達登餐飲 (DRI) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2022 Fourth quarter Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) The conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Kalicak. Please go ahead. You may begin.

歡迎參加達頓 2022 財年第四季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）正在錄製會議。如果您有任何異議，請在此時斷開連接。我現在將把電話轉給 Kevin Kalicak 先生。請繼續。你可以開始了。

Thank you, Maureen. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating on today's call. Joining me today are Rick Cardenas, Darden's President and CEO; and Raj Vennam, CFO.

謝謝你，莫琳。大家早上好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議。今天加入我的是達頓的總裁兼首席執行官 Rick Cardenas；和首席財務官 Raj Vennam。

As a reminder, comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from -- materially from our expectations and projections. Those risks are described in the company's press release, which was distributed this morning and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are simultaneously broadcasting a presentation during this call, which is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website at darden.com. Today's discussion and presentation include certain non-GAAP measurements, and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation.

提醒一下，本次電話會議期間發表的評論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中定義的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期和預測。這些風險在該公司今天上午發布的新聞稿及其提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中都有描述。在本次電話會議期間，我們同時播放了一個演示文稿，該演示文稿發佈在我們網站 darden.com 的投資者關係部分。今天的討論和演示包括某些非公認會計原則的測量，並且這些測量的調節包含在演示中。

Any reference to pre-COVID when discussing fourth quarter performance is a comparison to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. This is because the results from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 and 2020 are not meaningful due to the pandemic's impact on the business and the limited capacity environment that we operated in during those periods. This will be the final quarter that we provide comparisons to pre-COVID. Moving forward, we'll provide comparisons to the prior year.

在討論第四季度業績時提及 COVID 之前的任何內容都是與 2019 財年第四季度的比較。這是因為大流行對業務的影響和有限的 2021 財年第四季度和 2020 年第四季度的結果沒有意義我們在那些時期經營的容量環境。這將是我們提供與 COVID 之前比較的最後一個季度。展望未來，我們將提供與前一年的比較。

We plan to release fiscal 2023 first quarter earnings on Thursday, September 22, before the market opens, followed by a conference call. This morning, Rick will share some brief remarks on the quarter and full year before discussing our focus moving forward. Raj will provide details on our Q4 and full year financial results and share our fiscal 2023 financial outlook, and then Rick will close with some final comments.

我們計劃在 9 月 22 日星期四市場開盤前發布 2023 財年第一季度收益，隨後召開電話會議。今天早上，Rick 將在討論我們向前發展的重點之前，將分享一些關於本季度和全年的簡短評論。 Raj 將提供我們第四季度和全年財務業績的詳細信息，並分享我們 2023 財年的財務展望，然後 Rick 將以一些最終評論結束。

Now I'll turn the call over to Rick.

現在我將把電話轉給 Rick。

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. This is our first conference call since Gene's retirement, so I want to take a moment to thank him. Gene never wanted the spotlight on himself, and he's probably listening right now and telling me to move on. But Darden is stronger today and better positioned to navigate any operating environment because of Gene's leadership. And personally, I know I'm better prepared for my role, thanks to Gene's mentorship. So on behalf of our 180,000 team members, thank you, Gene, for putting our guests and team members first and for leading Darden with a steady and decisive hand.

謝謝你，凱文，大家早上好。這是 Gene 退休後我們的第一次電話會議，所以我想花點時間感謝他。吉恩從來不希望自己成為焦點，他現在可能正在傾聽並告訴我繼續前進。但由於 Gene 的領導，Darden 今天變得更強大，更能駕馭任何運營環境。就個人而言，我知道我為自己的角色做好了更好的準備，這要歸功於 Gene 的指導。因此，我代表我們 180,000 名團隊成員，感謝您，吉恩，感謝您將我們的客人和團隊成員放在首位，並以穩健而果斷的方式領導達頓。

As you saw from our press release this morning, we had a very good quarter, even in this highly inflationary environment. For the quarter, we exceeded our sales expectations and our earnings were in line with our outlook. Overall, fiscal 2022 was a solid year. Each of our brand strengthened their business models, while our restaurant teams remain disciplined and executed well in a challenging environment. We stuck to our strategy, continue to price below inflation and ended the year with significantly better margins than pre-COVID. As a result of this business model improvement and our strong balance sheet, we are well positioned as we begin our new fiscal year, in what remains an uncertain environment.

正如您從今天上午的新聞稿中看到的那樣，即使在這種高度通貨膨脹的環境中，我們也有一個非常好的季度。本季度，我們超出了我們的銷售預期，我們的收益與我們的展望一致。總體而言，2022 財年是穩健的一年。我們的每個品牌都加強了他們的商業模式，而我們的餐廳團隊在充滿挑戰的環境中保持紀律和執行良好。我們堅持我們的策略，繼續將價格低於通貨膨脹率，並以比 COVID 之前顯著更高的利潤率結束了這一年。由於這種商業模式的改進和我們強勁的資產負債表，我們在新的財政年度開始時處於有利的位置，在仍然不確定的環境中。

Raj will share details for the quarter and the full year in a moment. But first, I want to spend my time reiterating Darden's strategy, which is not changing and will remain our focus moving forward. Our brands benefit from Darden's 4 competitive advantages of significant scale, extensive data and insights, rigorous strategic planning and our results-oriented culture, but none is more evident in our financial results than our scale.

Raj 將在稍後分享本季度和全年的詳細信息。但首先，我想花時間重申達頓的戰略，該戰略不會改變，並將繼續成為我們前進的重點。我們的品牌受益於達頓的 4 大競爭優勢，即顯著的規模、廣泛的數據和洞察力、嚴格的戰略規劃和以結果為導向的文化，但在我們的財務業績中，沒有比我們的規模更明顯的了。

To quickly dimensionalize our scale advantage for you, our total sales are more than 2x our closest full-service restaurant competitor and more than 2.5x the next closest. We also have higher-than-average annual restaurant volumes; lower overhead costs, which we achieved by centralizing our support functions; and margins that are significantly higher than our competitive set.

為了快速為您確定我們的規模優勢，我們的總銷售額是最接近的全方位服務餐廳競爭對手的 2 倍以上，是最接近的競爭對手的 2.5 倍以上。我們的餐廳年銷量也高於平均水平；降低管理成本，我們通過集中我們的支持功能來實現；和利潤率明顯高於我們的競爭對手。

Our scale creates cost advantages that our brands could not achieve individually. A great example is the fact that each of our specialty restaurant brands: the Capital Grille, Eddie V's, Seasons 52, Yard House and Bahama Breeze, achieved record results for the year, even in the midst of historic inflation.

我們的規模創造了我們的品牌無法單獨實現的成本優勢。一個很好的例子是，我們的每個特色餐廳品牌：Capital Grille、Eddie V's、Seasons 52、Yard House 和 Bahama Breeze，即使在歷史性的通貨膨脹中也取得了創紀錄的業績。

We will continue to leverage our scale and our superior financial position to make long-term investments in our business. First, we will continue to invest in our brands' value propositions by underpricing inflation over the long term. This is the biggest investment we make every year. Additionally, we will continue to leverage our scale to invest in technology that enhances the guest experience and simplifies operations.

我們將繼續利用我們的規模和優越的財務狀況對我們的業務進行長期投資。首先，我們將通過長期抑制通貨膨脹來繼續投資於我們品牌的價值主張。這是我們每年最大的投資。此外，我們將繼續利用我們的規模投資於增強客戶體驗和簡化運營的技術。

Finally, it is our people who bring our brands to life, and we will continue to invest in them so they can grow and thrive and help us do the same.

最後，是我們的員工讓我們的品牌栩栩如生，我們將繼續投資於他們，讓他們能夠成長壯大，並幫助我們做到這一點。

At the restaurant level, our strategy comes to life through our back-to-basics operating philosophy. This philosophy, anchored in food, service and atmosphere, has never been more important than it is today. Our restaurant team is focused on being brilliant with the basics, ensures we put the full in full-service dining.

在餐廳層面，我們的戰略通過我們返璞歸真的經營理念來實現。這種以食物、服務和氛圍為基礎的理念從未像今天這樣重要。我們的餐廳團隊專注於在基礎知識方面表現出色，確保我們提供全方位服務。

The work our brands are doing to drive execution by simplifying our processes and menus puts our restaurant teams in the best position to deliver great guest experiences, and it's working. Olive Garden's overall guest satisfaction scores are at all-time highs. Additionally, on Mother's Day, the Olive Garden team delivered record performance. Mother's Day was the highest sales day and second highest guest count day in their history. We also continue to make key investments across our portfolio to position each brand for long-term success.

我們的品牌正在通過簡化流程和菜單來推動執行，這使我們的餐廳團隊處於最佳位置，可以提供出色的客戶體驗，而且它正在發揮作用。 Olive Garden 的整體賓客滿意度得分創歷史新高。此外，在母親節，橄欖園團隊創造了創紀錄的表現。母親節是他們歷史上銷售額最高的一天，也是客人人數第二高的一天。我們還繼續在我們的投資組合中進行關鍵投資，以使每個品牌都取得長期成功。

For example, LongHorn Steakhouse has made significant investments over the past few years in the quality of their food. They continue to lead the casual dining industry on food quality and taste of food, which propelled them to over $2 billion in annual sales for the first time.

例如，LongHorn Steakhouse 在過去幾年中對其食品質量進行了大量投資。他們繼續在食品質量和口味方面引領休閒餐飲行業，這推動他們的年銷售額首次超過 20 億美元。

Similarly, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen is a value leader, and the investments they have made to simplify their menu and price below inflation has resulted in improvement in their industry-leading value ratings.

同樣，Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen 是一家價值領導者，他們為簡化菜單和低於通脹的價格所做的投資提高了其行業領先的價值評級。

Finally, as I mentioned, our specialty brands had record performance for the year, which was due to the investments they made during COVID and the scale advantage of Darden. Our strategy remains the right one for the company, and we will continue to execute it to drive growth and long-term shareholder value. As we begin our new fiscal year, we continue to experience significant inflationary pressures, and we will stick to our strategy of pricing below inflation and our competitors over time. While we can't predict the future, we're focused on managing the business for the long term, and the power of Darden positions us to navigate this environment better than anyone else.

最後，正如我所提到的，我們的專業品牌在這一年取得了創紀錄的業績，這是由於他們在 COVID 期間所做的投資以及 Darden 的規模優勢。我們的戰略仍然適合公司，我們將繼續執行它以推動增長和長期股東價值。隨著我們新財年的開始，我們將繼續承受巨大的通脹壓力，隨著時間的推移，我們將堅持定價低於通脹和競爭對手的策略。雖然我們無法預測未來，但我們專注於長期管理業務，而 Darden 的力量使我們能夠比其他任何人更好地駕馭這種環境。

Now I'll turn it over to Raj.

現在我將把它交給 Raj。

Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. Total sales for the fourth quarter were $2.6 billion, 14.2% higher than last year, driven by 11.7% same-restaurant sales growth and the addition of 33 net new restaurants, which included 1 temporary closure that will reopen in fiscal 2023. Diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were $2.24.

謝謝你，瑞克，大家早上好。第四季度的總銷售額為 26 億美元，比去年同期增長 14.2%，這得益於同店銷售額增長 11.7% 以及新增 33 家淨新餐廳，其中包括 1 家將在 2023 財年重新開業的臨時關閉。攤薄的淨收益持續經營的每股收益為 2.24 美元。

Total EBITDA was $431 million, and we returned significant cash to shareholders, paying $137 million in dividends and repurchasing $237 million in shares for a total of $374 million of cash returned to investors in the quarter. We continue to see increasing cost pressures with total inflation for the fourth quarter of 7.5%. During the quarter, we took additional pricing to help offset a portion of the growing inflation that brought total pricing to 6% for the quarter and 3% for the full year. This is well below our annual inflation of just over 6%, as we continue to execute our strategy to strengthen our value leadership position.

EBITDA 總額為 4.31 億美元，我們向股東返還了大量現金，支付了 1.37 億美元的股息並回購了 2.37 億美元的股票，本季度向投資者返還了總計 3.74 億美元的現金。我們繼續看到成本壓力增加，第四季度總通脹率為 7.5%。在本季度，我們採取了額外的定價來幫助抵消部分不斷增長的通貨膨脹，這使本季度的總定價達到 6%，全年達到 3%。這遠低於我們略高於 6% 的年度通脹率，因為我們將繼續執行我們的戰略以加強我們的價值領導地位。

Turning to the fourth quarter P&L. Compared to pre-COVID, food and beverage expenses were 300 basis points higher, driven by investments in both pricing below inflation and in food quality. For reference, food inflation in Q4 was 12% versus last year. Restaurant labor was 40 basis points lower, driven by hourly labor efficiencies gained from operational simplifications, which were partially offset by continued wage pressures. Total restaurant labor inflation was 7% versus last year, primarily driven by hourly wage inflation of approximately 9%.

