Chefs' Warehouse Inc (CHEF) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Chefs' Warehouse third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，大家好，歡迎參加 Chefs' Warehouse 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。提醒一下，本次會議正在錄製中。

I'd now like to turn the conference over to your host, Alex Aldous, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Government Relations Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我想將會議交給東道主 Alex Aldous，他是總法律顧問、公司秘書兼首席政府關係官。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. With me on today's call are Christopher Pappas, Founder, Chairman and CEO; and James Leddy, our CFO. By now, you should have access to our third quarter 2024 earnings press release. It can also be found at www.chefswarehouse.com under the Investor Relations section.

謝謝你，接線生。大家早安。與我一起參加今天電話會議的有創辦人、董事長兼執行長 Christopher Pappas；和我們的財務長詹姆斯·萊迪。到目前為止，您應該可以訪問我們的 2024 年第三季收益新聞稿。您也可以在 www.chefswarehouse.com 的「投資者關係」部分找到該資訊。

Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting non-GAAP financial measures, including, among others, historical and estimated EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA as well as both historical and estimated adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share.

在整個電話會議中，我們將介紹非公認會計準則財務指標，其中包括歷史和估計的 EBITDA 和調整後的 EBITDA，以及歷史和估計的調整後淨利潤和調整後每股收益。

These measurements are not calculated in accordance with GAAP and may be calculated differently in similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. Quantitative reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures appear in today's press release.

這些衡量標準並非根據公認會計準則計算，並且可能會按照其他公司使用的類似標題的非公認會計準則財務衡量標準進行不同的計算。我們的非公認會計原則財務指標與其最直接可比較的公認會計原則財務指標的定量調節出現在今天的新聞稿中。

Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our estimated financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect.

在我們開始正式發言之前，我需要提醒大家，我們今天討論的一部分將包括前瞻性陳述，包括有關我們估計財務業績的陳述。此類前瞻性陳述並不能保證未來業績，因此，您不應過度依賴它們。這些陳述面臨許多風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期有重大差異。

Some of these risks are mentioned in today's release. Others are discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on the SEC website.

今天的新聞稿中提到了其中一些風險。其他問題在我們的 10-K 表格年度報告和 10-Q 表格季度報告中進行了討論，這些報告可在 SEC 網站上取得。

Today, we are going to provide a business update and go over our second quarter results in detail. For a portion of our discussion this morning, we will refer to a few slides posted on The Chefs' Warehouse website under the Investor Relations section titled Q3 2024 earnings presentation. Please note that these slides are disclosed at this time for illustration purposes only. Then we will open up the call for questions.

今天，我們將提供業務更新並詳細回顧第二季的業績。對於今天上午討論的一部分，我們將參考 The Chefs' Warehouse 網站上投資者關係部分標題為 2024 年第三季度收益演示的幾張幻燈片。請注意，目前揭露這些投影片僅用於說明目的。然後我們將開放提問。

With that, I will turn the call over to Chris Pappas. Chris?

這樣，我會將電話轉給克里斯·帕帕斯。克里斯？

Thank you, Alex, and thank you all for joining our third quarter 2024 earnings call. Business and demand trends improved sequentially through the third quarter. Continued seasonal increase in international travel among the higher income demographic led to a slightly softer season in July and early August. Customer activity accelerated into the latter half of the quarter, and momentum in demand continued into October.

謝謝 Alex，也謝謝大家參加我們 2024 年第三季的財報電話會議。第三季業務和需求趨勢持續改善。高收入者國際旅行的持續季節性增長導致 7 月和 8 月初的旅遊季略有放緩。客戶活動在本季後半段加速，需求動能持續到 10 月。

Our operating divisions across domestic and international markets delivered strong growth in gross profit dollars and margin, as well as continued progress increasing relevance with our customer base with strong year over year growth and unique item placements. I would like to thank the entire CW team for their dedication and commitment to delivering our diverse and high-quality product and service and partnership with our suppliers and customers and the communities we serve.

我們在國內和國際市場的營運部門實現了毛利和利潤率的強勁增長，並透過強勁的同比增長和獨特的商品放置，不斷提高與客戶群的相關性。我要感謝整個 CW 團隊的奉獻和承諾，為我們提供多樣化、高品質的產品和服務，並與我們的供應商、客戶以及我們所服務的社區建立夥伴關係。

Please refer to slide 3 of the presentation. A few highlights from the third quarter include 5.6% organic growth in net sales. Specialty sales were up 7.5% organically over the prior year, which was driven by unique customer growth of approximately 4.7%. Placement growth of 10.8% and specialty case growth of 3.1%. Organic pounds in center-of-the-plate were approximately 1% higher than the prior year third quarter. The year over year percentage pounds growth was partially impacted by attrition related to noncore lower margin business in certain markets.

請參閱簡報的投影片 3。第三季的幾個亮點包括淨銷售額 5.6% 的有機成長。在獨特客戶成長約 4.7% 的推動下，特種產品銷售額比上年有機成長 7.5%。安置成長 10.8%，特殊案例成長 3.1%。盤子中心的有機磅數比去年第三季高出約 1%。英鎊年增率百分比部分受到某些市場中非核心低利潤業務相關損耗的影響。

Gross profit margins increased approximately 58 basis points. Gross margin in the specialty category increased approximately 50 basis points as compared to the third quarter of 2023, while gross margin in the center-of-the-plate category increased approximately 45 basis points year-over-year. Jim will provide more detail on gross profit margins in a few moments.

毛利率增加約58個基點。與 2023 年第三季相比，特種類別的毛利率成長約 50 個基點，而盤子中心品類的毛利率較去年同期成長約 45 個基點。吉姆稍後將提供有關毛利率的更多詳細資訊。

As we progress in the growth and capital allocation plan announced during the fourth quarter of 2023, we wanted to take this opportunity to provide more detail on certain commercial and operational metrics that we expect to contribute to achieving our targeted range of financial goals by year end 2028. In addition, we have engaged a global consulting firm to assist our teams in driving both top line and bottom-line improvements as we target annual incremental margin gains.

隨著我們在2023 年第四季度宣布的增長和資本分配計劃取得進展，我們希望藉此機會提供有關某些商業和運營指標的更多詳細信息，我們預計這些指標將有助於在年底前實現我們的既定財務目標2028 年。

Please refer to slide 4. Chart one displays trailing 12-month gross profit dollars per route as of third quarter 2024 as compared to full year 2019. Chart two displays adjusted operating expense as a percentage of gross profit dollars as well as the progression of adjusted EBITDA per employee for full year 2023 and estimated 2024, based on the midpoint of our current full year guidance as compared to 2019.

請參閱投影片4。後的營運費用的進展。

Across our locations, our teams work to improve distribution costs via multiple initiatives, which include route consolidation and internal transfer reductions in certain key markets. During 2024, we've eliminated routes and transfers in the Southwest as we opened our Arizona facility, in Northern California, as we integrated recent acquisitions with our specialty operations and in the Northwest with our Seattle facility coming online.

在我們的各個地點，我們的團隊致力於透過多項措施來降低配送成本，其中包括路線整合和減少某些關鍵市場的內部轉運。 2024 年，我們在西南地區開設了亞利桑那州工廠，取消了西南地區的航線和中轉服務；在北加州，我們將最近的收購與我們的專業業務相結合；在西北部，我們的西雅圖工廠已上線。

The consolidation of four protein processing and distribution operations in Northern California continues to progress, and we expect completion by the first quarter of 2025.

