康尼格拉食品 (CAG) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Conagra Brands second-quarter and first half fiscal 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加康尼格拉品牌 2025 財年第二季及上半年財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，此事件正在被記錄。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Melissa Napier, Head of Investor Relations for Conagra Brands. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給康尼格拉品牌投資者關係主管梅麗莎·納皮爾 (Melissa Napier)。請繼續。

Thanks, Wyatt. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for our live question-and-answer session on today's results. Once again, I'm joined this morning by Sean Connolly, our CEO; Dave Marberger, our CFO; and Matthew Neisius, Senior Director, Investor Relations.

謝謝，懷亞特。大家早安。感謝您今天參加我們關於今天結果的現場問答環節。今天早上我再次與我們的執行長 Sean Connolly 一起參加活動；我們的財務長 Dave Marberger；以及投資者關係資深總監 Matthew Neisius。

We may be making some forward-looking statements and discussing non-GAAP financial measures during this session. Please see our earnings release, prepared remarks, presentation materials, and filings with the SEC, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website, for more information, including descriptions of our risk factors, GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations, and information on our comparability items.

我們可能會在本會議期間發表一些前瞻性聲明並討論非公認會計準則財務指標。請參閱我們的收益報告、準備好的評論、演示材料和向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件（可在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到），以獲取更多信息，包括我們的風險因素描述、GAAP 與非 GAAP 的對賬以及我們的可比性項目的信息。

Wyatt, please introduce our first question.

懷亞特，請介紹我們的第一個問題。

Andrew Lazar, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的安德魯·拉扎爾。

Good morning, everyone. Happy holidays. Sean, we saw, I guess, during the course of the quarter sort of a little bit of a gap open up between sort of scanner and sort of Conagra shipments. I'm just curious if you saw any benefit from the Thanksgiving timing change on volume in the quarter that you would expect to reverse in the third quarter, just given others with sort of similar fiscal years have kind of discussed this dynamic.

大家早安。節日快樂。肖恩，我想，我們發現在本季中，掃描器和康尼格拉的出貨量之間存在一點差距。我只是好奇，您是否看到感恩節時間變化對本季度銷量有任何好處，而您預計這種好處會在第三季度逆轉，因為其他具有類似財年的人已經討論過這種動態。

Yeah. Good idea, Andrew. Let's get grounded in some of the detailed facts around Thanksgiving because I suspect that this dynamic differs by company. For us, in our Q2, shipments were plus 1% and consumption was plus 0.6%. So they tracked very, very closely. And after the first half, our shipments and our consumption are actually equal. And this is an important fact.

是的。好主意，安德魯。讓我們了解感恩節的一些詳細事實，因為我懷疑這種動態因公司而異。對我們來說，在第二季度，出貨量成長了 1%，消費量成長了 0.6%。因此他們跟踪得非常非常密切。上半年以後，我們的出貨量和消費量其實是相等的。這是一個重要的事實。

As we exited Q2, our inventory levels with customers were essentially even with a year ago. So there really was not a Thanksgiving timing effect for our company. Now, I can't speak to other companies' shipping patterns and inventories entering our Q3, but I can tell you that's our situation.

當我們退出第二季時，我們客戶的庫存水準基本上與一年前持平。因此，對我們公司來說，感恩節的時間效應其實並不存在。現在，我無法談論其他公司進入我們第三季的運輸模式和庫存，但我可以告訴你這是我們的情況。

Thanks for that clarity. And then, you talk about incremental inflation and FX as the key reasons for some of the back half EPS pressure versus previous expectations. Is incremental investment, whether consumer or trade, part of this as well?

謝謝你的澄清。然後，您談到增量通膨和外匯是導致下半年每股盈餘面臨壓力（與先前預期不同）的主要原因。增量投資（無論是消費者投資或貿易投資）是否也屬於其中的一部分？

And I ask because it would seem you are seeing a return on some of the spending with the volume and share trends that you spoke of in the prepared remarks. And we continue to hear about the consumer being more value-seeking for longer than mainly expected. So I'm just trying to get a sense if that is sort of part of the dynamic around estimate changes for the back half of the year or not. Thanks so much.

我之所以問這個問題，是因為從您在準備好的發言中提到的數量和份額趨勢來看，您似乎看到了部分支出的回報。我們不斷聽到消費者對價值的追求比人們預期的要長。所以我只是想知道這是否是今年下半年估計變化的動態的一部分。非常感謝。

Good question. And I think it's very important we clarify this. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, the decision to invest to drive the top line back to growth is not a new concept for us. We implemented that strategy in Q2 last year, and those investments have always been built into our plan for this fiscal year.

