達登餐飲 (DRI) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2023 Third Quarter Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Kevin Kalicak. Thank you. You may begin.

美好的一天，歡迎來到達頓 2023 財年第三季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意今天的會議正在錄製中。如果您有異議，請此時斷開連接。我現在將把電話轉給 Kevin Kalicak 先生。謝謝。你可以開始了。

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

謝謝，托德。大家早上好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議。今天加入我的是 Darden 的總裁兼首席執行官 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。

Those risks are described in the company's press release, which was distributed this morning, and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are simultaneously broadcasting a presentation during this call, which is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website at darden.com.

這些風險在公司今天上午發布的新聞稿以及提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中有所描述。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。

Today's discussion and presentation include certain non-GAAP measurements, and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation. Looking ahead, we plan to release fiscal 2023 and fourth quarter earnings on Thursday, June 22, before the market opens, followed by a conference call.

今天的討論和演示包括某些非 GAAP 測量，並且這些測量的對賬包含在演示中。展望未來，我們計劃在 6 月 22 日星期四開市前發布 2023 財年和第四季度財報，隨後召開電話會議。

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

在今天的電話會議中，在討論第三季度業績時，任何提及 COVID 之前的內容都是與 2020 財年第三季度的比較。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 Darden，特別是 Olive花園、LongHorn 牛排館和 Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen。

During our third fiscal quarter, industry same-restaurant sales increased 7.2% and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 3%. 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.

在我們的第三財季，行業同餐廳銷售額增長了 7.2%，而行業同餐廳客人數量下降了 3%。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。

Thanks, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. We had a strong quarter on both the top and bottom line. We significantly exceeded the industry benchmarks for same-restaurant sales and traffic outperforming more on traffic than we did on sales. We also continue to underprice inflation, resulting in lower overall check growth relative to the industry. Our ability to make this investment and provide strong value to our guests, reinforces the power of our strategy, which comes to life through our 4 competitive advantages and executing our back-to-basics operating philosophy.

謝謝，凱文。大家，早安。我們的季度收入和利潤都表現強勁。我們大大超過了同一家餐廳的銷售和流量的行業基準，在流量方面的表現優於我們在銷售方面的表現。我們還繼續低估通貨膨脹，導致相對於行業的整體支票增長較低。我們進行這項投資並為我們的客人提供強大價值的能力增強了我們戰略的力量，通過我們的 4 大競爭優勢和執行我們回歸基本的經營理念來實現這一戰略。

I am particularly proud of the way our restaurant teams continue to execute at a high level by being brilliant with the basics. This intense focus on providing great food service and atmosphere enables them to consistently create memorable guest experiences. During the holiday season, Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse set new all-time weekly sales records, only to break them during Valentine's week. In fact, all of our brands achieved record total sales for the quarter. Of course, none of this would be possible without having the right people in the right roles ready to serve our guests.

我為我們的餐廳團隊通過精通基礎知識繼續高水平執行的方式感到特別自豪。這種對提供優質餐飲服務和氛圍的強烈關注使他們能夠始終如一地創造令人難忘的賓客體驗。在節日期間，Olive Garden 和 LongHorn Steakhouse 創下了新的每週銷售記錄，但在情人節期間打破了它們。事實上，我們所有的品牌都在本季度實現了創紀錄的總銷售額。當然，如果沒有合適的人擔任合適的角色準備好為我們的客人服務，這一切都不可能實現。

Our restaurants continue to be well staffed and our manager staffing remains at historic highs. Our leaders work hard to ensure each of our restaurants is a great place to work. During the quarter, several of our brands were recognized as industry leaders by Black Box Intelligence. Longhorn and Eddie V's received the Best Practices Award, which evaluates the brand's employee retention as well as sales and traffic performance. Olive Garden, the Capital Grille and Seasons 52 were honored with the Employer of Choice Award, which is based on workforce data, including employee turnover and gender and racial diversity.

我們的餐廳繼續配備充足的員工，我們的經理人員配備也保持在歷史高位。我們的領導者努力工作，以確保我們的每家餐廳都是理想的工作場所。本季度，我們的多個品牌被 Black Box Intelligence 評為行業領導者。 Longhorn 和 Eddie V's 獲得了最佳實踐獎，該獎評估了該品牌的員工保留率以及銷售和流量績效。 Olive Garden、Capital Grille 和 Seasons 52 榮獲最佳雇主獎，該獎項基於勞動力數據，包括員工流動率以及性別和種族多樣性。

We know from our recent engagement survey results that our overall level of engagement is very high, and our team members understand what is expected of them at work. This is helping drive high guest satisfaction metrics, both internally and externally. Data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows customer satisfaction is down across all industries. However, across all of our brands, our internal guest satisfaction ratings remain exceptionally strong. In fact, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Yard House and Bahama Breeze achieved all-time highs during the quarter. Additionally, for the second consecutive quarter, the Darden brand was ranked #1 among major casual dining brands in each measurement category within Technomic industry tracking tool.

我們從最近的敬業度調查結果中得知，我們的整體敬業度非常高，我們的團隊成員了解他們在工作中的期望。這有助於提高內部和外部的客戶滿意度指標。來自美國客戶滿意度指數的數據顯示，所有行業的客戶滿意度都在下降。然而，在我們所有的品牌中，我們的內部客人滿意度仍然非常高。事實上，Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen、Yard House 和 Bahama Breeze 在本季度創下歷史新高。此外，在 Technomic 行業跟踪工具中，Darden 品牌連續第二個季度在每個測量類別的主要休閒餐飲品牌中排名第一。

Even with the traffic growth we achieved during the quarter, to-go sales remained strong, accounting for 26% of total sales at Olive Garden 14% at LongHorn and 12% at Cheddar's. We continue to leverage technology to make it easier to order a pick up and pay without having to pass the added expense of third-party delivery on to our guests. Our teams are executing the off-premise experience at a high level. For example, to-go orders accounted for 33% of Olive Garden's total sales on Valentine's Day, and they significantly improved their ratings for both on time and order accuracy for that day.

儘管我們在本季度實現了客流量增長，但外賣銷售依然強勁，佔 Olive Garden 總銷售額的 26%、LongHorn 的 14% 和 Cheddar's 的 12%。我們繼續利用技術來簡化取貨和付款流程，而無需將第三方送貨的額外費用轉嫁給我們的客人。我們的團隊正在高水平執行場外體驗。例如，外賣訂單佔 Olive Garden 情人節總銷售額的 33%，他們顯著提高了當天的準時率和訂單準確性評分。

For the quarter, digital transactions accounted for more than 62% of all off-premise sales and 10% of Darden's total sales. Finally, we opened 7 new restaurants during the quarter across 7 states. Our new restaurant opening teams continue to do an excellent job of hiring and training new team members and successfully opening these locations. We are on track to open 25 net new restaurants during the fourth quarter and I am confident in our ability to do so because of our well-prepared leadership pipeline and the tremendous support teams we have in place. We are fortunate to have the best team members in the industry, and I am proud of the focus and commitment they continue to display.

本季度，數字交易占所有場外銷售額的 62% 以上，佔 Darden 總銷售額的 10%。最後，我們在本季度在 7 個州開設了 7 家新餐廳。我們的新餐廳開業團隊繼續在招聘和培訓新團隊成員方面做得非常出色，並成功地開設了這些地點。我們有望在第四季度淨開設 25 家新餐廳，我相信我們有能力做到這一點，因為我們準備充分的領導梯隊和我們擁有的強大支持團隊。我們很幸運擁有業內最優秀的團隊成員，我為他們繼續表現出的專注和承諾感到自豪。

On behalf of our senior leadership team and the Board of Directors, I want to thank all of our team members for everything you do to nourish and delight our guests and each other. Now I will turn it over to Raj.

我謹代表我們的高級領導團隊和董事會，感謝我們所有的團隊成員為滋養和愉悅我們的客人和彼此所做的一切。現在我將把它交給 Raj。

Thank you, Rick. Good morning, everyone. We had high expectations for the third quarter sales growth as we were wrapping on last January, Omicron outbreak and several weeks of severe winter weather that combined to reduce sales by over $100 million in the third quarter of last year. We exceeded those high expectations, posting record total sales of $2.8 billion, which was 13.8% higher than last year, driven by 11.7% same-restaurant sales growth along with the addition of 35 net new restaurants.

謝謝你，里克。大家，早安。我們對第三季度的銷售增長抱有很高的期望，因為我們在去年 1 月結束時，Omicron 爆發和幾週的嚴冬天氣共同導致去年第三季度的銷售額減少超過 1 億美元。我們超出了這些高預期，總銷售額達到創紀錄的 28 億美元，比去年增長 13.8%，這得益於 11.7% 的同店銷售額增長以及 35 家淨新餐廳的增加。

This same restaurant sales performance outpaced the industry by 450 basis points, and our same-restaurant guest counts performed even more as they exceeded the industry benchmark by 700 basis points. Diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were $2.34, an increase of 21.2% above last year. Total EBITDA was $448 million, and we returned $272 million of cash to our shareholders this quarter, consisting of $148 million in dividends and $124 million in share repurchases.

同一家餐廳的銷售業績超過行業 450 個基點，我們的同一家餐廳的客人數量表現更好，超過行業基準 700 個基點。來自持續經營業務的每股攤薄淨收益為 2.34 美元，比去年增長 21.2%。 EBITDA 總額為 4.48 億美元，本季度我們向股東返還了 2.72 億美元現金，其中包括 1.48 億美元的股息和 1.24 億美元的股票回購。

Total pricing for the quarter was approximately 6.3%, 70 basis points below total inflation of roughly 7%. Now looking at our margin performance compared to last year. Food and beverage expenses rose 110 basis points, driven by commodities inflation of approximately 9%, which was higher than we anticipated going into the quarter and significantly outpaced pricing of 6.3%. Chicken, dairy and grains continue to be categories experiencing the highest levels of inflation, but each improved versus prior quarter as we expected. However, beef inflation increased from the second quarter level and drove the majority of our higher-than-anticipated commodities inflation this quarter.

本季度的總定價約為 6.3%，比大約 7% 的總通脹率低 70 個基點。現在看看我們與去年相比的利潤率表現。受大宗商品通脹率約 9% 的推動，食品和飲料費用上漲 110 個基點，這高於我們進入本季度的預期，並且大大超過 6.3% 的定價。雞肉、奶製品和穀物仍然是通貨膨脹率最高的類別，但正如我們預期的那樣，每一個都比上一季度有所改善。然而，牛肉通脹從第二季度的水平開始上升，並推動了本季度我們高於預期的商品通脹的大部分。

Restaurant labor was 120 basis points better than last year as we benefited from sales leverage and our restaurants continue to run efficient labor despite hourly wage inflation of 8%. Total restaurant labor inflation was 7%. Restaurant expenses were 40 basis points favorable to last year as we leveraged higher sales that more than offset elevated inflation on utilities as well as higher repairs and maintenance expenses.

餐廳勞動力比去年高 120 個基點，因為我們受益於銷售槓桿，儘管每小時工資上漲 8%，我們的餐廳繼續高效勞動力。餐廳總勞動力通脹率為 7%。餐廳費用比去年高 40 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 10 basis points lower than last year, driven by sales leverage. G&A expenses were 40 basis points higher than last year, driven by the timing of our incentive compensation accrual and other expenses. Operating income margin of 12.6% was 30 basis points better than last year. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 13.2%, and we ended the quarter with earnings from continuing operations of $287 million.

在銷售槓桿的推動下，營銷費用比去年低 10 個基點。 G&A 費用比去年高 40 個基點，這主要是由於我們的激勵薪酬應計和其他費用的時間安排。營業利潤率為 12.6%，比去年高出 30 個基點。我們本季度的有效稅率為 13.2%，本季度末我們的持續經營收益為 2.87 億美元。

Now looking at our margin performance versus pre-COVID, we grew operating income by 70 basis points, while underpricing inflation by more than 400 basis points since pre-COVID. 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，我們的營業收入增長了 70 個基點，同時自 COVID 之前以來，通脹低估了 400 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 grew 13.9% above last year, driven by same-restaurant sales growth of 12.3%. Average weekly sales at Olive Garden were 108% of pre-COVID level. Segment profit margin of 22.5% was 150 basis points better than last year, driven by sales leverage and labor efficiencies. LongHorn sales grew 13.5% above last year, with same-restaurant sales growth of 10.8%. Average weekly sales at LongHorn were 127% of the pre-COVID level. Segment profit margin of 17.4% was 80 basis points below last year, driven by elevated commodities inflation.

