康尼格拉食品 (CAG) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Conagra Brands Second Quarter and First Half Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please also note today's event is being recorded.

大家早上好，歡迎來到康尼格拉品牌第二季度和上半年 2023 財年收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）另請注意，今天的活動正在錄製中。

At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Melissa Napier, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Ma'am, please go ahead.

現在，我想請投資者關係高級副總裁 Melissa Napier 發言。女士，請繼續。

Good morning. Thanks for joining us today for the Conagra Brands Second Quarter and First Half Fiscal 2023 Earnings Call. I'm here with Sean Connolly, our CEO; and Dave Marberger, our CFO, who will discuss our business performance. We'll take your questions when our prepared remarks conclude.

早上好。感謝您今天加入我們，參加 Conagra Brands 第二季度和上半年 2023 財年收益電話會議。我和我們的 CEO Sean Connolly 一起來的；和我們的首席財務官 Dave Marberger，他將討論我們的業務績效。當我們準備好的評論結束時，我們將回答您的問題。

On today's call, we will be making some forward-looking statements. And while we are making these statements in good faith, we do not have any guarantee about the results we will achieve. Descriptions of our risk factors are included in the documents we filed with the SEC.

在今天的電話會議上，我們將發表一些前瞻性聲明。雖然我們是出於善意做出這些聲明，但我們對我們將取得的結果沒有任何保證。我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中包含對我們風險因素的描述。

We will also be discussing some non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP and adjusted numbers refer to measures that exclude items management believes impact the comparability for the period referenced. Please see the earnings release for additional information on our comparability items.

我們還將討論一些非 GAAP 財務指標。這些非 GAAP 和調整後的數字指的是不包括管理層認為影響參考期間可比性的項目的措施。有關我們的可比性項目的更多信息，請參閱收益發布。

The GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations can be found in the earnings press release and the slides that we'll be reviewing on today's call, both of which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website.

GAAP 與非 GAAP 對賬可以在收益新聞稿和我們將在今天的電話會議上審查的幻燈片中找到，兩者都可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到。

I'll now turn the call over to Sean.

我現在將電話轉給肖恩。

Thanks, Melissa. Good morning, everyone. I hope you all are off to a happy and healthy start to the new year. Thank you for joining our second quarter fiscal '23 earnings call. I'd like to start by covering some key points for the quarter on Slide 5.

謝謝，梅麗莎。大家，早安。我希望大家在新的一年裡有一個快樂和健康的開始。感謝您參加我們第二季度的 23 財年財報電話會議。首先，我想在幻燈片 5 中介紹本季度的一些關鍵點。

Despite our most recent wave of inflation-justified pricing, consumer demand for our products in the second quarter was strong as elasticities remained muted and well below historical norms. The ongoing durability of demand is a testament to the strength of our portfolio and demonstrates how the Conagra Way playbook has positioned our brands to continue to resonate with consumers even in an inflationary environment.

儘管我們最近推出了通脹合理定價浪潮，但由於彈性仍然低迷且遠低於歷史標準，消費者在第二季度對我們產品的需求依然強勁。需求的持續持久性證明了我們產品組合的實力，並展示了 Conagra Way 劇本如何定位我們的品牌，即使在通貨膨脹的環境中也能繼續引起消費者的共鳴。

The successful execution of our playbook is clear in our second quarter results. We drove a significant increase in our top line. We continue to have solid share performance across the portfolio, especially in our key frozen and snacks domains, and we made excellent progress recovering both gross and operating margin.

我們第二季度的業績清楚地表明了我們劇本的成功執行。我們推動了我們的收入顯著增加。我們在整個投資組合中繼續保持穩健的股票表現，尤其是在我們的主要冷凍和零食領域，我們在恢復毛利率和營業利潤率方面取得了出色的進展。

Operationally, we made good headway on our supply chain and productivity initiatives. While we're pleased with what we've accomplished to date, our supply chain is not yet fully normalized. That will improve. And overall, we see a long runway of opportunity ahead. We also continue to prioritize strengthening our balance sheet while making strategic investments in our business and returning capital to shareholders. In short, Conagra had a strong quarter across the board.

在運營方面，我們在供應鍊和生產力計劃方面取得了良好進展。雖然我們對迄今為止所取得的成就感到滿意，但我們的供應鏈尚未完全正常化。那會有所改善。總的來說，我們看到前面有很長的機會。我們還繼續優先加強我們的資產負債表，同時對我們的業務進行戰略投資並將資本返還給股東。簡而言之，Conagra 的季度整體表現強勁。

Given our positive results during the first half of fiscal '23, we have increased our expectations for the year, raising our full year guidance across all metrics, including organic net sales growth, adjusted operating margin, and adjusted earnings per share.

鑑於我們在 23 財年上半年取得的積極成果，我們提高了對這一年的預期，提高了我們對所有指標的全年指導，包括有機淨銷售額增長、調整後的營業利潤率和調整後的每股收益。

With that overview, let's dive into the results on Slide 6. As you can see, we delivered organic net sales of more than $3.3 billion, representing an 8.6% increase over the prior year period. Our adjusted gross margin of 28.2% represents a 310 basis point increase over the second quarter of last year. And our adjusted operating margin of 17% represents a 237 basis point increase over that same period. Adjusted EPS rose 26.6% from last year to $0.81 per share.

通過該概述，讓我們深入了解幻燈片 6 的結果。如您所見，我們的有機淨銷售額超過 33 億美元，比去年同期增長 8.6%。我們調整後的毛利率為 28.2%，比去年第二季度增長了 310 個基點。我們調整後的營業利潤率為 17%，比同期增長了 237 個基點。調整後的每股收益比去年增長 26.6% 至每股 0.81 美元。

Slide 7 goes into more detail on our sales results on a 1- and 3-year basis. Given the timing when the pandemic and inflation began to impact our industry, we believe that the 3-year comparison provides important context to highlight the underlying strength of our performance. At the total Conagra level, we grew retail sales more than 10% on a 1-year basis, and more than 26% on a 3-year basis.

幻燈片 7 更詳細地介紹了我們 1 年和 3 年的銷售業績。鑑於大流行和通貨膨脹開始影響我們行業的時間，我們認為 3 年的比較提供了重要的背景來突出我們業績的潛在實力。在整個 Conagra 層面，我們的零售額在 1 年的基礎上增長了 10% 以上，在 3 年的基礎上增長了 26% 以上。

We're pleased with our solid share performance, including how our strong brands allowed us to largely maintain total company market share while taking several inflation-justified pricing actions, particularly during the past year. Notably, we've continued to drive robust share gains in key frozen and snacks strategic domains, on both a 1- and 3-year basis.

我們對我們穩健的股票表現感到滿意，包括我們強大的品牌如何使我們能夠在很大程度上保持公司的總市場份額，同時採取多項通脹合理的定價行動，尤其是在過去一年中。值得注意的是，我們在 1 年和 3 年的基礎上繼續推動主要冷凍和零食戰略領域的強勁份額增長。

I want to spend a minute putting our sales growth in context. Slide 8 shows our performance over the past 3 years compared to our near-end peer group, including Campbell's, General Mills, Kellogg's, Kraft Heinz, Smucker's. We have a great deal of respect for our peers, all of which have been navigating the same macro demand and inflation dynamics over the past 3 years. Among this group, Conagra ranked second in dollar sales growth and first in unit sales performance.

我想花一點時間了解一下我們的銷售增長情況。幻燈片 8 顯示了我們過去 3 年與我們的近端同行集團（包括 Campbell's、General Mills、Kellogg's、Kraft Heinz、Smucker's）相比的表現。我們非常尊重我們的同行，他們在過去 3 年中一直在應對相同的宏觀需求和通脹動態。在這一組中，康尼格拉在美元銷售額增長方面排名第二，在單位銷售業績方面排名第一。

It's important to keep in mind that all of these peers have taken pricing actions to help offset inflation and Conagra is in the middle of the peer set in terms of the price per unit increases in this time period. It's clear that consumers continue to appreciate the quality, convenience and superior relative value that our strong brands have to offer, which has enabled Conagra to perform extremely well on both on absolute and relative basis.

重要的是要記住，所有這些同行都採取了定價行動來幫助抵消通貨膨脹，而就這段時間的單位價格上漲而言，康尼格拉處於同行中間。很明顯，消費者繼續欣賞我們強大品牌所提供的質量、便利性和卓越的相對價值，這使康尼格拉在絕對和相對基礎上都表現出色。

Let's take a closer look at our top line performance during the second quarter by retail domain, starting with Frozen on Slide 9. We maintained our momentum, delivering strong retail sales growth on both a 1- and 3-year basis, improving 9% and 26%, respectively. This growth was driven by a number of our key categories, including breakfast sausages and single-serve meals, which both experienced double-digit retail sales growth compared to last year.

讓我們仔細看看第二季度零售領域的最高業績，從幻燈片 9 上的《冰雪奇緣》開始。我們保持了勢頭，在 1 年和 3 年的基礎上實現了強勁的零售銷售增長，提高了 9% 和分別為 26%。這一增長是由我們的一些主要類別推動的，包括早餐香腸和單份餐點，與去年相比，這兩個類別的零售額均實現了兩位數的增長。

Turning to Snacks on Slide 10. You can see a similar story. We drove a 14% increase in retail sales compared to the second quarter of fiscal '22 and a 41% increase over the second quarter of fiscal '20. The continued momentum of our Snacks business is broad-based across a number of categories. Compared to last year, microwave popcorn was up 21%, seeds was up 18%, and meat snacks and hot cocoa both rose more than 14%.

轉到幻燈片 10 上的零食。您可以看到類似的故事。與 22 財年第二季度相比，我們的零售額增長了 14%，與 20 財年第二季度相比增長了 41%。我們零食業務的持續發展勢頭廣泛，涵蓋多個類別。與去年相比，微波爆米花上漲了 21%，種子上漲了 18%，肉類零食和熱可可均上漲了 14% 以上。

We also accelerated growth in our highly relevant staples portfolio, increasing retail sales 10% this quarter compared to the second quarter of last year and 22% compared to the same period 3 years ago. This growth was led by pickles and whipped toppings which grew more than 11% and 10%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis. As I've mentioned, our strong top line performance was primarily driven by inflation-justified price increases, coupled with ongoing muted elasticities.

我們還加快了高度相關的必需品產品組合的增長，本季度零售額與去年第二季度相比增長了 10%，與 3 年前同期相比增長了 22%。這一增長是由泡菜和攪打澆頭帶動的，同比增長分別超過 11% 和 10%。正如我所提到的，我們強勁的收入表現主要是由通貨膨脹合理的價格上漲以及持續的低彈性推動的。

Slide 12 details the relationship between pricing and volume over time. As you would expect, increased pricing does have an impact on volume, both for Conagra and the total industry. However, you can see how elasticities have remained steady even as we have continued to increase the price per unit of our products to help offset ongoing COGS inflation. And as we detailed a few minutes ago, Conagra's 3-year CAGR on unit sales performance leads its near-end peer group. The relatively modest elasticities, both compared to historic norms and our peers, are a testament to the strength of our brand.