好問題。我認為澄清這一點非常重要。正如我在準備好的演講中提到的那樣，決定進行投資以推動營業額恢復成長對我們來說並不是一個新概念。我們在去年第二季實施了該策略，這些投資一直被納入我們本財年的計畫中。

And as I said earlier, those investments are obviously working. If you look at our trend lines going back five quarters, it's been consistently going north. So we weren't surprised at all to see it break into positive territory this quarter, nor am I the slightest bit surprised to see real strength in our frozen and snack business. So that's satisfying, but it's good to be back north.

正如我之前所說，這些投資顯然正在發揮作用。如果查看過去五個季度的趨勢線，你會發現它一直在持續向北發展。因此，我們對於本季業績突破正值並不感到驚訝，對於我們的冷凍和零食業務真正強勁的表現，我也沒有絲毫感到驚訝。這很令人滿意，但回到北方感覺很好。

As for the trade component of our investments, mechanically, we plan quarterly and then we true up actual spend at the end of each quarter. In Q2, our actual spend came in a bit lower than planned, and we've redeployed those funds to Q3 versus cutting them. So I guess you'd characterize that as a small shift.

至於我們投資的貿易部分，從機械上講，我們按季度進行計劃，然後在每個季度末核實實際支出。在第二季度，我們的實際支出略低於計劃，我們將這些資金重新部署到第三季度，而不是削減它們。因此我想你會認為這是一個小小的轉變。

But I think it's important not to confuse that with us being dissatisfied with top line momentum and scrambling to add adequate support. We've had our support in place for five quarters. It's working, and we're going to continue to see it work going forward.

但我認為重要的是不要將其與我們對營收成長勢頭不滿並急於增加足夠支持相混淆。我們已經提供支援五個季度了。它正在發揮作用，我們將繼續看到它在未來發揮作用。

Thanks for the clarity.

謝謝你的澄清。

And our next question will come from Ken Goldman. (Operator Instructions)

我們的下一個問題來自肯‧戈德曼。（操作員指令）

Hi. In discussing the industry's higher investments in advertising, promo trading, and innovation, Sean, you said the consumer response has varied significantly by category and company. I'm hoping to kind of unpack this a bit. From your vantage point, are there any best practices, perhaps, that can maybe thoughtfully be applied to the industry as a whole, just given some of those consumer challenges or those value-seeking behaviors?

你好。肖恩，在討論行業在廣告、促銷交易和創新方面的更大投資時，您說消費者的反應因類別和公司而異。我希望能夠稍微解釋一下這個問題。從您的角度來看，考慮到消費者面臨的一些挑戰或追求價值的行為，是否有一些最佳實踐可以深思熟慮地應用於整個行業？

Sure, Ken. Here's how I think about it. Somewhere in maybe Q2 of last fiscal that I first called out a series of behavior shifts that we saw from cutting discretionary spending to more cooking from scratch to more cooking for many instead of meals for one, preserving leftovers as opposed to throwing them in the garbage. We saw all those things emerge last year, and what I've said all along is that the benefit of convenience is the one trend that has been most unshakable over the last 50 years.

當然，肯。這是我對此的看法。大概是在上個財年第二季度的某個時候，我第一次提出了一系列行為轉變，我們看到了從削減可自由支配的開支到更多地從零開始做飯，到為多人做飯而不是只為一人吃飯，到保存剩菜剩飯而不是把它們扔進垃圾桶。去年我們看到了所有這些事情的出現，我一直在說，便利的好處是過去 50 年來最不可動搖的趨勢。

So we saw some impact early on on frozen single-serve meals. I told you that that was not going to last. Consumers don't like to meal plan. They don't like to prep. They don't like to cook, and they don't like to clean up, and that's exactly how it's unfolded.

因此，我們很早就看到了冷凍單份食品受到的一些影響。我告訴過你，這種事不會持續下去。消費者不喜歡制定膳食計劃。他們不喜歡準備。他們不喜歡做飯，不喜歡打掃衛生，事情就是這樣的。

So my comment before is that really it's category-specific. If a category has the benefits that consumers really long for, they can make a behavioral shift for a little while to make their household balance sheet work. But if those benefits, like convenience, are really important, that shift isn't going to last forever.

