高樂氏 (CLX) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to The Clorox Company Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Release Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，美好的一天，歡迎參加 Clorox 公司 2024 財年第三季收益發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，此通話正在錄音。

I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference call, Ms. Lisah Burhan, Vice President of Investor Relations for The Clorox Company. Ms. Burhan, you may begin your conference.

現在我想介紹今天電話會議的主持人 Lisah Burhan 女士，她是 Clorox 公司投資者關係副總裁。布爾漢女士，您可以開始會議了。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. On the call today with me are Linda Rendle, our Chair and CEO; and Kevin Jacobsen, our CFO. I hope everyone has had a chance to review our earnings release and prepared remarks. Both of these are available on our website. In just a moment, Linda will share a few opening comments, and then we'll take your questions.

下午好，感謝您加入我們。今天與我一起參加電話會議的是我們的董事長兼執行長琳達·倫德爾 (Linda Rendle)；和我們的財務長凱文雅各布森。我希望每個人都有機會回顧我們的收益發布和準備好的評論。這兩個都可以在我們的網站上找到。稍後，琳達將發表一些開場評論，然後我們將回答您的問題。

During this call, we may make forward-looking statements, including about our fiscal 2024 outlook. These statements are based on management's current expectations but may differ from actual results or outcomes. In addition, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the forward-looking statements section, which identify various factors that could affect such forward-looking statements, which have been filed with the SEC. In addition, please refer to the non-GAAP financial information section of our earnings release and the supplemental financial schedules in the Investor Relations section of our website for a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

在本次電話會議中，我們可能會做出前瞻性聲明，包括我們的 2024 財年展望。這些陳述是基於管理階層目前的預期，但可能與實際結果或成果不同。此外，我們可能會參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。請參閱前瞻性陳述部分，其中確定了可能影響此類前瞻性陳述的各種因素，這些因素已提交給美國證券交易委員會。此外，請參閱我們收益發布的非 GAAP 財務資訊部分以及我們網站投資者關係部分的補充財務明細表，以了解非 GAAP 財務指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的對帳。

Now I'll turn it over to Linda.

現在我把它交給琳達。

Thank you for joining us today. During the third quarter, we continued to progress our recovery from the August cyberattack while advancing our IGNITE strategy to build a stronger, more resilient company. For the most part, our progress in the third quarter was in line with our expectations. Sales came in lower as a few businesses experienced slower supply recovery than we planned. Gross margin came in higher, benefiting from our margin transformation [program and a modest] environment. Despite lower sales and strong investments in our brands, we finished the quarter ahead of our expectations on adjusted earnings per share.

感謝您今天加入我們。第三季度，我們繼續推進從 8 月網路攻擊中恢復過來的工作，同時推進 IGNITE 策略，打造更強大、更有彈性的公司。在很大程度上，我們第三季的進展符合我們的預期。由於一些企業的供應恢復速度比我們計劃的要慢，銷售額下降。毛利率上升，得益於我們的利潤率轉型[計劃和適度]環境。儘管銷售額下降且對我們品牌的投資強勁，但本季的調整後每股收益超出了我們的預期。

Before we turn to questions, I think stepping back and putting these results in context is important. Given the magnitude of disruption from the cyberattack, we knew our plans to restore the fundamentals of our business would be complex, and our recovery path would not be linear. We have made tremendous progress and are laser-focused on finishing the job. We tracked well ahead of our expectations in the second quarter and knew we had more work to do as we entered the back half of the year to return our business to the strong trajectory it was on at the start of fiscal year '24. This included fully rebuilding inventories, restoring normalized service levels and rebuilding commercial plans for each of our businesses, which we accomplished by the end of the third quarter. These actions unlock our ability to fully restore lost distribution due to the cyberattack and return to normalized merchandising levels as planned in the fourth quarter.

在我們提出問題之前，我認為退後一步，將這些結果放在上下文中非常重要。考慮到網路攻擊造成的破壞程度，我們知道恢復業務基本面的計畫將會很複雜，而且我們的恢復路徑也不會是線性的。我們已經取得了巨大的進步，並且正在全神貫注地完成工作。我們第二季的業績遠遠超出了我們的預期，並且知道進入下半年後我們還有更多工作要做，以使我們的業務恢復到 24 財年年初的強勁軌道。這包括全面重建庫存、恢復正常服務水準以及重建我們每項業務的商業計劃，這些工作我們在第三季末完成。這些行動使我們能夠完全恢復因網路攻擊而造成的分銷損失，並按計劃在第四季度恢復正常的銷售水平。

Through Q3, we regained nearly 90% of the market share we lost and expect to make further progress in Q4. With service levels now normalized and strong investment levels behind our brands, we're confident we can rebuild household penetration and return to volume growth over time.

透過第三季度，我們重新奪回了失去的近 90% 的市場份額，並預計第四季度將取得進一步進展。隨著服務水平現在正常化以及我們品牌背後的強勁投資水平，我們有信心能夠重建家庭滲透率並隨著時間的推移恢復銷售成長。

Despite the significant disruption and lost sales we've experienced and based on our team's strong work, we are now positioned to exceed our original gross margin target and meet or exceed our adjusted EPS guidance we provided at the beginning of the year before the cyberattack. Importantly, our recovery progress to date puts us in a good position to exit fiscal 2024 with strong fundamentals.

儘管我們經歷了嚴重的中斷和銷售損失，但基於我們團隊的出色工作，我們現在能夠超越最初的毛利率目標，並達到或超過我們在網路攻擊前年初提供的調整後每股收益指引。重要的是，我們迄今為止的復甦進展使我們處於有利的位置，能夠以強勁的基本面結束 2024 財年。

In addition, we continue to execute well against our IGNITE strategic priorities throughout our recovery. We made substantial progress rebuilding gross margins, continuing to target returning to prepandemic levels over time. We launched innovation, invested in our brands and capabilities, progressed our streamlined operating model and digital transformation and completed the divestiture of our Argentina business, which supports our goal of evolving our portfolio to deliver more consistent and profitable growth.

此外，我們在整個復甦過程中繼續出色地執行 IGNITE 戰略重點。我們在重建毛利率方面取得了實質進展，並繼續致力於隨著時間的推移恢復到疫情前的水平。我們啟動了創新，投資於我們的品牌和能力，推進了簡化的營運模式和數位轉型，並完成了阿根廷業務的剝離，這支持了我們發展投資組合以實現更加一致和盈利增長的目標。

In closing, we're taking the right steps to navigate the near term and continuing to advance our IGNITE strategy. I'm confident we have the right investments and plans to deliver against our strategic and financial objectives and enhance long-term shareholder value.

最後，我們正在採取正確的步驟來應對近期的挑戰，並繼續推進我們的 IGNITE 策略。我相信我們擁有正確的投資和計劃來實現我們的策略和財務目標並提高長期股東價值。

With that, Kevin and I will take your questions.

接下來，凱文和我將回答你的問題。

Thank you, Ms. Rendle. (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Peter Grom of UBS.

謝謝你，倫德爾女士。 （操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自瑞銀集團的彼得‧格羅姆。

I was hoping to get some more color on kind of the implied 4Q organic sales growth and how this informs you on kind of the path forward here. I know this was always the case, but it seems like you're expecting to kind of close some of these distribution gaps of 4Q, more or less implying that you're going to overship versus consumption. When you kind of look at the implied 4Q guide to kind of where you need to be to land at the low end of low single digits for the year, does it really imply a ton of growth considering this dynamic? So maybe first, am I thinking about that right? And if so, how does this exit rate inform your view on the growth looking out to next year, just in the context of the long-term algorithm of 3% to 5%?

我希望獲得更多有關第四季度有機銷售增長的信息，以及這如何告訴您這裡的前進道路。我知道情況總是如此，但似乎你期望縮小第四季度的一些分配差距，或多或少意味著你將過度運輸而不是消費。當您查看隱含的第四季度指南時，您需要在今年達到低個位數的低端，考慮到這種動態，這是否真的意味著大量成長？所以也許首先，我想的是對的嗎？如果是這樣，在 3% 至 5% 的長期演算法背景下，這一退出率如何影響您對明年成長的看法？

Thanks, Peter. Why don't I get us started, and I'll just talk about some of the dynamics that we expect in the fourth quarter. And then I'll hand it to Kevin, and he can talk about the outlook. And of course, you'll appreciate we're not setting guidance for fiscal year '25 at this point. But Kevin can certainly give you how we're thinking about the exit.

