 21 年夏天，玻璃短缺的情況開始顯現。事實上，對於布朗-福曼來說，情況似乎比其他人都糟糕。但我們確實在 21 年夏天開始面臨這些挑戰，這是一個持續了大約 8 個月的挑戰，我們將全球庫存降到如此低的水平，甚至可以說消費者庫存、零售庫存庫存、經銷商層數都非常低，我們到處都缺貨。

We are, at that time, working very hard. We're diversifying our glass supply. We're moving bottling lines. We're doing all sorts of things to try to alleviate the glass shortage and it starts to come back right in the spring of '22. And as Leanne said, we prioritized Jack because at that point, the on-premise is opening around the world and we did not want to miss that. But so Jack Daniel's really begins to move and had a huge year in fiscal '22 and had a big year in fiscal '23 also.

那個時候，我們正在非常努力地工作。我們正在實現玻璃供應多元化。我們正在移動裝瓶線。我們正在採取各種措施來緩解玻璃短缺問題，這種情況在 22 年春天就開始捲土重來。正如 Leanne 所說，我們優先考慮 Jack，因為那時，本地部署正在世界各地開放，我們不想錯過這一點。但傑克丹尼確實開始行動，並在 22 財年度過了重要的一年，在 23 財年也度過了重要的一年。

So Jack gets replenished in the spring and into the early summer, but now you get into the summer of '22, which is the one we're comparing against as we said earlier good for Gentleman Jack, all 3 flavors and basically our whole portfolio really begins to come back online. Now the reason there's not a destock here, this is where it takes -- it doesn't -- you wouldn't think at first, but what was happening because retail inventories were so low that those cases of Woodford and the Gentleman Jack, the entire portfolio got to the distributor warehouse and they were outside the back door in about 20 minutes because the retail environment was so desperate for the product. So our days never crept up. And so we haven't had to take them down. I mean, so it's not a days of inventory issue, and it's not a destocking issue. It's just these comparisons against some crazy quarters. And I'll finish this off, and I don't want to spend that much more time on this. But Q1 of last year, JD, Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey was plus 21%, total company was plus 17%. So you're comping against numbers like that.

所以傑克在春天和初夏得到了補充，但現在你進入了22 年的夏天，這就是我們正在比較的那個，正如我們之前所說的對紳士傑克有好處，所有3 種口味以及基本上我們的整個產品組合真的開始恢復在線狀態。現在這裡沒有去庫存的原因，這就是它需要的地方——它沒有——你一開始不會想到，但發生了什麼，因為零售庫存太低了，伍德福德和紳士傑克的那些箱子，整個產品組合到達分銷商倉庫，大約20 分鐘後他們就從後門出去了，因為零售環境非常需要該產品。所以我們的日子永遠不會過去。所以我們不必把它們拿下來。我的意思是，所以這不是幾天的庫存問題，也不是去庫存的問題。這只是與一些瘋狂季度的比較。我會完成這件事，我不想在這上面花太多時間。但去年第一季度，京東、傑克丹尼田納西威士忌增長了21%，整個公司增長了17%。所以你正在與這樣的數字進行比較。

Q2, just a sort of foreshadow everyone is a big quarter, too. So we have another one as we continue to replenish these inventories through Q2 of last year and then the comps get much, much easier. But it's been a volatile ride. It's been a volatile ride for 5 years. But the business is solid. I think if you look at the Nielsen numbers, in particular right now, they're kind of -- they've normalized. But as we said last quarter, normal is good.

第二季度，只是一種預示，​​每個人都是一個大季度。因此，我們有另一個，因為我們在去年第二季度繼續補充這些庫存，然後比較變得更加容易。但這是一段不穩定的旅程。五年來，這是一段動蕩的旅程。但生意很紮實。我認為，如果你看看尼爾森的數據，特別是現在，它們已經正常化了。但正如我們上季度所說，正常就是好的。

We've got this business, I think, rolling in the right direction and momentum is good and the volatility, we don't love the volatility, but it is there. We've got a little bit longer to go, but I still argue or not argue, but I'm still venture to say that our underlying business is in pretty good shape.

我認為，我們的業務正朝著正確的方向發展，勢頭良好，而且存在波動性，我們不喜歡波動性，但它確實存在。我們還有一段時間要走，但我仍然爭論或不爭論，但我仍然敢說我們的基礎業務狀況相當良好。

All right. That's very helpful. So just to clarify, I know in the release you called out that it was partially due to the comp issue, are you saying that there is no destocking whatsoever? There isn't a change in distributor buying patterns more caution. This is purely a comp cadence issue? And then if you could just clarify what we should expect for Q2? Thank you.

好的。這非常有幫助。因此，澄清一下，我知道您在新聞稿中指出，部分原因是補償問題，您是說沒有任何去庫存嗎？經銷商的購買模式沒有改變，更加謹慎。這純粹是節奏問題嗎？然後您能否澄清我們對第二季度的預期？謝謝。

Yes. So just for clarification, we said partially comping the rebuilding and it's also partially a change in the distributor buying patterns because we are off our normal cadence of shipments our historical trends because of how we chose to prioritize, how we rebuilt our brands and in what markets we were rebuilding those. So over the longer period of time, that will begin to normalize.

是的。因此，為了澄清，我們說部分是在進行重建，部分是經銷商購買模式的改變，因為我們偏離了正常的發貨節奏和歷史趨勢，因為我們如何選擇優先順序，我們如何重建我們的品牌以及在什麼方面我們正在重建這些市場。因此，在較長一段時間內，這種情況將開始正常化。

Our next question comes from the line of Bryan Spillane with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的布萊恩·斯皮蘭 (Bryan Spillane)。

Thanks, operator, and good morning, Lawson, Leanne. So thanks for all of that commentary on inventory. And I guess if I were to sum it up, if you deplete 10 cases, you'll ship 10 cases, right? That's what the plan is built on.