幻燈片 12 詳細說明了定價與銷量隨時間變化的關係。正如您所預料的那樣，提高價格確實會對 Conagra 和整個行業的銷量產生影響。但是，您可以看到彈性如何保持穩定，即使我們繼續提高產品的單位價格以幫助抵消持續的 COGS 通脹。正如我們在幾分鐘前詳述的那樣，Conagra 在單位銷售業績方面的 3 年復合年增長率領先於其近端同行。與歷史規範和我們的同行相比，相對適度的彈性證明了我們品牌的實力。

Now that we've unpacked the relationship between price and volume and the resulting net sales, I'd like to spend a few minutes on the relationship between net sales and COGS and the resulting impact on our margin performance on Slide 13. Generally speaking, when a business has strong brands, strong processes and strong people, as Conagra does, it is able to navigate inflationary cycles in discrete, predictable phases.

既然我們已經解開了價格和數量與由此產生的淨銷售額之間的關係，我想花幾分鐘時間談談淨銷售額與 COGS 之間的關係以及對我們在幻燈片 13 上的利潤率表現的影響。一般來說，當一家企業像康尼格拉那樣擁有強大的品牌、強大的流程和強大的人才時，它就能夠在離散的、可預測的階段中駕馭通貨膨脹週期。

As we have detailed for some time, when unprecedented inflation increased our cost of goods, we took strategic pricing actions to help offset the rising costs. However, there was an inherent lag between when we implemented pricing actions and when we realize the benefits of those actions in our top line results, this pricing lag resulted in temporary margin compression. Furthermore, continued inflation extended this period of margin compression as new inflation-justified pricing actions led to additional lag effects.

正如我們一段時間以來所詳述的那樣，當前所未有的通貨膨脹增加了我們的商品成本時，我們採取了戰略性定價行動來幫助抵消不斷上漲的成本。然而，在我們實施定價行動與我們在頂線結果中意識到這些行動的好處之間存在固有的滯後，這種定價滯後導致暫時的利潤率壓縮。此外，持續的通貨膨脹延長了這段利潤壓縮期，因為新的通貨膨脹合理定價行動導致了額外的滯後效應。

That is the dynamic we have experienced over the last several quarters as we continue to play catch-up by increasing price incrementally to account for the extraordinary extended rise in inflation. At the end of the first quarter, we reached a significant inflection point in the relationship between net sales and COGS, marking the end of the temporary margin compression phase in the beginning of the margin recovery phase. As you can see in the chart, inflation has begun to moderate in certain areas, enabling our inflation-justified pricing actions to catch up to the rising costs.

這就是我們在過去幾個季度中經歷的動態，因為我們繼續通過逐步提高價格來應對通貨膨脹的異常持續上升來追趕。在第一季度末，我們在淨銷售額和銷貨成本之間的關係中達到了一個重要的拐點，標誌著利潤率恢復階段開始時臨時利潤率壓縮階段的結束。正如您在圖表中看到的那樣，某些地區的通貨膨脹已經開始緩和，使我們的通貨膨脹合理定價行動能夠趕上成本上升的步伐。

Slide 14 shows the impact this inflection has had on our gross margin results, as continuously rising inflation weighed on our COGS throughout fiscal '22 and into the first quarter of fiscal '23, our margins were compressed. Now predictably, as pricing has finally caught up to COGS inflation, you can see the recovery of our gross margin to be more in line with pre-pandemic levels.

幻燈片 14 顯示了這種變化對我們毛利率結果的影響，因為在整個 22 財年和 23 財年第一季度，持續上升的通貨膨脹對我們的 COGS 造成了壓力，我們的利潤率受到壓縮。現在可以預見的是，隨著定價終於趕上 COGS 通脹，您可以看到我們毛利率的恢復更符合大流行前的水平。

While our gross margin can vary quarter-to-quarter due to a range of internal and external factors, the strategic pricing actions we have successfully executed, combined with moderating inflation and our strong brands, position us well to recover and maintain a healthy gross margin going forward. Of course, inflation remains elevated in many areas, and we continue to closely monitor our costs, just as we have in the past. We will continue to take appropriate inflation-justified pricing actions as needed.

雖然由於一系列內部和外部因素，我們的毛利率可能會因季度而異，但我們成功執行的戰略定價行動，加上緩和的通貨膨脹和我們強大的品牌，使我們能夠很好地恢復並保持健康的毛利率往前走。當然，許多地區的通貨膨脹率仍然很高，我們將一如既往地繼續密切監控我們的成本。我們將繼續根據需要採取適當的通脹合理定價行動。

Another key driver of our margin recovery is our supply chain performance shown on Slide 15. This is due to a combination of macro factors as well as the strategic initiatives we are executing to improve our operations. We made good progress on our supply chain during the second quarter, which benefited from improvements in the service we provide to our customers, continued headway on our ongoing productivity initiatives, which remain on track to achieve the targets we outlined at our most recent Investor Day, more moderate increases in commodity prices and improved inventory levels due to an increase in the availability of materials.

我們利潤率回升的另一個關鍵驅動力是我們在幻燈片 15 中顯示的供應鏈績效。這是由於宏觀因素以及我們為改善運營而正在執行的戰略舉措的結合。我們在第二季度的供應鏈上取得了良好進展，這得益於我們為客戶提供的服務得到改善，我們正在進行的生產力計劃繼續取得進展，這些計劃仍有望實現我們在最近的投資者日概述的目標，由於材料供應增加，商品價格上漲更為溫和，庫存水平有所改善。

The takeaway here is that we're pleased with the progress we're making, but industry-wide challenges do persist. There's more room for improvement as we advance our productivity initiatives and the macro environment continues to normalize. As a result of our strong performance this quarter and the first half of fiscal year 2023, we are raising our full year guidance for all metrics detailed here on Slide 16.

這裡的要點是，我們對我們正在取得的進展感到滿意，但整個行業的挑戰確實存在。隨著我們推進我們的生產力計劃和宏觀環境繼續正常化，還有更多的改進空間。由於我們本季度和 2023 財年上半年的強勁表現，我們提高了對幻燈片 16 此處詳述的所有指標的全年指導。

We now expect organic net sales to grow between 7% and 8% compared to fiscal '22; adjusted operating margin to be between 15.3% and 15.6%; and full year adjusted EPS growth of 10% to 14% or $2.60 to $2.70 per share. Dave will provide more detail on the underlying assumptions behind these expectations.

與 22 財年相比，我們現在預計有機淨銷售額將增長 7% 至 8%；調整後的營業利潤率在 15.3% 至 15.6% 之間；全年調整後每股收益增長 10% 至 14% 或每股 2.60 美元至 2.70 美元。 Dave 將提供有關這些預期背後的基本假設的更多詳細信息。

Before I turn the mic over, I want to summarize what I've covered today. Our strong performance during the first half of fiscal '23 was primarily driven by a combination of inflation-justified pricing actions and muted elasticity, reflecting the strength of our brands. Consumers continue to recognize the value our brands provide despite the higher prices, allowing us to gain share in key domains such as frozen and snacks.

在我打開麥克風之前，我想總結一下我今天所講的內容。我們在 23 財年上半年的強勁表現主要是由通貨膨脹合理定價行動和低彈性共同推動的，這反映了我們品牌的實力。儘管價格較高，但消費者繼續認可我們品牌提供的價值，使我們能夠在冷凍和零食等關鍵領域獲得份額。

Our top line growth was coupled with encouraging progress in a number of different areas of our supply chain that enabled us to operate more efficiently. Together, these factors as well as improvement in the inflationary environment helped us recover our margins to near pre-pandemic levels. As a result of our strong performance, we're raising our full year fiscal '23 guidance for organic net sales, adjusted operating margin and adjusted EPS.

我們的收入增長伴隨著我們供應鏈的許多不同領域取得的令人鼓舞的進展，這使我們能夠更有效地運營。總之，這些因素以及通脹環境的改善幫助我們將利潤率恢復到接近大流行前的水平。由於我們的強勁表現，我們提高了對有機淨銷售額、調整後營業利潤率和調整後每股收益的全年 23 財年指導。

Finally, we're looking forward to seeing everyone who can make it to CAGNY this year. We plan to host our annual kickoff dinner on February 20 and are scheduled to present the following morning. We will follow up with more details on the event as we get closer.

最後，我們期待看到今年能夠進入 CAGNY 的每個人。我們計劃在 2 月 20 日舉辦年度啟動晚宴，併計劃於次日上午舉行。隨著我們的臨近，我們將跟進有關該事件的更多詳細信息。

With that, I'll pass the call over to Dave to cover the financials from the quarter in more detail.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給戴夫，更詳細地介紹本季度的財務狀況。

Thanks, Sean, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin by discussing a few highlights from the quarter as shown on Slide 19. We are very pleased with our second quarter results, which reflect the ongoing strength of our business and successful execution of the Conagra Way playbook. For the quarter, we delivered organic net sales growth of 8.6%, primarily driven by inflation-justified pricing and muted elasticities.

謝謝，肖恩，大家早上好。我將首先討論本季度的一些亮點，如幻燈片 19 所示。我們對第二季度的業績感到非常滿意，這反映了我們業務的持續實力和 Conagra Way 劇本的成功執行。本季度，我們實現了 8.6% 的有機淨銷售額增長，這主要受通貨膨脹合理定價和低彈性的推動。

Adjusted gross margin increased to 28.2% and adjusted gross profit dollar growth was up 21.7%, benefiting from higher organic net sales and productivity initiatives. The increase in adjusted gross profit, combined with another strong performance from our Ardent Mills joint venture, contributed to adjusted EBITDA growth of 21.5%.

調整後的毛利率增至 28.2%，調整後的毛利潤美元增長 21.7%，這得益於更高的有機淨銷售額和生產力舉措。調整後毛利的增長，加上我們合資企業 Ardent Mills 的另一項強勁表現，推動調整後 EBITDA 增長 21.5%。

Slide 20 provides a breakdown of our net sales. As you can see, the 8.6% increase in organic net sales was driven by a 17% improvement in price/mix, which was a result of inflation-justified pricing actions that were reflected in the marketplace throughout the quarter. This was partially offset by an 8.4% decrease in volume, primarily due to the elasticity impact from those pricing actions. However, the impact was favorable to both expectations and historical levels.

