Big Lots Inc (BIG) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, this is Alvin Concepcion, Vice President of Investor Relations at Big Lots. Welcome to the Big Lots fourth quarter conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

早上好，我是 Big Lots 投資者關係副總裁 Alvin Concepcion。歡迎來到 Big Lots 第四季度電話會議。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，正在錄製此會議。

On the call with me today are Bruce Thorn, President and Chief Executive Officer and Jonathan Ramsden, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer.

今天與我通電話的有總裁兼首席執行官 Bruce Thorn 和執行副總裁兼首席財務和行政官 Jonathan Ramsden。

Before starting today's call, we would like to remind you that any forward-looking statements made on the call involve risks and uncertainties that are subject to the company's safe harbor provisions as stated in the company's press release and SEC filings and that actual results can differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

在開始今天的電話會議之前，我們想提醒您，在電話會議上做出的任何前瞻性陳述都涉及風險和不確定性，這些風險和不確定性受公司新聞稿和 SEC 文件中所述的公司安全港條款的約束，實際結果可能會有所不同實質上來自前瞻性陳述中描述的內容。

We would also like to point out that commentary today is focused on adjusted non-GAAP results. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP adjusted results are available in today's press release. The fourth quarter earnings release, presentation and related financial information are available at biglots.com/corporate/investors. A question-and-answer session will follow the prepared remarks.

我們還想指出，今天的評論主要集中在調整後的非 GAAP 結果上。今天的新聞稿中提供了 GAAP 與非 GAAP 調整後結果的對賬。第四季度收益發布、演示和相關財務信息可在 biglots.com/corporate/investors 獲取。問答環節將遵循準備好的評論。

I will now turn the call over to Bruce.

我現在將把電話轉給布魯斯。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. The consumer environment was difficult throughout 2022. High inflation significantly affected consumer behavior, particularly those with lower incomes, who pulled back on discretionary spend in high-ticket items as a result. A post-COVID spend shift away from home-based purchases exacerbated this. Like many others, we did not anticipate such a quick and significant slowdown early in the year. As a result, we overbought inventory and had to engage in unprecedented levels of markdowns to clear it out. To make matters even more challenging, we experienced significant cost pressures, particularly with all-time high freight costs, creating a 1-2 punch on our margins. And in Q4, our furniture sales, especially Broyhill upholstery, were adversely impacted by product shortages related to the closure of our largest vendor, United Furniture Industries, which I will come back to in a moment.

大家早上好，感謝您加入我們。整個 2022 年的消費環境都很艱難。高通脹嚴重影響了消費者行為，尤其是那些收入較低的人，他們因此減少了在高價商品上的可自由支配支出。後 COVID 支出從家庭購買轉移，加劇了這種情況。與許多其他人一樣，我們沒有預料到年初會出現如此迅速和顯著的放緩。結果，我們超買庫存，不得不進行前所未有的降價來清理庫存。讓事情變得更具挑戰性的是，我們經歷了巨大的成本壓力，尤其是在運費處於歷史高位的情況下，這對我們的利潤造成了 1-2 倍的衝擊。在第 4 季度，我們的家具銷售，尤其是 Broyhill 室內裝潢，受到與我們最大的供應商 United Furniture Industries 關閉相關的產品短缺的不利影響，我稍後會回過頭來。

We addressed these challenges head on and took the opportunity to strengthen our business model. This is evident in the sequential progress we have made to improve our margins, tightly manage expenses and rightsize our inventories through the last couple of quarters. Just as importantly, I am optimistic that many of the headwinds I just mentioned have begun to abate and with regard to freight, materially turn.

我們直面這些挑戰，並藉此機會加強我們的業務模式。在過去幾個季度中，我們在提高利潤率、嚴格管理費用和調整庫存規模方面取得的連續進展證明了這一點。同樣重要的是，我樂觀地認為，我剛才提到的許多不利因素已經開始減弱，而在貨運方面，情況發生了實質性轉變。

We have also taken appropriate steps to fully mitigate the impact of the United Furniture supply disruption by the end of the first half of 2023 by sourcing Broyhill and Real Living products through other vendors. We expect the key actions we've taken to strengthen the business over the course of 2022 will gain traction and improve results more significantly in the back half of 2023.

我們還採取了適當的措施，通過其他供應商採購 Broyhill 和 Real Living 產品，到 2023 年上半年末完全減輕 United Furniture 供應中斷的影響。我們預計我們在 2022 年期間為加強業務而採取的關鍵行動將在 2023 年下半年獲得牽引力並更顯著地改善結果。

On that note, I think it's important to spend a moment on some of our key actions and accomplishments in 2022 because they will help accelerate the transformation journey we are on in 2023 and beyond. In regard to inflation, it has obviously made things more difficult for our customers. So our team has accelerated its focus on offering more bargains and treasures to create more incredible value for our customers with an exciting assortment.

關於這一點，我認為花點時間了解我們在 2022 年的一些關鍵行動和成就很重要，因為它們將有助於加速我們在 2023 年及以後的轉型之旅。關於通貨膨脹，這顯然使我們的客戶更加困難。因此，我們的團隊加快了專注於提供更多便宜貨和珍品，以通過令人興奮的分類為我們的客戶創造更多不可思議的價值。

Additionally, we have a strong offering of value-based private brands and have been reducing our opening price points through cost engineering and using our scale and relationships with suppliers. For example, in furniture, most of our opening price points are now at pre-COVID levels. And we are making these bargains even easier to find with end caps and marketing that are clearer than ever before and ticketing that shows comparable value. These initiatives are still rolling out, but we are confident that as they do, they will help drive significant improvement in our business. In fact, we see that our end caps featuring bargains outperform our essentials end caps and weekly average sales by over 30%. We are well on our way to reestablishing the incredible value proposition that is a deep part of our heritage, and this will help us serve both existing customers and new ones, particularly those looking to trade down to get a greater value.

此外，我們提供強大的基於價值的自有品牌，並一直在通過成本工程和利用我們的規模和與供應商的關係降低我們的開盤價。例如，在家具方面，我們的大部分開盤價現在都處於 COVID 之前的水平。我們正在通過比以往任何時候都更清晰的封頂和營銷以及顯示可比價值的票務，讓這些便宜貨更容易找到。這些舉措仍在推出，但我們相信，隨著它們的推出，它們將有助於推動我們業務的顯著改善。事實上，我們看到以特價商品為特色的端蓋比必需品端蓋和每周平均銷售額高出 30% 以上。我們正在努力重建令人難以置信的價值主張，這是我們傳統的重要組成部分，這將幫助我們為現有客戶和新客戶提供服務，尤其是那些希望通過降價交易獲得更大價值的客戶。

Meanwhile, in e-commerce, we continue to improve shopability and engagement through removing friction points and enhancing the customer journey. We have also focused on growing profitability in the channel through new tools, such as a new order management system to help us optimize our shipping costs. Our efforts to date have helped strengthen our lead in omnichannel against other off-price retailers, and we will continue to take actions to improve the customer journey and productivity of our operations.

與此同時，在電子商務方面，我們通過消除摩擦點和改善客戶旅程，繼續提高可購物性和參與度。我們還專注於通過新工具（例如幫助我們優化運輸成本的新訂單管理系統）提高渠道盈利能力。迄今為止，我們的努力幫助加強了我們在全渠道方面對其他低價零售商的領先地位，我們將繼續採取行動改善客戶旅程和我們運營的生產力。

In addition, we've made some key hires with a new Chief Merchandising Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, to improve our execution and bring our plans to life. I am thrilled by how Margarita is already revitalizing our merchandise assortment, and that will become apparent in the coming months. Meanwhile, John is bringing a data-driven and highly focused approach to significantly increase the effectiveness of our marketing. It will take several quarters to see the results in our financials, but I'm confident our customers will be as thrilled as I am.

此外，我們還聘請了一些重要人員，任命了新的首席營銷官和首席營銷官，以改善我們的執行力並實現我們的計劃。我對瑪格麗塔如何振興我們的商品分類感到非常興奮，這將在未來幾個月內變得明顯。與此同時，John 正在引入一種數據驅動和高度集中的方法來顯著提高我們營銷的有效性。需要幾個季度才能看到我們的財務結果，但我相信我們的客戶會和我一樣興奮。

Throughout 2022, we were focused on improving margins, reducing expenses, improving our liquidity and being highly disciplined in our investment decisions. As the year progressed, we achieved the sequential recovery in gross margin that we guided to and ended the year with appropriate inventory levels.

在整個 2022 年，我們專注於提高利潤率、減少開支、提高流動性以及在投資決策中嚴格遵守紀律。隨著這一年的進展，我們實現了毛利率的連續復甦，我們指導到年底並以適當的庫存水平結束了這一年。

Turning to some more specifics for the fourth quarter. Our results were in line with or ahead of our guidance on all metrics. Regarding sales, we had hoped to do a little better, but were held back by an unfavorable impact from softness in our Furniture business. The softness in furniture was due to the soft industry demand as well as the product shortages due to the closure of United Furniture. We tightly managed costs and improved our margins sequentially, inclusive of additional markdowns related to accelerated store closures and efforts to clean up slow-moving inventory. We further strengthened our balance sheet and liquidity position by selling some underperforming store locations in the quarter and beating our capital expenditures guidance. I'd like to thank our team for being able to execute in a tough environment once again.