北加州四個蛋白質加工和分銷業務的整合仍在繼續進行，我們預計將於 2025 年第一季完成。

Now please refer to slide 5. The charts here display the progression of customer orders coming via our digital platforms, which include orders coming via mobile and website. Investments in our digital platform continue to contribute to margin enhancement as our team drives both online order adoption growth, enhancements to customer facing functionality and improve real-time data analytics, supporting our sales teams. As of the third quarter of 2024, approximately 54% of customers ordering through our domestic specialty locations are online versus 48% in 2023 and 20% at the end of 2019.

現在請參閱投影片 5。對我們數位平台的投資繼續有助於提高利潤率，因為我們的團隊推動了線上訂單採用率的成長、面向客戶的功能的增強和即時數據分析的改進，為我們的銷售團隊提供支援。截至 2024 年第三季度，透過我們國內專賣店訂購的客戶中約有 54% 是在線訂購，而 2023 年這一比例為 48%，2019 年底為 20%。

Now you could please refer to slide 6. This slide provides the five primary areas our teams are focused on in order to deliver our 2028 financial targets. While we will not go into detail of every initiative on this call, we do expect to provide more color during future presentations.

現在您可以參考投影片 6。雖然我們不會在這次電話會議上詳細介紹每項舉措，但我們確實希望在未來的演示中提供更多的內容。

In addition to the metrics just discussed, we have highlighted here a number of growth and efficiency related areas of focus. One key focus to highlight is the ongoing integration of our specialty produce and protein businesses in Texas.

除了剛剛討論的指標之外，我們還在此強調了一些與成長和效率相關的重點領域。需要強調的一個重點是我們在德州的特色農產品和蛋白質業務的持續整合。

We are taking steps to improve operational efficiency, merge our sales teams and incrementally grow the cross sell of our diverse and high-quality specialty produce and protein products across our platform. Year to date 2024 EBITDA margin for our combined Texas operations has improved approximately 110 basis points versus the same period in 2023.

我們正在採取措施提高營運效率，合併我們的銷售團隊，並逐步增加我們平台上多樣化、高品質的特色農產品和蛋白質產品的交叉銷售。 2024 年迄今為止，我們德州合併業務的 EBITDA 利潤率比 2023 年同期提高了約 110 個基點。

With that, I'll turn it over to Jim to discuss more detailed financial information for the quarter and an update on our liquidity. Jim?

接下來，我將把它交給吉姆，討論本季更詳細的財務資訊以及我們流動性的最新情況。吉姆？

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I'll now provide a comparison of our current quarter operating results versus the prior year quarter and provide an update on our balance sheet and liquidity.

謝謝你，克里斯，大家早安。現在，我將提供當前季度營運業績與去年同期的比較，並提供資產負債表和流動性的最新資訊。

Please refer to slide 7. Our net sales for the quarter ended September 27, 2024, increased approximately 5.6% to $931.5 million from $881.8 million in the third quarter of 2023. We estimate that softer demand during July, including the impact of Hurricane Beryl, impacted third quarter revenue growth by approximately 1%.

請參閱投影片7。包括颶風Beryl 的影響，影響第三季營收成長約1%。

Net inflation was 3.2% in the third quarter, consisting of 4.3% inflation in our specialty category and inflation of 1.4% in our center-of-the-plate category versus the prior year quarter. Aggregate specialty inflation was primarily driven by significant year over year price increases in chocolate and certain dairy products.

第三季的淨通貨膨脹率為 3.2%，其中與去年同期相比，我們的專業類別通貨膨脹率為 4.3%，而我們的中心類別通貨膨脹率為 1.4%。特種產品整體通膨主要是由巧克力和某些乳製品價格較去年同期大幅上漲所推動的。

Excluding these products, remaining aggregate specialty product inflation was in the 2% to 3% range. Gross profit increased 8.2% to $224.7 million for the third quarter of 2024 versus $207.7 million for the third quarter of 2023.

排除這些產品，其餘特種產品總通膨率在 2% 至 3% 範圍內。 2024 年第三季毛利成長 8.2%，達到 2.247 億美元，而 2023 年第三季毛利為 2.077 億美元。

Gross profit margins increased approximately 58 basis points to 24.1% and our procurement sales, pricing and operations teams delivered strong gross profit dollar growth across categories during the quarter.

毛利率成長約 58 個基點，達到 24.1%，我們的採購銷售、定價和營運團隊在本季實現了各類別毛利的強勁成長。

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased approximately 7.4% to $192.9 million for the third quarter of 2024 from $179.6 million for the third quarter of 2023. The increase was primarily due to higher depreciation and amortization, driven by facility investments and costs associated with compensation, facilities and distribution to support sales growth in the current quarter.

銷售、一般和管理費用從2023 年第三季的1.796 億美元增加至2024 年第三季的1.929 億美元，成長約7.4%。和攤銷增加，設施和分銷以支持本季的銷售成長。

Adjusted operating expenses increased 8.2% versus the prior year third quarter. And as a percentage of net sales, adjusted operating expenses were 18.3% for the third quarter of 2024. Operating income for the third quarter of 2024 was $31.9 million compared to $25.5 million for the third quarter of 2023. The increase in operating income was driven primarily by higher gross profit, partially offset by higher selling, general and administration expenses versus the prior year quarter.

調整後營運費用較去年第三季成長 8.2%。而作為淨銷售額的百分比，2024年第三季調整後的營運費用為18.3%。是由主要是由於毛利增加，部分被銷售、一般和管理費用較去年同期增加所抵銷。

Our GAAP net income was $14.1 million or $0.34 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2024 compared to net income of $7.3 million or $0.19 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2023. On a non-GAAP basis, we had adjusted EBITDA of $54.5 million for the third quarter of 2024 compared to $50.3 million for the prior year third quarter. Adjusted net income was $15.4 million or $0.36 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2024 compared to $13.7 million or $0.33 per diluted share for the prior year third quarter.

2024 年第三季我們的GAAP 淨利為1,410 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益0.34 美元，而2023 年第三季的淨利為730 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益0.19 美元。基準，我們調整後的EBITDA 為54.5 美元2024 年第三季的營收為 5,030 萬美元，而去年第三季為 5,030 萬美元。 2024 年第三季調整後淨利為 1,540 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.36 美元，去年第三季調整後淨利為 1,370 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.33 美元。

Turning to the balance sheet and an update on our liquidity. Please refer to slide 8. At the end of the third quarter, we had total liquidity of $221.3 million comprised of $50.7 million in cash and $170.6 million of availability under our ABL facility.

轉向資產負債表和我們流動性的最新情況。請參閱投影片 8。

During the third quarter, we continue to make progress toward achieving our year end 2025 capital allocation goals of 2.5 times to 3 times net debt leverage and repurchasing $25 million to $100 million of equivalent outstanding shares. Timing of repurchases will continue to be dependent on share price, market conditions and free cash flow generation.

第三季度，我們繼續在實現 2025 年底資本配置目標（即淨債務槓桿 2.5 倍至 3 倍）方面取得進展，並回購 2,500 萬美元至 1 億美元的等值已發行股票。回購時間將繼續取決於股價、市場狀況和自由現金流的產生。

As of September 27, 2024, year-to-date, we have repurchased $10 million shares of our outstanding common shares, resulting in a reduction of approximately 264,000 shares outstanding and repaid $18.5 million of outstanding debt.

截至 2024 年 9 月 27 日，年初至今，我們已回購了 1,000 萬美元的已發行普通股，從而減少了約 264,000 股已發行股票，並償還了 1,850 萬美元的未償債務。

As of September 27, 2024, total net debt was approximately $651 million inclusive of all cash and cash equivalents, and net debt to adjusted EBITDA was approximately 3.1 times as compared to approximately 3.4 times as of yearend 2023. Post third quarter end, on October 22, 2024, we repriced our $262 million term loan maturing in 2029, reducing the coupon from SOFR plus a fixed spread of 4% to SOFR plus a fixed spread of 3.5%.

