Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc (CBRL) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and welcome to the Cracker Barrel second quarter fiscal 2025 results conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加 Cracker Barrel 2025 財年第二季業績電話會議。（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 Adam Hanan, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係總監亞當哈南 (Adam Hanan)。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Cracker Barrel's second quarter fiscal 2025 conference call and webcast. This morning, we issued a press release announcing our second quarter results. In this press release and on this call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter ended January 31, 2025. Please refer to the footnotes in our press release for further details about these metrics.

謝謝。早安，歡迎參加 Cracker Barrel 2025 財年第二季電話會議和網路廣播。今天早上，我們發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了我們的第二季業績。在本新聞稿和電話會議中，我們將參考非 GAAP 財務指標，例如截至 2025 年 1 月 31 日的第二季調整後 EBITDA。有關這些指標的更多詳細信息，請參閱我們新聞稿中的腳註。

The company believes these measures provide investors with an enhanced understanding of the company's financial performance. This information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net income or earnings per share information prepared in accordance with GAAP. The last page of the press release include reconciliations from the non-GAAP information to the GAAP financials.

該公司相信這些措施可以讓投資者更了解公司的財務表現。此資訊不應被單獨考慮或取代根據 GAAP 編制的淨收入或每股收益資訊。新聞稿的最後一頁包括非 GAAP 資訊與 GAAP 財務資訊的對帳。

On the call with me this morning are Cracker Barrel's President and CEO, Julie Masino; and Senior Vice President and CFO, Craig Pommells. Julie and Craig will provide a review of the business, financials and outlook. We will then open up the call for questions.

今天早上與我一起通話的是 Cracker Barrel 總裁兼執行長 Julie Masino；以及資深副總裁兼財務長 Craig Pommells。朱莉和克雷格將對業務、財務和前景進行回顧。然後我們將開始提問。

On this call, statements may be made by management of their beliefs and expectations regarding the company's future operating results or expected future events. These are known as forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties that, in many cases, are beyond management's control and may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations.

在此次電話會議上，管理層可能會表達對公司未來營運表現或預期未來事件的信念和期望。這些被稱為前瞻性陳述，其中涉及風險和不確定性，在許多情況下，這些風險和不確定性超出了管理層的控制範圍，並可能導致實際結果與預期有重大差異。

We caution our listeners and readers in considering forward-looking statements and information. Many of the factors that could affect results are summarized in the cautionary description of risks and uncertainties found at the end of the press release and are described in detail in our reports that we file with or furnish to the SEC. Finally, the information shared on this call is valid as of today's date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update it, except as may be required under applicable law.

我們提醒聽眾和讀者考慮前瞻性的陳述和資訊。許多可能影響結果的因素都總結在新聞稿末尾的風險和不確定性警示性描述中，並在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交或提供的報告中進行了詳細描述。最後，本次電話會議分享的資訊自今日起有效，本公司不承擔更新資訊的義務，除非適用法律另有要求。

I'll now turn the call over to Cracker Barrel's, President and CEO, Julie Masino. Julie?

現在我將電話轉給 Cracker Barrel 總裁兼執行長 Julie Masino。朱莉？

Good morning and thank you for joining us. This morning, we reported second quarter total revenue of $949.4 million, which included comparable store restaurant sales growth of 4.7% and adjusted EBITDA of $74.6 million. As many of you know, Q2 is an especially important quarter for Cracker Barrel because of seasonally higher volumes. And I want to thank our team who did an exceptional job executing during this period.

早安，感謝您加入我們。今天上午，我們公佈了第二季總收入 9.494 億美元，其中包括同店餐廳銷售額成長 4.7% 和調整後 EBITDA 7,460 萬美元。眾所周知，由於季節性銷售增加，第二季對 Cracker Barrel 來說是一個特別重要的季度。我要感謝我們的團隊在這段時間表現得非常出色。

Their operational focus, coupled with our actions to support improved profitability, especially in our catering and Heat n' Serve channels, helped us deliver EBITDA that exceeded our expectations. This strong Q2 performance, coupled with our confidence in our trajectory, resulted in us increasing our fiscal '25 EBITDA guidance.

他們的營運重點，加上我們為提高獲利能力而採取的行動，特別是在我們的餐飲和 Heat n' Serve 管道，幫助我們實現了超乎預期的 EBITDA。第二季的強勁表現，加上我們對未來發展軌蹟的信心，促使我們提高了 25 財年的 EBITDA 預期。

Let's review some highlights from the quarter. We delivered positive comparable store restaurant sales for the third consecutive quarter and positive comparable store retail sales for the first time since the second quarter of fiscal '23. We maintained a favorable trend in the important dinner daypart as our dinner traffic trends sequentially improved for the fifth consecutive quarter.

讓我們回顧一下本季度的一些亮點。我們連續第三個季度實現了同店餐廳銷售額正成長，並且自 2023 財年第二季以來首次實現了同店零售銷售額正成長。我們在重要的晚餐時段保持了良好的趨勢，我們的晚餐客流量趨勢連續第五個季度有所改善。

As I mentioned, we meaningfully grew the profitability of our seasonal Heat n' Serve and catering channels. And finally, we saw notable year-over-year improvements in key operational and guest metrics. Collectively, these highlights provide further evidence of the progress we're making executing our transformation strategy, and we remain confident in each of the five pillars.

正如我所提到的，我們顯著提高了季節性 Heat n' Serve 和餐飲通路的獲利能力。最後，我們看到關鍵營運和客戶指標較去年同期顯著改善。總的來說，這些亮點進一步證明了我們在執行轉型策略方面所取得的進展，我們對五大支柱中的每一個都充滿信心。

Let's dig in. The first pillar is refining the brand, which is about evolving the way we interact with guests across all touch points. As part of these efforts, we conducted a comprehensive restaurant retail guest journey mapping and audit. These insights are informing the work across our strategic initiatives.

讓我們深入研究一下。第一個支柱是完善品牌，即改善我們在所有接觸點與客人互動的方式。作為這些努力的一部分，我們進行了全面的餐廳零售顧客旅程規劃和審計。這些見解為我們的各項策略舉措提供了指引。

Additionally, we finalized our new brand strategy. While there is still work to be done to fully bring this to life in early fiscal '26, we're already incorporating elements from our updated positioning. For example, our TV and billboard campaigns that debut next week will reflect our evolved tone of voice and select visual components. And our spring menu that launched on February 11 also features an evolved look and feel.

此外，我們也完成了新的品牌策略。儘管要在 26 財年初期全面實現這一目標還有很多工作要做，但我們已經將更新的定位中的元素融入其中。例如，我們下週推出的電視和廣告看板宣傳活動將反映我們改進的語調和精選的視覺元素。我們於 2 月 11 日推出的春季菜單也具有升級的外觀和感覺。

Our goal, as we've stated, is to evolve the brand while remaining authentically Cracker Barrel and staying rooted in our country hospitality. We will do this in a way that resonates with our current guests while also inviting new guests into the brand.

正如我們所說，我們的目標是不斷發展品牌，同時保留 Cracker Barrel 的原汁原味並紮根於我們的鄉村熱情好客之道。我們將以一種能引起現有客人共鳴的方式來實現這一目標，同時也邀請新客人加入品牌。

Our second pillar is enhancing the menu, which revolves around making it more craveable for guests and easier to execute for our team members while also strengthening our value proposition. Our menu strategy continues to focus on the important dinner daypart while protecting our leadership in breakfast. Our current menu promotion features two craveable and delicious shrimp dishes: a Louisiana-style shrimp skillet and a shrimp skillet. Additionally, we've introduced several new pancake offerings as we continue to bolster this platform, both from an innovation and barbell pricing standpoint.

我們的第二個支柱是改進菜單，讓客人更渴望享用，讓我們的團隊成員更容易執行，同時也加強我們的價值主張。我們的菜單策略繼續專注於重要的晚餐時段，同時保持我們在早餐方面的領先地位。我們目前的菜單促銷包括兩道令人垂涎的美味蝦菜：路易斯安那風味蝦鍋和蝦鍋。此外，我們還推出了幾種新的煎餅產品，從創新和槓鈴定價的角度不斷加強這個平台。

An important part of enhancing the menu is also maintaining a strong value proposition. And as we've discussed, we're doing this in a number of ways. We continue to highlight exceptional and compelling value offerings and continue to focus on strong execution and the guest experience, which is also crucial to the overall value equation. We believe these tactics are working as evidenced by improvements in several key metrics. For example, compared to the prior year, value scores increased 7%, food taste scores grew 7%, and menu choice scores improved 8%.

增強菜單的一個重要部分也是保持強大的價值主張。正如我們所討論的，我們正在透過多種方式來實現這一目標。我們繼續強調卓越且引人注目的價值產品，並繼續專注於強大的執行力和客戶體驗，這對於整體價值等式也至關重要。我們相信這些策略是有效的，因為幾個關鍵指標的改善證明了這一點。例如，與去年相比，價值得分增加了 7%，食物口味得分增加了 7%，菜單選擇得分提高了 8%。

Another way we're enhancing the menu is our back-of-house optimization initiative to improve quality and profitability while also making jobs easier and more enjoyable. As a reminder, this is a multiyear initiative that we completed in several phases. This first phase is focused on process improvement. We tested Phase 1 in a full region in Q2 and recently rolled it out system-wide. Importantly, our consumer research shows that the new processes result in IMS score at parity or better than the existing items, and the test confirmed this is a significant cost-savings opportunity.

我們改進菜單的另一種方式是我們的後台優化計劃，以提高品質和盈利能力，同時使工作更輕鬆、更愉快。提醒一下，這是我們分幾個階段完成的多​​年計畫。第一階段的重點是流程改善。我們在第二季度在整個地區測試了第一階段，並最近在整個系統範圍內推廣。重要的是，我們的消費者研究表明，新流程產生的 IMS 分數與現有產品相當或更好，測試證實這是一個顯著的成本節約機會。

One of our key learnings is that it takes a little longer than we initially anticipated for team members, especially more tenured ones, to master these new processes. However, a consistent theme has been that once they gain proficiency, they love them. And new team members also find the revised processes easier, which reduces the time they need to gain mastery. Based on our learnings, we have updated our assumptions for the timing of the cost savings, and we now anticipate the labor-savings benefit of the initiative to be minimal in Q3 before ramping in Q4.