轉向第四季度的更多細節。我們的結果符合或領先於我們對所有指標的指導。在銷售方面，我們曾希望做得更好，但受到家具業務疲軟的不利影響而受阻。家具的疲軟是由於行業需求疲軟以及 United Furniture 關閉導致產品短缺。我們嚴格管理成本並連續提高利潤率，包括與加速關閉商店和清理滯銷庫存相關的額外降價。我們通過在本季度出售一些表現不佳的商店位置並超過我們的資本支出指導，進一步加強了我們的資產負債表和流動性狀況。我要感謝我們的團隊能夠再次在艱難的環境中執行任務。

Looking at specific category performance in the quarter. Seasonal comps declined 5% in Q4. We saw strength in trees, given our breadth of assortment and great prices that we saw weakness in the tree decor categories, which were less differentiated in the marketplace. In Q1, Home & Garden is off to a great start, particularly items like gazebos, where we have stronger market share. This illustrates the opportunity to own key categories or segments. Our Food category was down 3% and the Consumables category was down 9% in the quarter, but we saw improved momentum late in the quarter in beverage and snack categories as we saw the benefit from our rationalized and more productive assortment focused on national brands.

查看本季度特定類別的表現。季節性收入在第四季度下降了 5%。我們看到了樹木的優勢，因為我們看到了樹木裝飾類別的弱點，因為我們看到了種類繁多的品種和優惠的價格，這些類別在市場上的差異化程度較低。第一季度，家居與園藝開局良好，尤其是涼亭等產品，我們在這些領域的市場份額更大。這說明了擁有關鍵類別或細分市場的機會。我們的食品類別在本季度下降了 3%，消耗品類別下降了 9%，但我們看到本季度末飲料和零食類別的勢頭有所改善，因為我們看到了專注於民族品牌的合理化和更高效的分類帶來的好處。

Our Furniture, Soft Home and Hard Home categories were down double digits as it continued to be impacted by consumers delaying or cutting back on higher ticket purchases. Also, as I mentioned earlier, furniture product shortages unfavorably impacted our comp sales in Furniture by about 600 basis points. It also impacted our e-commerce sales as Furniture represents about half of the channel sales. And it likely indirectly affected demand in other home categories because when a customer does not buy furniture at our store, there is also an impact on complementary Soft Home Items.

我們的家具、軟裝家居和硬裝家居類別下降了兩位數，因為它繼續受到消費者推遲或減少購買高票的影響。此外，正如我之前提到的，家具產品短缺對我們的家具銷售額產生了約 600 個基點的不利影響。這也影響了我們的電子商務銷售，因為家具約佔渠道銷售額的一半。它可能會間接影響其他家居類別的需求，因為當顧客不在我們的商店購買家具時，也會對互補的軟家居用品產生影響。

To provide a little context on the product shortage issue. United Furniture Industries was our largest vendor and supplied many upholstery and Broyhill products for us. In late November, they unexpectedly and without advance notice ceased operations and subsequently did not complete shipments, which created product shortages for us in Q4 and to date in Q1. We have made great strides in mitigating our sales and inventory exposure by sourcing through other vendors, which will fill the majority of the gap by the end of Q2. We've expanded our strategic relationship with existing partners and brought on new ones, which has set us up with better product quality, a more trend-right assortment and improved service as well as the direct delivery to our stores.

提供有關產品短缺問題的一些背景信息。 United Furniture Industries 是我們最大的供應商，為我們提供了許多室內裝潢和 Broyhill 產品。 11 月下旬，他們在沒有提前通知的情況下意外停止運營，隨後沒有完成發貨，這導致我們在第四季度和第一季度出現產品短缺。通過從其他供應商採購，我們在減少銷售和庫存風險方面取得了長足進步，這將在第二季度末填補大部分缺口。我們擴大了與現有合作夥伴的戰略關係並引入了新合作夥伴，這使我們擁有更好的產品質量、更符合潮流的分類和改進的服務以及直接送貨到我們的商店。

Within the next couple of quarters, we believe we will have fully mitigated the loss of United Furniture and with better product from more reliable sources, but there is no doubt that the sudden shutdown hurt us in Q4.

在接下來的幾個季度內，我們相信我們將完全減輕 United Furniture 的損失，並從更可靠的來源獲得更好的產品，但毫無疑問，突然停工在第四季度對我們造成了傷害。

I'd now like to turn to an update on the 5 key actions we described last quarter, which are focused on enabling us to better adapt to contiguously evolving customer needs, build upon core competencies and deliver incredible value. They will transform our business and put us on the path to achieving the long runway of growth that we see.

我現在想談談我們上個季度描述的 5 項關鍵行動的最新情況，這些行動的重點是使我們能夠更好地適應不斷變化的客戶需求，建立核心競爭力並提供令人難以置信的價值。他們將改變我們的業務，讓我們走上實現我們所看到的長期增長的道路。

First, we will own bargains and treasures. We continue to make progress on accelerating our efforts to optimize and differentiate our assortment with more great bargains and exciting products. As it relates to bargains, which are closeout items, off-price brands and limited-time deals, it remained a good environment for procurement. We got great bargains in categories such as toys, home appliances, home textiles and furniture. We have continued to see great deals in 2023. And over the past month, we made great purchases in sheet sets, fashion bedding, furniture and apparel.

首先，我們將擁有便宜貨和財寶。我們將繼續取得進展，加快我們的努力，以更優惠的價格和令人興奮的產品來優化和區分我們的產品組合。由於它涉及便宜貨，即清倉商品、折扣品牌和限時交易，因此它仍然是一個良好的採購環境。我們在玩具、家用電器、家用紡織品和家具等類別中獲得了很大的優惠。我們在 2023 年繼續看到大量交易。在過去的一個月裡，我們大量購買了床單套裝、時尚床上用品、家具和服裝。

With regard to treasures, which are more unique, corky, trendy and seasonal items, we are having early success in Q1 with housewares and organizational categories. Between bargains and treasures, we grew our penetration rate, and we are well on our way to achieving our goal to grow our penetration to 2/3 of our assortment.

關於更獨特、軟木、時尚和季節性物品的寶藏，我們在第一季度的家庭用品和組織類別中取得了初步成功。在討價還價和珍品之間，我們提高了滲透率，並且我們正在順利實現我們的目標，將我們的滲透率提高到我們品種的 2/3。

One of the ways we're making room for these bargains is through cutting unproductive SKUs. We cut around 10% of our total SKUs in 2022, and this is making room for branded closeouts. As an example, recent cuts in Soft Home SKUs have created space and open to buy for branded closeouts in sheets, top of bed and pillows from U.S. Polo and Chaps as well as newness across our decor category with closeouts and novelty lighting, mirrors and frames. So that's just one example of how the productivity gains from these reductions will be used to fund more bargains across categories. It also has the benefit of helping provide a more compelling and productive shopping experience, especially in the Food and Consumables categories. So we remain confident that more bargains and treasures will ultimately increase new customer growth and loyalty.

我們為這些便宜貨騰出空間的方法之一是削減非生產性 SKU。我們在 2022 年削減了約 10% 的總 SKU，這為品牌清倉騰出了空間。例如，最近 Soft Home SKU 的削減為 U.S. Polo 和 Chaps 的床單、床單和枕頭等品牌清倉產品創造了空間並開放購買，同時我們的裝飾類別也有新品，包括清倉產品和新穎的照明、鏡子和框架.因此，這只是一個例子，說明這些削減帶來的生產率收益將如何用於資助更多跨類別的討價還價。它還有助於提供更具吸引力和更高效的購物體驗，尤其是在食品和消費品類別中。因此，我們仍然相信，更多的特價商品和珍品最終將增加新客戶的增長和忠誠度。

But having in place the right assortment mix at great prices is just one part of driving customer growth. We also have to find better ways to let customers know that we've got the best bargains. So that leads to the second key action. We will communicate unmistakable value. We are doing this with ticketing and marketing that is clearer than ever before, along with a more effective strategy with our promotions and reach. For example, we have simplified the end caps, which are now nearly entirely focused on bargains and treasures rather than mostly essentials previously. And as I mentioned earlier, these end caps are already performing much better.

但是，以優惠的價格提供合適的分類組合只是推動客戶增長的一部分。我們還必須找到更好的方式讓客戶知道我們有最優惠的價格。所以這導致了第二個關鍵行動。我們將傳達明確無誤的價值。我們正在通過比以往任何時候都更清晰的票務和營銷，以及更有效的促銷和影響力戰略來做到這一點。例如，我們簡化了端蓋，現在幾乎完全專注於討價還價和珍寶，而不是以前的主要必需品。正如我之前提到的，這些端蓋已經表現得更好了。

In January, we began rolling out comparable value messaging in our marketing, signage, website and pricing tags to showcase our value. Currently, the comparable values focuse on items in display locations and our major closeouts, but they will be expanding across all of our bargains over the next 6 months, and they are appearing in our online business.

一月份，我們開始在我們的營銷、標牌、網站和價格標籤中推出可比較的價值信息，以展示我們的價值。目前，可比價值主要集中在展示位置和我們主要清倉的商品上，但在未來 6 個月內，它們將擴展到我們所有的特價商品，並且它們將出現在我們的在線業務中。

We have additional initiatives designed to drive customer trial, frequency and loyalty. For example, over the past few quarters, you've heard us talk about how we would leverage our scale and more deeply partner with our vendor partners to deliver compelling opening price points across our assortment. I'm pleased to say, we have continued to make progress with opening price points in furniture, now at pre-COVID levels across more than 80% of our SKUs. And we expect nearly all of our furniture to see a price revision in Q1 2023. We have adjusted assortments and introduced new products to lower prices through product engineering and cost reductions driven by improvements in freight costs.