截至2024 年9 月27 日，淨債務總額約為6.51 億美元，包括所有現金及現金等價物，淨債務與調整後EBITDA 比率約為3.1 倍，而2023 年底約為3.4 倍。即10 月2024 年 1 月 22 日，我們對 2029 年到期的 2.62 億美元定期貸款進行了重新定價，將息票從 SOFR 加 4% 的固定利差降低為 SOFR 加 3.5% 的固定利差。

Turning to our full year guidance for 2024, based on the current trends in the business, we are updating our full year financial guidance as follows. We estimate that net sales for the full year of 2024 will be in the range of $3.710 billion to $3.775 billion. Gross profit to be between $890 million and $906 million and adjusted EBITDA to be between $210 million and $219 million.

談到 2024 年全年指引，根據當前業務趨勢，我們將全年財務指引更新如下。我們預計 2024 年全年淨銷售額將在 37.10 億美元至 37.75 億美元之間。毛利在 8.9 億美元至 9.06 億美元之間，調整後 EBITDA 在 2.1 億美元至 2.19 億美元之間。

Please note for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024, we expect the convertible notes maturing in 2028 to be dilutive and therefore, we expect the fully diluted share count to be approximately 45 million shares for the fourth quarter and full year reporting periods.

請注意，對於2024 年第四季和全年，我們預計2028 年到期的可轉換票據將具有攤薄性，因此，我們預計第四季度和全年報告期的完全稀釋股數約為4500 萬股。

Thank you, and at this point, we will open it up to questions. Operator?

謝謝，現在我們將開放提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Mark Carden, UBS.

（操作員說明）Mark Carden，UBS。

Great. Good morning and thanks so much for taking the question. So to start, it sounds like trends improved as the quarter progressed, impacted by some of the summer travel at the beginning of the period. More broadly speaking though, it sounds like traffic challenges were a bit more intense for the industry as a whole. I just want to see if any additional pockets of softness emerged for Chef' in 3Q or if it was pretty steady to what you guys have been seeing in recent quarters. Thank you.

偉大的。早上好，非常感謝您提出問題。首先，隨著本季的進展，受本期初一些夏季旅行的影響，趨勢似乎有所改善。但更廣泛地說，對於整個產業來說，流量挑戰似乎更加嚴峻。我只是想看看 Chef' 在第三季度是否出現了任何額外的疲軟，或者是否與你們最近幾季所看到的相當穩定。謝謝。

Hey, thanks, Mark. Yeah, no, I think you kind of summarized it. We had a little bit of a blip in July. I think last year, I think the industry thought that July was a bit of an anomaly, early August, with the level of international travel. That repeated again this year. That may be the new normal, where you have a softer July than kind of pre-COVID periods and then you have a good strength going into the back half of the quarter, and that's kind of how it played out.

嘿，謝謝，馬克。是的，不，我認為你已經總結過了。七月我們經歷了一些小插曲。我想去年，我認為業界認為七月有點反常，八月初，國際旅行的水平。今年又重演了這種情況。這可能是新常態，七月份的表現比新冠疫情爆發前的時期要軟，然後進入本季後半段時表現強勁，結果就是這樣。

So I would say I think we mentioned in our prepared remarks that we think it cost us about 1% on top line in the quarter, but our teams did a really good job of driving really strong gross profit dollar growth, continue to take market share with unique item penetration to offset some of the softness in July and as we mentioned, the trends, which we're building into September, kind of continued into October, so.

所以我想說，我認為我們在準備好的發言中提到，我們認為本季的營收損失約為1%，但我們的團隊在推動毛利美元強勁成長方面做得非常好，繼續佔據市場份額透過獨特的產品滲透來抵消 7 月的一些疲軟，正如我們所提到的，我們正在構建到 9 月的趨勢會持續到 10 月，所以。

Okay, great. And then just have you guys seen any shifts in the salesperson hiring environment? And by this, just are you seeing any competition for top talent picking up at all or just any impact of applications just given from the industry wide declining traffic that we're seeing even if your customers are holding them a bit better?

好的，太好了。那你們看到銷售人員招募環境有什麼改變嗎？由此，您是否看到了對頂尖人才的競爭正在加劇，或者只是我們看到的行業範圍內的流量下降所帶來的應用程式的影響，即使您的客戶對它們持有得更好一些？

Yeah. I mean, we continue to hire. We're always looking to bring in the bench as we say it. You have to have that bench to grow. I think that sometimes it's underestimated how long it takes to train qualified people. I always use the example of would you go see a doctor who just did one year of medical school? I wouldn't. I'd like them to see him graduate and do their residency and it's the same with sales team.

是的。我的意思是，我們繼續招募。正如我們所說，我們一直希望引進替補球員。你必須有那個板凳才能成長。我認為有時低估了培養合格人才所需的時間。我總是用這樣的例子：你會去看一位剛讀了一年醫學院的醫生嗎？我不會。我希望他們看到他畢業並完成住院實習，銷售團隊也是如此。

It takes years to build really high qualified, I call them relationship manager at this point. I understand, especially us, a more complicated product line. So our people are good performers. It's a job almost for life. It takes years to build those relationships and the portfolio of products that customers are relying on. So we don't have a lot of jumping around, and we continue to hire.

培養真正高素質的人才需要數年時間，我現在稱他們為專案關係經理。我了解，尤其是我們，有更複雜的產品線。所以我們的員工都是優秀的執行者。這幾乎是一輩子的工作。建立這些關係和客戶所依賴的產品組合需要花費數年時間。所以我們沒有太多的跳來跳去，我們繼續招募。

Great. Thanks so much. Good luck guys.

偉大的。非常感謝。祝大家好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Alex Slagle, Jefferies.

亞歷克斯·斯萊格爾，杰弗里斯。

Thanks. Good morning. Congrats. I wanted to ask on Hardee's. You gave some color on your Texas business, the margin ramp there and just wondering if you could update us on how much Hardee's is diluting the overall EBITDA margin at this point? And then just the progress -- you talked about the progress integrating cross selling, maybe you could provide some examples of improvements you've seen in certain parts of the business as the early work there has been paying off?

謝謝。早安.恭喜。我想問一下哈迪的情況。您對您在德克薩斯州的業務以及那裡的利潤率增長做了一些介紹，只是想知道您是否可以向我們介紹 Hardee's 目前正在稀釋多少整體 EBITDA 利潤率的最新情況？然後只是進展 - 您談到了整合交叉銷售的進展，也許您可以提供一些您在業務某些部分看到的改進示例，因為那裡的早期工作已經得到回報？

Yeah. Sure. I'll start, Alex. Thanks. Yeah, I think we mentioned on one of the slides that we posted that and most of that is Hardee's, but we expect kind of 20 basis points to 30 basis points of improvement in our overall EBITDA margins as we further integrate some of the acquisitions and Hardee's is a big part of that because it's a big revenue company. It's given us a big footprint in Texas that we were looking for and the team is making progress. I mean, we've gotten our operations team in there to help them get more efficient operationally. We've taken out some costs initially.

是的。當然。我要開始了，亞歷克斯。謝謝。是的，我想我們在發布的一張幻燈片中提到了這一點，其中大部分是Hardee 的，但我們預計，隨著我們進一步整合一些收購和業務，我們的整體EBITDA 利潤率將提高20 個基點到30 個基點。它讓我們在德克薩斯州取得了我們一直在尋找的巨大足跡，並且團隊正在取得進展。我的意思是，我們已經派出營運團隊來幫助他們提高營運效率。我們最初已經扣除了一些費用。

And then building that business and integrating it with our CW Specialty business and our Allen Brothers Protein business in Texas is underway. It's going to take a couple of years to really ramp it up, but that's pretty normal when you're creating a true Chefs' Warehouse in a market where you're small and you're going to grow fast.

