達登餐飲 (DRI) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2023 Second Quarter Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

大家好，歡迎來到達頓 2023 財年第二季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）正在錄製今天的會議。如果您有異議，請此時斷開連接。

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Kalicak. Thank you. You may begin.

我現在將把電話轉給 Kevin Kalicak 先生。謝謝你。你可以開始了。

Thank you, Todd. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating on today's call. Joining me are Rick Cardenas, Darden's President and CEO; and Raj Vennam, CFO. 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 the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ 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.

謝謝你，托德。大家早上好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議。加入我行列的是達頓公司的總裁兼首席執行官里克·卡德納斯 (Rick Cardenas)；和首席財務官 Raj Vennam。提醒一下，在本次電話會議中發表的評論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中定義的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述受到可能導致實際結果與我們的預期和預測存在重大差異的風險和不確定性的影響。這些風險在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有所描述。

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 includes certain non-GAAP measurements, and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation. Looking ahead, we plan to release fiscal 2023 third quarter earnings on Thursday, March 23, before the market opens followed by a conference call.

我們在本次電話會議期間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 GAAP 衡量指標，這些衡量指標的對賬包含在演示文稿中。展望未來，我們計劃在 3 月 23 日星期四開市前發布 2023 財年第三季度收益，隨後召開電話會議。

During today's call, any reference to pre-COVID when discussing second quarter performance as a comparison to the second quarter of fiscal 2020. Additionally, all references to industry results during today's call refer to Black Box Intelligence's casual dining benchmark, excluding Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen.

在今天的電話會議中，在討論第二季度業績與 2020 財年第二季度的比較時，任何對 COVID 之前的提及。此外，在今天的電話會議中，所有對行業業績的提及均指 Black Box Intelligence 的休閒餐飲基準，不包括 Olive Garden、LongHorn牛排館和 Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen。

During our second fiscal quarter, industry same-restaurant sales increased 3.6% and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 5.7%. This morning, Rick will share some brief remarks on the quarter and our focus moving forward, and Raj will provide more details on our financial results and an update to our fiscal 2023 financial outlook. Now I'll turn the call over to Rick.

在我們的第二財季，行業同餐廳銷售額增長 3.6%，行業同餐廳客人數量下降 5.7%。今天早上，Rick 將就本季度和我們未來的重點發表一些簡短的評論，Raj 將提供有關我們財務業績的更多詳細信息以及我們 2023 財年財務展望的更新。現在我會把電話轉給里克。

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning and happy holidays, everyone. I'm pleased with our results this quarter. All of our brands performed at a high level by remaining focused on our Back-to-Basics Operating Philosophy anchored in food, service and atmosphere. At the Darden level, we continue to strengthen and leverage our 4 competitive advantages of significant scale, extensive data and insights, rigorous strategic planning and our results-oriented culture. Being brilliant with the basics starts with achieving and maintaining appropriate staffing levels in our restaurants. Across our brands, our teams are doing a great job of ensuring we are ready to run 14 great shifts a week.

謝謝你，凱文。大家早上好，節日快樂。我對我們本季度的業績感到滿意。我們所有的品牌都通過專注於以食品、服務和氛圍為基礎的返璞歸真經營理念，實現了高水平的表現。在達頓層面，我們繼續加強和利用我們的 4 大競爭優勢，即規模龐大、廣泛的數據和洞察力、嚴格的戰略規劃和我們以結果為導向的文化。要在基礎上表現出色，首先要在我們的餐廳實現並保持適當的人員配備水平。在我們的品牌中，我們的團隊在確保我們準備好每週進行 14 次大班次方面做得很好。

At each of our brands, we are fully staffed at the team member level, and manager staffing is at historic highs. As a result, our teams are executing more consistently, which in turn is driving strong guest satisfaction across our brands, according to both internal and external sources.

在我們的每個品牌中，我們都在團隊成員層面配備了充足的人員，而經理人員配備也處於歷史高位。因此，根據內部和外部消息來源，我們的團隊執行得更加一致，這反過來又推動了我們品牌的強大客戶滿意度。

During the quarter, 4 of our brands achieved all-time high internal guest satisfaction ratings and the others remain near all-time highs. Also, with Technomic industry tracking tool, a Darden brand was ranked #1 among major casual dining brands in each measurement category. I am particularly proud of Olive Garden's performance.

本季度，我們的 4 個品牌獲得了歷史最高的內部客人滿意度評分，其他品牌保持在歷史最高水平附近。此外，借助 Technomic 行業跟踪工具，Darden 品牌在每個測量類別中在主要休閒餐飲品牌中排名第一。我為 Olive Garden 的表現感到特別自豪。

During the quarter, they brought back their most popular limited time offers, Never Ending Pasta Bowl. As you may recall, when I talked last to you, I shared that any promotional activity or brands introduced should be evaluated with the following 3 filters.

在本季度，他們帶回了最受歡迎的限時優惠，Never Ending Pasta Bowl。您可能還記得，上次與您交談時，我分享了任何促銷活動或引入的品牌都應使用以下 3 個過濾器進行評估。

First, it needs to elevate brand equity by bringing the brand's competitive advantages to life. Second, it should be simple to execute. We will not jeopardize all the work we have done to simplify operations, which allows our teams to consistently deliver exceptional guest experiences. And third, it will not be at a deep discount. We are focused on providing great value to our guests but doing that in a way that drives profitable sales growth.

首先，它需要通過展現品牌的競爭優勢來提升品牌資產。其次，它應該易於執行。我們不會危及我們為簡化運營所做的所有工作，這使我們的團隊能夠始終如一地提供卓越的客戶體驗。第三，它不會有很大的折扣。我們專注於為我們的客人提供巨大的價值，但以推動盈利銷售增長的方式做到這一點。

Three years after it was last offered, the 2022 version of Never Ending Pasta Bowl checked all 3 of these boxes. First, it leveraged Olive Garden's iconic brand equity by perfectly reinforcing their competitive advantage of Never Ending abundant craveable Italian food. Next, it was amplified by only offering existing menu items with limited add-on choices, which made it easier to execute, resulting in great guest experiences.

在上次推出三年後，2022 年版的 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 滿足了所有這 3 個條件。首先，它利用了 Olive Garden 的標誌性品牌資產，完美地增強了他們在 Never Ending 豐富的令人垂涎的意大利美食方面的競爭優勢。接下來，通過僅提供現有菜單項和有限的附加選項來擴大它，這使得它更容易執行，從而帶來了極佳的客人體驗。

Finally, it was priced $3 higher than in 2019, which significantly improved the margin of this offer while still providing tremendous value for our guests. Never Ending Pasta Bowl exceeded expectations, and we saw a step change in Olive Garden's positive gap to industry traffic during the 7 weeks at ramp. I'm even more encouraged by this performance, given that it was supported with about 3/4 of the media in past years.

最後，它的價格比 2019 年高出 3 美元，這顯著提高了此優惠的利潤率，同時仍為我們的客人提供了巨大的價值。 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 超出了預期，我們看到 Olive Garden 與行業流量的積極差距在 7 週內發生了變化。鑑於過去幾年大約 3/4 的媒體支持它，我對這種表現更加鼓舞。

Going forward, the team will build on their learnings and share insights across our brands, but this may be the only limited time offer we do at Olive Garden this fiscal year.

展望未來，該團隊將以他們的學習為基礎，並在我們的品牌中分享見解，但這可能是我們本財年在 Olive Garden 提供的唯一限時優惠。

Across our brands, we continue to drive strong execution of the off-premise guest experience through ongoing investments in technology that reduce friction for our guests and our operators. For example, many of our guests still prefer to call in their To Go order.

在我們的品牌中，我們通過持續投資技術來減少客人和運營商之間的摩擦，繼續推動強大的場外客人體驗。例如，我們的許多客人仍然喜歡打電話訂購外賣訂單。

However, taking payment over the phone or when the guests arrived is both inefficient for our teams and inconvenient for our guests. To help address this, we rolled out online payment for call-in orders during the quarter, enhancing convenience for our guests and making our To Go specialists more efficient. To Go sales remain sticky across our core casual dining brand, accounting for 25% of total sales at Olive Garden, 14% at Longhorn and 13% at Cheddar's.

然而，通過電話或客人到達時付款對我們的團隊來說效率低下，對我們的客人來說也不方便。為了幫助解決這個問題，我們在本季度推出了電話訂單的在線支付，為我們的客人提供了更多便利，並提高了我們的 To Go 專家的效率。 To Go 的銷售額在我們的核心休閒餐飲品牌中保持穩定，佔 Olive Garden 總銷售額的 25%、Longhorn 的 14% 和 Cheddar's 的 13%。

Digital transactions accounted for 62% of all off-premise sales during the quarter and 10% of Darden's total sales. The holidays are the busiest time of the year for our restaurant teams, and they have enjoyed welcoming even more guests back into their restaurants this season. In fact, the Capital Grille, Eddie V's and Seasons 52, enjoyed all-time daily sales record on Thanksgiving Day, and bookings for this holiday season are encouraging.

數字交易占本季度所有場外銷售額的 62%，佔 Darden 總銷售額的 10%。假期是我們餐廳團隊一年中最忙碌的時候，他們很高興在這個季節歡迎更多客人回到他們的餐廳。事實上，Capital Grille、Eddie V's 和 Seasons 52 在感恩節創下了每日銷售記錄，而且這個假期的預訂量令人鼓舞。

The holidays are also a great reminder that being of service is at the heart of our business. And we embraced a higher purpose to nourish and delight everyone we serve, our guests, our team members and our communities. One of the ways we serve our communities is through our harvest program.

假期也很好地提醒我們，服務是我們業務的核心。我們擁抱了一個更高的目標，即滋養和取悅我們服務的每一個人、我們的客人、我們的團隊成員和我們的社區。我們為社區服務的方式之一是通過我們的收穫計劃。

One in 8 households in our country live without consistent access to food. To help fight hunger, our restaurants donate fresh, unused food to local food banks and nonprofits in their communities on a weekly basis throughout the year. Since the inception of this program, more than 131 million pounds of food have been donated, which is the equivalent of more than 100 million meals.

我國有八分之一的家庭無法持續獲得食物。為了幫助抗擊飢餓，我們的餐廳全年每周向當地食品銀行和社區的非營利組織捐贈新鮮、未使用的食物。自該計劃啟動以來，已捐贈了超過 1.31 億磅的食物，相當於 1 億多頓飯。

The impact of our harvest program takes on added significance during the holidays. And I am delighted that our teams are helping to make a difference in some of the communities across the country. I'm so proud of the focus and commitment our teams continue to display. Their disciplined approach in executing on our strategy is what enables us to succeed regardless of the operating environment. This is evidenced by the fact that just last week, we surpassed $10 billion in sales on a trailing 52-week basis for the first time in Darden's history.

我們收穫計劃的影響在假期期間變得更加重要。我很高興我們的團隊正在幫助改變全國的一些社區。我為我們的團隊繼續表現出的專注和承諾感到自豪。他們在執行我們的戰略時採用的紀律嚴明的方法使我們無論在何種運營環境下都能取得成功。事實證明，就在上週，我們的銷售額連續 52 週超過 100 億美元，這在 Darden 的歷史上是第一次。

On behalf of our senior leadership team and the Board of Directors, I want to thank our 180,000 team members for everything you do to serve our guests and our communities. I wish you all a wonderful holiday season. Now I'll turn it over to Raj.

我謹代表我們的高級領導團隊和董事會，感謝我們的 180,000 名團隊成員為服務賓客和社區所做的一切。祝大家度過一個愉快的假期。現在我將把它交給 Raj。

Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. Total sales for the first quarter were $2.5 billion, 9.4% higher than last year, driven by 7.3% same-restaurant sales growth along with the addition of 35 net new restaurants. This same-restaurant sales performance outperformed -- outpaced the industry by 370 basis points and our same-restaurant guest counts are performed even more as they exceeded the industry benchmark by 550 basis points. Diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were $1.52, an increase of 2.7% above last year.

謝謝你，里克，大家早上好。第一季度的總銷售額為 25 億美元，比去年同期增長 9.4%，這得益於 7.3% 的同店銷售額增長以及 35 家淨新餐廳的增加。同一家餐廳的銷售業績表現出色——超過行業 370 個基點，我們的同一家餐廳的客人數量甚至超過行業基準 550 個基點。來自持續經營業務的每股攤薄淨收益為 1.52 美元，比去年增長 2.7%。

Total EBITDA was $330 million, and we returned $249 million of cash to our shareholders this quarter, consisting of $149 million in dividends and $100 million in share repurchases. Total pricing for the quarter was approximately 6.5%, 200 basis points below total inflation of roughly 8.5%.

EBITDA 總額為 3.3 億美元，本季度我們向股東返還了 2.49 億美元現金，其中包括 1.49 億美元的股息和 1 億美元的股票回購。本季度的總定價約為 6.5%，比大約 8.5% 的總通脹率低 200 個基點。

Now looking at the details of the P&L compared to last year, food and beverage expenses were 240 basis points higher, driven by commodities inflation of approximately 15%, which significantly outpaced our pricing. As we expected, chicken, dairy and grains continue to be categories experiencing the highest levels of inflation. Produce especially let us -- was much higher than expected due to poor growing conditions and weather-related events in the quarter. However, our scale and vendor partnerships help to minimize this impact relative to the general market.