轉向第四季度的損益表。與新冠疫情之前相比，食品和飲料費用高出 300 個基點，這主要得益於對低於通脹的定價和食品質量的投資。作為參考，第四季度的食品通脹與去年相比為 12%。餐廳勞動力下降了 40 個基點，原因是運營簡化帶來的小時勞動力效率提高了，這部分被持續的工資壓力所抵消。與去年相比，餐廳勞動力總通脹率為 7%，主要受約 9% 的小時工資通脹率推動。

Marketing spend was $48 million lower as we remain disciplined in our approach to marketing activities, resulting in 230 basis points of favorability. G&A expense was 140 basis points lower, driven by our corporate restructuring in fiscal 2021 and sales leverage. As a result, we achieved restaurant-level EBITDA margin of 19.9%, 40 basis points above pre-COVID level, and quarterly EBITDA of $431 million. Total EBITDA margin for the quarter was 16.6%, a 170 basis point improvement to pre-COVID.

營銷支出減少了 4800 萬美元，因為我們在營銷活動的方法上保持自律，產生了 230 個基點的好感度。由於我們在 2021 財年的企業重組和銷售槓桿，G&A 費用降低了 140 個基點。因此，我們實現了 19.9% 的餐廳級 EBITDA 利潤率，比 COVID 之前的水平高 40 個基點，季度 EBITDA 為 4.31 億美元。本季度的 EBITDA 總利潤率為 16.6%，比疫情前提高了 170 個基點。

Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 11.8%. We ended the quarter with earnings from continuing operations of $282 million, which was 10.8% of sales. All of our segments had higher total sales and higher average weekly sales per restaurant. Segment profit dollars were higher for all segments as well.

我們本季度的有效稅率為 11.8%。我們在本季度末的持續經營收益為 2.82 億美元，佔銷售額的 10.8%。我們所有部門的總銷售額和每家餐廳的平均每週銷售額都更高。所有分部的分部利潤美元也較高。

Olive Garden and Fine Dining segments also grew their segment profit margin, while LongHorn and other business segment had lower segment profit margin this quarter, driven by higher level of inflation and other investments in those businesses since pre-COVID.

Olive Garden 和 Fine Dining 部門的部門利潤率也有所增長，而 LongHorn 和其他業務部門在本季度的部門利潤率較低，這是由於自 COVID 之前以來這些業務的通脹水平和其他投資水平較高。

Fiscal 2022 proved to be another unpredictable year. We experienced strong demand early in the year as capacity restrictions were largely removed. Additionally, we faced reduced demand and staffing challenges as the Delta variant emerged in the fall and the Omicron variant followed in December and January. Finally, inflation increased throughout the year. In fact, our total inflation doubled from our original expectation of 3% to just over 6% for the full year.

事實證明，2022 財年又是不可預測的一年。由於產能限制已基本取消，我們在年初經歷了強勁的需求。此外，隨著秋季出現 Delta 變體，12 月和 1 月出現 Omicron 變體，我們面臨需求減少和人員配備挑戰。最後，通脹全年上升。事實上，我們全年的總通脹率從最初預期的 3% 翻了一番，至略高於 6%。

Despite all of those challenges, we were able to deliver $9.6 billion in total sales and achieved diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations of $7.40, in line with our internal expectations and at the higher end of our -- the annual guidance we provided at the beginning of the fiscal year. We see a strong top and bottom line performance drove over $1.5 billion in EBITDA from continuing operations, resulting in 15.9% EBITDA margin, nearly 200 basis points higher than pre-COVID.

儘管存在所有這些挑戰，我們還是實現了 96 億美元的總銷售額，並實現了 7.40 美元的持續運營攤薄後每股淨收益，這符合我們的內部預期和我們在財政年度的開始。我們看到強勁的頂線和底線業績推動持續運營的 EBITDA 超過 15 億美元，導致 EBITDA 利潤率為 15.9%，比疫情前高出近 200 個基點。

We also invested almost $400 million of capital in the business, returned over $1.6 billion to shareholders and ended the year with $421 million of cash on the balance sheet.

我們還在該業務上投資了近 4 億美元的資本，向股東返還了超過 16 億美元，並在資產負債表上以 4.21 億美元的現金結束了這一年。

Our strong operating model generates significant cash flows. In fact, since 2017, we have averaged EBITDA growth of 9.5% annually. Our balance sheet is well situated at just 1.8x debt-to-adjusted EBITDA at the end of fiscal 2022, well below our targeted range of 2 to 2.5x, and provides us flexibility for the future. The strong balance sheet, coupled with our disciplined approach to simplifying operations, underpricing inflation and driving profitable sales growth, positions us well for the future.

我們強大的運營模式產生了可觀的現金流。事實上，自 2017 年以來，我們的 EBITDA 平均每年增長 9.5%。到 2022 財年末，我們的資產負債表處於調整後 EBITDA 的 1.8 倍，遠低於我們 2 至 2.5 倍的目標範圍，並為我們提供了未來的靈活性。強勁的資產負債表，加上我們簡化運營、抑制通脹和推動盈利銷售增長的嚴謹方法，為我們的未來奠定了良好的基礎。

Finally, turning to our financial outlook for fiscal 2023. We expect total sales of $10.2 billion to $10.4 billion, representing growth of 6% to 8% from last year; same restaurant sales growth of 4% to 6% and 55 to 60 new restaurants; capital spending of $500 million to $550 million; total inflation of approximately 6%, and we plan to continue underpricing total inflation with annual pricing of approximately 5%.

最後，談談我們對 2023 財年的財務展望。我們預計總銷售額為 102 億美元至 104 億美元，比去年增長 6% 至 8%；同店銷售額增長 4% 至 6% 和 55 至 60 家新餐廳； 5億至5.5億美元的資本支出；總通脹率約為 6%，我們計劃繼續以每年約 5% 的價格低估總通脹率。

Furthermore, we expect commodities inflation of approximately 7% that's heavily weighted in the first half of the year; hourly labor inflation of approximately 8%; an annual effective tax rate of approximately 13.5%; and approximately 124 million diluted average shares outstanding for the year, all resulting in diluted net earnings per share between $7.40 and $8.

此外，我們預計上半年的大宗商品通脹率約為 7%；每小時勞動力通貨膨脹率約為 8%；年有效稅率約為 13.5%；以及本年度約 1.24 億股稀釋後的平均流通股，所有這些都導致稀釋後的每股淨收益在 7.40 美元至 8 美元之間。

Heading into 2023, we expect the commodities inflation rate to increase in the first quarter from the 12% we had in Q4 and then to moderate significantly, ending the year roughly flat. So due to this significant unusual timing, we would like to provide some context on the cadence of quarterly earnings expectations.

進入 2023 年，我們預計第一季度大宗商品通脹率將從第四季度的 12% 上升，然後顯著放緩，年底基本持平。因此，由於這個重要的不尋常時機，我們想提供一些有關季度收益預期節奏的背景信息。

With the first quarter commodities inflation in the mid-teens, we expect a low double-digit percentage decline in EPS from last year. For the second quarter, commodities inflation eases a bit to the low double-digit range, resulting in flat EPS to last year. And for the back half of the year, we anticipate low single-digit commodity inflation and positive EPS growth. As a result of our strong performance and our fiscal 2023 outlook, our Board approved a 10% increase to our regular quarterly dividend to $1.21 per share, implying an annual dividend of $4.84. This results in a yield of 4.2% based on yesterday's closing share price.

由於第一季度大宗商品通脹處於十幾歲左右，我們預計每股收益將比去年低兩位數百分比下降。第二季度，大宗商品通脹略微放緩至兩位數的低位，導致每股收益與去年持平。而對於今年下半年，我們預計商品通脹率將處於低個位數且每股收益正增長。由於我們的強勁表現和我們對 2023 財年的展望，我們的董事會批准將我們的常規季度股息增加 10% 至每股 1.21 美元，這意味著年度股息為 4.84 美元。根據昨天的收盤價，這導致收益率為 4.2%。

And with that, I'll turn it back to Rick.

有了這個，我會把它轉回給 Rick。

Thanks, Raj. I want to close by thanking our team members in our restaurants and our support center for their outstanding efforts throughout a challenging year. As a publicly traded company, we strive to earn a profit and create long-term shareholder value. And while we are proud that our average annual total shareholder return has always been at least 10% for any 10-year period as a public company, there is a larger purpose to what we do, and that is to nourish and delight everyone we serve.

謝謝，拉傑。最後，我要感謝我們餐廳的團隊成員和我們的支持中心，感謝他們在充滿挑戰的一年中做出的傑出努力。作為一家上市公司，我們努力賺取利潤並創造長期股東價值。儘管我們為作為一家上市公司的任何 10 年期間我們的平均年度股東總回報率始終至少為 10% 感到自豪，但我們所做的事情還有一個更大的目標，那就是滋養和取悅我們所服務的每個人.

As a restaurant company, we continue to nourish our guests with delicious, high-quality food. But to us, it means more than that. We want to nourish the spirits of our guests, to delight them with great service in an atmosphere that enables them to reenergize and connect with family and friends over a great meal. We also want to nourish and delight our team members by providing competitive wages and benefits while giving them opportunities to build meaningful careers within our company.

作為一家餐飲公司，我們繼續為客人提供美味、優質的食物。但對我們來說，這意味著更多。我們希望滋養客人的精神，以優質的服務取悅他們，讓他們重新煥發活力，並與家人和朋友一起享用美味佳餚。我們還希望通過提供有競爭力的工資和福利來滋養和取悅我們的團隊成員，同時讓他們有機會在公司內建立有意義的職業生涯。

With more than 1,850 locations and 8,000 leadership positions across our restaurants, we provide a pathway for thousands of people across the country to transform an entry-level job into a lifelong career. Helping others realize their potential and achieve their dreams is one of the things that makes our industry special, and that's why a central tenet of our approach to team member development is a commitment to promote from within.

我們的餐廳擁有 1,850 多個地點和 8,000 個領導職位，我們為全國成千上萬的人提供了一條將入門級工作轉變為終身職業的途徑。幫助他人實現他們的潛力並實現他們的夢想是使我們的行業與眾不同的事情之一，這就是為什麼我們團隊成員發展方法的核心原則是承諾從內部提升。

We are proud that more than half of our restaurant manager positions are filled by our hourly team members. But their growth doesn't stop at the restaurant manager level. In fact, more than 15% of our officers began their careers with us as hourly team members.

我們感到自豪的是，我們一半以上的餐廳經理職位由我們的小時工團隊成員擔任。但他們的成長並不止於餐廳經理級別。事實上，我們超過 15% 的官員在我們的職業生涯中都是以小時工的身份開始的。

Finally, we want to nourish and delight the communities where we operate and our team members call home. When we open a new restaurant, we make a positive impact by creating an average of 100 new jobs and serving the local community. We aim to make a difference by helping tackle issues that we are best equipped to address, like fighting hunger and sourcing food with care.

最後，我們希望滋養和取悅我們運營所在的社區以及我們的團隊成員稱之為家的社區。當我們開設一家新餐廳時，我們會通過平均創造 100 個新工作崗位並為當地社區服務來產生積極影響。我們的目標是通過幫助解決我們最有能力解決的問題來發揮作用，例如消除飢餓和謹慎採購食物。

So our purpose, to nourish and delight everyone we serve, is not limited to just sales and earnings growth, rather, it's about sales and earnings growth as a way to make a positive difference in the lives of millions more guests, tens of thousands more team members and hundreds more communities. And by doing so, we'll continue to create long-term value for our shareholders.

因此，我們的目的是滋養和取悅我們所服務的每一個人，不僅限於銷售和收入增長，而是將銷售和收入增長作為對數百萬、數万更多客人的生活產生積極影響的一種方式團隊成員和數百個社區。通過這樣做，我們將繼續為我們的股東創造長期價值。

Now let's take your questions.

現在讓我們來回答你的問題。

(Operator Instructions) We will take our first question from Jared Garber from Goldman Sachs.

（操作員說明）我們將向高盛的 Jared Garber 提出第一個問題。

Obviously, I appreciate all the guidance that you provided. We're entering what may be a more challenging macro environment. So just wanted to get a sense of, I guess, what are the underlying assumptions in your guidance on both the top line and the cost? I know you went through a couple of them on commodities and pricing. But as it relates to consumer spending maybe in the near term, what you're seeing and then the outlook for the balance of the fiscal year. What are some of the assumptions underlying that guidance?