然後，我們正在建立該業務，並將其與我們位於德克薩斯州的 CW Specialty 業務和 Allen Brothers Protein 業務相整合。真正提升它需要幾年的時間，但當你在一個規模較小且成長迅速的市場中創建一個真正的廚師倉庫時，這是很正常的。

What's the margin impression?

利潤印像是多少？

Yes. It hasn't really changed. It dilutes us by about 20 basis points to 25 basis points overall, and we look to get that back as we integrate the business over the next couple of years.

是的。它並沒有真正改變。它使我們整體稀釋了約 20 個基點到 25 個基點，我們希望在未來幾年整合業務時能夠收回這一點。

Yes. Alex, the what you're seeing from our performance is all the investments we've made over the many, many years. We're just taking market share. It's all the cross selling that's working, and in a market, I mean we kind of built our system for environments like today, where you do have traffic slowdown in restaurants.

是的。亞歷克斯，你從我們的表現中看到的是我們多年來所做的所有投資。我們只是搶奪市場佔有率。所有的交叉銷售都在發揮作用，在市場上，我的意思是，我們為像今天這樣的環境建立了我們的系統，在這種環境下，餐廳的交通確實會放緩。

So I think all your reports and all your data that's coming out is that it's a little soft compared to last year and the only way really to grow and the reason you see our numbers performing so well is we're just taking market share from all our investments in people, in systems, in our warehouses and it's a grind and you got to be able to win the grind right now and thank god, we're winning.

因此，我認為您所有的報告和所有即將發布的數據都與去年相比有點疲軟，而真正增長的唯一方法以及您看到我們的數字表現如此出色的原因是我們只是從所有人那裡奪取了市場份額我們對人員、系統、倉庫的投資是一項艱鉅的任務，你現在必須能夠贏得勝利，感謝上帝，我們正在勝利。

Yeah, that's helpful. And I guess a follow-up, just kind of wondering about churn levels and where they're tracking. I know it's still tough out there like you've been saying and the higher price levels, I'm sure more foodservice operators are shopping around looking for better prices and you think maybe this churn level would pick up, still impressive net customer growth mid-single digits, but kind of curious what you're seeing there?

是的，這很有幫助。我猜想是後續行動，只是想知道客戶流失程度以及他們的追蹤情況。我知道市場仍然很艱難，就像您所說的那樣，而且價格水平較高，我確信更多的餐飲服務運營商正在四處尋找更好的價格，您認為這種流失水平可能會上升，淨客戶成長仍然令人印象深刻-個位數，但有點好奇你在那裡看到了什麼？

Yeah. I mean, again, it's always been a very competitive industry, but you see that our actually our margin is up. So I keep going back to people that are following our stock and have invested in us. We've been investing. We've constantly been investing into the systems and into the model and we're kind of built for this environment where things are not optimal. You don't have a giant tailwind and big customer grow. Actually, we're winning with our customers.

是的。我的意思是，這一直是一個競爭非常激烈的行業，但你會發現我們的利潤率實際上正在上升。因此，我不斷地關注那些關注我們股票並投資我們的人。我們一直在投資。我們一直在對系統和模型進行投資，我們是為這種情況並非最佳的環境而建構的。你沒有巨大的順風和大客戶的成長。事實上，我們正​​在與客戶共贏。

New customer acquisition is helping us with the headwind right now of a little softness at the customer level, but business is pretty good. I mean, people still think that you're going to have COVID -- that COVID rush that we saw and I think it's just more normalizing.

新客戶的取得正在幫助我們應對目前客戶層面有點疲軟的逆風，但業務相當不錯。我的意思是，人們仍然認為你會感染新冠病毒——我們看到的新冠病毒高峰，我認為這只是更正常化。

Our really good core customers are performing really well. A little softness maybe at the super high end, still in the steak houses, but we think that business has been coming back and it'll get better. Unfortunately, customers are going to get used to higher prices and the more it costs to go out, the more consumers are going to want that great experience and you better have great service and great food when customers are going to spend $100, $150 a head. So I think that's where Chefs' Warehouse, the reliability of what we sell and what we're able to deliver them, and I think that's driving our cross selling.

我們真正優秀的核心客戶表現非常好。也許在超高端市場，牛排館的情況可能會有些疲軟，但我們認為業務已經恢復，而且會變得更好。不幸的是，顧客將會習慣更高的價格，而且外出花費越多，就越多的消費者想要這種很棒的體驗，當顧客每人花費100 美元、150 美元時，你最好提供優質的服務和美味的食物。所以我認為這就是廚師倉庫的所在，我們銷售的產品和我們能夠交付的產品的可靠性，我認為這正在推動我們的交叉銷售。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

Thanks Alex.

謝謝亞歷克斯。

Andrew Wolf, C.L. King.

安德魯沃爾夫，C.L.國王。

Great. Thank you. Good morning. I might have missed this, but could you kind of give us a sense of the cadence? I know you gave it qualitatively, but how much better has September and October been versus the 3.3% or so case growth -- specialty case growth for the quarter?

偉大的。謝謝。早安.我可能錯過了這一點，但是你能給我們介紹一下節奏嗎？我知道您給出了定性的結果，但是與本季度 3.3% 左右的案例增長（特殊案例增長）相比，9 月和 10 月的表現好多少？

Yeah. I mean, I would say that the best way to frame it is really we think July early August cost us about 1% on top line, and that was primarily demand driven and then it just progressed nicely through the quarter. We don't have a breakout month by month and then as I mentioned, trends continued into October coming out of September.

是的。我的意思是，我想說，最好的框架方式是，我們認為 7 月初的營收成本約為 1%，這主要是需求驅動的，然後整個季度進展順利。我們沒有逐月突破，然後正如我所提到的，趨勢從 9 月持續到 10 月。

Okay. And just Cisco yesterday said late October was better because beginning of October was impacted by hurricanes. It kind of suggested that late October is even was better maybe perhaps in September. Did you all see a similar kind of cadence?

好的。思科昨天表示，10 月底情況較好，因為 10 月初受到颶風影響。這有點表明十月底甚至九月可能會更好。大家有沒有看到類似的節奏？

We don't operate a huge amount of business in a good portion of where the hurricane hit in Florida. It did impact us a little bit in early October, but nothing hugely material. So I don't have any commentary in October other than the trends were good coming out of September into October.

在佛羅裡達州颶風襲擊地區的大部分地區，我們並沒有開展大量業務。十月初它確實對我們產生了一點影響，但沒有什麼重大影響。因此，除了 9 月到 10 月的趨勢良好之外，我對 10 月沒有任何評論。

Got it. And thank you for the charts and the information on the bridge to the long-term guidance. I just did some simple math and with Hardee's, it's about 25 basis points of EBITDA margin expansion a year between now and 2008. Without it, it's like 20 basis points.

知道了。感謝您提供有關長期指導橋樑的圖表和資訊。我只是做了一些簡單的計算，從現在到 2008 年，Hardee's 的 EBITDA 利潤率每年大約增長 25 個基點。

So you can tackle this either way, but it's kind of two questions. If we were building on a model to 2008 in this way, would we look for margins to increase linearly like 20 bps a year or 25 bps including Hardee's getting better? Or is it something where the out years there's more improvement because you're adding digital, you're doing route expansion, facilities are getting increasingly productive. How do you suggest the margin build is going to play out?