謝謝，彼得。為什麼不讓我們開始呢？然後我會把它交給凱文，他可以談論前景。當然，您會明白我們目前沒有為 25 財年制定指導方針。但凱文當然可以告訴你我們如何考慮退出。

So as it comes to Q4, there are a number of dynamics and things that are important that we plan to do and have the right plans to address. And the first is what you mentioned, we intend to fully restore the temporary distribution we lost as a result of the cyberattack, and we are well on track to do that. At this point, we know the decisions on the shelf resets from all of our major retailers. We built the inventory in order to supply those distribution losses and are on track to restore that distribution. So certainly, that will help both reported and organic sales as we head into the fourth quarter.

因此，就第四季度而言，我們計劃採取並製定正確的計劃來解決許多動態和重要的事情。首先是你提到的，我們打算完全恢復我們因網路攻擊而失去的臨時發行版，並且我們正在順利做到這一點。至此，我們知道所有主要零售商的貨架重置決定。我們建立庫存是為了彌補這些分銷損失，並有望恢復分銷。因此，毫無疑問，當我們進入第四季度時，這將有助於報告和有機銷售。

The second dynamic is now that we have fully restored our ability to supply and are back to normalized service levels, we are going to return to our merchandising plans, which if you recall from our earlier conversations, we expect to be higher than they were during the pandemic, basically returning to prepandemic levels. And that is on track as well for the fourth quarter. And both of those will support growth.

第二個動態是，現在我們已經完全恢復了供應能力並恢復到正常的服務水平，我們將恢復我們的銷售計劃，如果您還記得我們之前的談話，我們預計該計劃將高於期間疫情基本恢復到疫情前水平。第四季的情況也將步入正軌。這兩者都將支持增長。

The thing I would mention, and as you can see the implied range is rather large, and that's because it's still quite variable and volatile what we're dealing with. We're dealing with a complex recovery. Shelf resets are all at different times for our retailers. How fast those resets happen and then, of course, where we are on the purchase cycle with consumers will matter, and that's informing the depth and breadth of that range. But I'll hand that over to Kevin, and he can help you think about just how that plays out in the outlook.

我要提到的事情，正如你所看到的，隱含的範圍相當大，那是因為我們正在處理的事情仍然是相當多變和不穩定的。我們正在應對複雜的復甦。對於我們的零售商來說，貨架重置的時間各不相同。這些重置發生的速度有多快，當然，我們在消費者購買週期中的位置也很重要，這決定了這個範圍的深度和廣度。但我會把這個問題交給凱文，他可以幫助你思考這在前景中會如何發揮作用。

Peter, as it relates to the outlook, and I think specifically your question, organic sales growth in Q4, what I expect to see occurring this quarter is improving volume trends. If you look at our volume performance, we're down about 7%. The front half of the year, down 4% in Q3. I expect that to continue to improve as we move forward. I also expect we'll see some increased trade spending. We continue to work back towards a more normalized promotional environment. Q3 was still below sort of that normal level. So I think you'd expect to see some increased trade spending.

彼得，因為它與前景有關，我特別認為你的問題，第四季度的有機銷售成長，我預計本季會出現銷售趨勢的改善。如果你看看我們的銷量表現，我們下降了大約 7%。上半年，第三季下降4%。我希望隨著我們的前進，這一點將繼續改善。我還預計我們會看到貿易支出增加。我們將繼續努力打造更正常化的促銷環境。第三季仍低於正常水準。因此，我認為您預計會看到貿易支出增加。

And then as a result of the divestiture of Argentina business, it's gotten a lot simpler. I don't expect any FX headwinds. I don't expect any meaningful pricing now. Most of our pricing was in International. That would all go away. So you should see improving volume trends, a little bit of uptick in trade spending, and that gets you down to probably flat to down a little bit in terms of organic sales growth in Q4, and that would keep us on track to be up about 1% for the year.

由於阿根廷業務的剝離，事情變得簡單多了。我預計不會有任何外匯阻力。我預計現在不會有任何有意義的定價。我們的大部分定價都是國際定價。那一切都會消失。因此，您應該看到銷售趨勢有所改善，貿易支出略有上升，這使您在第四季度的有機銷售增長方面可能持平或略有下降，這將使我們走上增長的軌道全年1% 。

Awesome. And Kevin, maybe just one follow-up or more of just a clarification. In the prepared remarks, you mentioned kind of building on the 43% gross margin exiting the year. Is that a broad-based comment? Or are you talking specifically on building relative to the 4Q exit rate?

驚人的。凱文，也許只是一個後續行動或更多只是一個澄清。在準備好的發言中，您提到要以今年 43% 的毛利率為基礎。這是一個基礎廣泛的評論嗎？或者您是在具體談論相對於第四季度退出率的建設嗎？

Yes. I think there's a few things. You saw where we landed, Peter, in Q3, a little over 42%. We think we'll be closer to 43% when we exit. As Linda said, we're not prepared to provide our outlook for next year, but I would tell you, we fully expect to continue to expand margins in fiscal year '25. So we'll exit this year. Over the full year, we're probably up around 42%, and I expect to build on that next year.

是的。我認為有幾件事。 Peter，你看到了我們在第三季的著陸情況，略高於 42%。我們認為，當我們退出時，我們的比例將接近 43%。正如琳達所說，我們不准備提供明年的展望，但我想告訴你，我們完全期望在 25 財年繼續擴大利潤率。所以我們今年會退出。全年來看，我們的成長率可能約為 42%，我預計明年將在此基礎上再接再厲。

Our next question comes from Andrea Teixeira of JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的安德里亞·特謝拉。

Linda, you mentioned in the prepared remarks there were a few areas of the portfolio that experienced slower supply recovery than planned that impacted the third quarter. And I understand the 10% that you mentioned, that still is below the service levels. But relative to your 2% organic growth, how much was all channel consumption given also comments in that same report that you experienced consumption losses? So can you elaborate more on which areas you're still below in share? And what gives you confidence that the consumers you lost during that period within your consumption patterns would come back?

琳達，您在準備好的發言中提到，投資組合的一些領域的供應恢復速度比計劃的要慢，這影響了第三季。據我了解，您提到的 10% 仍然低於服務水準。但相對於 2% 的有機成長，所有通路消費在同一份報告中也評論說您經歷了消費損失，有多少？那麼您能否詳細說明一下您在哪些領域的份額仍低於預期？是什麼讓您有信心在您的消費模式中在那段時期失去的消費者會回來？

And then, Kevin, a clarification on what you just said about building margins into 2025, the fiscal 2025. How do you see resin prices and other commodities? Are you embedding [these 2] inflationary commodities? And how would you expect to offset that? Is that mostly on the savings, the IGNITE, how we should be thinking as we move forward?

然後，Kevin，請澄清您剛才所說的關於在 2025 年（即 2025 財年）建立利潤率的內容。您是否嵌入了[這兩種]通膨商品？您希望如何抵消這項影響？這主要是關於節省，IGNITE，我們在前進時應該如何思考？

All right. I'll get started with that first question. And I think the question was twofold. So I'll start first maybe addressing the areas on supply that we called out that impacted sales for the quarter. And then I'll talk a bit more about the consumer and the confidence that we have about where we are and that we have the right plans in place as we roll into Q4 to continue to accomplish what we intend to do around the consumer and restore our business fundamentals.

好的。我將從第一個問題開始。我認為這個問題是雙重的。因此，我首先可能會解決我們指出的影響本季銷售的供應領域。然後我將更多地談論消費者以及我們對自己所處位置的信心，以及在進入第四季度時我們制定了正確的計劃，以繼續完成我們打算圍繞消費者做的事情並恢復我們的業務基礎。

So on supply recovery, we talked about the last call and actually the call before that we had a couple of businesses that were more challenged given the depth of their -- the portfolio, and that was Glad and we called out Litter as well. And those continue to be a challenge a bit longer in the quarter than we had originally anticipated at the time of forecast. The good news is that with a few other minor things in businesses, we were able to fully fix all of those by the end of the quarter, and we exited Q3 getting back to normalized service levels to our customers. And so I feel good that as we head into Q4, we have the right inventory, and we have the right production plans and plans with our retailers to be able to get back all of those distribution points that we lost temporarily and again, restore merchandising. So again, that was a temporary thing [in nature] impacted Q3, but we don't anticipate that will impact Q4.