幻燈片 20 提供了我們淨銷售額的明細。如您所見，有機淨銷售額增長 8.6% 是由價格/組合提高 17% 推動的，這是整個季度市場中反映的通貨膨脹合理定價行動的結果。這部分被銷量下降 8.4% 所抵消，這主要是由於這些定價行動的彈性影響。然而，這種影響對預期和歷史水平都是有利的。

Slide 21 shows the top line performance for each segment in Q2. We are pleased with the robust net sales growth across our entire portfolio. Net sales growth in our domestic retail portfolio remained strong, with our Grocery & Snacks segment and Refrigerated & Frozen segment achieving net sales growth of 6.8% and 10.5%, respectively. The difference between the organic and reported net sales performance in our International segment reflects the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange.

幻燈片 21 顯示了第二季度每個細分市場的頂線表現。我們對整個產品組合的強勁淨銷售額增長感到滿意。我們國內零售組合的淨銷售額增長依然強勁，我們的雜貨和零食業務以及冷藏和冷凍業務分別實現了 6.8% 和 10.5% 的淨銷售額增長。我們國際部門的有機銷售業績和報告的淨銷售業績之間的差異反映了外彙的不利影響。

I'll now discuss our Q2 adjusted margin bridge found on Slide 22. We drove a 12.2% benefit from improved price/mix during the quarter, driven by the previously discussed inflation-justified pricing actions. We also realized a 1.3% benefit from continued progress on our supply chain productivity initiatives. These pricing and productivity benefits were partially offset by continued inflationary pressure with 11% gross market inflation negatively impacting our operating margins by 7.5% and a negative margin impact of 2.9% from market-based sourcing.

我現在將討論我們在幻燈片 22 上發現的第二季度調整後的保證金橋樑。在之前討論的通貨膨脹合理定價行動的推動下，我們在本季度從改善的價格/組合中獲得了 12.2% 的收益。我們還從供應鏈生產力計劃的持續進展中實現了 1.3% 的收益。這些定價和生產力優勢被持續的通貨膨脹壓力部分抵消，11% 的總市場通貨膨脹率對我們的營業利潤率產生了 7.5% 的負面影響，而基於市場的採購對利潤率產生了 2.9% 的負面影響。

As a reminder, as commodity prices rose quickly last year, we benefited from locking in contracted costs that were lower than the market. Even though we see commodity inflation moderating, we will not immediately realize a benefit to the P&L as our costs may remain higher than the spot market due to the timing of our contracts and when they roll off.

提醒一下，由於去年大宗商品價格快速上漲，我們受益於鎖定低於市場的合同成本。儘管我們看到大宗商品通脹放緩，但我們不會立即意識到對損益的好處，因為我們的成本可能仍高於現貨市場，因為我們的合同時間和它們何時到期。

Slide 23 breaks down our adjusted operating profit and margin by segment. As Sean detailed, our decisive inflation-justified pricing actions, coupled with improved service levels and productivity, allowed us to successfully navigate ongoing inflationary pressures and industry-wide supply chain challenges and deliver adjusted operating margin expansion in each segment during the quarter. We were also pleased that higher sales and productivity, once again, offset headwinds from inflation and elevated supply chain operating costs across all four segments in Q2.

幻燈片 23 按細分細分了我們調整後的營業利潤和利潤率。正如 Sean 詳述的那樣，我們果斷的通脹合理定價行動，加上提高的服務水平和生產力，使我們能夠成功應對持續的通脹壓力和全行業供應鏈挑戰，並在本季度實現每個部門調整後的營業利潤率增長。我們還感到高興的是，更高的銷售額和生產力再次抵消了第二季度所有四個部門的通貨膨脹和供應鏈運營成本上升帶來的不利影響。

As a result of this continued strong performance, total adjusted operating profit increased 25.9% to $563 million during the quarter despite an increase in adjusted corporate expense during the period primarily due to increased incentive compensation.

由於這一持續強勁的業績，本季度調整後的營業利潤總額增長了 25.9%，達到 5.63 億美元，儘管調整後的公司費用在該期間有所增加，這主要是由於激勵薪酬的增加。

Slide 24 shows our adjusted EPS bridge for the quarter. Q2 adjusted EPS increased $0.17 or 26.6% compared to the prior year. This significant increase was primarily driven by higher sales and gross profit as well as a small benefit from a continued strong performance from Ardent Mills.

幻燈片 24 顯示了我們調整後的本季度 EPS 橋樑。第二季度調整後的每股收益與去年同期相比增加了 0.17 美元或 26.6%。這一顯著增長主要是由更高的銷售額和毛利潤以及 Ardent Mills 持續強勁業績帶來的小幅收益推動的。

Slightly offsetting these positives were higher A&P and adjusted SG&A compared to the prior year period as well as lower pension and postretirement income, higher interest expense and the impact of adjusted taxes.

與去年同期相比，較高的 A&P 和調整後的 SG&A 以及較低的養老金和退休後收入、較高的利息支出和調整後的稅收影響略微抵消了這些積極因素。

Slide 25 reflects the continued progress we made on our commitment to strengthening our balance sheet. Our net leverage ratio remained at 3.9x at the end of Q2, down from 4.3x at the end of Q2 in the prior year period. As we have previously communicated, Q2 is historically a heavier use of cash quarter from a working capital perspective. So we expect progress on our net leverage reduction to be greater in the back half of the year. With that in mind, we continue to expect to end the fiscal year with a net leverage ratio of roughly 3.7x.

幻燈片 25 反映了我們在加強資產負債表的承諾方面取得的持續進展。我們的淨槓桿率在第二季度末保持在 3.9 倍，低於去年同期第二季度末的 4.3 倍。正如我們之前所傳達的那樣，從營運資金的角度來看，第二季度歷來是現金使用較多的季度。因此，我們預計今年下半年我們在淨槓桿削減方面的進展會更大。考慮到這一點，我們繼續預計本財年結束時淨槓桿率約為 3.7 倍。

Year-to-date CapEx of $188 million decreased by $69 million compared to the prior year period, while free cash flow increased by [$104] million year-over-year. We remain committed to returning capital to shareholders as evidenced by our payment of $159 million in dividends in Q2 fiscal '23 and $309 million year-to-date. The first half dividend increase of $27 million compared to the first half of fiscal '22, reflects the quarterly dividend rate of $0.33 per share.

年初至今的資本支出為 1.88 億美元，與去年同期相比減少了 6900 萬美元，而自由現金流同比增加了 [1.04 億美元]。我們仍然致力於向股東返還資本，我們在 23 財年第二季度支付了 1.59 億美元的股息，今年迄今支付了 3.09 億美元的股息。與 22 財年上半年相比，上半年股息增加了 2700 萬美元，反映了每股 0.33 美元的季度股息率。

We also repurchased $100 million worth of shares in the second quarter and $150 million worth of shares year-to-date to offset most of the longer-term performance-based shares we estimate issuing. As we enter the second half of the fiscal year, we will continue to evaluate the highest and best use of capital to strengthen our balance sheet and optimize shareholder value.

我們還在第二季度回購了價值 1 億美元的股票，今年迄今回購了價值 1.5 億美元的股票，以抵消我們估計發行的大部分基於長期業績的股票。隨著我們進入本財年的下半年，我們將繼續評估資本的最高和最佳用途，以加強我們的資產負債表並優化股東價值。

As Sean mentioned, we are raising our fiscal '23 guidance for net sales growth, adjusted operating margin and adjusted diluted earnings per share given our strong performance in the first half of fiscal '23 and expectations for a solid performance for the balance of the year.

正如肖恩提到的那樣，鑑於我們在 23 財年上半年的強勁表現以及對今年餘下時間穩健表現的預期，我們正在提高我們對淨銷售額增長、調整後的營業利潤率和調整後的攤薄每股收益的 23 財年指導.

Turning to Slide 27. I'd like to take a minute to walk through the considerations and assumptions behind our guidance. We expect gross inflation to continue, but moderate through the remainder of the fiscal year, resulting in an inflation rate of approximately 10% for fiscal '23. Additional inflation-justified pricing actions that have previously been communicated and accepted, will go into market in Q3. However, the magnitude of these pricing actions will be smaller and more targeted than previous pricing actions. As always, we will continue to monitor inflation levels and price as needed to manage future volatility.

轉到幻燈片 27。我想花一點時間來了解一下我們指南背後的考慮和假設。我們預計總通貨膨脹率將繼續，但在本財年的剩餘時間裡會有所緩和，導致 23 財年的通貨膨脹率約為 10%。之前已經傳達和接受的其他通貨膨脹合理定價行動將在第三季度進入市場。然而，這些定價行動的幅度將比以往的定價行動更小且更具針對性。一如既往，我們將繼續根據需要監控通脹水平和價格，以管理未來的波動性。

We anticipate CapEx spend of approximately $425 million in fiscal '23 as we make investments to support our growth and productivity priorities with a focus on capacity expansion and automation. Approximately $200 million of the $425 million was spent in the first half of fiscal '23.

我們預計 23 財年的資本支出約為 4.25 億美元，因為我們進行投資以支持我們的增長和生產力優先事項，重點是產能擴張和自動化。 4.25 億美元中的大約 2 億美元花在了 23 財年的上半年。

Lastly, we expect interest expense to approximate $405 million and pension and postretirement income to approximate $25 million for the year, driven by the higher interest rate environment. Our full year tax rate estimate remains approximately 24%.

最後，我們預計在較高利率環境的推動下，今年的利息支出約為 4.05 億美元，養老金和退休後收入約為 2500 萬美元。我們的全年稅率估計仍約為 24%。

To sum things up, we are extremely pleased with our strong performance in the first half of fiscal '23, especially the recovery of Q2 adjusted gross margins to near pre-COVID levels. This, along with our expected continued positive business momentum led to raising our full fiscal year '23 guidance.

總而言之，我們對我們在 23 財年上半年的強勁表現感到非常滿意，尤其是第二季度調整後的毛利率恢復到接近 COVID 前的水平。這一點，加上我們預期的持續積極的業務勢頭，導致我們提高了整個 23 財年的指導。

Our strong performance amid such a dynamic environment would not be possible without the hard work of our entire team and reflects the ongoing strength of our brands and successful execution of the Conagra Way playbook.

如果沒有我們整個團隊的辛勤工作，我們不可能在這樣一個充滿活力的環境中取得如此出色的表現，這反映了我們品牌的持續實力和 Conagra Way 劇本的成功執行。

Looking forward, we remain committed to executing on our strategic business priorities and generating value for our shareholders.

展望未來，我們將繼續致力於執行我們的戰略業務重點並為我們的股東創造價值。

That concludes our prepared remarks for today's call. Thank you for listening.

我們為今天的電話會議準備的發言到此結束。謝謝你的聆聽。

I'll now pass it back to the operator to open the line for questions.

我現在將它傳回給接線員以打開問題熱線。

Our first question today comes from Andrew Lazar from Barclays.

我們今天的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Andrew Lazar。

Happy New Year, everybody. Sean -- obviously, you had expected and talked about sequential gross margin improvement as you move through the year. The 310 basis point jump certainly in gross margins is certainly far greater than investors were expecting. And I have to imagine greater than what maybe you were expecting internally.

