康尼格拉食品 (CAG) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Conagra Brands fourth quarter 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 財年第四季財報電話會議。（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 Matthew Neisius, Senior Director 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高級總監馬修·內修斯 (Matthew Neisius)。請繼續。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Once again, I'm joined this morning by Sean Connolly, our CEO; and Dave Marberger, our CFO.

大家早安，感謝大家的收看。今天上午，我再次與我們的執行長 Sean Connolly 和財務長 Dave Marberger 一起出席。

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.

我們可能會在本次會議期間做出一些前瞻性陳述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 的對賬以及有關我們的可比項目的信息。

I'll now ask the operator to introduce the first question.

現在我請接線生介紹第一個問題。

(Operator Instructions) Andrew Lazar, Barclays.

（操作員指示）巴克萊銀行的安德魯·拉扎爾。

Great. Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Sean, I know you and I think other industry leaders have often said that it doesn't make much sense for a company to take sort of a full margin reset to increase spending against the consumer if they're not sort of ready to engage in some categories yet because that means you don't really get the required lift on that spend. And you also may not get all the margin back in a reasonable time frame.

偉大的。謝謝。大家早安。肖恩，我知道你和其他行業領袖經常說，如果一家公司還沒有準備好涉足某些類別，那麼採取全面利潤重置來增加針對消費者的支出是沒有意義的，因為這意味著你並沒有真正獲得針對消費者支出所需的提升。而且您可能也無法在合理的時間內收回所有保證金。

But I guess as we've seen with some other sort of fiscal year reporters of late and with Conagra's '26 guidance today, it does appear a more aggressive investment approach is sort of needed and being taken. And I guess my question is, should that suggest to us that you think the current challenges the industry is facing are more structural this time around? Or how should we read all of that?

但我想，正如我們最近在其他一些財政年度報告中看到的那樣，以及今天康尼格拉的 26 年指引中看到的那樣，似乎確實需要並正在採取一種更積極的投資方式。我的問題是，這是否表明您認為該行業目前面臨的挑戰更具結構性？或者我們該如何解讀這一切？

All right, Andrew. Let me tackle that. Good question. First, as you saw in our prepared materials, we got a tremendous consumer response to our volume-focused investments in the first half of fiscal '25 before we ran into the supply constraints that we've talked about.

好的，安德魯。讓我來解決這個問題。好問題。首先，正如您在我們準備的材料中看到的，在我們遇到我們談到的供應限制之前，我們在 25 財年上半年以數量為重點的投資獲得了消費者的熱烈響應。

In fact, recall, we started those investments in the back half of fiscal '24, and we saw excellent lifts even then. So the consumer, at least on our portfolio and our key areas of frozen snacks is definitely responsive to investment and that's why we returned to absolute volume growth in Q2 of last year.

事實上，回想一下，我們在 24 財年下半年就開始了這些投資，而且那時我們就看到了極好的成長。因此，至少對於我們的產品組合和冷凍零食的主要領域而言，消費者肯定對投資做出了積極反應，這也是為什麼我們在去年第二季度恢復了絕對銷售成長。

As for the decision to continue our focus on investing to drive volume in frozen -- volume in frozen snacks even in a still inflationary environment. Let's copper up to the big picture for a second because I think it's critically important context. The above average inflation cycle that we still sit in started in the back half of our fiscal '21, and it has persisted since then. That means that this year, which is our fiscal '26, is the sixth consecutive year of inflation above historical norms, so definitely not transitory.

至於我們決定繼續專注於投資以推動冷凍食品的銷售量——即使在通膨依然存在的環境下，冷凍零食的銷售量。讓我們先來回顧一下大局，因為我認為這是至關重要的背景。我們目前所處的高於平均水準的通膨週期始於21財年下半年，並且自那時起一直持續。這意味著今年，也就是我們的 26 財年，通貨膨脹率連續第六年高於歷史正常水平，因此絕對不是暫時的。

Cumulatively for us, we're talking about over $2 billion in higher total delivery costs. We did price for inflation broadly across the portfolio through fiscal '24 and offset most all of the higher cost to that point. But in fiscal '25, which was the fifth year of above average inflation, we began prioritizing a return to volume growth, which required investment. That remains our strategy in fiscal '26.

對我們來說，累計起來，總運輸成本將增加 20 多億美元。我們確實對整個投資組合在 24 財年期間的通貨膨脹進行了廣泛的定價，並抵消了當時的大部分較高成本。但在 25 財年，也就是通貨膨脹率高於平均的第五年，我們開始優先考慮恢復銷售成長，這需要投資。這仍然是我們26財年的策略。

Unfortunately, inflation across fiscal '25 and fiscal '26 combined adds another 11% of cost, and the confluence of high inflation and higher investments to drive volume translates to temporary margin compression. So at the end of the day though, we are in the business of building brands, and it's hard to build brands when relentless pricing actions broad-based across the portfolio lead to protracted volume declines.

不幸的是，25財年和26財年的通貨膨脹合計又增加了11%的成本，高通貨膨脹和增加投資推動銷量的共同作用導致了利潤率的暫時壓縮。所以，歸根究底，我們的業務是打造品牌，而當整個產品組合中無情的定價行動導致銷售量長期下降時，打造品牌就會變得很困難。

We believe that healthy volumes are key at this point to long-term value creation. So we are investing margin this year in the service of volume. But I do not see it as structural, we absolutely expect margin expansion going forward, particularly in frozen. And here are the building blocks. It starts with productivity. In fiscal '26, between core productivity and tariff mitigation efforts, the number is just over 5%, which is very strong.

我們相信，目前健康的銷售是創造長期價值的關鍵。因此，我們今年將投資保證金來提高產量。但我並不認為這是結構性的，我們絕對預期利潤率將會擴大，特別是在凍結時期。以下是構建模組。一切始於生產力。在26財年，核心生產力和關稅減免力度的結合使得這一數字略高於5%，這是一個非常強勁的勢頭。

Second, at some point, we will get inflation relief, hopefully, back closer to our typical 2%. Third, the advancement of our supply chain resiliency investments, including our chicken plant will enable us to repatriate outsourced production at lower costs.

其次，在某個時候，我們將獲得通膨緩解，希望回到接近我們典型的 2% 的水平。第三，包括雞肉加工廠在內的供應鏈彈性投資的推進將使我們能夠以較低的成本將外包生產轉移回國內。

Fourth, we are taking pricing in certain categories. And fifth, we are kicking off an ambitious initiative to reengineer our core work processes, leveraging technology, including AI, to accelerate growth and lower costs. So more on that one on a later date. But between these actions and our ongoing efforts to reshape the portfolio for faster growth and better margins, we expect good margin expansion following fiscal '26.

第四，我們正在對某些類別進行定價。第五，我們正在啟動一項雄心勃勃的計劃，重塑我們的核心工作流程，利用包括人工智慧在內的技術來加速成長並降低成本。稍後我會對此進行更多討論。但是，透過採取這些行動以及我們不斷努力重塑投資組合以實現更快的成長和更高的利潤率，我們預計 26 財年後利潤率將實現良好的成長。

Got it. Thanks very much. I'll pass the line.