我們的一個重要經驗是，團隊成員，特別是資深成員，掌握這些新流程所需的時間比我們最初預期的要長一些。然而，始終不變的是，一旦他們掌握了技能，他們就會愛上它們。新團隊成員也發現修改後的流程更容易了，這減少了他們掌握所需的時間。根據我們的經驗，我們更新了對成本節約時間的假設，現在我們預計該計劃的勞動力節約效益在第三季度將很小，然後在第四季度逐漸顯現。

Pillar three is evolving the store and guest experience, which includes operational execution, store dividend atmosphere and retail. From an operational execution perspective, we remain focused on the metrics that matter. We're encouraged by our trends across the key metrics most correlated with same-store sales growth. In particular, we were pleased that turnover improved by another 19 percentage-points. This is an especially important metric but strong relationship with execution, and therefore, the guest experience. And lower turnover also translates to reduced training expense.

第三大支柱是改善商店和顧客體驗，包括營運執行、商店紅利氛圍和零售。從營運執行的角度來看，我們仍然關注重要的指標。與同店銷售成長最相關的關鍵指標的趨勢令我們感到鼓舞。尤其讓我們高興的是，營業額又提高了19個百分點。這是一個特別重要的指標，但與執行情況密切相關，因此也與客戶體驗密切相關。較低的人員流動率也意味著訓練費用的減少。

Additionally, overall experience scores improved 7% and service scores improved 5%. As part of our efforts to drive further enhancements to the guest experience, in Q3, we introduced new guest-focused service standards that are better aligned with the customer journey.

此外，整體體驗得分提高了 7%，服務得分提高了 5%。作為我們進一步提升客戶體驗的努力的一部分，在第三季度，我們推出了新的以客戶為中心的服務標準，以更好地適應客戶旅程。

In terms of our remodel program, we want to remind you that fiscal '25 is a test-and-learn year. We remain on track for completing 25 to 30 full remodels and 25 to 30 refreshes. We remain optimistic about the program and plan to provide a deep dive on our Q4 call in September after the full year test has concluded.

就我們的改造計劃而言，我們想提醒您，25 財年是測試和學習的一年。我們仍有望完成 25 至 30 項全面改造和 25 至 30 項更新。我們對該計劃仍然持樂觀態度，並計劃在全年測試結束後的 9 月第四季電話會議上進行深入探討。

In retail, despite ongoing industry headwinds, we generated positive comparable store sales for the first time in two years. We saw particular strength in our apparel category, and our Christmas themes performed well despite a shorter selling season.

在零售業，儘管產業持續面臨逆風，但我們兩年來首次實現了同店銷售額正成長。我們的服裝類別表現特別強勁，儘管銷售季節較短，但我們的聖誕主題產品表現良好。

Our fourth pillar is winning in digital and off-premise. As I mentioned earlier, Q2 is an especially important quarter due to the seasonally high volumes for our catering and occasion channel. As we shared on our Q2 earnings call last year, although we set a record for Thanksgiving week sales, we identified opportunities to improve the guest experience, the employee experience and profitability. This was one of the first areas that we tackled as part of our transformation. And this year, we took several actions based on our learnings.

我們的第四大支柱是在數位領域和場外領域取得勝利。正如我之前提到的，由於我們的餐飲和場合通路季節性業務量較高，第二季是一個特別重要的季度。正如我們在去年第二季財報電話會議上所分享的那樣，儘管我們創下了感恩節週銷售額的紀錄，但我們也發現了改善客戶體驗、員工體驗和盈利能力的機會。這是我們轉型過程中首先要解決的領域之一。今年，我們根據經驗採取了一些行動。

For example, we prioritized the more profitable dine-in and individual to-go channels and deprioritized and throttled our lower-profitability channels, such as seasonal Heat n' Serve and catering. We streamlined the offerings to reduce complexity and improve in-store execution. We refined the allocation and capacity rules to prioritize stores that are more profitable and that deliver a better guest experience. And finally, we increased pricing.

例如，我們優先考慮利潤較高的堂食和個人外送管道，並降低和限制利潤較低的管道，如季節性的 Heat n' Serve 和餐飲服務。我們簡化了產品服務，以降低複雜性並改善店內執行。我們完善了分配和容量規則，優先考慮盈利能力更強、能提供更好顧客體驗的商店。最後，我們提高了價格。

These changes were hugely impactful and were the primary driver of our Q2 EBITDA performance exceeding expectations. We also delivered improvements to both the guest employee experience. We expect to continue to see the benefits from these tactics in Q2 in future years as well.

這些變化影響巨大，也是我們第二季 EBITDA 業績超出預期的主要驅動力。我們也改善了客人和員工的體驗。我們預計在未來幾年的第二季我們仍將繼續看到這些策略帶來的好處。

In closing, we were pleased with our Q2 results and the first half of the fiscal year has demonstrated the progress we are making as evidenced by our ability to raise guidance. Our transformation remains on track, and we are focused on sustaining this momentum in the second half of the year.

最後，我們對第二季的業績感到滿意，並且本財年上半年已經證明了我們所取得的進展，這從我們提高指導的能力中可以看出。我們的轉型仍在進行中，我們致力於在下半年保持這一勢頭。

I'll now turn it over to Craig to review our financials and provide our updated outlook.

現在我將把任務交給 Craig 來審查我們的財務狀況並提供最新的展望。

Thank you, Julie, and good morning, everyone. As Julie noted, we were pleased with our Q2 results. The actions we took to improve the profitability of our off-premise and digital channels were key drivers in outperforming our expectations for the quarter. Overall, we reported total revenue of $949.4 million, which was up 1.5% from the prior year quarter. Restaurant revenue increased 2.7% to $750.5 million, and retail revenue decreased 2.8% to $199 million.

謝謝你，朱莉，大家早安。正如朱莉所說，我們對第二季的業績感到滿意。我們為提高場外和數位通路獲利能力所採取的措施是本季業績超出預期的關鍵驅動因素。總體而言，我們的總營收為 9.494 億美元，比去年同期成長 1.5%。餐廳營收成長 2.7% 至 7.505 億美元，零售收入下降 2.8% 至 1.99 億美元。

Comparable store restaurant sales grew 4.7% and comparable store retail sales increased 0.2% compared to the second quarter of the prior year. The difference in the comparable store sales growth and the total sales growth is primarily due to a few factors. First, as we discussed previously, Q2 sales and EBITDA were negatively impacted by a timing shift related to gift card breakage of approximately $5 million.

與去年同期第二季相比，同店餐廳銷售額成長 4.7%，同店零售額成長 0.2%。同店銷售成長與總銷售額成長之間的差異主要由幾個因素造成。首先，正如我們之前所討論的，第二季度的銷售額和 EBITDA 受到與禮品卡破損相關的時間變化的負面影響，損失約為 500 萬美元。

The timing shift is accounted for at the corporate level instead of the store level. And therefore, it unfavorably impacts total sales but not comparable store sales. Second, a calendar shift related to the 53 week in fiscal 2024 impacts the comparable store sales calculation but not the total sales calculation. And finally, we had five fewer Cracker Barrel stores this quarter than in the prior year.

時間變化是在公司層面而不是商店層面考慮的。因此，它對總銷售額產生不利影響，但不會對同店銷售額產生不利影響。其次，與 2024 財年第 53 週相關的日曆變化會影響可比店鋪銷售額計算，但不會影響總銷售額計算。最後，本季我們的 Cracker Barrel 商店數量比去年同期減少了 5 家。

Moving on to pricing. Pricing for the quarter was approximately 6%. Our quarterly pricing consisted of approximately 2.7% carryforward pricing from fiscal 2024 and 3.3% new pricing from fiscal 2025. Off-premise sales were approximately 23.2% of restaurant sales.

繼續討論定價。本季的定價約為 6%。我們的季度定價包括 2024 財年約 2.7% 的結轉定價和 2025 財年約 3.3% 的新定價。場外銷售額約佔餐廳銷售額的 23.2%。

Moving on to our second quarter expenses. Total cost of goods sold in the quarter was 32.6% of total revenue versus 33.7% in the prior quarter. Restaurant cost of goods sold in the second quarter was 27.1% of restaurant sales versus 28.2% in the prior quarter. This 110 basis points decrease was primarily driven by menu pricing.

繼續討論我們第二季的支出。本季總銷售成本佔總收入的 32.6%，而上一季為 33.7%。第二季餐廳銷售成本佔餐廳銷售額的 27.1%，上一季為 28.2%。這 110 個基點的下降主要是因為菜單定價所致。

Commodity inflation was approximately 1.3% driven principally by higher dairy, beverages, pork and beef prices, partially offset by lower poultry, oil and produce prices. Retail cost of goods sold was 53.4% of retail sales versus 53.2% in the prior year quarter. This 20 basis points increase was primarily driven by higher mark balance.

商品通膨約 1.3%，主要原因是乳製品、飲料、豬肉和牛肉價格上漲，但被家禽、石油和農產品價格下跌部分抵銷。零售商品銷售成本佔零售額的 53.4%，去年同期為 53.2%。此次 20 個基點的成長主要是由於分數餘額增加所致。

Our inventories at quarter end were $173 million compared to $172.7 million in the prior year. Labor and related expenses were 34.4% of revenue compared to 34.5% in the prior year quarter. As a reminder, the prior year quarter results include approximately $5.3 million in favorability related to a change in employee benefits policy. Excluding this favorable impact in the prior year, our current year quarter labor and related expenses improved 70 basis points primarily driven by menu pricing and improved productivity, partially offset by wage inflation of approximately 2%.

本季末我們的庫存為 1.73 億美元，而去年同期為 1.727 億美元。勞動力及相關費用佔收入的 34.4%，去年同期為 34.5%。提醒一下，去年同期的業績包括與員工福利政策變化相關的約 530 萬美元的有利影響。除去上年的這一有利影響，我們本季的勞動力和相關費用提高了 70 個基點，這主要得益於菜單定價和生產率提高，但約 2% 的工資通膨部分抵消了這一影響。

Other operating expenses were 23.2% of revenue. Compared to the prior quarter, other operating expenses increased 30 basis points primarily driven by higher depreciation and higher store maintenance. Adjusted general and administrative expenses were 5.5% of revenue. Compared to the prior quarter, adjusted G&A increased 70 basis points primarily due to a legal accrual, investments to support our initiatives and more normalized incentive compensation.