所以我之前的評論是，它確實是特定於類別的。如果某個類別具有消費者真正渴望的好處，他們可以暫時改變行為，以使家庭資產負債表正常運作。但如果這些好處（例如便利性）確實很重要，那麼這種轉變就不會永遠持續下去。

The other area that I'd say is kind of a signal of what's on trend is within snacking. There's obviously been a movement toward protein snacks and healthy snacks, and our categories are squarely within that. So a year ago, we saw people were kind of trading out, maybe cutting their buying rate a little bit, but the magnetic pull of convenience and healthfulness and healthy snacking is pretty strong.

我想說的另一個可以反映流行趨勢的領域是零食。顯然，人們已經轉向蛋白質零食和健康零食，而我們的產品類別正好屬於這個類別。一年前，我們看到人們有點交換心意，可能稍微降低了購買率，但便利性、健康和健康零食的吸引力相當強。

So what we've done all along, as we've said many times, is we've nudged the consumer back to those behaviors that we know they're longing for using a whole battery of investments from innovation to advertising to high-quality trade like end caps and sampling in certain channels of trade, things like that, and it's been effective. We don't have a lot of categories where it hasn't been effective, but we've -- keep in mind we've focused a lot of our investments in frozen and snacks, and we just happen to have brands that are resonating well with consumers in those spaces.

因此，正如我們多次所說的，我們一直以來所做的就是，透過從創新到廣告到高品質貿易（例如在某些貿易管道中提供終端產品和樣品等）等一系列投資，推動消費者恢復他們渴望的行為，而且這種方法是有效的。我們沒有太多的類別沒有發揮其效果，但請記住，我們把大量的投資集中在冷凍食品和零食上，而我們恰好擁有在這些領域與消費者產生良好共鳴的品牌。

Thanks. Happy holidays.

謝謝。節日快樂。

Chris Carey, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的克里斯凱裡 (Chris Carey)。

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Can you just perhaps expand on your leverage targets for the full year inching up a bit? Free cash flow conversion looks like it's coming in better. What's driving that? The leverage kicking up a bit, I assume, is more about profit as opposed to debt paydown. Can you just update us on, I guess, visibility on free cash flow, how quickly you think you can get to your leverage targets, and in general, how you're thinking about cash deployment maybe over the next year and perhaps over the next several years between the dividend and share repurchases and, of course, M&A? Thanks.

你好。大家早安。您能否稍微提升一下全年的槓桿目標？自由現金流轉換看起來正在變得更好。是什麼原因導致的呢？我認為，槓桿率的上升更多是為了利潤，而不是為了償還債務。您能否向我們介紹一下自由現金流的可見性，您認為多快可以達到槓桿目標，以及總體而言，您如何考慮明年甚至未來幾年在股息和股票回購以及併購之間的現金部署？謝謝。

Hey, Chris. It's Dave. Let me take that from the top. So yes, our forecasted leverage ratio for this year is now 3.4 times versus 3.2 times. As I said in my prepared remarks, that's entirely due to the takedown in our profit. So in terms of our forecasted free cash flow, we're on track with our plan in terms of how much debt we expect to pay down. The free cash flow conversion is now above 100% because that's a metric of free cash flow as related to net income. So with net income coming down, obviously, that's going to go up.

嘿，克里斯。是戴夫。讓我從頭開始講這個。所以是的，我們預測今年的槓桿率現在是 3.4 倍，而不是 3.2 倍。正如我在準備好的發言中所說，這完全是由於我們的利潤下降。因此，就我們預測的自由現金流而言，我們在償還債務方面的計劃是按計劃進行的。自由現金流轉換率現已超過 100%，因為這是與淨收入相關的自由現金流指標。因此，隨著淨收入的下降，顯然這個數字將會上升。

But the broader point there is we're really pleased with our performance in free cash flow. The company's very focused on it as an organization. And now that we've come out of COVID, we're really making great progress in working capital, particularly with inventory.

但更廣泛的一點是，我們對我們的自由現金流表現非常滿意。作為一個組織，公司非常重視這一點。現在我們已經擺脫了 COVID，我們在營運資金方面確實取得了巨大進展，特別是庫存方面。

Our supply chain organization is doing a fantastic job setting goals to take days of inventory out. Things like tax, just other areas of cash, we're just really focused on it. So we're really pleased with the progress, and it's going to continue to be a priority for us. So as I also said in my prepared remarks, we still expect it to hit our long-term leverage target of 3 times by the end of fiscal '26. And so that's where we are.