謝謝接線員，早上好，Lawson、Leanne。感謝您對庫存的所有評論。我想如果我總結一下的話，如果你耗盡 10 箱，你就會運送 10 箱，對嗎？這就是該計劃的基礎。

Pretty much.

差不多了。

Okay. And then, Lawson, maybe could you just give a little perspective on depletions in the quarter. Volume depletions were up 1%. And so could you just kind of put that in context of -- is that more or less in line with what you were expecting? Maybe what that looks like relative to the industry? There's a lot of focus right now on volume and volume growth and just what's happening with consumption, not just for Brown-Forman, just more broadly across I know our entire coverage, consumer coverage inverse. So just trying to get a sense of, if you could put that into perspective of just what you're seeing in terms of volume consumption trends and whether kind of a 1% to 2% type depletion is maybe what we should be thinking about in terms of Brown-Forman and maybe just the industry for the year.

好的。然後，勞森，也許您可​​以對本季度的消耗給出一些看法。成交量消耗增加了 1%。那麼您能否將其放在這樣的背景下——這或多或少符合您的預期嗎？也許相對於這個行業來說這是什麼樣的？現在人們非常關注數量和數量增長以及消費發生的情況，不僅僅是布朗福曼，更廣泛的是我知道我們的整個覆蓋範圍，消費者覆蓋範圍相反。因此，只是想了解一下，您是否可以將其納入您所看到的消費量趨勢的角度，以及 1% 至 2% 的消耗是否是我們應該考慮的問題就Brown-Forman 而言，也許只是今年的行業。

I'll add some color to that. And if you look at Schedule B, you can see that really, for the most part, shipments and depletions are aligned except for where you -- we get down to the Jack Daniel's ready-to-drink and that's all about the launch of the Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola in the U.S. So where we are right now is they're in line. Over a longer period of time as shipments over the last few years have been stronger than depletions as we've been working to rebuild inventories. We do expect that depletions would need to come back in line and will exceed our shipments in this year, is what is built into our guidance. So as we think about that, we will continue to update you as we go through the quarters. But right now, we still believe our depletions will be a bit ahead of our shipments as we go through this fiscal year.

我會為此添加一些顏色。如果你看一下附表 B，你會發現，實際上，在大多數情況下，出貨量和消耗量都是一致的，除了你——我們開始討論 Jack Daniel's 即飲飲料，這就是關於推出美國的傑克丹尼和可口可樂所以我們現在的處境是他們在排隊。在較長一段時間內，由於我們一直在努力重建庫存，因此過去幾年的發貨量一直強於消耗量。我們確實預計，今年的消耗量將恢復正常，並將超過我們的出貨量，這是我們指導方針中的內容。因此，當我們考慮這一點時，我們將在每個季度繼續向您通報最新情況。但目前，我們仍然相信，在本財年中，我們的消耗量將略高於我們的出貨量。

I mean, I think, [shared] part a little bit by geography. I mean, the U.S. market, if you look at GDS in Nielsen, it's sort of between 5 and 6, I think. We're right there, too. So the U.S. market, I mean, there's so much noise in the sales numbers, I know. But the U.S. market is in a pretty decent shape. It's definitely being elevated by the RTD piece of things. So I do -- I think it's fair to say the full strength has the -- some of it's comparisons, but the full strength market has softened a little bit.

我的意思是，我認為，地理上有一點[共享]。我的意思是，美國市場，如果你看看尼爾森的 GDS，我認為它在 5 到 6 之間。我們也在那裡。我知道，美國市場的銷售數字有很多噪音。但美國市場的狀況相當不錯。 RTD 肯定會提升它的水平。所以我確實——我認為可以公平地說，全強度有——一些比較，但全強度市場已經軟化了一點。

But it's being made up for us for the most part in our international markets, which continue to be really strong in particularly the emerging markets, which really is in its third year of pretty outstanding growth. That growth is coming from a very wide variety of markets, which is always nice also. It's one of the -- while we are so dependent on Jack Daniel's, when you talk about the international markets, there's so much geographic diversification that for instance, South America and Mexico, we've had an outstanding run and the markets in Eastern Europe that are on really strong runs right now. So we've got really strong pockets of growth coming out of some of the most important markets. U.K. is actually in pretty good shape right now, too, and is delivering well. So no, the business is not turning into a 1% growth. No one is thinking of that.

但我們的國際市場在很大程度上彌補了這一不足，國際市場繼續保持強勁，特別是新興市場，這確實是其增長相當出色的第三年。這種增長來自非常廣泛的市場，這也總是好事。這是其中之一——雖然我們非常依賴傑克丹尼，但當你談論國際市場時，地理多樣化如此之多，例如，南美和墨西哥，我們在東歐市場表現出色。現在的表現非常強勁。因此，我們在一些最重要的市場中獲得了非常強勁的增長潛力。事實上，英國目前的狀況也相當不錯，並且表現良好。所以不，該業務不會實現 1% 的增長。沒有人想到這一點。

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Serotta with Morgan Stanley.

謝謝。我們的下一個問題來自埃里克·塞羅塔 (Eric Serotta) 與摩根士丹利 (Morgan Stanley) 的對話。

With regards to the comment that you made in the press release and on the prepared remarks about declines in the old Jack & Cola offsetting growth in the Jack & Coke launch. If I remember correctly, the previous comments that you made were that Jack & Coke was nicely incremental. So just looking for some color as to why they largely offset in the quarter. Was there a timing issue with getting some of the old Jack & Cola out of the channel or was some of this -- a lot of this growth reported on Coke [stocks] and not yours. Any color into that dynamic would be very, really helpful.