現在查看損益表的詳細信息，與去年相比，食品和飲料費用增加了 240 個基點，這是受商品通脹率約 15% 的推動，這大大超過了我們的定價。正如我們預期的那樣，雞肉、奶製品和穀物仍然是通貨膨脹率最高的類別。由於本季度生長條件不佳和與天氣相關的事件，農產品尤其讓我們 - 遠高於預期。然而，我們的規模和供應商合作夥伴關係有助於最大限度地減少相對於一般市場的這種影響。

Restaurant labor was 30 basis points better than last year, even with total restaurant labor inflation of 7%. Our restaurants continue to run efficient labor despite hourly wage inflation of 8.5%. Restaurant expenses were 20 basis points favorable as we leveraged higher sales that more than offset elevated inflation on utilities as well as higher repairs and maintenance expense.

餐廳勞動力比去年高出 30 個基點，即使餐廳勞動力總通脹率為 7%。儘管每小時工資上漲了 8.5%，但我們的餐廳仍在繼續高效工作。餐廳費用有利 20 個基點，因為我們利用更高的銷售額抵消了公用事業通脹上升以及更高的維修和維護費用。

Marketing expenses were 30 basis points higher than last year as we increased media support for the reintroduction of Never Ending Pasta Bowl. This was in line with our expectations heading into the quarter. G&A expenses were 40 basis points below last year, driven by sales leverage and a lower incentive accrual, which was in line with our plan. This favorability was partially offset by higher mark-to-market expense on our deferred compensation.

由於我們增加了媒體對重新推出 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 的支持，營銷費用比去年高出 30 個基點。這符合我們進入本季度的預期。 G&A 費用比去年低 40 個基點，這是受銷售槓桿和較低的應計激勵激勵的推動，這符合我們的計劃。我們的遞延薪酬按市值計價的費用較高，部分抵消了這種優惠。

And as a reminder, due to the way we hedge this expense, this favorability is largely offset on the tax line. Page 13 of our presentation illustrates the roughly 20 basis point reduction to operating income -- income from mark-to-market expense and the 150 basis point benefit to the tax rate. The effective tax rate of 12.1% this quarter would have been 13.6% without the impact from the hedge.

提醒一下，由於我們對沖這筆費用的方式，這種優惠在很大程度上被稅收抵消了。我們演示文稿的第 13 頁說明了營業收入減少了大約 20 個基點——按市值計算的費用收入和稅率的 150 個基點收益。如果沒有對沖的影響，本季度 12.1% 的有效稅率將為 13.6%。

Now looking at our margin performance versus pre-COVID, we grew operating income margin by 160 basis points, while underpricing inflation by more than 500 basis points. Increased food and beverage costs were more than offset by improved productivity, reduced marketing and other cost savings initiatives.

現在看看我們的利潤率表現與 COVID 之前相比，我們將營業收入利潤率提高了 160 個基點，同時將通貨膨脹率低估了 500 多個基點。增加的食品和飲料成本被提高的生產力、減少的營銷和其他成本節約舉措所抵消。

Looking at our segment performance. All of our segments significantly outperformed their respective industry benchmarks on both traffic and sales. Sales at Olive Garden were 9.2% above last year driven by same-restaurant sales of 7.6%. Average weekly sales at Olive Garden were 112% of the pre-COVID level. LongHorn sales were 9.7% above last year with same-restaurant sales growth of 7.3%. Average weekly sales at LongHorn were 125% of the pre-COVID level.

看看我們的細分市場表現。我們所有的細分市場在流量和銷售額方面都顯著優於各自的行業基準。受同店銷售額 7.6% 的推動，Olive Garden 的銷售額比去年增長 9.2%。 Olive Garden 的平均每週銷售額是 COVID 前水平的 112%。 LongHorn 銷售額比去年增長 9.7%，同店銷售額增長 7.3%。 LongHorn 的平均每週銷售額是 COVID 前水平的 125%。

Sales in our Fine Dining segment were 7% above last year, driven by same-restaurant sales of 5.9% and average sales -- weekly sales were 117% of the pre-COVID level. Our other segment sales were 10.5% above last year, with same-restaurant sales of 7.1% and average weekly sales were 109% of the pre-COVID level.

我們高級餐飲部門的銷售額比去年增長 7%，這得益於同店銷售額 5.9% 和平均銷售額——每週銷售額是 COVID 前水平的 117%。我們其他部門的銷售額比去年增長 10.5%，同店銷售額為 7.1%，平均每週銷售額為 COVID 前水平的 109%。

Turning to our financial outlook for fiscal 2023. We have updated our guidance to reflect our year-to-date results and expectations for the back half of the year. We now expect total sales of $10.3 billion to $10.45 billion, same-restaurant sales growth of 5% to 6.5%, 55 to 60 new restaurants, capital spending of $525 million to $575 million, total inflation of approximately 7%, and we plan to continue underpricing total inflation with annual pricing of approximately 6%.

談到我們對 2023 財年的財務展望。我們更新了我們的指導意見，以反映我們年初至今的業績和對下半年的預期。我們現在預計總銷售額為 103 億美元至 104.5 億美元，同店銷售額增長 5% 至 6.5%，新餐廳 55 至 60 家，資本支出為 5.25 億美元至 5.75 億美元，總通貨膨脹率約為 7%，我們計劃繼續低估總通貨膨脹率，年定價約為 6%。

Furthermore, we expect commodities inflation between 8% and 9%. An annual effective tax rate of approximately 13% and approximately 123 million diluted average shares outstanding for the year, all resulting in diluted net earnings per share between $7.60 and $8.

此外，我們預計大宗商品通脹率在 8% 至 9% 之間。年度有效稅率約為 13%，年度稀釋平均流通股約為 1.23 億股，所有這些均導致每股稀釋淨收益在 7.60 美元至 8 美元之間。

Looking at the third and fourth quarters, we expect the EPS growth rate year-over-year to be fairly balanced. In the third quarter, we estimate the outsized sales growth from lapping Omicron last year to be partially offset by underpricing inflation by approximately 50 basis points.

展望第三和第四季度，我們預計 EPS 同比增長率將相當平衡。在第三季度，我們估計去年研磨 Omicron 的超額銷售增長將被抑制通貨膨脹約 50 個基點部分抵消。

In the fourth quarter, we expect inflation to further moderate on our pricing gap drivers contributing to margin growth. Now to wrap up, let me say that we're very pleased with how our teams are managing their businesses and delivering strong results. We remain disciplined in adhering to our strategy and providing value to our guests in the face of strong inflation. We're confident in the underlying strength of our business model and our team's ability to continue managing through this unpredictable environment effectively.

在第四季度，我們預計通貨膨脹將進一步緩和我們有助於利潤率增長的定價差距驅動因素。現在總結一下，讓我說我們對我們的團隊如何管理他們的業務並取得強勁成果感到非常滿意。面對強勁的通貨膨脹，我們仍然堅持我們的戰略並為我們的客人提供價值。我們對我們業務模式的潛在優勢以及我們的團隊在這種不可預測的環境中繼續有效管理的能力充滿信心。

Now we will open it up for questions.

現在我們將打開它來提問。

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Eric Gonzalez with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們將從 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Eric Gonzalez 那裡回答我們的第一個問題。

Just a real quick one on the promotional strategy. I think you said that Never Ending Pasta Bowl will be the only LTO that you run this year. But you also brought back that $6 take home offer, which I'm guessing you would consider to be an LTO. But -- so maybe you could talk about your expectations for that offer? Because if I remember correctly, that was a fairly strong comp growth driver in the past.

只是一個關於促銷策略的真正快速的。我想你說過 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 將是你今年運行的唯一 LTO。但是您還帶回了 6 美元的帶回家報價，我猜您會認為這是 LTO。但是——所以也許你可以談談你對該提議的期望？因為如果我沒記錯的話，那在過去是一個相當強大的 comp 增長動力。

Eric, thanks for the question. Never Ending Pasta Bowl, we said in our prepared remarks is maybe the only limited time offer -- likely only been a limited time offer. As you talk about the $6 take home, that's on our core menu. So it's not considered limited time, it's on our menu. But for competitive reasons, we're not going to discuss any more promotional plan details. And so we're going to continue to use our filters that we mentioned, first, elevating brand equity by bringing the brand's competitive advantages to live; second, simple to execute; and third, not at a deep discount.

埃里克，謝謝你的提問。 Never Ending Pasta Bowl，我們在準備好的評論中說過，這可能是唯一的限時優惠——可能只是限時優惠。當您談論 6 美元帶回家時，那是我們的核心菜單。所以它不被認為是限時的，它在我們的菜單上。但出於競爭原因，我們不會再討論任何促銷計劃細節。因此，我們將繼續使用我們提到的過濾器，首先，通過發揮品牌的競爭優勢來提升品牌資產；第二，執行簡單；第三，折扣不多。

As you'll probably see on a TV today, we're currently airing our Oven Baked Pastas, which are core menu items for us. So they're not a limited time offer, and it includes our new Ravioli Carbonara, none of these items are discounted. So we're going to stick to our strategy, as Raj said, core growth, core discount growth, and we're going to react accordingly.

正如您今天可能會在電視上看到的那樣，我們目前正在播放我們的烤箱烤意大利面，這是我們的核心菜單項。所以它們不是限時優惠，它包括我們新推出的 Ravioli Carbonara，這些商品都沒有打折。因此，正如 Raj 所說，我們將堅持我們的戰略，核心增長，核心折扣增長，我們將做出相應的反應。

And then just on the marketing spend, do you still expect to be in that 1% to maybe 1.5% range for the year?

然後就營銷支出而言，您是否仍預計今年會在 1% 到 1.5% 的範圍內？

Yes, Eric, we're going to be close. I think that as we said, it should be close to 1% and we said 10 to 20 basis points above last year. That's how we think about it.

是的，埃里克，我們會很接近。我認為正如我們所說，它應該接近 1%，我們說比去年高 10 到 20 個基點。我們就是這麼想的。

We'll take our next question from Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer & Co.

我們將接受 Oppenheimer & Co 的 Brian Bittner 的下一個問題。

Congratulations on strong results. Question on Olive Garden also. The underlying same-store sales this quarter showed a clear inflection versus the last few quarters, and particularly relative to the other brands, the 3-year comp accelerated to above 11%. And how much of this dynamic would you attribute directly to bringing back net earning possible at the strong price point you did in -- and how much would you attribute to other factors? And do you believe this kind of underlying trend on a 3-year basis is sustainable? Or should we be tiny modeling a more conservative 3-year term moving forward for Olive Garden?

祝賀你取得了優異的成績。還有關於橄欖園的問題。本季度的基本同店銷售額與過去幾個季度相比出現了明顯的變化，尤其是與其他品牌相比，3 年期銷售額增長超過 11%。您會將這種動態在多大程度上直接歸因於在您所做的強勁價格點上可能帶來的淨收益 - 您將在多大程度上歸因於其他因素？您認為這種 3 年的潛在趨勢是可持續的嗎？或者我們應該為 Olive Garden 制定一個更保守的 3 年任期模型嗎？

Yes, Brian. First, let me say how proud I am with the work Dan and his team have done working on keeping with our strategy at Olive Garden. As we mentioned in our prepared remarks, Olive Garden already had a positive gap in same-restaurant sales to the industry before Never Ending Pasta Bowl, and that gap increased when we brought Never Ending Pasta Bowl back for 7 weeks. So it ran about half of the quarter. We're not going to kind of talk about how much Never Ending Pasta Bowl contributed to the quarter, but it was a good jump for us.

是的，布萊恩。首先，讓我說我對 Dan 和他的團隊為保持我們在 Olive Garden 的戰略所做的工作感到自豪。正如我們在準備好的評論中提到的，在 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 之前，Olive Garden 在同家餐廳的銷售額方面已經存在正向差距，而當我們將 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 帶回 7 週後，這一差距進一步擴大。所以它運行了大約一半的季度。我們不會談論 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 對本季度的貢獻有多大，但這對我們來說是一個很好的飛躍。

And so as we think about the rest of the year, our guidance contemplates continued strength in Olive Garden, but probably not at the strength that we had for Never Ending Pasta Bowl. Remember, this is an iconic limited time offer, uniquely positioned, and it covers all 3 filters that we mentioned. And as I said in our prepared remarks, we have exceeded our expectations.

因此，當我們考慮今年剩下的時間時，我們的指導考慮了橄欖園的持續實力，但可能沒有我們在 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 中擁有的實力。請記住，這是一個標誌性的限時優惠，定位獨特，涵蓋了我們提到的所有 3 個過濾器。正如我在準備好的發言中所說，我們超出了我們的預期。

So -- and that's a pretty pleasant surprise for us. If you think about given the higher price point, the lower media support, but it does speak to how iconic that brand offer is and the things that Olive Garden brings in such a compelling way. And then finally, we haven't run in 3 years. So guests were really excited for the return, and it fits really well in our second quarter.

所以 - 這對我們來說是一個非常愉快的驚喜。如果你考慮到更高的價格點，更低的媒體支持，但它確實說明了該品牌提供的標誌性產品以及 Olive Garden 以如此引人注目的方式帶來的東西。最後，我們已經 3 年沒有跑步了。所以客人們對回歸感到非常興奮，它非常適合我們的第二季度。

So if you think about our lowest volume quarter of the year is second quarter, Never Ending Pasta Bowl helps keep our traffic a little bit higher so that we don't have to think about bringing team members hours down and then bringing team members back when the holidays go up. So we really were appreciative and we really love with the work that Olive Garden did and where Never Ending Pasta Bowl was. But not to say that our 3-year stack is going to stay the same as it did in Q2.