因此，在供應恢復方面，我們談到了最後一次電話會議，實際上之前的電話會議，考慮到其投資組合的深度，我們有幾家業務面臨更大的挑戰，這很高興，我們也呼籲垃圾。這些問題在本季度仍然是一個挑戰，時間比我們在預測時最初預期的時間要長一些。好消息是，除了業務中的其他一些小問題，我們能夠在本季末完全解決所有這些問題，並且我們在第三季結束時恢復到為客戶提供的正常服務水準。因此，我感覺很好，當我們進入第四季度時，我們擁有正確的庫存，我們有正確的生產計劃以及與零售商的計劃，以便能夠收回我們暫時失去的所有分銷點，恢復商品銷售。再說一遍，這（本質上）是暫時的，影響了第三季度，但我們預計這不會影響第四季。

If you look at the consumer, a few things going on. First, our distribution points are still down versus pre cyber, which we had anticipated. And we knew that the majority of shelf resets would happen in Q4. That is still going as planned, and we expect to fully regain that distribution that we anticipated having at the beginning of the year when we set our original outlook. So on track there.

如果你觀察一下消費者，你會發現一些事情正在發生。首先，與我們預期的網路化之前相比，我們的分發點仍然處於下降狀態。我們知道大部分貨架重置將在第四季度發生。這仍在按計劃進行，我們預計將完全恢復我們在年初設定最初展望時所預期的分佈。所以就在那裡。

And then I would say we're starting to see the share turnaround. So we've recovered nearly 90% of our share loss. And actually, if you even look at the last few weeks, you've continued to see that trend improve. And in addition, we're rebuilding households. So our households in Q3 are still down versus pre cyber, which we expected, but improving and moving in the right direction. And if you think about it, we really only had from when we fully restored inventories and again, haven't fully restored distribution at basically one purchase cycle for the consumer in our categories. Purchase cycle is about 90 days. So we've had one chance to influence as that consumer comes back to the shelf, and we are not fully restored yet.

然後我想說，我們開始看到股價好轉。所以我們已經挽回了近 90% 的份額損失。事實上，如果你看看過去幾週，你會發現這種趨勢持續改善。此外，我們正在重建家庭。因此，與我們預期的網路前相比，我們的家庭在第三季度仍然處於下降狀態，但有所改善並朝著正確的方向前進。如果你想一想，我們實際上只是從完全恢復庫存開始，而且還沒有完全恢復我們類別中消費者基本上一個購買週期的分銷。採購週期約90天。因此，當消費者回到貨架上時，我們有一次施加影響的機會，但我們還沒有完全恢復。

What we're laser-focused on in Q4, and this is why we have the investment levels that we do where we've increased our spending on advertising and sales promotion as well as reduced revenue, ensuring that we have the right spending that in this next purchase cycle, that we can recapture that consumer. We intend to do as much of that as we can in Q4, and we're hoping to get the majority of it done. We're very confident on distribution, very confident on merchandising. And now we're just watching as the consumer comes back to a fully stocked shelf, what is their behavior and do we need to make any tweaks as we head into the beginning of fiscal year '25, but feel very good about where we are in restoring the fundamentals and very good that we're beginning to see the consumer come back that we lost during that time.

我們在第四季度重點關注的是什麼，這就是為什麼我們增加廣告和促銷支出並減少收入的投資水平，以確保我們有正確的支出在下一個購買週期中，我們可以重新吸引該消費者。我們打算在第四季度盡可能地完成這些工作，並且希望能完成其中的大部分。我們對分銷非常有信心，對銷售也非常有信心。現在，我們只是看著消費者回到庫存充足的貨架上，他們的行為是什麼，以及在進入 25 財年伊始時我們是否需要進行任何調整，但對我們所處的位置感到非常滿意在恢復基本面方面非常好，我們開始看到我們在那段時間失去的消費者回來了。

Andrea, on your question on '25 in gross margin, as I'm sure you can appreciate, we're still in the process of building our plant right now for '25. But where we're sitting at today, I fully expect we're going to be growing top line, expanding margins, growing earnings. And so as you think about how we grow margin, I think to your specific question, certainly, top line growth helps build margin. Additionally, the divestiture of our Argentina business, that was margin dilutive to the company. So divesting that business certainly helps our margin. And then our margin transformation efforts, we think collectively, that more than offsets what we believe will be a level of cost inflation but continue to moderate. So we do not believe right now we're going to be in a deflationary environment next year. There will be some cost inflation, but it continues to moderate. And the actions I just mentioned, we think, are more than enough to offset that and allow us to continue to build margin next year. But the exact amount, we're still working through.

安德里亞，關於您關於 25 年毛利率的問題，我相信您會理解，我們現在仍在為 25 年建造工廠。但就我們今天的情況而言，我完全預期我們將實現營收成長、利潤率擴大、收益成長。因此，當您考慮我們如何提高利潤率時，我認為對於您的特定問題，當然，收入成長有助於提高利潤率。此外，剝離我們的阿根廷業務也稀釋了公司的利潤。因此，剝離該業務肯定有助於我們的利潤。然後，我們集體認為，我們的利潤率轉型努力不僅抵消了我們認為的成本通膨水平，而且繼續放緩。因此，我們現在不認為明年會陷入通貨緊縮環境。將會出現一些成本通膨，但其持續放緩。我們認為，我剛才提到的行動足以抵銷這項影響，並使我們能夠在明年繼續提高利潤率。但具體數額，我們仍在研究中。

Yes. That's super helpful. In Argentina -- what is the impact of removing Argentina as a tailwind?

是的。這非常有幫助。在阿根廷—取消阿根廷的順風車會產生什麼影響？

Yes. We don't break that out, Andrea, specifically, but I can tell you, it was significantly below the company average in terms of gross margin. You can probably do some math. It was 2% of sales and well below the company average in terms of gross margin.

是的。安德里亞，我們具體沒有透露這一點，但我可以告訴你，就毛利率而言，它明顯低於公司平均水平。你也許可以做一些數學計算。佔銷售額的 2%，毛利率遠低於公司平均。

Our next question comes from Chris Carey of Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的克里斯凱裡。

I wanted to ask about sales delivery in the quarter, excluding International. So in the prepared remarks, you spoke about increased competitive activity as you were trying to get back on shelf. Price/mix was negative in some of your key divisions in the quarter. And I'm trying to marry that with I think you had sounded quite good recently on the logistical dynamic of getting back on shelf in the quarter.

我想詢問本季的銷售交付情況（不包括國際）。因此，在準備好的發言中，您談到了在試圖重新上架時競爭活動的增加。本季一些關鍵部門的價格/組合為負。我正試圖將這一點與我認為您最近在本季度重新上架的後勤動態方面聽起來相當不錯。

And so I guess I'm trying to put maybe altogether the why behind sales coming in a bit below your expectations and whether competitors are perhaps a bit firmer on shelf and share gains than you had expected and you need to increase competitive spending, whether that's in price/mix, and obviously, you called out some trade promo in your gross margins this quarter to get back on shelf and whether you think, Linda, to your comment to the prior question, you may need to actually accelerate that spending over the next several quarters if this shelf uplift is not exactly how you expect. So you can tell I'm trying to wrestle between not just that sales came in below the expectation, but the why and some of the actions that you seem to be taking to try and rectify the situation.

因此，我想我正試圖全面解釋銷售量略低於您的預期背後的原因，以及競爭對手的貨架和份額收益是否可能比您預期的更堅定，以及您是否需要增加競爭性支出，無論是在價格/組合方面，顯然，您在本季度的毛利率中進行了一些貿易促銷活動，以重新上架，琳達，您是否認為，根據您對前一個問題的評論，您可能需要實際上加速支出如果這種貨架上漲並不完全符合您的預期，那麼接下來的幾個季度。因此，您可以看出，我不僅在努力解決銷售額低於預期的問題，而且還在考慮原因以及您似乎正在採取的一些行動來嘗試糾正這種情況。

Yes. Chris, from all the data that we see, the progress we've made with the consumer and what we anticipate will happen here in Q4, we do not feel like we have a dynamic that the sales miss was due to a consumer issue that we have or not bouncing back to that degree with the household penetration we lost. This was simply we had 2 very complex businesses we thought we would make more progress on supply than we did. It went longer. It went through the remainder of the quarter when we thought we would get it done mid-quarter. That impacted our ability really to supply for merchandising mostly.

是的。克里斯，從我們看到的所有數據、我們在消費者方面取得的進展以及我們預計第四季度將發生的情況來看，我們不認為銷售失誤是由於我們的消費者問題造成的。著我們失去的家庭滲透率反彈到那個程度。這只是因為我們有兩個非常複雜的業務，我們認為我們會在供應方面取得比我們現在更多的進展。時間更長了。當我們認為我們會在季度中期完成它時，它經歷了本季剩餘的時間。這主要影響了我們的商品供應能力。

Distribution, we always knew would come back in the fourth quarter because that's when retailers reset their shelves. So the good news is because we were able to fully restore supply by the end of the quarter, we're still on track to recover that distribution. But this really was heightened competition as we weren't able to supply merchandising events and still not in a place where we were fully able to supply on those couple of businesses.