所以你可以用任何一種方法來解決這個問題，但這是兩個問題。如果我們以這種方式建立 2008 年的模型，我們是否會尋求利潤率線性成長，例如每年 20 個基點或 25 個基點（包括 Hardee 的改善）？或者說，在過去的幾年裡，它是否有更多的改進，因為你正在增加數位化，你正在擴展路線，設施正在變得越來越有效率。您認為利潤率建設將如何發揮作用？

Yeah. I mean, you can never predict exactly how it's going to play out. Nothing goes in a straight line, but I'll go back to the three or four years before COVID hit. We were coming off a big investment period, and we were able to deliver kind of 20 basis points to 25 basis points of EBITDA margin improvement -- adjusted EBITDA margin improvement for a couple of years there, then we got hit by the nuclear bomb.

是的。我的意思是，你永遠無法準確預測事情會如何發展。一切都不是一帆風順的，但我會回到新冠疫情爆發前的三、四年。我們剛結束了一個大投資期，我們能夠將 EBITDA 利潤率提高 20 到 25 個基點——調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率提高了幾年，然後我們受到了核彈的打擊。

And I think we're coming off of a similar type of investment period, and we've talked about this before and the goal will be to kind of get that 20 basis points, 25 basis points a year. Whether it happens in a straight line, well, a lot of that will depend on the macroeconomic environment, obviously. So you can model it either way, I think, but that's our target.

我認為我們正在經歷類似的投資時期，我們之前已經討論過這一點，目標是每年實現 20 個基點、25 個基點。顯然，這是否會直線發生，很大程度取決於宏觀經濟環境。所以我認為你可以用任何一種方式來建模，但這就是我們的目標。

Okay. So that's fair. So there's nothing in these plans that are like dependent on a lot of digital or internal I wouldn't call it consolidation. All of this stuff is just meat and potato can be executed on a day-to-day basis. There's is no big investments or trainings that have to happen?

好的。所以這很公平。因此，這些計劃中沒有任何內容依賴大量數字或內部，我不會稱之為整合。所有這些東西只是日常可以執行的肉和馬鈴薯。不需要進行大量投資或培訓嗎？

Yeah. I think that's already baked in, Andy. We've made major investments in all departments. We're not 100% there yet, but we've added a lot of capacity. There are some markets that do need a more modernized consolidated setup. We have multiple warehouses in multiple markets that one day probably will be consolidated and you'll get a lot more efficiency kind of what we're going through right now in San Francisco with protein, where we built it.

是的。我想這已經是板上釘釘的事了，安迪。我們在所有部門都進行了重大投資。我們還沒有 100% 做到這一點，但我們已經增加了很多容量。有些市場確實需要更現代化的整合設定。我們在多個市場擁有多個倉庫，有一天可能會整合，你會獲得更高的效率，就像我們現在在舊金山生產蛋白質一樣，我們在那裡建造了蛋白質。

Now we're consolidating it and you should get the rewards over the next many years of the efficiencies of scale, okay and I think that besides some of the new markets that still need a little more consolidating, as we -- as I mean, you've been doing this a long time.

現在我們正在鞏固它，你應該在未來的許多年裡獲得規模效率的回報，好吧，我認為除了一些仍然需要更多鞏固的新市場之外，正如我們 - 正如我的意思一樣，你已經這樣做很久了。

You know the business that as we drive more volume into the capacity that we build, it should eat up more and more of the overhead. A lot of the overhead is fixed and you get more of that drops to the bottom line and that's kind of the phase we think that we're going through right now and we're going to start to get the rewards of those investments as the volume -- as we drive those volumes and like Jim said, we are at the mercy of the economic environment, good environment, volume continues to tick up faster.

您知道，當我們將更多的容量投入到我們所建立的容量中時，它應該會消耗越來越多的管理費用。很多管理費用是固定的，你會得到更多的費用，這就是我們認為我們現在正在經歷的階段，我們將開始獲得這些投資的回報，因為成交量——當我們推動這些成交量時，就像吉姆所說，我們受到經濟環境的支配，在良好的環境下，成交量繼續以更快的速度成長。

We start to get more leverage faster, a little slowdown, you get a little bit less, but I think the team has done an unbelievable job. If you really look at the numbers and you say you mentioned some of the reports coming out from other companies, the environment is more challenging and to put up the kind of numbers we're putting up, it's the grind and taking market share and all the investments in people to sell more products to the same customers and that's what's driving the bottom line.

我們開始更快地獲得更多的槓桿，稍微放慢一點，你得到的就會少一點，但我認為團隊做了令人難以置信的工作。如果你真的看一下這些數字，並且你說你提到了其他公司發布的一些報告，那麼環境更具挑戰性，要提供我們所提供的那種數字，這是磨礪和占領市場份額等等。人員的投資是為了向相同的客戶銷售更多的產品，這就是推動利潤的原因。

Great. Thank you. I'll get back in queue.

偉大的。謝謝。我會回到隊列中。

Thanks James.

謝謝詹姆斯。

Kelly Bania, BMO Capital Markets.

Kelly Bania，BMO 資本市場。

Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Wanted to just talk about some of the initiatives you outlined here, as you target these 2028 financial goals and can you give us just any more color on the biggest contributors to the margin expansion?

早安.感謝您回答我們的問題。我只想談談您在此處概述的一些舉措，因為您的目標是 2028 年財務目標，您能否為我們提供有關利潤率擴張的最大貢獻者的更多資訊？

I guess, I see here the route consolidation initiative that I was hoping we could drill down on a little bit more within that because it maybe it's always been going on behind the scenes, but maybe you can just talk about framing up the opportunity there as well as some of the other big factors that contribute to that margin goal.

我想，我在這裡看到了路線整合計劃，我希望我們可以在其中進行更多的深入研究，因為它可能一直在幕後進行，但也許你可以談論將那裡的機會作為框架以及有助於實現利潤目標的其他一些重要因素。

When you say margin goal, are you talking about gross margin or just bottom-line margin, Kelly?

當你說利潤目標時，你是在談論毛利率還是只是底線利潤率，凱利？

Yeah. The adjusted EBITDA margin goal of 6.5% to 7% by 2028.

是的。到 2028 年，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率目標為 6.5% 至 7%。

Yeah. I think it's goldilocks. I think it's a little bit everywhere. Our digital teams and our pricing teams just continue to get better. So we're able to manage pricing in an environment where you do have more volatility or shortages and what climate change has been doing to a lot of our products. When you look at what's happening in the chocolate market, where you had this massive now inflation in it. It's challenging.

是的。我認為這是金鳳花。我認為到處都有一點。我們的數位團隊和定價團隊不斷變得更好。因此，我們能夠在波動性更大或短缺以及氣候變遷對我們許多產品造成影響的環境中管理定價。當你看看巧克力市場正在發生的事情時，你會發現其中有如此巨大的通貨膨脹。這很有挑戰性。

So I think it's part of the pricing teams, category management teams, and it's the operation team. Like you say, there's always -- we're always trying to get efficiencies in routing, but as now that we've built out so many of these larger warehouses, as the volume starts to increase, you're going to get more to the bottom line. As long as your core business is strong and you have good customers, you're not adding a ton of business just to fill up the warehouse at low margin.