我們的供應鏈組織正在出色地完成工作，並制定了清除幾天庫存的目標。我們非常關注稅收等現金領域。因此，我們對進展感到非常滿意，並且這將繼續成為我們的首要任務。因此，正如我在準備好的發言中所說的那樣，我們仍然預計到26財年末它將達到3倍的長期槓桿率目標。這就是我們現在的狀況。

And then we've always talked about a balanced approach to capital allocation. Over the years, you've seen us do a lot of things in terms of M&A, both acquisitions, divestiture, share repurchase, levering up and then paying down our debt. We're open to everything, and we like the flexibility, candidly, that we would have. But we are super focused on getting to that 3 times target for leverage by the end of fiscal '26.

我們一直在談論平衡的資本配置方法。多年來，你已經看到我們在併購方面做了很多事情，包括收購、資產剝離、股票回購、槓桿化以及償還債務。我們對一切都持開放態度，坦白說，我們喜歡我們所擁有的靈活性。但我們非常專注於在26財政年度結束時實現3倍的槓桿目標。

Okay. Thanks so much.

好的。非常感謝。

Thomas Palmer, Citi.

花旗銀行的托馬斯·帕爾默。

Good morning. Thanks for the question. I wanted to ask -- the presentation indicates that the third-quarter operating margin is expected to be the lowest of the year. I think this would then imply that 4Q would be the highest of the year. So I just want to make sure I kind of understand the key drivers of this expected inflection come 4Q. I know there is some incremental pricing. Are the investments you noted for the third quarter expected to taper off in the fourth quarter? Just any help on that inflection. Thanks.

早安.謝謝你的提問。我想問一下——報告顯示，預計第三季的營業利潤率將是今年最低的。我認為這意味著第四季度將是今年以來的最高水平。所以我只是想確保我理解第四季度預期會出現這一拐點的關鍵驅動因素。我知道存在一些增量定價。您在第三季提到的投資預計會在第四季逐漸減少嗎？只需對這一語調提供任何幫助即可。謝謝。

Yes. Let me try to give you some perspective on that. So kind of take it from the top, let me give you a little bit more color on Q3. So we do expect volumes to sequentially improve, as we talked about in the third quarter. And we did talk about, and Sean did a nice job of summarizing sort of the dynamic with trade and the shift from Q2 to Q3. So that's in there.

是的。讓我嘗試為您提供一些關於此的看法。那麼從頭開始，讓我給你更多關於 Q3 的詳細資訊。因此，我們確實預計銷量將連續改善，正如我們在第三季度談到的那樣。我們確實討論過，肖恩很好地總結了貿易的動態以及從第二季到第三季的轉變。這就是它。

We also have a little bit more kind of innovation investment, if you will, in slotting that's going to come in for Q3 that's impacting us there. We did comment that we do believe operating margin will be the lowest of all the quarters for the year.

如果你願意的話，我們還會在第三季進行更多的創新投資，這將對我們產生影響。我們確實評論說，我們確實相信營業利潤率將是今年所有季度中最低的。

Our A&P and SG&A are going to be in line with a year ago. So it's basically that. And then from an inflation perspective, obviously, we've taken up our forecast to close to 4% for the full year, and it will be higher in Q3 than Q4. So that's another kind of dynamic there. So that's just the flow of how Q3 will go.

我們的廣告、銷售費用及一般費用將與一年前持平。基本上就是這樣。然後從通膨角度來看，顯然我們將全年通膨預測上調至接近 4%，且第三季的通膨率將高於第四季。那是另一種動態。這就是第三季的進度流程。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Peter Galbo, Bank of America.

美國銀行的彼得‧加爾博 (Peter Galbo)。

Hey, guys. Good morning. Sean, I just wanted to ask -- I know you said there was no Thanksgiving kind of timing benefit to the quarter, but slide 15, you have the Staples portfolio, with several of the brands that were kind of growing double digits. So just wondering if there was any hurricane impact in the quarter maybe that helped benefit some of the shipments that might not repeat and, if so, if you could just quantify that for us. Thanks very much.

嘿，大家好。早安.肖恩，我只是想問一下——我知道您說過本季度沒有感恩節這樣的時間優勢，但在第 15 張幻燈片中，您展示了史泰博的產品組合，其中有幾個品牌的增長率都達到了兩位數。所以我只是想知道本季是否受到颶風的影響，這也許有助於一些可能不會重複的貨物運輸，如果是這樣，您是否可以為我們量化一下。非常感謝。

Pete, there was a, I would say, characterize it as a very small benefit from the hurricane in the G&S segment, but not material to our overall results for the quarter.

皮特，我想說，颶風為 G&S 部門帶來了很小的好處，但對我們本季的整體業績影響並不大。

Robert Moskow, TD Cowen.