我們還有其他旨在推動客戶試用、頻率和忠誠度的舉措。例如，在過去的幾個季度中，您已經聽到我們談論我們將如何利用我們的規模並與我們的供應商合作夥伴更深入地合作，以在我們的產品系列中提供具有吸引力的開盤價。我很高興地說，我們在家具的開盤價方面繼續取得進展，現在我們 80% 以上的 SKU 都處於 COVID 之前的水平。我們預計我們幾乎所有的家具都將在 2023 年第一季度進行價格調整。我們調整了品種並推出了新產品，通過產品工程和運費改善推動的成本降低來降低價格。

Further on the pricing point, we are continuing to implement a new promotional planning tool and processes, which will allow merchants to plan smarter promotions to deliver better results, while spending less markdown dollars. We're also well positioned to provide value as a trade down destination. Our private brands, especially Broyhill, will play a key role in increasing our appeal. Both Broyhill and Real Living represent about 15% of our business across all divisions in Q4 similar to last year despite the impact from the product shortage issue I referenced earlier. Recall that our seasonal customer has a household income that is 2x higher than our core customer. So we see that category as a year-round trade-down opportunity.

在定價方面，我們將繼續實施新的促銷計劃工具和流程，這將使商家能夠計劃更明智的促銷活動以提供更好的結果，同時花費更少的降價錢。我們也有能力提供作為降價交易目的地的價值。我們的自有品牌，尤其是 Broyhill，將在增加我們的吸引力方面發揮關鍵作用。儘管受到我之前提到的產品短缺問題的影響，Broyhill 和 Real Living 在第四季度占我們所有部門業務的 15% 左右，與去年相似。回想一下，我們的季節性客戶的家庭收入是核心客戶的 2 倍。因此，我們將該類別視為全年的降價機會。

Speaking of being a destination, it's also a focus of ours to put more stores in places that we believe customers are underserved so that we can offer them the great bargains and assortment that they deserve. This leads to our third action. We will increase store relevance by leveraging our opportunity in rural and small town markets, where we know we outperform. These rural and small town markets are underserved, particularly in furniture and home categories, where we face less direct competition. We also have a lower cost structure in these markets. Therefore, these typically generate more cash and profitability than urban stores. So as we think about our real estate strategy and store openings and closings in the future, we see an opportunity to reshape our store portfolio more towards serving these rural and small town customers.

說到成為目的地，在我們認為客戶服務不足的地方開設更多商店也是我們的重點，這樣我們就可以為他們提供他們應得的物美價廉的商品。這就引出了我們的第三個動作。我們將利用我們在農村和小鎮市場的機會來提高商店的相關性，我們知道我們在這些市場表現出色。這些農村和小鎮市場服務不足，尤其是在家具和家居類別中，我們面臨的直接競爭較少。我們在這些市場中的成本結構也較低。因此，這些通常比城市商店產生更多的現金和盈利能力。因此，當我們考慮未來的房地產戰略和商店開張和關閉時，我們看到了重塑商店組合的機會，更多地為這些農村和小鎮客戶提供服務。

Through the broader key actions we're taking to strengthen our operations, there is an opportunity to optimize performance across both our successful existing rural and small town stores and our less well-performing urban markets. Near term, we're taking a prudent approach to opening stores and limiting the related capital investment as we will open fewer than 20 new stores in fiscal 2023. But longer term, we believe there is still a significant runway for growth, especially in underserved markets.

通過我們為加強運營而採取的更廣泛的關鍵行動，我們有機會優化我們現有成功的農村和小鎮商店以及表現欠佳的城市市場的績效。近期，我們在開店和限制相關資本投資方面採取謹慎的態度，因為我們將在 2023 財年開設不到 20 家新店。但從長遠來看，我們認為仍有重要的增長空間，尤其是在服務不足的地區市場。

As we better optimize our store fleet, we also want to offer better convenience for those that choose to begin and in some cases, complete the shopping journey online. So that leads to our fourth key action. We will win with omnichannel. What I really should say is continue to win because we already have a lead in omnichannel against other off-price retailers. This is because we've made tremendous progress towards providing a better customer experience in a more profitable way. These efforts have led to increased penetration.

隨著我們更好地優化我們的商店車隊，我們還希望為那些選擇開始並在某些情況下完成在線購物之旅的人提供更好的便利。這導致了我們的第四個關鍵行動。我們將通過全渠道取勝。我真正應該說的是繼續獲勝，因為我們已經在全渠道領先於其他低價零售商。這是因為我們在以更有利可圖的方式提供更好的客戶體驗方面取得了巨大進步。這些努力提高了滲透率。

E-commerce sales represented 6% of our business in 2022 compared to 2%, 3 years ago. E-commerce sales were hurt in the fourth quarter and will be hurt in the first quarter of 2023 by the United Furniture disruption, given the high proportion of furniture sales in the channel, but we're proud of our achievements, and we'll continue to work hard to keep our lead. We are continuing our work to remove friction with improved site navigation and to improve the overall customer experience. For example, we think there's an opportunity to reinvent the customer experience from a one-size-fits-all to a segmented customer journey such as one for a deal seeker versus a furniture buyer. We're also finding ways to improve profitability through reducing our shipping costs.

到 2022 年，電子商務銷售額占我們業務的 6%，而 3 年前為 2%。電子商務銷售在第四季度受到影響，2023 年第一季度將受到 United Furniture 中斷的影響，因為該渠道的家具銷售比例很高，但我們為我們的成就感到自豪，我們會繼續努力保持我們的領先地位。我們正在繼續努力，通過改進網站導航消除摩擦並改善整體客戶體驗。例如，我們認為有機會重塑客戶體驗，從一刀切到細分的客戶旅程，例如交易尋求者與家具買家的旅程。我們還在尋找通過降低運輸成本來提高盈利能力的方法。

Last quarter, we stood up key capabilities from our new order management system to enable a single view of inventory to improve the omnichannel experience. We are now launching into the next phase of the project, which will help us optimize how we fulfill orders, improve the customer experience and optimize our costs.

上個季度，我們從新的訂單管理系統中強化了關鍵功能，以實現庫存的單一視圖，從而改善全渠道體驗。我們現在正在啟動該項目的下一階段，這將幫助我們優化我們履行訂單的方式、改善客戶體驗並優化我們的成本。

We expect the key actions I just described will grow our business significantly over time, but we need -- but we will need to invest in our growth and be able to fund it appropriately. So to reach our goal of growing margins, we also need to drive costs out of the system. That leads to our fifth key action. We will drive productivity.

我們預計我剛才描述的關鍵行動將隨著時間的推移顯著增長我們的業務，但我們需要 - 但我們需要投資於我們的增長並能夠為其提供適當的資金。因此，為了實現我們增加利潤的目標，我們還需要將成本從系統中剔除。這就引出了我們的第五個關鍵行動。我們將推動生產力。

We remain focused on growing margin, reducing expenses and making strong investment decisions. Our cost reduction efforts in 2022 were successful, and we beat our targets with over $120 million in savings with a little over $70 million of those being structural. In 2023, we expect to drive over $70 million of incremental structural savings through supply chain, store labor efficiencies and efficiencies in our corporate organization. This will help us offset significant inflationary impact across SG&A.

我們仍然專注於提高利潤率、減少開支和做出強有力的投資決策。我們在 2022 年的成本削減工作取得了成功，我們超過了目標，節省了超過 1.2 億美元，其中略多於 7000 萬美元是結構性的。到 2023 年，我們預計將通過供應鏈、商店勞動力效率和公司組織效率推動超過 7000 萬美元的增量結構性節省。這將幫助我們抵消 SG&A 的重大通脹影響。

We have also remained focused on improving shrink and have seen an improvement in recent physical inventories as a result of our efforts. Beyond cost cuts, we have other ways to improve our margin profile. You've heard us describe a regional pricing model in California, which will grow to other markets that allows us to flex pricing to improve our competitive position and optimize our margin profile. We also talked about our work in Food and Consumables as well as Hard Home, which indicates an overall $20 million annualized gross margin opportunity that we have been actioning and expect to see continued benefits. A rollout to Soft Home and Furniture will follow. And our balance sheet will also be strengthened by our focus on improving inventory productivity through increasing our turns as well as more efficiencies in CapEx on new store openings.

我們還一直專注於改善收縮，並且由於我們的努力，最近的實物庫存有所改善。除了削減成本，我們還有其他方法可以改善我們的利潤率。您已經聽說我們在加利福尼亞描述了一種區域定價模型，該模型將擴展到其他市場，使我們能夠靈活定價以提高我們的競爭地位並優化我們的利潤率。我們還談到了我們在食品和消耗品以及 Hard Home 方面的工作，這表明我們一直在採取行動並期望看到持續的收益，總計 2000 萬美元的年化毛利率機會。隨後將推出 Soft Home 和 Furniture。我們的資產負債表也將得到加強，因為我們專注於通過增加周轉率以及提高新店開張資本支出的效率來提高庫存生產率。

To sum it up, in 2022, we made meaningful progress in the face of an extremely challenging environment. In 2023, we'll continue to face obstacles, which we will again address with confidence and agility. And while the financial progress in the first half of the year will be slower than we'd like, we're excited about the more significant improvement lined up for the second half of the year as our key actions gain more momentum and more costs come out of the system.