顯然，我感謝您提供的所有指導。我們正在進入一個可能更具挑戰性的宏觀環境。所以只是想了解一下，你的指導中關於收入和成本的基本假設是什麼？我知道您在商品和定價方面經歷了其中的一些。但由於它可能在短期內與消費者支出有關，你所看到的以及本財政年度餘額的前景。該指導背後的一些假設是什麼？

Jared, this is Raj. Look, this is our best estimate based on the data and information we have today. Obviously, like everyone else, there's a lot of uncertainty out there, and you see that we have a wide range similar to last year to kind of reflect that underlying uncertainty. And with that said, we've shared information around commodities and what we estimate, and we actually even provided the quarterly cadence on that front. And we're focused on things we control. And I actually want to have Rick chime in on the consumer, what we're seeing with the consumer and our expectations, high level.

傑瑞德，這是拉傑。看，這是我們根據我們今天擁有的數據和信息做出的最佳估計。顯然，與其他所有人一樣，存在很多不確定性，您會看到我們與去年類似的範圍很廣，以反映潛在的不確定性。話雖如此，我們已經分享了有關商品和我們估計的信息，實際上我們甚至提供了這方面的季度節奏。我們專注於我們控制的事情。我實際上想讓 Rick 加入消費者，我們在消費者和我們的期望中看到的高水平。

Yes, Jared, I will start by saying, the consumer sentiment right now is at the lowest it's been in 60 years, according to the University of Michigan. But one of the benefits of our portfolio is we have a wide range of consumers. Our data indicates that higher-end consumer hasn't seen the same impact as consumers at the lower end of the spectrum. And consumers at the lower end, especially at Cheddar's, has shown signs of check management. And they do make up a smaller percentage of our current guest base than it did 6 months ago. So the impact that inflation is having on that lower-end consumers is showing a little bit, but we incorporated that in our guidance.

是的，賈里德，我首先要說的是，根據密歇根大學的數據，現在的消費者情緒處於 60 年來的最低點。但我們產品組合的好處之一是我們擁有廣泛的消費者。我們的數據表明，高端消費者並未看到與低端消費者相同的影響。低端消費者，尤其是 Cheddar's，已經顯示出支票管理的跡象。與 6 個月前相比，他們在我們目前的客戶群中所佔的比例確實較小。因此，通貨膨脹對低端消費者的影響正在顯現，但我們將其納入了我們的指導。

Great. And I guess just sort of one follow-up there. How do you think about sort of the tools that you have in the toolbox, if the consumer does slip a little bit more and maybe it's more than just that lower end at Cheddar's? But how are you thinking about some of the tools you have to maintain that higher level of sales growth as we go throughout the year, whether that's discounting or promotions? Obviously, you've done a lot of work in the last couple of years on limiting some of that, particularly in Olive Garden and LongHorn. So just want to get a sense of how you're thinking about the levers that you have to pull for the year.

偉大的。我想這只是一種後續行動。你如何看待工具箱中的工具，如果消費者確實滑得更多，而且可能不僅僅是切達干酪的低端產品？但是，您如何看待全年保持較高銷售增長水平的一些工具，無論是折扣還是促銷活動？顯然，在過去的幾年裡，你在限制其中一些方面做了很多工作，特別是在橄欖園和長角。因此，只想了解您如何考慮今年必須拉動的槓桿。

Yes, Jared, for competitive reasons, we're not really going to get in too much into detail in our plans. But as you've seen over the last couple of years, our teams have done a great job being flexible and reacting to changing dynamics. We won't overreact. As you know, that's not really the way we work. We won't overreact. We're going to continue to focus on profitable sales growth and manage the business for the long term.

是的，賈里德，出於競爭原因，我們不會在我們的計劃中詳細介紹。但正如您在過去幾年中看到的那樣，我們的團隊在靈活應對不斷變化的動態方面做得非常出色。我們不會反應過度。如您所知，這並不是我們真正的工作方式。我們不會反應過度。我們將繼續專注於可盈利的銷售增長並長期管理業務。

If the consumer slows dramatically, if we see a big slowdown in consumer traffic, we would also expect the rate of inflation to decline as well. And just to give you an idea, 1% decrease in the rate of inflation is more than offset, that is more, more than offset the 2% decrease in traffic. And so that should still help us get within the range of our guidance.

如果消費者大幅放緩，如果我們看到消費者流量大幅放緩，我們也預計通脹率也會下降。只是給你一個想法，通貨膨脹率下降 1% 遠遠超過抵消，也就是說，超過 2% 的流量下降。因此，這仍然應該有助於我們進入我們的指導範圍。

As you think about our media message and what we're doing, Olive Garden's scale provides them the opportunity to use media to get our message out to many guests. That's one of the benefits of scale.

當您考慮我們的媒體信息和我們正在做的事情時，Olive Garden 的規模為他們提供了使用媒體將我們的信息傳達給許多客人的機會。這是規模的好處之一。

We believe we can drive traffic by highlighting the value we provide every day through an abundance of our never-ending first course. And if you look at our current media message right now, it speaks to one of our most craveable items, our Alfredo sauce, that we make in-house every day. It reinforces the core advertising and core equity at Olive Garden that we've invested in over the last 2 years. And that ad is the highest-rated ad we've had in years.

我們相信，我們可以通過豐富的永無止境的第一門課程來突出我們每天提供的價值，從而增加流量。如果您現在查看我們當前的媒體信息，就會發現我們每天都在內部製作的我們最渴望的產品之一，我們的阿爾弗雷多醬。它加強了我們在過去 2 年中投資的 Olive Garden 的核心廣告和核心資產。該廣告是我們多年來收視率最高的廣告。

And so our strong margins give us an optionality if we do promote, but we don't expect it to be at a deep discount. So we do believe we have the tools in our toolbox to keep traffic at a better level in the industry, but we won't do things that will hurt us in the long term for short-term benefit.

因此，如果我們確實進行促銷，我們強大的利潤率為我們提供了選擇權，但我們預計它不會大幅折扣。因此，我們確實相信我們的工具箱中有工具可以將流量保持在行業中更好的水平，但我們不會為了短期利益而做長期傷害我們的事情。

We will now move on to our next question from Nicole Miller from Piper Sandler.

我們現在將繼續討論來自 Piper Sandler 的 Nicole Miller 的下一個問題。

Could you talk a little bit about the marketing spend embedded within guidance and also, more specifically, the message? I'm thinking around Olive Garden, which has been about -- more about brand equity than any call to action in terms of price point. So what are you thinking in terms of marketing?

你能談談嵌入在指導中的營銷支出，更具體地說，是信息嗎？我正在考慮橄欖園，它一直是關於品牌資產的，而不是價格點上的任何號召性用語。那麼你在營銷方面有什麼想法？

Nicole, we don't expect a significant increase in marketing, maybe within 10 basis points of what we had spent in 2022 as a percent of sales. As we look at Olive Garden, specifically, as Rick mentioned, we're focused on really further strengthening the core equities. So the advertising, the messaging is going to focus on the brand equity, the never-ending abundance. And any message that further enhances that is really what we're focused on. We don't see a need to do, like Rick said, a deep discounted promotion there, but promotions that actually help elevate the brand equity.

妮可，我們預計營銷方面不會有顯著增長，可能會在我們 2022 年支出佔銷售額的 10 個基點之內。正如里克所提到的，當我們特別關注橄欖園時，我們專注於真正進一步加強核心股票。因此，廣告、信息將集中在品牌資產上，即永無止境的豐富。任何進一步增強這一點的信息都是我們真正關注的。我們認為沒有必要像 Rick 所說的那樣，在那裡進行大幅折扣促銷，但實際上有助於提升品牌資產的促銷活動。

And then just a follow-up and last question, what kind of staffing levels? I mean, I imagine at the 2 big brands pretty much where you at, capacity is not the right word, but fully staffed, fully staffed. So what kind of staffing levels are embedded? And how does labor inflate, if at all, in 2023?

然後只是一個後續和最後一個問題，什麼樣的人員配備水平？我的意思是，我想在您所在的兩個大品牌中，容量不是正確的詞，而是人員配備齊全，人員配備齊全。那麼嵌入了什麼樣的人員配備水平？ 2023 年勞動力如何膨脹（如果有的話）？

Yes, Nicole, this is Rick. Right now, we have more managers per restaurant than pre-COVID. And so at the manager level, we're really well staffed. We're continuing to add to -- new team members. But as I said, we have 180,000 team members now, which is what we had pre-COVID. So we're back to the level of our team member staffing from pre-COVID. That said, we still have pockets of restaurants that can improve their staffing levels, just like in pre-COVID. So we still have restaurants that could have a little bit more staffing level. But in general, we're staffed right where we were before COVID.

是的，妮可，這是瑞克。目前，我們每家餐廳的經理人數比新冠疫情前的多。所以在經理層面，我們的人員配備非常好。我們將繼續添加——新的團隊成員。但正如我所說，我們現在有 180,000 名團隊成員，這就是我們在 COVID 之前的情況。因此，我們回到了 COVID 之前的團隊成員人員配置水平。也就是說，我們仍然有一些餐廳可以提高他們的人員配備水平，就像在 COVID 之前一樣。所以我們仍然有餐廳可以有更多的人員配備。但總的來說，我們的工作人員就在 COVID 之前的位置。

And then just on the inflation, labor inflation hourly wage is around 8%, and total labor is somewhere around 6-ish is what we have embedded in the guidance.

然後就通貨膨脹而言，勞動力通脹每小時工資約為 8%，總勞動力約為 6-ish，這是我們在指導中嵌入的。

We will now move on to our next question from Jeff Farmer, Gordon Haskett.

我們現在將繼續討論 Jeff Farmer、Gordon Haskett 提出的下一個問題。

So it looks like LongHorn's average weekly sales are up more than 25% versus pre-COVID levels. Olive Garden sales are up about 5%. I'm just curious what your view is in terms of the factors that have contributed to that large gap in sales growth across the 2 concepts over the last couple of years.

因此，看起來 LongHorn 的平均每週銷售額與 COVID 之前的水平相比增長了 25% 以上。橄欖園的銷售額增長了約 5%。我只是好奇你對導致過去幾年這兩個概念的銷售增長差距巨大的因素有何看法。

Jared, this is Rick. Thanks for noticing how strong LongHorn's performance has been and the fact that Olive Garden is still up versus pre-COVID. I will start by saying, if you think about what we started at LongHorn and reducing the dependence on price point and promotions on advertising, we did that before COVID, and we had almost finished before COVID started. And throughout COVID, they continue to make significant investments in their food and the quality of their food and have improved their overall execution in the restaurants. So they've had a great run of sales over the last couple of years versus pre-COVID because of the things that we did going into COVID and that we continued during COVID.

傑瑞德，這是瑞克。感謝您注意到 LongHorn 的表現有多麼強勁，以及 Olive Garden 仍然比 COVID 之前有所上升。我首先要說的是，如果您考慮一下我們在 LongHorn 開始的工作並減少對價格點和促銷對廣告的依賴，我們在 COVID 之前就這樣做了，而且在 COVID 開始之前我們幾乎完成了。在整個 COVID 期間，他們繼續對他們的食物和食物質量進行重大投資，並提高了他們在餐廳的整體執行力。因此，由於我們在 COVID 中所做的事情以及我們在 COVID 期間繼續進行的事情，因此在過去幾年中，與 COVID 之前相比，他們的銷售量很大。

Olive Garden started that process a little bit later, right? Olive Garden before COVID was still doing significant discounting and price-pointed promotions. We had started to wind off of some of those, but we still had quite a few of them.

橄欖園稍晚才開始這個過程，對吧？ COVID 之前的 Olive Garden 仍在進行大量的折扣和以價格為導向的促銷活動。我們已經開始擺脫其中的一些，但我們仍然有很多。

In addition, remember, we're significantly below our pre-COVID levels in marketing at Olive Garden. And that was driving some guest count that we think weren't as profitable as the guest counts that we're getting today. So the marketing that we've done has helped. The marketing we're doing today is still driving some traffic, but it's driving the guests, our core guests that come to us because of the everyday value.

此外，請記住，我們在 Olive Garden 的營銷水平遠低於 COVID 之前的水平。這推動了一些客人數量，我們認為這些客人數量不如我們今天獲得的客人數量那麼有利可圖。因此，我們所做的營銷有所幫助。我們今天所做的營銷仍在推動一些流量，但它正在推動客人，我們的核心客人因為日常價值而來到我們這裡。

And finally, I want to say Olive Garden's margins are really strong. So while their sales may not be as strong as pre-COVID as LongHorn, they have made a huge improvement in their business model and have the best margins basically in casual dining, which gives us flexibility to do the things we need to do going forward if we need to.

