Brightview Holdings Inc (BV) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the BrightView Q3 Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加 BrightView 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，本次電話會議正在錄音。

I would now like to turn the call over to Chris Stoczko, Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

我現在想將電話轉給財務副總裁 Chris Stoczko。請繼續。

Thank you for joining BrightView's Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Jim Abrahamson, Brightview's Interim President and Chief Executive Officer; and Brett Urban, Chief Financial Officer, are on the call.

感謝您參加 BrightView 2023 財年第三季財報電話會議。 Jim Abrahamson，Brightview 臨時總裁兼執行長；財務長 Brett Urban 正在通話。

Please remember that some of the comments made today, including responses to questions and information reflected in the presentation slides are forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially from those projected. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for more detail on the risks and uncertainties that could impact the company's future operating results and financial condition. Comments made today will also include a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in today's press release. Disclaimers on forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures apply both to today's prepared remarks as well as the Q&A.

請記住，今天發表的一些評論，包括對問題的答覆和簡報幻燈片中反映的資訊都是前瞻性的，實際結果可能與預測的結果有重大差異。請參閱該公司向 SEC 提交的文件，以了解可能影響公司未來經營業績和財務狀況的風險和不確定性的更多詳細資訊。今天發表的評論還將包括對某些非公認會計準則財務指標的討論。今天的新聞稿中提供了與可比較公認會計準則財務指標的調節表。有關前瞻性陳述和非公認會計準則財務指標的免責聲明適用於今天準備的評論以及問答。

I will now turn the call over to Jim.

我現在將把電話轉給吉姆。

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I'll start on Slide 4 of the earnings presentation. I plan to focus my prepared remarks on our solid results in the quarter, provide an overview of our expanded strategic initiatives, discuss our progress on the search for our next CEO and provide some perspective on the impact of our expanded strategy, coupled with the renewed focus and energy of our leadership team, given the significant value creation opportunity ahead of us.

謝謝你，克里斯，大家早安。我將從收益簡報的幻燈片 4 開始。我計劃將準備好的發言重點放在我們本季度的堅實業績上，概述我們擴大的戰略舉措，討論我們在尋找下一任首席執行官方面的進展，並就我們擴大的戰略以及更新的戰略的影響提供一些觀點。鑑於我們面臨著巨大的價值創造機會，我們領導團隊的專注和精力。

As a BrightView Board member for the past 8 years and more recently in my role as Interim President and CEO, I'm focused on leading the creation and execution of our expanded strategic plan and improving company performance in concert with our excellent BrightView team. We are capitalizing on opportunities to drive performance as we grow our revenue and our EBITDA, while expanding margins, increasing free cash flow, strengthening our balance sheet, and thereby, enhancing shareholder value.

作為過去 8 年的 BrightView 董事會成員以及最近擔任臨時總裁兼首席執行官，我專注於領導我們擴展戰略計劃的製定和執行，並與我們優秀的 BrightView 團隊一起提高公司業績。隨著營收和 EBITDA 的成長，我們正在利用機會來推動績效成長，同時擴大利潤率、增加自由現金流、強化資產負債表，從而提高股東價值。

We are proud to report that our results for the third quarter reflect substantive progress against each of those financial objectives. We are particularly encouraged about our disciplined approach to pursuing high-quality business opportunities while increasing our cost efficiencies that has translated into the strong EBITDA growth, margin expansion and increased cash flow. Following the strategic assessment of our business, we launched the first phase of Project Accelerate during the second quarter.

我們很自豪地報告，我們第三季的業績反映出每項財務目標都取得了實質進展。我們特別感到鼓舞的是，我們在追求高品質商業機會的同時提高了成本效率，這已轉化為強勁的 EBITDA 成長、利潤率擴張和現金流增加。在對我們的業務進行策略評估後，我們在第二季啟動了 Project Accelerate 第一階段。

As a reminder, this is a company-wide program designed to reduce overhead costs. We have now expanded and intensified the scope of Project Accelerate with new strategic initiatives centered around growing our revenues, operating even more efficiently, thereby expanding our profit margins and generating even more cash to delever our balance sheet.

提醒一下，這是一個全公司範圍的計劃，旨在降低管理成本。我們現在已經擴大並強化了「加速專案」的範圍，推出了新的策略性舉措，這些舉措的核心是增加我們的收入，提高營運效率，從而擴大我們的利潤率，並產生更多現金來降低我們的資產負債表。

We recently broadened the reach and expanded the depth of our project to accelerate cost containment initiatives across all facets of the company as we've added the following items to Project Accelerate, including local branch performance initiatives centered around profitable growth, substantially improving customer and contract revenue retention, expanded sales initiatives to increase new contract win rates across our segments, and importantly, a company-wide procurement project aimed to drive significant savings across our entire portfolio.

我們最近擴大了項目的範圍和深度，以加速公司各個方面的成本控制計劃，因為我們在項目加速中添加了以下項目，包括以盈利增長為中心的本地分支機構績效計劃，大幅改善客戶和合約保留收入，擴大銷售計劃以提高我們各部門的新合約贏得率，更重要的是，全公司範圍的採購項目旨在推動我們整個產品組合的大幅節省。

To be clear, we are not waiting to launch these vitally important initiatives and we have commenced the initial rollout during the third quarter.

需要明確的是，我們不會等待推出這些至關重要的舉措，我們已在第三季開始初步推出。

Looking forward to the remainder of fiscal year 2023 and our initial outlook on fiscal year 2024, we expect that these initiatives will continue to drive profitable growth, enhance margins and generate increasing cash flow to delever our balance sheet. We expect to provide additional details on the magnitude of each of these new initiatives and the resulting impact on our performance on upcoming earnings calls.

