BRC Inc (BRCC) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to the Black Rifle Coffee Company 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

問候。歡迎參加 Black Rifle Coffee Company 2024 年財報電話會議。（操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Jason Martini. You may begin.

現在我將會議交給主持人傑森馬蒂尼。你可以開始了。

Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining Black Rifle Coffee Company's conference call to discuss our second quarter 2024 financial results, which were released yesterday and can be found on our website at ir.blackriflecoffee.com.

大家早安。感謝您參加 Black Rifle Coffee Company 的電話會議，討論我們昨天發布的 2024 年第二季度財務業績，該業績可在我們的網站 ir.blackriflecoffee.com 上找到。

Before we start, I would like to remind you of the company's Safe Harbor language, which should be familiar to you all. On today's call, management may make forward-looking statements, including guidance and underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a further discussion of risks related to our business, please see our previous filings with the SEC.

在開始之前，我想提醒大家注意公司的安全港語言，大家應該都很熟悉。在今天的電話會議上，管理階層可能會做出前瞻性陳述，包括指導和基本假設。前瞻性陳述是基於涉及風險和不確定性的預期，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果出現重大差異。有關我們業務相關風險的進一步討論，請參閱我們先前向 SEC 提交的文件。

This call will also contain non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. Whenever we refer to EBITDA in our comments, we are referring to adjusted EBITDA unless otherwise noted. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release furnished to the SEC and are also available on our investor website.

此次電話會議還將包含非公認會計準則財務指標，例如調整後的 EBITDA 和自由現金流。每當我們在評論中提到 EBITDA 時，除非另有說明，否則我們指的是調整後的 EBITDA。這些非公認會計原則衡量標準與最具可比性的公認會計原則衡量標準的調節包含在向美國證券交易委員會提供的收益報告中，也可以在我們的投資者網站上找到。

Now if you could please refer to the presentation we have provided on our Investor Relations website and turn to Slide 4.

現在，請您參閱我們在投資者關係網站上提供的演示文稿，然後前往幻燈片 4。

I would now like to turn the call over to Chris Mondzelewski, CEO of Black Rifle Coffee Company. Mondz?

我現在想把電話轉給 Black Rifle 咖啡公司執行長 Chris Mondzelewski。蒙茲？

Thanks, Jason, and good morning everyone. Joining me today is Evan Hafer, our Founder and Executive Chairman; and Steve Kadenacy, our Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝傑森，大家早安。今天加入我的是我們的創辦人兼執行主席 Evan Hafer；以及我們的財務長 Steve Kadenacy。

On our last earnings call, we highlighted the value of building a better business before building a bigger one, and we continue to make progress on building that foundation on, which to drive outsized category growth. Our priorities remain number one, establishing a model that sustainably creates value, and two, driving the categories in which we choose to compete, in other words, outgrowing our peers and the category.

在我們上次的財報電話會議上，我們強調了在建立更大的業務之前建立更好的業務的價值，並且我們將繼續在建立這一基礎上取得進展，從而推動超大規模的品類增長。我們的首要任務仍然是第一，建立可持續創造價值的模式，第二，推動我們選擇競爭的類別，換句話說，超越我們的同行和類別。

With this, I am pleased with our progress in Q2, delivering gross margins above our initial expectations of 40% and our continued growth of 8% in the wholesale channel, which was well above the category. While we have much work to do, the progress the team has driven is exceptional. Only one year ago, we found ourselves with negative free cash flow of more than $30 million for the quarter. This year, we are producing a positive $1 million in free cash flow while showing substantial improvements in gross margin and adjusted EBITDA.

有鑑於此，我對我們第二季的進展感到滿意，毛利率高於我們最初預期的 40%，批發通路持續成長 8%，遠高於同類產品。雖然我們還有很多工作要做，但團隊的進展是非凡的。光是一年前，我們發現該季度的自由現金流為負，超過 3000 萬美元。今年，我們產生了 100 萬美元的正自由現金流，同時毛利率和調整後 EBITDA 顯著改善。

This turnaround is fueled by an ever increasing culture of operational excellence, investments in forecasting, strong leadership in owned and partner production, and an improving supply chain. We have built a strong foundation and business model that will support the long term growth we expect in the business.

這種轉變是由不斷增強的卓越營運文化、預測投資、自有和合作夥伴生產的強大領導力以及不斷改善的供應鏈所推動的。我們已經建立了堅實的基礎和業務模式，將支持我們預期的業務長期成長。

With that said, I am disappointed that our wholesale rollouts are taking longer than our initial expectations, and as a result, our growth this quarter and for the year is lower than our initial forecast. Our products are continuing to perform incredibly well with strong sell-through at our existing retailers, which I will discuss shortly. But some of the distribution we expected in 2024 is now going to come in 2025, which has resulted in a lower sales forecast for this year.

話雖如此，我對我們的批發推出時間比我們最初的預期要長感到失望，因此，我們本季和今年的成長低於我們最初的預測。我們的產品持續表現出色，現有零售商的銷售量強勁，我將很快討論這一點。但我們預計 2024 年發布的部分產品現在將在 2025 年發布，這導致今年的銷售預測較低。

This team is steadfast in meeting or exceeding our commitments and I expect our additional investments in sales staff, analytics and forecasting will pay off as we execute on our strategic plan. Before I provide some more color on the quarter, I wanted to share some exciting news with you.

團隊堅定不移地履行或超越我們的承諾，我預計我們在銷售人員、分析和預測方面的額外投資將在我們執行策略計劃時得到回報。在提供有關本季度的更多資訊之前，我想與您分享一些令人興奮的消息。

At Black Rifle, we will always stand for veterans and first responders first and foremost, and in doing so, we are constantly looking for ways to expand our mission. When we sell more, we do more. It is in that spirit we announce the release of Black Rifle Energy. While we are exceptionally proud of our origins as a premium coffee company, we also realize that traditional coffee products alone do not meet the needs of all of our consumers.

在 Black Rifle，我們將始終首先支持退伍軍人和急救人員，為此，我們不斷尋找擴大我們使命的方法。當我們賣得更多時，我們就會做得更多。正是本著這種精神，我們宣布發布 Black Rifle Energy。雖然我們對自己作為一家優質咖啡公司的起源感到非常自豪，但我們也意​​識到，僅靠傳統咖啡產品並不能滿足所有消費者的需求。

The energy drink market is over a $20 billion category and we are entering the category with a great tasting proprietary clean energy blend, which derives energy from natural caffeine sources, including green coffee beans. It has been fun to watch our high energy team work to develop four varieties completely different from anything we've launched before.

能量飲料市場價值超過 200 億美元，我們正以美味的專有清潔能源混合物進入該類別，該混合物從天然咖啡因來源（包括綠咖啡豆）中獲取能量。看著我們充滿活力的團隊努力開發四個與我們之前推出的產品完全不同的品種，真是太有趣了。

While the roots of the product tie back to our origins, these refreshing natural fruit flavor profiles will deliver to a different drinking occasion and in many cases, bring new consumers to Black Rifle. I'll dive in more on the huge opportunity with Black Rifle Energy shortly.

雖然該產品的根源可以追溯到我們的起源，但這些清爽的天然水果風味將適合不同的飲用場合，並在許多情況下為 Black Rifle 帶來新的消費者。我很快就會深入探討 Black Rifle Energy 帶來的巨大機會。

Returning to the quarter's results. Q2 revenue was relatively flat year-over-year. As I mentioned, this was below our expectations. Sales growth was lower than we expected for two reasons. First, we cut investment in our direct-to-consumer or DTC business.

回到本季的業績。第二季度營收較去年同期相對持平。正如我所提到的，這低於我們的預期。銷售成長低於我們的預期有兩個原因。首先，我們削減了對直接面向消費者或 DTC 業務的投資。

Post the pandemic, consumer behaviors have shifted, as we look across the entire industry fewer consumers are choosing to buy products directly from DTC sites. As this occurs, we find that our dollars spent in driving DTC awareness are less effective and so we have chosen to allocate these dollars where we get a higher ROI.

疫情過後，消費者行為發生了變化，縱觀整個產業，選擇直接從 DTC 網站購買產品的消費者越來越少。當這種情況發生時，我們發現花在提高 DTC 意識上的資金效果較差，因此我們選擇將這些資金分配到投資回報率更高的地方。

I'm proud of our team's discipline in creating clear principles around when to pull back on this spending and as our growth shifts to other channels and other products, we will see the benefit of this. The good news is that consumers are continuing to seek out our products. Their shopping behavior is shifting back to either traditional or online retail. This takes me to my second point.