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。在同店銷售額增長 12.3% 的推動下，Olive Garden 的銷售額比去年增長了 13.9%。 Olive Garden 的平均每週銷售額是 COVID 前水平的 108%。在銷售槓桿和勞動力效率的推動下，該部門的利潤率為 22.5%，比去年高出 150 個基點。 LongHorn 銷售額比去年增長 13.5%，同店銷售額增長 10.8%。 LongHorn 的平均每週銷售額是 COVID 前水平的 127%。在大宗商品通脹上升的推動下，該部門的利潤率為 17.4%，比去年低 80 個基點。

Sales in our Fine Dining segment grew 13.2% above last year driven by same-restaurant sales growth of 11.7% and average weekly sales were 113% of the pre-COVID level. Segment profit margin of 21.8% and was 110 basis points below last year, driven by elevated commodities inflation. Our other segment sales grew 14.1% above last year with the same restaurant sales growth of 11.7% and average weekly sales were 109% of the pre-COVID level.

在同店銷售額增長 11.7% 和平均每週銷售額為 COVID 前水平的 113% 的推動下，我們高級餐飲部門的銷售額比去年增長了 13.2%。在大宗商品通脹上升的推動下，該部門的利潤率為 21.8%，比去年低 110 個基點。我們其他部門的銷售額比去年增長 14.1%，餐廳銷售額增長 11.7%，平均每週銷售額是 COVID 前水平的 109%。

Segment profit margin of 14% was 20 basis points better than last year, driven by sales leverage and labor efficiencies.

受銷售槓桿和勞動力效率的推動，該部門的利潤率為 14%，比去年高 20 個基點。

Turning to our financial outlook for fiscal 2023. We have increased our guidance to reflect our year-to-date results and expectations for the fourth quarter. We now expect total sales of $10.45 billion to $10.5 billion, same restaurant sales growth of 6.5% to 7%, approximately 55 new restaurant openings, capital spending between $550 million to $575 million; total inflation of 7% to 7.5% and annual pricing of 6% to 6.5%. Furthermore, we expect commodities inflation between 9.5% and 10%. The 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 $7.85 and $8.

轉向我們對 2023 財年的財務展望。我們增加了我們的指導以反映我們今年迄今為止的結果和對第四季度的預期。我們現在預計總銷售額為 104.5 億美元至 105 億美元，同店銷售額增長 6.5% 至 7%，約有 55 家新餐廳開業，資本支出在 5.5 億美元至 5.75 億美元之間；總通貨膨脹率為 7% 至 7.5%，年度定價為 6% 至 6.5%。此外，我們預計大宗商品通脹率在 9.5% 至 10% 之間。年度有效稅率約為 13%，攤薄後平均流通股約為 1.23 億股，所有攤薄後每股淨收益在 7.85 美元至 8 美元之間。

This outlook implies fourth quarter sales between $2.73 billion and $2.78 billion, same restaurant sales between 3% and 5%, and diluted net earnings per share between $2.43 and $2.58. It also implies higher commodities inflation than we last communicated. We now expect commodities inflation that is solidly in the low single-digit range for the fourth quarter versus the closer to flat estimate we shared with you on the last earnings call.

這一展望意味著第四季度銷售額在 27.3 億美元至 27.8 億美元之間，同一餐廳銷售額在 3% 至 5% 之間，攤薄後每股淨收益在 2.43 美元至 2.58 美元之間。這也意味著商品通脹高於我們上次溝通的水平。我們現在預計第四季度大宗商品通脹將穩定在較低的個位數範圍內，而我們在上次財報電話會議上與您分享的接近持平的估計。

The increasing commodities inflation is primarily due to higher-than-anticipated beef costs. For fiscal 2024, we anticipate opening 50 to 55 new restaurants and capital spending between $300 million and $325 million related to new restaurants and another $200 million to $225 million related to ongoing restaurant maintenance, refresh and technology spending.

商品通脹加劇主要是由於牛肉成本高於預期。在 2024 財年，我們預計將開設 50 至 55 家新餐廳，與新餐廳相關的資本支出在 3 億至 3.25 億美元之間，另外 2 億至 2.25 億美元與持續的餐廳維護、更新和技術支出相關。

And while we don't normally provide a commodity outlook this early for the next fiscal year, we are anticipating low single-digit inflation for the total commodities basket in fiscal 2024 led by high single-digit inflation on beef and produce. We expect all other categories to range from slight deflation to low single-digit inflation.

雖然我們通常不會這麼早提供下一財年的大宗商品前景，但我們預計 2024 財年整個大宗商品籃子的低個位數通貨膨脹率將由牛肉和農產品的高個位數通貨膨脹率領銜。我們預計所有其他類別都將出現從輕微通貨緊縮到低個位數的通貨膨脹。

With that, I'd like to close by saying that we continue to be very proud of how our teams are managing their businesses to deliver strong results in this dynamic environment. Now we'll open it up for questions.

最後，我想說，我們繼續為我們的團隊如何管理他們的業務以在這個充滿活力的環境中取得強勁成果而感到自豪。現在我們將打開它來提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Chris Carril with RBC Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Chris Carril。

So I just wanted to talk or ask first about the top line trends. So I guess just given the choppiness of the comparisons last year, can you talk about the progression of sales through the quarter? Maybe specifically what you saw following the Omicron lab and maybe perhaps what you're seeing in the current quarter just as we're trying to get a sense of where trends are shaking out kind of on a normalized basis? I know, Rick, you spoke of the strength around the Valentine's Day. So any detail beyond that point would be great.

所以我只想先談談或詢問頂線趨勢。所以我想鑑於去年比較的起伏不定，你能談談整個季度的銷售進展嗎？也許特別是你在 Omicron 實驗室之後看到的，也許你在本季度看到的，就像我們試圖了解趨勢在標準化的基礎上發生的變化一樣？我知道，里克，你談到了情人節前後的力量。所以超出這一點的任何細節都會很棒。

Chris, this is Raj. So when we actually look at our underlying traffic trends versus pre-COVID, excluding the noise from holidays and weather and promotions, they've actually been fairly stable month-to-month and that has continued into the fourth quarter. And basically, everything we know of the quarter-to-date is incorporated in our guidance. But when you step back and look at what is pre-COVID, it's pretty stable.

克里斯，這是拉吉。因此，當我們實際查看與 COVID 之前相比的潛在流量趨勢時，不包括假期、天氣和促銷的噪音，它們實際上每個月都相當穩定，並且一直持續到第四季度。基本上，我們所知道的本季度迄今的一切都包含在我們的指南中。但當你退後一步，看看 COVID 之前的情況時，它是相當穩定的。

Got it. And then I appreciate the preliminary commodity inflation outlook for FY '24. Any thoughts on -- or any guidance you can provide on how you're thinking about just pricing here going forward just relative to that commodity inflation outlook that you're providing for FY '24?

知道了。然後我欣賞 24 財年的初步商品通脹前景。任何想法 - 或者你可以提供任何指導，說明你如何考慮這裡的定價只是相對於你為 24 財年提供的商品通脹前景？

Yes. Chris, I think the way we think about pricing is we look at total inflation. And I think as we talked about, over the last 3 years, we underpriced inflation by over 400 basis points. And also, we underpriced full-service CPI by over 600 basis points. So we created a significant gap between our competitors and it positions us well as we head into the next year. We'll share more thoughts on our fiscal 2024 pricing plans in the next -- in the June call.

是的。克里斯，我認為我們考慮定價的方式是看總通貨膨脹率。我認為正如我們所說，在過去 3 年中，我們將通脹低估了 400 多個基點。此外，我們將全方位服務 CPI 低估了 600 多個基點。因此，我們在競爭對手之間建立了巨大的差距，這使我們在進入明年時處於有利地位。我們將在接下來的 6 月電話會議中分享更多關於 2024 財年定價計劃的想法。

Our next question comes from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Brian Harbour。

Maybe just a question on the labor side. I know that you're in a very good place right now on staffing. Do you still see as you look into next year, do you still envision taking up wages continually. And I think, obviously, we're in an environment where it's important to kind of retain people and continue to pay better than your peers. How does that kind of factor into what you expect from a wage inflation perspective going forward?

也許只是勞工方面的問題。我知道你現在在人員配置方面處於非常好的位置。展望明年，您是否仍然看到，您是否仍然設想繼續領取工資。而且我認為，很明顯，我們所處的環境中，留住人才並繼續支付比同行更高的薪水很重要。從工資通脹的角度來看，這種因素如何影響你的預期？

Brian, this is Rick. Let's talk about our staffing. As we mentioned on our call, we're very well staffed. We have more managers per restaurant than we've ever had in our history. So we feel really good about where we are. We're not going to talk necessarily about what our wage growth will be next year. I will say that even before COVID, wage inflation was in the mid-single digits. So we will continue to work with whatever the economy comes our way and however we can handle that.

布賴恩，這是里克。讓我們談談我們的人員配置。正如我們在電話中提到的，我們的人員配備非常齊全。我們每家餐廳的經理人數比我們歷史上任何時候都多。所以我們對自己所處的位置感覺非常好。我們不一定要談論明年我們的工資增長是多少。我要說的是，即使在 COVID 之前，工資通脹率也處於中等個位數。因此，無論經濟形勢如何，我們都會繼續努力，但我們可以處理好。

But we have a great employment proposition. Our turnover is significantly reducing. It's getting closer to our pre-COVID levels. And we still think we've got room to improve our turnover. We're hiring great people and we're being as discerning as we had been before COVID. So we feel really good about where we are. And we'll talk about our inflation targets and our pricing and all of those things in June.

但我們有一個很好的就業建議。我們的營業額正在顯著減少。它越來越接近我們 COVID 之前的水平。我們仍然認為我們有提高營業額的空間。我們正在招聘優秀的人才，而且我們的眼光與 COVID 之前一樣。所以我們對自己所處的位置感覺非常好。我們將在 6 月份討論我們的通脹目標和我們的定價以及所有這些事情。

And maybe just on capital spending. I know you kind of took up the low end of that. But what's driving that? Is there -- is that more of an inflationary thing? Or is there any sort of bucket of spending that's running higher at this point?

也許只是資本支出。我知道你有點接受了低端。但是是什麼推動了它？有沒有 - 這更像是一種通貨膨脹的東西嗎？或者在這一點上是否有任何類型的支出在增加？

Well, I think we've talked about inflation being one of the big things, right? When you look at construction costs have gone up quite a bit, especially when you compare it to pre-COVID, and we're ramping up growth. So we do have I think this year, we said we're approximately 55 new units, and then we talked about next year kind of in that 50 to 55 as well. So it's really a function of the increase in construction costs.

好吧，我想我們已經討論過通貨膨脹是一件大事，對吧？當你看到建築成本上升了很多，特別是當你將它與 COVID 之前進行比較時，我們正在加速增長。所以我認為今年我們確實有，我們說我們大約有 55 個新單位，然後我們也談到了明年的 50 到 55 個單位。所以這實際上是建築成本增加的一個函數。

I think on the construction cost front, especially the FF&E for new restaurants has been growing quite a bit. And so that's -- it's -- you're seeing a 25-plus percent increase in those costs related to pre-COVID. So those are really the big drivers. But having said that, given the improvements we've made to our business models and where our unit economics are we still have pretty strong returns on our new units, and we continue to want to grow that. And that's why we do want to try to target as much growth as we can.