因此，如果您認為我們今年銷量最低的季度是第二季度，Never Ending Pasta Bowl 有助於保持我們的流量稍微高一點，這樣我們就不必考慮減少團隊成員的工作時間，然後再讓團隊成員回來假期上去了。所以我們真的很感激，我們真的很喜歡 Olive Garden 所做的工作以及 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 所在的地方。但並不是說我們的 3 年堆棧將與第二季度保持一致。

And Rick, just more broadly, just you have a seat where you get to witness the consumer across multiple different brands. You have one of the best seats to kind of see how the consumer is behaving. There's obviously a lot of cross currents out there, and there's a lot of different views on where the consumer is going into calendar 2023. Can you just maybe describe your view of the consumer and how you're feeling about the overall consumer into '23 and maybe some puts and takes?

而里克，更廣泛地說，你有一個座位，你可以見證多個不同品牌的消費者。您擁有最好的座位之一，可以了解消費者的行為方式。顯然存在很多分歧，並且對於消費者進入 2023 年日曆的方向有很多不同的看法。您能否描述一下您對消費者的看法以及您對 23 年整體消費者的看法也許還有一些投入和投入？

Yes, Brian, I won't necessarily talk about 23. I'll just talk about what we're seeing, not being an economist, I listen to what they have to say. But as you all know, everybody on this call knows, consumer spending drives the U.S. economy. The -- we've seen a shift in spending though, from durable household goods or durable goods to leisure services, and the restaurant industry has benefited from that shift. Casual Dining same-restaurant sales improved from Q1 to Q2 and our positive gap to the industry improved even more during that time.

是的，布賴恩，我不一定要談論 23。我只是談論我們所看到的，不是經濟學家，我聽他們說什麼。但眾所周知，參加本次電話會議的每個人都知道，消費者支出推動著美國經濟。不過，我們已經看到了支出的轉變，從耐用家居用品或耐用品轉向休閒服務，而餐飲業已從這種轉變中受益。休閒餐飲同店銷售額從第一季度到第二季度都有所改善，我們與行業的正差距在此期間進一步縮小。

So one of the benefits of our portfolio, as you mentioned, is we have a wide range of consumers. We serve a lot of them all across all of the spectrum. And our data indicates the higher-end consumer hasn't seen the same impact as consumers at the lower end of the spectrum. But if you think about the prepared remarks, sales at Thanksgiving were a record for Fine Dining and Seasons 52 and bookings for this holiday season are encouraging.

因此，正如您提到的，我們產品組合的好處之一是我們擁有廣泛的消費者。我們為各個領域的很多人提供服務。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。但是，如果您考慮一下準備好的評論，感恩節的銷售額是 Fine Dining 和 Seasons 52 的創紀錄水平，而且這個假期的預訂量令人鼓舞。

So it seems like the higher end consumer is doing pretty well. And I know there's been a lot of talk over the year about consumers that's below $50,000 in income because high inflation impacts that consumer more disproportionately, but we've seen a little softness in that consumer over the last 6 months, but the mix of the $50,000 income and under is still above pre-COVID levels for us.

因此，高端消費者似乎表現不錯。而且我知道這一年有很多關於收入低於 50,000 美元的消費者的討論，因為高通脹對消費者的影響更大，但我們在過去 6 個月中看到該消費者略有疲軟，但混合50,000 美元及以下的收入對我們來說仍然高於 COVID 之前的水平。

Even though that shift has come down a little bit, we're still above pre-COVID levels at the $50,000 and below. And I would say, keep in mind that a lot of our consumers below $50,000 are single, are retirees are living in multigenerational households. So maybe $50,000 goes a little bit farther for that consumer.

儘管這種轉變有所下降，但我們仍高於 COVID 前的水平，即 50,000 美元及以下。我要說的是，請記住，我們的許多低於 50,000 美元的消費者都是單身，退休人員生活在多代家庭中。因此，對於該消費者來說，50,000 美元可能會更進一步。

But without commenting on the future, we have seen a pretty good performance across all of those consumers over the last few months other than the fact that the $50,000 below consumer is lower than it was 6 months ago, but still higher than it was pre-COVID.

但在不評論未來的情況下，我們看到過去幾個月所有這些消費者的表現都相當不錯，除了低於 50,000 美元的消費者低於 6 個月前的水平，但仍高於之前的水平。冠狀病毒。

We'll take our next question from Andrew Charles of Cowen.

我們將從 Cowen 的 Andrew Charles 那裡回答下一個問題。

Great. Notwithstanding the strong 2Q performance and the higher fiscal 2023 guidance, but if we were to see some macro deterioration impact the industry in fiscal 2020 -- your calendar 2023, excuse me, what's kind of the pecking order or your preference of magnitude of how you'd respond to that? Should we expect perhaps a tighter like tighten of the belt and just more of a focus on reducing overhead? Will we expect you guys to potentially invest more in the marketing, potentially invest more to value. How do you think about the contingency plan if we were to see some deterioration in calendar 2023?

偉大的。儘管第二季度表現強勁且 2023 財年指引更高，但如果我們看到一些宏觀惡化影響了 2020 財年的行業——你的 2023 年日曆，請問一下，啄食順序是什麼，或者你對程度的偏好如何會回應嗎？我們是否應該期望收緊腰帶，更專注於減少開銷？我們是否希望你們有可能在營銷上投入更多，可能在價值上投入更多。如果我們看到 2023 日曆年出現一些惡化，您如何看待應急計劃？

Andrew. This is Rick again. If we see deterioration in the calendar 2023, we always look at ways to tighten and find ways to improve productivity and improve our administrative expenses. We think we're actually really good at doing that. So if something gets really -- shifts really badly in the wrong way, we're going to find ways to at least find places to tighten.

安德魯。這又是里克。如果我們看到 2023 年的情況惡化，我們總是想方設法收緊並找到提高生產力和減少行政開支的方法。我們認為我們實際上非常擅長這樣做。因此，如果某些事情真的——以錯誤的方式嚴重轉變，我們將想方設法至少找到收緊的地方。

On the marketing spend, Raj talked about what our marketing spend is for the rest of this year and for the whole year. We don't anticipate making a big change in that no matter what happens over the next 6 months. We're going to continue to use the filters that we mentioned. And I will say Olive Garden, as I said before, we'll always have advertising in their mix because of their scale. But we're going to stick to our strategy of core growth. We're going to react accordingly to whatever happens. And as we've said in the past, and Raj said it too, if and when we increase our marketing spend, we'll expect it to return -- to earn a return compared to what it would have been without the spend.

關於營銷支出，Raj 談到了我們今年剩餘時間和全年的營銷支出。無論未來 6 個月發生什麼，我們都預計不會對此做出重大改變。我們將繼續使用我們提到的過濾器。我會說 Olive Garden，正如我之前所說，由於其規模，我們將始終在他們的組合中投放廣告。但我們將堅持我們的核心增長戰略。無論發生什麼，我們都會做出相應的反應。正如我們過去所說，Raj 也說過，如果我們增加營銷支出，當我們增加營銷支出時，我們會期望它會回報——與沒有支出的情況相比獲得回報。

So we're going to -- as you've seen us in the past, we react when things happen, and we think we'll do the same thing going forward.

所以我們將——正如你過去看到的那樣，當事情發生時我們會做出反應，我們認為我們會在未來做同樣的事情。

Very helpful. And if I could sneak one into Raj, which of the small step hire in CapEx guidance as you maintain new store openings? Is that construction costs were perhaps running a bit higher than expected, there are some incremental investments in technology or something else we should be thinking about?

非常有幫助。如果我能偷偷摸摸地進入 Raj，那麼在您維持新店開業時，CapEx 指南中的哪一小步僱傭？建設成本是否可能比預期的要高一些，是否有一些增量投資技術或其他我們應該考慮的事情？

It's truly inflation on the construction costs and some equipment costs as well. So it's really -- a lot of it is new restaurant related. Some is on the -- even on the facilities CapEx, there's a little bit higher inflation.

這確實是建築成本和一些設備成本的通貨膨脹。所以它真的 - 很多都與新餐廳有關。有些是 - 即使在設施資本支出方面，通貨膨脹率也略高。

We'll take our next question from David Palmer with Evercore ISI.

我們將接受來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Palmer 的下一個問題。

Just a question on traffic, particularly on-premise. If you look at the industry numbers, on-premise traffic is down double digits for Casual Dining. And even Olive Garden is not back to where it was. I wonder how that informs your strategy? Do you feel like that's an opportunity? Or you just have to be patient, particularly with some lapsed users, maybe that under 75,000 household income user but maybe this isn't something you want to chase either. So I'm wondering how you view that as opportunity that informs the strategy.

只是關於流量的問題，尤其是內部部署。如果您查看行業數據，Casual Dining 的本地流量下降了兩位數。甚至橄欖園也沒有回到原來的位置。我想知道這如何影響您的策略？你覺得這是一個機會嗎？或者你只需要耐心等待，特別是對於一些流失的用戶，也許是家庭收入低於 75,000 的用戶，但也許這也不是你想要追逐的東西。所以我想知道你如何將其視為為戰略提供信息的機會。

David, if you think about what we've done over the last few years, we have significantly reduced marketing spending at Olive Garden. And we've talked in the past at how that could be about a 10-point drop in traffic for us. But we're focusing on driving core users to Olive Garden, core gas versus promotional users. And so what we see as an opportunity, we've got more capacity in our restaurants than we did before. But a lot of that in-restaurant experience has moved to the off-premise experience. As you see Olive Garden still at 25% off-premise where prior to COVID, it was much lower than that.

大衛，如果你想想過去幾年我們所做的事情，我們已經大大減少了 Olive Garden 的營銷支出。我們過去曾討論過這對我們來說可能會導致流量下降 10 個百分點。但我們專注於將核心用戶吸引到 Olive Garden，核心用戶與促銷用戶。所以我們認為這是一個機會，我們的餐廳比以前有更多的容量。但是很多餐廳內體驗已經轉移到場外體驗。如您所見，Olive Garden 在 COVID 之前仍處於 25% 的場外銷售，遠低於此。

So we see it as an opportunity to continue to focus on our strategy of pricing below our competition, pricing below inflation by finding other cost savings to help offset that and give our consumers a great value so they don't need a promotional message to come in and they just get a great value every time they come.

因此，我們將其視為一個機會，可以繼續專注於我們的定價低於競爭對手的戰略，通過尋找其他成本節約來幫助抵消通脹，並為我們的消費者提供巨大的價值，使他們不需要促銷信息來定價低於通貨膨脹他們每次來都會獲得很大的價值。

Actually, on your slide deck, I just had a quick question on Slide 20. Your food inflation outlook looks like it's less inflationary on many of those line items, beef, chicken, dairy oil versus what you had previously, but your food inflation outlook is still the same at 7%. Is there some offset to what we're seeing? And I'll pass it on.

實際上，在你的幻燈片上，我只是對幻燈片 20 提出了一個快速問題。你的食品通脹前景看起來與你之前的食品通脹前景相比，牛肉、雞肉、乳製品中的許多項目的通脹都較低，但你的食品通脹前景仍然是 7%。我們所看到的有一些抵消嗎？我會把它傳遞下去。

Yes, David, it's really the fact that last 2 quarters were 15% was in the first quarter, second quarter was 13%. So as you look at the back half, really, Q3, we're thinking it's going to be mid- to high single digits and then Q4 is closer to flat. So if you do that, what that translates into on the year is closer to that 8% to 9% is what that's really the difference. I think when we spoke the last time, we expected a step change from the first half to the second half. And we are seeing that.

是的，大衛，事實上，最近兩個季度第一季度為 15%，第二季度為 13%。所以當你看後半部分時，真的，第三季度，我們認為它將是中高個位數，然後第四季度接近持平。因此，如果你這樣做，那一年轉化為更接近 8% 到 9% 的才是真正的區別。我想當我們上次發言時，我們預計從上半場到下半場會有一個階梯式的變化。我們正在看到這一點。

However, it's not as big as we thought. It's still a pretty big change. I mean, as I just mentioned, we're going from mid-teens to high single -- mid- to high single digits as we get into Q3 and close it to flat for Q4. So pretty big change, but there were a few -- there are a few items that are higher than we would have expected, namely dairy, grains and produce, and quite a bit of this is weather-related and so that's actually baked into our expectations going forward.

然而，它並沒有我們想像的那麼大。這仍然是一個相當大的變化。我的意思是，正如我剛才提到的，當我們進入第三季度並在第四季度接近持平時，我們將從十幾歲到高個位數——中到高個位數。變化很大，但也有一些——有一些比我們預期的要高，即乳製品、穀物和農產品，其中相當一部分與天氣有關，所以這實際上融入了我們的預期對未來的期望。

Our next question comes from Jared Garber with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 Jared Garber。

Great. I think this was the first quarter that we've seen or the largest quarter of opens at Cheddar's and maybe several years. So I just wanted to get a sense of an update on the brand. I know it's a little bit of a lower income skew there as well. So maybe some commentary on the performance there and what you're seeing from a customer standpoint and if there's anything in terms of regionality where these new units were opened. Just any update on the brand would be great.

偉大的。我認為這是我們見過的第一個季度，或者是 Cheddar's 開業的最大季度，也許是幾年以來的最大季度。所以我只是想了解一下品牌的更新。我知道那裡的收入也有一點偏低。因此，也許可以對那裡的表現以及您從客戶的角度看到的內容進行一些評論，以及在開設這些新單位的區域性方面是否有任何內容。品牌的任何更新都會很棒。

Jared, let me talk high level about Cheddar and talk a little bit about the opening. Cheddar's has made significant improvements in their business model versus pre-COVID, even with significant inflation, they had a lot of productivity enhancements with the simplified menu and a streamlined menu so that we felt more comfortable opening restaurants at a quicker pace. Not only that, they have really built their leadership pipeline and have been able to staff all of these restaurants with managing partners that have run Cheddar's, and we have a pipeline of more ready to go as we open restaurants. So yes, this was our highest quarter of openings for Cheddar's. We opened 7 restaurants also...