羅伯特·莫斯科（Robert Moskow），TD Cowen。

I think the Lamb Weston call took all the energy out of the sell side, so I'm going to try to inject a little more into this one. So Sean, you've raised your inflation guidance just a little bit, and it's had a pretty substantial impact to your earnings outlook. Is it more difficult than normal to put through pricing to offset higher costs because of where the consumer is right now? And I know you -- I know the guidance assumes that these costs come right back down again, but some of them look a little sticky, particularly cocoa. So what happens if those costs stay high into fiscal '26?

我認為 Lamb Weston 的電話耗費了賣方所有的精力，所以我將嘗試在這通電話中註入更多精力。肖恩，你稍微上調了通膨預期，這對你的獲利前景產生了相當大的影響。由於消費者目前的狀況，透過定價來抵消更高的成本是否比平常更困難？我知道，指導意見假設這些成本會再次下降，但其中一些成本看起來有點棘手，尤其是可可。那麼，如果這些成本在26財年仍然居高不下，會發生什麼事？

Yeah, let me unpack that for you, Rob. First, taking it from the top, the EPS call down today equates basically identically to the inflation in the back half versus what we had previously expected, that's the majority of it, plus FX. So it's just -- that queues up, and that is the reason, back to the earlier question around the leverage going from 3.2 to 3.4. It's not the need to invest more or any of that, and I want to make sure we don't get caught up in that. So on a percentage basis, while it looks, hey, 3% to 4% on a dollar basis in terms of inflation and the impact on EPS, it just -- it ticks and ties.

是的，讓我來為你解答一下，羅布。首先，從頂部開始，今天的每股盈餘下調基本上相當於下半年的通貨膨脹，而不是我們先前的預期，這是其中的大部分，加上外匯。所以這只是 — — 排隊，這就是原因，回到之前關於槓桿率從 3.2 上升到 3.4 的問題。這並不是需要投入更多資金或諸如此類的事情，我想確保我們不會陷入這種境地。因此，從百分比來看，雖然從通貨膨脹和對每股收益的影響來看，以美元計算，它看起來是 3% 到 4%，但它只是 - 它在滴答作響。

As to what's driving that, it's really -- yes, there's inflation in cocoa and sweeteners, and that's very narrow in our portfolio and we will be pricing to offset that, but the bigger driver for us has been protein. It's meats, eggs, things like that. And we did anticipate that there would be inflation in the second half, but we anticipated that level of inflation will be lower. And we still anticipate that those peak protein costs are going to come down pretty much across the board, but there's a bit of a deferral for that.

至於推動這一趨勢的因素，確實是——是的，可可和甜味劑存在通貨膨脹，而這在我們的產品組合中佔比非常小，我們將透過定價來抵消這一影響，但對我們來說，更大的驅動力是蛋白質。包括肉、蛋、諸如此類的東西。我們確實預計下半年會出現通貨膨脹，但我們預期通膨水準會較低。我們仍然預計峰值蛋白質成本將全面下降，但是會稍微推遲一些。

So then it kind of leaves it as a judgment call for companies like ours, which is, if you believe that the forward curves are going to be coming down, do you want to price, start the whole cycle all over again of the lag, the elasticity effect? And right now, we think what's in the best interest of the consumer and in the best interest of our shareholder with respect to kind of long-term cash flows and value creation is to keep the top line momentum. And that's what we're doing. It's been working very well for us. It was great to get back to positive territory. And so obviously, there's a margin implication near term, but we do see that changing.

因此，對於我們這樣的公司來說，這有點像是判斷，如果你相信遠期曲線將會下降，那麼你是否要定價，重新開始整個滯後、彈性效應的週期？現在，我們認為，就長期現金流和價值創造而言，最符合消費者利益和股東利益的就是保持營收成長動能。這正是我們正在做的事情。我們使用它非常有效。回到正面的狀態真是太好了。因此顯然，短期內這會對利潤產生影響，但我們確實看到這種情況正在改變。

Now, you never know. We thought the back half was going to be less inflationary. If we find ourselves in next fiscal and there's more inflation, we'll deal with that then. But that's just a little color on kind of how we're looking at things now. And I think the headline is we've got really strong brand performance. We've got industry-leading share performance. We think the right thing to do is to keep that momentum.

現在，你永遠不知道。我們認為下半年通膨將會降低。如果我們發現在下一個財政年度，通貨膨脹加劇，我們就會解決這個問題。但這只是我們現在看待事物的一點說明。我認為最重要的是我們擁有非常強大的品牌表現。我們的股票表現在業界處於領先地位。我們認為正確的做法是保持這種勢頭。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Alexia Howard, Bernstein.

