Bloomin' Brands Inc (BLMN) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Bloomin' Brands Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

歡迎來到 Bloomin' Brands 2023 財年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tammy Dean, Senior Director of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Thank you, Ms. Dean. You may begin.

現在我很高興向您介紹主持人，公司財務和投資者關係高級總監 Tammy Dean。謝謝你，迪恩女士。你可以開始了。

Thank you and good morning, everyone. With me on today's call are David Deno, our Chief Executive Officer; and Chris Meyer, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. By now, you should have access to our fiscal first quarter 2023 earnings release. It can also be found on our website at bloominbrands.com in the Investors section.

謝謝大家，早上好。和我一起參加今天電話會議的有我們的首席執行官戴維·德諾 (David Deno)；執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Chris Meyer。到目前為止，您應該可以訪問我們的 2023 財年第一季度財報。它也可以在我們的網站 bloominbrands.com 的投資者部分找到。

Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting results on an adjusted basis. An explanation of our use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures appear in our earnings release and on our website as previously described.

在整個電話會議中，我們將在調整後的基礎上展示結果。如前所述，我們使用非 GAAP 財務指標的解釋以及與最直接可比的 GAAP 指標的對賬出現在我們的收益發布和我們的網站上。

Before we begin formal remarks, I'd like to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including a discussion of recent trends. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ in a material way from our forward-looking statements. Some of these risks are mentioned in our earnings release, others are discussed in our SEC filings, which are available at sec.gov.

在我們開始正式發言之前，我想提醒大家，我們今天的部分討論將包括前瞻性陳述，包括對近期趨勢的討論。這些陳述受到許多風險和不確定因素的影響，這些風險和不確定因素可能導致實際結果與我們的前瞻性陳述存在重大差異。我們的收益發布中提到了其中一些風險，其他風險在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中進行了討論，這些文件可在 sec.gov 上找到。

During today's call, we will provide a brief recap of our financial performance for the fiscal first quarter 2023, an overview of company highlights and current thoughts on 2023 guidance. Once we've completed these remarks, we'll open the call up for questions.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將簡要回顧我們 2023 財年第一季度的財務業績、公司亮點概述和當前對 2023 年指導的看法。完成這些評論後，我們將打開問題電話。

With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to David Deno.

有了這個，我現在想把電話轉給 David Deno。

Well, thank you, Tammy and welcome to everyone listening today. As noted in this morning's earnings release, adjusted Q1 2023 diluted earnings per share was $0.98, which compares to $0.80 in Q1 2022, up 23%. Q1 2023 marks the best quarterly diluted earnings per share in the company's history. Combined U.S. comparable sales were up 5.1% with each brand having positive same-store sales.

好吧，謝謝你，塔米，歡迎大家今天收聽。正如今天上午的收益報告所述，調整後的 2023 年第一季度攤薄後每股收益為 0.98 美元，相比 2022 年第一季度的 0.80 美元增長了 23%。 2023 年第一季度是公司歷史上最好的季度稀釋每股收益。美國可比銷售額合計增長 5.1%，每個品牌的同店銷售額均呈正增長。

The first quarter results further validate the strategic and operational framework we outlined for the year and set us up to deliver our commitments. I will be giving an update on our plans in a minute. Before doing that, I would like to thank our teams in the restaurants and restaurant support center for their unwavering commitment to serving our guests. Thorough dedication to great hospitality and service and experience is what makes our company so successful. As we look to build upon the momentum of the first quarter, we continue to remain focused on executing our plan to grow the business.

第一季度的業績進一步驗證了我們為今年制定的戰略和運營框架，並使我們能夠兌現我們的承諾。我將在一分鐘內更新我們的計劃。在此之前，我要感謝我們餐廳和餐廳支持中心的團隊，感謝他們堅定不移地致力於為客人提供服務。對熱情好客、服務和經驗的全心投入是我們公司如此成功的原因。在我們期待以第一季度的勢頭為基礎的同時，我們將繼續專注於執行我們的業務增長計劃。

As a reminder, our priorities include driving same-store sales growth, maintaining off-premises momentum, sustain the progress in operating margins, becoming a more digitally savvy company and increasing new restaurant openings.

提醒一下，我們的首要任務包括推動同店銷售增長、保持場外銷售勢頭、維持營業利潤率的增長、成為一家更精通數字技術的公司以及增加新餐廳的開張。

Let me now turn to our first priority, which is to grow sales and traffic in our restaurants. Growing sustainable traffic, especially at Outback is our biggest priority. To achieve this goal, we are executing a number of initiatives. To start, let me provide a brief update on our use of technology to improve execution and consistency in the restaurants. The handheld technology rollout for our service was completed at the end of Q4. The Outback team is now focused on optimizing the experience in the dining room to deliver a differentiated guest experience. The tablets allow our service to cover more tables while providing an even better experience to our guests. Tablets are not replacing personal interaction, they are enhancing it as servers now spend more time with guests.

現在讓我談談我們的首要任務，即增加我們餐廳的銷售額和客流量。增加可持續交通，尤其是在內陸地區，是我們的首要任務。為實現這一目標，我們正在執行多項舉措。首先，讓我簡要介紹一下我們使用技術來提高餐廳的執行力和一致性的最新情況。我們服務的手持技術推出已於第四季度末完成。 Outback 團隊現在專注於優化餐廳體驗，以提供差異化的賓客體驗。這些平板電腦讓我們的服務覆蓋更多餐桌，同時為我們的客人提供更好的體驗。平板電腦並沒有取代人際互動，它們正在增強人際互動，因為現在服務員會花更多時間與客人相處。

In addition, we continue to roll out new cooking technology, including advanced grills and ovens. The rollout is on track to be completed in the third quarter. This cooking technology is improving product quality and meal pacing. Like handhelds, the kitchen investments are also improving the customer experience and productivity.

此外，我們繼續推出新的烹飪技術，包括先進的烤架和烤箱。該部署有望在第三季度完成。這種烹飪技術正在提高產品質量和用餐節奏。與手持設備一樣，廚房投資也在改善客戶體驗和生產力。

The second part of building sales and traffic is more targeted marketing designed to leverage our heritage, build brand equity and drive frequency. Outback brought back the "No Rules, Just Right" platform at the beginning of Q1 but this is more than just marketing. It's an attitude. It's how we reenergize our restaurants with new food offerings, exceptional service and most importantly, it ties back to our past. "No Just, Just Right" is aimed at highlighting our great menu and the everyday value that we offer to our guests. In Q1, we leaned into our Aussie routes with both food and beverage innovation.

建立銷售和流量的第二部分是更有針對性的營銷，旨在利用我們的傳統、建立品牌資產和提高頻率。 Outback 在第一季度初帶回了“沒有規則，恰到好處”的平台，但這不僅僅是營銷。這是一種態度。這就是我們如何通過新的食品供應、卓越的服務為我們的餐廳注入活力，最重要的是，它與我們的過去息息相關。 “不只是，恰到好處”旨在突出我們的美味菜單和我們為客人提供的日常價值。在第一季度，我們通過食品和飲料創新進入澳大利亞航線。

The third element to our sales building strategy is an introduction of new layers at all of our brands. For example, during the first quarter, Fleming's launched Social Hour. It captures our wonderful food and drink offerings during the early evening. We also continue to grow our events catering business within Fleming's and look forward to the innovation that's coming from this business.

我們的銷售構建策略的第三個要素是在我們所有的品牌中引入新層次。例如，在第一季度，Fleming's 推出了 Social Hour。它捕捉了我們在傍晚提供的美味食品和飲料。我們還繼續在 Fleming's 內發展我們的活動餐飲業務，並期待這項業務帶來的創新。

Another sales layer is wine dinners at Carrabba's. Wine dinners showcase the innovation and product quality Carrabba's is known for, while providing a great value for the guest and a good return for the company. We will continue to provide updates on sales layers at all of our brands throughout the year.

另一個銷售層是 Carrabba's 的葡萄酒晚宴。葡萄酒晚宴展示了 Carrabba's 聞名的創新和產品質量，同時為客人提供了巨大的價值，並為公司帶來了豐厚的回報。我們將在全年繼續提供我們所有品牌的銷售層級更新。

The final sales driving strategy is additional spending on remodels this year. We paused our remodel efforts during the pandemic and have since developed a variety of (inaudible) that can be deployed based on varying needs of our restaurants. We are on track to remodel over 100 locations this year. This is the beginning of a multiyear effort to touch a large percentage of our business. Keeping our assets looking their best is a key element of growing traffic. All the initiatives I've just described are designed to build sustainable traffic now and over the long term.

最終的銷售驅動策略是今年在改造方面的額外支出。我們在大流行期間暫停了改造工作，此後開發了多種（聽不清）可以根據我們餐廳的不同需求進行部署。今年我們有望改造 100 多個地點。這是接觸我們大部分業務的多年努力的開始。讓我們的資產保持最佳狀態是增加流量的關鍵因素。我剛才描述的所有舉措都是為了在現在和長期建立可持續的交通。

Turning to our second priority, continuing the momentum in the off-premises business. The total off-premises business was 23% of U.S. sales in Q1 and our third-party delivery business continues to perform well. Importantly, off-premises profit margins are comparable to margins of the in-restaurant business. In addition, catering is becoming an important and growing opportunity for our brands. The Carrabba's team remains an industry leader in this space. Both Outback and Bonefish are also seeing momentum in catering. As a result of all of the above, we expect off-premises to remain a large part of our business.

轉向我們的第二個優先事項，繼續保持場外業務的勢頭。第一季度，場外業務總額占美國銷售額的 23%，我們的第三方交付業務繼續表現良好。重要的是，場外利潤率與餐廳內業務的利潤率相當。此外，餐飲正成為我們品牌的一個重要且不斷增長的機會。 Carrabba 的團隊仍然是該領域的行業領導者。 Outback 和 Bonefish 也看到了餐飲業的發展勢頭。由於上述所有原因，我們預計場外業務仍將是我們業務的很大一部分。

Our third priority is to sustain the major progress we have made in operating margins over the last 4 years in a highly inflationary environment. Margin improvements start with growing healthy traffic across the in-restaurant and off-premises channels. We also reduced the reliance on discounting and promotional LTOs and pivoted the advertising spend towards more targeted, higher-return digital channels. Additionally, we remain disciplined in managing the middle of the P&L and are aggressively pursuing efficiencies in food, labor and overhead. As Chris will discuss, despite persistent inflation, we've been able to achieve our margins well above 2019. We remain committed to achieving 8% operating margins over the long term.

我們的第三個優先事項是在高通脹環境下維持過去 4 年我們在營業利潤率方面取得的重大進展。利潤率的提高始於餐廳內和場外渠道健康的流量增長。我們還減少了對折扣和促銷 LTO 的依賴，並將廣告支出轉向更有針對性、回報更高的數字渠道。此外，我們在管理 P&L 的中間部分方面保持紀律，並積極追求食品、勞動力和間接費用方面的效率。正如克里斯將要討論的那樣，儘管通貨膨脹持續存在，我們的利潤率仍遠高於 2019 年。我們仍然致力於在長期內實現 8% 的營業利潤率。

The fourth priority is to capitalize on our progress to become a more digitally savvy company. In Q1, approximately 79% of total U.S. off-premises sales were through digital channels. The new online ordering system and mobile app have exceeded our expectations. The new app has 3 million users. You can expect to see further activity as we improve the functionality and features of our app and digital offerings.