最後，我想說橄欖園的利潤非常高。因此，雖然他們的銷售額可能不如新冠疫情之前的 LongHorn，但他們的商業模式已經取得了巨大的進步，並且基本上在休閒餐飲方面擁有最好的利潤，這讓我們可以靈活地做我們需要做的事情。如果我們需要。

That's helpful. And just a quick follow-up. You touched on this, but with that steep decline in consumer confidence, is there a relationship between that decline in consumer confidence and just sort of a softening of consumer health versus your job applicant flow, the pace of hiring? We just talked about staffing levels, but as the consumer comes under a little bit more pressure, has that actually been a little bit of a silver lining in terms of being able to hire?

這很有幫助。只是一個快速的跟進。您談到了這一點，但是隨著消費者信心的急劇下降，消費者信心的下降與消費者健康狀況的減弱與您的求職者流動和招聘速度之間是否存在關係？我們剛剛談到了人員配備水平，但隨著消費者承受更大的壓力，就能夠僱用而言，這實際上是一線希望嗎？

Well, we've seen our applicant flow growth grow over time, even before you started to see the decline in consumer sentiment. As the beginning of the fiscal -- as the beginning of the calendar year started, we had mentioned in our last call that we have seen significant applicant flow, and that's helping us on kind of leveling off our wage inflation over time. But -- so I don't -- I'm not saying that's the exact relationship. But as consumer confidence wanes and maybe people feel a little less comfortable in an environment, they'd be more likely to come back into the job market. And that would be a good thing for us.

好吧，我們已經看到我們的申請人流量增長隨著時間的推移而增長，甚至在您開始看到消費者情緒下降之前。隨著財政年度的開始 - 作為日曆年的開始，我們在上次電話會議中提到我們已經看到大量的申請人流，這有助於我們隨著時間的推移穩定工資通脹。但是 - 所以我不 - 我並不是說這就是確切的關係。但隨著消費者信心減弱，人們可能對環境感到不那麼舒服，他們更有可能重返就業市場。這對我們來說是件好事。

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now move on to our next question from Jeffrey Bernstein from Barclays.

女士們，先生們，我們現在將繼續討論來自巴克萊的 Jeffrey Bernstein 的下一個問題。

Just wondering if you can give us some color on the near-term comp trends just so we can assess that consumer sentiment slowdown, whether there was any change in trajectory by brand, perhaps through the fiscal fourth quarter into June, or change in purchasing patterns. I think you mentioned maybe a little bit of mix shift down at Cheddar's, but just wondering if you can give some color on other brands or as compared to traffic. Just trying to get a sense for whether there's any early indication across the broader portfolio of a sign of perhaps slowing consumer spending.

只是想知道您是否可以給我們一些關於近期比較趨勢的顏色，以便我們可以評估消費者情緒放緩，品牌軌跡是否有任何變化，可能到 6 月的第四財季，或者購買模式的變化.我想你提到了 Cheddar's 可能有一點混合轉變，但只是想知道你是否可以給其他品牌一些顏色或與流量相比。只是想了解在更廣泛的投資組合中是否有任何早期跡象表明消費者支出可能放緩。

Yes, Jeffrey. I want to talk about the trends throughout the quarter. And if you think about our comps throughout the quarter, they stayed strong, and they actually continue to build from March, April to May. But the industry actually started to see some declines from March, April to May in same-restaurant sales.

是的，杰弗裡。我想談談整個季度的趨勢。而且，如果您考慮我們整個季度的比賽，他們保持強勁，並且實際上從 3 月、4 月到 5 月繼續建立。但從 3 月、4 月到 5 月，該行業的同店銷售額實際上開始出現下滑。

I want to be clear on the check and a little bit of the check management at Cheddar's, it's not dramatic. It's small. We're not seeing it at our other brands as much. Actually, we're not seeing it at our other brands. But I also -- the point that I made about the mix of consumers at the lower end of the spectrum, that's across all of our brands. It's not just at Cheddar's. So it's across all of our brands. Just to give everybody some comfort about -- not comfort, but just talk about the quarter, the industry sales have slowed from May to June. And we have seen that as well. But some of this might be a return to normal summer seasonality that we didn't see last year.

我想澄清一下Cheddar's的支票和一點點支票管理，這並不引人注目。它很小。我們在其他品牌上沒有看到太多。實際上，我們沒有在其他品牌看到它。但我也 - 我關於低端消費者組合的觀點，這是我們所有品牌的。這不僅僅是在切達干酪。所以它適用於我們所有的品牌。只是為了給大家一些安慰——不是安慰，只是談談這個季度，行業銷售從 5 月到 6 月已經放緩。我們也看到了這一點。但其中一些可能是我們去年沒有看到的正常夏季季節性的回歸。

As the dining rooms reopen and people felt more comfortable, we didn't see the normal seasonal patterns that we typically do. The industry comps do social softening, but quarter-to-date across our portfolio, we are exceeding the industry and we are within our annual guidance range.

隨著餐廳重新開放，人們感覺更舒適，我們沒有看到我們通常做的正常季節性模式。行業組合確實使社會軟化，但在我們的投資組合中，到目前為止，我們已經超過了行業，並且在我們的年度指導範圍內。

Understood. And then just more broadly, as you think about full year '23, it seems like the midpoint of your earnings range would be maybe in the 4%-ish range and then the dividend, you mentioned 4%. So 8% total shareholder return seems to be a little bit below your 10% to 15% long-term target. I know you mentioned that over a 10-year period, you're proud to be consistently delivering within that range. But for fiscal '23, it doesn't seem to necessarily be sales-led considering what looks like strong comp growth in the assumptions. And your pricing of 5% is pretty close to the 6% inflation to protect the margins.

明白了。然後更廣泛地說，當您考慮 23 年全年時，您的收益範圍的中點似乎可能在 4% 左右的範圍內，然後是股息，您提到了 4%。因此，8% 的股東總回報率似乎略低於您 10% 至 15% 的長期目標。我知道你提到過，在 10 年的時間裡，你很自豪能夠始終如一地在該範圍內交付。但對於 23 財年，考慮到假設中的強勁複合增長，它似乎不一定是銷售主導的。而且您 5% 的定價非常接近 6% 的通脹率，以保護利潤。

So I'm just wondering if you can give some color on where you see the shortfall, at least within your own guidance. Again, the sales seem to be strong and it seemed like you're pricing to protect the margins. So just whether it's just conservatism or just keen to give a wide range, just trying to get the assessment for where you see the potential earnings shortfall coming from.

因此，我只是想知道您是否可以至少在您自己的指導下對您看到的不足之處提供一些顏色。同樣，銷售似乎很強勁，而且您似乎在定價以保護利潤。因此，無論是保守主義還是熱衷於提供廣泛的範圍，只是試圖評估您認為潛在收益短缺的來源。

Jeff, look, we still believe that 10% to 15% is the right target long term. But however, any given year, that might be different. And as I mentioned in our prepared remarks, we're choosing not to pass along all of our inflation to our guests. And for a couple of reasons, right? We don't think all of this cost is permanent. For example, chicken, dairy and wheat, which are a significant portion of our basket, especially at Olive Garden, are highly -- at a very high level right now. We don't believe that's very sticky for the long term. And so we think it's prudent to be cautious and preserve flexibility rather than pass through these -- some costs that may not be permanent.

傑夫，看，我們仍然相信 10% 到 15% 是長期的正確目標。但是，任何一年，情況都可能不同。正如我在準備好的講話中提到的那樣，我們選擇不將所有通貨膨脹傳遞給我們的客人。有幾個原因，對吧？我們不認為所有這些成本都是永久性的。例如，雞肉、奶製品和小麥是我們籃子的重要組成部分，尤其是在橄欖園，目前處於非常高的水平。從長遠來看，我們認為這不會很粘。因此，我們認為謹慎並保持靈活性而不是通過這些是謹慎的 - 一些可能不是永久性的成本。

The other part of this is when you think about comp, our sales growth is mostly driven by the pricing. We mentioned that we have about 5% pricing for the year, and our guidance is 4% to 6% on SRS. So we're not assuming a significant traffic growth going into the year at the midpoint.

另一部分是當你考慮comp時，我們的銷售增長主要是由定價驅動的。我們提到我們今年的定價約為 5%，我們的指導是 SRS 的 4% 到 6%。因此，我們不會假設今年中點的流量會出現顯著增長。

And so I will just end by saying, we are really focused on the long term, and we do not want to overreact to near-term pressures, even if that means that some short-term margin erosion are not able to get our long-term targets in any given year. That all being said, I mean we still have a pretty strong business model. Our margins are well ahead of where we were pre-COVID. Even in the guidance we provided, that implies margin improvement to pre-COVID.

所以我最後想說的是，我們真的專注於長期，我們不想對近期壓力反應過度，即使這意味著一些短期利潤侵蝕無法讓我們的長期-任何給定年份的長期目標。話雖如此，我的意思是我們仍然有一個非常強大的商業模式。我們的利潤率遠遠領先於我們在 COVID 之前的水平。即使在我們提供的指導中，這也意味著比 COVID 之前的利潤率有所提高。

We will take our next question from David Palmer from Evercore.

我們將向 Evercore 的 David Palmer 提出下一個問題。

Helpful call so far. You mentioned the high-income versus middle-income factor and might be -- and that might be a differentiator in the trends and the pricing power lately and even that in the softness we're seeing through June. I wonder to what degree you think family-oriented visits, that larger party size paid by 1 person versus the closer to 2 people, per check is a differentiator as well and as a factor for the Cheddar's and the Olive Gardens versus the stake in Fine Dining lately.

到目前為止有用的電話。您提到了高收入與中等收入的因素，並且可能是 - 這可能是最近趨勢和定價能力的差異化因素，甚至是我們在 6 月份看到的疲軟。我想知道您認為以家庭為導向的訪問在多大程度上是一個人支付的更大的聚會規模，而不是接近 2 人支付的每張支票，這也是一個差異化因素，也是切達干酪和橄欖園與 Fine 股份相比的一個因素最近吃飯。

Yes, David, we haven't really seen a big difference in mix of families with -- family -- larger families versus smaller families. But what we have seen in the Fine Dining is some of the urban markets are coming back a little bit. And we're seeing private dining coming back. So those are large parties, too. So they're not necessarily families, but they're large parties. The private dining is coming back in the urban markets in our higher-end brands. But we haven't seen a real shift down from our families going out to eat, even at Olive Garden and Cheddar's, because family visit at Olive Garden and Cheddar's is still a lot less expensive than a family visit in other places. So we haven't seen that change very much.

是的，大衛，我們並沒有真正看到大家庭與小家庭的家庭組合有很大差異。但我們在 Fine Dining 看到的是一些城市市場正在回歸。而且我們看到私人用餐回來了。所以這些也是大型聚會。所以他們不一定是家庭，但他們是大型聚會。私人餐飲在我們的高端品牌中重新回到城市市場。但是我們還沒有看到我們的家人出去吃飯的真正轉變，即使在橄欖園和切達干酪，因為在橄欖園和切達干酪的家庭訪問仍然比其他地方的家庭訪問便宜得多。所以我們還沒有看到太大的變化。

And then just on food inflation guidance, the second half, what's your visibility there? How hedged and contracted are you? And I know you guys are proud of the fact that you guys have a good balance when you have weakness in the top line in the industry, oftentimes, you get some relief. So I'm wondering if you're maybe being less hedged in the second half to allow yourself if the industry does get softer to benefit from that in terms of your food costs, and I'll pass it on.

然後就食品通脹指導，下半年，你在那裡的知名度如何？你的對沖和收縮程度如何？我知道你們為這樣一個事實感到自豪，當你們在行業的頂線上有弱點時，你們有一個很好的平衡，通常，你們會得到一些緩解。所以我想知道你是否可能在下半年減少對沖以允許自己如果行業確實變得更軟以從你的食品成本方面受益，我會繼續下去。

Yes, David. So we are fairly well covered for the first half, but we are choosing to not cover as much for the back half for -- we want to stay short given where the trends are and given what we think is likely to happen. So we want to preserve our flexibility should the environment get better on the commodities front. And so you saw that, I think, we shared this morning about 70% coverage for the first half, maybe a little bit north of 75% for the first quarter and the second quarter being closer to that 70% or just under. But we're fairly covered for the first half.