亞歷克西亞·霍華德，伯恩斯坦。

Good morning, everyone. Just taking a little bit of a different tack, you announced your Healthy Choice GLP-1 on track messaging recently. Can you talk about what insights you've gathered from that segment and plans for maybe expanding that program over time?

大家早安。只是採取了稍微不同的策略，你們最近宣布了健康選擇 GLP-1 的追蹤資訊。您能談談您從該部分收集到了哪些見解，以及隨著時間的推移擴大該計劃的計劃嗎？

Sure. Well, this is an opportunity for me, Alexia, to kind of give a little promotional shout-out to our forthcoming CAGNY presentation this year. The centerpiece of our presentation at CAGNY is going to be titled The Future of Frozen and the Future of Snacking.

當然。好吧，對於我 Alexia 來說，這是一個機會，可以對我們今年即將舉行的 CAGNY 演講進行一點宣傳。我們在 CAGNY 演講的核心主題是「冷凍食品的未來和零食的未來」。

And really, the point there is we think our categories are extremely well positioned in a dynamic macro environment, including a macro environment that has speculation around GLP-1s and regulatory and things like that. And we think brands like Healthy Choice could really benefit in that kind of environment and we think snacks that are protein-centric and fiber-centric as well.

實際上，我們認為我們的產品類別在動態宏觀環境中處於極其有利的地位，包括圍繞 GLP-1 和監管等進行猜測的宏觀環境。我們認為，像 Healthy Choice 這樣的品牌在這樣的環境中確實受益，而且我們認為以蛋白質和纖維為中心的零食也是如此。

With respect to Healthy Choice, we did add what you might think of as a wayfinder on the front of the package for people that are managing their diet proactively, including using GLP-1s. So the title of the wayfinder is called On Track, and we use the language GLP-1 friendly on there. And there was an article in the paper last week that kind of talked about that if anybody wants to dig into it more. But obviously, it's small right now in terms of the number of people on it. People who do go on it are still dropping off of it.

關於健康選擇，我們確實在包裝正面添加了一個指南，供那些積極管理飲食（包括使用 GLP-1）的人使用。因此，尋路器的標題是“On Track”，我們在其中使用了 GLP-1 友善的語言。如果有人想進一步了解的話，上週報紙上有一篇文章討論了這個問題。但顯然，目前它的規模還很小。那些繼續上路的人仍然在逐漸減少。

And what's interesting about that is a brand like Healthy Choice we think can be a solution for both somebody who is actively taking a GLP-1 drug, but also somebody who gives it up but then is seeking to maintain the progress that they've made while on GLP-1s. Those consumers need a bit of an off-ramp and Healthy Choice provides an excellent off-ramp for them as well. So we're on trend, and we will focus our marketing and our packaging to make sure people know that.

有趣的是，我們認為像 Healthy Choice 這樣的品牌可以為正在服用 GLP-1 藥物的人提供解決方案，也可以為放棄服用但希望保持服用 GLP-1 期間所取得進展的人提供解決方案。這些消費者需要一些出口，而 Healthy Choice 也為他們提供了極佳的出口。因此，我們緊跟潮流，並將重點放在我們的行銷和包裝，以確保人們了解這一點。

Great. Thank you very much. I'll pass it on.

偉大的。非常感謝。我會傳達的。

Max Gumport, BNP.

英國國家銀行的馬克斯·甘波特（Max Gumport）。

Hey. Thanks for the question. And this might be stealing the thunder from your upcoming CAGNY presentation, it sounds like. But Sean, you touched on the move within snacking to protein and healthy snacks. And really, that's a microcosm for what we're seeing in the broader packaged food industry this year. You've got higher protein categories like nutrition shakes, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, all leading on the growth side, and then you've got unhealthy snacking categories that are showing larger declines. In your view, what's driving this trend, and how long do you think it can persist? Thanks.

嘿。謝謝你的提問。這聽起來可能會搶走您即將進行的 CAGNY 演講的風頭。但是肖恩，你提到了從零食轉向蛋白質和健康零食。事實上，這只是今年我們在整個包裝食品產業所見情況的一個縮影。營養奶昔、白軟乾酪、希臘優格等蛋白質含量較高的類別均處於成長趨勢，而不健康的零食類別則呈現較大的下降趨勢。您認為推動此趨勢的因素是什麼？謝謝。

Well, snacking is -- how big snacking is it's $80 billion. It's a huge space and it's a space that has always had a tremendous amount of variety. And depending upon what the hot macro trends are, you'll see some shifting within that space from variety to variety. It just so happens that for a whole host of reasons, things like protein and fiber are super on trend right now. And who knows how that'll change. I don't see any change on the horizon in terms of protein and fiber and low carb really being on trend. And so we are highly concentrated in our snack business in those benefit areas.