關於您在新聞稿中發表的評論以及關於老款傑克可樂的下降抵消了傑克可樂推出的增長的準備好的評論。如果我沒記錯的話，您之前的評論是 Jack & Coke 的增量非常好。因此，只需尋找一些顏色來解釋為什麼它們在本季度大幅抵消。將一些舊的 Jack & Cola 退出渠道是否存在時間問題，或者是其中的一些問題 - 很多增長都報告在可口可樂[股票]上，而不是你的股票上。任何融入這種動態的顏色都會非常非常有幫助。

Yes. So sure, because this is one of the topics but also is a little bit confusing. So as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, the global volumes, it's about 1.8 million cases across the 11 markets. Now the part -- I think most people know, but a reminder, I guess, some markets are led by Brown-Forman and others are being led by the Coca-Cola Company. So that is what is throwing some of our volume numbers off in the spreadsheet. And I think it's what you're referring to. There are markets where Coca-Cola is taking the lead, and I'll use the U.K. as a good -- probably the clearest example.

是的。當然，因為這是主題之一，但也有點令人困惑。正如我在準備好的發言中提到的，全球銷量約為 180 萬箱，遍布 11 個市場。現在，我想大多數人都知道，但我想提醒一下，一些市場由布朗福曼公司領導，而另一些市場則由可口可樂公司領導。這就是電子表格中一些卷數出現偏差的原因。我認為這就是你所指的。在某些市場中，可口可樂處於領先地位，我將用英國作為一個很好的例子——可能是最明顯的例子。

We had a big Jack & Cola business there, and now we are evolving that over to Jack & Coke. So those sales of the actual sales to the Tescos of the world, will not be on our books anymore, it's going to be on the Coca-Cola's books. It doesn't mean the business is going away, it's just we're taking out the cola and replenishing or replacing it with Jack & Coke. And so that's why the numbers look like they're going down, but that's not really the case. In system-wide, they're not. It's just the way that's being reflected on our financial statements.

我們在那裡有一個很大的傑克可樂業務，現在我們正在將其發展到傑克可樂。因此，世界各地特易購的實際銷售額將不會再出現在我們的賬簿上，而是會出現在可口可樂的賬簿上。這並不意味著業務會消失，只是我們要拿出可樂並補充或用傑克可樂代替。這就是為什麼數字看起來正在下降，但事實並非如此。在整個系統範圍內，它們不是。這正是我們財務報表中反映的方式。

So and I think -- look, I'd also reiterate, I mean, this has been a great launch. It's an iconic product. We are really investing highly behind this launch as is the Coca-Cola Company. And so -- there's been a lot of broad reach media, there's events, there's trade execution, but it's [gone] and it is off to a very strong start.

所以我認為——看，我還要重申，我的意思是，這是一次很棒的發布。這是一款標誌性產品。我們和可口可樂公司一樣，在這次發布上投入了大量資金。因此，有很多影響廣泛的媒體，有活動，有交易執行，但它已經消失了，而且有了一個非常強勁的開端。

So the increased visibility, I think, is important. The market share gains we're getting. We've got a lot of positive factors. So and it's got 2% of the category. In the U.S. It's got 2% share already, and it's only been 3 or 4 months. So it's off to a good start, and we feel pretty good about it. And I think the long-term potential is exciting and a lot of things that it does for the health of the brand, along with the actual business proposal itself. So it's off to a good start.

因此，我認為提高可見度很重要。我們獲得的市場份額不斷增加。我們有很多積極因素。因此，它佔該類別的 2%。在美國已經有2%的份額了，而且才三四個月。所以這是一個良好的開始，我們對此感覺非常好。我認為長期潛力是令人興奮的，它為品牌的健康以及實際的商業提案本身做了很多事情。所以這是一個好的開始。

Great. And then just to follow up on the inventory dynamic. Hopefully, this is one of the last questions on it, but you did mention or you did flag rightfully so, I think some tough comp again in the second quarter. My recollection is the rebuild last year in the second quarter was somewhat less than it was in the first quarter. Am I remembering that correctly, and should we expect some sort of moderation in that year-on-year headwind in the second quarter before all things being equal, should be about neutral in the second half.

偉大的。然後跟進庫存動態。希望這是最後一個問題之一，但你確實提到了，或者你確實正確地標記了，所以，我認為第二季度會再次出現一些艱難的比賽。我的記憶是去年第二季度的重建比第一季度要少一些。我是否記得正確？我們是否應該預期在所有情況相同之前第二季度的同比逆風會出現某種程度的緩和，下半年應該會保持中性。

You're remembering that correctly. And what we're talking about as far as comp is the entire company because we had the really strong shipments in the first half of last year. But you are correct that as we get into the second quarter, the shipments and depletions more normalized. But the one thing we have to remember is, and we'll share this with you every quarter as we get into the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, then we'll have to lap the launch of Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola in the U.S.

你沒記錯。就比較而言，我們談論的是整個公司，因為去年上半年我們的出貨量非常強勁。但你是對的，隨著我們進入第二季度，出貨量和消耗更加正常化。但我們必須記住的一件事是，當我們進入 2024 財年第四季度時，我們將每個季度與您分享這一點，然後我們將不得不在美國推出傑克丹尼和可口可樂。

Yes. I mean, so it is less. Q2, I said a minute ago, Jack was still up 14% in Q2. So it's still -- we've still got high comps, but it is normalizing.

是的。我的意思是，所以它更少。第二季度，我剛才說過，第二季度傑克仍然上漲了 14%。所以我們仍然有很高的競爭力，但它正在正常化。

Our next question comes from the line of Andrea with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自 Andrea 與摩根大通的對話。

This is Drew Levine on for Andrea. So I wanted to pick up on the U.S. So it looked like underlying trends were up around 2% in the quarter and a loss as you mentioned TDS was up sort of mid-single digit. And the track channels, it looks like even Brown-Forman was stronger than that. So just curious if you can elaborate maybe on what the disconnect there is? And if we just see that sort of delta between the underlying growth rate and what we're seeing in track channels narrow looking ahead?