知道了。非常感謝。我會通過這條線。

Peter Galbo, Bank of America.

美國銀行的彼得‧加爾博 (Peter Galbo)。

Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Dave, maybe you could just help us unpack the 4% core inflation number for fiscal '26. There's obviously a lot of buckets within that, but maybe just some of the moving pieces there, what's inflating double digits? What's down to kind of net you to the 4% just as we kind of think about all the moving parts? Thanks.

嘿，大家好。早安.感謝您回答這個問題。戴夫，也許你可以幫我們解讀一下 26 財年 4% 的核心通膨數字。顯然，其中有很多桶，但也許只是一些移動的部分，是什麼讓兩位數膨脹？當我們考慮所有活動部件時，什麼能讓您達到 4% 的淨利潤？謝謝。

Yeah. Let me take it from the top, Peter. So if you look at our total cost of goods sold. So when we quote inflation of 4% core, that's on our total cost of goods sold. Roughly 60% of our total cost of goods sold are material costs, so our ingredients are packaging and then 25% manufacturing, 15% kind of logistics type costs.

是的。讓我從頭開始說吧，彼得。所以如果你看一下我們的銷售商品總成本。因此，當我們引用 4% 的核心通膨率時，這指的是我們的總銷售成本。我們銷售商品總成本的大約 60% 是材料成本，因此我們的成分是包裝，然後是 25% 的製造成本和 15% 的物流成本。

So when you look at that 60% of material costs, about 20% of that bucket are animal proteins. And this is our beef, our chicken, our pork, our turkey, you could put eggs in that classification as well. Those costs are inflating double digits in fiscal '26. That's our estimate right now. So that is the single biggest impact to the overall inflation rate of 4%.

因此，當您查看 60% 的材料成本時，其中約 20% 是動物蛋白。這是我們的牛肉、雞肉、豬肉、火雞，你也可以把雞蛋歸類在這一類。這些成本在 26 財年成長了兩位數。這是我們目前的估計。因此，這是對 4% 的整體通膨率最大的影響。

We are seeing additional inflation in areas kind of like corrugated cocoa, obviously, although it's not a bigger absolute spend for us, but it's still -- given the rate of inflation, it's still high. So that's really driving a big part of our inflation.

我們看到瓦楞可可等領域的通貨膨脹明顯增加，雖然這對我們來說不是一筆更大的絕對支出，但考慮到通貨膨脹率，它仍然很高。所以這確實是造成通貨膨脹的主要原因。

We are also seeing inflation in our manufacturing infrastructure with our labor. And on the transportation and warehousing side, not seeing any pressure on the fuel side. Actually, that's a bit down. But on the warehousing part of it in line haul, we are seeing some inflation there. And so they are really the key drivers to get us to the 4% we're estimating for '26. And then, obviously, the tariff piece of that is an additional 3%, which we talked about.

我們也看到製造業基礎設施和勞動力的通貨膨脹。在運輸和倉儲方面，燃料方面沒有出現任何壓力。事實上，這有點令人沮喪。但在幹線運輸的倉儲部分，我們看到了一些通貨膨脹。因此，它們確實是推動我們實現 26 年預計 4% 成長目標的關鍵驅動力。然後，顯然其中的關稅部分又增加了 3%，我們已經討論過了。

Got it. No, that's helpful context. And apologies guys here, and equity guys going to ask a leverage question, which I know can always come off a little weird. But look, Dave, like with where the leverage is projected to go this year, the need to kind of shore up the supply chain with the capital spend. Just like your draws on cash are pretty significant.

知道了。不，這是有幫助的背景。向各位表示歉意，股票投資人將詢問槓桿問題，我知道這個問題總是會顯得有點奇怪。但是，戴夫，你看，就像今年預計的槓桿率走向一樣，需要透過資本支出來支撐供應鏈。就像你提領的現金相當可觀。

And so I guess the broader question that we're feeling this morning is like why not address the dividend. The payout ratio is very high. Again, you got a refi a lot. So maybe you can just touch on -- and in the prepared remarks, you said it twice, I think, on maintaining the dividend. Just why that is the best course over the next year? Thanks very much.

所以我想我們今天早上想到的更廣泛的問題是為什麼不解決股息問題。派息率非常高。再次，你獲得了很多再融資。所以也許您可以簡單談談——在準備好的發言中，我想您已經兩次提到維持股息的問題。為什麼這是明年最好的課程？非常感謝。

Yes, for sure. So as we said and I'll communicate again today, we're committed to paying an attractive dividend to the shareholders in addition to paying down debt, and remaining investment-grade credit rating. And so when you look at our fiscal '26 cash flow forecast, we talked about 90% conversion. So we're able to support the increase in investments that we talked about in our infrastructure with chicken.

是的，當然。因此，正如我們所說的，我今天將再次溝通，除了償還債務和保持投資級信用評級外，我們還致力於向股東支付有吸引力的股息。因此，當您查看我們的 26 財年現金流預測時，我們談到了 90% 的轉換率。因此，我們能夠支持我們在雞肉基礎設施方面所談論的增加投資。

Our CapEx, we're expecting to be up 16%. We are forecasting to pay debt down by $700 million this year, that $600 million from the proceeds from the divestitures of chef and our fish brands, in addition to discretionary cash flow from the business of another $100 million.

我們的資本支出預計將成長 16%。我們預計今年將償還 7 億美元的債務，其中 6 億美元來自廚師和魚類品牌的剝離收益，另外還有 1 億美元的業務可自由支配現金流。

So we're investing in the business. We're paying debt down by $700 million, and that's with holding the dividend flat to where it is today. So we don't feel at all that we're compromising the investments we need to make in the business. We're continuing to pay down debt, which is our goal.

所以我們正在投資這項業務。我們將償還 7 億美元的債務，同時將股息維持在目前的水平。因此，我們完全不覺得我們正在損害我們在業務上需要進行的投資。我們正在繼續償還債務，這是我們的目標。

The leverage ratio has gone the other way, and that's because of the impact on our profit and our EBITDA. But we feel very good about the way we're managing cash in this company, as you've seen in the last two years, and we are forecasting that we're going to be able to continue to do that. And as Sean talked about, we see a lot of positive levers to drive profit and margins back in fiscal '27, so we look at this as an investment year and transitory year, but we're still able to fund the business and fund the dividend and pay down debt.

槓桿率卻出現了相反的變化，這是因為它影響了我們的利潤和 EBITDA。但正如您在過去兩年所看到的，我們對公司管理現金的方式感到非常滿意，我們預測我們將能夠繼續這樣做。正如肖恩所說，我們看到很多積極的槓桿來推動 27 財年的利潤和利潤率回升，因此我們將其視為投資年和過渡年，但我們仍然能夠為業務提供資金、支付股息並償還債務。

Thanks very much.

非常感謝。

David Palmer, Evercore ISI.