大家，新年快樂。肖恩 - 顯然，你已經預期並談到了你在這一年中的連續毛利率改善。毛利率上升 310 個基點肯定遠遠超過投資者的預期。而且我必須想像比你內心預期的更偉大。

So I guess what was it that came in that much better in the quarter than you had anticipated? And I ask a sort of a view towards getting a better sense on really how sustainable these levels of gross margin are as we move through the year? Because as you've said previously, you expected sequential improvement as the year progresses. So is this still the case from this new high level as we go through the back half of the year? Or are there any reasons to expect a step back?

所以我想是什麼讓本季度的表現比您預期的要好得多？我問了一種觀點，以便更好地了解這些毛利率水平在我們度過這一年的過程中究竟有多可持續？因為正如您之前所說，您預計隨著時間的推移會出現連續改進。那麼，在我們經歷今年下半年時，從這個新的高水平來看，情況仍然如此嗎？或者有什麼理由期待退後一步？

Sure, Andrew. Yes, everything we're seeing is very consistent directionally with what we've expected precisely as things come in by month, by quarter, there's a little bit of variability there. But I'd say, overall, I know these inflation super cycles are a complicated thing for our investors to unpack, which is why we always try to be instructive as to the predictable and mechanical way these cycles tend to unfold, if you have three things in place: strong brands; strong processes; and great people.

當然，安德魯。是的，我們所看到的一切都與我們的預期完全一致，因為事情按月、按季度出現，那裡有一點可變性。但我要說的是，總的來說，我知道這些通脹超級週期對我們的投資者來說是一件複雜的事情，這就是為什麼我們總是試圖就這些週期往往展開的可預測和機械方式提供指導，如果你有三個到位：強勢品牌；強大的流程；和偉大的人。

So in a nutshell, the mechanics of this situation is, inflation hits, you announce price. The customer's 90-day clock starts ticking. Then the customer's 90-day clock expires. Elasticities exist, but they're, in fact, benign relative to history and consistent overall and margins recover.

所以簡而言之，這種情況的機制是，通脹來襲，你宣布價格。客戶的 90 天時鐘開始計時。然後客戶的 90 天時鐘到期。彈性存在，但事實上，相對於歷史，它們是良性的，並且整體和利潤率都在恢復。

And sometimes, if it's multiple waves of inflation, you rinse and repeat that whole process. And everything we are seeing, sales-wise and margin-wise, is consistent overall with these textbook mechanics. And therefore, entirely good news and not some negative surprise. So to come full circle, we don't see the margins that we're looking at right now as a peak. We see them as the successful execution of our playbook.

有時，如果是多波通貨膨脹，你會沖洗並重複整個過程。我們所看到的一切，無論是在銷售方面還是在利潤方面，都與這些教科書機制總體上是一致的。因此，完全是好消息，而不是一些負面的驚喜。因此，完整的循環，我們沒有看到我們現在看到的利潤率達到峰值。我們將它們視為我們劇本的成功執行。

Dave, do you want to comment on that?

戴夫，你想對此發表評論嗎？

Yes. No, I think that's a great explanation of the mechanics of this, Andrew. I think as you look at H2, we would expect that the gross margin change in the second half to be pretty consistent with what we saw in Q2 around that 300 basis points. And what I'll point you to is, you really need to look at the relationship of price/mix that we deliver each quarter versus the market inflation each quarter going back to the fourth quarter of '21.

是的。不，我認為這是對此機制的一個很好的解釋，安德魯。我認為當你看下半年時，我們預計下半年的毛利率變化將與我們在第二季度看到的大約 300 個基點的變化非常一致。我要指出的是，你真的需要看看我們每個季度提供的價格/組合與每個季度的市場通脹之間的關係，可以追溯到 21 年第四季度。

Conagra got hit with inflation earlier and to a much higher level than most food companies. And so we came out of the gate and it impacted our margin significantly, very quickly. So if you just look at fiscal '22, we had inflation every quarter that was 16% to 17%. And we never got to that level of pricing even in the fourth quarter. In fact, our pricing Q1 of last year was only 1.6%. So our pricing ramped up, but had not caught up to that significant inflation.

與大多數食品公司相比，康尼格拉更早受到通貨膨脹的打擊，而且程度要高得多。所以我們走出了大門，它非常迅速地顯著影響了我們的利潤率。因此，如果你只看 22 財年，我們每個季度的通貨膨脹率都在 16% 到 17% 之間。即使在第四季度，我們也從未達到過這種定價水平。事實上，我們去年第一季度的定價僅為 1.6%。因此，我們的定價有所提高，但還沒有趕上嚴重的通貨膨脹。

Q1 of this year, our pricing was at 14%. Inflation was 15%, so we were getting close. This quarter, pricing, 17%; market inflation is 11%. So it's the first quarter where we've actually seen the flip. And now that, that flips there, Sean had a chart in his deck. That's when you see the margin recover.

今年第一季度，我們的定價為 14%。通貨膨脹率為 15%，所以我們已經接近了。本季度，定價，17%；市場通貨膨脹率為 11%。所以這是我們真正看到翻轉的第一季度。現在，翻轉過來，肖恩的甲板上有一張圖表。那是你看到利潤率恢復的時候。

So we saw it in Q2, and that delta is, we expect it to continue as we go forward each quarter. Now I will call out Q2 for Conagra is our highest sales quarter. So the absolute gross margin of 28.2% is usually our highest. But in terms of looking forward, look at the delta that we delivered in Q2 as being a proxy before going forward.

所以我們在第二季度看到了它，而這個增量是，我們預計它會隨著我們每個季度的前進而繼續下去。現在，我要指出 Conagra 的第二季度是我們最高的銷售季度。所以28.2%的絕對毛利率通常是我們最高的。但就展望而言，在繼續前進之前，先看看我們在第二季度交付的增量作為代理。

Our next question comes from Cody Ross from UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Cody Ross。

Two questions here. First one, you put up a slide showing how your unit sales on a 3-year CAGR basis are performing much better than your peers. What do you attribute that to?

這裡有兩個問題。第一個，你放了一張幻燈片，展示了你的單位銷售額在 3 年 CAGR 基礎上的表現如何比你的同行好得多。你認為這是什麼原因？

Well, as you know, Cody, we -- going into COVID -- at the beginning of COVID, we performed extremely well in the peer set. And I made the point then that, that was not entirely a function of just people being forced to eat in their home. It was in part due to the fact that we've taken one of the largest portfolios of food in North America and completely overhauled it in terms of modernization and makeover during prior to COVID hitting. So that when COVID hit, we had many, many new households that we're finding all these new innovations for the first time.

嗯，正如你所知，科迪，我們 - 進入 COVID - 在 COVID 開始時，我們在同行中表現非常出色。我當時指出，這不完全是人們被迫在家裡吃飯的結果。部分原因是我們採用了北美最大的食品組合之一，並在 COVID 襲擊之前就現代化和改造方面對其進行了徹底改革。因此，當 COVID 來襲時，我們有很多很多新家庭，我們是第一次發現所有這些新的創新。

And as I pointed out repeatedly over the last couple of years, our repeat performance and depth of repeat with those new households that we've gathered has been remarkably strong. So you put all that together, along with the fact that a lot of these younger consumers that spend so much time eating away from home prepandemic are still eating in the home now because prices are so high away from home. That has conspired to lead to benign elasticities overall for our industry.

正如我在過去幾年中反復指出的那樣，我們與那些我們聚集的新家庭的重複表現和重複深度非常強勁。所以你把所有這些放在一起，再加上許多在大流行前花這麼多時間在外吃飯的年輕消費者現在仍在家裡吃飯，因為遠離家鄉的價格太高了。這共同導致了我們行業的整體良性彈性。

And as we pointed out before, our elasticities not only remained low versus historical norms, but they're consistent and they are among the lowest, if not the lowest, in the entire peer group. So it's always a function of your brand strength.

正如我們之前指出的那樣，我們的彈性不僅與歷史規範相比仍然很低，而且它們是一致的，並且在整個同行組中處於最低甚至最低的水平。因此，它始終取決於您的品牌實力。

And the other thing I would add is, recall, we spent a lot of time in the last few years exiting businesses that are more commoditized, where that were more susceptible to trade down and people -- consumers shifting to private label. So cooking oil, peanut butter, liquid eggs, I could go on. We've done that. So we've done a lot of reshaping of the portfolio to be more resilient for a cycle like this, and we're seeing it in the data.

我要補充的另一件事是，回想一下，過去幾年我們花了很多時間退出商品化程度更高的企業，這些企業更容易受到降價交易和人們——消費者轉向自有品牌的影響。所以食用油、花生醬、液體雞蛋，我可以繼續。我們已經做到了。因此，我們對投資組合進行了大量重塑，以便在這樣的周期中更具彈性，我們在數據中看到了這一點。

Great. And then I just want to follow up on gross margin here. You revised your inflation outlook down to about 10% from low teens, implying approximately 8% inflation in the second half. What gives you the confidence to lower your inflation outlook? Where are you seeing the most easing?

偉大的。然後我只想在這裡跟進毛利率。您將通貨膨脹前景從低十幾位下調至 10% 左右，這意味著下半年通貨膨脹率約為 8%。是什麼讓您有信心降低通脹前景？你在哪裡看到最寬鬆的？

Yes, Cody. If you really look at this, you have to go back to the base, right? So when inflation started for us is similar to what I just said, inflation started hitting us in the fourth quarter of our fiscal '21. And then every quarter of fiscal '22, we were in the 16% to 17% range. So as we -- as you look this year and we're estimating 10% for the year, that may appear a little bit lower than maybe some others, but that's off of a much higher base than others. So that's just the percentages.

是的，科迪。真要是看這個，也得回基地了吧？因此，當通貨膨脹開始對我們來說與我剛才所說的相似時，通貨膨脹在我們 21 財年的第四季度開始打擊我們。然後在 22 財年的每個季度，我們都在 16% 到 17% 的範圍內。因此，正如我們 - 正如您今年所看到的那樣，我們估計今年的增長率為 10％，這可能看起來比其他一些人低一點，但比其他人高得多。所以這只是百分比。

In the quarter, we saw inflation in packaging. So our cans, and in some of the other packaging areas, some of the commodity areas like dairy and sweeteners and then vegetables. We do see inflation moderating in the protein area. You remember, particularly, poultry hit us hard. We are seeing that moderate. So as we go forward, we expect it to moderate, but it's still off a very high base. And that's our latest call based on the way we call inflation as market by market, we go through.