第四個優先事項是利用我們的進步，成為一家更精通數字技術的公司。第一季度，美國場外銷售總額的大約 79% 是通過數字渠道進行的。新的在線訂購系統和移動應用程序超出了我們的預期。新應用擁有 300 萬用戶。隨著我們改進應用程序和數字產品的功能和特性，您可以期待看到進一步的活動。

And the final priority is to build more new restaurants, especially at Outback, Fleming's in Brazil. Each of these brands have strong sales and profit margins and offer great returns. Outback has the opportunity to significantly expand its restaurant base. We will continue to invest and grow Fleming's. And we also have the ability to more than double our footprint in Brazil. In summary, we are off to a terrific start. We are focusing on achieving our 2023 goals while building a great business that will continue to thrive.

最後一個優先事項是建造更多新餐廳，尤其是在巴西的 Outback、Fleming's。這些品牌中的每一個都具有強勁的銷售和利潤率，並提供豐厚的回報。 Outback 有機會顯著擴大其餐廳基礎。我們將繼續投資和發展 Fleming's。我們也有能力將我們在巴西的足跡擴大一倍以上。總而言之，我們有了一個極好的開始。我們專注於實現我們的 2023 年目標，同時建立一個將繼續蓬勃發展的偉大企業。

And with that I will now turn the call over to Chris.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給克里斯。

Thanks, Dave and good morning, everyone. I would like to start by providing a recap of our financial performance for the fiscal first quarter of 2023. Total revenues in Q1 were $1.2 billion, which was up 9.1% from 2022, driven by a 5.1% increase in U.S. comparable restaurant sales as well as a 14.3% comp sales increase in Brazil.

謝謝，戴夫，大家早上好。首先，我想回顧一下我們 2023 財年第一季度的財務業績。第一季度的總收入為 12 億美元，比 2022 年增長 9.1%，這主要受美國可比餐廳銷售額增長 5.1% 的推動巴西的 comp 銷售額增長了 14.3%。

In our U.S. brands, traffic was down 70 basis points in Q1. This was a significant improvement from Q4 even after factoring in a 330-basis point favorable impact on Q1 traffic from the lapping of Omicron and unfavorable weather. As we indicated in our last call, we began to see improvements in traffic in December and these trends continued into the first quarter.

在我們的美國品牌中，第一季度流量下降了 70 個基點。即使考慮到 Omicron 和不利天氣對 Q1 交通的 330 個基點的有利影響，這比第四季度有了顯著改善。正如我們在上次電話會議中指出的那樣，我們在 12 月開始看到流量有所改善，並且這些趨勢一直持續到第一季度。

Average check was up 5.8% in Q1 versus 2022. This is in line with what we discussed on last quarter's call. In terms of pricing, we would expect to see the impact of pricing slowly come down as the year progresses. There will be a larger step down towards the end of Q3 as we lap price changes from last year. We will consider taking some level of new pricing later in the year but our goal is to take as little pricing as possible in this environment.

與 2022 年相比，第一季度的平均支票增長了 5.8%。這與我們在上一季度的電話會議上討論的內容一致。在定價方面，我們預計隨著時間的推移，定價的影響會慢慢下降。隨著我們計算去年的價格變化，到第三季度末會有更大的降幅。我們將考慮在今年晚些時候採用某種程度的新定價，但我們的目標是在這種環境下採用盡可能低的定價。

At 23% of U.S. sales, Q1 off-premises was down 100 basis points from Q4. Given the heavier volumes we tend see in Q1, this change was expected and was primarily a migration from our curbside business to in-restaurant dining. In recent weeks, we have seen off-premises return to 24% of U.S. sales. Importantly, the highly incremental third-party delivery business was flat from Q4 at roughly 12% of U.S. sales. Third-party has remained at approximately 12% over each of the past 5 quarters, even as in-restaurant dining has returned.

第一季度場外銷售額占美國銷售額的 23%，比第四季度下降 100 個基點。鑑於我們在第一季度往往會看到更大的數量，這種變化是意料之中的，主要是從我們的路邊業務向餐廳內用餐的遷移。最近幾週，我們看到場外銷售恢復到美國銷售額的 24%。重要的是，高度增量的第三方交付業務與第四季度持平，約占美國銷售額的 12%。第三方在過去 5 個季度中的每個季度都保持在大約 12%，即使在餐廳用餐已經恢復。

In terms of brand performance, Outback total off-premises mix was 26% of sales, and Carrabba's was 30% of sales. Off-premises remains sticky and is a large part of our ongoing success. And as Dave mentioned, it will be a key part of our growth strategy moving forward.

就品牌業績而言，Outback 總場外組合佔銷售額的 26%，而 Carrabba's 佔銷售額的 30%。場外仍然很粘，這是我們持續成功的很大一部分。正如戴夫所提到的，這將是我們未來發展戰略的關鍵部分。

And the final note on Q1 sales. Brazil Q1 comps were up 14.3%. Brazil's first quarter reflected the lapping of COVID-related operating restrictions from early 2022. Q1 was the last quarter where favorable COVID [laps] will have a significant impact on year-over-year trends. Also, as a reminder, Brazil comp sales do not include the benefit from the Brazil tax exemption we discussed on the last earnings call.

以及關於第一季度銷售的最後說明。巴西第一季度的收入增長了 14.3%。巴西的第一季度反映了從 2022 年初開始實施與 COVID 相關的運營限制。第一季度是最後一個季度，有利的 COVID [laps] 將對同比趨勢產生重大影響。另外，提醒一下，巴西的銷售額不包括我們在上次財報電話會議上討論的巴西免稅帶來的好處。

As it relates to other aspects of our Q1 financial performance, GAAP diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.93 versus $0.73 of diluted earnings per share in 2022. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.98 versus $0.80 of adjusted diluted earnings per share in 2022. This represented the most profitable quarter in our company's history. The difference between our GAAP and adjusted results was in our share count and was related to required accounting treatment for the hedge we have on our convertible bonds.

由於與我們第一季度財務業績的其他方面相關，本季度 GAAP 稀釋每股收益為 0.93 美元，而 2022 年的稀釋每股收益為 0.73 美元。調整後的稀釋每股收益為 0.98 美元，而 2022 年調整後的稀釋每股收益為 0.80 美元。這是我們公司歷史上利潤最高的一個季度。我們的 GAAP 和調整後結果之間的差異在於我們的股份數量，並且與我們對可轉換債券進行的對沖所需的會計處理有關。

Operating income margin was 9.7% in Q1 versus 9.4% in 2022. Restaurant-level operating margins were 17.9% versus 17.1% last year. Margins improved for a couple of reasons. First, international operating margins were up 770 basis points driven by Brazil as they are lapping COVID impacts from Q1 2022. Second, the benefits from our U.S. pricing and productivity initiatives more than offset inflation. As it relates to inflation, commodity inflation was up 6.6% in Q1 and labor inflation was up 6.4%. Restaurant operating expense inflation improved from Q4 but remained elevated at 9.4%. This was driven by higher utilities, R&M and advertising. Overall, inflation in the first quarter was in line with expectations.

第一季度的營業利潤率為 9.7%，而 2022 年為 9.4%。餐廳層面的營業利潤率為 17.9%，而去年為 17.1%。利潤率提高有幾個原因。首先，在巴西的推動下，國際營業利潤率上升了 770 個基點，因為他們正在應對 2022 年第一季度以來的 COVID 影響。其次，我們在美國的定價和生產力舉措帶來的好處遠遠抵消了通貨膨脹。由於與通貨膨脹有關，第一季度商品通貨膨脹率上升了 6.6%，勞動力通貨膨脹率上升了 6.4%。餐廳運營費用通脹從第四季度開始有所改善，但仍保持在 9.4% 的高位。這是由更高的公用事業、R&M 和廣告推動的。總體而言，一季度通脹符合預期。

Depreciation expense and general and administrative expense were both up in Q1 relative to last year in absolute dollars. This is consistent with our increased levels of capital spending and our investments in infrastructure to support growth. Overall, we feel good about our margins and we remain well above pre-pandemic levels.

按絕對美元計算，第一季度的折舊費用和一般及行政費用均比去年有所上升。這與我們增加的資本支出水平和我們為支持增長而對基礎設施的投資是一致的。總體而言，我們對自己的利潤率感到滿意，而且我們仍遠高於大流行前的水平。

Also in Q1, our adjusted tax rate was 14% and includes the benefit from the Brazil tax exemption.

同樣在第一季度，我們調整後的稅率為 14%，其中包括巴西免稅的好處。

Turning to our capital structure. Total debt was $768 million at the end of Q1. This puts our current lease adjusted leverage ratio below 3x. In terms of share repurchases, year-to-date, we have repurchased 1.1 million shares of stock for $27 million. We still have $113 million remaining on the new authorization that the Board approved on February 7. The Board also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.24 a share payable on May 24. We are pleased with our balanced deployment of free cash flow and will continue to deploy dollars against additional debt pay down, share repurchases and our dividend.

轉向我們的資本結構。第一季度末的總債務為 7.68 億美元。這使我們當前的租賃調整后杠桿率低於 3 倍。在股票回購方面，年初至今，我們以 2700 萬美元的價格回購了 110 萬股股票。我們在董事會於 2 月 7 日批准的新授權中仍有 1.13 億美元剩餘。董事會還宣布將於 5 月 24 日支付每股 0.24 美元的季度股息。我們對自由現金流的平衡部署感到滿意，並將繼續部署美元用於償還額外的債務、股票回購和我們的股息。

Now turning to our 2023 and Q2 guidance. First, we are reaffirming all aspects of our 2023 guidance previously provided on our February 16 earnings call. And second, as it relates to the second quarter, we expect U.S. comparable restaurant sales to be 0.5% to 1.5% and we expect Q2 adjusted earnings per share to be between $0.62 and $0.67. Year-over-year comparison will become more difficult in Q2 relative to Q1 as we will not have the same level of benefits either domestically or internationally from lapping COVID impacts in 2022. In addition, strong Q2 trends from last year make it our most challenging lap of the year.

現在轉向我們的 2023 年和第二季度指南。首先，我們重申我們之前在 2 月 16 日的財報電話會議上提供的 2023 年指導的所有方面。其次，與第二季度相關，我們預計美國可比餐廳銷售額將增長 0.5% 至 1.5%，我們預計第二季度調整後每股收益將在 0.62 美元至 0.67 美元之間。與第一季度相比，第二季度的同比比較將變得更加困難，因為到 2022 年，我們在國內或國際上都不會從重疊 COVID 影響中獲得相同水平的收益。此外，去年第二季度的強勁趨勢使其成為我們最具挑戰性的一年中的一圈。

In summary, this was another successful quarter for Bloomin' Brands and we are well on our way to becoming a better, stronger, operations-focused company.

總而言之，這是 Bloomin' Brands 又一個成功的季度，我們正在朝著成為更好、更強大、專注於運營的公司邁進。

And with that, we will open up the call for questions.

有了這個，我們將打開問題的電話。

(Operator Instructions) Today's first question is coming from Jeffrey Bernstein of Barclays.

（操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的杰弗裡伯恩斯坦。

Great. One question, one follow-up. The question would be on the second quarter guidance. I think there's some industry and investor concerns of slowing comps, at least in April, although clearly choppy with the shifts and whatnot. But your guidance maybe corroborates that. I think, Chris, you mentioned that the compares get tougher and no longer you have the Omicron benefit, whatnot. But can you just talk about maybe the exit rate you saw for the first quarter or maybe what you're running in April? Any change in consumer behaviors you're seeing in any of these brands? Just trying to get a sense for whether or not there's any validity to fears of most recent slowdown and the underlying. And then one follow-up.