展望 2023 財年剩餘時間以及我們對 2024 財年的初步展望，我們預計這些舉措將繼續推動盈利增長、提高利潤率並產生不斷增加的現金流，以降低我們的資產負債表槓桿。我們希望在即將召開的財報電話會議上提供有關每項新舉措的規模以及對我們業績產生的影響的更多詳細資訊。

An important catalyst for driving continued effectiveness of these initiatives will be the selection of our next CEO. The search is progressing well and according to our time line. We are continuing to work closely with an executive search firm and are presently engaged with a short list of highly qualified candidates. We are excited by the prospects of bringing on board an exceptional leader and operator that will lead the company through its next phase of growth and value creation. This new leader will be well positioned to drive BrightView forward and will hit the ground running with a clear strategy to drive growth and enhance performance.

推動這些舉措持續有效的重要催化劑將是選擇我們的下一任執行長。根據我們的時間表，搜尋進展順利。我們將繼續與一家獵人頭公司密切合作，目前正在篩選一份高素質候選人名單。我們對聘請一位傑出的領導者和經營者的前景感到興奮，他將帶領公司進入下一階段的成長和價值創造。這位新領導者將有能力推動 BrightView 向前發展，並將以明確的策略推動成長並提高業績。

With renewed company-wide focus and energy, coupled with outstanding new leadership and the strength of our excellent executive team, I'm confident that BrightView will have a strong foundation and an effective strategy to deliver results and drive value for our shareholders now and into the future.

憑藉全公司範圍內新的重點和活力，加上出色的新領導層和我們優秀執行團隊的實力，我相信BrightView 將擁有堅實的基礎和有效的戰略，為我們的股東現在和未來交付成果並創造價值。未來。

With that, I'll now turn it over to Brett, who will discuss our financial performance and outlook in more detail. Brett?

現在，我將把它交給布雷特，他將更詳細地討論我們的財務表現和前景。布雷特？

Thank you, Jim, and good morning to everyone. I'll start on Slide 6. I am pleased to report on another solid quarter. As Jim previewed, the business is growing, profitability is expanding and cash generation has improved significantly. We grew total revenues by 2.5%, increased EBITDA by $8 million, delivered meaningful margin expansion in both segments and generated significantly more cash despite increased interest. Our ability to achieve these results reflects BrightView's attractive business model and gives us confidence as we pursue new opportunities and drive further financial and operational improvement.

謝謝你，吉姆，祝大家早安。我將從幻燈片 6 開始。我很高興報告又一個穩定的季度。正如吉姆所預見的那樣，業務正在成長，獲利能力正在擴大，現金產生能力也顯著改善。我們的總收入成長了 2.5%，EBITDA 增加了 800 萬美元，兩個部門的利潤率都實現了有意義的成長，儘管利息增加，但現金仍顯著增加。我們取得這些成果的能力反映了 BrightView 極具吸引力的商業模式，並讓我們在尋求新機會並進一步推動財務和營運改善時充滿信心。

Moving to Slide 7. Total revenue during the quarter increased 2.5% year-over-year to $766 million. Revenue during the quarter benefited from demand in our core businesses, favorable pricing and M&A contributions. In our land business, total revenue increased to $555 million, reflecting roughly flat land organic growth and positive contributions from acquisitions. Organic growth was impacted by our increased focus on pursuing higher quality contract opportunities. However, this focus and the continued execution of our disciplined pricing strategy was one of the primary reasons for the significant margin improvement. More on that later in the call.

轉向投影片 7。本季總營收年增 2.5%，達到 7.66 億美元。本季的收入受益於我們核心業務的需求、有利的定價和併購貢獻。在我們的土地業務中，總收入增至 5.55 億美元，反映出土地有機成長基本持平以及收購帶來的正面貢獻。我們更加重視追求更高品質的合約機會，從而影響了有機成長。然而，這種關注和持續執行我們嚴格的定價策略是利潤率顯著提高的主要原因之一。稍後將在電話中詳細介紹這一點。

We grew our Development business a robust 9.1% organically due to our ability to convert our strong backlog. We remain very optimistic about our Development business and the pipeline of projects for the remainder of fiscal '23, and we are seeing continued momentum leading into fiscal '24.

由於我們有能力轉換大量積壓訂單，我們的開發業務有機成長了 9.1%。我們對 23 財年剩餘時間的開發業務和專案儲備仍然非常樂觀，我們看到 24 財年的持續勢頭。

Turning now to profitability and the details on Slide 8. Total adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $102 million, an increase of $8 million, driven by both land and development growth and disciplined cost management. Our increased profitability is a result of our focus on higher-quality business, price cost dynamics, operational performance and good progress on our cost initiatives related to Project Accelerate.

現在轉向盈利能力和幻燈片 8 上的詳細信息。第三季度調整後 EBITDA 總額為 1.02 億美元，增加了 800 萬美元，這得益於土地和開發增長以及嚴格的成本管理。我們獲利能力的提高是由於我們專注於更高品質的業務、價格成本動態、營運績效以及與 Project Accelerate 相關的成本計劃的良好進展。

With the expansion of Project Accelerate, we now expect the benefit to exceed the $20 million annualized target we discussed last quarter. We plan to provide more specific details on the timing of these initiatives and the financial contribution on our next earnings call. Before I leave Slide 8, I want to reiterate how excited we are with the EBITDA results in the quarter. We delivered on our commitment to grow our profits and expand our margins and intend to continue that trend in future quarters.