我是德魯·萊文 (Drew Levine) 替安德里亞 (Andrea) 發言。所以我想關注美國的情況，所以看起來本季度的基本趨勢上漲了 2% 左右，而正如您提到的 TDS 上漲了中個位數，出現了虧損。而賽道通道，看起來連布朗-福爾曼都比那強。所以只是好奇你能否詳細說明其中的脫節是什麼？如果我們只是看到潛在增長率與我們在狹窄的軌道通道中看到的增長率之間的這種差異？

Well, I mean, those numbers never tick and tie exactly. I think the 5% growth number, which includes Jack and Coke, it's a pretty solid sort of result. The U.S. for like a decade has been between 4% and 5% with the exception of these sort of post-COVID years when it really blew up. Yes, the difference between the -- getting from minus 9 on organic basis and adjusting for the distributor inventories is what gets you to the two. I don't know if I can explain that the between the 2 and 5 necessarily. I don't think it's not a huge number.

嗯，我的意思是，這些數字從來不會精確地打勾和聯繫。我認為 5% 的增長數字（其中包括傑克和可口可樂）是一個相當可靠的結果。美國近十年來一直保持在 4% 到 5% 之間，除了新冠疫情爆發後的那些年。是的，從有機基礎上獲得負 9 和調整分銷商庫存之間的差異就是讓你達到兩者的原因。我不知道我是否可以解釋2和5之間的必然性。我認為這不是一個巨大的數字。

It's really about the launch of the Jack and Coke and the buying patterns that are in there. So that's creating a lot of noise in the difference between what you would see in our takeaway trends and what's happening in our net sales. So it's just -- again, as we were coming through and the gap was narrowing over the last few quarters, but then as we launched Jack and Coke and it's not all the way through into those takeaway numbers yet. That's creating the gap for us.

這實際上與傑克可樂的推出以及其中的購買模式有關。因此，您在我們的外賣趨勢中看到的情況與我們的淨銷售額中發生的情況之間的差異造成了很大的噪音。所以，再次，當我們經歷過去幾個季度的差距正在縮小時，但當我們推出傑克和可口可樂時，它還沒有完全進入那些外賣數字。這給我們造成了差距。

All right. Fair enough. And then if I could ask a follow-up on gross margins. So it looks like costs were about 100 bps headwind this quarter moderated from the fourth quarter, which I think was around [320] bps. And you mentioned you'll be lapping a lot of those supply chain mitigation efforts from last year. So can you maybe offer some more color on gross margin expectations looking ahead? Should we think about gross margins potentially over 60% here going forward? And then on the Blanco or agave situation. Is there any sort of way to think about the internal versus external mix of supply there?

好的。很公平。然後我是否可以詢問毛利率的後續情況。因此，本季度成本似乎較第四季度下降了約 100 個基點，我認為約為 [320] 個基點。您提到您將實施去年的許多供應鏈緩解措施。那麼您能否對未來的毛利率預期提供更多信息？我們是否應該考慮未來毛利率可能超過 60%？然後是布蘭科或龍舌蘭的情況。有什麼方法可以考慮供應的內部與外部組合嗎？

Okay. Great. Thanks. So I'll start with our gross margin for the first quarter, which was, as you noted, expanded 90 basis points, and it's where our price/mix more than offset the inflation on our input cost. And it was really driven by our price mix, which was plus 250 basis points that was driven by kind of the price increases across our portfolio that was led by Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. We also still, and I'll just point this out, is the last time I'll have the opportunity to say it is the last of the benefit from the removal of the U.K. tariffs on American whiskey because they rolled off June 1 of '22.

好的。偉大的。謝謝。因此，我將從第一季度的毛利率開始，正如您所指出的，毛利率擴大了 90 個基點，我們的價格/組合足以抵消我們投入成本的通貨膨脹。這實際上是由我們的價格組合推動的，價格組合上漲了 250 個基點，這是由傑克丹尼田納西威士忌主導的整個投資組合的價格上漲推動的。我們仍然，我只想指出這一點，這是我最後一次有機會說這是英國取消對美國威士忌的關稅的最後好處，因為它們於 6 月 1 日開始生效。 22.

And as you pointed out, the impact of inflation on our input cost has been partially offset by supply chain disruption costs. And then so that's a good segue for me to go into the full year. And again, everything I say here is built into our operating income guidance. But we do expect price mix to continue to be a leader for us this year with our long-term pricing and that new growth management strategies. We'll have the -- from a cost perspective, we'll have the absence of the supply chain disruption costs that will be significantly less to zero in F '24. And we'll still have inflation that will negatively impact our input cost in total, but though at a lower level.

正如您所指出的，通貨膨脹對我們投入成本的影響已被供應鏈中斷成本部分抵消。然後這對我進入全年來說是一個很好的延續。再說一遍，我在這裡所說的一切都已納入我們的營業收入指導中。但我們確實預計，憑藉我們的長期定價和新的增長管理策略，今年價格組合將繼續成為我們的領先者。從成本角度來看，我們將不會出現供應鏈中斷的成本，而在 F '24 中，這種成本將大大降低至零。我們仍然會面臨通貨膨脹，這將對我們的總投入成本產生負面影響，但水平較低。

And to your question, I'll talk to you about a couple of our key input items starting with agave. And it really is about what we said. We've been talking about this for a very long time. We're really excited that it's finally starting to come down. We've been looking out there for such a long period of time seeing those large number of plantings and waiting for supply to catch up with the demand, and we are approaching and arriving to that now.

對於您的問題，我將與您討論我們從龍舌蘭開始的幾個關鍵輸入項目。這確實與我們所說的有關。我們已經討論這個問題很長時間了。我們真的很興奮，它終於開始下降了。我們已經觀察了很長一段時間，看到大量的種植面積，並等待供應趕上需求，現在我們正在接近並達到這一目標。

We just wanted to be clear, though, with everybody, though, like we said in our prepared remarks, we do have finished cases in the supply chain -- in the supply chain and our inventory that need to be sold through, and it varies back to how much inventory we have, but generally speaking, that would be 3 to 4 months depending on SKUs. So well, we need to work through that.