偉大的。一問一跟。問題是關於第二季度的指導。我認為至少在 4 月份，一些行業和投資者擔心 comps 放緩，儘管隨著變化和諸如此類的因素明顯起伏不定。但你的指導可能證實了這一點。我想，克里斯，你提到比較變得更加艱難，你不再有 Omicron 的好處，諸如此類。但是你能談談你在第一季度看到的退出率或者你在 4 月份的運行情況嗎？您在這些品牌中看到的消費者行為有何變化？只是想弄清楚對最近經濟放緩及其潛在因素的擔憂是否合理。然後是跟進。

Yes. Jeff, look, our Q2 performance is tied directly into what Chris guided so far for the quarter. So if you look at the trends in the quarter, that's incorporated in our Q2 guidance. And as we mentioned, March, April and May are really our biggest overlaps of the year. So our trends still are good and our customers are hanging in there. So we feel good about where the guide looks and we feel good about the full year as we reiterated our full year guidance.

是的。傑夫，你看，我們第二季度的表現與克里斯本季度迄今為止的指導直接相關。因此，如果您查看本季度的趨勢，就會將其納入我們的第二季度指南中。正如我們提到的，三月、四月和五月確實是我們一年中最大的重疊期。所以我們的趨勢仍然很好，我們的客戶還在堅持。因此，我們對指南的外觀感覺良好，並且在我們重申全年指導時對全年感覺良好。

Yes. And just to give you some math behind the guide. So if you look at the guidance range of, call it, 50 basis points to 1.5%, I would say, you could expect in that guide, maybe a 5% or maybe a little higher average check built into that guide. So that would be putting your traffic basically at the midpoint of [down 4%], which if you stripped out the Omicron and unfavorable weather from the Q1 result, it basically is flat from Q1 in terms of our overall traffic guide for the quarter.

是的。只是為了給您一些指南背後的數學知識。因此，如果你看一下指導範圍，稱之為 50 個基點到 1.5%，我會說，你可以在該指南中期望，該指南中內置了 5% 或更高的平均支票。因此，這將使您的流量基本上處於 [下降 4%] 的中點，如果您從第一季度的結果中剔除 Omicron 和不利的天氣，就我們本季度的整體流量指南而言，它基本上與第一季度持平。

And then again, I know we tend to not like 2019 as much but I know that some folks are still looking at 2019. If you look at 2019 results from Q1 to Q2, we've actually seen a tick up in both comps and traffic versus 2019, pretty material tick up in comps and traffic versus where we were in 2019 in both -- based on what the last 5 weeks or so of Q1 looked like versus the first 3 or 4 weeks of Q2. So we feel pretty good about the overall guide, at least in terms of where the consumer is. I think a lot of the noise about Q2 has more to do with the [laps] than our trends today.

再一次，我知道我們往往不太喜歡 2019 年，但我知道有些人仍在關注 2019 年。如果你看看 2019 年第一季度到第二季度的結果，我們實際上已經看到了競爭和流量的上升與 2019 年相比，根據第一季度最後 5 週左右與第二季度前 3 或 4 週的情況，與 2019 年相比，我們在 comps 和流量方面都有相當大的提升。所以我們對整體指南感覺很好，至少就消費者所在的位置而言。我認為關於第二季度的很多噪音更多地與 [圈數] 有關，而不是我們今天的趨勢。

Understood. And then just the follow-up is on the menu pricing. I think you mentioned in the first quarter, you had close to 6% average check. I'm just wondering specifically how much are you running in pricing in the first quarter. Maybe any resistance that you're seeing year-to-date? Or what your expectations are for pricing as we move through the year? I feel like there's the most recent concern on taking new pricing as with food-at-home now falling below food-away-from home, which seems to have been a nice level of protection for our restaurants for such a long time. Maybe there's reason to feel the need to be more cautious on the pricing going forward.

明白了。然後只是跟進是菜單定價。我想你在第一季度提到過，你的平均支票接近 6%。我只是想知道你在第一季度的定價具體是多少。也許你今年迄今看到的任何阻力？或者您對今年的定價有何期望？我覺得最近人們擔心採用新定價，因為現在在家用餐的價格低於在家用餐的價格，這似乎長期以來對我們的餐廳提供了很好的保護。也許有理由覺得有必要對未來的定價更加謹慎。

Yes. A few things. So pricing was about 7.5%, I think, 7.6% in Q1. We would expect that to tick down as the year progresses. And look, I think we've done pretty well in relative pricing, particularly versus the competition, we took effectively 0 pricing in 2020. We maybe took 2% or so in 2021 and then 7% or so last year. So through the end of 2022, we were less than 10% higher in pricing versus where we were at the start of the pandemic. And our pricing is still well below inflation that we've seen over that same time period.

是的。一些東西。所以第一季度的定價約為 7.5%，我認為是 7.6%。我們預計隨著時間的推移，這一數字會下降。看，我認為我們在相對定價方面做得很好，特別是與競爭對手相比，我們在 2020 年實際上採用了 0 定價。我們可能在 2021 年採用了 2% 左右，然後在去年採用了 7% 左右。因此，到 2022 年底，我們的定價比大流行開始時高出不到 10%。而且我們的定價仍遠低於我們在同一時期看到的通貨膨脹率。

We do have some pricing built into the back half of the year that we think can help given some of this persistent inflation but it won't be near the amount that we took in Q3 or Q4 of last year. Our predisposition, as we said in the prepared remarks, is to take as little pricing as possible this year. And it just depends on how this year plays out. If we don't think we have the pricing power with the consumer, then we may not take it. But given our strong start in Q1, we may have some flexibility on taking less pricing as the year progresses but we're not going to make those decisions until as late as possible.

我們確實在今年下半年建立了一些定價，我們認為這有助於考慮到這種持續的通貨膨脹，但它不會接近我們在去年第三季度或第四季度採取的數量。正如我們在準備好的評論中所說，我們的傾向是今年盡可能少地定價。這僅取決於今年的表現。如果我們認為我們對消費者沒有定價權，那麼我們可能不會接受。但鑑於我們在第一季度的強勁開局，隨著時間的推移，我們可能會靈活地採取較低的定價，但我們不會盡可能晚地做出這些決定。

Got it. And you just mentioned the strong start with the first quarter. The fact that you reiterated the full year guidance with the first quarter being such a healthy -- be it, from at least an earnings perspective. The reason why there was perhaps no raise to that guidance, is there anything particular going on that leaves you a little bit more cautious for the rest of the year? Or is that just prudent to see which I would think would be important in this environment?

知道了。你剛剛提到了第一季度的強勁開局。事實上，你重申了全年指導，第一季度是如此健康——至少從收益的角度來看。可能沒有提高該指導的原因是，有什麼特別的事情讓你在今年餘下的時間裡更加謹慎嗎？或者只是謹慎地看看我認為在這種環境下哪個重要？

Yes. Prudence is a good word. I think there's 2 things to that, right? So we feel really good about our full year guide. Q1 was obviously a great start to the year but there's a lot that can unfold in the next 9 months. And it just feels a little bit early to be changing guidance. And I'd say one technical thing is, what I just mentioned, I mean to the point -- to this point, the consumer seems to be doing pretty well. But again, I mean, there is some uncertainty out there. So we want to preserve the flexibility potentially to take as little pricing as possible in the back half of the year. And pricing can have a big impact on your financial results but it also, in terms of traffic can have longer-term implications. So we want to reserve the right to take less pricing if we need to.

是的。謹慎是個好詞。我認為有兩件事，對吧？所以我們對我們的全年指南感覺非常好。第一季度顯然是今年的一個良好開端，但在接下來的 9 個月裡還有很多事情可以展開。改變指南感覺有點早。我要說的一個技術問題是，我剛才提到的，我的意思是——就這一點而言，消費者似乎做得很好。但是，我的意思是，那裡存在一些不確定性。因此，我們希望保留潛在的靈活性，以便在今年下半年採取盡可能少的定價。定價會對您的財務業績產生重大影響，但就流量而言，它也會產生長期影響。因此，如果需要，我們希望保留降低定價的權利。

The next question is coming from Alex Slagle of Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Alex Slagle。

On the cost of goods being 31.3%, I mean, I imagine Brazil tax benefit maybe helped to some degree. But other than the first quarter of '21, I don't think I've kind of seen it that low going back really ever. I mean it seems like inflation and pricing outlooks remain the same. So curious if you could offer more perspective on what's driving that.

關於商品成本為 31.3%，我的意思是，我認為巴西的稅收優惠可能在某種程度上有所幫助。但除了 21 年第一季度，我認為我從未見過它真正回落到如此低的水平。我的意思是通貨膨脹和定價前景似乎保持不變。很好奇你是否可以提供更多關於驅動它的觀點。

Yes. I think a couple of things, before Chris gets into some of the details. And we talked about the investment in technology, in the script, we talked about it in other conference calls. And clearly, the technology investments we're making in the restaurants and in the kitchen and everything else is paying off and we're seeing that. And you see it not only in cost but we hope to see it over the long term in customer satisfaction. With that I'll turn it over to Chris.

是的。在 Chris 深入了解一些細節之前，我想了一些事情。我們談到了技術投資，在劇本中，我們在其他電話會議中談到了它。很明顯，我們在餐廳、廚房和其他一切方面進行的技術投資正在取得回報，我們正在看到這一點。你不僅在成本上看到它，而且我們希望在客戶滿意度方面長期看到它。有了這個，我會把它交給克里斯。

Yes. And we talked about the tax benefit maybe helping overall margins by like 30 basis points or so. So that isn't the big driver here in cost of goods sold. It goes back to a little bit of what Dave said. I mean I think the piece that we expected in Q1, cost of sales performance was the pricing piece because that is pretty predictable. But I think the piece that was maybe a little bit of a surprise is how efficient we're running these restaurants and how smart we've gotten with this technology. It's a really, really good sign for us that the things that we're doing from an investment standpoint are going to pay off big time for the company moving forward.

是的。我們談到稅收優惠可能會幫助整體利潤率提高 30 個基點左右。所以這不是銷售商品成本的主要驅動因素。這可以追溯到戴夫所說的一點點。我的意思是我認為我們在第一季度預期的部分，銷售業績成本是定價部分，因為這是可以預測的。但我認為可能有點令人驚訝的是我們經營這些餐廳的效率以及我們對這項技術的了解程度。這對我們來說是一個非常非常好的跡象，表明我們從投資的角度所做的事情將為公司向前發展帶來巨大的回報。

As a follow-up, in South Korea, I see your partners have closed down a bunch of the virtual kitchens and have been opening a higher number of traditional restaurants, it seems. I wonder if you could offer any color on the approach there. Or if there's anything we should think about more broadly and how you're going about development in the international franchise and JV markets.

作為後續行動，在韓國，我看到你的合作夥伴已經關閉了一堆虛擬廚房，似乎已經開設了更多的傳統餐廳。我想知道你是否可以為那裡的方法提供任何顏色。或者，如果有任何事情我們應該更廣泛地考慮，以及您將如何在國際特許經營和合資市場上發展。

Yes. We -- throughout our whole company, we really see the opportunity to build restaurants. And they will have -- they will be delivery and carryout enabled. But we see the opportunity to go beyond virtual kitchens and build efficient, wonderful [boxes] that are in-restaurant enabled and also can do delivery and carryout and any virtual work at all. But our strategy is going up against our traditional development, both here and overseas.

是的。我們——在我們整個公司，我們真的看到了建造餐廳的機會。他們將有——他們將能夠交付和結轉。但我們看到了超越虛擬廚房並構建高效、美妙的 [盒子] 的機會，這些盒子可以在餐廳內啟用，也可以進行送貨和外賣以及任何虛擬工作。但我們的戰略與我們在國內外的傳統發展背道而馳。

The next question is coming from Lauren Silberman of Credit Suisse.