我們一直知道分銷會在第四季恢復，因為那時零售商會重新調整貨架。所以好消息是，因為我們能夠在本季末完全恢復供應，所以我們仍然有望恢復分配。但這確實加劇了競爭，因為我們無法提供商品推銷活動，而且仍然無法完全為這幾項業務提供服務。

But we're through that. We got through that at the end of Q3. We have the ability now to fully supply in Q4. That investment level, we feel, is the right investment level. And I'll just be clear, we have not constrained our businesses. We have said they should spend what they need to, to get these households back. That is contemplated in the outlook that we provided, and we believe we have the right spending on both advertising and sales promotion and merchandising.

但我們已經渡過了難關。我們在第三季末解決了這個問題。我們現在有能力在第四季全面供貨。我們認為，這個投資水準是正確的投資水準。我要澄清的是，我們沒有限制我們的業務。我們說過他們應該花他們需要的錢來讓這些家庭回歸。我們提供的前景考慮到了這一點，我們相信我們在廣告、促銷和推銷方面都有適當的支出。

And if we have to make adjustments as we go through the quarter, we will. But right now, we feel like we have the right plans. We're seeing those households come back. Again, we went through one purchase cycle. We're going through another one here in Q4, but all indicators are that we will restore our business. And we feel like the fundamentals will be fully recovered by the end of Q4 and set us up well as we head into fiscal year '25.

如果我們必須在本季度進行調整，我們會的。但現在，我們覺得我們有正確的計劃。我們看到那些家庭回來了。我們再次經歷了一個購買週期。我們將在第四季度經歷另一場疫情，但所有跡像都表明我們將恢復業務。我們認為基本面將在第四季末完全恢復，並為我們進入第 25 財年做好準備。

Okay. One quick follow-up would just be manufacturing and logistics was a 210 basis point negative impact to gross margin in the quarter. That's a pretty notable step-up. And I don't think we're seeing logistics inflation at that level. Kevin, can you maybe just contextualize what happened there in the quarter and whether that specifically is durable going forward or whether this is just an anomaly?

好的。一個快速的後續行動是製造和物流對本季毛利率產生了 210 個基點的負面影響。這是一個非常顯著的進步。我認為我們不會看到物流通脹達到這個水平。凱文，您能否簡單介紹一下本季發生的情況，以及這種情況是否會持續下去，或者這只是一種異常情況？

Sure, Chris. The increase you referred to, that is primarily driven by inflation in Argentina. You might recall before we divested that business, we were projecting about 300% inflation, and they had a significant devaluation in December. So that was playing through and it's the biggest driver. To your question, as you go forward now that we divest the business, I would not expect to see logistics and manufacturing be that level of a drag. Logistics is turning on us, it's fairly benign in terms of year-over-year cost once you strip out Argentina. So this is one of the additional benefits of not having that business in our portfolio any longer, given the disruptions it had broadly across the P&L.

當然，克里斯。你提到的成長主要是由阿根廷的通貨膨脹所推動的。您可能還記得，在我們剝離該業務之前，我們預計通膨率約為 300%，而 12 月貨幣大幅貶值。所以這就是最大的推動力。對於你的問題，隨著我們剝離業務的推進，我預計物流和製造不會成為如此嚴重的拖累。物流正在向我們傾斜，一旦排除阿根廷，就同比成本而言，它是相當良性的。因此，考慮到該業務對損益表的廣泛影響，這是不再將該業務納入我們的投資組合的額外好處之一。

(Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from Dara Mohsenian of Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指令）我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Dara Mohsenian。

I get you don't want to be too explicit for fiscal '25 at this point, but I just had a follow-up question on top line growth as we move into next year just relative to a normal base this year. Kevin, can you just talk about, or Linda, any puts and takes as you look out to fiscal '25 as we think about top line growth? And maybe also just quantify, what level of sales did you lose in fiscal '24? Do you expect to lose in fiscal '24 from the systems issue relative to a typical year?

我知道您現在不想對 25 財年的情況過於明確，但我只是有一個關於營收成長的後續問題，因為我們進入明年，相對於今年的正常基數。凱文（Kevin），或琳達（Linda），您能否談談在我們考慮營收成長時展望 25 財年的任何看跌期權和看跌期權？也許也只是量化一下，您在 24 財年損失了多少銷售額？您預計 24 財年相對於正常年份會因係統問題而損失嗎？

Dara, what I'd say, it's a little too early for us to talk too specifically about '25. As I said, we're still developing our plan. Maybe the one item I would just make sure to remind folks is with the divestiture of Argentina business, that's about 2 points of sales. We'll see a portion of that in Q4, but you'll probably still have about 1.5 points headwind next year as a result of that sale. But for the other items, we're going to wait until August to have that conversation because we're still working through our plans. It'd just be too early to talk any detail.

Dara，我想說的是，現在我們具體談論 25 年還為時過早。正如我所說，我們仍在製定計劃。也許我要提醒大家的一項是阿根廷業務的剝離，這大約是兩個銷售點。我們將在第四季度看到其中的一部分，但由於這次銷售，明年您可能仍會面臨約 1.5 個百分點的阻力。但對於其他項目，我們將等到八月再進行對話，因為我們仍在製定計劃。現在談論任何細節還為時過早。

Okay. And then on gross margins, you talked about at CAGNY to focus on holistic margin management and RGM. Can you give us a little more color on how important that might be over the next couple of years? And as you think about recovering gross margin pressure over time as you indicated in the prepared remarks, is that a big piece of the recovery? And as we think about the recovery, is this a multiyear effort? Should we think about a lot of progress coming on to fiscal '25? And how do you think about that conceptually from a timing standpoint?

好的。然後是毛利率，您在 CAGNY 談到要專注於整體利潤管理和 RGM。您能給我們更多的資訊來說明這在未來幾年可能有多重要嗎？正如您在準備好的評論中指出的那樣，當您考慮隨著時間的推移恢復毛利率壓力時，這是復甦的重要組成部分嗎？當我們思考復甦時，這是一個多年的努力嗎？我們是否應該考慮 25 財年將取得的大量進展？從時間的角度來看，您如何從概念上考慮這一點？

Sure, Dara. Without obviously, again, providing any guidance for '25 or beyond on specifics, I think I can say with really strong confidence, one, based on the track records, if you look, we've delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of gross margin expansion behind this tool kit that we have. And what we talked about at CAGNY is important. Pricing and cost savings have been the majority of the tools that we've had, and we put them to good use over the last couple of years as we've dealt with inflation.

當然，達拉。顯然，在沒有為25 年或以後的具體細節提供任何指導的情況下，我想我可以非常有信心地說，一，根據往績記錄，如果你看的話，我們已經實現了連續第六個季度的毛利率擴張我們擁有這個工具包的背後。我們在 CAGNY 討論的內容很重要。定價和成本節約是我們所擁有的主要工具，在過去幾年中，我們在應對通貨膨脹時充分利用了它們。

But we knew that we wanted to take a broader look, and the fact that we're implementing a digital transformation and we have more visibility end to end gave us a great opportunity to look and see where else can we go beyond traditional cost savings. Revenue growth management is certainly one of those tools, price pack architecture within that. And the teams all have plans in place to use those tools to continue to make progress against our commitment that we stand behind to return gross margins to prepandemic levels and then grow from there. And we feel very confident in our ability to do that.

但我們知道，我們想要更廣闊的視野，事實上，我們正​​在實施數位化轉型，並且我們擁有更多的端到端可見性，這給我們提供了一個很好的機會來審視我們除了傳統的成本節省之外還能在哪些方面進行改進。營收成長管理當然是其中的工具之一，其中包含價格包架構。所有團隊都制定了計劃，使用這些工具繼續取得進展，兌現我們的承諾，即我們所支持的將毛利率恢復到大流行前的水平，然後從那裡開始增長。我們對我們做到這一點的能力非常有信心。

And Kevin and I have talked before, it's really dependent on 2 things: one, how fast we implement this toolbox and feel good about that; but second will be what the cost environment looks like. And as we continue to look forward, we continue to see inflation in people's reporting. Again, we're not providing any specifics around our business at this point. But the pace of recovery and when we return to prepandemic levels will be those 2 factors, but we feel very good about what's in our control and that we have the right toolbox to be able to accomplish what we set out to do.