我認為在建築成本方面，尤其是新餐廳的 FF&E 已經增長了不少。所以那是——它是——你看到與 COVID 之前相關的那些成本增加了 25% 以上。所以這些才是真正的大驅動力。但話雖如此，鑑於我們對商業模式所做的改進以及我們的單位經濟狀況，我們的新單位仍然有相當可觀的回報，我們希望繼續增長。這就是為什麼我們確實希望盡可能多地瞄準增長。

Now we're going to be disciplined in how we do that. But we have -- we're being a little bit more selective, but still, we feel like we have opportunity to take share.

現在我們將在如何做到這一點上受到紀律處分。但是我們有 - 我們正在變得更有選擇性，但我們仍然覺得我們有機會分享。

Our next question comes from David Tarantino with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 David Tarantino 和 Baird。

My question, I guess, Raj, if you could just tell us what level of pricing you are running in the fourth quarter. And just trying to frame up the comp guidance of 3% to 5% and what might be implied from a traffic perspective in that number?

我想我的問題是，Raj，如果你能告訴我們你在第四季度運行的定價水平是多少。只是試圖構建 3% 到 5% 的補償指導，從流量的角度來看，這個數字可能意味著什麼？

Yes, David, I think we have -- basically, we're going to be under 6%. So call it, 5.5% to 6% is probably what we're running or you expect to be running in Q4.

是的，大衛，我認為我們已經 - 基本上，我們將低於 6%。這麼說吧，5.5% 到 6% 可能是我們正在運行的，或者你希望在第四季度運行的。

Got it. And then I guess then the guidance implies maybe slightly negative traffic. And I was wondering if you or Rick, could you comment just on why you think that is? And is it a macro issue? Or is it a something else in your view? And maybe, Rick, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the current macro environment given all the volatility we've seen lately. Just how are you thinking about kind of the outlook for the next several quarters?

知道了。然後我想該指南暗示可能會有輕微的負流量。我想知道你或 Rick，你能評論一下你為什麼這麼認為嗎？這是一個宏觀問題嗎？還是您認為這是其他原因？也許，里克，考慮到我們最近看到的所有波動，我很想听聽你對當前宏觀環境的看法。您如何看待未來幾個季度的前景？

Yes, David, let's talk about the macro for the macro consumer. But if you think about where our guide is for the next quarter, if you look at it versus pre-COVID, you take out the Omicron change and the never any past bold change that we did in Q2. When you think about pre-COVID, our trends are very similar, even what we're thinking about for Q4. So -- but as you think about the state of the consumer and the state of the economy, we've said this in previous calls, there's been a shift in spending from durable goods to services, restaurant businesses are benefiting from that.

是的，大衛，讓我們談談宏觀消費者的宏觀。但是，如果您考慮一下我們下一季度的指南，如果您將其與 COVID 之前的情況進行比較，您就會排除 Omicron 的變化以及我們在第二季度所做的過去從未有過的大膽變化。當你想到 COVID 之前，我們的趨勢非常相似，甚至我們對第四季度的想法也是如此。所以 - 但當你考慮消費者狀況和經濟狀況時，我們在之前的電話會議中已經說過，支出已經從耐用品轉向服務，餐飲企業正從中受益。

What's interesting is, for most of calendar year 2022 since customer sentiment was pretty bad. But consumer spending was significantly high. So even though they were thinking that things were bad, they were still spending and so we think as long as the unemployment rate is low and wages are increasing, consumers should continue to spend. Casual dining same restaurant sales improved sequentially each quarter during the fiscal year and our positive gap to the industry improved especially in traffic. So we feel like what we're doing is really helping us. I will also say the data from our proprietary brand health tracker suggests that most consumers are not pulling back from restaurant visits and they do not appear to be trading down from full service to limited service based on the day that we have.

有趣的是，在 2022 年的大部分時間裡，客戶情緒非常糟糕。但消費者支出非常高。因此，儘管他們認為情況很糟糕，但他們仍在消費，因此我們認為，只要失業率低且工資上漲，消費者就應該繼續消費。在本財政年度，休閒餐飲同店銷售額每個季度都在連續增長，我們與行業的正差距有所改善，尤其是在客流量方面。所以我們覺得我們正在做的事情真的在幫助我們。我還要說的是，來自我們專有品牌健康追踪器的數據表明，大多數消費者並沒有停止光顧餐廳，而且他們似乎沒有根據我們提供的那一天從全面服務降級為有限服務。

Now there is a tension between what people want and what they can afford. Consumers continue to seek value which is not about low prices, consumers are making spending trade-offs and food away from home is one of the most difficult expenses to give up because going out to a restaurant is still an affordable luxury for them. And so what does that mean for us? For our brands, we believe that operators that can deliver on their brand promise and value will continue to appeal to consumers despite economic challenges. And that's what we remain focused on doing, no matter what happens in the industry and whatever happens to the category.

現在人們想要什麼和他們能負擔得起之間存在著緊張關係。消費者繼續尋求與低價無關的價值，消費者正在進行消費權衡，外出就餐是最難放棄的支出之一，因為外出就餐對他們來說仍然是負擔得起的奢侈品。那麼這對我們意味著什麼？對於我們的品牌，我們相信，儘管經濟面臨挑戰，但能夠兌現品牌承諾和價值的運營商將繼續吸引消費者。這就是我們一直專注於做的事情，無論行業中發生什麼以及該類別發生什麼。

Makes sense.

說得通。

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 implied fourth quarter earnings guidance, looks like that's growth of maybe 8% to 15%. And I know last quarter, you talked about maybe the third quarter and the fourth quarter should be pretty even in terms of growth both quarters. The third quarter grew 21%. So it just looks like you're maybe tempering the earnings growth algo for the fourth quarter relative to the third.

偉大的。兩個問題。第一個，就隱含的第四季度收益指引而言，看起來可能增長 8% 到 15%。我知道上個季度，你談到了第三季度和第四季度在兩個季度的增長方面應該相當均衡。第三季度增長了 21%。所以看起來你可能正在緩和第四季度相對於第三季度的盈利增長算法。

Just wondering whether you view that as conservatism or perhaps it's the modest uptick in inflation, kind of how you think about the sequential trend from an earnings perspective in the fourth relative to the third quarter? And then I had one follow-up.

只是想知道您是否認為這是保守主義，或者可能是通脹的溫和上升，您如何從第四季度相對於第三季度的收益角度看待連續趨勢？然後我進行了一次跟進。

Jeff, it's actually what you said. It's the commodities inflation. We did -- as we said last call, we thought Q4 was going to be flat, closer to flat. And then now that we're saying that's in the -- solidly in the low single digits. So when you kind of layer that in, that's where the growth is a little bit less. But outside of -- that's really the primary dynamic that's different.

傑夫，這實際上是你所說的。這是商品通脹。我們做到了——正如我們上次通話所說，我們認為第四季度將持平，接近持平。然後現在我們說的是——穩定地處於低個位數。因此，當您將其分層時，增長就會減少一些。但在外面——這真的是不同的主要動力。

Understood. And then just following up on the macro question with interest rates still on the rise. I'm just wondering how does that impact your business or how you manage it, if at all, in terms of new unit growth, which seems to still be stable or how you think about borrowings or whether you think it impacts consumer behavior, maybe any return of cash decisions? Like how does that come into play, if at all, as you manage the business?

明白了。然後只是跟進利率仍在上升的宏觀問題。我只是想知道這對您的業務有何影響或您如何管理它，如果有的話，就新單位增長而言，這似乎仍然穩定，或者您如何看待借貸，或者您是否認為它會影響消費者行為，也許任何現金返還決定？在您管理業務時，這會如何發揮作用（如果有的話）？

Yes, Jeff, this is Rick. The interest rates really aren't making a huge impact in our business. We actually have a significant balance in cash. So higher interest rates has actually given us a little bit more interest over time. You think about our new restaurant openings that we have seen inflation, as Raj mentioned. And so we're being prudent in looking at some of these deals and saying, what we might wait just a little bit of time to see if we can get a second bid, sometimes during this year, we're only getting one bid for some of these sites. So we want to be prudent.

是的，傑夫，這是里克。利率確實沒有對我們的業務產生巨大影響。我們實際上有大量現金餘額。所以隨著時間的推移，更高的利率實際上給了我們更多的興趣。正如 Raj 提到的，你想想我們已經看到通貨膨脹的新餐廳開業。因此，我們審慎地審視其中一些交易並說，我們可能會稍等片刻，看看我們是否能獲得第二次出價，有時在今年，我們只會收到一次出價其中一些網站。所以我們要謹慎。

But the interest rates really haven't done anything for us. And if you think about the consumer, they're still spending. We'll see what happens when these credit card balances, which were at record highs in December come due, but they're still spending today. So, so far, nothing in our space as it pertains to return of cash, we have a very strong dividend as we announced it again today. We feel like that's one way we return our cash to shareholders. We'll talk about our capital returns coming up in June. But it hasn't really changed our outlook and what we think about our long-term framework.

但利率真的沒有為我們做任何事情。如果你想想消費者，他們仍在消費。我們將看看當這些在 12 月創下歷史新高的信用卡餘額到期時會發生什麼，但他們今天仍在消費。因此，到目前為止，我們的領域中沒有任何與現金返還有關的東西，正如我們今天再次宣布的那樣，我們有非常強勁的股息。我們覺得這是我們向股東返還現金的一種方式。我們將討論 6 月份的資本回報。但這並沒有真正改變我們的前景以及我們對長期框架的看法。

So if you go back to our framework and how we return cash to shareholders, we've got targets for our rough dividend as a percent of our earnings and how much we buy back in shares. This year, we've bought back somewhere in the $400-and-some-odd million and our share count target that we gave you would imply a little bit more in the fourth quarter. But we'll talk more about our return on cash and our long-term framework in June.

因此，如果你回到我們的框架以及我們如何向股東返還現金，我們有粗略的股息佔收入百分比的目標，以及我們回購股票的數量。今年，我們回購了 400 多萬美元，我們給你的股票數量目標意味著第四季度會多一點。但我們將在 6 月份更多地討論我們的現金回報和我們的長期框架。

Got it. And Rick, just to clarify, I think you mentioned before that you've seen relative stability in sales through the fiscal third quarter and even into March. Just from the outside looking and I mean, with the most recent banking noise and things like that over the past few weeks. Does that lead to greater volatility day to day or week to week? Or do you really not see it in the restaurant sales line despite all the headlines that create so much noise for the part of macro?

知道了。里克，我想澄清一下，我想你之前提到過，你已經看到第三財季甚至三月份的銷售相對穩定。只是從外面看，我的意思是，最近幾周銀行業的噪音和類似的事情。這會導致每天或每週都出現更大的波動嗎？或者你真的沒有在餐廳銷售線上看到它，儘管所有的頭條新聞都為宏觀的部分製造瞭如此多的噪音？

Well, Jeff, I think if you think about March, when you think volatility will happen in March just because of shifts in spring break. So you have to take that into account, but trends are fairly consistent. So when you think about a state might change where the spring break is. So that will show volatility at restaurants. But in general, we feel like our trends haven't really changed much.

好吧，傑夫，我想如果你想想三月份，你認為三月份會因為春假的變化而發生波動。所以你必須考慮到這一點，但趨勢是相當一致的。因此，當您考慮春假所在的州時，可能會發生變化。因此，這將顯示餐館的波動性。但總的來說，我們覺得我們的趨勢並沒有真正改變多少。

Our next question comes from Joshua Long with Stephens.

我們的下一個問題來自 Joshua Long 和 Stephens。

In terms of the context of relative visibility in your business, how are you thinking about the marketing and the messaging opportunity as we go into the back half of the year and then into fiscal '24? I mean still at kind of lower levels versus what we had seen on the marketing spend basis versus prior years. Are you comfortable with that? Is there any reason to kind of adjust that strategy as we go into what could be a more challenging or potentially volatile macroeconomic environment?