下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Lauren Silberman。

Congrats on the quarter. I wanted to ask a bit more about what you're seeing with the consumer. Any signs of changes in behavior, check management, trade down, any differences you're seeing across brands?

祝賀這個季度。我想多問一點關於你對消費者的看法。行為變化的任何跡象、檢查管理、折價交易，以及您在各個品牌中看到的任何差異？

Yes. We -- let me break the brand apart between fine dining and casual dining. Fine dining customer is really doing well and continues to do well. So that, that segment is strong. On the casual dining, basically, we're seeing the customer hang tight overall. We're seeing our higher-end customers come in with similar frequency, using our restaurants and we're especially seeing it around special occasions. We had the best week ever in our history on Valentine's Day and we're hoping for a really wonderful Mother's Day. So we're seeing that piece of the consumer doing pretty well.

是的。我們——讓我把這個品牌分為高級餐飲和休閒餐飲。高級餐飲客戶確實做得很好，而且會繼續做得很好。因此，該細分市場很強大。在休閒餐飲方面，基本上，我們看到顧客總體上保持緊張。我們看到我們的高端客戶以類似的頻率光顧我們的餐廳，尤其是在特殊場合。我們在情人節那天度過了歷史上最美好的一周，我們希望度過一個真正美好的母親節。所以我們看到那部分消費者做得很好。

On the lower end consumer, we are seeing continued frequency but maybe a little bit of management on the guest check side as they come into our restaurants. And our offers and our LTOs that we're offering, like, for instance, the steak and lobster, macaroni and cheese for $16.99 at the entry point in Outback helped to address some of that. So that's what we're seeing from the consumer right now.

在低端消費者中，我們看到他們進入我們餐廳的頻率持續增加，但可能在客人檢查方面進行了一些管理。我們提供的優惠和我們提供的 LTO，例如在內陸入口點以 16.99 美元的價格提供牛排和龍蝦、通心粉和奶酪，有助於解決其中的一些問題。這就是我們現在從消費者那裡看到的。

Yes. And I'd say just to give you -- you mentioned trade down and mix, just to give you some perspective. So we talked about pricing. So that does imply that mix was down like 180 basis points or so in the quarter. So it's probably important to provide some perspective on that. As Dave said, there is a piece of that, that we think is consumer trade. Our app mix is lower. But the majority of that mix has to do with revenue center shifts. So we know we got -- some of the areas where we are seeing some of our strongest growth also carry a lower check average.

是的。我想說的只是為了給你——你提到了向下交易和混合，只是為了給你一些觀點。所以我們談到了定價。因此，這確實意味著該季度的組合下降了 180 個基點左右。因此，就此提供一些觀點可能很重要。正如戴夫所說，我們認為其中有一部分是消費者貿易。我們的應用程序組合較低。但其中大部分與收入中心的轉變有關。所以我們知道我們得到了 - 我們看到一些最強勁增長的一些領域也有較低的檢查平均值。

Catering sales, for example, have basically doubled from where they were a year ago and continue to grow. But the average check per person is much lower on a catering transaction. But again, it's very profitable for us. Lunch is another area where we're continuing to see growth. Again, the check on lunch is lower than a check you would see on dinner. LTOs have been very popular, right? And again, they carry a little bit lower check average. So there's a lot of things that I would call more engineered in terms of our check that we're seeing, our mix that we're seeing in Q1 and then continuing into Q2. But at the same time, it is fair to say there is a bit of check management.

例如，餐飲銷售額與一年前相比基本翻了一番，並且還在繼續增長。但是餐飲交易中每人的平均支票要低得多。但同樣，這對我們來說非常有利可圖。午餐是我們繼續看到增長的另一個領域。同樣，午餐的支票低於晚餐的支票。 LTO 一直很受歡迎，對吧？再一次，他們的支票平均值略低。因此，根據我們所看到的檢查，我們在第一季度看到的混合，然後繼續進入第二季度，有很多東西我會稱之為更多的工程設計。但與此同時，可以說有點支票管理。

Super helpful. And then just a follow-up on the 2Q guide. Can you just break down what's embedded for operating margins, I guess, the puts and takes relative to 1Q. Is there anything outside of sales leverage?

超級有幫助。然後只是對 2Q 指南的跟進。你能不能分解一下營業利潤率的內含因素，我想，相對於第一季度的看跌期權和收益。除了銷售槓桿之外還有什麼嗎？

No, it's mostly sales leverage. I think commodity, I think you might see a stitch lower commodity inflation as well as labor inflation. I think just as we start to lap some of the areas from a year ago, those things will continue to get a little bit better in Q2. But it really is, I mean, honestly, if you look at the Q1 results and our Q2 guide and you just take the implied sales change and you do a flow-through on that, that pretty much gets you close to our guide for the quarter. So it really is more of a sales flow-through conversation than anything else.

不，這主要是銷售槓桿。我認為商品，我認為你可能會看到商品通脹和勞動力通脹略有下降。我認為，就像我們從一年前開始超越某些領域一樣，這些事情將在第二季度繼續好轉一些。但實際上，我的意思是，老實說，如果您查看第一季度的結果和我們的第二季度指南，並且只考慮隱含的銷售變化並對此進行流程處理，那幾乎可以使您接近我們的指南四分之一。因此，這實際上更像是一次銷售流程對話，而不是其他任何事情。

The next question is coming from John Ivankoe of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 John Ivankoe。

I want to ask a bigger picture question and maybe some specifics around it. So Dave, obviously, very experienced in this industry and we've certainly seen customer bases change in this industry, use cases change, competition change and one of the things and -- listen, this is kind of industry expert commentary that you kind of hear, is that the millennial and Gen Z consumer, at least those without families, aren't casual dining customers and may not even be casual dining customers.

我想問一個更大的問題，也許還有一些細節。所以戴夫，顯然，在這個行業非常有經驗，我們當然看到這個行業的客戶群發生變化，用例發生變化，競爭發生變化，其中之一 - 聽著，這是你那種行業專家評論聽說，千禧一代和 Z 世代消費者，至少是那些沒有家庭的消費者，不是休閒用餐的顧客，甚至可能不是休閒用餐的顧客。

So there's -- especially given these April numbers that have kind of come out, we're kind of hearing this secular argument of, casual dining is in decline. It's a leaking bucket. It just depends how fast the bucket is leaking of, basically traffic will be in perpetual decline. I mean some years might be down 2%, some years might be down 5%. So I mean, those are the kind of comments that kind of come out. I want you to, I guess, address that just in terms of, hey, this is a good growing segment that can generate positive same-store traffic through a cycle or if you just -- you say, you know what, this is something that you can still create value. And this is an industry or this is a segment, this is a brand that can create value for shareholders even in a perpetually negative same-store traffic environment. Hopefully, that's clear.

所以 - 特別是考慮到這些四月份的數字已經出來，我們有點聽到這種休閒餐飲正在下降的世俗爭論。這是一個漏桶。這僅取決於桶洩漏的速度，基本上流量將永遠下降。我的意思是有些年份可能下降 2%，有些年份可能下降 5%。所以我的意思是，這些是那種出現的評論。我想，我想讓你解決這個問題，嘿，這是一個增長良好的細分市場，可以通過一個週期產生積極的同店流量，或者如果你只是 - 你說，你知道嗎，這是什麼你仍然可以創造價值。這是一個行業或者這是一個細分市場，這是一個即使在同店流量永遠處於負增長的環境中也能為股東創造價值的品牌。希望這很清楚。

Yes, it's very clear, John. I think it's an excellent question. So it's a very broad question. I'll try and answer it as concisely as possible. But in my own background, I've got a lot of experience in QSR and a lot of experience in casual dining. And I can tell you, I'm thrilled to be in casual dining. It's an $80 billion category without a huge market share leader, with a lot of chance to grow and take share. So is convenience more important? Absolutely, John. And we're seeing that in our delivery carryout business and our third-party delivery continues to be very strong. Now when -- what we saw in the pandemic was when restaurants opened back up, people missed restaurants. And I even think those millennials will graduate into casual dining as they enjoy the experience. It's up to us to offer a fantastic occasion at great value. So that's part 1 of this.

是的，這很清楚，約翰。我認為這是一個很好的問題。所以這是一個非常廣泛的問題。我會盡量簡明扼要地回答。但在我自己的背景下，我在 QSR 方面有很多經驗，在休閒餐飲方面也有很多經驗。我可以告訴你，我很高興能在休閒餐廳用餐。這是一個價值 800 億美元的類別，沒有巨大的市場份額領導者，但有很多增長和占有份額的機會。那麼方便更重要嗎？當然，約翰。我們看到，在我們的送貨結轉業務中，我們的第三方送貨仍然非常強勁。現在——我們在大流行中看到的是，當餐館重新開張時，人們想念餐館。我什至認為那些千禧一代在享受這種體驗後會逐漸轉向休閒餐飲。我們有責任提供一個物超所值的美妙場合。這就是第 1 部分。

Part 2 is, John, we're seeing, as we open new restaurants, especially Outback, the volumes are way exceeding what our base is. And so when we go into new territories with good assets, the customers are there. So I strongly reject the argument that casual dining is a industry that's fading away. It's got great opportunity. And I think importantly, if you look at some of our price points that we offer versus maybe other parts of the industry, be it fast casual or QSR, we offer pretty good value, John, compared to some of those other players. So I think I'm very bullish on the casual dining industry, new development, new channels of distribution, carryout and delivery. The digital opportunity is there, it's big. We got to know our customers. And so I'm very bullish on casual dining.

第 2 部分是，約翰，我們看到，隨著我們開設新餐廳，尤其是內陸地區，數量遠遠超過了我們的基礎。因此，當我們進入擁有良好資產的新領域時，客戶就在那裡。所以我強烈反對休閒餐飲是一個正在消失的行業的論點。它有很好的機會。而且我認為重要的是，如果你看看我們提供的一些價格點與行業其他部分的價格點，無論是快速休閒還是 QSR，與其他一些玩家相比，我們提供了相當不錯的價值，約翰。所以我認為我非常看好休閒餐飲行業的新發展、新的分銷、外賣和送貨渠道。數字機會就在那裡，而且很大。我們開始了解我們的客戶。所以我非常看好休閒餐飲。

Some old friends of ours used to talk about earn the right to own and maybe related to that earn the right to grow. And I want to ask this in the context of that Outback unit growth, if same-store traffic is down 5% and we're talking about growing units, I mean those are things, again, looking at it dispassionately from the outside, those are 2 comments that don't really jive with each other. I mean, many people would say, you don't have the right to grow until you stabilized your same-store traffic, because the new stores that you're opening, even if they open high in year 1, they're going to decline like the rest of the base.

我們的一些老朋友過去常常談論獲得擁有權，也許與此相關，獲得成長權。我想在 Outback 單位增長的背景下問這個問題，如果同店客流量下降 5% 而我們談論的是增長的單位，我的意思是這些都是事情，再一次，從外面冷靜地看待它，那些是 2 條評論，彼此並不真正相得益彰。我的意思是，很多人會說，在穩定同店客流量之前，你沒有增長的權利，因為你要開的新店，即使他們在第一年開得很高，他們也會像基地的其他部分一樣下降。

So talk about that decision a little bit more, the decision to open more units, more Outbacks U.S. specifically. And I do want you to address if there's any changes in the fiscal '23 CapEx budget and why you think '24 will be higher or lower than '23.

因此，多談談這個決定，即開設更多單位的決定，特別是更多的美國內陸地區。我確實希望你能說明 23 年財政資本支出預算是否有任何變化，以及為什麼你認為 24 年會高於或低於 23 年。

Yes. 2023, no major changes there, John, our CapEx guide. But on the openings, clearly, we're seeing strong new unit openings and we definitely have earned the right to own and grow and I'm very familiar with that phrase. So -- and used it my entire career. I think, John, what Chris mentioned, we are looking at a point in time right now that we're lapping the strongest period from last year. We expect in our guide, traffic trends to improve in the balance of the year. And the industry itself will grow, especially those strong players.