其他營運支出佔收入的23.2%。與上一季相比，其他營運費用增加了 30 個基點，主要原因是折舊費和門市維護費增加。調整後的一般及行政開支佔收入的5.5%。與上一季相比，調整後的 G&A 費用增加了 70 個基點，主要原因是法定應計費用、支持我們計劃的投資以及更規範的激勵薪酬。

As a reminder, our adjusted G&A expenses exclude professional fees related to our strategic transformation initiative and expenses related to our proxy contest.

提醒一下，我們調整後的 G&A 費用不包括與我們的策略轉型計畫相關的專業費用和與我們的代理權競賽相關的費用。

Net interest expense was $5 million compared to net interest expense of $5.1 million in the prior quarter. This decrease was primarily the result of lower average interest rates, partially offset by higher debt levels. Our GAAP income taxes were $1.9 million. Adjusted income taxes were $4.6 million. GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.99, and adjusted earnings per diluted share increased 9.5% to $1.38. Adjusted EBITDA was $74.6 million or 7.9% of total revenue compared to $62.4 million or 6.7% of total revenue in the prior year quarter.

淨利息支出為 500 萬美元，而上一季淨利息支出為 510 萬美元。這一下降主要是由於平均利率較低，但債務水平較高所部分抵消。我們的 GAAP 所得稅為 190 萬美元。調整後的所得稅為 460 萬美元。GAAP 每股攤薄收益為 0.99 美元，調整後每股稀釋收益成長 9.5% 至 1.38 美元。調整後 EBITDA 為 7,460 萬美元，佔總營收的 7.9%，而去年同期為 6,240 萬美元，佔總營收的 6.7%。

Now turning to capital allocation and our balance sheet. We continue to have a strong balance sheet that provides flexibility and allows us to invest in the business to drive profitable growth and long-term value creation.

現在轉向資本配置和我們的資產負債表。我們繼續擁有強勁的資產負債表，這提供了靈活性，並使我們能夠投資於業務以推動獲利成長和長期價值創造。

In the second quarter, we invested $38.1 million in capital expenditures. We ended the quarter with $471.5 million in total debt. Lastly, as announced in today's press release, the Board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, payable on May 14, 2025, to shareholders of record on April 11, 2025.

第二季度，我們投資了 3,810 萬美元的資本支出。本季結束時，我們的總債務為 4.715 億美元。最後，正如今天的新聞稿中所宣布的，董事會宣布季度股息為每股 0.25 美元，將於 2025 年 5 月 14 日支付給 2025 年 4 月 11 日登記在冊的股東。

Before turning to our fiscal 2025 outlook, I want to make a few important points. As a reminder, we continue to view fiscal 2025 as an investment year as many of our initiatives are in the early stages. And we anticipate our financial results will significantly improve by the second half of fiscal 2026 and further accelerate into fiscal 2027.

在談到我們的 2025 財年展望之前，我想提出幾點重要觀點。提醒一下，我們繼續將 2025 財年視為投資年，因為我們的許多計劃都處於早期階段。我們預計，到 2026 財年下半年，我們的財務表現將顯著改善，到 2027 財年將進一步加速成長。

Next, I want to emphasize that the year-over-year increase in Q2 EBITDA was largely driven by the actions we took to improve the profitability of our Heat n' Serve and holiday catering channels during the important holiday weeks. The impact of these actions will largely be isolated to Q2 given that Heat n' Serve and catering sales are significantly higher in this period relative to other quarters. That said, we fully expect these benefits will be repeatable in Q2 going forward.

接下來，我想強調的是，第二季 EBITDA 同比成長主要是由於我們在重要假期期間採取的提高 Heat n' Serve 和假日餐飲通路獲利能力的措施。由於 Heat n' Serve 和餐飲銷售額在這段期間相對於其他季度明顯較​​高，這些舉措的影響將主要局限於第二季。話雖如此，我們完全預期這些好處將在未來第二季重複出現。

Lastly, our updated outlook reflects several items that I'd like to call out. First, we expect approximately $4 million in incremental egg costs. Although our egg prices are fully contracted for the remainder of fiscal 2025, one of our vendors has lost some capacity due to the avian influenza outbreak. And as a result, we've had to purchase some eggs on the open market.

最後，我們更新後的展望反映了我想指出的幾點。首先，我們預計雞蛋成本增量約為 400 萬美元。儘管我們的雞蛋價格在 2025 財年剩餘時間內已完全簽約，但我們的供應商因禽流感疫情而失去了部分產能。結果，我們不得不在公開市場上購買一些雞蛋。

Second, we are making incremental nonworking marketing investments related to our brand refinement work as we prepare to fully launch the evolved brand in early fiscal 2026. Third, we are also making onetime nonrecurring incremental investments in Q3 to support operations excellence and the successful launch of our back-of-house optimization initiative and the introduction of our new service standards.

其次，我們正在進行與品牌改善工作相關的增量非工作性行銷投資，準備在 2026 財年初全面推出升級後的品牌。第三，我們還將在第三季進行一次性非經常性增量投資，以支援卓越營運、成功啟動後台優化計畫和引入新的服務標準。

Additionally, as Julie noted, we've updated our timing expectations for the labor savings related to the back-of-house optimization initiative. Although we expect minimal savings in Q3, we anticipate the full benefit in Q4.

此外，正如朱莉所指出的，我們已經更新了與後台優化計劃相關的勞動力節省的時間預期。儘管我們預計第三季的節省幅度很小，但我們預計第四季將實現全部收益。

Next, our outlook reflects the softer traffic trends that we and the broader industry have experienced quarter-to-date. We believe this softness is largely being driven by poor weather and increased macroeconomic uncertainty.

其次，我們的展望反映了我們和整個行業本季迄今經歷的較弱的流量趨勢。我們認為，這種疲軟主要是由於惡劣天氣和宏觀經濟不確定性增加所致。

That said, we are encouraged by the improvement we've seen over the past two weeks compared to the rest of Q3. Lastly, we expect an improvement in our Q4 traffic trend as a result of our initiatives. We are excited about our summer menu promotion as well as the continued evolution of our brand work and enhanced marketing. Additionally, we remain bullish on the Cracker Barrel Rewards loyalty program.

話雖如此，與第三季其他時間相比，過去兩週的改善令我們感到鼓舞。最後，我們預計，透過採取這些舉措，第四季的流量趨勢將會有所改善。我們對夏季菜單的促銷以及品牌工作的持續發展和行銷的加強感到非常興奮。此外，我們仍然看好 Cracker Barrel Rewards 忠誠度計劃。

Now moving to our outlook. For fiscal 2025, we expect the following: total revenue of $3.45 billion to $3.5 billion, pricing of approximately 5%, the opening of one to two new Cracker Barrel stores and four new Maple Street units, commodity inflation of 2% to 3% and hourly wage inflation of approximately 3%.

現在轉向我們的展望。對於 2025 財年，我們預計：總收入為 34.5 億美元至 35 億美元，定價約為 5%，開設一至兩家新的 Cracker Barrel 商店和四家新的 Maple Street 分店，商品通膨率為 2% 至 3%，小時工資通膨率為約 3%。

As a reminder, we expect our adjusted G&A expenses will be elevated in fiscal 2025 both in dollars and as a percent of sales, primarily due to investments related to our strategic transformation initiatives as well as more normalized incentive compensation. However, we expect that G&A as a percentage of sales will begin to normalize as our financial performance improves in the second half of fiscal 2026 and into fiscal 2027.

提醒一下，我們預計 2025 財年的調整後 G&A 費用將以美元和銷售額的百分比來計算有所上升，這主要是由於與我們的戰略轉型計劃相關的投資以及更加規範化的激勵薪酬。然而，我們預計，隨著 2026 財年下半年和 2027 財年財務業績的改善，G&A 佔銷售額的百分比將開始正常化。

Taking all of this into account, we now anticipate full year adjusted EBITDA of approximately $210 million to $220 million. I want to remind everyone that this excludes consulting fees related to our strategic transformation and expenses related to our proxy contest.

考慮到所有這些因素，我們現在預計全年調整後的 EBITDA 將約為 2.1 億美元至 2.2 億美元。我想提醒大家，這還不包括與我們的策略轉型相關的諮詢費和與我們的代理權爭奪相關的費用。

Year-to-date, we've incurred approximately $7.3 million related to the transformation and approximately $8.2 million for the proxy contest. And we do not anticipate any additional amounts related to these items over the remainder of the year.

年初至今，我們已花費約 730 萬美元進行轉型，並花費約 820 萬美元用於代理權爭奪。我們預計今年剩餘時間內不會出現與這些項目相關的任何額外金額。

Regarding interest expense, we continue to expect that we will refinance our $300 million convertible debt this fiscal year. As a reminder, given the current rate environment, we expect that the coupon rate on our new debt instrument will be meaningfully higher than our existing coupon rates of 0.625%. We expect a full year GAAP effective tax rate of negative-13% to negative-19% and an adjusted effective tax rate of negative 2% to negative 8%. Lastly, we anticipate capital expenditures of $160 million to $180 million.

關於利息支出，我們繼續預期本財年我們將為 3 億美元的可轉換債務進行再融資。提醒一下，鑑於當前的利率環境，我們預計新債務工具的票面利率將明顯高於現有的 0.625% 的票面利率。我們預期全年 GAAP 有效稅率為負 13% 至負 19%，調整後有效稅率為負 2% 至負 8%。最後，我們預期資本支出為 1.6 億至 1.8 億美元。

In closing, we are pleased with our strong Q2 results and our transformation plan remains on track. I'm proud of our teams, and we remain focused on continuing our strategic and operational momentum.

最後，我們對第二季的強勁業績感到滿意，我們的轉型計劃仍在按計劃進行。我為我們的團隊感到自豪，我們將繼續專注於保持我們的策略和營運動能。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

說完這些，我現在將電話轉給接線生來回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) Jeff Farmer, Gordon Haskett.

（操作員指示） Jeff Farmer、Gordon Haskett。

Just a couple for you guys. So you did touch on it, but you delivered that roughly 4% restaurant comp number. Through the first half of the year, you did comment on some of the consumer anxiety that's out there. But how should we be thinking about same-store sales in the back half of the year, all things considered?