在本季度，我們看到了包裝的通貨膨脹。所以我們的罐頭，以及其他一些包裝領域，一些商品領域，如乳製品和甜味劑，然後是蔬菜。我們確實看到蛋白質領域的通貨膨脹有所緩和。你尤其記得，家禽給我們帶來了沉重打擊。我們看到溫和的。因此，隨著我們的前進，我們預計它會緩和，但它仍然處於一個非常高的基數之上。這是我們根據我們將通貨膨脹稱為逐個市場的方式的最新呼籲，我們經歷過。

And then remember, and you see this on our gross margin bridge, we have the sourcing component, right? So we always quote inflation as gross inflation based on market. And then based on how we lock it in with contracts or our hedges, the actual cost nets out in that sourcing line. So right now, for the quarter, our sourcing was a little negative just because we're locked into some higher contracts in a couple of areas where the market has dropped.

然後記住，你在我們的毛利率橋上看到了這一點，我們有採購部分，對吧？所以我們總是引用通貨膨脹作為基於市場的總通貨膨脹。然後根據我們如何通過合同或我們的對沖將其鎖定，實際成本在該採購線中扣除。所以現在，對於這個季度，我們的採購有點負面，因為我們在市場下跌的幾個地區鎖定了一些更高的合同。

Our next question comes from Ken Goldman from JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Ken Goldman。

I wanted to dig in a little bit more toward the -- or on the operating margin guidance. And thank you for the help in terms of how to think about the gross margin in the back half, Dave.

我想更深入地了解 - 或營業利潤率指導。戴夫，感謝您在如何考慮後半部分毛利率方面的幫助。

It seems just back of the envelope math that to get to where your operating margin will be sort of that mid-15s for the year. And given that you're talking roughly about a 300 basis point increase continually in the gross margin that you're going to have to have a step up in SG&A as a percentage of sales.

似乎只是在信封數學的後面，你的營業利潤率將達到今年 15 歲左右的水平。鑑於你在談論毛利率持續增長 300 個基點，你將不得不提高 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比。

And I'm just -- a, is my back of the envelope math correct there? And b, what would cause that step-up as we think about going into the back half of the year? I assume, Sean, you're not going to advertise a lot more given your history. I'm just trying to get a sense of how to think about that.

而且我只是 - a，我的信封背面數學是否正確？ b，當我們考慮進入今年下半年時，什麼會導致這種上升？我想，肖恩，鑑於你的歷史，你不會做更多的廣告。我只是想了解如何考慮這一點。

Let me -- why don't I start and Sean, you can fill in. So Ken, from an SG&A perspective -- and we had forecasted and guided at the beginning of the year that we expected SG&A to be increasing higher than sales and that's indeed what we're seeing. So if you look at Q2 and the increase in SG&A, that's a reasonable estimate to estimate our H2 second half increase in SG&A. And that's basically investments that we're making in automation and in our people.

讓我 - 為什麼我不開始，肖恩，你可以填寫。所以肯，從 SG&A 的角度來看 - 我們在年初預測和指導我們預計 SG&A 的增長將高於銷售額，並且這確實是我們所看到的。因此，如果您查看第二季度和 SG&A 的增加，這是估計我們 H2 下半年 SG&A 增加的合理估計。這基本上是我們在自動化和員工方面所做的投資。

And there's some incentive compensation increase in there, partially from this year, but partially wrapping on last year. So they are really the big drivers of SG&A. We are expecting A&P to ramp. So we came in higher this quarter at 2.4%. And we expect that to continue to ramp up in H2 as well. Sean anything to...

那裡有一些激勵性薪酬的增加，部分是從今年開始的，但部分是去年的。所以他們確實是 SG&A 的主要推動力。我們期待 A&P 的增長。所以我們本季度的增長率更高，為 2.4%。我們預計下半年也會繼續增加。肖恩任何...

Yes, the only -- yes, on that, I would say, we do spend A&P, Ken. So we don't do a lot of in-line TV because we don't think it's particularly effective. But we do spend A&P, and it does vary quarter-to-quarter depending upon the programs that we've got.

是的，唯一的 - 是的，我會說，我們確實花費了 A&P，Ken。所以我們不做很多在線電視，因為我們認為它不是特別有效。但我們確實花費了 A&P，而且它確實每個季度都有所不同，具體取決於我們擁有的項目。

As you know, it's a lot of influencer type spend, digital spend, things like that. And so as we've got new innovations unfolding, we do back them based on the windows where we've got products coming to market. So there -- you will see movements quarter-to-quarter in our A&P line, which syncs up -- usually syncs up with the activity we've got planned in the marketplace.

如您所知，這是很多有影響力的支出，數字支出，諸如此類。因此，隨著我們開展新的創新，我們會根據我們將產品推向市場的窗口來支持它們。所以在那裡——你會看到我們的 A&P 系列每季度的變動，它是同步的——通常與我們在市場上計劃的活動同步。

And frankly, when we got business momentum like this, we want -- and we've got really exciting new innovation coming out that we'll share at CAGNY. We do want to make sure we get those new products off to a good start with good awareness and good trial.

坦率地說，當我們獲得這樣的業務勢頭時，我們希望 - 我們將在 CAGNY 分享真正令人興奮的新創新。我們確實希望確保我們以良好的意識和良好的試用使這些新產品有一個良好的開端。

That's helpful. Just a very quick follow-up to Dave's comment about kind of extrapolating that 2Q SG&A out. Dave, are you talking about the absolute dollars that were spent in 2Q or the year-on-year change that we should kind of think about extrapolating?

這很有幫助。只是對 Dave 關於推斷 2Q SG&A 的評論的快速跟進。戴夫，你是在談論第二季度花費的絕對美元還是我們應該考慮外推的同比變化？

Year-on-year change, Ken.

同比變化，肯。

Our next question comes from Alexia Howard from Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自伯恩斯坦的 Alexia Howard。

Great. So two questions. The first one is a bit more of a take a step back. In my conversations with a lot of investors, people are commenting on the fact that you're not getting -- really getting a lot of valuation credit to your faster-growing Snacks business.

偉大的。所以兩個問題。第一個更像是退後一步。在我與很多投資者的談話中，人們評論說你沒有得到——真正為你快速增長的零食業務獲得很多估值信用。

And they also want you to get the leverage down, which I think you commented on in the prepared remarks. Surely one solution might be to dispose of some of your more mature categories. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about some of those slower growth businesses, the non-snack areas and whether you might think of that being a way into addressing some of those concerns more quickly? And then I have a follow-up.

他們還希望你降低杠桿率，我想你在準備好的評論中對此發表了評論。當然，一種解決方案可能是處理一些更成熟的類別。我只是想知道您如何看待一些增長較慢的業務、非零食領域，以及您是否認為這是一種更快地解決其中一些問題的方法？然後我有一個後續行動。

Yes, great question, Alexia. We've said, since I got here that, we are going to pursue consistent improvement in our sales rate and consistent improvement in our margins. And we'll do it three ways. We'll strengthen the businesses we own. We'll acquire new businesses that fit. And we'll divest stuff that is a drag on our sales and our margin.

是的，好問題，Alexia。我們已經說過，自從我來到這里以來，我們將追求銷售率的持續提高和利潤率的持續提高。我們將通過三種方式來做到這一點。我們將加強我們擁有的業務。我們將收購合適的新企業。我們將剝離拖累我們的銷售額和利潤率的東西。

And if you look at the sheer amount of (inaudible) down to last [8] years, it's right up there near the top of the list in terms of activity. So that's part of our playbook. It will continue to be part of our playbook. We always look at that. And I always tell investors, if you've got an idea as to how we might reshape in a way that unlocks shareholder value, you can probably safely assume that we, prior -- already thought about it and looked at it.

而且，如果您查看過去 [8] 年的（聽不清）的絕對數量，就活動而言，它就在列表頂部附近。所以這是我們劇本的一部分。它將繼續成為我們劇本的一部分。我們總是這樣看。我總是告訴投資者，如果你對我們如何以釋放股東價值的方式進行重塑有一個想法，你可能可以放心地假設我們之前 - 已經考慮過並研究過它。

Now with respect to the specific concept that you put out there, the way we look at things like that, particularly, when you're talking about more material divestitures, we've done a lot of kind of one-off. But when you package up big chunks of the business, and you look at doing -- started [spinning] them out or selling them something like that, you have to look very carefully at what happens with stranded overheads. What happens with the fixed cost base of the company and does it flow back to that, which remains and therefore, compress margins.

現在關於你提出的具體概念，我們看待這樣的事情的方式，特別是當你談論更多的物質資產剝離時，我們做了很多一次性的。但是當你打包大部分業務，然後你開始考慮做 - 開始 [spinning] 它們或出售它們類似的東西時，你必須非常仔細地看看擱淺的間接費用會發生什麼。公司的固定成本基礎會發生什麼變化，它會回流到那個保留下來的地方，因此會壓縮利潤率。

Because you've got to be very sensitive to ensuring that these kinds of actions create value and don't actually end up destroying value. And so that's one of the things we look at.

因為你必須非常敏感地確保這些類型的行為創造價值並且不會最終破壞價值。所以這是我們要看的事情之一。

The other thing we look at is we're basically U.S. company. And we have tremendous scale and scope within the U.S. And we think that scale and scope works very well for us in terms of our relationship with our customers, the importance of our total portfolio with our customers, and the ability to leverage part of our portfolio to do very strategic things in other parts of our portfolio, whether that leverage the cash flow or just leverage the fact that it's -- these are important items to shoppers.

我們關注的另一件事是我們基本上是美國公司。我們在美國擁有巨大的規模和範圍。我們認為，就我們與客戶的關係、我們的整體投資組合對客戶的重要性以及利用我們部分投資組合的能力而言，規模和範圍對我們非常有用在我們投資組合的其他部分做非常具有戰略意義的事情，無論是利用現金流還是僅僅利用事實——這些對購物者來說都是重要的項目。

So we look at all of that stuff. We're open-minded to anything that truly creates value. And that's kind of our philosophy on that. It's always in that way.

所以我們看看所有這些東西。我們對任何真正創造價值的事物持開放態度。這就是我們的理念。總是那樣。

Great. And just a quick follow-up. Promotional activity. Are you seeing any shift in what retailers are expecting? Or is that all still very much business as usual at the moment, even though I think it's a lot lower than it was before the pandemic.

偉大的。并快速跟進。促銷活動。您是否看到零售商的期望發生任何變化？還是目前一切照舊，儘管我認為它比大流行之前要低很多。

Yes. That's a hot topic these days. Let me give you kind of our perspectives on that. First, let me say that from our vantage point, the competitive environment remains rational overall, and that's usually a good thing.

是的。這是最近的熱門話題。讓我談談我們對此的看法。首先我說，從我們的角度來看，競爭環境總體還是比較理性的，這通常是好事。

Second, until supply normalizes further, I just can't see retailers pushing for deals that exacerbate out of stocks. That's not good for retailers when their shoppers go over the store across the street to get the items that they couldn't find in their stores.