是的。 2023 年，那裡沒有重大變化，約翰，我們的資本支出指南。但在空缺方面，很明顯，我們看到了強勁的新單位空缺，我們肯定已經贏得了擁有和發展的權利，我對這句話非常熟悉。所以 - 並在我的整個職業生涯中使用它。我認為，約翰，克里斯提到的，我們現在正在尋找一個時間點，我們正在超越去年最強勁的時期。我們預計在我們的指南中，交通趨勢將在今年餘下時間有所改善。而這個行業本身也會成長，尤其是那些強者。

But John, if you could see our new unit investment returns, where we're going in and how those units are performing, that's really, really terrific. In fact, we opened a new Carrabba's just north of Tampa here that has among the highest volume in the entire system. So clearly, there's an opportunity to grow these brands beyond where they are today, as we go forward. And I think the traffic trends, as you will see, as we begin to lap some of the wonkiness from last year, our traffic trends will improve. And I remain very bullish on the industry and our company.

但是約翰，如果你能看到我們新的單位投資回報，我們要去哪里以及這些單位的表現如何，那真的非常非常棒。事實上，我們在坦帕以北新開了一家 Carrabba's，它的銷量在整個系統中名列前茅。很明顯，隨著我們的前進，有機會讓這些品牌超越今天的水平。我認為交通趨勢，正如你所看到的，隨著我們開始擺脫去年的一些不穩定因素，我們的交通趨勢將會改善。我仍然非常看好這個行業和我們的公司。

And I -- let me just add on that, John. If you look at the financial performance of Outback specifically relative to where it was pre-pandemic, it looks like a very different financial performance in the sense that the P&L is far more efficient. The returns -- again, I mean, you go back to 2018, 2019, it was harder to make that argument to grow because the returns weren't there because the P&L wasn't in a great place. The P&L is in a much better shape now at Outback.

我——讓我補充一點，約翰。如果你特別看一下 Outback 相對於大流行前的財務表現，從損益效率要高得多的意義上來看，它看起來是一個非常不同的財務表現。回報——再一次，我的意思是，你回到 2018 年、2019 年，很難提出增長的論點，因為回報不存在，因為損益表不在一個好地方。內陸地區的損益狀況現在好多了。

One of the compromises though that we made with that in 2019 is we stripped out all the discounted occasions from 2019 out of the numbers and we have not built all of that back into our traffic to this point. But again, we're okay with that at this point because the P&L is in much better shape. Now is the time to the point we keep raising to build back that healthy traffic into our base. 2023, 2024 as we layer in all these layers, that's when that's going to start to seed in. We feel really good about new unit opportunities with the P&L that we have today.

儘管我們在 2019 年做出的妥協之一是我們從數字中剔除了 2019 年的所有折扣活動，但到目前為止我們還沒有將所有這些都重新構建到我們的流量中。但同樣，我們現在對此表示滿意，因為損益表的狀況要好得多。現在是我們不斷提高以重建我們基地的健康交通的時候了。 2023 年、2024 年，當我們在所有這些層中分層時，那將是開始播種的時候。我們對今天擁有的 P&L 的新單位機會感覺非常好。

And lastly, John, we talked about some of the sales layers and you've been following closely the technology in our restaurants and we're going to have that opportunity. And as we talk about 2024, we've got an important offsite for our company coming up at the end of May. We'll then discuss where we're going in 2024 with that and provide some more context coming up. But it's a little too early to talk about '24.

最後，約翰，我們談到了一些銷售層，你一直在密切關注我們餐廳的技術，我們將有機會。當我們談論 2024 年時，我們公司將在 5 月底舉行重要的異地活動。然後，我們將討論 2024 年的發展方向，並提供更多背景信息。但現在談論 24 年還為時過早。

Okay. Understood. And then this is related. I mean, obviously, very strong numbers out of Brazil, that's really been the case, kind of pre-pandemic, post pandemic. Are there any lessons in -- how have you solved the "customer issue or the secular issue" in Brazil to have such strong performance? And are there any lessons? And I know you've obviously taken some of the kitchen technology from Brazil and brought it into the U.S. So that's back-end stuff. Is there anything that you could do with the front end or really like customer-facing brand work from Brazil that can be applied to U.S. and just say, hey, listen, there's really some best practices that can be done here to make Brazil and the U.S. the relevant brand that it was really in the last couple of decades?

好的。明白了。然後這是相關的。我的意思是，很明顯，巴西的數據非常強勁，情況確實如此，有點像大流行前、大流行後。有什麼經驗教訓——你是如何解決巴西的“客戶問題或世俗問題”以取得如此強勁的業績的？有什麼教訓嗎？我知道你顯然已經從巴西引進了一些廚房技術並將其帶到美國。所以這是後端的東西。有什麼你可以用前端做的，或者真的很喜歡巴西面向客戶的品牌工作，可以應用於美國，然後說，嘿，聽著，這裡真的有一些最佳實踐可以做，使巴西和美國真的是最近幾十年的相關品牌嗎？

Yes. No, I agree with you, John. And with that, I took our brand [presence] down to Brazil earlier this year and we talked that through in great detail. We talk about it all the time. Two things that Brazil does really well that we're continuing to push in the U.S. #1, innovation, product innovation, marketing innovation and you're seeing that down there and we're helping, we're talking more with each other and you're going to see more of that from us. And I'm not going to get into that because for competitive reasons.

是的。不，我同意你的看法，約翰。為此，我在今年早些時候將我們的品牌[存在]帶到了巴西，我們對此進行了非常詳細的討論。我們一直在談論它。巴西做得很好的兩件事我們將繼續在美國推動#1，創新，產品創新，營銷創新，你在那裡看到了，我們正在提供幫助，我們正在互相交談，您將從我們這裡看到更多。出於競爭原因，我不打算討論這個問題。

#2, the use of technology and data. They've been fantastic down there. We're good here. We can do even better here. Now in fairness to the Outback U.S. team, it's a completely different competitive set down there. Outback is the only steakhouse down there by far and we own a great position there and we leverage it like you can't believe. And we're going to continue to grow it. But there is really no major steak competition down there other than Outback. But the innovation and the technology is terrific there.

#2，技術和數據的使用。他們在那裡一直很棒。我們這裡很好。我們可以在這裡做得更好。現在，對於美國內陸隊來說，這是一個完全不同的競爭環境。到目前為止，Outback 是那裡唯一的牛排館，我們在那裡佔有重要地位，我們會以您無法相信的方式利用它。我們將繼續發展它。但除了 Outback 以外，那裡真的沒有大型牛排比賽。但是那裡的創新和技術非常棒。

The next question is coming from Sharon Zackfia of William Blair.

下一個問題來自 William Blair 的 Sharon Zackfia。

I just have 2 questions. I'm curious whether you're seeing any changes in the competitive or promotional environments in the U.S.? And then secondarily, I don't think I heard how labor turnover is trending. So you could talk about that. And then the corollary benefits you might be seeing in kind of order accuracy or table turns or customer satisfaction.

我只有兩個問題。我很好奇您是否看到美國的競爭或促銷環境發生任何變化？其次，我不認為我聽說過勞動力流動的趨勢。所以你可以談談這個。然後，您可能會在訂單準確性、轉桌率或客戶滿意度方面看到必然的好處。

Yes. We have long been a leader in retention in the industry. Our turnover rates are very good. The trends are good, whether it's the managing partner that runs the restaurants, whether it's the manager, whether it's our team members. So we'll put our numbers up against anybody. It's really good. And Sharon, you see that in customer measures, right? You see it in the service measures. You see it in food measures. And we're making remarkable progress against that and our measures are just as good, especially at Outback and anywhere in the industry. So we're very pleased about that.

是的。長期以來，我們一直是業內保留率的領導者。我們的離職率非常好。趨勢是好的，無論是經營餐廳的管理合夥人，還是經理，還是我們的團隊成員。所以我們會用我們的數字來對抗任何人。真的很棒。 Sharon，你在客戶衡量標準中看到了這一點，對嗎？您可以在服務措施中看到它。您可以在食品措施中看到它。我們在這方面取得了顯著進展，我們的措施也同樣出色，尤其是在內陸地區和該行業的任何地方。所以我們對此感到非常高興。

On the customer side, we are seeing an uptick in discounting in the industry but not against the folks that we directly compete with. And so obviously, we can't control what the customer does but we tend -- we want to be very prudent with our discounting and promotions. We want to continue to offer things that we're grateful for the customer and also offer good returns for the company. That's one of the reasons why our margins are hanging in there so well. But we want to build healthy traffic through sales layers. We don't want to participate in any big time discounting or promotions even though we've seen an uptick in parts of the industry. And I'd stress again, some of the things that we're offering, for instance, the Sirloin and Lobster Mac & Cheese for $16.99 at Outback is really a terrific product. So that's where we tend to play, Sharon.

在客戶方面，我們看到該行業的折扣有所增加，但與我們直接競爭的人並沒有發生衝突。很明顯，我們無法控制客戶的行為，但我們傾向於——我們希望在打折和促銷時非常謹慎。我們希望繼續為客戶提供我們感激的東西，並為公司提供豐厚的回報。這就是為什麼我們的利潤率如此之高的原因之一。但我們希望通過銷售層建立健康的流量。我們不想參與任何大型折扣或促銷活動，儘管我們已經看到部分行業有所回升。我要再次強調，我們提供的一些東西，例如，在 Outback 以 16.99 美元的價格提供沙朗和龍蝦通心粉和奶酪，確實是一種了不起的產品。這就是我們喜歡玩的地方，莎倫。

The next question is coming from Jeff Farmer of Gordon Haskett.

下一個問題來自 Gordon Haskett 的 Jeff Farmer。

Just really a couple of follow-ups. So we touched on this but a casual dining peer attributed that the lion's share of some of the April same-store sales choppiness to Easter holiday and spring break shifts. It sounds like you guys have sort of a similar view. But the question is, why are you so confident that the casual dining consumer is not changing behavior and what is increasingly looking like sort of a more challenging consumer environment?

真的只是幾個後續行動。所以我們談到了這一點，但一位休閒餐飲同行將 4 月份同店銷售波動的大部分歸因於復活節假期和春假輪班。聽起來你們有類似的看法。但問題是，為什麼您如此確信休閒餐飲消費者沒有改變行為，而且越來越像是一個更具挑戰性的消費環境？

Because Jeff, we haven't -- we've seen our trends hold up. And you have to be really -- if you look at restaurant industry, we've been talking about this ever since COVID and the emergence of COVID, you have to look at week-to-week and month-to-month trends and the wonkiness of last year is really -- got to take into account. So like we said on this call, the trends we are seeing remain good and we're just trying to provide our best thinking as far as what Q2 and the rest of the year looks like in our guidance.

因為傑夫，我們沒有——我們已經看到我們的趨勢保持不變。而且你必須真的——如果你看看餐飲業，自從 COVID 和 COVID 出現以來我們就一直在談論這個，你必須看看每周和每月的趨勢以及去年的不穩定確實 - 必須考慮在內。因此，就像我們在這次電話會議上所說的那樣，我們看到的趨勢仍然很好，我們只是想就第二季度和今年剩餘時間在我們的指導中的表現提供最好的思考。

Again, I'll just reiterate what I said earlier. If you look at the last 5 weeks or so of Q1 and the first 5 weeks or so of Q2, we've seen a pretty decent step-up in terms of sales and traffic relative to 2019. And again, it's not always the best litmus test because there's a lot in 2019 as well but it is a little more consistent in terms of what we're seeing compared to last year, which did have quite a bit of up and down.