就您業務的相對知名度而言，在我們進入今年下半年然後進入 24 財年時，您如何看待營銷和消息傳遞機會？我的意思是，與我們在營銷支出基礎上看到的相比，與往年相比，仍處於較低水平。你覺得舒服嗎？當我們進入一個更具挑戰性或潛在動蕩的宏觀經濟環境時，是否有任何理由調整該戰略？

Josh, this is Rick. We're not going to get into too much detail on our promotional plans, but I would say that our marketing spend isn't going to be significantly different year-over-year. It might be 10 to 20 basis points either way, up or down as we think about next year. But as we've said before, advertising is always going to be part of Olive Garden's mix because of the scale advantage they have. And so we'll continue to leverage that scale advantage with Olive Garden.

喬希，這是里克。我們不會詳細介紹我們的促銷計劃，但我會說我們的營銷支出與去年同期相比不會有顯著差異。正如我們對明年的看法，它可能會以任何方式上漲或下跌 10 到 20 個基點。但正如我們之前所說，廣告總是會成為 Olive Garden 組合的一部分，因為它們具有規模優勢。因此，我們將繼續利用 Olive Garden 的規模優勢。

And we'll use the filters that we mentioned before, to evaluate any marketing activity, elevating -- it has to elevate brand equity. It has to be simple to execute, and it's not going to be at a deep discount. And so we plan on sticking to that strategy. But if things dramatically change, we'll react accordingly. And as we've said many times in the past, if and when we increase our marketing spend, we'd expect it to earn a return compared to where we would have been without it. So it should be a positive ROI, and it shouldn't impact our -- it shouldn't hurt our margins.

我們將使用我們之前提到的過濾器來評估任何營銷活動，提升 - 它必須提升品牌資產。它必須易於執行，並且不會打折。因此，我們計劃堅持這一戰略。但如果情況發生巨大變化，我們會做出相應的反應。正如我們過去多次說過的那樣，如果以及當我們增加營銷支出時，與沒有它的情況相比，我們希望它能獲得回報。所以它應該是一個積極的投資回報率，它不應該影響我們——它不應該損害我們的利潤。

Understood. That's helpful. And then maybe one follow-up for me. In terms of talking about the restaurant manager pipeline and the fact that you mentioned having more restaurant managers than you've had in your history. Can you talk about the benefits and kind of just the opportunities that unlocks from either a service component or how you should think about -- how we should think about that positively impacting guest experience as we go forward and maybe helping to drive that gap versus the industry a bit wider over time.

明白了。這很有幫助。然後也許對我來說是一個後續行動。在談論餐廳經理管道以及你提到擁有比歷史上更多的餐廳經理這一事實時。你能談談從服務組件中釋放出來的好處和機會嗎？或者你應該如何思考——我們應該如何考慮在我們前進的過程中對客戶體驗產生積極影響，並可能有助於縮小與隨著時間的推移，行業範圍會更廣一些。

Yes, Josh. The manager role in our restaurants is the most important role we have, especially the General Manager, the Managing Partner and being fully staffed there gives them more time to spend with their team and train their team, develop them, make them stronger and just spend that time forecasting their business and spending time with guests.

是的，喬希。我們餐廳的經理角色是我們所擁有的最重要的角色，尤其是總經理、執行合夥人，在那裡配備齊全的員工讓他們有更多時間與他們的團隊共度時光，培訓他們的團隊，發展他們，讓他們變得更強大，只是花錢那段時間預測他們的業務並與客人共度時光。

If you're under staff managers, the restaurant doesn't run as well. But the other thing about being fully staffed with managers and have the highest staffing in our history is that, that helps us open restaurants going forward, right? If you think about our pipeline of new units, we have about 25 net openings coming in this quarter, and we are ready for it with the managers that we have. So there's a lot of benefits out of being fully staffed managers can spend more time with their team, they can spend more time with guests, and we have the managers to open our restaurants.

如果你是員工經理，餐廳就不會經營得很好。但是，關於配備齊全的管理人員並擁有我們歷史上最高的人員配備的另一件事是，這有助於我們在未來開設餐廳，對吧？如果你考慮一下我們的新單位管道，本季度我們將有大約 25 個淨空缺，我們已經為我們的經理做好了準備。因此，配備齊全的經理有很多好處，他們可以花更多時間與他們的團隊在一起，他們可以花更多時間與客人在一起，而且我們有經理來開我們的餐廳。

Our next question comes from Danilo Gargiulo with Bernstein.

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

Good morning. So Rick, you mentioned that the ability to price below inflation is giving Darden the ability to grow faster than the market in term sales and traffic. So are you expecting the same momentum to continue if inflation decelerates and food at home inflation perhaps increases at a lower pace compared to the food away from home inflation.

早上好。所以里克，你提到定價低於通貨膨脹的能力使達頓有能力在長期銷售和流量方面比市場增長更快。那麼，如果通貨膨脹減速並且與遠離家庭的食品通貨膨脹相比，家庭食品通貨膨脹的增長速度可能較低，那麼您是否預計同樣的勢頭會持續下去。

Well, our strategy has been this strategy for quite a while, and we plan on sticking to it. It's really helped us over the long term on whether inflation has been higher, inflation has been low. If inflation comes down or things slow down, a lot of our pricing is already built in for next year based on where we are right now. And so we'll be able to react accordingly.

好吧，我們的戰略已經有一段時間了，我們計劃堅持下去。從長遠來看，它確實幫助我們了解通貨膨脹率是否更高，通貨膨脹率是否一直很低。如果通貨膨脹下降或情況放緩，我們的很多定價已經根據我們現在的情況為明年制定。因此，我們將能夠做出相應的反應。

In the long run, we plan on pricing below inflation. But in any 12-month period, it might be a little bit higher, a little bit lower than inflation. That said, we believe that our scale advantage gives us the opportunity to find cost savings so that we can price below inflation in the long run, to drive a better value for our guests. And as we said earlier, guests appreciate value, especially when -- or if the economy slows down a little bit, they go for places that they get a great value and they get great consistent experiences, and that's what we intend to provide.

從長遠來看，我們計劃定價低於通脹。但在任何 12 個月期間，它可能比通貨膨脹高一點，低一點。也就是說，我們相信我們的規模優勢讓我們有機會找到成本節約方案，以便我們能夠在長期內以低於通貨膨脹的價格定價，從而為我們的客人帶來更好的價值。正如我們之前所說，客人欣賞價值，尤其是當 - 或者如果經濟放緩一點，他們會去他們獲得巨大價值的地方並且他們獲得一致的體驗，這就是我們打算提供的。

And maybe, Raj, what caused the marginal deceleration and expectations on net new units? And if you can also comment on your recent comment strong returns in the new units and that you're going to be a little bit more selective. So can you share how the real estate strategy is evolving over time.

也許，Raj，是什麼導致了淨新單位的邊際減速和預期？如果你也可以評論你最近的評論，新單位的強勁回報，你會更有選擇性。那麼您能否分享一下房地產戰略是如何隨著時間的推移而演變的？

Yes. So a couple of things. The new units, I think we talked about, part of it is just the construction delays and the challenges we've had. And we are still opening quite a few. I mean our expectation for this year is approximately 55 new openings. So we're opening quite a bit. As far as the comment on the returns, when we look at our new units actually especially the recent openings have actually outperformed on the top line more than we expected going into.

是的。所以有幾件事。我想我們談到了新單位，部分原因只是施工延誤和我們遇到的挑戰。而且我們仍然開放了很多。我的意思是，我們對今年的預期是大約 55 個新職位空缺。所以我們開放了很多。至於對回報的評論，當我們審視我們的新單位時，尤其是最近開業的單位實際上比我們預期的要好。

So they are actually opening at most of our brands. They're opening at volumes that are exceeding what we would have estimated going into the -- when we approved the capital for that project. So overall, we always had a lot of headroom in our -- in terms of the returns versus our cost of capital. And so we are exceeding the hurdle by a wide margin even with the increased construction cost.

所以他們實際上在我們的大多數品牌上都開張了。當我們批准該項目的資金時，他們的開放數量超過了我們估計的數量。因此，總的來說，就回報與我們的資本成本而言，我們總是有很大的空間。因此，即使建築成本增加，我們也大大超過了障礙。

Our next question comes from Dennis Geiger with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Dennis Geiger。

I wanted to ask one more on margin and maybe Raj, if there's any update to how you're thinking about holding on to games longer term that you've seen since the pandemic? I know you've recently kind of spoken more to a long-term total return algorithm rather than sort of an annual margin growth number. But just curious if any new observations or thoughts on sort of longer-term margin trajectory, given what you've seen recently?

我想再問一個關於保證金的問題，也許還有 Raj，自大流行以來，您是否有任何關於您如何考慮長期堅持遊戲的更新？我知道你最近更多地談到了長期總回報算法，而不是年利潤率增長數字。但是，考慮到您最近看到的情況，是否對長期保證金軌蹟有任何新的觀察或想法感到好奇？

Yes, Dennis. I think we've talked about this year, we've been purposeful and deliberate in actually choosing to price where we price, right, over the last few years because of the gains we have had versus pre-COVID. Our intent would be to try to grow from these levels. But in a given year, it can be different. Ultimately, we do go back to that 10% to 15% TSR. That's the EPS growth plus the dividend yield. And how we get there, any given year might be different. But from where we are starting at the end of this fiscal year, we expect to build margins over time.

是的，丹尼斯。我想我們已經討論過今年，我們一直有目的和深思熟慮地實際選擇在我們定價的地方定價，因為我們在過去幾年中獲得了與 COVID 之前相比的收益。我們的意圖是嘗試從這些級別發展。但在某一年，它可能會有所不同。最終，我們確實回到了 10% 到 15% 的股東總回報率。那是每股收益增長加上股息收益率。以及我們如何到達那裡，任何一年都可能不同。但從我們在本財年末開始的地方，我們預計隨著時間的推移會建立利潤率。

That's great. Appreciate that. And just one more, just on the 24 new openings. Can you speak to whether the breakdown by brand will look similar sort of to what you've seen in prior years?

那太棒了。感謝。還有一個，就在 24 個新空缺中。您能否談談按品牌劃分的細分是否與您前幾年看到的類似？

Yes. I think you're going to see a little bit more of Olive Garden openings just because they have the best returns in the portfolio, and they have we've shared that we think there is more opportunity for growth coming out of the pandemic. So you might see 20-ish in for them and then mid-teens for Longhorn and then everybody else making up the rest.

是的。我認為你會看到更多的 Olive Garden 開張，因為它們在投資組合中有最好的回報，而且我們已經分享了我們認為大流行病帶來更多增長機會。所以你可能會看到他們有 20 多歲，然後 Longhorn 有十幾歲，然後其他人組成了其餘部分。

Our next question comes from Jeff Farmer with Gordon Haskett.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jeff Farmer 和 Gordon Haskett。

Great. Just following up on margins, some of the stuff you just discussed. But you did touch on marketing but your restaurant expense and G&A as a percent of revenue are running that looks like roughly 100 basis points below pre-COVID levels. Do you think that lower cost structure of both the restaurant and corporate level is sustainable moving forward?

偉大的。只是跟進利潤率，你剛才討論的一些東西。但你確實談到了營銷，但你的餐廳費用和 G&A 佔收入的百分比看起來比 COVID 之前的水平低大約 100 個基點。您認為餐廳和企業層面的低成本結構能否持續向前發展？

Yes. We always focus on -- that's the opportunity for us. When we talk about our scale benefiting, we always are trying to take costs that are not directly impacting the guest. So that's really restaurant expenses and G&A are the 2 places where we think our scale benefits us the most in terms of being able to take costs out, leverage our scale. And so we do expect those to continue to be -- maintain a wider gap to pre-COVID positive gap.

是的。我們始終專注於 - 這是我們的機會。當我們談論我們的規模效益時，我們總是試圖承擔不會直接影響客人的成本。所以這真的是餐廳費用和 G&A 是我們認為我們的規模在能夠降低成本、利用我們的規模方面對我們最有利的兩個地方。因此，我們確實預計這些將繼續存在——與 COVID 前的積極差距保持更大的差距。

And then just 1 more on the follow-up on the lower income customer sort of demand profile. You've obviously pointed to some slowing demand there, but I'm just curious how that manifests itself? Is that sort of reduced visit or check management? How does that show up when that lower income customer changes their behavior.