我為我們團隊的紀律感到自豪，他們制定了關於何時削減這筆支出的明確原則，並且隨著我們的成長轉向其他管道和其他產品，我們將看到這樣做的好處。好消息是消費者正在繼續尋找我們的產品。他們的購物行為正在回歸傳統或線上零售。這引出了我的第二點。

While we continue to expect consumers to be able to find our products in almost every major grocery retailer in the by the end of 2025, the rollout will be a bit slower. While commitments and discussions are going as planned, some retailer shelf resets that we expected to happen in 2024 are shifting to 2025. Given our strong performance on shelf, we continue to have very effective conversations with every major retailer in the country.

雖然我們仍然預計到 2025 年底消費者能夠在幾乎所有主要雜貨零售商中找到我們的產品，但推出速度會稍慢一些。雖然承諾和討論正在按計劃進行，但我們預計在 2024 年進行的一些零售商貨架重置將轉移到 2025 年。鑑於我們在貨架上的強勁表現，我們繼續與該國每家主要零售商進行非常有效的對話。

Once customers try our products, we find that repeat purchase is strong. You can see this in the performance of our largest and first retail partner where we grew plus 19% in the quarter. We are also seeing strong on shelf performance from our new retail partners who began their rollouts of Black Rifle through the first two quarters of this year.

一旦客戶嘗試了我們的產品，我們發現重複購買的可能性很高。您可以從我們最大也是第一個零售合作夥伴的業績中看到這一點，我們在本季成長了 19%。我們也看到新零售合作夥伴的貨架表現強勁，他們在今年前兩個季度開始推出 Black Rifle。

At this point, we have committed launch windows for the largest five grocery chains between now and Q2 2025. Rounding out the quarter's highlights, our earnings and free cash flow measures were a tremendous success story for the second quarter, as we saw a 42% gross margin, a nearly 700 basis point improvement over Q2 2023.

目前，我們已承諾從現在到 2025 年第二季為最大的五家雜貨連鎖店提供啟動窗口。最後，我們第二季的獲利和自由現金流指標取得了巨大成功，毛利率達到 42%，比 2023 年第二季提高了近 700 個基點。

Adjusted EBITDA improved from breakeven in the prior year to $8.5 million this quarter and we posted our third consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow, up $31 million from the second quarter of 2023.

本季調整後 EBITDA 從上一年的損益平衡點增至 850 萬美元，我們連續第三季實現正自由現金流，比 2023 年第二季增加了 3,100 萬美元。

Now please turn to Slide 6, as I talk about our channel highlights. Based on Nielsen consumption data, we grew 28% in the second quarter and 35% year-to-date, compared to a category decline of 2.5% in 1.7% respectively. Based on this strong consumption, we expect wholesale replenishment to strengthen in the following quarters. In fact, we are now the number seven brand in 12-ounce bagged coffee across the grocery channel and still have significant runway with an ACV of only 40%.

現在請轉到投影片 6，我將介紹我們的頻道亮點。根據尼爾森消費數據，我們第二季度成長了 28%，年初至今成長了 35%，而類別分別下降了 2.5% 和 1.7%。基於這種強勁的消費，我們預計批發補貨將在接下來的幾季加強。事實上，我們現在是食品雜貨通路中 12 盎司袋裝咖啡的第七大品牌，但 ACV 僅為 40%，仍擁有廣闊的發展空間。

Moving to Slide 7. Similar to center store coffee, we continue to drive distribution gains in Ready-to-Drink or RTD. At the end of Q2, our distribution stands at 46.8% ACV, a 500 basis point increase versus a year ago. Through the first half of 2024, the RTD coffee category has slowed with a decline of 6.7% versus year ago, but similar to the rest of the business, Black Rifle has exceeded the market by over 500 basis points.

轉到投影片 7。與中心店咖啡類似，我們持續推動即飲咖啡或即飲咖啡的分銷收益。第二季末，我們的分配 ACV 為 46.8%，比一年前增加了 500 個基點。到 2024 年上半年，即飲咖啡類別增速放緩，與去年同期相比下降了 6.7%，但與其他業務類似，Black Rifle 的表現超出了市場 500 個基點以上。

Slide 8. Beyond the gains we will continue to drive in RTD coffee we're excited about the future of our RTD innovation with the introduction of Black Rifle Energy. Black Rifle Energy answers our consumers desire for clean, low sugar energy delivered in a refreshing flavor profile. From our research, 58% of our customers have already purchased energy products and about 90% of our consumers are interested in energy derived from natural sources. And while we love coffee at Black Rifle, we find that many of the fans of our brand are looking for a more refreshing profile for their energy consumption.

幻燈片 8。除了我們將繼續推動即飲咖啡的發展之外，我們對透過推出 Black Rifle Energy 來實現即飲咖啡創新的未來感到興奮。Black Rifle Energy 滿足了消費者對清潔、低糖能量和清爽風味的渴望。根據我們的研究，58% 的客戶已經購買了能源產品，約 90% 的消費者對天然能源感興趣。雖然我們喜歡 Black Rifle 的咖啡，但我們發現我們品牌的許多粉絲都在尋找更清爽的能量消耗曲線。

When designing Black Rifle Energy, we focused on three key areas. First, quality of ingredients and taste. As we have talked about in the past, we buy the very best coffee beans for our coffees. So similarly, we are sourcing the very best ingredients for our energy drinks. Our four flavors, Freedom Punch, Project Mango, Ranger Berry and Wild Frost, scored exceptionally well with consumers.

在設計 Black Rifle Energy 時，我們專注於三個關鍵領域。首先，原料的品質和口味。正如我們過去談到的，我們購買最好的咖啡豆來製作咖啡。同樣，我們正在為我們的能量飲料採購最好的原料。我們的四種口味：Freedom Punch、Project Mango、Ranger Berry 和 Wild Frost，在消費者中獲得了極高的評價。

Second, we focused on energy delivery. As mentioned earlier, we spent a lot of time developing a clean energy delivery system from our green coffee extract and other natural caffeine sources. Finally, we developed design that brings forward our brand with an emphasis on our aggressive, mission driven ethos. We believe it works well in tying existing elements of Black Rifle to a unique graphics architecture that will drive visibility from the shelf.

其次，我們專注於能源輸送。如前所述，我們花了大量時間利用生咖啡萃取物和其他天然咖啡因來源開發清潔能源輸送系統。最後，我們發展了能夠提升我們品牌的設計，強調我們積極進取、使命驅動的精神。我們相信，它將《Black Rifle》的現有元素與獨特的圖形架構結合起來，可以很好地提高貨架上的可見性。

Moving to Slide 9. As mentioned, DTC top line was challenged by shifting consumer behavior and with that, a pullback on investment. As we have said many times, the consumer determines their buying preference, and we need to make sure we align our marketing and sales strategies to their needs. Across the industry, consumers find themselves relying less on the DTC channel. And on top of this, not all of our DTC business is seeing the same declines.

轉到投影片 9。如前所述，DTC 的營收受到消費者行為轉變以及投資縮減的挑戰。正如我們多次所說的，消費者決定了他們的購買偏好，我們需要確保我們的行銷和銷售策略符合他們的需求。在整個產業中，消費者發現自己對 DTC 管道的依賴減少了。除此之外，並非我們所有的 DTC 業務都出現了同樣的下降。

Our subscription business, serving those consumers most loyal to the brand is stabilizing. Given the value of this segment of consumers, we will continue our investment in growing subscriptions and increasing our presence as the largest coffee subscription business in the US.

我們為最忠於該品牌的消費者提供服務的訂閱業務正在穩定下來。鑑於這部分消費者的價值，我們將繼續投資於增加訂閱量，並提高我們作為美國最大的咖啡訂閱業務的地位。

Finally, I will reiterate what we've said previously about our Outpost business. While the potential is unlimited in what our outposts can do to build our brand and revenue streams, now is not the right time for investment. We will continue to invest our capital in building our brand and wholesale distribution. We expect to share the full strategy for our Outpost or coffee shop channel sometime in the next year.