Jared，讓我談談切達干酪的高層次，並談談開場白。與 COVID 之前相比，Cheddar's 在他們的商業模式上取得了重大改進，即使通貨膨脹顯著，他們通過簡化菜單和流線型菜單提高了很多生產力，讓我們感覺更舒適地以更快的速度開餐廳。不僅如此，他們還真正建立了自己的領導梯隊，並能夠為所有這些餐廳配備經營切達干酪的管理合夥人，而且隨著我們開設餐廳，我們還有更多準備就緒的梯隊。所以是的，這是我們 Cheddar's 的最高季度空缺。我們還開了 7 家餐廳……

Versus last year.

與去年相比。

Yes, versus last year. We had 7 restaurants versus last year at Cheddar's 4 in the quarter. And we -- those restaurants are performing really well. So they're primarily in markets close to where Cheddar's already exists. It's not like we're -- we have a lot of restaurants opening in brand-new markets. But we are looking at newer markets to open Cheddar's in. But as we mentioned early on in the acquisition of Cheddar's, we thought we had more room to infill markets that they already have restaurants. So that helps us leverage our scale in those markets that helps us leverage our supply chain and our people.

是的，與去年相比。與去年相比，本季度我們有 7 家餐廳，Cheddar's 4 家。而我們——那些餐廳的表現非常好。所以他們主要在切達干酪已經存在的地方附近的市場。這不像我們——我們有很多餐館在全新的市場開業。但是我們正在尋找新的市場來打開 Cheddar's。但是正如我們在收購 Cheddar's 的早期提到的那樣，我們認為我們有更多的空間來填充他們已經擁有餐廳的市場。因此，這有助於我們利用我們在這些市場中的規模，幫助我們利用我們的供應鍊和我們的員工。

But again, high level, really proud of the work that JW and his team have done at Cheddar's, really proud of the progress they've made in staffing their restaurants, building their pipeline, and we're seeing some pretty strong performance in these new restaurants.

但是，高水平，真的為 JW 和他的團隊在 Cheddar's 所做的工作感到自豪，為他們在餐廳人員配備、管道建設方面取得的進步感到非常自豪，我們在這些方面看到了一些非常強勁的表現新餐廳。

Our next question comes from Brian Harbour of Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的布賴恩港。

Maybe just to follow up quickly on the commodity comments. Do you see any kind of risk to the second half just based on some of those items that are -- have kind of surprised to the upside recently? Or are those things that can't necessarily be contracted? How do you feel about that at this point?

也許只是為了快速跟進商品評論。你是否認為下半年有任何風險只是基於其中一些項目 - 最近有點令人驚訝？又或者是那些不一定能承包的東西？你現在對此有何感想？

Yes, Brian. I think there's always risk. As you think about, that's why we have a range of 8% to 9% as our assumption going in. We'll have to see how this plays out, right? I mean some of the stuff, like I have mentioned earlier in my prepared remarks, Q2, the impact on product produce especially led us -- no one expected that. It came out of nowhere. It was weather-related. There were 2 hurricanes and Florida, 2 hurricanes in Mexico, they just really destroyed the crops. And that cycle stuff is always a risk. We contemplated some of that in our guidance.

是的，布萊恩。我認為風險總是存在的。正如您所想，這就是為什麼我們的假設範圍為 8% 到 9%。我們必須看看結果如何，對吧？我的意思是有些東西，就像我之前在準備好的評論 Q2 中提到的那樣，對產品生產的影響尤其導致我們——沒有人預料到這一點。它不知從何而來。這與天氣有關。佛羅里達州有 2 次颶風，墨西哥有 2 次颶風，它們真的摧毀了莊稼。循環的東西總是有風險的。我們在指南中考慮了其中的一些內容。

Okay. And then you really made the comment about just sharing some of the lessons from Never Ending Pasta Bowl at your other brands. What are you thinking about there? Is it kind of a change to promotional architecture? Or are there things you're not doing at some of those brands that you could be doing to kind of echo Never Ending Pasta Bowl?

好的。然後你真的發表了評論，只是在你的其他品牌上分享了 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 的一些經驗教訓。你在想什麼？這是對促銷架構的一種改變嗎？或者，您是否可以在其中一些品牌中做一些您沒有做的事情來回應 Never Ending Pasta Bowl？

Yes. As you think about Never Ending Pasta Bowl, there were other things that we did during that time. We did a little bit more digital testing and those kind of things that we can leverage across our brands. But more importantly, those filters that we use on what we're going to communicate. We're very strong and helped our brand -- helped Olive Garden continue to build their business, elevating brand equity, very important, and we've learned that, simplified the offer. We've learned that and not be at a deep discount.

是的。當您想到 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 時，我們在那段時間還做了其他事情。我們做了更多的數字測試以及我們可以在我們的品牌中利用的那些東西。但更重要的是，我們在要交流的內容上使用的那些過濾器。我們非常強大並幫助我們的品牌——幫助 Olive Garden 繼續建立他們的業務，提升品牌資產，這非常重要，我們已經了解到，簡化了報價。我們已經了解到這一點，並且不會大打折扣。

So all the investments we've made over the last few years to price below what the consumers are seeing in inflation means that we don't have to really go into the deep discounting range. The Never Ending Pasta Bowl was $3 more expensive than it was in the past, and it was still a strong promotion for us. But that's not to say that everybody is going to be on television now, right? So Olive Garden is the one that has the real scale to be on television. The other brands have learned things about the digital testing that we did and just the fact of the construct of the promotion.

因此，我們在過去幾年中為使價格低於消費者在通貨膨脹中看到的價格而進行的所有投資意味著我們不必真正進入大幅折扣範圍。 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 比過去貴了 3 美元，但對我們來說仍然是一個強有力的促銷活動。但這並不是說現在每個人都會上電視，對吧？所以 Olive Garden 是真正有規模的電視劇。其他品牌已經了解了我們所做的數字測試以及促銷結構的事實。

Our next question comes from David Tarantino of Baird (sic) [Robert W. Baird].

我們的下一個問題來自 Baird (sic) [Robert W. Baird] 的 David Tarantino。

My question is on unit development and your comment, Raj, about construction costs escalating. And I just wondered if you could comment specifically on the returns you're getting on the recent openings or the expected returns you're getting on your upcoming openings? I know there's a lot of moving parts and I guess the main question is, is the numerator of the return equation keeping up with the escalation in the denominator? And are you seeing similar returns? Or are you getting to a point where the returns are starting to come down? Any color there would be great.

我的問題是關於單元開發和你的評論，Raj，關於建築成本不斷上升。我只是想知道您是否可以具體評論您在最近的空缺職位上獲得的回報或您在即將到來的空缺職位上獲得的預期回報？我知道有很多活動部件，我想主要問題是，回報方程式的分子是否跟上分母的升級？你看到類似的回報嗎？還是您已經到了回報率開始下降的地步？任何顏色都會很棒。

Yes, David, let me start by saying pretty much on average. Our new restaurants exceed cost of capital by quite a bit. We had a big margin to begin with. Now the construction costs have gone up, so have our unit economics. So if you look at overall performance of where we are, I just mentioned earlier, our operating income this quarter was 160 basis points higher than pre-COVID. So our 4-wall unit level economics have gotten better that helps mitigate some of the construction cost increases. Now with that said, we already -- we obviously want to continue to maintain the pace of opening. But we continue to monitor inflation in construction costs.

是的，大衛，讓我先從平均水平開始說起。我們的新餐廳大大超過了資本成本。我們一開始就有很大的優勢。現在建築成本上漲了，我們的單位經濟效益也上漲了。所以如果你看看我們的整體表現，我剛才提到過，我們本季度的營業收入比 COVID 之前高出 160 個基點。因此，我們的 4 牆單元級經濟性變得更好，有助於減輕一些建築成本的增加。話雖如此，我們已經——我們顯然希望繼續保持開放的步伐。但我們繼續監測建築成本的通貨膨脹。

And we are being very disciplined. There are a few times where we have walked away from some deals because the cost was too high even though that would have probably exceeded our cost of capital. We're just being a little bit more selective on that front. Now all that said, we're starting to see some green shoots on the construction side.

我們非常有紀律。有幾次我們放棄了一些交易，因為成本太高，即使這可能超過我們的資本成本。我們只是在這方面更具選擇性。話雖如此，我們開始在建築方面看到一些萌芽。

The last few bids, I think, were more closer to or below -- slightly below our elevated budget. But at least it's a positive sign. So we think there are -- there's some -- potentially this could lead to some decrease in the level of inflation over time.

我認為，最後幾個出價更接近或低於——略低於我們提高的預算。但至少這是一個積極的跡象。所以我們認為有——有一些——可能會導致通貨膨脹水平隨著時間的推移而有所下降。

Great. And I guess a follow-up to that is, are there projects going on inside the company to try to trim costs out of the box. I know -- I think a prior question commented, the dine-in traffic has been softer for the industry. Are you thinking about building smaller dining rooms or anything of that nature to get the cost equation down?

偉大的。我想接下來的事情是，公司內部是否正在進行一些項目來試圖削減開箱即用的成本。我知道——我認為之前有一個問題評論過，餐飲業的客流一直比較疲軟。您是否正在考慮建造更小的餐廳或任何類似的東西來降低成本？

David, as we think about our prototype designs for the future, we always look for ways to trim costs out of our prototypes and find new ways to build, the new materials to use. We have built some slightly smaller prototypes or -- at all of our brands, not necessarily because of the To Go versus the dining room but because it makes it To Go experience a little easier by shifting where that To Go area is.

大衛，當我們考慮未來的原型設計時，我們一直在尋找降低原型成本的方法，並找到新的構建方法和新材料。我們已經構建了一些稍微小一點的原型，或者——在我們所有的品牌中，不一定是因為 To Go 與餐廳相比，而是因為它通過改變 To Go 區域的位置，使 To Go 體驗更容易一些。

Remember, the dining room is the least expensive part of the building. right? So if you really want to take a lot of the cost out of the building, you got to take the cost out of the kitchen. And we think we've got a great kitchen, but we'll find ways to rightsize the prototypes for the market that they're in. without overcomplicating so that we have 50 different prototypes.

請記住，餐廳是建築物中最便宜的部分。正確的？所以如果你真的想從建築中減少很多成本，你就必須從廚房中減少成本。我們認為我們有一個很棒的廚房，但我們會找到適合他們所在市場的原型的方法。不會過於復雜，因此我們有 50 個不同的原型。

But we, as I said, our development team is focusing on finding the most efficient building in the markets that we compete in. We've also taken some existing sites as restaurants have closed or their leases have expired for other brands. we've actually gone in and infilled those restaurants, which are slightly less expensive because you don't have some of the framing costs and some of the plumbing. So it helps us in that respect.

但正如我所說，我們的開發團隊正專注於在我們競爭的市場中尋找最高效的建築。我們還拿走了一些現有的地點，因為餐館已經關閉，或者其他品牌的租約已經到期。我們實際上已經進入並填充了那些餐廳，這些餐廳稍微便宜一些，因為您沒有一些框架成本和一些管道成本。所以它在這方面對我們有幫助。

Our next question comes from Dennis Geiger with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Dennis Geiger。

Great. Curious as it relates to pricing, if you could speak a bit more to kind of what you've seen to date as it relates to the customer response to the pricing, obviously, with the strong sales trends, I'm assuming not a whole lot, but any thoughts with respect to resistance or customer feedback to pricing and how that impacts how you think about pricing going forward?

偉大的。很好奇，因為它與定價有關，如果你能多談談你迄今為止看到的與客戶對定價的反應有關的東西，顯然，隨著強勁的銷售趨勢，我假設不是一個整體很多，但是關於抵製或客戶對定價的反饋以及這如何影響您對未來定價的看法有什麼想法嗎？

Dennis, I think the reaction is not that dissimilar to historical meaning, we are getting a pretty decent flow-through from pricing north of 90%. And so really not seeing any major pushback. We haven't seen any moderation on the check mix. There have been things here and there where maybe advertiser pricing, we may not have gotten the exact level of flow-through. But overall, when you look big picture, it doesn't look like there's a lot of resistance. Now we are pricing a lot less than our competitors. So I don't know what is happening with the industry itself, but our pricing is well below the industry. And maybe that's part of what -- why we're not seeing a lot of existence.

丹尼斯，我認為反應與歷史意義並無太大不同，我們從 90% 以北的定價中獲得了相當不錯的流量。所以真的沒有看到任何重大的阻力。我們還沒有看到檢查組合有任何節制。有些事情可能是廣告商定價，我們可能沒有得到確切的流量水平。但總的來說，從大局來看，阻力似乎並不大。現在我們的定價比我們的競爭對手低很多。所以我不知道行業本身發生了什麼，但我們的定價遠低於行業。也許這就是為什麼我們沒有看到很多存在的部分原因。

Great. I appreciate that, Raj. And just one more. Just wondering if you could speak a bit more to the staffing situation and the execution in restaurant. I think very encouraging that you spoke to being fully staffed, manager staffing levels at all-time highs, feedback scores from the customers sounds strong. But as it relates to the level of execution currently versus the potential, is there anything with respect to maybe the 10-year of your average employee right now, may be shorter than pre-COVID that can build going forward? Anything there as it relates to where operations are now versus maybe where you would -- where they can go or where you'd like them to go.