然後還有 1 個關於低收入客戶需求概況的跟進。您顯然已經指出那裡的需求有所放緩，但我只是好奇它是如何表現出來的？是那種減少訪問或檢查管理？當低收入客戶改變他們的行為時，這會如何表現出來。

Yes. In the past, we had talked about our lower income consumer over the last few quarters, the mix shifting down a little bit, but still being above pre-COVID. The good news is we haven't seen a material change in mix from the last time we talked to now in that lower end consumer. But if it manifests itself, it generally starts with managing check. Generally, consumers will manage their check first, and then they'll manage your visits later.

是的。過去，我們在過去幾個季度談到了我們的低收入消費者，其組合略有下降，但仍高於 COVID 之前的水平。好消息是，自上次與現在低端消費者交談以來，我們還沒有看到產品組合發生重大變化。但如果它表現出來，它通常從管理支票開始。通常，消費者會先管理他們的支票，然後他們才會管理您的訪問。

And so far, we really haven't seen a whole lot of check management. So that tells you, based on what I said earlier, consumer sentiment was pretty bad in '22, but consumers still spent. And as people shifted to restaurants, we benefited. So we haven't seen it yet. We may see it. And when we do, it will start at check probably and then it will impact probably more likely impact our lower-end consumer brands, not that they're lower end brands they just have a bigger mix of lower-end consumers, and it will impact less our high-end brands.

到目前為止，我們真的還沒有看到很多支票管理。所以這告訴你，根據我之前所說的，22 年的消費者情緒非常糟糕，但消費者仍在消費。隨著人們轉向餐館，我們從中受益。所以我們還沒有看到它。我們可能會看到它。當我們這樣做時，它可能會從支票開始，然後它可能會影響我們的低端消費品牌，而不是它們是低端品牌，它們只是擁有更多的低端消費者，而且它會對我們的高端品牌影響較小。

But that's the benefit of a portfolio and the portfolio that we have that we can withstand shocks to one segment of the population.

但這就是投資組合和我們擁有的投資組合的好處，我們可以承受對一部分人口的衝擊。

Our next question comes from Andrew Charles with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Andrew Charles。

One quick bookkeeping question. Raj, as we think about 2023 EPS guidance, is roughly $390 million still the right number for G&A?

一個快速簿記問題。 Raj，當我們考慮 2023 年 EPS 指導時，大約 3.9 億美元仍然是 G&A 的正確數字嗎？

Yes, that's right.

恩，那就對了。

Okay. And then I realize that you guys are going to provide 2024 guidance on the 4Q call. But just in the backdrop of this uncertain macro environment, combined inflation has just proven stubbly high. Can you talk about your confidence in the ability to deliver 10% plus TSR in 2024 and just the different avenues you could take to get there if we were to see a slow consumer backdrop?

好的。然後我意識到你們將在 4Q 電話會議上提供 2024 年的指導。但就在這種不確定的宏觀環境的背景下，綜合通脹率剛剛高居不下。您能否談談您對在 2024 年實現 10% 以上 TSR 的能力的信心，以及如果我們看到消費增長緩慢的背景，您可以採取哪些不同的途徑來實現這一目標？

Yes, Andrew, this is Rick. I will say that if you think about our confidence returning a TSR of 10% to 15% in any one year, we've said many times that in any one year, it could be below that or above that. And remember, that earnings growth and dividend yield. I will say, go back in our history since we've been a public company, we've never had a 10-year period that we have had less than a 10-year -- 10% annualized total shareholder return. So we feel confident over the long run that we're going to get to 10% to 15%. We're not going to talk about next year. But I would feel like we're pretty confident we should be able to get there.

是的，安德魯，這是瑞克。我會說，如果你考慮我們有信心在任何一年內返回 10% 至 15% 的股東總回報率，我們已經多次說過，在任何一年中，它可能低於或高於該水平。請記住，盈利增長和股息收益率。我要說的是，回顧我們成為上市公司以來的歷史，我們從未有過低於 10 年的 10 年股東總回報率——10%。因此，從長遠來看，我們有信心達到 10% 到 15%。我們不打算談論明年。但我覺得我們很有信心我們應該能夠到達那裡。

Our next question comes from Jon Tower with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗的 Jon Tower。

Awesome. Great. Hopefully, you can hear me okay. I was really -- I was struck by the commentary about your own consumer survey suggesting that your customers are not trading down from limited service -- excuse me, away from full-service into limited service. Frankly, it's counter to what we've been hearing from a handful of operators in recent weeks. So I'm curious to hear from you, is that broadly speaking about just your -- or is that speaking specifically about your brands? Or is it more broadly about the full-service category, number 1? And then number 2, can you talk about what these customers are telling you as to why they're sticking with your brand versus trading down elsewhere?

驚人的。偉大的。希望你能聽到我的聲音。我真的——我對你自己的消費者調查的評論感到震驚，這表明你的客戶並沒有從有限的服務中退縮——對不起，從全方位服務轉向有限服務。坦率地說，這與我們最近幾週從少數運營商那裡聽到的情況背道而馳。所以我很想听聽您的意見，這是泛泛地談論您的——還是專門針對您的品牌？還是更廣泛地涉及全方位服務類別，排名第一？然後是第二點，你能談談這些客戶告訴你的關於他們為什麼堅持使用你的品牌而不是在其他地方降價的原因嗎？

Are they using you differently now than, say, in years past, when thinking about their own budgeting for going out or eating away from home.

在考慮自己的外出或外出就餐預算時，他們現在使用你的方式是否不同於過去幾年？

Yes, John, this is Rick. What we said earlier is most customers aren't -- now that doesn't mean there aren't any customers shifting from full service to limited service. But most aren't. And we're not really seeing that in our results. So others might be, but what we have been doing is providing a great value. We've actually taken a lot less pricing than most of our competition. So that might be a reason that others might be seeing that when we're not.

是的，約翰，這是瑞克。我們之前所說的是大多數客戶不是——現在這並不意味著沒有任何客戶從全面服務轉向有限服務。但大多數不是。我們並沒有真正在我們的結果中看到這一點。其他人可能是這樣，但我們一直在做的是提供巨大的價值。實際上，我們的定價比我們的大多數競爭對手要低得多。所以這可能是其他人可能看到而我們沒有看到的原因。

And we're improving our guest experience. So at the same time that we've taken pricing that was lower than inflation by Raj said, 400 or 500 basis points versus pre-COVID. We've been improving our experience. Our customer satisfaction is growing, we've had records at Cheddar's and Yard House, as I mentioned already. So I think that's what people will crave when environments get a little bit tougher, they crave things that provide them a great value and that gives them consistent experience. And we've been doing that, and we'll continue to do that.

我們正在改善我們的客人體驗。因此，與此同時，我們採用的定價低於 Raj 所說的通貨膨脹率，比 COVID 之前低 400 或 500 個基點。我們一直在改善我們的體驗。我們的客戶滿意度正在提高，正如我已經提到的，我們在 Cheddar's 和 Yard House 都有記錄。所以我認為這就是當環境變得更加艱難時人們會渴望的東西，他們渴望能夠為他們提供巨大價值並為他們提供一致體驗的東西。我們一直在這樣做，我們將繼續這樣做。

Okay. So you're suggesting that this brand survey work you did is more specific to your brands than necessarily the whole full service category?

好的。所以你是說你所做的這個品牌調查工作更具體地針對你的品牌而不是整個全方位服務類別？

No, I'm not suggesting that it's only our brands. What I'm saying is that most consumers aren't trading down. Some are, but most aren't. And in prior big downturns or things like that, we had a lot -- we had a lot more consumers trade down. We haven't seen that. Now when I talk about specifically to our brands, our satisfaction is up. Our value is better than it was before. So there's a little bit of both in my answer, industry and us.

不，我並不是說這只是我們的品牌。我的意思是，大多數消費者並沒有降價交易。有些是，但大多數不是。在之前的大衰退或類似的事情中，我們有很多 - 我們有更多的消費者進行交易。我們還沒有看到。現在，當我專門談論我們的品牌時，我們的滿意度就會上升。我們的價值比以前更好。所以在我的回答中，行業和我們都有一點。

Got it. Okay. Just circling back to the marketing question. I know we hit I don't know a few times already, but I'm curious what the trigger might be? Are you going to be a little bit more reactionary in terms of waiting to see some slowdown or if there is one that comes before necessarily pulling that trigger? And I understand the context that you put around how you would go after increasing marketing by not necessarily offering deep discounts.

知道了。好的。回到營銷問題。我知道我們命中了我不知道已經有幾次了，但我很好奇觸發器可能是什麼？在等待看到一些放緩或者是否有一個必須觸發之前出現的情況下，你是否會更加反動？而且我了解您提出的在不一定提供大幅折扣的情況下增加營銷後將如何進行的背景。

But just curious to know what sort of triggers you're looking for in the marketplace? Maybe it's just the slippage in traffic, either relative or absolute before you start spending a little bit more on the marketing side?

但只是想知道您在市場上尋找什麼樣的觸發器？在您開始在營銷方面多花一點錢之前，也許這只是流量的下滑，無論是相對的還是絕對的？

John, it's Rick. We're not necessarily going to talk about specific triggers. What I can say is we're going to be very prudent in our marketing spend. We've done a lot over the last few years to simplify our business to make it easier to operate and we've done a lot of testing during this time on what marketing really does drive. And when things change dramatically we may change.

約翰，是里克。我們不一定要談論特定的觸發因素。我能說的是，我們將在營銷支出方面非常謹慎。在過去的幾年裡，我們做了很多工作來簡化我們的業務，使其更容易操作，並且在這段時間裡，我們對營銷的真正推動力進行了大量測試。當事情發生巨大變化時，我們可能會改變。

But right now, we're going to continue to stick to our strategy of making our communication be much more branded, elevating brand equity, simple to execute, and we don't expect it to be a deep discount. So we've -- this industry has gone through this before, buying guests, and we're not ones that are going to go out and buy guests. We're going to continue to do what we do. and strengthen our business. And if things change, then we may react.

但現在，我們將繼續堅持我們的戰略，讓我們的傳播更加品牌化，提升品牌資產，易於執行，我們不希望它有很大的折扣。所以我們 - 這個行業之前已經經歷過這種情況，購買客人，而我們不會出去購買客人。我們將繼續做我們所做的事情。並加強我們的業務。如果情況發生變化，那麼我們可能會做出反應。

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。

Just a follow-up on that, I think. I know we've talked about most consumers not trading from full service to limited service and certainly giving up dining out something that people don't want to do, especially when they're employed, but you're guiding to, and I assume a lot of guidance over the next 3 months or so, is assuming a negative same-store traffic. So I guess the question is the grocery in terms of total number of meals consumed is still bigger than restaurants actually multiple, maybe 2-plus x restaurants depending on how you want to calculate it.

我想只是對此的後續行動。我知道我們已經討論過大多數消費者不會從全面服務轉向有限服務，當然也不會放棄人們不想做的事情，尤其是當他們有工作時，但你正在引導，我想在接下來的 3 個月左右，很多指導都是假設同店客流量為負。所以我想問題是，就消費的總餐數而言，雜貨店仍然比餐館實際多，可能是 2+x 餐館，這取決於你想如何計算它。

Grocery pricing has actually been well in excess of restaurant pricing. It remains so now. When you guys think for it and this is, I guess, a forward-looking question, really a view of your industry. Grocery pricing oftentimes follows commodities. Commodities are expected to drop just in your own language from what was 10-plus percent to very low single digits. Is there like a way to kind of be prepared for grocery kind of retaking relative value relative to restaurants?