其次，在供應進一步正常化之前，我看不到零售商會推動加劇缺貨的交易。這對零售商不利，因為他們的購物者會穿過街對面的商店來購買他們在商店中找不到的商品。

And the third, we're not opposed to smart promotions. In fact, we're already doing high ROI promotions already that's kind of in line with our pre-pandemic levels from a frequency basis. At some point, we may be able to add a little bit more. But here, I'm talking about surgical -- really strategically valuable, high ROI and frankly, often seasonal promotions, often holidays, that are emotionally important to our consumers.

第三，我們不反對智能促銷。事實上，我們已經在進行高投資回報率的促銷活動，這在某種程度上與我們在頻率基礎上大流行前的水平是一致的。在某些時候，我們也許可以添加更多。但在這裡，我說的是外科手術——真正具有戰略價值、高投資回報率，坦率地說，通常是季節性促銷，通常是節假日，這對我們的消費者來說在情感上很重要。

And in those instances, we want our brands in those promotions. But through COVID, some of those promotions were cut back on, given obvious supply challenges. Going forward, that will get better and some of those quality opportunities will reemerge. But I think the big point is we're not talking about a surge of deep discount promotions here. That's not been our playbook for at least 7 years now. And I just don't see a lot of room for that.

在這些情況下，我們希望我們的品牌參與這些促銷活動。但是，鑑於明顯的供應挑戰，通過 COVID，其中一些促銷活動被削減了。展望未來，情況將會好轉，其中一些優質機會將重新出現。但我認為重要的一點是我們不是在談論大幅折扣促銷活動。至少 7 年來，這不是我們的劇本。我只是沒有看到太多的空間。

Our next question comes from David Palmer from Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Palmer。

Slide 12, the one where you showed the price lag phase being followed by the margin recovery phase. I'm wondering, how you think about the shape and the length of this recovery phase. It was 5 or 6 quarters long on the lag phase. Do you see it playing out like a similar [lines] for the recovery phase?

在幻燈片 12 中，您展示了價格滯後階段之後是保證金恢復階段。我想知道，你如何看待這個恢復階段的形狀和長度。滯後階段長達 5 或 6 個季度。您是否看到它在恢復階段像類似的[線]一樣播放？

Yes. It's interesting, David. In my office up on my whiteboard for the last year, I've got this little handwritten analysis I've done of the earnings power of a cohort of 10 units and how the P&L unfolds when you're faced with multiple waves of price of inflation, which require multiple waves of pricing.

是的。這很有趣，大衛。去年在我辦公室的白板上，我手寫了一份小分析，分析了一組 10 個單位的盈利能力，以及當你面對多波價格波動時損益表如何展開通貨膨脹，這需要多次定價。

And as I said to Andrew earlier, it's very predictable, it's very mechanical. What's been unusual in this cycle is the sheer magnitude of the inflation super cycle and the number of waves. So the reason -- the shape of that curve on that slide, you see it is, because it reflects multiple waves of COGS inflation and the follow-on pricing effects. The sheer number of those waves is now slowing down. And that is why you're seeing the sharp recovery and sometimes it slows down faster than you might expect, which is why the recovery might come in faster.

正如我之前對安德魯所說，這是非常可預測的，非常機械化。在這個週期中不尋常的是膨脹超級週期的絕對幅度和波浪的數量。所以原因 - 幻燈片上曲線的形狀，你看是，因為它反映了 COGS 通貨膨脹的多波浪潮和後續定價效應。這些波浪的絕對數量現在正在放緩。這就是為什麼你會看到急劇的複蘇，有時它會比你預期的更快放緩，這就是為什麼復甦可能會更快。

But overall, the mechanics of it are very predictable. If we got hit with another 18 months of 5 waves, it would kind of -- that's the rinse and repeat comment. The cycle starts all over again. I can't find a lot of examples of that happening in history after a super cycle like this. So I think what you're seeing now is a reflection of good execution on our part and kind of the beginning of the sunsetting of the super cycle. And that's why we say we think we've got some runway from here as the supply chain continues to improve and productivity continues to ramp up. Dave, do you want to add to that?

但總的來說，它的機制是非常可預測的。如果我們再遭受 18 個月的 5 次浪潮打擊，那就是沖洗和重複評論。循環重新開始。在這樣的超級週期之後，我在歷史上找不到很多這樣的例子。所以我認為你現在看到的是我們良好執行的反映，也是超級週期開始衰落的一種表現。這就是為什麼我們說我們認為隨著供應鏈的不斷改善和生產力的不斷提高，我們已經從這裡獲得了一些跑道。戴夫，你想補充嗎？

Yes, just to build on that. And David, back to something I said earlier, for H2 gross margins, we expect that delta of approximately 300 basis points to hold. So that -- translated to that chart, that just means that, that relationship for the second half will continue, right, where the sales per unit and the price per unit is above the cost because we're -- we've already incurred that inflation. Our 3-year inflation number, when you use the 10% estimate for this year, is 33%. So we have significant inflation that's in our base. We are now catching up to that. So that drives that margin improvement for the second half.

是的，只是以此為基礎。大衛，回到我之前說過的話，對於 H2 毛利率，我們預計大約 300 個基點的增量將保持不變。所以 - 轉化為該圖表，這只是意味著，下半年的關係將繼續，正確的，每單位銷售額和每單位價格高於成本，因為我們 - 我們已經招致那個通貨膨脹。我們的 3 年通貨膨脹數字，當你使用今年 10% 的估計時，是 33%。因此，我們的基礎存在顯著的通貨膨脹。我們現在正在趕上那個。因此，這推動了下半年的利潤率改善。

Yes. And just a follow-up on that. In the -- I'm looking at the volume numbers in Grocery & Snacks, for example, that was a little weaker than we would have expected. I wonder just, if you back up a second and say, in prep -- what is the big worry that people would think of? Is that perhaps, there would be a need for promotion give back to stabilize volume in your higher price elasticity categories out there. Is there something that you're monitoring that would tell you that perhaps there would be a slamming of a door and a quick end to this recovery phase? Are there things that you're really watching out for? And perhaps -- just leading the witness a little bit on the Grocery & Snacks, is that volume concerning to you at all in that area?

是的。只是對此的後續行動。在 - 例如，我正在查看雜貨和零食的數量數字，這比我們預期的要弱一些。我想知道，如果你退一步說，在準備階段——人們會想到的最大擔憂是什麼？是不是可能需要促銷回饋以穩定較高價格彈性類別的銷量。是否有您正在監控的東西會告訴您，也許會砰的一聲關上門並迅速結束此恢復階段？有沒有你真正要注意的事情？也許 - 只是在雜貨和零食方面引導證人一點點，在那個領域，這個數量是否與你有關？

Yes. Let's talk about it. First, no door slam, okay? So what we're seeing right now is very consistent with what we expect. And it was an excellent quarter. And things are unfolding the way we expect.

是的。讓我們來談談它。首先，不要摔門，好嗎？所以我們現在看到的與我們的預期非常一致。這是一個出色的季度。事情正在按照我們預期的方式發展。

With respect to Grocery & Snack volumes, Grocery & Snacks volumes came in right where they should have come in, given the magnitude of pricing we've taken in the first half of this year. Now in terms of what you're observing. Good eye, the shipment numbers look about 2 points worse than what you might expect given the elasticities that we've talked about. That does not reflect a Q2 phenomenon. That reflects strong shipments in this segment in Q2 a year ago.

關於雜貨和零食的銷量，考慮到我們在今年上半年採取的定價幅度，雜貨和零食的銷量正好在他們應該進來的地方。現在就你所觀察到的而言。好眼力，考慮到我們所討論的彈性，出貨量看起來比您預期的差大約 2 個百分點。這並不反映第二季度的現象。這反映出一年前該細分市場在第二季度的強勁出貨量。

Why was that? Because that's precisely when we came off allocation on a handful of brands in G&S. And our customers, as you can imagine, these are good strong brands, were quite eager to replenish their inventories. So that's -- there's -- when I look at that number, I see about 2 points of what might look like an excess drop on volumes. It's entirely about the year ago period, nothing about right now.

那是為什麼？因為那正是我們在 G&S 中分配給少數幾個品牌的時候。正如您可以想像的那樣，我們的客戶非常渴望補充庫存。所以那是——有——當我看到這個數字時，我看到大約 2 個點的數量可能看起來像是過度下降。這完全是關於一年前的時期，與現在無關。

So net-net, what keeps us up at night, it's the stuff that we can't predict. It's like a return of some kind of new COVID strain or more unexpected friction and supply chain because you can't get materials from suppliers, things like that.

所以 net-net，是什麼讓我們夜不能寐，是我們無法預測的東西。這就像某種新的 COVID 菌株的回歸或更多意想不到的摩擦和供應鏈，因為你無法從供應商那裡獲得材料，諸如此類。

As we said, we're making good progress in supply chain, but it's not perfect yet. We still have more junior people. Our labor situations got significantly better, but we've got newer employees who are still ramping up the learning curve. These are the things that drive the volatility. And it's led us to have our year-to-go outlook stay in a range, I would describe as prudent given that we're making progress. But it's not all the way back to right. Dave, you want to add to that?

正如我們所說，我們在供應鏈方面取得了良好進展，但還不完美。我們還有更多的初級人員。我們的勞動狀況明顯好轉，但我們有新員工，他們仍在提高學習曲線。這些是推動波動的因素。這讓我們將今年的展望保持在一個範圍內，鑑於我們正在取得進展，我認為這是謹慎的。但它並沒有完全回到正確的方向。戴夫，你想補充嗎？

Yes. I would just add. I think, David, when you start looking quarter-to-quarter and then at the segment level, because these are shipments and there's timing, you're going to get some dynamics. I would just pivot and say, if you look at our first half, we're shipping at 9%, and consumption is 10%. So we've always said, we shipped the consumption. That's what's happening. We feel good about where we are with retailer inventories. We feel good about our own inventories, the elasticities as we showed on the chart are at that sort of 0.5 level and they've been there. And that's the entire portfolio. So you do get some dynamics quarter-to-quarter, which Sean, described. But generally, we're tracking in line with consumption.

是的。我只想補充。我認為，大衛，當你開始按季度查看，然後在細分級別查看時，因為這些是出貨量並且有時間，你會得到一些動態。我只想說，如果你看看我們的上半年，我們的出貨率為 9%，消費率為 10%。所以我們一直說，我們運送了消費。這就是正在發生的事情。我們對零售商庫存情況感到滿意。我們對自己的庫存感覺良好，我們在圖表上顯示的彈性處於 0.5 的水平，而且它們一直在那裡。這就是整個投資組合。所以你確實得到了一些季度到季度的動態，肖恩描述了這一點。但總的來說，我們會根據消費情況進行跟踪。

Yes. Before we go to the next question, I want to come back to volumes for a second because this is a really important one for folks to get right as you think about assessing kind of where we are. Is it a good guy or a bad guy? To accurately assess volume performance across a cohort of companies, you have to look at total scanned volume change over time for the whole peer set.