給你們幾個吧。所以你確實提到了這一點，但你給了大約 4% 的餐廳可比數字。今年上半年，您確實對一些消費者的焦慮情緒發表了評論。但綜合考慮各方面因素，我們該如何看待下半年的同店銷售呢？

Jeff, I'll start with that one. I would think about it as -- within the context of the guidance, obviously. So the first two quarters are known. We were able to move up the top end of the sales range. So we're excited about that. So relative to our original expectations, we are a bit ahead.

傑夫，我就從這個開始。我會把它視為——顯然是在指導的範圍內。因此前兩個季度是已知的。我們能夠提升銷售範圍的最高端。所以我們對此感到很興奮。因此，相對於我們最初的預期，我們稍微領先了一些。

Clearly, there is some uncertainty in the month of February, in particular. As we think about that, our -- the start of February was particularly challenged, especially as it relates to weather, but also some macroeconomic uncertainty. Having said that, the more recent trends have been meaningfully better the last two weeks. But we do anticipate that our third quarter, which is February, March, April, will be a bit pressured by the challenges that we're seeing with the consumer. But we've factored really all of that into the full year guidance.

顯然，二月尤其存在一些不確定性。當我們想到這一點時，我們的——二月初面臨著特別的挑戰，特別是與天氣有關，但也有一些宏觀經濟的不確定性。話雖如此，但最近兩週的趨勢明顯改善。但我們確實預計，第三季（即二月、三月、四月）將因消費者面臨的挑戰而面臨一些壓力。但我們確實已將所有這些都納入了全年預期之中。

As we look at Q4, we have some things in the works as it relates to our innovation pipeline that we think will resonate particularly well in our summer travel period. So in short, there are some consumer angst out there, but we have factored that into our thinking and into our expectations.

展望第四季度，我們正在籌備一些與創新管道相關的事宜，我們認為這些事宜將在夏季旅行期間產生特別好的迴響。簡而言之，消費者確實存在一些焦慮，但我們已經將其納入我們的考慮和預期之中。

Okay. And then just one more, a little bit of a follow-up. So as it relates to that consumer angst, how is that manifesting itself across income cohort levels or age cohort levels? Any color there would be helpful.

好的。然後再說一點後續的事情。那麼，就消費者的焦慮而言，它在收入群體層級或年齡群體層級上是如何體現的呢？任何顏色都會有幫助。

Sure. Our most recent data is showing that we've actually made gains over the last three months or so with the over 55 age cohort. So we're pleased with that. And obviously, the total pie is what it is. So that means a little bit of softness with the under 55 age cohort. So a little bit of a shift there. We're pleased with the gains that we're making with the over 55 group is one of the areas that we tackled a little bit over a year ago, and we're happy with the performance there.

當然。我們最新的數據顯示，在過去三個月左右的時間裡，我們在 55 歲以上年齡群體中確實取得了進展。所以我們對此感到高興。顯然，整體情況就是這樣。所以這意味著 55 歲以下年齡組會稍微疲軟一些。所以那裡有一點點轉變。我們對 55 歲以上人群的進展感到滿意，這是我們一年多前開始著手解決的領域之一，我們對該領域的表現感到滿意。

In terms of income, we generally look at that between $160,000 and over $60,000. And we're seeing relatively similar performance between the under $60,000 and the over $60,000. Now that is a bit of a shift. If we were to think back to the last couple of quarters, we were seeing some softness with the under $60,000 versus the over. And our most recent data is showing relatively similar performance between the under $60,000 and over $60,000 at this point.

就收入而言，我們一般認為收入在 160,000 美元到 60,000 美元以上之間。我們發現 60,000 美元以下和 60,000 美元以上的表現相對相似。現在情況有了一點轉變。如果我們回顧過去幾個季度，我們會發現 60,000 美元以下的貸款與 60,000 美元以上的貸款相比，表現有些疲軟。我們最新的數據顯示，目前 60,000 美元以下和 60,000 美元以上的表現相對相似。

The thing I might add is while there -- consumer confidence has dropped, everybody saw the University of Michigan report last month, we continue to feel like we are really resonating with our guests. Cracker Barrel remains an incredible value, and we deliver value to our guests across several different ways, right? Even if you look at the pricing that we're taking, our value scores continue to improve. Our loyalty program continues to exceed our expectations. More people are signing up. They're actually dining with us more often. They are a big -- the level of transactions from that group has grown quarter-over-quarter.

我想補充的是，儘管消費者信心下降，每個人都看到了密西根大學上個月的報告，但我們仍然覺得我們確實與我們的客人產生了共鳴。Cracker Barrel 仍然具有令人難以置信的價值，我們透過多種不同的方式為客人提供價值，對嗎？即使您看一下我們採取的定價，我們的價值分數仍在不斷提高。我們的忠誠度計劃繼續超出我們的預期。越來越多的人正在報名。他們其實更常和我們一起吃飯。他們是一個很大的群體——該群體的交易量逐季度都在增長。

And then I'd also point to our check versus both casual and family dining, right? The Cracker Barrel check at the end of this quarter is $15. At the same time, ran casual dining is $28 and family dining is $18. So we remain an extraordinary value for our credible country hospitality hand-cooked delicious food. And our guests are recognizing that.

然後我也會指出我們的帳單與休閒用餐和家庭用餐的對比，對嗎？本季末的 Cracker Barrel 支票金額為 15 美元。同時，休閒用餐費用為 28 美元，家庭用餐費用為 18 美元。因此，我們仍然對我們值得信賴的鄉村款待和手工烹製的美味佳餚有著非凡的價值。我們的客人也認識到了這一點。

So we believe that we're very -- we're poised well given some of the macro uncertainty out there. But we know that we're playing our game our way. Our guests are responding to it, and we remain confident in our guidance for the balance of the year.

因此，我們相信，考慮到外面的一些宏觀不確定性，我們已經做好了充分的準備。但我們知道我們在按照自己的方式進行比賽。我們的客人對此做出了回應，我們對今年剩餘時間的指導仍然充滿信心。

Todd Brooks, The Benchmark Company.

托德布魯克斯 (Todd Brooks)，基準公司。

Congrats on the really strong holiday quarter. Wanted to ask -- you pointed out the fact that some of this margin improvement that we saw EBITDA-wise in the January quarter was related to really extremely solid execution of Heat n' Serve and catering across the period on a year-over-year basis. If I look, we were kind of flattish year-over-year in the first quarter. We saw north of 100 basis points of improvement here in the second quarter. Without kind of detail on parsing out the contribution from Heat n' Serve and catering, we don't really know what to back the expectation for year-over-year EBITDA margin improvement down to in the second half. So can we talk to out of that 100 basis points-plus improvement, how much was the better execution of Heat n' Serve and catering?

祝賀假期季節取得如此強勁的成績。想問一下——您指出，我們在 1 月季度看到的 EBITDA 利潤率提高，部分是因為 Heat n' Serve 和餐飲業務的同比執行情況非常穩健。如果我看一下，我們會發現第一季的業績與去年同期相比持平。我們在第二季看到了 100 個基點以上的改善。如果不詳細分析 Heat n' Serve 和餐飲業務的貢獻，我們真的不知道下半年 EBITDA 利潤率同比改善的預期會下降多少。那麼，我們能否談談，在這 100 個基點以上的改進中，Heat n' Serve 和餐飲服務的更好執行程度有多少？

Absolutely, Todd. The -- I'll talk about a few of those pieces. So in Q2, the operations team really did a great job and delivered on every level, and we're really excited about how they brought it all together. And the changes to Heat n' Serve enabled some other goals that we had. And one of the goals was just improve the experience for our guests as well as our team members. So as a result of that, we actually saw improving trends in our dine-in business as a part of that.

當然，托德。——我將談論其中的一些內容。因此，在第二季度，營運團隊確實做得非常出色，在各個層面都取得了成功，我們對他們如何將一切整合在一起感到非常興奮。Heat n' Serve 的改變也讓我們實現了其他一些目標。我們的目標之一就是改善客人和團隊成員的體驗。因此，我們實際上看到了堂食業務的改善趨勢。

In terms of the parts of this that really sustained throughout the year, obviously, you know what the total pie is because we've shared the overall outlook period of guidance and the first half of the year is booked, so you can kind of back into the second half of the year. There are a couple of things that have continued to -- we've continued to make gains in.

就全年真正持續的部分而言，顯然，您知道總體情況如何，因為我們已經分享了指導的總體展望期，並且上半年已經預訂完畢，因此您可以回到下半年。有幾件事我們一直在持續下去——不斷取得進展。

In one area -- let's talk about labor. Back about 1.5 years ago, we talked about the need to invest in labor. And we saw that -- we made that investment. There was a cost to it. And we've been getting the gains there in terms of guest satisfaction. We've been seeing really big gains in employee retention. And this fiscal year, we've been transitioning that into gains in terms of productivity. So you're seeing our employee productivity really improve as we have this now, of course, with turnover that we're very pleased with and continuing to get better.

先來談談一個領域──勞動力。大約一年半前，我們談到了投資勞動力的必要性。我們看到了這一點——我們進行了投資。這是有代價的。我們在客人滿意度方面也取得了進步。我們看到員工留任率有了很大的提高。在本財政年度，我們一直在將其轉化為生產力的提高。因此，您會看到我們的員工生產力確實提高了，當然，我們對員工流動率非常滿意，並且繼續好轉。

Now as we think about Q3, Q4, a couple of things there. So Q3, we're making some investments. We're making investments in the -- we've launched the back-of-house initiative. There is a training cost to that. So that's really a cost in Q3. There is a learning curve. We expect that back-of-house initiative is going to get to its run rate and continue to enhance labor even more than we've been seeing in Q4, but Q3 have those training costs. We also have the training costs as it relates to the service model changes in Q3 as well. So from a labor perspective, we think things will continue to continue to get better, much more so in Q4 as the back-of-house fully comes online, less so as it relates to Q3.