隨著 Project Accelerate 的擴展，我們現在預計收益將超過我們上季度討論的 2000 萬美元的年化目標。我們計劃在下一次財報電話會議上提供有關這些舉措的時間表和財務貢獻的更多具體細節。在結束投影片 8 之前，我想重申我們對本季 EBITDA 業績感到多麼興奮。我們兌現了增加利潤和擴大利潤的承諾，並打算在未來幾季繼續這一趨勢。

Turning to Slide 9, I'll provide more details on margin expansion. In the Maintenance segment, total adjusted EBITDA of $94 million increased by approximately $5 million from the prior year. This resulted in significant margin expansion of 70 basis points year-over-year and marks the third consecutive quarter of margin expansion in our core land business. We continue to be focused on higher quality contracts and strategic with our pricing efforts. While these efforts have led to a modest short-term softening of land organic growth, we believe this strategy in the long run will ultimately result in continued margin accretion as we saw in our Q3 results.

轉向幻燈片 9，我將提供有關利潤擴張的更多詳細資訊。在維修部門，調整後 EBITDA 總額為 9,400 萬美元，比前一年增加了約 500 萬美元。這導致利潤率同比大幅增長 70 個基點，標誌著我們核心土地業務的利潤率連續第三個季度增長。我們繼續專注於更高品質的合約和定價工作的策略。雖然這些努力導致土地有機成長在短期內略有放緩，但我們相信，從長遠來看，這項策略最終將導致利潤率持續增加，正如我們在第三季業績中看到的那樣。

In the Development segment, adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $24.1 million, an increase of approximately 15% compared to the prior year. Development margin expanded 60 basis points year-over-year and was at the high end of our guidance range of 50 to 60 basis points. This marks our fourth consecutive quarter of development margin expansion, and we expect this dynamic to continue.

在開發部門，第三季調整後的 EBITDA 為 2,410 萬美元，比上年增長約 15%。發展利潤率較去年同期擴大 60 個基點，處於我們指導範圍 50 至 60 個基點的高端。這標誌著我們的開發利潤率連續第四個季度擴大，我們預計這種動態將持續下去。

Let's now turn to Slide 10 to review our capital expenditures, debt and free cash flow for the quarter. Net CapEx for the third quarter was $12 million compared to $21 million in the prior year, reflecting nearly a 50% year-over-year decrease. As evidenced by these results, we are continuing our approach of carefully managing our capital expenditures. We have made significant progress so far this year and are further reducing our target for capital expenditures to be meaningfully less than 3% of total revenue for fiscal year '23. We expect this to benefit our free cash flow by an incremental $5 million to $10 million versus prior expectations.

現在讓我們轉向投影片 10，回顧本季的資本支出、債務和自由現金流。第三季淨資本支出為 1,200 萬美元，而上年同期為 2,100 萬美元，年減近 50%。這些結果證明，我們將繼續謹慎管理資本支出。今年到目前為止，我們已經取得了重大進展，並將進一步降低資本支出目標，使其顯著低於 23 財年總收入的 3%。我們預計這將使我們的自由現金流比先前的預期增加 500 萬至 1000 萬美元。

Sequentially, we reduced our net debt and improved our leverage ratio to 4.8x through disciplined cash management and increased profitability. We are committed to reducing leverage over time through EBITDA expansion and debt reduction. Free cash flow improved again on a year-over-year basis, increasing to $22 million for the quarter. Free cash flow benefited from improved profitability and reduced capital expenditures, more than offsetting the doubling of cash interest. We feel great about our free cash flow improvement and expect it to continue for the remainder of fiscal '23.

隨後，我們透過嚴格的現金管理和提高獲利能力，減少了淨債務，並將槓桿率提高至 4.8 倍。我們致力於透過擴大 EBITDA 和減少債務來逐漸降低槓桿率。自由現金流年再次改善，本季增至 2,200 萬美元。自由現金流受益於獲利能力的提高和資本支出的減少，遠遠抵消了現金利息的翻倍。我們對自由現金流的改善感到非常高興，並預計這種情況將在 23 財年剩餘時間內持續下去。

Let's now turn to Slide 11 to review our outlook for the fourth quarter and full year fiscal '23. While we are pleased with our results year-to-date and have seen continued progress in our efforts to improve margins and cash flow, our top line results and outlook for the fourth quarter reflect a focus on driving more profitable growth in our key parts of our business. Given these factors, we are modestly revising our full year revenue guidance. As you can see on the slide, for fiscal year '23, we now expect total revenues of $2.80 billion to $2.82 billion and total adjusted EBITDA of $295 million to $300 million.

現在讓我們轉向投影片 11，回顧我們對第四季和 23 財年全年的展望。雖然我們對今年迄今為止的業績感到滿意，並且在提高利潤和現金流方面不斷取得進展，但我們第四季度的頂線業績和前景反映出我們重點關注推動我們關鍵領域的利潤增長。我們的業務。考慮到這些因素，我們正在適度修改全年收入指引。正如您在幻燈片中看到的，我們現在預計 23 財年的總收入為 28.0 億美元至 28.2 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 總額為 2.95 億美元至 3 億美元。

For the fourth quarter, this equates to total revenues of $730 million to $750 million and total adjusted EBITDA of $98 million to $102 million. Our guidance for the fourth quarter assumes the following: land organic growth that is relatively flat as we focus on higher quality contracts and continue the execution of our pricing strategy; maintenance margin expansion of 40 to 50 basis points, which is significantly above our prior guidance; development organic growth above 10%; and development margin expansion of 50 to 60 basis points.

第四季的總營收為 7.3 億美元至 7.5 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 總額為 9,800 萬美元至 1.02 億美元。我們對第四季度的指導假設如下：土地有機成長相對平穩，因為我們專注於更高品質的合約並繼續執行我們的定價策略；維持利潤率擴大 40 至 50 個基點，遠高於我們先前的指導；發展有機成長10%以上；發展利潤率擴大50至60個基點。

The expansion of our Project Accelerate initiative is important to consider as we think about our longer-term performance. Our ability to execute and deliver against these efforts is expected to provide meaningful contributions to our results in fiscal '24 and beyond.