不過，我們只是想向大家澄清，就像我們在準備好的發言中所說的那樣，我們確實已經完成了供應鏈中的案例——在供應鍊和我們需要銷售的庫存中，而且情況各不相同回到我們有多少庫存，但一般來說，這將是 3 到 4 個月，具體取決於 SKU。那麼，我們需要解決這個問題。

And then like we talked about for our portfolio of tequilas, Reposado and Anejo and some of our other expression are aged liquid. So we need to continue to let them, go through their aging cycle before they're bottled and the inventory is sold through. But as we get to expressions like Blanco or any nonaged expressions, we'll see that benefit more quickly.

然後就像我們談到的龍舌蘭酒產品組合、Reposado 和 Anejo 以及我們的其他一些產品都是陳年液體。因此，我們需要繼續讓它們經歷陳釀週期，然後再裝瓶並售完庫存。但當我們接觸到像 Blanco 這樣的表達式或任何非老化表達式時，我們會更快地看到這種好處。

So it's really more about the inventory -- moving through the aged liquid and the finished goods inventory. Though there a bit of it will be the mix, just between what do we need to meet our needs. So we do grow our own internal agave. And but where we have needs, we source on the spot market. As you know, we've been clear with that over time.

因此，這實際上更多地與庫存有關——通過老化液體和成品庫存進行移動。儘管其中會有一些混合，只是在我們需要滿足我們的需求之間。所以我們確實種植自己的內部龍舌蘭。但只要我們有需求，我們就會在現貨市場上採購。如您所知，隨著時間的推移，我們已經明確了這一點。

So balancing all those things, I think I'll just say that in a number of months from now, we're going to continue -- we're going to see a meaningful benefit that will come towards the end of our fiscal '24 and well into F '25, which continues to make us excited about as we look ahead because we know agave and the cost of wood have been our 2 biggest challenges over the last number of years as it relates to our costs.

因此，平衡所有這些事情，我想我只想說，從現在開始的幾個月內，我們將繼續 - 我們將在 24 財年結束時看到有意義的好處進入F '25，展望未來，這繼續讓我們感到興奮，因為我們知道龍舌蘭和木材成本是過去幾年我們面臨的兩個最大挑戰，因為它與我們的成本有關。

And just to give you a quick update on wood while I'm here, the commodity cost for wood continues to remain high, but we have made a lot of strategic changes to our wood supply chain that is beginning to benefit us and yield those benefits. And we continue to believe, we are going to continue to see those benefits as we move through '24 and then well into the future as well. So we've got that position well. I'll real quickly hit just in case anybody is curious [bringing] for us, which is largely corn. It's below its peak.

我在這裡只是為了向您快速介紹一下木材的最新情況，木材的商品成本仍然居高不下，但我們對木材供應鏈進行了許多戰略變革，這些變革開始使我們受益並產生這些好處。我們仍然相信，在 24 年乃至未來，我們將繼續看到這些好處。所以我們已經佔據了這個位置。我會很快打，以防萬一有人對我們感到好奇[帶來]，主要是玉米。它低於峰值。

We're expecting it to be stable but well below kind of the prior year's prices. And with the reduction of natural gas and diesel prices, we will still see a bit of a slight increase in our glass cost but less than what we've had. So all in all, this is built into our guidance. And in total, our cost trends are moving and appeared to be moving in a favorable direction for us. So I hope that helps as you think about gross margin where we were for the quarter and kind of where we're thinking for the full year.

我們預計價格將保持穩定，但遠低於去年的價格。隨著天然氣和柴油價格的下降，我們的玻璃成本仍然會略有增加，但會低於我們之前的水平。總而言之，這是我們的指導方針。總的來說，我們的成本趨勢正在發生變化，而且似乎正在朝著對我們有利的方向發展。因此，我希望這對您考慮本季度的毛利率以及全年的毛利率有所幫助。

Our next question comes from the line of Vivien Azer with Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Vivien Azer 和 Cowen 的對話。

I was hoping to ask about advertising spending a little bit. Understanding that the growth this quarter is really a phasing, and we heard you loud and clearly on kind of the longer-term aspiration to grow A&P in line with sales. But Leanne or Lawson, I was just curious how you're viewing the evolution of the competitive dynamic in TBA in the United States, for a whole host of reasons, a number of large public beer companies are stepping up their A&P for the remainder of the year. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about the potential impact on the sell spirit sales as a result and the potential need for you guys to spend more.

我想問一下廣告支出的情況。我們明白本季度的增長實際上是一個階段性的，我們清楚地聽到了您關於 A&P 與銷售額增長的長期願望。但是 Leanne 或 Lawson，我只是很好奇您如何看待美國 TBA 競爭動態的演變，出於多種原因，許多大型上市啤酒公司正在加強其 A&P 的剩餘時間。那一年。我只是想知道你們如何看待這對烈酒銷售的潛在影響以及你們可能需要花更多的錢。

Yes. I mean I had not heard that the beer companies were really stepping up that much. But I do think, as you said, the long-term philosophy is to keep it in step with sales. We have significantly increased our [thought of] spending in the last 2 years by well over a $100 million. And so I think we feel pretty good that we have gotten ourselves in a comfortable place. And I think we can manage the P&L from there. I mean, look, the beer companies are struggling. And so they are -- I'm quite sure they are trying to figure out ways to obviously turn their brands around, some brands are in real trouble. And they're going to find a way to try to spend their way out of that. But I don't see us doing that. And I don't really think, at least in the short term, I don't see much of a reaction out of us because of that. Their challenges are sort of unique to them, and we'll continue to [pop] forward the way we have.