偉大的。我很感激，拉吉。還有一個。只是想知道您是否可以多談談餐廳的人員配置情況和執行情況。我認為非常令人鼓舞的是，您談到人員配備齊全，經理人員配備水平處於歷史最高水平，客戶的反饋分數聽起來很高。但是，由於它涉及當前的執行水平與潛力，是否有關於您的普通員工現在的 10 年可能比未來可以建立的 COVID 之前更短的東西？那裡的任何東西，因為它與現在的運營地點和你可能去的地方有關——他們可以去哪裡，或者你希望他們去哪裡。

Dennis, we have a lower tenure today than we did before COVID because of the turnover over the time through COVID. Our turnover is still elevated from the pre-COVID levels, but it's getting better and it's getting -- we're working on getting it closer to what our pre-COVID turnover levels were. As we've mentioned in prior calls, our focus is on training our these new team members and getting them more efficient and getting them more productive. And as we continue to get our turnover levels down, that will continue to be a focus for us, also training our existing team members to make them better and give them more opportunities to learn and grow.

丹尼斯，我們今天的任期比 COVID 之前要短，因為 COVID 期間的營業額。我們的營業額仍然高於 COVID 之前的水平，但它正在變得更好，而且它正在——我們正在努力讓它更接近 COVID 之前的營業額水平。正如我們在之前的電話中提到的那樣，我們的重點是培訓這些新團隊成員，讓他們更有效率，讓他們更有成效。隨著我們繼續降低營業額水平，這將繼續成為我們關注的焦點，同時培訓我們現有的團隊成員，使他們變得更好，並為他們提供更多學習和成長的機會。

So we will continue to train. But your point on a slightly lower tenure that is true. And we think as our tenure gets back to more historical levels, which is going to take a little while. But as it does get back to historical levels, then we will improve our productivity slightly from there, too.

所以我們會繼續訓練。但是您關於任期略低的觀點是正確的。我們認為，隨著我們的任期回到更多的歷史水平，這需要一段時間。但隨著它確實回到歷史水平，我們也會從那里略微提高我們的生產力。

Our next question comes from Chris Carril of RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Chris Carril。

So clearly, a lot of focus on Olive Garden this morning, but I was hoping you could provide some more thoughts on LongHorn and just the continued momentum you're seeing there. Maybe just any thoughts on how the brand is performing relative to the category? And then just anything else you're seeing that's driving the continued strong sales there.

很明顯，今天早上很多人都關注 Olive Garden，但我希望你能提供更多關於 LongHorn 的想法，以及你在那裡看到的持續發展勢頭。也許只是對品牌相對於類別的表現有什麼想法？然後你看到的任何其他東西都在推動那裡持續強勁的銷售。

Yes, Chris. Todd and his team, as we've said in the past, have been on a journey investing in quality and portion and that continues to pay off. They had over 7% same-restaurant sales this quarter, coming off a very strong result last year, right? So it was a pretty strong performance for LongHorn. Raj mentioned average weekly sales for LongHorn at 25% above the pre-COVID levels. Now the state categories benefit over time, but LongHorn is holding their own in that state category. They're doing really well. I would say traffic, unlike most of Casual Dining traffic in the Longhorn dining room is up versus pre-COVID. And it's, I think, one of the only full-service restaurant companies out there that have positive traffic in the dining room of anybody of scale. So we're really proud of what they've done.

是的，克里斯。正如我們過去所說，托德和他的團隊一直在投資質量和份量，並繼續取得回報。他們本季度的同店銷售額超過 7%，去年的業績非常強勁，對吧？所以對於 LongHorn 來說，這是一個相當強勁的表現。 Raj 提到 LongHorn 的平均每週銷售額比 COVID 之前的水平高出 25%。現在各州類別隨著時間的推移而受益，但 LongHorn 在該州類別中保持著自己的地位。他們做得很好。我想說的是，與 COVID 之前相比，Longhorn 餐廳的大多數 Casual Dining 流量有所增加。我認為，它是唯一一家在任何規模的餐廳都有積極客流量的全方位服務餐廳公司之一。所以我們真的為他們所做的感到自豪。

Remember, they were on the journey of simplification before COVID. So they're ahead of everybody else in our portfolio on where they were. And so they didn't have to worry about kind of flushing out that promotion guest that already happened. So really proud of what they're doing. I will also say the state category in general is doing well because they've got a great value.

請記住，他們在 COVID 之前就在簡化過程中。因此，他們在我們的投資組合中領先於其他所有人。因此，他們不必擔心淘汰已經發生的促銷客人。為他們所做的事情感到非常自豪。我還要說的是，州類別總體上表現不錯，因為它們具有很高的價值。

The state category in general has a great value. If you think about what we put on the plate for the dollars you spend, the consumers know that. And so we're going to continue to provide a great value at LongHorn and at all of our brands, but particularly a LongHorn with the quality focus they've had, the simplicity that they've always had and the culture that Todd's building.

一般來說，狀態類別具有很大的價值。如果你想想我們用你花的錢把什麼放在盤子裡，消費者就知道了。因此，我們將繼續為 LongHorn 和我們所有的品牌提供巨大的價值，尤其是 LongHorn，他們一直專注於質量，他們一直擁有的簡單性和托德建立的文化。

Great. And then maybe just following up on the earlier comments around the consumer. Can you provide any more detail in terms of like what you're seeing regarding mix contribution to the comp any kind of trade up or trade down, any shifts in behavior there, if any?

偉大的。然後也許只是跟進圍繞消費者的早期評論。您能否提供更多詳細信息，例如您所看到的關於混合對補償的貢獻，任何類型的交易或交易，行為的任何轉變，如果有的話？

Yes, Chris. If you think about the mix, we're not going to comment as much about the mix impact to comp we did have a strong performance for Never Ending Pasta Bowl that helped our comp. But we're not seeing -- as Raj said earlier, we're not seeing a big check management. We're not seeing a lot of shifting in mix because we've got a very strategic way, methodical way we price. So that we don't get mix changes when we take price because we've learned this system over time, and it's a proprietary way we do it, we use it with our data scientists here. So we haven't seen a whole lot of mix shift. And as I said in the beginning, we've seen -- and the economy has seen a shift from good to services. So that could be why you haven't seen a whole lot of shift in mix in our business and maybe in other -- maybe in our competitors' businesses.

是的，克里斯。如果您考慮混音，我們不會過多評論混音對比賽的影響，我們確實在 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 中表現出色，這有助於我們的比賽。但我們沒有看到——正如 Raj 之前所說，我們沒有看到大支票管理。我們沒有看到很多組合變化，因為我們有一種非常戰略性的方式，我們有條不紊地定價。所以我們在定價時不會發生混合變化，因為我們已經隨著時間的推移學習了這個系統，這是我們這樣做的專有方式，我們在這裡與我們的數據科學家一起使用它。所以我們還沒有看到很多混合轉變。正如我一開始所說，我們已經看到——經濟已經從商品轉向服務。所以這可能就是為什麼你沒有看到我們業務以及其他業務——也許是我們競爭對手的業務——的組合發生很大變化的原因。

Our next question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的杰弗裡伯恩斯坦。

Great. Two questions. The first one just on the competitive outlook. I'm just wondering whether you've seen any change in competitive behavior. Again, you're obviously servicing all ends of the spectrum here. So just wondering what you're seeing from the competition. I know some are concerned of a potential uptick in discounting to drive traffic if commodity inflation were to continue to ease. I know that's contrary to your strategy, to make sure not to deep discount, but just wondering what you're seeing across the competitive landscape? And then I had one follow-up.

偉大的。兩個問題。第一個只是關於競爭前景。我只是想知道您是否看到競爭行為有任何變化。同樣，您顯然在這里為所有領域提供服務。所以只是想知道你從比賽中看到了什麼。我知道有些人擔心如果大宗商品通脹繼續緩和，折扣可能會增加以增加客流量。我知道這與您的策略相反，以確保不會大幅打折，但只是想知道您在整個競爭格局中看到了什麼？然後我進行了一次跟進。

Jeff, we haven't really seen a lot of deep discounting in the competitive landscape. There aren't many that are even on television. We've got one of the brands that had come off of TV over the years that have indicated they might come back on, but they're not talking about the deep discounting when they knew that. I think as Raj mentioned, our margins are above pre-COVID levels. I think we were maybe 1 of 2 companies in the public space that had improvement in margin versus pre-COVID. And most of them are talking about trying to improve their margins. So I'm not going to talk about what I think they'll do, but I'll get you back to what we're going to do.

傑夫，我們在競爭格局中並沒有真正看到很多深度折扣。甚至在電視上也沒有多少。我們有一個多年來從電視上消失的品牌，它們表示它們可能會重新出現，但當他們知道這一點時，他們並沒有談論大幅折扣。我認為正如 Raj 提到的那樣，我們的利潤率高於 COVID 之前的水平。我認為我們可能是公共領域中與 COVID 之前相比利潤率有所提高的 2 家公司中的 1 家。他們中的大多數人都在談論試圖提高利潤率。所以我不會談論我認為他們會做什麼，但我會讓你回到我們要做什麼。

We're going to continue to focus on our filters to evaluate our promotional messaging or any messaging that we do, elevating brand equity, simple to execute, not at a deep discount, sticking to our strategy of core guest growth and reacting accordingly. So whatever the -- whatever our competitors do, we'll watch, but we're going to stick to what we've been doing.

我們將繼續關注我們的過濾器，以評估我們的促銷信息或我們所做的任何信息，提升品牌資產，易於執行，而不是大幅折扣，堅持我們的核心客戶增長戰略並做出相應反應。因此，無論我們的競爭對手做什麼，我們都會關注，但我們將堅持我們一直在做的事情。

Understood. And then the follow-up is, broadly speaking, as you look at your fiscal '23 guidance, whether Raj, on the specific numbers or Rick, just in terms of the broader thought process. But what do you think is to prioritize the best to worst line of -- or in terms of all your guidance components, whether it's comps, inflation, earnings, prioritize the best to worst line of sight to any of those. Just wondering what you find more or less difficult to potentially forecast as you think about the next few quarters going into potentially slowing economy.

明白了。然後，從廣義上講，當你查看你的 23 財年指南時，無論是 Raj，具體數字還是 Rick，都只是在更廣泛的思維過程方面。但是你認為什麼是優先考慮最好到最壞的路線 - 或者就你所有的指導組成部分而言，無論是補償，通貨膨脹，收益，優先考慮最好到最壞的視線。只是想知道當您考慮未來幾個季度可能會放緩的經濟時，您發現或多或少難以預測的內容。

Well, I think the biggest -- the one that's going to have the most uncertainty is the traffic. I mean, what kind of traffic are we going to see? And we -- obviously, we've used a wide range of roughly 3% on the back half to accommodate some consumer shifts, but there's a meaningful change. That's -- obviously, that's something that could have an impact. That's really the big one. Dennis, inflation has been [hard to put], right? I mean there have been a multitude of factors that have been impacting inflation, right? You start with -- start off with the supply shortages and other things, labor impact.

好吧，我認為最大的 - 最不確定的是交通。我的意思是，我們將看到什麼樣的流量？而且我們 - 顯然，我們在後半部分使用了大約 3% 的廣泛範圍來適應一些消費者的轉變，但這是一個有意義的變化。那是 - 顯然，這可能會產生影響。那真的是個大人物。丹尼斯，通貨膨脹一直[很難說]，對吧？我的意思是，影響通貨膨脹的因素有很多，對吧？你從 - 從供應短缺和其他事情，勞動力影響開始。

But now as labor starts to come down or get into a better shape, you've got weather events, obviously, global events. So there's a lot going on, so inflation is probably the second one. And to me, those are the 2 things. Outside of that, I think everything else was probably pretty well buttoned up.

但是現在，隨著分娩開始減少或進入更好的狀態，您會遇到天氣事件，顯然是全球事件。所以發生了很多事情，所以通貨膨脹可能是第二個。對我來說，這是兩件事。除此之外，我認為其他一切可能都已經搞定了。

Our next question comes from Peter Saleh with BTIG.

我們的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Peter Saleh。

Great. Just 2 questions. First, on the Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion. Do you feel like the benefit of that Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion, does that extend beyond the promotional window the 7 weeks? Are you able to hold on to those guests even though they might be purchasing something else on the menu?

偉大的。只有2個問題。首先，關於 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 促銷活動。您是否喜歡 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 促銷活動的好處，是否會超出促銷窗口 7 週？您是否能夠留住這些客人，即使他們可能會購買菜單上的其他東西？

Yes, Peter, as we think about any promotional activity or any limited time offer activity more specifically. We want to make sure that, that limited time offer still elevates brand equity, as we've said before. And so we think there is a little bit of a halo over that. Now is it going to be as strong as when you've got the promotional message coming out there, a limited time offer message, probably not.

是的，彼得，當我們更具體地考慮任何促銷活動或任何限時優惠活動時。正如我們之前所說，我們希望確保限時優惠仍能提升品牌資產。所以我們認為這有點光環。現在它會像你收到促銷信息時一樣強烈嗎？限時優惠信息，可能不會。

But as we've said -- I think we said in prepared remarks, our year-to-date, our quarter-to-date comp sales are equivalent to our year-to-date comp sales. So it's not like we've seen a big slowdown since we stopped Never Ending Pasta Bowl. Now that's across Darden, not necessarily across Olive Garden. But I think that's the idea of marketing or messaging is that should endure longer than the limited time offer, and we think this one did.