是的，大衛。因此，我們在上半年的覆蓋面相當好，但我們選擇不為後半部覆蓋那麼多——鑑於趨勢所在以及我們認為可能發生的情況，我們希望保持空頭。因此，如果商品方面的環境變得更好，我們希望保持我們的靈活性。所以你看到了，我想，我們今天早上分享了上半年大約 70% 的覆蓋率，第一季度的覆蓋率可能略高於 75%，第二季度接近 70% 或略低。但我們在上半年得到了充分的保障。

Our next question today comes from Lauren Silberman from Credit Suisse.

我們今天的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Lauren Silberman。

Just a couple of quick ones. Are you seeing any regional differences in performance across the brands?

只是幾個快速的。您是否發現各個品牌的表現存在地區差異？

Lauren, a little bit of regional differences, but it's really when we compare to prior year. And it's really driven by the fact that some parts of the country opened a lot faster last year than others. So we're seeing some pretty good performance in California because they didn't have a whole lot of growth last year. We're seeing some good growth in New England, which, again, was a little bit slower to reopen in the Pacific Northwest. But we are positive in all of our regions. It's just a little bit -- quite a bit more positive in those that didn't open as fast last year.

勞倫，有一點地區差異，但是當我們與去年相比時確實如此。這實際上是由於該國某些地區去年的開放速度比其他地區快得多。因此，我們在加利福尼亞看到了一些相當不錯的表現，因為他們去年沒有大幅增長。我們看到新英格蘭出現了一些良好的增長，但在太平洋西北部重新開放的速度又慢了一點。但我們在所有地區都是積極的。這只是一點點——在那些去年開盤速度沒有那麼快的公司中要積極得多。

Great. And then just on on-premise versus off-premise, can you talk about what you're seeing there at Olive Garden and LongHorn? Where is on-premise traffic running versus pre-COVID? Any color there would be helpful.

偉大的。然後就內部部署與外部部署而言，您能談談您在橄欖園和長角看到的情況嗎？與 COVID 之前相比，本地流量在哪裡運行？那裡的任何顏色都會有幫助。

Yes. Without talking about traffic, I think traffic on to-go is a little bit different because of some of the catering. So we don't necessarily talk traffic as much as we do on sales. But if you look at our sales versus pre-COVID at both Olive Garden and LongHorn, our sales and to-go are much higher, and they're still higher. But in the fourth quarter, our traffic -- our sales in to-go went down a little bit from the third quarter, partly because the third quarter had Omicron and our in-restaurant sales have actually continued to grow.

是的。不談交通，我認為由於一些餐飲，外帶的交通有點不同。因此，我們不一定像銷售那樣談論流量。但是，如果您查看我們在 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 的銷售額與 COVID 之前的銷售額相比，我們的銷售額和待售量要高得多，而且仍然更高。但在第四季度，我們的客流量——我們的外賣銷售額比第三季度略有下降，部分原因是第三季度有 Omicron，我們的餐廳內銷售額實際上繼續增長。

So as our sales have gone down from Q4 to -- Q3 to Q4, our in-restaurant sales have more than offset that. We're still seeing strong to-go performance across our 2 big brands and in Cheddar's as well. And Olive Garden is still above 25% to go for the quarter, and LongHorn is right there at around 15%, which is much higher than they were pre-COVID.

因此，隨著我們的銷售額從第四季度下降到第三季度到第四季度，我們在餐廳的銷售額已經遠遠抵消了這一點。我們仍然看到我們的兩個大品牌以及切達干酪的強勁表現。 Olive Garden 在本季度仍有 25% 以上的漲幅，LongHorn 的漲幅在 15% 左右，遠高於 COVID 之前的水平。

We will now take a question from David Tarantino from Baird.

我們現在將回答貝爾德的大衛塔倫蒂諾的問題。

I wanted to revisit how you would approach a downturn in consumer spending if we were to get one. And if I look back to the last major recession we had, Olive Garden clearly held up very well, and Longhorn did not hold up as well in terms of their sales performance. So wondering -- I know that was early days in your ownership of LongHorn. I'm wondering your specific thoughts on LongHorn and what levers you would pull for that brand this time around if we do get a downturn versus maybe what was the case last time.

我想重新審視如果我們要獲得消費者支出低迷，你將如何應對。如果我回顧我們上一次經歷的重大衰退，橄欖園顯然表現得很好，而 Longhorn 在銷售業績方面表現不佳。所以想知道 - 我知道那是您擁有 LongHorn 的早期階段。我想知道您對 LongHorn 的具體想法，以及如果我們確實陷入低迷，那麼這次您會為該品牌拉動什麼槓桿，而上次可能是這種情況。

Yes, David, this is Rick. Thanks for that. If you think about where we were back in the last downturn, yes, we had just bought LongHorn not too long before that. So we're still going through integration, through the challenges of integration, and it was our first big acquisition. So there are probably more challenges than we have as we continue to move forward.

是的，大衛，這是瑞克。感謝那。如果你想想我們在上一次經濟低迷時所處的位置，是的，在此之前不久，我們剛剛收購了 LongHorn。所以我們仍在進行整合，通過整合的挑戰，這是我們的第一次大收購。因此，在我們繼續前進的過程中，可能會面臨比我們更多的挑戰。

And as you've seen from every acquisition we've made since then, we have some initial comp declines in doing so. Olive Garden performed very well for a couple of reasons. One is they're a trusted brand. And as consumers think about their spending during a time where they're minimizing their spending, they go to brands they trust. And that's something that typically happens in a recession or in something along those lines when people are really trying to figure out where to spend their hard-earned dollar.

正如您從我們從那時起進行的每一次收購中所看到的那樣，我們在這樣做的過程中最初的收入有所下降。 Olive Garden 的表現非常出色，有幾個原因。一是他們是一個值得信賴的品牌。當消費者在他們最小化支出的時候考慮他們的支出時，他們會選擇他們信任的品牌。這通常發生在經濟衰退或類似的情況下，當人們真正想弄清楚在哪里花費他們來之不易的美元時。

But Olive Garden was also pricing a little bit during that time. And we want to make sure that we don't get into that same situation where we over price and then run into a challenge a couple of years later, which is what happened with Olive Garden. So what I would also say is the steak category is a great value right now. If you think about what LongHorn has done over the last couple of years, as we've said, they've increased the size of most of their steaks.

但在那段時間裡，橄欖園的價格也有點貴。我們希望確保我們不會陷入同樣的情況，即我們定價過高，然後在幾年後遇到挑戰，這就是 Olive Garden 所發生的情況。所以我還要說的是牛排類別現在很有價值。如果你想想 LongHorn 在過去幾年所做的事情，正如我們所說，他們增加了大部分牛排的大小。

They've increased the quality of most of their steaks, and they're executing their steaks better than they ever have. There's in-restaurant execution of steaks grilled correctly is at record highs for LongHorn. And so consumers see the value in what we put on the plate with cost of sales. For every dollar they spend at a steakhouse, they get more food on the plate. So they're starting to see that a little bit better.

他們提高了大部分牛排的質量，而且他們的牛排比以往任何時候都做得更好。對於 LongHorn 來說，正確烤製的牛排在餐廳內的表現創下歷史新高。因此，消費者看到了我們在銷售成本中投入的價值。他們在牛排館花的每一美元，都會得到更多的食物。所以他們開始看到好一點。

I can't tell you what this -- if there is a recession or a slowdown, what consumer is going to be impacted by that. But I can tell you that we've done a lot of things over the last years and even since the last recession to strengthen our business models, to strengthen our brands so that we can react in whatever way we need to, depending on what happens. We feel really good about what Olive Garden has done, what LongHorn has done, what all of our brands have done to prepare for anything that could happen to us.

我無法告訴你這是什麼——如果出現衰退或放緩，哪些消費者會受到影響。但我可以告訴你，在過去幾年甚至自上次經濟衰退以來，我們已經做了很多事情來加強我們的商業模式，加強我們的品牌，以便我們可以根據發生的情況以任何我們需要的方式做出反應.我們對 Olive Garden 所做的一切、LongHorn 所做的一切以及我們所有品牌為應對可能發生在我們身上的任何事情所做的一切都感到非常滿意。

We will now move on to our next question from Dennis Geiger from UBS.

我們現在將繼續討論瑞銀的丹尼斯蓋格提出的下一個問題。

I wanted to ask a little bit more about any thoughts on the competitive environment this year or assumptions that you have. And if you care to weigh in sort of on whether a more pressured consumer should be a benefit for your business or maybe for larger chains in general just based on some of the commentary you've made already. And I don't know if you want to opine here at all. But as it relates to delivery, given the cost there, in a more challenged environment, is that again something where you maybe sort of underweight that channel versus some other larger brands, if that could potentially be a benefit for you as well if that's at all part of your consideration set, if you carried away in any of that.

我想問更多關於今年競爭環境的想法或你的假設。如果您想根據您已經發表的一些評論來權衡壓力更大的消費者是否應該對您的企業或更大的連鎖店有利。我不知道你是否想在這裡發表意見。但由於它與交付有關，考慮到那裡的成本，在更具挑戰性的環境中，與其他一些大品牌相比，你可能會在某種程度上低估該渠道的權重，如果這可能對你也有好處的話你考慮的所有部分，如果你忘乎所以。

Yes, Dennis, this is Rick. The competitive environment is not the same kind of environment that we had before COVID. If you think about what a lot of our competitors have done is to bring in things to drive sales, third-party delivery, ghost kitchens and those things, which actually maybe have done a little bit to hurt their margins. We've simplified our operations to improve our margins over time.

是的，丹尼斯，這是瑞克。競爭環境與我們在 COVID 之前的環境不同。如果你想想我們的許多競爭對手所做的就是引入一些東西來推動銷售、第三方交付、幽靈廚房和那些實際上可能會損害他們的利潤的東西。隨著時間的推移，我們已經簡化了我們的運營以提高我們的利潤。

I think with the margin pressure and inflation pressure that others are seeing, it might be more challenging for someone to do some deep discounting to drive traffic. And so I think you might be right on to something here around if the consumer starts feeling more strapped, will they be willing to pay the kind of rates they have to getting food delivered or they would just decide to go pick it up. And if they do, we have what I believe is the best to-go pick-up experience in casual dining with the investments that we've made in technology to make it easier to order, pick up and pay. And we keep making investments in those areas to make it easier for our guests.

我認為在其他人看到的利潤率壓力和通貨膨脹壓力下，對某人進行一些大幅折扣以增加流量可能更具挑戰性。因此，我認為如果消費者開始感到束手無策，他們是否願意支付送餐所需的費用，或者他們只是決定去取餐，那麼你可能對這裡的一些事情是正確的。如果他們這樣做了，我們將擁有我認為是休閒餐飲中最好的外帶接送體驗，我們在技術方面進行了投資，使訂購、取貨和付款變得更容易。我們不斷在這些領域進行投資，以使我們的客人更輕鬆。

I think it was about 60% of our total to-go sales were digital, which equates to 10% to 12% of our actual sales completely, whether to-go or not. So we've made some great investments to make it easier for our guests to order, pick up and pay. And if that means that the guests that we used to do delivery, in a downturn, they stop doing it, and they still want to get great food at home, they can get ours.

我認為我們的待售總銷售額中約有 60% 是數字化的，這相當於我們實際銷售額的 10% 到 12%，無論是否待售。因此，我們進行了一些重大投資，以使我們的客人更容易訂購、取貨和付款。如果這意味著我們過去做外賣的客人，在經濟低迷時期，他們不再做外賣，而且他們仍然想在家裡吃到美味的食物，他們可以得到我們的。

Very helpful color, Rick. And I guess just one more as a follow-up on the technology piece. You touched on it then and I think during the prepared remarks, the focus and the investment in technology. Anything you would highlight as it relates to the biggest opportunities for this year on the tech digital side of things, be it sales, maybe even some margin efficiency type of initiatives. Anything beyond you can kind of just framed out there.

非常有用的顏色，瑞克。我想只是作為技術部分的後續行動。你當時談到了它，我認為在準備好的評論中，重點和對技術的投資。你會強調的任何事情都與今年在技術數字方面的最大機會有關，無論是銷售，甚至是一些利潤率效率類型的舉措。除了你之外的任何東西都可以被框起來。

Yes, Dennis. We continue to make investments in technology. Without getting into too much detail for competitive reasons, we continue to strengthen the consumer proposition and eliminate friction for our guests. And that's something big for us, is to take any friction the guest has out by incorporating technology that's not directly really in their face, but it takes friction out.

是的，丹尼斯。我們繼續在技術上進行投資。出於競爭原因，我們無需過多介紹細節，而是繼續加強消費者主張並為客人消除摩擦。這對我們來說很重要，就是通過整合不直接面對他們的技術來消除客人的任何摩擦，但它可以消除摩擦。

But we're also doing a lot of investments to make the managers' jobs easier and our team members' jobs easier, which don't show up directly at the guest, but it does show up in better execution at the restaurants.