是的。我的意思是，我沒有聽說啤酒公司真的採取瞭如此大的行動。但我確實認為，正如您所說，長期理念是與銷售保持同步。過去 2 年，我們的[考慮]支出大幅增加了 1 億多美元。所以我認為我們感覺很好，我們已經處於一個舒適的位置了。我認為我們可以從那裡管理損益表。我的意思是，看，啤酒公司正在苦苦掙扎。所以他們 - 我很確定他們正在試圖找出明顯扭轉其品牌的方法，一些品牌確實遇到了麻煩。他們將找到一種方法來嘗試擺脫困境。但我不認為我們會這樣做。我真的不認為，至少在短期內，我們不會因此而做出太大反應。他們面臨的挑戰對他們來說是獨一無二的，我們將繼續以我們現有的方式前進。

Yes. And if you don't mind, Vivien, I'll kind of scope back out, and I'll kind of talk about our full year because I think we need to put what happened in Q1 into context with how we're thinking about the full year. So I'm going to go a little bit broader first, just to say, like I've shared, we've left the impact of the pandemic to a more normalized level, and we're on that elevated base. We're still lapping impact of just supply chain disruption. But the reasons we believe that we're going to deliver our full year guidance is we lap those strong shipments of the rebuilding of our distributor inventory.

是的。如果你不介意的話，Vivien，我會稍微回顧一下我們全年的情況，因為我認為我們需要將第一季度發生的事情與我們的想法結合起來全年。因此，我首先要說得更廣泛一些，只是想說，就像我所分享的那樣，我們已經將大流行的影響保持在一個更加正常化的水平，而且我們正處於這個較高的基礎上。我們仍在研究供應鏈中斷的影響。但我們相信我們將提供全年指導的原因是我們利用了經銷商庫存重建帶來的強勁出貨量。

And like we talked about here today, once we adjust for the estimated net change in distributor inventories that you've seen on Schedule D, we believe our brands and our business are really healthy. So I'll tie that back to how we're investing in it. The investment really kind of came with the launch of Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola in the U.S. We are getting ready to launch that in September, which is just a few days away in Germany. So when Lawson said in his prepared remarks that the majority of that hit in the first few months of the year, is to support those launches, and we're going to get back to that normal trend.

就像我們今天在這裡討論的那樣，一旦我們根據您在附表 D 中看到的經銷商庫存的估計淨變化進行調整，我們相信我們的品牌和業務確實非常健康。因此，我會將其與我們的投資方式聯繫起來。這項投資實際上是隨著 Jack Daniel’s 和可口可樂在美國推出而帶來的。我們正準備在 9 月份推出這兩款產品，幾天后在德國推出。因此，當勞森在他準備好的講話中表示，今年頭幾個月的大部分打擊都是為了支持這些發佈時，我們將回到正常趨勢。

But I think it's important to go ahead and say, for our full year, we've got our pricing and our revenue strategies, we've got the addition in the back half of the year. That's not in the first half of the year, which is the impact of Gin Mare and Diplomático that will be moving into our organic results.

但我認為重要的是，我們已經制定了全年的定價和收入策略，並在下半年進行了補充。這不是今年上半年的事，而是 Gin Mare 和 Diplomático 的影響，這些影響將進入我們的有機結果。

So we feel good about our top line guidance. We also feel good about the absence of supply chain disruptions and the costs associated with that. We feel good that from a full year perspective, we will invest in our brands in a way that lands with how we planned it, which is in line with top line growth that heavily skewed to the front end. And that, we've said this already, but from an operating expense perspective, SG&A, we continue to invest in our route to consumers. We know that's Japan and also Slovakia for fiscal 2024. And we've got all this built into our guidance. So even with all the noise that we're talking through today, we believe we're going to land our operating income growth at that 6% to 8%.

因此，我們對我們的營收指導感到滿意。我們還對沒有供應鏈中斷以及與之相關的成本感到滿意。我們感覺很好，從全年的角度來看，我們將以符合我們計劃的方式投資我們的品牌，這與嚴重偏向前端的營收增長一致。我們已經說過了，但從運營費用、SG&A 的角度來看，我們繼續投資於面向消費者的路線。我們知道 2024 財年是日本和斯洛伐克。我們已將所有這些納入我們的指導中。因此，即使我們今天討論的噪音很大，我們仍然相信我們的營業收入增長率將達到 6% 到 8%。

In fact one more comment on the beer versus spirits thing more to the RTD world. I think it's just -- and they need to advertise because the malt-based RTD is obviously have gone through a huge amount of (inaudible) in the last few years where they exploded and then they've taken a sharp dive. Most a lot of it is coming at the expense of the spirit-based RTDs which I just -- I found interesting. I don't think any of us predicted that to happen. But I think at the end of the day, the consumer is willing to pay more substantially more for spirit-based RTD, than a malt-based RTD because they taste better.

事實上，對於 RTD 界來說，關於啤酒與烈酒的更多評論更重要。我認為這只是 - 他們需要做廣告，因為基於麥芽的 RTD 顯然在過去幾年中經歷了巨大的（聽不清），它們爆炸了，然後急劇下降。其中大部分都是以犧牲基於烈酒的 RTD 為代價的，我只是覺得這很有趣。我認為我們中沒有人預料到會發生這種情況。但我認為歸根結底，消費者願意為烈酒 RTD 支付比麥芽 RTD 更高的價格，因為它們味道更好。

And that is making the numbers get a little bit wild in the world of Nielsen and all the rest of it. But I think we have -- we, not Brown-Forman, but I mean, the industry is showing that the consumer is willing to pay a little bit more for something that tastes really good. And it's been interesting to watch those dynamics.

這使得尼爾森和其他公司的世界中的數字變得有點瘋狂。但我認為我們——我們，不是布朗福曼公司，但我的意思是，這個行業表明消費者願意為味道真正好的東西多付一點錢。觀察這些動態很有趣。

Absolutely. If I could just squeeze in a quick follow-up on Japan specifically. We've observed Brown-Forman evolve the route-to-market process in a number of different markets historically. I've never seen this much dislocation. So can you just help us think through the 80% decline in Japan and how that evolves over the course of the year?