再一次，我只是重申我之前說過的話。如果你看看第一季度的最後 5 週左右和第二季度的前 5 週左右，我們會發現與 2019 年相比，銷售額和流量有了相當不錯的提升。而且，這並不總是最好的石蕊測試，因為 2019 年也有很多，但與去年相比，我們所看到的情況更加一致，去年確實有相當大的起伏。

Okay. And then second and last question. I think you just said that pricing was 7.6% in Q1. Pricing in Q2 and Q3, can you just provide us with those numbers, assuming no additional price increases are coming?

好的。然後是第二個也是最後一個問題。我想你剛才說第一季度的定價是 7.6%。 Q2 和 Q3 的定價，假設沒有額外的價格上漲，您能否向我們提供這些數字？

Yes. If there's no additional price increases, it will definitely kick down into that. Again, it might still be at 7% or so in Q2, but then Q3, it takes a pretty decent chunk down from there. And then you would end the year with, again, if we didn't replicate anything, you would end up with low single-digit pricing.

是的。如果沒有額外的價格上漲，它肯定會降價。同樣，它在第二季度可能仍處於 7% 左右，但在第三季度，它從那裡下降了相當大的一部分。然後你會在年底再一次，如果我們不復制任何東西，你最終會以低個位數的價格結束。

Yes. I also want to reiterate what Chris said earlier, Jeff, when you look at pricing, if you look at the last 3 years, I mean we've been very moderate in all 3 of our -- in our 3-year look on this and that's what we're trying to do going forward.

是的。我還想重申克里斯早些時候所說的話，傑夫，當你看定價時，如果你看過去 3 年，我的意思是我們在這 3 年的所有 3 年中都非常溫和這就是我們今後要做的事情。

The next question is coming from Sara Senatore of Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Sara Senatore。

I just wanted to sort of go back to this idea and we talked about reduced discounting traffic and now you've got a new sort of more profitable base to build on. But I was trying to understand, I guess, a couple of things about that. One is, that versus 2019, I'm curious like sort of how long that evolution took. We're sort of 3 years plus into this. So is it just the case that it took a long time? Or as we think about building off a new base, I guess, why now versus maybe in the last year or 2 years, acknowledging that COVID was a little disruptive.

我只是想回到這個想法，我們談到了減少折扣流量，現在你有了一個新的更有利可圖的基礎。但我想，我想了解一些關於它的事情。一是，與 2019 年相比，我很好奇這種演變花了多長時間。我們已經有 3 年多的時間了。那麼是不是只是時間長了呢？或者當我們考慮建立一個新基地時，我想，為什麼現在而不是過去一年或兩年，承認 COVID 有點破壞性。

And then related to that, could you talk a little bit about that, sort of how you think about that margin traffic trade-off because, as you said, you've done a really nice job with the margin, traffic is still, I think, modestly negative and has been for a little while. So as we think through kind of the outlook ahead, I understand you have a lot of sales layers but if sort of forced to make that trade-off, how would you approach it?

然後與此相關，你能談談這個嗎？你如何看待利潤率的流量權衡，因為正如你所說，你在利潤率方面做得非常好，流量仍然是，我想想，謙虛地消極，已經有一段時間了。因此，當我們思考未來的前景時，我知道你有很多銷售層，但如果被迫做出這種權衡，你會如何處理？

Well, first of all, we always want both. And there's a top line to traffic too, which is a great service product and innovation. So that's the first part of it. We want to manage the traffic equation and the margin equation. And it took us a while at Outback to work through the discounting. And obviously, COVID was a huge interrupter to all that. That took 2 years or however long you want to say. But like we've talked earlier today, we feel like that's behind us. We have like-for-like traffic we can look at. We've seen our guides, traffic builds coming, as the year progresses and we get a little past the wonkiness of 2022. But most importantly, the sales layers we talked about, right? The innovations in food, the "No Rules, Just Right" at Outback, the remodels, the investments in technology, those are the things that we're driving against to continue to make progress on traffic.

好吧，首先，我們總是想要兩者。流量也有一個頂線，這是一個很棒的服務產品和創新。這就是它的第一部分。我們要管理流量方程和保證金方程。我們在內陸花了一段時間才完成折扣。顯然，COVID 是這一切的巨大干擾者。這花了 2 年時間，或者你想說多長時間。但就像我們今天早些時候談過的那樣，我們覺得這已經過去了。我們有類似的流量，我們可以看看。隨著時間的推移，我們已經看到我們的指南、流量的增加，我們已經過了 2022 年的不穩定期。但最重要的是，我們談到的銷售層，對吧？食品創新、Outback 的“無規則、恰到好處”、改造、技術投資，這些都是我們為繼續在交通方面取得進步而反對的事情。

And they have the ancillary benefit, especially with our technology investments to help with margins. So that's how we're trying to manage both. We don't have an interest in getting involved in deep discounting to drive margins -- drive sales, excuse me. We want to offer great food and value at a fair price and continue to make progress on productivity to help protect margins.

他們還有附帶的好處，尤其是我們的技術投資有助於提高利潤率。這就是我們試圖管理兩者的方式。我們沒有興趣參與大幅折扣以提高利潤——提高銷量，不好意思。我們希望以合理的價格提供美味的食物和價值，並繼續在生產力方面取得進步以幫助保護利潤。

Okay. And then just in terms of those drivers that you talked about, are you able to sort of give a sense of like the magnitude as you think about the contributions? Just again, in the context of 2Q, I think, the implied traffic is perhaps still not positive. And so as you roll these things on, I guess, what does the build look like?

好的。然後就您談到的那些驅動因素而言，您是否能夠在考慮貢獻時給出某種程度的感覺？再說一次，在第二季度的背景下，我認為隱含的流量可能仍然不樂觀。所以當你把這些東西放在上面時，我猜，構建是什麼樣的？

Yes. So basically, what we're going to see is, during the year, traffic will build from some of these sales layers. I'm not going to get into, is it worth this much or worth this much or that much but they will come together and build and you'll see as a result, especially, if you look at our full year guide, improvement in traffic trends as the year goes along. So it's those particular sales layers that we're trying to work through on the food side and the technology side and bring them in quarter by quarter by quarter to help build traffic in our restaurants.

是的。所以基本上，我們將看到的是，在這一年中，流量將從這些銷售層中的一些增加。我不打算討論，它值這麼多還是值這麼多或那麼多，但他們會聚在一起建造，你會看到結果，特別是如果你看一下我們的全年指南，改進一年中的交通趨勢。因此，我們正努力在食品方面和技術方面努力解決這些特定的銷售層，並將它們逐個季度引入，以幫助增加我們餐廳的客流量。

Again, some of these are going to have a little bit longer tail as well, right? I mean some of the technology investments we're making. Again, it's hard to quantify an exact traffic lift from putting in new technology that makes you more efficient. But those -- that's going to have a tail heading into 2024, not just from a productivity standpoint but really from a sales standpoint as well. So every one of these things is paced in sequence. The catering, for example, we're already seeing it. We're doubled our catering sales year-over-year. That's already starting to show up in the numbers. So they're all going to play a different role in terms of how it seeds in through the year in this environment.

同樣，其中一些也會有更長的尾巴，對吧？我的意思是我們正在進行的一些技術投資。同樣，很難量化通過採用可提高效率的新技術帶來的確切流量提升。但是那些 - 到 2024 年將會有一個尾巴，不僅從生產力的角度來看，而且從銷售的角度來看也是如此。所以這些事情中的每一件事都是按順序進行的。例如，餐飲業，我們已經看到了。我們的餐飲銷售額同比翻了一番。這已經開始顯示在數字中。因此，在這種環境下，它們將在一年中的播種方式方面發揮不同的作用。

What I found after all these years in the business is, you have to have multiple sustainable layers, not just LTOs and promotions, multiple sustainable sales layers to consistently grow the business and that's what we're trying to do.

這些年來，我在業務中發現，你必須有多個可持續的層次，而不僅僅是 LTO 和促銷，多個可持續的銷售層次才能持續發展業務，這就是我們正在努力做的。

The next question is coming from Brian Harbour of Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的布賴恩港。

Chris, you talked about kind of the improved P&L in Outback units. How much is the build cost on the new Outback? And so I'm curious just what the returns are today. How you think about the hurdle rate on a new Outback or maybe also a remodel perhaps?

克里斯，你談到了內陸單位損益的改善。新 Outback 的建造成本是多少？所以我很好奇今天的回報是多少。您如何看待新 Outback 或改造的門檻率？

Yes. We're looking at 20% cash-on-cash returns at Outback for a new unit. I think the build cost is -- it's -- yes, it's about 20%. I'm sorry, it's about 20% up from where it was.

是的。我們在 Outback 尋找新單位的 20% 現金回報率。我認為建造成本是——是——是的，大約是 20%。抱歉，它比原來高了大約 20%。

Okay. Great. Maybe just on delivery, too. It sounds like, I mean, obviously, that continues to grow on a year-over-year basis. What have you been doing specifically to kind of continue to grow that channel? What else can you do to kind of continue to expand the delivery business?

好的。偉大的。也許也只是在交貨時。聽起來，我的意思是，很明顯，它繼續逐年增長。你一直在做什麼來繼續發展這個渠道？您還能做些什麼來繼續擴大送貨業務？

Yes. The third-party delivery business continues to be strong for us. And it is a segment of the customer base that -- a younger customer base that continues to grow and we're capturing that. And so what we're doing basically are 2 things -- 3 things, excuse me. One, we're making sure our assets are in shape for delivery and they got delivery rooms and enabled that way.

是的。第三方交付業務對我們來說仍然很強勁。這是客戶群的一部分——一個持續增長的年輕客戶群，我們正在抓住這一點。所以我們正在做的基本上是兩件事——三件事，對不起。第一，我們確保我們的資產處於交付狀態，並且他們有交付室並以這種方式啟用。

Two, we've trained all of our people to work with our third-party providers to provide the delivery experience that they've really come to know and trust. Three, we have wonderful family offers, family bundled offers, especially at Carrabba's that is tremendous food and tremendous value and we're playing -- casual dining has the opportunity to play in the delivery space that for many years, we didn't play in. And I think we have a chance to take share and grow as a result. And so we're seeing that in our business.

第二，我們培訓了所有員工與我們的第三方提供商合作，以提供他們真正了解和信任的交付體驗。第三，我們有很棒的家庭優惠，家庭捆綁優惠，尤其是在 Carrabba's，那裡有大量的食物和巨大的價值，我們正在玩——休閒餐飲有機會在我們多年來沒有玩過的送貨空間玩我認為我們有機會分享並因此成長。所以我們在我們的業務中看到了這一點。

The next question is coming from Brian Vaccaro of Raymond James.

下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Brian Vaccaro。

I just wanted to clarify some of the comments on recent sales trends just to make sure I interpreted them correctly. So first, did you say that quarter-to-date comps are in line with the Q2 guide above 0.5% to 1.5% or did you embed an acceleration versus what you're seeing here in April? And then second, Chris, did you say comps versus '19 started to accelerate in March and April? If so, could you put some numbers around that? And I'm just curious what you think is driving that sequential improvement.