大衛·帕爾默（David Palmer），Evercore ISI。

Thanks. Another big picture question. I'm wondering how you're thinking about price and promotion as the answer or perhaps not the answer in your major categories and by saying not the answer, I'm thinking maybe there's other types of growth spending that you would want to ramp up as you see what's going on in your key categories competitively and just per category.

謝謝。另一個大問題。我想知道您如何看待價格和促銷作為答案，或者可能不是您主要類別的答案，透過說不是答案，我想也許還有其他類型的成長支出，當您看到關鍵類別的競爭力和每個類別的情況時，您會希望增加這些支出。

So for example, in frozen vegetables, I would imagine there would be higher trade down risk and you might think about price promotion being more the answer on a category like that, whereas in some of your other categories where you have some brands that can win, there might be some premium brands that are also winning that are informing how you could perhaps adjust your innovation, other types of marketing to win in a way that doesn't speak to price promotion. So any comments on that? And I have a quick follow-up.

舉例來說，在冷凍蔬菜領域，我認為降價風險會更高，而您可能認為價格促銷是這類產品的更佳解決方案，而在其他一些產品類別中，您的一些品牌可能會獲勝，一些高端品牌也可能獲勝，這些品牌正在指導您如何調整創新和其他類型的營銷，以不依賴價格促銷的方式取勝。對此有什麼評論嗎？我有一個快速的後續行動。

Yeah. David, the way I think about that is unlike some of the peer set, we are not in search of answers in terms of how to get to volume growth. We know how to get to volume growth. We were doing it for five consecutive quarters through the second quarter when we got to absolute growth for the total portfolio and very strong growth for frozen and snacks. So the model is clear. We just had to get through the supply constraints in the back half of this year, and we are doing that.

是的。大衛，我的想法與其他一些同行不同，我們不是在尋找如何實現銷售成長的答案。我們知道如何實現產量成長。到第二季度為止，我們已經連續五個季度這樣做了，我們的整個產品組合實現了絕對增長，冷凍食品和零食也實現了非常強勁的增長。所以模型很清晰。我們必須在今年下半年解決供應限制問題，我們正在這樣做。

So what we've done, as you saw in the prepared remarks, around here, it always starts with modernizing the brands with a new slate of exciting innovation every year. Then, we invest meaningfully with customers in high-quality displays. In the frozen section as an example, it's the freezers at the end of the aisle, where we can get real high-quality visibility on those innovations and drive tremendous lifts, and we saw that consistently for five quarters.

因此，正如您在準備好的發言中所看到的，我們在這裡所做的一切，都是從每年透過一系列令人興奮的創新來實現品牌的現代化開始的。然後，我們與客戶一起在高品質顯示器方面進行有意義的投資。以冷凍食品區為例，它是位於過道盡頭的冷凍櫃，在這裡我們可以真正高品質地了解這些創新並帶來巨大的提升，我們在五個季度內一直看到這種情況。

We then layer on A&P, which is focused really these days, largely in social media, and that drives awareness and really kind of excitement around the products. And then we rely on the products themselves and the great work by our culinary team to drive repeat purchase. That's how the model works, and it has worked very well when we have not had service issues.

然後，我們進行廣告與宣傳，目前廣告與宣傳的重點主要集中在社群媒體上，這可以提高產品的知名度，並真正激發人們對產品的熱情。然後，我們依靠產品本身和烹飪團隊的出色工作來推動重複購買。這個模型就是這樣運作的，當我們沒有遇到服務問題時，它運作得非常好。

Now, we did get through Q4 with service levels back to about 98%. So you don't get much better than that. And that's why we think we're in a very good position right now. If you look at the scanner data that came out this week, I think our volumes in total were down about 1%. So we're getting very close to crossing over into positive territory with programming really just beginning to kind of come into light and some easier comps coming on the horizon. So we think we're very well positioned on the top line as we go into this year with the service issues behind us.

現在，我們確實度過了第四季度，服務水準恢復到了約 98%。所以你不會比這更好。這就是為什麼我們認為我們現在處於非常有利的地位。如果你看一下本週發布的掃描器數據，我認為我們的整體銷量下降了約 1%。因此，我們已經非常接近進入積極的領域，程式設計實際上剛開始嶄露頭角，一些更容易的比賽即將到來。因此，我們認為，隨著服務問題的解決，我們今年的營收狀況將非常有利。

We also think we're going to be very well positioned for fiscal '27 because of the supply chain resiliency investments we've made. I've heard repeatedly from a number of our long-term investors to say: You, guys, got to get the supply service interruptions in the rearview mirror. This year is going to be a tough year for the industry. We felt the timing was right to kind of bite the bullet, make those investments, put ourselves in a position to be able to service a very strong consumer pull that we've got, particularly in our frozen business containing chicken.

我們也認為，由於我們在供應鏈彈性方面所做的投資，我們將在 2027 財年處於非常有利的地位。我多次聽到我們的一些長期投資者說：你們必須把供應服務中斷的問題拋在腦後。對於該行業來說，今年將是艱難的一年。我們覺得現在是咬緊牙關、進行這些投資的好時機，讓我們能夠滿足我們現有的非常強大的消費者需求，特別是在我們的雞肉冷凍業務中。

So we're doubling down on those investments this year, and we're -- that's going to set us up very well for fiscal '27. But make no mistake about it, the ability to drive volume growth is not a search for us. We've done it. We know how to do it. We've got the service levels back and we're eager to -- we're happy now that we're in fiscal '26 and eager to get the top line in frozen and snacks moving again. And we'll help pay for that with some targeted pricing on the can business where we're just seeing a tremendous amount of inflation due to tariffs on tinplate steel. So that's how it all works out.

因此，我們今年將加倍投資，這將為我們 2027 財年打下良好的基礎。但請不要誤會，推動銷售成長的能力並不是我們追求的。我們做到了。我們知道該怎麼做。我們已經恢復了服務水平，我們渴望——我們很高興現在進入了 26 財年，並渴望再次推動冷凍和零食業務的營收成長。我們將透過對罐頭業務進行一些有針對性的定價來幫助支付這筆費用，我們看到由於對馬口鐵徵收關稅而導致的巨額通貨膨脹。事情就是這樣發生的。

And -- is there -- the way you're budgeting fiscal '26 on price mix versus your costs as you see them today? I don't know how -- to what degree you're hedged for the second half of '26, but is it that you're going to have a crossover in price mix or at least keep up with inflation in the second half of the year? Is this a first half, second half type of thing as you see it?

並且—您是否以現在的價格組合與成本組合來編制 26 財年的預算？我不知道您為 26 年下半年做了多大程度的對沖，但您是否會在價格組合中出現交叉，或者至少在下半年跟上通貨膨脹的步伐？您認為這是上半場和下半場的情況嗎？

Yes, David. We don't guide to specific price/mix and volume in our overall organic guidance. So we guided to down 1 to plus 1. We did say that in the first half; we expect sales to be down slightly and in the second half to be up slightly. So if you -- that's kind of the general cadence that we're giving there.