雜貨店的定價實際上已經遠遠超過了餐館的定價。現在仍然如此。當你們思考的時候，我想這是一個前瞻性的問題，真的是對你們行業的看法。雜貨定價通常跟隨商品。預計僅以您自己的語言表示的商品將從 10% 以上下降到非常低的個位數。有沒有一種方法可以讓雜貨店重新獲得相對於餐館的相對價值？

And is that something that you think about internally and maybe to John Tower's question of maybe bringing back some advertising, bringing back some promotion just to make sure that you're keeping customers maybe the bottom 5% or 10%, whatever you want to say, still coming your brand and using the brand even if year-over-year grocery start in other brands, perhaps limited service included start to emerge as a pricing opportunity for them.

這是你內部考慮的事情嗎？也許是約翰塔的問題，也許帶回一些廣告，帶回一些促銷只是為了確保你留住客戶可能是底部的 5% 或 10%，無論你想說什麼，即使其他品牌的雜貨店年復一年開始，仍然會出現您的品牌並使用該品牌，也許包括有限的服務開始成為他們的定價機會。

Yes, John, thanks. It's Rick. One of the things I want to let everybody make sure that hear is we're not going to risk margin, significant margin declines because of what happens in the economy. If food costs go down, think about what we've said in the past, a 1% decline in commodity inflation will offset a 2% decline in traffic. All else equal, with us doing nothing. So if commodity costs come down and inflation comes down, we can weather a little bit of a traffic decline and still get to the same EBITDA.

是的，約翰，謝謝。是瑞克。我想讓每個人都確保聽到的一件事是，我們不會因為經濟中發生的事情而冒利潤率、利潤率大幅下降的風險。如果食品成本下降，想想我們過去說過的話，商品通脹下降 1% 將抵消交通量下降 2%。其他一切都一樣，我們什麼都不做。因此，如果商品成本下降，通貨膨脹率下降，我們可以經受住交通量的一點點下降，但仍能達到相同的 EBITDA。

So I think we have to think -- and the industry has to think long term about how they drive traffic through discounting. And we have made that shift and we made that shift even started it before COVID to drive traffic through better experiences, better overall value and not discounting to a very small -- a small portion of our guest base. So that's our strategy going forward. If things change, we'll let you know.

所以我認為我們必須思考——而且行業必須從長遠考慮他們如何通過折扣來增加流量。我們已經做出了這種轉變，甚至在 COVID 之前就開始了這種轉變，以通過更好的體驗、更好的整體價值來推動流量，而不是打折給非常小的客戶群。這就是我們未來的戰略。如果情況發生變化，我們會通知您。

Well, and I think that's very clear to less than permanently learn, not temporarily learned, and I think that's important, certainly be here and express it.

好吧，我認為這很清楚，不是永久學習，不是暫時學習，我認為這很重要，當然要在這裡表達出來。

Our next question will come from Chris O'Cull with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Stifel 的 Chris O'Cull。

Rick, you've tied the traffic outperformance this quarter to less pricing than the competition. So I'm just wondering why you believe consumers are now noticing that difference and relative value. If there was some sort of trigger with a marketing or advertising effort? Or what do you think is caused that change this quarter?

Rick，您將本季度流量的出色表現與低於競爭對手的定價聯繫起來。所以我只是想知道為什麼你相信消費者現在註意到了這種差異和相對價值。營銷或廣告工作是否有某種觸發因素？或者您認為本季度發生變化的原因是什麼？

Chris, I would say that I don't think it's just this quarter. I think it's been a long time what we've been doing. We've been under pricing inflation even before COVID, we started underpricing inflation, and we've been putting more on the plate. And so we've actually invested while under pricing. And so if you look at variable margin, contribution margins, just take Olive Garden, for example, you can't do the math.

克里斯，我想說我不認為只是這個季度。我認為我們已經做了很長時間了。甚至在 COVID 之前，我們就一直在定價通貨膨脹，我們開始低估通貨膨脹，而且我們一直在努力。因此，我們實際上是在定價過低的情況下進行了投資。因此，如果您查看可變利潤率、貢獻利潤率，以 Olive Garden 為例，您無法計算。

But if you look at contribution to margin in Olive Garden, it's lower today than it was before COVID. But their margins look over are up. So our consumers are seeing that they're getting more value when they come into the restaurants, and that doesn't take -- it doesn't take a week to figure that out. It takes them a long time to figure that out. And that's why when we talk about what we're doing, you have to think about this over the long run because we're not shouting out to the rooftops that we've done this.

但是，如果您查看 Olive Garden 對利潤率的貢獻，今天的利潤率低於 COVID 之前。但他們的利潤率看起來在上升。因此，我們的消費者發現，當他們走進餐廳時，他們獲得了更多價值，而這並不需要——不需要一周的時間就能弄清楚。他們需要很長時間才能弄清楚。這就是為什麼當我們談論我們正在做的事情時，你必須從長遠考慮這個問題，因為我們不會大聲疾呼我們已經做到了。

The closest that we did to that was brought never any possible [that] at a $3 higher price to show people that we still have some great value in our restaurants. And Olive Garden being on TV talking about the things that make their brand special. Right now, where we've got back on our advertising and sauces sold and talking about our freshly made sauces every day, while we still have a 15-second spot talking about our Never Ending First Course. And so -- and that Never Ending First Course is on us. There aren't many brands that actually give you never ending that for every item that you order. And so again, it's not something that we necessarily talk about. We don't go out and shout from the rooftops that we have lower prices than others do or we've priced less. They see it as they come into our restaurants, and that builds over time.

我們所做的最接近的是永遠不可能 [that] 以高出 3 美元的價格向人們展示我們的餐廳仍然具有很大的價值。 Olive Garden 正在電視上談論讓他們的品牌與眾不同的事情。現在，我們已經恢復了我們的廣告和醬汁銷售並每天談論我們新鮮製作的醬汁，同時我們還有 15 秒的時間談論我們永無止境的第一道菜。所以 - 永無止境的第一門課程就在我們身上。沒有多少品牌能真正為您訂購的每件商品提供永無止境的服務。再一次，這不是我們必須談論的事情。我們不會出去在屋頂上大喊我們的價格比其他人低，或者我們的價格更低。他們在進入我們的餐廳時看到它，並且隨著時間的推移而建立。

That's great. And I know you guys have a rich consumer data set. I mean, does your data indicate that certain consumer segments have increased their frequency of visits, especially at Olive Garden?

那太棒了。我知道你們有豐富的消費者數據集。我的意思是，您的數據是否表明某些消費者群體增加了訪問頻率，尤其是在 Olive Garden？

What I would say is versus pre-COVID, our data would tell us that are -- that we're getting a little bit younger than we were before COVID across all of our brands, and that's somewhat driven by an increase in to-go business. But the great news is a lot of these folks had actually used us for to go for the first time, and that's their first visit to us, are actually starting to come into our restaurant, too. So it was kind of a handshake to come in. And so we're slightly younger, but our consumer segments are fairly similar to what they were before.

我要說的是與 COVID 之前相比，我們的數據會告訴我們——我們所有品牌的人都比 COVID 之前年輕了一些，這在一定程度上是由於待辦事項增加所致商業。但好消息是，這些人中有很多人實際上是第一次使用我們，這是他們第一次來我們這裡，實際上也開始進入我們的餐廳。所以這是一種握手。所以我們稍微年輕一點，但我們的消費者群體與以前非常相似。

And that's great news for us. We're also getting a little bit more frequency in our core guests, and that's really what we've been focusing on. So the good news is our consumers are not that different. They're slightly younger. That means that we don't have to really change what we're doing because we can keep talking to our consumers just like we have been before.

這對我們來說是個好消息。我們在核心客人中的訪問頻率也有所提高，而這正是我們一直關注的重點。所以好消息是我們的消費者並沒有那麼不同。他們稍微年輕一點。這意味著我們不必真正改變我們正在做的事情，因為我們可以像以前一樣繼續與我們的消費者交談。

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。

This is Katherine Griffin on for Sara. I just wanted to ask again on marketing, sorry. Just if you could speak a little bit about what you're seeing at other restaurants, if you're seeing them ramping up on marketing and promotional spending?

這是薩拉的凱瑟琳·格里芬。我只是想再問一次營銷方面的問題，抱歉。如果您能談談您在其他餐廳看到的情況，您是否看到他們增加了營銷和促銷支出？

Katherine, this is Rick. You probably see it just as much as we do. But I can tell you that there's a big competitor that just went back on TV and they talked about it before, they did it. And you've got some of these other competitors that are out there a little bit more on television than they were before. That said, Olive Garden still is usually in the top 2 or 3 of advertising spend in our space, and we're doing that through branded kind of advertising versus deals.

凱瑟琳，這是里克。你可能和我們一樣看到它。但我可以告訴你，有一個強大的競爭對手剛剛回到電視上，他們之前談到過，他們做到了。而且你有一些其他的競爭對手，他們在電視上的表現比以前多了一點。也就是說，Olive Garden 通常仍然是我們領域廣告支出的前 2 或 3 名，我們正在通過品牌廣告而不是交易來做到這一點。

Our next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO.

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 的 Andrew Strelzik。

I just wanted to ask about the customer satisfaction scores you mentioned and you talked about records, I believe, our all-time highs at Cheddar's and Yard House and maybe Bahama Breeze as well, but not at Olive Garden and LongHorn, it does sound like they're up, but not maybe as much as some of the others. So I guess I'm just curious what your perception is of the difference between the 2, why maybe those aren't up as much and how that maybe is guiding your strategy going forward?

我只是想問問你提到的客戶滿意度分數，你談到了記錄，我相信，我們在 Cheddar's 和 Yard House 以及 Bahama Breeze 的歷史最高點，但不是在 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn，這聽起來確實像他們起來了，但可能沒有其他人那麼多。所以我想我只是好奇您對兩者之間的區別有何看法，為什麼它們沒有那麼多，以及這可能如何指導您的戰略前進？

Andrew, this is Rick. Let me start by saying that satisfaction at Olive Garden and LongHorn are significantly high. And our other brands, our Fine Dining brands are very high. And so it takes a little bit more to move them up significantly versus what we've seen at Cheddar's and Yard House. Cheddar's and Yard House and others have made significant improvements to their brand, significant improvements to service and significant improvement to value and customers see that. And so we've had great performance at our -- at those brands that I mentioned, having record highs.

安德魯，這是里克。首先讓我說 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 的滿意度非常高。和我們其他的品牌一樣，我們的Fine Dining品牌非常高端。因此，與我們在 Cheddar's 和 Yard House 看到的情況相比，將它們顯著提升需要多一點。 Cheddar's 和 Yard House 以及其他公司已經對他們的品牌進行了重大改進，對服務進行了重大改進，對價值進行了重大改進，客戶看到了這一點。因此，我們在我提到的那些品牌中表現出色，創下歷史新高。

But I wouldn't tell you that the others aren't at or near their records. It's just Cheddar's and Yard House actually made a record this quarter.

但我不會告訴你其他人沒有達到或接近他們的記錄。只有 Cheddar's 和 Yard House 在本季度實際創造了記錄。

Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And maybe just one other one about the value proposition. And obviously, you're very positive on how that's driving the comp. So we're coming out of a period now or the pricing environment overall maybe seems to be settling a little bit. And I'm curious if you've gone through the exercise or maybe just an ongoing exercise where you've looked at where your brands stand and what are the different pieces of the menu seeing now? I'm curious if there's any opportunities to address within menus or within brands now that maybe things have settled a little bit.

知道了。好的。這就說得通了。也許只是另一個關於價值主張的問題。很明顯，你對這如何推動比賽非常樂觀。因此，我們現在正處於一段時期，或者整體定價環境似乎正在穩定下來。我很好奇你是否完成了練習，或者只是正在進行的練習，你已經看過你的品牌所處的位置以及現在看到的菜單的不同部分是什麼？我很好奇現在是否有機會在菜單或品牌內解決問題，也許事情已經有所解決。

I think we always look at what -- where we have opportunities within menus, within brands, within regions of the country, and we will never stop. What I would tell you is we feel really good about where our pricing is, and we feel really good that we've been able to price well below what most of our competitors have done. And that gives us, as Raj said, some room to take a little bit more pricing if we want to take a little bit more pricing. And so we will always look, and we generally try to price restaurants into strength and not into weakness, and we have a lot of great data scientists here that help us look at that.