是的。在我們進入下一個問題之前，我想先回到卷上，因為這對於人們在考慮評估我們所處的位置時做出正確的選擇非常重要。是好人還是壞人？要準確評估一組公司的數量績效，您必須查看整個同行組的總掃描數量隨時間的變化。

And as you saw on Slide 8, Conagra ranks #1 in our peer group in terms of volume and resiliency over the past 3 years, which is, obviously, a testament to our brand health. And as I said in my prepared remarks, there's always some elasticity when you price as much as we have cumulatively -- but those elasticities have, in fact, been relatively benign and remarkably consistent and they've been lower than our peers, lower. That's the data.

正如您在幻燈片 8 中看到的那樣，康尼格拉在過去 3 年的數量和彈性方面在我們的同行中排名第一，這顯然證明了我們的品牌健康。正如我在準備好的發言中所說，當你的定價與我們的累計定價一樣多時，總會有一些彈性——但事實上，這些彈性相對良性且非常一致，而且它們一直低於我們的同行，更低。這就是數據。

So -- but in any given quarter and in any good segment, frankly, you may see more or less volume impact based on the recency of the pricing actions that you take. And as you know, we took a lot in Q1 and in Q2. But overall, we're in very good shape in the absolute and versus others. And don't forget, over -- as we've said many times, overtime, these elasticities tend to wane as consumers adapt.

所以——但坦率地說，在任何給定的季度和任何良好的細分市場中，您可能會看到或多或少的數量影響，這取決於您採取的定價行動的新近程度。如您所知，我們在第一季度和第二季度採取了很多措施。但總的來說，我們在絕對和其他方面都處於非常好的狀態。並且不要忘記，正如我們多次說過的那樣，隨著時間的推移，這些彈性往往會隨著消費者的適應而減弱。

Our next question comes from Max Gumport from BNP.

我們的下一個問題來自 BNP 的 Max Gumport。

I'm wondering beyond price elasticities, which can sometimes be a bit a blunt measurement of the reaction of consumers to price increases, especially given the broad-based nature of pricing across the industry. I'm wondering if you've seen any changes in the degree or ways in which consumers are trading down. For instance, from food-away-from-home to food-at-home, from branded to private label or to more value branded products or maybe between grocery categories. Just curious what you're seeing on that front and how you'd expect this dynamic to develop from here?

我想知道價格彈性之外的東西，它有時可以有點直截了當地衡量消費者對價格上漲的反應，尤其是考慮到整個行業定價的廣泛性。我想知道您是否看到消費者降價交易的程度或方式有任何變化。例如，從外帶食品到在家食品，從品牌到自有品牌或更有價值的品牌產品，或者可能在雜貨類別之間。只是好奇您在這方面看到了什麼，以及您期望這種動態如何從這裡發展？

So Max, I think it's pretty simple. The first big trade down is the trade down from away from home to at home. If you're looking at consumers over $100,000 a year income, you're still seeing they're going out to eat. But below that threshold, it's not where it was pre-pandemic. So one of the reasons -- a big one of the reasons why you see muted elasticities across the sector on average is because there has been -- there was a trade down into at-home meeting during COVID. And that has not fully reverted to away from home because the prices away from home have gone up so high that it's a better value to continue to eat in home as people are trying to stretch their household balance sheet.

所以 Max，我認為這很簡單。第一個大交易是從離家到在家的交易。如果您觀察的是年收入超過 100,000 美元的消費者，您仍然會看到他們外出就餐。但低於該閾值，就不是大流行前的水平了。因此，其中一個原因——你看到整個行業平均彈性減弱的一個重要原因是——在 COVID 期間進行了在家開會的交易。而且這種情況還沒有完全恢復到出門在外，因為出門在外的價格已經漲得如此之高，以至於隨著人們試圖擴大家庭資產負債表，繼續在家吃飯更划算。

And we are the beneficiary of that. And it shows up in muted elasticity. When you double-click down from there, within grocery, what you see is there is trade down taking effect. And if you look at private label by category, you can see that in certain categories, they are making progress. Those categories almost, always tend to be categories that are more highly commoditized. So things like in food, like cooking oil. And outside of food, things like ibuprofen.

而我們是其中的受益者。它表現出柔和的彈性。當你從那裡雙擊向下時，在雜貨店內，你看到的是降價交易正在生效。如果你按類別查看自有品牌，你會發現在某些類別中，他們正在取得進展。這些類別幾乎總是傾向於商品化程度更高的類別。所以食物中的東西，比如食用油。在食物之外，布洛芬之類的東西。

When a consumer knows it's a single ingredient product and one is a lot cheaper than the other, the switching costs are lower. It's easier to make the trade down. So that is happening.

當消費者知道它是一種單一成分的產品並且一種比另一種便宜很多時，轉換成本就會降低。做低價交易更容易。所以這正在發生。

The good news for us is we don't have a lot of those categories. We've had them. We exited them. And now our private label interaction is lower than average in the space. And on a strategically important stuff that's really vital to our go-forward cash flow. Things like frozen, our snacks categories, we've got very strong relative market shares, very little private label alternative, and that's one of the reasons we continue to thrive.

對我們來說，好消息是我們沒有很多這樣的類別。我們有過。我們退出了他們。現在我們的自有品牌互動低於該領域的平均水平。以及對我們未來的現金流非常重要的具有戰略意義的東西。像冷凍食品、我們的零食類別，我們擁有非常強大的相對市場份額，很少有自有品牌替代品，這是我們繼續蓬勃發展的原因之一。

Great. And one follow-up. It looks like you took your CapEx guidance down from $500 million to $425 million. I'm just wondering what's driving that change?

偉大的。和一個後續行動。看起來您將資本支出指導從 5 億美元下調至 4.25 億美元。我只是想知道是什麼推動了這種變化？

Yes, Max, that's all timing. We're still prioritizing investing in capacity and automation in our supply chain, which we've talked about. So that's all just timing for the fiscal year.

是的，麥克斯，這就是時機。我們仍然優先考慮對供應鏈中的產能和自動化進行投資，我們已經談到了這一點。所以這只是本財年的時間安排。

Our next question comes from Pamela Kaufman from Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Pamela Kaufman。

Just had a follow-up to your last response. In general, it seems like the softer macro backdrop this year creates a favorable environment for your business and for food-at-home consumption. So as consumers look for savings, can you just talk about how your categories and how frozen dinners have performed in prior recessions? And how are you leaning into this opportunity and highlighting the value to consumers?

剛剛對您的上次回復進行了跟進。總的來說，今年較為疲軟的宏觀背景似乎為您的企業和家庭食品消費創造了有利的環境。因此，當消費者尋求節省時，您能否談談您的品類以及冷凍晚餐在之前的經濟衰退中的表現如何？您如何抓住這個機會並向消費者強調價值？

Yes. Our frozen business has been unbelievably strong. And I don't think you can compare it at all to the 2008, period of financial crash because the category looked totally different. We started doing a massive overhaul of the frozen section of the grocery store, Conagra did in 2015, starting with frozen single-serve meals. And we completely changed the way those products show up to the consumer in terms of food quality, packaging quality, sustainability, et cetera, et cetera. .

是的。我們的冷凍業務一直非常強勁。而且我認為您根本無法將其與 2008 年金融危機時期進行比較，因為該類別看起來完全不同。我們開始對雜貨店的冷凍區進行大規模改革，Conagra 在 2015 年就這樣做了，從冷凍單份餐食開始。我們完全改變了這些產品在食品質量、包裝質量、可持續性等方面向消費者展示的方式。 .

And since then, we've driven a massive amount of growth for retailers in the frozen single-serve meals category. And Conagra has accounted for somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of that growth. So we've almost Singlehandedly done it.

從那時起，我們為冷凍單份餐食類別的零售商帶來了巨大的增長。康尼格拉 (Conagra) 貢獻了大約 90% 的增長。所以我們幾乎單槍匹馬地完成了它。

What we're doing now is keeping the momentum in frozen, in single-serve meals where we've been so successful because there are structural things in place that have only furthered the opportunity there. Things like more people working from home during the week that, obviously, contributes to more breakfast and more lunch, vacation at home where these products fit. So we're capitalizing on that.

我們現在正在做的是保持冷凍單份餐食的勢頭，我們之所以如此成功，是因為結構性的東西到位只會增加那裡的機會。很多人在一周內在家工作，這顯然有助於增加早餐和午餐，在適合這些產品的家中度假。所以我們正在利用這一點。

The other part of our strategy is to continue to -- we've got a great suite of brands, continue to extend them into adjacencies like multi-serve meals, appetizers, snacks, desserts, novelties, things like that. There are a lot of zip codes in the frozen space that still have opportunity to be overhauled, the way we've overhauled frozen single-serve meals. And that's a big part of our go-forward strategy. And one of the things that's going to help create value with this portfolio, along with this awesome snacks business that we've got. And we'll talk about both of these very strong, attractive portfolios in frozen and snacks in quite some detail at CAGNY.

我們戰略的另一部分是繼續——我們擁有一套很棒的品牌，繼續將它們擴展到相鄰的領域，比如多餐、開胃菜、小吃、甜點、新奇事物等等。冷凍空間中有許多郵政編碼仍有機會進行大修，就像我們大修冷凍單份餐食的方式一樣。這是我們前進戰略的重要組成部分。其中一件事將有助於通過這個投資組合創造價值，以及我們擁有的這個很棒的零食業務。我們將在 CAGNY 上非常詳細地討論這兩種非常強大、有吸引力的冷凍和零食產品組合。

Great. And just on the supply chain, it sounds like it's getting better, but there's still room for improvement. Can you talk about where you still see supply chain challenges? And where there is room for improvement? Where are your service levels today versus targeted? And how much gross margin recovery can this drive on top of the improvement that you saw this quarter?

偉大的。而只是在供應鏈上，聽起來好像在變好，但仍有改進的空間。你能談談你仍然看到供應鏈挑戰的地方嗎？哪裡還有改進的餘地？您今天的服務水平與目標水平相比如何？除了您在本季度看到的改善之外，這還能推動多少毛利率回升？

Yes. Let me -- it's Sean. Let me tackle that, and Dave, if I miss anything, jump in. But we were absolutely seeing meaningful progress in supply chain. But you got to remember that the industry has continued to see operating challenges, including labor across the end-to-end supply chain has not abated.

是的。讓我 - 這是肖恩。讓我來解決這個問題，戴夫，如果我遺漏了什麼，請參與進來。但我們絕對看到供應鏈方面取得了有意義的進展。但您必須記住，該行業繼續面臨運營挑戰，包括端到端供應鏈中的勞動力並未減少。

You're hearing that from me, you're going it from my peers. So it is possible for Conagra to make meaningful progress. But also to see -- continue to see pockets of friction.