凱文和我之前談過，這實際上取決於兩件事：第一，我們實現這個工具箱的速度有多快，並且對此感覺良好；第二，我們如何快速地實現這個工具箱？但其次是成本環境。當我們繼續展望未來時，我們繼續看到人們報告中的通貨膨脹。同樣，我們目前沒有提供有關我們業務的任何細節。但是恢復的速度以及我們何時恢復到大流行前的水平將是這兩個因素，但我們對我們的控制能力感到非常滿意，並且我們擁有正確的工具箱來完成我們設定的目標。

Our next question comes from Anna Lizzul of Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的安娜·利祖爾。

You mentioned in your prepared remarks a consumer who remains under pressure. I was wondering if you're seeing this across all income tiers. Or is this comment primarily related to the lower-income consumer as some other companies have indicated so far in Q1? And then you mentioned your levels of merchandising and promotion are increasing along with the higher advertising spend in the second half here. So just wondering how much of this is driven by the need to rebuild share loss from the cyberattack versus just trying to win over a financially weaker consumer.

您在準備好的演講中提到了一位仍然面臨壓力的消費者。我想知道您是否在所有收入階層都看到了這一點。或者，這一評論主要與低收入消費者有關，正如其他一些公司在第一季迄今所表示的那樣？然後您提到，隨著下半年廣告支出的增加，您的銷售和促銷水平也在提高。因此，我想知道這在多大程度上是由於需要重建網路攻擊造成的份額損失，而不是僅僅為了贏得經濟實力較弱的消費者的支持。

Sure. We're seeing pressure across all consumer groups. And we're seeing behaviors broadly outside of our categories changing for nearly everyone as they evaluate what's going on and as they think about what's happening in the future, whether that come down to the interest rate environment, et cetera, cost of housing, cost of a basket of groceries when they go to the store. So we're seeing that behavior quite broadly, and we called it value-seeking. People are buying larger sizes, they're buying smaller sizes, and they're thinking about the trips they take, et cetera.

當然。我們看到所有消費者群體都面臨壓力。我們看到幾乎每個人在我們的類別之外的行為都在發生變化，因為他們評估正在發生的事情並思考未來會發生什麼，無論這是否歸結為利率環境等，住房成本，成本當他們去商店時，他們會買一籃雜貨。所以我們非常廣泛地看待這種行為，我們稱之為價值尋求。人們購買更大尺寸的尺寸，購買更小尺寸的尺寸，並考慮他們的旅行等等。

I would say, in particular, we always have our eyes focused on the lower-income consumer as they are more pressured. And to date, we've stood very well with them. And we tend to do it during times -- tough economic times for low-income consumers because we deliver products at a great value that work really well. And they can't afford to make a mistake in our categories. And so we typically fared well, and we continue to see that we are doing well with all income consumers.

我想說，我們特別關注低收入消費者，因為他們面臨更大的壓力。到目前為止，我們與他們相處得很好。我們傾向於在低收入消費者經濟困難時期這樣做，因為我們提供的產品具有很高的價值，而且效果非常好。他們不能在我們的類別中犯錯。因此，我們通常表現良好，並且我們繼續看到我們在所有收入消費者中表現良好。

And we haven't seen a material trade to private label that isn't due to the cyberattack. And of course, we're watching that closely as we get our distribution and our merchandising back, but we largely believe private label's growth is due to the fact that we weren't on the shelf. And we're seeing Q3, their share was lower than it was in Q2. We're seeing all the right indicators our households are coming back that might have tried private label during that time when we were off the shelf. So we're watching all income tiers, always focused on low income, but that was a very general comment to say that all consumers are under more pressure and are certainly evaluating their behaviors and how they're spending their wallet.

我們還沒有看到非因網路攻擊而發生的自有品牌材料交易。當然，當我們恢復分銷和商品銷售時，我們正在密切關注這一點，但我們在很大程度上相信自有品牌的成長是由於我們沒有上架。我們看到第三季度，他們的份額低於第二季度。我們看到了我們的家庭正在回來的所有正確指標，這些指標可能在我們下架的那段時間嘗試過自有品牌。因此，我們正在關注所有收入階層，始終關注低收入，但這是一個非常籠統的評論，即所有消費者都面臨更大的壓力，並且肯定會評估他們的行為以及他們如何花錢。

And then when it comes to our spending plans, we had always anticipated that we would return to prepandemic merchandising levels before we even saw a more stressed consumer because we just thought that was the right level of spending to ensure we were introducing people to new innovation, making sure that we're capturing new behaviors in times where consumers are open to that, for example, when they send their kids back to school or when they send the kids to college. And so we'd always anticipated that. And this promo, though, does also support our return to share growth and our return from a distribution perspective. So we like that it works doubly hard for us. But I wouldn't say we're doing this because of our recovery from cyber. We just always anticipated that this merchandising level would return.

然後，當談到我們的支出計劃時，我們一直預計，在我們看到消費者壓力更大之前，我們會回到大流行前的銷售水平，因為我們只是認為這是正確的支出水平，以確保我們向人們介紹新的創新，確保我們在消費者願意接受新行為的時候捕捉新行為，例如，當他們送孩子回學校或送孩子上大學時。所以我們一直都預料到了這一點。不過，這次促銷確實也支持了我們分享成長的回報以及從分銷角度來看的回報。所以我們喜歡它對我們來說加倍努力。但我不會說我們這樣做是因為我們從網路中恢復過來。我們一直期望這種銷售水準會回歸。

And then from an advertising and sales promotion level, we did increase that this year because we saw a pressured consumer and wanted to make sure that we were communicating our superior value, et cetera. But these are all within the range of normal spending for us in a given year. We typically spend around 10% in advertising and sales promotion. It will be closer to 11% this year, and we're returning to a level of reduced revenue spending that we've had in the past. So we don't see any need to go further or deeper than that. We feel like we have the right level. But this really is about more normal course of business than it is that we're seeing consumer behaviors that we need to react to.

然後從廣告和促銷層面來看，我們今年確實增加了這一點，因為我們看到了消費者的壓力，並希望確保我們傳達我們的卓越價值，等等。但這些都在我們當年的正常支出範圍內。我們通常將 10% 左右的費用用於廣告和促銷。今年將接近 11%，我們將恢復到過去收入支出減少的水平。因此，我們認為沒有必要比這更進一步或更深入。我們覺得我們有合適的水平。但這確實是一個更正常的商業過程，而不是我們看到的消費者行為需要做出反應。

Our next question comes from Javier Escalante of Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Javier Escalante。

I actually have 2. One is if you could -- on the commentary when it comes to market share and household penetration, it feels as if you are referring always back to the cyberattack. But if I understand the trajectory correctly, there was also market share losses relative to, say, prepandemic because of the supply chain issues that you mentioned. So if you can comment on that, whether the intent is to restore market share to prepandemic levels in these highly contested categories like pet litter and trash bags? And then I have a follow-up.

我實際上有 2 個想法。但如果我正確理解了這一軌跡，那麼由於您提到的供應鏈問題，相對於大流行前而言，也存在市場份額損失。那麼，如果您能對此發表評論，其目的是否是將寵物垃圾和垃圾袋等競爭激烈的類別的市場份額恢復到大流行前的水平？然後我有一個後續行動。

Sure, Javier. I mean it has certainly been a complex last few years and lots of puts and takes. And so what I would comment on is we intend to grow market share. That is our mid- to long-term goal, and that is the bar we hold for ourselves to say if we're winning with the consumer or not. Clearly, given the cyberattack, we have not grown market share this year, but we're seeing the trend move in the right place. So for perspective, we lost about 5 points of share, nearly 1/3 of our market share during the low point from a cyber perspective. And we're back down -- we ended the quarter down about 0.75. We've made progress since there if you look at the weekly data. But what we first need to do is restore market share and then grow from there, and we believe we have the right plans to do that.

當然，哈維爾。我的意思是，過去幾年確實很複雜，有很多的投入和投入。所以我要評論的是我們打算增加市場佔有率。這是我們的中長期目標，也是我們判斷自己能否贏得消費者的標準。顯然，考慮到網路攻擊，我們今年的市場份額並沒有增加，但我們看到這一趨勢正在朝著正確的方向發展。因此，從網路角度來看，我們損失了大約 5 個百分點的份額，即在低點期間我們的市場份額接近 1/3。我們有所回落——本季結束時我們下跌了約 0.75。如果你看看每週的數據，我們已經取得了進展。但我們首先需要做的是恢復市場份額，然後從那裡開始成長，我們相信我們有正確的計劃來做到這一點。

If you look at many of our businesses, they're variable versus the market share they had in the past. But in aggregate, we mostly returned and some businesses were higher. For example, on our Cleaning business, we made significant progress on market share, even though we had COVID [blip] and then, of course, multiple rounds of pricing. And our brands have held up really well.