當我們考慮我們的長期績效時，我們必須考慮擴大「專案加速」計畫。我們執行和實現這些努力的能力預計將為我們 24 財年及以後的業績做出有意義的貢獻。

Now let's turn to Slide 12 to wrap up. We are very pleased with our year-to-date results as we continue to see momentum in our business and execute against key initiatives. With a renewed level of focus and energy, we are dedicated to continuing to improve our business and have taken important steps to achieving our goals.

現在讓我們用投影片 12 來總結一下。我們對今年迄今為止的業績感到非常滿意，因為我們繼續看到我們的業務勢頭並執行關鍵舉措。憑藉新的關注點和活力，我們致力於繼續改善我們的業務，並採取重要步驟來實現我們的目標。

Thank you for your interest and for your attention this morning. We will now open the call for your questions.

感謝您今天早上的興趣和關注。我們現在將開始電話詢問您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Tim Mulrooney from William Blair.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自威廉布萊爾的提姆馬爾魯尼。

This is Samuel Kusswurm on for Tim. I just had a few. I guess to start, I believe last quarter, your expectations were for 2% to 3% land organic growth in the back half year. Now it's looking like it will be flat. I guess I'm wondering if you could expand on what drove that change.

我是塞繆爾·庫斯沃姆（Samuel Kusswurm）替提姆發言。我只吃了一些。我想從上個季度開始，您的預期是下半年土地有機成長 2% 到 3%。現在看來它將是平坦的。我想我想知道您是否可以詳細說明推動這項變更的原因。

Yes, a great question. This is Brett. You think about growth of the company, we're excited with the quarter 3 results and we're excited about the Q4 guidance. The total company is growing. In quarter 3, we grew 2.5%. Organically, it was 1.5%. And both segments showed growth in Q3. So excited about those results.

是的，一個很好的問題。這是布雷特。你想到公司的成長，我們對第三季的業績感到興奮，我們對第四季的指導感到興奮。公司整體規模不斷壯大。第三季度，我們成長了 2.5%。有機比例為 1.5%。這兩個細分市場在第三季均出現成長。對這些結果感到非常興奮。

When it comes to land organic specifically, as you think about our expansion of Project Accelerate and how that now expands into client retention and new sales wins, we are very focused on bringing new sales in that are higher-quality business. And we're being extremely prudent and judicious with our price increase strategy when it comes to customer renewals. Both of which have led to the margin expansion you saw in Q3 and the guidance for Q4.

具體到有機土地，當你想到我們的專案加速擴張以及現在如何擴展到客戶保留和新的銷售勝利時，我們非常專注於在更高品質的業務中帶來新的銷售。在客戶續約方面，我們的漲價策略非常謹慎和明智。這兩者都導致了您在第三季度看到的利潤率擴張和第四季度的指導。

And in the short term, as we go through this expanded Project Accelerate strategy, we'll see a short-term modest softening of land organic growth, relatively flat into next quarter. But we do expect that focus on higher-quality business when it relates to new sales and our pricing strategy as it relates to renewals to continue to drive outsized margin expansion in the business.

短期內，當我們實施這項擴大的專案加速策略時，我們將看到土地有機成長短期溫和放緩，到下個季度相對持平。但我們確實預計，當涉及新銷售時，我們會專注於更高品質的業務，而我們的定價策略則涉及續約，以繼續推動業務利潤率的大幅擴張。

Got you. That's helpful. Maybe pivoting to the Accelerate program then a bit. But given that you've taken significant costs out of SG&A with this program, do you think that you'll have to eventually bring some of those costs back? Or are current SG&A levels sustainable in your view?

明白你了。這很有幫助。也許會轉向加速計劃。但考慮到您已透過該計劃從 SG&A 中扣除了大量成本，您是否認為您最終必須收回其中部分成本？或者您認為目前的銷售及行政管理水準是否可持續？

Always important when you're considering this. This is Jim Abrahamson. Being around this company for the last 18 years, I've got a good handle on what makes it tick. And the -- where we saw overhead cost escalation, that we are able to bring back under control. More importantly, we've taken a deeper dive really across the organization. So we're expanding this beyond just SG&A, if you would. If you're thinking corporate or, call it, top line, top level expense categories, where our focus was in the initial phase, we've now expanded that to get into the remainder of the company. So we're looking across those 5 areas that we talked about on the call.

當您考慮這一點時，這一點始終很重要。這是吉姆·亞伯拉罕森。在過去的 18 年裡，我在這家公司工作，我很好地掌握了它的運作原理。我們看到管理費用不斷上升，但我們能夠將其控制住。更重要的是，我們對整個組織進行了更深入的研究。因此，如果您願意的話，我們正在將其擴展到 SG&A 之外。如果您正在考慮公司，或稱為頂線、頂級費用類別，我們的重點是在初始階段，現在我們已經將其擴展到公司的其餘部分。因此，我們正在研究我們在電話會議中討論的這 5 個領域。

Each of those areas such as branch performance, such as our team productivity and other areas, we -- the broadening and deepening of the program is really where the opportunity is because we've got a widely distributed company. So we think there's great opportunity. We don't believe this was short term in nature. We've restructured our company based on what we found in -- and having a good handle on how this company operates, I think we're able to prudently put these cost control measures into place, and we believe these will be permanent savings over a period of time. So as we continue to roll these out, we'll have more guidance in the future on what our targets are. But we're guiding these to be permanent reductions.