最後，我將重申我們之前所說的有關我們的 Outpost 業務的內容。雖然我們的前哨基地在打造我們的品牌和收入來源方面潛力無限，但現在還不是投資的最佳時機。我們將繼續投入資金來建立我們的品牌和批發分銷。我們希望在明年的某個時候分享我們的 Outpost 或咖啡店管道的完整策略。

Now turning to our financial results, Steve.

現在轉向我們的財務業績，史蒂夫。

Thank you, Mondz. Please turn to Slide 11. Our continued efforts towards productivity improvements have resulted in our second consecutive quarter of gross margins in excess of our 40% target. Supply chain efficiencies, driven primarily by improvements in our distribution and logistics costs, added 420 basis points to our Q2 gross margin as compared to Q2 2023. The efforts to simplify our supply chain in both the number of partners used for manufacturing and distribution as well as our internal cost management are continuing to enable dramatically improved gross margins.

謝謝你，蒙茲。請翻到投影片 11。我們不斷努力提高生產力，使我們的毛利率連續第二季超過了 40% 的目標。供應鏈效率主要由我們的分銷和物流成本的改善推動，與 2023 年第二季相比，我們第二季的毛利率增加了 420 個基點。我們在製造和分銷的合作夥伴數量以及內部成本管理方面不斷簡化供應鏈，從而顯著提高了毛利率。

In addition, our hedging efforts have mitigated the short term increase in the market price of green coffee, reducing the spikes in our input costs for that important commodity. We also realized a favorable impact as our business shifts towards the high margin FDM business which benefits from more efficient logistics model, adding another 140 basis points.

此外，我們的對沖努力緩解了生咖啡市場價格的短期上漲，減少了我們對該重要商品的投入成本的飆升。隨著我們的業務轉向高利潤的 FDM 業務（受益於更有效率的物流模式），我們也實現了有利的影響，又增加了 140 個基點。

Finally, we did realize a $1.8 million one-time impact in the quarter as we continue to align our loyalty reserve to the most recent trends.

最後，隨著我們繼續根據最新趨勢調整我們的忠誠度儲備，我們確實在本季度實現了 180 萬美元的一次性影響。

Slide 12. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $8.5 million, up from breakeven in the prior year. This is our third consecutive quarter of adjusted EBITDA exceeding 9% of revenue, which brings our year-to-date adjusted EBITDA to $22.6 million, a $27.7 million improvement over the last year-to-date. Our disciplined approach to managing administrative resources and external expenses has proven to be effective. This approach will become more impactful as revenue grows, providing additional economies of scale.

幻燈片 12。本季調整後 EBITDA 為 850 萬美元，高於前一年的損益平衡。這是我們的調整後 EBITDA 連續第三個季度超過營收的 9%，這使我們年初至今的調整後 EBITDA 達到 2,260 萬美元，比去年同期提高了 2,770 萬美元。事實證明，我們管理行政資源和外部費用的嚴格方法是有效的。隨著收入的成長，這種方法將變得更具影響力，從而提供額外的規模經濟。

Turning to Slide 13. Our Q2 revenue was challenged by the consumer driven movement away from DTC and the timing of new wholesale partner load-ins. We believe this is a timing difference with respect to the revenue expansion in FDM, as new partners continue to come online, albeit at a slower pace than we presumed in the beginning of the year.

轉到投影片 13。我們第二季的收入受到消費者驅動的 DTC 遷移以及新批發合作夥伴加載時間的挑戰。我們認為，這與 FDM 收入擴張存在時間差異，因為新合作夥伴不斷上線，儘管速度比我們年初預計的要慢。

In fact, our initial estimates are that FY 2025, our business as a whole will show an inflection in revenue buoyed by accelerating FDM growth as ACV expansion and SKU enhancement on shelves gains feed as well as sales of our new energy drinks as we ramp ACV there. As Mondz pointed out in his comments, we just posted our third consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow. We are proud of the dramatic inflection there as we delivered a $31 million improvement over the year ago period.

事實上，我們的初步估計是，到2025 財年，隨著ACV 的擴張和貨架上SKU 的增強，隨著FDM 的加速增長，我們的整體業務將出現收入轉折點，隨著我們增加ACV，我們的新能量飲料的銷量也會增加。正如蒙茲在評論中指出的那樣，我們剛剛發布了連續第三個季度的正自由現金流。我們為那裡的戲劇性轉變感到自豪，因為我們比去年同期實現了 3,100 萬美元的改進。

Additionally, we have seen a marked improvement in our working capital, including a sequential $6 million decrease in inventory and a $75 million year-on-year total working capital reduction.

此外，我們的營運資金也顯著改善，包括庫存連續減少 600 萬美元，總營運資金較去年同期減少 7,500 萬美元。

Please turn to Slide 15. Before I provide color on our revised guidance for 2024, I wanted to share why our confidence in the top line trajectory is still so strong despite some of the delays in customer load-ins that are impacting our near term numbers. We are winning in the markets that we currently serve, bagged in K-Cup coffee and retail and RTD coffee. We are outpacing the market in both categories as we take share and the result will be increased revenue over the next few years. The markets we serve have significant TAMs and we are just beginning to penetrate.

請翻到投影片 15。在對 2024 年修訂後的指導進行說明之前，我想分享為什麼我們對營收軌蹟的信心仍然如此強勁，儘管客戶加載的一些延遲影響了我們的近期數字。我們在目前服務的 K-Cup 袋裝咖啡以及零售和即飲咖啡市場中取得了勝利。隨著我們佔據份額，我們在這兩個類別上都超越了市場，結果將是未來幾年收入的增加。我們服務的市場擁有重要的 TAM，而我們才剛開始滲透。

To dimension the opportunity we entered the FDM coffee category in only one retailer a little more than 18 months ago. We are now rolling out to almost all retailers in the channel. FDM coffee is an $11 billion market and as we broaden our exposure, we expect to achieve 6% share. In RTD, which has a TAM of $4 billion and given our improving distribution and product innovation on the horizon, we think we can at least double our share over the next few years.

為了把握機遇，我們在 18 個月前只進入了一家零售商的 FDM 咖啡類別。我們現在正在向該通路中的幾乎所有零售商推出。FDM 咖啡是一個價值 110 億美元的市場，隨著我們擴大業務範圍，我們預計將獲得 6% 的份額。RTD 的 TAM 為 40 億美元，考慮到我們即將改善的分銷和產品創新，我們認為在未來幾年我們的份額至少可以增加一倍。

And last, but certainly not least, the RTD Energy category is roughly a $20 billion market and we believe we will achieve similar share in this market. This gives us confidence in our long term outlook. For the reasons we've discussed, we are adjusting our 2024 revenue guidance down to $385 million to $415 million. However, we are moving our gross margin up to 39% to 42% and reiterating our adjusted EBITDA of $32 million to $42 million. Finally, we reiterate our Q1 guidance of 80% free cash flow conversion.

最後但並非最不重要的一點是，RTD 能源類別大約是一個 200 億美元的市場，我們相信我們將在這個市場中實現類似的份額。這讓我們對長期前景充滿信心。由於我們已經討論過的原因，我們將 2024 年收入指引下調至 3.85 億美元至 4.15 億美元。然而，我們將毛利率提高到 39% 至 42%，並重申調整後的 EBITDA 為 3,200 萬美元至 4,200 萬美元。最後，我們重申第一季 80% 自由現金流轉換的指引。

In summary, we are developing a trend of profitable quarterly results and expect to continue this trend in the quarters to come, which will ultimately enable us to provide maximum service to the veteran and first responder communities and long term value to our shareholders.

總而言之，我們正在形成季度盈利的趨勢，並預計在未來幾個季度繼續這種趨勢，這最終將使我們能夠為退伍軍人和急救人員社區提供最大程度的服務，並為我們的股東提供長期價值。

With that, I'll pass the call to the operator for the Q&A.

這樣，我會將電話轉給接線生進行問答。

(Operator Instructions) Michael Baker, D.A. Davidson.

（操作員說明）Michael Baker，D.A.戴維森。

Thank you. So my question is going to be on the timing of these delays. So, first of all, you said a few retailers, any more color on that. How many retailers are you in now? Where are you seeing the delays? I don't know if you want to name names or not. You said you expect to be in, I think you said top five grocery partners. I think you said by 2Q 2025. How many of those are you in now? Just any more color on where and why we're seeing these delays and I guess you've expressed some confidence. But maybe just why should we be confident that it's just delays and not a pushback on the product or some other reason why you won't be on the shelves? Thanks.