所以我認為它是定價團隊、品類管理團隊和營運團隊的一部分。就像你說的，我們一直在努力提高路線效率，但現在我們已經建造瞭如此多的大型倉庫，隨著數量開始增加，你會得到更多的東西底線。只要你的核心業務強勁並且擁有良好的客戶，你就不會僅僅為了以低利潤填滿倉庫而增加大量業務。

I mean, part of our top line softness of well -- softness to, I guess, expectation is we continue to shed business that we think is long term is not core Chef warehouse business. Sometimes we'll take on some of that business, especially where we have the space, but as we start to grow into our space, we start to shed that business that we don't find very profitable and I think we're very disciplined. We've been doing that for years and we continue to give up that business and that's why sometimes you see our top line a little softer than sometimes we anticipate, because we're just finding a time and place that we're willing to raise prices on that business and it goes away to somebody that maybe can try to figure out how to make profit on that business.

我的意思是，我們的收入疲軟的一部分——我猜，期望是我們繼續放棄我們認為長期的業務，而不是核心的 Chef 倉庫業務。有時我們會承擔一些業務，特別是在我們有空間的地方，但當我們開始發展我們的空間時，我們開始放棄那些我們發現利潤不高的業務，我認為我們非常自律。多年來我們一直這樣做，但我們繼續放棄這項業務，這就是為什麼有時你會看到我們的收入比我們預期的要軟一些，因為我們只是在尋找我們願意籌集資金的時間和地點該業務的價格，然後它就消失給那些也許可以嘗試找出如何從該業務中獲利的人。

So I mean, you've been following us for many years. We're a margin profit company. It's built to not sell everybody, and you've got to be willing to let go of some of that business and I think that's what you're starting to see and as the economy starts to hopefully pick up with a little bit more tailwind, more and more of that GP drops to the bottom line because we're starting to get the leverage on the overhead.

所以我的意思是，你已經關注我們很多年了。我們是一家利潤豐厚的公司。它的建立不是為了賣給所有人，你必須願意放棄一些業務，我認為這就是你開始看到的，隨著經濟開始有望在更多的順風下回升，越來越多的GP 下降到底線，因為我們開始在管理費用上發揮槓桿作用。

That's helpful. And then Chris, you've talked in the past couple of quarters maybe just about new restaurant openings. What are you hearing from your kind of core customer base? And particularly how, if at all, lower rate environment may impact their pace of openings or their plans for new openings?

這很有幫助。然後，克里斯，您在過去幾個季度中談論的可能只是新餐廳的開幕。您從您的核心客戶群聽到了什麼？特別是，較低的利率環境（如果有的話）會如何影響他們的開業速度或新開業的計劃？

Yeah. Well, again, our core business are the independents, right? I mean, we have great, great customers who have 20, 30, 50 restaurants, and we have a few that have a lot more and they're opportunistic and I think that coming out of COVID, I said there's going to be a lot of restaurants that close, but as leases come up, landlords need to put restaurants that could draw traffic into their buildings, especially what they've been facing, getting people back to the office.

是的。好吧，再說一遍，我們的核心業務是獨立的，對吧？我的意思是，我們有非常非常好的客戶，他們擁有20、30、50 家餐廳，我們還有一些擁有更多的餐廳，他們是機會主義的，我認為從新冠疫情中走出來，我說將會有許多餐廳的餐館關閉，但隨著租約到期，房東需要將可能吸引人流進入他們的建築物的餐館，特別是他們一直面臨的問題，讓人們回到辦公室。

A lot of new developments in the suburbs and how COVID has changed the workplace, right, where people are working more remotely and going out in the neighborhoods that they live or have a local office.

郊區的許多新發展以及新冠疫情如何改變了工作場所，人們正在更遠端工作，並到他們居住的社區或擁有當地辦公室的社區工作。

So we saw strong growth in openings, and I think you're going to continue to see that. Obviously, interest rates can help, but restaurant tours build restaurants. That's what they do. So they find a great location and or a landlord that enticing them to come in and the economics make sense, they're going to open restaurants and I think that's what we've been seeing, and I really don't see an end in sight.

因此，我們看到空缺職位的強勁增長，我認為您將繼續看到這一點。顯然，利率會有所幫助，但餐廳之旅可以建立餐廳。這就是他們所做的。因此，他們找到了一個絕佳的地點和/或房東來吸引他們進來，並且經濟上是有意義的，他們將開設餐館，我認為這就是我們所看到的，我真的看不到盡頭視線。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Kelly.

謝謝，凱利。

Todd Brooks, The Benchmark Company.

托德·布魯克斯，基準公司。

Hey, thanks and good morning to you both. Few quick questions, if I may. Hey, Chris. You talked about in the presentation that Chefs' has engaged a global consulting firm. I'm just wondering what are you hoping that outside talent can unlock either from an efficiency standpoint or is this a revenue driving standpoint? Just what are you hoping that the outside viewpoints might bring to Chef'?

嘿，謝謝你們，早安。如果可以的話，我想問幾個簡單的問題。嘿，克里斯。您在演講中談到Chefs'已經聘請了一家全球顧問公司。我只是想知道您希望外部人才能夠從效率的角度還是從收入驅動的角度解鎖什麼？您到底希望外界的觀點能為Chef帶來什麼？

Sure. So we've always ran the business almost kind of with the like a startup mentality, like we develop great tools and great systems, and obviously, you can't replace the people. I mean, we are in the people business, so we make sure that we're getting the best talent and keeping them, but technology has changed so much. AI, obviously, everybody is talking about AI. We're using AI and obviously, we see the future of more AI to help our people. So I think it's just a fresh pair of eyes, Todd, to help go through some of the projects and things that we're looking at to give us an outside perspective of we can always do better.

當然。因此，我們一直以創業心態來經營業務，就像我們開發出色的工具和出色的系統一樣，顯然，你無法取代人員。我的意思是，我們從事的是人才業務，因此我們確保獲得並留住最優秀的人才，但技術已經發生了很大變化。人工智慧，顯然，每個人都在談論人工智慧。我們正在使用人工智慧，顯然，我們看到未來會有更多人工智慧來幫助我們的人民。所以我認為，托德，這只是一雙新的眼睛，幫助我們完成一些專案和我們正在研究的事情，讓我們從外部的角度來看，我們總是可以做得更好。

Okay, great. Thanks. Secondly, I know we get to the end of October and I'm usually asking you this question, Chris, on this conference call, but early reads, what are you hearing from customers about their views on the holiday? I know the bookings tend to happen a little bit later than they did historically around that kind of peak holiday demand, but any early reads or feedback that you're hearing from your customers on the holiday?

好的，太好了。謝謝。其次，我知道我們已經到了十月底，克里斯，我通常會在這次電話會議上問你這個問題，但早期的閱讀，你從客戶那裡聽到了他們對假期的看法？我知道在假期需求高峰期間，預訂往往會比歷史上的情況晚一些，但是您在假期期間從客戶那裡聽到任何早期的閱讀或反饋嗎？

Yeah. I think the overall tone is pretty positive. The one thing that has changed that you just hit on is that since COVID, people don't like -- they tend not to book far ahead. Yeah, sure, conferences and stuff where you have to book, but so much is, I wouldn't say last minute, although there is a lot of last minute, but they get a few weeks of customers. I was actually talking to one of our long-time customers the other day, and he goes, I'm going to send you something, Chris. These are the parties that booked in the last few days for next week. Normally, they would book a month, two, three, four months ahead and this is the new environment that we have to be ready for.