現在我們考慮一下 Q3、Q4，有幾件事。所以第三季度，我們正在進行一些投資。我們正在進行投資——我們已經啟動了後台計劃。這需要一定的培訓成本。所以這確實是第三季的成本。有一個學習曲線。我們預計後台計劃將達到其運行率，並繼續比我們在第四季度看到的更加加強勞動力，但第三季度有這些培訓成本。我們也有培訓費用，因為它與第三季的服務模式變化有關。因此，從勞動力的角度來看，我們認為情況將繼續好轉，尤其是在第四季度，因為後台工作已經全面上線，但與第三季度相比，情況並沒有那麼好。

Commodity guidance, overall, we feel really great about where we are with our commodities. The supply chain team did an outstanding job as they -- as we covered this fiscal year, and to some degree, beyond that, we're in a really good place with eggs. We're really happy with that. However, there is a little bit of an availability problem there, as we shared. So there's a little bit of headwind, but all of that is contemplated in our commodity guidance, which is really, really good, we think. So labor, really good.

商品指導，總體而言，我們對我們的商品現狀感到非常滿意。供應鏈團隊做得非常出色——正如我們本財年所報導的那樣，而且在某種程度上，除此之外，我們的雞蛋業務狀況非常好。我們對此感到非常高興。然而，正如我們所分享的，那裡存在一些可用性問題。因此存在一些阻力，但所有這些都已在我們的商品指導中考慮到，我們認為這真的非常好。如此勞苦，真好。

There is some of this that is somewhat unique to Q2, but that Q2 benefit will continue into future years. And all of that really is embedded into our thinking as it relates to the full year guidance. I think the big takeaway there is we have -- a couple of things. We have some investments in Q3. We also know that Q3 start and traffic was a bit softer, a little bit better in the last couple of weeks. And then in Q4, we have the full benefit of back-of-house. And we have some good things coming, so things that we're all really excited about that we think -- even in a challenging environment, we think will resonate.

其中一些是第二季度獨有的，但第二季的優勢將持續到未來幾年。所有這些都已融入我們的思考中，因為它與全年指導有關。我認為我們最大的收穫是──幾件事。我們在第三季有一些投資。我們也知道，第三季開始時，交通狀況有些疲軟，但過去幾週有所改善。然後在第四季度，我們充分享受後台服務的優勢。我們即將迎來一些好事，因此我們都對這些事情感到非常興奮，我們認為——即使在充滿挑戰的環境中，這些事情也會引起共鳴。

One quick follow-up and I'll hop back in queue. I believe you said in the commentary, Craig, that the strategic transformation costs and the proxy battle costs are done for the full year. Did I hear that right? So we're not adjusting for that in adjusted EBITDA for the next two quarters?

只需快速跟進一次，我就會重新回到隊列中。克雷格，我相信您在評論中說過，策略轉型成本和代理權爭奪成本是全年完成的。我沒聽錯吧？所以我們不會在接下來的兩個季度的調整後 EBITDA 中對此進行調整嗎？

Correct. Absolutely. The proxy costs are done and the strategic transformation work is completed as it relates to add-backs. We're in the stage now of implementation. There are some costs associated with that. For example, some of those costs are in Q3, but we are not treating those as add-backs for purposes of our adjusted EBITDA.

正確的。絕對地。代理成本已完成，與加回相關的策略轉型工作也已完成。我們現在正處於實施階段。這會產生一些相關費用。例如，其中一些成本是在第三季度，但我們不會將其視為調整後 EBITDA 的加回。

Katherine Griffin, Bank of America.

凱瑟琳·格里芬，美國銀行。

First, I had a question on the retail business. Are you exposed at all to imports from China? And how are you -- if so, how are you positioning the business? And kind of what are your expectations on how tariffs could impact your business overall?

首先，我有一個關於零售業務的問題。你們是否接觸過來自中國的進口產品？您如何—如果是的話，您如何定位業務？您預計關稅將如何影響您的整體業務？

Katherine, it's Craig. I'll start. Well, first, let me talk about the restaurant business. We -- the vast majority of our repurchases on the restaurant side are domestic US-based. So that is a big positive as it relates to tariffs. The retail business -- the supply chain and the retail business is much more complicated. About 1/3 of our purchases for retail are from China. The team has been well ahead of this topic, and they have been working on that.

凱瑟琳，我是克雷格。我先開始。嗯，首先，讓我談談餐飲業。我們在餐廳方面的回購絕大多數是在美國國內進行的。因此，這對於關稅而言是一個很大的利好。零售業務－供應鏈和零售業務要複雜得多。我們的零售採購中約有三分之一來自中國。該團隊在這個主題上已經取得了長足的進步，並且他們一直在為此努力。

There are a couple of levers there that we pull as it relates to how to navigate tariffs on our China purchases. Number one, and we've had some meaningful success here, is just negotiating with the vendors so that we're not absorbing 100% of that cost. And the team has done a good job there. The second lever is working to -- working on alternate sources. So if we're not able to have the appropriate success with the vendor, looking at alternate sourcing. And then obviously, the third is pricing. So we're balancing those three things.

在處理我們在中國採購商品的關稅問題時，我們採取了一些措施。首先，我們在這裡取得了一些有意義的成功，就是與供應商進行談判，這樣我們就不會承擔 100% 的成本。並且團隊在那裡做得很好。第二個槓桿是努力尋找替代能源。因此，如果我們無法與供應商取得適當的成功，我們就會尋找其他來源。顯然，第三個是定價。所以我們正在平衡這三件事。

Obviously, it's a dynamic topic, so we're staying flexible, but we are tracking and adjusting on a real-time basis. I was really happy with really how far ahead the team was on this topic. And keep in mind that all of that is everything -- all of the tariffs that have been executed at this point, all of those impacts are contemplated in our guidance.

顯然，這是一個動態的話題，所以我們保持靈活性，但我們正在即時追蹤和調整。我真的很高興看到團隊在這個主題上取得瞭如此大的進步。請記住，所有這些都是目前已執行的所有關稅，所有這些影響都已在我們的指導中考慮到。

Great. And then I just had a few clarifying questions on the egg inflation. So first, can you remind me what percentage of your COGS are eggs? I know in the past, you've talked about, I think it's like a low double-digit number for dairy and eggs. But if you could kind of parse out eggs within that, that would be helpful.

偉大的。然後我只想澄清幾個關於雞蛋通貨膨脹的問題。那麼首先，您能提醒我您的銷貨成本 (COGS) 中有多少百分比是雞蛋嗎？我知道您過去曾談過，我認為乳製品和雞蛋的產量將處於較低的兩位數。但如果你能從中分析出雞蛋，那將會很有幫助。

And then maybe just to clarify, on the purchases you made on the spot market, how much of your egg purchase is that? And since you're contracted through most of the year, how are you thinking about the impact next year as those prices kind of reset? I ask that within the context of what you spoke to about the fiscal 2026 guidance. I think you said second half to ramp up, but I don't know if that still means that you expect '26 to be above '25 on adjusted EBITDA. I know there's a lot in there.

然後也許只是為了澄清一下，您在現貨市場上購買了多少雞蛋？而且由於你們在一年中的大部分時間都簽訂了合同，那麼當這些價格重新調整時，您認為明年會產生什麼影響？我根據您談到的 2026 財年指導提出這個問題。我認為您說的是下半年會加速成長，但我不知道這是否仍然意味著您預計 26 年的調整後 EBITDA 將高於 25 年。我知道裡面有很多東西。

Yes. Absolutely, Katherine. I'll start and then you may need to remind me a little bit as I go here. The first one is our egg mix relative to our commodity basket, we're in the low single digits, so low single-digit mix. Then in terms of our -- the impact, I would say it's -- our pricing is really good. So we lost a little bit of capacity. We're talking about single-digit teens in terms of volume, but the spot market prices are so much higher than our contracted prices. The impact there was that $4 million, that I quoted for the second half.

是的。當然，凱瑟琳。我先開始了，然後你可能需要提醒我。第一個是我們的雞蛋組合相對於我們的商品籃子而言，我們處於低個位數，因此是低個位數組合。那麼就我們的影響而言，我想說的是——我們的定價非常好。因此我們損失了一點產能。就數量而言，我們談論的是個位數，但現貨市場價格遠高於我們的合約價格。其影響是，我為下半年報價了 400 萬美元。

And then in terms of our egg contract, again, the supply chain team really did a really good job, and we are well positioned in terms of our contracts through fiscal 2026. That being said, we have to be mindful of the supply issue. So we're contracted, we have good relationships with our suppliers that they honor. But there are clearly cases where due to circumstances beyond any of our control, they're not able to meet the demand, they're not able to supply the demand. So that is an exposure. But in terms of contracts, we're very well positioned through '26 at this point with eggs.

就我們的雞蛋合約而言，供應鏈團隊確實做得非常好，我們在 2026 財年的合約方面處於有利地位。話雖如此，我們必須注意供應問題。因此，我們與供應商簽訂了合同，並保持了良好的關係，他們也尊重我們的合約。但顯然存在這樣的情況，由於我們無法控制的情況，他們無法滿足需求，無法供應需求。所以這是一種曝光。但就合約而言，目前我們在 26 年之前在雞蛋方面處於非常有利的地位。

And if I could just ask one more follow-up. How should I be thinking about pricing in the second half of 2025?

我是否可以再問一個後續問題。我該如何考慮 2025 年下半年的定價？

Yes. So we -- our pricing, we were at 6% in Q2, and we're still estimating -- we're still at 5% on the year. So that would imply meaningfully lower than 6% in order to get to 5% on the year. So that's how I think all of that will play out.

是的。因此，我們的定價在第二季為 6%，我們仍然估計，今年的定價仍為 5%。因此，這意味著要達到 5% 的年增長率，必須低於 6%。所以我認為這就是所有事情將會如何發展的結果。

Alton Stump, Loop Capital.

奧爾頓·斯坦普（Alton Stump），Loop Capital。

Obviously, it sounds like dinner has been a huge outperformer for you now for the last several quarters. I'm curious on the launch on breakfast trend, sort of if there might be a similar opportunity for you to improve those dayparts as -- given all of the success that you've had for the dinner part.

顯然，聽起來過去幾個季度以來晚餐對你來說表現非常出色。我對早餐推出的趨勢很好奇，考慮到您在晚餐時段的成功，是否有類似的機會讓您改善這些時段？

Alton, thanks for the question. It's Julie. I'll start and then I'll let Craig jump in if I miss anything. We continue to be really pleased with the progress we're making around dinner. Now we're not to -- positive traffic yet, but that remains where we're headed towards.