謝謝。所以我的問題是這些延誤的時間。首先，您提到了一些零售商，對此還有更多的看法嗎？您現在有多少家零售商？您在哪裡看到延誤？不知道你是否願意指名道姓。你說你希望進入，我想你說的是前五名雜貨合作夥伴。我想你說的是 2025 年第二季。現在你在其中有多少？如果您能詳細說明我們在何處以及為何會看到這些延誤，我想您已經表達了一些信心。但也許我們為什麼要確信這只是延誤，而不是產品的延遲或其他原因導致您無法上架？謝謝。

Yes. Thanks for the question, Michael. So let me elaborate a little bit. I mean, as I said, in the kickoff, obviously, we're disappointed that there's any delay at all. But at the end of the day, as we look to build a business like this, we understand that not everything's going to play out the way that we initially expect. So, I hold my team accountable to make sure we've got plans in place to be able to adjust to things like this, and that's exactly kind of what we're imparting.

是的。謝謝你的提問，麥可。讓我詳細說明一下。我的意思是，正如我所說，在開球時，顯然我們對任何延遲都感到失望。但歸根結底，當我們希望建立這樣的業務時，我們明白並不是所有事情都會按照我們最初預期的方式發展。因此，我要求我的團隊負責，確保我們制定了適當的計劃，能夠適應這樣的情況，而這正是我們所傳達的內容。

So I'm not going to go into the specifics of the timing of any particular retailer we stay away from that. Those are confidential conversations we have with each one. But let me give you a little bit of color on where we stand right now. We are, as we speak, in the largest three retailers in the country. One of the largest three just shipped very, very recently. So that's new distribution for us that's kind of going in as we speak. And we talked publicly, obviously, last year about the launch in Albertsons, which, of course, follows our initial customer, Walmart, where we still continue to perform very well with results up 15%.

因此，我不會詳細討論我們遠離的任何特定零售商的具體時間。這些是我們與每個人進行的機密對話。但讓我來跟大家介紹一下我們目前的立場。正如我們所說，我們是全國最大的三大零售商之一。最大的三個之一最近剛發貨。所以這對我們來說是一種新的發行版，就在我們說話的時候。顯然，去年我們公開談論了在 Albertsons 的推出，當然，這是繼我們最初的客戶沃爾瑪之後，我們仍然繼續表現出色，業績成長了 15%。

So, again, I think with the retailers that we've been able to move into, we've been able to have, good success. We feel good. We have ongoing conversations with those retailers about how we continue to build that business. And as I've talked about in previous calls, getting the distribution on shelf is step one. But then from there, you've got to build the business. It took us some time to get above a four share in Walmart. And with all of these other retailers, the same will be true as well.

因此，我再次認為，透過我們能夠進入的零售商，我們已經取得了良好的成功。我們感覺很好。我們正在與這些零售商就如何繼續發展該業務進行對話。正如我在之前的電話中談到的，將發行版上架是第一步。但從那裡開始，你必須建立業務。我們花了一些時間才獲得沃爾瑪四倍以上的份額。對於所有其他零售商來說，情況也是如此。

To specifically answer your question, we're in 36 retailers right now. Obviously, there's a wide variety of sizes in that, but as I said, we have the three largest. And I'll continue to reiterate what I've said every call, which is that we are having positive conversations with quite literally every retailer in the country at this point.

為了具體回答您的問題，我們目前有 36 家零售商。顯然，其中有各種各樣的尺寸，但正如我所說，我們有三個最大的。我將繼續重申我每次通話時所說的話，即我們目前正在與該國幾乎所有零售商進行積極的對話。

Thank you for that color. So if I could ask one follow up? Do you want to – what kind of ramp should we look for in 2025? I don't know if it's too early to talk about that, but maybe if you don't want to give a number, is that plan different than what it was? If this is just a delay 2025. By the time we get to mid 2026, your top line expectation should have not changed. So I wonder if you can give us any color on what kind of ramp we can expect in the coming, year, year and a half?

謝謝你的那個顏色。那我是否可以要求跟進？您想知道 2025 年我們應該尋找什麼樣的坡道嗎？我不知道現在談論這個是否還為時過早，但也許如果你不想給出具體數字，那麼這個計劃與以前的計劃有什麼不同嗎？如果這只是推遲2025年的話。到 2026 年中期，您的收入預期應該不會改變。所以我想知道你能否給我們一些關於我們在未來一年、一年半預計會是什麼樣的坡道的資訊？

Yes, Michael, this is Steve. We haven't given color on 2025 yet, but the way we look at it, as Mondz just said, you get the ACV, the revenue follows. We've always looked forward to that in 2025, and we look forward to giving you specific guidance later in the year. But we do anticipate that we'll continue to ramp and wholesale as we roll out. And Mondz talked about some of the delays and we didn't say specific names, but there's significant grocery retailers that got pushed into Q1 and Q2 that are also very consistent with our geographies, where we do very well. So between those FDM ramps, the stabilization of DTC, and then Black Rifle Energy, we anticipate a significant inflection in our revenue for next year.

是的，邁克爾，這是史蒂夫。我們還沒有給出 2025 年的具體情況，但我們看待它的方式，正如 Mondz 剛才所說，你得到了 ACV，收入就會隨之而來。我們一直期待著 2025 年的到來，並期待在今年稍後為您提供具體的指導。但我們確實預計，隨著我們的推出，我們將繼續擴大和批發。Mondz 談到了一些延遲，我們沒有透露具體名稱，但有一些重要的雜貨零售商被推入第一季度和第二季度，這些零售商也與我們做得很好的地理位置非常一致。因此，在 FDM 的成長、DTC 的穩定性以及 Black Rifle Energy 之間，我們預計明年的營收將出現重大變化。

Great. I'll turn it over to someone else. Thank you.

偉大的。我會把它交給別人。謝謝。

Matt McGinley, Needham & Company.

馬特·麥金利，尼達姆公司。

Thank you. On the Black Rifle Energy drink, do you expect that to use the same supply chain in distributors as the Ready-to-Drink coffee product? And do you think there'll be a lot of expense around that as you launch that product? Or are you pretty much locked and loaded with what you already have in place with the distribution and how your coffee product is produced currently?

謝謝。對於 Black Rifle 能量飲料，您是否期望在經銷商中使用與即飲咖啡產品相同的供應鏈？您認為推出該產品時會產生大量費用嗎？或者您已經鎖定並加載了發行版中已有的內容以及當前咖啡產品的生產方式？

Hey, Matt, let me give some color on that. So I think I'll start by saying we're very proud of what we've been able to do to build and then evolve our RTD coffee business. RTD category is a tough category. As you recall, even a year ago, we were really struggling with profitability of that business. And a big part of our margin recovery has been our outstanding operations team really rolling their sleeves up and understanding how to produce that product at what I'll call market levels. Coffee products are expensive to produce. The ingredients tend to be some of the most expensive in the category. And so those tend to be lower than some of our center store products.

嘿，馬特，讓我對此進行一些說明。因此，我想我首先要說的是，我們對我們為建立並發展我們的即飲咖啡業務所做的努力感到非常自豪。RTD 類別是一個艱難的類別。正如您所記得的那樣，即使在一年前，我們也確實在該業務的盈利能力方面陷入困境。我們的利潤恢復的一個重要部分是我們優秀的營運團隊真正捲起袖子，了解如何在我所說的市場水平上生產該產品。咖啡產品的生產成本昂貴。這些成分往往是該類別中最昂貴的成分。因此，這些產品的價格往往低於我們中心商店的一些產品。

In Energy, the margins overall tend to be a bit higher. And as such, we've continued to push our production team to say we want to be at market. We're not ready to announce exactly how we're going to be producing or distributing, but our expectation is going to be the same, which is two things. One, that as you kind of question on the cost side, are we going to be able to maintain the market? The answer to that is yes. We'll continue to hold our teams accountable to that, because we believe that's quite achievable.