是的，大衛。在我們的整體有機指導中，我們不會指導具體的價格/組合和數量。因此我們引導從下降 1 到上升 1。我們確實說過，我們預計上半年銷售額會略有下降，下半年會略有上升。所以如果你——這就是我們在那裡給出的一般節奏。

Obviously, we said we're going to make more investments in pricing and merchandising, but we also are going to have pricing in the second half. And so there's a lot of scenarios, how they net out. You obviously have the elasticity. So we don't want to give precise numbers on volume and price mix because there's a lot of different outcomes. But we have both additional investment in merchandising, and we also have pricing in the second half. And so those things will kind of work through and then we'll see how that lands.

顯然，我們說過我們將在定價和商品銷售方面投入更多資金，但我們也將在下半年進行定價。因此，存在著許多場景，它們如何淨增。你顯然具有彈性。因此，我們不想給出數量和價格組合的精確數字，因為有許多不同的結果。但我們在商品銷售方面都有額外投資，而且下半年我們也會進行定價。所以這些事情將會順利進行，然後我們會看到結果如何。

Okay. I'll pass it on. Thanks.

好的。我會傳達的。謝謝。

Leah Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的利亞喬丹 (Leah Jordan)。

Thank you. Good morning. I just wanted to follow up on the last discussion. Just curious what you've embedded within your guidance on elasticity on the back of your planned pricing action in the back half and maybe how that compares to your historical trend? And I guess what gives you confidence in the ability to take pricing as you kind of called out, consumers have accelerated their value-seeking right now and data would suggest you're still losing dollar share across many categories?

謝謝。早安.我只是想跟進上次的討論。我只是好奇您在下半年計劃的定價行動中對彈性的指導中包含了什麼內容，以及這與您的歷史趨勢相比如何？我想，是什麼讓您對定價能力充滿信心，正如您所說，消費者現在已經加速了他們的價值追求，而數據表明您在許多類別中的美元份額仍在下降？

Hi, Leah. It's Sean. First of all, in terms of elasticities planned, within our categories, Conagra's average elasticity is a little bit lower than our competitors across channels, and further at a company level, if you look at total pricing versus total volume change, you'll also see that the elasticity has been a touch better than most peers over the last year.

你好，利亞。是肖恩。首先，就計劃的彈性而言，在我們的類別中，康尼格拉的平均彈性略低於我們各個渠道的競爭對手，而且在公司層面，如果您查看總定價與總量變化，您還會發現彈性比去年的大多數同行都要好一些。

So we've baked in for our grocery business what would be for us a fairly standard elasticity, basically close to a minus 1 for that business. And as for the decision to take price on that business, we actually are very thoughtful in our pricing approach based on the strategy for the business. So we have two consumer domains that represent about 70% of our retail business that's frozen and snacks, those are our growth businesses. Those are the strategic businesses that we need to grow over time, and we are investing margin to drive volume growth in those businesses.

因此，我們為我們的雜貨業務設定了一個相當標準的彈性，對於該業務來說，基本上接近-1。至於對該業務定價的決定，我們實際上是根據業務策略經過深思熟慮後製定的定價方法。因此，我們有兩個消費領域，即冷凍食品和零食，占我們零售業務的 70% 左右，這些都是我們的成長業務。這些都是我們需要隨著時間推移而發展的策略業務，我們正在投資利潤來推動這些業務的銷售成長。

Our canned food business, which is really the one that's most impacted by the tariff piece, that business is a business that is a cash generator within our portfolio. We are looking for those businesses to be roughly stable on the top line and maximize cash because the cash on those businesses fund the growth investments we make in frozen and snacks. So volume is not the name of the game on that business. Cash flow is, and we will take just inflation-justified pricing on those businesses to maximize that cash and help maintain help claw back some of the gross margin that we're investing on the other pieces of the business.

我們的罐頭食品業務實際上是受關稅影響最大的業務，該業務是我們產品組合中的現金來源業務。我們希望這些業務的營收能夠大致穩定，並實現現金最大化，因為這些業務的現金可以為我們在冷凍和零食方面的成長投資提供資金。因此，數量並不是該業務的關鍵。現金流就是，我們將對這些業務採取與通貨膨脹相符的定價，以最大化現金，並幫助維持收回我們在其他業務上投資的部分毛利率。

So it's horses for courses, so to speak. We tailor our approach to pricing to what we need strategically out of the business. And frankly, the growth businesses, this whole sector has been under volume pressure for a number of years now, and we think it's time to get volume on growth businesses back to positive territory as we felt last year, and that's what we're going to do.

可以這麼說，這是各有所長。我們根據業務的策略需求來制定定價方法。坦白說，整個成長型企業多年來一直面臨著交易量壓力，我們認為現在是時候讓成長型企業的交易量回到去年感受到的正值了，這就是我們要做的。

Very helpful. Thank you.

非常有幫助。謝謝。

Max Gumport, BNP Paribas.

法國巴黎銀行的馬克斯‧甘波特。

Thanks. Sean, the inflation super cycle had initially largely played out as you expected in the first few years of it with the gross margin getting hard as pricing [let's inflation], but then ultimately recovering as pricing caught up to inflation. And I think that was all very much in line with what you had seen in past cycles, it was viewed as predictable. However, now you're heading into a year that you expect 7% inflation. And this time it feels a bit different. It doesn't sound like there's much in the way of pricing coming on given where the consumer is.

謝謝。肖恩，通貨膨脹超級週期最初幾年的情況基本上符合您的預期，毛利率隨著價格上漲（也就是通貨膨脹）而變得困難，但最終隨著價格趕上通貨膨脹而恢復。我認為這一切都與您在過去的周期中看到的情況非常一致，這被視為可預測的。然而，現在預計通貨膨脹率將達到 7%。而這次的感覺有些不同。考慮到消費者的所在地，定價似乎不會有太大影響。

So I'm trying to get a sense for how you expect this cycle to now play out. I think you touched on it a bit in your response to Andrew's question, but I'm hoping to get a bit more color on how you expect to see the business progress from the 11% to 11.5% operating margin you expect for this year over the next few years? And if there's a view on where the underlying margin or the normalized margin for the business now is the timeline to get back to that margin? Thanks very much.

因此，我想了解一下您預期這個週期將如何展開。我認為您在回答安德魯的問題時已經稍微提到了這一點，但我希望更詳細地了解一下，您預計未來幾年業務利潤率將從今年的 11% 增長到 11.5%？如果有觀點認為，現在業務的基本利潤率或正常化利潤率是恢復到該利潤率的時間表嗎？非常感謝。

All right, Max. Let me try to tackle that. Frankly, these cycles are pretty mechanical. The way it works is if inflation comes in, the P&L gets hit initially because your costs go up faster than you can take price. And we, a few years ago, referred to that as the lag. And then most companies when they're faced with above-normal inflation will take inflation-justified pricing.