奧爾頓，謝謝你的提問。我是朱莉。我先開始，然後如果我遺漏了什麼，我就讓 Craig 接手。我們對晚餐方面取得的進展感到非常高興。現在我們還沒有達到積極的交通狀況，但這仍然是我們努力的方向。

The items that we've launched have resonated so well with our guests. You've heard Craig and I talk about hash brown casserole shepherd’s pie pot roast in the past. Pot roast is now one of our top five dinner items. So we continue to really fuel that innovation pipeline because we know that, that fuels preference, it fuels traffic, it fuels people coming to us for dinner. So lots more coming in the innovation pipeline there.

我們推出的商品引起了客人的強烈共鳴。您以前曾聽過克雷格和我談論土豆煎餅砂鍋和牧羊人餡餅烤鍋。燉肉現在是我們最喜歡的五種晚餐之一。因此，我們將繼續大力推動創新管道，因為我們知道，這會帶來偏好，帶來流量，帶來人們來我們這裡吃飯。因此，那裡的創新管道還有很多。

We remain really focused on our execution at dinner. We still have our early-dine specials out there for those that are very value-conscious, especially given some of the things we talked about earlier with the consumer sentiment. We've got the $8.99 early dine available Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 PM. That's out there for people. We've got our loyalty program, which also provides great value.

我們在晚餐時仍然非常關注我們的執行情況。對於那些非常注重價值的顧客，我們仍然提供提早用餐特價，特別是考慮到我們之前談到的一些消費者情緒。我們提供早晚餐，價格為 8.99 美元，供應時間為週一至週五，下午 4 點至 6 點。那是為人們準備的。我們有忠誠度計劃，它也提供了巨大的價值。

And then back to your question about breakfast and lunch, we have really held up well at breakfast. It remains a pillar for us, a place of strength. We continue to innovate there as well. If you look at the new menu that we just launched, while we have two amazing Trump dishes, I talked about them in my prepared remarks, which are really targeted at dinner. We also have some innovation around the pancake platform so that we can continue to really bolster our strength there, really execute the barbell and also in some innovation in there. So all of those new items are really resonating with guests even though we're only five weeks into Q3.

然後回到你關於早餐和午餐的問題，我們的早餐確實做得很好。它仍然是我們的支柱，是我們的堅強後盾。我們也會繼續在那裡創新。如果你看我們剛推出的新菜單，你會發現我們有兩道令人驚嘆的川普菜餚，我在準備好的發言中談到了它們，這些發言實際上是針對晚餐的。我們也在煎餅平台方面進行了一些創新，以便我們能夠繼續真正增強我們在那裡的實力，真正執行槓鈴，並在其中進行一些創新。儘管我們才進入第三季五週，所有這些新品都確實引起了客人的共鳴。

So we continue to really not take our eye off any of those balls. We've got to win at traffic. We've got -- sorry, we've got to win at dinner and we've got to win at breakfast. It's kind of important to note that we did see traffic trend improvement across all dayparts, breakfast, lunch and dinner, in Q2 versus Q1. So we're really pleased with the progress the team is making and in the great execution by our operations teams in the field.

因此，我們確實繼續密切關注著這些球。我們必須贏得交通勝利。我們必須——抱歉，我們必須在晚餐上取勝，我們必須在早餐上取勝。值得注意的是，與第一季相比，我們確實看到第二季所有時段（早餐、午餐和晚餐）的客流量趨勢有所改善。因此，我們對團隊所取得的進展以及我們現場營運團隊的出色表現感到非常高興。

And then I guess, just one more follow-up and I'll hop back in the queue. But just on pricing front, it's certainly a question facing the entire industry right now of how much pricing power is still left. But as I look at Cracker Barrel, you guys are, I think, a great value versus even some of your lower-priced peers. So would I be wrong in thinking that perhaps Cracker Barrel has bit more pricing power than kind of most people might realize as you kind of look out over the next 12 to 18 months?

然後我想，只需再跟進一次，我就會重新回到隊列中。但就定價方面而言，目前整個產業面臨的一個問題無疑是還剩下多少定價權。但當我看到 Cracker Barrel 時，我認為你們比一些價格較低的同行更有價值。那麼，如果我認為 Cracker Barrel 在未來 12 到 18 個月內擁有比大多數人想像的更大的定價權，那麼我錯了嗎？

Yes. It's a great question, Alton. Thanks for that. Look, it's one of the things we really examined as part of the transformation agenda is, how do our guests think about value? How do they think about absolute pricing? How do we stack versus the competition? And then where do we need to be to execute this transformation? And we're about a year into all of that. When you think about the early pricing work that we've shared with you all, we started that kind of March a year ago.

是的。這是一個很好的問題，奧爾頓。謝謝。你看，這是我們在轉型議程中真正研究的事情之一，那就是我們的客人如何看待價值？他們如何看待絕對定價？我們如何與競爭對手抗衡？那我們需要在哪裡實現這項轉變呢？我們已為此奮鬥了大約一年。當您想到我們與大家分享的早期定價工作時，我們一年前三月就開始了這樣的工作。

So we've got a real test-and-learn mentality around pricing, the strategic ability to go in at the item level, at the restaurant level and really understand where we should be vis-a-vis the competition, where we should be vis-a-vis our strategy. That's been working really, really well for us.

因此，我們在定價方面有真正的測試和學習心態，在產品層面、餐廳層面有戰略能力，真正了解我們相對於競爭對手應該處於什麼位置，我們的策略應該處於什麼位置。這對我們來說確實非常有效。

I'll answer it in a couple of ways. One, we believe we still have room from a pricing standpoint, but that's not the only lever out there for us, right? We are about value. We know that our guests count on us to be a great value. And we execute that in so many ways. I talked about it a little bit earlier when I answered Jeff's question, but remember, we've got early dine, we've got the Sunrise Pancake special that's available all day, every day at $7.99. It's an extraordinary value.

我將透過幾種方式來回答這個問題。首先，我們認為從定價的角度來看我們仍然有空間，但這不是我們唯一的槓桿，對嗎？我們注重價值。我們知道，我們的客人非常信賴我們，相信我們能提供有價值的服務。我們透過多種方式來實現這一點。我之前回答傑夫的問題時談過這一點，但請記住，我們有早點用餐，我們有日出煎餅特價，每天全天供應，價格為 7.99 美元。這是一個非凡的價值。

We've got Craig's favorite, take-home meals that start at $5. So after you dine with us at this exceptional value, you can have another meal for only $5. Now you have to heat it up yourself, but it's -- we make it really easy. You just kind of pop it in the microwave. So that's a great way to deliver value.

我們有克雷格最喜歡的外帶餐點，起價為 5 美元。因此，您在我們這裡以超值的價格享用完餐點後，只需花 5 美元就可以再享用一頓飯。現在你必須自己加熱它，但是——我們讓它變得非常簡單。你只要把它放進微波爐就可以了。所以這是一種傳遞價值的好方法。

Our loyalty program is such a strength of value for us. We know that you can earn pegs on both retail and on restaurant. We run special promotions where, hey, if you come in and you spend $30 with us, you get $10 off or you get 20% off your entire check. So our guests are recognizing the value that we deliver vis-a-vis loyalty as well.

我們的忠誠度計劃對我們來說具有巨大的價值。我們知道您可以在零售和餐飲領域賺取積分。我們推出特別促銷活動，如果您來我們這裡消費 30 美元，即可享 10 美元折扣或全額折扣 20%。因此，我們的客人也認識到我們在忠誠度方面所提供的價值。

And then I would just again highlight our outstanding check versus the competition. Remember, Cracker Barrel ended the quarter at a $15 check, while casual dining was at $28 and family dining's at $18. So we believe this really positions us well in this uncertain economic environment, that we can deliver our outstanding hospitality, our great scratch-made food, all for a great value. So we continue to watch that. We think there's opportunity there, but we're also super careful.

然後我想再次強調我們與競爭對手相比的未付支票。請記住，Cracker Barrel 本季的餐費為 15 美元，而休閒餐飲的餐費為 28 美元，家庭餐飲的餐費為 18 美元。因此，我們相信，這確實使我們在當前不確定的經濟環境中處於有利地位，我們可以以極高的價值提供卓越的款待和美味的現做食物。因此我們將繼續關注此事。我們認為那裡有機會，但我們也非常小心。

Andrew Wolf, CL King.

安德魯沃爾夫、CL金。

I also wanted to ask, very similar to what Alton was just asking about, first of all, just on the price gaps to casual is pretty big and family dining is not as big. How do you consider Cracker Barrel? I mean, is it a hybrid? Or is it one or the other when you analyze how much pricing leverage or gap you have?

我也想問，和奧爾頓剛才問的非常相似，首先，休閒餐飲的價格差距很大，而家庭餐飲的價格差距沒有那麼大。您如何看待 Cracker Barrel？我的意思是，它是混合型的嗎？或者當您分析您有多少定價槓桿或差距時，是其中之一嗎？

Yes. Andrew, we look at everybody, right? Because unfortunately, we are a little bit of a hybrid, maybe not unfortunately. I'd say fortunately. I think it's one of our strengths, the fact that we have three dayparts. We're out there at breakfast, lunch and dinner, taking care of our guests and offering them a great value. So because of that, we have to look at family dining and because of how important dinner is for us, we look at casual dining as well. We want to be relevant. We want to make sure that we are really grabbing market share from all of those folks.

是的。安德魯，我們看著每個人，對嗎？因為不幸的是，我們有點混合，也許不是不幸的是。我想說幸運的是。我認為這是我們的優勢之一，因為我們有三個時段。我們提供早餐、午餐和晚餐，照顧我們的客人並為他們提供超值的服務。因此，我們必須考慮家庭用餐，而且由於晚餐對我們很重要，我們也會考慮休閒用餐。我們希望與時俱進。我們希望確保我們確實能夠從所有這些人手中奪取市場份額。

Even QSR, we look at them as well from a basket standpoint and what guests are paying across those channels. We believe it's really important to be relevant from a price perspective as well as from a menu offering perspective and a service and overall experience perspective. You're going to get our great country hospitality at those great price points.