你是從我那裡聽到的，你是從我的同齡人那裡聽到的。因此，康尼格拉有可能取得有意義的進展。但也要看到——繼續看到摩擦的口袋。

In terms of specifically whether we think productivity is improving, and we are pleased with the progress on our supply chain initiative, service levels, and fill rates have continued to improve over prior year.

具體而言，我們是否認為生產力正在提高，我們對我們的供應鏈計劃、服務水平和供應率比上一年繼續提高的進展感到滿意。

In the second quarter, our fill rates were over 90% by the end of the quarter. On average, in some categories, frankly, were well above that and more back to normal, which is an awesome sign.

在第二季度，到本季度末，我們的填充率超過 90%。坦率地說，平均而言，在某些類別中，我們遠高於此水平，並且更多地恢復正常，這是一個了不起的跡象。

Productivity initiatives remain on track. But the point we're making here and one of the reasons for our guidance is, progress isn't necessarily going to be linear. Productivity savings aren't fully offsetting input cost increases from commodities volatility, things like labor, transportation costs and other supply chain inefficiencies since the supply chain is not yet fully normalized.

生產力舉措仍在進行中。但我們在這裡提出的觀點和我們指導的原因之一是，進展不一定是線性的。由於供應鏈尚未完全規範化，生產力節約並不能完全抵消商品波動帶來的投入成本增加，如勞動力、運輸成本和其他供應鏈效率低下。

We -- on labor, we have filled more positions. We're seeing less turnover, but because our labor force, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, is less experienced, it's still less efficient. But obviously, that's going to improve as these newer employees crash the learning curve. So that's kind of what we're seeing overall.

我們 - 在勞動力方面，我們填補了更多職位。我們的營業額減少了，但正如我幾分鐘前提到的，由於我們的勞動力經驗不足，因此效率仍然較低。但顯然，隨著這些新員工打破學習曲線，這種情況將會有所改善。這就是我們總體上看到的情況。

Dave, do you want to add anything or I hit it?

戴夫，你想添加什麼還是我打它？

Yes, I would just add to your question about margins. So if you look at the Q2 bridge that we have in the deck, the operating margin bridge, you see the productivity and other cost of goods sold at plus 1.3% of margin points. And once we get to a more normalized supply chain operation, we would expect that to improve. We're not going to give specific numbers, but that's where you would see it in the margins.

是的，我只想補充你關於利潤率的問題。因此，如果你看看我們在甲板上的 Q2 橋，運營利潤橋，你會看到生產力和其他銷售商品成本加上 1.3% 的利潤點。一旦我們的供應鏈運作更加規範化，我們預計情況會有所改善。我們不會給出具體數字，但您會在空白處看到它。

And our next question comes from Robert Moskow from Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Robert Moskow。

Sean and Dave, one of the major concerns I hear from investors is that the top line trends are so robust right now, are going to dissipate by the end of the year because you're going to lap the vast majority of the pricing actions that you've taken. But you did talk about more sequential pricing that's going on right now.

肖恩和戴夫，我從投資者那裡聽到的一個主要擔憂是，目前的頂線趨勢如此強勁，到年底將消散，因為你將超越絕大多數定價行動你拿走了。但是你確實談到了現在正在進行的更多順序定價。

So I guess I'd like to know, by the end of the calendar year, and I know it's -- you can't talk about fiscal '24, but by the end of the calendar year, do you think they'll still be in kind of like mid-single-digit pricing territory given where pricing is today in fiscal 3Q?

所以我想我想知道，到日曆年年底，我知道這是——你不能談論 24 財年，但到日曆年年底，你認為他們仍然會考慮到今天第三財季的定價，有點像中等個位數的定價區域？

And then lastly, maybe you can talk a little bit about the retail reaction to all the price increases. The rhetoric seems to be getting a little more combative on the margin. And I wanted to know if you thought there's any changes in those negotiations.

最後，也許你可以談談零售業對所有價格上漲的反應。言辭似乎在邊際上變得更加好鬥了。我想知道你是否認為這些談判有任何變化。

All right. Let me try to hit each of those. And Dave, if I miss anything, jump in.

好的。讓我嘗試擊中每一個。戴夫，如果我錯過了什麼，請加入。

With respect to dollar sales and the year-on-year growth, putting up 9%, whatever. That's not just as a reminder. That's not our long-term algorithm, right? That is a function of kind of where we are in this inflation super cycle. So that's not going to be the go-forward run rate on sales forever and that goes without saying.

關於美元銷售額和同比增長，不管怎樣，增長 9%。這不僅僅是提醒。那不是我們的長期算法，對吧？這是我們在這個通脹超級週期中所處位置的函數。因此，這不會永遠成為銷售的前進運行率，這是不言而喻的。

In terms of the pricing that we've taken, we took price in early Q1. We took -- that's pretty meaningful. We took price again in early Q2 that was pretty meaningful. And then we're taking price again, I would say, more surgically in January, call it, for Q3. That's kind of what's been negotiated with our customers. That's what's in place. There's nothing else beyond that to talk about right now, but pricing, again, isn't window-based, it's principal based.

就我們採取的定價而言，我們在第一季度初採取了定價。我們採取了 - 這非常有意義。我們在第二季度初再次採取了非常有意義的價格。然後我們再次採取價格，我會說，在 1 月份更像外科手術，稱之為第三季度。這就是我們與客戶協商的內容。這就是現在的情況。目前除此之外沒有其他可談的，但定價再次不是基於窗口的，而是基於本金的。

So if we continue to see waves of inflation, reemerge, then we'll do what we've got to do. In terms of retailer reaction, let me give you just a couple of thoughts on this.

因此，如果我們繼續看到通脹浪潮再次出現，那麼我們將做我們必須做的事情。就零售商的反應而言，讓我就此給你一些想法。

Number one, with respect to margins, our margins and the good quarter we just had on margins, I think it's really important to remind everybody, we're talking about margin recovery following a period of pretty meaningful margin compression. So that's kind of point one.

第一，關於利潤率，我們的利潤率和我們剛剛獲得的良好利潤率季度，我認為提醒大家非常重要，我們正在談論在一段非常有意義的利潤率壓縮之後的利潤率恢復。所以這是第一點。

And point two is, we've been really clear with our retail partners that, a, all of the pricing we have taken is justified by COGS inflation; and b, margin recovery is as important to them as it is to us because we need to recover our margins in order to sustain the innovation program that has driven category growth for these retailers in important aisles like frozen, as I mentioned just a minute ago.

第二點是，我們已經與我們的零售合作夥伴明確表示，a，我們採取的所有定價都是由 COGS 通貨膨脹證明的； b，恢復利潤率對他們和對我們一樣重要，因為我們需要恢復我們的利潤率以維持創新計劃，正如我剛才提到的那樣，創新計劃推動了這些零售商在冷凍等重要過道中的品類增長.

And then the third point I'll make is, with respect to inflation from here, it's still with us, right? So we're calling 10% on the year. It's not deflation. It's sustained inflation. And that's just an important reminder that we're not looking at a deflationary period. So that's got to factor into the retailer conversations as well.

然後我要說的第三點是，關於這裡的通貨膨脹，它仍然存在，對吧？所以我們打電話給今年的 10%。這不是通貨緊縮。這是持續的通貨膨脹。這只是一個重要的提醒，我們沒有看到通貨緊縮時期。所以這也必須考慮到零售商的談話中。

Dave, anything you want to add there?

戴夫，你想補充什麼嗎？

Yes. Rob, I would just say, we're not going to comment on calendar year. But if you just look at -- again, it goes back to looking quarter-by-quarter in the prior year, and what our price/mix was by quarter. And as you look at last year, last fiscal '22. Each quarter, our pricing ramped up, right?

是的。 Rob，我只想說，我們不會對日曆年發表評論。但是，如果你只是看——再一次，它又回到了前一年的逐季度來看，以及我們的價格/組合是按季度計算的。正如你在去年看到的那樣，上一財年的 22 財年。每個季度，我們的定價都會上漲，對嗎？

So H1 last year, our price/mix was roughly 4.5%. H2 of last year, it was about 11%, right? So as we look at H2 this year, we're wrapping on a much higher price number. So you could expect that the price/mix component of our H2 to be lower because we're wrapping on an 11% versus 4.5% in the first half. So that's the way to think about it, but it's -- that's the same thing happening with inflation as well. That's why that margin increase -- that gross margin increase I talked about earlier, we expect to continue.

所以去年上半年，我們的價格/組合約為 4.5%。去年下半年，大概是11%吧？因此，當我們查看今年的 H2 時，我們的價格要高得多。因此，您可以預期我們 H2 的價格/組合組成部分會更低，因為我們將在上半年完成 11% 而不是 4.5%。所以這就是思考它的方式，但它 - 通貨膨脹也發生了同樣的事情。這就是為什麼利潤率增長——我之前談到的毛利率增長，我們預計會繼續增長。

Given that you've revised down your inflation outlook, is there any discussion about also revising down some of the price increases?

鑑於您已經下調了通脹前景，是否有任何關於也下調部分物價上漲的討論？

No. Because a revised down inflation outlook does not mean costs have dropped to below where they were prior to us taking pricing. In fact, it's still a 10% full year outlook lower than that in the back half, but it's still inflationary. And by the way, compared to the normal range for the industry of 2% to 3% inflation when you're talking 8-ish percent inflation, that's a big inflationary year.

不會。因為下調通脹前景並不意味著成本已降至低於我們定價之前的水平。事實上，它仍然比下半年低 10% 的全年前景，但它仍然是通貨膨脹。順便說一句，與行業 2% 至 3% 的正常通貨膨脹率相比，當你談論 8% 左右的通貨膨脹率時，那是通貨膨脹率很高的一年。

So to the contrary, it leads you to think more about future price increases than it does price rollbacks. In categories, there are true pass-through categories, when you get down to a true category level, we -- just not -- the category went but coffee as an example.

所以相反，它會讓你更多地考慮未來的價格上漲，而不是價格回落。在類別中，有真正的直通類別，當你下降到真正的類別級別時，我們 - 只是不是 - 該類別去了，但以咖啡為例。

Coffee is one of those categories. It's a pass-through category. Pricing comes up, you take it up. Pricing comes down, you take it down. It can't be deflationary. We're not experiencing deflation on average by -- across the board.

咖啡就是其中之一。這是一個傳遞類別。定價來了，你接受它。價格降下來，你就拿下來。它不可能是通貨緊縮的。平均而言，我們沒有經歷通貨緊縮——全面的。

So thank you, everyone. We are at time. Thanks again for joining us this morning. And we're looking forward to seeing you all at CAGNY next month.

所以謝謝大家。我們正趕上。再次感謝您今天早上加入我們。我們期待下個月在 CAGNY 與大家見面。

And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's conference call and presentation. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

女士們，先生們，我們將結束今天的電話會議和演講。我們感謝您的加入。您現在可以斷開線路。