我認為我們總是在看什麼——我們在菜單、品牌、國家地區內有機會的地方，我們永遠不會停止。我要告訴你的是，我們對我們的定價感到非常滿意，而且我們能夠以遠低於大多數競爭對手的價格進行定價，我們感到非常高興。正如 Raj 所說，這給了我們一些空間來提高定價，如果我們想提高一點定價的話。所以我們會一直看，我們通常會嘗試將餐廳定價為強勢而不是弱勢，我們這裡有很多偉大的數據科學家可以幫助我們審視這一點。

And we also talk to our operators and get their perspective. So that won't change no matter what happens in the economy or what happens with others. We'll continue to do what we do, and we feel like we've earned the right to keep doing what we've done.

我們還與我們的運營商交談並了解他們的觀點。因此，無論經濟中發生什麼或其他人發生什麼，這都不會改變。我們將繼續做我們所做的事情，我們覺得我們已經贏得了繼續做我們已經做過的事情的權利。

Our next question comes from David Palmer with Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Palmer。

I think investors are looking at the industry trend and they're thinking about comparisons on a multiyear basis. And they're thinking the industry is going to go flat, something like that in the second half of calendar '23 and so that's sort of where people's heads are with regard to casual dining. I wonder, do you think that is too pessimistic. I mean, based on what you're seeing because, obviously, 4-year trends don't need to stay stable. But if that were to happen, your gap is positive to that industry at this point.

我認為投資者正在關注行業趨勢，他們正在考慮多年的比較。他們認為這個行業會走平，就像 23 年下半年那樣，所以這就是人們對休閒餐飲的看法。我在想，你是不是覺得太悲觀了。我的意思是，根據您所看到的情況，因為顯然 4 年趨勢不需要保持穩定。但如果發生這種情況，那麼此時你的差距對該行業來說是積極的。

And you've been very clear on this call about you're not wanting to pull levers unless it really got bad. But if you're doing 2-plus points better than that and you're coming along in the low single digits, would you not really change your mix too much with regard to the advertising and the value marketing and kind of stay the course?

你在這次電話會議上已經非常清楚地表明，除非情況真的變糟，否則你不想拉動槓桿。但是，如果您的成績比這高出 2 分以上，而您的成績只有低個位數，那麼您是否真的不會在廣告和價值營銷方面過多地改變您的組合，並保持原樣？

Yes, David. I don't want to talk necessarily about the second half of fiscal -- of calendar '23 because that's fiscal '24 for us. But I think if you look back in history and you look back in other slowdowns, if that is what happens, and you look at some of our brands, Olive Garden significantly outperformed during that time because guests go for out -- where they see value and they go to trusted brands, and I think Olive Garden is one of the most trusted brands out there. So we would expect that we could outperform.

是的，大衛。我不想談論 23 年財政年度的下半年，因為那是我們的 24 年財政年度。但我認為，如果你回顧歷史，回顧其他經濟放緩，如果確實發生了這種情況，並且你看看我們的一些品牌，Olive Garden 在那段時間的表現明顯優於其他品牌，因為客人喜歡外出——他們看到了價值他們會選擇值得信賴的品牌，我認為 Olive Garden 是最值得信賴的品牌之一。所以我們希望我們能跑贏大盤。

I can't say we will, but I think we -- I think that's what our history would stay. And so we're going to look at our marketing mix just like we've done in the last few years, and we may move it a couple of tenths here or there. But unless something dramatically changes, we don't anticipate doing anything differently.

我不能說我們會，但我認為我們——我認為這就是我們的歷史會留下的東西。因此，我們將像過去幾年所做的那樣審視我們的營銷組合，我們可能會在這里或那裡移動十分之二。但除非發生重大變化，否則我們預計不會採取任何不同的做法。

The other thing I was wondering about is just seeing those Cheddar's scores being #1 in value. First of all, congrats on all these scores. But Cheddar's has a big TAM potentially. I mean varied menu is a big thing originally. This might have been thought to be bought and become a bar and grill killer that varied menu is a big category and value scores are going to help you move into the center of the country much better returns.

我想知道的另一件事是看到 Cheddar 的分數在價值上排名第一。首先，祝賀所有這些分數。但 Cheddar's 的 TAM 潛力很大。我的意思是多樣化的菜單原本是一件大事。這可能被認為是購買並成為酒吧和燒烤殺手，多樣化的菜單是一個很大的類別，價值得分將幫助您進入該國中部更好的回報。

So any thoughts about maybe metrics on returns and you're growing 11, 12 units right now a year. Why can't that maybe go up quite a bit as you see that brand where it is today?

所以任何關於回報指標的想法，你現在每年增長 11、12 個單位。當您看到該品牌今天的位置時，為什麼它不能上漲很多呢？

Yes, David. I would say when we bought Cheddar's, we thought they had a lot of opportunities ahead of them. We still believe they have a lot of opportunities ahead of them and we're going to be prudent on their growth as we make sure that they have the leadership teams for their restaurant to grow. I said it at ICR that the world is littered with brands that grew too fast, and we're very, very strategic on how we open our -- grow our brands. And so the days of 10-plus percent growth for a brand at Darden, that doesn't happen very much.

是的，大衛。我想說的是，當我們收購 Cheddar's 時，我們認為他們前面有很多機會。我們仍然相信他們面前有很多機會，我們將對他們的成長持謹慎態度，因為我們確保他們擁有領導團隊來幫助他們的餐廳成長。我在 ICR 說過，世界上充斥著增長太快的品牌，我們在如何開放我們的品牌方面非常非常具有戰略意義 - 發展我們的品牌。因此，在 Darden，品牌增長超過 10% 的日子並不多見。

And so with Cheddar's, we're going to be prudent. We're going to open in the single digits for a little while to see how they continue to do. And as we infill markets that they already have restaurants in, and we find ways to get into the new markets. As long as we have the people to do it, we can grow them. And I will tell you that John Wilkerson and his team have done a great job developing their people to have people ready to open these restaurants and the more pipeline we have with people, the faster we can open.

所以對於 Cheddar's，我們要謹慎。我們將以個位數打開一段時間，看看他們如何繼續做。當我們進入已經有餐廳的市場時，我們會想方設法進入新市場。只要我們有人去做，我們就能培養他們。我會告訴你，約翰威爾克森和他的團隊在培養他們的員工方面做得很好，讓人們準備好開設這些餐廳，我們與人的渠道越多，我們開業的速度就越快。

Our next question comes from Lauren Silberman with Crédit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自 Crédit Suisse 的 Lauren Silberman。

On the traffic outperformance 700 basis points gap, do you view this level of outperformance as sustainable? Or how do you think about the outperformance?

關於流量超過 700 個基點的差距，您認為這種水平的表現是否可持續？或者您如何看待出色的表現？

Lauren, this is Rick. 700 basis points of outperformance is pretty strong. It all really depends on what the total traffic growth is for the industry. If we do -- if the industry is growing at 1%, do we expect to get 7% every quarter in outperformance, no? And if anybody would say that, I think that that's thinking a little bit too hard. We're very pleased with that outperformance of 700 basis points this quarter, but we wouldn't expect to be 700 basis points every quarter.

勞倫，這是里克。 700 個基點的表現非常強勁。這完全取決於行業的總流量增長情況。如果我們這樣做 - 如果該行業以 1% 的速度增長，我們是否期望每個季度的表現都超過 7%，不是嗎？如果有人這麼說，我認為那有點太難了。我們對本季度 700 個基點的出色表現感到非常滿意，但我們預計每個季度都不會達到 700 個基點。

And there might be quarters that we have lower performance and traffic than our competition. But we think about this over the long term. And over the long term, we expect to outperform.

在某些方面，我們的性能和流量可能低於我們的競爭對手。但我們從長遠考慮這個問題。從長遠來看，我們預計會跑贏大市。

Great. And then just on M&A. I know you've talked about that in the past and interested in another brand. I guess what are you seeing in the current environment? Any change in the calls that you guys are getting or valuations?

偉大的。然後就是併購。我知道您過去曾談過這個問題並且對另一個品牌感興趣。我猜你在當前環境中看到了什麼？你們接到的電話或估值有什麼變化嗎？

I don't want to get into the detail on calls we're getting or valuations we're getting. All I can say is we've said before, biggest competitive advantage we have is our scale. And one of the ways to build that scale is to buy other brands. And as volatility reduces, price discovery improves. And so that's what we've got to continue to think about. And interest rates have made some change. So we still feel like we'll talk to our Board when the right opportunities come to play, and we'll be ready when they do.

我不想詳細說明我們接到的電話或我們得到的估值。我只能說我們之前說過，我們擁有的最大競爭優勢是我們的規模。建立這種規模的方法之一是購買其他品牌。隨著波動性的降低，價格發現得到改善。這就是我們必須繼續思考的問題。利率也發生了一些變化。所以我們仍然覺得當合適的機會來臨時我們會和我們的董事會談談，當他們這樣做的時候我們會做好準備。

Our next question will come from Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Brian Bittner 和 Oppenheimer。

Just as we look at the quarter, your EBIT margins obviously expanded this quarter, but it was the first time in many quarters that we saw EBIT margin expansion. And it seems to be primarily driven by Olive Garden when we look at the segments Olive Garden was the only segment that showed measurable margin expansion this quarter. The other segments were actually down on average. So can you talk about the drivers of the bifurcation and margin performance for Olive Garden versus the rest of the segments? And is that kind of how the margin trend should continue over the next couple of quarters?

就像我們看這個季度一樣，本季度您的息稅前利潤率明顯擴大，但這是許多季度以來我們第一次看到息稅前利潤率擴大。當我們查看 Olive Garden 細分市場時，它似乎主要是由 Olive Garden 推動的，它是本季度唯一顯示出可衡量的利潤率增長的細分市場。其他部分實際上平均下降。那麼，您能否談談 Olive Garden 與其他細分市場的分叉和利潤率表現的驅動因素？在接下來的幾個季度中，利潤率趨勢應該如何繼續？

Brian, any given quarter, I think the brand to brand, it's a function of the pricing versus inflation. So if you look at -- and frankly, as I mentioned, in the third quarter, beef was the biggest surprise, right? So for instance, our Longhorn and to some extent, our Fine Dining brands they weren't prepared for that level of inflation. So the pricing hadn't been in place. And like I said in the past, the way we think about pricing is we're not going to overreact to near-term fluctuations. We kind of think about what's truly the more secure part of the inflation and try to price for it.

布賴恩，任何給定的季度，我認為品牌到品牌，這是定價與通貨膨脹的函數。所以如果你看——坦率地說，正如我提到的，在第三季度，牛肉是最大的驚喜，對吧？因此，例如，我們的 Longhorn，在某種程度上，我們的 Fine Dining 品牌並沒有為這種程度的通貨膨脹做好準備。所以定價還沒有到位。就像我過去說過的那樣，我們考慮定價的方式是我們不會對近期波動反應過度。我們有點想通貨膨脹中真正更安全的部分是什麼，並試圖為它定價。

And so there was a little bit of really noise on that front this quarter that impacted the other segments. With that said, Olive Garden is our largest brand. I mean, that is -- it makes up over 50% of our sales and 55% or more of that profit. So for us to grow, you got to see Olive Garden to have some growth or it takes a lot of heavy lifting from everybody else to make up. But the other thing with Olive Garden was we did -- some of the costs did moderate from where they were in the second quarter. So if you recall, second quarter, it was the other way around where the margins were deteriorating.

因此，本季度在這方面確實存在一些影響其他細分市場的噪音。話雖如此，Olive Garden 是我們最大的品牌。我的意思是，它占我們銷售額的 50% 以上和利潤的 55% 或更多。因此，為了讓我們成長，您必須看到 Olive Garden 有所成長，否則其他人需要付出很多繁重的努力才能彌補。但 Olive Garden 的另一件事是我們做了——一些成本確實比第二季度的水平有所降低。因此，如果您還記得，第二季度，利潤率正在惡化的情況恰恰相反。

And the third piece is Olive Garden was disproportionately impacted by Omicron last year. We talked about that last year. Now as we wrap on it, they're benefiting from some of that. There were labor inefficiencies last year. So especially for them because of their geography and because of the demographic mix of their gas, it hurt them most and now you're seeing them outperform the most.