我只是想澄清一些關於最近銷售趨勢的評論，以確保我正確地解釋了它們。所以首先，你是說季度至今的 comps 與 Q2 指南一致，高於 0.5% 到 1.5%，還是你嵌入了一個加速與你在 4 月份看到的相比？其次，克里斯，你是說 comps vs '19 在 3 月和 4 月開始加速嗎？如果是這樣，你能給出一些數字嗎？我只是好奇你認為是什麼推動了這種連續的改進。

Yes, I'll take the first part and turn it over to Chris. So the guide that we gave for the quarter, our trends are consistent with that guide. They're not exact with that guide but they're consistent, they're embedded in that guide. So that's why we want to -- how we want to lay that out. And you'll see, I think, that, that piece come together nicely in Q2.

是的，我將負責第一部分並將其交給 Chris。因此，我們為本季度提供的指南，我們的趨勢與該指南一致。它們與該指南不完全一致，但它們是一致的，它們已嵌入該指南中。所以這就是我們想要 - 我們想要如何佈局的原因。我認為，你會看到，這件作品在第二季度很好地融合在一起。

For the improvement versus 2019, it's the stuff we've been talking about, Brian, which is the sales layers, the operations of technology. Now I'll turn over to Chris for anything else that he'd like to add.

對於與 2019 年相比的改進，這是我們一直在談論的東西，布賴恩，即銷售層，技術運營。現在，我將轉交給 Chris，讓他談談他想補充的任何其他內容。

Well, the only clarifying -- so what I said was, if you look at March and you look versus 2019 and then you look where we are over the first 4 or so weeks of our second quarter, we have seen a step up in sales and traffic relative to 2019. So the step-up didn't start occurring in March. In fact, the early part of Q1, as we said on our last call, we had seen some pretty good trends heading into the first part of Q1. And that slowed down a little bit on -- versus '19 over the back part of the quarter but we've seen that tick back up again here early in Q2. Hopefully, that provides a perspective.

好吧，唯一的澄清 - 所以我說的是，如果你看看 3 月，看看與 2019 年相比，然後你看看我們在第二季度的前 4 週左右的時間裡的情況，我們看到銷售額有所增加和交通相對於 2019 年。所以升壓並沒有在 3 月開始發生。事實上，正如我們在上次電話會議上所說，在第一季度的早期，我們已經看到了進入第一季度第一部分的一些非常好的趨勢。與本季度後半段的 19 年相比，這一速度有所放緩，但我們已經看到第二季度初這裡再次回升。希望這提供了一個視角。

Right. And that's what gives us the bullishness you're hearing on where we think sales and traffic are going for the longer term for the company.

正確的。這就是讓我們看好你所聽到的我們認為銷售和流量對公司的長期影響的原因。

Okay. And 1 thing I've been thinking about is just the increased advertising spend at Outback. Can you remind me when did that begin? How has that impacted sales? And are you pleased with the ROI you're seeing there? And kind of how does it inform your future, your plan over the next few quarters?

好的。我一直在考慮的一件事就是增加 Outback 的廣告支出。你能提醒我那是什麼時候開始的嗎？這對銷售有何影響？您對在那裡看到的投資回報率滿意嗎？它如何影響你的未來，你在接下來幾個季度的計劃？

Yes. We don't anticipate going back to a level of advertising we once had because we've got -- know so much about our customer and our digital efforts. But we have upticked our extended Outback the last few months, not tremendously because we're seeing the returns on the advertising that we expected. And we think we have a great platform with "No Rules, Just Right" to talk about that. And therefore, we'll continue to watch our advertising. And with -- the beauty of digital, Brian is, you can press it on or off very, very quickly. And we're not afraid to invest where we're getting the returns. But I don't anticipate it's going back to pre-COVID advertising spending as a percent of sales. But you'll see more from Outback around the "No Rules, Just Right" platform going forward.

是的。我們預計不會回到我們曾經擁有的廣告水平，因為我們已經 - 非常了解我們的客戶和我們的數字工作。但我們在過去幾個月裡提高了我們擴展的內陸地區，但幅度並不大，因為我們看到了我們預期的廣告回報。我們認為我們有一個很棒的平台，可以用“沒有規則，恰到好處”來討論這個問題。因此，我們將繼續關注我們的廣告。並且 - 數字的美妙之處在於，布賴恩是，你可以非常非常快速地打開或關閉它。而且我們不怕在我們獲得回報的地方進行投資。但我預計它不會回到 COVID 之前的廣告支出佔銷售額的百分比。但您會看到更多來自 Outback 的“無規則，恰到好處”平台向前發展。

All right. And then just last one for me. I just had 2 quick ones on the margins. Chris, your Q1 obviously came in well ahead of your guidance. I'm curious what drove that upside in the store margins versus your expectations?

好的。然後給我最後一個。我只有 2 個快速的邊緣。克里斯，你的第一季度顯然遠遠超過了你的指導。我很好奇是什麼推動了商店利潤率高於您的預期？

Sure. Yes. I think a few things. One, sales were better than we expected in Q1. Valentine's Day week actually set a weekly sales record for our company. So that was very encouraging. And we also had some -- as I mentioned earlier, we had some COGS favorability above a bit, above what we were expecting. Some of these productivity opportunities have started to seed really quickly. There was also some, again, being overly specific on some operating supply favorability.

當然。是的。我想一些事情。第一，第一季度的銷售好於我們的預期。情人節那一周竟然創下了我們公司的每週銷售記錄。所以這是非常令人鼓舞的。我們也有一些——正如我之前提到的，我們有一些 COGS 的支持度高於我們的預期。其中一些生產力機會已經開始迅速播種。同樣，也有一些過於具體地描述了一些運營供應的好感度。

The other piece of this, though is, look at your -- in the press release, look at the International segment. It was up $16 million. Some of that was a little unexpected in the sense that if you look at Hong Kong, for example, that's a market that opened up much faster than we expected. They were basically shut down. We did not make a penny in Hong Kong last year in Q1. This year, in Q1, we made like $4 million. So that was a big improvement that, that was a little bit unexpected heading into the quarter. We also had some FX favorability that again was a little bit unexpected because the currency can be a little volatile. So look, there's a few things that drove that. But the biggest things are -- look, we overdelivered on sales and some of the efficiencies that we're seeing in our P&L were really, really strong.

不過，另一部分是，看看你的——在新聞稿中，看看國際部分。它增加了 1600 萬美元。其中一些有點出乎意料，例如，如果你看看香港，這個市場的開放速度比我們預期的要快得多。他們基本上被關閉了。去年第一季度我們在香港沒有賺到一分錢。今年第一季度，我們賺了大約 400 萬美元。所以這是一個很大的改進，進入本季度有點出乎意料。我們也有一些外匯優惠，這又有點出乎意料，因為貨幣可能會有點波動。所以看，有幾件事推動了這一點。但最重要的是——看，我們超額完成了銷售，我們在損益表中看到的一些效率確實非常非常強勁。

And we were able to do that in a highly inflationary environment, which is really important and that's part of our productivity as well picking up.

我們能夠在高度通貨膨脹的環境中做到這一點，這非常重要，這也是我們生產力提高的一部分。

Great. And if you look at that second quarter guidance, it looks like, just quick math, it looks like it embeds store margins, maybe in the high 15% or 16% range or so. Could you confirm that's in the ballpark? And just some perspective on -- I know Q2 is usually lower than Q1 but are there any specific cost dynamics in Q2 worth highlighting versus what we saw in Q1 or anything temporary, unusual in Q1 as we think about Q2?

偉大的。如果你看一下第二季度的指導，它看起來就像是快速數學，看起來它嵌入了商店利潤率，可能在 15% 或 16% 左右的高範圍內。你能確認這是在球場上嗎？只是一些觀點——我知道第二季度通常低於第一季度，但與我們在第一季度看到的相比，第二季度是否有任何特定的成本動態值得強調，或者我們在考慮第二季度時在第一季度看到的任何臨時的、不尋常的？

Yes. Look, there's always some little things, Brian. But I guess I would tell you that the Q2 guide, you would say margins are probably down a little in Q2 versus last year. But I would say op margins still on that 7% to 7.5% range for the quarter. Restaurant margins probably closer to flat year-over-year. It would be a ballpark.

是的。看，總是有一些小東西，布賴恩。但我想我會告訴你第二季度的指南，你會說第二季度的利潤率可能比去年略有下降。但我會說本季度的營業利潤率仍處於 7% 至 7.5% 的範圍內。餐廳利潤率可能接近於同比持平。這將是一個球場。

The next question is coming from Jon Tower of Citigroup.

下一個問題來自花旗集團的Jon Tower。

So I'm just curious, you and a number of your competitors in the public market or chains that have talked about recently getting rid of -- or not getting rid of but deemphasizing discounting and trying to attract a more profitable transaction in their stores. It seems like it's a broadly held goal or effort across the industry on the chain side. So I'm curious, one, if you think you can hang on to that if the environment worsens going forward or, say, one of the competitors get a little bit more rational with discounting. And then two, how kind of the competitive dynamic in the marketplace, particularly with a lot of the closures on the independent side kind of filters into your thinking around this?

所以我很好奇，你和你在公開市場或連鎖店中的一些競爭對手最近談到要擺脫——或不擺脫但不再強調折扣，並試圖在他們的商店中吸引更有利可圖的交易。這似乎是整個行業在鏈端廣泛持有的目標或努力。所以我很好奇，一個，如果你認為你可以堅持下去，如果環境繼續惡化，或者說，其中一個競爭對手在打折方面變得更加理性。然後兩個，市場上的競爭動態如何，特別是獨立方面的大量關閉會如何過濾到您對此的思考中？

Yes. Clearly, Jon, we have a chance to take share because of some of the closures that happened. And also the new restaurants coming into play, which we aren't seeing so much right now in the U.S. but we will see in years ahead. So there's some of that going on. But I think I can't speak for competitors, Jon. I know where we stand, which is, value is service plus food divided by price. And if we can offer consistent, no b** value, like some of the promotions at Outback or some of our other things that we're doing at other brands like Carrabba's or Bonefish, consumers respond, especially, when you take a look at what the digital marketing environment provides by getting more specific with customers.

是的。很明顯，喬恩，由於發生了一些關閉，我們有機會分享。還有新餐廳的出現，我們現在在美國還沒有看到太多，但我們會在未來幾年看到。所以有些事情正在發生。但我認為我不能代表競爭對手，喬恩。我知道我們的立場，即價值是服務加上食物除以價格。如果我們能夠提供一致的、沒有 b** 的價值，比如 Outback 的一些促銷活動，或者我們在 Carrabba's 或 Bonefish 等其他品牌所做的一些其他事情，消費者會做出反應，尤其是當你看一看通過更具體地了解客戶，數字營銷環境提供了什麼。

If we can do that, speaking for our company, we don't have to rely on some of the deep discounting that was done before the pandemic. And we want to stay focused particularly on this. And if some competitor in the very short term, decides to do that, we'll continue to do what we do and go up against it and watch what's going on in the competitive marketplace. But we don't have an interest in doing that. We want to stay offering great value with the programs we have.

如果我們能做到這一點，就我們公司而言，我們就不必依賴大流行之前的一些大幅折扣。我們希望特別關注這一點。如果某些競爭對手在短期內決定這樣做，我們將繼續做我們所做的事情並與之抗衡，並觀察競爭市場中發生的事情。但我們沒有興趣這樣做。我們希望通過現有的計劃繼續提供巨大的價值。

Finally, at Outback, the combos we offer, steak and lobster, steak and chicken, steak and ribs, tremendous value. Very few competitors offer it, our customers love it and if you look at the price points that we offer, there's a great value with those combos as well. So that's trying to -- that's, Jon, how we're trying to attract our customers and move forward.