那麼，零食——零食的市場規模有多大？這是一個巨大的空間，也是一個始終具有巨大多樣性的空間。根據當前的宏觀趨勢，您會看到該領域內各種趨勢的轉變。碰巧的是，由於各種原因，蛋白質和纖維之類的東西現在非常流行。誰知道情況將會發生怎樣的變化。我沒有看到蛋白質和纖維方面有任何變化，低碳水化合物確實成為流行趨勢。因此，我們的零食業務高度集中在這些受益領域。

And what happens when you get on trend like that is the categories grow and retailers add new brands just to satisfy the demand. So when you think about big categories, in the food industry, you see cookies as an example. You see a lot of variety, and that's needed to satisfy demand. So that's why you see in areas like meat sticks, new brands showing up, because that's textbook.

當你順應這種趨勢時，類別就會不斷擴大，零售商也會增加新品牌以滿足需求。因此，當你考慮到食品業的大類別時，你會看到餅乾就是一個例子。您會看到很多種類，而這是為了滿足需求而需要的。所以這就是為什麼你會看到在肉串等領域出現新的品牌，因為這是教科書式的。

And that's why we acquired the Fatty smoked meats business because it's a new brand, it's playing that role, and it's growing at a super-fast rate. So we now have in meat sticks what we call the trifecta smokehouse between Slim Jim, Duke's, and Fatty. And we think having a suite of brands there, just like we do in popcorn and seeds, is the best way to continue capitalizing on that growth. But I don't see those trends changing, and I like being protein-centric, fiber-centric, and I like not being DSD. That's a good combination for snack business.

這就是我們收購 Fatty 煙燻肉類業務的原因，因為它是一個新品牌，它扮演著這個角色，並且正在以超快的速度成長。因此，我們現在在肉串中有了所謂的 Slim Jim、Duke's 和 Fatty 的三重熏制坊。我們認為，就像我們在中國市場推出爆米花和種子品牌一樣，在中國市場推出一系列品牌是繼續利用這一成長機會的最佳方式。但我沒有看到這些趨勢改變，我喜歡以蛋白質為中心、以纖維為中心，我不喜歡 DSD。對於零食生意來說這是一個很好的組合。

Great. Thanks very much.

偉大的。非常感謝。

Rob Dickerson, Jefferies.

傑富瑞的羅伯‧迪克森 (Rob Dickerson)。

Great, thanks. Just a quick easy question. I might be wrong, but I thought Q2 was supposed to be the highest spend for the year, just in terms of advertising and promotion. But then I also hear maybe there's a little bit more trade going into Q3 and I heard a little time shift. And then also, I think you said total SG&A and ad and promo would be the same in Q3 relative to last year's Q3, right, which implies Q3 is higher.

非常好，謝謝。這只是一個簡單的問題。我可能錯了，但我認為第二季度應該是今年支出最高的季度，僅就廣告和促銷而言。但隨後我還聽說第三季的貿易可能會稍微多一些，而且我聽說時間上會有一些變化。而且，我認為您說過，第三季度的銷售、一般及行政開支總額以及廣告和促銷費用與去年第三季度相比將相同，對吧，這意味著第三季度的銷售額會更高。

So was there anything that just occurred in the quarter where you say, okay, hey, we might have a few new innovations that might have slipped into Q3, so maybe we'll also shift some of that ad and promo, or maybe we want to promote a little bit more in December into the holidays. Just trying to gauge kind of the, I guess it's seasonality to a certain extent on ad and promo, but just kind of how you're thinking about that as we move through Q3.

那麼，本季度是否發生了一些事情讓您說，好吧，嘿，我們可能會有一些新的創新，可能會進入第三季度，所以也許我們也會轉移一些廣告和促銷，或者也許我們想在 12 月到假期期間進行更多的促銷。只是想衡量一下，我猜這在一定程度上是廣告和促銷的季節性，但當我們進入第三季時，您是如何看待這一點的。

Let me take that, Rob. So just kind of take it from the top, from a dollar perspective, we spend the most in Q2 in terms of trade merchandising, just in terms of absolute dollars. Although Sean talked about it, we were a bit favorable to our forecast, and that shifted to Q3.

讓我來接手，羅布。因此，從美元角度來看，就絕對美元而言，我們在第二季的貿易商品支出最多。儘管肖恩談論了這一點，但我們對我們的預測還是有點樂觀，而這轉移到了第三季。

From an A&P perspective, we are ramping up A&P, so that will continue to ramp up so that by the end of the year, I think our A&P percentage is pretty much in line with the prior year is what we said. And so that would ramp up, and that obviously will start in Q3.