但正如我們所說的——我想我們在準備好的評論中說過，我們年初至今、季度至今的 comp 銷售額相當於我們年初至今的 comp 銷售額。因此，自從我們停止 Never Ending Pasta Bowl 以來，我們並沒有看到大幅放緩。現在那是在達頓，不一定是在橄欖園。但我認為營銷或消息傳遞的想法應該比限時優惠持續更長時間，我們認為這個確實如此。

Great. And then just on the competitive environment as it relates to new restaurant formation, there's been a lot of discussion around the surge in construction costs. Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing more specifically on new restaurant formation from the competition, maybe more specifically independents? Are you seeing more newer restaurants being built? Or is there a pullback in development given the surge in construction costs? Any insight on that would be helpful.

偉大的。然後就與新餐廳組建相關的競爭環境而言，圍繞建築成本激增進行了很多討論。你能談談你在競爭中更具體地看到新餐廳組建的情況嗎，也許更具體地說是獨立餐廳？您是否看到正在建造更多新餐廳？還是考慮到建築成本的飆升，開發會出現倒退？對此的任何見解都會有所幫助。

Yes, Peter, there are always new restaurants being built. The question is how many are closing to offset the new restaurants being built. As trade areas move, you're going to see restaurants open. But as we think about the number of units that have closed since pre-COVID, but it's still double digits. We're not seeing that number get smaller or bigger, right? So it's starting to level off a little bit, but some strong competitors still opening restaurants on a net basis. We are opening restaurants on a net basis, but we're not seeing a whole lot of net unit growth in total for the full-service restaurant CPI.

是的，彼得，總是有新的餐館在建。問題是有多少人正在關閉以抵消正在建造的新餐館。隨著貿易區的移動，您會看到餐館開門營業。但是當我們考慮自 COVID 之前關閉的單位數量時，它仍然是兩位數。我們沒有看到這個數字變小或變大，對吧？所以它開始有點趨於平穩，但一些強大的競爭對手仍在淨開餐廳。我們正在淨開餐廳，但我們並沒有看到全方位服務餐廳 CPI 的整體單位淨增長。

Now as the construction costs start to weigh and as Raj mentioned, maybe you'll see a little bit about that. But I think the margins make it a little bit more challenging.

現在，隨著建築成本開始增加，正如 Raj 提到的那樣，也許你會看到一點。但我認為利潤率使它更具挑戰性。

Our next question comes from Lauren Silberman with Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Lauren Silberman。

Rick, you mentioned 4 of the brands that are running at all-time high internal guest satisfaction levels. What do you think is driving these record levels? And any sense of how this might compare to guest satisfaction across the industry broadly?

Rick，您提到了 4 個品牌的內部客戶滿意度一直處於歷史最高水平。您認為是什麼推動了這些創紀錄的水平？以及如何將其與整個行業的客人滿意度進行比較？

Well, Lauren, I would say what's driving it is the things that we've been doing over the last few years. We talk about simplicity and how simplicity makes it easier for our teams to do what they do. And if they don't have a lot of different things they have to learn and execute, it gets easier. As we streamlined the menu over the last few years, as Gene even mentioned it a year ago, streamlined the menu, you have more items being -- fewer items being made more often.

好吧，勞倫，我想說推動它的是我們過去幾年一直在做的事情。我們談論簡單性以及簡單性如何使我們的團隊更容易做他們所做的事情。如果他們沒有很多不同的東西需要學習和執行，事情就會變得更容易。正如我們在過去幾年中精簡菜單一樣，正如吉恩一年前提到的那樣，精簡菜單，你有更多的項目——更少的項目被更頻繁地製作。

That means the team gets better at those items versus having these 1 or 2 items that you sell in a week. So that helps experience. Our team members have left to learn on the selling side because there's fewer items. So they get -- they understand the items more. Now what we've seen in our performance is our performance in our brands are getting stronger.

這意味著團隊在這些項目上做得更好，而不是在一周內銷售這些 1 或 2 個項目。所以這有助於體驗。我們的團隊成員已經離開去向銷售方學習，因為商品較少。所以他們得到——他們更了解這些項目。現在我們在我們的表現中看到的是我們在我們品牌中的表現越來越強。

We're not necessarily seeing the competitor situation move. They might have been flattening out or maybe a couple here or there have gone a little bit on the negative side. But our satisfaction, we're really proud of it. We're proud of both the internal measures and the external measures.

我們不一定會看到競爭對手的情況發生變化。他們可能已經趨於平緩，或者可能這里或那裡有一些消極的一面。但是我們的滿意度，我們真的為此感到自豪。我們為內部措施和外部措施感到自豪。

And then finally, I will say we've made significant investments over the last few years in our food and in our people. And that will eventually show up in guest satisfaction, and it has. So we feel really good about what we're doing. And our brands having -- being #1 in all of the categories for Technomic, having a Darden brand being #1, we've got the first time ever. That's amazing news for us. And we're going to continue to do what we've done to improve satisfaction, to make it easier for our restaurant teams to do what they do and to invest in our people and invest in our food.

最後，我要說的是，過去幾年我們在食品和員工方面進行了大量投資。這最終會體現在客人的滿意度上，而且確實如此。所以我們對我們正在做的事情感覺非常好。我們的品牌在 Technomic 的所有類別中排名第一，Darden 品牌排名第一，我們有史以來第一次。這對我們來說是個好消息。我們將繼續做我們為提高滿意度所做的事情，讓我們的餐廳團隊更容易做他們所做的事情，並投資於我們的員工和我們的食物。

Great. And just a follow-up on the holiday season. Gift card sales are generally pretty important for early calendar '23. Anything you can share on what you've seen with gift card sales so far this season?

偉大的。只是假期的後續行動。禮品卡銷售對於 23 年初的日曆來說通常非常重要。關於本季到目前為止的禮品卡銷售情況，您可以分享一下嗎？

I see they're pretty consistent with last year. I don't -- I mean, again, there's also gift card sales, the day before Christmas matters a lot. So there's still a little bit of time to go. And then we haven't discounted.

我看到它們與去年非常一致。我不——我的意思是，還有禮品卡銷售，聖誕節前一天很重要。所以還有一點時間要走。然後我們沒有打折。

We -- a lot of -- before COVID, we used to have some offers for gift cards. We have stop doing that. So pretty much all of our big brands, we don't discount. We don't provide any additional discount to buy gift cards. So for us to see the strength we are seeing without any discounts, we feel pretty good.

我們——很多——在 COVID 之前，我們曾經提供過一些禮品卡優惠。我們已經停止這樣做了。所以我們幾乎所有的大品牌，我們都不打折。我們不提供購買禮品卡的任何額外折扣。因此，讓我們看到我們在沒有任何折扣的情況下看到的實力，我們感覺很好。

Our next question comes from Sara Senatore with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Sara Senatore。

Just a follow-up on the capacity comments. I appreciate the detail on sort of net growth. I guess my sense is though that there's growth coming from chains and shrinkage coming from independents. So maybe capacity, if you will, hasn't come down quite as much as unit count would suggest, given the chains tend to, I think, have bigger boxes and higher volumes.

只是對容量評論的跟進。我很欣賞有關淨增長的細節。我想我的感覺是，增長來自連鎖店，而收縮來自獨立店。因此，如果你願意的話，也許容量並沒有像單位數量所建議的那樣下降，因為我認為連鎖店往往有更大的盒子和更高的體積。

So I guess I'm just wondering if you have any kind of thoughts on that, this idea, there's this notion that maybe it's been more of the chains that have gotten hurt and therefore, there's still a fair amount of capacity out there being added.

所以我想我只是想知道你是否對此有任何想法，這個想法，有這樣一種觀念，也許更多的鏈條受到了傷害，因此，仍然有相當多的容量被添加.

And then I just have a quick follow-up question on labor, that was, I guess, in line with expectations of the wage inflation, but we've been seeing such a moderation in wages, I guess, I'm trying to understand for some concepts, perhaps. So I'm trying to understand if there's maybe a difference across markets or geographical or segments, full service versus maybe limited service where statutory minimum wage increases have more of an impact. Just any color you can give on that because I would have expected, I guess, a bit more moderation there.

然後我有一個關於勞動力的快速跟進問題，我想這與工資通脹的預期一致，但我們一直看到工資如此緩和，我想，我正在努力理解對於某些概念，也許。因此，我試圖了解不同市場、地域或細分市場是否存在差異，全面服務與有限服務相比，法定最低工資增長的影響更大。你可以給它任何顏色，因為我預計，我想，那裡會有更多的節制。

Sara, this is Rick. I'll take the capacity question and I'll give Raj to get the labor question. So on the capacity, you're absolutely right. We've seen more independents, which some -- in some places are a little bit smaller in total seats than the chains. But I don't know if you can get 11% of the restaurants to come out and have capacity in seats grow. We have seen the chains that still -- are still opening restaurants, but not at the level they were before, and it's not helping offset all of the other capacities coming out of the system.

薩拉，這是里克。我將回答容量問題，然後讓 Raj 回答勞工問題。所以在能力上，你是絕對正確的。我們看到了更多的獨立餐廳，其中一些——在某些地方，總座位數比連鎖餐廳少一點。但我不知道你是否可以讓 11% 的餐廳出來並增加座位容量。我們已經看到連鎖店仍在 - 仍在開設餐廳，但沒有達到以前的水平，並且這無助於抵消系統產生的所有其他能力。

And with the inflation on construction costs and the margins that a lot of folks have, it's a little bit harder to open restaurants as Raj said earlier, we've actually walked away from deals even though they were above our cost of capital because we thought we had some better deals.

隨著建築成本的膨脹和許多人的利潤率，正如 Raj 之前所說，開餐館有點困難，我們實際上已經放棄了交易，即使它們高於我們的資本成本，因為我們認為我們有一些更好的交易。

We're not quite sure that everybody can do all of that and still get -- open their restaurants and still get the same kind of returns they were getting before. So long answer to your question, but capacity is impacted by what kind of restaurant is opening or closing. And you're absolutely right. The independence is generally a little smaller. And so capacity seats are probably not down as much as units are down.

我們不太確定每個人都可以做到所有這些，並且仍然可以獲得 - 打開他們的餐廳並且仍然可以獲得與以前相同的回報。對你的問題的回答很長，但容量會受到開張或關門的餐廳類型的影響。你是絕對正確的。獨立性一般要小一些。因此，容量座位的下降可能不會像單位下降那麼多。

Yes. And on the labor, Sara, as you look at where we started the year, the hourly wage rate in our first quarter was mid-9. So I think we said 9.5%. Second quarter was 8.5%. So you saw like a full point change in the rate of inflation. We expect that to continue to go down maybe 50 basis points a quarter for the next 2 quarters. So we are seeing moderation. Obviously, this takes time in terms of once you give somebody an increase, that's there, that impact for the full year.

是的。在勞動力方面，Sara，當你看看我們今年的起點時，我們第一季度的小時工資率是 9 中。所以我想我們說的是 9.5%。第二季度為8.5%。所以你看到通貨膨脹率發生了整點變化。我們預計在接下來的兩個季度中，每季度將繼續下降 50 個基點。所以我們看到了適度。顯然，這需要時間，一旦你給某人加薪，那就是全年的影響。

And then as we bring on new people, we are seeing that the -- there's not as much pressure on the starting wage as it used to be. It's still high. It's still way higher than pre-COVID, but it's not -- it doesn't continue to go -- it's not continuing to go up. And so hopefully, that answers your question.

然後，當我們聘請新員工時，我們看到 - 起薪壓力沒有以前那麼大了。它仍然很高。它仍然比 COVID 之前高很多，但它不是——它不會繼續上升——它不會繼續上升。希望這能回答您的問題。

We'll take our next question from Andrew Strelzik with BMO.

我們將接受來自 BMO 的 Andrew Strelzik 的下一個問題。

I just had 2 questions going back to kind of the food cost outlook. The first one as you move towards flattish commodity inflation or what have you in the fourth quarter, is there an opportunity to be a little more aggressive locking in where you can to improve that visibility on the cost side? Or are there still challenges doing that or maybe you think prices are going even lower. And so that's at play. So curious how you're thinking about that, number one.

我剛剛有 2 個問題回到食品成本前景。第一個，當你走向平坦的商品通脹或你在第四季度有什麼，是否有機會更積極地鎖定你可以提高成本方面的可見性的地方？或者這樣做仍然存在挑戰，或者您認為價格會更低。所以這在起作用。很好奇你是怎麼想的，第一。

And number two, it seems like you're maybe a bit more optimistic on where food inflation is headed than some of the commentary from your peers recently. I know there's the food basket, there's timing differences. But I'm curious if there's anything else maybe that's driving that divergence in particular, I'm wondering if maybe this is the scale benefits playing out. So curious how you think about that as well.

第二，與最近同行的一些評論相比，您似乎對食品通脹的走向更加樂觀。我知道有食物籃子，有時間差異。但我很好奇是否還有其他原因導致了這種差異，我想知道這是否是規模效益正在發揮作用。很好奇你是怎麼想的。

Andrew, there's a lot in there. So I'm more to try to just address all the pieces. Let's start with the ability to lock in. I think for some products, we have that for some, we don't. Right? If you think about beef, for instance, I don't think -- I think a lot of suppliers are innovating more.

安德魯，裡面有很多東西。所以我更願意嘗試解決所有問題。讓我們從鎖定能力開始。我認為對於某些產品，我們有一些產品，但我們沒有。正確的？例如，如果你想到牛肉，我不認為——我認為很多供應商正在更多地創新。

They want to see what's going to happen with supply and really understand the price. So at this point, very few suppliers are willing to last beyond 90 days. So that's truly a structural issue in terms of really the ability, I guess, on that. But there are other products where we can lock in, and we are locking in.