綜上所述，2022年，我們在極具挑戰性的環境中取得了有意義的進展。 2023 年，我們將繼續面臨障礙，我們將再次充滿信心和敏捷地解決這些障礙。雖然今年上半年的財務進展將比我們希望的要慢，但我們對下半年的更顯著改善感到興奮，因為我們的關鍵行動獲得了更多的動力和更多的成本脫離系統。

I'm confident our transformation will significantly improve our customer value proposition and that we will emerge as a much stronger company with greatly improved operating results. I will now pass it over to Jonathan, and I will return in a few moments to make some closing comments before taking your questions.

我相信我們的轉型將顯著改善我們的客戶價值主張，並且我們將成為一家更強大的公司，經營業績將大大提高。我現在將其轉交給 Jonathan，稍後我會回來發表一些結束語，然後再回答您的問題。

Thanks, Bruce, and good morning, everyone. I would also like to thank the entire Big Lots team for managing very well during these difficult times.

謝謝，布魯斯，大家早上好。我還要感謝整個 Big Lots 團隊在這些困難時期的出色管理。

I'm going to start this morning by going into more detail on our Q4 results, which I will discuss on an adjusted basis, excluding store asset impairment charges and a gain on the sale of owned stores and will then address our outlook. As we navigate through these very challenging times, I also want to speak to the actions we are taking to improve the productivity and efficiency of our business.

今天早上我將詳細介紹我們第四季度的業績，我將在調整後的基礎上討論這些業績，不包括商店資產減值費用和自有商店的銷售收益，然後將討論我們的前景。在我們度過這些充滿挑戰的時代之際，我還想談談我們為提高業務生產力和效率而採取的行動。

Turning to our results. Our fourth quarter summary can be found on Page 9 of our quarterly results presentation. Q4 net sales were $1.54 billion, a 10.9% decrease compared to $1.73 billion a year ago. The decline versus 2021 was driven by a comparable sales decrease of 13%, which was within our guidance range. While we are never happy to see a negative comp, we are pleased that we were able to hold to or exceed our key guidance metrics, coming into the quarter, despite some significant challenges. While we expected weakness in the sales environment due to high inflation, macro uncertainty and weak overall demand for high-ticket items, we also had to deal with the impact of the sudden closure of United Furniture, a few weeks into the quarter. We believe the resulting furniture shortage adversely impacted our overall comps by approximately 130 basis points, excluding attachment impacts in Soft Home and other categories. Importantly, we continue to successfully drive inventory levels lower, ending favorably to our guidance of flat to down.

轉向我們的結果。我們的第四季度總結可以在我們季度業績報告的第 9 頁找到。第四季度淨銷售額為 15.4 億美元，與一年前的 17.3 億美元相比下降 10.9%。與 2021 年相比下降的原因是可比銷售額下降了 13%，這在我們的指導範圍內。雖然我們從不樂於看到負面的業績，但我們很高興我們能夠在本季度保持或超過我們的關鍵指導指標，儘管存在一些重大挑戰。雖然我們預計由於高通脹、宏觀不確定性和對高價商品的整體需求疲軟而導致銷售環境疲軟，但我們還不得不應對 United Furniture 在本季度開始幾週後突然關閉的影響。我們認為，由此產生的家具短缺對我們的整體收入產生了大約 130 個基點的不利影響，不包括軟家居和其他類別的附件影響。重要的是，我們繼續成功地降低庫存水平，以有利的方式結束我們持平至下降的指導。

Our fourth quarter adjusted net loss was $8.1 million compared to $53.6 million net profit in Q4 of 2021. The adjusted diluted loss per share for the quarter was $0.28 versus adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.75 last year and included severance and store closure charges, which I'll come back to in a moment. Gross margin rate for the fourth quarter was 36.3%, down 100 basis points from last year's rate, which was in line with our guidance and represented a sequential improvement relative to the third quarter. This was despite significant impacts from additional markdowns related to accelerated store closures and efforts to clean up slow-moving inventory.

我們第四季度調整後的淨虧損為 810 萬美元，而 2021 年第四季度的淨利潤為 5360 萬美元。本季度調整後的攤薄每股虧損為 0.28 美元，而去年調整後的攤薄每股收益為 1.75 美元，其中包括遣散費和商店關閉費用，這我馬上回來。第四季度的毛利率為 36.3%，比去年同期下降 100 個基點，符合我們的指引，較第三季度有所改善。儘管與加速關閉商店和努力清理滯銷庫存相關的額外降價產生了重大影響，但情況仍然如此。

Turning to adjusted SG&A. Total expenses for the quarter, including depreciation were $563.2 million better than the $573.6 million last year and better than our guidance of roughly flat versus 2021. We saw favorability across multiple line items as we continue to manage expenses aggressively, which were partially offset by higher depreciation and occupancy and by approximately $7.5 million of severance expense and approximately $7 million of expenses related to store closures.

轉向調整後的 SG&A。本季度的總支出（包括折舊）比去年的 5.736 億美元高出 5.632 億美元，也好於我們與 2021 年大致持平的指導。隨著我們繼續積極管理支出，我們看到了多個項目的受歡迎程度，這部分被更高的支出所抵消折舊和占用以及大約 750 萬美元的遣散費和大約 700 萬美元的與商店關閉相關的費用。

As Bruce noted, as part of our ongoing productivity and efficiency initiatives, we expect to continue to drive structural savings, and I will come back to this in a moment. Adjusted operating margin for the quarter was negative 0.2% compared to a positive 4.2% in 2021. Interest expense for the quarter was $7.4 million, up from $2.1 million in the fourth quarter last year due to higher amounts drawn on our credit facility and higher interest rates year-over-year.

正如 Bruce 指出的那樣，作為我們正在進行的生產力和效率計劃的一部分，我們希望繼續推動結構性節約，我稍後會回到這一點。本季度調整後的營業利潤率為負 0.2%，而 2021 年為正 4.2%。本季度的利息支出為 740 萬美元，高於去年第四季度的 210 萬美元，原因是我們的信貸額度增加以及利息增加年利率。

The adjusted income tax rate in the quarter was 16.4%, with the rate distorted by us being in a slight loss position and other factors, including lower nondeductible executive compensation and the effects of audit settlements and employment-related tax credits. Our full year adjusted tax rate was 24.9%. Total ending inventory cost was down 7.3% to last year at $1.15 billion versus our guidance of flat to down.

本季度調整後的所得稅率為 16.4%，我們扭曲的稅率處於輕微虧損狀態和其他因素，包括較低的不可扣除高管薪酬以及審計結算和與就業相關的稅收抵免的影響。我們的全年調整後稅率為 24.9%。總期末庫存成本較去年下降 7.3% 至 11.5 億美元，而我們的指引持平至下降。

During the fourth quarter, we opened 18 new stores and closed 50 stores, including 20 owned store locations that we sold during the quarter. We ended Q4 with 1,425 stores and total selling square footage of $32.9 million.

第四季度，我們新開了 18 家門店，關閉了 50 家門店，其中包括本季度出售的 20 家自有門店。我們在第四季度末擁有 1,425 家商店，總銷售面積為 3,290 萬美元。

Capital expenditures for the quarter were $32 million compared to $38 million last year, resulting in approximately $159 million in CapEx for the full year versus our most recent guidance of around $170 million. Adjusted depreciation expense in the quarter was $41.3 million, up $3.9 million to the same period last year. We ended the fourth quarter with $44.7 million of cash and cash equivalents and $301.4 million of long-term debt. At the end of Q4 2021, we had $53.7 million of cash and cash equivalents and long-term debt of $3.5 million.

本季度的資本支出為 3200 萬美元，而去年為 3800 萬美元，導致全年資本支出約為 1.59 億美元，而我們最近的指引約為 1.7 億美元。本季度調整後的折舊費用為 4130 萬美元，比去年同期增加 390 萬美元。第四季度結束時，我們擁有 4,470 萬美元的現金和現金等價物以及 3.014 億美元的長期債務。到 2021 年第四季度末，我們擁有 5370 萬美元的現金和現金等價物以及 350 萬美元的長期債務。

We did not execute any share repurchases during Q4 but over $159 million remaining available under our December 2021 authorization. In addition to securing a new $900 million credit facility in Q3, we further strengthened our balance sheet through asset monetization. During the quarter, we sold 20 owned stores and an unoccupied land parcel for about $48 million of net proceeds in an all-cash deal and the buyer also relieved us of the leases on 2 loss-making stores. We expect further proceeds from additional store sales in 2023. In addition, we are continuing to evaluate sale leaseback proposals on our remaining owned stores and other owned assets.