即使是 QSR，我們也會從購物籃的角度來觀察客人在這些管道上支付的費用。我們認為，從價格角度、菜單提供角度、服務和整體體驗角度來看，相關性非常重要。您將以優惠的價格享受我們優質的鄉村招待。

And frankly, remember, our guests love us for our abundance. And that still keeps coming through when you look at what they're buying from us and the menu items that are doing extraordinarily well. So we look at all of it. We're pretty special. Don't forget, we also have a retail store. So we're even more special and a little bit more differentiated than all of those competitors.

坦白說，請記住，我們的客人喜歡我們豐富的食物。當你看到他們從我們這裡購買的商品以及菜單上賣得非常好的菜餚時，你就會明白這一點。所以我們對這一切進行了檢視。我們很特別。別忘了，我們還有一家零售店。因此，我們比所有競爭對手都更特別，差異化程度也更高。

Okay. The other sort of micro E question, then I want to ask a macro question is, so that $15 average for Cracker Barrel could sort of disaggregate, I would guess, lower on the family dining type of occasion and higher on the casual dining. So the gap might be even better, gets family dining and maybe a bit closer to casual. I don't know if you can add that to --?

好的。另一個微觀 E 問題，然後我想問一個宏觀問題，那麼 Cracker Barrel 的 15 美元平均值可以分解成，我猜，家庭用餐類型的場合價格較低，休閒用餐價格較高。因此，差距可能會更大，家庭用餐可能更接近休閒用餐。我不知道你是否可以將其添加到--？

Yes. No, we haven't done it that way, but I can get your -- I think I get your point. If you were to compare our breakfast business against breakfast, as an example, I think we're really well positioned in that way because, for example, at dinner, we now have a steak and shrimp. It's really an amazing dish and -- .

是的。不，我們沒有那樣做過，但我能理解你的意思——我想我明白你的意思了。例如，如果將我們的早餐業務與早餐進行比較，我認為我們在這方面的定位確實很有利，因為例如，在晚餐時，我們現在有牛排和蝦子。這真是一道很棒的菜，-- 。

Selling well.

銷售良好。

Yes, selling really well, and that would compare more to a casual dine-in competitor versus a family dine-in competitor. So I think that's -- we don't exactly look at it that way. We do think about our gaps to competitors though. Like for like items and like items, where do we want to be? And we have a target there. Where do we want to kind of be the best? Where do we want to be in line, that type of thing.

是的，賣得非常好，這更像是休閒餐廳的競爭對手，而不是家庭餐廳的競爭對手。所以我認為——我們並不完全這樣看待它。我們確實考慮過我們與競爭對手的差距。就同​​類物品和同類物品而言，我們想要達到什麼程度？我們在那裡有一個目標。我們希望在哪些方面做到最好？我們想排在哪裡，諸如此類的事情。

And our new pricing capability enables us to do that by store by like region of the country versus competitors. So we're looking at all of that to see how we stack up.

我們的新定價能力使我們能夠根據國家/地區按商店與競爭對手進行定價。因此，我們正在研究所有這些，看看我們的表現如何。

All right. That sounds very robust, but I'd like to ask at a higher level, if you will. So there is a big gap, and you've got tools to do it, and you want to be prudent. But my sense of it is sort of a pay-as-you-go, if you will, kind of thing going on here as Cracker Barrel is able to improve the experience, whether it's better menu items, better service, better lighting, remodels, all that stuff, there is an opportunity -- there could be an opportunity to increase that gap -- to close the gap, which stands to reason. I just want to understand if that's part of your philosophy. Or do you want to maintain that gap or other?

好的。這聽起來很有說服力，但如果可以的話，我想從更高層次來詢問。因此，存在著很大的差距，而且你有工具可以解決它，而且你要謹慎行事。但我的感覺是，如果你願意的話，這是一種現收現付的做法，因為 Cracker Barrel 能夠改善體驗，無論是更好的菜單項目、更好的服務、更好的照明、改造，還是所有這些東西，都有機會——有機會擴大差距——縮小差距，這是合乎情理的。我只是想了解這是否是你的哲學的一部分。或者你想保持這個差距或其他？

As we did the strategic pricing work, we laid it out over this whole transformation window over the three years, recognizing that it's the what you pay for what you get or what you get for what you pay. And we are working on the what you get part, and we've made a lot of progress there, certainly, as you see with our various guest satisfaction metrics. But other things too, we have been improving and evolving the offerings. And as you know, we've been doing other tests to improve the atmosphere and so on.

在進行策略性定價工作時，我們將其貫穿在三年的整個轉型過程中，認識到一分錢一分貨，或一分錢一分貨。我們正在努力提高您的服務質量，並且在這方面我們已經取得了很大進展，正如您從我們的各種客戶滿意度指標中看到的那樣。但在其他方面，我們也一直在改進和發展產品。正如你所知，我們一直在進行其他測試來改善大氣等等。

So I think all of that is just -- I think what you're saying there is there is a trajectory on what you get, and that gives us some flexibility on the pricing as you think about that over the entire window. So the intent was never to kind of pares the entire size of what we think the pricing -- strategic pricing opportunity is. Let's take that now. That was never the intent. It's staged over a period of time, and it's also staged with the other things that we were investing in the business to deliver a better experience for our guests and our employees.

所以我認為所有這些都只是 - 我認為你所說的是你得到的東西有一個軌跡，當你考慮整個窗口時，這給了我們在定價上一些靈活性。因此，我們的目的從來不是削減我們認為的定價——策略定價機會——的整體規模。我們現在就來討論一下。這絕不是我們的本意。它是在一段時間內分階段進行的，並且還與我們在業務上投資的其他項目一起分階段進行，以便為我們的客人和員工提供更好的體驗。

Jon Tower, Citigroup.

花旗集團的喬恩‧陶爾 (Jon Tower)。

Maybe, Craig, I was wondering if you could dig into the mix and traffic in the quarter. And specifically, you had mentioned about the benefits from an EBITDA standpoint on the catering and Heat n' Serve during the second quarter. Is there a way you can quantify that for us?

克雷格，也許我想知道您是否可以深入了解本季的組合和流量。具體來說，您提到了從 EBITDA 角度來看第二季餐飲和 Heat n' Serve 的收益。您能為我們量化一下嗎？

Well, here's what -- Jon, here's what I can say without kind of getting into a whole lot of the tail there. We -- Julie talked about -- we started down this path a year ago -- actually over a year ago, when it really, really set this objective for us to improve this holiday window in terms of the experience and in terms of the profitability.

好吧，情況是這樣的——喬恩，我可以這麼說，但不必太過糾結。我們——朱莉談到——我們在一年前——實際上是一年多前——就開始走這條路了，當時我們真的設定了這個目標，即從體驗和盈利能力方面改善這個假日窗口。

And as a part of that, what we've done is prioritize our dine-in business and ensuring that we're delivering a really great experience and driving that a bit more so than even the catering and Heat n' Serve business in this window. And that worked out really well.

作為其中的一部分，我們所做的就是優先考慮我們的堂食業務，並確保我們提供真正優質的體驗，並且比這個窗口期的餐飲和 Heat n' Serve 業務更加積極地推動堂食業務。效果確實很好。

So we actually gave up some traffic here as it relates to catering and Heat n' Serve. The traffic that we kept was more profitable, but it also enabled us to deliver better dine-in traffic as well. So if you kind of break apart the 4.7% comp as an example, if that's what you're getting at there, 4.7% total sales; check, up 7.4%; price, up 6%; mix, up 1.4%, which reinforces this idea that the strategic pricing is working because we're still getting a positive mix and traffic of a negative 2.7%.

因此，我們實際上放棄了一些與餐飲和 Heat n' Serve 相關的流量。我們保留的流量不僅能帶來更多利潤，也能讓我們提供更好的堂食流量。因此，如果您將 4.7% 的銷售額分解開來作為示例，如果這就是您所得到的，那麼總銷售額為 4.7%；檢查，上漲7.4%；價格上漲6%；組合上漲了 1.4%，這強化了戰略定價有效的想法，因為我們仍然獲得了積極的組合和負 2.7% 的流量。

What I would say, though, is embedded in that traffic of negative 2.7% are some -- we did not pursue as aggressively some of that business as it relates to the Heat n' Serve and catering. So that's embedded in that traffic performance, and we saw an improvement in our dine-in.

不過，我想說的是，在負 2.7% 的流量中，我們並沒有積極地開展與 Heat n' Serve 和餐飲相關的部分業務。因此，這已經融入客流量表現中，我們看到了堂食的改善。

Got it. And then you also mentioned, I think, in the prepared remarks there was a calendar shift in the period. Can you quantify that as well?

知道了。然後，我認為您在準備好的發言中也提到了，該時期發生了日曆上的變化。你也可以量化它嗎？

Yes. So we talked about really three things that drove the differential between the total restaurant sales versus the comp sales. And they're similar. It's not exactly 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, but that differential is about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 as it relates to the gift card discount and the impact of that and then the impact of the 53-week calendar shift that -- the comp calculation really keeps the weeks apples-to-apples, so that difference, and then the five stores. So all of those are in very rough terms, 1/3, 1/3, 1/3.

是的。因此，我們實際上討論了導致餐廳總銷售額與可比較銷售額之間差異的三個因素。而且它們很相似。它不完全是 1/3、1/3、1/3，但差異大約是 1/3、1/3、1/3，因為它與禮品卡折扣及其影響有關，然後是 53 週日曆轉換的影響 - 補償計算實際上使各周保持一致，因此存在差異，然後是五家商店。所以所有這些都是非常粗略的，1/3，1/3，1/3。

Okay. And then going back, you mentioned earlier the idea that the service model is changing and there's some elevated trading costs coming in the third quarter. Can you just speak to exactly what's happening with the service model? And maybe over the longer term, are you guys anticipating that labor hours at the store level will maybe start working lower?

好的。然後回過頭來看，您之前提到服務模式正在發生變化，第三季交易成本會上升。能否具體談談服務模式的具體情況？也許從長遠來看，你們是否預期商店層面的勞動時間可能會開始減少？

So a couple of things going on there, Jon. One, we have really been trying to put the guests at the center of everything that we do, really focusing on ensuring that we're delighting them, taking great care of them, thinking about them in the way we think about the menu innovation, the pricing, all of those things. And what we've done is just evolve our service model to do exactly that. So we rolled out some new standards that literally have the guest at the center of everything and are really just reinforcing that through a lot of our service standards. That's sort of the one thing.