是的。我認為整體基調是相當積極的。你剛發現的一件事發生了變化，那就是自新冠疫情以來，人們不喜歡——他們往往不會提前很長時間預訂。是的，當然，會議和你必須預訂的東西，但很多是，我不會說最後一刻，雖然有很多最後一刻，但他們得到了幾週的客戶。事實上，有一天我正在和我們的一位長期客戶交談，他說，我要寄點東西，克里斯給你。這些是過去幾天預訂下週的派對。通常，他們會提前一個月、兩個月、三個月、四個月預訂，這是我們必須做好準備的新環境。

You look at it and say, okay, we're this is the kind of staff we'll probably need, this is what it looks like, and all of a sudden, you get 30%, 40% uptick in your booking. So of course, we're very excited about that, but it creates a little bit more challenging environment, but they're adapting, they're getting used to that and I think that's the business that was missing, obviously, during COVID the most and I think that's the strongest part that we see coming back, small parties booking for everything, for meetings, for celebrations, for planning, for just client dinners, lunches and I think that's we've been very pleased with what we're hearing.

你看著它，說，好吧，我們可能需要這樣的員工，這就是它的樣子，突然之間，你的預訂量增加了 30%、40%。當然，我們對此感到非常興奮，但這創造了一個更具挑戰性的環境，但他們正在適應，他們正在習慣這一點，我認為這顯然是在新冠疫情期間所缺少的業務。認為這是我們看到的最強大的部分，小型聚會預訂一切，會議，慶祝活動，計劃，客戶晚餐，午餐，我認為我們對我們所做的事情非常滿意聽力。

Okay, great. One final one, and I'll jump back in queue. Jame, you talked about inflation in the quarter and I think a little north of 3%. You highlighted a couple of categories that saw outsized inflation and the rest of that kind of specialty basket being in that 2% to 3% range. Is that kind of the forward thinking for the fourth quarter? And any early reads on how you're thinking about inflation and any sources of really easing in pricing as we go into 25%? Thank you.

好的，太好了。最後一件事，我會插回隊列。 Jame，您談到了本季的通膨，我認為通膨率略高於 3%。您強調了幾個通貨膨脹率過大的類別，而該類專業籃子的其餘部分則在 2% 至 3% 的範圍內。這是第四季的前瞻性思維嗎？有沒有關於您如何看待通貨膨脹以及當我們進入 25% 時真正放鬆定價的來源的早期讀物？謝謝。

Yeah. Thanks, Todd. No, I think volume and price, you can never predict exactly the mix because product mix impacts that and then we highlighted the chocolate and dairy products because it really had a product mix impact on volume and price. They're higher dollar boxes, and so when you grow them quarter over quarter, you have a little bit lower volume, but you get really good gross profit dollar growth, which we definitely generated this past quarter, but I think we guided to organic revenue growth of 6% to 7% this year, more heavily weighted to the first half of the year, and that's been kind of playing out.

是的。謝謝，托德。不，我認為數量和價格，你永遠無法準確預測組合，因為產品組合會影響這一點，然後我們強調了巧克力和乳製品，因為它確實對數量和價格產生了產品組合影響。它們是更高美元的盒子，所以當你逐季增長它們時，你的銷量會稍低一些，但你會獲得非常好的毛利美元增長，這肯定是我們上個季度產生的，但我認為我們引導有機今年收入成長 6% 至 7%，上半年的權重更大，這種情況已經開始顯現。

So as we go into the fourth quarter, I don't think we see anything on the horizon that's going to be materially different from getting to that 6% to 7% on a full year basis and so I think it'll be similar the way it plays out, at least right now.

因此，當我們進入第四季度時，我認為我們不會看到任何與全年達到 6% 至 7% 的成長率有實質不同的情況，所以我認為這將與至少現在是這樣。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Sure.

當然。

Peter Saleh, BTIG.

彼得·薩利赫，BTIG。

Great. Thanks for taking my question. I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about how your customers are using you in mature markets like New York and the Northeast versus some more of the new markets, areas of Texas and Florida and California? Are you just seeing do customers use you differently in those markets based on maturity? And then I have a follow-up. Thanks.

偉大的。感謝您提出我的問題。我希望您能多談談您的客戶在紐約和東北部等成熟市場以及德克薩斯州、佛羅裡達州和加利福尼亞州等新市場中如何使用您？您是否只是看到客戶在這些市場中根據成熟度對您的使用方式有所不同？然後我有一個後續行動。謝謝。

Yeah. I mean, our more mature markets, Peter, obviously, we have protein divisions. We have produce divisions besides our specialty and broad line. So we're kind of a one stop shop in many ways, and it's more of the mature markets. And really, that's our goal, to be able to have that presence in all markets.

是的。我的意思是，我們更成熟的市場，彼得，顯然，我們有蛋白質部門。除了我們的專業和廣泛的產品線外，我們還有生產部門。因此，我們在很多方面都是一站式商店，而且更多的是成熟市場。事實上，這就是我們的目標，就是能夠在所有市場上佔有一席之地。

So yeah, the young growing markets, people usually focus more on buying specialty from us and then there's certain markets that really, we entered as a protein company, and we're selling protein and then some more specialty and as those warehouses start to go up, like we have a small facility now in Nashville, and that business continues to grow from specialty and protein to more kind of like I always say kind of like looking like New York, which is our benchmark, our most mature market, our biggest business.

所以，是的，在年輕的成長市場，人們通常更注重從我們這裡購買特產，然後確實有某些市場，我們作為一家蛋白質公司進入，我們銷售蛋白質，然後是更多特產，隨著這些倉庫開始使用向上，就像我們現在在納許維爾有一個小型工廠一樣，業務不斷從專業和蛋白質發展到更像我總是說的看起來像紐約，這是我們的基準，我們最成熟的市場，我們最大的市場商業。

So we're really happy in all markets. They're all growing as fast as they can. As we say, you've got to have that staff that's trained, you've got to build that relationship team that becomes experts in protein and produce and specialty and so that takes time. So I think we're in a really good place with all our markets, and they're growing as fast as they can with the ability of what their warehouse allows them to and their inventory allows them to grow.

所以我們在所有市場都非常高興。他們都在盡可能地快速成長。正如我們所說，你必須擁有經過訓練的員工，你必須建立關係團隊，成為蛋白質、農產品和專業領域的專家，所​​以這需要時間。因此，我認為我們在所有市場上都處於一個非常好的位置，並且憑藉倉庫允許的能力和庫存允許的增長能力，他們正在盡可能快地增長。

Great. And then just my last question. On the bridge to 2028 and the, call it, 20 basis points, 30 basis points of EBITDA margin expansion, are acquisitions contemplated at all in these financials? Or is this just strictly based on organic growth for the next, call, three years?

偉大的。然後是我的最後一個問題。在通往 2028 年的橋樑上，以及 EBITDA 利潤率擴張 20 個基點、30 個基點，這些財務數據中是否考慮過收購？或者這只是嚴格基於未來三年的有機成長？

It's based on organic. Obviously, acquisitions are opportunistic, so we don't model them in.

它是基於有機。顯然，收購是機會主義的，所以我們不會將其納入模型。

Okay, thank you very much.

好的，非常感謝。

Thanks, Peter.

謝謝，彼得。

Ben Klieve, Lake Street Capital Markets.

Ben Klieve，湖街資本市場。

All right. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on another nice quarter here. I've got a couple around the dynamics you both have referred to around kind of rationalization of lower margin business. I'm wondering, first of all, Jim, if you're able to help quantify the impact of this either from the perspective of a headwind to revenue growth and or the degree to which gross margins have been expanded because of that initiative?

好的。感謝您提出我的問題，並祝賀您又一個美好的季度。我有一些關於你們提到的關於低利潤業務合理化的動態。首先，吉姆，我想知道您是否能夠幫助量化這一影響，無論是從收入增長的逆風角度還是從該舉措導致毛利率擴大的角度來看？

Yeah. Thanks, Ben. We don't break it out exactly, but I mean, the way you think about it is some of our, I think, top line across the industry has been a little bit weaker this year because demand has been a little bit weaker and then for us, a part of that is, I think, we called it out, especially related to center-of-the-plate, attrition of some noncore business and so you see it in gross profit margin expansion. There's a number of things that go into that. part of it is attrition of lower margin business.