他們想看看供應會發生什麼，並真正了解價格。所以在這一點上，很少有供應商願意堅持超過 90 天。因此，我想，就真正的能力而言，這確實是一個結構性問題。但是還有其他我們可以鎖定的產品，我們正在鎖定。

So we are continuing to kind of look at wherever there's opportunity to lock in at a good price, we're doing that. That's why you saw that for chicken, for example, we're 90% coverage for the back half. So we did find a price that we thought was good and we -- and closer to flat to last year as we get into the Q4 of this year.

因此，我們將繼續尋找有機會以優惠價格鎖定的任何地方，我們正在這樣做。這就是為什麼你看到雞肉的原因，例如，我們對後半部分的覆蓋率為 90%。因此，我們確實找到了一個我們認為不錯的價格，而且隨著我們進入今年第四季度，我們與去年持平。

So we lock some of that in. And so we are playing it by the year. Our supply team chain team does a great job kind of really thinking through the best strategy to minimize inflation for us while leveraging the relationships. Obviously, as you mentioned, scale helps. Our contracts are bigger, and that gives us the ability to have a little bit more leverage.

所以我們鎖定了其中的一些。所以我們每年都在玩它。我們的供應鏈團隊做得很好，真正思考了最佳策略，在利用關係的同時為我們最大限度地減少通貨膨脹。顯然，正如您提到的，規模有幫助。我們的合同更大，這使我們能夠擁有更多的槓桿作用。

And again, this is a -- big part of this is long-standing relationships our teams have built with the suppliers that help us get to a better number overall rate that we pay.

再一次，這是一個 - 其中很大一部分是我們的團隊與供應商建立的長期關係，這有助於我們獲得更好的整體支付率。

Our next question comes from Christopher O'Cull with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Christopher O'Cull。

My question relates to margin. And Raj, EBITDA margin has been up about 110 basis points, I think, relative to 2019 in the first half of the year, and I think your guidance kind of implies that the margin could be up 120 basis points or more in the second half of the year. I'm just wondering if you're expecting G&A to continue driving that improvement. Or are you looking for the restaurant margin to become a bigger contributor to the back half improvement?

我的問題與保證金有關。 Raj，EBITDA 利潤率已經上升了大約 110 個基點，我認為，相對於今年上半年的 2019 年，我認為你的指導有點暗示下半年利潤率可能會上升 120 個基點或更多的一年。我只是想知道您是否期望 G&A 繼續推動這種改進。還是您正在尋找餐廳利潤以成為後半部改善的更大貢獻者？

Yes. I would say that G&A actually the way -- because of the way we do incentive accruals, G&A is going to be probably higher in the back half than the first half. The restaurant-level margin should improve relative to pre-COVID in the back half versus where it was in the front half. But overall, if you step back, look at overall, your point is right. We do expect growth in the back half now. I'll point out that the starting point is way higher for the back half because our margins were very high in the back half to begin before COVID. So we had more room to grow in the first half, and you saw that. But G&A, definitely, we expect G&A in the back half to be higher as a percent of sales than it was in the front half.

是的。我會說 G&A 實際上就是這樣——由於我們進行激勵應計的方式，後半部分的 G&A 可能會比上半年更高。相對於 COVID 前的後半部分和前半部分，餐廳級別的利潤率應該會有所提高。但總的來說，如果你退後一步，從整體上看，你的觀點是正確的。我們現在確實預計後半部分會增長。我要指出的是，後半部分的起點要高得多，因為在 COVID 之前我們的後半部分利潤率非常高。所以我們在上半年有更多的增長空間，你看到了。但是 G&A，當然，我們預計後半部分的 G&A 佔銷售額的百分比將高於前半部分。

And just secondly, the segment margin at Olive Garden, I think, compressed about 320 basis points year-over-year this quarter. Can you help parse out what drove that? And how much of it was intentional in terms of menu or labor investments? And how much of it was just due to inflationary pressure?

其次，我認為 Olive Garden 本季度的分部利潤率同比壓縮了約 320 個基點。你能幫忙分析一下是什麼原因造成的嗎？在菜單或勞動力投資方面有多少是故意的？其中有多少是由於通脹壓力造成的？

It's really inflation. If you think about the 3 items, I mentioned that have the highest inflation or had highest inflation in the quarter, chicken, dairy, and wheat. Well, that's all has gotten for you. We got 20-plus percent. They have a little over 20% inflation on the commodities this quarter. So that -- when you take that into consideration and look at the fact that we only had 6% -- 6.5% pricing at Darden level and Olive Garden, obviously, would be pretty close to Darden price in our price level. That's the biggest piece.

這真的是通貨膨脹。如果你考慮這 3 個項目，我提到過通貨膨脹率最高或本季度通貨膨脹率最高的是雞肉、乳製品和小麥。好吧，這就是你的全部。我們得到了 20% 以上。他們本季度的商品通脹率略高於 20%。因此 - 當你考慮到這一點並查看我們只有 6% - 6.5% 的定價在 Darden 水平和 Olive Garden 時，顯然，我們的價格水平將非常接近 Darden 價格。那是最大的一塊。

And then one other piece I mentioned on the call was lettuce, while we did not experience the same level of inflation as the general market, it was a big surprise. It was, call it, $4 million to $5 million impact in the quarter, that's meaningful.

然後我在電話中提到的另一種產品是生菜，雖然我們沒有經歷與一般市場相同水平的通貨膨脹，但這是一個很大的驚喜。可以說，本季度產生了 400 萬至 500 萬美元的影響，這很有意義。

Our next question comes from Danilo Gargiulo with Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自 Danilo Gargiulo 和 Bernstein。

So I was wondering, in the context of potentially slower market environment, what gives you the confidence to raise the outlook for same-store sales? And in particular, on which brands you are elevating your expectations.

所以我想知道，在可能放緩的市場環境下，是什麼讓你有信心提高同店銷售前景？特別是，您提高了對哪些品牌的期望。

Well, so actually, let me kind of explain how we got there. If you think about our pricing we had in the earlier guidance was 5%, now we're at 6%. We raised the top end of our sales by 0.5 point. So essentially, we're saying on the top end, we're actually brought down traffic by about 0.5 point. And then on the bottom end, we basically raised it by the full point, which kind of gets to that pricing. So that's really the driver of our change in guidance. And then the costs out of the cost, right? We have some visibility into costs and we have some ranges around the ones where we have some risk, and that's how we came up with this guidance.

好吧，實際上，讓我解釋一下我們是如何到達那裡的。如果你想想我們在早期指導中的定價是 5%，現在我們是 6%。我們將銷售額的上限提高了 0.5 個百分點。因此，從本質上講，我們在頂端說，我們實際上將流量降低了大約 0.5 個百分點。然後在底端，我們基本上將其提高了整點，從而達到了該定價。所以這真的是我們改變指南的驅動力。然後是成本成本，對吧？我們對成本有一定的了解，並且我們在存在風險的範圍內有一些範圍，這就是我們提出本指南的方式。

And can you also provide some context on perhaps the frequency of visits of your consumers by brand and whether you're seeing the frequency differently today versus historical averages, maybe by some type of consumer cohorts or brands?

您是否也可以提供一些背景信息，了解您的消費者按品牌訪問的頻率，以及您今天看到的頻率是否與歷史平均水平不同，可能是某種類型的消費者群體或品牌？

No. I think look, our casual dining average frequencies and we call it in that 3 to 4x. And what we see with the core, all of our brands are seeing over time, the investments we've made pay off and transmitting into a slight tick up in frequency. But again, this is a slow build. We always believe that we -- that's our bet is that this takes time. But we are seeing -- it is -- we're seeing signs of positive momentum. And I think is the fact that we outpaced the industry by over 500 basis points on traffic, tells you that things we've done over time are translating into some increased frequency.

不，我想看，我們的休閒餐飲平均頻率是 3 到 4 倍。我們看到的核心是，隨著時間的推移，我們所有的品牌都看到了，我們所做的投資得到了回報，並在頻率上略有上升。但同樣，這是一個緩慢的構建。我們始終相信我們 - 我們的賭注是這需要時間。但我們看到——確實——我們看到了積極勢頭的跡象。我認為我們在流量方面超過行業 500 個基點的事實告訴你，我們隨著時間的推移所做的事情正在轉化為一些增加的頻率。

Our next question comes from Brian Vaccaro of Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Brian Vaccaro。

My question is on Olive Garden. I think you said it was outperforming the industry comp even before the launch of the Never Ending Pasta, which I think is a change versus the last several quarters. And just curious, what do you attribute that to? Have you seen the lower end consumer trade down in recent months? Anything in your data there? Or maybe it's execution and guest scores that are starting to kick in and really gain traction on traffic or maybe some other dynamic you might offer up.

我的問題是關於橄欖園的。我想你說它甚至在 Never Ending Pasta 推出之前就超過了行業競爭，我認為這與過去幾個季度相比是一個變化。只是好奇，您將其歸因於什麼？您是否看到最近幾個月低端消費品交易量下降？你的數據裡有什麼嗎？或者可能是執行力和客人評分開始發揮作用並真正獲得對流量的吸引力，或者可能是您可能提供的其他動力。

Yes, Brian. Olive Garden outperformed in Q1 as well. Just the outperformance got a little bit better. When you think about where we were last year, I would say that Olive Garden was probably more fully staffed than maybe some of the other brands in the first quarter of last year. And so other brands may have had a little bit of benefit from more team members.

是的，布萊恩。 Olive Garden 在第一季度也表現出色。只是表現有所好轉。當您考慮我們去年的情況時，我會說 Olive Garden 在去年第一季度可能比其他一些品牌的員工更齊全。因此，其他品牌可能會從更多的團隊成員中獲益。

We continue to believe that the investments we made in Olive Garden will continue to pay off over time. And their staffing levels are back to where they were pre-COVID. There are improvements that they've made since pre-COVID in their food. And then finally, Olive Garden, California last year was a big jump for us, and we have a lot of restaurants in California, maybe there wasn't as much across the industry. And so that's why we believe that our gap to the industry got better from Q1 to Q2, even though it was positive in Q1.

我們仍然相信，隨著時間的推移，我們對 Olive Garden 的投資將繼續獲得回報。他們的人員配備水平又回到了 COVID 之前的水平。自 COVID 爆發前以來，他們的食物已經有所改進。最後，去年加利福尼亞州的橄欖園對我們來說是一個巨大的飛躍，我們在加利福尼亞州有很多餐館，也許整個行業都沒有那麼多。因此，這就是為什麼我們認為我們與行業的差距從第一季度到第二季度有所改善，儘管第一季度是積極的。

All right. That's helpful. And Raj, sorry if I missed it, but on pricing, what was menu pricing in the second quarter? And what's a reasonable expectation moving through Q3, Q4 on menu pricing, just how you're thinking about that?

好的。這很有幫助。 Raj，抱歉，如果我錯過了，但是關於定價，第二季度的菜單定價是多少？ Q3、Q4 對菜單定價的合理預期是什麼，你是怎麼想的？

Yes, Brian, it was approximately 6.5% in Q2. And for the full year, we're saying it's going to be closer to 6%. So the way to think about it is Q3 is likely going to be low 6s, and Q4 is likely going to be closer to 5%.

是的，布賴恩，第二季度約為 6.5%。對於全年，我們說它將接近 6%。所以考慮它的方式是第三季度可能會是低 6s，而第四季度可能會接近 5%。

Our next question comes from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 John Ivankoe。

It's nice to see you coming back to brilliant with the basics. I mean, I think we probably first used that maybe 20 years ago or so. So it's definitely like a trade markable quote for you guys. And especially in the context of increased turnover. And I'm just curious in terms of like where you're seeing that, why you're seeing it first. Are you seeing some of the very high kind of unexplainable like fast quits like some others are? Or are you seeing -- is it a 6-month term over 12-month turnover 24? Is it happening in front of house, back of house? And is there anything that you can do to, I guess -- and the answer might be no, but can you make it a better job for them? And when they are leaving Darden, are they going to other restaurants? Or are they just going to other types of employment?

很高興看到你回到基礎知識的輝煌。我的意思是，我認為我們可能在 20 年前左右首次使用它。所以這對你們來說絕對像是一個商標報價。尤其是在營業額增加的情況下。我只是想知道你在哪裡看到它，為什麼你首先看到它。你是否看到一些非常高的無法解釋的事情，比如像其他人一樣快速戒菸？或者您是否看到 - 12 個月營業額 24 的期限是 6 個月嗎？它發生在屋前還是屋後？我猜你有什麼可以做的——答案可能是否定的，但你能為他們做一份更好的工作嗎？當他們離開達頓時，他們會去其他餐館嗎？或者他們只是去其他類型的工作？

John, I...

約翰，我...

(inaudible) What is the -- another as I'm trying to determine what is you guys, what is the industry versus just what is the change in employee.

（聽不清）什麼是 - 另一個，因為我試圖確定你們是什麼，行業是什麼，而員工的變化是什麼。

Yes. No problem. Yes, brilliant with the basics. It's been here since the jelly days. I remember when that was coined a long time ago. So we've been talking about reeling with the basics for quite a long time. And we believe that we got a little bit more basic, which is the right thing, right? So simplifying our menu, we went to the basic things and we did that better. That said, if you think about our turnover today versus what it was pre-COVID a lot of the turnover, at least over the last 6 months was 90-day turnover, right? So you come in to start work and then you leave within 90 days. A big chunk of our turnover was during that time period.