在能源領域，整體利潤率往往要高一些。因此，我們繼續敦促我們的製作團隊表示我們希望進入市場。我們還沒有準備好確切地宣布我們將如何製作或發行，但我們的期望將是相同的，這是兩件事。第一，正如您在成本方面提出的問題，我們是否能夠維持市場？答案是肯定的。我們將繼續讓我們的團隊對此負責，因為我們相信這是可以實現的。

And then two is, how do we really get the most out of this? And I'll go to a point that I made previous quarters, which is we're constantly evaluating, what is the right distribution system for us. We're very proud of our team. They've done an incredible job of building our coffee business to a $100 million plus. But at the end of the day, there are, there are many different ways and avenues to expanding distribution in that category. And we're going to constantly be assessing, what are those right partnerships for us as we go forward. But nothing specific that we're in a position to talk about yet for Energy.

第二個問題是，我們如何真正從中獲得最大利益？我將談談我在前幾季提出的一點，即我們不斷評估什麼是適合我們的分銷系統。我們為我們的團隊感到非常自豪。他們做了令人難以置信的工作，使我們的咖啡業務達到了 1 億美元以上。但歸根結底，有許多不同的方式和途徑來擴大該類別的分銷。在我們前進的過程中，我們將不斷評估什麼是適合我們的合作關係。但我們目前還不能談論能源方面的具體內容。

And on the gross margin, your first half gross margin was above the high end of your 39% to 42% guidance for the full year. Is there anything different with the outlook in the back half around inflation in the supply chain or mix or promotion that would push the gross margin down for the rest of the year?

在毛利率方面，上半年毛利率高於全年 39% 至 42% 指引值的上限。下半年供應鏈通膨、組合或促銷方面的前景是否有什麼不同，會導致今年剩餘時間的毛利率下降？

No, there's nothing specific, Matt. I think one thing we're always cautious about is that to the extent that there are promotions in stores, some of that does hit above the line, but we have great confidence that we'll be able to continue our margin run.

不，沒有什麼具體的，馬特。我認為我們始終謹慎的一件事是，就商店內的促銷活動而言，其中一些確實超出了底線，但我們非常有信心能夠繼續保持利潤率成長。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Thanks, Matt.

謝謝，馬特。

George Kelly, ROTH Capital Partners.

喬治凱利，羅仕資本合夥人。

Hey everybody, thank you. First, I guess, a couple more questions on the Energy business. I'm curious, when do you plan on launching it? Do you have those initial retail partners secured? And then you mentioned in your prepared remarks about clean energy delivery, and I was hoping you could just sort of expand on how you're achieving that?

大家好，謝謝。首先，我想還有幾個關於能源業務的問題。我很好奇，你打算什麼時候推出它？您是否已經確定了最初的零售合作夥伴？然後您在準備好的演講中提到了有關清潔能源輸送的問題，我希望您能詳細說明您是如何實現這一目標的？

Yes, sure, George. So I'll break it out into the two questions you asked. So in the first piece, yes, we're having conversations as we speak with retailers. That process has just begun. We want to be in a position to be ready to launch as retailers open up their windows next year. So essentially, we'll be ready to go in January as some of the earlier resets might go in place. Obviously, for something like the North American Convenience store show later this year, we'll clearly be having a large presence there to have the right conversations with partners in that setting. So, yes, we feel confident.

是的，當然，喬治。所以我會把它分成你問的兩個問題。所以在第一部分中，是的，我們在與零售商交談時進行對話。這個過程才剛開始。我們希望能夠在零售商明年開門營業時做好推出的準備。因此，本質上，我們將在一月份做好準備，因為一些早期的重置可能會到位。顯然，對於今年稍後的北美便利商店展會之類的活動，我們顯然將在那裡大量亮相，以便在這種環境下與合作夥伴進行正確的對話。所以，是的，我們充滿信心。

Again, one of our advantages, our core strategic advantage in Black Rifle is our authenticity and how we hold true to everything we stand for in our communities. But I think our second is really our speed and our ability to be able to evolve to what we see as tailwind markets. And I think we can do that much faster than our competition and we're demonstrating that here. So we are going to be absolutely ready to go as we go into the year. We had to move on a very quick timeline to do that.

同樣，我們的優勢之一，我們在 Black Rifle 的核心策略優勢是我們的真實性以及我們如何堅持我們在社區中所代表的一切。但我認為我們的第二點實際上是我們的速度和我們能夠發展到我們所認為的順風市場的能力。我認為我們可以比競爭對手更快地做到這一點，我們在這裡展示這一點。因此，進入新的一年，我們將做好充分準備。我們必須在非常快的時間內完成這項工作。

I will tell you though, getting to the second part of your question, there was no compromise on quality whatsoever. We are extremely proud of this product, not only the flavor profile, but the ingredients that we're using to do that. We are a super-premium business, and so I'm not going to talk specifically about the ingredients themselves. We're putting in the energy blend, but it is all natural. And we are taking advantage of the fact that we have very strong roots into procurement of coffee-based products.

不過，我會告訴你，談到你問題的第二部分，品質沒有任何妥協。我們對這款產品感到非常自豪，不僅是它的風味特徵，還有我們用來做到這一點的成分。我們是一家超高端企業，所以我不會具體談論成分本身。我們加入了能量混合物，但它是純天然的。我們正在利用這樣一個事實：我們在咖啡產品採購方面擁有非常深厚的根基。

And so I'm not going to get into the science of this, but if you think about the fruit, the cherries that come from coffee, that actually is a great natural, sustainable source of caffeine. So that is a core part of it. And we ensured that we built, a suite of ingredients around that that delivers a great final profile.

所以我不打算深入探討這方面的科學，但如果你想想咖啡中的水果、櫻桃，那其實是一種很好的天然、可持續的咖啡因來源。所以這是它的核心部分。我們確保圍繞它構建了一套成分，以提供出色的最終輪廓。

Okay, thank you. And then just one quick follow up. On Walmart you shared in the past your share there, how did that trend in the quarter and anything you can announce as far as plans to, I don't know if it's promotions or anything else, to continue taking share at Walmart?

好的，謝謝。然後只需快速跟進即可。在沃爾瑪，您過去分享了您在那裡的份額，本季度的趨勢如何，以及您可以宣布的任何計劃，我不知道是促銷還是其他什麼，以繼續在沃爾瑪佔據份額？

Yes. So the share at Walmart continues to hold at, above four. Yes, we are in a position now. Walmart is of course, our first fully established retailer. They've been a great partner. We added a lot of new items last year with a full suite of distribution within Walmart. We're very much focused on how we continue to build the velocity of that business. So, yes, you're actually right. I think as we look at the back half of the year, that's exactly what we're going to do. As we move back into the seasonality of coffee and center store coffee.

是的。因此，沃爾瑪的份額繼續保持在 4 以上。是的，我們現在處於一個位置。沃爾瑪當然是我們第一家完全成熟的零售商。他們一直是很棒的合作夥伴。去年我們增加了許多新商品，並在沃爾瑪內進行了全套分銷。我們非常關注如何繼續提高該業務的速度。所以，是的，你確實是對的。我認為，當我們回顧今年下半年時，這正是我們要做的。當我們回到咖啡和中心店咖啡的季節性時。

We want to make sure that we continue to help Walmart to be at the head of that category. I think they've had great category growth versus the rest of the market. And so we're going to go and push hard with any of our partners, obviously not only Walmart, but any of the partners that we work with to enable their category growth as we move back into the high seasonality periods for coffee. So, I won't talk about the specific programs we're doing, but we've got some great stuff for the back half.

我們希望確保繼續幫助沃爾瑪在該類別中處於領先地位。我認為與市場上的其他產品相比，他們的品類成長非常快。因此，我們將與我們的任何合作夥伴一起努力推動，顯然不僅是沃爾瑪，而是與我們合作的任何合作夥伴，以在我們回到咖啡的旺季時期時實現他們的品類增長。所以，我不會談論我們正在做的具體計劃，但我們為後半部分準備了一些很棒的東西。

And I would add George, this is Steve. I think the same is true for FDM in general. If you look at the sell-through numbers, you can tell that we're dramatically outpacing the industry or the category. We grew at 28% while coffee as a whole was slightly down. So we're seeing that same performance as we ramp. And the same is true when you look at our revenue for the second half.

我想補充一下喬治，這是史蒂夫。我認為 FDM 總體上也是如此。如果您查看銷售量數字，您可以看出我們的速度遠遠超過了行業或類別。我們成長了 28%，而咖啡整體略有下降。因此，我們在提升時看到了相同的性能。當你看看我們下半年的收入時，情況也是如此。

I think it's important. We've talked about the barter transaction previously. If you recall, the barter transaction in the second half of last year was pretty significant to our revenue. It's not in our revenue for the second half at all. So if you look at the midpoint of our range, we actually have pretty significant growth in the second half, core to core. And all of that is driven by the FDM market.