每個領域，例如分支機構績效，例如我們的團隊生產力和其他領域，我們 - 該計劃的擴大和深化確實是機會所在，因為我們擁有一家分佈廣泛的公司。所以我們認為這是一個很好的機會。我們不認為這本質上是短期的。我們根據我們的發現重組了我們的公司，並且很好地掌握了這家公司的運作方式，我認為我們能夠謹慎地將這些成本控制措施落實到位，我們相信這些將是永久性的節省一段時間。因此，當我們繼續推出這些產品時，我們未來將就我們的目標提供更多指導。但我們正在引導這些永久減少。

Okay. Great. We'll look forward to that. Maybe I'll sneak one last one in here. I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks and some of your commentary here about retention, just improving that for the customer contract level. Can you maybe share more detail what you're exactly trying to do to achieve that?

好的。偉大的。我們對此充滿期待。也許我會偷偷地把最後一顆放進去。我認為您在準備好的評論和此處的一些評論中提到了保留，只是提高了客戶合約水平。您能否分享更多細節來實現這一目標？

Yes, a great question. As you think about 1.5 years, 2 years ago when inflation was peaking around 9% and we were fighting that inflation by launching our pricing strategy, we were very prudent and judicious in renewing customers with the right pricing dynamics. We're continuing that pricing strategy now. We've seen retention rates stabilize, but not rebound back to historical levels, call it, pre-hyperinflation. So as we think about expanding that initiative and really getting back the branch performance and getting back to a high customer focus, we expect now that 2 years into pricing with inflation now in the 3% range for CPI -- CPIW, which is a metric we track internally, is less than 2.5% -- we expect our aggressiveness on pricing to start to subside. That will have an impact on customer retention. And a bit more focused on back to the basics in the branches. We expect that to have an impact to retention. So we are seeing it stabilize year-over-year, but we would expect in the future as we launch the expansion of Project Accelerate to see a rebound in retention.

是的，一個很好的問題。想想 1.5 年、2 年前，當通貨膨脹率達到 9% 左右的峰值時，我們透過推出定價策略來對抗通貨膨脹，我們在以正確的定價動態來續訂客戶方面非常謹慎和明智。我們現在正在繼續這種定價策略。我們已經看到保留率穩定下來，但沒有反彈回歷史水平，稱之為惡性通貨膨脹前。因此，當我們考慮擴大該計劃並真正恢復分支機構績效並重新高度關注客戶時，我們預計在定價 2 年後，CPI 的通膨率目前處於 3% 的範圍內——CPIW，這是一個指標我們內部追蹤的數據低於2.5%——我們預期我們在定價方面的激進態度將開始消退。這將對客戶保留產生影響。並更加關注分支中的基礎知識。我們預計這會對保留率產生影響。因此，我們看到它逐年穩定，但我們預計，隨著我們啟動 Project Accelerate 的擴展，未來保留率將會反彈。

Our next question comes from Bob Labick from CJS Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 CJS 證券的 Bob Labick。

It's Peter Lukas for Bob. You've talked before about the bridge back to 12% to 12.5% margins being running off old development services using the 5-year average at normal margins for snowfall and price increases as well as fuel price declines. Just wondering how Project Accelerate impacts this bridge? And is that still -- the 12.5% still a viable medium target for you?

鮑伯是彼得·盧卡斯。您之前曾談到，在降雪、價格上漲以及燃料價格下降的情況下，使用正常利潤率的 5 年平均值，將舊開發服務的利潤率恢復到 12% 至 12.5%。只是想知道 Project Accelerate 對這座橋樑有何影響？ 12.5% 對您來說仍然是一個可行的中期目標嗎？

Yes. Pete, that's a great question. Look, as we said on the prior call, we committed to already in 2024 through Project Accelerate to see 50 basis points of margin expansion, and that's without snow rebounding, right? So you think about our guidance now right around 10.6% EBITDA, Project Accelerate in its initial phase would have really secured 50 basis points of margin expansion, bringing us into that low 11% range for next year.

是的。皮特，這是一個很好的問題。看，正如我們在之前的電話會議上所說，我們承諾在 2024 年透過 Project Accelerate 實現利潤率擴張 50 個基點，而且這還沒有出現反彈，對吧？所以你想想我們現在的指導值約為 10.6% EBITDA，Project Accelerate 在其初始階段確實可以確保利潤率擴張 50 個基點，從而使我們明年的利潤率達到 11% 的低水平。

Now with the expansion of Project Accelerate, we're expecting meaningfully more margin expansion above what was originally communicated. And we'll communicate more on exactly what those numbers are in our next earnings call.

現在，隨著 Project Accelerate 的擴展，我們預計利潤率將大幅高於最初傳達的水平。我們將在下一次財報電話會議上詳細說明這些數字的具體內容。

But if you think about original Project Accelerate in the low 11% EBITDA margin range, plus a normalized snowfall, which would be somewhere between 40 and 60 basis points of additional margin, that puts us in the mid to high 11% range, plus the expansion of Project Accelerate, which we'll share more in the next call.

但如果你考慮到原始專案加速在11% 的EBITDA 利潤率範圍內，再加上正常化的降雪，額外利潤率將在40 到60 個基點之間，這使我們處於11% 的中高範圍，加上Project Accelerate 的擴展，我們將在下次電話會議中分享更多內容。

So as you think about getting back to the pre-pandemic margins of mid-12s for the company, as we start to solidify the expansion of Project Accelerate, that will all become incremental to that bridge that is provided.

因此，當你考慮讓公司恢復到疫情前 12 年代中期的利潤率時，當我們開始鞏固 Project Accelerate 的擴張時，這一切都將成為所提供的橋樑的增量。

Very helpful. And then just one more, I guess. How is the scope of work trending? And are customers pulling back? Or is contract size starting to grow again?

很有幫助。我猜，然後就只剩下一個了。工作範圍的趨勢如何？客戶會退縮嗎？或者合約規模再次開始成長？

Yes, a great question. We have seen no sign of customer pullback in either business. In the Development business, we are already beginning to sell our backlog through the second half of next year. As we have a great line of sight into the first half of next year, we see no slowing down in that business and we're getting positive indications from some of the internal KPIs we track that we don't expect to see any slowdown.