好的，馬克斯。讓我嘗試解決這個問題。坦白說，這些循環非常機械。其運作方式是，如果出現通貨膨脹，損益表首先會受到打擊，因為成本上漲的速度超過了價格上漲的速度。幾年前，我們稱之為滯後。大多數公司在面臨超正常通貨膨脹時都會採取通貨膨脹合理的定價。

And after the lag, they claw back most of the dollar profit that they've given up by virtue of that pricing. And frankly, that is exactly the boat we were in when we were at the end of our fiscal '24, where we had been through the lag, we had taken broad-based pricing. We clawed back most of that profit in terms of dollars that we had given up temporarily by virtue of our productivity and our pricing actions.

在滯後之後，他們收回了因定價而放棄的大部分美元利潤。坦白說，這正是我們在 24 財年末所處的境況，我們經歷了滯後，採取了廣泛的定價。我們憑藉生產力和定價行動收回了暫時放棄的大部分美元利潤。

But by that point in time, the industry had been looking at multiple years, like three-plus years of negative volume and investors rightfully asked the question, how long can you let volumes in your strategic businesses continue to erode? We are, after all, in the business of selling food brands to consumers. And so that's where we were one of the first companies to say it's time to get volume moving north again. And we invested last year to do that, and we got a tremendous response before we ran into the unfortunate supply constraints, but that's really where we are this year.

但到了那個時候，該產業已經面臨多年，例如三年多的負銷量，投資人理所當然地提出了一個問題：你能讓策略業務的銷售持續下降多久？畢竟，我們的業務是向消費者銷售食品品牌。因此，我們是第一批表示應該再次提高銷售量的公司之一。我們去年就投資了這項業務，在遭遇不幸的供應限制之前，我們得到了巨大的反響，但今年我們確實處於同樣的境地。

So we weren't looking for another 7% total inflation this year, but we've got it. And the question is, what do we do in response to that? We don't think broad-based pricing that triggers a whole new cycle of broad-based elasticity and volume declines across the portfolio is in the best interest of the branded portfolio. We don't think it's in the best interest of brand equity, and therefore, we don't think it's in the best interest of long-term shareholder value creation. We think it's important that these brands have a strong connection this year with our consumers because that's going to maximize future cash flows.

因此，我們原本預計今年的整體通膨率不會再達到 7%，但事實確實如此。問題是，我們該如何應對？我們認為，引發整個投資組合廣泛彈性和交易量下降的全新周期的廣泛定價並不符合品牌投資組合的最佳利益。我們認為這不符合品牌資產的最佳利益，因此，我們認為這不符合長期股東價值創造的最佳利益。我們認為這些品牌今年與我們的消費者建立緊密聯繫非常重要，因為這將最大限度地提高未來的現金流。

Now, we do have a pathway back clearly to recapturing that margin just like we did after fiscal '22 and '23. And it's a combination of the things that I referenced from productivity to other pricing actions to this new initiative that we're commencing to relook at our core business processes to operate them more efficiently. But just as we have in the past, when you go through these mechanical cycles and you get that margin pinch this year in particular, because we're investing quite a bit more to get through the supply chain resiliency, on top of the inflation, you do see the margins bounce back, and that's what we are expecting going forward. And if we get relief on the inflation side, that could come pretty materially.

現在，我們確實有一條清晰的途徑來重新奪回這一利潤率，就像我們在 22 財年和 23 財年之後所做的那樣。這是我提到的從生產力到其他定價行動等多種因素的結合，我們開始重新審視我們的核心業務流程，以便更有效地運作它們。但就像我們過去一樣，當你經歷這些機械週期時，你會在今年遇到利潤率緊縮的問題，因為我們在通貨膨脹的基礎上投入了相當多的資金來實現供應鏈的彈性，所以你會看到利潤率反彈，這就是我們對未來的預期。如果我們能緩解通膨壓力，那麼效果將非常顯著。

Great. Thank you. And related to that, the business has gone through several years now, I think, four or so of volume declines. And it sounds like FY26 could potentially have a modest volume decline as well. So I was hoping to get a bit more color on the operating deleverage that you've seen the business face over the last several years. And whether at this point, you see any need to rationalize your manufacturing footprint or right size the organization anyway? I'll leave it there. Thanks very much.

偉大的。謝謝。與此相關的是，我認為該業務已經經歷了幾年，大約四年的銷量下滑。聽起來 26 財年的銷量也可能會略有下降。因此，我希望能夠更詳細地介紹過去幾年企業面臨的經營去槓桿問題。那麼，目前您是否認為有必要合理化您的製造足跡或適當調整組織規模？我就把它留在那裡。非常感謝。

Well, the first comment I'll make is not all volume declines at this juncture are created equal. We want to avoid for volume declines in our growth businesses of frozen and snacks, which is why we're investing margin to do that. So that business is about growth. The cash business is about cash, and that's kind of the way we've set up our actions.

好吧，我要說的第一點是，在這個節骨眼上，並不是所有的交易量下降都是一樣的。我們希望避免冷凍食品和零食等成長業務的銷售下滑，這就是我們投資保證金來實現這一目標的原因。所以這項業務就是為了成長。現金業務與現金有關，這就是我們採取行動的方式。

And as for anything else we need to do to kind of structurally, I think we're in good shape. We just have to deliver this year, get volumes healthy and frozen and snacks, maximize the cash flow on that canned food business, and then continue the momentum that we've got on innovation as we go into next year and we start getting some relief on the margin side.

至於我們在結構上需要做的其他事情，我認為我們的情況很好。我們只需在今年交付產品，獲得大量健康食品、冷凍食品和零食，最大限度地提高罐頭食品業務的現金流，然後在進入明年時繼續保持創新勢頭，並開始在利潤方面獲得一些緩解。

Dave, do you want to add to that?

戴夫，你想補充一下嗎？

Yes. So Max, I would say in terms of kind of ongoing network structure. We have a supply chain that's constantly looking at our network. If over time, we see volumes declining in any particular manufacturing area, we will always look to try to consolidate our network to minimize overhead costs relative to the volume that's being produced. So that's an ongoing thing that we do.

是的。所以 Max，我想說的是，就正在進行的網路結構而言。我們有一個不斷關注我們網路的供應鏈。如果隨著時間的推移，我們發現任何特定製造領域的產量下降，我們將始終努力整合我們的網絡，以最大限度地降低相對於生產量的間接成本。這是我們正在持續做的事情。

One thing in this year and then in next -- in terms of in fiscal '25 and then fiscal '26 forecast that we just gave, there is definitely an additional absorption headwind because of the investments that we're making both in our baked chicken production and our fried chicken production because we have to move production to a third-party manufacturer in order to make the investments. So that slows down and obviously stops production at some point.