我認為這很重要。我們之前討論過以物易物交易。如果你還記得的話，去年下半年的以物易物對我們的收入來說相當重要。這根本不屬於我們下半年的收入。因此，如果你看看我們範圍的中點，我們實際上在下半年有相當顯著的成長，從核心到核心。所有這一切都是由 FDM 市場驅動的。

Okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) David Shakno, William Blair.

（操作員說明）David Shakno、William Blair。

Hi, David Shakno stepping in for John Anderson. Can you guys highlight early reads you're seeing with Black Rifle pods on keurig.com and the partnership with KDP thus far?

大家好，大衛·沙克諾接替約翰·安德森。你們能否重點介紹一下你在 keurig.com 上看到的 Black Rifle 吊艙的早期讀物以及迄今為止與 KDP 的合作關係？

Yes, sure, David. I think we're delighted with the partnerships so far. I think, one of the core elements of this partnership was really quality and consistently of quality. We wanted to make sure, again, as a super-premium business, that we had the highest and most consistent quality on our pods business. And as we've said before, Keurig is the best in the business. And we've been delighted, early feedback from our consumers is that they really like liking the product itself.

是的，當然，大衛。我認為我們對迄今為止的合作夥伴關係感到滿意。我認為，這種合作關係的核心要素之一是真正的品質和一致的品質。作為一家超高端企業，我們希望再次確保我們的豆莢業務擁有最高且最穩定的品質。正如我們之前所說，Keurig 是業界最好的。我們很高興，消費者的早期回饋是他們真的很喜歡產品本身。

So, of course, that's in all channels, not just their own channels. As far as sales for them, I'm not going to quote their numbers, I think. But, yes, it's doing quite well. It's a brand that is focused, that they have focused on. We, of course, are working directly with them to make sure that we continue to educate their sales force so that they can really open that up in the channels that they want to be able to do that with. Again, it's a great route for expansion for us.

當然，這是在所有管道中，而不僅僅是他們自己的管道。至於他們的銷售額，我想我不會引用他們的數字。但是，是的，它做得很好。這是一個專注的品牌，也是他們所專注的。當然，我們正在與他們直接合作，以確保我們繼續教育他們的銷售人員，以便他們能夠真正在他們希望能夠做到的管道中打開這一點。再說一遍，這對我們來說是一條很好的擴張途徑。

Yes. And we're delighted by the early performance as well. We are starting to accrue royalty from their sales on their DTC, and they're also expecting significant uptick from Black Rifle, as mentioned on their earnings call. They view that potential as quite significant for them.

是的。我們也對早期的表現感到高興。我們開始從他們的 DTC 銷售中收取特許權使用費，正如他們在財報電話會議上提到的那樣，他們也預計 Black Rifle 的收入將大幅增加。他們認為這種潛力對他們來說非常重要。

Great. Thank you. And if I just one other thing, following up on somebody had asked about gross margin before. I think the discussion was more about the second half of the year. But just talking about the second quarter specifically, could you provide more color on the drivers there? You guys had a nice quarter on gross margin and also any color on where things stand with the operational initiatives? That'd be great.

偉大的。謝謝。如果我只是另一件事，跟進之前有人問過毛利率。我認為討論更多是關於下半年的。但僅就第二季而言，您能否為那裡的車手提供更多資訊？你們的季度毛利率表現不錯，對營運計畫的情況有何看法？那太好了。

The operational initiatives continue to go quite well. I mean, we had a number of positive impacts to our margin. Productivity was the most important. And that just goes to our supply chain. The narrowing of our manufacturing partners and, the hedging that we do around green coffee. There's a favorable mix shift as we ramp into FDM that will continue. Those are the main drivers. Really. It's just good, solid, continued execution and ramping into markets that are more profitable to us from a shipping and logistics standpoint.

營運舉措持續進展順利。我的意思是，我們對利潤率產生了許多正面影響。生產力是最重要的。這只涉及我們的供應鏈。我們的製造合作夥伴的範圍縮小，以及我們圍繞生咖啡的對沖。當我們轉向 FDM 時，將會出現有利的混合轉變，這種轉變將會持續下去。這些是主要驅動力。真的。從運輸和物流的角度來看，這是一個良好、可靠、持續的執行，並進入了對我們來說更有利可圖的市場。

I would just emphasize, we had talked about this almost a year ago now that this was going to be the core focus for Steve, myself, the rest of the team, knowing that a healthy gross margin is really the fuel that will continue to be needed to drive the growth in the business. And obviously, we're pleased with the results. But even more so, I think the system that has been developed that is delivering what Steve's talking about so that we feel confident that it's not just, one time hit, but there's a continuous line of productivity and optimization of the business as we move forward into the out years. That is one of the things that gives us a great deal of confidence, because as we do that again, we increase our firepower to spend back on the market.

我想強調的是，我們大約在一年前就已經討論過這個問題，現在這將成為史蒂夫、我本人以及團隊其他成員的核心焦點，因為他們知道健康的毛利率確實是繼續保持增長的動力。顯然，我們對結果感到滿意。但更重要的是，我認為已經開發的系統正在實現史蒂夫所談論的內容，因此我們有信心，這不僅僅是一次成功，而是隨著我們的前進，生產力和業務優化將持續不斷。進入過去的歲月。這是給我們很大信心的事情之一，因為當我們再次這樣做時，我們就會增加我們在市場上的投資火力。

Great. That's all from me. Thank you.

偉大的。這就是我的全部。謝謝。

Joe Altobello, Raymond James.

喬·阿爾托貝洛，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Good morning. This is Martin on for Joe. I just want to touch on the guide real quick. You lowered your revenue guide by about $45 million midpoint. We only missed 2Q by about a third of that. So it implies that there's some sort of impact in 2H. Is that all those delays, or is there something else kind of going on there?

早安.這是為喬代言的馬丁。我只想快速了解該指南。您將收入指南中位數降低了約 4500 萬美元。我們只錯過了第二季度的三分之一左右。所以這意味著 2H 中存在某種影響。是所有這些延誤，還是還有其他事情發生？

Well, there's nothing else going on. I did just mention on the previous question, there's a lot of shipments last year in the second half around that barter transaction. So that's part of it. But most of it is what we talked about is the movement to the right, a delay in timing issue relative to the FDM load ins. It's taken a bit longer than expected.

嗯，沒有其他事情發生了。我剛才提到了上一個問題，去年下半年圍繞以物易物交易有很多發貨。這就是其中的一部分。但我們討論的大部分內容是向右移動，也就是相對於 FDM 載入插件的時序延遲問題。花費的時間比預期的要長一些。

Okay, great. And just really quickly touching gross margins as well. You didn't lower that top line outlook in what is a margin accretive channel, but you did raise your gross margin guidance. So just trying to get some color back. What's driving that?

好的，太好了。而且毛利率也很快就達到了。你們並沒有降低利潤成長管道的營收前景，但確實提高了毛利率指引。所以只是想恢復一些顏色。是什麼推動了這一點？

We just talked about that in the last question. It's really about that supply chain productivity element. It's execution day-in, day-out. We are very pleased by the execution within the business. It's broader than just gross margin. It's also EBITDA margin. We're managing our expenses from top to bottom much better. And that's just about execution, it's about following up and maintaining discipline throughout the business.

我們剛剛在最後一個問題中談到了這一點。這其實與供應鏈生產力因素有關。這是日復一日的執行。我們對企業內部的執行力感到非常滿意。它的範圍不僅僅是毛利率。這也是 EBITDA 利潤率。我們從上到下更好地管理我們的開支。這只是關於執行，而是關於在整個企業中跟進和維持紀律。

And that to us, means just what Mondz said is it gives us the ability to have positive, free cash flow for the first half while we burned 40 million last year, which allows us to fuel our mission one and also reinvest in the business. And Black Rifle Energy is an example of that.

這對我們來說，正如Mondz 所說，它使我們能夠在上半年擁有積極的自由現金流，而去年我們燒掉了4000 萬美元，這使我們能夠推動我們的使命，並對業務進行再投資。黑步槍能量就是一個例子。

Great. Appreciate it. Best of luck.