我們在第四季度沒有執行任何股票回購，但根據我們 2021 年 12 月的授權，仍有超過 1.59 億美元可供使用。除了在第三季度獲得 9 億美元的新信貸額度外，我們還通過資產貨幣化進一步加強了資產負債表。本季度，我們以全現金交易的形式出售了 20 家自有商店和一塊閒置土地，淨收益約為 4800 萬美元，買方還免除了我們 2 家虧損商店的租約。我們預計 2023 年額外的商店銷售將進一步籌集資金。此外，我們將繼續評估我們剩餘自有商店和其他自有資產的售後回租提案。

On a full year basis, we had sales of $5.47 billion, which was down 12.9% on a comparable basis to 2021 with 180 basis points of growth driven by new and relocated stores. Our full year adjusted operating loss of 3.8% was down 780 basis points to last year. Adjusted operating loss of $210 million compared to a 2021 operating profit of $244.8 million. Our 2022 adjusted loss per share was $5.96 compared to adjusted earnings per share of $5.44 in 2021.

在全年基礎上，我們的銷售額為 54.7 億美元，與 2021 年相比下降了 12.9%，在新店和搬遷店的推動下增長了 180 個基點。我們全年調整後的營業虧損為 3.8%，比去年下降了 780 個基點。調整後的營業虧損為 2.1 億美元，而 2021 年的營業利潤為 2.448 億美元。我們 2022 年調整後每股虧損為 5.96 美元，而 2021 年調整後每股收益為 5.44 美元。

On February 28, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 of $0.30 per common share. This dividend is payable on March 31, 2023, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 17, 2023.

2 月 28 日，我們的董事會宣布了 2022 財年第四季度每股普通股 0.30 美元的季度現金股息。該股息將於 2023 年 3 月 31 日支付給截至 2023 年 3 月 17 日營業結束時登記在冊的股東。

Turning to the outlook. We are not providing formal full year guidance in light of significant uncertainties, but we do expect improvement versus 2022 over the course of the year. We expect the sales environment to remain challenging, particularly in the first half of the year, the sales comps should improve sequentially in the back half of the year as our key merchandising and marketing actions gain traction, and we fully mitigate the effect of the United Furniture shutdown.

轉向前景。鑑於存在重大不確定性，我們不會提供正式的全年指導，但我們確實預計全年會比 2022 年有所改善。我們預計銷售環境仍將充滿挑戰，尤其是在今年上半年，隨著我們的主要銷售和營銷活動獲得牽引力，銷售業績將在下半年連續改善，我們將充分減輕美國的影響家具關閉。

Gross margin should improve over the prior year, driven by less markdown activity and lower costs, particularly in freight. Import freight rates, we are currently realizing, are running around 40% lower than the rates in spring of 2022, which benefits our results significantly on a year-over-year basis, and we expect this effect to continue throughout 2023 and beyond. For some broader context in 2022, inbound freight costs alone hurt our margins by 350 basis points versus 2019. And -- based on current trends, we expect to claw back a significant amount of that margin in 2023, but it is important to keep in mind that freight rates are still nearly double the level seen in 2019. So we believe this will remain a margin opportunity for us beyond 2023.

受降價活動減少和成本降低（尤其是運費）的推動，毛利率應比上年有所提高。我們目前意識到，進口運費比 2022 年春季的運費低 40% 左右，這對我們的業績同比顯著有利，我們預計這種影響將持續到 2023 年及以後。對於 2022 年更廣泛的背景，與 2019 年相比，僅入境運費一項就使我們的利潤率下降了 350 個基點。而且——根據目前的趨勢，我們預計將在 2023 年收回大量利潤，但重要的是要保持在請注意，運費仍然是 2019 年水平的近兩倍。因此，我們相信這對我們來說仍然是 2023 年以後的利潤機會。

We expect our earnings momentum will be more weighted towards the back of the year -- back half of the year, as our 5 key actions gain traction as we continue to realize year-over-year freight cost reductions.

我們預計我們的盈利勢頭將更多地集中在今年後半年，因為隨著我們繼續實現同比運費下降，我們的 5 項關鍵行動將獲得牽引力。

Turning to more specifics on Q1. We are continuing to see significant pressure in the market environment, particularly in higher ticket and more discretionary items. We also expect tax refunds to be down in total versus last year and a continued adverse impact from the United Furniture closure. As a result, we expect comps in Q1 to be similar to Q4 and to be down in the low to mid-teens range. Net new stores will add about 40 basis points of growth versus 2021.

轉向有關 Q1 的更多細節。我們繼續看到市場環境面臨巨大壓力，尤其是在更高票價和更多可自由支配的項目方面。我們還預計，與去年相比，退稅總額將有所下降，並且 United Furniture 關閉將帶來持續的不利影響。因此，我們預計第一季度的收入將與第四季度相似，並且會下降到十幾歲左右的範圍內。與 2021 年相比，淨新店將增加約 40 個基點的增長。

With regard to gross margin, we expect the rate in the first quarter will improve sequentially versus Q4 into the high 30s range. Sequential gross margin rate improvement will be driven by an easing of inbound freight costs, other cost of goods reductions and more targeted and efficient pricing and promotions. In addition, after poor results last year, we have seen some improvement in shrink trends and will provide a modest bump to gross margins during 2023.

關於毛利率，我們預計第一季度的毛利率將較第四季度有所改善，進入 30 多歲的高位。進站運費的減少、其他商品成本的降低以及更具針對性和效率的定價和促銷活動將推動毛利率的連續改善。此外，在去年業績不佳之後，我們看到收縮趨勢有所改善，並將在 2023 年適度提高毛利率。

We expect SG&A dollars to be up slightly versus 2022 due primarily to general inflation and incremental expenses in advertising, health care, workers' compensation costs, as well as the operation of 2 incremental forward distribution centers versus the prior year and higher performance-related expense. These will be offset by structural cost savings across store operations, supply chain and our corporate headquarters.

我們預計 SG&A 美元將比 2022 年略有增加，這主要是由於一般通貨膨脹和廣告、醫療保健、工人補償成本方面的增量支出，以及與上一年相比增加 2 個遠期配送中心的運營以及更高的績效相關費用.這些將被商店運營、供應鍊和我們公司總部的結構性成本節省所抵消。

For the full year 2023, we expect to deliver over $70 million of incremental structural savings. These include a recently executed reduction in force at our corporate headquarters and the recently completed reorganization at the store management level.

對於 2023 年全年，我們預計將實現超過 7000 萬美元的增量結構性節省。其中包括我們公司總部最近執行的裁員以及最近完成的商店管理層重組。

With regard to CapEx, we expect around $100 million for the year in 2023, well below 2022 and recent year levels, with the decrease due to fewer store openings and the lapping of costs related to the opening of forward distribution centers.

關於資本支出，我們預計 2023 年的資本支出約為 1 億美元，遠低於 2022 年和最近一年的水平，減少的原因是開店次數減少以及與開設遠期配送中心相關的成本重疊。

We expect around 18 store openings in 2023 with closures expected to be above that number, but concentrated at the end of the year. We are continuing to look closely at underperforming stores to determine if we can improve their performance to an acceptable level or otherwise if we can affect an early closure. We expect to also complete some additional outright store sales in 2023.

我們預計 2023 年將開設約 18 家門店，預計關閉門店數量將高於該數量，但集中在年底。我們將繼續密切關注表現不佳的商店，以確定我們是否可以將它們的績效提高到可接受的水平，或者我們是否可以影響提前關閉。我們預計還將在 2023 年完成一些額外的直接商店銷售。

We expect full year depreciation of around $149 million, including approximately $37 million in Q1. We expect a share count of approximately 29.1 million for Q1. We expect Q1 inventory to be down again compared with the prior year. As we ended 2022 in an appropriate inventory position, we are using our increased open-to-buy for more bargains and close out in the future, but we'll remain prudent in managing inventory levels in light of an uncertain demand environment.

我們預計全年折舊約為 1.49 億美元，其中包括第一季度的約 3700 萬美元。我們預計第一季度的股票數量約為 2910 萬股。我們預計第一季度庫存與上年相比將再次下降。由於我們在 2022 年結束時處於適當的庫存狀況，我們正在利用我們增加的開放購買來獲得更多便宜貨並在未來平倉，但鑑於不確定的需求環境，我們將在管理庫存水平方面保持謹慎。

All of our commentary on Q1 excludes potential impairment charges and potential gains on asset sales. Overall, as Bruce referenced, driving improved productivity and efficiency across our operations is one of our 5 key areas of focus in 2023 and beyond. It encompasses significantly improving inventory turns, continuing to take out structural costs on top of what we have already achieved over the past several years and continuing to find ways to make our CapEx dollars go further. Put simply, we are highly focused on ensuring that every dollar is well spent as we return the company to growth and profitability.

我們對第一季度的所有評論都不包括潛在的減值費用和資產出售的潛在收益。總體而言，正如 Bruce 所提到的，提高我們整個運營的生產力和效率是我們 2023 年及以後的 5 個重點關注領域之一。它包括顯著改善庫存周轉率，在我們過去幾年已經取得的成果的基礎上繼續削減結構性成本，並繼續尋找使我們的資本支出走得更遠的方法。簡而言之，我們高度專注於確保在我們使公司恢復增長和盈利的過程中每一分錢都用得其所。

I will now turn the call back over to Bruce.

我現在將把電話轉回布魯斯。

Thank you, Jonathan. I'd like to end the call by again thanking our associates for their efforts to please our customers. I'd like to extend those thanks to our vendor partners who have helped us navigate through short-term issues like the United Furniture closure and will be key allies in our longer-term transformation. There are a lot of changes resulting from our continued work to transform our business, and I'm looking forward to keeping you updated on our progress.