但我們也做了很多投資，讓經理的工作更輕鬆，讓我們團隊成員的工作更輕鬆，這不會直接出現在客人面前，但它確實會在餐廳更好地執行。

So for example, we are using machine learning and AI to do forecasting at our restaurant, and that's significantly improving our forecast accuracy at the restaurant, so that managers can schedule better, schedule people and guests who are coming into the restaurant and order food more accurately and get food more accurately to reduce waste. So that should help on the efficiency side. But those are things that are kind of not first-level order driving traffic, but it's things that make our restaurant managers jobs easier, so they can spend more time with their team members to train them and more time with their guests to make them feel special so that people come back.

例如，我們正在使用機器學習和人工智能在我們的餐廳進行預測，這顯著提高了我們在餐廳的預測準確性，以便管理人員可以更好地安排時間，安排進入餐廳的人員和客人並訂購更多食物更準確地獲取食物以減少浪費。所以這應該有助於提高效率。但這些不是一級訂單驅動流量的事情，而是讓我們餐廳經理的工作更輕鬆的事情，所以他們可以花更多時間與團隊成員一起培訓他們，並花更多時間與客人一起讓他們感覺特別讓人們回來。

We will now move on to a question from Andrew Charles from Cowen.

我們現在將繼續討論來自 Cowen 的 Andrew Charles 的問題。

My first question, Rick, is just around off-premise, that this is the fourth quarter now where you guys are running off-premise around a 25% to 30% sales range, holding on quite strong and quite sticky as the dine-in business rebounds. But before COVID, you guys were saying that Olive Garden could be a 20%-plus off-premise sales mix. Do you think just given the recent stickiness and strength of that, that it's more likely we'll see this hang in around 25% plus?

我的第一個問題，里克，就在場外，現在是第四季度，你們在場外的銷售範圍在 25% 到 30% 左右，在就餐時保持相當強勁和粘性業務反彈。但在 COVID 之前，你們說橄欖園可能是 20% 以上的場外銷售組合。您是否認為僅考慮到最近的粘性和強度，我們更有可能看到它保持在 25% 以上？

Yes, Andrew. We are running at 25% plus now at Olive Garden. And we have said throughout COVID that we expect our off-premise sales as a percent to be higher than they were pre-COVID and probably higher than the 20%. We're still not quite at equilibrium yet. And we want to make sure that we get to equilibrium before we kind of give a new goal. But I will say that we expect it to be higher than it was pre-COVID, and we expect it to be higher than that initial kind of 20% goal, mainly because of the investments that we've made, and what a great job our team members do to make sure that their guests get their food on time and it's accurate.

是的，安德魯。我們現在在橄欖園以 25% 以上的速度運行。我們在整個 COVID 中都說過，我們預計我們的場外銷售百分比將高於 COVID 之前的百分比，並且可能高於 20%。我們還沒有完全達到平衡。我們想確保在我們給出一個新目標之前達到平衡。但我要說的是，我們預計它會高於 COVID 之前的水平，我們預計它會高於最初的 20% 目標，主要是因為我們所做的投資，以及多麼出色的工作我們的團隊成員會確保他們的客人按時獲得食物並且準確無誤。

Those are very important qualities for our to-go experience, and we're making some more investments for the guests to understand whether food is in the process and things like that to hopefully keep our To-Go business at the higher end of that range, while our dining rooms continue to build. But when we get to equilibrium, we'll have a better idea.

這些對於我們的外帶體驗來說是非常重要的品質，我們正在為客人進行更多投資，以了解食物是否在加工過程中以及類似的事情，以希望將我們的外帶業務保持在該範圍的高端，而我們的餐廳繼續建造。但是當我們達到平衡時，我們會有一個更好的主意。

Great. And then can you guys compare kind of a historical target for 10% to 15% total shareholder return, just given that now we're seeing 2 consecutive years of top line in excess of that target and margins that are probably not going to make that 10 to 30 basis points expansion. Recognize that 10% plus is still the target here, how would you say the factors are going to be different, just given this is the second consecutive year of the dynamics that we're seeing?

偉大的。然後你們能比較一下 10% 到 15% 股東總回報率的歷史目標嗎10 至 30 個基點的擴張。認識到 10% 以上仍然是這裡的目標，鑑於這是我們所看到的連續第二年的動態，您如何說這些因素會有所不同？

Yes. I mean, look, given the uncertainty environment, this is probably not the best time to update the components of the framework. We still believe 10% to 15% is the right target. How we get there will vary year-to-year. And again, this is a long-term target. This is not a 1-year target. And so when we have a better -- when we get to a better place, maybe use Rick's word of equilibrium, we'll put something out there that incorporates all of that and our assumptions going forward that will lever the components of how we get to 10% to 15%.

是的。我的意思是，考慮到不確定的環境，這可能不是更新框架組件的最佳時機。我們仍然認為 10% 到 15% 是正確的目標。我們如何到達那裡每年都會有所不同。同樣，這是一個長期目標。這不是 1 年的目標。所以當我們有一個更好的地方——當我們到達一個更好的地方時，也許用里克的平衡詞，我們會在那裡放一些東西，把所有這些和我們的假設結合起來，這將利用我們如何得到的組成部分到 10% 到 15%。

We will now take our question from Chris O'Cull from Stifel.

我們現在將向 Stifel 的 Chris O'Cull 提出我們的問題。

Raj, can you help us understand how sensitive margin performance is to various levels of comp sales? And I would assume that relationship is not linear. So at what point do you see a meaningful margin degradation if you experience softness in consumer spending?

Raj，你能幫助我們了解利潤率表現對不同級別的銷售業績有多敏感嗎？我會假設這種關係不是線性的。那麼，如果您的消費者支出疲軟，您會在什麼時候看到明顯的利潤率下降？

Chris, I think I would kind of point back to the comment Rick made earlier about thinking about comp without the context of cost mix is not the best way to think. Because we think that they move in tandem, maybe there's a little bit of a lag. But if the consumer environment gets really soft, that should kind of make its way into inflation being less than we have and the cost pressures being less than we have. So it's not a pretty straightforward linear equation.

克里斯，我想我會回過頭來回顧一下 Rick 之前關於在沒有成本組合的情況下考慮補償的評論並不是最好的思考方式。因為我們認為它們是同步移動的，所以可能會有一點滯後。但是，如果消費環境變得非常疲軟，那應該會導致通脹低於我們的水平，成本壓力也低於我們的水平。所以這不是一個非常簡單的線性方程。

And obviously, I think what we say is you saw how our teams kind of remain flexible and figure out how to work through the environment, that is whatever environment we operate in. And so I will just reiterate that we're going to stay disciplined, and we're going to not overreact to near-term pressures, but focus on making sure we're making the right bets for the long term and operate the best way we can in the environment that we're dealt.

顯然，我認為我們所說的是你看到了我們的團隊如何保持靈活性並弄清楚如何在環境中工作，這就是我們所處的任何環境。所以我只想重申我們將保持紀律，我們不會對短期壓力反應過度，而是專注於確保我們在長期內做出正確的賭注，並在我們所處的環境中以最好的方式運作。

And then I had a follow-up on the commodity outlook. What's giving you confidence that you could see some relief in some of the key commodity costs beyond fiscal -- the first half of the year of fiscal 1Q at least? Are there specific factors that you're aware of that make that scenario more likely? Or is it driven by macro outlook for the consumer like you just mentioned that maybe that cooling demand helps commodity prices? Just trying to get some understanding of what gives you confidence you could see flat inflation in the back half -- or in the fourth quarter?

然後我對商品前景進行了跟進。是什麼讓您有信心看到財政以外的一些關鍵大宗商品成本有所緩解——至少是第一財季的上半年？您是否知道某些特定因素會使這種情況更有可能發生？還是像您剛才提到的那樣，是由消費者的宏觀前景驅動的，需求降溫可能有助於商品價格上漲？只是想了解是什麼讓你有信心看到下半年或第四季度通脹持平？

Yes. sure. So here is what I think the way we think about it is, one, first of all, you got to remember the wrap on how high they were this year. Second quarter -- I mean, third quarter this year was 11% and the fourth quarter was 12%. And we're wrapping on those. And fourth quarter this year was wrapping on 4.5% a year ago. So on a 2-year basis, when you look at where we were for the fourth quarter, we were about 16.5%, 17%. So next year, first quarter or this Q1 in FY '23, we're starting high. So one, that's the dynamic that we take into consideration, right? Where are the levels of pricing and what are we wrapping on. When you look at it through that lens, we expect that to get better.

是的。當然。所以這就是我認為我們思考它的方式，一個，首先，你必須記住他們今年有多高。第二季度——我的意思是，今年第三季度是 11%，第四季度是 12%。我們正在總結這些。今年第四季度是一年前的 4.5%。因此，以 2 年為基礎，當您查看第四季度的情況時，我們大約為 16.5%、17%。所以明年，第一季度或 23 財年的第一季度，我們的起點很高。所以一個，這是我們考慮的動態，對吧？定價水平在哪裡，我們在包裝什麼。當你通過那個鏡頭看它時，我們希望它會變得更好。

The second piece is we are starting to see, in some specific products, the price is breaking a little bit from the elevated levels they've been, right? So whether it's beef that's come down a little bit, even chicken, for instance, is not at the highest levels it's been recently, so it's starting to come down a little bit.

第二件是我們開始看到，在一些特定的產品中，價格從他們一直以來的高位有所突破，對吧？所以無論是牛肉，甚至雞肉，例如，都沒有達到最近的最高水平，所以它開始有點下降。

The other factor we have is what happens with the fall harvest on the grain side. So we do expect, right now, we think from the information we have, better harvest season, and that should help a little bit with the grain. So these are all factors we are taking into consideration. We don't have a crystal ball, but this is our best estimate at this point.

我們擁有的另一個因素是穀物方面的秋季收成會發生什麼。因此，我們確實希望，現在，我們認為從我們掌握的信息來看，收穫季節會更好，這應該對穀物有所幫助。所以這些都是我們正在考慮的因素。我們沒有水晶球，但這是我們目前最好的估計。

We will move on to our next question from John Glass from Morgan Stanley.

我們將繼續討論摩根士丹利的約翰·格拉斯提出的下一個問題。

First, Rick, just on pricing on the 5%, can you just reconcile where you think the industry is on pricing? So how much your pricing you think below not just inflation, but also your competitors'?

首先，Rick，僅就 5% 的定價而言，您能否協調一下您認為行業在定價方面的情況？那麼，您認為您的定價不僅低於通貨膨脹，而且低於您的競爭對手的定價？

And just more broadly, how do you think about pricing on a portfolio basis? Are you pricing to each brand's relative inflation? Or are you willing to take more pricing at certain brands where you just think there's more or less elasticity, so you get it. And therefore, we shouldn't think about it as a brand to brand, but as sort of on a portfolio basis. Is that how you think about pricing?

更廣泛地說，您如何看待基於投資組合的定價？您是否根據每個品牌的相對通貨膨脹率定價？或者您是否願意為某些您認為彈性或多或少的品牌採取更多定價，所以您明白了。因此，我們不應將其視為品牌對品牌，而應將其視為投資組合。這就是你對定價的看法嗎？

Yes, John, I'll answer the second part of your question, and I'll give Raj to answer to the first part of the question. So when you think about pricing across our portfolio, one of the biggest benefits of Darden is we've got a portfolio and we serve a lot of different consumers. And so our pricing will be different depending on the brand and depending on kind of the consumer that they serve. And so we would expect our pricing to be closer to inflation at the brands that can support that, which are more likely the brands at the higher end of the consumer spectrum, and our pricing to be below inflation at the brands that we want to protect their value. And those brands are more like the casual brands, specifically Olive Garden and Cheddar's, who've made significant business model improvement so that we can go ahead and take a little less pricing than inflation.

是的，John，我會回答你問題的第二部分，我會讓 Raj 回答問題的第一部分。因此，當您考慮我們產品組合的定價時，Darden 的最大好處之一是我們擁有一個產品組合，我們為許多不同的消費者提供服務。因此，我們的定價將根據品牌和他們所服務的消費者類型而有所不同。因此，我們預計我們的定價將更接近能夠支持這一點的品牌的通脹，這些品牌更有可能是處於消費者範圍高端的品牌，並且我們的定價將低於我們想要保護的品牌的通脹他們的價值。這些品牌更像是休閒品牌，特別是 Olive Garden 和 Cheddar's，它們對商業模式進行了重大改進，這樣我們就可以繼續採取比通貨膨脹低一點的定價。

So that's the way we think about pricing. We look at the inflation rates those brands are seeing as well and see what kind of level of pricing we'd like to take. But generally, generally, we would price our higher-end brands or more affluent consumer that can absorb some of that pricing and is a little less elastic than we would on the lower-end brands.