絕對地。如果我能抽出時間專門針對日本進行快速跟進就好了。我們觀察到 Brown-Forman 歷史上在許多不同市場中發展了進入市場的流程。我從未見過如此嚴重的錯位。那麼您能否幫助我們思考一下日本 80% 的下降以及這一情況在這一年中的變化情況？

Yes. So again, we've been working, again, scoping out, working on our, increasing our route to consumer into own distribution models for quite some time. We've had prior to 2020 -- fiscal 2024, we've had 14 markets move into own distribution. We've seen a lot of success. They deliver a lot of things like they fuel our growth, strengthen our position. They do unlock value for us, and we're continuing to move forward in that. So specifically, in this year as it relates to Japan, we are in the process of transition. We know that if you were to look at a year ago period, we were with our distributor partner. We had inventory in that market to supply the sales, and we're going through just the transition. And so as we -- again, all of this is built into our full year plan. But again, at fiscal 2024 for us is going to be a year of transition in Japan. And with that, we have SG&A costs associated with it, and we have a bit of volatility in our inventory levels as we make that transition.

是的。因此，在相當長的一段時間裡，我們一直在努力，再次，確定範圍，努力將我們的途徑增加到我們自己的分銷模式中。在 2020 年之前 - 2024 財年，我們已經有 14 個市場進入了自己的分銷模式。我們已經看到了很多成功。他們提供了很多東西，比如推動我們的成長、鞏固我們的地位。他們確實為我們釋放了價值，我們將在這方面繼續前進。具體來說，今年與日本相關，我們正處於轉型過程中。我們知道，如果你看看一年前的時期，我們和我們的經銷商合作夥伴在一起。我們在該市場有庫存來供應銷售，我們正在經歷轉型。因此，我們再次將所有這些都納入我們的全年計劃中。但同樣，2024 財年對我們來說將是日本的轉型年。隨之而來的是，我們有與之相關的銷售、一般行政費用 (SG&A) 成本，而且在轉型過程中，我們的庫存水平會出現一些波動。

Our next question comes from the line of Bill Kirk with ROTH MKM.

我們的下一個問題來自 Bill Kirk 和 ROTH MKM 的對話。

I wanted to ask about your inventory levels, not necessarily the distributor levels. Naturally, they're up from the glass shortage error. You highlighted that. However, if I go back further, I have the days up about 25% over fiscal '19. So I guess, how do you feel about the amount of inventory you hold?

我想問的是你們的庫存水平，不一定是經銷商的水平。當然，他們已經擺脫了玻璃短缺的錯誤。你強調了這一點。然而，如果我再往前追溯，我的日子比 19 財年增長了約 25%。所以我想，您對自己持有的庫存量有何看法？

So what I would say and you can probably see some of this on a cash flow statement is that, again, as we compare to a prior year period where we were working really, really hard to get all of the supply chain replenished with finished goods inventory. We now have what we've talked about, all of the parts of the chain replenished, including our own inventory. We go into probably the important holiday selling period ready to supply that. So we believe by the time, it's a bit high right now, again, if you look for our own inventories. But as we go through the holiday period, we will, by the end of the year, our plan is that we have that work down and then our own inventories, too, are back in the normal. That's the last piece of the chain that we will be normalizing and we are ready to make those shipments for the holiday season.

所以我要說的是，你可能可以在現金流量表上看到其中的一些內容，與去年同期相比，我們非常非常努力地為所有供應鏈補充成品存貨。我們現在已經實現了我們所說的，供應鏈的所有部分都得到了補充，包括我們自己的庫存。我們可能會進入重要的假日銷售期，準備供應。因此，我們相信，如果您查看我們自己的庫存，那麼現在的價格再次有點高。但是，當我們度過假期期間時，我們的計劃是，到今年年底，我們會完成這項工作，然後我們自己的庫存也恢復正常。這是我們將正常化的最後一個環節，我們已準備好在假期期間發貨。

Okay. Excellent. And then there were 2 comments I want to try to tie together. I think Lawson, you made both of them. One was you mentioned that absent distributor inventory changes, net sales would have been above long-term growth expectations. But you also suggested that 1% depletions are below what people should expect going forward. So I guess how are the net sales ex-shipment timing above long term, but the completions below long term? I'm having a little trouble with those 2 comments.

好的。出色的。然後我想嘗試將兩條評論聯繫在一起。我認為勞森，這兩件事都是你做的。一是您提到，如果沒有經銷商庫存變化，淨銷售額將高於長期增長預期。但您也表示 1% 的消耗率低於人們未來的預期。所以我猜淨銷售發貨時間高於長期，但完成情況低於長期？我對這兩條評論感到有點麻煩。

Well, that's just going straight to that Schedule D. So that's where we would I think Leanne said, if you adjust the distributor inventory topic, we'd be running it at an 8% top line. So that's the reference to the higher than sort of -- higher than historical norms in terms of sales growth. And that's the part that gets -- honestly gets us feeling confident because that number is pretty healthy.

嗯，這就是直接進入附表 D。所以我認為 Leanne 說的就是這個，如果你調整經銷商庫存主題，我們將以 8% 的頂線運行。因此，這指的是銷售增長高於歷史正常水平。老實說，這讓我們感到自信，因為這個數字相當健康。

Now the 1%, I think we talked about that a few minutes ago, there's a lot of RTD movement in there, it's suppressing it. And the other part of it is volumes. We've taken a lot of pricing. I think that contributes to it too because we're getting more of our sales growth now is coming from pricing than it has over the historical periods. So it's a little bit of a balance.

現在是 1%，我想我們幾分鐘前就談到過，那裡有很多 RTD 運動，它正在壓制它。另一部分是卷。我們已經採取了很多定價。我認為這也對此有所貢獻，因為我們現在的銷售增長更多來自定價，而不是歷史時期。所以這有點平衡。

Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Powers with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的斯蒂芬·鮑爾斯（Stephen Powers）。

I had 2 follow-ups on 2 different questions. The first one, just quickly on the agave topic, Leanne. Is there a way to summarize or quantify the percentage of the company's agave needs that you currently have the capacity to self-grow versus source externally?