謝謝你，喬納森。最後，我想再次感謝我們的員工為取悅我們的客戶所做的努力。我想對我們的供應商合作夥伴表示感謝，他們幫助我們解決了 United Furniture 倒閉等短期問題，並將成為我們長期轉型的關鍵盟友。我們不斷努力轉變我們的業務，導致了很多變化，我期待著讓您了解我們的最新進展。

I'll now turn the call back over to the moderator so that we can begin to address your questions. Thank you.

我現在將電話轉回給主持人，以便我們可以開始解決您的問題。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question is from the line of Brad Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Brad Thomas。

I wanted to first ask about United Furniture and some of the implications of dealing with this disruption from such a big supplier of yours. I guess first, as we think about the near-term P&L impacts, anything we should think about in terms of margin implications? I mean, I believe I've been seeing you run promotions on furniture. So anything we should think about from a margin implication standpoint? And then over more of the medium term, can you maybe talk about some of the new suppliers that you'll be working with and how your assortment may be different than any financial implications from new suppliers.

我想先問一下 United Furniture，以及處理來自你們這麼大的供應商的這種中斷的一些影響。我想首先，當我們考慮近期損益影響時，我們應該考慮對利潤率的影響嗎？我的意思是，我相信我一直看到你在家具上進行促銷活動。那麼我們應該從保證金含義的角度考慮什麼？然後在中期的更多時間裡，您能否談談您將與之合作的一些新供應商，以及您的產品組合與新供應商的任何財務影響有何不同。

Brad, this is Bruce. I'll start off, and Jonathan can add some specifics. Just to define what happened, our largest vendor, United Furniture Industries, abruptly closed down in late November Q4. They represented about 7% of our total receipts and were the primary manufacturer of Broyhill furniture products and some of our Real Living products as well. The impact in Q4 was basically in the back half of Q4 because we didn't have product being replenished. Their abrupt closure resulted in trucks en route to our stores to be turned around. And we have not received any product from them since then as the banks work out the situation with UFI. Q1 is going to be -- continue to be impacted as we've worked to mitigate products. But one of the key reasons why it's impacted and quite frankly, a little bit worse than Q4 is because we have product in Q4 that we could still sell. But going into Q1, we're unable to have complete Broyhill sets, which is a big component of our e-commerce or online shopping journey. So that will get shored up as we go through Q1. The team is doing very well in terms of mitigating, like we said in our opening remarks. We've got about 4 to 5 new vendors. One is a major vendor that we've been doing business with that we've leaned in -- into, they will have 9 new collections for Broyhill that will start hitting in April and towards the back half of Q1. We will also enjoy delivery to store, which is a big deal in terms of our furniture. We're really excited about the freshness to newness and (inaudible) Margarita and her team have also added another 4 vendors from all across the country and sourced offshore with really good fresh new designs that I think that the customers are going to be thrilled about.

布拉德，這是布魯斯。我將開始，Jonathan 可以添加一些細節。只是為了確定發生了什麼，我們最大的供應商 United Furniture Industries 在 11 月下旬第四季度突然關閉。他們約占我們總收入的 7%，是 Broyhill 家具產品和我們一些 Real Living 產品的主要製造商。第四季度的影響基本上是在第四季度的後半段，因為我們沒有補充產品。他們的突然關閉導致卡車在前往我們商店的途中掉頭。從那以後，我們沒有收到他們的任何產品，因為銀行正在解決 UFI 的情況。第一季度將繼續受到影響，因為我們一直在努力減輕產品的影響。但它受到影響的關鍵原因之一，坦率地說，比第四季度差一點是因為我們在第四季度有我們仍然可以銷售的產品。但是進入第一季度，我們無法擁有完整的 Broyhill 套裝，這是我們電子商務或在線購物之旅的重要組成部分。因此，當我們通過第一季度時，這將得到支持。正如我們在開場白中所說，該團隊在緩解方面做得很好。我們有大約 4 到 5 個新供應商。一個是我們一直在與之開展業務的主要供應商，我們已經深入了解他們將為 Broyhill 推出 9 個新系列，這些系列將於 4 月和第一季度後半段開始銷售。我們還將享受送貨上門服務，這對我們的家具來說意義重大。我們對新鮮感感到非常興奮，（聽不清）瑪格麗塔和她的團隊還增加了來自全國各地的另外 4 家供應商，並從海外採購了非常好的新設計，我認為客戶會對此感到興奮.

So in the near term, Q1 will be a little bit more impacted than Q4 of last year because of a full quarter's worth of disruption rather than just like -- it was just January or so, in Q4. But we are mitigating in a very good way and believe we've got better product, better prices and fresh newness going into the back half of Q1 and into Q2 and beyond. So we're pretty excited given the disruption.

因此，在短期內，第一季度將比去年第四季度受到更大的影響，因為整個季度的中斷價值，而不是僅僅像第四季度的一月份左右。但我們正在以一種非常好的方式緩解，並相信我們有更好的產品、更好的價格和新鮮事物進入第一季度後半段和第二季度及以後。所以我們對中斷感到非常興奮。

And Jonathan, do you have anything…

喬納森，你有什麼事嗎……

Yes. Brad, just to elaborate a little bit on a couple of data points. I guess in terms of the impact, we called out 130 basis points in Q4 directly on furniture and there were some knock-on impacts on Soft Home in particular. That will roughly double in Q1 for the reasons Bruce alluded to because it will impact a full quarter and furniture is a relatively heavier concentration in Q1 versus Q4. And then in Q2, it will drop down significantly and then we think it'll be fully behind us by the end of Q2. From a gross margin rate standpoint, we expect it to not be impactful. We expect our gross margins to be comparable to when we were working with United.

是的。 Brad，我想詳細說明幾個數據點。我想就影響而言，我們在第四季度直接對家具提出了 130 個基點，特別是對 Soft Home 產生了一些連鎖反應。由於 Bruce 提到的原因，這將在第一季度大致翻一番，因為它將影響整個季度，而且與第四季度相比，家具在第一季度的集中度相對較高。然後在第二季度，它會大幅下降，然後我們認為到第二季度末它會完全落後於我們。從毛利率的角度來看，我們預計它不會產生影響。我們預計我們的毛利率與我們與美聯航合作時的毛利率相當。

Our next question is from the line of Greg Badishkanian with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Greg Badishkanian。

This is Spencer Hanus, on for Greg. Just going back to the first quarter again, can you talk about whether you need to see an improvement from the current run rate in comps to hit the guide for the quarter? And then I have a follow-up just on SG&A as well.

我是 Spencer Hanus，代表 Greg。再次回到第一季度，你能談談你是否需要看到 comp 的當前運行率有所提高才能達到本季度的指南？然後我也有關於 SG&A 的後續行動。

Yes. So the guidance we've given for the full quarter is consistent with where we're comping quarter-to-date.

是的。因此，我們為整個季度提供的指引與我們本季度迄今的業績一致。

And then just turning to SG&A for a minute. How much of the growth today is structural versus 2019? And then should we expect any of that $70 million cost takeout that you called out to be reinvested? Or should that be flown through to the bottom line?

然後轉向 SG&A 一分鐘。與 2019 年相比，今天的增長有多少是結構性的？然後，我們是否應該期待您要求的 7000 萬美元成本支出中的任何一部分被再投資？還是應該將其傳遞到底線？

Yes. I mean I wouldn't necessarily characterize it as reinvesting it, but there are significant inflationary impacts that we're facing on wages in particular, that are offsetting a significant component of that and also across some other line items. So if we look at it back to 2019, we see wage rates up pretty significantly at the store level, also in our distribution centers and also to some degree here at our corporate headquarters and then some inflation across other line items like fuel and transportation and so on. So the $70 million is offsetting a lot of those inflationary impacts, and it's continuing to come from the 3 core areas. We talked about our store operations, supply chain and then our corporate headquarters.

是的。我的意思是我不一定將其描述為再投資，但我們尤其面臨著對工資的顯著通貨膨脹影響，這抵消了其中的一個重要組成部分以及其他一些項目。因此，如果我們回顧 2019 年，我們會發現商店層面的工資率大幅上漲，我們的配送中心也在某種程度上，在我們的公司總部也有一定程度的上漲，然後是燃料和運輸等其他項目的一些通貨膨脹和很快。所以這 7000 萬美元抵消了很多通貨膨脹的影響，而且它繼續來自 3 個核心領域。我們談到了我們的商店運營、供應鏈，然後是我們的公司總部。

The next question is from the line of Jason Haas, Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Jason Haas。

I'm curious outside of the impact from United Furniture. Obviously, you're light on inventory there, but I'm curious for the rest of the inventory in the stores, do you feel like -- and I guess in the overall company, do you feel clean on inventory now? Are we past the clearance -- are there still some categories that you're heavier than you'd like to be?

除了 United Furniture 的影響，我很好奇。顯然，你那裡的庫存很少，但我很好奇商店裡的其他庫存，你覺得——我想在整個公司，你現在覺得庫存乾淨嗎？我們是否通過了許可 - 是否還有一些類別比您想要的更重？

That's a good question. Obviously, we wish we had the Broyhill product. But like I said earlier, that will start flowing in mid-Q1, and we'll be in good shape, which is going to very much help both our in-store customers shopping for that furniture plus online being able to advertise it. I think we're in pretty good shape overall in inventory. I think the team has done a nice job. The merchandising team, the planning allocation team has done a nice job bringing our inventory levels down from where we were a year ago. As you recall, last year, heading into '22, we had bought up for what we thought would be a much better year, and as a result, had to correct the inventory levels with massive promotions and markdowns, starting in Q1 and Q2. We'll have to comp that in Q2, but we're in much better inventory shape -- should result in much less markdowns, more targeted promotions, where we need that, and a good shopping experience overall. So yes, overall, I think we're pretty good in inventory. We want to get the Broyhill product and Real Living product back in line, but we're in good shape in all other areas. With a lot of bargains and treasures coming in that are pretty exciting. Margarita has done a nice job. We've got good freshness, inspirational product. I think our customers are going to love the way we look in the second quarter and the back half of 2023.