是的。沒問題。是的，精通基礎知識。它從果凍時代就在這裡了。我記得這是很久以前創造的。所以我們已經討論了很長時間的基礎知識。我們相信我們已經掌握了一些基礎知識，這是正確的，對吧？所以簡化我們的菜單，我們做了基本的事情，我們做得更好。也就是說，如果你想想我們今天的營業額與 COVID 之前的營業額相比，很多營業額至少在過去 6 個月是 90 天的營業額，對嗎？所以你進來開始工作，然後在 90 天內離開。我們營業額的很大一部分是在那段時間。

So we -- all of our general manager conferences happen in August. And the focus and theme August and September, I guess, the theme of those conferences were making brand X, Y or Z an even better place to work. How do we continue to make the team member experience better by giving them the tools that they need to do their job, treating them with respect and listening to their concerns.

所以我們 - 我們所有的總經理會議都在八月舉行。八月和九月的重點和主題，我猜，這些會議的主題是讓 X、Y 或 Z 品牌成為更好的工作場所。我們如何通過為團隊成員提供完成工作所需的工具、尊重他們並傾聽他們的擔憂來繼續改善團隊成員的體驗。

Our turnover is improving. Now I think about where the turnover happens. It generally happens in more of the entry kind of jobs. Our higher turnover is generally in the host area, dish area. And generally, in the kitchen, we have more turnover than in the front of the house. That said, we've just completed our engagement survey with Gallup, and we feel really good about the engagement in our team.

我們的營業額正在提高。現在我考慮營業額發生在哪裡。它通常發生在更多的入門級工作中。我們營業額較高的一般是在東道區，盤區。一般來說，在廚房裡，我們的營業額比在房子前面的要多。也就是說，我們剛剛完成了蓋洛普的敬業度調查，我們對團隊的敬業度感到非常滿意。

And we're going to continue to make our brands better places to work by continuing to invest in our team and continuing to teach them and give them opportunities to grow. So where they're going? Don't know, right? So we don't necessarily do exit interviews for every hourly team member on where they're going. But I would guess many of them are leaving the industry. We do have a lot of people that come to work for us that have work for others. So I can't say that we don't have people leave us to go work somewhere else.

我們將通過繼續投資於我們的團隊並繼續教導他們並為他們提供成長機會，繼續讓我們的品牌成為更好的工作場所。那麼他們要去哪裡？不知道，對吧？因此，我們不一定對每位小時工團隊成員進行離職面談，了解他們的去向。但我猜他們中的許多人正在離開這個行業。我們確實有很多人為我們工作，他們為其他人工作。所以我不能說我們沒有人離開我們去其他地方工作。

And again, gosh, over an hour ago, you guys -- one of the first comments you made on the call was manager staffing, I think, at historic highs. I mean is that the GM and all assistant manager positions or -- just give a little bit more color in terms of the stability in that essential role.

再一次，天哪，一個多小時前，你們——你們在電話中發表的第一個評論是經理人員配備，我認為，處於歷史高位。我的意思是，通用汽車和所有助理經理職位，或者 - 只是在該重要角色的穩定性方面提供更多色彩。

Yes, John, that is all manager positions in our restaurants. So General Manager, well, General Manager, it's a little bit harder to be all-time high, if you have one General Manager for every restaurant.

是的，約翰，這是我們餐廳的所有經理職位。所以總經理，好吧，總經理，如果每家餐廳都有一位總經理，那麼要達到歷史最高水平就有點困難了。

Yes. That makes sense.

是的。這就說得通了。

But we're pretty close to that. So if you think about our restaurant manager staffing, it's at all-time high. We have more managers per restaurant today than we did before COVID. And part of it is because we are giving them opportunities to grow, and we are proud of the fact that we do a lot of promotions from within.

但我們非常接近那個。因此，如果您考慮一下我們餐廳經理的人員配置，就會發現它處於歷史最高水平。今天，我們每家餐廳的經理人數比 COVID 之前還要多。部分原因是我們為他們提供了成長的機會，我們為我們從內部進行了大量晉升而感到自豪。

So when somebody knows the brand they're working for and they become a manager there, there's a little bit more loyalty to that brand. So -- and then the other thing, when you think about all the things we did during COVID, we made sure that our managers were we didn't really eliminate our manager teams during COVID, we kept them on because we knew how important they award to bring our team members back. And that's why we feel like we're well staffed and we're fully staffed to manage level.

因此，當有人知道他們正在為之工作的品牌並成為那裡的經理時，對該品牌的忠誠度會更高一些。所以 - 然後是另一件事，當你考慮我們在 COVID 期間所做的所有事情時，我們確保我們的經理在 COVID 期間我們並沒有真正消除我們的經理團隊，我們讓他們繼續存在，因為我們知道他們有多重要獎帶回我們的團隊成員。這就是為什麼我們覺得我們的人員配備齊全，而且我們的人員配備齊全，可以管理水平。

We'll take our next question from Nick Setyan of Wedbush Securities.

我們將從 Wedbush Securities 的 Nick Setyan 那裡回答下一個問題。

Just a follow-up to an earlier question. I think you said, you expect total restaurant labor inflation to go down by 50 bps sequentially through the end of the year from the 7% that we saw in Q2, that would imply for the year something around 7%, maybe slightly lower than 7%, but your total inflation guidance is 7% with 8.5% commodity inflation at the midpoint. So just maybe reconcile how we get from the combination of where total labor inflation and commodity inflation guidance is versus the total inflation guidance.

只是對先前問題的跟進。我想你說過，你預計到今年年底，餐館總勞動力通脹將從我們在第二季度看到的 7% 連續下降 50 個基點，這意味著今年約為 7%，可能略低於 7% %，但您的總通脹指導值為 7%，其中商品通脹率為 8.5%。因此，也許可以調和我們如何從總勞動力通脹和商品通脹指導與總通脹指導的組合中得出的結果。

Yes. I think the point here is you have to look at other line items. So utility is probably in that mid-teens -- low to mid-teens. That's part of it. And then we are seeing all other costs being in the low to mid-single digits. So when you take that into consideration, the total inflation of 7% is what we're expecting. So yes, you're right, total restaurant labor inflation is approximately 7%.

是的。我認為這裡的重點是您必須查看其他訂單項。所以效用可能在十幾歲左右——十幾歲左右。那是其中的一部分。然後我們看到所有其他成本都在中低個位數。所以當你考慮到這一點時，7% 的總通貨膨脹率就是我們的預期。所以是的，你是對的，餐館總勞動力通脹率約為 7%。

And you combine that with 8.5%, the big point of that 8% to 9% on prudent beverage. And then utilities in that mid-teens and all other costs low to mid-single digits, that's how you get to 7% on the total. So we're talking about the total cost base. That includes everything.

你把它和 8.5% 結合起來，8% 到 9% 的重點是謹慎的飲料。然後是十幾歲中期的公用事業和所有其他成本從低到中個位數，這就是你如何達到總數的 7%。所以我們談論的是總成本基礎。這包括一切。

Got it. And then as we kind of think about the inflation gap versus food at home, the gap has been pretty favorable for restaurants for a few quarters now, and that's potentially narrowing and maybe even may reverse next year in terms of calendar '23. How are you thinking about the promotional cadence and the overall competitive environment as that grocery gap maybe even reverses?

知道了。然後，當我們考慮通貨膨脹率與國內食品的差距時，現在幾個季度以來，這種差距對餐館來說非常有利，而且這種差距可能會縮小，甚至可能在明年的 23 年日曆中出現逆轉。你如何看待促銷節奏和整體競爭環境，因為雜貨店差距甚至可能逆轉？

Yes, Nick, if you think about what people get when they go to a full-service restaurant, they get more than just the food. They get the experience. And that was -- that's what people are coming to us for. We have got a great value already, but there's more than just the commodity that we put on the plate. It's all of the service, all of the other things that people get to do and being able to sit and spend time with their family and friends. And so yes, if there's a little bit of a shift in away from home versus at home, we still think we've got a great value proposition.

是的，尼克，如果你想一想人們去一家提供全方位服務的餐廳時會得到什麼，他們得到的不僅僅是食物。他們獲得了經驗。那就是——這就是人們來找我們的目的。我們已經獲得了巨大的價值，但不僅僅是我們放在盤子裡的商品。這就是所有的服務，人們可以做的所有其他事情，以及能夠坐下來與家人和朋友共度時光。所以是的，如果出門在外和在家有一點點轉變，我們仍然認為我們有一個很好的價值主張。

That said, we're not going to get into what happens in promotional cadence happens, right? So if our competitors start doing significant discounting promotions, can't say what I think they'll do. I just think their margins are makes it a little harder to do that. We're going to react the way that we've been talking about. We're going to continue to focus on driving our core guests driving profitable sales growth, and that's our focus for now in the near future.

也就是說，我們不會深入了解促銷節奏中會發生什麼，對吧？因此，如果我們的競爭對手開始進行重大折扣促銷，我不能說他們會做什麼。我只是認為他們的利潤讓這樣做變得有點困難。我們將按照我們一直在談論的方式做出反應。我們將繼續專注於推動我們的核心客戶推動盈利性銷售增長，這是我們在不久的將來的重點。

Our next question comes from Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Jake Bartlett。

Great. My first one is on the commentary of expecting less traffic than before. So taking the traffic assumption down by 50 basis points. And I just really want to understand what is driving that? It seems like the -- in the second quarter, it seemed pretty solid or not diversion from expectations. So are you -- the question really is your outlook for the next 2 quarters a little bit less than you were thinking before?

偉大的。我的第一個是關於預期流量比以前少的評論。因此，將流量假設降低 50 個基點。我真的很想知道是什麼在推動它？似乎 - 在第二季度，它似乎非常穩固或沒有偏離預期。你也是——問題真的是你對接下來兩個季度的展望比你之前想的要少一點嗎？

We've seen when that [traffic] put out for November, the slight deceleration year-over-year but also a deceleration versus '19. So if you could maybe comment on that -- on the industry and what -- how concerned investors should be about a deceleration just on the industry-wide in November?

我們已經看到了 11 月份 [流量] 出現的時間，同比略有下降，但與 19 年相比也有所下降。因此，如果您可以對此發表評論 - 對行業以及什麼 - 投資者應該如何關注 11 月份整個行業的減速？

Jake, I think you're activating too much signs to this method here because when we look at how we do this, the midpoint of our guidance is about 75 basis points higher than last time with 1% pricing. So really, what we changed the midpoint by 25 basis points on traffic. That's within the margin of matter of many models we build. I mean, I wish we only had a 50 basis point margin effect around our models. It's obviously a lot wider. I hate to admit it, but I don't think -- we're not experts at prognosticating this business on. So we're doing the best we can, and that's our best estimate at this point.

傑克，我認為你在這里為這種方法激活了太多跡象，因為當我們看我們如何做到這一點時，我們指導的中點比上次定價 1% 時高出約 75 個基點。所以真的，我們將流量的中點改變了 25 個基點。這在我們構建的許多模型的物質範圍內。我的意思是，我希望我們的模型只有 50 個基點的保證金效應。顯然要寬很多。我不想承認這一點，但我不認為——我們不是預測這項業務的專家。所以我們正在盡力而為，這是我們目前的最佳估計。

Okay. And maybe just within that, if you could talk about just what you assume in your guidance for a macro environment. We're seeing, obviously, continued wage inflation. But if you build in -- others have talked about a modest recession or what have you. What is your basic framework on a macro perspective that's embedded in your sales outlook?

好的。也許就在其中，如果你能談談你在宏觀環境指南中的假設。顯然，我們看到工資持續上漲。但是，如果你建立起來——其他人已經談到了適度的衰退或者你有什麼。在您的銷售展望中嵌入的宏觀視角的基本框架是什麼？

Well, I think what we're incorporating is some potential shifts, changes in consumer behavior. That's why you have a range of 3 percentage points on traffic. If you look at the back half and if you look at -- translate that into the guidance range we have, that implies a range of 3 points, that is to accommodate potential changes in consumer behavior, but not a step change. And I said earlier, if there is a major step change, that's not really contemplated in our guidance.

好吧，我認為我們正在整合的是一些潛在的轉變，消費者行為的變化。這就是為什麼您的流量有 3 個百分點的範圍。如果你看後半部分，如果你看 - 將其轉化為我們的指導範圍，這意味著 3 點的範圍，即適應消費者行為的潛在變化，而不是逐步變化。我之前說過，如果有重大的變化，我們的指南中並沒有真正考慮到這一點。

Great. And then a quick question on G&A as a follow-up. I believe the guidance kind of before you've been talking about $400 million as being a good number for the year. You're running significantly behind that run rate in the first half, you commented that you expect it to go higher. But just roughly, what should we expect for just G&A as a whole for the year in '23 -- fiscal '23?

偉大的。然後是一個關於 G&A 的快速問題作為後續行動。我相信在你談論 4 億美元之前的指導是今年的一個好數字。你在上半年的運行率明顯落後，你評論說你希望它會更高。但粗略地說，我們應該對 23 年 - 23 財年的整個年度 G&A 有什麼期望？

Yes, Jake, at this point, our best estimate is $390 million.

是的，傑克，在這一點上，我們的最佳估計是 3.9 億美元。

Thank you. At this time, it appears we have no further questions in queue. I'd like to turn it back to management for any additional or closing remarks.

謝謝你。目前，我們似乎沒有其他問題需要排隊。我想將其轉回給管理層以徵求任何其他或結束語。

Thanks, Todd. That concludes our call. I'd like to remind you that we plan to release third quarter results on Thursday, March 23, before the market opens with a conference call to follow. Thank you for participating in today's call. Have a great holiday and happy new year.

謝謝，托德。我們的通話到此結束。我想提醒您，我們計劃在 3 月 23 日星期四開市前發布第三季度業績，隨後將召開電話會議。感謝您參加今天的電話會議。祝您假期愉快，新年快樂。

This will conclude our call today. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

我們今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。您可以隨時斷開連接。