我對兩個不同的問題進行了兩次跟進。第一個，快速討論龍舌蘭話題，Leanne。有沒有辦法總結或量化您目前有能力自行種植與外部採購的公司龍舌蘭需求的百分比？

We've never shared that then and it changes over time depending on the category, demand, our finished goods inventory, our liquid inventory. So it does ebb and flow and we do grow our own and we supplement it with the external as we see demand above what we are able to grow ourselves and then our sourcing strategy that's implied in there. So again, we are excited that is finally coming down, that supply is coming on. We continue to think that, that's going to be a tailwind for us as we move through F '24 and well through F '25.

我們從未分享過這一點，並且它會隨著時間的推移而變化，具體取決於類別、需求、我們的成品庫存、我們的液體庫存。因此，它確實會潮起潮落，我們確實會發展自己的產品，並用外部來補充它，因為我們看到需求高於我們自身的發展能力，然後是我們隱含的採購策略。所以，我們再次感到興奮的是，供應終於下降了，供應即將開始。我們仍然認為，當我們度過 F '24 和 F '25 時，這將成為我們的順風。

Okay. Okay. Fair enough. And then probably Lawson for you. On Jack & Coke, I was wondering if you could talk at all about through the incremental distribution gains, new launches that are planned over the balance of the fiscal year, that should I think at least partially offset the tougher comp in the fourth quarter as you lap the U.S. launch. Any perspective there would be helpful. But also, love, if you have it, any details on consumer repeat rates or what have you. The trial has been great. Just curious as to how much of the demand we are seeing is incremental, like first-time trial versus repeated consumption.

好的。好的。很公平。然後可能是勞森給你。關於傑克可口可樂，我想知道您是否可以通過增量分配收益來談論本財年剩餘時間計劃的新產品推出，我認為這至少應該部分抵消第四季度更艱難的競爭，因為你在美國發射了。任何觀點都會有幫助。而且，親愛的，如果你有的話，關於消費者重複率的任何詳細信息或者你有什麼。審判很棒。只是好奇我們看到的需求有多少是增量的，比如首次試用與重複消費。

All right. Let me answer the second one, first a little bit because it is -- we were obviously getting prepared for this, I knew that question would come. It was very difficult to get sort of terms of repeat purchase rates. It's just too early. We're getting massive distribution flow and that has been impressive and very good. And so we've essentially reached most of our goals in a pretty short period of time. But we just don't have that. We'll have that -- I assume by next quarter, we'll probably have some indications on that, that will be a little bit better, but it's just playing too early.

好的。讓我回答第二個問題，首先回答一點，因為我們顯然已經為此做好了準備，我知道這個問題將會出現。獲得重複購買率的條款非常困難。還太早了。我們獲得了大量的分銷流量，這令人印象深刻且非常好。因此，我們在很短的時間內基本上實現了大部分目標。但我們就是沒有那個。我們會做到這一點——我想到下個季度，我們可能會得到一些跡象，情況會好一點，但現在還為時過早。

Now as the year -- as the year goes on, the highlight or the highlights, I guess, we've launched in the U.K. We've launched in Spain and Poland, and all has gone pretty well, and I think we've talked about that. We're really, the big one that's coming is Germany. So that's going to happen in September. And Germany is a very large RTD market for Brown-Forman. And so sort of getting that right is obviously going to be very important, but that will be exciting to watch, and we'll see how that goes.

現在，隨著時間的推移，我想，亮點或亮點，我們已經在英國推出了，我們已經在西班牙和波蘭推出了，一切都進展順利，我認為我們已經談到了這一點。我們真的，即將到來的大事是德國。這將在九月發生。對於 Brown-Forman 來說，德國是一個非常大的 RTD 市場。因此，正確地做到這一點顯然非常重要，但這將令人興奮，我們將看看事情進展如何。

And then Coca-Cola is taking it in a lot of other -- getting bigger in a lot of other markets, places like Japan, we talked about the Philippines, the U.K., Poland, Hungary, Netherlands, Ireland. So the international rollout continues throughout this fiscal year.

然後可口可樂正在許多其他市場擴大規模，比如日本，我們談到了菲律賓、英國、波蘭、匈牙利、荷蘭、愛爾蘭。因此，國際推廣將在本財年繼續進行。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to the interest of time, I would now like to turn the call back over to Sue for closing remarks.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，由於時間關係，我現在想將電話轉回給蘇，讓她發表結束語。

Thank you. And thank you to Lawson and Leanne, and thank you to everyone for joining us today for Brown-Forman's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Call. If you have any additional questions, please contact us. We do look forward to presenting at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference next week, and we hope to see many of you there.

謝謝。感謝 Lawson 和 Leanne，感謝大家今天參加 Brown-Forman 的 2024 財年第一季度收益電話會議。如果您還有任何其他問題，請聯繫我們。我們確實期待著下週在巴克萊全球消費必需品會議上發表演講，並希望在那裡見到你們中的許多人。

For those of you that are unable to attend the presentation will be made available as a webcast, accessible via the Brown-Forman corporate website under the section titled Investors, Events and Presentations. We also want to wish everyone an enjoyable weekend, particularly those in the United States that will be celebrating the Labor Day holiday. And on September 2, we hope you will join us in raising a glass as we say happy birthday to our founder, George Garvin Brown. Cheers, everyone. With that, this concludes our call.

對於那些無法參加演示的人，我們將以網絡廣播形式提供，可通過 Brown-Forman 公司網站的“投資者、活動和演示”部分進行訪問。我們還祝愿每個人都有一個愉快的周末，特別是那些將要慶祝勞動節假期的美國人。 9 月 2 日，我們希望您能與我們一起舉杯慶祝我們的創始人喬治·加文·布朗 (George Garvin Brown) 生日快樂。乾杯，大家。我們的通話到此結束。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。