這是個好問題。顯然，我們希望我們有 Broyhill 產品。但正如我之前所說，這將在第一季度中期開始流動，我們將處於良好狀態，這將非常有助於我們的店內客戶購買該家具以及能夠在網上為其做廣告。我認為我們的整體庫存狀況非常好。我認為團隊做得很好。銷售團隊、計劃分配團隊做得很好，使我們的庫存水平比一年前有所下降。你還記得，去年，進入 22 年，我們為我們認為會更好的一年買了很多東西，結果，從第一季度和第二季度開始，我們不得不通過大規模促銷和降價來糾正庫存水平。我們將不得不在第二季度進行比較，但我們的庫存狀況要好得多——應該會導致更少的降價、更有針對性的促銷活動，在我們需要的地方，以及良好的整體購物體驗。所以是的，總的來說，我認為我們的庫存非常好。我們希望讓 Broyhill 產品和 Real Living 產品恢復正常，但我們在所有其他領域都處於良好狀態。有很多便宜貨和寶藏進來，這非常令人興奮。瑪格麗塔做得很好。我們有很好的新鮮感，鼓舞人心的產品。我認為我們的客戶會喜歡我們在 2023 年第二季度和下半年的表現。

And then I was curious if you've seen any impact from Bed Bath & Beyond, I think they're closing about half their stores right now. So I'm curious if that's maybe been a headwind. Those sort of liquidations that they're doing is drawing customers and if that's an opportunity going forward. But curious if you've seen any impact in your stores that are co-located with them?

然後我很好奇你是否看到 Bed Bath & Beyond 的任何影響，我認為他們現在正在關閉大約一半的商店。所以我很好奇這是否是一個不利因素。他們正在做的那種清算正在吸引客戶，如果這是一個前進的機會。但是很好奇您是否看到與他們位於同一地點的商店受到任何影響？

It's early to talk about any impact on results, specifically with other retailers, but we are very aware of them, where there are closeout or buyout opportunities. We're at the table working with brokers and getting good product for our customers at a great value. There's also any time, there's an opportunity in the marketplace. Our company pursues marketing for those customers to come visit Big Lots maybe for the first time or shop us for more reasons now. And so we're actively focusing in those areas to serve more customers.

現在談論對結果的任何影響還為時過早，特別是與其他零售商，但我們非常了解它們，那裡有清倉或買斷機會。我們在談判桌上與經紀人合作，為我們的客戶提供物超所值的優質產品。還有任何時候，市場上都有機會。我們公司為那些可能是第一次來 Big Lots 的客戶進行營銷，或者現在出於更多原因在我們這裡購物。因此，我們積極關注這些領域，以服務更多客戶。

And then if I could squeeze one more in for Jonathan. Could you just remind us how many stores -- how many owned stores you have? And then I think you also in your headquarters. Is there any other owned real estate we should be aware of? And I know it's probably difficult to size the potential proceeds for those. But yes, just trying to get a sense for how much asset value potentially there is.

然後如果我能為喬納森再擠一個。你能提醒我們有多少家商店——你有多少家自有商店？然後我想你也在你的總部。還有其他我們應該注意的自有房地產嗎？而且我知道可能很難確定這些項目的潛在收益。但是，是的，只是想了解潛在的資產價值有多少。

Yes, sure, Jason. So prior to the recent sales, we owned a little over 50 of our stores predominantly in California. We sold 20 of those in Q4. We have a few more that we'll be selling in Q1, Q2. The remainder of stores that are not -- the stores we focused on selling were the ones that were underperforming, the remaining stores are not ones we would want to sell outright, but would be potential candidates for sale leaseback. We also have the corporate headquarters building here and then there's an equity value in our Apple Valley distribution center over and above the synthetic lease we hold on that property. So hard to give a specific number in terms of the sort of net value of all that, but it's a substantial number.

是的，當然，傑森。因此，在最近的銷售之前，我們擁有 50 多家商店，主要位於加利福尼亞。我們在第四季度售出了其中的 20 個。我們還有一些將在第一季度、第二季度出售。其餘的商店不是——我們專注於銷售的商店是那些表現不佳的商店，其餘的商店不是我們想要直接出售的商店，但可能是售後回租的潛在候選者。我們在這裡也有公司總部大樓，然後我們的 Apple Valley 配送中心的股權價值超過了我們持有該物業的綜合租賃。很難給出所有這些淨值的具體數字，但這是一個很大的數字。

Our next question will be coming from the line of Peter Keith with Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Peter Keith 和 Piper Sandler。

This is Matt Egger on for Peter. Two quick ones from me. First off, just curious what your plans are for The Lot in 2023.

這是彼得的馬特艾格。我的兩個快速的。首先，很好奇您對 2023 年 The Lot 有什麼計劃。

Yes, I'll take that. The Lot has been a source of freshness for our customers in many of our stores, most of our stores, actually, they come in 500 square feet; freshness, it turns relatively quickly. As we look into 2023, we want to make that even more productive. So Margarita and her team are working on creating more solutions for our customers, their abilities to be able to shop for gifts. One of the things -- we own the tentpole events throughout the year pretty decently, but there's a lot of smaller events like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day that we want to make that a solution center that has just great freshness, great deals, and you can shop everything from the product, the gift that you want to give, all the way to packaging card, et cetera. So just making it so much more relevant for our customers in an exciting way and more reasons for her to visit us.

是的，我會接受的。 The Lot 一直是我們許多商店的顧客新鮮感的來源，實際上，我們的大多數商店都有 500 平方英尺；新鮮度，轉得比較快。展望 2023 年，我們希望提高生產力。因此，瑪格麗塔和她的團隊正在努力為我們的客戶創造更多的解決方案，讓他們能夠購買禮物。其中一件事——我們全年都在舉辦大型活動，但還有很多小型活動，如情人節、聖帕特里克節、母親節，我們希望將其打造成一個非常新鮮的解決方案中心，超值優惠，您可以購買任何東西，從產品、您想贈送的禮物，一直到包裝卡等等。因此，以一種令人興奮的方式使它與我們的客戶更加相關，並為她拜訪我們提供更多理由。

And then second off, you mentioned tax refunds, you're seeing a headwind. We kind of expected that. But just curious if you know how much of your customer base is on fixed income or social security and if you're seeing any offset to the tax refunds. I think social security is supposed to be up like $110 billion this year. So just curious kind of the puts and takes there.

其次，你提到了退稅，你看到了逆風。我們有點期待。但只是想知道您是否知道您的客戶群中有多少是固定收入或社會保障的，以及您是否看到退稅的任何抵消。我認為今年社會保障金應該增加 1100 億美元。所以只是好奇的看跌期權。

Yes. The marketplace economy remains challenging for our customers. We tend to -- the best way to explain our customer base over penetrates into the lower household income. In the past, I've stated that most of America has -- about 67% or so of Americans have a household income under $100,000. We penetrate into the 70s closer to 80% in that regard. And the lower household income customers are pinched. Basically, at this point, 30% of that lower household income customer, their expenses today are greater than their income coming in. And 70% of them have curbed spending as a result of that. The tax refunds, while they're coming in maybe a little bit earlier this year than last year, they're about 10% to 15% less per refund than last year. And then when you throw in the SNAP and EBT roll back from the COVID years of about $95 or so per month, that just further deteriorates lower household income spend. So they're going through a tough time right now. And that's why it's so important for us to continue to lean in and be our best destination for value with bargains and treasures and everything she needs for the home. And we're doing a good job with that. We're going to be set up nicely. We're also set up nicely for the trade down because as this continues, the higher income brackets will start looking for the trade down. We're going to have a great assortment across the Home categories and also in the Food and Consumables to attract them as well.

是的。市場經濟對我們的客戶仍然充滿挑戰。我們傾向於 - 解釋我們的客戶群的最佳方式滲透到較低的家庭收入中。過去，我曾說過，美國大部分地區 - 大約 67% 左右的美國人的家庭收入低於 100,000 美元。在這方面，我們滲透到 70 年代接近 80%。家庭收入較低的客戶受到擠壓。基本上，在這一點上，30% 的家庭收入較低的客戶，他們今天的支出大於他們的收入。他們中的 70% 因此抑制了支出。退稅，雖然今年可能比去年早一點，但每次退稅比去年少 10% 到 15%。然後當你把 SNAP 和 EBT 從 COVID 年回滾到每月大約 95 美元左右時，這只會進一步惡化較低的家庭收入支出。所以他們現在正經歷一段艱難時期。這就是為什麼對我們來說如此重要的是繼續靠攏並成為我們物有所值的最佳目的地，提供物美價廉的商品以及她家中所需的一切。我們在這方面做得很好。我們將被很好地安排。我們也為降價交易做好了準備，因為隨著這種情況的繼續，較高收入階層將開始尋找降價交易。我們將在家居品類以及食品和消費品品類中提供種類繁多的商品，以吸引他們。

Our next question is from the line of Joe Feldman with Telsey Advisory Group.