這就是我們考慮定價的方式。我們也會查看這些品牌所看到的通貨膨脹率，看看我們想要採取什麼樣的定價水平。但一般來說，我們會為我們的高端品牌或更富裕的消費者定價，這些消費者可以吸收部分定價，並且比我們對低端品牌的彈性要小一些。

And I'll let Raj talk about the competitive pricing.

我會讓 Raj 談談有競爭力的價格。

John, I'll start with the broader macro overall FSR CPI. This is not new to you guys. You know this last -- the published data from last month was 9% on a 1-year basis and over 12% or 13% close to on a 2-year basis. And then when you look at the breakdown of that, from what we understand, the chains are taking less than the independents. So when we look at our closest competitors, they're probably close to that 6% range, between 5% to 6%, depending on who you're looking at, but the average is closer to 6%. But then these are larger chains. But the small chains and independents is where you're seeing double-digit pricing. Again, that's the competitive Intel we have.

約翰，我將從更廣泛的宏觀整體 FSR CPI 開始。這對你們來說並不新鮮。你最後知道這一點——上個月公佈的數據為 9%，以 1 年為基礎，超過 12% 或 13% 接近以 2 年為基礎。然後，當您查看其細分時，據我們了解，連鎖店的收入低於獨立企業。因此，當我們查看最接近的競爭對手時，他們可能接近 6% 的範圍，介於 5% 到 6% 之間，具體取決於您正在查看的對象，但平均值接近 6%。但這些都是更大的鏈條。但是小型連鎖店和獨立店是您看到兩位數定價的地方。同樣，這就是我們擁有的具有競爭力的英特爾。

So with that said, you asked a question about flexibility we have. I think part of what we've said all along has been that we want to be underpricing until we feel like certain things are permanent, and then we start to slowly increase that. We feel great about the pricing level that we have because, especially when you look at it versus where the overall industry is and where our nearest competitors are, we're better. And then actually we're even better when you look at it on a 2-year basis. And so really, that's kind of what drives us. But also, it does give us some flexibility should there be a need. And that's what we're trying to do is protect ourselves, preserve our flexibility. And if there is a need and if we feel like we can pass through some more, we will do that.

話雖如此，你問了一個關於我們的靈活性的問題。我認為我們一直在說的部分內容是我們希望定價過低，直到我們覺得某些事情是永久性的，然後我們開始慢慢增加它。我們對我們擁有的定價水平感覺很好，因為，特別是當你看它與整個行業的位置以及我們最近的競爭對手在哪裡時，我們會更好。然後實際上，當您以 2 年為基礎查看它時，我們甚至會更好。所以真的，這就是驅動我們的動力。而且，如果有需要，它確實給了我們一些靈活性。這就是我們試圖做的就是保護自己，保持我們的靈活性。如果有需要，如果我們覺得我們可以通過更多，我們會這樣做。

What is the impact of inflation then on the build cost of new restaurants? Anecdotally, some smaller chains have talked about a pretty material increase in construction costs of new builds. So what is your view on that in 2023?

那麼通貨膨脹對新餐廳的建設成本有何影響？有趣的是，一些較小的連鎖店談到了新建築的建築成本大幅增加。那麼您對 2023 年的情況有何看法？

(technical difficulty)

（技術難度）

Pardon the interruption. I believe your line might be on mute?

原諒打擾。我相信您的線路可能處於靜音狀態？

Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. So I was saying the construction costs, we're seeing about, call it, low double-digit increase in construction costs. And when we look at our overall returns, because of the business model improvements we've made through COVID, we're still getting pretty strong returns. In fact, I would argue, our returns are better today than they were even before COVID even with the increased construction costs because of the improved margins.

對不起。對不起。謝謝你。所以我說的是建築成本，我們看到，稱之為建築成本的兩位數低增長。當我們查看我們的整體回報時，由於我們通過 COVID 改進了商業模式，我們仍然獲得了相當可觀的回報。事實上，我認為，即使由於利潤率提高而增加了建築成本，我們今天的回報也比 COVID 之前更好。

With that said, we are starting to see the cost not continue to go up as much. So we're starting to see that rate of change start to kind of plateau, if you will. And then what we're doing is trying to find opportunities to kind of do conversions that can help save a few hundred thousand dollars on a build, right? $0.5 million to $600,000 if we kind of take an existing shell and convert that. And so we've been doing some of that at our brands. So we're trying to find ways to manage through that, but the costs are still pretty elevated.

話雖如此，我們開始看到成本不會繼續上漲那麼多。因此，如果您願意的話，我們開始看到變化率開始趨於平穩。然後我們正在做的是尋找機會進行轉換，以幫助節省數十萬美元的構建，對嗎？如果我們採用現有的外殼並將其轉換，則為 50 萬至 600,000 美元。所以我們一直在我們的品牌中做一些這樣的事情。所以我們正試圖找到解決這個問題的方法，但成本仍然很高。

And we will now move on to our next question from Jon Tower from Citi.

我們現在將繼續討論花旗的 Jon Tower 提出的下一個問題。

First, on the inflation side, I think we hit pricing quite a bit earlier, but I am curious to dive into the idea of during COVID, you were able to find quite a few productivity enhancements across the portfolio. And I'm just curious to know if there is any more opportunity there should, say, inflation persists above and beyond what your expectations are currently for the year.

首先，在通脹方面，我認為我們更早地達到了定價，但我很想深入研究在 COVID 期間的想法，你能夠在整個投資組合中發現不少生產力提升。我只是想知道是否還有更多的機會，比如說，通脹會持續高於和超過你目前對今年的預期。

Jon, this is Rick. Yes, you mentioned that over the last few years, our brands have done a great job simplifying their operation and with significant productivity enhancements. We're going to continue to look for more. I will say, during the last year, we had significant training costs that, as we continue to ramp up people, we would hope that the training dollars would go down. It wouldn't be the same kind of level of productivity enhancements that we had before -- during COVID, but there should be some enhancements to help mitigate a little bit of the wage inflation, but not enough to offset the wage inflation.

喬恩，這是瑞克。是的，您提到在過去幾年中，我們的品牌在簡化操作和顯著提高生產力方面做得很好。我們將繼續尋找更多。我會說，在過去的一年裡，我們的培訓成本很高，隨著我們繼續增加人員，我們希望培訓費用會下降。它不會像我們以前在 COVID 期間那樣提高生產力水平，但應該有一些改進來幫助緩解一點工資通脹，但不足以抵消工資通脹。

And then just following up. I think earlier in the call, you talked about the company's core competitive advantages and particularly highlighted the scale, and the company's balance sheet has some significant advantages versus the industry. So I'm curious how you see yourselves taking advantage of that, particularly in an environment where you might see some closures of independents and/or some of your smaller competitors needing to slow down growth. I'm just curious, in the past, I believe you've used these slowdowns as an opportunity to find some of the best real estate in the industry. How are you thinking about taking advantage of a potential macro slowdown?

然後只是跟進。我想在前面的電話中，你談到了公司的核心競爭優勢，特別強調了規模，公司的資產負債表相對於行業具有一些顯著的優勢。所以我很好奇你如何看待自己利用這一點，特別是在你可能會看到一些獨立企業倒閉和/或一些較小的競爭對手需要減緩增長的環境中。我只是好奇，在過去，我相信您曾利用這些放緩作為尋找業內最佳房地產的機會。您如何考慮利用潛在的宏觀經濟放緩？

Yes, Jon, we continue to look for more real estate, especially if the macro environment slows down for the smaller competitors. I would say there's some industry estimates that, this coming up fiscal year, will have no net unit growth. We are growing units. And so that could give us some more opportunities to find some sites. We have, I think we mentioned in our guidance, 55 to 60 new openings this year, which is a lot higher than the 37 net we had the year that just ended. And that we'll continue to try to get more to that level of growth in units. And we have the balance sheet and the cash position to do that.

是的，喬恩，我們繼續尋找更多的房地產，尤其是在宏觀環境對較小的競爭對手放緩的情況下。我想說有一些行業估計，在即將到來的財政年度，將沒有淨單位增長。我們正在成長的單位。這樣一來，我們就有更多機會找到一些網站。我認為我們在指導中提到，今年有 55 到 60 個新職位空缺，這比我們剛剛結束的一年的淨值 37 個要高得多。而且我們將繼續努力使單位增長達到這一水平。我們有資產負債表和現金狀況來做到這一點。

And just as importantly, we've got the leadership pipeline that we've been developing to get people ready to open those restaurants. So we feel like putting the -- stepping the -- putting our foot on the gas on unit growth, which is what we've always said, we've been saying that for a couple of years, is something we would do, but not to slam the accelerator down. We'll continue to be measured in our unit growth, and our goal would be to get to the higher end of our sales from new units in the framework that we had announced before.

同樣重要的是，我們已經建立了我們一直在開發的領導管道，以讓人們準備好開設這些餐廳。所以我們覺得把我們的腳踩在單位增長上，這是我們一直說的，我們已經說了幾年了，是我們會做的事情，但是不要猛踩油門。我們將繼續衡量我們的單位增長，我們的目標是在我們之前宣布的框架內從新單位獲得更高的銷售額。

Our next question today comes from Andrew Strelzik from BMO.

我們今天的下一個問題來自 BMO 的 Andrew Strelzik。

I'll just ask one, and I wanted to follow up on the food inflation and the coverage question, and I understand why you don't want to be as covered for the back half of the year. But the question is really about the ability to get coverage further out should you have wanted to go that route. Is that getting any easier with some of the broader demand uncertainties if you wanted to do that? Are those conversations or the asks to extend further out getting any better, even if that hasn't totally converged maybe with your expectations?

我只問一個，我想跟進食品通脹和保險範圍的問題，我理解你為什麼不想在下半年得到保險。但問題實際上是關於如果您想走那條路線，是否有能力進一步擴大覆蓋範圍。如果您想這樣做，是否會因為一些更廣泛的需求不確定性而變得更容易？那些對話或進一步擴展的要求是否變得更好，即使這並沒有完全符合你的期望？

Yes. I think it's the price certainty is the pace that is a little bit of an issue, right? When you talk to our -- so the coverage, yes, you can get the product coverage, but we're trying to get a product coverage with price certainty. And that's where we still don't believe -- we're still not in a place where that is in a great place for the back half. As we look at what the suppliers think we should be paying and what we believe we should be paying, there is a disparity there. And that's really why we don't see it -- we don't feel like we need to do anything right now and just have that optionality.

是的。我認為價格確定性是一個有點問題的速度，對吧？當您與我們交談時 - 所以覆蓋範圍，是的，您可以獲得產品覆蓋範圍，但我們正在嘗試獲得具有價格確定性的產品覆蓋範圍。這就是我們仍然不相信的地方——我們還沒有處於一個對後半場來說是一個好地方的地方。當我們查看供應商認為我們應該支付的費用以及我們認為我們應該支付的費用時，存在差異。這就是為什麼我們看不到它的真正原因——我們覺得我們現在不需要做任何事情，只是有那種選擇權。

But I guess the spread or with some of the demand uncertainties you've spoken about now, maybe some cracks here or there, maybe the view on the other side of that conversation isn't the same. But has the spread narrowed at all even if it hasn't converged all the way? Or it's still kind of stayed the same?

但我想你現在談到的傳播或一些需求不確定性，可能這里或那裡有些裂縫，也許對話另一方的觀點不一樣。但是，即使沒有完全收斂，價差是否已經縮小了？或者它仍然保持不變？

Yes, for sure. Yes. things are -- yes, the spread has narrowed, but we -- again, our expectations are going down even more, right? So I think that's part of the discussion here. So it's not -- yes.

是肯定的。是的。事情是——是的，價差縮小了，但我們——再一次，我們的期望下降得更多，對吧？所以我認為這是這裡討論的一部分。所以不是——是的。

We will now take a question from Brett Levy, MKM Partners.

我們現在將回答 MKM Partners 的 Brett Levy 的問題。

Just going back on the development side. You talked about a willingness to grow and an ability to grow, but you also talked about not wanting to get too far ahead. Where do you see the greatest opportunities within the brands right now? And also just from a net flat growth environment out there and a strong balance sheet, how are you thinking about supplementing the current portfolio with additional brands?