最後，在 Outback，我們提供的組合，牛排和龍蝦、牛排和雞肉、牛排和排骨，物超所值。很少有競爭對手提供它，我們的客戶喜歡它，如果您看看我們提供的價格點，這些組合也很有價值。所以這就是努力 - 那就是，喬恩，我們如何努力吸引我們的客戶並向前邁進。

Got it. In that circumstance, do you see yourselves potentially [pulsing] media a little bit higher than you have? I know you've cut back quite a bit in recent years, which made sense but could we see a return back to pre-COVID levels?

知道了。在那種情況下，你是否認為自己可能 [脈衝] 媒體比你有一點高？我知道你近年來削減了很多，這是有道理的，但我們能看到回到 COVID 之前的水平嗎？

We'd like to be back to pre-COVID levels but media will follow the idea, follow the money. So if Outback has some tremendous innovation and we're seeing it with our customers, we're going, right? And you can turn that on and off like that, with the digital efforts, right? So we will see that with our customers. Also, we talked earlier about our third-party delivery. We are watching that very carefully and how do we support that. So those are some things that -- some of the things that are going on, Jon, as we manage the traffic and margin dynamics.

我們希望回到 COVID 之前的水平，但媒體會追隨這個想法，追隨金錢。因此，如果 Outback 有一些巨大的創新，並且我們正在與我們的客戶一起看到它，我們就會去，對嗎？你可以像那樣打開和關閉它，通過數字化的努力，對吧？因此，我們將與我們的客戶一起看到這一點。此外，我們之前談到了我們的第三方交付。我們正在非常仔細地觀察它，我們如何支持它。所以這些是一些事情——喬恩，在我們管理流量和利潤動態時，一些事情正在發生。

Yes, Jon, if you remember, we used to spend -- back -- prior to the pandemic, 3.5% of sales, as a company, on marketing. And then we laid out sort of our restaurant margin map to get where we needed to be. And at that point in time, we were saying, "Hey, look, we're just thinking about cutting marketing back down in that 3% range." The reality is, we've been running in the low 2s for the last year or 2 years. We feel pretty good about where we are in terms of the returns we're seeing. So I think the truth long term, if the question is, where we go long term, it could be somewhere in between. But we're never going to go back to that 3% to 3.5% thought process on marketing.

是的，喬恩，如果你還記得的話，在大流行之前，我們過去常常將銷售額的 3.5% 作為一家公司用於營銷。然後我們制定了我們的餐廳利潤圖，以獲得我們需要的地方。在那個時候，我們說，“嘿，看，我們只是在考慮將營銷削減到 3% 的範圍內。”現實情況是，在過去的一年或兩年裡，我們一直處於低位 2。就我們所看到的回報而言，我們對自己所處的位置感到非常滿意。所以我認為長期的真相，如果問題是，我們從長遠來看，它可能介於兩者之間。但我們永遠不會回到 3% 到 3.5% 的營銷思維過程。

Got it. I appreciate that. And then just in terms of going back to the conversation about some of the closures in the marketplace, it does sound like the lending environment is certainly getting more challenging. And I would assume that's going to impact a handful of the independents or smaller regional chains out there. And I know you're still at the emerging part of getting the brand or the company to start growing new stores again. But in that respect, have you started to hear from landlords, perhaps better deals than what you're even hearing about a few months ago because the environment is getting more difficult for the competition to open new stores?

知道了。我很感激。然後就回到有關市場關閉的對話而言，聽起來確實貸款環境確實變得更具挑戰性。而且我認為這將影響少數獨立或較小的區域連鎖店。而且我知道你仍然處於讓品牌或公司重新開始發展新店的新興階段。但在這方面，你是否開始從房東那裡聽到，也許比你幾個月前聽到的更好的交易，因為開新店的競爭環境變得越來越困難？

We hope to, Jon but it's still -- we're looking at quality sites and it's still a tough negotiation, not with landlords but with the competition to get the best sites. Because that's really important for us because if we look at our site placement, we get good sites, in a great trade area and a great market, the returns are in the sales, terrific. So we're not going to go into C&D players, I'm not saying that's where independents are. We're not going to go to C&D sites. I'm not saying that's where independents are. But in the A and B locations, there's still a fair amount of competition for that. But our attention clearly with our new restaurants is to take share.

喬恩，我們希望如此，但它仍然是——我們正在尋找高質量的網站，這仍然是一場艱難的談判，不是與房東的談判，而是與爭奪最佳網站的競爭。因為這對我們來說真的很重要，因為如果我們看看我們的網站佈置，我們會在一個偉大的貿易區和一個偉大的市場中獲得好的網站，回報是銷售，非常棒。所以我們不打算討論 C&D 玩家，我並不是說那是獨立玩家所在的地方。我們不會去 C&D 站點。我並不是說那是獨立人士所在的地方。但在 A 和 B 位置，仍然存在相當多的競爭。但我們對新餐廳的關注顯然是為了分享。

The next question is coming from Dennis Geiger of UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Dennis Geiger。

Another one on advertising, if I could, as I believe it's one of the more impactful drivers of traffic, maybe this year and you talked about good ROIs. But as it relates to how well the marketing is resonating, anything you can share sort of on recent awareness levels, maybe relative to peers how that's trended? I'm not sure if that's the best metric necessarily but is there anything to share on the awareness perhaps that's benefiting from some of the marketing?

另一個關於廣告的，如果可以的話，因為我相信它是更有影響力的流量驅動因素之一，也許今年你談到了良好的投資回報率。但是，由於它與營銷的共鳴程度有關，您可以分享最近意識水平的任何東西，也許相對於同行的趨勢如何？我不確定這是否一定是最好的指標，但是否有什麼可以分享可能從某些營銷中受益的意識？

Yes. I think awareness is hanging in there. It's nothing really -- trends that are really I can speak to quite yet. But I think as we continue to do this work, our awareness levels will improve. I'm also hoping that in some of our smaller brands like Carrabba's, we can continue to build awareness. But nothing I can really report yet on the awareness front that's really building for our company.

是的。我認為意識就在那裡。這真的沒什麼 - 我真的可以說的趨勢。但我認為，隨著我們繼續開展這項工作，我們的意識水平將會提高。我也希望在 Carrabba 等我們的一些小品牌中，我們可以繼續提高知名度。但是，關於真正為我們公司建立的意識前沿，我還沒有什麼可以真正報告的。

Then I would say one of the reasons why you do go on television as a medium, though, is to build up that awareness. So that's sort of the first part of the funnel that we're trying to build from a marketing perspective. We are back on TV. We know that, that helps with awareness. And so you're going to -- you've probably seen us but you're going to see us more on TV than maybe we have been in the last couple of years.

那麼我想說的是，你為什麼要將電視作為一種媒體，其中一個原因就是要建立這種意識。所以這是我們試圖從營銷角度構建的漏斗的第一部分。我們又回到電視上了。我們知道，這有助於提高意識。所以你會 - 你可能已經見過我們，但你會在電視上看到我們比過去幾年更多。

Very helpful. And then 1 more semi related, just some of the work that you've done in the last few years, enhancing customer service, different things with menu, et cetera, are you getting that credit from the customer yet given how many times the customer comes a year? Or does that take time to build and you're still maybe not seeing the benefit from some of the work you've done over the last couple of years and that's kind of still, I mean, to come?

很有幫助。然後還有 1 個半相關的，只是你在過去幾年所做的一些工作，加強客戶服務，不同的菜單等等，你是否從客戶那裡得到了信任，但考慮到客戶有多少次來一年？或者這是否需要時間來構建，你可能仍然沒有看到你在過去幾年所做的一些工作帶來的好處，我的意思是，這仍然是未來？

Yes, given casual dining is a relatively light use occasion, overall, we do have people that come frequently. It will take some time to build. But I am thrilled with the progress we're making in with our customer measures in all of our brands and where we stand versus competition, the progress we're making. And I've seen this in the industry over the years. If we continue to make progress like this, it will show up on our sales. But because of the relatively light frequency of casual dining, it's not going to show up as quickly as maybe some other parts of the industry. But it's the things we've been talking about, it's the technology investments and it's our retention levels, are really helping us.

是的，鑑於休閒用餐是一個相對輕的使用場合，總的來說，我們確實有經常來的人。構建需要一些時間。但我對我們在所有品牌的客戶措施方面取得的進展以及我們在競爭中所處的位置以及我們正在取得的進展感到興奮。多年來，我在行業中看到了這一點。如果我們繼續像這樣取得進步，它就會體現在我們的銷售額上。但由於休閒餐飲的頻率相對較低，它不會像該行業的其他部分那樣迅速出現。但這是我們一直在談論的事情，技術投資和我們的保留水平，真正幫助了我們。

We're showing time for one last question today. The final question will be coming from Andrew Strelzik of BMO.

今天我們將展示最後一個問題的時間。最後一個問題將來自 BMO 的 Andrew Strelzik。

I just had a question, another one on the value proposition over time. And I guess, a couple of quick things. #1, do you think that grocery prices impact business trends for your business? And do you think about or how do you think about -- what gives you the confidence that if grocery prices were to reset lower that wouldn't create a challenge for your value proposition? And do you have, I guess, lastly, more opportunity maybe through digital assets or otherwise, are there ways in which maybe you're more nimble now than in the past? And I know this is more of an industry question but I would love to get your perspective for your brands.

我剛剛有一個問題，另一個是關於隨著時間推移的價值主張。我想，有幾件事很快。 #1，您認為雜貨價格會影響您的業務趨勢嗎？你有沒有想過或者你是怎麼想的——是什麼讓你有信心，如果雜貨價格重新降低，這不會對你的價值主張造成挑戰？我想，最後，你是否有更多的機會可能通過數字資產或其他方式，有沒有什麼方法可以讓你現在比過去更靈活？我知道這更像是一個行業問題，但我很想了解您對品牌的看法。

Sure. Sure. Grocery prices is something that informs us and we watch. But what drives our performance is what we do. Okay? On the value side, on the customer service side, obviously, we've talked today a lot about not getting ahead of our skis on price increases. We've been very careful about that. We're watching what's going on with the grocery space. But boy! I tell you, if you come into Outback Steakhouse or Carrabba's and get prepared meal with great service and not have to cook, that's a huge value, huge value for our company. So that is what we're driving to grow our business.

當然。當然。雜貨價格會通知我們，我們會觀察。但推動我們表現的是我們所做的事情。好的？在價值方面，在客戶服務方面，顯然，我們今天已經談了很多關於在價格上漲方面不要領先於我們的滑雪板。我們對此非常小心。我們正在觀察雜貨店的情況。但是男孩！我告訴你，如果你來到 Outback Steakhouse 或 Carrabba's 並獲得準備好的飯菜和優質的服務而不必做飯，那對我們公司來說是一個巨大的價值，巨大的價值。這就是我們推動業務發展的動力。

On the technology front, absolutely on the digital side, this is much more of an opportunity than it was years ago. And we tend to be on the forefront of that within casual dining and use that asset and use our customer information and invest behind it to grow our business and our traffic. That is absolutely top priority for us.

在技術方面，絕對是在數字方面，這比幾年前更有機會。我們傾向於走在休閒餐飲的最前沿，並使用該資產並使用我們的客戶信息並對其進行投資以發展我們的業務和流量。這絕對是我們的首要任務。

At this time, I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Deno for closing comments.

現在，我想把發言權交還給 Deno 先生，讓他發表最後的評論。

Well, thanks, everybody, for attending the call today. We appreciate it. We look forward to updating you on our second quarter results in July. Thanks, everybody.

好吧，謝謝大家參加今天的電話會議。我們很感激。我們期待在 7 月份向您通報我們第二季度的最新業績。謝謝大家。

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect your lines at this time or log off the webcast and enjoy the rest of your day.

女士們，先生們，感謝你們的參與。今天的活動到此結束。您此時可以斷開線路或註銷網絡廣播並享受一天的剩餘時間。