就我們剛剛給出的 25 財年和 26 財年的預測而言，今年和明年肯定會出現額外的吸收阻力，因為我們在烤雞生產和炸雞生產方面都進行了投資，因為為了進行投資，我們必須將生產轉移到第三方製造商。因此，這會減慢生產速度，並在某個時候停止生產。

You can try to manage overhead somewhat in that situation, but you are going to have absorption hits. And so that was in our '25 numbers. It's forecasted in our fiscal '26 numbers. It's part of that investment that we talk about. That's why we're encouraged with fiscal '27 because as we get those investments completed and we can be less reliant on the third-party manufacturers, and we can bring that volume back in-house that absorption is not as much of a headwind anymore, and it can actually become a tailwind. And so that's part of the levers for fiscal '27. So hopefully, that gives you a little color.

在這種情況下，您可以嘗試稍微管理開銷，但您會受到吸收的影響。這就是我們的 25 年數字。這是我們 26 財年的數據所預測的。這是我們談論的投資的一部分。這就是為什麼我們對 27 財年感到鼓舞，因為隨著我們完成這些投資，我們可以減少對第三方製造商的依賴，我們可以將產量帶回內部，吸收不再是阻力，實際上可以成為順風。這就是 2027 財政年度槓桿的一部分。希望這能帶給你一些啟發。

It does. Thanks very much. I'll pass it on.

確實如此。非常感謝。我會傳達的。

Bryan Adams, UBS.

瑞銀的布萊恩亞當斯。

Hey. Good morning, guys. Thanks for the questions. Just going off what you've said so far, Sean, along with the prepared remarks, it's pretty clear that the doubling down on the volume growth as a priority is key here. And even if that comes at the expense of profitability in near term.

嘿。大家早安。感謝您的提問。肖恩，根據您目前所說的話以及準備好的發言，很明顯，將加倍增加銷量作為優先事項是關鍵。即使這會以犧牲短期獲利能力為代價。

So just through that lens, there's a lot of moving pieces as we look out to '26 be it at on the inflation side or, obviously, as you guys hear better than most on the tariff side, how do you think about balancing -- as things change in those two pieces of the outlook, how do you think about balancing further investment to drive growth versus maybe flowing some of that through to the bottom line at this point?

因此，僅從這個角度來看，當我們展望 26 年時，就會發現有很多變動因素，無論是在通貨膨脹方面，還是在關稅方面，顯然你們比大多數人都更了解，您如何看待平衡——隨著前景的這兩個方面發生變化，您如何看待平衡進一步投資以推動增長，還是可能將其中一部分轉化為利潤？

Well, I think our strategy is to maximize value for the long haul. And to do that, we need our hero brands to be heroes and that's frozen and snacks, and we need them to be resonant with consumers because if you milk a business like that and you don't invest to drive volumes after a several years of weaker volumes, then the brand atrophies. And if the brand atrophies, the valuation of that asset has declined, and we want to maximize the value of our brand assets for long-term maximum value creation and cash flow, and that's what we think we're going to do.

嗯，我認為我們的策略是實現長期價值最大化。為了做到這一點，我們需要讓我們的英雄品牌成為英雄，也就是冷凍食品和零食，我們需要它們引起消費者的共鳴，因為如果你榨乾這樣的生意，卻在經歷了幾年的銷量疲軟之後不投資來推動銷量，那麼這個品牌就會萎縮。如果品牌萎縮，該資產的估值就會下降，我們希望最大化我們的品牌資產的價值，以實現長期最大價值創造和現金流，這就是我們認為我們要做的。

Now, obviously, if we were to speculate and say we were having costs run away again, we'll have to revisit everything real time and try to strike a balance there. But based on where we sit today, with the call we have today for inflation and the call we have today for tariffs, which are obviously moving around by the minute, this is what we think the right course of action is. If those inputs change, we'll update our game plan, and then we'll make sure to update you on it as well.

現在，顯然，如果我們推測並說我們的成本再次失控，我們就必須即時重新審視一切，並努力取得平衡。但根據我們目前的狀況，考慮到我們今天對通膨的呼籲和我們今天對關稅的呼籲，這些呼籲顯然每分鐘都在變化，我們認為這是正確的行動方針。如果這些輸入發生變化，我們將更新我們的遊戲計劃，然後我們也會確保向您更新。

Okay. Got it. And then just one more kind of big picture one. There's obviously been some improvement in the portfolio of [late]? And then also just looking across the industry, more broadly, recently, there's been some reshuffling in the packaged food landscape from an M&A standpoint.

好的。知道了。然後就剩下另一種大局觀了。投資組合顯然有所改善[晚的]？然後從更廣泛的角度來看，最近，從併購的角度來看，包裝食品領域發生了一些改組。

So just as you think about like looking out to '27 at this point, getting back to maybe more on algorithm, growth. Are there any other categories or businesses within the portfolio that you're looking at in terms of maybe reevaluating the fit as part of Conagra at this point?

因此，正如您所想的那樣，現在展望 27 年，也許可以更多地回顧演算法和成長。您是否正在考慮投資組合中的其他類別或業務，以便重新評估其作為康尼格拉一部分的契合度？

Yes. I think if you do look at the big picture in terms of what we've done with portfolio reshaping in the last eight to nine years, it's been humongous amount of portfolio reshaping in terms of what the portfolio makeup is today versus what it used to be. And the strategy is to have more and more of our portfolio every year, focused on the growth areas of frozen and snacks and less on the grocery business. And that's what we've done with the Chef Boyardee divestiture.

是的。我認為，如果你從總體上看我們在過去八到九年中對投資組合進行調整的情況，你會發現與過去相比，今天的投資組合組成發生了巨大的變化。我們的策略是每年增加產品組合的規模，並專注於冷凍食品和零食等成長領域，減少對食品雜貨業務的關注。這就是我們對 Chef Boyardee 資產剝離所做的努力。

Fish is a little bit of a different animal and that it was frozen, but really to operate well in the fish industry, you almost need to be vertically integrated, which we were not. And we did sell our Indian joint venture. So those were businesses that were not part of our strategic growth areas. That's been our strategy for some time.

魚是一種稍微不同的動物，而且它是冷凍的，但要想在魚類產業經營好，幾乎需要垂直整合，而我們並沒有做到。我們確實出售了我們的印度合資企業。所以這些業務不屬於我們的策略成長領域。這是我們一段時間以來的策略。

There are probably other candidates that I won't get into on this call that we can look at as exit candidates in that grocery business over time, but smartly and methodically because those businesses also do play an important role in the portfolio by throwing off cash, absorbing a lot of overhead and funding a lot of the investments we make in the growth business. So we always take a thoughtful approach to that action, and we're certainly not flat footed there as we've done more divestitures than most people in our space over the last decade. So we'll continue to look at it, and we'll continue to post you as we have new ideas.

可能還有其他候選人，我不會在這次電話會議上討論，我們可以將這些候選人視為食品雜貨業務的退出候選人，但要明智而有條不紊地進行，因為這些業務通過拋售現金、吸收大量管理費用以及為我們在增長業務中的大量投資提供資金，在投資組合中也發揮著重要作用。因此，我們始終對這項行動採取深思熟慮的態度，而且我們當然不會措手不及，因為在過去十年中，我們比我們這個領域的大多數人進行了更多的資產剝離。因此我們會繼續關注它，一旦有新想法，我們就會繼續發布。

Very helpful. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, David.