是的。謝謝，本。我們沒有準確地透露這一點，但我的意思是，你的想法是，我認為今年整個行業的營收有點疲軟，因為需求有點疲軟，然後對我們來說，我認為其中一部分是我們指出的，特別是與板塊中心、一些非核心業務的消耗有關，所以你可以在毛利率擴張中看到它。這牽涉到很多事情。部分原因是利潤率較低的業務的流失。

A good portion of it is all of the work that our pricing and sales teams and operations teams have done around reducing damages and returns and waste and better inventory management, as well as some of the pricing models that we've started to integrate and work with our sales teams on.

其中很大一部分是我們的定價和銷售團隊以及營運團隊圍繞減少損壞、退貨和浪費以及更好的庫存管理所做的所有工作，以及我們已經開始整合和使用的一些定價模型與我們的銷售團隊一起。

So, there's a lot of different components and as Chris mentioned, it's kind of a thing that naturally happens. As we do some of the acquisitions that we've done, you do inherit some non-core business and you will trade out of that over time. So nothing to really call out specifically in the quarter, but it's obviously a contributor to some of the dynamics we did we have seen so far this year.

因此，有很多不同的組成部分，正如克里斯所提到的，這是自然發生的事情。當我們進行一些收購時，您確實繼承了一些非核心業務，隨著時間的推移，您將放棄這些業務。因此，本季度沒有什麼值得特別指出的，但它顯然是我們今年迄今為止所看到的一些動態的貢獻者。

Yeah. And I think I could give you a little bit more color. Looking at it and it's coming -- so the margin improvement is coming from, I think, a little bit of from everywhere. So some of the business that naturally goes away, like Jim said, does help the overall margin go up because they're really low margin and then part of the margin expansion is coming from just salespeople maturing and learning how to sell more of the book and the more products you can sell, usually the margin tends to go up because you have more opportunities. So you're not just selling two, three items that you're kind of locked in. You get to sell a lot of the I call them a longer tail items that tend to have a higher margin.

是的。我想我可以給你更多的色彩。看看它，它就來了——所以我認為，利潤率的改善來自各個方面。因此，正如吉姆所說，一些自然消失的業務確實有助於整體利潤的上升，因為它們的利潤確實很低，而利潤增長的一部分來自於銷售人員的成熟和學習如何銷售更多的書你可以銷售的產品越多，通常利潤就會上升，因為你有更多的機會。所以你不只是銷售兩三個你被鎖定的產品。

So it's a little bit from that natural attrition of especially the companies that we bought the last few years. The best example is, I would say, New England. We bought a great business that had too much low margin business, and we kind of let go of maybe half of it and as they continue to grow as a Chefs' Warehouse, their margin profile starts to look more like a Chefs' Warehouse and that's obviously our goal.

因此，這在一定程度上來自於自然損耗，尤其是我們過去幾年收購的公司。我想說，最好的例子就是新英格蘭。我們買了一家偉大的企業，它有太多的低利潤業務，我們放棄了其中的一半，隨著他們作為廚師倉庫的不斷發展，他們的利潤狀況開始看起來更像是廚師倉庫，那就是顯然我們的目標。

We're really so pleased with that business and how they continue to grow and kind of we're running the same playbook in Texas and other markets where we had to enter a market and we had to enter maybe at a little lower margin than what our model tends to give us and as those markets start to mature, they start to look more and more like a Chefs' Warehouse.

我們對這項業務以及它們如何繼續成長感到非常滿意，我們在德克薩斯州和其他市場運行相同的策略，我們必須進入一個市場，我們必須以比市場低一點的利潤進入。傾向於為我們提供，隨著這些市場開始成熟，它們開始看起來越來越像廚師倉庫。

Great. That's very helpful from both of you. And as a follow-up, I'm curious about kind of how this thought process has evolved. Are you sharpening your pencils more on these kind of lower margin products or customers today than maybe than you did maybe pre-pandemic? Or has your philosophy on this really been unchanged and you're just calling it out more today?

偉大的。你們倆都非常有幫助。作為後續行動，我很好奇這個思考過程是如何演變的。與疫情大流行前相比，您現在是否對這些利潤率較低的產品或客戶更加關注？或者你對此的理念真的沒有改變，只是今天更多地呼籲它嗎？

Yeah. I mean, I don't think the philosophy hasn't changed, but I think the reality stresses more that you can't lie to yourself. Labor costs you more. Building facilities costs you a lot more. Everything you call a plumber, it costs you a lot more, okay? So the reality is that it just costs you more, okay, to do the same job as it did pre-COVID, and you just have to get paid for it.

是的。我的意思是，我不認為哲學沒有改變，但我認為現實更強調你不能對自己說謊。勞動成本更高。建設設施要花費更多。你所謂的水管工的一切，都會花費你更多，好嗎？所以現實是，做與新冠疫情之前相同的工作，你只會花費更多，而且你只需要為此獲得報酬。

I suffered from that 20 years ago. Again, I've been doing this long enough that we're really good psychologically saying, We're going to figure it out. We'll do the volume, and eventually, we'll make some money and it just doesn't work that way. You get tied into selling at a very low margin with high cost. We're a high touch company. We give tremendous service. It's just not our model. So it's kind of like going to a Four Seasons hotel, and you got great linens and you got great service and you can't do it at the price of a Motel Six.

20年前我就受過這樣的痛苦。再說一次，我已經這樣做了足夠長的時間，我們在心理上真的很好地說，我們會解決這個問題的。我們會做量，最終我們會賺一些錢，但事實並非如此。你必須以非常低的利潤和高成本進行銷售。我們是一家高接觸度的公司。我們提供優質的服務。這不是我們的模型。所以這有點像去四季酒店，你有很棒的床單和優質的服務，但你不能以六號汽車旅館的價格做到這一點。

So that's why our model is not to sell everybody. We know who we are and we want to stay on our map and continue to grow because we think our clientele continues to grow. People love great dining, good food, and we just don't need to try to be everything to everybody.

這就是為什麼我們的模式不是向所有人推銷的原因。我們知道我們是誰，我們希望留在我們的地圖上並繼續發展，因為我們認為我們的客戶不斷成長。人們喜歡美味的餐飲，美味的食物，我們只是不需要試圖滿足每個人的一切。

Very good. Appreciate that color. Congratulations again on a nice quarter. Keep up the good work, and I'll get back in queue.

非常好。欣賞那個顏色。再次恭喜您度過了一個美好的季度。繼續努力，我會回到隊列中。

Thanks then.

那就謝謝了。

Thank you. It appears we've reached the end of our question and answer session. I will now hand over to the CEO Chris Pappas for closed remarks.

謝謝。看來我們的問答環節已經結束了。現在我將請執行長克里斯·帕帕斯 (Chris Pappas) 發表閉幕詞。

Sure. Well, we thank everybody for joining our call today. We're so proud of our team, that they put up another great quarter and we're moving all our initiatives forward and continue to strive to become a better, better as the leading specialty food supplier for the best Chefs' in the world.

當然。好的，我們感謝大家今天加入我們的電話會議。我們為我們的團隊感到非常自豪，他們又創造了一個偉大的季度，我們正在推進所有舉措，並繼續努力成為世界上最好的廚師的領先特色食品供應商。

And we thank everybody and we look forward to our next call. Thank you.

我們感謝大家，並期待下次通話。謝謝。

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's event. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝您，先生。女士們、先生們，今天的活動到此結束。感謝您加入我們，您現在可以斷開線路了。