如果你看看我們的許多業務，你會發現它們的市場份額與過去的市場份額相比是變化的。但總的來說，我們大部分都回來了，而且有些業務的價格更高。例如，在我們的清潔業務上，我們在市場份額方面取得了重大進展，儘管我們遇到了新冠疫情[blip]，當然還有多輪定價。我們的品牌一直保持得非常好。

So my evaluation would be heading into the cyber event, we were in the right place from a market share. We had plans to grow market share. Cyber has unfortunately caused another place where we took a step back and we have to rebuild, but I'm confident in our ability to return. And then we're working on plans in fiscal year '25 and beyond to deliver that market share growth we aspire to.

因此，我的評估是進入網路事件，從市場佔有率來看，我們處於正確的位置。我們計劃擴大市場份額。不幸的是，網路造成了我們後退一步，我們必須重建的另一個地方，但我對我們回歸的能力充滿信心。然後我們正在製定 25 財年及以後的計劃，以實現我們渴望的市場份額成長。

And then the follow-up, and it's a little bit in the line of Chris' question. It seems rarely you're seeing consumer businesses, and it could be accounting that you have negative pricing and negative volumes at the same time in the quarter. So what gives you confidence that you didn't take too much pricing and the value players are gaining share in trash bags and pet litter and I believe most recently [in white] that you don't need to reset prices into 2025?

然後是後續行動，這有點符合克里斯的問題。您似乎很少看到消費業務，這可能是因為您在本季同時出現負定價和負銷售。那麼，是什麼讓您有信心沒有採取太多定價，並且價值玩家正在獲得垃圾袋和寵物垃圾的份額，而且我最近[白色]認為您不需要將價格重置到 2025 年？

Yes. I would say, first of all, there's a price/mix and a trade component of Q3, and certainly, Kevin can walk through that in more detail. But if I just take a step back and say what were the dynamics in Q3 that give us confidence and what were the dynamics that negatively impacted us, it's pretty clear. we weren't able to fully supply on a couple of those businesses that you mentioned, Glad and Litter in particular. And that means we weren't fully available for the consumer, which we don't like. But the good news is, as I've said, we recovered that ability to supply by the end of Q3, and we feel good heading into Q4. And also, there were more competitive dynamics, given that fact that we couldn't fully supply. We saw more merchandising from competitors, et cetera.

是的。我想說，首先，第三季有價格/組合和貿易組成部分，當然，凱文可以更詳細地介紹這一點。但如果我退後一步，說說第三季的哪些動態給了我們信心，哪些動態為我們帶來了負面影響，那就很清楚了。我們無法完全供應您提到的幾個業務，特別是 Glad 和 Litter。這意味著我們無法完全為消費者提供服務，這是我們不喜歡的。但好消息是，正如我所說，我們在第三季末恢復了供應能力，進入第四季我們感覺很好。而且，考慮到我們無法完全供應，競爭也更加激烈。我們看到競爭對手有更多的推銷活動，等等。

As it specifically relates to private label, if you look, there was a stressed consumer prior to the cyber event, and we didn't have any material loss to private label and share during that time nor have we in any recessionary time lost any material share to private label. We offer brands with great value. We offer innovation. The consumer trusts us. They love our products. They love our brands, and we spend behind those brands to ensure that they understand the superior value we deliver. And we see that beginning to take hold and work in Q3 as we restore distribution and inventories. We saw private label share come down versus Q2 and heading in the right direction back to what we would expect it to be in a more normalized environment. We expect to continue to make progress as we restore distribution in Q4.

因為它特別與自有品牌有關，如果你看一下，在網路事件之前有一個壓力很大的消費者，在那段時間我們沒有對自有品牌和共享造成任何物質損失，也沒有在任何經濟衰退時期損失任何物質分享到自有品牌。我們提供極具價值的品牌。我們提供創新。消費者信任我們。他們喜歡我們的產品。他們喜歡我們的品牌，我們在這些品牌背後投入資金，以確保他們了解我們提供的卓越價值。隨著我們恢復分銷和庫存，我們看到這種情況在第三季開始發揮作用。我們看到自有品牌份額與第二季度相比有所下降，並朝著正確的方向回到我們預期的更正常化的環境中。我們預計隨著第四季度恢復分銷，我們將繼續取得進展。

So I think it would be pretty understandable to say when you're not fully on the shelf and you don't have all your distribution, a consumer is going to choose what's on the shelf, and they did. And -- but we feel confident in our brands, confident in our spending plans that we'll restore that back. And history would tell us, when we were out of stock in COVID, that happens. When we've had product issues where we were out of shelf on (inaudible), we came back. We restored our share in distribution. We have a long history of doing this, and I remain confident in our ability to do it in Q4 and beyond.

因此，我認為當你沒有完全上架並且沒有所有分銷時，消費者會選擇貨架上的商品，他們確實這樣做了，這是可以理解的。而且 - 但我們對我們的品牌充滿信心，對我們的支出計劃充滿信心，我們將恢復這一點。歷史告訴我們，當新冠病毒缺貨時，這種情況就會發生。當我們遇到產品問題導致我們下架（聽不清楚）時，我們又回來了。我們恢復了分配份額。我們在這方面有著悠久的歷史，我對我們在第四季及以後實現這一目標的能力仍然充滿信心。

Our next question comes from Filippo Falorni of Citigroup.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Filippo Falorni。

I first wanted to ask on the recovery from a shelf space standpoint. In prior earnings call, you sounded very confident that you're going to recover the full of the TDP that you still haven't recovered, the distribution points. Is that still the expectation and in the quarter -- and in the year, I mean? And was the weakness in the quarter, like, does that change a bit the full year expectation versus what you had expected, particularly for Glad and for the Cat Litter business?

我首先想從貨架空間的角度詢問回收情況。在先前的財報電話會議上，您聽起來非常有信心，認為您將恢復尚未恢復的全部 TDP（分發點）。我的意思是，這仍然是本季和今年的預期嗎？本季的疲軟是否會導致全年預期與您的預期相比有所改變，特別是對於 Glad 和貓砂業務？

Thanks, Filippo. We fully expect to recover in Q4 the distribution against our plan that we had fiscal year '24 that we lost. We view that as temporary. And we have seen the shelf decisions from retailers. They are now in the process of converting their sets as we speak in some of our categories, and some will happen throughout the quarter. So we have strong confidence that we will restore that distribution. And that really was not the Q3 story because we always knew most of that distribution would come back in Q4. This is really more of a supply and service level issue story in Q3. And again, we have fully recovered from that, and we're heading into Q4 in a great place. We're able to fully supply that distribution that we will recover.

謝謝，菲利波。我們完全期望在第四季度恢復我們在 24 財年失去的計劃的分配。我們認為這是暫時的。我們也看到了零售商的貨架決定。正如我們在某些​​類別中所說的那樣，他們現在正在轉換他們的設置，有些將在整個季度發生。因此，我們對恢復這種分配充滿信心。這確實不是第三季的故事，因為我們一直知道大部分分配將在第四季回歸。這其實更多是第三季的供應和服務水準問題。再說一遍，我們已經完全從這種情況中恢復過來，並且我們正以良好的狀態進入第四季度。我們能夠完全供應我們將恢復的分配。

I'd also just note, I did a recent roadshow with all of our top retailers. And they want our business back on shelf, too. We are the brand that leads their categories. They're very invested and growing with us. Our conversations we're focused on growing, moving forward our innovation plans, what we want to do to unlock our joint digital plans now that we're well underway on our digital transformation, now that we know 100 million consumers, how can we personalize better to them. The conversations were very growth-oriented, future-focused, and they're looking forward to having our full distribution back as well, so that we can grow their categories.

我還想指出，我最近與我們所有的頂級零售商進行了一次路演。他們也希望我們的業務重新上架。我們是引領其類別的品牌。他們非常投入並與我們一起成長。我們的對話重點是發展、推進我們的創新計劃、我們想要做什麼來解鎖我們的聯合數位計劃，既然我們的數位轉型正在順利進行，既然我們了解 1 億消費者，我們如何實現個人化對他們更好。這些對話非常以成長為導向，著眼於未來，他們也期待我們的完整發行版回歸，以便我們能夠擴大他們的類別。

Got it. That's helpful. And then maybe, Linda, just a longer-term question. I remember when you updated your long-term outlook to 3% to 5% from 2% to 4%. A component of that higher outlook was the International business. Obviously, you made the decision to divest Argentina. So maybe you can review what's left in the International business and how that contributes to your long-term target.