第三部分是 Olive Garden 去年受到 Omicron 的不成比例的影響。我們去年談過這個。現在，當我們結束時，他們正在從中受益。去年勞動力效率低下。因此，特別是對於他們來說，由於他們的地理位置和他們天然氣的人口組合，這對他們造成的傷害最大，現在你看到他們的表現最為出色。

And then just a follow-up, the labor margin leverage for the consolidated model was incredibly strong this quarter relative to any recent quarters in the past, and I realize your sales were strong this quarter, above average. But was there anything else going on within the execution of the labor margin this quarter outside of strong sales that you can point to that help that leverage amplify this quarter, so we can think about how labor can potentially be executed moving forward?

然後只是一個後續行動，與過去最近幾個季度相比，本季度合併模型的勞動利潤率槓桿非常強勁，我意識到你們本季度的銷售強勁，高於平均水平。但是，除了強勁的銷售之外，本季度勞動力利潤率的執行中是否還有其他任何事情可以指出，這有助於本季度槓桿率的放大，因此我們可以考慮如何可能在未來執行勞動力？

Yes. Brian, I think that's -- so obviously, as you mentioned, sales is the biggest part, but we are seeing turnover get better. And I think we called out last year, we had a lot of sick pay and some inefficiencies in labor last year because of Omicron. And so that's actually also helping. But you do see a quarter-to-quarter improvement, right? I mean I think we progressed by over 100 basis points from second quarter to third quarter. And that's really the function of sales delta.

是的。布賴恩，我認為那是——很明顯，正如你提到的，銷售是最大的部分，但我們看到營業額越來越好。而且我認為我們去年呼籲，由於 Omicron，去年我們有很多病假工資和一些低效率的勞動力。所以這實際上也有幫助。但是您確實看到了季度環比的改善，對嗎？我的意思是我認為我們從第二季度到第三季度取得了超過 100 個基點的進步。這就是銷售增量的作用。

We had almost $300 million more in sales, and that helps with a lot of leverage. And then the last piece, as I said earlier, is the retention is getting better, and that helps with improved productivity.

我們的銷售額增加了近 3 億美元，這有助於產生很大的影響力。最後一點，正如我之前所說，保留率越來越高，這有助於提高生產力。

Our next question comes from Gregory Francfort with Guggenheim Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Guggenheim Securities 的 Gregory Francfort。

Rick, my question just on your -- maybe how to think about margins, not necessarily in '24, but the next few years. Just because within your long-term framework of 10 to 30 basis points, when I look at this year, you had a big step down and a lot of that was food cost pressure. And I'm just wondering if you think that 10 to 30 basis points is the right way to think about it? And maybe does more of that come on the store-level margin side versus the G&A in the next several years? Any updated thoughts on that would be helpful.

里克，我的問題只是關於你——也許如何考慮利潤率，不一定是在 24 年，而是在未來幾年。僅僅因為在你 10 到 30 個基點的長期框架內，當我看今年時，你有一個很大的下降，其中很多是食品成本壓力。我只是想知道你是否認為 10 到 30 個基點是正確的思考方式？在接下來的幾年裡，與 G&A 相比，商店層面的利潤率是否會更多？對此的任何最新想法都會有所幫助。

Greg, thanks for the question. What I would say, first of all, is we've got that long-term framework of 10 to 30 basis points of margin expansion. We had significant margin expansion during COVID. And we talked about it last year that we'd probably give some of that back this year. So we had significant expansion during COVID of over 200 basis points, I think to 250, and now we're closer to 150 pre-COVID. And so as we think about going forward, as we get to our long-term framework and we still think our long-term framework will hold over time.

格雷格，謝謝你的提問。首先，我要說的是，我們已經有了 10 到 30 個基點的利潤率擴張的長期框架。在 COVID 期間，我們的利潤率顯著增加。我們去年討論過，今年我們可能會回饋其中的一部分。所以我們在 COVID 期間有超過 200 個基點的顯著擴張，我認為是 250，現在我們接近 150 pre-COVID。因此，當我們考慮前進時，當我們達到我們的長期框架時，我們仍然認為我們的長期框架會隨著時間的推移而保持不變。

And some of that will come probably maybe 1/3 to half of that will come below the restaurant level as we think about leveraging other costs. But as traffic grows and same-restaurant sales grow, we should still get some from the restaurant. But G&A should be some of that savings going forward.

當我們考慮利用其他成本時，其中一些可能會低於餐廳水平，其中可能有 1/3 到一半。但隨著客流量的增長和同店銷售額的增長，我們仍然應該從餐廳獲得一些。但 G&A 應該是未來節省的一部分。

Our next question comes from Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James.

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

My question was just on labor and operations. There's obviously been a lot of new hires across the industry in the past 6 to 12 months. Are there any metrics you can share that speak to the proficiency of your staff and how that's benefiting operations? And just kind of to what degree you think that, that could be driving your widening performance gap to the industry -- and then also, would you be willing to share kind of where your manager and hourly turnover is currently running?

我的問題只是關於勞動力和運營。在過去的 6 到 12 個月裡，整個行業顯然有很多新員工。您是否可以分享任何衡量員工熟練程度以及這對運營有何好處的指標？你認為這在多大程度上可能會導致你與行業之間不斷擴大的績效差距——然後，你是否願意分享你的經理和每小時營業額目前的運行情況？

Yes, Brian, let me start by saying we've had a reduction in turnover, which has been helping us. Our team members are starting to learn more about what they do, especially the newer team members. And as I mentioned earlier, our manager staffing is at pretty high levels. And so they can spend more time teaching their team and getting more productivity out of their team. Without getting into too much detail on turnover, our turnover is closer to pre-COVID levels than COVID levels. And we would intend to get it back towards those levels.

是的，布賴恩，首先讓我說我們的營業額減少了，這對我們很有幫助。我們的團隊成員開始更多地了解他們所做的事情，尤其是新的團隊成員。正如我之前提到的，我們的經理人員配置水平相當高。因此，他們可以花更多時間教授團隊並提高團隊的工作效率。在不詳細介紹營業額的情況下，我們的營業額比 COVID 水平更接近 COVID 之前的水平。我們打算讓它回到這些水平。

What I would also say is our gap to pre-COVID isn't that different than it was. So as the industry gets better, we're getting better. And so we feel like we'll continue to improve and what we've seen over the last couple of quarters is a really big improvement in turnover. So I think people now feel like they understand how their -- what their job is and how to do it. We've actually spent a lot more time, as I said on our last call, every one of our General Manager, managing partner conferences in August, talked about how to make our each whatever brand a better place to work and even better place to work.

我還要說的是，我們與 COVID 之前的差距與過去並沒有什麼不同。因此，隨著行業變得更好，我們也會變得更好。所以我們覺得我們會繼續改進，我們在過去幾個季度看到的是營業額的巨大改善。所以我認為人們現在覺得他們了解他們的工作是什麼以及如何去做。我們實際上花了很多時間，正如我在上次電話會議上所說的那樣，我們的每一位總經理、8 月份的管理合作夥伴會議都討論瞭如何使我們的每個品牌成為更好的工作場所，甚至是更好的工作場所工作。

It was already a great place to work. And those things are bearing fruit. So our turnover is getting better. Our first 90-day turnover is significantly improved from where it was just 6 months ago because of the focus that we're putting on training and making sure that those team members feel up to speed before they get thrown out on a busy Friday night.

它已經是一個工作的好地方。這些事情正在結出碩果。所以我們的營業額越來越好。我們的第一個 90 天營業額比 6 個月前有了顯著改善，因為我們將重點放在培訓上，並確保這些團隊成員在忙碌的周五晚上被趕出去之前感覺跟上了速度。

All right. Great. That's helpful. And I guess my quick follow-up, just on pricing, Raj, I heard your comments on your expectation for the fiscal fourth quarter. But could you let us know how much have you taken or how much did you take in the fiscal third quarter or have planned to take in the fourth quarter? And just thinking with a little more pressure on commodities, has your thinking changed on sort of the arc of your pricing and how quickly you might look to let that moderate over the next few quarters?

好的。偉大的。這很有幫助。我想我的快速跟進只是關於定價，Raj，我聽到了你對第四財季預期的評論。但是您能否告訴我們您在第三財季或計劃在第四季度採取了多少或您採取了多少？只是考慮對商品施加更多壓力，你的想法是否改變了你的定價弧線，以及你可能希望在接下來的幾個季度中讓這種緩和的速度多快？

Yes, Brian, I think I'm not going to comment on past Q4, but I will tell you that if you look at where the pricing has been, second quarter was 6.5%, third quarter (technical difficulty). So the peak pricing for us on an annual basis is behind us. I think it's going -- unless something dramatically changes, we see pricing coming down.

是的，布賴恩，我想我不會對過去的第四季度發表評論，但我會告訴你，如果你看看定價在哪裡，第二季度是 6.5%，第三季度（技術難度）。因此，我們每年的峰值定價已經過去。我認為它正在發生 - 除非發生巨大變化，否則我們會看到定價下降。

And I can -- and I know not to compare to some everybody else, but the -- when you look at what's happening in the market, I think most people are on an upward trend on pricing. We think we're actually from here on what on a downward trend. And -- but overall, though, that's actually translating into the results we've talked about. And then when we started the year, we started with 100 basis points target of roughly pricing below inflation for this year of about 100 basis points. I expect us to end in that range.

我可以——而且我知道不能與其他人進行比較，但是——當你觀察市場上正在發生的事情時，我認為大多數人的定價都處於上升趨勢。我們認為我們實際上是從這裡開始呈下降趨勢。而且 - 但總的來說，這實際上正在轉化為我們所討論的結果。然後當我們開始這一年時，我們開始設定 100 個基點的目標，即粗略定價低於今年約 100 個基點的通貨膨脹率。我希望我們能在那個範圍內結束。

Our next question comes from John Parke with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的約翰帕克。

I guess there's been a lot of focus on trade on the low end. But I guess are you guys seeing any signs of that middle income consumer is moving more into like your value brands and coming a bit more?

我想人們對低端貿易的關注度很高。但我想你們是否看到任何跡象表明中等收入消費者正在越來越喜歡你們的價值品牌並且越來越多？

Yes, John, we really haven't seen a whole lot of change in mix across our brands. And I would say value brands versus not. If you look at our release today, we had same-restaurant sales ranges between the different segments between -- I think it was 10.8% and 11.7%. So 3 of our segments, I think, actually had 11.7% comps and our total comp for the company was 11.7%. So it's very consistent across and all of our brands had very strong same-restaurant sales.

是的，約翰，我們真的沒有看到我們品牌的組合發生很大變化。我會說價值品牌與非價值品牌。如果你看一下我們今天發布的消息，我們在不同細分市場之間有相同的餐廳銷售範圍——我認為是 10.8% 和 11.7%。因此，我認為我們的 3 個部門實際上有 11.7% 的補償，而我們公司的總補償為 11.7%。所以它非常一致，我們所有品牌的同店銷售都非常強勁。

At this time, we have no further questions in queue. I will now turn the call back over to Kevin Kalicak for any additional or closing remarks.

目前，我們沒有其他問題在排隊。我現在將把電話轉回給 Kevin Kalicak，以徵求任何補充意見或結束意見。

Great. Thanks, Todd. That concludes our call for today. I would like to remind you that we plan to release fourth quarter results on Thursday, June 22, before the market opens with the conference call to follow. Thank you for participating in the call today. Have a good day.

偉大的。謝謝，托德。我們今天的呼籲到此結束。我想提醒您，我們計劃在 6 月 22 日星期四市場開盤前發布第四季度業績，隨後召開電話會議。感謝您參加今天的電話會議。祝你有美好的一天。

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以隨時斷開連接。