是的，一個很好的問題。我們在這兩項業務中都沒有看到客戶減少的跡象。在開發業務方面，我們已經開始出售明年下半年的積壓訂單。由於我們對明年上半年有很好的展望，我們認為該業務不會放緩，而且我們從我們追蹤的一些內部 KPI 中得到了積極的跡象，我們預計不會出現任何放緩。

And in the Maintenance side of the business, we're seeing increased demand on ancillary services, which is our outside the contract services we provide to our customers. We actually saw quarter 3 versus quarter 3 of last year show an increase in those demand for services. So from a customer demand standpoint, on either side of the business, we see no signs of a slowdown.

在業務的維護方面，我們看到對輔助服務的需求不斷增加，這是我們向客戶提供的合約服務以外的服務。實際上，我們看到第三季與去年第三季相比，服務需求增加。因此，從客戶需求的角度來看，無論是業務還是業務，我們都沒有看到放緩的跡象。

Great. And just a last quick one for me. Has weather been a major impact, particularly the heat in any of your areas? Have you seen anything there?

偉大的。對我來說這只是最後一個快速的。天氣是否造成了重大影響，尤其是您所在地區的高溫？你在那裡看到什麼了嗎？

Yes. The heat wave that just came through the country was, I would say, extremely hot in multiple areas, to say the least. But from the impact on the business, I would say very little. We want to make sure our employees are safe. And as you think about productivity on a job, the most important thing to us is safety. So if there needs to be an extra couple of minutes break here or there for our employees, that's first and foremost. But we have not seen any major impact on the underlying business from that heat wave that just came through.

是的。我想說，剛剛席捲全國的熱浪至少可以說在多個地區都非常炎熱。但從對業務的影響來看，我想說的很少。我們希望確保我們的員工安全。當您考慮工作效率時，對我們來說最重要的是安全。因此，如果我們的員工需要在這裡或那裡額外休息幾分鐘，這是首要的。但我們還沒有看到剛剛經歷的熱浪對基礎業務產生任何重大影響。

Yes, I'll just add to that. I think we reported on there was weather -- California rains and everything last year, we showed a lot of disruption. This isn't the same kind of disruption. This kind of heat isn't really creating the same kind of disruption that those rainfall issues were creating earlier on. So it's really steady as she goes from an overall weather standpoint this year other than personally, of course. It's been a hot summer.

是的，我就補充一下。我想我們去年報道了天氣——加州下雨，一切都受到了乾擾。這不是同一種破壞。這種高溫並沒有真正造成像之前降雨問題的破壞。所以，從她今年整體天氣的角度來看，除了個人角度之外，天氣確實很穩定。當然。這是一個炎熱的夏天。

Our next question comes from George Tong from Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐。

Your landscape maintenance business declined a little bit year-over-year this quarter because of reduced commercial demand. Can you talk a little bit about where that reduction in demand is coming from, whether it's a contract-based business, whether it's ancillary? And how much of that was driven by external environmental factors versus internal initiatives to right size pricing, for example?

由於商業需求減少，本季您的景觀維護業務較去年同期略有下降。您能否談談需求減少的根源是什麼？是否是基於合約的業務，是否是輔助業務？例如，其中有多少是由外部環境因素與內部適當定價措施所推動的？

Yes, George. This is Bret. So from the maintenance services standpoint, year-over-year that business grew, just to clarify, it grew about 0.5 point of growth. And within that was a small decline in our snow business. We have very little snow in quarter 3, but we do have some. That business went backwards, as disclosed, about $3 million. So without the snow impact of that, call it, Maintenance services in total grew about 1%, which was land organic growth relatively flat and M&A contributions of about 1% of growth. So just to clarify that the business is growing.

是的，喬治。這是布雷特。因此，從維護服務的角度來看，該業務年成長，澄清一下，成長了約 0.5 個百分點。其中，我們的雪地業務略有下降。第三季的雪很少，但確實有一些。據披露，該業務倒退了約 300 萬美元。因此，如果沒有雪災的影響，維護服務總量增加了約 1%，其中土地有機成長相對平穩，併購貢獻了約 1% 的成長。只是為了澄清業務正在成長。

And as you think about land organic growth, as we mentioned before, we are -- I would say the bigger impact is internal initiatives rather than external factors. We are making sure the business we are bringing in from a new sales perspective is high-quality, high-margin business. And we're ensuring that our pricing strategies, that we're continuing to be prudent in our pricing strategies on the customer renewals, that, that business is margin accretive to the company.

當你考慮土地有機成長時，正如我們之前提到的，我想說更大的影響是內部措施而不是外部因素。我們確保從新的銷售角度引進的業務是高品質、高利潤的業務。我們正在確保我們的定價策略，我們在客戶續約的定價策略上繼續保持謹慎，該業務可以為公司帶來利潤成長。

As you think about our overall strategy of growing profits, which we did in Q3 and expect to do again in Q4 and growing margins, which we did in Q3 and expect to do again in Q4, that's all leading towards generating more cash for the company, and ultimately, delevering the balance sheet, which we also did in Q3.

當你想到我們增加利潤的總體策略（我們在第三季度所做的，並預計在第四季度再次這樣做）和增加利潤率（我們在第三季度所做的，並預計在第四季度再次這樣做）時，這一切都會為公司創造更多現金，最終是去槓桿化資產負債表，我們在第三季也這樣做了。

Great. That's helpful. And yes, I was really, I guess, asking about land organic with organic performance, which was, I think, down 0.2% year-over-year. So that's helpful context. And then you talked a little bit about Project Accelerate spanning -- making progress around cost containment, branch performance, customer retention, new sales procurement. How are you internally rank ordering these various initiatives? Certainly, it takes a lot to tackle with Project Accelerate. What are the priorities? And what are the various time lines for when you would expect to see progress on these? And what would be the associated revenue and margin benefit?