從廣告和銷售角度來看，我們正在加大廣告和銷售力度，因此到今年年底，我認為我們的廣告和銷售百分比將與去年基本持平。因此，這一數字將會增加，而且顯然會在第三季開始。

I mentioned, too, that we did have a little bit of innovation investment that was higher -- that we expect to be higher in Q3 versus what we had forecasted before. Again, not really material, but it is an increase versus what we had forecasted before. And then SG&A, as you had commented, we're still -- kind of our commentary is the same in terms of where we expect SG&A to be.

我也提到過，我們確實有一點創新投資，而且比較高——我們預計第三季的創新投資將高於我們先前的預測。再次，雖然不是很重要，但與我們先前的預測相比有所增加。然後是銷售、一般和行政費用，正如您所評論的那樣，就我們預期的銷售、一般和行政費用而言，我們的評論仍然相同。

So they're really the dynamics, I would say, that hopefully answered your question.

所以我想說，它們確實是一種動力，希望能回答您的問題。

Yeah. And Rob, most of those events are easy to plan. Thanksgiving and Christmas and Lent, you know where they fall on the calendar, you can plan around. The ones where you have to stay more agile is support for business like Swiss Miss, where the weather moves around and you want to try to have your investment tracked with when the weather hits. But I wouldn't say that that type of variability is material at all in the scheme of our spending.

是的。羅布，大多數活動都很容易規劃。感恩節、聖誕節和四旬齋，你知道它們在日曆上的位置，你可以據此制定計劃。你必須保持更敏捷的是支持像 Swiss Miss 這樣的業務，因為天氣會不斷變化，當天氣變化時，你要嘗試追蹤你的投資。但我不會說這種變化在我們的支出計劃中具有實質意義。

Okay, perfect. No, that was great. Thank you.

好的，完美。不，那太棒了。謝謝。

Leah Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的利亞喬丹 (Leah Jordan)。

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Seeing if you could comment on the competitive environment in frozen. A large peer has talked about adding capacity in the category and stepping up some investments to support its growth. So just seeing if you have seen any shift in behavior yet and how you think these changes could impact your ability to continue to drive volume improvement going forward.

早安.感謝您回答我的問題。看看您是否可以評論一下《冰雪奇緣》中的競爭環境。一家大型同業已談到增加該類別的產能，並加大投資以支持其成長。因此，只是看看您是否已經看到任何行為轉變，以及您認為這些變化將如何影響您繼續推動未來銷售改善的能力。

Well, frozen is an absolutely awesome space. We've been saying that pretty much exclusively for about 10 years, so I'm glad people are starting to recognize the opportunity in the space because it's a vast domain within the retailer store, and we've been really the only ones that have been active in driving that. And as a result, our products and our innovation machine is well out ahead of our competition. You can see that in extremely strong market share.

嗯，《冰雪奇緣》絕對是個令人驚奇的空間。大約 10 年來，我們一直在獨家談論這一點，所以我很高興人們開始認識到這個領域的機遇，因為這是零售商店中的廣闊領域，而我們實際上是唯一積極推動這一領域的公司。因此，我們的產品和創新機器遠遠領先於競爭對手。您可以看到其極強的市場份額。

So we love our model. We're just going to continue to drive it and lead it. And to the degree the retailers continue to appreciate how much upside and innovation space remains in frozen, the faster the overall category is going to grow, and we're the leaders globally in frozen, and certainly clearly in the US as you can see by the share numbers, and we intend to stay that way.

所以我們喜歡我們的模型。我們只是將繼續推動和引領它。並且，隨著零售商繼續認識到冷凍食品的上升空間和創新空間，整個類別的增長速度就會越快，而且我們在全球冷凍食品領域處於領先地位，當然在美國也是如此，這從份額數字就可以看出來，我們打算保持這種狀態。

Thank you.

謝謝。

There are no further questions at this time, and I would like to turn the call over to Matthew Neisius for closing remarks.

現在沒有其他問題了，我想將發言時間交給馬修‧內修斯 (Matthew Neisius)，請他作最後發言。

Thank you, Wyatt, and thank you all for joining us today. Please reach out to investor relations with any additional questions.

謝謝你，懷亞特，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。如有其他問題，請聯絡投資者關係部。

Have a happy holidays, everyone.

祝大家節日快樂。

Happy holidays, indeed. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

確實節日快樂。會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。