偉大的。欣賞它。祝你好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Bill Chappell, Truist Securities.

（操作員指示）Bill Chappell，Truist 證券公司。

Hi, good morning. This is Davis (technical difficulty) on for Bill Chappell. Just wanted to ask kind of a higher level strategic question on the Energy. With the category having slowed so much recently and it being so unexpected, there's a lot of concern that the category is kind of reaching maturity. And we were just kind of wanting to get a little bit more color on what was driving this decision and why now.

嗨，早安。這是比爾·查佩爾 (Bill Chappell) 的戴維斯（技術難度）。只是想問有關能源的更高層次的策略問題。由於該類別最近增長如此之慢且出人意料，因此人們非常擔心該類別是否已趨於成熟。我們只是想更多地了解推動這項決定的原因以及現在的原因。

Yes, thanks. Great question. As I've said a number of times, and I'll continue to double down on it because I just think this is sort of a mantra for us, is we need to continue to navigate the term I like to use into tailwind categories. And what that means ultimately, is the categories that consumers are choosing to buy. This is one of the key elements that I've learned over 20 plus years in CPG. You've got to be moving your business to where consumer demand is.

是的，謝謝。很好的問題。正如我多次說過的那樣，我將繼續加倍努力，因為我認為這對我們來說是一種口頭禪，我們需要繼續將我喜歡使用的術語引入順風類別。這最終意味著消費者選擇購買的類別。這是我在 CPG 工作 20 多年中學到的關鍵要素之一。您必須將業務轉移到消費者需求所在的地方。

And I think we're very proud of the fact that we're anchored in coffee. And coffee is a category that will always have strength in the US. We believe that, but particularly with younger generations. We've alluded to this a bit in the past. Preferences are changing and they're broadening. There's a desire to have different types of more refreshing profiles tied to energy consumption. And that is ultimately what built the $20 billion energy category.

我認為我們對我們以咖啡為基礎感到非常自豪。咖啡是美國永遠佔優勢的品類。我們相信這一點，尤其是年輕一代。我們過去已經提到過這一點。偏好正在改變並且範圍正在擴大。人們希望擁有與能源消耗相關的不同類型的更令人耳目一新的配置文件。這最終造就了價值 200 億美元的能源類別。

I think my opinion is when you look at it as a whole, it can be a bit misleading. You're right, it is a very large category, which means there's a lot of players in there and there's a lot of different types of products. When you sub segment that, I think what you find is that there are elements of it that are still growing at very, very high levels. And that's really what we're focused on.

我認為我的觀點是，當你從整體上看時，它可能會有點誤導。你是對的，這是一個非常大的類別，這意味著那裡有很多玩家，並且有很多不同類型的產品。當你對其進行細分時，我認為你會發現其中的某些元素仍在以非常非常高的水平增長。這確實是我們關注的重點。

So when you look at the formulation of our product and how we're going to market that product and the demographic that we're going to go after and how we're going to generate awareness. We feel very confident that is going to be an area that we believe that we could source exceptionally high growth.

因此，當你看看我們產品的配方、我們將如何行銷該產品、我們將要關注的人群以及我們將如何提高認知度。我們非常有信心，這將是一個我們可以實現異常高成長的領域。

Got it. Thank you. And also just wanted to ask about some additional color on inputs, specifically green coffee costs are up 50% in the last year. Another like 30% or so in the last six months. You guys said you have a hedging program in place that kind of smooths out the short term pricing for you. Also, just wanted to see how those price rises are going to be affecting you all going forward. What kind of hedging schedule you all have? Like how far out are you all hedged?

知道了。謝謝。我也只是想詢問一些額外的投入，特別是去年生咖啡的成本上漲了 50%。另一個大約是過去六個月的 30% 左右。你們說你們有一個對沖計劃，可以平滑你們的短期定價。另外，只是想看看這些價格上漲將如何影響你們所有人的未來。你們都有什麼樣的對沖計畫？就像你們都對沖多遠？

We hedge pretty far out, but the bulk of our hedging is about a year out. We're super proud of our buyer program. We monitor it very closely. The real significant increases in coffee beans, quite frankly, is much more impacting Robusta than it is Arabica.

我們對沖的時間相當長，但我們的大部分對沖都是在一年左右。我們對我們的買家計劃感到非常自豪。我們非常密切地監控它。坦白說，咖啡豆的真正顯著增長對羅布斯塔的影響比對阿拉比卡的影響更大。

And obviously our coffees are on the higher end and higher quality beans. So there's been less of an impact there. But we still are taking advantage of those forward pricings and we're also taking advantage of differentials between markets. Our group there is quite sophisticated and quite frankly, they're keeping it where it's not a material impact to our near term or 2025 forecast.

顯然我們的咖啡是更高端、更高品質的咖啡豆。所以那裡的影響較小。但我們仍然在利用這些遠期定價，而且我們也在利用市場之間的差異。我們的團隊非常成熟，坦白說，他們將其保留在不會對我們的近期或 2025 年預測產生重大影響的地方。

Excellent. Appreciate it. I'll pass it on.

出色的。欣賞它。我會把它傳遞下去。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Sarang Vora, Telsey Advisory Group.

Sarang Vora，特爾西諮詢小組。

Great, thank you, guys. So I have a question. It's a little bit of philosophical question. You guys are doing a great job in managing the profitability, but at the big picture, how do you think of balancing, sales were down, a bit of a softer in the second half as well. So how do you think about balancing sales and profitability? A lot of brands are investing back in pricing. They're stepping a promotion to boost volume marketing as well.

太好了，謝謝你們，夥計們。所以我有一個問題。這是一個有點哲學問題。你們在管理獲利能力方面做得很好，但從大局來看，你們如何看待平衡，銷售下降，下半年也有點疲軟。那麼您如何看待平衡銷售額和獲利能力呢？許多品牌都在定價上進行投資。他們也採取促銷活動來促進銷售行銷。

So I'm just curious to hear your thought on how you are thinking to revamp the sales unit volume while profits are stronger right now. So just trying to understand the balance, how you're trying to do that? Thank you.

因此，我只是想聽聽您對如何在目前利潤更強勁的情況下提高銷售量的想法。所以只是想了解平衡，你打算如何做到這一點？謝謝。

Yes, thanks, Sarang. I'll start on that and Steve can build if you'd like. I think. Look, that's a great question. Ultimately, let me be very clear. This is a growth business. We are doing this ultimately to set up a mission that we all believe in. And that mission only comes to life as we grow this business significantly from where it is right now. So our ambitions remain exceptionally high. At the same time, we have a very experienced, disciplined team and I would tell you that we're going to have patience in doing that. We're going to do it at the rate that we believe is right for us as a business.

是的，謝謝，薩朗。我將從這個開始，如果你願意，史蒂夫可以建造。我認為。聽著，這是一個很好的問題。最後，讓我說得非常清楚。這是一項成長型業務。我們這樣做最終是為了建立一個我們都相信的使命。只有當我們的業務在目前的基礎上大幅發展時，這項使命才得以實現。因此，我們的目標仍然非常高。同時，我們擁有一支經驗豐富、紀律嚴明的團隊，我會告訴你，我們將有耐心這樣做。我們將按照我們認為適合我們企業的速度來做到這一點。

And yes, I mean that obviously has changed a bit per the announcement that we made this quarter, but it doesn't take anything away from the amount of growth that we ultimately believe we can deliver with this business. So again, I'm not going to go through all the factors that we've elaborated on in this call, but I think going forward, what you call out is exactly what we are going to do. We've talked a lot about the fact that by building the gross margin that we've built, that does give us additional firepower.

是的，我的意思是，根據我們本季發布的公告，情況顯然發生了一些變化，但這並沒有影響我們最終相信我們可以透過這項業務實現的成長量。再說一遍，我不會詳細介紹我們在這次電話會議中詳細闡述的所有因素，但我認為展望未來，您所說的正是我們要做的。我們已經討論過很多這樣的事實：透過提高我們已經建立的毛利率，這確實為我們帶來了額外的火力。

And so as we move into the back part of the year, and as we expose our business to more and more tailwind areas of the market where we know consumers are voting with their wallets, we will be well prepared to ensure that we can make the investments, whether those are at the retailer level or whether those are more macro-based marketing programs, to continue to build our overall equity.