只是回到開發方面。您談到了成長的意願和成長的能力，但您也談到了不想走得太遠。您目前在哪些品牌中看到了最大的機會？此外，僅從淨持平的增長環境和強勁的資產負債表來看，您如何考慮用其他品牌來補充當前的產品組合？

Yes, Brett. We would like to see all of our brands continue to grow. At the more specialty brands, those sites are specific, and we want to make sure we have the great sites for them. So it just depends on when a great site comes available. We may have some higher growth in one year and maybe a little bit lower growth in the next year. But for more killer casual brands, we'd like to continue to see that ramp up versus the year before. And the fact that we're going from 37 to 55 to 60 should tell you that most of our brands are going to see an acceleration in unit growth.

是的，布雷特。我們希望看到我們所有的品牌繼續增長。在更專業的品牌中，這些網站是特定的，我們希望確保為他們提供出色的網站。因此，這僅取決於何時可以使用出色的站點。我們可能在一年內有一些更高的增長，而在明年可能會有一些較低的增長。但對於更多殺手級休閒品牌，我們希望繼續看到與前一年相比的增長。我們將從 37 到 55 再到 60 的事實應該告訴您，我們的大多數品牌都將看到單位增長的加速。

As it relates to your second part of your question on M&A, I will say that our biggest competitive advantage is what we talked about is our scale. And one way to build on that is to do an acquisition. And so we'll continue to speak with our Board and use our strong balance sheet and our cash position to evaluate any alternative to allocate that capital. But we do believe that we have the ability to do both, to increase the number of units that we're building and to do M&A.

由於它與您關於併購問題的第二部分有關，我會說我們最大的競爭優勢是我們所談論的規模。以此為基礎的一種方法是進行收購。因此，我們將繼續與我們的董事會交談，並利用我們強大的資產負債表和現金狀況來評估分配該資本的任何替代方案。但我們確實相信我們有能力做到這兩點，增加我們正在建造的單位數量並進行併購。

We will now move on to our next question from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.

我們現在將繼續討論來自摩根大通的 John Ivankoe 提出的下一個問題。

Actually as a perfect follow-up to Brett's question, on the M&A side, I guess, where are we in that spectrum? I mean you've announced $1 billion for buyback, which could presumably be used for M&A. You do have borrowing capacity, at least looking at what your investment-grade credit rating is. I mean in terms of, I guess, Darden kind of being excited and being in the market and being proactive looking for things versus sellers that, in all reality, will have to accept the price for their business today that was very different than 6 or 12 months ago.

實際上，作為布雷特問題的完美後續，在併購方面，我想，我們在那個範圍內的哪個位置？我的意思是你已經宣布了 10 億美元的回購，大概可以用於併購。你確實有借貸能力，至少看看你的投資級信用評級是多少。我的意思是，我想，達頓有點興奮，在市場上積極尋找東西，而不是賣家，實際上，他們今天的業務必須接受與 6 或12 個月前。

I mean, I guess, how maybe you want to talk about it in this term? Hopefully, it's a fair question. I guess how close are we to a deal that really could matter relative maybe to some previous periods? How are the stars lining up or not lining up? Is that something could maybe get done in the near or term versus longer term?

我的意思是，我猜，你可能想在這個學期談論它嗎？希望這是一個公平的問題。我想我們離達成一項可能相對於前幾個時期真正重要的交易有多近？明星是怎麼排的，還是不排的？與長期相比，這是否可以在短期或短期內完成？

John, I can't tell you if we're closer or farther away from now versus where we were before. As equity prices move quickly and on the downward trend, so you got to get to what's a fair valuation level for the seller. And so I can't tell you if we're there yet or not. I can tell you that we'll continue to evaluate, and we would like to continue to build our scale, and M&A is one way to do that. But when we do a deal, everybody will know. And we're always talking to our Board about M&A and the best ways to allocate our capital.

約翰，我無法告訴你我們現在與以前相比是更近還是更遠。由於股票價格快速移動並呈下降趨勢，因此您必須達到賣方的公平估值水平。所以我不能告訴你我們是否還在那裡。我可以告訴你，我們將繼續評估，我們希望繼續擴大我們的規模，併購是實現這一目標的一種方式。但是當我們做交易時，每個人都會知道。我們一直在與董事會討論併購和分配資本的最佳方式。

And our next question comes from Peter Saleh from BTIG.

我們的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Peter Saleh。

Very helpful call so far this morning. Just wanted to come back to the conversation around the consumer. In the past recessions, I think you've seen a trade down at Olive Garden and some of the brands with trading down with fewer appetizers, desserts, strengths and maybe in some instances, consumers trading out of entrees into appetizers as their main meal. It doesn't sound like you've seen any of that at some of the core brands clearly at Olive Garden. I just want to confirm that.

今天早上到目前為止非常有用的電話。只是想回到圍繞消費者的對話。在過去的經濟衰退中，我認為您已經看到 Olive Garden 和一些品牌的交易下降，開胃菜、甜點、強項更少，在某些情況下，消費者可能會從主菜換成開胃菜作為他們的主餐。聽起來您在 Olive Garden 的一些核心品牌中並沒有清楚地看到這些。我只是想確認一下。

And two, Rick, I'd just love to get your opinion on the probability of a recession or the consumer outlook, given where you sit and what you see in the environment right now.

第二，里克，我很想听聽你對經濟衰退的可能性或消費者前景的看法，考慮到你現在所處的位置以及你在環境中看到的情況。

Peter, to answer the first part of your question, we haven't really seen a lot of check management at any of our brands. We've seen a little bit at Cheddar's. But part of that is because they also introduced a great limited-time value steak, which might have mean people were trading away from appetizers to the steak on their menu, which is a T-bone, at a very great value compared to the competition. But we had seen some management of check at Cheddar's.

彼得，回答你問題的第一部分，我們在我們的任何品牌中都沒有真正看到很多支票管理。我們在切達干酪見過一點。但部分原因是他們還推出了限時超值牛排，這可能意味著人們正在從開胃菜轉向菜單上的牛排，這是一種 T 骨，與競爭對手相比，價值非常高.但是我們在Cheddar's看到了一些檢查管理。

In regards to the probability of a recession, I'm not an economist. I can tell you what the economists are saying, and they're saying somewhere in the 40% range, at least some of them are saying that over the next 12 months. I can tell you, we will be prepared for that if and when it comes. I would hope to not see one. But if we do, we're going to be prepared. And I think we're better prepared than most of the people we compete with because of the margin differential that we have versus them and what we've done over the last few years to simplify our menus and what we've done to make sure our restaurants are fully staffed.

關於經濟衰退的可能性，我不是經濟學家。我可以告訴你經濟學家在說什麼，他們說的在 40% 的範圍內，至少他們中的一些人在接下來的 12 個月裡這麼說。我可以告訴你，如果它來臨時，我們將為此做好準備。我希望不會看到一個。但如果我們這樣做了，我們就會做好準備。而且我認為我們比與我們競爭的大多數人準備得更好，因為我們與他們之間的利潤率差異以及我們在過去幾年中為簡化菜單所做的工作以及我們為確保所做的工作我們的餐廳配備齊全。

And I would say one last thing is, if you think about our management turnover in our restaurants, it's significantly below the industry. So they've seen more things than others have. Maybe they haven't seen a recession, but they have seen what happens when guest counts turn soft for even if it's a month, maybe others haven't. So we're going to be better prepared, we believe, to handle. Plus, we've got great everyday value. You think about what we've done over the last couple of years in pricing below inflation and pricing below our competition, that means our value differential continues to grow.

我想說的最後一件事是，如果你考慮一下我們餐廳的管理人員流動率，它明顯低於行業。所以他們比其他人看到了更多的東西。也許他們還沒有看到經濟衰退，但他們已經看到了當客人數量變軟時會發生什麼，即使是一個月，也許其他人沒有。因此，我們相信，我們將做好更好的準備來應對。另外，我們有很棒的日常價值。你想想過去幾年我們在定價低於通脹和定價低於競爭對手方面所做的事情，這意味著我們的價值差異繼續擴大。

And we've got, I think, what's a great place. We've got Olive Garden, which is an iconic brand that people trust that has improved their value. We've got Cheddar's, which we didn't have in the last time there was a recession, that's the value leader in casual dining. So while I can't tell you what the probability of a recession is, I can tell you, I believe that we're well prepared to deal with whatever comes our way.

我認為，我們有一個很棒的地方。我們有 Olive Garden，這是一個人們信任的標誌性品牌，它提高了他們的價值。我們有 Cheddar's，這是我們上次經濟衰退時沒有的，它是休閒餐飲的價值領導者。因此，雖然我不能告訴你經濟衰退的可能性有多大，但我可以告訴你，我相信我們已經做好了應對任何可能發生的事情的準備。

And we will now move on to a question from Brian Vaccaro from Raymond James.

現在我們將繼續討論 Raymond James 的 Brian Vaccaro 提出的問題。

I just wanted to circle back on your industry sales comment that you mentioned about June slowing a bit. Could you help us level set the magnitude of slowing that we've seen within casual dining over the last few weeks? It's just a little difficult, given the Father's Day shift, if you're trying to compare back to '19, also some differences in the year-on-year compares, I think, moving through May and June as the industry recovered last year. So any help there would be much appreciated.

我只是想回顧一下你提到的關於 6 月份放緩的行業銷售評論。您能否幫助我們確定過去幾週我們在休閒餐飲中看到的放緩幅度？考慮到父親節的轉變，這有點困難，如果你想回到 19 年，我認為隨著行業去年的複蘇，與去年同期相比，5 月和 6 月也存在一些差異.因此，我們將不勝感激任何幫助。

Yes, Brian, when I talked about the kind of the sequential slowdown, it was versus prior year, so not worrying about pre-COVID. The only comment I had about pre-COVID was the seasonality differences. But you're right, Father's Day is something, but we're going up against the same week last year in Father's Day. So Father's Day to Father's Day should have been the same. And we talk about magnitude, it's a couple of hundred basis points of the industry. It's not like the industry went negative completely, but it's closer to flat than it was before in the month of May.

是的，布賴恩，當我談到這種連續放緩時，它與前一年相比，所以不用擔心疫情之前的情況。我對 COVID 之前的唯一評論是季節性差異。但你是對的，父親節是一件很重要的事情，但我們將在去年的父親節與去年的同一周進行對抗。所以父親節到父親節應該是一樣的。我們談論規模，這是行業的幾百個基點。該行業並沒有完全轉為負值，但與 5 月份相比，它更接近於持平。

Okay. Great. And then circling back on the consumer. How do you break it down? You talked about the low income versus other income categories and seeing differences in behavior. Could you just update us on what percentage of your guests or sales are from the low versus middle or upper income consumer for Olive Garden and LongHorn, however you kind of bracket that out?

好的。偉大的。然後又回到消費者身上。你如何分解它？您談到了低收入與其他收入類別的比較，並看到了行為上的差異。您能否向我們介紹一下 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 的客人或銷售額中有多少來自中低收入或高收入消費者的百分比，但是您對此有什麼看法？

Yes. I don't want to get into too much detail on the percent of our guests that are at the low end. The lower-end consumer typically would be more of an Olive Garden consumer or Cheddar's consumer, more likely a Cheddar's consumer. And it makes up a portion of their guests, but not a majority of their guests.

是的。我不想詳細說明我們處於低端的客人的百分比。低端消費者通常更像是橄欖園消費者或切達干酪的消費者，更有可能是切達干酪的消費者。它構成了他們的客人的一部分，但不是他們的客人的大多數。

But the other thing is, remember, we've got a portfolio of brands that impact every segment of the economy and all the different economic stratifications of guests. So we feel like we've got the ability to deal with whatever comes our way, as I said, and would -- but don't want to give you the specific percentage of those consumers.

但另一件事是，請記住，我們的品牌組合會影響經濟的各個領域以及客人的所有不同經濟階層。所以我們覺得我們有能力處理我們遇到的任何事情，正如我所說，並且會 - 但不想給你這些消費者的具體百分比。

Ladies and gentlemen, as we have no further questions, that concludes our Q&A session today. And I would like to hand back to Kevin Kalicak for any additional or closing remarks.

女士們，先生們，由於我們沒有其他問題，今天的問答環節到此結束。如果有任何補充或結束語，我想轉交 Kevin Kalicak。

Thank you. That concludes our call. I'd like to remind you that we plan to release our first quarter results on Thursday, September 22, before the market opens with a conference call to follow. Thanks again for participating in today's call. Have a good day.

謝謝你。我們的電話到此結束。我想提醒您，我們計劃在 9 月 22 日星期四在市場開盤之前發布第一季度業績，隨後將召開電話會議。再次感謝您參加今天的電話會議。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

謝謝你。女士們先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。