知道了。這很有幫助。琳達，也許這只是一個長期問題。我記得您將長期前景從 2% 到 4% 更新為 3% 到 5%。這一更高前景的一個組成部分是國際業務。顯然，你做出了剝離阿根廷的決定。因此，也許您可以回顧一下國際業務還剩下什麼，以及它如何有助於您的長期目標。

Sure. You are absolutely right that we talked about International being a portion of that growth. And if you look at the performance of our International over the last couple of years, it certainly has played a role where it's grown faster. But we also talked about having a more consistent less volatile business. And Argentina was a high source of volatility and variability. And certainly, you saw the FX impact play out, and you heard Kevin talk about what we expect moving forward. So that was definitely on our minds, to reduce the volatility and variability that we had and then be able to grow from a very solid base.

當然。你說得對，我們談到國際化是這一成長的一部分。如果你看看我們國際隊過去幾年的表現，你會發現它確實發揮了更快成長的作用。但我們也談到了擁有更穩定、波動更小的業務。阿根廷是波動性和變異性的重要來源。當然，您看到了外匯影響的發揮，並且聽到凱文談論我們對未來的期望。因此，這絕對是我們的想法，以減少我們所擁有的波動性和可變性，然後能夠在非常堅實的基礎上成長。

And you might recall from a few years ago, we had purchased the majority ownership of a JV partnership we have in the Middle East, was a good example of looking at markets that we could grow faster in that were more stable and predictable, and that has played out very well. We continue to have a really healthy consumer there. Innovation is working well in that marketplace. And so what I would say is it's very consistent with what we've said before.

您可能還記得幾年前，我們購買了我們在中東的合資夥伴關係的多數股權，這是一個很好的例子，說明我們可以在更穩定和可預測的市場中更快地成長，並且表現得很好。我們仍然擁有真正健康的消費者。創新在該市場中運作良好。所以我想說的是，這與我們之前所說的非常一致。

We have continued business in Latin America that we feel good about, and we'll continue to grow business in Asia, Europe, the Middle East. And we continue to have growth pockets on businesses like Litter, et cetera, our Cleaning business, which is the majority of our businesses, International, and we continue to expect International to be a strong contributor, but it will be much more profitable and stable versus what it was before.

我們在拉丁美洲繼續開展業務，我們對此感到滿意，並且我們將繼續在亞洲、歐洲和中東發展業務。我們繼續在諸如垃圾等業務、我們的清潔業務（這是我們的大部分業務）、國際業務等業務上擁有成長空間，我們仍然期望國際業務將成為強大的貢獻者，但它將帶來更多的利潤和穩定與之前的情況相比。

Our next question comes from Lauren Lieberman of Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的勞倫·利伯曼。

Just a couple of things. So first was just in the release, you specifically called out that part of the increase in the gross margin outlook was a more favorable outlook for raw material cost or for input. So just curious on a little bit of color there. And then secondly was thinking about Argentina, I know we're not going to do business planning guidance for '25. But just thinking about when you lap Argentina -- like Argentina FX is such a huge impact, for example, on gross margins even this quarter, last quarter. Do we like reverse that? Or is it just the impact disappear because the business is gone? I'm just kind of thinking ahead, again, not about the totality of gross margin, but just how to think about the absence of Argentina moving forward and the margin impact on the business.

只是幾件事。首先，您在新聞稿中特別指出，毛利率前景的成長部分是因為原物料成本或投入的前景更有利。所以只是對那裡的一點顏色感到好奇。其次是考慮阿根廷，我知道我們不會為 25 年制定業務規劃指南。但只要想想當你繞行阿根廷時——就像阿根廷外匯一樣，即使是本季、上個季度，對毛利率也會產生巨大的影響。我們喜歡反過來嗎？還是只是因為業務消失了，影響就消失了？我只是在提前思考，不是毛利率的總體，而是如何考慮阿根廷的缺席以及對業務的利潤率影響。

Yes. Lauren, happy to take those. As it relates to gross margins, let me start there, and kind of what we're seeing from a cost perspective, we are seeing costs continue to moderate. I think as you saw in Q3, it's a fairly small impact, particularly if you look at commodities. We are seeing some commodities become deflationary. You see that a bit in soybean oil, which is something we use in our Food business. You're seeing it in other categories, substrates, some chemicals.

是的。勞倫，很高興接受這些。由於它與毛利率有關，讓我從成本角度開始，我們看到成本繼續下降。我認為正如您在第三季所看到的那樣，影響相當小，特別是如果您關注大宗商品的話。我們看到一些商品出現通貨緊縮。您可以在大豆油中看到一點，這是我們在食品業務中使用的東西。您可以在其他類別、基材、某些化學物質中看到它。

We are seeing still some cost increases, particularly on petroleum-based products, solvents, diesel. Resins, up just a little bit. That's more supply-demand driven more than input costs. And so I'd say it is definitely going in the right direction. It's a fairly modest hit for us in Q3, and that's certainly been an ongoing improvement.

我們看到成本仍然增加，特別是石油基產品、溶劑、柴油。樹脂，上漲一點點。這更多是由供需驅動，而不是投入成本。所以我想說這絕對是朝著正確的方向發展。這對我們第三季來說是一個相當溫和的打擊，而且這肯定是一個持續的改進。

I'd say on the other piece of inflation, which is more wage driven, it's generally playing out as we expected. That tends to show up in manufacturing and warehousing. We're still seeing ongoing inflation there. But on the commodity front, it is certainly easing. And as we step out of Argentina, which is a source of inflation, I expect it will be fairly benign by the time we get to Q4 on the commodity side, and then we'll continue to deal with the wage inflation.

我想說的是，關於通膨的另一部分，即更多由薪資驅動的通膨，它的表現總體上符合我們的預期。這往往會出現在製造和倉儲領域。我們仍然看到那裡持續的通貨膨脹。但在大宗商品方面，情況肯定正在放緩。當我們走出通膨根源阿根廷時，我預計到第四季大宗商品的情況將相當溫和，然後我們將繼續應對薪資通膨。

And then how to think about Argentina next year, I think you said exactly right is as we move forward, a number of the areas you talked about, we will not have that impact going forward. So let me give you an example. You highlighted FX this quarter. To your point, it was about 180 basis point hit to margin. That was almost entirely Argentina. As I look forward, even starting in Q4, we should have almost no FX hit to gross margin. So you get that benefit.

然後如何考慮明年的阿根廷，我認為你說的完全正確，就是隨著我們前進，你談到的一些領域，我們不會再產生這種影響。讓我舉個例子。您本季重點關注了外匯。就你的觀點而言，利潤率大約下降了 180 個基點。那幾乎完全是阿根廷。我預計，即使從第四季開始，我們的毛利率也幾乎不會受到外匯影響。所以你得到了這個好處。

But keep in mind, that will be offset by other areas, things like pricing. The pricing you see in Q3 was primary Argentina, that will also go away. So you'll strip all that out. Ultimately, the net impact of all that is Argentina was a margin-dilutive business for us. So by stepping out of that, all the different lines, when you look at it in totality, our margins will go up as a result of exiting Argentina. But you'll strip out each one of those elements that Argentina drove.

但請記住，這將被定價等其他方面所抵消。您在第三季看到的價格主要是阿根廷的價格，這也將消失。所以你要把這些都去掉。最終，阿根廷的所有影響對我們來說是一項利潤攤薄業務。因此，透過走出所有不同的路線，當你從整體來看時，我們的利潤率將因退出阿根廷而上升。但你會剔除阿根廷駕駛的每項元素。

Okay. And that impact from Argentina from the exit, just going back to it's actually a pretty small business. It's a small net impact when you put all these pieces back together on the year-over-year margin like in this quarter next year, for example?

好的。阿根廷退出帶來的影響實際上是一個相當小的業務。例如，當您將所有這些部分以同比利潤率重新組合在一起時，淨影響很小嗎？

Yes, that's right. I mean you look at the business, it's 2% of sales, and you can probably do the math pretty quickly. It's a very dilutive business to us when we owned it. It represented 2% of our sales. So you can probably do the math. You see there's some modest benefit to our gross margin going forward now it's out of the portfolio.

恩，那就對了。我的意思是，你看看業務，它佔銷售額的 2%，你可能很快就能算出來。當我們擁有它時，這對我們來說是一項非常稀釋的業務。它占我們銷售額的 2%。所以你大概可以算一下。您會看到，現在它已脫離投資組合，我們的毛利率將獲得一些適度的好處。

Okay. Great. And then one thing I just wanted to clarify. I think I figured it out as the call went on, but there were 2 conflicting statements in the release, in the prepared remarks about supply chain constraints being a problem in the quarter, but having resumed normal service levels. So I didn't know if it was a timing difference, like normal service levels as you exit the quarter, but constrained by supply chain during the quarter. I just wanted to make sure it's clear on how those 2 statements fit together.