非常有幫助。謝謝，肖恩。謝謝，大衛。

Chris Carey, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的克里斯凱裡。

Hey, everyone. Hope you're well. I have two questions. The first question is on our math; it does appear that you potentially need productivity to kind of run twice the rate that you've historically driven as a benefit to gross margins. I wonder if that checks out on your math, this idea that you do need a substantial step-up in productivity. And I just wonder if you could give a little bit more detail on some of the drivers around that step up just as a starting point?

嘿，大家好。希望你一切都好。我有兩個問題。第一個問題是關於我們的數學的；看起來你可能需要將生產力提高到歷史水準的兩倍，才能提高毛利率。我想知道這是否符合你的計算，即你確實需要大幅提高生產力。我只是想知道，您是否可以更詳細地介紹一下這項舉措的一些驅動因素，作為起點？

Well, I think as we mentioned in our prepared remarks today, Chris, the productivity has been running very strong we have no reason to believe it will be less strong. If anything, it will be stronger. But we ran total productivity last year north of 4%. That's a good number this year, including the tariff mitigation efforts the number is north of 5%, which is a very strong number. So obviously, if we continue to deliver that kind of productivity, juxtaposed up against inflation that normalizes, we're going to -- we'll be fairly flush at that juncture.

嗯，克里斯，我認為正如我們今天在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，生產力一直非常強勁，我們沒有理由相信它會不那麼強勁。如果有的話，它會更強大。但去年我們的總生產力超過了4%。今年這是一個不錯的數字，包括關稅減免措施在內，這個數字超過了 5%，這是一個非常強勁的數字。因此，顯然，如果我們繼續保持這種生產力，同時通貨膨脹率也正常化，那麼到那時，我們就會相當富裕。

But we've got a tremendous amount of modernization work that's going on within supply chain to drive productivity, some of which we've talked about before, like the connected shop floor work. Basically, in the food industry, what you've got going on these days is a lot of automation and modernization of factories that in the past were not that. And as you do that, you become more efficient and you can run with better throughputs and lower costs, and that's what we've seen.

但是，我們在供應鏈中正在進行大量的現代化工作，以提高生產力，其中一些我們之前已經討論過，例如互聯車間工作。基本上，在食品業，如今正在發生的是工廠的大量自動化和現代化，而過去並非如此。當你這樣做時，你會變得更有效率，你可以以更好的吞吐量和更低的成本運行，這就是我們所看到的。

Dave, do you want to add to that?

戴夫，你想補充一下嗎？

Yeah. I just -- I'm going to kind of tie it back to the way that I laid out slides in my section with the EPS bridge because what we did, we looked at 4% core inflation and then commented that we expect our productivity to be 4%. And we feel very good about that. As Sean just mentioned, it's a continuation of the acceleration we saw this in fiscal '25.

是的。我只是——我將把它與我在 EPS 橋部分佈置幻燈片的方式聯繫起來，因為我們所做的是，我們研究了 4% 的核心通膨率，然後評論說我們預計我們的生產率將達到 4%。我們對此感到非常高興。正如肖恩剛才提到的，這是我們在 25 財年看到的加速趨勢的延續。

And we have a very robust program, by the way, on our core productivity programs around manufacturing efficiencies and yields and product design, material, negotiation, just all the details. We have a team of people that work on this like many companies do. And so we feel really good about the progress, the investments in technology we've made in order to yield that.

順便說一下，我們有一個非常強大的計劃，圍繞著製造效率和產量以及產品設計、材料、談判等所有細節的核心生產力計劃。和許多公司一樣，我們也有一個團隊致力於此事。因此，我們對所取得的進展以及為實現這一目標所進行的技術投資感到非常滿意。

What I also put with that though, when we look at total inflation, we had 4% core and 3% tariffs. And of the 3% tariff bucket, we are forecasting that we can mitigate 1% of that, and we are calling that productivity as well. And that's our ability to look at alternate supplies potentially to negotiate with the suppliers to share in this cost and just other ways to potentially reduce the usage of the items that are being tariffed. And so all goes into the mitigation bucket, and that's 1% of the 3%.

不過，我還要指出的是，當我們看整體通膨率時，核心關稅為 4%，關稅為 3%。在 3% 的關稅中，我們預測可以減輕其中的 1%，我們也稱之為生產力。這就是我們尋找替代供應品的能力，可能與供應商協商分擔成本，或透過其他方式減少被徵收關稅商品的使用。所以所有這些都進入了緩解範圍，這就是 3% 中的 1%。

So they're all built into our forecast of our EPS number, and we feel comfortable with those pieces of productivity. So I don't know if you're referring to something else, but that's what we laid out.

因此，它們都納入了我們對每股盈餘數字的預測中，我們對這些生產力感到滿意。所以我不知道您是否指的是其他東西，但這就是我們所列出的。

No, that makes total sense. I think there's a bit of a difference between the gross productivity and the net productivity inclusive of operational offsets. And that's probably a broader conversation, but productivity ramps and that makes sense.

不，這完全有道理。我認為總生產力和包含營運抵銷的淨生產力之間存在一些差異。這可能是一個更廣泛的話題，但生產力提高，這是有道理的。

Just the follow-up would be private label is going to be seeing a lot of inflation as well, presumably that should be maybe improving your competitive stance vis-a-vis private label, presumably private label will need to take pricing given the amount of pressure that this cohort will be under. I just wonder if you have any thoughts about some of the opportunities that this sort of inflation might give you from a competitive standpoint, specifically relative to private label? Thanks.

後續情況是自有品牌也將經歷大量的通貨膨脹，大概這應該會改善你相對於自有品牌的競爭地位，大概自有品牌將需要採取定價措施，因為這個群體將承受很大的壓力。我只是想知道，從競爭的角度來看，您是否認為這種通貨膨脹可能會為您帶來一些機會，特別是相對於自有品牌？謝謝。

Overall, Chris, we don't have -- we're below average in terms of private label development in our categories, but obviously, it differs by category. We will be taking targeted pricing in the canned food business because we've got a major amount of inflation there due to tariffs.

總的來說，克里斯，我們沒有——就我們類別的自有品牌開發而言，我們處於低於平均水平的位置，但顯然，不同類別的情況有所不同。我們將對罐頭食品業務採取有針對性的定價，因為關稅導致該業務的通貨膨脹率很高。

Tomatoes is part of the canned food business. Tomatoes is basically Hunt's and private label. So how we perform there typically has a lot to do with what our competition does. So it's something that we always watch, we will watch there. And we'll see if the environment proves to be rational.

西紅柿是罐頭食品業務的一部分。西紅柿基本上是亨特和自有品牌。因此，我們在那裡的表現通常與競爭對手的表現有很大關係。所以這是我們一直在關注的事情，我們會在那裡關注。我們將看看環境是否合理。

But that's one of the -- there are really only a couple of categories in our portfolio where we really got -- we got to look at it and monitor that. I would say it would be tomatoes. It will be our whip topping business and our cooking spray business. Those are the three that we really monitor price gaps, price thresholds on and we're very agile in terms of making adjustments. But it's very early innings right now. We'll see how that unfolds and keep you apprised as we see it.