我們的下一個問題來自 Joe Feldman 和 Telsey Advisory Group。

This is Niko Vidger on for Joe Feldman. My question was about Food and Consumables. Is there any color you can provide on performance in the fourth quarter? It seemed like it's softened versus the third quarter? And then also, are you changing the mix at all to represent the current environment? Just any insight there on those categories?

我是 Niko Vidger 代替 Joe Feldman。我的問題是關於食品和消耗品的。您對第四季度的表現有什麼看法嗎？與第三季度相比似乎有所緩和？然後，您是否完全改變組合以代表當前環境？對這些類別有什麼見解嗎？

Yes, I'll take that. Food, as you saw in our opening remarks, came in at minus 3% comp, less impacted than other categories as our consumers, our customers shop for more of the basics. Consumables a little bit more negative, minus 9%. That's a result of us adjusting some of the assortment to reduce the redundancy in our productive SKUs, and we're doing small resets to make both Food and Consumables better going into 2023. So a little bit of choppiness, but we'll continue to get better and better. Plus, as you heard, we're doing pricing competitive tests with good results, out of California that we'll be rolling out across the country that will continue to improve our performance there. We're focusing on, in many cases, name brands in Consumables. That's what she wants, as well as in Food, and making sure there's a differentiation of eclectic foods and freshness for her at great value. So we expect it to improve. We're focused on that area. We are not a grocery store, but we do know that many of our customers, especially in the urban markets, depend on us, and we'll be flexing assortments accordingly there and improving it in all other stores as well. So it's an area of focus for us, as well as the rest of the stores.

是的，我會接受的。正如您在我們的開場白中看到的那樣，食品的收入為負 3%，作為我們的消費者，我們的客戶比其他類別受到的影響更小，我們的客戶會購買更多的基本商品。消耗品稍微負一點，-9%。這是我們調整了一些分類以減少生產 SKU 中的冗餘的結果，並且我們正在進行小規模的重置以使食品和消耗品在 2023 年更好地進入。所以有點不穩定，但我們會繼續越來越好。另外，正如你所聽到的，我們正在加利福尼亞州以外的地方進行定價競爭性測試，並取得了良好的效果，我們將在全國范圍內推廣，這將繼續提高我們在那裡的表現。在許多情況下，我們專注於消耗品中的知名品牌。這就是她想要的，在食物方面也是如此，並確保為她提供具有巨大價值的不拘一格的食物和新鮮度的差異化。所以我們希望它會有所改善。我們專注於那個領域。我們不是一家雜貨店，但我們知道我們的許多客戶，尤其是城市市場的客戶，都依賴我們，我們將相應地調整那裡的商品種類，並在所有其他商店中進行改進。因此，這是我們以及其他商店的重點領域。

The next question is from the line of Krisztina Katai with Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Krisztina Katai。

I wanted to ask specifically about just how you see some of your consumers responding to your merchandising changes, specifically as you're bringing in more closeouts and opening price points. As we sit here right now in the first quarter, I guess, what portion of the merchandise you would say is like fresh and new? And how will that evolve through the year under Margarita's new leadership that will give you confidence essentially that you are gaining traction with the merchandising efforts.

我想具體問一下您如何看待您的一些消費者對您的商品銷售變化的反應，特別是當您引入更多的清倉和開盤價時。當我們在第一季度坐在這裡時，我想，您會說哪些商品是新鮮的？在瑪格麗塔的新領導下，這一年將如何發展，這將使您從根本上相信您正在通過營銷工作獲得吸引力。

That's a great question, Krisztina. First off, I'd say the consumers, the customers are already responding to more bargains and value messaging in our opening remarks, I spoke about last year this time, we had the majority of our end caps across our store that were basically NBO, what we call never-out or daily essentials. But they compete and it's pretty replaceable by any other store. We've converted those end caps to be the majority bargains right now, and she's responding to it. The sales performance of those end caps that have bargains are 30% better than the everyday essentials. And so she's liking those deals, she's loving those deals actually. And in addition to that, on our closeout products or bargains that we're starting to put into the mix across the store, we've put comparable pricing on the tickets, and we're going to continue to expand that in the first half of 2023, and we're seeing good traction with that as well. We haven't done a great job on the deals that we've had in explaining to her the value she's getting when she shops us. So with that, those 2 things going together and targeted marketing, we think she's going to give us more of her spend.

這是一個很好的問題，Krisztina。首先，我要說的是消費者，客戶已經在我們的開場白中回應了更多的討價還價和價值信息，我去年這個時候談到過，我們商店的大部分端蓋基本上都是 NBO，我們稱之為永不過時或日常必需品。但他們競爭，而且它可以被任何其他商店取代。我們現在已經將這些上限轉換為多數交易，她正在對此做出回應。那些打折的端蓋的銷售業績比日常必需品高出30%。所以她喜歡這些交易，她實際上喜歡這些交易。除此之外，對於我們開始在整個商店中投放的清倉產品或特價商品，我們已經對門票進行了可比定價，我們將在上半年繼續擴大這一範圍2023 年，我們也看到了良好的牽引力。我們在向她解釋她在我們這裡購物時獲得的價值方面所做的交易並沒有做得很好。因此，將這兩件事結合起來並進行有針對性的營銷，我們認為她會給我們更多的支出。

In terms of freshness, there's a lot of good things coming. We are front and center in the bargain search and procurement. We are -- every time there's an open closeout buy, we're right there with brokers, with the sources at the table. Margarita comes from off-price. He's brought on new talent that's off-price. We're working deals. There's -- there are big deals out there. There's hundreds of millions of dollars of deals out there, and that product is starting to flow into our assortment. And I think our customers are going to like it because it's great quality. It's a great price. It's a massive value for her. And there's so much newness and freshness coming in the Home categories. I can't wait until everyone sees it starting in Q2 and then how it's going to expand throughout the year. So we're excited about where we're going, great quality product at unbelievable prices and margin accretive as well. So this is the story of 2 halves, 2023. We're weathering the storm, and we're setting up the conditions for our success and our customer success in the back half.

在新鮮度方面，有很多好東西要來。我們是討價還價搜索和採購的前沿和中心。我們是——每次有公開的平倉買入，我們就在經紀人那裡，在桌子上有消息來源。 Margarita 來自 off-price。他帶來了低價的新人才。我們正在做交易。有 - 那裡有大筆交易。那裡有數億美元的交易，並且該產品開始流入我們的分類。我認為我們的客戶會喜歡它，因為它質量上乘。這是一個很好的價格。這對她來說是一個巨大的價值。家庭類別中出現瞭如此多的新鮮事物。我等不及每個人都看到它從第二季度開始，然後它會如何在全年擴展。因此，我們對我們的發展方向感到興奮，優質的產品以令人難以置信的價格和利潤增長為好。所以這是 2023 年下半年的故事。我們正在經受住風暴，我們正在為我們和客戶在下半年的成功創造條件。

And then just a question on your SG&A. I think you touched on this, and I might have missed it, but the $70 million structural that you are taking out it helps offset other inflationary cost pressures. So my question is on labor. I'm curious where you stand on starting hourly wages. My question is coming in light of some larger players that have announced $2 pay raises recently. And then just where are your overall gaps in the marketplace? And what level of wage increases have you planned for 2023?

然後只是關於您的 SG&A 的問題。我想你提到了這一點，我可能錯過了，但你拿出的 7000 萬美元結構性資金有助於抵消其他通脹成本壓力。所以我的問題是關於勞動力。我很好奇你對起始時薪的看法。我的問題是鑑於一些較大的參與者最近宣布加薪 2 美元。那麼您在市場上的整體差距在哪裡？您計劃在 2023 年增加多少工資？

Yes, Krisztina, I'll give you a little bit of color on that. I mean we don't disclose a specific average hourly rate. We aim to be competitive that we focus on the overall benefits package that we provide to our store associates, and we obviously adjust as we go forward market by market based on market conditions. So over time, both through merit wages and mandatory wage increases, we have seen fairly significant inflation there. We think we are appropriately positioned, but probably talked about too much more than that.

是的，Krisztina，我會給你一點顏色。我的意思是我們不會透露具體的平均小時費率。我們的目標是保持競爭力，我們專注於我們為店員提供的整體福利方案，並且我們會根據市場情況逐個市場進行明顯調整。因此，隨著時間的推移，通過績效工資和強制性工資增長，我們看到那裡出現了相當嚴重的通貨膨脹。我們認為我們處於適當的位置，但可能談論的遠不止於此。

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. A replay of this call will become available. You can access the replay until March 16 by dialing toll-free (877) 660-6853 and enter replay confirmation 137-36-230, followed by the pound sign. The toll number is (201) 612-7415, replay confirmation 137-36-230 followed by the pound sign. You may now disconnect, and have a great day. We thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的電話會議和網絡廣播到此結束。此通話的重播將可用。在 3 月 16 日之前，您可以撥打免費電話 (877) 660-6853 並輸入重播確認 137-36-230，然後輸入井號來訪問重播。收費號碼是 (201) 612-7415，重播確認 137-36-230，然後是井號。你現在可以斷開連接，祝你有美好的一天。我們感謝您的參與。