好的。偉大的。然後我想澄清一件事。我想隨著電話的繼續，我已經弄清楚了這一點，但新聞稿中有兩個相互矛盾的聲明，在準備好的評論中，供應鏈限制是本季度的一個問題，但已經恢復了正常的服務水準。所以我不知道這是否是一個時間差異，就像退出本季時的正常服務水準一樣，但受到本季供應鏈的限制。我只是想確保這兩個陳述是如何結合在一起的。

That's right, Lauren. So we were not able to fully service our retailers throughout Q3 until the end. So at the end of Q3, we restored normal service levels, and we entered Q4 with them back to being normalized, and that marries with the supply chain comment that we had some constraints, which impacted those service levels throughout the quarter.

沒錯，蘿倫。因此，直到第三季末，我們才能夠為零售商提供全面的服務。因此，在第三季末，我們恢復了正常的服務水平，進入第四季度後，服務水平又恢復正常，這與供應鏈的評論相結合，即我們遇到了一些限制，這影響了整個季度的服務水平。

Our next question comes from Olivia Tong of Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Olivia Tong。

I wanted to ask you 2 questions around margins. First, on gross margin. Obviously, the EPS outlook for this year is now higher than where you were pre cyberattack, and much of that is due to the gross margin expansion of about 100 basis points ahead of where you thought you were going to be at the beginning of the year. So in the past, you've talked about 200 basis points of gross margin improvement annually. As you recover from the post-COVID decline this year, now 275. Last year, obviously, a lot more than that, despite all the ups and downs with the cyberattack.

我想問你兩個關於利潤的問題。首先是毛利率。顯然，今年的每股盈餘前景現在高於網路攻擊前的水平，這在很大程度上是由於毛利率比您年初預期的水平高出約 100 個基點。過去，您談到毛利率每年提高 200 個基點。當你從新冠疫情後的下降中恢復過來時，今年已經是 275 個。

So can you just talk about, ex Argentina, ex the cyber, all these things, the ability to keep outperforming on gross margin, what you learned from this year, last year, what capabilities continue versus some of the one-offs that are helping and hurting this year, just sort of the ongoing recovery on gross margin relative to the post-COVID timing?

那麼，您能否談談，前阿根廷，前網絡，所有這些事情，在毛利率上保持領先的能力，您從今年和去年學到的東西，哪些能力會繼續存在，而不是一些正在幫助的一次性能力今年的毛利率相對於新冠疫情後的持續復甦是否會受到影響？

Sure. I'll be happy to take that one. As you think about gross margin, and you almost have to separate what we've been doing for the last several years in terms of where I think it's going longer term. We're still working to recover from a record level of inflation that we've had to absorb. And as I think you know quite well, Olivia, we lost about 800 basis points in gross margin due to this inflationary cycle. And as Linda and I both talked quite a bit, we remain committed to fully recovering that.

當然。我很樂意接受那個。當你考慮毛利率時，你幾乎必須將我們過去幾年所做的事情與我認為的長期發展分開。我們仍在努力從我們不得不承受的創紀錄的通膨水平中恢復過來。我想你很清楚，Olivia，由於這個通膨週期，我們的毛利率損失了大約 800 個基點。由於琳達和我都談了很多，我們仍然致力於完全恢復這一點。

To your point, with the work we did last year, the work we're doing this year, we'll get about 650 basis points we'll recover. We've got more work to do and feel quite confident we'll get there. The process to get there, we were leaning into pricing. We took 4 rounds of pricing, which is very consistent with what you saw broadly in our industry to recover from this inflation.

就你的觀點而言，透過我們去年所做的工作和今年所做的工作，我們將獲得大約 650 個基點的恢復。我們還有更多的工作要做，並且對我們能夠實現這一目標充滿信心。在實現這一目標的過程中，我們傾向於定價。我們進行了 4 輪定價，這與您在我們行業中廣泛看到的通膨中復甦的情況非常一致。

As we move forward, though, now and get back into what I describe as, we believe, a more normalized cost environment, typically, our cost savings efforts is more than enough to cover normal levels of inflation and allows a little bit extra that we can either invest back in the business, take to the bottom line to further expand EBIT margin. And that's where that long-term goal of 25 to 50 basis points was generated, which is normal level of cost inflation, which for us tends to be about $75 million a year. Our cost savings more than covers that, and we use the extra to modestly improve margins each year. That's where we're going. We're not there yet. We're still working on recovering from the inflationary cycle, and that was through pricing, but it's certainly moving in the right direction.

不過，隨著我們繼續前進，現在回到我所描述的，我們相信，一個更正常化的成本環境，通常情況下，我們的成本節約努力足以覆蓋正常的通貨膨脹水平，並允許我們多花一點錢。這就是 25 至 50 個基點的長期目標產生的地方，這是成本通膨的正常水平，對我們來說每年約為 7500 萬美元。我們節省的成本不僅可以彌補這一點，而且我們每年都會利用額外的費用來適度提高利潤。這就是我們要去的地方。我們還沒到那兒。我們仍在努力從通膨週期中恢復過來，這是透過定價實現的，但它肯定正在朝著正確的方向發展。

So we'll get back to fully recovering these gross margins over time. And then I expect, assuming that the commodity environment gets to a more normalized level, that's how you should expect to see us continue to grow margins over the long term as our margin transformation efforts more than offsetting regular levels of inflation.

因此，隨著時間的推移，我們將完全恢復這些毛利率。然後我預計，假設大宗商品環境達到更正常化的水平，從長遠來看，我們的利潤率將繼續增長，因為我們的利潤率轉型努力不僅僅是抵消正常的通膨水平。

Got it. And then just a point of clarification on your call for higher advertising in the second half. Are you talking about higher as a percentage of sales sequentially or that the year-over-year change in second half is higher than it was in the first half? And how much of that is due to the clear pullback in spend in first half when you had your out of stocks versus just desire to have greater programs, greater opportunity to support some of the innovation?

知道了。然後澄清一下您要求下半年增加廣告投放的要求。您是在談論佔銷售額的百分比更高，還是下半年的同比變化高於上半年？其中有多少是由於上半年庫存大幅減少而導致支出大幅下降，而不是僅僅希望有更大的項目、更多的機會來支持一些創新？

Sure. Olivia, if we wind the clock back to the beginning of the fiscal year, we actually had intended to spend more money in advertising and sales promotion in our original guidance, we said about 11%. We still intend to do that. But you're absolutely right that given the cyberattack, the shape of that over the course of the year has changed. So we spent less in the front half of the year, we're spending more in the back half, but still with the intention of spending what we're saying now is over 11% of sales.

當然。 Olivia，如果我們把時間倒回本財年之初，我們實際上是打算在最初的指導中花更多的錢在廣告和促銷上，我們說大約是 11%。我們仍然打算這樣做。但你說得完全正確，考慮到網路攻擊，這一年的形式已經改變了。因此，我們上半年的支出較少，下半年的支出較多，但仍打算支出我們現在所說的銷售額的 11% 以上。

I want to be clear on the dynamics there, though. It is about -- we're spending about the same money we had intended. But given what we've talked about from a sales outlook perspective and Argentina, it would put us above 11%, but we're still spending about the same amount of money as we intended to when we first gave that guidance. But again, this was more about supporting our brands as consumers are more challenged. We felt good about our innovation plans and we wanted to spend behind them. And again, just the shape of the year has changed given the cyber event.

不過，我想弄清楚那裡的動態。這是關於——我們花的錢與我們原本打算花的錢差不多。但考慮到我們從銷售前景和阿根廷的角度討論的情況，這將使我們超過 11%，但我們的支出仍與我們首次給出該指導時的預期金額相同。但同樣，這更多的是為了支持我們的品牌，因為消費者面臨更多的挑戰。我們對我們的創新計劃感覺良好，並且希望在這些計劃背後投入資金。再說一次，由於網路事件，今年的形式發生了變化。

This concludes the question-and-answer session. Ms. Rendle, I would now like to turn the program back to you.

問答環節到此結束。倫德爾女士，我現在想把程式轉回給您。

Thanks so much, everyone. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress on our next call. Until then, stay well.

非常感謝大家。我們期待在下次電話會議上向您通報我們的持續進展。在那之前，保持健康。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的出席。