因此，當我們進入今年下半年時，當我們將我們的業務暴露在市場上越來越多的順風區域時，我們知道消費者正在用他們的錢包投票，我們將做好充分準備，以確保我們能夠做出投資，無論是零售商層面的投資，還是基於宏觀的行銷計劃，以繼續建立我們的整體資產。

We'll continue to obviously do both. But again, when you hear us talking about profitability, don't ever let that take away from ultimately our belief that this is a growth business. The two things just have to go together. Without building that strong core to the business and the ability to have a high gross margin, we know the growth won't come. So again, it's a both.

顯然我們將繼續兩者兼而有之。但同樣，當你聽到我們談論獲利能力時，永遠不要讓這影響我們最終相信這是一家成長型企業。這兩件事必須結合在一起。如果沒有建立強大的業務核心和獲得高毛利率的能力，我們知道成長不會到來。再說一遍，這是兩者兼具。

And I agree with that 100% Sarang. And if you look back on my prepared comments towards the end of my discussion, I kind of gave you the tools on how we think about this philosophically into the future as well. We've got FDM where we've only been in FDM for 18 months, really, with one retailer. We're going to expand ACV capture there. We have line of sight and we have said over and over again that we want to be fully deployed into FDM, that ACV capture by itself.

我同意 100% Sarang。如果你回顧我在討論結束時準備的評論，我也為你提供了我們如何從哲學角度思考未來的工具。我們已經採用 FDM，實際上我們只與一家零售商進行了 18 個月的 FDM。我們將在那裡擴大 ACV 捕獲範圍。我們有視線，我們已經一遍又一遍地說，我們希望完全部署到 FDM 中，即 ACV 本身捕獲。

And in addition, SKU enhance them. We've got over 30 SKUs at Walmart. We've got four at Albertsons. That will change over time. Between those two markets, between those two enhancements. There's significant upside on FDM, just on coffee. RTD coffee, we've got significant ACV enhancement to come there. We believe that we can match the share that we have in core coffee and RTD coffee.

此外，SKU 還增強了它們。我們在沃爾瑪有超過 30 個 SKU。我們在艾伯森有四個。這會隨著時間的推移而改變。在這兩個市場之間，在這兩個增強之間。光是在咖啡方面，FDM 就有顯著的優勢。即飲咖啡，我們有顯著的 ACV 增強功能。我們相信我們可以與核心咖啡和即飲咖啡的市場份額相匹配。

There's no reason we can't. And then you look at energy, it's a very significant – significantly greater size, TAM, and we believe that we can take share there. So between those, you can kind of do the math yourself. That leads to a very significant revenue company as we grow into our goals there.

我們沒有理由不能。然後你看看能源，TAM 的規模非常大，我們相信我們可以在那裡佔據份額。因此，在這些之間，您可以自己進行數學計算。隨著我們朝著我們的目標發展，這將導致一家收入非常可觀的公司。

No, that makes sense. There's a lot, just a housekeeping question, Steve, for you. You guys have done a good job in bringing the inventory levels down. Just curious, is it the level you expect now or there's more room to go down from here?

不，這是有道理的。史蒂夫，有很多事情想問你，只是一個家事問題。你們在降低庫存水準方面做得很好。只是好奇，這是您現在期望的水平還是還有更多下降空間？

Well, I think we're at the level now where we're quite happy, but we will not rest. I think that from here, managing our margin, our inventory is part of that program. It's about the margins of the margin. The pennies will lead to the dollar, so to speak. And so we're always refining that. It's a source and potential cash for us during the year if we do it better. So I'm not committing to significantly lower, but there's always opportunities.

嗯，我認為我們現在處於非常高興的水平，但我們不會休息。我認為從這裡開始，管理我們的利潤和庫存是該計劃的一部分。這是關於邊距的。可以這麼說，便士將變成美元。所以我們一直在完善這一點。如果我們做得更好的話，這對我們來說是今年的一個來源和潛在的現金。所以我不會承諾大幅降低，但機會總是存在的。

That's great. Thank you, guys.

那太棒了。謝謝你們，夥計們。

Thanks, Sarang.

謝謝，薩朗。

Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I'll now turn the call over to Mondz for closing remarks.

謝謝。我們的問答環節已經結束。現在我將把電話轉給 Mondz 進行總結發言。

Yes, thank you. Fantastic questions. It was good to be able to have a chance to talk about the business. I'm going to reiterate just a couple of things in closing. Yes, we faced into some things that were unexpected for us, as every business does. It's been a great chance for me, as the leader of this business, alongside the founders, to see how the team reacts to that and how we evolve with it. And I'm very, very proud of what we've seen.

是的，謝謝。很棒的問題。很高興能夠有機會談論業務。最後我要重申幾件事。是的，我們遇到了一些意想不到的事情，就像每個企業都會遇到的那樣。作為該企業的領導者，這對我來說是一個很好的機會，可以與創始人一起了解團隊對此有何反應以及我們如何隨之發展。我對我們所看到的感到非常非常自豪。

I think we're going to continue to stay very focused on what our long term mission is. One of the things I've emphasized many times, and I always like to bring into our closing, is what this business ultimately was created for and what we exist for, which is to stand as an authentic representation of the military and first responder community, and in doing so, creating a distinctive position in the market that we believe will resonate with the very, very high percentage of Americans and probably even beyond Americans. But we're focused on America right now.

我認為我們將繼續專注於我們的長期使命。我多次強調的一件事，也是我總是喜歡在結束語中提到的一件事，是這項業務的最終創建目的和我們存在的目的，即作為軍隊和急救人員社區的真實代表，並透過這樣做，在市場上創造一個獨特的地位，我們相信這將引起非常非常高比例的美國人甚至可能超越美國人的共鳴。但我們現在關注的是美國。

With that, I think what you'll see us continue to do is evolve. You're never going to hear us change on, kind of the core fundamentals that we talk about on growth or on profitability, but we will continue to push our business to be most relevant to consumer needs. And that's what you're seeing on some of the news that we announced this quarter, so will continue to drive with that kind of flexibility.

有了這個，我想你會看到我們繼續做的是進化。你永遠不會聽到我們改變我們談論的成長或獲利能力的核心基本面，但我們將繼續推動我們的業務與消費者需求最相關。這就是您在我們本季宣布的一些新聞中看到的，因此我們將繼續以這種靈活性來推動。

Likewise, we're continuing to invest in our mission because we know that our mission gives back. In fact, one of our founders, Matt, is up in New York this week. He's working with the Special Operation Warriors Fund.

同樣，我們將繼續投資於我們的使命，因為我們知道我們的使命會帶來回報。事實上，我們的創始人之一馬特本週在紐約。他正在與特別行動勇士基金會合作。

We're going to be supporting a program that works very closely with fallen Heroes families, particularly families that have disabled children, making sure that they still have and have access to the right kinds of education and needs as they grow up without their parent, who, sadly, had lost their life.

我們將支持一項與陣亡英雄家庭密切合作的計劃，特別是有殘疾兒童的家庭，確保他們在沒有父母陪伴的情況下仍然能夠獲得正確的教育和需求，可悲的是，他們已經失去了生命。

So these are the types of things that we are doing on an ongoing basis, that it's why we're here, candidly, it's why everybody on the leadership team and everyone else in the business is here. And that authenticity, we believe, will continue to give us that differentiation with our consumers in the market as well.

因此，這些是我們正在持續做的事情，這就是我們在這裡的原因，坦白說，這就是為什麼領導團隊中的每個人和業務中的其他人都在這裡的原因。我們相信，這種真實性也將繼續讓我們在市場上與消費者保持差異化。

That being said, we have to be nimble to be able to then evolve with that and make sure we're putting products out there that are of the highest quality and are in segments of the market that we know are going to drive high growth. So those two things will continue to work hand in hand. And ultimately, like I said, as we evolve this business, the one thing that will never waiver will be our authenticity. So I'll close with that and thank you all very much.

話雖這麼說，我們必須靈活，才能隨之發展，並確保我們推出的產品品質最高，並且屬於我們知道將推動高速成長的細分市場。因此，這兩件事將繼續齊頭並進。最終，就像我說的，隨著我們發展這項業務，永遠不會放棄的一件事就是我們的真實性。我將以此結束並非常感謝大家。

And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束，大家可以掛斷電話了。感謝您的參與。