偉大的。這很有幫助。是的，我想，我確實在詢問有機土地的有機績效，我認為有機績效比去年同期下降了 0.2%。所以這是有用的背景。然後您談到了專案加速的跨越——在成本控制、分公司績效、客戶保留、新銷售採購方面取得進展。您在內部如何對這些不同的舉措進行排序？當然，Project Accelerate 需要解決很多問題。優先事項是什麼？您預計何時能在這些方面取得進展？相關的收入和利潤收益是多少？

Yes. That's exactly what we're focused right now. So we've calibrated some targets internally. This has been a team effort. We're not just taking this -- this isn't a top down. This is a company-wide initiative too. And our operations teams have been really, really focused on hitting what those targets intend to be.

是的。這正是我們現在關注的重點。所以我們在內部校準了一些目標。這是團隊的努力。我們不只是接受這個——這不是自上而下的。這也是全公司範圍的措施。我們的營運團隊一直非常非常專注於實現這些目標。

Clearly, the branch performance issues, that's our bread and butter, right? That's where our customers live. And performance there is vitally important. So in doing that, the first thing to look at is, too, not all branches are performing equally right now. So obviously, your eyes are driven to the bottom tier of those branches, and fixing the underperformers are very deliberate aggressive steps in place. That's a first step. Very achievable type of opportunities to be able to look at that bottom tier or bottom quartile of branches. We've created the data and the research and an action plan to start there that -- we expect we'll be able to see near-term results from fixing that bottom quartile, if you would.

顯然，分支機構績效問題是我們的麵包和黃油，對嗎？那就是我們的客戶居住的地方。那裡的表現至關重要。因此，在這樣做時，首先要注意的是，並非所有分支機構現在都表現相同。很明顯，你的目光會被吸引到這些分支的底層，而修復表現不佳的分支是非常刻意的正面步驟。這是第一步。這是非常容易實現的機會，能夠查看底層或底部四分之一的分店。我們已經創建了數據、研究和行動計劃來開始——如果你願意的話，我們希望我們能夠看到修復底部四分之一的近期結果。

Overall then, it's really optimizing those top quartiles, right, showing continuous improvement and building our ancillary penetration as we're able to achieve in our best-performing markets. We believe there's upside to both revenue performance as well as cost out opportunities within the branches. So obviously, that's the biggest and broadest. That's our business. This is a locally run business. This is a street corner business. And winning more and losing less is important there.

總的來說，它確實優化了那些前四分之一，對吧，顯示出持續改進並建立我們的輔助滲透率，因為我們能夠在表現最好的市場中實現這一目標。我們相信，分公司內的收入表現和成本機會都有上升空間。顯然，這是最大和最廣泛的。這是我們的事。這是一家本地經營的企業。這是一家街角生意。多贏少輸很重要。

The customer that -- what we call team performance, the next phase down, is really looking at our organizational structure and what areas do we have in front of us to be able to calibrate the spans of control and the layers of management. So we're looking very closely at what those opportunities are. Again, those are very quantifiable and achievable goals, items that we can take the discrete actions, we can put into place. We'll be able to, we think, harvest some benefits from that initiative fairly quickly. And that will allow us to kind of restructure and optimize and using technology to help us be a lot more efficient and effective.

客戶－我們所說的團隊績效，下一個階段，真正關注我們的組織結構，以及我們面前有哪些領域能夠校準控制範圍和管理層次。因此，我們正在密切關注這些機會。同樣，這些都是非常可量化和可實現的目標，我們可以採取離散行動，將其落實到位。我們認為，我們將能夠相當快速地從這項舉措中獲得一些好處。這將使我們能夠進行重組和優化，並利用技術來幫助我們提高效率和效果。

Then if you look at retention and win rates. Those evolve over time, right? Putting new training programs, company-wide initiatives allow us to perform better, right, win more lose less, that's what every business strives to do. And we've seen those retention rates and those contract win rates decline. We reported on that in the past. We believe that there's some immediate recovery back to earlier performance levels, but we think there's upside beyond it.

然後如果你看看保留率和獲勝率。這些隨著時間的推移而發展，對嗎？實施新的培訓計劃、全公司範圍內的舉措使我們能夠表現得更好、正確、贏得更多、失去更少，這是每個企業都努力做到的。我們已經看到保留率和合約贏得率下降。我們過去曾對此進行過報道。我們相信，會立即恢復到先前的表現水平，但我們認為除此之外還有其他好處。

Lastly, procurement, very -- again, a much more quantifiable discrete project line. Procurement, we've identified a significant level of spend here that is currently not covered by national accounts under of the programs. We think this is, again, a very achievable early return component that is well underway right now. We have employed some top-tier consulting firms that are helping us roll that out. So we believe that we're going to be harvesting results from Project Accelerate over the course of right away here in Q4. But more importantly, this will be implemented and rolled out into our FY '24 plans, we'll have more information for you on the next go-around.

最後，採購，又是一個更可量化的離散項目線。採購方面，我們已經確定了這裡的大量支出，目前尚未包含在該計劃的國民帳戶中。我們認為，這是一個非常容易實現的早期回報部分，目前正在順利進行中。我們聘請了一些頂級顧問公司來幫助我們實現這一目標。因此，我們相信我們將在第四季度立即從 Project Accelerate 中收穫成果。但更重要的是，這將在我們的 24 財年計劃中實施並推出，我們將在下一次復飛時為您提供更多資訊。

But I think you can see we're -- this is a company that -- it's a big company, it's widely distributed, but we've got specific focus in these areas, and we've got a great leadership team to implement this. So it's a team effort.