喬恩，那裡發生了幾件事。首先，我們一直努力將客人放在我們所做的一切的中心，真正專注於確保我們讓他們感到高興，照顧好他們，在考慮菜單創新、定價等所有事情時都考慮到他們。我們所做的就是改進我們的服務模式來實現這一點。因此，我們推出了一些新標準，這些標準實際上以客人為一切的中心，並且實際上只是透過我們的許多服務標準來強化這一點。這是唯一的事情。

And that works for all of the roles, from back of the house to front of the house. It's really just a new way for us to kind of talk about that and just reinforce and bring our country hospitality to life through all of our initiatives and all of our labor and positions.

這適用於所有角色，從後台到前台。這實際上只是我們談論這個問題的一種新方式，並透過我們所有的舉措、所有的勞動和立場來加強和激發我們國家的熱情好客。

The second piece is that back-of-house initiative. And that really -- we rolled those trainings together so that people could sort of understand them and that they work together to make jobs easier to get people focused on the right things and to really improve quality and service in all that we do.

第二部分是後台措施。而且實際上——我們將這些培訓整合在一起，以便人們能夠理解它們，並且它們協同工作，使工作變得更容易，讓人們專注於正確的事情，並真正提高我們所做的一切的品質和服務。

So we put those together, rolling them out this quarter and super excited. The feedback has been really great from the teams. They're loving at. They love the simplified steps in the back of house. They love the focus on the guests in the front of house and in all of the roles.

因此，我們將它們整合在一起，並在本季度推出，我們對此感到非常興奮。團隊的回饋非常好。他們很熱愛。他們喜歡後台簡化的步驟。他們喜歡把焦點放在前台和所有角色的客人身上。

And I'll build on that, Jon, just to say that the improving labor productivity is a key part of kind of that growing to overall profitability for the company over the three-year window here. We're two quarters into that. We are already seeing better labor as a percent of sales than we had in the prior year. We're seeing those gains in productivity. We expect that in Q4, we will start to see even more of that with the back-of-house initiative as that goes alive. We had one initiative that went live in Q1 of fiscal '25, and that's been helping in terms of our overall labor cost and productivity.

喬恩，我想在此基礎上進一步說，提高勞動生產力是公司在未來三年內提高整體獲利能力的關鍵部分。我們已經進行了兩個季度。我們已經看到勞動力佔銷售額的百分比比前一年有所提高。我們看到了生產力的提高。我們預計，在第四季度，隨著後台計畫的實施，我們將開始看到更多這樣的情況。我們在 25 財年第一季實施了一項計劃，這對我們的整體勞動成本和生產力產生了幫助。

This other back-of-house initiative goes live in Q3, but we expect the benefit in Q4. And then we have two additional phases that are still very, very early as it relates to the overall labor productivity initiatives. So that is a multiyear endeavor. We're still early, but it is a big part of the overall profit story as we go through the three years. And it's not just about cutting labor, though. It is about making the jobs easier for our employees, making it more enjoyable and improving the consistency with which our products come out at great quality. And by doing that, it also reduces the amount of labor that's required.

另一項後台舉措將於第三季上線，但我們預期其效益將在第四季顯現。然後，我們還有兩個附加階段，由於與整體勞動生產力計劃有關，因此仍處於非常非常早期的階段。所以這是一項多年的努力。我們還處於早期階段，但這是我們三年來整體利潤故事的重要組成部分。但這不僅僅涉及削減勞動力。這是為了使我們的員工的工作更輕鬆、更愉快，並提高我們產品的高品質一致性。這樣做還可以減少所需的勞動力量。

Got it. And then just the last one for me. In terms of -- I know, Julie, you had mentioned earlier in the prepared remarks not providing too much more insight on the remodels and the refreshes. But any color you can provide around the lifts that you're seeing at the store, even consumer feedback in the markets? I think Indianapolis is one of the earlier ones in terms of guest satisfaction scores or anything like that.

知道了。對我來說這是最後一個了。就這一點而言——我知道，朱莉，你之前在準備好的演講中提到過，沒有提供太多有關改造和更新的見解。但是，您能提供在商店看到的升降機的任何顏色信息，甚至是市場上的消費者反饋嗎？我認為印第安納波利斯在客人滿意度評分或類似方面是較早的酒店之一。

Yes. Jon, it's funny. We were joking in our prep, I'm like, Somebody is going to ask about remodels, even though I have it in the prepared remarks. It wouldn't be an earnings calls if somebody didn't ask. But we are -- it's awesome. No, gosh, it's such an important program. I mean it's not the most important thing that we're working on, but there's so many pieces in it. And so -- that's really why we said we'll come back as part of our September call and really do a deep dive on it. We've been spending so much time really trying to get the algorithm right and get the levers right and understand from our guests and from our team members what are the things that drive the most lift in traffic, the most lifted satisfaction.

是的。喬恩，這很有趣。我們在準備時開玩笑，我想，有人會問到有關改造的問題，儘管我已經在準備好的評論中提到了。如果沒有人詢問，這就不算是收益電話會議。但我們確實如此——這太棒了。不，天哪，這是一個非常重要的項目。我的意思是，這不是我們正在做的最重要的事情，但其中涉及很多部分。所以——這就是為什麼我們說我們將在 9 月的電話會議上回來並深入探討這個問題。我們花了很多時間嘗試找到正確的演算法和正確的槓桿，並從我們的客人和團隊成員那裡了解哪些因素可以最大程度地提升流量和滿意度。

And how do they come together? And is it lighting? Is it floors? Is it paint? Is it service model? All of those things, we're looking at. And so we really want to make sure that we're dissecting it correctly, applying it correctly and understanding it correctly.

它們是如何結合在一起的？它在照明嗎？是地板嗎？是油漆嗎？是服務模式嗎？我們正在關注所有這些事情。因此，我們確實希望確保我們正確地剖析它、正確地應用它並正確地理解它。

And we're testing -- we keep changing the things that we're testing, right? We keep learning something and then trying something new. For example, we've got a whole new store that we're building near here right now, not building but remodeling based on some of the learnings that we're building along the way. So this truly is an investment year. It's a test-and-learn year. We want to get this right for our investors. We take our capital allocation very, very seriously. We take the return on that capital very, very seriously. And we're just trying to be very targeted, get it right, and we need a little bit of space to do that.

我們正在測試——我們不斷改變我們正在測試的東西，對嗎？我們不斷學習新事物，然後嘗試新事物。例如，我們現在正在附近建造一家全新的商店，這不是新建，而是基於我們在建設過程中獲得的一些經驗教訓進行改造。所以今年確實是投資年。這是測驗和學習的一年。我們希望為我們的投資者做好這件事。我們非常重視資本配置。我們非常重視資本的回報。我們只是想做到有的放矢，把事情做好，但我們需要一點空間來做到這一點。

I know you guys watch it all through PlacerAI and all of that. You're seeing some of the gains in Indianapolis and some of those other things. Right now, all we've said publicly is the 4 stores from 24, we continue to be very pleased with those. We've got a lift in traffic, lift in sales there, and we'll come back at the end of the year and talk more about it. -- Somebody had to ask it, Jon.

我知道你們透過 PlacerAI 和所有這些觀看了這一切。您會看到印第安納波利斯和其他一些地方取得了一些進展。目前，我們公開宣布的是從 24 家門市新增 4 家，我們對此感到非常滿意。我們的客流量和銷售額都有所提升，我們將在年底回來進一步討論此事。 ——必須有人問這個問題，喬恩。

Larsen Royce, Truist.

拉森·羅伊斯，Truist。

This is Larsen just on for Jake. Just wanted to -- I know we touched on the ag commodity quite a bit already, but given the $4 million incremental pricing and keeping the guidance reiterated there, was just wondering if there's anything you want to call out on some of the offsets that you might be seeing to offset that?

這是拉森為傑克表演的。只是想——我知道我們已經相當多地談到了農業商品，但考慮到 400 萬美元的增量定價和重申的指導方針，我只是想知道您是否想就您可能會看到的一些抵消措施提出一些看法？

In terms of -- well, how are we funding that? And I think this kind of came up earlier, but as you think about the entire equation, we raised our guidance a bit on the year but our Q2 was pretty strong. So there are a number of puts and takes in terms of how we're solving some of this. There is some spending that we had in the projection that we're going to defer, all the puts and takes in order to fund that. But a part of it is we are raising the guidance less than what would be, in theory, implied just based on Q2 only. So all of that is baked in there.

就——那麼，我們如何為其提供資金？我認為這種情況早些時候就出現了，但是當你考慮整個等式時，我們稍微提高了今年的預期，但我們第二季度的表現相當強勁。因此，在解決其中一些問題方面，我們面臨許多困難。我們計劃推遲一些支出，以便為這些支出提供資金。但部分原因是，我們上調的指引低於僅基於第二季理論上暗示的程度。所以所有這些都在那裡烘焙。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Julie Masino for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我想將電話轉回給朱莉·馬西諾，請她做最後發言。

Thank you. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. Our transformation is on track as demonstrated by our strong first half results. Fiscal '25 remains an investment year, but we're pleased that we were able to raise our EBITDA guidance. We believe we have a strong plan to drive continued performance in the back half, particularly in Q4, and we are confident in our ability to deliver our commitments and set us well -- set us up well for a very important '26.

謝謝。我要感謝今天與我們一起參加的各位。我們的轉型正在順利進行，這從我們上半年的強勁業績就可以看出。25 財年仍然是投資年，但我們很高興能夠提高 EBITDA 指引。我們相信，我們有一個強有力的計劃來推動下半年，特別是第四季度的持續表現，我們有信心我們有能力履行承諾，為我們做好充分的準備——為非常重要的26年做好準備。

Finally, I want to close by saying thank you and giving a huge shout-out to our 70,000-plus team members for their amazing work, bringing the brand to life every single day and especially during the important Q2. We're making terrific progress, and I'm excited about our future. Thank you.

最後，我要向我們 70,000 多名團隊成員表示感謝，感謝他們的出色工作，讓品牌每天都充滿活力，尤其是在重要的第二季。我們正在取得巨大進步，我對我們的未來感到興奮。謝謝。

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

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。現在您可以斷開線路