但這是其中之一——我們的投資組合中實際上只有幾個類別，我們真正需要關注和監控。我會說是西紅柿。這將是我們的奶油頂料業務和烹飪噴霧業務。我們真正監控的是這三個價格差距和價格門檻，而且我們在做出調整方面非常靈活。但現在比賽才剛開始。我們將觀察事態如何發展，並及時向大家通報。

Okay. All right. Thanks so much.

好的。好的。非常感謝。

Robert Moskow, TD Cowen.

羅伯特·莫斯科（Robert Moskow），TD Cowen。

Sorry about that. Can you hear me now?

很抱歉。現在你能聽到我說話嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. Sorry. Sean, I wanted to know about all the innovation that you're doing in frozen. I mean no one does more than Conagra in frozen to help try to grow the category. But I think it's been difficult to see evidence that the innovation helps you premiumize or raise price. And you see it in other consumer staples categories where they use the innovation to justify higher pricing. Of all the new products you're introducing this year, were you able to do that in any instances or is it just too hard in this environment?

好的。對不起。肖恩，我想了解你在《冰雪奇緣》中所做的所有創新。我的意思是，在冷凍食品領域，沒有人比康尼格拉為推動該品類成長做出更大的貢獻。但我認為很難看到證據顯示創新有助於提升產品品質或提高價格。您還可以在其他消費必需品類別中看到他們利用創新來證明更高的定價是合理的。在今年推出的所有新產品中，您是否在任何情況下都能夠做到這一點，還是在這種環境下太難了？

Hey, Rob, I'm glad you asked that question. That actually is the opposite of what has unfolded over the last 10 years. So let me take you back down memory lane to where frozen food consumer pricing was circa 2015. If you went into a mass merchandiser, you would find Banquet meals being sold at maybe $0.88, maybe $0.98 depending upon the week.

嘿，羅布，我很高興你問了這個問題。這實際上與過去十年發生的情況完全相反。那麼，讓我帶您回顧一下 2015 年左右冷凍食品的消費定價。如果你走進一家大眾商品商店，你會發現宴會餐點的售價可能是 0.88 美元，也可能是 0.98 美元，這取決於一週的價格。

Today, when you walk into a grocery store, you will find the name Banquet, but the execution will look radically different, and the price of that product is closer to $4. And so you've got a multi-turn increase in the price point over the course of 10 years. But interestingly, the consumer assessment of the value proposition at that higher price point is that it's a superior value versus what was offered before, because the quality of the product before was very weak. The quality of the product now is excellent, and the quantity is larger.

今天，當你走進一家雜貨店時，你會看到 Banquet 這個名字，但產品的具體做法卻截然不同，而且產品的價格接近 4 美元。因此，10 年間價格出現了數倍的成長。但有趣的是，消費者對更高價位的價值主張的評價是，它比以前提供的產品具有更高的價值，因為以前的產品品質很差。現在產品品質優良，數量也較大。

So I could give you an example after example of how that's changed, whether it's Banquet or Marie Callender's or high-end brands like PF Chang's, Bistro, and things like that. But just to give you a contemporary example of this past year that really was lost in the news of supply constraints on our chicken business.

我可以舉出一個又一個的例子來說明這種情況是如何變化的，無論是 Banquet 還是 Marie Callender’s，還是像 PF Chang’s、Bistro 這樣的高端品牌等等。但僅舉一個過去一年的當代例子，我們的雞肉業務供應受限的新聞確實被忽視了。

Our most successful innovation in fiscal '25 was a new product called Banquet Mega Chicken Filets. Banquet Mega Chicken Filets is a bag of fried chicken filets that basically mimics what you would buy at Chick-fil-A, which is the hottest QSR that you can find that the kids all love, obviously. We launched this product after our demand science team came up with the idea and we expected good results. We got results massively beyond our expectations.

我們在 25 財年最成功的創新是一款名為 Banquet Mega Chicken Filets 的新產品。Banquet Mega Chicken Filets 是一袋炸雞柳，基本上模仿了你在 Chick-fil-A 購買的炸雞柳，這是你能找到的最熱門的 QSR，顯然孩子們都喜歡。在我們的需求科學團隊提出了這個想法後，我們就推出了這款產品，並且我們期待獲得良好的結果。我們所取得的成果大大超出了我們的預期。

And by the way, when you sell -- I think it's six chicken filets in a bag, it's a much higher dollar ring than a typical single-serve meal. So it is a premium product in terms of realization per unit. But these -- the sales of this Banquet Mega Chicken Filets absolutely blew away our expectations. And then we completely ran out of capacity on them because we had to -- we had basically to shut down our chicken processing facility. And so we now have decided to double down on our investment in fried chicken capacity. It's going to be more costly next -- this year because we're going to do it on the outside, but then we'll repatriate that on the inside.

順便說一句，當你出售時——我認為一袋中有六塊雞柳，它的價格比典型的單份餐要高得多。因此，從單位實現量來看，它是一款優質產品。但這些——這款 Banquet Mega Chicken Filets 的銷量絕對超出了我們的預期。然後我們的產能就完全耗盡了，因為我們不得不——基本上不得不關閉我們的雞肉加工廠。因此，我們現在決定加倍投資炸雞產能。明年的成本會更高——今年，因為我們要在外部進行，但隨後我們會將其遣返到內部。

But these are just all examples of how our innovation machine is entirely focused on premiumization, and that has a double meaning to it. Higher quality in every bite but also higher dollar ring and more focused going forward in frozen on our multi-serve packaging instead of single serve because we are still very underdeveloped in multi-serve relative to what we've done in single serve, and that's entirely white space for us.

但這些只是我們的創新機器完全專注於高端化的例子，這具有雙重意義。每一口的品質都更高，但價格也更高，我們未來將更加專注於多份包裝而不是單份包裝的冷凍食品，因為相對於單份包裝，我們在多份包裝方面的發展還很不充分，這對我們來說完全是空白。

And what we'll do there will be significantly higher quality and more premium than the incumbents that are already in the multi-serve space that kind of have been milking their businesses for a long, long time. So we're excited about that. Really pleased with what we saw with Banquet Mega plays this year, and we're going to step on the gas on that because we know consumers absolutely love it.

我們所做的將比那些已經在多服務領域長期榨取利潤的現有企業提供更高的品質和更優質的服務。所以我們對此感到很興奮。我們對今年 Banquet Mega 的表現非常滿意，我們會加大力度，因為我們知道消費者非常喜歡它。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Matthew Neisius for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議交還給 Matthew Neisius 做最後發言。

Thank you, Michael, and thank you all for joining us today. Please reach out to Investor Relations with any additional questions. Have a great day.

謝謝你，邁克爾，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。如有任何其他問題，請聯絡投資者關係部。祝你有美好的一天。

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

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。