但我想你可以看到我們——這是一家公司——它是一家大公司，分佈廣泛，但我們在這些領域有具體的重點，我們有一個優秀的領導團隊來實施這一點。所以這是一個團隊的努力。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Justin Hauke from Baird.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Baird 的 Justin Hauke。

Yes. I wanted to ask about M&A. And the reason why is just because -- ever since the company has been public, you guys have always had kind of a -- even when things haven't been announced, there's always been an -- a couple of points of revenue contribution annually from M&A. I think this is the first quarter that you've had read in the press release that you've done any acquisitions. Obviously, you've got this focus on free cash flow and deleveraging and with the CEO search underway. I'm just curious, as we think about as it stands right now, is M&A kind of officially on pause for the near term, and we shouldn't be thinking about contribution from it next year? Or what's the status of what you're doing there?

是的。我想問一下併購的事。原因只是因為——自從公司上市以來，你們總是有一種——即使事情還沒有宣布，每年也總是有——幾個點的收入貢獻來自併購。我認為這是您在新聞稿中看到的第一個進行收購的季度。顯然，您已經將重點放在自由現金流和去槓桿化上，並且正在尋找執行長。我只是好奇，就我們目前的情況來看，併購是否會在短期內正式暫停，我們不應該考慮明年的貢獻？或者說你在那裡做的事情進展如何？

Yes, Justin, great question. You kind of said a couple of things in your question around, CEO search underway, focused on margin accretion and delevering the balance sheet. That's definitely our focus is, right? Our focus is priority #1 to generate additional free cash flow year-over-year, which we've done for the first 9 months of the year that free cash flow generation is up over $55 million year-over-year. We're using that cash to pay down debt. And we're growing our earnings in a way to delever the balance sheet. So that is our focus right now as it comes to the company.

是的，賈斯汀，好問題。您在問題中說了幾句話，正在尋找首席執行官，重點關注利潤增長和資產負債表去槓桿化。這絕對是我們的重點，對吧？我們的首要任務是逐年產生額外的自由現金流，今年前 9 個月我們已經做到了這一點，自由現金流產生量年增超過 5,500 萬美元。我們用這些現金來償還債務。我們正在透過去槓桿化資產負債表的方式來增加收入。所以這就是我們現在對公司的關注重點。

As far as it relates to M&A specifically, I would not say it's on pause. We are not an official pause. We are still being very selective and strategic with our acquisitions. We've seen multiples come down into the 5x range or lower, like we've presented on previous calls. We still have a very robust M&A pipeline, north of $700 million. So as deals come across, we're just being very selective and strategic in those deals. As you think about modeling for 2024, we're not ready to give guidance yet for 2024 as it relates to M&A, but it will be likely less than the 2% target we've provided in years past.

就具體涉及併購而言，我不會說它已暫停。我們不是正式暫停。我們的收購仍然非常有選擇性和策略性。我們已經看到倍數下降到 5 倍或更低，就像我們在之前的電話會議中介紹的那樣。我們仍然擁有非常強勁的併購管道，價值超過 7 億美元。因此，當交易出現時，我們在這些交易中會非常有選擇性和策略性。當您考慮 2024 年的建模時，我們尚未準備好提供 2024 年的指導，因為它與併購相關，但它可能會低於我們過去幾年提供的 2% 目標。

Okay. That makes sense. Thank you for kind of clarifying. And then I guess -- the other question I had, just on fuel costs. Obviously, they have come down. I think in the past, you guys have quantified sometimes where that is. I'm just curious how much of a margin lift that has been? And is that something where fuel costs are right now? Will they continue to be a tailwind in the next couple of quarters?

好的。這就說得通了。謝謝你的澄清。然後我想——我的另一個問題是關於燃料成本的。顯然，他們已經下來了。我認為過去，你們有時已經量化了它的位置。我只是好奇利潤率提升了多少？這就是現在的燃料成本嗎？他們會在接下來的幾季繼續成為順風車嗎？

Yes. Great question. Fuel in Q3 was roughly a $2 million benefit to the P&L year-over-year. Next split roughly 75% maintenance, 25% development as you think about the segment splits there of fuel. So call it 20 to 30 basis point fuel accretion in the quarter. We'd expect that to continue into Q4 at a similar pace. Fuel is a bit on the rise right now. It's about $375 a gallon in last Q4, we were about $4.75 to $5 a gallon. So it should still be a tailwind when it comes to fuel year-over-year. And we'd expect that somewhere in the 20 to 30 basis point range for Q4.

是的。很好的問題。第三季的燃油年減為損益帶來約 200 萬美元的收益。接下來的分割大約是 75% 的維護，25% 的開發，因為你會想到燃料部分的分割。因此，我們稱之為本季 20 至 30 個基點的燃料成長。我們預計這種情況將以類似的速度持續到第四季。現在燃油價格有點上漲。上個季度的價格約為每加侖 375 美元，而我們的價格約為每加侖 4.75 至 5 美元。因此，就燃料而言，與去年同期相比，它仍然應該是一個順風車。我們預計第四季的漲幅將在 20 至 30 個基點範圍內。

That is now the end of the Q&A session. So I will now hand back over to Brett Urban for closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。現在我將請布雷特·厄本 (Brett Urban) 發表閉幕詞。

Thank you, operator. Once again, I want to thank our team members for their dedication to designing, creating, maintaining and enhancing the best landscapes on earth. And thank you to everyone for participating in our call today and for your interest in BrightView. We look forward to talking with you again.

謝謝你，接線生。我要再次感謝我們的團隊成員致力於設計、創造、維護和增強地球上最好的景觀。感謝大家今天參加我們的電話會議以及對 BrightView 的興趣。我們期待再次與您交談。

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。現在您可以斷開線路。